Free Iraq
The US's occupation of Iraq will see to it that the Lion of Babylon rises again .. سنـُبعـَث ُ من جَديد ، وإلى ضَـيـرِِهِـم
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| Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program: 1981-1991 | معالم وأحداث غير مكشوفة في البرنامج النووي الوطني العراقي 1981-1991 | 
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Sunday, April 16, 2006
Lying no longer stirs deadened senses. The loud popping of biolab balloons
.
Back on June 19, 2003, I published an article on "the two alleged mobile biological weapons labs" pointing out that:
"As the swelter of anger bubbles from the machination of misinformation that led to the faltering WMD casus belli for invading Iraq, the retreat and half-baked excuses of Bush, Blair, Cheney, Wolfowitz and Powell further expose the sharp edge of their deceit. Whether it was "intelligence" failure or "flailing" the intelligence, time will soon tell. In the meantime, the fig leaves keep falling.
During CNN's Late Edition with Colin Powell, reported by the Toronto Star on June 9, 2003, Powell claimed that "the two alleged mobile biological weapons labs, which are being studied by allied inspectors now in Iraq, are the same ones he described to the world last Feb. 5 at a U.N. presentation which was the result of four days and four nights of meetings with the CIA." "I stand behind that presentation," he said.
He further asserted, "I'll give you the killer argument why these vans were exactly what I said they were. I can assure you that if those biological vans were not ... what I said they were on the 5th of February, on the 6th of February Iraq would have hauled those vans out, put them in front of a press conference, given them to U.N. inspectors to try to drive a stake through the heart of my presentation."
Only if the Iraqis knew which vans he was talking about.
In an article published on the same day as Powell's interview, Peter Beaumont and Antony Barnett reported in the Observer that there is mounting indications that these vans were for "balloons, not germs."
The Iraqis concur.
.....
.....
Powell is not new to this misinformation game.
In my earlier article, "The demise of the nuclear bomb hoax", published on February 16, 2003, I referred to Geoff Simons' The Scourging of Iraq in which "Washington lied persistently and comprehensively to gain the required international support [for the Gulf war]. For example, the U.S. claimed to have satellite pictures showing a massive Iraqi military build-up on the Saudi/ Iraqi border. When sample photographs were later obtained from Soyuz Karta by an enterprising journalist, no such evidence was discernible."
Simons references an article by Maggie O'Kane, published in the Guardian on 16 December 1995, which revealed that the enterprising journalist was Jean Heller of the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.
Eventually, the U.S. commander -- none other than Colin Powell himself -- admitted that there had been no massing of Iraqi troops. But by then the so-called evidence had served its purpose.
So, was Powell really worried that the Iraqis might "try to drive a stake through the heart of [his] presentation"?
Well, it's never too late."
''Mobile lies'' June 10, 2003
Well, again 'the so-called evidence had served its purpose', and as an Arabic proverb goes: "If you feel no shame, then do whatever pleases you"; and Powell is indeed pleasing himself (see earlier posting Powell's 'pain' and 'terrible feeling' ... How accountable are his 'blots'? September 11, 2005).
After three years, the Corporate Media, without any sense of scruple on how they peddled this lie in the first place, finally came through, such as with the following two videos
“We found the weapons of mass destruction… we found biological laboratories,” said Bush two days after it was disclosed that the discovered trailers were nothing of the sort. (ABC, wait for few seconds for commercial to end)
Weapons of Mass Deception (NBC, click on video at the bottom)
and this report:
Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War: Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary April 14, 2006
Thick layers of stupor still engulf the American people who naively wonder "Why do they hate us? We didn't make the decision to go to war".
Indeed, they only decide to consume or not consume, pay the taxes for the bombs and pray for not to hear of their dead and wounded soldiers, as the Pentagon has allowed them close to null news visibility of their tens of thousands of casualties.
التقرير الصحفي حول العراق الذي أغضب البيت الأبيض 16 نيسان 2006
.Back on June 19, 2003, I published an article on "the two alleged mobile biological weapons labs" pointing out that:
"As the swelter of anger bubbles from the machination of misinformation that led to the faltering WMD casus belli for invading Iraq, the retreat and half-baked excuses of Bush, Blair, Cheney, Wolfowitz and Powell further expose the sharp edge of their deceit. Whether it was "intelligence" failure or "flailing" the intelligence, time will soon tell. In the meantime, the fig leaves keep falling.
