[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 30 Jan 2005 -Part One]

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Il Movimento contro la guerra e la elezioni in Iraq
International Action Center, traduzione di Curzio Bettio di Soccorso
Popolare di Padova
...E' importante enfatizzare le circostanze nelle quali queste elezioni
stanno per essere tenute. Più di 150.000 militari statunitensi occupano il
paese, pattugliando le strade con le armi puntate contro i civili Iracheni.
L'Iraq si trova sotto stato di emergenza e di assedio, con i poteri
polizieschi in piena espansione e il coprifuoco. Queste sono elezioni sotto
la minaccia d elle armi, che avverranno con la supervisione
dell'Ambasciatore USA John Negroponte...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9286&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9286


I marine: «Baghdad come Saigon nel `68»
Stefano Chiarini, il manifesto
«La situazione è disastrosa, ci troviamo nel mezzo di una guerra della
quale non capiamo le ragioni, alla quale non eravamo preparati e alla quale
non crediamo. Temo però che anche qui, come in Vietnam, dovrà ancora
scorrere molto sangue, nostro e degli iracheni, perché a Washington
rinuncino ai loro folli progetti. Nel frattempo c'è una puzza irrespirabile
di colonnelli Kurtz e di squadroni della morte che non fa presagire nulla
di buono»...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9299&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9299


Will the issue of Iraqi mass graves prove to be the third strike for George
W. Bush?
Fred Viskovich
...Here's the pitch: there are between 300,000-400,000 bodies contained
within 260 to 270 mass graves. The mass graves announcement was made
November 8, 2003 by Sandra Hodgkinson, at the time director of the
Provisional Authority's Mass Graves Action Plan. Hodgkinson reported that
there were "reports" from Iraqis and that they believed the estimates of
sites and bodies. She said they had confirmed 40 sites and ident ified
2,115 bodies. But in July of 2004 Tony Blair's office admitted that the
number of bodies that had been found in mass graves had been exaggerated by
88%. The number of bodies was put at 5,114 and the estimates of
300,000-400,000 unsubstantiated...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9291&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9291


Few Iraqi voters turn out in Saddam's hometown
Xinhuanet
Hours into Iraq's historic elections on Sunday, few voters have turned up
in Salahaldin province, in which Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit is
situated. "The turnout was very low during the past few hours in Tikrit,
Dujail, Balad and Tuz, much lower than expected," a source in the electoral
body told Xinhua. "In addition, no voters showed up in Baiji, Samarra and
Dour," said the source, who declined to be identified...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9297&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9297


Iraqi poll attacks kill at least 20
Matt Spetalnick, Reuters
Insurgents have unleashed a wave of bloody attacks on Iraq's historic
election, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens at polling
stations across the country. Militants determined to wreck Iraq's first
multi-party elections in half a century on Sunday struck mainly in Baghdad
with six suicide bombings in rapid succession...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9296&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9296


At the Doors of Hell
Raed Jarrar, Raed in the Middle
...What matters is not the election, what matters is what will happen next,
when the Iraqi people start asking the occupying forces to leave the
country, and leave their 14 permanent bases in Iraq. When Shia start asking
bushtani why is he siding with the occupation army... These elections will
open the doors of hell...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9290&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9290


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Saturday, 29 January 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice.
...Hours before voting is set to begin in the election charade that the
US-imposed regime is to hold on Sunday 30 January, US forces have turned
the occupied Iraqi capital into a barracks, sealed off from the outside
world. Only a very small number of streets in Baghdad are still open to
traffic and pedestrians as, according to the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahra m,
the US and puppet troops have installed massive cement barricades at the
entrances and exits from major thoroughfares and even many side streets in
the city...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9287&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9287


Halliburton the big winner from Iraq invasion
Big News Network.com
Halliburton has rocketed to becoming the sixth largest defense contractor
in 2004. The company, formerly headed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney,
was not even in the top 100 contractors prior to the invasion of Iraq.
Halliburton was the seventh largest contracter in 2003 but edged out United
Technologies last year to take sixth position. Despite numerous scandals
involving allegations of being awarded tenders on a non-compete basis,
over-charging , and kick-backs, Halliburton's fortunes continue to rise...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9285&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9285


The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections
International Action Center
...It is important to emphasize the circumstances under which this election
is being held. More than 150,000 U.S. troops occupy the country, patrolling
the streets with guns trained on Iraqi civilians. Iraq is under a state of
emergency, with expanded police powers and a curfew. This is and election
at gunpoint, which will be supervised by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9289&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9289


Legal Reasons for Insisting on Elections In Iraq
Dr. Abdul-Haq Al-Ani, Barrister-at-law, www.albasrah.net
...It is inconceivable that a free election can take place in a country
under occupation. The outcome of any such election is a government loyal to
the occupier. If that were not the outcome of the election in Iraq then the
occupation by UK and US would be one of the most stupid ventures in modern
history. The US imperialist plan for the Middle East, which started with
the occupation of Iraq, intends to hold a n election of some sort...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9284&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9284


Iraq Election Guide
Bob Dreyfuss, TomPaine.com
Here's a rough guide to the elections in Iraq. The main candidates are:
Iran. If you support Iran, vote for Ayatollah Sistani's Shiite list, headed
by Abdel Aziz Hakim, the commander of the Iran-backed paramilitary Badr
Brigade. Chances are that this party will get the most votes and put Iraq
on the slippery slope to the theocracy. It will harmonize with Iran, and
Iran will probably move closer to the Sistani position...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9281&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9281


