Free Iraq

Al Ramadi takes on al Zarqawi and his ilk (Bush's invitees) to defend it own.

BAGHDAD, Aug. 14 -- "Rising up against insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, Iraqi Sunni Muslims in Ramadi fought with grenade launchers and automatic weapons Saturday to defend their Shiite neighbors against a bid to drive them from the western city, Sunni leaders and Shiite residents said."

"Dozens of Sunni members of the Dulaimi tribe established cordons around Shiite homes, and Sunni men battled followers of Zarqawi, a Jordanian, for an hour Saturday morning. The clashes killed five of Zarqawi's guerrillas and two tribal fighters, residents and hospital workers said. Zarqawi loyalists pulled out of two contested neighborhoods in pickup trucks stripped of license plates, witnesses said."…

…"We have had enough of his nonsense," said Sheik Ahmad Khanjar, leader of the Albu Ali clan, referring to Zarqawi. "We don't accept that a non-Iraqi should try to enforce his control over Iraqis, regardless of their sect -- whether Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs or Kurds."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/13/AR2005081301209_pf.html
 

Speaking of blatant misinformation, Today's article in the Washington Post about the Prviliged Prisoner (Judge Judy) is very interesting:

…"The who's who of friends, supporters and Washington and New York luminaries includes John R. Bolton, President Bush's new ambassador to the United Nations, former "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw and former senator Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.). Gonzalo Marroquin, president of the Inter-American Press Society and director of the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre has been by."…

…"Miller also hosted Charles Duelfer, who concluded in 2005 that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction but uncovered bribes in the United Nations' oil-for-food program. Even a former secretary of the navy, Richard Danzig, who now works as a bioterrorism consultant to the Pentagon, came through."

"Bolton's visit raised some eyebrows in Washington. A vocal defender of administration claims in 2003 that Iraq was seeking weapons of mass destruction, he could have had access to a State Department memo, parts of which were classified, that detailed Wilson's trip to Niger to determine whether Iraq was seeking uranium there and identified his wife as a covert CIA operative. Who saw or discussed the memo has been a central question for Fitzgerald."

"Bolton declined through a spokesman to discuss his visit to Miller or his reasons for going. "This has nothing to do with his job here," the spokesman said. "He doesn't want to talk about it.""…

…"As a low-risk prisoner, Miller, 57, is generally allowed as many as three visitors a day for a total of 30 minutes. An assistant to Miller's lawyer manages the visitation list, and many who have tried to see the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist have been turned away because of the crush of requests. Miller receives advice from her lawyers about prospective visitors, but she has the final say on whom she will see, friends say."

"Said one court official familiar with her schedule: "She's running an office down there.""…

…"Miller's criminal attorney, Robert S. Bennett, said jail authorities show Miller no special treatment and handle her visitation rights "appropriately and professionally."
(Lay off on the Scotch, Bob, before making future similar statements).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/16/AR2005091601646_pf.html
 

Chavez Calls US 'Terrorist State' In UN Speech: "At a press conference after his speech, Chavez said that the United States was a 'terrorist state' because of its actions in Iraq, Robertson's assassination call and for harboring Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted for the bombing of a Cuban airliner."
(Full text of Chavez' U.N. address)
 

Rice on coffee
 

EXTRACT
(Text of speech by Mahathir Mohamad at Suhakam’s Human Rights Conference on 09/09/05, which led to the walkout of a number of diplomats and made news all over the world. - Hmmm. I don't recall it being reported here.)
People with blood-soaked hands: "There is no tally of Iraqi deaths but every single death of a US soldier is reported to the world. These are soldiers who must expect to be killed. But the Iraqis who die because of US action or the civil war in Iraq that the US has precipitated are innocent civilians who under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein would be alive.

"You and I read reports of the death of Iraqis with equanimity as if it is right and just. You and I do not react with anger and horror over this injustice, this abuse of the rights of the Iraqis to live, to be free from terror including state initiated terror.

"The British and American bomber pilots came, unopposed, safe and cosy in their state-of-the-art aircrafts, pressing buttons to drop bombs, to kill and maim real people who were their targets, just targets. And these murderers, for that is what they are, would go back to celebrate ‘Mission accomplished’.

"Who are the terrorists? The people below who were bombed or the bombers? Whose rights have been snatched away?

"But the people whose hands are soaked in the blood of the innocents, the blood of the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Panamanians, the Nicaraguans, the Chileans, the Ecuadorians; the people who assassinated the presidents of Panama, Chile, Ecuador; the people who ignored international law and mounted military attacks, invading and killing hundreds of Panamanian in order to arrest Noriega and to try him not under Panamanian laws but under their own country’s law, have these people a right to question human rights in our country, to make a list and grade the human rights record of the countries of the world yearly, these people with blood-soaked hands.

"They have not questioned the blatant abuses of human rights in countries that are friendly to them. In fact they provide the means for these countries to indulge in human rights abuses.

"Israel is provided with weapons, helicopter gunships, bullets coated with depleted uranium to wage war against people whose only way to retaliate is by committing suicide bombing. The Israeli soldiers were well-protected with body armour, operated from armoured tanks and armoured bulldozers, to rocket and bomb the Palestinian and demolish their houses while the occupants were still inside.

"Israel has nuclear weapons but it was provided with bombers to bomb so-called nuclear research facilities in other countries. And as with American and British actions, the Israeli bombs and rockets tore up the living Palestinians, Iraqis and soon Syrians and Iranians, without the slightest consideration that the people they killed have rights, have human rights to their lives, to security and peace.

"In today’s world 20 percent of the people own 80 percent of the wealth. Almost two billion people live on one US dollar a day. They don’t have enough food or clothing or a proper roof over their heads. In winter, many of these people would freeze to death. The people of the powerful countries are concerned about our abuses of human rights.

"But shouldn’t we be concerned over the uneven distribution of wealth which deprived two billion people of their rights to a decent living, deprived by the avarice of those people who seem so concerned about us and the unintended occasional lapses that has resulted in abuse of human rights in our country."
 

al-Jazeera cartoon
 

Riverbend, Draft Constitution - Part I...
 

I believe I read somewhere that Zarqawi is dead. I guess they need him to stay alive since most people know bin Laden is dead.
 

Lew,
This MSNBC item noted his death back in March 2004 (Iraq militants claim al-Zarqawi is dead). It seems today he is still dead. I imagine, however, that lots of his activities will continue being reported, including on MSNBC.
 

EXTRACT FROM RIVERBEND (ON THE CONSTITUTION) (Link posted 1:30 PM)

The most interesting article in Chapter 1, however, was in the first draft of the constitution published on August 22 by some newspapers but it isn’t in the final draft (at least it’s not in the New York Times English version). It is numbered Article (16), in the version of the draft constitution it appeared in:

Article (16):

1. It is forbidden for Iraq to be used as a base or corridor for foreign troops.
2. It is forbidden to have foreign military bases in Iraq.
3. The National Assembly can, when necessary, and with a majority of two thirds of its members, allow what is mentioned in 1 and 2 of this article.

This one is amusing because in the first two parts of the article, foreign troops are forbidden and then in the third, they’re kind of allowed… well sometimes- when the puppets deem it necessary (to keep them in power). What is worrisome about this article, on seeing the final version of the draft constitution, is its mysterious disappearance- in spite of the fact that it leaves a lot of leeway for American bases in Iraq. Now, in the final version of the constitution, there is nothing about not having foreign troops in the country or foreign bases, at the very least. The ‘now you see it’/ ‘now you don’t’ magical effect of this article, especially, reinforces the feeling that this constitution is an ‘occupation constitution’.
 

(Republished in its entirety)
JULY 18, 2004: The number of deaths attributed to Saddam Hussein by the West is incomprehensible. If you add them all up, it seems he killed more people than the number who inhabit Iraq. He had to work overtime and must have had advanced weaponry of which no one is aware.

Numbers and techniques abound: 180,000 during the Anfal campaign (Despite the numbers, not one body has been found. Maybe Saddam had a secret vaporizing ray); 5,000 in Halabja (About 300 bodies were found and there is much doubt as to the origin of the gas used against the Kurds); 400,000 in the south of Iraq.

Let’s talk about the 400,000. In November 2003, word came out that more than 400,000 bodies had been discovered in mass graves in the south of Iraq. "The whole country is a mass graveyard" was the slogan of the day. Finally, proof of Saddam being the Butcher of Baghdad was there for the whole world to see. Case closed.

