<div>Other issues, like the economy and the US election, have pushed the US occupation of Iraq out of the news somewhat... The UN mandate for the US to continue the occupation will expire this year. A new agreement with the "Iraqi government" to allow the US to "legally" continue the occupation is in the works. The next administration I suspect will be saddled with a continuing occupation costing billions upon billions of dollars, as US citizens' standard of living declines in a struggling economy:</div>
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<div><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-10/18/content_10215152.htm">http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-10/18/content_10215152.htm</a></div>
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<div id="Title">Thousands of Sadr followers protest U.S.-Iraqi security deal in Baghdad </div></td></tr>
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<div><span class="style5"><a class="style4" href="http://www.chinaview.cn"><font color="#000000" size="2"><strong>www.chinaview.cn</strong></font></a></span><span class="hui12"><font size="2"><font color="#333333"> <span class="lanx121"><img height="5" src="http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/2007korea/space.gif" width="13"></span> </font><b><font color="#000000">2008-10-18 17:05:29</font></b></font></span></div>
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<p><strong><font face="Arial" color="#000080">Special report: </font></strong><a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/07ylk/index.htm" target="_blank"><font color="#000080"><font face="Arial"><strong>Tension escalates in Iraq</strong> </font></font></a>
<p> BAGHDAD, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets in eastern Baghdad on Saturday to protest a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement under tight security measures, an Interior Ministry source and witnesses said.
<p> The throngs gathered since early morning at the Mudhaffar Square in the neighborhood of Sadr City and took their way to the Mustansriyah Square in Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, a ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
<p> Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area, blocking all the roads leading to the route of the demonstration, the source said.
<p> The crowd, mostly young men wearing white robes and carrying green flags and some carrying Iraqi flags, chanted "go out occupiers" and "no, no to the agreement."
<p> Some demonstrators were holding pictures of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, while some others were burning effigy representing U.S. President George W. Bush.
<p> "We don't want any existence for the U.S. troops in Iraq. We had enough from those people and now we want them out of our country," Ismael Nahi, a Shiite protester who came from Iskan neighborhood in western Baghdad to participate in the rally, told Xinhua.
<p> Muhammad Mahdi, another protester told Xinhua that "not only Shiites were joining the rally, but also Kurdish and Sunni people who come from the Kurdish province of Duhuk and the Sunni city of Samarra from Salahudin province."
<p> "We Iraqis from all factions are against occupation," 36-year-old Mahdi, a Sunni whose family has been displaced from the volatile Diyala province two years ago and now lives in northern Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab.
<p> Ahmad al-Masaudi, a Shiite lawmaker from Sadr movement, told Xinhua "this agreement is only to legitimize the presence of foreign forces in Iraq."
<p> Reports said that the controversial pact between Iraq and the United States will grant the U.S. troops legal status to stay in Iraq after the UN mandate expires at the end of this year.
<p> Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is facing mounting pressure in Iraq to uphold national sovereignty and interest.
<p> The Americans frequently blames Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia for fuelling sectarian violence with Sunni Muslims. </p>
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<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p>