Free Iraq
The US's occupation of Iraq will see to it that the Lion of Babylon rises again .. سنـُبعـَث ُ من جَديد ، وإلى ضَـيـرِِهِـم
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| Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program: 1981-1991 | معالم وأحداث غير مكشوفة في البرنامج النووي الوطني العراقي 1981-1991 | 
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Thursday, November 24, 2005
طاري ظاري
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وحين سئل مثنى حارث الضاري الناطق باسم الهيئة من قبل احدى القنوات الفضائية كيف ستضمنون التزام الاحتلال بما تتفقون عليه اليوم من المطالبة بجدولة الانسحاب؟ قال : عندما يدعوه العراقيون كافة من مختلف الطوائف سوف يشعر بالاحراج وينسحب !! الادارة الامريكية ستشعر بالاحراج لأن مثنى وجماعته يعتقدون ذلك أو يريدوننا ان نعتقد ذلك! امريكا التي اعتاد اصغر جندي من ابنائها في العراق ان يضع قدمه على رأس اكبر عميل من المنطقة الخضراء دون ان يشعر بأي احراج . امريكا التي لم تشعر بالاحراج من شعبها ولا من شعوب اوربا ولا من الامم المتحدة ولا من الدول الكبرى والصغرى التي عارضت الحرب والغزو ، سوف تشعر بالاحراج لأن حفنة من الدمى التي صنعتها وتصنعها باستمرار ستقول لها من داخل المنطقة الخضراء التي تحميها بجنودها : من فضلك اخرجي لم نعد نريدك.."ء
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بثينة الناصري
November 22, 2005
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Extract -
Farhat Quaem Maquami, Houston Indymedia, Thanksgiving Massacre in FALLUJAH: As Americans are celebrating their Thanksgiving Day they not only should remember their massacre of 700 Pequot Indians in 1637 they must remember the rotten and bloodthirsty origin of their Thanksgiving and separate themselves from their shameful past by condemning the “ Thanksgiving Massacre” of Fallujah. It is a historical fact that the American Troops used white phosphorus, and a Napalm substitute, MK77, banned by the United Nation, against a defenseless civilian population to obliterate the city of Fallujah, the heart of Sunni Triangle.
The massacre was committed in order to force Iraqis to accept the Illegal occupation of their country and accept the US PUPPETS as their legitimate rulers. In this 1st Anniversary of Fallujah Massacre it is HIGH TIME for all the good Americans to disassociate themselves from the ugly Americans in Bush Administration who designed, executed, and covered up what really happened in Fallujah and have forbidden any news out of this devastated city which was once the center of a civilized and pious population. This is the first anniversary of the massacre and our heart should bleed for over 300 thousands population of the City of one thousands Mosques.
One year ago this month the US, with the support of the British, began its second major assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah (an attack originally codenamed "Thanksgiving Massacre"). This massive and unprecedented offensive devastated a city the size of Plymouth (the US State Department estimated 100% of the city’s housing was damaged to some degree) and killed many hundreds of civilians. British troops had been redeployed specially from southern Iraq to help form a "ring of steel" around the city.
[ . . . ]
US forces used phosphorus weapons 'that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water' (Washington Post, 10 Nov 04). The November 2004 assault was trailed well in advance and generated a brief spurt of anti-war activity here in the UK. Since then, however, media reports on Fallujah have been scarce as anyone who tries to document the massacre is intimidated, murdered or forced out of Iraq. The plight of the city’s inhabitants totaling 380 thousands civilians who fled the attack and have yet to return to their homes – appears to have been largely forgotten.
Meanwhile, further assaults during the past year on Iraqi cities including Qaim, Karabila and Tal Afar have killed over 100 thousands of Iraqis, wounded hundreds of thousands more and forced millions to be refugees in their own country. All these have happened with complicity of Corporate media which has produced fabricated and sanitized reports out of Iraq to sell the war to the gullible and conformist Americans who worry about their SUV’s and economic prosperity far more than thinking where their prosperity is coming from and how it is achieved by devastating others and destroying the earth.
"Bodies melted away before us."
On Monday Nov. 7, 2005 Italian Satellite TV broadcasted Evidence of banned chemical weapons by the US military on Civilians in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq.
In this Thanksgiving it is up to the Good Americans, whose representatives have been bribed or blackmailed by Israeli Lobby into silence or inaction, to separate themselves from the Ugly Americans who have massacred over 100,000 Iraqis, poisoned their land, violated their national integrity and have caused over 2000 young Americans die for the Pat Robertson’s Crusade against Islam.
Maybe it is high time to bring the troops home and face the reality of over 20,000 permanently disabled veterans and 100,000 brave young men whose has lost their soul in Iraq by rape, murder, torture of other human beings and would be returned home with permanent psychological damage and mental problems.
It is also a great time to re-open not only the investigation on the fraud and treason which were committed by the Bush Administration into deceiving the US citizens commit mass murder in the middle east, but also to open the 911 files.
Farhat Quaem Maquami, Houston Indymedia, Thanksgiving Massacre in FALLUJAH: As Americans are celebrating their Thanksgiving Day they not only should remember their massacre of 700 Pequot Indians in 1637 they must remember the rotten and bloodthirsty origin of their Thanksgiving and separate themselves from their shameful past by condemning the “ Thanksgiving Massacre” of Fallujah. It is a historical fact that the American Troops used white phosphorus, and a Napalm substitute, MK77, banned by the United Nation, against a defenseless civilian population to obliterate the city of Fallujah, the heart of Sunni Triangle.
The massacre was committed in order to force Iraqis to accept the Illegal occupation of their country and accept the US PUPPETS as their legitimate rulers. In this 1st Anniversary of Fallujah Massacre it is HIGH TIME for all the good Americans to disassociate themselves from the ugly Americans in Bush Administration who designed, executed, and covered up what really happened in Fallujah and have forbidden any news out of this devastated city which was once the center of a civilized and pious population. This is the first anniversary of the massacre and our heart should bleed for over 300 thousands population of the City of one thousands Mosques.
One year ago this month the US, with the support of the British, began its second major assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah (an attack originally codenamed "Thanksgiving Massacre"). This massive and unprecedented offensive devastated a city the size of Plymouth (the US State Department estimated 100% of the city’s housing was damaged to some degree) and killed many hundreds of civilians. British troops had been redeployed specially from southern Iraq to help form a "ring of steel" around the city.
[ . . . ]
US forces used phosphorus weapons 'that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water' (Washington Post, 10 Nov 04). The November 2004 assault was trailed well in advance and generated a brief spurt of anti-war activity here in the UK. Since then, however, media reports on Fallujah have been scarce as anyone who tries to document the massacre is intimidated, murdered or forced out of Iraq. The plight of the city’s inhabitants totaling 380 thousands civilians who fled the attack and have yet to return to their homes – appears to have been largely forgotten.
Meanwhile, further assaults during the past year on Iraqi cities including Qaim, Karabila and Tal Afar have killed over 100 thousands of Iraqis, wounded hundreds of thousands more and forced millions to be refugees in their own country. All these have happened with complicity of Corporate media which has produced fabricated and sanitized reports out of Iraq to sell the war to the gullible and conformist Americans who worry about their SUV’s and economic prosperity far more than thinking where their prosperity is coming from and how it is achieved by devastating others and destroying the earth.
"Bodies melted away before us."
On Monday Nov. 7, 2005 Italian Satellite TV broadcasted Evidence of banned chemical weapons by the US military on Civilians in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq.
In this Thanksgiving it is up to the Good Americans, whose representatives have been bribed or blackmailed by Israeli Lobby into silence or inaction, to separate themselves from the Ugly Americans who have massacred over 100,000 Iraqis, poisoned their land, violated their national integrity and have caused over 2000 young Americans die for the Pat Robertson’s Crusade against Islam.
Maybe it is high time to bring the troops home and face the reality of over 20,000 permanently disabled veterans and 100,000 brave young men whose has lost their soul in Iraq by rape, murder, torture of other human beings and would be returned home with permanent psychological damage and mental problems.
It is also a great time to re-open not only the investigation on the fraud and treason which were committed by the Bush Administration into deceiving the US citizens commit mass murder in the middle east, but also to open the 911 files.
For Many Iraqis, Homecoming Is Short-Lived
LA Times, November 24, 2005
(For the record, Tamara Daghastani was instrumental in helping Ahmed al Chalabi abscond Jordan, after he fleeced the Petra Bank)
… "Tamara Daghastani, an Iraqi then living in Jordan, was among those who followed on the heels of the U.S.-led forces that swiftly ousted Hussein 2 1/2 years ago.
