Free Iraq

"Why is it not bigger news that those infamous Iraqi female scientists once routinely referred to in the media as "Dr. Germ" and "Mrs. Anthrax" have been quietly released from imprisonment in Iraq without any charges being brought by their US captors?
Don't the newspapers and TV networks that all but pre-convicted them of crimes against humanity owe them - and us - the courtesy of an explanation for the sudden presumption of their innocence?
After all, it was to stop these mad leaders of Saddam Hussein's allegedly booming weapons-of-mass-destruction programs that the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003.
We were told at the time by the White House that the UN inspectors scouring the country were being blocked by lying officials and scientists, themselves complicit in breaking UN sanctions, and so we wouldn't get the truth until we could interrogate them as prisoners.
Yet, when Rihab "Dr. Germ" Taha and Huda "Mrs. Anthrax" Ammash, both of whom were once on a Pentagon most-wanted list, were released after two-and-a-half years, their US captors didn't even announce it.
When questioned afterward as to why no war crimes charges had been brought against the pair, US commander Gen. George Casey said in a joint statement with the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, that they "no longer posed a security threat to the people of Iraq and to the Coalition forces." US forces "therefore, had no legal basis to hold them any longer."
... The fact is, all of the top scientists in Iraq consistently told first UN and then US inspectors before and after the invasion that Iraq, hobbled by inspections and sanctions, had no functioning WMD programs or usable WMDs in recent years. This squared with what the UN inspectors, as well as former UN inspector and US Marine Scott Ritter and the most informed voices inside the US intelligence community, were saying before the invasion."
Dr. Germ and Mrs. Anthrax Set Free December 27, 2005

"On the "Highway of Death," the American "Turkey Shoot" had killed thousands, perhaps "as many as" 30,000 (although most estimates are just "thousands"), retreating Iraqi soldiers, not to mention the literal mass graves created when American bulldozers buried hundreds or thousands of Iraqi troops alive during their initial attack. The "Highway of Death" (the Basra Road) extended for seven miles; just imagine the picture above, repeated nearly ad infinitum and definitely ad nauseum for seven miles worth of death, defenseless, senseless death from the air. However the 30,000 Shia died, and I can find virtually no information on the subject, it seems highly unlikely their deaths were any more brutal or morally repugnant than the ones that came at the hands of Americans."
Mass graves in Iraq December 27, 2005

A short summary of the next Arabic article:
Jabbar al Kubaysi freed: “US accused me to mobilise the world against them” December 28, 2005
.

For more War Carols ......
.

"…. On the American ambassador’s admonition that targeted the Interior Minister, Baqir Solagh, the vice president of the National Assembly, Dr Hussain Al-Shahrastani, responded that: ”As a principle we do not permit the American ambassador, or any other ambassador, to interfere with the affairs of the government or to reprimand a particular minister”.
He added that: “The people of Iraq and their elected government are the sole parties that are responsible for reproaching the ministers, and we call upon all ambassadors to respect the sovereignty of Iraq”.
The vice president of the National Assembly criticizes the statements of American ambassador in Iraq (in Arabic - my translation) December 22, 2005

"Demonstrating once again who really rules in occupied Iraq, despite all the “election” theatricals, US troops arrested Bayan Jabr Sulagh, the Iraqi puppet regime’s “Minister of the Interior” who is concurrently a commander of the pro-American Shi‘i sectarian Badr Brigades, on Wednesday morning.
The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent reported an exclusive source as saying that the arrest was in the context of the investigation of torture, which is widely practiced by the “Interior Ministry” and other regime forces. Recently secret prisons operated by the puppet “Interior Ministry” were raided and closed down in al-Jadiriyah and other districts of Baghdad.
The arrest took place one day after US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad verbally attacked Sulagh, accusing him of sectarianism and crimes.
The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent attempted to obtain an official statement about the arrest from a puppet “Interior Ministry” officer but was unable to do so, describing the situation in the “Ministry” as chaotic after news of Sulagh’s arrest.
Later, in a report posted at 2:30pm Mecca time Wednesday afternoon, the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent reported a lieutenant colonel in the puppet “Interior Ministry” in Baghdad, who declined to reveal his name, as saying that Sulagh was arrested for questioning in connection with information that the US forces had of the “Minister’s” direct involvement in incidents of torture of Sunni Iraqis. The lieutenant colonel said that Sulagh was led away together with four of his aides to Saddam International Airport which the Americans have turned into one of their largest bases in Iraq.
The officer told Mafkarat al-Islam that Sulagh was arrested after refusing a summons sent to him by the US ambassador, the actual authority in occupied Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.
Quds Press reported that the order for the arrest of Sulagh had come from American Vice President Dick Cheney, who paid a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday, 18 December."
US forces arrest Iraqi puppet “Interior Minister” Wednesday, 21 December 2005

