All Iraq is Abu Ghraib
Haifa Zangana...A'beer's rape and murder is neither incidental nor the product of a US soldier's "personality disorder": it is part of a pattern that includes Abu Ghraib, as well as the Haditha, Ishaqi and Qaiem massacres. And we see this pattern as serving a strategic function beyond indiscriminate revenge: to couple collective humiliation with intimidation and terror. Today, four years into the Anglo-American occupation, the whole of Iraq has become Abu Ghraib, with our streets as prison corridors and homes as cells. Iraqis are attacked in detention, on the streets and in their homes. It took almost a year, and published photographs of horrific torture in Abu Ghraib, before the world began to heed the voices of the detainees and those trying to defend them. The same is happening to women victims. Abuses, torture and the rape of Iraqi women have been reported for three years now by independent Iraqi organisations. But the racist logic of occupation means that occupied people are not to be trusted, and truth is the private ownership of the occupiers...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24405
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The Zionist plan for the Middle East
XymphoraThe Zionist plan for the Middle East – and there is one, written by Wurmser and those around him – what been described as the 'skittles theory’ – see the classic article by Brian Whitaker, can be described in the following steps: 1. Syria is forced out of Lebanon (done); 2. Lebanon is further destabilized (an ongoing project); 3. the government in Syria is replaced by one friendly to Israel (most important thing on the to-do list); 4. the United States fights Israel’s war and overturns Saddam’s government (done); 5. the brutal American occupation forces Iraq to break into three parts, Kurd, Sunni, and Shi’ite (ongoing; and the Zionist need for a long occupation to ensure Iraq breaks up explains the otherwise inexplicable Democrat support for the occupation); 6. Israeli-allied Kurds take over oil lands now inhabited by Arabs and Turkmen (well on its way); 7. the King of Jordan rules the Sunnis of Iraq (nutty, but a Wurmser favorite); 8. the Iraqi oil fields end up in the hands of a 'moderate’ Shi’ite government (in fact, forces seem to be pushing the moderates out of power)...
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NYT: Falluja Dexy starts whitewashing Ramadi
The Common Ills..."Reduced to ruins by the fighting"? That's a nice way to "cover" what's gone on in Ramadi, kind of like the way Dexy was at Falluja in November of 2004 and didn't see anything there either, right? In the pages of the Times, Scott Shane sneered, mocked and trashed those who were raising the issue of white phosphorus being used in Falluja. Of course, he had to show up a few days later with his hat in his hand, begging. Because white phosphorus was used in Falluja. Dexy didn't tell you, Dexy didn't seem to notice anything that went down. So it makes sense that the military would see him as their ideal plant for all propaganda and it makes sense that they'd see their guy in Falluja as just the one they'd need in Ramadi as well. Let's review the Geneva Conventions because it's doubtful Dexy has: Article 18: Civilian hospitals organized to care to the wounded and sick, infrim and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict. Why does that matter? Though Dexy doesn't tell you , the Associated Press does: U.S. and Iraqi forces on Wednesday raided a hospital in Ramadi that they suspect is a base for insurgents. Want to review Article 18 again? Want to pretend Dexy didn't hear rumblings? Though most remain unaware, this happened in Falluja as well...
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Lt. Watada formally charged by Army for contempt, conduct unbecoming, and missing movement
Friends and Family of Lt. Ehren WatadaToday, July 5, 2006, First Lieutenant Ehren K. Watada was formally charged with three articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: missing movement (Article 87), two counts of contempt towards officials (Article 88), and three counts of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman (Article 133). If convicted of all charges by a general court-martial, Lt. Watada could be sentenced to over seven years in a military prison (...) Supporters of Lt. Watada across the country are being called on to again show their support, and planning for a comprehensive educational and action campaign is underway. Puget Sound groups will hold a rally at 5:00pm tomorrow, July 6, at the Interstate 5, Exit 119 overpass adjacent to Ft. Lewis. Last week, on June 27, over a thousand people in over 30 cities rallied in support of the National Day of Action to Stand Up with Lt. Watada. Lt. Watada first attempted to quietly resign in protest over the illegality of the Iraq War and occupation in January 2006...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24419
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Sabotaging Peace In Iraq
