Free Iraq

"The Iraqi Resistance killed four rabbis near the gates of Baghdad International Airport on Tuesday morning (May 31, 2005) when a suicide bomber attacked their black GMC at 10:00 a.m. Baghdad time.
[Muffakirat al-Islam] Reporter quoted an Iraqi airport security guard, Nasir al-Dallawi, that the attack targeted four rabbis, who came to Iraq to visit British and American troops in Baghdad and southern Iraq, and their Greek driver. Their bodies were removed from near the airport gates after suspending all air travel for one hour.
The director of "Sindibad Travel Agency", which is affiliated with Iraqi Airways, confirmed the report: "The car was carrying four black robbed rabbis wearing yarmulkes who were heading for Al-Dallal US military base to the north of Baghdad. They were destined later to visit Al-Najjaf US military base and other nearby military bases.
He also confirmed that the suicider used a Nissan car that belonged to the Ministry of Transport."
Four rabbis are deceased near Baghdad International Airport (in Arabic, my translation) May 31, 2005 at 11:45 am

I wonder how will this story be 'flushed' in the corporate media? (if the next item serves as an example).
.........
Update on this particular 'Flushing':
Till now (Wednesday afternoon, June 1, 2005), the following items has been reported:

"suicide bomber attacked the main checkpoint to Baghdad International Airport on Wednesday, wounding at least seven Iraqis, police said.
The explosion, which occurred shortly after 9 a.m., sent a huge cloud of black smoke billowing into the sky, destroyed several vehicles and underscored the difficulties U.S. and Iraqi authorities are facing to curb the rampant insurgency. [No kidding]
The blast happened near the Abbas Ibn Firnas statue, commonly known as the "Flying Man," which depicts a winged medieval Arab astronomer. The statue is located between two car parks. "Me and some colleagues at Iraqi Airways were waiting in line when we saw a speeding car, then we heard a big explosion," said Ghassan Yassin, one of at least seven Iraqis wounded. "The next thing I realized is that my car was on fire, I got out thorough the window after the doors are jammed due to the explosion."
Suicide Bomber Attacks Baghdad Airport Checkpoint (Associated Press) June 1, 2005 (They even got their Day wrong. This posting will be further updated, if the true event is ever admitted).

Hmmm... Another corporate media 'source' (Reuters) again reports that the 'event' took place on Wednesday June 1, 2005 (and not Tuesday May 31, 2005).
"A suicide bomber detonated a car laden with explosives at a checkpoint leading to Baghdad airport on Wednesday injuring 15 civilians, the U.S. military said.
The al Qaeda wing in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blast, which occurred in a queue of cars waiting to pass through the checkpoint at the main entrance into the tightly controlled airport complex. Insurgents fired AK-47s and other small arms at the checkpoint immediately after the blast, the U.S. military said in a statement. The Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq said one of its suicide bombers "penetrated the security barriers and entered deep into the airport" and blew himself up in the midst of "25 crusader vehicles."
"Until the moment of the writing of this statement, the roads leading to the airport were closed. But ambulances and fire vehicles are still rushing to move their dead and put out the fires that consumed them," the statement said."

A car bomb amid 25 vehicles followed by an attack with AK-47s, and no one is dead? The cars' occupants must have been US soldiers, as is usual in reporting such survival rates.

Did they get their belated information (minus real details) from US CentCom?

Did the Resistance's report, which was translated and posted here yesterday morning (Baghdad is eight hours ahead), predict the event for Wednesday per se, then?

Maybe AP and Reuters should hire more efficient reporters, i.e. from the Resistance, no?
.........

Apparently, they have become an easy target due to their consistent routine:

"An officer at the airport, who declined to reveal his name, told Mafkarat al-Islam [March 9, 2005] that in February and now in March there has been a flood of more than 400 Christian clergymen and Jewish rabbis brought into Iraq via Saddam [Baghdad] International Airport – where the US has one of its main bases in the country. The clergymen are to give sermons and hold religious services for the US troops occupying the country.
The source said that all the clergymen have been brought in on US planes under heavy American protection. Over 150 of them went straight to al-Anbar Province, then to Mosul, Ba‘qubah, and Samarra’. Another group of them remained for 10 days in Baghdad where they held services for 330 American mercenaries who had been buried in Iraq or thrown into the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. (emphasis added)
They said services in the US base in the agricultural area near al-Fallujah and at the ‘Ayn al-Asad base in Hadithah, at the al-Layth base in at-Tarimiyah, and at the al-Ghazlani base in Mosul. The move followed complaints by the Vatican that prayers were not being said for US troops and their Asian and African service workers when they are killed on occupation duty in Iraq.
The source told Mafkarat al-Islam, “I wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t had to work in the airport where I saw the clergy as they landed in the airport wearing all their religious clothing. American personnel also informed me of the reason for their arrival and what they are doing here”, the source told the correspondent."
Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 9 March 2005

Rabbi (praying) in Baghdad .. Oops ! I meant Him praying (not for forgiveness, surely)