"The elation as we crossed the border was indescribable," said Daghastani, 59. For years, other Iraqis had gushed about the beauty of the Iraqi palm trees.
"They're nuts," she recalled thinking. "What's so great about a palm tree?"
Approaching Baghdad, however, "I could have kissed and hugged those palm trees," she said. "It was the greatest feeling."
Born to a prominent family close to the monarchy, Daghastani was 12 years old in 1958 when revolutionaries slaughtered the royal family.
"That was the beginning of the end," said Daghastani, who left for Jordan in 1974.
In the three decades she spent in Britain and Jordan, she dreamed of the boatmen on the Tigris, singing as they returned at dusk, the light of their lanterns reflecting on the river. She imagined falling asleep on a Baghdad rooftop, with a carpet of stars above and the sound of croaking frogs, "like a lullaby."
But the country she left was not the country she found.
"I didn't expect to come back and find nirvana," she said.
Still, she was shocked by what she saw. In the vast Baghdad slum of Sadr City, "children were drinking from the sewage," she said.
As the violence worsened, Daghastani became dismayed by the behavior of American troops.
"The same forces who were greeted with open arms, by their own mistakes lost it all," said Daghastani, who remained in Baghdad for more than two years trying to build a women's clinic and an orphanage.
"Young officers were behaving like viceroys," she said. "It was unbelievable how they turned love into hate. But they didn't listen. They created enemies where none existed."
Like many who returned immediately after the invasion, Daghastani said the tipping point was the May 2003 move by then-Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul Bremer III to disband the Iraqi army.
This year, Daghastani went back to Jordan for the birth of her ninth grandchild. Her husband, still in Amman, the Jordanian capital, told her he wouldn't let her leave again for Baghdad until the situation improved.
She has sworn that, if that day arrives, she will celebrate by walking through Baghdad, wearing her white wedding dress, red boots and a red feather in her hair."…
…"It's not my country anymore," said Ziat Khadir, who fled to the United Arab Emirates in 2002 to avoid the Iraqi army draft. Returning this year, he found that, in three short years, his homeland, his countrymen and even his family had changed. "I feel like a stranger coming back. Everything is upside down."…
… "The situation is even worse than I had imagined," Khadir said. "It's a war zone."
While working as a barber in the Emirates, Khadir longed for peaceful strolls along the Tigris River. He dreamed of browsing his favorite market on Rasheed Street in central Baghdad. Upon his return to the Iraqi capital this year, he found a city scarred with gunfire, barbed wire and concrete barriers. His brother, a taxi driver, had disappeared, last seen in a volatile Baghdad neighborhood. The market had been closed, and American tanks rumbled through the trash-strewn streets.
"Since I came back, I've been living in a state of horror. You see your country being destroyed right in front of your eyes," said Khadir, who has persuaded his family to join him in the Emirates."………
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-leaving24nov24,1,5595107,full.story?coll=la-headlines-world
LA Times, November 24, 2005
(For the record, Tamara Daghastani was instrumental in helping Ahmed al Chalabi abscond Jordan, after he fleeced the Petra Bank)
… "Tamara Daghastani, an Iraqi then living in Jordan, was among those who followed on the heels of the U.S.-led forces that swiftly ousted Hussein 2 1/2 years ago.
"The elation as we crossed the border was indescribable," said Daghastani, 59. For years, other Iraqis had gushed about the beauty of the Iraqi palm trees.
"They're nuts," she recalled thinking. "What's so great about a palm tree?"
Approaching Baghdad, however, "I could have kissed and hugged those palm trees," she said. "It was the greatest feeling."
Born to a prominent family close to the monarchy, Daghastani was 12 years old in 1958 when revolutionaries slaughtered the royal family.
"That was the beginning of the end," said Daghastani, who left for Jordan in 1974.
In the three decades she spent in Britain and Jordan, she dreamed of the boatmen on the Tigris, singing as they returned at dusk, the light of their lanterns reflecting on the river. She imagined falling asleep on a Baghdad rooftop, with a carpet of stars above and the sound of croaking frogs, "like a lullaby."
But the country she left was not the country she found.
"I didn't expect to come back and find nirvana," she said.
Still, she was shocked by what she saw. In the vast Baghdad slum of Sadr City, "children were drinking from the sewage," she said.
As the violence worsened, Daghastani became dismayed by the behavior of American troops.
"The same forces who were greeted with open arms, by their own mistakes lost it all," said Daghastani, who remained in Baghdad for more than two years trying to build a women's clinic and an orphanage.
"Young officers were behaving like viceroys," she said. "It was unbelievable how they turned love into hate. But they didn't listen. They created enemies where none existed."
Like many who returned immediately after the invasion, Daghastani said the tipping point was the May 2003 move by then-Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul Bremer III to disband the Iraqi army.
This year, Daghastani went back to Jordan for the birth of her ninth grandchild. Her husband, still in Amman, the Jordanian capital, told her he wouldn't let her leave again for Baghdad until the situation improved.
She has sworn that, if that day arrives, she will celebrate by walking through Baghdad, wearing her white wedding dress, red boots and a red feather in her hair."…
…"It's not my country anymore," said Ziat Khadir, who fled to the United Arab Emirates in 2002 to avoid the Iraqi army draft. Returning this year, he found that, in three short years, his homeland, his countrymen and even his family had changed. "I feel like a stranger coming back. Everything is upside down."…
… "The situation is even worse than I had imagined," Khadir said. "It's a war zone."
While working as a barber in the Emirates, Khadir longed for peaceful strolls along the Tigris River. He dreamed of browsing his favorite market on Rasheed Street in central Baghdad. Upon his return to the Iraqi capital this year, he found a city scarred with gunfire, barbed wire and concrete barriers. His brother, a taxi driver, had disappeared, last seen in a volatile Baghdad neighborhood. The market had been closed, and American tanks rumbled through the trash-strewn streets.
"Since I came back, I've been living in a state of horror. You see your country being destroyed right in front of your eyes," said Khadir, who has persuaded his family to join him in the Emirates."………
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-leaving24nov24,1,5595107,full.story?coll=la-headlines-world
The stealth moxie of the "Dead Enders"….. Where does it fit in Rumsfeld's metrics?
Robin Wright, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005; C01
…." My latest trip to Iraq, on Nov. 11, 31 months after the fall of the capital, was kept secret even from some of the people on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's plane. The dozen members of the traveling press were summoned to the State Department the day before we left on a trip to the Middle East and sworn to secrecy after a briefing about the additional stop.
We could tell an editor and a family member, but we were asked not to mention it to anyone else, particularly our bureaus in the Iraqi capital -- and not on the phone or by e-mail to anyone, at all, anywhere. If word got out, the trip would be canceled. A leak had forced the postponement of a similar trip in the spring.
The road between the airport and the Green Zone was officially considered safer, but we still flew in armed Black Hawks moving in diversionary patterns through the sky.
On this latest trip to Baghdad, the bubble shrank even more. No roaming the Green Zone. Not even a stop at the convention center. The press corps, including veteran war correspondents, was sequestered in Hussein's old palace for most of the seven-hour stay. We were discouraged from wandering the palace and were provided escorts to go to the bathroom.
Our one venture out was a short hop to the nearby prime minister's office, also in the Green Zone. All we saw were new barricades trimmed with razor wire, concrete blast walls, roadblocks and time-consuming identity checks. No Iraqis. No vendors. In October 2004, the bazaar had been attacked, one of two almost simultaneous suicide bombings inside the Green Zone that together killed 10, including four Americans."…
"… For the first time, we pulled out after dark. As we flew from the Green Zone, the Black Hawk gunners wore night vision scopes, which look like little binoculars on eyeglasses, so they could spot suspicious activity through the night. The pilot of the C-17 military transport that flew us out of Iraq did not turn on the interior lights until we had reached a safe altitude -- and were well out of Baghdad airspace."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/24/AR2005112401051_pf.html
--------------------------------
Europeans Rebuke Israeli Jerusalem Policy
NY Times, November 25, 2005
JERUSALEM, Nov. 24 - The European Union's diplomatic representatives in East Jerusalem and Ramallah have sharply criticized Israel's policies in East Jerusalem, saying they "are reducing the possibility of reaching a final-status agreement on Jerusalem that any Palestinian could accept."
In an unpublished report presented to European Union foreign ministers, the representatives recommend a more aggressive European stance toward Israeli policies in East Jerusalem, whose annexation by Israel has not been recognized by the European Union or the United States.
The report, a copy of which was sought by The New York Times and obtained from someone who wanted to publicize it, accuses Israel of increasing illegal settlement activity in and around East Jerusalem and of using the route of its separation barrier "to seal off most of East Jerusalem, with its 230,000 Palestinian residents, from the West Bank" and to create a "de facto annexation of Palestinian land."