Robert Dreyfuss...Last Sunday, when Maliki released his much-anticipated reconciliation plan, it was vague and insubstantial. Maliki mentioned "amnesty," but the amnesty he offered did not extend to those doing the fighting. He included no outreach to the Baathists—who are at the heart of the resistance—and not a hint that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq is on the table. Instead, Maliki simply asked the fighters to lay down their arms, and he called on Sunni tribal and clan leaders and Sunni Arab political blocs to join the Baghdad regime. (...) Maliki made it clear exactly what "conditional amnesty" means. While offering to talk to Sunni tribal elders and to minor elements of the resistance that he believes he can co-opt, the government of Iraq issued "Wanted" notices and rewards for 41 resistance leaders. It was a bitter irony. The list of 41 was a Who’s Who of the Iraqi resistance; in other words, the regime was offering rewards of up to $10 million for the capture or killing of precisely the people it ought to be negotiating a truce with! Among them were Raghad Hussein, the daughter of Saddam, who is living in Jordan; Saddam’s wife, Sajida Hussein, who lives in Qatar; Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former top Iraqi official who is widely believed to be a leader of the underground; and at least a dozen other top former Baathists, Iraqi military and intelligence officials, and others. The issuance of the list underscored the fact that neither Khalilzad nor Maliki are seeking a deal with the real Iraqi resistance, merely attempting to corral a few more stray Sunni leaders into the regime...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24409
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It's Time to End the "Last Taboo" and Hold Israel Accountable for Its Actions
Stephen LendmanThis article documents events in besieged and now reoccupied Gaza since the Palestinians responded to continued Israeli Defense Forces' (IDF) attacks against them by striking at an Israeli military post near Kerem Shalom crossing, southeast of Rafah, on June 25 killing two IDF soldiers, injuring several others and capturing a third. The Israeli response was swift and deadly but has not yet been unleashed fully as the IDF decides when to enter Gaza full force to launch an assault against the defenseless people there already under seige. The Palestinian strike followed a series of bloody June Israeli attacks on Gaza including the widely reported beach shelling that killed 8 Palestinians and injured 32 others including 13 children. The Israelis admitted shelling the beach but denied responsibility for the deaths. They falsely claimed a Palestinian planted mine killed the civilians there despite the forensic evidence clearly proving otherwise. The corporate media reported the Israeli version of events but ignored the evidence refuting it preventing the public from knowing the truth...
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PATRIOTISM AND FAMILY
Malcom Lagauche...Let’s extend the subjects of families further. In the past 20 years, the U.S. has directly attacked the families of their enemies of the moment. In 1986, U.S. bombs killed Col. Ghadaffi’s daughter in Libya. In 1991, the U.S. bombed the residences of the families of various Iraqi government officials. Fortunately, none was killed. And, for all those Democrats who criticize the Republicans as warmongers, in 1993, a U.S. missile, under the orders of Democrat Bill Clinton, destroyed the house of Iraqi artist Layla al-Attar. The missile killed al-Attar, her husband and one of her children. The child who survived lost an eye. In 1998, Clinton ordered a four-day bombing and missile attack against Iraq. One missile destroyed the house of Saddam Hussein’s daughter. Luckily, no one was at home when the missile knocked. Then came Milosevic. His house was destroyed by a two-million dollar missile. All subtleties were abandoned after the illegal March 2003 invasion of Iraq. In July 2003, a few hundred U.S. military personnel surrounded and attacked for hours a house in which Saddam Hussein’s sons and a grandson were located. The house was bombed; missiles and rockets hit it; and thousands of bullets were fired. When the fireworks were over, Uday and Qusay Hussein, along with Qusay’s 14-year-old son were ripped apart by bullets and shrapnel. The U.S. then bragged of the feat, alleging great courage by the few hundred soldiers who bombarded the house for hours (...) Recently, an event occurred that is even more preposterous than those already mentioned: Saddam Hussein’s wife and daughter have been listed as one of the top 41 Iraqi "most wanted." The daughter is number 16 and her mother is number 17. Iraq never had a "most wanted" list before...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24399
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Terrorists
Xymphora...'Terrorism’ is entirely a question of propaganda. Terrorism is only bad if it is committed by the victims of Zionism trying to defend themselves; worse acts committed by Israel against innocent civilians are not only justified but admirable. We can never forget that the 'war on terror’, now being conducted by the United States under the influence of Zionist agents, is just a piece of PR spin intended to cover an ongoing terror campaign against Arabs...
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Tomgram: Playing the Destabilization Card at Home and Abroad
Tom Engelhardt...Then, as we all know, they invaded Iraq, claiming they were pursuing Saddam Hussein's nonexistent WMD program via "decapitation" shock-and-awe attacks on his regime, the disbanding of his military, the dissolution of the Baath Party, the disbarment of many of its former members from office or jobs, and the dismantling of the state-organized and run economy -- a program of destabilization so sweeping as to take one's breath away and meant to launch a far more sweeping destabilization (and hence remaking) of the Middle East. The results of this project, still in progress, are by now well known -- including the fostering of a complex, bloodthirsty, sectarian bloodletting in Iraq which now threatens to spill across borders into neighboring lands...