Update (a news item still shunned by the corporate media):
"Mr. Jabr is being brought to a ministry building daily for questioning by U.S. investigators, Gen. al-Samarrai said.
Mr. Jabr, who until shortly before his appointment in May had been a senior commander in the Iranian-trained Badr forces, has not officially been arrested, but is confined in Baghdad's highly fortified green zone.
The American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has made it clear that the current interior minister could not retain his post in any new government formed in the wake of last week's elections.
"The selection of the minister of interior will be very important. You can't have someone sectarian. You need to have someone who has the confidence of all communities," he said.
Mr. Jabr is closely identified with the militant religious wing of Iraq's majority Shi'ite community."
Iraqi official Jabr relieved of duties December 23, 2005

As the first Comment below questions:
"Why couldn't al Jaafari order Jabr arrested?", according to al Shahrastani's hollow claim of the 'sovereignty of the Iraqi government'? Perhaps he should ask the American ambassador to read the U.S. Army Field Manual:

"Furthermore, it was a total myth, fraud, lie, and outright propaganda for the Bush Jr. administration to maintain that it was somehow magically transferring "sovereignty" to its puppet Interim Government of Iraq during the summer of 2004.
Under the laws of war, sovereignty is never transferred from the defeated sovereign such as Iraq to a belligerent occupant such as the United States.
This is made quite clear by paragraph 353 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956): "Belligerent occupation in a foreign war, being based upon the possession of enemy territory, necessarily implies that the sovereignty of the occupied territory is not vested in the occupying power. Occupation is essentially provisional."
If there were any doubt about this matter, paragraph 358 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956) makes this legal fact crystal clear:

358. Occupation Does Not Transfer Sovereignty
Being an incident of war, military occupation confers upon the invading force the
means of exercising control for the period of occupation. It does not transfer the
sovereignty to the occupant, but simply the authority or power to exercise some of
the rights of sovereignty. The exercise of these rights results from the established
power of the occupant and from the necessity of maintaining law and order,
indispensable both to the inhabitants and the occupying force. . . .

Therefore, the United States government never had any "sovereignty" in the first place to transfer to its puppet Interim Government of Iraq. In Iraq the sovereignty still resides in the hands of the people of Iraq and in the state known as the Republic of Iraq, where it has always been."
US as Belligerent Occupant: Iraq and the Laws of War, by Francis Boyle, December 22, 2005

While still on the s(h)overeignty subject:

"Iraq’s national security adviser said on Saturday he wanted to re-arrest Saddam Hussein’s former top weapons experts, as the U.S. military confirmed the release of 14 more high-ranking detainees....National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said after he met top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf that he would not accept their being at liberty" ... Iraq seeks return of ‘Dr. Germ,’ other suspects December 24, 2005

"The U.S. military said Sunday it will not hand over detention facilities or individual detainees to Iraqi officials until they have demonstrated higher standards of care." U.S.: No Handover of Prisons to Iraq December 25, 2005

PS: Poor showing for the man who ‘liberated’ Iraq

"He is President, Not A King" Russ Feingold

The ears of Bush's version of 'democracy' , and how to spin it.



Speaking of which, (impeachment that is), "Congressman John Conyers has introduced three resolutions that would censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and create a select committee to investigate the administration's possible crimes and make recommendations regarding grounds for impeachment."