"There is a carpet company in Switzerland that is owned by an Iraqi expatriate, Joseph Najib, who patented a prayer carpet that features an embedded compass which points to Mecca from any place in the world [as an aid to the Moslem when she/he prays].
Up to this point, this is a normal news item.
On May 26, 2005, this company received an order from the Pentagon to produce ten million such carpets:
- Five million of which are to portray two hands, shaking. On one hand, the American flag is embossed. On the other hand, the Afghani flag is shown, both under the caption: "A Gift from the American People".
- The other five million other carpets do also portray two shaking hands. However, while one hand does show the American flag, the other one is to portray the Iraqi flag, under the same caption: "A Gift from the American People".
These carpets are to be distributed to mosques and sacred pilgrimage sites to be delivered to the devout in Afghanistan and Iraq in order to embellish America's image to the Muslims in these two countries.
The Americans are trying to deceive the Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, with prayer carpets (in Arabic, my translation) May 30, 2005

These gifts follow previous friendly American carpet gifts that were greatly appreciated by their recipients, namely, carpet bombing distributed by your invited friend's air force.

They might as well have portrayed Bush's hand shaking Sharon's,
for the real message! .... While they both indulge in their Blood Flush

This, they deem worthy of 'reporting':
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Bickerstaff of Satellite Beach, Florida, uses a tent pole to bat a rock off the Haditha Dam where his unit is based, 220 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Sunday, May 29, 2005. About 1,000 U.S. troops completed Operation New Market in Haditha earlier in the day, searching houses and businesses for insurgents. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)


Yet, for them, the carnage of Haditha is not.

The one week 'Operation New Market' has resulted in:

- Most mosques in the city were bombed during the first attack days, sometimes with people still praying in them,
- The only hospital in Haditha was bombed to ruins, on May 28, 2005, resulting in the death of many doctors, staff and patients.
- American war planes completely destroyed, on May 28, 2005, the main electrical substation that provided electricity for the whole city.
- On May 28, 2005, American war planes blew up the main water refinery station in Haditha, rendering it completely useless for providing fresh water for the city.
- Half of the schools in Haditha have been thoroughly destroyed, and the other half have been taken over by the Americans and their 'Iraqi mercenaries', just as the year's finals are approaching.
Do the Arabs know what is happening in Haditha? (in Arabic, my translation) May 29, 2005

You don't have to watch, or know of this.
Go back and enjoy your baseball game.
They are only about 1,700 dead and more than 15, 000 wounded, and counting.
Mind you. That is what they are telling you (Iran?, already?).

"It is hard to believe but there are commentators who are berating those who protested the desecration of the Qur'an, not those who did the desecrating.
.. The pundits are being even more bizarre than the Bush administration, which skewered Newsweek for reporting the sacrilege, not those who committed it. Even as the Bush administration continues its cover-up for presiding over one of the most shameful chapters in prisoner abuse, here is New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, reprinted in the Toronto Star no less, hectoring the Afghans and others for being stupid enough to take to the streets in dismay.
Here are their arguments, with one person's response:
- Political opportunists in Pakistan and elsewhere hijacked the Qur'an incidents to whip up public fury.
Don't our politicians exploit every chance to advance their agenda and themselves, often at the expense of the common good? Aren't George W. Bush and other Republicans particularly adept at using religious and moral wedge issues?
- Muslims should be up in arms about the killing of 17 fellow Muslims in the Qur'an protests.
Unlike the impression left of crowds lynching one another, most of those who died were killed in police shootings ordered by the pro-American governments of Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Hamid Karzai.
There has been plenty of criticism of that, which is not what Messrs. Friedman and others, shedding crocodile tears, are looking for. What they want is for Muslims to berate Muslims for being Muslim in a way not acceptable to America. (emphasis added)Muslims must condemn "their culture of death," as demonstrated in the Qur'an protests and in suicide bombings, lately in Iraq.
Sure. But as a recent study by Robert Pape, professor at the University of Chicago, has shown, suicide bombings are not the exclusive preserve of Muslims. The Tamil Tigers, who happen to be Hindu, have been the leading user of that dastardly weapon.
... The protests over the Qur'an episodes have been presented as the utterly incomprehensible actions of illiterate and irrational mobs. They are at one level. But on another, they are understandable — not justifiable but understandable — given the scandalous mistreatment of Muslims in America, Iraq and in Afghanistan, day after day, for more than three years.
Human Rights Watch, joining the international chorus of condemnation, confirmed this week that religious humiliation of Muslims has been widespread in American-run jails.
And Amnesty International, in one of its toughest reports yet, called Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our times."
Yet the media mostly ignored those reports. They were busy baiting Muslims.
One longs for the day in the future when we will be ready to look back at this dark period and hang our heads in shame."
Blaming the victim for Qur'an desecrations May 26, 2005