Let’s go forward a few months from the discovery of the almost half million bodies in the south of Iraq. On July 18, 2004, the headline of the day for the British paper The Independent read, "British Prime Minister Admits Graves Claim Untrue." How could that be? George Bush and Tony Blair don’t lie. If we can’t trust them, who can we trust? Certainly not Saddam, even though he told the truth about WMD. That must have been a fluke.

According to the article:

Downing Street has admitted to The Observer that repeated claims by Tony Blair that "about 400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves" is untrue, and only about 5,000 corpses have so far been uncovered.

The claims by Blair in November and December of last year (2003) were given widespread credence, quoted by MPs and widely published, including in the introduction to a U.S. government pamphlet on Iraq’s mass graves.

In that publication, Iraq’s Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves, produced by USAID, the U.S. government aid distribution agency, Blair is quoted from 20 November last year: We’ve already discovered, just so far, the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves."

Here’s what the USAID website stated:

If these numbers prove accurate, they represent a crime against humanity surpassed only by the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Pol Pot’s Cambodian killing fields in the 1970s, and the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.

I assume that USAID did not hear about the two million Iraqis who died at the hands of the U.S.-imposed embargo from 1990-2003. After all, they’re Iraqis: they don’t count.

The same article delved into the regression of other elevated figures attributed to Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath regime in the north of the country. For instance, it mentioned that Human Rights Watch admitted it had to drastically decrease figures of deaths.

The irony here is that not one person went to the north of Iraq to corroborate the figures. Human Rights Watch and other groups just took the figures given to them as accurate. Hania Mufti, who performed research that produced the original inflated figures in the north stated: "Our estimates were based on estimates. The eventual figure was based in part on circumstantial information gathered over the years."

Imagine even the most lowly offense being tried in a U.S. court system and the prosecutor said that his case was based on estimates of estimates. The case would be dismissed and the judge would reprimand the prosecution for even making a case.

However, this is not so with Iraq. Just say "Saddam did it" and affix a preposterous scenario and figures and it is taken for truth. The blood of millions of Iraqis lies on the hands of these despicable groups and people who have tried to outdo themselves in demonizing Saddam Hussein, the Ba’ath Party, and the Iraqi public in general.

The list is long: Human Rights Watch; Amnesty International; all the foreign-domiciled Iraqi stooges who came back to Iraq after April 2003; with the exception of a few individuals, the entire U.S. government (Democrat and Republican alike); Tony Blair; the U.S. mainstream media; and many, many, many more. They all are involved in the mass murder of millions of Iraqis.

The date of July 18, 2004 should be heralded as much as other dates in world history. It was the date on which the truth about Iraqi mass graves was published. However, not one word appeared in the U.S. press. And, within a day or two, Blair quickly changed directions and came up with other ploys to downplay the announcement that he had lied on a massive scale.

If we take a look at the existing 5,000 bodies, most, if not all, are males of military age. It is probable that many were killed by U.S. bombs in Desert Storm. If you look at a map, you will see that the south of Iraq was heavily bombed in January and February 1991. Add to that the possibility of some bodies being from the Iraqi army that fought the 1991 Shi’ite attempt at overthrowing the Iraqi government and we see that the number of innocent civilians killed by Saddam has quickly decreased from 400,000 to many less than 5,000, if any.

The statement "history is written by the victors" is only partially true in the case of Iraq. Here, fairy tales of the most outrageous kind have been written under the guise of history.

Remember July 18, 2004.
 

Apologies if you disagree, you are entitle to your opinion and false beliefs, but Saddam and his party was bad for Iraqi people.

They bring nothing but war, torture, aerial bombardments and sanctions upon there own people since 1970s. Kurdish and Shia villages were destroyed by Saddam party. In many villages there is no men left, women have been left to cope alone. There are thousands of witnesses to this abominable behaviour.

Saddam's imprisonment, trial and ultimately, execution will be good for our world. As for Islamic terrorists in Iraq? I dont care what they are. Fact is they have hurt there own people and one day will pay
 

I do not care whether Zarqawi is responsible or not. What is for certain is that the Shia and Kurdish people are being targetted by the country's so called 'resistance'. They use suicide bombers, mortars, executions, anything so lomg as they can kill Kurdish and Shia. They must have been thrill when they managed to cause that stampede that killed 1000 shia people.

These are not resistance fighters because they resist their own people. They do more than resist them, they kill them in cold blood. These people are cold blood murderers and rapists. They are not resistance.

Also I do not swallow all this stuff about Saddam not being all that bad. There are hundreds of thousands of people who will testify against Saddam if necessary, anyone who had their family disappear, tortured, shot, raped, gassed will testify against him and they will all be Iraqis.

Iraqis will condemn Saddam to his fate and that fate is execution and is deserved.

This was the man who engaged in massive ethnic cleanse with his cousins. He delibrately destroy the ecosystems in the region by
draining natural marshes and setting oil on fire. The skies turned black and wildlife was killed on mass scale.
He all the time murdered and oppresed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis over the last three decade. Don't forget to add the thousands of Iraqi and Iranian soldiers who died Iran war following and the casualties from the first Gulf War.

In interviews he has openly said he will torture and execute those who oppose him. I saw on BBC Panorama documentary.

Saddam's cruelty kept Iraq unified but now they must learn to live as people togther without the butchery of a dictator who admired Stalin and Hitler methods.

In the long run, Iraq will be beter off. I do not believe all the propaganda that Iraq is a worse off place. When the 'resistance' aka murdering monsters have been eliminated, Iraq can rebuild. Don't blame the coalition for the bad acts of the muderous monsters aka resistance, look at the monsters for what they are....bad people wanting bad things for Iraq.

The resistance (muderers) should step aside and let normal Iraqis rebuild their country.
 

Read book by Ala Bashir, former Dean of Medicine at Baghdad University who was Saddam's personal physician from 1983 until 2003. He reveals the devastation, the fear and killings and the regime's total disregard for human life.

He wrote book with some guy called Lars Sigurd Sunnan, one of Norway's leading journalists.

Maybe some of you say he is liar but he is just another witness to the regime badness
 

Yoshio people can doubt all they want but when they see stream of witnesses against Saddam, they will finally wake from their coma
 

Francois and Yoshio

Apparently old habits are not shed easily, meaning you see words but do not read.

The second and third paragraphs of the above posting explicitly states that the Iraqi Resistance and the Sunni elders have washed their hands completely from the American-hyped Zarqawi's call for an onslaught on Shia'a, as this crime is not in the interest of the Iraqi people, but is a catalyst in the American interest in dividing up Iraq.

Secondly, had you been able to read Arabic, the fourth headline at the top "Iraq's Ba'ath and self-criticism" would leave your comments in the dust, as the Iraqis themselves are tackling their past their own way, as it should be done.
 

More Damning Bin Laden Revelations Emerge: "'Al Qaeda' is nothing more than a CIA list of arms dealers, mercenaries, drug dealers, and terrorists used by the United States and the Saudis in the Mujaheddin war against the USSR."
 

Tony Blair 'relished' sending British soldiers off to war
 

US Ambassador To Iraq Predicts US Will Go Into Syria…
(Democracy on the march)
 

Kurt Nimmo, "Bush has nothing to lose by attacking Syria—regardless of his dismal approval ratings and the public relations spin-out in the wake of Hurricane Katrina—and Zalmay Khalilzad’s trial balloon may signal the beginning of the long sought after campaign to kill a whole lot of Syrians."
 

Francois, Sunnan has helped a number of Iraqis write books about Saddam. I think this will be his third or fourth book.
 

Permanent link to JULY 18, 2004 (Posted Sept. 18, 2005 5:32 PM)
 

Al Qaeda and the Iraqi Resistance Movement
Concluding Remarks
"Has the US created, as part of a covert intelligence operation, a bogus "resistance movement" made up of its own Al Qaeda sponsored "terrorists"? Their suicide attacks target Iraqi civilians rather than the US military.

"The suicide bombings tend to encourage sectarian divisions not only within Iraq, but throughout the entire Middle East. They serve Washington's interests. They contribute to undermining the development of a broader resistance movement uniting Shia, Sunni, Kurds and Christians against the illegal occupation of the Iraqi homeland. They also tend to create, at the international level, divisions within the antiwar and peace movements.

"Moreover, the disinformation campaign also permeates the Iraqi and Middle East press. The latter tend to take the alleged Al Zarqawi's statements published on the internet at face value. The Zarqawi threat to the Shia is seen as genuine. The links between Al Qaeda in Iraq and US intelligence is rarely mentioned."
 

Suicide bombers strike as Shiite pilgrimage underway
(As usual, decide who "benefits".)
 

Iraqi journalist found shot dead in Basra: "Fakher was kidnapped in his house after midnight on Sunday by a group of gunmen in central Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad,the source said."

