[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 27Jan 2005]

["uruknet.info" <redazione at uruknet.info>]

  uruknet.info
  «Ë-Ë"Ê Æ‰Ê·Ë
:: information from occupied iraq
:: informazione dall'iraq occupato

84° anniversario della fondazione dell'eroico Esercito Iracheno
Partito Socialista Arabo Baath, Al-Moharer - www.resistenze.org
Quest'anno celebriamo l'84° anniversario della fondazione dell'eroico
esercito iracheno, mentre sta scrivendo uno dei più grandi e luminosi
eventi dell'eroismo e del sacrificio di tutta la sua gloriosa storia. E',
per la Nazione Araba e per tutta l'umanità, un esempio estremamente raro di
eroismo e di grande professionalità per la salvaguardia della dignità e
dell'indipendenza dell'Iraq. O ggi l'Iraq sta vivendo una delle più grandi
rivoluzioni di liberazione della storia del genere umano...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9232&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9232


Returning veterans paint grim picture of war's toll
CHERYL L. REED, Chicago Sun
..."There's a tremendous human cost of this war, and America isn't prepared
for it," said Paul Rieckhoff, a former Army infantry platoon leader from
New York and founder of Operation Truth, a national soldier organization
that is touring college campuses to present an alternative view of the war.
Rieckhoff criticized the military for not releasing the entire number of
those killed or injured in Iraq, a figure he said is far greater tha n the
1,416 listed as killed and 10,622 listed as wounded by the Defense
Department...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9223&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9223


Iraq's Elections: A Platform for Political Fragmentation?
Firas Al-Atraqchi, IslamOnline.net
...The non-public, covert plan for Iraq is far more destructive, ominous,
and manipulative than the layman could imagine. It is directed towards the
wholesale destruction of a society, from the grassroots up. It is hinged on
the decimation of the political institution in a country that has long been
a center of Arab politics. The first sign of this covert plan to reduce the
country to fragments came within hours of US mili tary entry into the
center of Baghdad: Banks, museums, schools, libraries, universities,
hospitals, and clinics were looted and then burned to the ground while US
soldiers looked on...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9226&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9226


Nuove mode. La guerra raccontata dal Grand Hotel di Baghdad
Robert Fisk , Megachip
"Giornalismo da hotel" è questa l'unica definizione adatta. Sempre più i
giornalisti occidentali a Baghdad riportano le notizie dai loro alberghi,
anziché dalle strade delle città irachene. Alcuni sono scarrozzati in giro
da mercenari occidentali assoldati. Qualcuno sta negli uffici locali, che i
direttori impediscono loro di lasciare. La maggior parte usano i free-lance
iracheni, corrispondenti part-time che rischiano la propria vi ta per fare
interviste per conto di giornalisti americani o britannici...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9217&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9217


Saddam Hussein Proves More Shrewd than George W. Bush
Stan Moore, Media Monitors Network
...Hussein obviously knew that he could not use frontal military force to
thwart an American invasion, and he certainly knew that the U.S. coveted
Iraq's oil and geo-political posture in geographic and resource-based
manifestations. Bush would one day surely want to invade Iraq, and Iraq
could not defend itself with conventional tanks, airplanes, artillery and
similar weapons of war (...). So, for years, Hussein prepared his military
and his people to resist an American invasion by means of asymmetrical
warfare, or guerilla warfare...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9215&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9215


Here comes "The Freedom"
Dahr Jamail, Electronic Iraq
...Let me describe the scene on the ground here in "liberated" Iraq. With
the "elections" just three days away, people are terrified. Families are
fleeing Baghdad much as they did prior to the invasion of the country.
Seeking refuge from what everyone fears to be a massive onslaught of
violence in the capital city, huge lines of cars are stacked up at
checkpoints on the outer edges of the city. Policemen and Iraqi soldiers
are trying to convince people to stay in the city and vote. Nobody is
listening to them...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9229&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9229