In general, the report asserts, "prospects for a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine are receding," and it warns that "Israeli measures also risk radicalizing the hitherto relatively quiescent Palestinian population of East Jerusalem."
The European Union diplomats, who deal with the Palestinians, made a number of recommendations, including having political meetings with Palestinian Authority ministers in East Jerusalem instead of in the West Bank, as they currently do, and requesting Israel "to halt discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, especially concerning working permits, building permits, house demolitions, taxation and expenditure."
Last Monday in Brussels, European Union foreign ministers issued a statement expressing "grave concern" about Israeli policies "in and around East Jerusalem, including construction of the separation barrier, settlement building and house demolitions."……..
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/international/middleeast/25mideast.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1132925941-01t2UFOmTwTLNG/xy7G1rA&pagewanted=print
Robin Wright, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005; C01
…." My latest trip to Iraq, on Nov. 11, 31 months after the fall of the capital, was kept secret even from some of the people on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's plane. The dozen members of the traveling press were summoned to the State Department the day before we left on a trip to the Middle East and sworn to secrecy after a briefing about the additional stop.
We could tell an editor and a family member, but we were asked not to mention it to anyone else, particularly our bureaus in the Iraqi capital -- and not on the phone or by e-mail to anyone, at all, anywhere. If word got out, the trip would be canceled. A leak had forced the postponement of a similar trip in the spring.
The road between the airport and the Green Zone was officially considered safer, but we still flew in armed Black Hawks moving in diversionary patterns through the sky.
On this latest trip to Baghdad, the bubble shrank even more. No roaming the Green Zone. Not even a stop at the convention center. The press corps, including veteran war correspondents, was sequestered in Hussein's old palace for most of the seven-hour stay. We were discouraged from wandering the palace and were provided escorts to go to the bathroom.
Our one venture out was a short hop to the nearby prime minister's office, also in the Green Zone. All we saw were new barricades trimmed with razor wire, concrete blast walls, roadblocks and time-consuming identity checks. No Iraqis. No vendors. In October 2004, the bazaar had been attacked, one of two almost simultaneous suicide bombings inside the Green Zone that together killed 10, including four Americans."…
"… For the first time, we pulled out after dark. As we flew from the Green Zone, the Black Hawk gunners wore night vision scopes, which look like little binoculars on eyeglasses, so they could spot suspicious activity through the night. The pilot of the C-17 military transport that flew us out of Iraq did not turn on the interior lights until we had reached a safe altitude -- and were well out of Baghdad airspace."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/24/AR2005112401051_pf.html
--------------------------------
Europeans Rebuke Israeli Jerusalem Policy
NY Times, November 25, 2005
JERUSALEM, Nov. 24 - The European Union's diplomatic representatives in East Jerusalem and Ramallah have sharply criticized Israel's policies in East Jerusalem, saying they "are reducing the possibility of reaching a final-status agreement on Jerusalem that any Palestinian could accept."
In an unpublished report presented to European Union foreign ministers, the representatives recommend a more aggressive European stance toward Israeli policies in East Jerusalem, whose annexation by Israel has not been recognized by the European Union or the United States.
The report, a copy of which was sought by The New York Times and obtained from someone who wanted to publicize it, accuses Israel of increasing illegal settlement activity in and around East Jerusalem and of using the route of its separation barrier "to seal off most of East Jerusalem, with its 230,000 Palestinian residents, from the West Bank" and to create a "de facto annexation of Palestinian land."
In general, the report asserts, "prospects for a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine are receding," and it warns that "Israeli measures also risk radicalizing the hitherto relatively quiescent Palestinian population of East Jerusalem."
The European Union diplomats, who deal with the Palestinians, made a number of recommendations, including having political meetings with Palestinian Authority ministers in East Jerusalem instead of in the West Bank, as they currently do, and requesting Israel "to halt discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, especially concerning working permits, building permits, house demolitions, taxation and expenditure."
Last Monday in Brussels, European Union foreign ministers issued a statement expressing "grave concern" about Israeli policies "in and around East Jerusalem, including construction of the separation barrier, settlement building and house demolitions."……..
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/international/middleeast/25mideast.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1132925941-01t2UFOmTwTLNG/xy7G1rA&pagewanted=print
Riverbend, Assassinations...: We woke up yesterday morning to this news: Sunni tribal leader and his sons shot dead.
“Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms shot dead an aging Sunni tribal leader and three of his sons in their beds on Wednesday, relatives said…”
Except when you read it on the internet, it’s nothing like seeing scenes of it on television. They showed the corpses and the family members- an elderly woman wailing and clawing at her face and hair and screaming that soldiers from the Ministry of Interior had killed her sons. They shot them in front of their mother, wives and children… Even when they slaughter sheep, they take them away from the fold so that the other sheep aren’t terrorized by the scene.
In war, you think the unthinkable. You imagine the unimaginable. When you can’t get to sleep at night, your mind wanders to cover various possibilities. Trying to guess and determine the future of a war-torn nation is nearly impossible, so your mind focuses on the more tangible- friends… Near and distant relations. I think that during these last two and a half years, every single Iraqi inside of Iraq has considered the possibility of losing one or more people in the family. I try to imagine losing the people I love most in the world- whether it’s the possibility of having them buried under the rubble… or the possibility of having them brutally murdered by extremists… or blown to bits by a car bomb… or abducted for ransom… or brutally shot at a checkpoint. All disturbing possibilities.
I try to imagine what would happen to me, personally, should this occur. How long would it take for the need for revenge to settle in? How long would it take to be recruited by someone who looks for people who have nothing to lose? People who lost it all to one blow. What I think the world doesn’t understand is that people don’t become suicide bombers because- like the world is told- they get seventy or however many virgins in paradise. People become suicide bombers because it is a vengeful end to a life no longer worth living- a life probably violently stripped of its humanity by a local terrorist- or a foreign soldier.
I hate suicide bombers. I hate the way my heart beats chaotically every time I pass by a suspicious-looking car- and every car looks suspicious these days. I hate the way Sunni mosques and Shia mosques are being targeted right and left. I hate seeing the bodies pile up in hospitals, teeth clenched in pain, wailing men and women…
But I completely understand how people get there.
One victim was holding his daughter. "The gunmen told the girl to move then shot the father," said a relative.
Would anyone be surprised if the abovementioned daughter grew up with a hate so vicious and a need for revenge so large, it dominated everything else in her life?
Or three days ago when American and Iraqi troops fired at a family traveling from one city to another, killing five members of the family.
"They are all children. They are not terrorists," shouted one relative. "Look at the children," he said as a morgue official carried a small dead child into a refrigeration room.
Who needs Al-Qaeda to recruit 'terrorists' when you have Da’awa, SCIRI and an American occupation?
The Iraqi Ministry of Interior is denying it all, of course. Just like they’ve been denying the whole Jadriya torture house incident and all of their other assassinations and killing sprees. They've gone so far as to claim that the Americans are lying about the Jadriya torture house.
In the last three weeks, at least six different prominent doctors/professors have been assassinated. Some of them were Shia and some of them were Sunni- some were former Ba’athists and others weren’t. The only thing they have in common is the fact that each of them played a prominent role in Iraqi universities prior to the war: Dr. Haykal Al-Musawi, Dr. Ra'ad Al-Mawla (biologist), Dr. Sa'ad Al-Ansari, Dr. Mustafa Al-Heeti (pediatrician), Dr. Amir Al-Khazraji, and Dr.Mohammed Al-Jaza'eri (surgeon).
I don’t know the details of all the slayings. I knew Dr. Ra’ad Al-Mawla- he was a former professor and department head in the science college of Baghdad University- Shia. He was a quiet man- a gentleman one could always approach with a problem. He was gunned down in his office, off campus. What a terrible loss.
Another professor killed earlier this month was the head of the pharmacy college. He had problems with Da’awa students earlier in the year. After Ja’afari et al. won in the elections, their followers in the college wanted to have a celebration in the college. Sensing it would lead to trouble, he wouldn’t allow any festivities besides the usual banners. He told them it was a college for studying and learning and to leave politics out of it. Some students threatened him- there were minor clashes in the college. He was killed around a week ago- maybe more.
Whoever is behind the assassinations, Iraq is quickly losing its educated people. More and more doctors and professors are moving to leave the country.
The problem with this situation is not just major brain drain- it's the fact that this diminishing educated class is also Iraq's secular class…
“Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms shot dead an aging Sunni tribal leader and three of his sons in their beds on Wednesday, relatives said…”
Except when you read it on the internet, it’s nothing like seeing scenes of it on television. They showed the corpses and the family members- an elderly woman wailing and clawing at her face and hair and screaming that soldiers from the Ministry of Interior had killed her sons. They shot them in front of their mother, wives and children… Even when they slaughter sheep, they take them away from the fold so that the other sheep aren’t terrorized by the scene.
