[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 20Jan 2005]

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Update on the Representation of President Saddam Hussein
Dr. Curtis F.J. Doebbler
member of the Legal Team representing Saddam Hussein
Although continued attempts are being made to establish access to the
President of Iraq who has been held without access to a lawyer, only one
meeting has been arranged more than one year after the detention began.
This meeting took place with one of the lawyers of Committee under strict
monitoring (both visual and audio) whereby two US military officials were
present at! all times. This meeting was not under conditions that meet the
minimum standards for access to legal counsel provided by international law
(e.g. in article 14 of the ICCPR)...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9016&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9016


Il nuovo anno in Iraq: La resistenza cresce
José Reinaldo Carvalho, www.resistenze.org - popoli resistenti
L'inevitabile si sta realizzando in Iraq. Le ultime settimane dello scorso
anno e i primi giorni dell'anno in corso sono stati segnati da una scalata
della violenza, con una successione di azioni armate di tipo diverso contro
le forze di occupazione e le truppe del governo fantoccio (...) L'attuale
scalata delle azioni armate in Iraq ha una relazione diretta con la farsa
elettorale che si effettuerà tra alcu! ne settimane...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8996&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8996


Fallujah two months after the US military assault
The "City of Mosques" has become the "City of Rubble"
Harvey Thompson, WSWS
Channel Four News in Britain recently broadcast a short film report from
inside Fallujah, showing the massive devastation wreaked on the city in
last November's US-led assault. The assault by US forces on the Iraqi city
of Fallujah was one of the greatest war crimes since the Second World War.
Over the course of nine days, Operation Phantom Fury, involving 10,000 US
troops backed by 5! 00 British soldiers, reduced the city, once famed for
its 120 mosques and modern infrastructure, to ruins...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9015&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9015


Voices from Abu Ghraib
The Injured Party
COUNTERPUNCH STAFF
On January 11, 2005, some of the detainees from Abu-Ghraib prison who have
been unknown but for the digital photos the world has seen gave their
account of events in Iraq from the autumn of 2003. The following is
excerpted testimony from a videotaped deposition of Hussein Mutar, entered
into evidence by the prosecution in the court martial of Spc. Charles
Graner, convened at Ford Hood, Texas. Mr. Mutar was an Iraqi prisoner
arrested on suspic! ion of theft before the US invasion of Iraq and held in
the encampment section of Abu-Ghraib in November 2003, when the events he
describes occurred...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9003&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9003


IL MASSACRO DEI CIVILI IRACHENI DA PARTE DELL' ESERCITO USA
Ciò che il New York Times ha omesso sulla conta dei morti
DAVE LINDORFF, Comedonchisciotte.net
Nell'edizione domenicale del New York Times, sulla pagina dedicata alle
opinioni, un elenco orribile ed una mappa che riporta graficamente il
massacro causato dalla guerra Usa in atto in Iraq. L'assistente per la
ricerca al Brookings Institution, Adriana Lins de Albuquerque, mostra che
202 persone sono morte "come risultato della ribellione! " in un periodo di
14 giorni durante le prime due settimane del nuovo anno. Ma il quadro non
e' veritiero, lasciando fuori almeno tanti quanti ne sono stati inclusi.
Prima di tutti, e piu' importante, come Lins de Albuquerque ne dà nota
nella sua breve spiegazione, la tabella non dà nessuna informazione sul
numero di ribelli iracheni uccisi dalle forze Usa durante lo stesso
periodo, e neppure fornisce la cifra dei civili iracheni "uccisi
accidentalmente dalle forze della coalizione"...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8989&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8989


Another Saddam Atrocity Story Falls Apart
Threads Unravel in Iraqi's Tale
Peter Finn, Washington Post
An Iraqi woman who was granted refugee status in the United States after
telling The Washington Post and U.S. officials that she had been
imprisoned, tortured and sexually assaulted in Iraq during the 1990s
appears to have made false claims about her past, according to a fresh
examination of her statements. Jumana Michael Hanna also claimed that her
husband, Haitam Jamil Anwar, had been executed dur! ing the rule of ousted
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Her testimony led to the arrest of several
Iraqi security officials (...) In recent interviews in Baghdad, Hanna's
in-laws -- including her husband's brother, uncle and cousin -- all said
the husband was alive and had left Iraq several months ago...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8999&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8999


