[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 02Feb 2005]

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Prossimamente l'Iran, poi chi?
Gore Vidal, Independent - Traduzione di Curzio Bettio di Soccorso Popolare
di Padova
... Quindi noi ci troviamo in questa situazione, nel mezzo della tragedia
Irachena senza fine, e il Presidente, nel suo discorso inaugurale, ha in
piena serenità dichiarato guerra al resto del mondo. Invece di parlare di
come diavolo dobbiamo fare per uscire dall'Iraq e dall'Afghanistan, noi
stiamo parlando di come entrare in Iran. Perciò noi stiamo correndo verso
un assoluto disastro, ed inoltre l' opinione pubblica Americana non ha a
disposizione armi dal punto di vista legale...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9409&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9409


L'Iraq e la sua resistenza
Stephen Gowans, Freebooter
La questione sul fatto se gli iracheni abbiano oppure no il diritto di
resistere all'occupazione del loro paese da parte delle forze a guida USA è
chiara: essi hanno questo diritto. La questione sul fatto se abbiano oppure
no il diritto di resistere all'occupazione con ogni mezzo è accademica. Il
fatto che conta è che I popoli sotto occupazione resisteranno, come hanno
sempre fatto, all'occupazione. E dal momento che la povera gente non ha
accesso ad elicotteri da combattimento, carri armati e bombardieri, gli
strumenti degli occupanti, ricorre a tutti i mezzi a sua disposizione...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9385&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9385


Saddam didn't persecute Christians
Jamal Sarsam
...The article says Saddam Hussein persecuted Chaldo-Assyrian Christians in
1977. This is not true! I am a Christian from Iraq and have a family of
more than 300 members who are still in Iraq. We, and the Christians that we
know, were never persecuted under Saddam. I am sick and tired of the
"Chaldean" always trying to speak on behalf of the Christians in Iraq. I
don't know what their motive is (...)He did not persecute anyone because of
his religion, especially the Christians (...) Saddam donated money
regularly to Christian monasteries in northern Iraq and paved the roads to
these monasteries. He also repaired churches using government funds...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9387&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9387


Escobar: Civil War and Balkanization in Iraq
Kurt Nimmo
...Of course, with the Strausscons driving the occupation, this "detailed
plan on the table, with fixed dates" will never appear and chaos will rule,
as planned, and Iraq will be balkanized, as demanded by the Likudites in
Israel. In fact, with the exception of Jordan, this is the plan for most of
the Arab and Muslim Middle East—ethnic strife, civil war, balkanization,
stomping out Arab nationalism, and the United States and Israel cutting
deals with the resu ltant fiefdoms run by feudal warlords and dictators. As
for those who resist, the prospect is never-ending war and incalculable
misery for millions of people...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9403&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9403


Order 81
Jeremy Smith
...Iraqi farmers have been made vassals to American corporations. That they
were baking bread for 9,500 years before America existed has no weight when
it comes to deciding who owns Iraq's wheat. Yet for every farmer that stops
growing his unique strain of saved seed the world loses another variety,
one that might have been useful in times of disease or drought. In short,
what America has done is not restructure Iraq's agriculture, but dismantle
it. The people whose forefathers first mastered the domestication of wheat
will now have to pay for the privilege of growing it for someone else. And
with that the world's oldest farming heritage will become just another
subsidiary link in the vast American supply chain...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9405&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9405


"American-Style Democracy"2.0
Clifton Ross
...Under the Vienna Convention, an occupying force has no right to change
composition of occupied territories socially, culturally, educationally or
politically. This election was based on the laws laid down by former
'Viceroy' American Paul Bremer and is entirely unconstitutional. Bremer
personally appointed the overseers for the election, says Al Mukhtar, thus,
far from 'free and fair' and heralding Iraqi 'democracy' they are entirely
engineered by Bush's man." In the f inal analysis, what the advocates of
"American-style democracy" fear most of all is the substance of democracy.
Like Hollywood movies in which the late B-rated Ronald Reagan starred,
"American-style democracy" is all style and special effects, no substance
(...) Governments that allow popular rule are to be subverted and
destroyed...



