Free Iraq

"The Washington Post is reasserting its august judgment over what qualifies as news in the face of citizen complaints that it and other mainstream media outlets neglected leaked British memos about the deceptions behind George W. Bush’s war in Iraq.
The Post’s lead editorial on June 15 mixed a patronizing tone with derisive comments in assuring its readers that “the memos add not a single fact to what was previously known about the administration’s prewar deliberations. Not only that: They add nothing to what was publicly known in July 2002.” (emphasis added)
Oh, really?"
LMSM, the 'Lying Mainstream Media' June 17, 2005

"Six new secret British documents have been leaked and are provided below. These were retyped from the originals to protect the source, RawStory.com has verified the authenticity."
Bombshell As Six More British Documents Leaked June 14, 2005

An Update:

The OTHER ' Memos' from Downing Street and Pennsylvania Avenue June 18, 2005

"A SHARP increase in British and American bombing raids on Iraq in the run-up to war “to put pressure on the regime” was illegal under international law, according to leaked Foreign Office legal advice. The advice was first provided to senior ministers in March 2002. Two months later RAF and USAF jets began “spikes of activity” designed to goad Saddam Hussein into retaliating and giving the allies a pretext for war. The Foreign Office advice shows military action to pressurise the regime was “not consistent with” UN law, despite American claims that it was." British bombing raids were illegal, says Foreign Office June 19, 2005

Comfy Lapdogs

"There is a lookout there, a hill referred to as Safwan Hill, on the Iraqi side of the border. It was filled with Iraqi intelligence gathering. From that vantage point, they could look out over all of northern Kuwait.
It is now estimated the hill was hit so badly by missiles, artillery and by the Air Force, that they shaved a couple of feet off it. And anything that was up there that was left after all the explosions was then hit with napalm. And that pretty much put an end to any Iraqi operations up on that hill."
Protecting Iraq's oil supply March 22, 2003

"American jets killed Iraqi troops with firebombs – similar to the controversial napalm used in the Vietnam War – in March and April [2003] as Marines battled toward Baghdad.
Marine Corps fighter pilots and commanders who have returned from the war zone have confirmed dropping dozens of incendiary bombs near bridges over the Saddam Canal and the Tigris River. The explosions created massive fireballs.
"We napalmed both those (bridge) approaches," said Col. Randolph Alles in a recent interview. He commanded Marine Air Group 11, based at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, during the war. "Unfortunately, there were people there because you could see them in the (cockpit) video.
... During the war, Pentagon spokesmen disputed reports that napalm was being used, saying the Pentagon's stockpile had been destroyed two years ago.
... Apparently the spokesmen were drawing a distinction between the terms "firebomb" and "napalm." If reporters had asked about firebombs, officials said yesterday they would have confirmed their use.
"Incendiaries create burns that are difficult to treat," said Robert Musil, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a Washington group that opposes the use of weapons of mass destruction. Musil described the Pentagon's distinction between napalm and Mark 77 firebombs as "pretty outrageous." "That's clearly Orwellian," he added."
Results are 'remarkably similar' to using napalm August 5, 2003

Now, two years later, the well read and honorable British MPs are 'horrified' that the U.S. has been lying to them all this time on the use of Napalm during the occupation of Iraq, and was also used on Fallujah and neighbouring Saqlawiya when "Outraged critics [furious Labour MPs] have also demanded that Mr Blair threatens to withdraw British troops from Iraq unless the US abandons one of the world's most reviled weapons.".

And the lies "were held until after the general elections"? Tut, tut ... Now that is something to debate on the Parliament floor !!

"American officials lied to British ministers over the use of "internationally reviled" napalm-type firebombs in Iraq.
Yesterday's disclosure led to calls by MPs for a full statement to the Commons and opened ministers to allegations that they held back the facts until after the general election.
Despite persistent rumours of injuries among Iraqis consistent with the use of incendiary weapons such as napalm, Adam Ingram, the Defence minister, assured Labour MPs in January that US forces had not used a new generation of incendiary weapons, codenamed MK77, in Iraq.
But Mr Ingram admitted to the Labour MP Harry Cohen in a private letter obtained by The Independent that he had inadvertently misled Parliament because he had been misinformed by the US. "The US confirmed to my officials that they had not used MK77s in Iraq at any time and this was the basis of my response to you," he told Mr Cohen. "I regret to say that I have since discovered that this is not the case and must now correct the position."
... The confirmation that US officials misled British ministers led to new questions last night about the value of the latest assurances by the US. Mr Cohen said there were rumours that the firebombs were used in the US assault on the insurgent stronghold in Fallujah last year, claims denied by the US. "
US lied to Britain over use of napalm in Iraq war June 17, 2005

When will they reveal about the two MOABs that were dropped on Baghdad airport in early April, 2003 and incinerated hundreds of Iraqi and American soldiers? In order to hide the effect of the bombs, they had to scrape the top soil of the effected area and fly it away in a fleet of huge transport airplanes as soon as the airport was later opened.

