A sign of confidence has been expressed by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Mailiki that recent upsurges in violence are isolated events and do not threaten security improvements made. The Iraqi government has no intention of asking the US military to stay on past the June withdrawal date agreed upon either (BBC News 27 April 2009). Such attacks are hard to control because they are carried out by female suicide bombers. Not all women can be search for "cultural and social reasons," Maliki said. It's interesting he did not say religious reason, maybe for fear of contributing to Western stereotypes of harsh Muslim restrictions on women, like having to wear a burka. Maliki assured BBC in an exclusive interview that, although an extension of US military presence is available to them, Iraq has no intention of taking that offer. "This is intelligence work, and our people are stronger than the Americans at that, because we're dealing with our own people" (BBC News 27 April 2009). It is believed that al-Qaeda Islamist militants and elements of Saddam Hussein's former ruling Ba'ath party are responsible for the recent attacks/bombings. These two recent suicide bombings Maliki is referring to have killed at least 48 people (BBC News 27 April 2009). It seems like finally the US has run out of excuses to stay and will finally withdraw completely from Iraq. Whether or not our military numbers will simply move the campaign to Afghanistan to finish our "mission" is hard to say.

On May 28th, the US government plans to release over 2,000 photographs of tortured prisoners held in Iraq and Afghanistan (The Guardian 24 April 2009). The pictures reveal prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison "hooded, naked, posed in sexually embarrassing positions and being harassed by dogs" (The Guardian 24 April 2009). With the pictures' release, President Obama had to left several legal barriers put up by the Bush administration who argued that showing the pictures would "contravene the Geneva conventions obligation not to show pictures of prisoners" (The Guardian 24 April 2009). The pictures' release also opens up chances for military personnel to be charged...or pardoned.

Roxana Saberi, the dual American-Iranian citizen and journalist arrested in January for spying, has gone on a hunger strike until she is released (The Guardian 26 April 2009).