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Starving for Attention: Troops Home Fast, Day One
Cindy Sheehan...I was particularly impressed by a very slick and professionally made sign that the Freepers had. It was a large pinkish sign with white letters that read: Cindy Sheehan is Starving for Attention." Yes, that is why I am embarking on this fast. It is not because our nation with the complacent, if not intellectual, approval of most of our citizens is waging a war crime of mammoth proportions in Iraq. It's not because our soldiers are committing atrocities on an innocent population who never asked for our lethal interference. I am not fasting because our soldiers should not be dying or killing for Exxon and Halliburton. I am not sitting here with mild hunger pangs because our leadership condones and orders others to commit cruelties on my fellow human beings in such brutal places as Guantanamo. I am not fasting because the wrongfully, illegally, and immorally detained men in Guantanamo are going on their own hunger strikes and committing suicide to call attention to the fact that they are human beings who do not deserve to be tortured and tormented. I am not fasting so no other mother has to drop to her knees screaming in agony because her child is dead for nothing...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24414
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US -Backed Iraqi Government Admits that Ba'ath Party Leads the Resistance, Despite Exaggerated Focus on Alqaeda
Al-Jazeerah.infoThe Iraqi government's list of the 41 most wanted suggests that former members of the Iraqi government (before the 2003 US invasion) form the backbone of the Iraqi resistance to the US occupation, despite attention paid to the role of religious resistance groups, such as al-Qaeda in Iraq (...) That reinforces the impression shared by a number of analysts that members of the Arab Ba'ath Party and former Iraqi figures still play a key role in the Iraqi resistance to the US occupation...
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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, July 5, 2006
Today in IraqAn Indiana National Guard soldier was killed in Iraq on Monday, according to a Wednesday release from the Indiana National Guard. Staff Sgt. Paul S. Pabla, 23, of Fort Wayne, was deployed with the 150th Field Artillery, based in Bloomington. Officials said Pabla was hit by sniper fire while on patrol in Mosul. He had been training Iraqi policemen. Sgt. Muldoon was taken in battle Thursday. His wife, Ashlee Muldoon of Sherman, said the preliminary information is, Sgt. Muldoon's unit was on a raid. "He was the first one in and charged the stairs," Ashlee Muldoon said. "He was shot in the side and leg and it hit an artery. He bled to death." The Iraqi official who was kidnapped Tuesday in eastern Baghdad has now been released. Gunmen in camouflage uniforms kidnapped the country's deputy electricity minister and eleven of his bodyguards, after stopping their convoy in a Shiite neighborhood. Hours later, the Electricity Ministry said he'd been released. There are no other details available. The central morgue said Tuesday that it received 1,595 bodies last month, 16 percent more than in May, in a tally that showed the pace of killing here has increased since the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The toll for last month was roughly double the 879 bodies the morgue received in June 2005...
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Destroying an Iraqi City to Save It
Truthdig & DEXTER FILKINS, NYTimes...In three years here the Marine Corps and the Army have tried nearly everything to bring this provincial capital of 400,000 under control. Nothing has worked. Now American commanders are trying something new. Instead of continuing to fight for the downtown, or rebuild it, they are going to get rid of it, or at least a very large part of it. They say they are planning to bulldoze about three blocks in the middle of the city, part of which has been reduced to ruins by the fighting, and convert them into a Green Zone, a version of the fortified and largely stable area that houses the Iraqi and American leadership in Baghdad...
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ABC Nightline Biased Toward Israel
Genevieve Cora FraserDear ABC Nightline Producers:
I found your report on the Palestinian/Israeli situation, for the most part, biased toward Israel. It implicitly blamed Palestine who is the victim - not the oppressor. For example, Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu recently stated before the 35th Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, "The IDF has the firepower to wipe out an entire population if we wanted. We could wipe out all of Gaza. But we are not doing this," he added, covering his tracks. That is a small sample of the type of language used by Israeli officials. It is implicitly genocidal in nature and their actions prove it. On Nightline, Bibi spoke of the 600 Qassams, yet there was no discussion of the 10s of thousands of missiles attacking Gaza by land, sea and air since Hamas was elected. Since 2000, the Qassams which are along the line of science projects - not guided missiles - have killed 8 Israelis. That's 8 people in 6 years. Israel, during the same time period, has killed thousands with their guided missile technology.