"White flags on top of houses and cars, plenty of American and Iraqi military vehicles, too many check points and blocks on the road, many frightening walking patrols, curfew after sunset, heaps and heaps of destroyed houses, shops, offices, the only bridge, hospitals and medical care centers, walls covered with bullets shots, and election posters…empty faces with bleak looks wandering in the streets. This is the picture of Al-Qa’im after the “Steel Curtain” military operation which began on November 5, 2005 with 3,000 American and Iraqi troops participating in it.
“You are filming our miserable condition so that Bush would pity us?! You want to soften his heart?” (emphasis added) asked a tiny, skinny young villager disapprovingly, with obvious resignation. She was holding a very heavy cooking gas tube, trying to climb the river bank. After the only bridge which connects Rummana to Al-Qa’im was severely bombed, citizens had to cross by boat.
Our driver was impatient with blocked roads, he took the nearest dusty detour whenever he saw a queue. We arrived in Qa’im around six pm; the darkness was already thick. Our car was almost shot by the Americans, but the driver was very quick in going down the side road. “That’s how families get killed” said Abu Adel, a lovable old man who asked for a lift, and who was very keen on showing us his high education by using broken English phrases.
Abu Adel was very angry because some Iraqis make use of the refugees’ misfortune and ask for double or triple rents. He preferred to put his family in a hut rather than being blackmailed.
Electricity is cut for more than a month now, after the main station was bombed, and the converters were bombed and the wires were cut. In the morning Al-Qa’im looked horrible. The General Hospital was 90% destroyed, the medical care centers, the schools, shops, houses…"
Behind the Steel Curtain: The Real Face of the Occupation
Dirty Means, Genocide and Mass Destruction - Dedicated to the UN, UNSC and the International Society December 19, 2005

"Meanwhile, seven Iraqis were killed either by gunmen or US troops in separate incidents around Tikrit, around 190 kilometers north of Baghdad, police said.
The police said four of the victims were killed by US troops as they approached their patrols in Balad.
... Meanwhile, police said US soldiers shot dead a truck driver who drove too close to an army patrol in Latifiya 40 kilometers south of Baghdad. The U.S. army warns drivers to keep at least a 100 meters distance from military vehicles."
Car bomb kills three in Iraq December 19, 2005

Meanwhile (video clips):

Execution of 'security consultant' for the Iraqi Housing Ministry
Iraqi snipers in Taji, Fallujah, and Taji
Destroying a mine sweeper south of Baghdad
Destroying a hummer in the west of Baghdad
Destroying a hummer in Tikrit
The Iraqi Resistance (9MB, wait)

Updates:
Destroying a hummer in Abu Ghraib (note accompanying Arabic song) (8Mb, wait)

And

"Four U.S. soldiers were killed when their vehicle was run over by an Iraqi truck outside Iraq's western flashpoint city of Fallujah early on Saturday, a police source told Xinhua. "An Iraqi truck ran over a US Humvee (emphasis added) parking near a checkpoint at the southern entrance of Fallujah, killing four U.S. soldiers aboard," the source said on condition of anonymity."
4 US soldiers killed in western Iraq December 24, 2005

""My fellow citizens, not only can we win the war in Iraq, we are winning the war in Iraq," [Bush] said.
"To retreat before victory would be an act of recklessness and dishonor and I will not allow it," he said"
Bush: Iraq pullout would hurt credibility December 18, 2005

Seconded by none other than:

"You've heard some prominent voices advocating a sudden withdrawal of our forces from Iraq," [Cheney] told hundreds of troops [in Iraq]. "Some have suggested that the war is not winnable and a few seem almost eager to conclude the struggle is already over. But they are wrong. The only way to lose this fight is to quit and that is not an option."
Cheney Visits Iraq Amid Surge of Violence December 18, 2005

As the US Forges ahead to Final Victory!

"The Army met its recruiting goal for November by again accepting a high percentage of recruits who scored in the lowest category on the military’s aptitude tests, Pentagon officials said Thursday, raising renewed concerns that the quality of the all-volunteer force will suffer." Army accepts more low-aptitude recruits December 16, 2005

While in reality:

"Bush was so rattled he delivered four speeches to shore up support. He acknowledged failures — faulty intelligence, bad decisions that helped trigger the insurgency, botched rebuilding efforts, etc. He admitted that at least 30,000 Iraqis are dead.
Yet, he said he was right to have invaded and that he would keep the troops there, because Iraq is central to the security of the U.S.
His logic stacks up thus:
He went to war because of weapons of mass destruction, about which he was given the wrong information, but he would have invaded anyway. Iraq was not a threat to the U.S. but, having made it one, he cannot retreat.
The fact is, Iraq is still no threat to America. It is a threat only to the Americans in Iraq."
Ignatieff now in dubious company over torture December 18, 2005

The meaning of words: "Victory in Iraq" has the following definition according to Bush's and Cheney's dictionaries:

- Killing however many Iraqis necessary
- Killing the minimum number of Americans (and other "coalitions"), or at least keeping a lid on published figures
- At whatever cost to Iraqis, both now and in the future
- At whatever cost the American public will bear
- Succeeding in installing an amenable Iraqi "government"
- Permitting the discrete maintenance of at least four American military bases on Iraqi soil
- Allowing us unfettered access to Iraqi oil (and other treasury, as deemed necessary)
- All the while under the unquestioned cloak of "democracy" (defined as circumstances require)
- While not triggering an unmanageable domestic insurrection amongst American "patriots".