<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9408&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9408


"The US has captured a goose with golden eggs (Iraq)"
Ahmed Janabi, Aljazeera.net
...The US occupation has encouraged the virtual division of Iraq into three
entities. The first one is in the north, it is ethnically motivated and
works to separate itself and establish an independent state (Kurdistan).
The second in the south plans to split and establish a sectarian entity
backed by Iran. The third is central Iraq which for some reason carries a
national vision for the future of Iraq. Obviously the US works hard to
destroy this entity, which happens to be Sunni and exists in central Iraq.
But as a matter of fact, the people of central Iraq are Arab Iraqi Muslims
in addition to being Sunnis. This part of the country holds a sense of
national identity that rejects the foreign occupation and separation bids...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9411&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9411


Never to Forget
The War Crimes of George W. Bush & Donald Rumsfeld
Paul Rockwell
...The international dispatches about the U.S. invasion and occupation of
Iraq — replete with graphic details about overcrowded hospitals, U.S.
cluster bomb shrapnel buried in the flesh of children, babies deformed by
U.S. depleted uranium, farms and markets destroyed by U.S. bombs — do not
make pleasant reading. And they only confirm what most leaders outside the
U.S. foresaw long ago: the uncontrollable effects, the inflammator y
brutality of preemptive war. Unleash the dogs of war, and no master can
call them back. The mounting evidence from Iraq also establishes what many
Americans may not want to face: that the highest leaders of the land are
violating almost every international agreement relating to the rules of
war...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9406&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9406


Censoring the Coverage of the Iraqi Elections: "Limited to Filming at Only
Five Polling Stations"
Critical Montages
American journalism sank to a new low in its coverage of the "demonstration
elections" in Iraq, measured by the number of American journalists who
challenged Washington's micro-managing of election coverage while on air:
zero. Just watching broadcast and cable television in the United States,
you had no way of knowing that journalists were "limited to filming at only
five polling statio ns," unless you happened to catch ITN's Julian Manyon
on CNN International's program International Correspondents....

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9386&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9386


Did Iran Shoot Down that British C-130K?
Kurt Nimmo
It should come as no surprise that the Iraqi resistance is now able to
knock an RAF C-130K transport aircraft out of the sky, although the
corporate media insists the crash is "shrouded in mystery." However, for
me, the mystery is: what exactly was the mission of the nine RAF special
services officers and one soldier believed to be attached to the SAS who
died in the crash? "The plane is thought to have been carrying Special
Forces troops to a base in the north o f the country," writes Will Knight.
Is it possible this "base in the north of the country" is located in the
Kurdish area of Iraq?...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9402&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9402


Casualties of Polling
Dahr Jamail, Electronic Iraq
...Arab voters in the north who had planned to boycott the elections in
Kirkuk decided at the last minute to vote so as not to lose the oil-rich
city to the Kurds. Thus, not enough ballots were supplied, and now the plot
thickens. "I think the decision came from Baghdad," Jiburi told reporters,
"They were concerned with keeping the Sunnis out of the game." Just
yesterday interim Vice-President Ibrahim al-Jaafari warned of the
possibility of civil war if the US mil itary withdrew from Iraq
prematurely. Keep in mind the "elections" were just three days ago...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9399&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9399


Reading the Elections
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
...The Iraqi election was not legitimate. It was held under conditions of a
hostile military foreign occupation. The Hague Convention of 1907, to which
the U.S. is a signatory, prohibits the occupying power from creating any
permanent changes in the government of the occupied territory. These
elections were arranged under an electoral law and by an electoral
commission installed and backed by the occupying power. They took place in
an environment s o violent that voters could not even learn the names of
candidates, and the three days surrounding the vote included a complete
lock-down of the country, including shoot-to-kill curfews in many areas,
closure of the airport and borders, and closure of roads...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9398&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9398


Elezioni in Iraq. Un maquillage provvisorio
Editoriale di Radio Città Aperta
...Gli osservatori confermano che nelle città delle province centrali
sunnite i seggi erano deserti, ma che anche nel sud sciita o nei quartieri
sciiti di Bagdad l'affluenza non è stata così massiccia. Alle elezioni
hanno dunque partecipato praticamente solo i kurdi (che hanno votato
massicciamente) e circa la metà degli sciiti. Al boicottaggio delle
elezioni non avevano chiamato solo le forze che animano la resistenza
armata, ma anche co alizioni di forze politiche interetniche ed
interreligiose...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9390&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9390


Do US Troops Target Journalists in Iraq?
Rony Abovitz, World Economic Forum
...During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in
the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had
not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been
targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor
in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on
others...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9396&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9396


