Free Iraq

"Iraq's ministry of justice has told the BBC that six of the eight women being held by coalition forces in Iraq have been released early.
The six were freed because there was insufficient evidence to charge them, a justice ministry spokesman said.
The US forces have refused to confirm the releases, but say they would not be based on any operational activities.
The group holding US journalist Jill Carroll has said she will die unless all Iraqi women prisoners are freed.
The status of prisoners held by coalition forces is reviewed twice a week by a committee made up of the justice, human rights and interior ministries, and a representative of the US-led coalition."
Female detainees set free in Iraq January 18, 2006

This is a summary of the below Arabic article written by the lawyer Ismael Ibrahim, January 17, 2006:

“The ‘Iraqi Constitution’, which was voted upon in August 15, 2005 and was then submitted to the UN, has now been published in the Official Iraqi Records Publication.

Two articles have been altered from their original content:
Article 9:
First:
A. The Iraqi Armed Forces and Security Services will be composed of the components of the Iraqi people with due consideration given to its balance and its similarity without discrimination or exclusion and shall be subject to the control of the civilian authority. The Iraqi Armed Forces shall defend Iraq and shall not be used as an instrument of oppression against the Iraqi people, shall not interfere in the political affairs and shall have no role in the transfer of authority.
B. …
C. …
D. The Iraqi National Intelligence Service shall collect information, assess threats to national security, and advise the Iraqi government. This service shall be under civilian control and shall be subject to legislative oversight and shall operate in accordance with the law and pursuant to the recognized principles of human rights.

The text marked in red has now been arbitrarily deleted from the officially published text of the ‘Constitution’, and it is doubtful that it is a ‘typographical error’.”
.

نُشر دستور جمهورية العراق في الجريدة الرسمية لجمهورية العراق ( الوقائع العراقية ) بالعدد ( 4012 ) في 28 / كانون الأول 2005 وقد لفت نظري سقوط جزء من الفقرتين ( أ ) و ( د ) من البند( أولا ) من المادة ( 9 ) من الدستور، ولكون ما سقط او ما تم إسقاطه او ما تم سرقته مبادئ أساسية تتعلق بأخطر واهم أجهزة الدولة العراقية ( الجيش والمخابرات ) لذلك الأمر يدعو إلى الريبة والشك وتسليط الضوء عليه .ـ
نصت المادة ( 144 ) من الدستور على ( يُعدّ هذا الدستور نافذاً، بعد موافقة الشعب عليه بالاستفتاء العام، ونشره في الجريدة الرسمية ، وتشكيل الحكومة بموجبه )ـ

.
Downing of Apache Helicopter near Tarmiya by the Mujahideen Army, January 16, 2006.
"Two Task Force Ironhorse Soldiers were killed Jan. 16 when their AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed in a swampy area north of Taji at approximately 8:20 a.m. The aircraft was conducting a combat air patrol. It is premature to determine the cause of the crash" (emphasis added, see below Update*). MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ , January 16, 2005
(There is a report of yet another Apache downing, also on January 16, 2006, near Mashahda, north of Baghdad, by the Salah Al-Din Al-Ayoubi Brigade. In Arabic كتائب صلاح الدين تتبنى إسقاط مروحية أمريكية شمال بغداد ) .

===
Updates:
- These two events might be the same, as a total curfew is now imposed on Mashahda, in Arabic, January 17, 2006).

