[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 08 Feb 2005]

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ANOTHER SAD STORY
Malcom Lagauche
...This is just one of a long line of lies that have been exposed about the
Ba'ath regime. Lies that galvanized U.S. opinion into believing that
millions were killed at random by brutal methods. Lies such as the killing
of babies in Kuwait by Iraqi soldiers: the gassing of 5,000 Kurds at
Halabjah (Saddam's lawyers now have many eyewitnesses who will testify that
Iran gassed the Kurds); more than 400,000 bodies were found in mass graves
in 2003 in the south of Iraq (the number has! been decreased to fewer than
5,000 virtually all of whom were male military-age participants in the 1991
Shiite insurrection); and many others...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9548&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9548


Vietnam had sham elections, too
Iraqis want their country back
Fred Goldstein, Workers World
...Today the Pentagon is bringing "democracy" to Iraq with bombs, bullets,
raids, checkpoints, prisons and the torture chambers of Abu Ghraib. Over
100,000 Iraqis have been killed by U.S. forces. The country is in a
shambles. Falluja has been destroyed; Ramadi and other cities are in a
permanent state of war against the occupation. Electricity, running water
and public services barely exist and unemplo! yment is between 60 and 70
percent...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9547&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9547


Nessuna legittimità viene da votazioni in condizione di occupazione
Aldo Bernardini
... Un tragico effetto potrebbe avere l'uso politico delle votazioni, il
cui risultato è stato in realtà gridato da tempo: le affermate percentuali
di votanti erano state per così dire vaticinate, trovando la base di fondo
nella ripartizione etnico-confessionale delle tre principali componenti
della popolazione irakena (sciiti, sunniti, kurdi). Si intende l'effetto di
spaccatura del paese e di "guerra civile" (in realtà, tra i res! istenti
per l'indipendenza e gli occupanti stranieri e collaborazionisti) (...) Al
di là del possibile effetto "guerra civile", nessuna legittimità viene da
votazioni in condizione di occupazione. Resta assolutamente legittima la
Resistenza all'occupante, centrata sul partito Baath e preparata prima
dell'aggressione, la quale rivendica la piena indipendenza politica ed
economica dell'Iraq, che viene invece compromessa dai collaborazionisti...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9536&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9536


Archeological sites in Iraq fall victim to chaos of war
Jack Chang, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has triggered an unprecedented wave of
looting at archeological sites in the country, resulting in the destruction
of relics holding secrets to the roots of human civilization, an authority
on the subject said. Lebanese archaeologist and journalist Joanne Farchakh
Bajjaly detailed her findings Monday on a stop at UC Berkeley. She is
touring the United States with stories and photos of the destructi! on to
raise awareness of what she said is an ongoing crisis that threatens our
understanding of Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian societies that thrived
thousands of years ago. Having toured archaeological sites throughout Iraq
just after the 2003 invasion and again in April, Bajjaly said looters have
irreparably destroyed ancient cities, temples, carvings, pottery and other
relics. U.S. and other coalition troops have also damaged sites by using
some of them as military bases, she said. (...) Deposed dictator Saddam
Hussein placed great value on protecting the nation's archaeological
sites...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9550&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9550


Stories from Fallujah
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
These are the stories that will continue to emerge from the rubble of
Fallujah for years. No, for generations… Speaking on condition of
anonymity, the doctor sits with me in a hotel room in Amman, where he is
now a refugee (...) "One story is of a young girl who is 16 years old," he
says of one of the testimonies he video taped recently, "She stayed for
three days with the bodies of her family who were killed in their home.
When the soldiers entered she was in h! er home with her father, mother, 12
year-old brother and two sisters. She watched the soldiers enter and shoot
her mother and father directly, without saying anything"...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9546&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9546