Finally, I understand !! "Victory means troops comin' out, but troops comin' out doesn't mean victory."
From a Comment by Evelyn at 2:47 pm, December, 17, 2005

Backdropping the victory

In fact, it will be either .............................................................. Or

"A Shi'ite militia has drawn up plans to kill prominent Sunni leaders and eliminate a nascent Sunni political party, according to a document obtained by Asia Times Online from a person close to the Iraqi resistance. The document, which has not been officially acknowledged, carries the letterhead of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the political party of which the Badr Organization is the armed wing. The SCIRI is headed by Shi'ite cleric Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, a leading contender to become Iraq's next premier. Recently, a secret prison allegedly run by elements in the Iraqi Interior Ministry loyal to the SCIRI was discovered.
....
" We do promise to our leaders Syed Abd al-Aziz Hakim and Hadi al-Ameri our obedience. What we are doing is for the service of our brothers and for the service of the descendants of Imam Hussain and Hasan who belong to the Shi'ite nobility and spread all over Iraq. We promise to protect our brothers like a fort against all unscrupulous elements so that our top leadership will be protected, and so too the government of Syed Ibrahim al-Jaafari."
Aiming for pilots
According to contacts that Asia Times Online spoke to in Iraq, the activities of the Badr Organization against Arab Sunnis started with the targeting of former Iraqi Air Force officers and pilots. Several of the pilots were assassinated, including some who had flown aircraft to Iran for safekeeping during the first Gulf War in 1991. A number of these Iraqi pilots and officers had been trained in Pakistan during the 1980s. The contacts said that over three dozen former Iraqi Air Force personnel have been killed. The Iraqi resistance is sure that the Badr Organization is behind most of the killings, having been provided information on some of the targets by Iranian intelligence."
Sunnis on hit list December 17, 2005

"While US President George W Bush continued to claim a strategy for "victory" in Iraq in recent speeches, his administration has quietly renounced the goal of defeating the non-al-Qaeda, Sunni-armed organizations there.
The administration is evidently preparing for serious negotiations with the Sunni insurgents, whom it has started referring to as "nationalists", emphasizing their opposition to al-Qaeda's objectives.
The new policy has thus far gone unnoticed in the media, partly because it has only been articulated by US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the spokesman for the US command in Baghdad. The White House clearly recognizes that the shift could cause serious political problems if and when it becomes widely understood.
The Republican Party has just unveiled a new television ad attacking Democratic Party chair Howard Dean for suggesting that the war in Iraq cannot be won. Renouncing victory over the Sunni insurgents therefore undercuts the president's political strategy of portraying his policy as one of "staying the course" and attacking the Democrats for "cutting and running"."
US embraces Iraqi insurgents December 17, 2005

Comment from an email:
"What's your problem with mowing down little kids, it's part of the freedom! After all, we were told they'd greet us as liberators by throwing flowers!
In all seriousness, this shows the mentality of troops who five years ago were zit faced kids playing violent video games which scientific studies prove lower the 'shock tolerance' of the brain in response to killing people."
US Troops Bemoan Not Being Able To Shoot Iraqi Kids Who Threw Rocks (video)

.
"Less than two days before nationwide elections, the Iraqi border police seized a tanker on Tuesday that had just crossed from Iran filled with thousands of forged ballots, an official at the Interior Ministry said.
The tanker was seized in the evening by agents with the American-trained border protection force at the Iraqi town of Badra, after crossing at Munthirya on the Iraqi border, the official said. According to the Iraqi official, the border police found several thousand partly completed ballots inside.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the Iranian truck driver told the police under interrogation that at least three other trucks filled with ballots had crossed from Iran at different spots along the border."
Police Seize Forged Ballots Headed to Iraq From Iran December 14, 2005

"George Bush finally put a figure on the number of people killed in Iraq: 30,000. Since the US-led invasion, Bush said that "30,000 have died, more or less", a toll that includes both Iraq civilians and US troops."
The question: Is Bush's Iraq death toll correct? December 14, 2005
"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said. "As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."
Bush: Iraq Invasion My Responsibility December 14, 2005

What are the legal implications of this admission of guilt, in the 'civilized' world, by a president who waged an illegal war? Can't tell from these Americans.