"Someone (thank you N.C.) emailed me Thomas L. Friedman's article in the New York Times 10 days ago about Quran desecration titled "Outrage and Silence".
In one paragraph he says,"Yet these mass murders - this desecration and dismemberment of real Muslims by other Muslims - have not prompted a single protest march anywhere in the Muslim world. And I have not read of a single fatwa issued by any Muslim cleric outside Iraq condemning these indiscriminate mass murders of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds by these jihadist suicide bombers, many of whom, according to a Washington Post report, are coming from Saudi Arabia."
First of all - it's not only Kurds or Shia who are dying due to car bombs. When a car detonates in the middle of a soug or near a mosque, it does not seek out only Shia or Kurdish people amongst the multitude. Bombs do not discriminate between the young and the old, male and female or ethnicities and religious sects- no matter what your government tells you about how smart they are. Furthermore, they are going off everywhere - not just in Shia or Kurdish provinces. They seem to be everywhere lately.
One thing I found particularly amusing about the article - and outrageous all at once - was in the following paragraph:"Religiously, if you want to know how the Sunni Arab world views a Shiite's being elected leader of Iraq, for the first time ever, think about how whites in Alabama would have felt about a black governor's being installed there in 1920. Some Sunnis do not think Shiites are authentic Muslims, and they are indifferent to their brutalization."
Now, it is always amusing to see a Jewish American journalist speak in the name of Sunni Arabs. When Sunni Arabs, at this point, hesitate to speak in a representative way about other Sunni Arabs, it is nice to know Thomas L. Friedman feels he can sum up the feelings of the "Sunni Arab world" in so many words. His arrogance is exceptional.
It is outrageous because for many people, this isn't about Sunnis and Shia or Arabs and Kurds. It's about an occupation and about people feeling that they do not have real representation. (emphasis added) We have a government that needs to hide behind kilometers of barbed wire and meters and meters of concrete- and it's not because they are Shia or Kurdish or Sunni Arab- it's because they blatantly supported, and continue to support, an occupation that has led to death and chaos.
Shia Leaders... by Riverbend, May 29, 2005

Forked tongue! .. It is the Occupation. Get it?


An Update:
""If you go dark, the whole world goes dark."
The statement was quoted by our favorite columnist, Thomas L. Friedman, in yesterday's International Herald Tribune.
We always try to get our day off on the right foot by reading Friedman's column before breakfast. There is something so gloriously naïve and clumsy in the man's pensée, it never fails to brighten our mornings. We have never met the man, but we imagine him as a high school teacher, warping young minds with drippy thoughts. But to say his ideas are as sophomoric or juvenile merely libels young people, most of whom have far more cleverly nuanced opinions than the columnist. Or, you might criticize the man by saying his work is without merit, but that would be flattery. His work has negative merit. Every column subtracts from the sum of human knowledge in the way a broken pipe drains the town's water tower.
Not that Mr. Friedman's ideas are in anyway uniquely bad. Many people have similarly puerile, insipid notions in their heads. But Friedman expresses his hollow thoughts with such heavyhanded earnestness it often makes us laugh. He seems completely unaware that he is a simpleton. That of course is a charm; he is so dense you can laugh at him without hurting his feelings."
Imperial Conceits June 4, 2005

"The insurgency has eroded American support for Bush's war. A majority of Americans now believe Bush's invasion of Iraq was a mistake and that Bush's war is not worth the cost. The insurgency has proved the new Iraqi government to be impotent both as a unifying agent and source of order.
US frustration with a few hundred insurgents in Fallujah resulted in the destruction of two-thirds of the former city of 300,000 and in the deaths of many civilians. Are we now going to witness Baghdad reduced to rubble?
.... Neocon court historians of empire, such as Niall Ferguson, claim that the US cannot withdraw from Iraq because the result would be a civil war and bloodbath.
However, a bloodbath is what has been going on since the ill-fated "cakewalk" invasion.
Moreover, the planned Baghdad Offensive is itself the beginning of a civil war. The 50,000 troops represent a Shi'ite government. These troops will be hunting Sunnis. There is no better way to start a civil war.
.... The problem is that Bush wants "victory," not a workable solution, and he is prepared to pay any price for victory. The neocons, who are in effect Israeli agents, want to spread their war against Islam to Syria and Iran. For neocons, this is a single-minded pursuit. Their commitment to war is not shaken by reality or rationality."
From Cakewalk to Bloodbath: Bush Opts for Civil War in Iraq May 28-20, 2005

"The distortions of reality and lack of oppositional media leave people in the West, Americans in particular, ill informed.
The Western media diligently diverts public attention from the illegal Occupation of Iraq and the responsibility of the U.S./Western governments for the horrendous crimes committed against the people of Iraq.
Western journalists and pundits are the main agents of this distorted propaganda. The aims are to portray the Iraqi Resistance as violent "religious fanatics" isolated from the rest of the population and to advocate for ongoing occupation.
... portraying the Iraqi national Resistance movement as a collection of "religious fanatics" and "foreign" fighters "with nothing to lose" is the Occupation's way of discrediting the Iraqi Resistance and denying the Iraqi people their legitimate right to fight for freedom and national sovereignty.
Amply documented, the pretexts for the war and the Occupation were based on fake intelligence. Hence, the U.S. and its "allies" are in the process, through media disinformation, of not only legitimizing the Occupation, but also of creating new pretexts for the maintenance of continued US military presence.
The most common pretext in the media reports is that U.S. forces are invited to stay in Iraq to prevent civil war and "maintain stability".
But like the pretext of WMD, there is no evidence to support these U.S. sponsored lies.
There is a U.S-engineered stalemate with no one with a majority to govern effectively. The US installed "government" is powerless, dominated by the same groups of expatriates who lobbied for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The U.S. is pitting Iraqis against each other and creating a climate of fear.
In this regard, the creation, arming and financing of 'ethnic militias' and death squads by U.S. forces is designed to create ethnic divisions and provoke sectarian violence among Iraqis.
These US sponsored militia groups (see the Ruse below) are:
- The Kurdish Peshmerga whose leaders supported the U.S. invasion and Occupation.
- The Iranian-trained Badr Brigades,
- The armed wing of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) led by - Ibrahim Al-Jaaferi of the Da’wa party,
- The INC militia of Ahmed Chalabi, and the INA militia of Iyad Allawi.
All these groups are involved in terrorist activities against Iraqi civilians."
Media Disinformation and the Nature of the Iraqi Resistance May 2005

