[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 19 Feb 2005]

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A Game As Old As Empire
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! - AlterNet
...After our tremendous success in Saudi Arabia, we decided we should do
the same thing in Iraq. And we figured that Saddam Hussein was corruptible.
And, of course, we had been involved with Saddam Hussein anyway for some
time. And so the economic hit men went in and tried to bring Saddam Hussein
around, tried to get him to agree to a deal like the royal House of Saud
had agreed to. And he didn't. So, we sent in the jackals to try to
overthrow him or ! to assassinate him. They couldn't (...) So, when the
economic hit men and the jackals both failed, then the last line of defense
that the United States, the empire, uses these days, is the military. We
send in our young men and women to die and to kill, and we did that in Iraq
in 1990. We thought Saddam Hussein at that point was sufficiently chastised
that now he would come around, so the economic hit men went back in the
1990s, failed once again. The jackals went back in, failed once again, and
so once again the military went in - the story we all know - because we
couldn't bring him around any other way...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9792&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9792


In post-election Iraq, it's still resistance v. occupation
John Catalinotto, Workers World
In the first two weeks after the Jan. 30 Iraqi election, 296 people were
reportedly killed in battles involving the U.S.-led occupation forces and
the puppet Iraqi army on one side and the Iraqi resistance on the other.
All evidence points to this struggle continuing as it has for the past 20
months, despite the election...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9786&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9786


LEFT OUT IN THE COLD
Malcom Lagauche
When Ayad Allawi was appointed interim Iraqi Prime Minister last year,
everyone in the U.S. administration feigned surprise. Nobody had heard of
him as a front-runner. However, in reality, this was the U.S. stealth
choice for the position. Allawi, living in London, began a relationship
with the CIA in the 1980s. By 1995, Allawi's group, the Iraqi National
Alliance (INA), comprised mostly of people who never lived in Iraq, was
called upon by the masters in Washington to stage a! coup to overthrow the
Ba'athist government, beginning with the assassination of Saddam Hussein.
For about six months, the INA conducted terrorist attacks inside Iraq,
killing more than 100 civilians...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9790&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9790


Checkpoints and Refugees
Cathy Breen, Voices in the Wilderness
It was nighttime in Amman. The setting was a hotel coffee shop where Kathy
Kelly, myself and two others were to meet with two doctors (psychiatrists)
from Baghdad. They were coming for a workshop on how to deal with
traumatized children. They were late in arriving due to shooting on the
road from Baghdad to Amman. The project involves the training of primary
school teachers, many of whom come from conflict areas outside of Baghdad,
to help them allevi! ate the stress of war for the children. The shooting
incident on the road led to other stories about recent killings of their
friends and other civilians by U.S. soldiers on the highways and at the
checkpoints in and around Baghdad. Some of the survivors are now in their
care as patients...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9791&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9791


CNN news chief steps down: right-wing purge continues in US media
Patrick Martin, WSWS
The February 11 resignation of CNN Executive Vice President Eason Jordan is
another scalp for the right-wing campaign to purge the American mass media
of even the slightest criticism of the Bush administration's policy of
global aggression. Jordan, the top CNN news official, quit after a week of
hammering by talk radio hosts, National Review, Fox News and right-wing
bloggers over his remarks during a panel discussion at the Wor! ld Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 27. In the course of a discussion
about the large number of deaths among journalists covering the war and
insurgency in Iraq, one American participant, Democratic Congressman Barney
Frank of Massachusetts, referred to the 63 journalists killed as
"collateral damage." Eason disputed the application of this term, used by
the Pentagon to describe the slaughter of thousands of civilians as a
result of the bombing and shelling of insurgents resisting the US
occupation...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9789&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9789


Expanding the war? Bush threatens Syria, Iran
Deirdre Griswold, Workers World
Could the adventurist neo-con regime in Washington be poised for yet
another aggressive military move in the oil-rich Middle East? Even though
the current conflict--the drawnout and bloody struggle with an elusive but
effective Iraqi resistance movement that refuses to accept the U.S.
invasion and occupation of their country--has earned them worldwide
condemnation and hatred, many signs point in the direction of more
aggressions to come! ...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9787&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9787


Shooting the Messenger
The real issue in the Eason Jordan controversy is the US military's killing
of journalists in Iraq
Jeremy Scahill
One of the most powerful executives in the cable news business, CNN's Eason
Jordan, was brought down after he spoke out of school during a panel
discussion at the World Economic Forum in January. In a rare moment of
candor, Jordan reportedly said that the US military had targeted a dozen
journalists who had been killed in Iraq. The comments quickly ignited a f!
irestorm on the Internet, fueled by right-wing bloggers, that led to
Jordan's recanting, apologizing and ultimately resigning after twenty-three
years at the network, "in an effort to prevent CNN from being unfairly
tarnished by the controversy"...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9785&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9785