- *Ah!! Finally, Missile Brought Down U.S. Chopper in Iraq January 17, 2006
"A Russian-made surface-to-air missile launched by anti-American insurgents brought down a U.S. military helicopter that crashed in Iraq on Jan. 16, ABC News reported Jan. 17, citing unnamed Pentagon officials.
The network said the shootdown represented “a troubling new development” because there are hundreds and possibly thousands of SA-7 missiles that remain unaccounted for in Iraq".
Now, this is truly interesting (from the same article):
"Meanwhile, the U.S. military is investigating whether there is a common pattern in the loss of three helicopters over the past 10 days in Iraq that points to a new threat, a Pentagon spokesman said Jan. 17.
... The head of the U.S. Army Aviation Center has reported separately that insurgents are now using a new “aerial” improvised explosive device (IED) designed to shoot 15 meters (50 feet) into the air and explode under a low-flying helicopter, the weekly Defense News reported.
Brig. Gen. Edward Sinclair, the commander of the Army Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Ala., disclosed that the latest threat against military helicopters in Iraq are “aerial IEDs.”
He told Defense News that insurgents have been placing the improvised explosive devices along known flight paths and then triggering them when American helicopters fly in at rooftop level.
Sinclair said the bomb’s builders may be using radio activated proximity fuses taken from artillery, anti-aircraft and mortar shells to detonate the warhead at altitudes of about 15 meters (50 feet).
Defense News said the devices have been used against helicopters on multiple occasions, but the general would not say if they have caused damage.
Army helicopters come under insurgent fire 15 or 20 times a month (emphasis added), Sinclair said."

إستراتيجية أميركا العسكرية بالعراق في طريق مسدود January 18, 2006
===

Road mines under a Desert Patrol Vehicle south of Mosul and a Humvee south of Baghdad, and another Humvee flies near Baghdad, January 2006.

Night attack on a Hummer, near Yousifiya, South of Baghdad, December 2005.

Daylight assault near American base, near Ramadi, December 2005.

===
Update: Another one bullet near Baghdad, January 2006, from the Iraqi Resistance Sniper - Juba . Note how the brave American soldier grabs an Iraqi kid and holds him to his chest for protection from Juba.

- it is claimed that Juba has killed 154 GIs, wounded 54 GIs, killed 6 Officers, and killed 4 Snipers. (see the full video clip on Juba).

By the way; there is another Iraqi Resistance Sniper now in Fallujah, who has sent back home 15 US soldiers/officers. The occupiers have offered a $100,000 reward (in Arabic) for information leading to him. And, there is now another Iraqi Resistance Sniper in Mosul (in Arabic).
====

A Prisoners' Lament نشيد السجين (in Arabic, with poignant lyrics). 10MB. Produced by "The Association of the Victims of American Occupation Prisons".

Further to the previous posting "The Last Confession" .... "الإعتراف الأخير" May 15, 2005, the following is a review, in Arabic, of this book as published in "The best books of 2005" by Wighat Nazzar - وجهات نظر , العدد الرابع والثمانون يناير 2006 - كتاب العام 2005
.

Why do you really need this:

"When the stress of the war in Iraq becomes too severe, the Pentagon has a suggestion for military families: Learn how to laugh.
With help from the Pentagon's chief laughter instructor (sic), families of National Guard members are learning to walk like a penguin, laugh like a lion and blurt “ha, ha, hee, hee and ho, ho.”
No joke.
“I laugh every chance I get,” says the instructor, retired Army colonel James “Scotty” Scott. “That's why I'm blessed to be at the Pentagon, where we definitely need a lot of laughter in our lives.”
... “We believe our program prevents hardening of the attitudes,” says Scott, in one of his wordplay aphorisms that beg for a rimshot. The founder and chief executive of the World Laughter Tour is psychologist Steve Wilson, who calls himself “Cheerman of the Bored.”
“The guiding principle is to laugh for no reason. And that's one of the reasons it works so well for military families,” Scott says.
.... Ways military families are being taught to laugh:
*Penguin exercise: Waddle and flap hands as though they're fins.
*Lion laugh: Open eyes and mouth wide while repeating “ha ha's.”
*Repeat “ho, ho, ha, ha, ha,” while clapping on each sound.
Pentagon To Families: Go Ahead, Laugh January 13, 2005

When all he would need is to show them This (video)?? Or even This.