Neocons' infinite war on terrorism

"General Petraeus says a major aim of this offensive is to flush out the "facilitators" and "enablers." They run what Petraeus calls "an underground railroad of sorts" that funnels foreign fighters in place to execute suicide bombing attacks."
General says new Iraq offensive aimed at suicide bombers' "underground railroad" May 27, 2005

"The interior minister and defense minister yesterday announced the forces would set up checkpoints, raid houses and search vehicles to try to stop a wave of militant attacks that has killed hundreds of people in the last month."
Militants sneer at latest security measures in Iraq May 27, 2005

However, the Resistance warns:
.
"A Central Command Center, jointly run by the Interior and Defence ministries as well as the 'National Security' force [a CIA financed unit], is to supervise the formation of Special Units from the Shiite Badir Brigade, the Kurdish Besh Merga and other armed militias. These Special Units will participate in the 'searching' of the homes, residences and business quarters around Baghdad and surrounding districts. These Units have been trained and provided with special miniature hard to discover microchips to be planted in the premises that they do 'search'. The transmission of these microchips will be collated and monitored by pilotless drones as well as satellites to monitor what transpires in these 'searched premises', and for demolition targeting, if necessary. The residences of known patriotic personalities who oppose the occupation and Sunni religious persons will be especially targeted.
In the meantime, the Interior ministry, under the supervision of a special American Intelligence team, is carrying out a plan to recruit young Sunni men, with salaries up to $5,000 per month [the average salary is about $100/month], to be trained in Jordan and Bahrain to infiltrate the Iraqi Resistance and leading Sunni religious bodies and authorities, as well as the mosques in predominantly Sunni districts.
The main person of this enterprise is Baqir Solagh and an assistant called Hussain Mahud al-Jumaily (if that is his real name).
Hence, extreme caution and watch, if possible, is to be implemented upon the 'visit' of these teams, if they do occur, to be immediatly followed by a thorough inspection and removal of any suspicious materials that do not belong to the premise or residence, and throwing it at a far away distance.

"Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told a small group of western reporters that next week's planned crackdown, dubbed Operation Lightning, was designed "to restore the initiative to the government."
"We will establish, with God's help, an impenetrable blockade surrounding Baghdad like a bracelet surrounds a wrist," Defence Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi said.
Al-Jaafari said all of Baghdad's 23 entry points would be controlled. Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said there would be 675 checkpoints along with mobile checkpoints to try to deter assailants around the city and in areas where attacks are frequent.
The government said Baghdad would be divided into two sectors, Karkh on the west bank of the Tigris River that separates the city, and Risafa on the east. Karkh would be divided into 15 sub-districts and Risafa into seven sub-districts. Police and emergency personnel would operate in Baghdad 24 hours a day.
But it was unclear if the large concentration of security forces in the capital would cause a surge of violence in the rest of Iraq — where car bombs, kidnappings and shooting are a day-to-day occurrence."
Security 'Bracelet' planned for Baghdad May 26, 2005

If they are still wondering:
"But it was unclear if the large concentration of security forces in the capital would cause a surge of violence in the rest of Iraq".
Why don’t they ask Rumsfeld? He is sitting on top of a pile of data, a pointed one at that:

"On March 19, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld discussed the "metrics" of measuring success in Iraq..
..Rumsfeld: Well, we've got literally dozens of ways we do it. We have a room here, the Iraq Room, where we track a whole series of metrics. Some of them are inputs and some of them are outputs, results, and obviously the inputs are easier to do and less important, and the outputs are vastly more important and more difficult to do. We track, for example, the numbers of attacks by area. We track the types of attacks by area. And what we're seeing, for example, and one metric is presented graphically and it shows that we had spiked up during the sovereignty pass to the Iraqi people and spiked up again during the election, and are now back down to the pre-sovereignty levels which are considerably lower ... We track a number of reports of intimidation, attempts at intimidation or assassination of government officials, for example. We track the extent to which people are supplying intelligence to our people so that they can go in and actually track down and capture or kill insurgents. We try to desegregate the people we've captured and look at what they are. Are they foreign fighters, jihadist types? Are they criminals who were paid money to go do something like that? Are they former regime elements, Ba'athists? And we try to keep track of what those numbers are in terms of detainees and people that are processed in that way ... No one number is determinative, and the answer is no. We probably look at 50, 60, 70 different types of metrics, and come away with them with an impression. It's impressionistic more than determinative."
The metrics of losing May 25, 2005

Rercalling Rumsfel's 'dead-enders'
and Bush's 'Mission Accomplished' (was this how He planned it?)