In war, you think the unthinkable. You imagine the unimaginable. When you can’t get to sleep at night, your mind wanders to cover various possibilities. Trying to guess and determine the future of a war-torn nation is nearly impossible, so your mind focuses on the more tangible- friends… Near and distant relations. I think that during these last two and a half years, every single Iraqi inside of Iraq has considered the possibility of losing one or more people in the family. I try to imagine losing the people I love most in the world- whether it’s the possibility of having them buried under the rubble… or the possibility of having them brutally murdered by extremists… or blown to bits by a car bomb… or abducted for ransom… or brutally shot at a checkpoint. All disturbing possibilities.
I try to imagine what would happen to me, personally, should this occur. How long would it take for the need for revenge to settle in? How long would it take to be recruited by someone who looks for people who have nothing to lose? People who lost it all to one blow. What I think the world doesn’t understand is that people don’t become suicide bombers because- like the world is told- they get seventy or however many virgins in paradise. People become suicide bombers because it is a vengeful end to a life no longer worth living- a life probably violently stripped of its humanity by a local terrorist- or a foreign soldier.
I hate suicide bombers. I hate the way my heart beats chaotically every time I pass by a suspicious-looking car- and every car looks suspicious these days. I hate the way Sunni mosques and Shia mosques are being targeted right and left. I hate seeing the bodies pile up in hospitals, teeth clenched in pain, wailing men and women…
But I completely understand how people get there.
One victim was holding his daughter. "The gunmen told the girl to move then shot the father," said a relative.
Would anyone be surprised if the abovementioned daughter grew up with a hate so vicious and a need for revenge so large, it dominated everything else in her life?
Or three days ago when American and Iraqi troops fired at a family traveling from one city to another, killing five members of the family.
"They are all children. They are not terrorists," shouted one relative. "Look at the children," he said as a morgue official carried a small dead child into a refrigeration room.
Who needs Al-Qaeda to recruit 'terrorists' when you have Da’awa, SCIRI and an American occupation?
The Iraqi Ministry of Interior is denying it all, of course. Just like they’ve been denying the whole Jadriya torture house incident and all of their other assassinations and killing sprees. They've gone so far as to claim that the Americans are lying about the Jadriya torture house.
In the last three weeks, at least six different prominent doctors/professors have been assassinated. Some of them were Shia and some of them were Sunni- some were former Ba’athists and others weren’t. The only thing they have in common is the fact that each of them played a prominent role in Iraqi universities prior to the war: Dr. Haykal Al-Musawi, Dr. Ra'ad Al-Mawla (biologist), Dr. Sa'ad Al-Ansari, Dr. Mustafa Al-Heeti (pediatrician), Dr. Amir Al-Khazraji, and Dr.Mohammed Al-Jaza'eri (surgeon).
I don’t know the details of all the slayings. I knew Dr. Ra’ad Al-Mawla- he was a former professor and department head in the science college of Baghdad University- Shia. He was a quiet man- a gentleman one could always approach with a problem. He was gunned down in his office, off campus. What a terrible loss.
Another professor killed earlier this month was the head of the pharmacy college. He had problems with Da’awa students earlier in the year. After Ja’afari et al. won in the elections, their followers in the college wanted to have a celebration in the college. Sensing it would lead to trouble, he wouldn’t allow any festivities besides the usual banners. He told them it was a college for studying and learning and to leave politics out of it. Some students threatened him- there were minor clashes in the college. He was killed around a week ago- maybe more.
Whoever is behind the assassinations, Iraq is quickly losing its educated people. More and more doctors and professors are moving to leave the country.
The problem with this situation is not just major brain drain- it's the fact that this diminishing educated class is also Iraq's secular class…
(See Abu Hasan's 10:07 AM post - above)
Remi Kanazi, Online Journal, Bordering autonomy: "Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered a deal between Israelis and Palestinians on the Rafah border crossing which connects the 'disengaged' Gaza Strip with the outside world.
[ . . . ]
"The border is tentatively scheduled to open on November 25. For the first time Palestinians will control the crossing. ...
[ . . . ]
"These measures are crucial for the Palestinian people and are the first step to sustainability and rebuilding after 38 years of crippling occupation. The main issue still remains: will Israel continue its campaign of extrajudicial assassinations, missile strikes, mass arrests and restrictions without warning?"
[ . . . ]
Remi Kanazi, Online Journal, Bordering autonomy: "Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered a deal between Israelis and Palestinians on the Rafah border crossing which connects the 'disengaged' Gaza Strip with the outside world.
[ . . . ]
"The border is tentatively scheduled to open on November 25. For the first time Palestinians will control the crossing. ...
[ . . . ]
"These measures are crucial for the Palestinian people and are the first step to sustainability and rebuilding after 38 years of crippling occupation. The main issue still remains: will Israel continue its campaign of extrajudicial assassinations, missile strikes, mass arrests and restrictions without warning?"
[ . . . ]
Stephen Soldz, Information Clearing House, Press Freedom or Freedom to Bomb the Press? The Bush Plan to Bomb Al-Jazeera
IRAQ WIFE 'TO SUE U.S': "THE widow of an al-Jazeera journalist killed in Iraq by an American attack is considering suing the US Government."
US Clergy face prison after protesting use of torture
(Allow me a smile!)
Gov. Bush opens largest faith-based prison
(Allow me a smile!)
Gov. Bush opens largest faith-based prison
Sidney Blumenthal, Salon.com, The long march of Dick Cheney: For his entire career, he sought untrammeled power. The Bush presidency and 9/11 finally gave it to him -- and he's not about to give it up.: "The hallmark of the Dick Cheney administration is its illegitimacy. Its essential method is bypassing established lines of authority; its goal is the concentration of unaccountable presidential power. When it matters, the regular operations of the CIA, Defense Department and State Department have been sidelined.
[ . . . ]
"The making of the Iraq war, torture policy and an industry-friendly energy plan has required secrecy, deception and subordination of government as it previously existed. But these, too, are means to an end. Even projecting a 'war on terror' as total war, trying to envelop the whole American society within its fog, is a device to invest absolute power in the executive.
"Dick Cheney sees in George W. Bush his last chance. Nixon self-destructed, Ford was fatally compromised by his moderation, Reagan was not what was hoped for, the elder Bush ended up a disappointment. In every case, the Republican presidents had been checked or gone soft. Finally, President Bush provided the instrument, Sept. 11 the opportunity. This time the failures of the past provided the guideposts for getting it right. The administration's heedlessness was simply the wisdom of Cheney's experience."
[ . . . ]
"The making of the Iraq war, torture policy and an industry-friendly energy plan has required secrecy, deception and subordination of government as it previously existed. But these, too, are means to an end. Even projecting a 'war on terror' as total war, trying to envelop the whole American society within its fog, is a device to invest absolute power in the executive.
"Dick Cheney sees in George W. Bush his last chance. Nixon self-destructed, Ford was fatally compromised by his moderation, Reagan was not what was hoped for, the elder Bush ended up a disappointment. In every case, the Republican presidents had been checked or gone soft. Finally, President Bush provided the instrument, Sept. 11 the opportunity. This time the failures of the past provided the guideposts for getting it right. The administration's heedlessness was simply the wisdom of Cheney's experience."
Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 23 November 2005: Includes -
"American troops take over ar-Ramadi College facility, expelling 3,500 students and threatening to shoot anyone who approaches the campus."
"American troops take over ar-Ramadi College facility, expelling 3,500 students and threatening to shoot anyone who approaches the campus."
John Pilger, A NEWS REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN: The Indian writer Vandana Shiva has called for an "insurrection of subjugated knowledge". The insurrection is well under way. In trying to make sense of a dangerous world, millions of people are turning away from the traditional sources of news and information and to the world wide web, convinced that mainstream journalism is the voice of rampant power. The great scandal of Iraq has accelerated this. In the United States, several senior broadcasters have confessed that had they challenged and exposed the lies told about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, instead of amplifying and justifying them, the invasion might not have happened.
Such honesty has yet to cross the Atlantic. Since it was founded in 1922, the BBC has served to protect every British establishment during war and civil unrest. "We" never traduce and never commit great crimes. So the omission of shocking events in Iraq - the destruction of cities, the slaughter of innocent people and the farce of a puppet government - is routinely applied. A study by the Cardiff School of Journalism found that 90 per cent of the BBC's references to Saddam Hussein's WMDs suggested he possessed them and that "spin from the British and US governments was successful in framing the coverage". The same "spin" has ensured, until now, that the use of banned weapons by the Americans and British in Iraq has been suppressed as news.