The Never Again Mantra
The Independent's Case for Genocide in Iraq
Kim Petersen, www.dissidentvoice.org
...Facts provide a good yardstick for comparison. The CIA Factbook gives
the population of Sudan as 39,148,162, based on a July 2004 estimate (one
assumes this to be an estimate based on facts.) The July 2004 estimate for
Iraq's population is 25,374,691. The prestigious peer-review medical
journal The Lancet has estimated 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed since the
US-UK launched their aggression agains t Iraq. (5) Extrapolation of these
figures indicates that the number of people killed in Iraq is over 100
percent greater than the number killed in Sudan. Consequent to this
comparison, one must ergo surmise that The Independent has built a
compelling case for the labeling of genocide in Iraq. This comes after
three UN humanitarian heads had resigned in disgust at the "genocidal" UN
sanctions...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9395&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9395


Reporters Don't Even Consult Their Clip Files Any More.
A History Lesson from the New York Times
DAVE LINDORFF, CounterPunch
...The mainstream corporate media have slavishly followed the official
line, calling the 60 percent turnout of Iraqis a "victory" for Bush, though
most people apparently had no idea whom they were voting for (the names
were kept off the lists for fear candidates would be targeted and offed by
the insurgency), there was no public campaigning, and the winners--the
Shiite Parties--a re hardly friendly to America. (and though many,
apparently, voted fearing that if they didn't they would not receive their
food rations.) Now a blogger at the Daily Kos has dug up a bit of history
that should shake up both the political and the journalistic set in
Washington and New York. It's an article from The New York Times dated
September 4, 1967. The headline: "U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote:
Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror"...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9394&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9394


GONZALES ADDED TO WAR CRIMES COMPLAINT IN GERMANY; NEW EVIDENCE SHOWS FAY
REPORT ON ABU GHRAIB PROTECTED OFFICIALS
Center for Constitutional Rights
CCR filed new documents on January 31, 2005, with the German Federal
Prosecutor looking into war crimes charges against high-ranking U.S.
officials including Donald Rumsfeld: one includes new evidence that the Fay
investigation into Abu Ghraib protected Administration officials - it is a
comprehensive and shocking opinion by Scott Horton, an expert on
international law and the Chair of the International Law Committee of the
Association of the Bar of the City of New York. The second is a letter that
details how Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales's testimony before
the Senate Judiciary Committee confirms his role as complicit in the
torture and abuse of detainees in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9392&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9392


A fair election in a morgue
xymphora
...You begin with 'shock and awe' bombing, followed by a violent military
occupation. You install your own stooge government of opportunists ready to
do what they are told, including setting up something which could, on a
dark desert night, pass for an election. Then you bring in some UN election
wizards, technicians so skilled they could stage what looks to be a fair
election in a morgue (a useful skill in Iraq). You pick a few photo-op
polling stations in relatively safe are as, and surround them with enough
of the US Army to make it safe enough for an Iraqi to consider voting
there, and, much more importantly, safe enough for American 'journalists'
and camera crews to venture intrepidly out from under their Baghdad hotel
beds to video the photo-ops...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9389&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9389


Tomgram: Dahr Jamail on Life under the Bombs in Iraq
Tom Engelhardt & Dahr Jamail
...One of the least reported aspects of the U.S. occupation of Iraq is the
oftentimes indiscriminate use of air power by the American military. The
Western mainstream media has generally failed to attend to the F-16
warplanes dropping their payloads of 500, 1,000, and 2,000-pound bombs on
Iraqi cities -- or to the results of these attacks. While some of the bombs
and missiles fall on resistance fighters, the majority of the casualtie s
are civilian -- mothers, children, the elderly, and other unarmed
civilians...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9391&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9391


The American media and the Iraq election
Joseph Kay and Barry Grey, WSWS
There are times when one must give the devil his due. The American media is
capable of carrying out extraordinary feats, turning lead into gold and an
election held under foreign occupation into a victory for democracy. With
near total unanimity, all the resources of this giant propaganda
machine—the reporters and columnists, television pundits and talk-radio
hosts, professional image-makers and spin masters—have been mobilized over
the past three days to sing the praises of the Iraqi election...

<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9388&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9388


Sunni Clerics: Iraqi Vote Illegitimate
SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
Iraq's leading Sunni Muslim clerics said Wednesday the landmark elections
lack legitimacy because large numbers of Sunnis did not participate in the
balloting - which the clerics had asked them to boycott (...) In its first
statement since the balloting, the Association of Muslim Scholars said the
balloting lacked legitimacy because of low Sunni participation. The
Association called months ago on Sunnis to shun the polls because of th e
presence of U.S. and other foreign troops...


<http://uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=9401&s2=03>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=9401




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information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts
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