Free Iraq

A thousand apologies would not begin to address the horror of what has been and is being done to the Iraqi people. A thousand apologies will not unmaim the maimed, bring to life the slaughtered, unspoil the landscape, unsay every arrogant word uttered in support of murderous aggression, bring sanity to those responsible for the invasion, or make just what is so fundamentally unjust.

Having been away I can scarcely bring myself to reengage the reality of the suffering world we have created. What luxury. Iraqis - and others - have no such choice.
 

Catching up

Six weeks ago -
Rice wants to end travel curb on Mandela and ANC: "It is frankly a rather embarrassing matter that I still have to waive in my own counterparts -- the foreign minister of South Africa, not to mention the great leader, Nelson Mandela."

(Reflect upon the horrors perpetuated by Rice & Co. not found "embarrassing" by mam'selle. May we look forward to the day when these plastic veneered thugs themselves are refused entry by enlightened countries. Better yet, when incarceration itself limits even the possibility of being waived through international borders.)
 

Olmert to U.S.: Impose naval blockade on Iran - Israelis who spoke to Bush and his entourage while they were in Israel last week said they had the impression that the military option “is on the table,” and that the president felt a sense of deep obligation to overcome the Iranian threat.
 

DU Shells Used by U.S. Worse Than Nuclear Weapons: The use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by the U.S. military may lead to a death toll far higher than that from the nuclear bombs dropped at the end of World War II. DU is a waste product of uranium enrichment, containing approximately one-third the radioactive isotopes of naturally occurring uranium. Because of its high density, it is used in armor- or tank-piercing ammunition. It has been fired by the U.S. and British militaries in the two Iraq wars and in Afghanistan, as well as by NATO forces in Kosovo and the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine.
 

Consciousness of Guilt: The gaping discrepancy between the stated goals of American foreign policy and its praxis is best exemplified by the apogee of war crimes: genocide. In its pursuit of these lofty goals, the United States has committed genocide in Iraq. Intervention resulting in genocide at the very minimum proves that American government’s professed motives for foreign policy decisions are altogether specious.

Invading and occupying Iraq under the pretext of a preemptive war, a country already decimated by Dessert Storm, sanctions and no-fly-zones, represents the quintessential tragedy and hypocrisy of American foreign policy. To verify that the American Government is guilty of genocide in Iraq, I will establish a set of criteria based on the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and apply them to Iraq.
 

Iraqi TV station says U.S. troops killed cameraman: An Iraqi television station accused U.S. troops on Thursday of shooting dead one of its cameramen as he walked to his Baghdad home. Colleagues of Wisam Ali Ouda at the Afaq television channel said he was among 11 people killed by U.S. soldiers in eastern Baghdad’s Obaidi district on Wednesday morning.
 

Wayne Madsen Report (in full) -
May 20, 2008 -- Carnaby had access inside the Israeli Prime Minister's office: Roland Carnaby, the one-time CIA Station Chief for the Southeast Region, headquartered in Houston, had sources inside the office of Israel's Prime Minister. A source who knew Carnaby said the agent, killed by Houston police on April 29, had a certificate of appreciation personally signed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The certificate was embossed with the seal of the HaMossad leModi'in v'leTafkidim Meyuhadim [המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים‎], the Mossad.

Carnaby maintained close links to Israeli intelligence and sponsored and vouched for a number of Israeli security contractors who wanted to provide services to the George Bush International Airport in Houston. However, it is now clear that Carnaby obtained knowledge about Israeli and Bush administration plans to start a Middle East conflagration that was enough for elements inside the Bush White House, Israeli intelligence, and their contacts inside the Houston Police Department to have him assassinated.

On May 6, 2008, WMR reported: WMR has learned from its Middle East intelligence sources that a leak from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office resulted in the last minute scuttling of an Israeli intelligence operation in Beirut that would have started a series of events that would have likely resulted in the outbreak of warfare between Israel and Lebanon, Syria, and possibly, between Iran and the United States.

Israel's Mossad planned an April 25 assassination, likely by its favorite method, a massive car bomb, of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Because the assassination would have triggered the "perfect storm" for the outbreak of war in Lebanon, with the involvement of Israel, the United States, Syria, and Iran, an official in Olmert's office leaked the assassination plan. When it became apparent that there was a leak, Mossad scuttled the entire operation.