An admission by the US State Department on 10 November that its forces had used white phosphorus in Fallujah followed "rumours on the internet", according to the BBC's Newsnight. There were no rumours. There was first-class investigative work that ought to shame well-paid journalists. ...
[ . . . ]
Such honesty has yet to cross the Atlantic. Since it was founded in 1922, the BBC has served to protect every British establishment during war and civil unrest. "We" never traduce and never commit great crimes. So the omission of shocking events in Iraq - the destruction of cities, the slaughter of innocent people and the farce of a puppet government - is routinely applied. A study by the Cardiff School of Journalism found that 90 per cent of the BBC's references to Saddam Hussein's WMDs suggested he possessed them and that "spin from the British and US governments was successful in framing the coverage". The same "spin" has ensured, until now, that the use of banned weapons by the Americans and British in Iraq has been suppressed as news.
An admission by the US State Department on 10 November that its forces had used white phosphorus in Fallujah followed "rumours on the internet", according to the BBC's Newsnight. There were no rumours. There was first-class investigative work that ought to shame well-paid journalists. ...
[ . . . ]
Max Fuller, GlobalResearch.ca, Torture and Extrajudicial Killings in Iraq: "The detention facility in the Jadiriyah district of Baghdad was discovered on Sunday 13 November when US soldiers entered an Interior Ministry building in their hunt for a missing 15-year-old. What they discovered was a chamber of horrors. ...
[ . . . ]
"What the western media has so far failed to disclose is that a strikingly similar incident occurred just a day after the nominal handover of power to Ayad Allawi’s Interim Government. On 29 June 2004, military police from the Oregon National Guard stormed the compound of the Interior Ministry itself to rescue dozens of detainees whom they had observed being tortured. As at Jadiriyah, the victims had been deprived of food and savagely beaten. Dozens more detainees were discovered in sheds, alongside instruments of torture. Some of the detainees were in a life-threatening condition and the guardsmen began to administer emergency medical care.
"Most shockingly, when the guardsmen radioed for support, senior US officers ordered them to stand down. After hours of tense negotiations, the guardsmen reluctantly withdrew, leaving the prisoners with their abusers.
"The incident demonstrates two extremely important points. Firstly, the latest discovery is not news for US authorities, who have been aware of serious abuse taking place inside Interior Ministry facilities for more than a year and taken no action to prevent it. Secondly, such abuse cannot simply be ascribed to sectarian Shia control of the Interior Ministry. In fact, many of the most senior posts at the Ministry continue to be filled by ex-Baathists, including some of those most associated with suppression of the Shia rising that followed the first Gulf War.
"The practice of torture at Interior Ministry facilities is in many ways the tip of the iceberg. ..."
[ . . . ]
[ . . . ]
"What the western media has so far failed to disclose is that a strikingly similar incident occurred just a day after the nominal handover of power to Ayad Allawi’s Interim Government. On 29 June 2004, military police from the Oregon National Guard stormed the compound of the Interior Ministry itself to rescue dozens of detainees whom they had observed being tortured. As at Jadiriyah, the victims had been deprived of food and savagely beaten. Dozens more detainees were discovered in sheds, alongside instruments of torture. Some of the detainees were in a life-threatening condition and the guardsmen began to administer emergency medical care.
"Most shockingly, when the guardsmen radioed for support, senior US officers ordered them to stand down. After hours of tense negotiations, the guardsmen reluctantly withdrew, leaving the prisoners with their abusers.
"The incident demonstrates two extremely important points. Firstly, the latest discovery is not news for US authorities, who have been aware of serious abuse taking place inside Interior Ministry facilities for more than a year and taken no action to prevent it. Secondly, such abuse cannot simply be ascribed to sectarian Shia control of the Interior Ministry. In fact, many of the most senior posts at the Ministry continue to be filled by ex-Baathists, including some of those most associated with suppression of the Shia rising that followed the first Gulf War.
"The practice of torture at Interior Ministry facilities is in many ways the tip of the iceberg. ..."
[ . . . ]
Mustafa Amara, Azzaman.com, Sunni clerics to boycott elections: "Harith al-Dhari, Iraqi Sunnis most senior cleric, said his association will boycott the elections.
"He did not say whether the clerics under the association’s umbrella will urge Iraqi Sunnis not to cast their votes.
"But he made it clear participation in these elections would be tantamount to 'legitimizing (foreign) occupation.'"
"He did not say whether the clerics under the association’s umbrella will urge Iraqi Sunnis not to cast their votes.
"But he made it clear participation in these elections would be tantamount to 'legitimizing (foreign) occupation.'"
Lisa Pease, Consortiumnews.com, The Enduring JFK Mystery: [ . . . ]
“I think what’s at stake is the identity of our country and what kind of country we want to be. . . .The world ‘empire’ has been thrown around. I can’t believe people around Washington have seriously discussed describing themselves as an empire.
“But we were not founded to be an empire. A free republic cannot be an empire. I think people have lost touch with the ethic of the country and what the country should be. [We’ve converted ourselves into] a global domination state…
“If morality doesn’t concern us, practicality should. The reason we’re a free republic is that it’s a self-sustaining system on an ethical basis. Lessons of history are that empires do not succeed.”
Kennedy’s consistent refusal to allow America to become an empire, and his desire to avoid a “pax Americana” may have been key motives for his assassination.
The topic of the Iraq War and the lies that took the nation to war was a frequent sub-theme at the conference. ... By not confronting the lies we were given about the assassination and demanding government accountability, we essentially agreed to look the other way, empowering government to lie to us about other events.*
To study the assassination is to peer into the yawning chasm between what we are told happened, and our true history. Information empowers us to take corrective action. Disinformation – or a lack of information – keeps us out of the loop, unable to make appropriate choices for oversight. Nowhere has that point been brought home more strongly than in the buildup to war in Iraq.*
* Emphasis added.
“I think what’s at stake is the identity of our country and what kind of country we want to be. . . .The world ‘empire’ has been thrown around. I can’t believe people around Washington have seriously discussed describing themselves as an empire.
“But we were not founded to be an empire. A free republic cannot be an empire. I think people have lost touch with the ethic of the country and what the country should be. [We’ve converted ourselves into] a global domination state…
“If morality doesn’t concern us, practicality should. The reason we’re a free republic is that it’s a self-sustaining system on an ethical basis. Lessons of history are that empires do not succeed.”
Kennedy’s consistent refusal to allow America to become an empire, and his desire to avoid a “pax Americana” may have been key motives for his assassination.
The topic of the Iraq War and the lies that took the nation to war was a frequent sub-theme at the conference. ... By not confronting the lies we were given about the assassination and demanding government accountability, we essentially agreed to look the other way, empowering government to lie to us about other events.*
To study the assassination is to peer into the yawning chasm between what we are told happened, and our true history. Information empowers us to take corrective action. Disinformation – or a lack of information – keeps us out of the loop, unable to make appropriate choices for oversight. Nowhere has that point been brought home more strongly than in the buildup to war in Iraq.*
* Emphasis added.
Chris Floyd, First Light: Last week, America's troubled sleep was shattered by a trumpet blast of truth sounding deep in Washington's corridors of power, where the rule of the Lie has held sway for so long. This intrusion of reality into the bloodstained fantasyland of the Bush Regime comes late in the day for the moribund Republic -- perhaps too late -- but it has struck a mighty blow against the Lie's adherents, driving them into spasms of hysterical panic, like rats exposed suddenly to the light.
The unlikely instigator of this historic upheaval was U.S. Representative John Murtha, the 73-year-old conservative Democrat and war hawk, one of many "opposition" leaders who once strongly backed President George W. Bush's murderous folly in Iraq. Murtha, a Vietnam vet, has been a stalwart of the military-industrial complex for decades, supporting U.S. wars around the world and showering legislative largess on the weapons industry -- which has obligingly kicked back lobbying contracts to his kin and friends, The Los Angeles Times reports.
But a penchant for typical backroom grease is not necessarily incompatible with political courage. And Murtha showed plenty of the latter when he rocked Washington with a truly revolutionary act in these degraded times: stating the obvious. Calling Bush's war "a flawed policy wrapped in an illusion," Murtha said U.S. forces should "redeploy" out of Iraq immediately; otherwise, Iraqis will never feel free, the insurgency will grow, terrorism will spread and the United States will sink further into debt and dishonor, putting the nation's very survival at stake.
This riot of understatement has been self-evident to most sentient beings for a long time; that it is now sinking into the occluded consciousness of Potomac power players is a turning point of genuine significance. ...
