Free Iraq

(1) - About three weeks ago (see December 22, 2004 below), I had posted the following :
" - I have been waiting for a few days (this news item was posted in Arabic on December 18, 2004) for the confirmation of the attack on the prison of Abu Ghraib, as per the below news item, before posting it:
"At approximately 12:25pm on Saturday, resistance fighters waged an unprecedented assault on the Abu Ghraib prison camp south of Baghdad. The assault was sparked by a letter from a female prisoner named Fatima that fueled some Muslim fighters into action.Fatima’s letter, a hand written document, was recently smuggled out of Abu Ghraib. Fatima is the sister of one of the celebrated Resistance fighters in the area. US occupation forces raided his house some time back but failed to find him, so they took his sister prisoner in an attempt to force him to give himself up".
Abu Ghraib Prison Attacked In Response To “Fatima’s Letter” December 22, 2004
I now do post it ... I still await confirmation of "Fatima's Letter".... "

An Update: This is Fatima's letter:
"…I say to you: our wombs have been filled with the children of fornication by those sons of apes and pigs who raped us. Or I could tell you that they have defaced our bodies, spit in our faces, and tore up the little copies of the Qur’an that hung around our necks? ….By God, we have not passed one night since we have been in prison without one of the apes and pigs jumping down upon us to rip our bodies apart with his overweening lust. Kill us along with them! Destroy us along with them! Don’t leave us here to let them get pleasure from raping us….
Leave their tanks and aircraft outside. Come at us here in the prison of Abu Ghurayb.They raped me on one day more than nine times. Can you comprehend? Imagine one of your sisters being raped. Why can’t you all imagine it, as I am your sister. With me are 13 girls, all unmarried. All have been raped before the eyes and ears of everyone. They took our clothes and won’t let us get dressed. As I write this letter one of the girls has committed suicide. She was savagely raped. A soldier hit her on her chest and thigh after raping her. He subjected her to unbelievable torture. She beat her head against the wall of the cell until she died, for she couldn’t take any more.Brothers, I tell you again, fear God! Kill us with them so that we might be at peace. Help! Help! Help!"

Fatima is dead.

"Fatima was killed in a rocket barrage at the US Abu Ghraib prison ... The barrage left four Iraqis dead, as well as the Iraqi woman prisoner known as Fatimah whose letter, smuggled out of the prison two weeks ago, sent shock waves around the Muslim world as it disclosed many horrid details of US forces gang raping female prisoners and regularly perpetrating other abuses against the prisoners in the ill-reputed facility. Friday’s barrage also severely wounded another 22-year old Iraqi woman. An Iraqi who works at the Abu Ghraib prison camp told Mafkarat al-Islam that more than 68 US troops were killed in the bombardment as that the rockets specifically struck their barracks. But just one night before the attack, the Americans had moved more than 500 Iraqi prisoners to the east side of the prison, [thus] resulting in the death of many of them.

Fatimah’s eldest brother, who is one of the mujahideen whom the occupation forces are searching for, spoke in the mosque Thursday at the nighttime prayer said “Praise be to God” with tears in his eyes. Everyone in the mosque witnessed him saying ‘Oh God take her soul! Oh God this is a shame so please cleanse it!' ... Then after the prayer, one of the worshippers came up to him and remonstrated him for saying, ‘Oh God this is a shame so please cleanse it!’ The man told him, ‘Say rather, this is an honor, so raise it up and honor it. It is we about whom the word shame should be used, not Fatimah. She is the most honorable, purest, and cleanest of girls. I ask you for her hand in marriage after she gets out of prison, God willing.’

The neighbor went on, saying, “Fatimah’s brother and his fighting detachment carried out more than 50 rocket attacks on the prison before and after her letter came out. Every day they would hunt down a car or two belonging to the occupation forces. His name became famous among them in this area.."

Fatima Martyred In Abu Ghraib Prison In Resistance Attack That Takes Heavy US Toll January 10, 2005

(2) -" Six months in jail – for a wanton murder. That's fair, now isn't it? It is, if the victim is Iraqi and the murderers are four American soldiers – that's what a military court recently decided.."
.... The Bradley stopped at a bridge that spans the Tigris, a bridge that also regulates the flow of river water and is known as the Tharthar dam. Zaydun and Marwan were shoved out onto the walkway. The water roared below as the soldiers uncuffed them and ordered them to jump.
"Why? Why?"
Marwan's plaintive cry fell on the deadened ears of his captors, who grinned and laughed. Even as he cried out against the unreason of a world gone mad, in which the "liberated" are tortured by their "liberators," his anguish was drowned out by their glee as they forced him into the river at gunpoint.
But not before he saw them push Zaydun – who couldn't swim – over the edge as he clung to his tormentors, begging. But the Americans weren't having any of it:
"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!"
Marwan tried to save his young cousin, but Zaydun slipped away from his grip in the strong current. Marwan recounts: "He was shouting 'Marwan, save me,' and I yelled back 'Try to swim, try to swim,' but he went under again and that was it. I could hear them [the soldiers] laughing. They were behaving like they were watching a comedy on stage."
... This murder would have gone undetected and unknown to all but the victims' immediate family, but for a blogger named Zeyad, an Iraqi who had attracted much attention and respect in the "blogosphere," especially among the pro-war types, who constantly cited Zeyad's support for the occupation and his consistently "pro-American" outlook. Zaydun, you see, was Zeyad's cousin."

They're murdering innocents in Iraq January 10, 2005

(3) - "The shadowy nature of the insurgency has made Americans wary of Iraqi civilians. On roads, soldiers smash into civilian vehicles that do not move out of the way of their Humvees and armoured vehicles quickly enough. They aim their weapons menacingly at drivers who get too close and scream profanities at locals who do not understand their commands. ... After one particularly harrowing day of explosions, soldiers killed a mentally disabled man who failed to heed their commands, said Ali Salman Ali, 37, a shop owner. "The soldiers knew this guy and joked with him all the time. But on this day, they ordered him to stop, and he didn't. So they shot him dead."

In Iraq, Gunfire Is the Only Common Language January 10, 2005

"Many Iraqis voiced resentment at what they call heavy-handed military tactics and callousness toward mounting civilian deaths, sentiment that has dented U.S. efforts to win hearts and minds and get the country behind the Jan. 30 ballot. "Why did these poor people have to die?" lamented Baghdad taxi driver Doraid Abdul Khaliq, 28. "Bombing, shooting and running a tank over cars have all become something normal."

U.S. Troops Kill Iraq Civilians in Botched Strikes January 9, 2005

The 'bravery' of U.S. killer robots is directly proportional to height. They brag about it the higher they are in their cockpits dropping their bombs on combatants and civilians alike. On the ground, the above holds against unarmed civilians. They are scared to death.

Zaydun Al-Samarrai, murdered by US soldiers in Iraq
..................................Tracy E. Perkins, one of Al-Samarrai's murderers, just
.................................. given six months by a military court and a reduction in pay