During CNN's Late Edition with Colin Powell, reported by the Toronto Star on June 9, 2003, Powell claimed that "the two alleged mobile biological weapons labs, which are being studied by allied inspectors now in Iraq, are the same ones he described to the world last Feb. 5 at a U.N. presentation which was the result of four days and four nights of meetings with the CIA." "I stand behind that presentation," he said.
He further asserted, "I'll give you the killer argument why these vans were exactly what I said they were. I can assure you that if those biological vans were not ... what I said they were on the 5th of February, on the 6th of February Iraq would have hauled those vans out, put them in front of a press conference, given them to U.N. inspectors to try to drive a stake through the heart of my presentation."
Only if the Iraqis knew which vans he was talking about.
In an article published on the same day as Powell's interview, Peter Beaumont and Antony Barnett reported in the Observer that there is mounting indications that these vans were for "balloons, not germs."
The Iraqis concur.
.....
.....
Powell is not new to this misinformation game.
In my earlier article, "The demise of the nuclear bomb hoax", published on February 16, 2003, I referred to Geoff Simons' The Scourging of Iraq in which "Washington lied persistently and comprehensively to gain the required international support [for the Gulf war]. For example, the U.S. claimed to have satellite pictures showing a massive Iraqi military build-up on the Saudi/ Iraqi border. When sample photographs were later obtained from Soyuz Karta by an enterprising journalist, no such evidence was discernible."
Simons references an article by Maggie O'Kane, published in the Guardian on 16 December 1995, which revealed that the enterprising journalist was Jean Heller of the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.
Eventually, the U.S. commander -- none other than Colin Powell himself -- admitted that there had been no massing of Iraqi troops. But by then the so-called evidence had served its purpose.
So, was Powell really worried that the Iraqis might "try to drive a stake through the heart of [his] presentation"?
Well, it's never too late."
''Mobile lies'' June 10, 2003
Well, again 'the so-called evidence had served its purpose', and as an Arabic proverb goes: "If you feel no shame, then do whatever pleases you"; and Powell is indeed pleasing himself (see earlier posting Powell's 'pain' and 'terrible feeling' ... How accountable are his 'blots'? September 11, 2005).
After three years, the Corporate Media, without any sense of scruple on how they peddled this lie in the first place, finally came through, such as with the following two videos
“We found the weapons of mass destruction… we found biological laboratories,” said Bush two days after it was disclosed that the discovered trailers were nothing of the sort. (ABC, wait for few seconds for commercial to end)
Weapons of Mass Deception (NBC, click on video at the bottom)
and this report:
Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War: Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary April 14, 2006
Thick layers of stupor still engulf the American people who naively wonder "Why do they hate us? We didn't make the decision to go to war".
Indeed, they only decide to consume or not consume, pay the taxes for the bombs and pray for not to hear of their dead and wounded soldiers, as the Pentagon has allowed them close to null news visibility of their tens of thousands of casualties.
Comments:
<< Home
Way to go, Imad -- keep putting out the truth. These folks are so tangled up in their lies they'll never be free! Let us hope we get free from THEM soon.
# posted by 
: April 16, 2006 1:52 AM
: April 16, 2006 1:52 AM
(Date of letter unknown)
Kucinich Demands Answers From Administration About US Troops In Iran -
Dear President Bush:
Recently, it has been reported that U.S. troops are conducting military operations in Iran. If true, it appears that you have already made the decision to commit U.S. military forces to a unilateral conflict with Iran, even before direct or indirect negotiations with the government of Iran had been attempted, without UN support and without authorization from the U.S. Congress.
The presence of U.S. troops in Iran constitutes a hostile act against that country. At a time when diplomacy is urgently needed, it escalates an international crisis. It undermines any attempt to negotiate with the government of Iran. And it will undermine U.S. diplomatic efforts at the U.N.
Furthermore, it places U.S. troops occupying neighboring Iraq in greater danger. The achievement of stability and a transition to Iraqi security control will be compromised, reversing any progress that has been cited by the Administration.
It would be hard to believe that such an imprudent decision had been taken, but for the number and variety of sources confirming it. In the last week, the national media have reported that you have in fact commenced a military operation in Iran. Today, retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner related on CNN that the Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA, Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, reported to him that the Iranians have captured dissident forces who have confessed to working with U.S. troops in Iran. Earlier in the week, Seymour Hersh reported that a U.S. source had told him that U.S. marines were operating in the Baluchi, Azeri and Kurdish regions of Iran.