"'It's an awful way to exist, without hope... We've gained nothing but endless deaths'". December 14, 2005

This is a video clip shown on CNN (sorry, ANN) of an unarmed ambulance driver (requires RealOne Player) as treated by Iraqi 'security personnel'.

During the past ten months, and since the February 2005 'elections' for an 'Interim Government' to prepare the 'Constitution':

".... Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh had named as ministry policemen 17,000 fighters from the Badr organization, the disarmed militia of the pro-Iranian Shiite fundamentalist Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).The ministry forces "continued to receive salaries from Tehran," and "spoke amongst themselves in Farsi," he said.Samarrai said the interior ministry chiefs were all members of SCIRI or the Shiite Dawa party and that the prisoners were "all Sunnis."
"The torturers were all Iranians or Iraqis who had lived in Iran and had come to Iraq after the (US-led) invasion" in 2003, he added."
Iraqi general tells of prison torture horror December 11, 2005

"U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad on Tuesday described torture cases discovered in Iraqi police prisons as both extensive and severe, saying more than 120 abused detainees had been found in the two centers run by the Shiite-led government that have been inspected so far.
Khalilzad rejected Interior Ministry officials' suggestion that any mistreatment of prisoners had been mild, saying the abuse found was "far worse than slapping around."
U.S. Envoy Calls Torture at Two Iraqi Prisons Severe, Extensive December 14, 2005

"Sunni leader Saleh al-Mutlaq said yesterday that a second and possibly a third secret prison had been discovered in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood, charges that threaten to ratchet up Sunni-Shi'ite tensions just days before Thursday's election of a new parliament.
"More than 1,000 people were kept in one place like sheep, worse then sheep, they could not sleep except by lying on top of one another," Mr. al-Mutlaq told The Washington Times.
"One was blinded, another had his hand broken, some were even sexually abused," said Mr. al-Mutlaq, leader the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, one of three major Sunni Arab alliances with candidates running Thursday.
Mr. al-Mutlaq said he plans to release photos documenting his charges to Iraqi television as early as today.
U.S. and Iraqi troops last month uncovered a secret detention center in the Jadriya district of Baghdad filled with undernourished prisoners, some showing signs of having been tortured."
Sunni cites more secret prisons December 10, 2005

"The ministry of human rights inspected the prison (near Sahat al Nosour (Al Nosour square) which is controlled and ran by the national guards) last Thursday to find about 600 people in it, 56 were released immediately and 75 were tranfered to another prison.They detainees who are Arab Sunni men said that they were arrested in the street or in their work places, without any legal charges pressed against them, and that they were forced to sign fake confessions about them making crimes. ( I can confirm that, it was happening where I was too ).
The pictures show marks of of severe torture on their bodies, using electricity among many other things.Of course, Laith Kubba, the hateful spokesman of the so called Iraqi government refused to comment on the news."
Obviously they will keep getting lower! Khalid Jarrar, December 12, 2005

These are the local mercenaries.
As for the foreign mercenaries:

"Private security contractors have been involved in scores of shootings in Iraq, but none have been prosecuted despite findings in at least one fatal case that the men had not followed proper procedures, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Times.Instead, security contractors suspected of reckless behavior are sent home, sometimes with the knowledge of U.S. officials, raising questions about accountability and stirring fierce resentment among Iraqis.
Thousands of the heavily armed private guards are in Iraq, under contract with the U.S. government and private companies. The conduct of such security personnel has been one of the most controversial issues in the reconstruction of Iraq.
Last week, a British newspaper publicized a so-called trophy video that appears to show private contractors in Iraq firing at civilian vehicles as an Elvis song plays in the background.
The contractors function in a legal gray area. Under an order issued by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority that administered Iraq until June 2004, contractors suspected of wrongdoing are to be prosecuted in their home countries. The contractors have immunity from Iraqi courts and have so far not faced American prosecution, giving little recourse to Iraqis seeking justice for wrongful shootings.
"What was my innocent son's crime?" asked Zahra Ridha, the mother of a 19-year-old shot and killed by security contractors in May. "Is this what we deserve?" ".
Private Security Guards in Iraq Operate With Little Supervision December 4, 2005