Or, perhaps, simply tell them this light hearted reason why their loved ones in Iraq may be getting killed for:

"As democracy advances in the form of election results and government formation, and as the military pressure continues, and the pressure generated by political progress increases, we expect more violence across Iraq," Alston [spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition force] said at a news briefing."
Violence expected to engulf Iraq in coming weeks January 12, 2006

"Hi, Lioness. I’m writing from a PR firm on behalf of the U.S. Army. We’re contacting a few bloggers to test a new outlet for public information. The Army believes that military blogs are a valuable medium for reaching out to soldiers. To that end, the Army plans to offer you and selected bloggers exclusive editorial content on a few issues you’re likely to be interested in. If you do decide you are interested in receiving this material, whether you choose to write about what we send you is, of course, entirely up to you.Like I said, we’re only contacting a handful of bloggers at this time. If you are interested, please let me know, and we’ll send you further information as it becomes available. Either way, thanks for your time."
I'm Being Recruited by the Army?! January 8, 2006

".... The Washington Post's national security columnist reported the shameful news today.
The goal of the Army's propaganda is to obscure the horrible truth of the Iraq occupation, the propaganda company admitted in an e-mail to unquestioning supporters of the endless war.
No longer able to control the usually corrupt Washington press corps, the Bush administration has been repeatedly caught creating fake newscasts and fake news agencies while bribing "independent" journalists to repeat the government's lies. And each month brings new evidence that dozens of "real" journalists and TV news personalities are involved in a massive cover-up scheme to protect themselves as they protect criminal figures such as "Scooter" Libby and Dick Cheney.
With the U.S. public overwhelmingly against the government's wars abroad and against Americans at home, mainstream news outlets have slowly begun to report the truth.New propaganda efforts such as the Army's blogging scheme are the latest attempts to dilute actual reporting on the scandals and failures of the federal government. With so many Americans now seeing blogs mixed in with online news, the Pentagon hopes to confuse citizens."
I want you for U.S. blogging January 10, 2006

See ! (click for link)

"Last weekend an American special task force unit raided my house. It was precisely the kind of terrifying experience I have had described to me over and over again by Iraqis I have interviewed in the past two-and-a-half years. My wife, Zina, described it as like something out of a Hollywood action movie.
It began at half past midnight on Saturday when explosives blew apart the three entrances to my house. We thought we had been caught in a bombing, but then a rifle sneaked round our bedroom door and shot a couple of bullets blindly; suddenly our room was filled with the wild sounds of US soldiers.
My three-year-old daughter Sarah woke to this nightmare. She pushed herself on to me and shouted "Daddy, Americans! They will take you! No, no, not like this daddy ..." She tried to say something to one of the soldiers but her tears stopped her from speaking. Instead of blaming the soldier I could see she was blaming me. I tried to calm her down but as I did so the soldier threw me on to the ground and tied me.
They then took me downstairs and made me sit in the living room while they smashed every piece of furniture we have. There were about 20 soldiers inside the house and several others on guard on the roof. A blue-eyed captain came to me holding my Handycam camcorder and questioned me aggressively: "Can you explain to me why you have this footage?"
I explained. "These are for a film we are making for Channel 4 Dispatches. There is nothing sinister about it."
But that was not good enough. He seemed to think he had found very important evidence. Hooded and with my hands tied I was taken to an armoured vehicle.
I was then driven to an unknown destination. I spent the entire journey thinking back on what has happened in the past two years of the occupation. I have so often heard of such things happening to others. But now I was experiencing it myself, and I too could feel the shame and humiliation. It is this kind of disrespect for the privacy of the home - that tribal people regard as a terrible humiliation - which Sunnis in the west of Iraq see as legitimising resistance.
When the journey eventually ended I found myself in a small room, two metres square, with wooden walls, a refrigerator and an oval table in the middle. Soon two men came in, civilians, wearing vests. "Do you know why you are here, Mr Fadhil?" they asked me.
I replied: "To be interrogated?"
With a broad smile, one of them said: "No. There was a mistake in the address and we apologise for the damage."
So that's it. They blew three doors apart with explosives, smashed the house windows, trashed all our furniture, damaged the car, risked our lives by shooting inside rooms aimlessly, hooded me and took me from my family who didn't know if they would ever see me again - and then, with a smile, they dismissed it as a small mistake. (added emphasis)
So was this intimidation or just a typical piece of bungled repression? I don't know and cannot tell, though I have yet to have my tapes returned. I do know, however, the effect it has had on my daughter. Sarah hates all soldiers and calls them Americans even if they are Iraqis. There is no way she will change her mind about them after that nightmare.
There are many Iraqis - Iraqis who welcomed the fall of Saddam - who feel exactly the same today."
The night the Americans came January 11, 2006

