Collection Overview
Citing Resources - Copyright Information
Scope: On March 20, 2003, the United States initiated offensive military action against Iraq for the stated purpose of deposing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and preventing his use of suspected nuclear weapons (weapons of mass destruction.) British, Australian, Polish, and Danish forces participated in the invasion. U.S. led forces took control of Baghdad on April 9, 2003. There was both support and opposition to the war.
The war continued with the United States coalition forces facing increased insurgency from Shiite militants, Sunni militants, and terrorists aligned with Al Queda. The United States has had more than 150,000 troops deployed at any one time in Iraq. The Library continued with two more phases of web capturing from December, 2003 to the present. These last two phases are not yet available but will be in the future.
Included in the web archive are U.S. government sites, foreign government sites, public policy and political advocacy groups, educational organizations, religious organizations, support groups for military personnel, anti-war groups, sites that target children, and news sources.
This collection is part of a continuing effort by the Library of Congress to evaluate, select, collect, catalog, provide access to, and preserve digital materials for future generations of researchers.
Collection Period: Available for research are captures from March 2003 to June 2003. Captures from 2004 through September 2009 are in production and are not yet available for research access. In 2009, some of the Iraq War URLs were added to an ongoing Public Policy Web Archive.
Number of Sites: 231.
Citing Resources in the Web Archive
Citations should indicate: Archived in the Library of Congress Web Archives at www.loc.gov. When citing a particular Web site include the archived Web site's Citation ID (e.g., http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.natlib/mrva1234.1234). Researchers are advised to follow standard citation guidelines for Web sites, pages, and articles. Researchers are reminded that many of the materials in this Web archive are copyrighted and that citations must credit the authors/creators and publishers of the works.
Copyright Information
Many, if not all, of the Web sites in the collection and elements incorporated into the Web sites (e.g., photographs, articles, graphical representations) are protected by copyright. The materials may also be subject to publicity rights, privacy rights, or other legal interests.
Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with the person desiring to use the item. You will need permission from the copyright owners or rights holders for reproduction, distribution, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Researchers should consult the sites themselves for information about rights, contacts, and permissions. The catalog record for each archived Web site contains the specific information about the site known to the Library. See Library of Congress Legal Notices page for additional information and restrictions.
The Library of Congress would like to hear from any copyright owners who are not properly identified on this Web site so that we may make the necessary corrections. In addition, if you are a copyright owner or otherwise have exclusive control over materials presently available through this collection and do not wish your materials to be available through this Web site, please let us know. To make a takedown request, please fill out this form.