Any military deployment to Iran would constitute an urgent matter of national significance. I urge you to report immediately to Congress on all activities involving American forces in Iran. I look forward to a prompt response.
Sincerely,
Dennis J. Kucinich
Member of Congress
Kucinich Demands Answers From Administration About US Troops In Iran -
Dear President Bush:
Recently, it has been reported that U.S. troops are conducting military operations in Iran. If true, it appears that you have already made the decision to commit U.S. military forces to a unilateral conflict with Iran, even before direct or indirect negotiations with the government of Iran had been attempted, without UN support and without authorization from the U.S. Congress.
The presence of U.S. troops in Iran constitutes a hostile act against that country. At a time when diplomacy is urgently needed, it escalates an international crisis. It undermines any attempt to negotiate with the government of Iran. And it will undermine U.S. diplomatic efforts at the U.N.
Furthermore, it places U.S. troops occupying neighboring Iraq in greater danger. The achievement of stability and a transition to Iraqi security control will be compromised, reversing any progress that has been cited by the Administration.
It would be hard to believe that such an imprudent decision had been taken, but for the number and variety of sources confirming it. In the last week, the national media have reported that you have in fact commenced a military operation in Iran. Today, retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner related on CNN that the Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA, Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, reported to him that the Iranians have captured dissident forces who have confessed to working with U.S. troops in Iran. Earlier in the week, Seymour Hersh reported that a U.S. source had told him that U.S. marines were operating in the Baluchi, Azeri and Kurdish regions of Iran.
Any military deployment to Iran would constitute an urgent matter of national significance. I urge you to report immediately to Congress on all activities involving American forces in Iran. I look forward to a prompt response.
Sincerely,
Dennis J. Kucinich
Member of Congress
"I just wish you could put this country back to the way you found it."
The New York Times, Jeffery Gettelman. April 16, 2005
...”But it is not clear how receptive Shiites and Sunnis are to the reconciliation efforts. Often, the only common ground is anti-American anger, or at least disappointment.
Salah al-Shimeri, an Iraqi police official and a Shiite, told American soldiers during a recent meeting, "I just wish you could put this country back to the way you found it."
Sometimes, the colonel said, he is unsure whether that can be done. "How will it end?" he said one night. "I don't know."
"I think it will come down to an attrition of spirit. Either they'll get tired of fighting and quit. Or we will."...
..."You talk to people here and it's literally the same conversations I heard in Bosnia," Colonel Donahoe said. "I had a police colonel tell me the other day that all the people in Jurf," a predominantly Sunni town, "are evil, including the children."...
...[They]ran a clandestine court, where insurgent judges would try, torture and execute collaborators, the Iraqi police said. Mutilated bodies were often found bobbing in the swamps...
...and in February, soldiers in a Bradley fighting vehicle fired on two suspects who they said tried to blow up a convoy and took off running, right past a house.
When the soldiers arrived at the house, the colonel said, a woman was screaming in the driveway, waving the severed leg of her daughter. The girl had been hit by an American shell and bled to death in front of the soldiers.
The troops have also been enmeshed in strange local dynamics. A few weeks ago, a schoolgirl came to them with an armload of books that included a chemical weapons training manual. She led the soldiers to her father, a former Iraqi Army colonel suspected of being an insurgent. After the soldiers detained him, they gave the girl a chocolate bar...
...Yassir Naameh Naoufel, a Sunni elder in Jurf, said Sunnis could no longer visit Musayyib, a Shiite town. "If we do, we might disappear," he said.
Meanwhile, the Mahdi Army, a force of armed men loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, has been pushing into Musayyib, introducing a harsh brand of Islamic law.
According to Staff Sgt. Joseph Schicker, a psychological operations soldier, Mahdi militiamen recently threw battery acid on a woman whose ankles were showing and dragged a man accused of being gay through the streets...................
The New York Times, Jeffery Gettelman. April 16, 2005
...”But it is not clear how receptive Shiites and Sunnis are to the reconciliation efforts. Often, the only common ground is anti-American anger, or at least disappointment.
Salah al-Shimeri, an Iraqi police official and a Shiite, told American soldiers during a recent meeting, "I just wish you could put this country back to the way you found it."