Iraqi farmers forced to sow modified grain
Christopher Findlay for ISN Security Watch
... Critics of GM agriculture say that Order 81 will eradicate plant
diversity, place Iraqi farmers under the tutelage of international genetics
companies, and force them into dependency on those corporations for the
foreseeable future. At the same time, Bremer's legislation creates more
favorable conditions in Iraq for GM giants such as Monsanto or Syngenta
than they could ever hope to encounter in a country with a functioning !
administration. With the almost complete disenfranchisement of farmers
having become binding legislation, corporations will be able to force Iraqi
growers into package deals that combine potent weed killers with seeds that
have been genetically modified to withstand the chemical onslaught. Many GM
companies face widespread resistance in developed countries, for example in
the EU and Japan, and opponents say that Iraq may now become a testing
ground for technology that is considered unacceptable, because too risky,
in countries with a sovereign government...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9545&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9545


"If you want my vote, give me Saddam"
The Great Iraq - Malcom Lagauche
..."Don't tell me this election has anything to do with democracy," said
Isam Jalal, 57. "It was Saddam Hussein who tried to make this into a modern
country, but that didn't suit the United States and Britain or Israel, or
even some of our brother Arab countries. If you want my vote, give me
Saddam." Jalal's short statement spoke volumes. Especially about the fact
that Iraq's only crime was to want to elevate itself from third world sta!
tus. That was a no-no in U.S. eyes. With the current situation in Iraq, the
glory days of this former progressive Arab country leading the way in
regional education, engineering, health services, women's rights, and other
aspects, seem to have occurred centuries ago, not just 15 years ago...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9551&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9551


Newsday: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Enlists his Family for Suicide Missions
Kurt Nimmo
...Moreover, once again thanks to Seymour Hersh, we know, and the Pentagon
has confirmed, U.S. covert operations are under way in Iraq, Iran, Syria,
and elsewhere in the neighborhood, this in addition to Israel's covert ops.
How do we know Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is not a U.S. or Israeli covert op
contrivance? And why is this possibility never mentioned by the corporate
media? Well, of course, it is not mentioned because the corporate m! edia
gets all its information from the Bush administration and the Pentagon.
Everything else is dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Remarkably, this
passes for "journalism." For my devalued dollar, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a
person operating in Iraq, does not exist...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9544&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9544


Law of Unintended Consequences
Careful What You Wish for in Iraq
Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times
...And if what the mullahs have wrought in Basra and other parts of Iraq is
any indication, the cause of human rights is in deep trouble — particularly
for women, who enjoyed freedoms in the secular world of Saddam Hussein that
are denied under fundamentalist Islamic law. Those photos of Iraqi women
dressed in identical shrouds lined up to vote for candidates handpicked by
the Grand Ayatollah Ali ! Sistani were, to say the least, an ambiguous
advertisement for democracy...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9542&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9542


Fraud and corruption
Forget the UN. The US occupation regime helped itself to $8.8 bn of mostly
Iraqi money in just 14 months
George Monbiot, The Guardian
...Four days before Volcker reported his findings about Saddam Hussein, the
US inspector general for Iraq reconstruction published a report about the
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) - the US agency which governed Iraq
between April 2003 and June 2004. The inspector general's job is to make
sure that the money the authority spent was p! roperly accounted for. It
wasn't. In just 14 months, $8.8bn went absent without leave. This is more
than Mobutu Sese Seko managed to steal in 32 years of looting Zaire. It is
55,000 times as much as Mr Sevan is alleged to have been paid...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9543&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9543


The Secret is Out ...
Imad Khadduri, Iraq free
"As reflected in CIA classified studies last month, U.S. military and
intelligence officials are still trying to understand (my italics) the
various Iraqi insurgency groups that they expect will continue to fight,
even after last week's election. The CIA studies included a detailed look
at an at-large Iraqi fighter (my italics) who is motivated to fight because
the United States is occupying his country, a senior intelligence official
said (...) Foreign! fighters associated with Abu Musab Zarqawi and his al
Qaeda-affiliated insurgent group, who once were seen as the prime opponents
... are now described as lesser elements...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9539&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9539