None of this means the Bush nightmare is over, of course; not by the longest shot. This gang will grow ever more vicious as their support crumbles; in fact, it's a good bet that the worst is yet to come. The Bushists know that they have prison sentences hanging over their heads if they ever lose their grip on power. ...
Nor will it halt the voracious system of dominance and empire that has driven U.S. foreign policy -- under Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives -- for the past 60 years, covering the earth with more than 700 military bases while waging ceaseless war, directly and by proxy. Indeed, war profiteering has become essential to the wealth and power of the elite, and is now deeply embedded in the U.S. economy as a whole. Bush accelerated this all-devouring engine into overdrive; but he didn't create it, and his departure won't derail it.
[ . . . ]
Still, the immediate task at hand -- ending the bloody war crime in Iraq and restoring some vestige of legality and reality to American politics -- is a tall enough order. So we should take heart from events like Murtha's declaration and Bush's freefall in the polls. There has been a shift in the political landscape, which provides cautious but credible grounds for hope of some measure of change. Not a false triumphalism, for there is never any final "triumph" in human affairs; there is only the continual, never-ending task of trying to rise above our worst instincts. But for the first time in years, the sun of possibility has broken through the stinking murk of the Bush Imperium.
The unlikely instigator of this historic upheaval was U.S. Representative John Murtha, the 73-year-old conservative Democrat and war hawk, one of many "opposition" leaders who once strongly backed President George W. Bush's murderous folly in Iraq. Murtha, a Vietnam vet, has been a stalwart of the military-industrial complex for decades, supporting U.S. wars around the world and showering legislative largess on the weapons industry -- which has obligingly kicked back lobbying contracts to his kin and friends, The Los Angeles Times reports.
But a penchant for typical backroom grease is not necessarily incompatible with political courage. And Murtha showed plenty of the latter when he rocked Washington with a truly revolutionary act in these degraded times: stating the obvious. Calling Bush's war "a flawed policy wrapped in an illusion," Murtha said U.S. forces should "redeploy" out of Iraq immediately; otherwise, Iraqis will never feel free, the insurgency will grow, terrorism will spread and the United States will sink further into debt and dishonor, putting the nation's very survival at stake.
This riot of understatement has been self-evident to most sentient beings for a long time; that it is now sinking into the occluded consciousness of Potomac power players is a turning point of genuine significance. ...
None of this means the Bush nightmare is over, of course; not by the longest shot. This gang will grow ever more vicious as their support crumbles; in fact, it's a good bet that the worst is yet to come. The Bushists know that they have prison sentences hanging over their heads if they ever lose their grip on power. ...
Nor will it halt the voracious system of dominance and empire that has driven U.S. foreign policy -- under Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives -- for the past 60 years, covering the earth with more than 700 military bases while waging ceaseless war, directly and by proxy. Indeed, war profiteering has become essential to the wealth and power of the elite, and is now deeply embedded in the U.S. economy as a whole. Bush accelerated this all-devouring engine into overdrive; but he didn't create it, and his departure won't derail it.
[ . . . ]
Still, the immediate task at hand -- ending the bloody war crime in Iraq and restoring some vestige of legality and reality to American politics -- is a tall enough order. So we should take heart from events like Murtha's declaration and Bush's freefall in the polls. There has been a shift in the political landscape, which provides cautious but credible grounds for hope of some measure of change. Not a false triumphalism, for there is never any final "triumph" in human affairs; there is only the continual, never-ending task of trying to rise above our worst instincts. But for the first time in years, the sun of possibility has broken through the stinking murk of the Bush Imperium.
Guardian, Secret British document accuses Israel: "A confidential Foreign Office document accuses Israel of rushing to annex the Arab area of Jerusalem, using illegal Jewish settlement construction and the vast West Bank barrier, in a move to prevent it becoming a Palestinian capital."
TVNewsLies.org, On the Road to Rock Bottom: There is no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending. - Albert Einstein
"The war in Iraq has exacted a heavy price on this nation; far, far more than we were told by those who planned it. It has led to more than 2,100 American and 200 coalition military deaths. Iraqi civilian deaths, never fully counted, have been estimated between 30,000 and 100,000. The amputees, the blinded, the burned, the maimed and the emotionally scarred are yet to be totaled. Iraq and its people have been destabilized and demoralized. There was no war plan and no strategy for maintaining the peace. There was only the promise of Ahmed Chalabi that all would be a cakewalk."
"The war in Iraq has exacted a heavy price on this nation; far, far more than we were told by those who planned it. It has led to more than 2,100 American and 200 coalition military deaths. Iraqi civilian deaths, never fully counted, have been estimated between 30,000 and 100,000. The amputees, the blinded, the burned, the maimed and the emotionally scarred are yet to be totaled. Iraq and its people have been destabilized and demoralized. There was no war plan and no strategy for maintaining the peace. There was only the promise of Ahmed Chalabi that all would be a cakewalk."
VIDEO (44 min.), Secrets of the CIA: Thanks to WhatReallyHappened.com who comment, "If these assholes are the CIA, who are the swell guys Tom Clancy has been writing about???"
(My very slow Internet connection struggles terribly with what appears to be an exceedingly valuable - and horrific - documentary.)
(My very slow Internet connection struggles terribly with what appears to be an exceedingly valuable - and horrific - documentary.)
Ray McGovern, Counterpunch, Will the US Seize the Opportunity for Troop Withdrawal?: [ . . . ]
"It is too early to tell whether there is any substance behind recent statements by senior US officials expressing hope that US forces can be withdrawn sooner rather than later. The only straw in the wind with possible substance seems to be the unexplained delay in deploying the 1st infantry division brigade from Fort Riley that was earlier earmarked for arrival in Iraq before the December 15 election.
"For all intents and purposes, the administration position remains the same. Lt. Gen. John Vines, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, keeps warning of the consequences of a 'precipitous pull-out,' repeating: 'I'm not going to get into a timetable. It will be driven by conditions on the ground.'
[ . . . ]
"As for Rumsfeld's relatively optimistic spin on recent talk shows, there is little to suggest that this has any purpose other than to assuage growing pro-withdrawal sentiment in Congress and the population at large."
"It is too early to tell whether there is any substance behind recent statements by senior US officials expressing hope that US forces can be withdrawn sooner rather than later. The only straw in the wind with possible substance seems to be the unexplained delay in deploying the 1st infantry division brigade from Fort Riley that was earlier earmarked for arrival in Iraq before the December 15 election.
"For all intents and purposes, the administration position remains the same. Lt. Gen. John Vines, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, keeps warning of the consequences of a 'precipitous pull-out,' repeating: 'I'm not going to get into a timetable. It will be driven by conditions on the ground.'
[ . . . ]
"As for Rumsfeld's relatively optimistic spin on recent talk shows, there is little to suggest that this has any purpose other than to assuage growing pro-withdrawal sentiment in Congress and the population at large."
Ancient History? . . .
David Price, A CounterPunch Special Investigation; How US Anthropoligists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons Against the Japanese
David Price, A CounterPunch Special Investigation; How US Anthropoligists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons Against the Japanese
Holger Stark, Der Spiegel, A Tale of Extraordinary Renditions and Double-Standards: "The [Mohammed Haydar] Zammar case typifies the 'war on terror,' in which the US government seems to believe that almost any means are justified, even torture in a country like Syria, a country that, ironically, the Americans have branded a 'rogue state.'"
La Jornada, Immunity for the Beast [Bush]: "During World War II, the resistance of the people of Europe to Nazi-fascism aroused the admiration, solidarity and intense commitment of men and women of conscience. But today, as a large portion of the Western world watches a modern Holocaust befall people with skin colors other than their own, its conscience and sensibility displays a philosophical yawn.
"... For the sake of 'democracy' and 'liberty', nations like Afghanistan and Iraq have been totally destroyed in the name of the 'international community'. And an entire people, the Palestinians, resist with tenacity and heroism the politics of extermination imposed by the Israeli government.
[ . . . ]
"For the great beast [the United States], the problem is one 'of principle': absolute geopolitical predominance based on a military force that has caused the deaths of thousands of innocents under a euphemism called 'collateral damage'."
"... For the sake of 'democracy' and 'liberty', nations like Afghanistan and Iraq have been totally destroyed in the name of the 'international community'. And an entire people, the Palestinians, resist with tenacity and heroism the politics of extermination imposed by the Israeli government.
[ . . . ]
"For the great beast [the United States], the problem is one 'of principle': absolute geopolitical predominance based on a military force that has caused the deaths of thousands of innocents under a euphemism called 'collateral damage'."