Sometimes, the colonel said, he is unsure whether that can be done. "How will it end?" he said one night. "I don't know."
"I think it will come down to an attrition of spirit. Either they'll get tired of fighting and quit. Or we will."...
..."You talk to people here and it's literally the same conversations I heard in Bosnia," Colonel Donahoe said. "I had a police colonel tell me the other day that all the people in Jurf," a predominantly Sunni town, "are evil, including the children."...
...[They]ran a clandestine court, where insurgent judges would try, torture and execute collaborators, the Iraqi police said. Mutilated bodies were often found bobbing in the swamps...
...and in February, soldiers in a Bradley fighting vehicle fired on two suspects who they said tried to blow up a convoy and took off running, right past a house.
When the soldiers arrived at the house, the colonel said, a woman was screaming in the driveway, waving the severed leg of her daughter. The girl had been hit by an American shell and bled to death in front of the soldiers.
The troops have also been enmeshed in strange local dynamics. A few weeks ago, a schoolgirl came to them with an armload of books that included a chemical weapons training manual. She led the soldiers to her father, a former Iraqi Army colonel suspected of being an insurgent. After the soldiers detained him, they gave the girl a chocolate bar...
...Yassir Naameh Naoufel, a Sunni elder in Jurf, said Sunnis could no longer visit Musayyib, a Shiite town. "If we do, we might disappear," he said.
Meanwhile, the Mahdi Army, a force of armed men loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, has been pushing into Musayyib, introducing a harsh brand of Islamic law.
According to Staff Sgt. Joseph Schicker, a psychological operations soldier, Mahdi militiamen recently threw battery acid on a woman whose ankles were showing and dragged a man accused of being gay through the streets...................
From the date of your first reference, " as best i know
(BOMBOVA.yvr.bc.ca) the trailers
were weather observation utility trailers for containing helium, hydrogen for latex weather baloons.
the baloons carried radio transponders for reporting temperature data on their assent.
The thing that amazed me at the time is the fact of them being manufactured by British contractors. Much the same as the sword presented to SH by a renowned british steel manufacture.
As he pulls the sword out in appreciation , the media has spun it as a savage man. It really supprises me. rtg.
(BOMBOVA.yvr.bc.ca) the trailers
were weather observation utility trailers for containing helium, hydrogen for latex weather baloons.
the baloons carried radio transponders for reporting temperature data on their assent.
The thing that amazed me at the time is the fact of them being manufactured by British contractors. Much the same as the sword presented to SH by a renowned british steel manufacture.
As he pulls the sword out in appreciation , the media has spun it as a savage man. It really supprises me. rtg.
My opinion (BOMBOVA.yvr.bc.ca) is that the trailers on your reporting dates were known to have been supplied by a british contractor for weather utility trailers for storing hydrogen, helium and latex weather ballons along with data transmitters to report back to radio recievers the weather trends sampled.
Just as the sword presented to SH was of british fine steel and given in appreciation. The vidio of SH pulling it out has been used as propaganda of a savage man.
In the case of an advanced radar destroyer shooting down an Iranian airliner, the results were diagnosed as mass hysteria under combat conditions of thinking the worse. ( in video doumentary form ). When will this thinking the worse end? and acting the worse end? I do not know! rtg.
Just as the sword presented to SH was of british fine steel and given in appreciation. The vidio of SH pulling it out has been used as propaganda of a savage man.
In the case of an advanced radar destroyer shooting down an Iranian airliner, the results were diagnosed as mass hysteria under combat conditions of thinking the worse. ( in video doumentary form ). When will this thinking the worse end? and acting the worse end? I do not know! rtg.
My opinion (BOMBOVA.yvr.bc.ca) is that the trailers on your reporting dates were known to have been supplied by a british contractor for weather utility trailers for storing hydrogen, helium and latex weather ballons along with data transmitters to report back to radio recievers the weather trends sampled.
Just as the sword presented to SH was of british fine steel and given in appreciation. The vidio of SH pulling it out has been used as propaganda of a savage man.
In the case of an advanced radar destroyer shooting down an Iranian airliner, the results were diagnosed as mass hysteria under combat conditions of thinking the worse. ( in video doumentary form ). When will this thinking the worse end? and acting the worse end? I do not know! rtg.
Just as the sword presented to SH was of british fine steel and given in appreciation. The vidio of SH pulling it out has been used as propaganda of a savage man.