Napalm Bomb Exploding

In a Comment that I previously posted a week ago, I alluded to Justin Raimondo's posting The Return of "Fragging"? .

It has indeed returned:

"Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez was charged with murder Wednesday in the deaths last week of two Army officers at a base north of Baghdad, the military said Thursday.
The military initially attributed the June 7 killings of the officers - Capt. Phillip T. Esposito 30, of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen, 34, of Milford, Pa. - to an insurgent mortar attack near Tikrit but said further investigation showed the blast pattern was inconsistent with such an attack."
Al-Zarqawi Blamed for Spike in Iraq Deaths June 16, 2005

By the way, wasn't he supposed to be, according to authorities cited in the above article ("A U.S. general on Thursday blamed Iraq's recent spike in bloodshed on a terrorist leader condoning the killing of fellow Muslims"), in Syria just a couple of weeks ago meeting his top lieutenants, then swooshing over to Iran, all with a bullet in his chest from the onslaught on Qaim, and after losing his laptop in the getaway car after US soldiers smashed the hospital (and beat the doctors) in Ramadi where he was just bleeding heavily, and now he is suddenly spread all over western and northern Iraq in the past few days?

He is apparently able to move fast; that is, if you believe the 'authorities' cited above. They are so certain of whom to blame for the quagmire that they have been immersed in, aren't they? No wonder their soldiers are loosing 'it' and Fragging them instead.

He is unlike this friendly speedy ghost, eh?


An Update:

[Iraqi/US/US and Iraqi] forces have [nabbed/captured/ arrested] [a/one/two] [senior/middle/] [figure(s)/operations chief(s)/terrorist operative(s)] of [Jordanian/al-Qaeda-linked/Iraq's most wanted] terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi.
The Zarqawi Phenomenon July 6, 2005

"Nine months ago the American military laid siege to this city [Tallaa'far] in northwestern Iraq and proclaimed it freed from the grip of insurgents. Last month, the Americans returned in force - to reclaim it once again.
After the battle here in September [2004] the military left behind fewer than 500 troops to patrol a region twice the size of Connecticut. With so few troops and the local police force in shambles, insurgents came back and turned Tal Afar, a dusty, agrarian city of about 200,000 people, into a way station for the trafficking of arms and insurgent fighters from nearby Syria - and a ghost town of terrorized residents afraid to open their stores, walk the streets or send their children to school.
It is a cycle that has been repeated in rebellious cities throughout Iraq, and particularly those in the Sunni Arab regions west and north of Baghdad, where the insurgency's roots run deepest.
.... Many tribal sheiks here say they favor an all-out assault to rout the city's insurgents, but American commanders say a major attack like the one that leveled Falluja last November is to be avoided almost at all costs. The bloodshed, destruction of property and alienation of the Iraqi public is too high a price to pay, they say." (emphasis added)
Magnet For Iraq Insurgents Is A Crucial Test Of New U.S. Strategy June 16, 2005

Do you mean they did not realize that until the second attack on Fallujah? How considerate of them, indeed !

Don't fret ! Rumsfeld has it all figured out in his 'metrics':

"US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has acknowledged that security in Iraq has not improved statistically since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003.
... In an interview for the BBC's Newsnight programme, Mr Rumsfeld said Iraq had passed several milestones, like holding elections and appointing a government.
But asked if the security situation had improved, he admitted: "Statistically, no." (emphasis added)
"But clearly it has been getting better as we've gone along," he added.
"A lot of bad things that could have happened have not happened." (emphasis added)
Iraq 'no more safe than in 2003' June 15, 2005

Immoral Morals, Government Lies, Fixed Intelligence, Corruption, 'Freedom and Liberty' in Iraq, Oil Theft, 22,000 Rich Mercenaries, Abu Ghraib torture, Fallujah, Qaim, Ramadi, Hit, Haditha, Najaf, Karbala, Tallaa'far, 100,000 + 1700+++ ... Anybody for "have not happened" say Aye !!