"U.S. soldiers fed up with almost daily bomb attacks on their patrols near Iraq's main oil refinery are taking drastic measures to fight their shadowy enemy -- they're walling in an entire town.
Army bulldozers have begun building giant sand embankments around Siniya, a town of 50,000 close to the northern oil refining city of Baiji. When finished it will be 10 km (6 miles) long and more than 2 meters (nearly 8 feet) high.
.... "We oppose the building of this wall because it makes the city looks like a detention center," said Nima al-Kawaz, the head of the city council.
The U.S. military hopes to repeat the success of a similar berm or sand wall that was built in August around Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, to stop insurgents from entering the city. It says violence there has since dropped off sharply.
Similar barriers have been built elsewhere in Iraq."
US troops build wall of sand around Iraqi town January 10, 2005

"Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster of the British army said US army personnel struggled to grasp the nuances of battling anti-government fighters while also winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Iraqis.
"Moreover, whilst they were almost unfailingly courteous and considerate, at times their cultural insensitivity, almost certainly inadvertent, arguably amounted to institutional racism," Aylwin-Foster wrote, arguing that the army exacerbated the task it now faces by alienating significant parts of the Iraqi population."
US army in Iraq gets harsh appraisal January 12, 2006

“My Uncle was murdered” Layla Asamarai, MA Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology, January 7, 2005

"I received an e-mail today from a dear friend in Minnesota who is grieving the death of her uncle in Iraq. Her heartrending personal account of his murder deeply saddened me and I include it for all those who wish to read it. Afterwards, please read a passionate appeal to the American people by Cindy Sheehan, a tireless crusader to bring an end to the war in Iraq. God Bless.

"I wanted to share some really sad family news that we were just stricken with yesterday. My uncle Abdulrazaq (my father's younger brother who is 50 years old) was in Iraq (in our local city of Samarra Iraq) on Thursday January 5th, 2006 and at 8pm went to go meet with his business partners to finish financial exchanges and on his way back he was killed by American troops.

Upon stealing the $10,000 that were in his coat pocket the troops that the Americans are so proud of and support, found that he did not have any weapons or explosives and then they dumped his body at the local hospital and walked away with his money.

My cousin is a resident physician at the local hospital. The Americans had notified them that they were bringing in a dead body and to come and receive it. Upon going to receive the body from the Americans outside of the hospital he was shocked to find that this is his uncle. At home his wife was very worried as he was extraordinarily late for dinner. She called other family members who called the hospital (which is something people typically due since so many people are dying since the U.S. invasion) to see if he had an accident at which point my cousin answered informing them that his body was just dumped at the hospital.

Our family was contacted and they came to receive his body. He was shot in the head, abdomen, and in one of his kidneys and it is believed that he died immediately, though the details of whether they robbed him before or after they killed him and when decided to dump his body are unknown. He left behind a wife and two daughters age 4 and 5. They are still not sure how to break the news to his daughters.

My uncle had spent 16 years as a prisoner of war in Iran. He was freed on April 9th, 1998 (even though the Iran/Iraq war ended in the late 80's). Upon starting his life again in 1998 he married and had two beautiful daughters. Although it was always hard for him to talk about the torture in the Iranian prisons, his daughters Shayma (5 yrs old) and Yamama (4 years old) always had a way of transcending words such they seeped into his heart in the most natural and miraculous way and when he played with them he was free from his tortured thoughts and pains.

