[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 21 Apr 2006]





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IRAN WINS AGAIN
Malcom Lagauche
The announcement has been made that Iraq will have yet another prime
minister appointed by the U.S. If you don’t have a scorecard, the previous
one, supposedly elected in a democratic manner, was Ibrahim al-Jaafari. For
a few months, he was the darling of the U.S. administration, but he became
old news. An influx of western politicians bombarded Iraq in the past
couple of weeks and "persuaded" al-Jaafari to step aside for the good of
the country. The new stooge is Jawad al-Maliki. ! Don’t be concerned that
your memory is failing if you don’t recall him. He lived in Iran from 1980
until the illegal March 2003 invasion of Iraq. His most remarkable feat
since returning is his membership of the de-Baathification committee in
which he was a zealous proponent of taking away the nationhood of millions
of Iraqis...

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The “Great Kurdistan” threat
Gilles Munier
Numbering 30 millions, Kurds are distributed over four countries, Turkey,
Iran, Iraq and Syria. In Iraq, Massud Bargain and Jalal Talabani are said
to be in a position to declare the independence of Kurdistan. The map of
the new State as submitted last July to the "National Assembly" comprises
territories over which the Kurds cannot have any claim…but which are
oil-soaked. No doubt that such a "Great Kurdistan" if unilaterally founded
would generate a string of conflic! ts which will destabilize the whole of
the Middle East. Nobody save the United States and Israel has nothing to
gain, least of all, the Kurds...

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Sign Open Letter to SFSU Defending Student Rights to Protest
Join Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin, Denis Halliday, Hans-Christof von
Sponeck, Kathy Kelly, Camilo Mejia, Dahr Jamail and 60 authors.
Ten peaceful student protesters at SFSU were grabbed and pushed out of a
career fair by police, where the students were protesting military
recruitment. They were kicked off campus without a hearing and given notice
that if they returned within two weeks, they were subject to "immediate
arrest." Some students were instan! tly made homeless or jobless, and none
could go to class on campus. The university let them return to campus after
3 days, in the face of NBC planning to televise coverage. Students are
waiting for the other shoe to drop. Let's not let it drop on them. Tell the
university how you feel about its treatment of these students and their
rights to protest. Tell the university that you oppose any discipline of
these students...

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Friday, 21 April 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice
...In a dispatch posted at 7:30pm Makkah time Friday evening, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that the puppet "Iraqi Interior Ministry" had issued a
list of 16,000 Iraqis who, it claims, are "criminals and former Baathists"
and whom it blames for the "deterioration of security in Iraq." The puppet
"Interior Ministry," notorious for the torture and murder of hundreds! of
Iraqis, threatened that it would arrest the 16,000 in the near future. The
Baghdad correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the official
television network of the US-installed puppet government broadcast the
list, which includes a number of Sunni religious scholars, on Friday
evening. In keeping with its standard terminology, the official regime’s TV
station referred to the 16,000 Iraqi citizens as "terrorists"...

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Bush to Dump Cheney? Not Before Hell Freezes Over.
Kurt Nimmo
... It’s no secret the Israelis have long planned to balkanize the Middle
East and it is also no secret the opportunistic neolibs are along for the
ride. Cheney and the neocons are on for the duration. Between now and 2008,
Bush the "decider," under the sway of the Straussian neocons, will shock
and awe Iran and attempt to fix an ineffectual puppet government and stir
up as much trouble as possible in order to break the country up into
malleable fiefdo! ms based on ethnicity (Kurds, Baluchis, Lurs, and
Turkmans)...

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Lies, damn lies...and indirect quotes
Eli Stephens,
Here's how the Washington Post writes about what Iran is up to: President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last week that Iran was pursuing the enrichment of
uranium on an industrial scale, which could allow it to accelerate the
development of nuclear weapons. This statement is both grammatically and
factually correct. But it certainly has a tremendous potential to mislead.
Ahmadinejad, of course, not only said nothing about "accelerating the
development of nucl! ear weapons," what he said was the exact opposite...

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Shame on the Post's Editorial Page
Robert Parry
If a full and truthful history of the disastrous Iraq War is ever written,
there should be a chapter devoted to the pivotal role played by the
Washington Post’s hawkish editorial page and the many like-minded thinkers
who are published in the newspaper’s Op-Ed section. As arguably the most
influential newspaper in the nation’s capital, the Post might have been
expected to encourage a healthy pre-war debate that reflected diverse
opinions from experts in the fields o! f government, diplomacy, academia,
the military and the broader American public. War, after all, is not a
trivial matter...

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Raging Grannies and Raging Americans
Cindy Sheehan, t r u t h o u t
I am sitting here watching CSPAN, where Congress is holding a special
hearing into Chinese human rights violations, which is, of course, an
important issue that needs to be addressed. An Amnesty International report
just came out, and of all of the countries in the world, the US is fourth
in number of executions - behind China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. China by
far executes the most people with seeming barbaric abandon. Everyone who
has a brain a! nd a stake in what direction our country is going should be
demanding that Congress investigate the administration and itself for human
rights violations...