And then there are the American 'Liberators':

"A reliable source has confirmed that at 12 o’clock noon on Thursday December 8, 2005, occupants of a black BMW sedan commenced to shoot at random on civilians and passers by in the area of Imam Qasim in Kirkuk. Two policemen and three civilians were injured by the shootings.
Upon receiving retaliatory fire from the police and passing pedestrians, the car sped off in the direction of Sulaimania.
An Azadi police patrol sped after it in pursuit and managed to kill two of the attackers in the car near the Rabi’ district, about 20 kilometers from Kirkuk on the Sulaimania road.
Upon further firearms exchange, a fire erupted in the BMW. At that moment, an American helicopter landed near the burning car and dragged the two dead bodies and the other two survivors and flew them away.
This was carried out in full view of the Iraqi police who watched in disbelief as these Americans were shooting innocent civilians (not insurgents) in Kirkuk.
After this incident, some of the Azadi police officers and rank submitted their resignation from the force and decided to fight the Americans." (in Arabic, my translation)
Dar Babel for Studies and Information December 13, 2005



The Cost of War on Iraq , as a $10 RPG round knocks off a $2,050,000 tank recovery vehicle, while the Americans are catching:

An Iraqi national initiative to end the occupation of Iraq reflecting the will and view of the Iraqi National Resistance and the other major political forces opposing the occupation:
Proposed Principles for Dialogue and Agreement
December 2005
.

"A group of Shiite and Sunni parties has signed a declaration condemning terrorism, urging a timetable for the end of the US military presence, and vowing never to normalise relations with Israel.
The parties to the "code of honour" included followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Sunni Iraqi Consensus Front.
The code also declared that resistance is a legitimate right and condemned "terrorism, violence, murder and kidnappings." The code is non-binding but it indicates what parties might choose to work together after the new parliament is elected next week. Officials said al-Sadr was the driving figure behind the yesterday's pact."
Shiite, Sunni groups sign pact for US withdrawal timetable December 9, 2005

Recall what happened in the "first" vote on Sunday Febrauary 6, 2005? (from a previous posting):

"Early Sunday morning:
"Presently, and as expected, it appears that the United Alliance Party, the mainly Shiite coalition sponsored by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, will dominate parliament.The basic principles of the Platform of the United Iraqi Alliance states:
"The Iraq that we want:
1. A united Iraq - land and people - with full national sovereignty.
2. A timetable for the withdrawal of the multinational forces from Iraq
..........."

Yet, by Sunday mid-morning:
The back-peddling on the above platform, which millions trusted and voted upon, has already started:
"Adel Abdel-Mehdi, the current finance minister and a powerful figure in the coalition expected to dominate Iraq's parliament, rejected a key demand of those groups -- a timetable for a withdrawal of the 150,000 U.S. troops in the country.
"If we start fixing timetables by now, we will be in a difficult situation if we reach that time and we are not prepared," Abdel-Mehdi said in the interview at his home. "You can't announce it, and then say okay, I'll delay it for two months."
Top Shiite Welcomes Overtures By Sunnis February 6, 2005"
.

"Last weekend, while other Americans were watching football and eating leftover turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ended the Iraqi insurgency.
It was easy, really: He declared that the insurgents would, henceforth, no longer be called insurgents.
"Over the weekend, I thought to myself, 'You know, that gives them a greater legitimacy than they seem to merit,' " Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon briefing yesterday, said of his ban on the I-word. "It was an epiphany," he added, throwing his hands in the air.
Encouraging reporters to consult their dictionaries, the defense secretary said: "These people aren't trying to promote something other than disorder, and to take over that country and turn it into a caliphate and then spread it around the world. This is a group of people who don't merit the word 'insurgency,' I think."
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, standing at Rumsfeld's side, evidently didn't get the memo about the wording change. Describing combat in Iraq, he paused and said, "I have to use the word 'insurgent' because I can't think of a better word right now."
" 'Enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government' -- how's that?" Rumsfeld proposed.
"What the secretary said," Pace continued, to laughter. But Rumsfeld's new description -- ELIG, if you prefer an acronym -- didn't stick with the general. Smiling, he uttered the forbidden word again while discussing explosive devices.
The secretary recoiled in mock horror. "Sorry, sir," Pace explained. "I'm not trainable today."
Rumsfeld's War On 'Insurgents' November 30, 2005

Guess whose training is paying off?
Ramadi attack October 15 , 2005 (Download a 8.8MB file, RealOne Player, and wait till the end of the video clip) .
Fallujah attack December 1, 2005 (immediate playing) while "The Military Misleads Press, Families, About How 10 Marines Died Last Week in Iraq" December 6, 2005.