A question for activists
Supporting Iraq's right to resist occupation
SHARON SMITH, Socialist Worker
...THE U.S. antiwar movement should heed this advice and expend less energy
in judging the character of the Iraqi resistance and more effort on
building a visible resistance to the Iraq occupation from inside the U.S.
When the U.S. invaded Falluja and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal broke in
the spring of 2004, the U.S. antiwar movement--already ensconced in its
misguided effort to elect ! prowar John Kerry--declined to mount a visible
response to these and other atrocities committed by the U.S. in Iraq,
effectively sparing the Bush administration from the need to account for
its war crimes (...) The antiwar movement must not lose sight of the fact
that its main enemy is at home--and any resistance to that enemy deserves
our unconditional support...



<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9010&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9010


Coronation of Corruption
Celebration of Exploitation
Manuel Valenzuela
...The story of war is the story of one side's poor fighting another side's
poor, for the benefit of the Establishment and the detriment of those
mothers and fathers who must do what no parent should have to do, bury
their son or daughter. The exploitation of the masses functions thanks to
the corruption of society, imposed by the implementation of control
mechanisms designed to rob the people of power, knowledge, and of the will
to figh! t a system which only acts to betray illusions and charades.
Telling the troops they fight for freedom and democracy and against tyranny
while providing nothing but pillaged profits to the corporate world and
human hell to Iraqis is one such illusion told by the elite to their army
of killing machines...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9012&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9012


Resistance on the home front
Eric Ruder, Socialist Worker
SOLDIERS, VETERANS and their families across the U.S. have been placed
under enormous strain by the U.S. wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Even if
soldiers manage to avoid serious injury or worse while stationed abroad,
the mental scars live on long after they leave the war zone--from watching
their friends die, to being forced to follow orders that lead to the deaths
of innocent Iraqis, and more...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9011&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9011


The Four Reasons
why "We the People" must uphold
the Constitution of The United States of America
and hold those who violate it accountable
The Four Reasons.org
The invasion of Iraq is illegal within the framework of the laws of the
United States Constitution and the United Nations Charter. The invasion of
Iraq has been planned for many years by the Project for the New American
Century (PNAC), an organization founded by a small group of right wing
political ideologues and corporate elite dedicated ! to promoting American
global leadership. The PNAC signatories hold the most powerful positions in
the current administration and other highly influential political offices.
Read their Statement of Principles and note the signatories. Read the
PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses" for a detail of their military
strategy for American global hegemony...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9009&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9009


A Shaky Media Taboo -- Withdrawal from Iraq
Norman Solomon, www.dissidentvoice.org
The latest polls show that most Americans are critical of the war in Iraq.
But the option of swiftly withdrawing all U.S. troops from that country
gets little media attention. So far this year, many news outlets have
lapsed into conjecture on what George W. Bush has in mind for the Iraq war.
At the end of a recent lengthy editorial, the New York Times noted that,
"there's speculation about whether President Bush intends to use the !
arrival of a new elected government [in Baghdad] as an occasion to declare
victory and begin pulling out American troops." Right now, that kind of
speculation amounts to a smokescreen for a war-crazed administration. Its
evident intention is for large numbers of U.S. troops to stay in Iraq for a
long time...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9004&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9004


US Army Sergeant Kevin Benderman Charged With Desertion
Robert Finnegan, www.dissidentvoice.org
The Army yesterday charged Sergeant Kevin Benderman with two counts of
violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), for his refusal to
re-deploy to Iraq in a case that has sparked a worldwide media
feeding-frenzy and elicited condemnation of both the Bush administration
and the U.S. Army. Benderman, 40, charged with violating articles 85 and 87
after refusing to re-deploy to Iraq appeared before his commandi! ng
officer today who formally read the charges filed against him...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9005&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9005


'Why did they shoot? We have no weapons'
Chris Hondros
...Finally the shooting stopped, the car drifted listlessly, clearly no
longer being steered, and came to a rest on a kerb. Soldiers began to
approach it warily. The sound of children crying came from the car. I
walked up to the car and a teenaged girl with her head covered emerged from
the back, wailing and gesturing wildly. After her came a boy, tumbling on
to the ground from the seat, already leaving a pool of blood...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9008&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9008


