Free Iraq

Behind The Cheney Trip To Riyadh: 1. The essential message delivered to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah by Vice President Cheney was that there is no basis for dialogue withIran. The U.S. position in the region has been weakened, and therefore a new security architecture must be established, particularly in the Persian Gulf, to contain and counter Iran's growing influence. ... Cheney proposed to establish a new regional balance of power, through a Sunni Arab alliance with Israel, to confront the Iranian threat. ...
 

And on the other hand . . .
15 Brigades Would Gradually Stand Down Under Iraq Study Group Plan: The report leaves unstated whether the 15 combat brigades that are the bulk of American fighting forces in Iraq would be brought home, or simply pulled back to bases in Iraq or in neighboring countries. ...

As described by the people involved in the deliberations, the bulk of the report by the Baker-Hamilton group focused on a recommendation that the United States devise a far more aggressive diplomatic initiative in the Middle East than Mr. Bush has been willing to try so far, including direct engagement with Iran and Syria. ...
 

Bush: Calls for Troop Drawdowns Unrealistic
 

Mystery surrounds F-16, pilot in Iraq crash
 

A New Plan
 

BRussells Tribunal, Iraq: Their next massacre: The US, instead of accepting the evident reality that only the national popular resistance — armed, political and civil — has the power and the legitimacy to bring stability, democracy and peace to Iraq, is trying to escape this reality by diverting eyes from the tragic situation to its diplomatic moves with Syria and Iran.
 

Michel Chossudovsky, Debating "War and Peace" behind Closed Doors: NATO's Riga Security Conference: From a US standpoint, this meeting will be used to build a European consensus on America's "long war". The purpose of the meeting is to rally support (e.g. in European political circles and in the military-industrial complex) for the US led military adventure in the Middle East and Central Asia, which is intimately related, from a strategic standpoint, to the battle for oil and oil pipeline corridors.
 

Abid Mustafa, Israel between rhetoric and reality over Iran: The recent American overtures to induct Iran in any political settlement over Iraq have immensely troubled the Israel. So perturbed has been the government in Tel Aviv that she has mounted a concerted campaign in America to keep alive the notion that Iran poses a grave danger to the US and must be thwarted at any cost.

Clearly uncertainty has permeated the corridors of power in Washington regarding Iran. On the one hand the Bush administration is prepared to entertain the idea that force against Iran cannot be ruled out. While at the same time the Bush administration is warming to the idea of reaching out to Iran to help US extricate itself from the quagmire in Iraq. The muddled signals stem from the ongoing conflict between the realists who are in ascendancy and the neoconservative who are in bitter retreat. The neoconservatives believe that America’s strategic interests in the Middle East are intertwined with Israel’s security. Therefore any of Israel’s neighbours that pose a danger to Israel’s security must be neutralised. This not only involves disarming the so called menacing country, but also dividing the country along ethnic and sectarian lines ... where new countries carved out from the bloodshed perpetrated by the US Army pledge their allegiance to serve the American Empire. ...
 

Wayne Madsen, November 30, 2006 -- Morale in Army and Marines plummets as Iraq situation reaches calamity stage and top commanders retire
 

Wayne Madsen, November 30, 2006 -- Was the use of polonium to kill Litvinenko a clue to the identity of the killer or killers?
[ . . . ]

We now know that Litvinenko was working on unspecified "energy issues" in London. We also know he has been described as a Russian-Israeli "double agent" and was reported to have transferred classified Russian documents in Yukos to a Russian-Israeli exiled oligarch in Tel Aviv. ... Litvinenko's killers' use of polonium, named by Marie Curie in support of Polish independence, may mean that the assassins are more likely found in Warsaw's Russian-Israeli mob infested intelligence apparatus than in the Kremlin.
 

Jonathan Cook, Palestinians Are Being Denied the Right of Non-Violent Resistance; Would [Human Rights Watch] Have Attacked Martin Luther King, Too?

In its press release "Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks", which was widely reported by the international media, HRW lambasts armed Palestinian groups for calling on civilians to surround homes that have been targeted for air strikes by the Israeli military.