"More than 40,000 Iraqi soldiers are to be deployed in Baghdad in a massive operation to hunt down insurgents, the Iraqi defence minister has announced. "
Iraq to launch huge Baghdad raids May 26, 2005

Were we invited into Iraq?

Six insurgents were killed and two Marines were wounded in a gun battle at 4 a.m. local time, the military said. Residents identified one of the attackers as an imam, the U.S. said.
.... The attacker identified as an imam by locals in today's gun battle opened fire on the Marines and Iraqi Security Forces with an AK-47 Assault rifle, the military said.
Iraqi City Surrounded in U.S.-Led Hunt for Insurgents May 25, 2005

71 years old Sheikh Ismael Ashish, Imam of Saif al-Haq mosque in Haditha, was martyred on Tuesday. He took a direct hit in the chest as he ran like a twenty years old fighter wielding an anti armour RBKC. He was a leader in the Resistance. He marshalled Anbar Resistance fighters to join in the fight against the American assualt on Najjaf last year.

"The cat is out of the bag now.
It happened quite by accident, as most revelations do. And it is seen by most of the world as the most revolting of the American/Israeli atrocities in the past few years, although it's hard to prioritize that claim because of the level and frequency of barbaric acts that are committed on a regular basis by those affluent automatons who call themselves the good guys.
Yet everyone but the comatose American populace — blinded by its Orwellian media and stupefied by its demented diet of physical and mental poisons — can see it.
So permit me to spell it out for those cowardly people who say they're living in the freest country on Earth, but absolutely refuse in their silent ignorance to see the blood they're spilling. No country that condones deliberate torture for any reason can ever be trusted.
The first hint came in Imad Khadduri's "A warning to car drivers" written in Arabic and posted on http://www.albasrah.net/ on May 11. The dispatch was quickly picked up by two of the most realistic and reliable news sites on the Web, http://www.uruknet.info/ which I try to read every day, and http://www.globalresearch.ca/ which I try to read every week, since it offers less breaking and more analytical news. I consider these two sites essential to keeping up with the real news of the world, and highly recommend that you monitor them, too.

..... There was also the sorry tale of the Iraqi man who saw American soldiers plant a bomb which shortly thereafter exploded, and when he said so out loud for all to hear, he was hauled away, never to be seen again. This story was reported on arguably the most authentic and riveting source of news from Iraq, the heart-rending "Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq," which is compiled by someone known only as Riverbend or Iraqi Girl. Again, recommended reading. She recounts, "the last two weeks have been violent ...."
Sick strategies for senseless slaughter May 24, 2004

You wanna know my answer to that?

Wire Queen Helen Thomas today ripped into White House spokesman Scott McClellan over his claims the United States is in Afghanistan and Iraq -- by invitation. Joined in progess...
Q The other day -- in fact, this week, you said that we, the United States, is in Afghanistan and Iraq by invitation. Would you like to correct that incredible distortion of American history -- MR. McCLELLAN: No, we are -- that's where we currently --
Q -- in view of your credibility is already mired? How can you say that?
MR. McCLELLAN: Helen, I think everyone in this room knows that you're taking that comment out of context. There are two democratically-elected governments in Iraq and --
Q Were we invited into Iraq?
MR. McCLELLAN: There are two democratically-elected governments now in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are there at their invitation. They are sovereign governments, and we are there today --
Q You mean if they had asked us out, that we would have left?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, Helen, I'm talking about today. We are there at their invitation. They are sovereign governments --
Q I'm talking about today, too.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- and we are doing all we can to train and equip their security forces so that they can provide for their own security as they move forward on a free and democratic future.
Q Did we invade those countries?
MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve.
Helen Thomas Rides White House Press Sec May 25, 2005

"The death rate in Iraq this month among members of the National Guard and Reserve is the highest since January and one of the highest of the entire war, Pentagon figures show.
At least 21 part-time soldiers and Marines have died in May, although the number may be higher since the Pentagon has not yet identified most of the 14 U.S. troops who have died since Sunday.
As of May 20, the Pentagon had identified 16 Guard and Reserve members among the month's dead.
... Prior to January, the highest monthly toll among Guard and Reserve members was 28 in November 2004, when many died in the assault on Fallujah and the total death toll for U.S. forces was 138.
Since the war began in March 2003, at least 163 members of the National Guard, plus 45 in the Army Reserve and 45 in the Marine Reserves had died in Iraq, according to an unofficial count as of Friday. The Pentagon does not release an official death toll for the Guard and Reserve." (emphasis added).
Death rate for reservists in Iraq rises May 24, 2005