In the case of an advanced radar destroyer shooting down an Iranian airliner, the results were diagnosed as mass hysteria under combat conditions of thinking the worse. ( in video doumentary form ). When will this thinking the worse end? and acting the worse end? I do not know! rtg.
My opinion (BOMBOVA.yvr.bc.ca) is that the trailers on your reporting dates were known to have been supplied by a british contractor for weather utility trailers for storing hydrogen, helium and latex weather ballons along with data transmitters to report back to radio recievers the weather trends sampled.
Just as the sword presented to SH was of british fine steel and given in appreciation. The vidio of SH pulling it out has been used as propaganda of a savage man.
In the case of an advanced radar destroyer shooting down an Iranian airliner, the results were diagnosed as mass hysteria under combat conditions of thinking the worse. ( in video doumentary form ). When will this thinking the worse end? and acting the worse end? I do not know! rtg.
Just as the sword presented to SH was of british fine steel and given in appreciation. The vidio of SH pulling it out has been used as propaganda of a savage man.
In the case of an advanced radar destroyer shooting down an Iranian airliner, the results were diagnosed as mass hysteria under combat conditions of thinking the worse. ( in video doumentary form ). When will this thinking the worse end? and acting the worse end? I do not know! rtg.
My opinion (BOMBOVA.yvr.bc.ca) is that the trailers on your reporting dates were known to have been supplied by a british contractor for weather utility trailers for storing hydrogen, helium and latex weather ballons along with data transmitters to report back to radio recievers the weather trends sampled.
Just as the sword presented to SH was of british fine steel and given in appreciation. The vidio of SH pulling it out has been used as propaganda of a savage man.
In the case of an advanced radar destroyer shooting down an Iranian airliner, the results were diagnosed as mass hysteria under combat conditions of thinking the worse. ( in video doumentary form ). When will this thinking the worse end? and acting the worse end? I do not know! rtg.
Just as the sword presented to SH was of british fine steel and given in appreciation. The vidio of SH pulling it out has been used as propaganda of a savage man.
In the case of an advanced radar destroyer shooting down an Iranian airliner, the results were diagnosed as mass hysteria under combat conditions of thinking the worse. ( in video doumentary form ). When will this thinking the worse end? and acting the worse end? I do not know! rtg.
The Mystery of al Mustafa hussainiya. Army vs. Interior? A foreign hand?....Who knows?
Los Angles Times April 16, 2006
By Borzou Daragahi
“...The parties involved — the gunmen, victims, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers — have proved hard to trace, and efforts to uncover what really happened at the Mustafa hussainiya often raise more questions than answers
For instance, after monitoring the site for weeks, how could U.S. and Iraqi officials have not known that at least part of the building served as a hussainiya, a Shiite house of worship considered slightly less formal than a mosque? Who, exactly, were the Iraqi Special Forces who carried out the raid? And were the kidnappers using worshipers as cover for their criminal activities?...
...In addition to the hostage freed March 26, at least one other person has emerged who says he was kidnapped and taken to the Mustafa hussainiya and other locations by gunmen who tortured him.
In a videotaped account recorded by his relatives, a bedridden Raed Mohammed Mashadani, a Sunni Arab, said men in police uniforms kidnapped him in mid-March and demanded $50,000 in ransom.
When relatives came to pay the ransom, Mashadani said, they were kidnapped too.
He said they were taken to a garbage dump, lined up and shot by men wearing police uniforms who left them for dead. His relatives were killed, but despite four bullets to his torso, he said, he managed to crawl for help.
He said he was sure his kidnappers took him to the Mustafa compound.
"I saw it was the Mustafa hussainiya with my own eyes," he says in the videotape. "I've been living in this neighborhood, and I know it well."
The hostage freed during the March 26 raid, a Health Ministry dental technician in his 30s, finished his work at a clinic in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood that morning and was heading home when he was abducted by several people claiming to belong to the Interior Ministry's intelligence branch, according to a transcript of an interview he gave Western media.
The men covered his head and handcuffed him before putting him into a car.
Once at the Mustafa compound, they began beating him, he said. They menaced him with a saw and a drill, pressing the tools to his flesh. He said they asked him, "Do you know what this is?"
They demanded $20,000, and finding a picture of his daughter in his wallet, they vowed that he'd never see her again unless he came up with the money.