My uncle Abdulrazak is not the only one, there are thousands that have died in this way. This is the face of American terrorism. Our family is so numb. Our hearts are swollen with grief, resentment, and sorrow.

American soldiers sign up to risk life and death and when one of them dies it is though the earth stops its rotation, but when an Iraqi civilian who is working hard to support his family and is forced to live his life in the midst of an American occupation is murdered and robbed by sweet American boys, he is dumped like road kill.

What makes their lives more worth living?? Is it the blue eyes and blond hair? or is it the cross that hangs on their necks?? I wonder what defense they have for this one. Did he part his hair on the wrong side? Did he wear the wrong color? Was he driving "suspiciously"? What would they say he did to deserve being murdered? How about robbing him? It must not have been a robbery. Maybe they were afraid that a doctor would steal his money so they kept if for safe keeping.

Maybe they wanted to take the money and buy a gift for his daughters. Whatever it is it must be good because they are Americans! In fact as they provide this hypothetical justification (assuming they would be prompted to do so- which wouldn't happen because Americans answer to no one) I can just hear the national anthem playing in the background.

My uncle's murderers will come home to their families one day to tell of the heroic stories but humbly refuse to be called heroes and instead insist that they were merely doing their duty, but in their soiled hearts they will carry the ugliness of what they have done and who they became and it will eat at them until it destroys their lives and the lives around them. This email will not have an end-just as these killings do not....... "

See also these previous two postings on similar American terrorist crimes to people I do happen to know, in addition to the thousands of similar stories on other innocent Iraqis whose memories will be seared, for future retribution, in the Iraqi soul:

US soldiers killed Bassam Al-Bir ... ألف رحمة على روحك يا عراقي يا بسّام البير
July 6, 2005
The horrifically ignored 'Collateral Damage' carnage April 4, 2005
Extending Good Friday to smother Easter Sunday March 27, 2005

And

"So how are you feeling, you gallant warriors of the sky, you Top Guns of Iraq and District? Did you sleep well last night after your few minutes of bombing? Did you enjoy a pleasant breakfast back on the aircraft carrier? Perhaps a bit of a workout at the gym? You are the people described in glowing terms by White House robo-mouth Scott McClellan as "going out of the way to avoid civilian casualties; they target the enemy, they target terrorists and the Saddam loyalists who are seeking to kill innocent civilians and disrupt the transition to democracy". And you are also the people who killed children when you blitzed a house in the Iraqi town of Bayji at about 9.30 on the night of January 3, 2006."
Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They Sleep January 15, 2006

"By replacing the army and the police with expatriates and U.S.-trained militia gangs, whose loyalty to the Iraqi state is weak and questionable, the U.S has deliberately increased the violence and fraternal killings. The U.S. financed and armed these militia gangs, and allowed them to operate freely. These militia gangs are bent more on advancing their ethnic and religious interests than on defending the nation and preserving national unity. By doing so the U.S. ensured obedience and dependence. In other words, the U.S. aim is to cement sectarianism and ethnic division, and destroy Iraq’s unity and national identity."
Terror and Resistance January 9, 2006

A Letter from an Arab Citizen to an American Mother January 6, 2006 (see text below)
"Do you feel what we feel as Arabs?
We love others just as you do, we feel pain just as you do, we dream just as you do, and we have our small things.
Among us are those that are passionate, and among us are the old… the young that cry just like your young that scream.
Among us are mothers, whose hearts are full of love and care,And are happy and sad like all people.
They cry at times of hardship… until the tears over flow.
They remember just like you remember and forget just like you do.
Every now and then, the people in my country die for nothing.
We die because we are innocent and we are Iraqi.
The prisons are filled with us and we are tortured because we are Iraqi. Only because we are Iraqi.In Abu Graib our bodies are piled into pyramids.
And you ask us Madam, who does this to us?
You eat and we don’t, and you sleep and we don’t
And we could at anytime become stranded in our own deserts, whilst the cold attacks us.
And your soldiers wipe us out with missiles.
As days go by American Jets slaughter us.
Imagine the begging of the night,
Or the start of day,
And starving babies cry, and their eyes are filled with tears.
Come with me Madam to sing to the bird in the fields.
Come and sing with me to the children…for peace everywhere, as we Arabs are a forest of roses
We don’t hate anyone even the Americans!!
And remember forever until the end of this world that we don’t hate anyone."
The Arab citizen: Mohammed Zedan

URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IRAQ'S ACADEMICS - Kindly read and sign the petition

I was reluctant in posting this item. This is food for thought from a friend:

"Dear Imad, Eid Saeed. I find the story implausible and, if you permit me to say so, I think you should have kept to your admirable efforts to check authenticity before giving legitimacy to stories. If this story is true, it means that the Iranian officers were fighting alongside Sadr's Mahdi Army. And if true the US occupation authorities would have tortured and killed M Rubai' long before some anonymous blogger lived to tell the story. Rubai' is a well established CIA and occupation asset and the US has insisted on appointing him to every administration since the occupation. A recent source (on US death squads in Iraq) claims that he is in charge of all US-established security forces (and death squads) in Iraq. I am prepared to believe (speculatively) the first part of the story, because it fits with US efforts to prolong the Najaf siege. As you know, Imad, I am no supporter of Iran but it is the US tanks and planes that are occupying Iraq and murdering its people. But I am afraid, for some, anti-Iranian agitation is more important than opposing the occupation. For them the liberation of Palestine always went through Tehran. It seems the liberation of Iraq from the US-led occupation is being steered in the same direction...while the CIA is laughing its head off".

I shall await further input before deciding whether to keep this item, for posterity sake.

A recent book, State of War, by James Risen claims to expose several scandals in the American intelligence community. On the book cover, Risen himself pins his own commendation as "a member of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2002 for coverage of September 11 and terrorism". If explanatory includes doing the proper search and taking the pains to verify what you write, then his book fails dismally in one instance.

In the Chapter "The Hunt for WMD" in Iraq detailing the scornful conscription of Dr Sawsan Al-Haddad by the CIA to be a spy on her own brother and send her to Baghdad, Iraq in order to extract information from her scientist brother (and a good friend of mine ; مهمة سوسن الحداد والبحث عن أسلحة الدمار الشامل) regarding the CIA's delusion that Iraq was "reconstituting" its nuclear program after 1991, Risen stated the following:

"A key source of nuclear technology for Jafar's new team was the United States itself. In fact, Jafar had recommended using the EMIS process in part because so much old American technological infor­mation was publicly available. A major breakthrough for the team came in 1982, when Imad Khouri, the head of information programs for Jafar's team, traveled to the United States and obtained Manhat­tan Project designs for EMIS from public sources in American li­braries. When Khouri returned to Baghdad, Saad Tawfiq and the other scientists were given Manhattan Project data related to their subsystems." Page 98.

Had Risen been thoroughly reading about 'dissidents' to the CIA delusions, he might have stumbled across one of the over 15 published articles of mine, starting months before the invasion of Iraq, as well as the book that I self-published in September 2003, and at least used my correct name.

The above story was thus:

In 1988, and after finding 96% of the published scientific reports on the Manhattan Project already residing in the library of the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission in Baghdad, "... there were references to more than 160 patents submitted by the [Manhattan] Project’s scientists and engineers themselves that pertained directly to the Manhattan Project and the design and operation of the Calutron. These were in fact the actual designs, processes and descriptions of the vital components of the EMIS. They were not part of the Atomic Energy Library gift [by the American government to Iraq in 1956]. We had to get them.

Siroor Mirza, our ever well dressed, with a flower pinned to his jacket sleeve, Scientific Attaché to the Iraqi Embassy in Vienna was ready. Siroor, a geologist, had joined me ten years earlier during my uranium prospecting trip to the desert in the south of Iraq. During that trip, we had shared the unsavory memory of the misguided guide that nearly cost us our lives.