Armed Clashes Between Iraqis and British Soldiers in Iraqi Basra: "According to a British military spokesman the situation is complicated. The conflict started when two Iraqis were held and locals started throwing rocks at the British soldiers."
 

No Rice at U.N. dinner on women's rights

Guantánamo Prisoners Go on Hunger Strike: "One law enforcement official who has been fully briefed on the events at Guantánamo said senior military officials had grown increasingly worried about their capability to control the situation. A senior military official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, described the situation as greatly troublesome for the camp's authorities and said they had tried several ways to end the hunger strike, without success."
 

Robert Fisk, We have long ago lost our moral compass, so how can we lecture the Islamic world?: "A hundred years of Western interference in the Middle East has left the region so cracked with fault lines and artificial frontiers and heavy with injustices that we are in no position to lecture the Islamic world on human rights and values. Forget the Amalekites and the Persians and Martin Luther and the Caliph Abu Bakr. Just look at ourselves in the mirror and we will see the most frightening text of all.

Plan to cut number of UK troops in Iraq is scrapped
 

How to Identify Misinformation: "How can a journalist or a news consumer tell if a story is true or false? There are no exact rules, but the following clues can help indicate if a story or allegation is true.

- Does the story fit the pattern of a major media outlet or government agency?
- Does the story fit the pattern of an “urban legend propogated by viral marketers?”
- Does the story contain an obviously bias revelation about a highly controversial issue?
- Is the source trustworthy?
- What does further research tell you about how power manipulates information?"

(Visit website, click on Topics)
 

INVASION: GLORIOUS FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITY
Billions plundered from Iraq military: "Most of the money was "siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared" to finance the purchase of arms in Poland and Pakistan, according to the report.

"Furthermore, 'rogue elements' within the US military and intelligence services may have played a decisive role behind the scenes.

"'It is nearly 100% of the ministry's (procurement) budget that has gone AWOL (absent without leave),' Allawi was quoted as saying.

"Allawi says a further $500-600 million has allegedly disappeared from the electricity, transport, interior and other ministries.

"'This helps to explain why the supply of electricity in Baghdad has been so poor since the fall of Saddam Hussein 29 months ago despite claims by the US and subsequent Iraqi governments that they are doing everything to improve power generation.'"
 

Francois and Yoshio, just an underline of my above comment to you :

"Angry crowds attacked a British tank with petrol bombs and rocks in Basra on Monday (Sept 19, 2005) after Iraqi authorities said they had detained two British undercover soldiers in the southern city for firing on police.

Two Iraqis were killed in the violence, an Interior Ministry official said.

An Iraqi official in Iraq's second largest city said the British military had informed him that the men were undercover soldiers and that an Iraqi judge was questioning them.

"They were driving a civilian car and were dressed in civilian clothes when a shooting took place between them and Iraqi patrols," the official told Reuters.

"We are investigating and an Iraqi judge is on the case questioning them."

Reuters photographs showed one of the two men with a bandage on his head. Police and Interior Ministry officials said the men were wearing traditional Arab headdress for their undercover mission.

Mohammed al-Abadi, an official in the Basra governorate, said the two men looked suspicious to police.

"A policeman approached them and then one of these guys fired at him. Then the police managed to capture them," Abadi told reporters.

"They refused to say what their mission was. They said they were British soldiers and (suggested) to ask their commander about their mission," he added."

Is this some sort of a version of a British Phoenix and Salvador (referring to the next post on this Blog)?
 

Iraq Parliament approves constitution: "Angered that more concessions were not made, some Sunni political and religious leaders are urged Sunnis to register to vote in the referendum and plan to mount a "no" campaign.

"If two-thirds of voters in three or more of Iraq's 18 provinces vote 'no' then the referendum will be defeated.

"Sunnis have a majority in at least three provinces and hope that some Shiite Muslims opposed to elements in the draft constitution will join them in voting 'no', securing a defeat.

"Although this is considered an unlikely outcome.

"If the constitution is approved in the referendum, as is ultimately expected, elections for a new Parliament will be held under its auspices in December this year."
 

NEW ORLEANS: MORE GREAT FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Wayne Madsen, September 18, 2005 -- Former Attorney General under Ronald Reagan Edwin Meese has become an unofficial adviser for New Orleans area reconstruction. Meese has a close working relationship with Karl Rove, the newly-appointed White House point man for Gulf Coast rebuilding. The major link is Meese's leadership position in the Christian big business and fascism-rooted Fellowship Foundation. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, the Fellowship Foundation is a powerful and wealthy tax-exempt religious foundation financed by defense contractors and other corporations that uses "Jesus" as a corporate logo in the same manner McDonald's uses the "Golden Arches" and Microsoft uses a multi-colored window pane.

Meese, a Heritage Foundation public policy fellow, recently helped author a policy paper on Katrina recovery, a blueprint that is beginning to influence the White House's plans for New Orleans. Meese's criticism of FEMA's plan to distribute $2000 debit cards to hurricane victims likely led to the last minute cancellation of the program. FEMA, instead, said it would transfer the money to victims' bank accounts -- held in bank branches that are now closed and in accounts not available to evacuees who have been transferred to other states.

The Meese plan emphasizes tax credits and vouchers in lieu of cash grants. This, of course, is designed to help businesses and religious schools at the expense of the poor and jobless. The Meese plan also calls for rezoning New Orleans and suburbs as "Opportunity Zones," capitalist free-for-all playgrounds where capital gains, 2004 and 2005 business income taxes, and estate taxes are eliminated and environmental (including the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts), anti-predatory lending, health insurance portability and accountability (HIPAA), public education, equal opportunity housing, minimum wage (Davis Bacon Act), anti-securities fraud, pension protection, and civil rights laws and regulations are suspended or abolished.
 

Adib, (Yours of 12:31 PM)
Noted in your linked article: "British military authorities in Basra said they were investigating the incident."
Please will you post the report eventually produced by the investigation?
 

The St. Patrick's Four to be tried again: Will the First Amendment survive?
On trial TODAY, on March 17, 2003 the St. Patrick's Four read the following Statement:

"Our apologies, dear friends, for the fracture of good order. As our nation prepares to escalate the war on the people of Iraq by sending hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers to invade, we pour our blood on the walls of this military recruiting center. We mark this recruiting office with our own blood to remind ourselves and others of the cost in human life of our government's war making.

"Killing is wrong. Preparations for killing are wrong. The work done by the Pentagon with the connivance of this military recruiting station ends with the shedding of blood, and God tells us to turn away from it. Blood is the symbol of life. All life is holy. All people are created in the image and likeness of God. All people are family, and everyone is loved by God.

"Dr. Martin Luther King reminds us that ' . . . we are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers [and sisters].'

"We come here today with pictures of Iraqi people—mothers, children, those who have been the victims of U.S. bombardment and sanctions for the past 12 years. We also come here with love in our hearts for the U.S. service people, also victims of war making.

"We find hope in these dark times when sisters and brothers around the world resist the spirit of hatred and violence, lift up prayers for peace—together with works for peace."
 

Today, the Anti-War Movement Goes on Trial: ". . .[I]f Clare Grady, who has spent most of her adulthood working to feed the hungry is not allowed to cut herself and mark a spot with her own blood, how can a writer who regularly accuses George Bush of being a liar feel secure in his or her freedom? What about someone who attends a march, such as the one approaching on Sept. 24?

"How safe is dissent? As much as we care about four brave individuals who did what they could to stop the invasion in 2003, we must go beyond them and consider the thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, who wear antiwar or anti-Bush tee-shirts, who attend rallies, who write letters to the editor. Dare they keep their bumper stickers?

"The fact that these four pacifists are being tried again, even after the war has been shown to most people's satisfaction to have been a mistake, and worse, that they are not allowed to express their feelings or use the illegality of the war in their defense throws open doors and windows that even the most cynical weren't truly expecting two years ago.

"Whether our constitutional right to freedom of speech will live or not is the point. What happens in Binghamton in the coming week or weeks will probably be a barometer. If Daniel, Clare, Peter, and Teresa are found guilty of conspiracy, then all those who vocally support them are guilty."
 

Mainstream Religious Leaders in Bushtime; Guardians of the Status Quo: "The double standard of various mainstream religious leaders is seen in comparing their strong public condemnation of the 'barbaric,' 'evil,' 'cowardly' bombings in London with their 'shared concern over the war in Iraq.' It is seen in who especially they decide are 'the perpetrators' that they 'need to bring to justice.' Religious leaders could have included the same exact language- with far greater moral outrage--to publicly condemn President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair for their pre-emptive war against Iraq. But did they? . . ."