NIS News, Bot Warns US On Human Rights: "If the Americans 'continue to beat about the bush' on reports on CIA prisons, this could have consequences for the Dutch contribution to new military missions, said Foreign Minister Ben Bot during yesterday's Lower House debate on his budget."
Jamal Mudhafar, Azzaman.com, Welcome to the chambers of death: [ . . . ]
"Some Iraqis may understand that it is beyond the power of the government and the mighty U.S. army to put an end to the insurgency.
"But they cannot understand why atrocities like those of Abu Ghraib and most recently those of the secret jail run by the Interior Ministry could happen.
"They cannot understand why Iraqi and U.S. forces cannot put an end to the abduction of innocent people and the assassination of university professors, medical doctors and other professionals.
"Every now and then the government sets up an investigation committee to look into incidents like these but to no avail.
"We know that these committees are formed but we are never told about their outcome.
"So the killers, the torturers, the kidnappers, the corrupt officials, the liars and the cheats are free. We the innocent people have become their prisoners.
"This is exactly the reality of the current situation in our country, the ominous harbinger of even much worse to come."
"Some Iraqis may understand that it is beyond the power of the government and the mighty U.S. army to put an end to the insurgency.
"But they cannot understand why atrocities like those of Abu Ghraib and most recently those of the secret jail run by the Interior Ministry could happen.
"They cannot understand why Iraqi and U.S. forces cannot put an end to the abduction of innocent people and the assassination of university professors, medical doctors and other professionals.
"Every now and then the government sets up an investigation committee to look into incidents like these but to no avail.
"We know that these committees are formed but we are never told about their outcome.
"So the killers, the torturers, the kidnappers, the corrupt officials, the liars and the cheats are free. We the innocent people have become their prisoners.
"This is exactly the reality of the current situation in our country, the ominous harbinger of even much worse to come."
Kurt Nimmo, Murtha and the Demented Neocon Political Constellation: [ . . . ]
"In addition to the New York Times, Newsweek and Knight Ridder reported on Atta’s connection to the U.S. military. 'Knight Ridder’s news account was more specific. It said Mohamed Atta had attended International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. In addition, Abdulaziz Alomari had attended Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force base in Texas, they reported, and Saeed Alghamdi had been to the Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, California,' according to researcher Daniel Hopsicker. 'If true, these reports would have dealt a blow to the consensus portrait then emerging of the terrorist cadre as puritanical Islamic fundamentalists…. Indeed, if foreign nationals who would eventually become terrorist pilots were training at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, or going through the U.S. Air Forces’ International Officer’s School at Maxwell Air Force Base, they would most likely have had connections to Arab governments considered friendly to the United States.'
"So important was Mr. Atta the CIA, Able Danger, and the Israeli 'art students' followed him around.
"I’m not worried about al-Zarqawi showing up on my doorstep, ready to convert me to Islam or chop off my head like he supposedly chopped off the head of Nick Berg. Of course, there is no evidence al-Zarqawi even exists, but then that’s little more than a bothersome detail for people such as Christopher Adamo.
"I am concerned about 'terrorists' trained at the International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base or the Defense Language Institute and micromanaged by various intelligence 'services,' including Israelis who are supposedly prevented by law from running intel ops in this country."
"In addition to the New York Times, Newsweek and Knight Ridder reported on Atta’s connection to the U.S. military. 'Knight Ridder’s news account was more specific. It said Mohamed Atta had attended International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. In addition, Abdulaziz Alomari had attended Aerospace Medical School at Brooks Air Force base in Texas, they reported, and Saeed Alghamdi had been to the Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, California,' according to researcher Daniel Hopsicker. 'If true, these reports would have dealt a blow to the consensus portrait then emerging of the terrorist cadre as puritanical Islamic fundamentalists…. Indeed, if foreign nationals who would eventually become terrorist pilots were training at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, or going through the U.S. Air Forces’ International Officer’s School at Maxwell Air Force Base, they would most likely have had connections to Arab governments considered friendly to the United States.'
"So important was Mr. Atta the CIA, Able Danger, and the Israeli 'art students' followed him around.
"I’m not worried about al-Zarqawi showing up on my doorstep, ready to convert me to Islam or chop off my head like he supposedly chopped off the head of Nick Berg. Of course, there is no evidence al-Zarqawi even exists, but then that’s little more than a bothersome detail for people such as Christopher Adamo.
"I am concerned about 'terrorists' trained at the International Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base or the Defense Language Institute and micromanaged by various intelligence 'services,' including Israelis who are supposedly prevented by law from running intel ops in this country."
VIDEO, prior 2:21 PM post: Eventually my computer managed to download the first 18 minutes. Highly recommend viewing whatever portion possible. This documentary clearly illuminates the fact that, contrary to all we are told, the business of the CIA is deadly covert operations, not intelligence gathering. Doing nothing but harm, the CIA should be shut down.
Wayne Madsen Report, November 25, 2005 -- Bush Arizona visit sends message to Europe regarding CIA flights: "President Bush plans to visit Tucson, Arizona on Monday, November 28, for a fund raiser for extreme right-wing GOP Senator Jon Kyl. But Bush's choice for his stopover sends a clear message to Europeans upset about recent revelations about CIA torture flights. Bush's Air Force One will stop at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the home to the aircraft 'Bone Yard,' from where dozens of surplus military and commercial planes were obtained by CIA front companies to ferry prisoners for imprisonment and torture, many through European airports and through European airspace. To emphasize his visit to Davis-Monthan, Bush will be accompanied by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, two noted proponents of prisoner torture."
Conn Hallinan, Foreign Policy In Focus, Dark Armies, Secret Bases, and Rummy, Oh My!: "It would be easy to make fun of President Bush's recent fiasco at the 4th Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. His grand plan for a free trade zone reaching from the Artic Circle to Tierra del Fuego was soundly rejected by nations fed up with the economic and social chaos wrought by neoliberalism. At a press conference, South American journalists asked him rude questions about Karl Rove. And the President ended the whole debacle by uttering what may be the most trenchant observation the man has ever made on Latin America: 'Wow! Brazil is big!'
"But there is nothing amusing about an enormous U.S. base less than 120 miles from the Bolivian border, or the explosive growth of U.S.-financed mercenary armies that are doing everything from training the military in Paraguay and Ecuador to calling in air attacks against guerillas in Colombia. Indeed, it is feeling a little like the run up to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when Washington-sponsored military dictatorships dominated most of the continent, and dark armies ruled the night.
"U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion .
"Some 500 special forces arrived July 1 for a three-month counterterrorism training exercise, code named Operation Commando Force 6.
[ . . . ]
"Bolivia has been placed on the National Intelligence Council's list of 25 countries where the United States will consider intervening in case of 'instability.'
"This is scary talk for Latin American countries. Would the United States invade Bolivia? Given the present state of its military, unlikely.
"Would the United States try to destabilize Bolivia's economy while training people how to use military force to insure Enron, Shell, British Gas, Total, Repsol, and the United States continues to get Bolivian gas for pennies on the dollar? Quite likely.
"And would the White House like to use such a coup as a way to send a message to other countries? You bet. President Bush may be clueless on geography, but he is not bad at overthrowing governments and killing people.
"Will it be as easy as it was in the old days when the CIA could bribe truckers to paralyze Chile and set the stage for a coup? Nothing is easy in Latin America anymore.
"The United States can bluster about a trade war, but the playing field is a little more level these days. The Mercosur Group of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay embraces 250 million people, generates $1 trillion in goods, and is the third largest trade organization on the planet. If the American market tightens, the Chinese are more than willing to pick up the slack.
"A meeting last month of the Ibero-American heads of state turned downright feisty. The assembled nations demanded an end to the 'blockade' of Cuba . The word 'blockade' is very different than the word 'embargo,' the term that was always used in the past. A 'blockade' is a violation of international law.
"The meeting also demanded that the United States extradite Luis Posada to Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 76 people.
"If the United States tries something in Bolivia (or Venezuela), it will find that the old days when proxy armies and economic destabilization could bring down governments are gone, replaced by countries and people who no longer curtsy to the colossus from the north."
"But there is nothing amusing about an enormous U.S. base less than 120 miles from the Bolivian border, or the explosive growth of U.S.-financed mercenary armies that are doing everything from training the military in Paraguay and Ecuador to calling in air attacks against guerillas in Colombia. Indeed, it is feeling a little like the run up to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when Washington-sponsored military dictatorships dominated most of the continent, and dark armies ruled the night.
"U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion .
"Some 500 special forces arrived July 1 for a three-month counterterrorism training exercise, code named Operation Commando Force 6.
[ . . . ]
"Bolivia has been placed on the National Intelligence Council's list of 25 countries where the United States will consider intervening in case of 'instability.'