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24410
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 4 July 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.orgIn a dispatch posted at 9:20pm Makkah time Tuesday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that in the first such admission, a high-ranking officer in the Iraqi puppet army admitted that half of Baghdad had fallen into the hands of the various organizations of the Iraqi Resistance during the last two weeks. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported a brigadier general in the Iraqi puppet army who asked not to be identified, as admitting that following the US-led "Advance together" operation by puppet regime forces against the Resistance, the situation had become worse for the US-backed government than it had been previously, with whole swaths of territory in the capital falling under Resistance control and administration. During the day, the puppet army general said, half of Baghdad is in the hands of the Resistance and at night 60 percent is under Resistance control...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24408
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Hit Parade
BillmonSo I grabbed her little sister /and pulled her in front of me/ As the bullets began to fly./ The blood sprayed from between her eyes/ And then I laughed maniacally /Then I hid behind the TV / And I locked and loaded my M-16 /And I blew those little fuckers to eternity. (Cpl. Joshua Belile, Hadji Girl) (...) A Marine corporal who wrote and performed a song about killing members of an Iraqi family has temporarily shelved the tune . . . Cpl. Joshua Belile had planned to professionally record "Hadji Girl" with Spencer-based Hits Music Studios. The studio is on retainer with the conservative talk program the Mike Church Show, which was to be the first venue to air the song, said studio co-owner Jim Mosher. Mosher said Belile still has plans to eventually record the song. "We're wanting to record and produce it," Mosher said. "I think it tells a great story."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24407
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IRAQ: Concern over reports of child trafficking
IRINLocal officials and aid workers have expressed concern over the alarming rate at which children are disappearing countrywide in Iraq's current unstable environment. "At least five children are disappearing every week," said Omar Khalif, vice-president of the Iraqi Families Association (IFA), an NGO established in 2004 to register cases of missing children. "And the number could be much higher as we don't have access to government statistics. In some cases, we've received information that they were trafficked to Europe through neighbouring countries." According to local investigators and the IFA, unconfirmed information suggests that children are being sold to many countries in Europe, particularly the UK and the Netherlands. However, there is no detailed information on who is buying them and for what reason...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24406
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Hadji Girl
Robert C. KoehlerFor some reason, the grunt's love song made the brass cringe: "I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me . . . as the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally." Cpl. Joshua Belile had a recording contract and everything, but, uh-uh. No singing Marine's gonna be regaling America with the sadistic pleasures to be had in occupied Iraq, no sir, not with all the atrocity investigations going on these days, and the dirty truth of our Middle East adventure oozing into the coverage of even the most administration-sympathetic media outlets. Last week I wrote a column about horror on the macro level in Iraq: the likely serious health consequences resulting from widespread use of depleted uranium munitions, constituting a crime against not just the Iraqis but the whole world, because of airborne radiation poisoning. This week, horror on the micro level is once again making the news, with the arrest of Steven Green, a recently discharged GI, in connection with the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Iraqi girl, along with the murder of her parents and 7-year-old sister, four months ago in Mahmoudiya...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24404
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Busted for wearing a peace T-shirt; has this country gone completely insane?
Mike Ferner, Online Journal Contributing WriterFriday afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago's south side, a Veterans Administration cop walked up to me and said, "Okay, you've had your 15 minutes, it's time to go." "Huh?" I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking about. "You can't be in here protesting," Officer Adkins said, pointing to my Veterans For Peace shirt. "Well, I'm not protesting, I'm having a cup of coffee," I returned, thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier duties of guarding against serious terrorists. Flipping his badge open, he said, "No, not with that shirt. You're protesting and you have to go."...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24403
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And Israel Shall be Safe Again
Ramzy Baroud...Could it be possible that Middle East arms of major news media have mistakenly overlooked what has been happening in the Gaza Strip since the supposed Israeli withdrawal in September 2005? It all started with extremely loud sonic booms, mock bombardments and Israeli fighter jets flying low over the overpopulated and impoverished Gaza Strip. Palestinians called on the international community to interfere to stop Israeli provocations. Their calls, as usual, fell on deaf ears . With such scare tactics, Israel wished to convey to Palestinians a loud and clear message: there is nothing for you to celebrate; were still the masters of your destiny, and unlike the South Lebanon 2000 withdrawal, we are leaving Gaza triumphantly, and possibly just temporarily. Soon, Israel’s mock attacks became more genuine, while the international community continued to turn a blind eye to what would soon become another routine in 'liberated’ Gaza...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24400
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Military resisters get civilian support
John CatalinottoThe first commissioned officer to refuse orders to take part in the occupation of Iraq was thanked by over a thousand people at 30 different sites around the United States on June 27. First Lt. Ehren Watada’s June 22 refusal to deploy to Iraq has inspired a wave of support from anti-war forces, who are reaching out to dissident U.S. troops. The demonstrations increased contact between the civilian anti-war movement and the troops. More groups are offering support to GI resisters. In polls, over 70 percent of U.S. troops in Iraq have said they want to get out. The question remains whether Watada’s heroic example of individual refusal can help awaken an impulse toward mass resistance within the occupation army...
Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=24397
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www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq:
news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and
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