A DOD metric

"Police and security units, forces led by Kurdish political parties and backed by the U.S. military, have abducted hundreds of minority [sic: this is highly disputed and is an ill-informed reporting] Arabs and Turkmens in this intensely volatile city and spirited them to prisons in Kurdish-held northern Iraq, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, government documents and families of the victims.
Seized off the streets of Kirkuk or in joint U.S.-Iraqi raids, the men have been transferred secretly and in violation of Iraqi law to prisons in the Kurdish cities of Irbil and Sulaymaniyah, sometimes with the knowledge of U.S. forces. The detainees, including merchants, members of tribal families and soldiers, have often remained missing for months; some have been tortured, according to released prisoners and the Kirkuk police chief.
A confidential State Department cable, obtained by The Washington Post and addressed to the White House, Pentagon and U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said the "extra-judicial detentions" were part of a "concerted and widespread initiative" by Kurdish political parties "to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an increasingly provocative manner."The abductions have "greatly exacerbated tensions along purely ethnic lines" and endangered U.S. credibility, the nine-page cable, dated June 5, stated. "Turkmen in Kirkuk tell us they perceive a U.S. tolerance for the practice while Arabs in Kirkuk believe Coalition Forces are directly responsible.
.... The State Department cable noted that U.S. commanders had denied complicity in the transfers, contrary to the perceptions of Arabs and Turkmens. "Coalition PR efforts to counter the story have been ineffective," stated the cable, which was written by the U.S. Embassy's regional coordinator.
... As he sat in his house, the fans idle on a scorching day during a blackout, Aissa Ramadan seethed over the seizure of most of his family.He said they were taken March 17, when U.S. and Iraqi forces arrived at his family's compound in the village of Shahid Faleh, about 20 miles south of Kirkuk. Ramadan's three brothers and two sons were taken, along with his 87-year-old father, Ramadan Taha, who walks with a cane.
... "If you could see our house on any day, you'd see that we're having funerals without the corpses," Ramadan said. "Children are looking for their fathers, wives don't know the fate of their husbands, and mothers are dying 40 times a day."
Ramadan said he had "anger in his heart."
"Tomorrow, I could recruit the entire tribe," he said. "I could block the street in Kirkuk and kidnap 40 Kurds. When you lose patience, you can do anything."
Kurdish Officials Sanction Abductions in Kirkuk June 15, 2005

A friend of mine commented on this : "What's this called? I heard 'somebody' was talking about ETHNIC CLEANSING and VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS in Iraq!! Some people might like to call it LIBERATION? huh!! "

"There he was, just as his victims looked on his own television screens, his words censored, his arguments unknown, his case as undemocratic as the "judicial" courts in which Saddam destroyed his own enemies.
The Iraqis - or, let us speak frankly, the Americans who tried to censor the old reprobate's previous court appearance - decided yesterday that his words would also be censored. That is Saddamism. This is how Saddam ran Iraq.
The words were obliterated. And now the Americans and their obedient, Shia-led government, are acting out the same Saddamite line.
The pictures, the BBC admitted, were "mute". What in God's name did this mean? Who emasculated the BBC to such a degree that it should say such a ridiculous thing? Why were they mute? The BBC didn't tell us.
If Saddam was really being charged with war crimes over the killings of Shias - which I hope he was - then why, in heaven's name, didn't we hear what he had to say? Why use the methods of Saddam himself? The silent film, the assumption of guilt? Or was Saddam telling the court that the United States was behind his regime, that Washington had given him the means to destroy the Halabja Kurds with gas?
How can we know? And when so many of our journalistic brethren failed to challenge the reason why this tape should be "mute", what does this say of us? We are told, by Saddam's jailers of course, that he is being questioned about the murder of Shia villagers south of Baghdad in 1982. I hope so. But how do we know?
The reality is that Saddam is from Iraq's past, something from the era before "our" insecurity and destruction and the rape and insurgency and death which has now overwhelmed Iraq.
Yes, there are those who would like to see Saddam brought to justice. But they want safety and law and order and freedom - freedom from us, too - before they care about this crazed old man's trial. But we insist the Iraqis have bread and circuses before they have freedom. And they must experience our democracy by understanding that the defendant in a court must be shut up and denied his own words in order to appear on the BBC. "
Saddam Interrogation Screened - in Silence. The Question Is: Why? by Robert Fisk June 14, 2005

An Arab proverb states: "If you see the fangs of the tiger, don't be fooled that the tiger is smiling".

Aissa Ramadan with his sons Raed and Saad .... incubated 'insurgents'??
Photo Credit By Anthony Shadid

"Police sources in Iraq have revealed that a senior US diplomat escaped unhurt when the military convoy in which he was traveling was struck by a suicide car bomber.
A U.S. embassy spokesman confirmed that the diplomat was in the vicinity of the attack but declined to identify him. He added that the diplomat was safe and that the attack did not appear to have targeted him. The spokesman declined to disclose any other details.
However, an Interior Ministry spokesman revealed that police had confirmed news that a suicide car bomber had attacked a U.S. military convoy. "
Senior US diplomat unhurt in suicide car bomb attack in Iraq, identity unconfirmed June 14, 2004

His name, according to reliable sources (this is indeed a neat corporate media ploy), is Robert Ford , a POL (perhaps it stands for Political) Key Officer at the US Embassy in Baghdad.

How reliable is he? Well, he is the one who broke the ice after Chalabi was chilled last February.
Chalabi nominated for Iraq PM February 14, 2005 (you would need to free register with the site)

Do venture out around Baghdad some more, Bob (may I call you Bob), would you please? You see, your Embassy in Baghdad is not that safe !! May I suggest some jogging beyond the Green Zone over any bridge in Baghdad? and don't forget the anti-mosquito lotion !!