Better order some more body bags

"....
When more than 180 nations met two weeks ago hoping to strengthen global protections against the spread of nuclear arms, they barely managed to surmount the paralysis centered on Israel's arsenal of atomic weapons and Egypt's demand that the issue of nuclear weapons in the Middle East be on the agenda.
A tenuous compromise was worked out by conference president, Sergio Duarte of Brazil, who added an asterisk to the proposed agenda. It referred to a separate piece of paper ensuring that the practice of previous NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) conferences, in which the Middle East had been discussed, would be "taken into account". Duarte hailed the reference as a "miracle of diplomacy".
The UN Security Council has long called for the Middle East to be transformed into a nuclear-free zone, and Egyptian UN Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said the United States and European powers had assured the Arab world that they would work to bring Israel into the NPT. "But this is not happening," Abdelaziz meekly complained.
When Israel belligerently attacked and destroyed Iraq's research reactors in 1981, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution equating such actions with a "nuclear attack" on a member state. That attack not only led to Iraq's political determination to pursue a covert nuclear weapons program, but the same UN resolution failed to deter America's attack on Iraq's (hot) nuclear sites in the 1991 war, as it followed Israel's example of ignoring any UN resolutions that do not suit its interests.
And Iran's nuclear program and facilities are next on the agenda of both.
Israel and the US, and in that order, are in effect telling the world a reformulation of an Iraqi proverb: "Dip the NPT in a glass of water, soak it, and then drink the water", for all the good it will do you. "
The dissonance of the NPT is getting louder by Imad Khadduri, May 19, 2005

This video was taken in Lattifiya (as written in Arabic on it) which is about 50 km South of Baghdad, on May 20, 2005.

Yet, the US authorities, on May 23, 2005, mentioned four American soldiers killed by IED attack near Haswa, which they claim to be 50 km South of Baghdad (in Babil).

As per Dakhil's comment below, I stand corrected for this comment, (which I now withdraw):
"The Haswa we know, is 50 km to the West of Baghdad (in Anbar), on the highway to Amman. Either a compass is needed, or they should turn their maps 90 degrees counter clockwise."

However, there still is a slight discrepancy, perhaps now it is just the Date of the 'incident'.

"Four other American soldiers were killed by a bomb on Monday [May 23, 2005], the military said. They were assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. The explosive "detonated near their vehicle" in fighting in Haswa, south of Baghdad."
Eight American soldiers killed in Iraq May 24, 2005

Hence, the Resistance's 'embedded reporters' have in this case apparently out run the corporate media in the delivery of this news (at least by a few days before DoD announced it), aside from their far better positioning in being near the 'incident'.

Furthermore, and more to the point of this particular posting:

"Five US troops have also been killed in the past two days. But Americans almost never see photographs from Iraq showing U.S. troops killed in action. Images of thousands of dead U.S. soldiers helped to turn the tide of public opinion against the Vietnam War, but now photo-journalists are even banned from military funerals at Arlington national cemetery. A report this weekend in the Los Angeles Times documented the extremely rare publication of photos of American casualties in six major newspapers during a sixth month period. Readers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Washington Post never saw a single picture of a dead serviceman in their morning papers.
Unseen Pictures, Untold Stories: How The U.S. Press Has Sanitized The War in Iraq May 24, 2005

Would somebody kindly explain to me who the World is?
The World, Working Together, to Make a Difference May 9, 2005

Does the 'Multi-National Force-Iraq' consider the US not worthy of mention? (just show them the flag, eh, we are really humble). Maybe they are on to something, because if you click on Fallen Warriors under Military News, you see only American casualties. No need, apparently, to mention the casualties of the rest of the World! Hence, reading the title above backwards, would that 'make a difference in working together, World'?

Well, 'they' do get a dishonorable mention here -- Delivering Democracy



PS Meanwhile, in the Real World
"Iraq's insurgents are conducting increasingly sophisticated and lethal attacks on the private security companies that are crucial to the nation's reconstruction and the eventual departure of U.S. troops, contractors and U.S. officials say.
Twelve out of 18 Iraqi and international guards were killed in the attack, in which insurgents ambushed a convoy escorting cargo for the U.S. forces from Baghdad to a base in [US Military Camp at Ain-Al-Assad designated to be one of four 'permanent US bases'] al-Asat, about 90 miles west of the city.
Once resistance from the security team ended, the attackers moved in to finish off the wounded, then piled several of the bodies on top of a bomb so they could not be removed without setting off an explosion, sources said. The terrorists taped the event, presumably to develop a training and recruiting tool and to study to refine their techniques.
Security specialists said the terrorists appeared to have calibrated mortars in advance of the attack, permitting direct hits on the five-vehicle convoy just as it hit a series of hidden bombs laid out in a "daisy chain" along the road.The militants then managed to split up the convoy and systematically wipe out members of each smaller component.
...now they are very well organized, rehearsed, orchestrated, using a combination of rocket-propelled grenades, [roadside bombs] set in a daisy chain to get the wounded as they exit the vehicles, heavy machine guns, small arms and hand-thrown grenades," he said."
Attacks Hit Vital Security In Iraq May 23, 2005

"George W. Bush and his gang of neocon warmongers have destroyed America’s reputation. It is likely to stay destroyed, because at this point the only way to restore America’s reputation would be to impeach and convict President Bush for intentionally deceiving Congress and the American people in order to start a war of aggression against a country that posed no threat to the United States.
America can redeem itself only by holding Bush accountable. As intent as Republicans were to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying about a sexual affair, they have a blind eye for President Bush’s far more serious lies. Bush’s lies have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, injured and maimed tens of thousands more, devastated a country, destroyed America’s reputation, caused 1 billion Muslims to hate America, ruined our alliances with Europe, created a police state at home, and squandered $300 billion dollars and counting."
A Reputation in Tatters May 18, 2005