The Prophet Muhammed said, 'The pinnacle of faith is to speak the truth in the face of the tyrant.' (Bukhari) When Jesus was taken prisoner and faced the tyrant Pilate, he said his mission was 'to testify to the truth,' and "Pilate asked him, "'What is truth?'" (John 18:36-38) Jesus had already said it from the pinnacle of a mountaintop, which is why he was taken prisoner: 'Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God. . . . Love your enemies. . . ' (Matthew 5:9, 43) There is Jewish prophecy as well: 'When all the prisoners of the land are crushed under foot, when human rights are perverted in the presence of the Most High, when one's case is subverted-does the Lord not see it?' (Lamentations 3:34-36). It is time for more mainstream religious leaders and their peoples of faith to see it clearly, and to demand that President Bush be held accountable for his treasonous behavior and crimes against humanity."
 

Hurricane Hugo at the UN: "Chavez's logic is inescapable; if the United States continues to flaunt UN resolutions and violate international law, as it has with the Iraq war, it should not be host to the world body."

"Unlike Bush, Chavez's record is backed up by a solid performance in nearly every area of social development. Its no wonder the elitist American media, driven by their class-based ideology, has tried so desperately to discredit him."
 

Travels in Palestine, Part One; Horror Story: "It all quickly comes together traveling through the West Bank: the separation wall encircling Anata; the verdant natural spring in the Israeli settlement of Anatot -- the spring, along with the mountains and wadis surrounding it and even the settlement's very name, all stolen from Palestinians by Israel and its settlers; the wall encroaching on the small, heroic village of Bil'in; the Israeli trash and garbage heaps that loom over Wadi Fuqin and other Palestinian villages, wherever there is a settlement under construction or expanding; the Israeli construction everywhere, everywhere, cutting through the land, destroying the land, building for Israelis, destroying what is Palestinian; the ecological devastation throughout the West Bank.

"You cannot travel around the West Bank for more than a day or two without seeing all of this, without knowing what it means, without knowing how Israel is committing a kind of slow ethnocide -- perhaps, over the longer term, even genocide -- against Palestinians. You cannot see the extent of this without wondering how it can ever be turned around."
 

The Power to Hold Anyone; Padilla and the Death of the Republic: ". . .I. . .do not care one whit what [Jose Padilla's] "alleged actions" were. Nothing he may have done or been planning to do could possibly be a greater threat to the security of this society and the rule of law than the direct dissolution of that rule of law. If the Supreme Court sustains the indefinite detention of American citizens, it will mark nothing less than the complete invalidation of the Constitution, an end to the rule of law, and the paving of the way for complete dictatorship."
 

Their Patience and Ours; Khalilzad Threatens Syria: "The U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad says that the U.S. is 'running out of patience' with Syria. That's nothing new; U.S. officials have been saying that for several years now. After President Bush's January 2002 speech joining together Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an 'axis of evil,' evil Undersecretary of State John Bolton huffed and puffed about a second tier of evildoing nations: Syria, Libya and Cuba. The neocon program is obviously to create a string of client-states in what it calls the 'Greater Middle East'---an empire dripping with oil, bedecked with U.S. military bases, spread-eagled for U.S. corporate investment, warmly receptive to Israeli advances.

"The great prize of Iran, wedged between 'liberated' Afghanistan and Iraq, excites particular passion in the neocon breast. Its rape, scheduled for the summer, has been postponed for several reasons, principally the resistance of the liberated Iraqis and the swelling U.S. death toll.. . ."
 

(Wayne Madsen at his superlative best; last 4 paras. only) EXCLUSIVE REPORT: THE DEMISE OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS SECURITY; The Neo-Cons’ Unfettered Access to America’s Secrets: The FBI also had severe problems with communications compromises during the lead up to 911. FBI agents tailing Israeli agents in the United States (who, in turn, were living and working in close proximity to the Al Qaeda hijackers) were stymied by the compromise of secure FBI and Justice Department communications systems by Israeli contractor telecommunications companies such as AMDOCS and Comverse Infosys. In addition, Israeli software companies had permitted Mossad unfettered access to credit card and telephone records of U.S. counter-intelligence agents. America’s counter-intelligence community was trying to do its job with one hand tied behind its back.

The Mossad operatives the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) was tailing in the New York and New Jersey areas covered their communications by using untraceable Verizon pre-paid cellular phones and Nextel two-way walkie-talkie devices. Mossad agents were also trailing and harassing CIA agents assigned to track people like lead hijacker Mohammed Atta, especially in Fort Lee, New Jersey where Atta lived for a while. An attempt by the FBI to penetrate New York and New Jersey Israeli intelligence-connected office moving companies, such as Urban Moving Systems, which was discovered to have conducted an emergency move of the Israeli Zim-American Israeli Shipping Company from the World Trade Center’s North Tower just weeks prior to 911, were disrupted by communications compromises and pressure from FBI and Justice Department headquarters in Washington, DC. Much of that pressure reportedly originated from then-U.S. Attorney for Northern New Jersey Michael Chertoff, the current Secretary of Homeland Security.

U.S. intelligence sources report that the late FBI agent John O’Neill was well aware of the suspicious Israeli activity in the lead up to 911. One FBI was taken off the Israeli surveillance operations and sent to Pakistan to investigate the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. According to U.S. intelligence sources, Pearl was killed not by Al Qaeda but by paid foreign hit men hired to get rid of someone who was getting “too close” to the actual money sources that paid for the 911 attack.

U.S. intelligence sources report that the one Israeli who is considered an extreme threat to U.S. national security is former Prime Minister and current Prime Minister hopeful Binyamin Netanyahu. Not only has Netanyahu visited convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in his North Carolina prison cell and advocated strenuously for his release but he was once overheard by an ex-CIA agent as saying to a group of his supporters, “Once we squeeze all we can out of the United States, it can dry up and blow away.” Considering the damage the neo-cons and their Israeli facilitators are causing for U.S. national security, Netanyahu may soon have his wish.
 

911 Lies Under Fire - Truth Finally Emerging: "Former 9-11 commissioner Timothy Roemer avoided answering questions, running like a scared rabbit when confronted by William Rodriguez, the WTC custodian who wanted to know why his dissenting testimony was omitted in the final report, during a rally marking the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

"'The 9-11 truth will be told. Bush and Cheney will be indicted for treason and murder. And immediately . . .the killing and illegal war in Iraq [will be stopped].'

"Rodriguez, the last survivor of the North Tower, told of explosions emanating from the sub-level basement of the tower, prior to the plane striking the upper floors. His account has been systematically suppressed by the government, mainstream media and the 9-11 Commission. Former Lt. Col. (USAF) Dr. Robert Bowman called for the immediate removal of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their cronies on charges of treason and murder. Bowman, who flew over 100 Vietnam combat missions and worked under presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, said he took a solemn oath to protect his country from foreign and domestic enemies, including a rogue president like Bush.

"'9-11 is based on a pack of lies. It wasn't misjudgment; it was treason,' said Bowman as he called for removal of what he called the mob and crooks in the White House."
 

Police Fortify Numbers for War Protests: "Undercover officers will mingle among demonstrators."
 

MadAsHell (Sept. 14, 2005 4:34 PM) left this link, commenting, "But in death machines, America is Number One!"

More here: U.S. leads the world in sale of military goods: "As insecurity mounts from Najaf to New Orleans, more weapons and high-tech military equipment are flowing into some of the globe's most vulnerable and war-torn regions."
 

Cindy Sheehan, Wake Up
 

British :Attack Basra Jail to Free Two: "British forces using tanks broke down the walls of the central jail in the southern city of Basra late Monday and freed two Britons, allegedly undercover commandos, who had been arrested on charges of shooting two Iraqi policemen.

"Witnesses said about 150 Iraqi prisoners also fled the jail.

"Violence flared earlier in the day as demonstrators hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at British tanks; at least four people were killed.

"The fighting erupted after British armor encircled the jail where the two Britons were being held. During the melee one soldier could be seen scrambling for his life from a burning tank and the rock-throwing mob."
 

(A recommended weekly overview)

(Final paras.) Train Wreck of the Week September 18, 2005: "According to Transparency International, Iraq could become the biggest corruption scandal in history. It starts with petty officials looking for bribes all the way up to contractors doing shoddy work and those contractors getting their contracts from government officials who get a kickback.

"We can start with Ahmed Chalabi who was convicted in Jordan for a $200 million financial scam. That does not deter George and the neocons; he is obviously their kind of guy. He was one of the first of the Bush cabal to land in Iraq after the takeover. Then there was the plan to sell of Iraq’s oil fields to US elitist interests at $.30 on the dollar. That is what triggered today’s ongoing insurgency that we pay for in money and lives every day. That is why oil facilities and pipelines continue to be bombed as we write.