US embassy ...............in.........the Green Zone

Hijacking Catastrophe video is powerful, understated, straightforward and educational.
In a single meticulously organized hour of evidence and analysis, viewers are treated to a thoughtful explanation of modern American empire, neo-conservatism as a driving force for the current Bush administration.
A documentary featuring Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Tariq Ali, and many more experts speaking about the Neo-Con agenda and the cloud of fear which the Neo-Cons have settled over America.
9/11, Fear, and the Selling of American Empire. Information Clearing House

"Recruiters with the gift of gab go into the schools with a glamorous pitch, bags full of goodies for the kids (T-shirts, donuts, key chains) and a litany of promises they often can't keep. The kids don't hear much about their chances of being maimed or killed, or the trauma that often results from killing someone else.
... (A soldier's job is to kill. I can still hear the drill sergeants in basic training screaming at us decades ago: "What are you? What are you?" And we'd scream back: "Killers! Killers!" And the sergeants would say, "What is your purpose?" And we would shout: "To kill! To kill!")
... Americans are catching on to the hideousness and apparent futility of the war in Iraq.
... A Washington Post-ABC News poll last week found that nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the number of casualties in Iraq is unacceptable, and 60 percent believe the war was not worth fighting.There's something frankly embarrassing about a government offering trinkets to children to persuade them to go off and fight - and perhaps die - in a war that their nation should never have started in the first place.
... The parents of the kids being sought by recruiters to fight this unpopular war are creating a highly vocal and potentially very effective antiwar movement. In effect, they're saying to their own children: hell no, you won't go. "
They Won't Go June 13, 2005

"What if President Bush lied to Congress and the American people, used those lies to gain congressional approval for military action against Iraq and launched a war that killed 1,700 Americans and tens of thousands of others?
That might have been a hypothetical question a month ago; it might not be hypothetical anymore.
In fact, Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, says the answer to the question could lead to the impeachment of President Bush.
The release of an explosive piece of paper called the Downing Street Memo has Hinchey, almost 90 members of Congress and people around the world in an uproar.
The memo provides the closest thing to proof Bush may have lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and led the nation into an unnecessary war, Hinchey and others say.
"Attacking Iraq was something the administration focused on from the very beginning," Hinchey said. "Bush made the policy, then altered, twisted and distorted the facts to fit the policy."
Could Memo Sink Bush? June 13, 2005

An Update:

"Six new secret British documents have been leaked and are provided below. These were retyped from the originals to protect the source, RawStory.com has verified the authenticity." Bombshell As Six More British Documents Leaked June 14, 2005

"The Globe also wrote about a recent internal poll that found that nearly 45% of the Iraqi population supported the insurgent attacks, while only 15% of those polled said they strongly supported the US-led coalition. So much for the notion so eagerly embraced by senior administration officials that an elected government would automatically translate into opposition to the insurgency. "
US dragged down by news from Iraq June 15, 2005 (hence the added previously posted - Decemeber 14, 2004- drawing)

And when America gives its word ...

See this story:

"Sixteen private American security guards are under investigation for shooting at U.S. Marines and Iraqi civilians during a three-hour spree west of Baghdad, the military said Thursday.
The Marines said the 16 Americans and three Iraqi contractors were arrested and held in a military jail for three days (my emphasis) after spraying small arms fire at Iraqi civilians and U.S. forces from their cars in Fallujah (added emphasis) late last month.
There were no casualties.
Many Iraqis resent high-profile security details who speed along highways in sports utility vehicles bristling with automatic weapons.
Senior government officials, who are prime targets of militants wreaking havoc across Iraq, use private security firms for their own protection.
No charges have been filed yet following the May 28 shootings."
Military Investigates U.S. Guards in Iraq June 9, 2005

Sounds innocuous enough, no?

Now read this: The same story, the same day, the same news source (The Guardian):

