NEWS FLASH

Maliki: U.S. Pullout From Iraq ‘On Schedule By The End Of The Year’ | Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s office put out a statement today saying the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will be gone by the end of this year as specified in an agreement made with the Bush administration. “The agreement on the withdrawal of American forces will be implemented on schedule by the end of the year, and there will not be any bases for U.S. forces here,” he said in a television interview. AFP didn’t release the full statement, but it doesn’t appear to note the possibility that U.S. trainers will remain beyond the year-end deadline for withdrawal — something Maliki has said before, even hinting he might bypass parliament. Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Iraq and the U.S. had reached a deal, but a Maliki aide denied the report. Last week, Iraq’s ambassador to the U.S. said Iraq would extend the U.S. troop presence on their “own sweet time.”