Iraq: Maliki reconciliation altered at last minute - has it been scuttled?
Truth About IraqisIraq: In the past few days we heard of Maliki's ambitious goal to end violence, end sectarianism, end the militia and ensure that the resistance forces lay down their arms and are employed into the political process. We heard that there would be a timetable for withdrawal of foreign troops and, more importantly, amnesty for those who resisted foreign troops but did not engage in killing of Iraqis. The last two clauses have been removed. The US military had protested saying it could not abide by an amnesty for those who killed foreign occupiers. It wanted that portion of the amnesty removed (...) So, Maliki bowed to pressure, and it has been removed, leaving nothing substantial to work with. In fact, to add insult to injury, militia belonging to Badr and Sadr have been engaged in ruthless attacks on many of Baghdad's neighborhood since Tuesday - June 20, 2006...
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Lynching Saddam – Part 4: the NYT enjoys that bloody show!
Gabriele ZampariniThe Washington official reactions to the lynching of prisoner of war President Saddam Hussein comes - as usual - from the pages of the New York Times: No arrests have been made in any of the trial-related assassinations, including those of a judge and his son, also a court employee. Some American officials strongly suspect that members of Mr. Hussein's Baath Party may have played a role with the aim of discrediting the court. Indeed, each killing has been followed by an upsurge of demands, from Western human rights organizations as well as Baathists, for the trial to be moved out of Iraq. But once again, something doesn't seem right here. A few days ago the same New York Times wrote: Iraqi witnesses said that Mr. Obeidi was transported in a convoy of vehicles by people known as belonging to the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia known to be affiliated with the rebellious anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr. Witnesses said they wore flak jackets and shouted "terrorist" at one point. Mr. Obeidi was taken to a spot called Hamidiya, about six miles from his house, according to witnesses. His body was dumped in a place for construction debris, apparently retrieved again, and then dumped in a lot in Sadr City. It was then taken to the Tahtheeb police station there, an area known as a stronghold of the Mahdi Army, riddled with bullets in the head, chest and back.What did it happen between this first NYT's story published on June 21 and the other NYT's story, published four days later on June 25?...
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Erasing our history, Erasing Christianity, Erasing Iraq
Truth About Iraqis...What has happened to Christians since this invasion? The Christians of Iraq are our cultural heritage. They should be part of Iraqi honor.They have participated in Iraq, have contributed to the richness in Iraq. They are scientists, and doctors, and teachers and professors.They are fiercely patriotic to Iraq, to the people of Iraq, and to their faiths.When I lived in Iraq, because I spoke English proficiently, I used to sing Christmas Carols at Iraq's hotels. Yes, for those of you who had no idea, many Muslims also celebrated Christmas or joined in with their Christian neighbors to do so. So, yet another facet of Iraq is being threatened. Where is Maliki then? Have any of you read about the plight of the Christian community in Iraq? This is YOUR stability and democracy?...
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More Threats Against Basrawi Christians
Fayrouz In BeaumontA few weeks ago, my Assyrian friend in California told me a militia has sent a threat letter to one of her relatives in Basra. It's the usual letter of close your business and leave town or you and your family will be dead. Ahhh, how nice!!!! The other day, I found a similar story on Ankawa Online. This time the threat is against Linda Edmon, the choir singer at the Chaldean Church in Basra [Arabic Source] -- It's the church I attended for 22 years while I lived in Basra. She and her husband received a death threat...
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 25 June 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.orgIn a dispatch posted at 10:49am Makkah time Sunday morning, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that US warplanes struck a residential home in the area of as-Sqlawiyah, northwest of al-Fallujah, about 60km west of Baghdad. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported eyewitnesses who live in as-Saqlawiyah as saying that American fighter bombers struck a civilian home in the az-Zagharid area of as-Saqlawiyah, completely demolishing the house and killing the entire family of six who lived there – three women, one man, and two children.
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Iraqi Premier Offers 'Reconciliation,' but No New Plans for Amnesty
SABRINA TAVERNISE, NYTimesPrime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki presented a muted "national reconciliation" plan on Sunday that outlined a general direction for his new government, but offered neither a broad amnesty for insurgents nor any new options for members of Saddam Hussein's long-ruling Baath Party, the two most heavily disputed items (...) Mr. Maliki's plan, intended to reduce insurgent attacks through dialogue and amnesty, was weeks in the making, with all of Iraq's religious and ethnic political blocs participating. He opted for a version that did not stake out any new ground, but simply repackaged previous pronouncements. The decision appeared to have been influenced by religious Shiites who form his base and by the American military command. A government pardon — which Sunni Arab leaders have called for in the case of Iraqi "resistance" fighters who oppose the American occupation — will apply, Mr. Maliki said in a speech to Parliament, only to detainees who "were not involved in criminal or terrorist activities." (...) "How can you call this amnesty?" said Sadoon al-Zubaidy, a Sunni Arab from the former Parliament. "We're talking about releasing people who are either proven innocent or who have not been charged with anything. We have a twisted kind of logic here."..