The plan was immediately known by the CIA and Hezbollah. It is known that retired CIA officer and contractor Roland Carnaby, a Lebanese-American, had close contact with all of Lebanon's various factions. On April 29, four days after the planned assassination of Nasrallah by Mossad, Carnaby was killed in broad daylight by Houston police. WMR previously reported that Carnaby had successfully penetrated a Mossad ring active in the Houston area.

WMR has learned from CIA sources in Lebanon that Carnaby maintained a close link to retired Lebanese General Michael Aoun, a major Christian leader who has allied his party to Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah. Aoun was once considered an ally of Israel but broke his ties after Israel's devastating sneak attack on Lebanon in 2006.

It is likely that Carnaby was the nexus that served to pass the leak from Olmert's office to Aoun and then to Nasrallah. It was the plan for a U.S. and Israeli assault on Lebanon following Nasrallah's assassination that prompted the Hezbollah leader to carry out a show of force against the pro-US government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. Plans by the United States and Israel to attack Lebanon would have been coordinated with a military assault on Syria and eventually, Iran.

Carnaby was very close to former President George H. W. Bush, who WMR has been told is adamantly opposed to any U.S. military strike on Lebanon, Syria, or Iran. Although the senior Bush is beginning to suffer symptoms associated with Alzheimer's, it is also known that he has worked behind the scenes to stop further U.S. military attacks in the Middle East.

Carnaby was so close to the elder Bush that while at a Houston restaurant, the elder Bush, after spotting Carnaby at the bar having a drink with a friend, jumped up, ran over to Carnaby, and warmly embraced him. Bush is also reportedly incensed at Carnaby's shooting by the police and he has blamed the neocons who have infiltrated his son's administration for the death of his friend.

The elder Bush resents the heavy hand dealt by Vice President Dick Cheney to Syria's President Bashar Assad. Bush still recalls that it was Assad's father, Hafez Assad, who contributed troops for Operation Desert Storm against Assad's fellow rival Baathist Saddam Hussein. Bush also was appreciative that Bashar Assad's intelligence chief helped take out Hezbollah's military commander Imad Mugniyah in a Damascus car bombing in February. Mugniyah was blamed for the kidnapping and torture execution of CIA Beirut station chief William Buckley in 1985. Buckley was Carnaby's boss in Lebanon and Bush, as Vice President, was coordinating America's counter-terrorism program.

WMR has also discovered that before the planned assassination of Nasrallah on April 25, Carnaby was talking on his cell phone at a Houston restaurant. The patrons of the restaurant were startled to hear the mild mannered Carnaby began shouting in the phone, yelling "Who the hell ordered that?" and pounding the table. Those who knew Carnaby thought it was out of character but also knew that something serious was going on.

It is also known that Carnaby, fearful of a U.S. war with Iran, wanted to leave the CIA. He was reportedly very nervous, behavior described by a friend as "skittish," during the week before his death. WMR has also learned from a reliable source that Carnaby had information that he was trying to get to Washington the morning that he was killed. The Houston police impounded Carnaby's laptop computer, which contained details on a CIA non-official cover (NOC) network tasked with protecting U.S. and foreign ports from terrorist attacks and the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). That network, like Valerie Plame Wilson's Brewster Jennings & Associates non-official cover firm that tracked the proliferation of WMDs, may have been compromised to Mossad, which is considered by the CIA to be a hostile intelligence agency that seeks to damage U.S. national security.
 

Catching up (more)

Wayne Madsen Report -
May 9-11, 2008 -- US continues establishment of new airbase in northern Lebanon: WMR was the first to report on the establishment of a major US airbase at Kleiaat (or Qlei'at) in northern Lebanon to facilitate logistics for America's planned long-term stay in the Middle East, including the occupation of Iraq. We have now learned from our intelligence sources in Lebanon that on May 5, a representative from the US Embassy in Beirut spent three hours at Kleiaat surveying the airport and meeting with local officials. The secretiveness of the embassy official's visit was highlighted by the prohibition of cameras at the airport.

The United States has made an agreement with the pro-US, Israeli, and Saudi government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora to gradually transform the Kleiaat airbase from a civilian airport to a military airbase. The base will function under a NATO umbrella but will be controlled by the United States.

The recent move by Siniora against a private Hezbollah telecommunications network that extended from Beirut International Airport, south Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, Mount Lebanon, and greater Beirut to pro-Michel Aoun Christian enclaves in Jbeil and Keserwan is seen as a way to ensure that the Hezbollah-Aoun March 14 Alliance cannot securely communicate. The fact that the Lebanese opposition to the pro-US government was able to evade total electronic surveillance by the Israelis, the US National Security Agency, and the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) prompted pressure on the Beirut government to act against the Hezbollah network. That triggered a Hezbollah retaliation and the outbreak of warfare between Hezbollah and its allies and the central government.