In coordination with Siroor, I would send him a list of about twenty or thirty references for scientific articles, paper and patents. Dispersed in each list would be several Manhattan Project patents that could, at that time, be obtained from the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, the container of all the patents of the world. I soon had collected all 163 patents pertaining to EMIS, classified them into categories, and distributed copies of them to the scientists and engineers concerned. The Head of the Atomic Energy commission, Humam Abdul Khaliq, extended his thanks. It probably cost us no more than $100." Page 100 in "Iraq's Nuclear Mirage".

Despite Risen's lame excuse on the first page of his book "A note on sources : Many people have criticized the use of anonymous sources of information", one wonders, based on the above example, how thorough in fact are the "Intelligence" experts themselves.

Cockeyed US Intelligence

"Excerpts from the Guardian and NYT: Between six and 14 members of an Iraqi family were reported dead yesterday after US warplanes obliterated a house in the northern oil town of Baiji. Enraged local officials described the attack as unjustified and said it had killed an innocent family, including one member who worked for the Iraqi police.
"I absolutely confirm there were no terrorists in this house," police chief Colonel Sufyan Mustafa told Reuters. "Even if there had been, why didn't they surround the area and detain the terrorists instead?" People at the scene of the blast said seven bodies were recovered from the rubble, including at least two children.
A preliminary investigation indicated the blast had killed the wife of the home's owner, his daughter-in-law and seven children and grandchildren, including one son who worked for the police, said Maj. Muthanna al-Qaisi, a spokesman for the governor of Salahaddin Province. Three more relatives were wounded, he said.
A statement from the US 101st Airborne Division said troops monitoring images from an unmanned reconnaissance drone on Monday night had observed three men "as they dug a hole following the common pattern of roadside bomb emplacement"
The men were tracked from the road site to a building nearby, which was then bombed with "precision guided munitions," the military said. The statement did not say whether a roadside bomb was later found at the site. An additional military statement said Navy F-14's had "strafed the target with 100 cannon rounds" and dropped one bomb. [End excerpts]
Get ready to see a lot more of this, because Bush has finally settled on an "exit strategy" for Iraq: he's going to bomb his way out.
... But, aping his idol, Winston Churchill, Bush intends to control the "recalcitrant" Arabs with air power: [comment: the two previous links are very noteworthy] dropping 500-pound bombs on private homes and residental neighborhoods, and keeping the natives under constant watch by helicopter gunships and robot sky-drones. "
Air America January 4, 2006

"A bomb that killed six civilians Monday near Baiji, Iraq, missed its target by 65 feet (20 meters) and hit the wrong home, military officials said.
The bomb, which was dropped by a U.S. fighter plane, was aimed at a building that three men entered after planting a roadside bomb as an unmanned surveillance plane watched from overhead, the officials said.
A U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter jet strafed the building before the bomb was dropped, according to a U.S. military statement released after the nighttime attack.
The bomb had "successful effects against the insurgents," the statement added.
The strike flattened a family's home, killing six of the family members and wounding three others, said a spokesman for the Salaheddin provincial governor's office. A father and daughter survived with only minor injuries, he said.
The Baiji strike was one of 58 air missions the U.S. military carried out Monday over Iraq.
U.S. military officials said they are investigating why the wrong building was hit.
In a news conference Tuesday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan emphasized the U.S. position that its military "goes out of the way to avoid civilian casualties.""
U.S. says bomb hit wrong house in Iraq January 5, 2006

Updates:
VIDEO: Iraqi Civilians Killed in U.S. Air Strikes , January 6, 2006
the Video Clip (allow Flash 8 to be installed)