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Rebuilding Not Yet Reality for Fallujah
Dahr Jamail and Ali FadhilOne and a half years after the November 2004 U.S. military assault on Fallujah, residents tell of ongoing suffering, lack of jobs, little reconstruction and continuing violence. The U.S. military launched Operation Phantom Fury against the city of Fallujah-destroying an estimated 70 percent of the buildings, homes and shops, and killing between 4,000 and 6,000 people, according to the Fallujah-based non-governmental organisation the Study Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (SCHRD). IPS found that the city remains under draconian biometric security, with retina scans, fingerprinting and X-raying required for anyone entering the city. Fallujah remains an island: not even the residents of the surrounding towns and villages like Karma, Habbaniya, Khalidiya, which fall under Fallujah's administrative jurisdiction, are allowed in...
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How Doctors Got Into the Torture Business
ANDREW SULLIVAN...In one of the few actual logs we have of a high-level interrogation, that of Mohammed al-Qhatani (first reported in TIME), doctors were present during the long process of constant sleep deprivation over 55 days, and they induced hypothermia and the use of threatening dogs, among other techniques. According to Miles, Medics had to administer three bags of medical saline to Qhatani — while he was strapped to a chair — and aggressively treat him for hypothermia in the hospital. They then returned him to his interrogators. Elsewhere in Guantánamo, one prisoner had a gunshot wound that was left to fester during three days of interrogation before treatment, and two others were denied antibiotics for wounds. In Iraq, according to the Army surgeon general as reported by Miles, "an anesthesiologist repeatedly dropped a 2-lb. bag of intravenous fluid on a patient; a nurse deliberately delayed giving pain medication, and medical staff fed pork to Muslim patients." Doctors were also tasked at Abu Ghraib with "Dietary Manip (monitored by med)," in other words, using someone's food intake to weaken or manipulate them....
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Iraqi Sunni Leader" No national reconciliation in Iraq without the Baathist, nationalists and former army"
Sami Mahasna...Mutlak stated that most of the leader in the coalition for national reconciliation do not actually want national reconciliation because they came to power as a result of a political coup, controlled Iraq through the US military, and want to exploit the situation for as long as possible to maintain their control on the state ministries and channel all the state revenues to their parties and supporters. Therefore, national reconciliation is not in their interest (...) Concerning contact with members of the Iraqi national resistance Mutlak said, "I believe that communication with the resistance was marginal and was not held with the actual leaders of the resistance"...
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Terrorism Myth: The “War on Terrorism” is a flourishing business for the corporate world
Muslims Look for Responsible Journalism
Mahboob A. KhawajaThe "War on Terrorism" is flourishing business for the corporate world - a 21st century fantasy on its own, where facts live in denials and predetermined dogmas cover all aspects of Muslims and Islam. When facts are not available, the mainstream media would construct dark illusions to assert the corporate-political agenda to encroach human rights, freedom and dignity. The media games are not played by any definable rules. After the 9/11 attacks in the US, the sole victims are Muslims and Islamic civilization and nobody else. The recent arrests of the17 youngsters in Toronto, including five underage boys are a clear case in point. Immediately after their arrests, the synchronized statement issued by the new Canadian PM could be conveniently compared to the words of President Bush in thought and spirit...
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GI Special 4F21: 17 US Troops Killed Since Tuesday - June 25, 2006
Thomas F. Barton17 U.S. Troops Killed Since Tuesday:
[Not Including 6 More In Afghanistan]
U.S. Soldier Killed By Baquba IED
6.25.06 Associated Press
Another U.S. soldier has been killed in Iraq.
That brings to 17 the number of American service members killed since Tuesday.
The military says a soldier from the Third Heavy Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division, was killed in a roadside bombing south of Baqouba yesterday.
Since the Iraq war began in March, 2003, The Associated Press has counted at least 2522 deaths among members of the military.
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UK TRIDENT: A ‘FAIT ACCOMPLI’
Sarah Meyer, Index ResearchThe UK government, as well as local British Councils, have a bad habit of opening debate on issues after the fait accompli has been confirmed behind closed doors. The most recent case concerns Gordon Brown’s support of a new Trident missile. However, according to a June 1 DoD report, a Trident contract with Lockheed Martin was signed on 1 June 2006...
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Open Letter From Mother of Lt. Ehren Watada, Resister of Illegal War
Carolyn HoI am the mother of Lt. Ehren Watada, an officer stationed at Ft. Lewis. He is part of a Stryker brigade unit that deployed today to Iraq. Despite an unflinching commitment to his men and to democratic ideals, he chose not to accompany his men. His decision came through much soul-searching and through research and consultation with experts across disciplines, inside and outside of the military and the government. After weighing the evidence, he came to the conclusion that he could no longer be silent while atrocities were committed in the name of democracy. He could no longer be a tool of an administration that used deception and lies to make the case for pre-emptive war...
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We’re Bending the Arc of the Universe Toward Injustice: Shut Up, Go Shopping, Support the War...and Nobody Gets Hurt!