"Then Halliburton wiped all the money out of the Iraq Development Fund though the award of five no-bid contracts for just under $1 billion. Then there were the mercenaries, who were often paid in piles of $100 bills - about 7% of overall receipts had no invoices. A UN audit concluded that $2.5 billion of $5.0 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds could not be accounted for. Most all of the payments were made to US and UK companies. The CPA was the epicenter of fraud, waste, bribery and kickbacks.

"Halliburton received 52% of two $25.4 billion contracts; they overcharged by $1.5 billion and lost 12 pre-fabricated bases worth $75 million. They are subject to five investigations presently and now have just been awarded contracts and Louisiana and Mississippi. George and the neocons reward theft and failure. This is why Bunnatine Greenhouse was fired, for her testimony to Congress. She said her superiors forced her to sign no-bid contracts for Halliburton she said were scams. As it turns out our Congress could care less. Worse yet the Pentagons just gave Halliburton another $5 billion contract for Iraq. It is no wonder they do not want the war to end. We could be doing this for another 30 years. In the last two weeks infrastructure work was stopped."
 

Global Research, Al Qaeda and the Iraqi Resistance Movement:
Concluding Remarks
"Has the US created, as part of a covert intelligence operation, a bogus 'resistance movement' made up of its own Al Qaeda sponsored 'terrorists'? Their suicide attacks target Iraqi civilians rather than the US military.

"The suicide bombings tend to encourage sectarian divisions not only within Iraq, but throughout the entire Middle East. They serve Washington's interests. They contribute to undermining the development of a broader resistance movement uniting Shia, Sunni, Kurds and Christians against the illegal occupation of the Iraqi homeland. They also tend to create, at the international level, divisions within the antiwar and peace movements.

"Moreover, the disinformation campaign also permeates the Iraqi and Middle East press. The latter tend to take the alleged Al Zarqawi's statements published on the internet at face value. The Zarqawi threat to the Shia is seen as genuine. The links between Al Qaeda in Iraq and US intelligence is rarely mentioned."
 

I believe that all attacks upon Iraqi civilians should first and foremost be considered as Black Ops. To think "resistance" is to swallow the Washington/London/puppet lie.
 

My Son was Waiting for a Taxi, So He was Killed
 

Canada not neutral on Iraq, crowd told: "Canada's deployment of soldiers to Afghanistan, thereby freeing Americans to fight in Iraq, and ships to the Persian Gulf are clear evidence that it is not merely a bystander." (George Galloway)
 

Perhaps there are some, who, like myself, come and go without noticing "small" changes. Having now seen (and, reread) the added link at the top "On Iraqi People, Resistance and Oil versus American bases" I'm noting it here for others who may have missed it.
 

"Unlike You, Not Every Soldier In Iraq Is Proud Of The Blood On His Hands": "When I joined the United States Army I swore an oath to 'serve and protect the Constitution of the United States,' not an ignorant greedy little fuck like George Bush or any of his court jesters in the White House.

"Webster's defines the act of sedition as 'rebellion or incitement: actions or words intended to provoke or incite rebellion against government authority.' If what you are saying means that I am accused of opposing this current and criminal regime, and desperately hope for swift and drastic change, well at least you used the word right.

"I never could understand how anyone involved with the Iraqi OCCUPATION could whole-heartedly support it. The foul machinations behind it should be crystal clear, but then again military brain washing is rampant and seems to affect everyone with a myopic scope of reality."
 

GUANTANAMO -
To Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon chieftains: "Let them Die or Let them go."
 

"Cops Assault Cindy Sheehan Rally" (Some uncertainty, I think, about what actually happened)
N.Y. Rally PHOTOS.
 

Zarqawi, oil pipeline and the $1bn: "After listening to Zarqawi message, I was surer that this man doesn’t exist, He was made and manufactured in Hollywood. Listen to him here.

"I do not think that Al-Zarqawii exists. He is only one invention of the occupants to divide the people because he was killed in the north of Iraq at the beginning of the war with the group of Ansar Al-Islam, in Kurdistan. His family, in Jordan, even proceeded to a ceremony after his death. Abou Moussab Al-Zarkaoui is thus a toy used by the Americans, an excuse to continue the occupation. It is a pretext not to leave Iraq.

"Accidentally today I came across a small article on Arabic Alkhaleej newspaper, no attention from other media, this is what it says:

"'Israeli foreign minister Shalom received Jordan’s agreement on oil pipeline across Jordan to Haifa port in Israel. Israel plans to reinstate the oil pipeline from Karkuk [Iraq] across the Jordanian lands, to live terminal.'

"Did they ask for the Iraqi permission? Are they sure that the Iraqis will accept the plan?"
 

Evelyn

Referring to your Comment above on 'How to Identify Misinformation' posted on Septemeber 19, 2005 at 11:15 AM,

I would like to draw your attention, and other visitors to this site, to be aware of the 'source' of the Zarqawi sound clip cited in the above comment at 11:45 PM, namely, MEMRI:

"The energetic Meyrav Wurmser, who heads of this project, is a former Israeli living in Washington. She holds a doctorate in political science and in the past, was head of MEMRI, an organization that monitors the Middle Eastern media. She is married to a member of the American administration, David Wurmser, an adviser on Middle Eastern
affairs to Vice President Richard Cheney."
They call it Project Zionism.

"Also, note his sources -- the Wall Street Journal, a terrorism "expert," and MEMRI (an Arabic press translation service with rather shady ties to Israeli military intelligence). "
Friedman, Reports, Zionism.


ويكفي هنا أن أقارن جهدهم التطوعي بنشاط شركة ميمري للترجمة التي بدأت العمل من واشنطن مع مجيء بنيامين نتانياهو الى رئاسة الوزارة في اسرائيل سنة 1996، وتوسعت بسرعة، وفتحت مكاتب حول العالم، بفضل الدعم الكبير الذي يمكنها من ممارسة عملها الانتقائي فتترجم كل ما من شأنه ان يسيء الى العرب والمسلمين ويشوه صورتهم، مع العلم ان ترجمتها دقيقة والمصادر المختارة صحيحة
"ادعموهم... انهم يستحقون
http://www.daralhayat.com/opinion/editorials/06-2005/Item-20050612-71933228-c0a8-10ed-00d4-1f0504dcdbaf/story.html

"The real question here is whether it is all right to dispute the Zionist version of history. The David Project, AIPAC, the American Jewish Congress, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Middle East Forum, Campus Watch, MEMRI, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the Zionist Organization of America, etc., etc., maintain that it is not all right. Some of them have even been known to maintain that disputing Zionist historiography is a form of hate speech."
New York Times Supports McCarthyite Witch Hunt.

====

Having pointed that out, I do agree with the Bloger 'Baghdad Dweller' that the speech of this so-called Zarqawi is in impeccable Arabic, with no hint of any 'nationality' which are easily discerned for Arabic ears. Not only can we tell if somebody is from Mosul, for example, but sometimes even if he is from a different neighborhood in Baghdad, never mind if he is from a different Arabic country. This voice belongs to a well-versed/taught/indoctrinated mind. The style is indeed dogmatic.
A well-done job by the 'Intelligence'. They must be paying a lot for that speaker, and 'his trainer'.

As for the Oil, I will post on that next.
 

The British troops have my support in Iraq no matter what. They are doing a great job and have done Iraq, and the west, a big favour in putting Saddam out to pasture.

You lot are living a fantasy world if they think the Brits can be intimidated by your cowardly terrorism at home, in Iraq or anywhere else. You want everyone converted to Islam so you can molest children and women freely.

You think you can drive a wedge between Britain and the US by wielding propaganda like this website?
We have no intention of changing the way we live and work merely to satisfy the desires of a few fanatics like yourselves. You just keep blowing people up, molesting children and raping and cutting women and we'll continue to live like humans in the meantime.

I support whatever steps are necessary to apprehend and, if need be, detain terrorists like you lot, whether you are sitting at home on your arses or out in the field.

The London bombings have failed, despite Galloway's rantings, to undermine support for the British presence in Iraq. Most people want Britain to retain its close ties with the US and such numbers are rising. Britons can be proud.

I admire Londoners' courage and calm under fire. We are used to it from the IRA anyway. Tony Blair's satisfaction rating has shot up because he's a good leader.
 

..."impeccable Arabic, with no hint of any 'nationality' which are easily discerned for Arabic ears"

This is not so surprising and there is nothing sinister if you think about it. It has nothing to do with the americans or iraqi fakes.

