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Jeremy Scahill

"For most of the election campaign, private contractors, whether they be armed security contractors, like Blackwater, or the larger army of 180,000 contractors hasn't been an issue at all. None of the candidates have been asked about it in the debates. Occasionally they've been asked about it by voters, but it really hasn't become a premier issue.

"About 2 weeks ago I did a story about Barack Obama's position on contractors called 'Obama's Mercenary Position' for The Nation magazine. And basically what I did was I interviewed senior policy advisors for Barack Obama and said to them, 'What are you guys gonna do about the contractors?' What I found out was that Barack Obama's people are saying that they will not rule out the use of private surity contractors, like Blackwater, in Iraq and that Barack Obama will not sign on to legislation seeking to ban them or to force them out of Iraq. And the reason is actually fairly complicated..."

Iraqis Killed?

The group Just Foreign Policy has taken that number and projected it using Iraq Body Count, which tallies deaths reported by Western media sources. This leads to a rough estimate that one million Iraqis have now been killed in the conflict since the U.S.'s 2003 invasion and occupation. When The Lancet published the 650,000 estimate, President George W. Bush said: "600,000 or whatever they guessed at is just, it's not credible."

We speak to Les Roberts, now at Columbia University, who is co-author of The Lancet piece "Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey." Roberts has studied other conflicts, including in Congo, where his estimates have been widely accepted. We also speak with Robert Naiman of the group Just Foreign Policy.

Iraqis

George Bush: "One year ago, much of Diyala Province was a sanctuary for al Qaeda. Today the province is the site of a growing popular uprising against the extremists. And some local tribes are working along side coalition and Iraqi forces to clear out the enemy."

"These are the men George Bush means. But here in Diyala they're slowly turning against America. Here in the insurgency's heartland for the last year these men have been doing the unthinkable - working with the Americans to rid their town of al Qaeda extremists. Dozens of these local movements, called 'awakening counsels', have been set up by the US military across Iraq. They pay each man $10 a day...."

Ex-Chairman Greenspan

"During the 1960s, the US government was trying to meet the cost of massive social welfare programs at home and the Vietnam War abroad. By printing more money President Lyndon Johnson believed the US government could accomplish its goals without raising taxes, which may have caused a taxpayer revolt. In other words, he could have both guns and butter.

"But the more money the US printed the more it eroded the value of the dollar. Nervous foreigners began redeeming their dollars in gold as they were entitled to do..."