The outbreak of warfare between Hezbollah and the central government comes after a planned Israeli Mossad assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on April 25. That would have triggered an environment for the outbreak of a general war involving Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. ...
 

But where's Dershie going to shop?
 

Bottom line: "All this talk about a possible peace agreement and a possible settlement in the near future is not serious. It's all designed for public relations purposes. Israelis are not interested in giving the Golan Heights back and reaching a peace accord with the Syrians, and they're not interested in withdrawing from the West Bank and allowing the Palestinians to create a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip."
 

Pentagon 9/11 Flight 'Black Box' Data File Created Before Actual 'Black Box' Was Recovered? (Makes total sense to me!)
 

Canada to deport first US deserter of Iraq war
 

Hollywood Is Becoming the Pentagon's Mouthpiece for Propaganda (Experts at producing trash)
 

IOF troops destroy agriculture sector in Gaza; kill Palestinian farmers
 

BILDERBERG ONLINE RESOURCE PAGE
 

Iraq: Mass detentions in Mosul as troops move into Sadr City
 

Superman Found Dead in Iraq
 

The Most Important Question to Ask About Patrick Cockburn: Is he repeating US and Iraqi Government's propaganda? (Thank you, Gabriele Zamparini, for asking the question.)
 

Action Alert!
URUKNET CUT OFF FROM GOOGLE NEWS AGAIN!
 

US helicopter strike kills eight civilians in Iraq
 

George W Bush Authorized 911 Attacks Says Government Insider
 

The Mosul riddle: No one has asked the million-dollar-question: How come multicultural Mosul - a non-Kurdish city - is now being ruled by deputy governor Khoso Goran, a Kurd?

It all started in January, when Maliki - and Washington - started spinning the Ninevah province offensive, centered in Mosul, as "the last battle" against al-Qaeda in Iraq. The notion that "al-Qaeda" - or Salafi-jihadis in general - could be in control of Mosul, a city of 1.7 million people, was absolutely ludicrous in the first place. In late 2007, a smatter of jihadis did retreat to Mosul from Anbar and Diyala provinces and south Baghdad. But they have never been able even to control a full Mosul neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Maliki's forces have arrested 1,100 people since January, including scores of former Ba'athist and Saddam Hussein-era military officers, something that aroused serious anger from the Mosul power elite. None of these were "al-Qaeda"; they were, in fact, part of the Sunni Arab resistance.

Confirming this fact is a statement released by the so-called "Resistance Council" denouncing the real reason for the Mosul operation: a sort of coup by what is dubbed the "council of five" - the five hegemonic political parties in Baghdad (the two Kurdish parties, the Da'wa Party, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and the Islamic Party) to totally dominate the coming Iraqi provincial elections. (The elections have been postponed from October to November, depriving the John McCain Republican campaign in the US from any "positive" Iraqi spin).

Even a dubious Mosul sheikh, Fawaz al-Jarba, who's been in favor of creating an Awakening Council in the city, has admitted that al-Qaeda in Iraqi jihadis had left the city months ago. Scores of Sunni Arab media not only in Iraq but also in Jordan have stressed this is nothing but a concerted Maliki campaign targeting (Sunni Arab) Iraqi nationalists.
 

Minneapolis activist wants Bush arrested when his plane lands for the GOP convention in September: The White House did not return a call seeking a comment. (But, let me! . . . . )
 

“Information Confirms Secret Iraqi-US Deals
to Control Wealth...”
 

Who??????
Thursday, June 5 - Sunday, June 8
Westfields Marriott
14750 Conference Center Drive
Chantilly, Va. 20151
703-818-0300
 

Rice defends post 9/11 interrogation techniques: "Now, there has been a long evolution in American policy about detainees and about interrogations." (Well said.)
 

Dick says, " . . . . .."
 

FBI files indict Bush, Cheney and Co. as war criminals
 

In Iraq, a Surge in U.S. Airstrikes: [The pilot] uses a powerful lens to zoom in on tiny silhouettes, trying to identify people with "hostile intent" among hundreds of ordinary citizens in Baghdad. (Say that again?)
 

Top immunologist on bioterrorism threat: 'This whole thing's a crock and we've spent $50 billion'
 

Hamas declares full alert in Gaza, vows unprecedented resistance tactics
 

A brilliant Israeli film about the Sabra and Shatila massacre is bound to stir controversy