This man, does not want his whereabouts, or recent whereabouts, traced and thats why he has shed his accent! If he has lived in a certain country or even town for last few years his accent may have changed and that can reveal his hiding places and even home. Specialists can sometimes tell from accents not just where a person has originated from, but also where they have lived recently.

"This voice belongs to a well-versed/taught/indoctrinated mind"

There are plenty of those around and most of them are Ba'athists!
 

Dr Khadduri,
Thank you for your 5:29 AM feedback and the related links. They indeed made for interesting (and, valuable) exploration.
 

Four killed in suicide bomb attack on US diplomatic convoy
 

"Red Meat"
 

The day that Iraqi anger exploded in the face of the British occupiers: "The dramatic events began to unfold just before dawn yesterday, when two British nationals were detained by Iraqi authorities. It emerged later that they were British soldiers. Dressed in plain clothes - according to some they were wearing traditional Arab dress - the two men had been driving in an unmarked car when they arrived at a checkpoint in the city.

"In the confrontation that followed, shots were fired, and two Iraqi policemen were shot, one of whom later died. The Iraqi authorities blamed the men, reported to be undercover commandos, and arrested them.

"'They refused to say what their mission was. They said they were British soldiers and [suggested they] ask their commander about their mission.'

[. . .]

"The British military action was condemned as 'barbaric, savage and irresponsible' by Mohammed al-Waili, the governor of the province. 'A British force of more than 10 tanks backed by helicopters attacked the central jail and destroyed it. This is an irresponsible act,' the governor said.

"The Ministry of Defence in London confirmed that the soldiers had been released, but said that had been achieved by 'negotiation'. Its explanation is unlikely to assuage the anger on the streets of the southern Iraqi city, which has so far been relatively calm compared with the daily violence that has scarred much of the rest of the country.

"As an uneasy peace was maintained in the city last night, all the indications were that yesterday's violence could be repeated today."
 

British "Liberation" (more)
UK admits smashing jail wall in rescue bid
 

Cindy Sheehan,
"It is not patriotism when you say, 'My country right or wrong.' Because our country is very wrong now."
 

Hugo Chavez: ABC Nightline: "One of the greatest rebels, who I really admire: Christ. He was a rebel. He ended up being crucified. He was a great rebel. He rebelled against the established power that subjugated. That is what rebellion is; it's rebellion out of love for human beings. In truth, that is the cause, the cause of love: love for every human being, for every women, for every child, for every man, for every brother."
 

George Galloway, Reply to Greg Palast: ". . .The Charity Commission inquiry Palast refers to was occasioned by a referral from Tony Blair's Attorney General. The commission are in possession of every receipt of funds and every cheque issues or bank transfer ever made. They satisfied that there was no malfeasance and closed the case without further action, no doubt to the disappointment of Mr Blair's Attorney General. . . . "

". . .For what seems like the ten-thousandth time let me try to finally nail the canard that I benefited through the oil-for-food programme, an allegation at the time of writing which has netted me at least $4 million in libel damages and costs. Of course, when I talked with Tariq Aziz, I talked about the programme, but only in respect of the effects it was having on Iraq. I did not request or receive oil vouchers. I did not benefit financially. Not by one thin dime! I said voluntarily and on pain of prosecution under oath to the US Senate committee -- another body which doesn't let the facts get in the way of a good smear -- and I say it again. If I had been guilty of what Palast alleges I'd be sitting not in the House of Commons but a prison cell!"
 

Remember, "being American means never saying you're sorry".

Notice the stonewalling, truculent tone of the Ambassador's comments. "Yeah, so we illegally deported one of your (completely innocent) citizens and had him tortured. SO WHAT?? What are you going to do about it, you pathetic little faggot satellite state? Don't you know who your masters are?"

America, showing its real face to Canada and the world.

===================================

No regrets about Arar, U.S. ambassador says
By JIM BROWN
Sunday, September 18, 2005

Ottawa - The new U.S. ambassador to Canada is making no apologies for Maher Arar's deportation to Syria, arguing that it's better to be safe than sorry in the fight against international terrorism.

David Wilkins is also warning that other Canadians with dual citizenship could face a similar fate if they fall under suspicion.

"The United States is committed in its war against terror," Mr. Wilkins said.

"We're committed to making sure that our borders are secure and our country is safe. Will there be other deportations in the future? I'd be surprised if there's not."

Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen of Syrian birth, was arrested in New York in September 2002, accused by U.S. authorities of having ties to al-Qaeda and deported to Syria.

He denies any terrorist activity and says he was tortured into false confessions in Damascus - only to be released without charge after a year in jail and returned to Canada.

Mr. Wilkins, who took up his post in Ottawa about two months ago, seemed puzzled when asked whether he or his government had any regrets about the affair. "You talking about regrets by the United States?" he said.

"The United States made that decision (to deport Mr. Arar) based on the facts it had, in the best interests of the people of the United States, and we stand behind it."

The ambassador went on to describe the action as an example of the hard-nosed approach that has governed U.S. anti-terrorist policy since the 9-11 attacks four years ago.
 

Galloway's Frankness Invigorates, Shocks Americans: "The scenes from the stricken city almost defy belief. Many, many thousands of people left to die in what is the richest, most powerful country on Earth. This obscenity is as far from a natural disaster as George Bush and the U.S. elite are from the suffering masses of New Orleans. The images of Bush luxuriating at his ranch and of his secretary of state shopping for $7,000 shoes while disaster swamped the U.S. Gulf Coast will haunt this administration.

"In the most terrible way imaginable they show to the whole world that it is not only the lives of people in Baghdad, Fallujah and Palestine that Bush holds cheap. It is also his own citizens - the black and poor people left behind with no food, water or shelter. This is not simply manslaughter through incompetence, though the White House's incompetence abounds. It is murder - for Bush was warned four years ago of the threat to New Orleans, as surely as he was warned of the disaster that would come of his war on Iraq. . . .

"His is the America of Halliburton, the M-16 rifle, the cluster bomb, the gated communities of the rich and of the billionaires he grew up with in Texas. There is another America. It is the land of the poor of Louisiana, it is the land of the young men and women economically conscripted into the military. It is the land of the glorious multiethnic mix that was New Orleans, it is the land of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and of great struggles for justice."

"Shocking?" This American finds the truth REFRESHING.
 

The People with the Blood-Soaked Hands; Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?: "What could the US have possibly done to give America a worse name than to invade Iraq and murder its citizens?

"According to the September 1 Manufacturing & Technology News, the Government Accounting Office has reported that over the course of the cakewalk war, the US military's use of small caliber ammunition has risen to 1.8 billion rounds. Think about that number. If there are 20,000 insurgents, it means US troops have fired 90,000 rounds at each insurgent.

"The combination of US government owned ammo plants and those of US commercial producers together cannot make bullets as fast as US troops are firing them. The Bush administration has had to turn to foreign producers such as Israel Military Industries. Think about that. Hollowed out US industry cannot produce enough ammunition to defeat a 20,000 man insurgency.

"US military analysts are beginning to wonder if the US has been defeated by the insurgency."
 

Iraq slams British tank jail-breaking: "What the two Britons did was literally international terrorism."
 

Police forcibly break up Cindy Sheehan rally: "As Cindy was speaking, a large platoon of police massed behind from the interior of the park, then formed a circle behind her, the speakers' area and a few dozen people who were deployed in an arc behind her. Overall, about 200 people were in attendance, with the crowd steadily increasing in size as the rally progressed. As the police formed their arc just behind, the men and women immediately behind Cindy linked arms. A captain made a cutting motion at his throat, signalling he wanted no more free speech. He waited about 30 seconds, then the police moved in. They didn't dare arrest Cindy, but they immediately moved in and grabbed zool, the event's organizer and one of the main organizers of Camp Casey-NYC, pulling him away and arresting him. I do not believe anyone else was arrested; at least I didn't see any other arrests. I was nearby, and there was no hesitation on the part of the police in specifically targetting zool.

"The police also took the microphone and sound system. The crowd shouted 'Shame! Shame!' at the police and asked what they were so afraid of, but made no response. There was a moderate press presence, even a bit of corporate media there, although the only television crew covering the rally was RTV from Russia.

"No warning of any kind was given, and this was a permitted rally. Other than the captain making his cut motion, 30 seconds before forcibly breaking up the rally, there was no warning, verbal or in any other fashion. The police had massed perhaps three or four minutes before moving in."
 