Saddam Hussein the Fighter, the Thinker and the Man
Part II, CHAPTER 18: The Gulf and the Western Desert
Amir Iskander, Al-Moharer
... "The French proposed the idea of having a European-Arab-African
dialogue, but we believe this to be a pompous formula owing to the
imbalance of power between the three parties. We are agreeable to a
European-Arab dialogue, a European-African dialogue, or an Arab-African
dialogue. We told the French that although they may be thinking of
isolating the Soviets from Africa, this ! is not our concern, and we have
no part or interest in it. We are not prepared to act as an international
police force. We support an Arab- European dialogue in the overall context
of politics and economics. The overall framework of Afro-Arab relations,
however, must be based on more than pure business and trade. It must be
within a comprehensive strategic view, such as how the Arabs can help the
Africans along the road to liberation, and vice-versa. Iraq will make a
generous contribution towards Arab aid for Africa"...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9541&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9541


Iraqi Detainees' Version of Bucca Killings
Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondent
The US occupation forces in Iraq are abusing Iraqi detainees and tearing up
the Noble Qur'an, according to a message on a piece of cloth Iraqi
detainees in the US-administrated Bucca detention camp in southern Iraq
managed to sneak outside. The message also presented another version of
events leading up to the killing of four Iraqi detainees by US forces at
the camp on the eve of January 30 controversial elections, an incident that
also le! ft six prisoners injured (...)
The message, signed by some 5,200 Iraqi detainees, also revealed new abuses
by US occupation forces against the Iraqi detainees in the US-administrated
camp...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9538&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9538


Iraqi Elites May Award Oil Contracts Before New Assembly Sits
NewStandard Staff
...Iraq's undersecretary of oil, Ahmad Al-Shamaa, told Bloomberg News that
the current, unelected cabinet may approve contracts worth hundreds of
millions of dollars to private, foreign-owned corporations. Agreements may
include deals worth a combined $450 million for development of the massive
Suba-Luhais and Hamrin oil fields, intended to add about 100,000 barrels
each to Iraq's daily petroleum output...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9537&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9537


"It's Fun to Shoot Some People"
A General as Knuckle-Dragging Buffoon
BRIAN CLOUGHLY, CounterPunch
...But on February 7 Rumsfeld said that "the matter is closed" concerning
his paranoic general. The Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Hagee,
issued a statement saying "Lt. Gen. Mattis often speaks with a great deal
of candor. I have counseled him concerning his remarks and he agrees he
should have chosen his words more carefully." More carefully? How can you
be 'more careful' about saying you get a ! kick out of killing people?
Maybe : "I like shooting people, but only gently"? Or how about : "It's fun
to kill people, providing they enjoy it"?...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9535&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9535


Baghdad army centre hit by bomb
Aljazeera.net
A bomb has gone off at an Iraqi army headquarters in Baghdad, killing 14
people, while a politician escaped an assassination attempt that left two
of his sons dead. Hospital officials speaking to Aljazeera said a blast on
Tuesday had killed 14 people and wounded at least eight. Black smoke rose
into the sky and ambulances raced to the scene where a car bomb went off
targeting an Iraqi army convoy as the driver attempted to enter al-Muthanna
airport...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9533&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9533


Sanctions and the Health Crisis in Iraq
Compassion, Courage and Consequences
DAVID SMITH-FERRI
...the US government has taken legal action against Voices in the
Wilderness (VitW), seeking to collect over $20,000 in fines from the
organization for doing exactly what Shields and Garza have done. What crime
is VitW accused of? The "exportation of donated goods, including medical
supplies and toys, to Iraq absent specific prior authorization by OFAC"
(from the Pre-Penalty Notice written by R. Richard New! comb, Director
Office of Foreign Assets Control, 12/3/98). At the time, the total value of
the "donated goods" was estimated at $75,000. Since 1996, small groups of
US citizens have traveled to Iraq on fact-finding delegations organized by
VitW. Delegates have been encouraged to pack light, and transport whatever
humanitarian aid they could carry...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9534&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9534




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