Iraq News (6 Mar)

The Good: The Ministry of Oil has been given the green light to go ahead on oil deals with multi-national corporations. This investment will be crucial to improving the infrastructure in Iraq and will provide employment opportunities. The Oil Minister, Shahristani, has even suggested employing the tribes in the region the pipelines run through to provide security.

The Bad: A former Kurdish minister has been killed by gunmen. Also, Turkey has resumed it's misguided offensive against the PKK by performing air strikes in northern Iraq. You'd think they'd learn from our mistakes of how to deal with an insurgency.

The Ugly: Trouble with the Chemical Ali execution. There are 3 defendants that were convicted of war crimes in June 2007 by an Iraqi court, one of them being the notorious "Chemical Ali". One of the other guys is former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim, who surrendered voluntarily to the coalition forces and has been portrayed by the Iraqi President as a man just following orders under Saddam. The presidency council just wants Chemical Ali executed but is at loggerheads with the Prime Minister who wants all 3 executed.