The threat of war in Iraq is driving increasing numbers of Americans to international news websites in search of the broader picture.

"Shia Muslims of southern Iraq will mount an uprising against Saddam Hussein as soon as US and British troops invade," reports Patrick Cockburn. "A rebellion by the Shia would complicate plans by the US for an orderly occupation of Iraq. Earlier in the month, American officials angered representatives of the Iraqi opposition, much of which is Shia and Kurdish, at a meeting in Ankara, Turkey by revealing that America planned a military government for Iraq but would keep in place most of the Sunni establishment that had served President Hussein. ...

PR Watch has previously written about the origins of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) as a PR front group created by the Rendon Group, which has nevertheless become the Bush administration's preferred source for "intelligence" about Iraq. Now an internal fight is bubbling over INC's plan to actually become the government of Iraq after a U.S. invasion.