... Popular and peaceful resistance to the oppressive policies of occupying powers and autocratic rulers, in India and South Africa for example, has always been, by its very nature, a risky venture in which civilians are liable to be killed or injured. Responsibility for those deaths must fall on those doing the oppressing, not those resisting, particularly when they are employing non-violent means. ...

in its latest release, on human shields, HRW plumbs new depths, stripping Palestinians of the right to organise non-violent forms of resistance and seek new ways of showing solidarity in the face of illegal occupation. In short, HRW treats the people of Gaza as mere rats in a laboratory -- the Israeli army's view of them -- to be experimented on at will.

HRW's priorities in Israel-Palestine prove it has lost its moral bearings.
 

U.S. helicopters fire in Baghdad, heavy clashes: Machinegun fire rained from U.S. helicopters in central Baghdad on Friday as U.S. and Iraqi troops clashed with gunmen during a raid on suspected militant hideouts, Iraqi security officials and witnesses said.

At midday, four U.S. armored Humvee vehicles ... directed machinegun fire at a local secondary school... . Shooting could be heard in the background.

The Interior Ministry said one soldier had been killed and nine people wounded, including five soldiers in the operation. A Defense Ministry official said 28 suspects had been captured.

The U.S. military said it could not comment on an ongoing operation.
 

B Nimri Aziz, Iraq: Long history of multi-faith co-existence in jeopardy: ... Kirkuk is targeted as a new center for Iraqi Kurdistan. Until recently, the city was multi-ethnic, although it is identified as the center of Turkmen Iraqi society and economy. For the past 3 years, Kurds have been moving into the city at an increased pace, frightening the Turkmen residents. As with Israeli 'settlement' in the West Bank, this is a strategy of "changing the facts on the ground'. Assassinations against Kirkuk's Turkmen families have begun. Fear and tension are rising. Because the city is center of the important Kirkuk oil fields, it is a major economic prize and Kurds do not hide their ambitions for the city. Kurds, backed by Zionist and American elements, are well armed and powerfully placed in the Iraqi government. Turkmens say the ongoing settlement of tens of thousands of new residents, all of Kurdish origin, is in anticipation of a referendum on the city's fate in 2007. With a majority Kurdish population, the city could become an official Kurdish territory. It is a frightening prospect for Iraq's Turkmens.
 

Ramzy Baroud, Ethnic Cleansing and Israel’s Racist Discourse: Any act of collective punishment — whether ethnic cleansing or genocide or any other — is often preceded and or adjoined by a racist discourse that dehumanizes the victim and justifies the crime on baseless grounds, a concoction of lies and fibs that may appeal to national or religious psyches, but fails the test of law, morality or basic human norms and expectations.
 

Drs. Stephen Frost & Christopher Burns-Cox & David Halpin, "Sexed up" Report on the Death of David Kelly: Lord Hutton Findings challenged by Medical Doctors
 

National Catholic Register, Neo-conservatism at the Vatican? Kissinger to become Political Adviser to Pope Benedict XVI: Any appointment of Kissinger is likely to cause some unease ...
(Actually, it has the advantage of shining a very bright light on the Pope's political - need I add, 'ethical'? - stripes.)
 

Video (2 min), Dick Cheney Traitor, Former Director of the Council on Foreign Relations
 

(Direct link to above item, November 30, 2006 3:04 PM)
Wayne Madsen, Growing suspicion anti-Putin syndicate may be behind Litvinenko & Gaidar poisonings
 

Nicolas J S Davies, Hope at last for Iraq: not the Iraq Study Group, but signs of unity against the occupation: The balance of power in Iraq has now evolved to the point that a successful combination between al-Sadr’s supporters and the Sunni population would represent an insurmountable challenge to the U.S. occupation. If al-Sadr succeeds in his overtures to the Sunnis while continuing to expand his influence over Prime Minister al-Maliki or a successor, the outcome could be as simple as a request from the Iraqi government for a withdrawal of U.S. forces, followed by a graceful exit. It is more likely that al-Sadr will have to defend his position against some sort of American coup (Regime Change V or VI), and the U.S. would presumably want to move against him before his challenge is fully formed. Once he has demonstrated an ability to bring Shiites and Sunnis together in opposition to the occupation, it will be over and he will have won.
 