Sunni political groups have said that many kidnappings by Shiite militiamen with ties to security forces have been traced to the area around Mustafa, but no one has been able to pinpoint their headquarters...
...But despite the intelligence, the U.S. and Iraqi forces failed to learn what every resident in the area knows. The building, once a grammar school before it was turned into a Baath Party office, had become a Shiite house of worship after the 2003 invasion...
...But residents of Mustafa and its neighbors give a starkly different account of the raid. Only one man in the compound was armed, said Adel Abdul-Hassan Zareji, the mosque's 34-year-old deputy preacher, carrying an AK-47 to protect the worshipers.
"This is the place where we pray," Zareji said. "It's a sacred place, and you can't enter with your shoes. They came in with their boots."
He said the some of the men were ritually washing themselves before prayer at a bank of sinks. He said the soldiers shot people and dragged them into piles; he pointed to bloodstains on the ground where the dead had lain...
...Soon, questions arose about the Iraqi Special Forces unit that conducted the raid. Many high-level government officials wondered under whose authority the unit operated.
"We will open an investigation into these forces who trained them and who gave them the authority to do all these raids and killings," said Jawad Maliki, a member of the Islamic Dawa Party and among the most powerful figures in the Shiite-led government. "We cannot allow the existence of special forces which are not under the control of the government, supported by the American troops."
Even some U.S. officials were baffled. Gen. George W. Casey, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, and Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli discussed the matter with the Iraqi ministers of Defense and Interior. Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which oversees Baghdad, was reportedly furious.
"Nobody knows who these guys are," said a high-ranking military official who described the meeting, referring to the Iraqi Special Forces unit.
Questions also remain about the identity of the group operating out of the building. The abductions described by the hostages fit the pattern of kidnappings by Shiite militiamen with possible ties to the security forces.
In the past, members of radical cleric Muqtada Sadr's Al Mahdi militia, as well as the more mainstream cleric Abdelaziz Hakim's Badr Brigade, have been accused of engaging in such criminal activity under the cover of official security forces. Neighbors say the Mustafa compound was a regular haunt of some Al Mahdi members. But the Islamic Dawa Party, which had an office in the building, has no militia.
Despite the extensive intelligence the U.S. military and Iraqi forces gathered before the raid, officials say they are "still developing" information on these people.
Los Angles Times April 16, 2006
By Borzou Daragahi
“...The parties involved — the gunmen, victims, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers — have proved hard to trace, and efforts to uncover what really happened at the Mustafa hussainiya often raise more questions than answers
For instance, after monitoring the site for weeks, how could U.S. and Iraqi officials have not known that at least part of the building served as a hussainiya, a Shiite house of worship considered slightly less formal than a mosque? Who, exactly, were the Iraqi Special Forces who carried out the raid? And were the kidnappers using worshipers as cover for their criminal activities?...
...In addition to the hostage freed March 26, at least one other person has emerged who says he was kidnapped and taken to the Mustafa hussainiya and other locations by gunmen who tortured him.
In a videotaped account recorded by his relatives, a bedridden Raed Mohammed Mashadani, a Sunni Arab, said men in police uniforms kidnapped him in mid-March and demanded $50,000 in ransom.
When relatives came to pay the ransom, Mashadani said, they were kidnapped too.
He said they were taken to a garbage dump, lined up and shot by men wearing police uniforms who left them for dead. His relatives were killed, but despite four bullets to his torso, he said, he managed to crawl for help.
He said he was sure his kidnappers took him to the Mustafa compound.
"I saw it was the Mustafa hussainiya with my own eyes," he says in the videotape. "I've been living in this neighborhood, and I know it well."
The hostage freed during the March 26 raid, a Health Ministry dental technician in his 30s, finished his work at a clinic in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood that morning and was heading home when he was abducted by several people claiming to belong to the Interior Ministry's intelligence branch, according to a transcript of an interview he gave Western media.
The men covered his head and handcuffed him before putting him into a car.
Once at the Mustafa compound, they began beating him, he said. They menaced him with a saw and a drill, pressing the tools to his flesh. He said they asked him, "Do you know what this is?"
They demanded $20,000, and finding a picture of his daughter in his wallet, they vowed that he'd never see her again unless he came up with the money.
Sunni political groups have said that many kidnappings by Shiite militiamen with ties to security forces have been traced to the area around Mustafa, but no one has been able to pinpoint their headquarters...