Water Anxiety...
Baghdad Burning, Girl Blog from Iraq...
I have to make this fast. We have about two hours of electricity-
hopefully. The water came back yesterday evening. It's just a little
drizzle but it's certainly better than nothing (...) I almost didn't sleep
last night. I kept worrying the water would be cut off again (...) There's
an almost palpable anxiety in the air these last couple of weeks and it's
beginning to wear on people- fuel shortages, water shortages and a lack of
electricity. It's like the first days of the war all over again...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9230&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9230


UK soldier boasted of abusing Iraqis
Aljazeera.net
A British soldier boasted of giving Iraqi civilians electric shocks,
forcing them to simulate sex and breaking someone's arm, a court martial in
Germany has heard. The defence in the court martial of three British
soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi civilians alleged on Thursday that
Fusilier Gary Bartlam, who took the series of graphic photographs which
form the bulk of the evidence against them, was the real ringleader...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9231&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9231


Does Legitimacy Count?
Khaled Mamdouh, Staff Writer - IslamOnline.net
...But the occupation itself was illegal, as stated by UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan himself over a year and a half after the milk was already
spilled (a bit late, so to speak). Consequently, any resultant situations
should definitely be considered null and void, from a strictly legal point
of view. Other, or rather most, legal experts, also judging from a strictly
legal point of view, insist that holding the elections in Iraq has no legal
bas is and dismiss the UN Security Council resolution as a political, not
legal "thing" to build on, as a way out of the current quagmire.
Legitimacy, however, seems to be the last thing occupying the minds of the
current US administration: the examples are numerous, be that Iraq or
occupied Palestine...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9227&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9227


Anger over Iraqi war dead on Internet
Mark Dunn
THE US Defence Department has been asked to investigate a website being
used by American soldiers to post grisly pictures of Iraqi war dead. The
site, which has been operating for more than a year, describes itself as
"an online archive of soldiers' photos". Dozens of pictures of decapitated
and limbless bodies are featured on the site with tasteless captions,
purportedly sent in by soldiers. Captions include "plastic surgery needed",
"road kill" and "I said dead"...
Warning: Graphic Photos

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9225&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9225


US Copter Downed By Surface-To-Air Missile - Witnesses
Daily Dispatch - South Africa
...Earlier yesterday the US military in Baghdad confirmed the crash saying
it happened overnight as the helicopter was transporting soldiers from the
1st Marine Division, headquartered in Fallujah. Witnesses said the
helicopter appeared to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile and
exploded on hitting the ground. A second helicopter also came under fire
but was able to reach safety, the witnesses said...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9218&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9218


Criminals the lot of us
Scott Ritter, The Guardian
...The culpability for the war can be traced to those same Senate hearings
in 2002, when Colin Powell said:"We can have debates about the size of the
stockpile ... but no one can doubt two things. One, they [Iraq] are in
violation of these resolutions ... And second, they have not lost the
intent to develop these weapons of mass destruction." Politicians, the
mainstream media and the public alike accepted this line of argument,
without debate, thus setting the sta ge for an illegal war (...) But,
through the invasion of Iraq, a crime of gigantic proportions has been
perpetrated. If history has taught us anything, it is that it will condemn
both the individuals and respective societies who not only perpetrated the
crime, but also remained blind and mute while it was being committed...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9219&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9219


Researchers Who Rushed Into Print a Study of Iraqi Civilian Deaths Now
Wonder Why It Was Ignored
LILA GUTERMAN, The Chronicle of Higher Education
...In late October, a study was published in The Lancet, a prestigious
British medical journal, concluding that about 100,000 civilians had been
killed in Iraq since it was invaded by a United States-led coalition in
March 2003. On the eve of a contentious presidential election -- fought in
part over U.S. policy on Iraq -- many American newspapers and television n
ews programs ignored the study or buried reports about it far from the top
headlines (...) Neither the Defense Department nor the State Department
responded to the paper, nor would they comment when contacted by The
Chronicle. American news-media outlets largely published only short
articles, noting how much higher the Lancet estimate was than previous
estimates...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9220&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9220