Fine words from President Bush: "I think any time you murder somebody you're a criminal and I believe a just society, and a society that holds people to account and believes in the rule of law, protects innocent people from murderers - no matter what their political party is." (George, buy a mirror. Folks, get a rope.)
 

It Is Time To Ask The Question: Is George Bush Sane?
 

Robert Fisk, Like Hitler and Brezhnev, Bush is in denial: About the only truthful statement uttered in Amman yesterday was Bush's remark that "there's a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there's going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq [but] this business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all."
 

Mike Whitney, Powderkeg: Al-Sadr is the most powerful man in Iraq and the Medhi Army the strongest militia. This puts Bush in the unenviable position of either fighting al-Sadr now (even though the US trained and provided weapons for many of the Shiite militias in the Interior Ministry) or trying to negotiate with the leaders in the Ba’athist-led resistance to cobble together a coalition government. Either way; America loses and the region descends into chaos.
 

Iraqi data shows 45% leap in civilian deaths in Nov
 

Kurt Nimmo, Cohen: No Moral Qualms Over Slaughtering Iraqis: ... [F]or some reason the very immorality of invading a sovereign nation, killing upward to 650,000 of its citizens, poisoning its land, water, and air with depleted uranium for the next few billion years does not enter into the equation.
 

xymphora, The Litvinenko poisoning puzzle: The answers to the Litvinenko poisoning puzzle are falling into place nicely, despite the efforts of the British police to muddy the waters ...
 

Huge Hezbollah-led rally demands U.S.-backed Lebanon govt quit
 

Maliki’s snub reverberates through Middle East: Rebuff to Jordan seen as sign of rising Shiite-Sunni tensions in the region
 

Jack A. Smith, Debate on US Troop Withdrawal fails to Acknowledge War Crimes & Violation of Iraq's Sovereignty
 

Haaratz, Israelis: War In Summer 2007
 

U.S. rethinking Iraqi unification goal
 

Muckraker Report, Prior knowledge of 9/11 attacks overheard in Hebrew: "Investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying ... is considered career suicide."
 

Baghdad: Woman being used as 'human shield' shot by U.S. forces
 

Shiite leader rejects conference on Iraq
 

Majority of Israelis Favor War with Iran
 

Michel Chossudovsky, Mass Demonstrations against the US backed Lebanese Government: Washington's objective is to transform Lebanon into a US protectorate. The Lebanese people are demanding the resignation of a government which is acting on behalf of the US and the Israeli invaders of their country. They are demanding the formation of a national unity government which will defend the Lebanese homeland against US-Israeli aggression.
 

Adrian Salbuchi, The World's Mastermind: The Hidden Face of Globalization: As we now have it, globalization can be defined as an ideology that identifies the Sovereign Nation-State as its key enemy, basically because the State's main function is (or should be) to prioritize the interests of the Many - i.e., "the People" - over the interests of the Few. Accordingly, the forces of globalization seek to weaken, dissolve and eventually destroy the very foundations of the Nation-State as a basic social institution, in order to replace it with new supra-national worldwide social, political, economic, financial and military management structures. Such structures tie in with the political objectives and economic interests of a small number of highly concentrated and very powerful groups and organizations which today drive and steer the globalization process in a very specific direction.

These power groups consist of private interests which have succeeded in achieving something that is unprecedented in all of human history, and which we describe as the privatization of power on a global scale.

"Globalization" is actually a hypocritical understatement or euphemism of what former US presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and George H.W. Bush - each at different times in modern history - described as the “New World Order”. (emphasis added)
 

Yes I agree that Saudi Arabia and the rest of Islamic world have to intervine and try to solve the IRAQ promble.
One should also remeber that since the US wants them to intervine now
Saudi has this golden opprotunity where they can say to the US that yes they will intervine but first solve the palastine issue this is the golden opportunity to solve both the issues inshallah.