"Iraq. Uzbekistan. The Qur'an. These issues in the news expose American double standards, hypocrisy and outright lies.
They also help explain how George W. Bush has turned the Muslim world into a tinderbox.
It is his policies, not a News- week item on the desecration of the holy book at Guantanamo Bay, that sparked the anti-U.S. protests that killed 17 people. What the magazine reported, albeit sloppily, is not new.
... The Qur'an episodes are but one part of a broad offensive of violating the religious sensibilities of Muslims in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Some had pork or alcohol forced down their throats; they had tape placed over their mouths for reciting the Qur'an; many Muslims were forced to be naked in front of each other, members of the opposite sex and sometimes their own families," said The Times of London.
Physicians for Human Rights also cited forced nudity, masturbation and other transgressions of religious and cultural norms.
The perversions recorded in the infamous Abu Ghraib photos, for which Lynndie England and eight others are being prosecuted, were not the work of an isolated few but part of a widespread program to break down the inmates. Yet here is the administration asking Newsweek to "repair the damage done by its reporting."
Who will fix the destruction unleashed by the administration when it sent the U.S. war machine abroad; killed, maimed or uprooted hundreds of thousands; violated the property, privacy, dignity and religious values of thousands picked up at random, including women and children; and psychologically tortured inmates and shipped others for physical torture to Egypt, Syria, Uzbekistan and other regimes it is in cahoots with?
... Whom are Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and others fooling, other than their pliant half of the American electorate, with phony pronouncements about how America would never tolerate such criminality?
Muslim world turned into a tinderbox May 22, 2005

T(h)rust US


PS Getting Bored? Eat some bullets.
"A 22-YEAR-OLD Afghan taxi driver whose only crime was driving past a US base at the wrong time was so badly beaten his legs could no longer bend and chained by the wrists to the ceiling of his cell where he eventually died. According to a report published yesterday, detainees in United States military custody in Afghanistan were the victims of widespread abuse by "young and poorly trained soldiers."
A 2,000-page confidential file obtained by the New York Times reveals brutal treatment of prisoners, apparently often born out of little more than boredom." (emphasis added)
'US jailers tortured innocent Afghan to death' May 21, 2005

The April, 2005 issue of the Weghat Nazar monthly periodical, published an excerpt from the "Disintegration and Escape" chapter in Iraq's Nuclear Mirage under the title "They wanted a "weapons free Iraq" .. now Iraq is empty from its scientists".
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This is an update to the just below posting "The purveyors of hate - ..."

"The head of Iraq's largest Christian community denounced American evangelical missionaries in his country on Thursday for what he said were attempts to convert poor Muslims by flashing money and smart cars.
Patriarch Emmanuel Delly, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, told journalists that many Protestant activists had come to Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and set up what he called "boutiques" to attract converts.
... Violent Iraqi groups killed at least five evangelical missionaries last year.
... At least 20 Iraqis were killed in bombings of Christian churches last year as unknown attackers stepped up pressure on non-Muslims there.
... Delly said Iraq did not need missionaries as its Christian churches dated back long before Protestantism. As for trying to convert Muslims, he said: "You can't even talk about that here."
... Saying the evangelicals were not real missionaries, Delly said they attracted poor youths with displays of money and taking them "out riding in cars to have fun." "Then they take photos and send them here, to Germany, to the United States and say 'look how many Muslims have become Christian'," he said.
...The patriarch, who vigorously opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and met French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday, declined to comment on Washington's policy there or whether he had contacts with U.S. authorities.
"Frankly, I try to avoid meeting them as much as possible," he said. "They are the occupiers. The occupied don't want to be occupied. That's human nature."
Delly, 77, ranks as an archbishop in the Catholic Church and is tipped as a possible future cardinal.
Patriarch denounces U.S. evangelicals in Iraq May 19, 2005 (Note: This link to Reuters is not working correctly. This news item is the Second one under Related Articles).
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The following are two instances of needless incitements against Christianity and the Christians in Iraq.

"At dawn on Monday, May 16, 2005, more than 50 American soldiers barged into the mosque at Albu Firaj, south of Ramadi. They searched the whole mosque premises, tore up several Qurans and beat the worshippers.
The Mosque’s Imam told (Mufakirat al-Islam, Islam Memo) reporter: “The occupation soldiers barged into the mosques with their boots on, surrounded us as we prayed and herded us with their weapons into one corner of the mosque as they searched the whole place. Several of the soldiers, under the gaze of their commander, then kicked with their boots several Qurans among themselves (as if a ball) until the Qurans reached the door of the mosque. One of the soldiers, while pointing to the Quran on the floor, continued kicking it as he looked mockingly at us while laughing uncontrollably in an unusual manner. Another soldier held a spray can and sprayed seven black crosses (a picture below), on the praying pedestal that the Imam lectures from, three on the praying carpets in front of the pedestal and three on the inner mosque doors and columns. They left at seven am without arresting anybody.”
Occupation soldiers barged in one of Ramadi’s mosques, tore Qurans and painted crosses (in Arabic, my translation) May 16, 2005