Perhaps Rumsfeld should create one of his cozy metrics for such "dead-enders".

By the way, this "dead ender" is not just training for a 'Practice shoot'

"On Tuesday evening [December 6, 2005], American occupier military forces committed a new and unprecedented crime. A Mufakirrat al-Islam reporter in Ramadi to the west of Baghdad has reported that several US marines broke into a house in the Ta’amim area on the west of Ramadi during Operation Shank .

The report states that upon forcing their way into the house, they questioned the husband on the names and location of Resistance fighters in his area. The man claimed that he does not have such information and refused to further answer their questions. The US marines threatened to strip naked his wife in front of him if he refused to speak. The man insisted that he does not have the requested information. Upon that, the US marines grabbed the hands of his wife and tore off her clothes completely as they looked at her naked body in front of the eyes of her husband whose hands were tied behind his back.

The reporter cited the brother of the man, whose name is Haj Abu Ahmad, in that the US marines left the house after the husband had slumped down unconscious to the ground. At the Ramadi General Hospital, it is reported that a brain stroke had afflicted Haj Abu Ahmad which later exploded inside his head, and that he is still under the intensive care unit at the hospital.

Our reporter, who headed immediately to the home of Haj Abu Ahmad, was informed by the neighbors that the US marines high-tailed it out of the area immediately afterwards.
The reporter has described the situation in Ramadi as being highly inflamed as an exploding furnace with the Resistance fighters spreading all over the city which portends gravely for the US occupiers tonight there."
Explosive anger in Ramadi after US marines stripped naked a wife in front of her husband. (my translation)

A video presentation on The Wall of Hate, from the site http://www.thewallofhate.org .

Palestinian resident Najat Abu Rahman, center, scuffles with Israeli border police officers next to her property after her son was detained during a demonstration at the construction site of Israel's separation barrier in the village of Bil'in, near the West Bank town of Ramllah, Friday Dec.2, 2005. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

"For months, stories from the Shiite south and Sunni center have reported the same phenomenon: people being summarily seized by large groups of armed men wearing police commando uniforms, packing high-priced Glocks, using sophisticated radios and driving Toyota Land Cruisers with police markings. The captives are taken off and never seen again – unless they turn up with a load of other corpses days or weeks later, bearing marks of the gruesome tortures they suffered before the ritual shot in the head. Needless to say, these mass murders under police aegis are rarely investigated by the police.
Earlier this year, one enterprising Knight-Ridder reporter, Yasser Salihee, actually found several eyewitnesses willing to testify to the involvement of the U.S.-backed commandos in 12 such murders. The offer was shrugged off by the Interior Ministry's spokesman – an American "adviser" and veteran bones-maker from the Colombian ops. In the end, it didn't matter; Salihee was shot dead by a U.S. sniper at a checkpoint a few days afterwards.
The Bushists may have been forced to ditch their idiotic fantasies of "cakewalking" into a compliant satrapy, but they have by no means abandoned their chief goals in the war: milking Iraq dry and planting a permanent military "footprint" on the nation's neck. If direct control through a plausible puppet is no longer possible, then fomenting bloody chaos and sectarian strife is the best way to weaken the state. The Bushists are happy to make common cause with thugs and zealots in order to prevent the establishment of a strong national government that might balk at the ongoing "privatizations" that have continued apace behind the smokescreen of violence, and the planned opening of Iraq's oil reserves to select foreign investors – a potential transfer of some $200 billion of Iraqi people's wealth into the hands of a few Bush cronies, the Independent reports.
The violence is already dividing the county into more rigid sectarian enclaves, the New York Times reports, as Shiites flee Sunni commandos and Sunnis flee Shiite militias in the grim tag-team of their joint endeavor. It's all grist for the Bushist mill: an atomized, terrorized, internally riven society is much easier to manipulate. And of course, a steady stream of bloodshed provides a justification for maintaining a substantial American military presence, even as politic plans for partial "withdrawal" are bandied about.
There's nothing new in this; Bush is simply following a well-thumbed playbook. For example, in 1953 the CIA bankrolled Islamic fundamentalists and secular goon squads to destabilize the democratic government of Iran – which selfishly wanted to control its own oil – and pave the way for the puppet Shah, as the agency's own histories recount. In 1971, CIA officials admitted carrying out more than 21,000 "extra-judicial killings" in its "Phoenix" counter-insurgency operation in Vietnam. (The true number of victims is certainly much higher)."
Death Mask: The Deliberate Disintegration of Iraq December 1, 2005
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For the past year, every single news excerpt that has been posted on this site has been meticulously referenced to its original source. This posting will not be able to do that since the source, Yedioth Ahronoth, is in Hebrew with rare translations of its content in English and Arabic. However, these items are noteworthy.