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GI Special 4D21: "Sir! No Sir!" Available To ALL In Sevices - April 21, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
... THERE IS a myth of the "spat upon Vet." The tale goes that the soldiers
of Vietnam came home to a radical fringe movement that spat on them as they
unloaded onto the tarmac. This myth has served to all but erase the real
history of the Vietnam antiwar movement from U.S. consciousness. David
Zeigler’s film Sir No Sir! The Suppressed Story of the GI Movement to End
the War In Vietnam lays this myth completely to res! t by telling the
inspiring story of a movement that shook the very foundations of U.S.
military power. Through interviews and stock footage, this powerful
documentary tells the story of how thousands of U.S. soldiers, through
their first-hand experience on the ground, came to realize that the war in
Vietnam was an unjust travesty...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22763&s2=22>Read the full article / Leggi
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Ex-CIA agent says WMD intelligence ignored
Reuters
The CIA had evidence Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction six
months before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion but was ignored by a White House
intent on ousting Saddam Hussein, a former senior CIA official said
according to CBS. Tyler Drumheller, who headed CIA covert operations in
Europe during the run-up to the Iraq war, said intelligence opposing
administration claims of a WMD threat came from a top Iraqi official who
provided the U.S. spy agency with other ! credible information...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22760&s2=22>Read the full article / Leggi
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We're Staying!
Unless the Iraqis Force the United States Out, The Evidence Shows the U.S.
Isn't Leaving
Kevin Zeese
The message is clear. Indeed, it's gigantic for all Iraqi's, for the entire
world to see. A 100 acre compound - ten times the size of the typical U.S.
embassy, the size of 80 football fields, six times larger than the UN, the
size of Vatican City. The U.S. Embassy Compound, in the middle of Baghdad -
the center for U.S. domination of the Middle East and its resources. The
compound towers! above the Tigris River like a modern fortress. It will
have its own sources of power and water and sit in the heart of Baghdad. If
there is any thought that the U.S. is planning on leaving Iraq, the new
embassy should make it clear 'We're saying!' The growing skyline of the
U.S. embassy in Baghdad is only the most recent indication that the U.S.
has no intention of leaving...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22761&s2=22>Read the full article / Leggi
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RAPID RESPONSE MEDIA ALERT: DEMONISING IRAN
BBC Distorts Amnesty International Press Release
Media Lens
In a recent speech at New York's Columbia University, John Pilger
commented: "We now know that the BBC and other British media were used by
MI6, the secret intelligence service. In what was called 'Operation Mass
Appeal', MI6 agents planted stories about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass
destruction - such as weapons hidden in his palaces and in secret
underground bunkers. All these stories were fake." (Joh! n Pilger, 'The
real first casualty of war,' New Statesman, April 24, 2006). Wittingly or
otherwise, the BBC may now be participating in a rehashed 'Operation Mass
Appeal' to generate support for an assault on Iran...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22757&s2=22>Read the full article / Leggi
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Al-Jafaari expells Ahwazi Arabs from Iraq
British Ahwazi Friendship Society
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari is ordering the expulsion of Ahwazi
Arab refugees, according to the el-Fekr-el-Eslami website. Some 2,500-3,000
Ahwazi Arabs in Iraq are registered with the UNHCR as refugees, most of
whom fled the fighting in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). Al-Jafaari has
reportedly ordered the their expulsion from the Iraqi provinces of Basra
and al-Ammarah, under the orders of the Iranian regime. El-Fekr-el-Eslami
w! ebsite says the refugees will be handed over to the Iranian authorities.
Many Ahwazi Arab Sunnis have already fled Basra and al-Ammarah for Sunni
areas of Iraq, including Fallujah, Morsel and Diali, to escape
Iranian-backed Shia militias...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22771&s2=22>Read the full article / Leggi
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More revelations of US profiteering and corruption in Iraq
Jeff Lincoln, WSWS
New reports of bribery and corruption involving US military officers,
businessmen and occupation officials have underscored the criminal
character of the American intervention in Iraq. This week court documents
were unsealed revealing that businessman Philip Bloom pled guilty in
February to conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering charges. Bloom
admitted to giving more than $2 million in cash and gifts to US officials
in order to obtai! n Iraq reconstruction contracts for companies he owns.
The Washington Post reported April 19 that Bloom’s firms received a total
of $8.6 million in reconstruction contracts, which were structured to give
the firms an average profit margin of more than 25 percent. He could face
up to 40 years in prison as part of a plea bargain...