...But despite the intelligence, the U.S. and Iraqi forces failed to learn what every resident in the area knows. The building, once a grammar school before it was turned into a Baath Party office, had become a Shiite house of worship after the 2003 invasion...
...But residents of Mustafa and its neighbors give a starkly different account of the raid. Only one man in the compound was armed, said Adel Abdul-Hassan Zareji, the mosque's 34-year-old deputy preacher, carrying an AK-47 to protect the worshipers.
"This is the place where we pray," Zareji said. "It's a sacred place, and you can't enter with your shoes. They came in with their boots."
He said the some of the men were ritually washing themselves before prayer at a bank of sinks. He said the soldiers shot people and dragged them into piles; he pointed to bloodstains on the ground where the dead had lain...
...Soon, questions arose about the Iraqi Special Forces unit that conducted the raid. Many high-level government officials wondered under whose authority the unit operated.
"We will open an investigation into these forces who trained them and who gave them the authority to do all these raids and killings," said Jawad Maliki, a member of the Islamic Dawa Party and among the most powerful figures in the Shiite-led government. "We cannot allow the existence of special forces which are not under the control of the government, supported by the American troops."
Even some U.S. officials were baffled. Gen. George W. Casey, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, and Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli discussed the matter with the Iraqi ministers of Defense and Interior. Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which oversees Baghdad, was reportedly furious.
"Nobody knows who these guys are," said a high-ranking military official who described the meeting, referring to the Iraqi Special Forces unit.
Questions also remain about the identity of the group operating out of the building. The abductions described by the hostages fit the pattern of kidnappings by Shiite militiamen with possible ties to the security forces.
In the past, members of radical cleric Muqtada Sadr's Al Mahdi militia, as well as the more mainstream cleric Abdelaziz Hakim's Badr Brigade, have been accused of engaging in such criminal activity under the cover of official security forces. Neighbors say the Mustafa compound was a regular haunt of some Al Mahdi members. But the Islamic Dawa Party, which had an office in the building, has no militia.
Despite the extensive intelligence the U.S. military and Iraqi forces gathered before the raid, officials say they are "still developing" information on these people.
Consequences of an Attack on Iran's Nuclear Facilities
Effect on Iran's Nuclear Program
Contrary to popular belief, it appears that Israel's attack on Osirak in June of 1981 did nothing to hinder Iraq's nuclear aspirations. Although it temporarily set back its capabilities, it served rather to reinforce and increase Saddam's desire for a nuclear arsenal. In fact, Iraqi nuclear scientist Imad Khadduri claims that Israel's preemptive strike against the French-built Tamuz Iraqi nuclear reactor, which was not really suitable for plutonium production anyway, had the exact opposite effect of the one intended: it sent Saddam Hussein's A-bomb program into overdrive and convinced the Iraqi leadership to initiate a full fledged nuclear weapons program immediately afterwards.[28]
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/040812.htm
Effect on Iran's Nuclear Program
Contrary to popular belief, it appears that Israel's attack on Osirak in June of 1981 did nothing to hinder Iraq's nuclear aspirations. Although it temporarily set back its capabilities, it served rather to reinforce and increase Saddam's desire for a nuclear arsenal. In fact, Iraqi nuclear scientist Imad Khadduri claims that Israel's preemptive strike against the French-built Tamuz Iraqi nuclear reactor, which was not really suitable for plutonium production anyway, had the exact opposite effect of the one intended: it sent Saddam Hussein's A-bomb program into overdrive and convinced the Iraqi leadership to initiate a full fledged nuclear weapons program immediately afterwards.[28]
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/040812.htm
The Shalish Brigade
The New York Times, April 16, 2006
Edward Wong: Chuckling Darkly in Iraq
IN Iraq today, there is a new corps of combatants who show no mercy.
Their targets are venal politicians, heavy-handed American soldiers and the dreaded suicide bombers. Armed with pen and sketchpad, they are the vanguard of Iraqi political cartoonists, taking aim at the state of the country three years after Saddam Hussein fell. With few restrictions on speech now, dozens of newspapers have blossomed in Iraq, and all the major ones seem to run one or two cartoons a day.
Under Mr. Hussein, political cartoons appeared, but they amounted to little more than state propaganda.
Mr. Hussein and his aides were, of course, immune from being satirized.