"A group of American security guards in Iraq have alleged they were beaten, stripped and threatened with a snarling dog by US marines when they were detained after an alleged shooting incident outside Falluja last month.
"I never in my career have treated anybody so inhumane," one of the contractors, Rick Blanchard, a former Florida state trooper, wrote in an email quoted in the Los Angeles Times. "They treated us like insurgents, roughed us up, took photos, hazed [bullied] us, called us names." ** (emphasis added)
This is believed to be the first time that private military contractors have been detained in Iraq by the US military, and it has reignited debate about their status and accountability.
The security guards claim the shooting incident was a case of mistaken identity. A spokeswoman for the company told the LA Times that the guards had fired warning shots into the air when an unidentified vehicle approached their vehicle as it passed through Falluja, but had not fired at any marines.
... Mark Schopper, a lawyer for two of the contractors, told the newspaper that his clients, both former marines, were subjected to "physical and psychological abuse". He said they had told him that marines had "slammed around" several con tractors, stripped them to their underwear and placed a loaded weapon near their heads.
"How does it feel to be a big, rich contractor now?" one of the marines is alleged to have shouted at the men, in an apparent reference to the large sums of money private contractors can make in Iraq. Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan, a Marine Corps spokesman, who did not respond to emails from the Guardian, said in an email to the LA Times: "The Americans were segregated from the rest of the detainee population and, like all security detainees, were treated humanely and respectfully. (emphasis added, all?? see ** above)
According to Peter Singer, a Brookings Institute scholar and author of the book Corporate Warriors, private military contractors in Iraq are operating in a black hole (emphasis added) as they do not fall within the military chain of command. "What appears to have happened here is tension between forces bubbling to the surface," he told the Guardian. (emphasis added, more of a sign of deteriorating moral, my comment)
But he said the incident also raised the question of what happens to contractors if they are caught doing something wrong, such as firing on civilians, as their legal status is not defined. "If the marines think [the contractors] did do something illegal there is no process they can go through. Who are they going to hand them over to?" Mr Singer said. "There have been more than 20,000 [contractors] on the ground in Iraq for more than two years and not one has been prosecuted for anything." (emphasis added)
Marines 'beat US workers' in Iraq June 9, 2005

An Update:

Who is Zapata Corporation? (I am not sure of why the music is there, and the other seven links in the same site are dubious and, I believe, are tainted).

"Reports about armed confrontations between active duty U.S. and coalition military forces and coalition armed private military contractors in Iraq have gone from a trickle to a steady flow. While fragging incidents between U.S. enlisted and officers were more commonplace in Vietnam than ever admitted by the Pentagon, the violence between active military and quasi-mercenaries in Iraq is a fairly new phenomenon, according to U.S. military experts. What is occurring in Iraq is not friendly fire but willful fighting between occupation forces. "
Unfriendly Fire: Hostile incidents increasinf between US military and private military contractors in Iraq June 13, 2005

Don't fret. The UN to the rescue:

"Thousands of people are detained in Iraq without due process in apparent violation of international law, the United Nations has said, adding that 6,000 of the country's 10,000 prisoners were in the hands of the US military.
In Iraq, ''one of the major human rights challenges remains the detention of thousands of persons without due process,'' Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday in a report to the 15-nation UN Security Council.According to the Iraqi Justice Ministry, there were about 10,000 detainees in all of Iraq as of April (emphasis added), ''6,000 of whom were in the custody of the Multinational Force'' commanded by the United States, Annan said."
US-led forces in Iraq hold 6,000 prisoners -UN June 9, 2005

Suddenly, immediately after April 2005, the "detainee population surpassed 11,350 last week, a nearly 20 percent jump since Iraq's Jan. 30 elections." by May 9, 2005.

And to that, add by now about 1,300 civilian/suspected detainees from the 'Iraqi' Shiite and Kurdish militias' "Operation Lightning" in June, 2005.

As for the UN ..........

This site is undergoing a revamp due to a Copyright © notice on the posted photos:

"If you could please make private all photos that you have not received explicit permission to post, plus the photos of corpses, whether or not they are U.S. soldiers. War time images of corpses, although a reality, are really not appropriate at all for 13-year-olds, which is the youngest one can be to have a Flickr account."

Kindly bear with us as we attempt.
.
An Update: This Comment, listed below, suffices:

"I'm a U.S. physician and I am aware of trauma issues. As long as our tax dollars are confronting small, vulnerable children in Iraq and Afghanistan with the actual carnage of our brutal assault and occupation, the killing before their eyes of the people they love, our little ones should see every photo and U.S. parents should finally become as outraged as I already am!"

For those interested further in this matter, kindly refer to Sonic's place.
.

If you find a major bunker complex containing a huge cache of explosives, would you destroy it like this?

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military said it had destroyed two bunkers suspected of being used by insurgents to store weapons and plan attacks as seven members of Iraq's security forces were wounded in two separate bombings.
US forces destroyed a former Republican Guard bunker system in the Yusifiyah area southwest of the capital on Thursday following a tip-off by local residents and surveillance of the site, said a military statement.
It said the bunker, located in an area that housed a major part of ousted dictator Saddam Hussain's former military-industrial complex, was being used by insurgents to store ammunition.
"Coalition Forces engaged the complex with five high-precision smart-bombs," it said.
"Secondary detonations emanating from inside the complex" continued for about six hours after the strike, the statement added.
US troops locate insurgent bunker in Iraq June 6, 2005

If you are in control of the territory and you are trying to win, you would take the site and inventory it.

If you are scared to death to leave your fort, you would call in five smart bombs to be dropped from thousands of feet above and then write a press release to show how smart you are!