A Permanent Presence
Ari Berman, The Nation
In his first debate with President Bush, John Kerry made a surprisingly
bold assertion about US policy toward Iraq: "I think a critical component
of success in Iraq is being able to convince the Iraqis and the Arab world
that the United States doesn't have long-term designs on it," Kerry said.
"As I understand it, we're building some 14 military bases there now, and
some people say they've got a rather permanent concept to them." Though the
media ignored Kerry's statem! ent and failed to do any substantive
follow-up research, his comments were well-grounded in reality...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9002&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9002


Dying for Sycophants
Paul Craig Roberts, AntiWar
...Citing sources, the Financial Times reports that when queried by
President Bush for his views on the progress of the war, Secretary of State
Colin Powell replied, "We're losing." Bush responded to his candid
secretary of state not by asking Powell to tell him about it but by asking
Powell to leave. The way President Bush sees it, bearers of bad news are
"against America." This means that anyone who is not a sycophant is not
"with us" but "against us"...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8998&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8998


Rice Refuses to Describe Detainee Abuse at Abu Ghraib As Torture
Democaracy Now!
Condoleezza Rice refused to describe what occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison
as torture at her confirmation hearing for Secretary of State. She also
claimed the Geneva Conventions does not apply to individuals associated
with Al Qaeda. We hear excerpts of the hearing and speak with
constitutional lawyer David Cole...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8993&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8993


Iraqi truth-sayer on weapons still languishing in jail
Roula Khalaf, Financial Times
In the run-up to the Iraq war, General Amer al-Saadi, top scientific
adviser to Saddam Hussein, never wavered in his assertion that Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction would not be found. They had been destroyed
after the 1990-91 Gulf war, he insisted. With the US now admitting that the
investigation into the alleged weapons has been concluded without finding
any stockpiles, the British-educated Mr Saadi seems to have been tellin! g
the truth. Yet, nearly two years after the war, Mr Saadi, who acted as the
main liaison with United Nations inspectors, continues to languish in jail
in Iraq without charge...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8997&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8997


Tomgram: Jonathan Schell on the Torture Vote
Tom Engelhardt & Jonathan Schell
...Torture destroys the soul of the torturer even as it destroys the body
of his victim. The boundary between humane treatment of prisoners and
torture is perhaps the clearest boundary in existence between civilization
and barbarism. Whether the elected representatives of the people of the
United States are now ready to cross that line is the deepest question
before the Senate as it votes on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8995&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8995


Torture Island: A FOX Reality-Based TV Show Starring Congressional Leaders,
With Your Host Alberto Gonzales
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
... Gonzales will just move torture and fast track executions to a higher
level of power -- and disgrace America's reputation as a civilized country
in the process, not to mention thumb his nose at our Constitution. We will
join the dishonor of nations like Chile and Argentina in the '70s. We
already have. The fact that we are about to have an Attorney General who
has approved and cond! oned torture for even the most routine of detainees
in Iraq, Guantanamo and Afghanistan -- not to mention through the process
of "rendering" prisoners to other nations that routinely torture people --
and that this has not caused a national outcry is, simply, a national
disgrace...



<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8990&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8990


Reservist ready to refuse call-up
Ed Vulliamy and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
The first British soldier has come forward to urge mass refusal among the
ranks to serve in Iraq, saying he would rather go to prison than accept a
call-up to war. Speaking ahead of a press conference today, Lance Corporal
George Solomou, from the London regiment of the Territorial Army, said: "I
am not going to Iraq, point-blank. I am a conscientious objector to this
war, and I am going to see how the army plays it from there. ! I would
rather spend a year in prison than a minute in Iraq as part of an illegal
war"...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8991&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8991


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 19 January 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member editorial board The
Free Arab Voice
...Local residents were reported by Mafkarat al-Islam as saying that the
US-installed regime had cut off electricity and water supplies to several
places where there is a Sunni majority, as a "preliminary threat" in
response to their refusal to take part in the election farce. Residents
told Mafkarat al-Islam that in addition, the regime had begun denying foo!
d ration cards to the populace who reject the sham "election"...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=8992&s2=21>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=8992




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information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts
of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.





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