Maybe its because I'm a Londoner,

Your comment was highly amusing. Think you are out of touch! Just seen a telephone poll on Sky News 85% voted for the British Troops to be pulled out of Iraq. If you really support the British troops you would want them brought home and out of harms way especially after yesterdays events in Basra.
If you believe people on this blog "want everyone converted to Islam so they can molest children and women freely" You have obviously not been reading this site very long or you would know that is a ridiculous statement. You go on to write "You just keep blowing people up, molesting children and raping and cutting women and we'll continue to live like humans in the meantime." It must have escaped you what US troops have done in Abu Ghraib, Fallujah, Tala'afar, Samarra etc..Who are the terrorists?
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/torture_pow.html

It would probably surprise you to hear that I had a better standard of living, more respect, no fear of being mugged, robbed attacked or raped when I lived in Iraq for many years before the Invasion and Occupation. I am afraid that is not the case now I am in the UK, I am afraid to leave my home at night because of the drunken, drug taking louts and thieves on our streets. Do you not read the papers or watch the news? No, I think not or you would realise Blair's satisfaction rating has NOT shot up on the contrary the opposite is true. There is a lot of anger about his lies, spin and taking us into an illegal war.
As for George Galloway it must be hard for you to admit he was right all along. There were no WMD's in Iraq. There are now.... depleted uranium, napalm, cluster bombs and a whole arsenal of new weapons all brought in by the US/UK troops. Sure, you got rid of Saddam to be replaced by something far worse. I note Blair has also stolen Galloway's parties name "Respect" for his new slogan, but then he is well known for plagiarism. If I was ever to see Blair face-to-face I would accuse him of being responsible for the deaths of our British troops, American troops and many thousands of Iraqis. The man has blood on his hands. Not what I would call a "good leader" nor does he make me feel proud to be British. However, I am proud of the British people who were against this war from the start. We knew it would end in failure and wanted no part in the neo-conservative agenda.
"Tim Collins told his troops this was a war of liberation, not conquest. Now he says that he was naive to believe it."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1572844,00.html

Take it we will not see you at the demonstration in London this Saturday 24th September!!
 

The government of my country is devoid of any shred of human decency. Unashamed of their barbarism, they stand naked before the world. Arrogantly indifferent to human suffering, motivated by the basest of objectives, they rape, pillage and plunder abroad. Hypocritically, they lie - to the world, to their own citizens, and, ultimately, to themselves. Sacrificing even the future of their very own children, with self-satisfied smirks, they justify their wickedness with snake-oil words. Whoever still believes the utterances of these hideous destroyers must suffer some unfathomable affliction.

At the height of Hurricane Katrina (yes, Laura, that is Katrina, not Corina, but perhaps by now you've been updated) they vacationed and indulged in extravagances made possible only by their vacuous greed. When finally George was alerted, not to the suffering, but rather to the need for stepped up PR, he tried wearing a human face of caring and concern, the face of "compassionate" conservative. But the task was beyond him, for that face remained his own, that of George W. Bush.

I recall very distinctly George and Condi, each in turn, being asked whether foreign assistance for the totally devastated victims of Hurricane Katrina would be accepted. I watched as they tried to maneuver around the question, to make it seem like they had answered in the affirmative when indeed they had not. For the fact is, they will not take the assistance which the world, in its astonishing generosity, offers to those in dire need. The neocons serve a master whose name they dare not speak.

Reading "Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by Americans" would be beyond my comprehension, were it not for the fact that these criminals long ago told us who they were. Why should American citizens believe they might be spared their evil designs? Rapacious plunderers always seek new conquests. And New Orleans represents an opportunity that makes them drool; the cabal is hard at work.

Yet again I cite Martin Niemoeller's words:

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
 

Who's Who in Bush Foreign Policy Team
 

MadAsHell,
I've checked out your link and am gagging. George Orwell must be glad he's dead. What would he make of the following:
- Empower America
- Freedom House
- Ethics and Public Policy Center

These guys need a dictionary all their own.
 

English Lady

Just seen a telephone poll on Sky News 85% voted for the British Troops to be pulled out of Iraq?

You are proud of the British people who were against this war from the start.

OK, but look at the attitiude of the Muslim population in the UK. It stinks lady.

A new survey of British Muslims for the Daily Telegraph, which shows that six percent -- 100,000 people -- believe the London bombings were fully justified. One in four British Muslims, while not condoning the London attacks, sympathise with the feelings and motives of those who carried them out. Furthermore, nearly one in five British Muslims feels little or no loyalty at all to the U.K.,

and a third of British Muslims believe that Western society is decadent and immoral and that Muslims should seek to bring it to an end.

Its not just the attitude of the Brits that should be questioned. Look beyond that and consider!
 

There will be some positive affects of the western occupation of Iraq.

You can throw mud at America and Britain but they have provided many great things for our world.

They have put men on the moon, have fantastic universities, have made technological advances way ahead of anyone else, have the best architects, have developed a mountain of life-saving drugs, and have provided mountains of aid to Africa not to mention the Tsunami victims!

Look at the British Raj. Was is SO bad in the long run? Thanks to the British occupation, the Indians learned many things amongst them great medical schools and a great cricket team! Their private healthcare system is the envy of many countries. many of their doctors come to train the Britain.

Many benefits are INFAMOUS...

The Brits abolished the practice of widow burning, and the infanticide/killing of little girls was slowly reduced during the Raj.

Do you know how many little girls in eastern countries like China have been murdered or dumped??
You won't find that in western Europe!

India benefited from judicial and administrative reforms and from Victorian engineering which helped irrigation.

India is now getting more and more successful and educated.
The relationship between Britain and India is one of intimacy and happiness. There is no animosity.

Consider this question again....Do you know how many little girls in eastern countries like China and Pakistan have been murdered or dumped??

English woman and Evlin do not hate the west so much as it gives you freedoms you would never experience in most middle east and eastern countries !
 

English woman with respect to the Sky News vote on Iraq

The final results after polls closed

Should UK troops be pulled out of Iraq?

54% yes

45% no

I think the opinion in Britain is more even than you initially anticipated
 

English woman

As Yoshio pointed out, the British are very much split almost 50/50 on whether to pull troops out or not. Your verdict was a little premature, shall we say?

As for Blair, he has made the UK a great country with his domestic policies which have helped the financially needy in particular.
The British people have voted him back in for a reason - the reason that he is good on home issues.

His popularity must be good, afterall, he was voted back in!

I personally am glad to see the back of Saddam. There is nothing wrong with being glad in seeing the end of a mass killer of Iranians, Kuwaitis, Iraqis and Israelis.

You claim that you had a better standard of living in Iraq before the invasion? How so? A better standard of living during UN sanctions that supposedly starved millions of Iraqis and denied medical help to millions more? Millions of children supposedly died in Iraq because of sanctions, so how did you have such a great lifestyle?

You think the UK is a thuggish nation? Thats just a false image invented by the media to get the big headlines to sell their papers. It is no reflection on reality whatsoever.

The UK has the best universities in the world. Foreigners flock to our universities and private school establishments to get educated for them and their children.

Look at the skyline of bustling new business and vacation destinations such as Dubai - fantastic yes? And who built that skyline? Mostly UK architects!

Which tiny island has donated hundreds of millions pounds to relieve African poverty and Tsunami-related suffering? The UK.

Learn to look on the bright side, any coin has 2 sides if you want to see them
 

Yoshio, for the record, I do not "hate the West"! I am a "Westerner". I just don't happen to take a whole lot of pride in the actions of those who feel entitled to do as they will with the world.

Now, you say "There will be some positive affects of the western occupation of Iraq." OK, yes, I know, Saddam is gone! Perhaps your statement rests on the "will" word. Then, what "will" those benefits be?
 

Maybe its because . . .
A popularity contest perhaps is not the deciding element in a moral equation. Nor are high rise buildings. But, this being a "democracy" and all, I do appreciate that you may hold an alternative view.
 

George Bush was in the White House
With Vladmir on the line;
"We're gunna go and bash Saddam up, Vlad,
D'you wanna be in this time?"

"Tony says to count him in,
And that Australian chap, Johnnie too;
A few others'll prob'ly join as well,
But there'll always be room for you."

"You'd have a few weapons there, wouldn't ya Vlad,
They're no use just lyin' about;
And I've got this red button in my office here
.. I'm dying to try it out."

You see, I promised that Osama bloke dead or alive,
But it looks like he's gone and shot through;
And we're all fired up and ready to go,
So Saddam'll have to do."

Oh I know we befriended him years ago,
And we trained Bin Laden as well;
Sold 'em weapons and now with ingratitude,
... They tell us to go to hell.