The Americans have created their next Alamo. They have thousands of troops trapped in Iraq that have no function other than to be scared to death and to terrorize the population because they are so afraid of them. They have been sent into Baghdad where they are totally surrounded and cannot get out. I think the coming massacre will be remembered for all time. Hollywood can make a film about all the brave men and women who died in the Green Zone in the search for freedom.

Stories like the bunker stories (see next) show just how bad it is getting, and especially after two whole years of 'being in control', relentless advanced surveillance and very expensive 'Intelligence'. Wonder how many more will they be 'finding'?

"On Sunday, US troops destroyed a bunker system built in an abandoned rock quarry in Karmah, near the former rebel bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad, which had been found four days earlier.
About 150kg of plastic explosives were used to destroy the network and the weapons stored inside, the military said, adding that 12 weapons caches were also found within an eight kilometre radius of the bunker.
The whole complex was 170m wide and 275m long or bigger than four football pitches and fresh food inside showed the hideout had been recently inhabited.Fully furnished living spaces were found in the warren, along with a kitchen, showers and an air conditioner, hi-tech combat equipment such as night vision goggles and a large haul of weapons and ammunition. US troops locate insurgent bunker in Iraq June 6, 2005

And you get these valid comments:

"But an Islamic mufti, or spiritual leader, living near Fallujah offered a different take: He said the bunkers were proof that the insurgency is unbowed.
"This shows the failure of the Marines. It was close to their base and they could not see it," (emphasis added) said the mufti, who formerly sat on the council that directed insurgents in Fallujah. He spoke by phone Saturday evening on the condition of anonymity. "The Americans think they know everything. But when they came to Iraq they thought the people would receive them with flowers. Instead of flowers they found these bunkers."
Haitham al-Dulaimi, who works at a garage in Ramadi, had a similar reaction.
"Are you sure they found it near Fallujah?" he asked, laughing. "It shows you how much the Iraqi resistance has insulted the Americans." (emphasis added)
It was not clear who built the bunkers. The entrance to the underground system was discovered by a patrol of Marines and Iraqi army soldiers who were searching a house in the desert when they found a passageway beneath an electric freezer. A rock quarry is adjacent to the site, and the space could be an abandoned mine facility. Former dictator Saddam Hussein also kept underground bunkers throughout the country.
"I honestly don't know what the bunker was used for before insurgents began using it," said VandenBossche, the Marine spokesperson. The find comes amidst mounting concern in Iraq that the insurgency has reorganized after a lull in violence following national elections in January. Bunkers reveal well-equipped, sophisticated insurgency June 4, 2005

And this is the picture of the entrance that was covered by a chest type food freezer. They blew the bunker up with only 300 lbs of explosive, yet it is the size of four football fields !? How stupid do they assume the American public is? Umm.. maybe they themselves are?

This posting is dedicated to the 'Iraqi' and 'Arab' interpreters who are working for the Occupiers:

"Nashwan Hassan Ahmed's belief in the American mission in Iraq never wavered.
Hired fresh out of Baghdad University, he served for 18 months as an interpreter for American forces in Mosul. Former colleagues recall him working bravely and tirelessly, side by side with troops on dangerous nighttime hunts for insurgents, and in the offices and conference rooms where the details of reconstruction projects were hammered out.
The days were long, but Mr. Ahmed, now 24, said he did not care, "because I felt that I was trying to help Iraq stand up again, and because I felt I was like a brother to them."
By "them," Mr. Ahmed meant the American soldiers he lived with, and who came to call him Nash. He spent mornings with them at the shooting range and evenings playing video games. He learned to like lasagna and root for the Atlanta Braves.
Then the threats started. Because of his work with American troops, some Iraqis saw Mr. Ahmed as a collaborator. Mr. Ahmed said his family was harassed and abused, and they moved three times in an effort to hide from insurgents. When Mr. Ahmed begged his American bosses for help, he was told they could do nothing. He said he finally realized that for his family's safety, he would have to leave Iraq.
Alone, he crossed the border into Syria in January.
Mr. Ahmed is one of a growing group of Iraqis who used to work as interpreters, drivers or cooks for American forces in Iraq but have fled to Syria because the insurgency branded them as traitors. In recent months, Iraqis who are known to have worked with American troops have been killed and kidnapped in large numbers.
They were once among the most enthusiastic Iraqi supporters of the American-led invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein. But now, they say, they feel confused and abandoned in a society that, with its ubiquitous banners bearing Syrian Baath Party slogans and huge portraits of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and his family, reminds them at least superficially of Mr. Hussein's Iraq.
Iraqi Ex-Employees of U.S. Face Death Threats or Exile June June 5, 2005