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Adhamiya, The Lion’s Den
Baghdad Dweller
...In people’s opinion US helicopters were providing intelligence to the
attackers, who were wearing military uniforms and acting professionally.
The attack was from three places, Omar Adbulaziz street (I still remember
buying my books from Al-Sabah bookshop there), Adhamiya riverside and the
bridge (which is under the US control) connecting the district to the other
side of the river. Adhamiya residents did a good job defeating "El
Salvadorian" death squads hired by the A! mericans, but this will not be
the first attack or the second one, the government is now spreading rumors
that resistance from west Iraq are smuggling weapons to Adhamiya as this
article published today on Al-Hayat says, so the Americans and the Iraqi
government will try to finish what the thugs failed to do...


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Who’s planting lies about a possible civil war in Iraq?
Aljazeera.com
...Who would benefit if a civil war broke out in Iraq and the entire Middle
East region? Surely they’re not the Iraqis or the Arabs and Muslims; it’s
the U.S. who has so far failed to achieve all its intended goals in Iraq
and needs a reason for an extended military presence in the war-torn
country. Claims that Iraq is about or has already fallen into a civil war
benefits the occupation hugely...

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Baath Party Statement
The "religious understanding meeting" in Amman is a confirmation for the
sectarianism and a jump over the Occupation reality
The Arab Baath Socialist Party
It is a new role "imposed by the Occupation" over the Jordanian regime,
which is integrated with the Occupation security and political plans. This
role is highly needed by the Jordanian regime for internal and regional
considerations, which are exercising pressures over this regime to dwarf
its role and the ambitions set by its ! historical function. Getting
interested in the (Iraqi affairs) serves the stooges and the traitor’s
interests to favor "denominational and religious character" over the
national principles and duties in the battle to liberate Iraq. Sure!
Jumping over the occupation reality and its ongoing battle with the Armed
Iraqi Resistance is a deeply needed requirement for the US stuck in the mud
administration and for its defeated forces in this mentioned battle...

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Outing CIA Agent - Keep It Simple
Evelyn Pringle
For all intent and purposes, the special prosecutor’s duty in the CIA leak
case is straightforward. How the investigation ever got so complicated is
beyond me. Mr Fitzgerald needs to keep it simple. Valerie Plame was a CIA
agent in July 2003, and the fact that she was a CIA officer was classified.
The responsibilities of some CIA employees require that their association
with the agency be kept secret, because disclosure has the potential to
damage national securi! ty in ways that range from preventing the future
use of the agents, to compromising intelligence-gathering methods, to
endangering the safety of CIA employees, and people who they may be
associated with...

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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2006
Today in Iraq
A major general in the Interior Ministry escaped injury when a roadside
bomb hit his convoy in the Mansur district of the capital in an attack that
killed one civilian and wounded four of his bodyguards, ministry sources
said. KHALIS - Gunmen killed two civilians who worked at an Iraqi army base
in Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said. BAQUBA -
Gunmen killed two people in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad,
police said. Two r! oadside bombs wound 11 policemen in western Baghdad.
Two roadside bombs went off close to an Iraqi police patrol in western
Baghdad on Friday (April 21), wounding at least 11 policemen, police said.
A Shiite baker was killed in a drive-by shooting as he headed to work in
Baghdad on Friday...The baker, Nadil Adel Ashor, was killed outside his
home by unidentified gunmen in a speeding car in Dora, southern Baghdad.
The two bullet-riddled bodies were found in Dora and in Mansour, western
Baghdad, said police 1st Lt. Thair Mahmod. He said the identities of the
victims and the motives for the killings were not immediately known...

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GI Special 4D20 Show All The Troops Sir! No Sir!
Thomas F. Barton
...The recent announcement in GI Special # 4D19 that 500 DVD’s of "Sir, No
Sir!" are being made available free to active duty troops in Afghanistan or
Iraq by the IVAW and displaced films is a step in the right direction. My
immediate reaction to seeing this film in a showing at the VFP National
Convention last AUG was inspired by the Navy Nurse featured in the film who
dropped leaflets from a light aircraft over military bases. I thought that
if I! was a millionaire, I’d like to buy enough DVD copies of this film to
air drop them over every US military base worldwide...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22762&s2=22>Read the full article / Leggi
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UN SAYS THOUSANDS ILEGALLY DETAINED IN IRAQ
(ANTARA News)
Iraqi authorities are illegally detaining thousands of people, the United
Nations` senior human rights official for the country said on Friday, and
also urged the US-led coalition to charge or release its prisoners. Gianni
Magazzeni, who is based in Baghdad, told reporters a total of 29,565 people
were being detained in Iraq, some 14,222 of them by coalition forces. Of
the 15,000 people held by the local Iraqi authorities, only 8,300 were
being held by the! justice ministry, which is the only body that has the
right to detain suspects for more than 72 hours, Magazzeni said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22756&s2=22>Read the full article / Leggi
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