Israelis trained Kurds in Iraq Yediot Ahronot, December 1, 2005
"A number of Israeli companies have won contracts with the Kurdish government in northern Iraq to train and equip Kurdish security forces and build an international airport, Yedioth Ahronoth reports; al-Qaeda warning of attack prompts hasty exit of all Israeli instructors from region Anat Tal-Shir.
Dozens of Israelis with a background in elite military combat training have been working for private Israeli companies in northern Iraq where they helped the Kurds establish elite anti-terror units, Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronot revealed Thursday.
According to the report, the Kurdish government contracted Israeli security and communications companies to train Kurdish security forces and provide them with advanced equipment.
Motorola Israel and Magalcom Communications and Computers won contracts with the Kurdish government to the tune of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.
The flagship of the contracts is the construction of an international airport in the northern Kurdish city of Ibril, a stepping stone towards the fulfillment of Kurdish national aspirations for independence.
In addition to Motorola and Magalcom, a company owned by Israeli entrepreneur Shlomi Michaels is in full business partnership with the Kurdish government,providing strategic consultation on economic and security issues.
The strategic consultation company was initially established by former Mossad chief Danny Yatom (Labor) and Michaels, yet Yatom sold his shares upon his election to the Knesset.
But that’s not all. Leading Israeli companies in the field of security and counter-terrorism have set up a training camp under the codename Z at a secret location in a deserted region in northern Iraq, where Israeli experts provide training in live fire exercises and self-defense to Kurdish security forces.

Al-Qaeda warning prompts hasty Israeli exit

Tons of equipment, including motorcycles, tractors, sniffer dogs, systems to upgrade Kalashnikov rifles, and bulletproof vests, have been shipped to Iraq’s northern region, with most products stamped ‘Made in Israel.’
The Israeli instructors entered Iraq through Turkey using their Israeli passports, undercover as agriculture experts and infrastructure engineers.
The Kurds had insisted the cooperation projects were kept secret, fearing exposure would motivate terror groups to target their Jewish guests.
Recent warnings that al-Qaeda may plan an attack on Kurdish training camps, prompted a hasty exit of all Israeli trainers from Iraq’s northern Kurdish regions.
The Defense Ministry said in response to the report that, “We haven’t allowed Israelis to work in Iraq, and each activity, if performed, was a private initiative, without our authorization, and is under the responsibility of the employers and the employees involved."
"The Defense Ministry renews its warning to Israeli citizens who choose to ignore our guidance and travel to banned destinations."

MK denies connection to strategic firm

Motorola Israel said it is a U.S. company that operates in over 70 countries throughout the world, including in Iraq where it helped set up a cellular phone network and provided communications systems and equipment to Iraqi security forces.
“Motorola’s global operations are in full accordance with U.S. laws, and the laws of local governments,” a Motorola official said.
Magalcom sufficed with the following statement: “Being a public company traded on the NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Magalcom reports on its activities as required by law. The company is not in the habit of disclosing information about its customers beyond what appears in our reports.”
MK Yatom said he has had no contact with the strategic consultation company since being elected to the Knesset.
“I haven’t promoted it and insisted on not receiving updates about its activities,” he said.

This is a short version of the above.
Israelis training Kurds in northern Iraq - Reuters, December 1, 2005

This is a much more detailed version of the above (in Arabic), with names and dates.
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