"It's really all very simple Vlad,
I'll explain it without much fuss
They're called Weapons of Mass Destruction, Vlad,
If they don't belong to us."

"You'll be with the goodies if you join us Vlad,
And in Hollywood good guys always win;
The Kurds'll prob'ly give Saddam away,
.... So Vlad can I count you in?"

Well, Vlad slowly put down his telephone,"
And he started his pondering;
Fighting for peace isn't easy you know,
'Cos peace is a dangerous thing.
 

Ba'athists Slip Quietly
Back Into Control

The Guardian - UK
4-24-3

They have quietly removed the pictures of Saddam Hussein from their sitting rooms, and reconfigured their memories to transform lives of privilege into tales of suffering. Less than two weeks after the collapse of the regime, thousands of members of the Arab Ba'ath Socialist party, the all too willing instrument of Saddam, are resuming their roles as the men and women who run Iraq.

Two thousand policemen - all cardholding party members - have put on the olive green, or the grey-and-white uniforms of traffic wardens, and returned to the streets of Baghdad at America's invitation.

Dozens of minders from the information ministry, who spied on foreign journalists for the security agencies, have returned to the Palestine Hotel where most reporters stay, offering their services as translators to unwitting new arrivals.

Seasoned bureaucrats at the oil ministry - including the brother of General Amer Saadi, the chemical weapons expert now in American custody - have been offered their jobs back by the US military. Feelers have also gone out to Saddam's health minister, despite past American charges that Iraqi hospitals stole medicine from the sick.

It has become increasingly apparent that Washington cannot restore governance to Baghdad without resorting to the party which for decades controlled every aspect of life under the regime.

It has equally become apparent that the Ba'ath party - whose neighbourhood spy cells were as feared as the state intelligence apparatus - will survive in some form, either through the appeal of its founding ideals, or through the rank opportunism of its millions of members.

"The coming bureaucracy will be overwhelmed by Ba'athists. They had loyalty to Saddam Hussein, and now they have loyalty to foreign invaders," said Wamidh Nadhmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University who broke with the Ba'ath in 1961, and is trying to organise a new political grouping.

The Ba'athist project of reinvention gathered pace at the weekend when the Iraqi Writers' Union - who received salaries for poems for Saddam - held a meeting at which they claimed to have been secret opponents of the regime for years.

At the same time, remnants of the regime see no reason to abandon a party that has been around since 1947.

"The Arab Ba'ath Socialist party was not Saddam Hussein's idea. Like Marxism, it was not founded by Lenin and Stalin. It is an idea. That is why the Arab masses sup ported Iraq, not because of Saddam Hussein, but because of ideas," said a senior culture bureaucrat.

The resurrection of the Ba'ath is, in part, acknowledgment of the daunting reality of governing a country as complex and battered as Iraq. Under Saddam membership was mandatory for teachers, police, the army, and senior posts in hospitals, universities, banks and the civil service.

Local party bosses, or mukhtars, dispensed marriage licences, pressganged locals into militias, and organised parades in honour of Saddam. They also winnowed out potential neighbourhood traitors, destroying the lives of the millions who fell foul of the regime.

That elite - dominated by the Sunni minority which has governed Iraq since the Ottoman empire - remains the major source of local talent for the new US administration.

Now, though the party cadre has been orphaned by the flight of Saddam and the upper echelons, local party bosses and bureaucrats who joined up strictly for career advancement see no reason to step aside. "I haven't hurt anyone, and the people love me," said Haji Talat, the boss of Adhamiya, with direct charge for 4,000 households.

The northern neighbourhood was the most solidly Ba'athist of Baghdad - so secure that Saddam did a walkabout there just three days before the US tanks rolled in.

Mr Talat has taken down his photo of Saddam but he is not willing to relinquish his control. "I had to go along with the regime because otherwise they would turn me into cinnamon. But the people know me. The bad mukhtars might go now, but the good ones will stay," he said.

Such attitudes prevail even in poorer neighbourhoods, such as the Jamila suburb of Baghdad, where there was more resentment of the Ba'ath. "In our circumstances, it is necessary to work with the Americans to keep order, but later we might not agree," said Rahim Ahmoud, a mukhtar of eight years.

The prospects for the survival of the Ba'ath have been enhanced by the chaos of these early days of the US military occupation. There is also no serious challenge to its iron grip.

The party, with its secular principles - though trampled on by Saddam's cynical use of religion - also represents a bulwark against a nascent Islamist movement among Iraq's disenfranchised Shia majority.

For middle class Iraqis, the declarations for religious self-rule now emanating from mosques in Baghdad and southern cities are deeply troubling. The new assertiveness by the Shia clergy probably does not sit very well with the Americans either. So that leaves the Ba'ath.

"The Ba'ath party was the right hand to Saddam," said Hind Mahmoud, a computer programmer at one of the nationalist banks sacked by the looters. For people like Ms Mahmoud, faith in the party, and in its future role in Iraq, remains undimmed: "No one can take the place of the Ba'ath party. The Ba'ath party has experience - doctors and managers and scientists. It works in everything."
 

LONDON, England -- Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein spends his time in solitary confinement writing poems, tending a garden, reading the Koran and eating American muffins and cookies, a British newspaper has reported.

The Guardian quoted Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq's new human rights minister, as saying Saddam "appeared demoralized and dejected" during a weekend visit to his cell. Amin said one of Saddam's poems was about George Bush.

Amin said he did not speak to Saddam but that he appeared to be "in good health and being kept in good conditions."

He said Saddam was being treated for high blood pressure and a chronic prostate infection, although he had refused a biopsy to test for cancer.

Amin said Saddam "was regaining weight again" after putting himself on a diet in which he "resisted all fatty foods and had lost 11 pounds."

Saddam and other detainees get a 1,300-calorie MRE (meal ready to eat) breakfast, along with two hot meals a day. Desserts might include oranges, apples, pears or plums, although Amin said Saddam likes American muffins and cookies.

Amin said Saddam exercises in his cell, and uses a daily three-hour exercise period to tend a small outdoor garden. Saddam is kept apart from other detainees, who can mix freely with each other during the exercise periods.

Evelyn and English woman, maybe you can comment on the west's treatment of this man?

You say the west are brutes - take a look at how Saddam treated his prisoners
 

Gasoline IS God!

God won't decide this equation! Gasoline will!
 

Israel's finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, predicted yesterday that the British-era oil pipeline from Iraq's northern oilfields through Jordan to the Israeli port city of Haifa would be reopened.

Definitely, G is for gasoline

Well with oil supplies being the way they are why should saddam hog it all?
 

Maybe its because I'm a Londoner,

The vote I was referring to was the one you text to and not the one on their web site which has been running for sometime and long before recent events.
When I said I has a better standard of living in Iraq I was referring to the time before the terrible sanctions, which would have been lifted earlier as most nations in the UN wanted but of course US and UK rejected it. Yes, sanctions killed more than half a million Iraqi children and Iraqis were deprived of medicines. I was fortunate and able to travel and bring in supplies. In other words I went sanctions busting. Imagine I even took medicines in for the very sick brother of a doctor working in a UK hospital because he could not send it. Iraqis were not allowed to send parcels to their loved ones. Perhaps you are not aware that the ration system was set up and running long before the UN "Oil-for-Food programme" which did not come in until 1996. UN co-ordinators for the programme, Hans von Sponeck and Denis Halliday, both resigned. Denis Halliday described the embargo as "collective torture" a google search will give you plenty of information on these individuals.
Yes, I agree we have wonderful universities but so did Iraq and Iraqi women had the highest standard of education in the Middle East.
Regarding my "image" of thuggish behaviour in the UK, that is from my own observations and not from the press. I have been mugged, robbed and burgled and had young men jump on the bonnet of my car whilst I was at traffic lights. I also hear similar things happening to friends and my work colleagues.
As to Blair, I cannot respect a leader of our country who is a liar and took us in to an illegal war, resulting in the deaths of so many. Due to our voting system which is hardly democratic only 20% of the population actually voted for him. What we need is proportional representation.
 

Yoshio Suto,

I will give you the same reply that Evelyn gave you. I do not hate westerners..... I am a westerner and I am proud of my English heritage which can be traced back generations.... thanks to a family who kept very good records. However, I do not see why that should stop me speaking out when I know something is wrong.... that would make me just as guilty.
 

(Eyes only!)
MEMRI -
MANY months later I'm reading Wayne Madsen's new book Jaded Tasks and note that on pgs. 59 & 60 he writes about MEMRI, a 'disinformation mill', labeling it a 'classic brass plate operation'. (Footnote 47, pg. 60, is to Madsen's article
Another Outrageous Lie From The Neocons)