"Saeed, a 35-year-old Morocco native, recalls a motivational speech for the recruits in which a sergeant pledged, "We're going to go to Iraq and kill those guys who worship Allah."
.... Tarik, a newly minted U.S. Army private first class, recalls his first challenge in Iraq: convincing fellow GIs he wasn't a terrorist.The 24-year-old Morocco native was among the first graduates of a U.S. military program to provide Arabic-speaking "combat linguists" for American ground troops, one of the most precarious roles in the Iraq conflict.
... In Iraq, some interpreters said, soldiers mocked their Arabic surnames and accused them of being "on the wrong side" of the conflict. Suspicious of his accent and dark features, some soldiers disdainfully labeled Tarik a hajji, a term of respect among Muslims that many American soldiers use with scorn."
'Combat Linguists' Also Battle Labels June 4, 2005

And, see the earlier posting "American-Iraqi mercenaries" May 23, 2005

For a fistful of Iraqi blood-stained US$, they die or are abandoned

Part 1
Windows Media (DSL)
Windows Media (Dial-up)

Part 2
Windows Media (DSL)
Windows Media (Dial-up)

This presentation was delivered a year ago. It was posted on June 3, 2005.
American Jails in Iraq Are Bursting with Detainees March 4, 2005

A noteworthy Comment (below) by Evelyn:
"A note to any site visitors who, like myself, may feel yourselves unable to watch the posted video links: I thought I couldn't.
I began viewing with my finger on the "stop" button. However, the slide presentation by Aidan Delgado, a conscientious objector who had been at Abu Ghraib, is excellent and viewable. Do yourself a favour; pluck up your courage and watch. You won't be sorry."

Faiza is an Iraqi mother who blogs with her family (sans the father). She is now on a training course on "peace building" in Massachusetts, US. She is invited to a picnic.

Torture does not bring freedom ©

At the start of this Blog site (last December, 2004), I repeatedly ventured to ask:

- "The CPA flew the coup in June 2004. Who is in charge of Iraqi oil money for the past six months?" Halli Baba (December 9, 2004)

- "Who is in charge of the money from the Iraqi oil sales since the US gift of Iraqi 'sovereignty'?" Where is the Iraqi oil money ? (December 13, 2004)

- "By the way, where is the money from the sale of Iraqi oil for the past eight months?" Oil-for-Food is now Oil-for-Grease, (December 27, 2004)

Before his departure to Baghdad in the previous month (November, 2004), I had corresponded with Hussain al-Shahrastani, who is now Vice Chairman of the 'Iraqi Parliament', and pointedly asked him, as he was departing to Iraq, "Do you know where the Iraqi oil money is going?" He admitted that he did not know.
I humbly requested that he might find out, once he gets there; and would he kindly inform us who are concerned about the scale of corruption that is becoming apparently rampant in Iraq's ministries? The request was ignored.

In exasperation, I posted the question again:

- "Where is the Iraqi oil money? After Bremer squirmed out of Iraq, auditors have lost trail of 9 billion dollars (out of 20 billion dollars, that included oil sales, that belonged to Iraq). I have been asking this question for months now: where is the money from Iraqi oil sales going to, since Bremer's departure? Will some of it end up with those 'Iraqis' who came behind the American tanks when they will be scurrying out of Iraq in a hurry? I would appreciate it if somebody would inform me on the money's fate." Iraqi oil (sp)oil .... and it may well get spoiled (February 15, 2005)

The answer, apparently, is in, and not from al-Shahrastani:

"Iraqi officials cannot explain what happened to $69 million worth of fuel oil produced in the second half of 2004, raising fears that it was smuggled out of the country for private gain, according to a report released yesterday by United Nations-appointed auditors.
The report, by the auditing firm KPMG, said Iraq's recorded exports of fuel oil mysteriously declined by a comparable amount during that same period of 2004, the initial months of sovereignty for the newly installed Iraqi government.
Studying records from the Ministry of Oil, the auditors found that Iraq's production in that six-month period exceeded the recorded domestic uses and exports by 618,203 tons, worth about $69 million.
.... In particular, it has questioned a $2.2 billion contract the Pentagon gave, secretly and without competitive bidding, to a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation to start repairs of Iraqi oil fields and to import consumer fuels. The international monitoring bureau says the Pentagon has rebuffed requests for a full accounting of that contract, which used Iraqi money.
The international board has also warned, and it repeated in a statement yesterday, that the new Iraqi government is ripe for corruption because its ministries lack sound procedures for accounting and oversight. (emphasis added) The discussion in the new report of the missing fuel oil is an unusually specific description of what the monitoring board in its press release called the "possible misappropriation of oil revenues."
Iraq Can't Explain $69 Million In Fuel Oil From '04, Audit Says, New York Times, May 24, 2005

Don't fret. The savior is at hand:

"A month into a new job as a deputy prime minister in the new Shiite-led government, [Ahmed Chalabi] set off on a nearly 400-mile road trip across northern and central Iraq. His purpose was to stamp his authority on the country's troubled northern oilfields, in his capacity as the overseer of energy in the new government."
Another Anxious Journey for Chalabi: Across the Iraq Insurgency's Heartland May 31, 2005

Just a reminder:

Oil .. and with Ahmad Chalabi as acting Oil Minister : "He trusted the cat with a piece of fat" - An Iraqi proverb (April 28, 2005 when he was first appointed as Acting Oil Minister)

Guess why he is smiling?