JASON MILLER...The fact that these deeply troubling events occurred just in time to bolster an imploding Bush Regime is further evidence that our constitutional republic is on the verge of extinction. Americans are experiencing a profoundly distressing paradigm shift. A theocratic corporatocracy with powerful nationalistic tendencies is weaving itself into the very fabric of our social, economic, and political systems. And its dynamics and underlying principles are frighteningly similar to those of the fascism implemented by the National Socialists. Remember that from 1933 to 1945 most ordinary Germans complacently and quietly supported their regime. After all, they were not suffering. The Bush Regime is counting on you and your children to do the same...
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Slavery in post-Saddam Iraq
aaraujo, Daily Kos"A recent DOD investigation...identified a number of abuses, some of them considered widespread, committed by DOD contractors or subcontractors of third country national (TCN) workers in Iraq. Some of these abuses are indicative of trafficking in persons...." (US Department of State's Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report, 2006 Report, p. 19) (...) Writing for the Chicago Tribune, journalist Cam Simpson has written extensively on allegations of contractor-sponsored trafficking in Iraq: In his Pipeline to Peril series, Simpson followed the plights of 12 Nepalese men who were trafficked into Iraq...
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Missing the Point and the Target
Remi Kanazi...Historically, Israel (including Labor, Likud and Kadima) has instituted a method of slow ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. This strategy, however, was only effective when combined with the appearance of Israel having the moral upper hand. A PR victory would ensure the notion that Israel acted in self-defense. This methodology continues today. Americans should know better than anyone else that the truth rarely matters (i.e. weapons of mass destruction in Iraq); rather it is how an event is presented or spun. Over the last five years, nearly 4,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while more than 30,000 have been injured—the majority of them being unarmed civilians. Israel has known for sometime that it can continue its policies under the radar as long as the attacks do not become "newsworthy."...
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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, June 24, 2006
Today in IraqA bomb killed a U.S. soldier on a foot patrol Saturday south of Baghdad, the military said. The soldier with the Multi-National Division in Baghdad died at about 7:20 a.m. Saturday due to injuries "suffered from a bomb explosion while on a dismounted patrol south of Baghdad," the military said. A U.S. soldier [from the Multi-National Division in Baghdad] was killed in a roadside bomb attack in the early hours of Friday morning in Baghdad. A soldier from the Multi-National Division in Baghdad died in a "non-combat incident", the military said, adding the incident was under investigation. The slayings, along with the announcement of the deaths of two U.S. soldiers Friday, raised the week's toll to 16 Americans killed...
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Friday, 23 June 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org...The Baghdad correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported from Hayfa Street in the as-Salihiyah area of the occupied Iraqi capital that dozens of armed Shi'i sectarian militiamen had tried to enter the area largely inhabited by Iraqi Sunnis and Palestinian refugees. Local residents said that the pro-American attackers wore bandanas that read "Ya Husayn" on their heads as they stormed into the neighborhood heavily armed in pickup trucks. The sectarian gunmen tried to go up into apartment buildings where Palestinians live, but local Iraqis equipped only with light weapons rushed to intercept them. A gunbattle erupted that lasted for 10 minutes and then Iraqi Resistance men armed with light and medium weapons, as well as rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades arrived on the scene. The Resistance men called to the local residents to go into their homes and let them take care of the attacking pro-American sectarian gangs...
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Israel's Endless War on Palestine has a New Twist – of the Knife
Genevieve Cora FraserEach week the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights posts a summary of events for the preceding week. For the week of June 8 – 14, there were 28 Palestinians, including 7 children, killed by Israeli Occupation Forces. Seven of the victims were members of the Ghalya family who were picnicking at a Gaza beach once reserved for Israeli-Settlers-Only. Though the evidence points to an Israeli gunboat opening fire on the victims, Israel denies it - a theme and variation repeated countless times over the 39 year Occupation – except for a new twist. Israel blamed Hamas. During the same week, 76 Palestinian civilians, including at least 20 children, were wounded by the IOF. There were 40 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and 49 Palestinian civilians, including 12 children, were arrested...
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The Wall Street Journal Calls Hugo Chavez A Threat to World Peace
Stephen LendmanYou won't find commentary and language any more hostile to Hugo Chavez than on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. Their June 23 piece by Mary Anastasia O'Grady in the Americas column is a clear, jaw-dropping example. It's practically blood-curdling in its vitriol which calls Hugo Chavez a threat to world peace. The sad part of it is Journal readers believe this stuff and are likely to support any US government efforts to remove the "threat."...
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The assault on Adhamiya
Limitations and perspectives of war reporting from Iraq
Inge Van de Merlen, BRussells Tribunal"The situation is terrible!" said the voice on the telephone, "Since last night, there is fighting in the streets. Here, in my neighborhood, Adhamiya." The voice is a good friend of mine’s from Baghdad. His words brought an uncomfortable feeling to the pit of my stomach as I realized that I’m still not used to the idea of having friends in a war zone. "Who’s fighting? Militias? Americans?" I asked. "Shia against Sunni", he replied, "Shia attacked a Sunni mosque." When I asked how it had come to that, he said: "Well, this is what the US and Iran have been trying to achieve all the time." Suddenly, the line was cut and I could only hope the disconnect was a technical problem in the network, which is not an unusual event in occupied Iraq...
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