Wealthy Iraqi families flee before elections
Shaalan Ahmed, Laith Salman, Xinhuanet
The past few days have witnessed the leaving of many Iraqi families to
neighboring countries for fear of attacks that armed groups might launch to
derail Sunday's elections. Most of those who left the country are of the
upper or middle classes and who have relatives in the neighboring
countries, especially in Syria, Jordan and the Gulf Arab countries,
according to some travel agencies in Baghdad (...) As for those families
which c hoose to stay, some have started to prepare for the election day as
if they were preparing for a war, storing plenty of food, fuel and water,
observers said...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9216&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9216


'They can't throw us all in jail'
Growing number of soldiers oppose -- and refuse to report for -- the war in
Iraq
Geov Parrish, WorkingForChange.com
The Pentagon doesn't like to talk about it. But as the war in Iraq becomes
ever more violent and prolonged, an increasing number of soldiers are
opposing the war -- up to and including refusing to fight. Thus far, the
numbers, compared to Vietnam, are still small. The Pentagon estimated in
2003 that nearly 3,000 soldiers had deserted -- that is, ha d been AWOL for
more than a month -- and the number has since grown...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9214&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9214


Corpses of slain Iraqi military found
Aljazeera.net
The bodies of four executed Iraqi soldiers were found dumped on a roadside
in the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, witnesses said on Thursday. Four
Iraqi soldiers were also captured on Wednesday as they left a US military
base west of the city, but the witnesses who found the bodies said they
were not the same men...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9213&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9213


Blasts hit multiple targets in Iraq
Aljazeera.net
Anti-US forces in Iraq have attacked an Australian military convoy in
Baghdad, an army patrol in Samarra, police and polling stations in Kirkuk
and the governor's office in Baquba. A bomb was set off near an Iraqi
military convoy in Mahmudiya, killing five people and wounding 15, hospital
sources said. A doctor added that four soldiers were among the dead and
that three of the wounded were in critical condition...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9212&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9212


There He Goes Again...
Reining In Cheney
RAY McGOVERN, CounterPunch
Quick! Anyone! Who can put the brakes on Vice President Dick Cheney before
we have another war on our hands? Current and former intelligence analysts
are reacting with wonderment and apprehension to his remarks last week on
the nuclear program of Iran and his resuscitated spinning on why attacking
Iraq was the prudent thing to do. There he goes again, they say-trifling
with the truth on Iraq and now taking off after Iran. Does he reall y have
the temerity to reach into the same bag of tricks used to convince most
Americans that Iraq was an immediate nuclear threat?...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9221&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9221


This Pollyanna army
Sidney Blumenthal, The Guardian
The most penetrating critique of the realism informing President Bush's
second inaugural address, a trumpet call of imperial ambition, was made one
month before it was delivered, by Lt Gen James Helmly, chief of the US Army
Reserve. In an internal memorandum, he described "the Army Reserve's
inability under current policies, procedures and practices ... to meet
mission requirements associated with Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring
Freedom. The Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable
to meet other operational requirements and is rapidly degenerating into a
broken force"...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9228&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9228


Because There is No Cause
Manuel Valenzuela
...Provided with the most lethal instruments of war the military-
industrial complex has devised, manufactured and designed using the
creative genius of human wickedness, whose purpose is the greatest
infliction of death, maiming and destruction possible, the soldiers in the
army of the corporate Leviathan are enveloped in a torrential downpour of
guerilla warfare, surrounded by a 25 million strong populace supportive of
the Iraqi freedom fighters and resistance decimati ng the invading forces.
The battlefield is the city, block to block, street to street and house to
house, using the weaker opponent's strengths to the detriment of the
stronger force's weaknesses...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9222&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9222




<http://www.uruknet.info>www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily
information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts
of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.





You receive this newsletter because you subscribed it. If you think it has
been an abuse, or simply if you don't want to receive it any more, to
unsubscribe from our newsletter, please write to
<mailto:webmaster at uruknet.info?subject=UNSUBSCRIBE>webmaster at uruknet.info
If you cannot read correctly our newsletter, please write to
<mailto:webmaster at uruknet.info?subject=ONLYTEXT>webmaster at uruknet.info to
get the text-version.