Now, no one is spared. Freedom of speech may be one of the few clear successes of the American-led invasion, but it has a price: the cartoonists refuse to buy into any narrative of a golden dawn for Iraq. A deep cynicism — about politicians in general, and policies that have turned Iraq into a sectarian bloodbath — emerges in virtually every cartoon.
Even top Bush administration officials have taken notice. On a visit to Baghdad this month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointed to recent Iraqi cartoons as a sign of the ordinary people's restlessness over endless negotiations to form a new government.
In the four drawings here, all published in the past week, the black humor is evident.
1. Al Sabah, financed by the Shiite-led government, ran a caricature of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, after he said that Iraqi Shiites were more loyal to Iran than to Iraq. Shiite leaders here accused Mr. Mubarak of fueling tensions between Sunni Arabs and Shiites. In the cartoon, Mr. Mubarak's tie bears a Star of David, linking him to Israel, a common target of Arab anger.
2. A cartoon from Al Bayyna al Jadidah , a conservative Shiite newspaper, questions the idea of celebrating the third anniversary of the toppling of a Saddam Hussein statue in central Baghdad, an event intended at the time to signify a quick and decisive victory by the American forces. Empty boots symbolize the continuing toll of the war — nearly 2,400 American troops and more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and policemen.
3. The past week saw little movement in the political process, and Al Sabah al Jadid showed two men criticizing politicians' empty boasts of progress. The cartoonist, Khudair al-Hamiri, drew during Saddam Hussein's time.
4. One of Iraq's most famous cartoonists, Muayad Naama, had an even darker take on the war before he died last November of a heart attack. His jagged sketches often confronted readers with the violence ingrained in daily life here. Last week, Al Mada printed posthumously a cartoon showing a lovestruck man trying to impress a paramour by decapitating himself, and the woman chastising him for his banal gesture — a statement on how common beheadings have become.
Post a Comment
The New York Times, April 16, 2006
Edward Wong: Chuckling Darkly in Iraq
IN Iraq today, there is a new corps of combatants who show no mercy.
Their targets are venal politicians, heavy-handed American soldiers and the dreaded suicide bombers. Armed with pen and sketchpad, they are the vanguard of Iraqi political cartoonists, taking aim at the state of the country three years after Saddam Hussein fell. With few restrictions on speech now, dozens of newspapers have blossomed in Iraq, and all the major ones seem to run one or two cartoons a day.
Under Mr. Hussein, political cartoons appeared, but they amounted to little more than state propaganda.
Mr. Hussein and his aides were, of course, immune from being satirized.
Now, no one is spared. Freedom of speech may be one of the few clear successes of the American-led invasion, but it has a price: the cartoonists refuse to buy into any narrative of a golden dawn for Iraq. A deep cynicism — about politicians in general, and policies that have turned Iraq into a sectarian bloodbath — emerges in virtually every cartoon.
Even top Bush administration officials have taken notice. On a visit to Baghdad this month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointed to recent Iraqi cartoons as a sign of the ordinary people's restlessness over endless negotiations to form a new government.
In the four drawings here, all published in the past week, the black humor is evident.
1. Al Sabah, financed by the Shiite-led government, ran a caricature of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, after he said that Iraqi Shiites were more loyal to Iran than to Iraq. Shiite leaders here accused Mr. Mubarak of fueling tensions between Sunni Arabs and Shiites. In the cartoon, Mr. Mubarak's tie bears a Star of David, linking him to Israel, a common target of Arab anger.
2. A cartoon from Al Bayyna al Jadidah , a conservative Shiite newspaper, questions the idea of celebrating the third anniversary of the toppling of a Saddam Hussein statue in central Baghdad, an event intended at the time to signify a quick and decisive victory by the American forces. Empty boots symbolize the continuing toll of the war — nearly 2,400 American troops and more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and policemen.
3. The past week saw little movement in the political process, and Al Sabah al Jadid showed two men criticizing politicians' empty boasts of progress. The cartoonist, Khudair al-Hamiri, drew during Saddam Hussein's time.
4. One of Iraq's most famous cartoonists, Muayad Naama, had an even darker take on the war before he died last November of a heart attack. His jagged sketches often confronted readers with the violence ingrained in daily life here. Last week, Al Mada printed posthumously a cartoon showing a lovestruck man trying to impress a paramour by decapitating himself, and the woman chastising him for his banal gesture — a statement on how common beheadings have become.
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