Lo scopo delle elezioni americane in Iraq: "legittimare l'occupazione"
Muhammad J. 'Irfa, IslamOnline - Aljazira.it
...A spiegare l'insistenza con la quale gli statunitensi vogliono
legittimare le elezioni e farvi partecipare i sunniti, anche con una
presenza simbolica, è la campagna di intimidazioni e di terrore lanciata
contro i sunniti iracheni - e contro i membri del Consiglio degli Ulema
sunniti che li rappresenta -, sottoposti a perquisizioni o semplicemente
uccisi...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9278&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9278


The Widening Chasm among Conservatives
Mike Whitney, The progressive Trail
The machinery of state decision-making is rarely exposed to public
scrutiny. The cover of representative government is a scrupulously
maintained fiction concealing the nuts-and-bolts of real statecraft.
Normally, politicians and their accomplices in the media can keep the
illusion of representative government intact; avoiding the embarrassing
implication that the current order is really upheld by the decision-making
of elites. It's only wh en a major rift appears between the members of the
ruling class that we have the opportunity to marvel at the moving parts of
the imperial apparatus. The deteriorating situation in Iraq has
precipitated this very scenario...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9280&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9280


Lo scopo delle elezioni americane in Iraq: "legittimare l'occupazione"
Muhammad J. 'Irfa, IslamOnline - Aljazira.it
...A spiegare l'insistenza con la quale gli statunitensi vogliono
legittimare le elezioni e farvi partecipare i sunniti, anche con una
presenza simbolica, è la campagna di intimidazioni e di terrore lanciata
contro i sunniti iracheni - e contro i membri del Consiglio degli Ulema
sunniti che li rappresenta -, sottoposti a perquisizioni o semplicemente
uccisi...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9278&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9278


Smart Bombs; Wrong House
Iraq's Civilian Dead
BRIAN CLOUGHLEY, CounterPunch
The bomb was delivered by a USAF F-16. (Don't you warm to that word,
'delivered' - it's so wonderfully innocuous : "I delivered some flowers";
"You delivered a baby" ; "They delivered a 500 pound GBU-30 bomb that
obliterated a house and blew its occupants to bits".) It was guided to its
target by a precision system that depends on amazingly sophisticated
devices. It can't miss. And on January 8 it didn't miss. It smashed into t
he house it was programmed to destroy. But it was the wrong house...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9277&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9277


U.S. Embassy rocket attack kills two on eve of Iraq election
David Randall, Raymond Whitaker and Kim Sengupta
In a deadly piece of symbolism ahead of today's crucial election in Iraq,
two people were killed and four wounded by a rocket attack last night on
the US embassy, in the heart of Baghdad's high-security Green Zone. An
embassy source said all the victims were American. The assault brought the
number killed in eve-of-poll violence yesterday to 19, despite stringent
security measures. There was barely a car to be seen on the streets of
Iraq's main cities, the borders were sealed and Baghdad's international
airport was closed as tensions ran high throughout the country...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9273&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9273


Ballot of the Puppets in Iraq
Vote for Me Because I Already Won!
CounterPunch
Well, so much for the myth that the victors in the elections in Iraq will
demand that the US set a timetable for the removal of its troops. In fact,
so much for the myth that they'll even ask their colonial overseers to
consider such a move (...) Much like Duarte in El Salvador and the series
of Saigon regimes that were elected in electoral processes similar to that
expected to take place in Iraq this Sunday, these politicia ns would not be
anywhere near the reins of power if it weren't for Washington placing them
there...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9276&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9276


Le non-elezioni irachene
Robert Jensen e Pat Youngblood, Nuovi Mondi Media
Qualsiasi sia il risultato elettorale del 30 gennaio, non darà luogo a un
governo iracheno legittimo. Questo tipo di governo sarà possibile solo
quando gli iracheni avranno il reale controllo del loro futuro. E questo
avverrà quando gli Usa se ne andranno. Probabilmente, i media americani
saranno colmi di discussioni e dibattiti riguardo alle elezioni irachene di
questo fine settimana. Sfortunatamente, tutti i commenti perdono di vista
lo s tesso punto: domani, 30 gennaio, non ci saranno elezioni in Iraq, se
questo termine sottende ancora un, anche solo lontano, processo
democratico...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9269&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9269


Iraqi Shi'ite Cleric Urges Election Boycott
Lin Noueihed, Reuters
A senior Shi'ite cleric urged Iraqis on Saturday to boycott Sunday's
landmark elections and take up arms to expel U.S. forces from the country.
"The current elections are a conspiracy to divide and destroy Iraq,"
Ayatollah Ahmed al-Hassani al-Baghdadi told Reuters on the eve of Iraq's
first multi-party poll in 50 years (...) "I am a son of Iraq and I call on
all Christians and Muslims to expel the Americans from Iraq," he added...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9271&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9271


'Of course you're going to get torture'
NATHANIEL WEST
To understand the torture led by U.S. troops in Iraqi prisons, one needs to
look at America's prisons and culture of violence, said an expert in crime
and punishment during a presentation Wednesday at Eastern Illinois
University. "It's the outsourcing of torture, the outsourcing of abuse,"
said Stephen Hartnett, co-author of the book "Empire of Deception: The War
in Iraq, Globalization & The Twilight of Democracy." (...) Hartnett
reported that all of th e leadership personnel at the American military's
Abu Ghraib facility were fired from jobs within prison systems in the
United States. And they were dismissed for abuse of inmates, Hartnett
said...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9274&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9274


Litmus Test
Kurt Nimmo
As for the journalists caught taking money from the Bush administration to
promote its policies, there is a very simple litmus test to ferret out the
chaff from the wheat: any journalist who writes a positive article about
anything this administration does should be suspect. In fact, anything
published by the corporate media should be taken with a grain of salt the
size of Mount Everest...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9270&s2=30>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9270




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