"The dead included women and children whose bodies were recovered in the nightclothes and blankets in which they had apparently been sleeping. A Washington Post special correspondent watched as the corpses of three women and three boys who appeared to be younger than 10 were removed Tuesday from the house."
Because in this case – unlike in so many others in which American air power utilizes "precisely guided munitions" – there was on-the-spot reporting for an American newspaper, the U.S. military command was required to explain these casualties. Without conceding that the deaths actually occurred, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, director of the Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad, commented: "We continue to see terrorists and insurgents using civilians in an attempt to shield themselves."
Notice that Lt. Col. Johnson (while not admitting that civilians had actually died) did assert U.S. policy: If suspected guerrillas use any building as a refuge, a full-scale attack on that structure is justified, even if the insurgents attempt to use civilians to "shield themselves (added emphasis)." These are, in other words, essential U.S. rules of engagement. The attack should be "precise" only in the sense that planes and/or helicopter gunships should seek as best they can to avoid demolishing surrounding structures. Put another way, it is more important to stop the insurgents than protect the innocent.
And notice that the military, single-mindedly determined to kill or capture the insurgents, cannot stop to allow for the evacuation of civilians either. Any delay might let the insurgents escape, either disguised as civilians or through windows, backdoors, cellars, or any of the other obvious escape routes urban guerrillas might take. Any attack must be quickly organized and – if possible – unexpected.
The Real Rules of Engagement in Iraq
We can gain some perspective on this military strategy by imagining similar rules of engagement for an American police force in some large city. Imagine, for example, a team of criminals in that city fleeing into a nearby apartment building after gunning down a policeman. It would be unthinkable for the police to simply call in airships to demolish the structure, killing any people – helpless hostages, neighbors, or even friends of the perpetrators – who were with or near them. In fact, the rules of engagement for the police, even in such a situation of extreme provocation, call for them to "hold their fire" – if necessary allowing the perpetrators to escape – if there is a risk of injuring civilians. And this is a reasonable rule… because we value the lives of innocent American citizens over our determination to capture a criminal, even a cop killer.
But in Iraqi cities, our values and priorities are quite differently arranged. The contrast derives from three important principles under which the Iraq war is being fought: that the war should be conducted to absolutely minimize the risk to American troops; that guerrilla fighters should not be allowed to escape if there is any way to capture or kill them; and that Iraqi civilians should not be allowed to harbor or encourage the resistance fighters."
A Formula for Slaughter January 11, 2006

"Lateral damage"

Further to an earlier posting
Rewriting history, Mr Bush? ... As I was saying ... November 15, 2005,

and to emphasize the deceiving incredulity of Charles Duelfer's testament:

"DUELFER: The system--you know, if you have a 100 people in the day who say, you know, "I was driving in Baghdad and I didn't see anything," it doesn't make it to the president's desk. It's just a--it's unnatural. I mean that, you know, nothing is happening, so you are going to report that to the president? (emphasis added)
But you if you do get a guy, you know, who says something is going on, then that attracts attention. I don't know, is it--part of it is human nature and part of it's a systemic problem."
But, but .. "It's just a -- it's unnatural" (A previous posting on this site on July 4, 2005) ;

the following book sheds new light on the "we did not know" lie:

"A new book on the government's secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program.
Dr. Sawsan Alhaddad of Cleveland made the dangerous trip to Iraq on the CIA's behalf. The book said her brother was stunned by her questions about the nuclear program because — he said — it had been dead for a decade.
New York Times reporter James Risen uses the anecdote to illustrate how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction. His book, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration describes secret operations of the Bush administration's war on terrorism.
The major revelation in the book has already been the subject of extensive reporting by Risen's newspaper: the National Security Agency's eavesdropping of Americans' conversations without obtaining warrants from a special court.
The book said Dr. Alhaddad flew home in mid-September 2002 and had a series of meetings with CIA analysts. She relayed her brother's information that there was no nuclear program.
A CIA operative later told Dr. Alhaddad's husband that the agency believed her brother was lying. In all, the book says, some 30 family members of Iraqis made trips to their native country to contact Iraqi weapons scientists, and all of them reported that the programs had been abandoned. (emphasis added)
In October 2002, a month after the doctor's trip to Baghdad, the U.S intelligence community issued a National Intelligence Estimate that concluded Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program."
Book: CIA ignored info Iraq had no WMD January 3, 2006