"In a grave precedent, eye witnesses have confirmed that unknown Christian missionaries, protected by several American Hummers, have flung a large number of copies of the Bible in several areas of Baghdad, and the South, especially in Shi’a areas.
A (Mufakirat al-Islam, Islam Memo) reporter in the Shiite poor suburb of Shu’la, on the north west of Baghdad, reported that people then woke up on Wednesday morning to find a large number of these Bibles littering their streets.
The reporter pointed out that the first pages of these Bibles contained exhortations to the effect: “Now you can exalt and attain deeper meanings that will grant you eternal happiness on earth and in heaven. Join us in promoting peace and security in Iraq. The Bible has great spiritual powers on the people who believe in it. Contact us if you want to know more about the life of Jesus Christ”.
This page is followed by The Apostle's Creed (my reference) completely translated into Arabic (as in the original news item).
The Bibles are printed by the Saints Printing Press, without any indication of the country it is printed in.
.. An assembly of Sunni and Shiite Imams, with the assistance of the locals, collected all of these Bibles, put them in a pile and burned them. All the Bibles were burned by 10 in the morning. The reporter kept a copy of one of the Bibles (a picture below).
Dhafir Hiadi, a Shi’i from al-Shu’la district, who participated in the burning of the Bibles, claimed that to his knowledge, this is the first time that these Bibles are distributed in Baghdad, but it is not the first time, as such an event has already occurred several times in the southern Shiite provinces.
It is worth mentioning that more than 100,000 Bibles have recently arrived to Erbil (Kurdish ‘capital’) and are sold for 1,000 Iraqi Dinars (50 US cents) each, while a Quran in the bookstores would cost 50,000 Iraqi Dinars (about $40)."
Copies of the Bible are distributed in Baghdad under the protection of American Hummers (in Arabic, my translation) May 18, 2005

In the meantime,

"Web sites maintained by Iraqi insurgents and their supporters contain chilling instructions that tell recruits how to become snipers and how to inflict the maximum damage, ABC News has learned."
Insurgents Post Sniper Training Exercises Online May 17, 2005

and guess who might also be in their cross-hairs next.

1. Introduction: Iraqi public sentiments regarding the occupation
The occupation of Iraq is today less about rolling back Iraqi military power, dislodging a tyrant, or building a stable democracy than it is about fighting an insurgency -- an insurgency that is now driven substantially by the occupation, its practices, and policies. We can take a first step toward understanding the insurgency by locating it within the broader field of popular Iraqi opposition to the occupation, which is widespread. Iraqi public opinion has been polled repeatedly since the beginning of the occupation by a variety of firms. Their findings leave no doubt about the main contours of Iraqi sentiment regarding the occupation:

- On balance, Iraqis oppose the US presence in Iraq, and those who strongly oppose it greatly outnumber those who strongly support it.1
- US troops in Iraq are viewed broadly as an occupying force, not peacekeepers or liberators.2
- On balance, Iraqis do not trust US troops, think they have behaved badly, and -- one way or another -- hold them responsible for much of the violence in the nation.3
- There is significant popular support for attacks on US forces, and this support probably grew larger during the course of 2004, at least among Sunni Arabs.4
- A majority of Iraqis want coalition forces to leave within a year or less. Formation of a permanent government early in 2006 is the "tipping point" after which a very large majority of Iraqis may desire immediate withdrawal.5

Although disconcerting, these results provide the most reliable view of Iraqi attitudes available. The fact that they have played little role in the public discourse on the Iraqi mission imperils US policy and contributes to the present impasse.

See the whole report and the sources:
Vicious Circle: The Dynamics of Occupation and Resistance in Iraq 18 May 2005

Versus

"The Mystery of the Insurgency" was the headline on a Sunday New York Times article reporting on the consensus of U.S. guerrilla warfare experts that the insurgents' motives and actions are simply baffling. However, "it clearly makes sense to the people who are doing it," said defense analyst Loren B. Thompson. "And that more than anything else tells us how little we understand the region."
U.S. Is Its Own Worst Enemy in Iraq May 17, 2005

Galloway slams U.S. justice as he rejects charges May 17, 2005

Or the BBC's :

Galloway takes on US oil accusers and Explosive showdown in Senate May 17, 2005

..He came "not as the accused but as the accuser".
British MP Delivers Blistering War Critique May 18, 2005

The United States Senate has declined to make the transcript of Mr. Galloway's testimony available. Here it is. May 21, 2005

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PS (Thanks to a comment by Evelyn)
"Indeed, the neo-con team is brazenly acting as if Saddam did something wrong in selling Iraqi oil in violation of the United Nations embargo that we insisted by kept on for a dozen years after the 1991 Gulf War. The U.N. resolution did not prohibit Baghdad's sale of oil! It prohibited its purchase by U.N. members. When it came to the problems associated with the embargo that affected Jordan and Turkey, both of which depend on Iraqi oil, by now every member of Congress knows that both the Clinton and Bush administrations turned a blind eye to the so-called "illegal sales," or they would have had to come up with the oil from other sources.
The Bayoil Indictment -- the Real Scandal April 17, 2005