An Update:
A concurrent report on this issue (in Arabic) أين ذهبت أموال الشعب العراقي؟ May 2, 2005

FALLUJA-THE DAY AFTER This video has been recorded in Falluja in early January, 2005, when the city was reopened to civilians after the American attack of November 8th, 2004 (“Operation Al-Fajr”, i. e. “the dawn”).
It’s an important document since the city was closed to reporters at that moment.
This video was handed over to the Italian weekly magazine Diario by the Studies Center of Human Rights and Democracy of Falluja.
Diario issued a broad enquire (in Italian) on Falluja battle on May 27th, 2005.
“Falluja-The day After” shows the total devastation of the Iraqi town, the corpses of the victims, the mass graves, the exhumation of many corpses by local rescue teams in order to try to recognize some of the victims.
The last corpse shown in this video belongs to a 14 year old girl. The video lasts 18 minutes and 20 seconds.

For the record, Fallujah is still fighting, again:

- Four American soldiers were killed in an IED attack on a US military convoy West of Fallujah in the Golan district.
Four US soldiers leave Fallujah for good (in Arabic, my translation) June 1, 2005

- Another four US soldiers were killed when a mortar shell hit their check point at the Eastern gate of Fallujah.
The death of four US soldiers in a mortar attack on a US military check point East of Fallujah (in Arabic, my translation) May 30, 2005

Also not reported on FOX and CNN.

The Iraqi Resistance conquers

Rafidan has issued the tenth video (dated May 25, 2005) in its series of documentary videos on the CIA Shadow Director in Iraq , Dale Stoffel.

The tenth video documents the looting and smuggling of the above.
.

On Tuesday May 31, 2005 at 9:14 am, I had posted a news item, gleaned and translated from Arabic as reported by a Muffakirat Al-Islam reporter:
Demise of four rabbis near Baghdad International Airport

Innocently, (albeit wisely), I added this comment:
"I wonder how will this story be 'flushed' in the corporate media?"

Kindly take a look at the middle section of the above posting under: Update on this particular 'Flushing'

And kindly, as the Canadians would wisely say, Go Figure.

This is from a January 1, 2004 article:

"With the 2004 electoral clock ticking amid growing public concern about U.S. casualties and chaos in Iraq, the Bush administration’s hawks are upping the ante militarily. To those familiar with the CIA’s Phoenix assassination program in Vietnam, Latin America’s death squads or Israel’s official policy of targeted murders of Palestinian activists, the results are likely to look chillingly familiar.
The Prospect has learned that part of a secret $3 billion in new funds—tucked away in the $87 billion Iraq appropriation that Congress approved in early November—will go toward the creation of a paramilitary unit manned by militiamen associated with former Iraqi exile groups. Experts say it could lead to a wave of extrajudicial killings, not only of armed rebels but of nationalists, other opponents of the U.S. occupation and thousands of civilian Baathists (emphasis added)—up to 120,000 of the estimated 2.5 million former Baath Party members in Iraq.
“They’re clearly cooking up joint teams to do Phoenix-like things, like they did in Vietnam,” says Vincent Cannistraro, former CIA chief of counter terrorism. Ironically, he says, the U.S. forces in Iraq are working with key members of Saddam Hussein’s now-defunct intelligence agency to set the program in motion. “They’re setting up little teams of Seals and Special Forces with teams of Iraqis, working with people who were former senior Iraqi intelligence people, to do these things,” Cannistraro says."
Phoenix Rising January 1, 2004

Several previous posting on this site have pointed to some of the results of the above mentioned 'planning' and 'funding':

"There is no better way to start a civil war" May 28, 2005
"Yet everyone but the comatose American populace ... can see it" May 26, 2005
Yet another instance of an American 'terrorist act' in Iraq May 23, 2005
"Combat terrorism" by causing it May 16, 2005
Lest we forget "Operation Iraqi Freedom" May 10, 2005
Getting to Know the General May 2, 2005
The “Salvador option”, with dressings, is being served in Iraq April 22, 2005

and documented corruption: The Demise of CIA Shadow Director in Iraq April 2, 2005

General Adnan Thabit, center, and his American CIA adviser, James Steele,
at a meeting with local sheiks near Samarra.

"Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people," Yavin comments in the first segment after listening to settlers insist God gave them these lands. "We simply don't view the Palestinians as human beings."
Popular TV Anchor Chastises Israeli Policy May 31, 2005