"This is scary talk for Latin American countries. Would the United States invade Bolivia? Given the present state of its military, unlikely.
"Would the United States try to destabilize Bolivia's economy while training people how to use military force to insure Enron, Shell, British Gas, Total, Repsol, and the United States continues to get Bolivian gas for pennies on the dollar? Quite likely.
"And would the White House like to use such a coup as a way to send a message to other countries? You bet. President Bush may be clueless on geography, but he is not bad at overthrowing governments and killing people.
"Will it be as easy as it was in the old days when the CIA could bribe truckers to paralyze Chile and set the stage for a coup? Nothing is easy in Latin America anymore.
"The United States can bluster about a trade war, but the playing field is a little more level these days. The Mercosur Group of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay embraces 250 million people, generates $1 trillion in goods, and is the third largest trade organization on the planet. If the American market tightens, the Chinese are more than willing to pick up the slack.
"A meeting last month of the Ibero-American heads of state turned downright feisty. The assembled nations demanded an end to the 'blockade' of Cuba . The word 'blockade' is very different than the word 'embargo,' the term that was always used in the past. A 'blockade' is a violation of international law.
"The meeting also demanded that the United States extradite Luis Posada to Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 76 people.
"If the United States tries something in Bolivia (or Venezuela), it will find that the old days when proxy armies and economic destabilization could bring down governments are gone, replaced by countries and people who no longer curtsy to the colossus from the north."
Real people here . . .
Don't Bomb Us - A blog by Al Jazeera Staffers: Visit their blog; send them a message.
Don't Bomb Us - A blog by Al Jazeera Staffers: Visit their blog; send them a message.
Car Bombings Kill 16 People in Baghdad: A suicide bomber drove his pickup truck into a crowded gas station north of Baghdad on Saturday and killed 12 people while a second car bomb targeting a convoy of foreigners killed four others in the capital, police said.
Twelve people were injured and nine cars were destroyed in the gas station bombing in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. Col. Mahmoud Mohammed said.
In central Baghdad, a parked car bomb detonated when two armored cars carrying foreigners drove by, killing four Iraqi civilians, Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said. No one in the convoy was injured, but one of the armored cars was damaged and removed by U.S. forces, Mahmoud said. The foreigners were not immediately identified, but none of them were injured, he added.
In northwestern Baghdad on Friday, 200 people carrying banners and chanting slogans gathered at a mosque to demand the resignation of the defense minister.
They were angered by the death of Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem, a Sunni Arab sheik killed along with three of his sons and his son-in-law by gunmen who broke into his home on Wednesday.
Relatives said the men were wearing Iraqi army uniforms and that another of al-Hemaiyem's sons was killed by men in uniform last month.
A spokesman for the interior ministry denied that government forces were involved.
Twelve people were injured and nine cars were destroyed in the gas station bombing in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. Col. Mahmoud Mohammed said.
In central Baghdad, a parked car bomb detonated when two armored cars carrying foreigners drove by, killing four Iraqi civilians, Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said. No one in the convoy was injured, but one of the armored cars was damaged and removed by U.S. forces, Mahmoud said. The foreigners were not immediately identified, but none of them were injured, he added.
In northwestern Baghdad on Friday, 200 people carrying banners and chanting slogans gathered at a mosque to demand the resignation of the defense minister.
They were angered by the death of Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem, a Sunni Arab sheik killed along with three of his sons and his son-in-law by gunmen who broke into his home on Wednesday.
Relatives said the men were wearing Iraqi army uniforms and that another of al-Hemaiyem's sons was killed by men in uniform last month.
A spokesman for the interior ministry denied that government forces were involved.
US-Iraqi troops wage offensive against Ramadi insurgents: Hundreds of US and Iraqi soldiers launched on Saturday a new offensive against insurgents in the flashpoint city of Ramadi, the US military said.
"Approximately 550 Iraqi army soldiers and US soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team attached to the 2nd Marine Division, kicked off Operation Tigers (Nimur) this morning in the Ma'Laab District of eastern Ramadi," the military said in a statement.
The Operation Tigers consists of approximately 150 Iraqi soldiers and 400 marines. They are conducting cordon and searches, blocking off known terrorist escape routes, and searching for weapons caches in the targeted areas, according to the statement.
The new offensive is the forth in a series of "disruption operations" by the US marines and Iraqi army in the volatile province of Anbar.
"Approximately 550 Iraqi army soldiers and US soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team attached to the 2nd Marine Division, kicked off Operation Tigers (Nimur) this morning in the Ma'Laab District of eastern Ramadi," the military said in a statement.
The Operation Tigers consists of approximately 150 Iraqi soldiers and 400 marines. They are conducting cordon and searches, blocking off known terrorist escape routes, and searching for weapons caches in the targeted areas, according to the statement.
The new offensive is the forth in a series of "disruption operations" by the US marines and Iraqi army in the volatile province of Anbar.
Dave Lindorff, When Your Ostensible Ally Says That Blowing Up Your Troops Shouldn't Be Called Terrorism, It's Time to Head Home
Meanwhile, an email from an officer serving in Ramadi . . .
"We Have No Offensive Capability In The Most Dangerous City On Earth" "There Should Be Jail Terms For This"
"We Have No Offensive Capability In The Most Dangerous City On Earth" "There Should Be Jail Terms For This"
Brian Cloughley, Counterpunch, Lost Legs, Burned Faces and White House Lies; What Are They Dying For?: President Eisenhower declared that "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can ; only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity" ; but this type of wise warning from a real leader passes well over the heads of the arrogant, conceited oafs who have driven America to calamity.
It’s a losing battle against Son of Ron: HAS anyone checked the US president's birth certificate lately? Common knowledge has it that George Bush is the son of former president Bush. But according to a document, the full details of which cannot be published for fear of being jailed, he is, in fact, the direct heir of Ronald Reagan. Nothing else explains his alleged comments about bombing al-Jazeera.
It was Reagan, fooling around before a radio address, who once said: "My fellow Americans. I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
When the tape was leaked, the Russians, understandably, did not see the funny side. Al-Jazeera feels the same way about the Bush comment, said to have been uttered during a meeting with Tony Blair last year.
[ . . . ]
The media pays a high enough price to report on Iraq without all this. The Committee to Protect Journalists puts the number of press killed there so far at 58. Of these, 34 died as a result of insurgent action, including suicide bombs, 13 were killed in US crossfire, three by the Iraqi armed forces and the remaining eight in cross-fire in which the source was unconfirmed.
One dreads to think how many might have been added to the toll (and in the sovereign state of Qatar to boot) if the alleged comment about al-Jazeera was not a joke. It is a legitimate journalistic organisation – so respectable, and respected, that Sir David Frost, no less, is on its staff. It has earned the ultimate journalistic accolade of being attacked by Arab and western governments alike. As for interviews with bin Laden, the US networks and the British journalist Robert Fisk got there years before al-Jazeera.
Al-Jazeera has also carried interviews with Tony Blair. Does that make it a legitimate target for Islamist extremists?
Next week, two men will appear in court in London on charges relating to the document in which the al-Jazeera "joke" was alleged to have appeared. Barring the case being dropped or some brave soul publishing the document, we will never know the truth about what was said. Oh, what a filthy war.
It was Reagan, fooling around before a radio address, who once said: "My fellow Americans. I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
When the tape was leaked, the Russians, understandably, did not see the funny side. Al-Jazeera feels the same way about the Bush comment, said to have been uttered during a meeting with Tony Blair last year.
[ . . . ]
The media pays a high enough price to report on Iraq without all this. The Committee to Protect Journalists puts the number of press killed there so far at 58. Of these, 34 died as a result of insurgent action, including suicide bombs, 13 were killed in US crossfire, three by the Iraqi armed forces and the remaining eight in cross-fire in which the source was unconfirmed.
One dreads to think how many might have been added to the toll (and in the sovereign state of Qatar to boot) if the alleged comment about al-Jazeera was not a joke. It is a legitimate journalistic organisation – so respectable, and respected, that Sir David Frost, no less, is on its staff. It has earned the ultimate journalistic accolade of being attacked by Arab and western governments alike. As for interviews with bin Laden, the US networks and the British journalist Robert Fisk got there years before al-Jazeera.
Al-Jazeera has also carried interviews with Tony Blair. Does that make it a legitimate target for Islamist extremists?
Next week, two men will appear in court in London on charges relating to the document in which the al-Jazeera "joke" was alleged to have appeared. Barring the case being dropped or some brave soul publishing the document, we will never know the truth about what was said. Oh, what a filthy war.
Palestinians celebrate Gaza border opening: "Palestinians took formal control of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Friday, making this the first time since 1967 that they have controlled access to one of their borders."
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