Social Security and Bush's War Budget
Joel Wendland, Media Monitors Network
...According to the Labor Research Association (LRA), "The 2006 budget
represents a 41 percent increase in military spending since 2001." Imagine
if public education spending had been increased by 41 percent. Poverty
programs? Unemployment and job creation programs? Shoring up Social
Security? This story, like many today, begins on September 11th. Prior to
that day, George W. Bush was struggling. Severe economic crisis compounded
the nag! ging problem of the very legitimacy of his presidency after the
2000 Florida fiasco...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9784&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9784


Pentagon Accused Of Lying About US Casualties
Puerto Rican Facilities To Start Receiving Overflow Of Wounded Soldiers
Prensa Latina - Havana Cuba
The US Pentagon has failed to make public all the human cost of its war
against Iraq, especially regarding soldiers with mental disorders,
according to an article in Wednesday's El Diario/La Prensa. The newspaper
noted that the international press is reporting the total number of US
casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan between 42,000 and 142,000 -- in!
cluding all those killed in action, wounded, or suffering illnesses...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9783&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9783


Bush's "Mission Accomplished" Election Charade
Harvey Wasserman
Once again the toady army of media Bushlickers has proclaimed "Mission
Accomplished" in Iraq. And once again, the real outcome is murder, mayhem
and utter catastrophe, with worse yet to come. For endless prime time
hours, Fox and the major news desks -- the Izvestia and Pravda of Bush's
America -- blare the party line about the "miraculous success" of the Iraqi
balloting. No doubt it set amazing precedents. For example, this may have
been the world! 's first election in which the location of the polling
places was kept secret, along with the list of the major candidates. It may
also be remembered for the vast numbers of Iraqis who refused to vote...



<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9782&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9782


'Nobody is talking'
The Guardian
The evidence of two new books demonstrates that 9/11 created the will for
new, harsher interrogation techniques of foreign suspects by the US and led
to the abuses in Guantánamo, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. In a special
report, James Meek reveals that it is the British who refined these
methods, and who have provided the precedent for legalised torture...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9780&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9780


US Troops: Destroying Fallujah Pinnacle of Our Lives
Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
..."I feel like [Fallujah] was the pinnacle of my existence - that nothing
I will ever do will be like what I have done," says the religious marine
from Spotsylvania, Va. "I'm pretty sure there will be times just as good
... just as awesome - and I'll appreciate it in a different way. But right
now, I still have my blinders on; the pall of the city is still over me"...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9778&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9778


Detainee Coerced Into Dropping Charges of Abuse Before Release
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union today released files obtained from the
Army revealing previously undisclosed allegations of abuse by U.S. soldiers
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the documents are reports that a detainee
who was beaten and seriously injured was forced to drop his claims in order
to be released from custody. "The torture of detainees is too widespread
and systemic to be dismissed as the rogue actions o! f a few misguided
individuals," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9779&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9779


"One Man Has Stopped Killing"
Sgt. Kevin Benderman is an American Conscientious Objector
MICKEY Z., CounterPunch
When I saw the recent news report about the U.S. military moving toward the
use of robot soldiers, I could not resist the obvious retort: Wasn't that
already the case? No less an authority on mass murder than Henry Kissinger
once remarked: "Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns
for foreign policy." To buy into this mentality, however, is to write off
any possibility of s! olidarity with American military personnel...like,
for example, Sgt. Kevin Benderman...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9777&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9777


Four U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attacks
Reuters
Four U.S. soldiers were killed in separate guerrilla attacks in Iraq, the
U.S. military said Friday, three in or near the northern city of Mosul and
the fourth in a roadside bomb blast north of Baghdad. A second soldier was
wounded in the blast Friday, which took place about 40 km (25 miles) north
of the capital, the military said in a statement. The other incidents
happened Thursday. In the first, a car bomb exploded next to a U.S. army
patrol in Mosul, killing ! one soldier and wounding three...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9776&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9776


Sword Play
Chris Floyd
...Last month, it was widely reported that the Pentagon is considering a
similar program in Iraq. What was not reported, however -- except in the
Iraqi press -- is that at least one pro-occupation death squad is already
in operation. Just days after the Pentagon plans were revealed, a new
militant group, "Saraya Iraqna," began offering big wads of American cash
for insurgent scalps -- up to $50,000, the Iraqi paper Al Ittihad reports.
"Our activity will not be selective," the group promised! . In other words,
anyone they consider an enemy of the state will be fair game...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9775&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9775


Inhuman Bob Newman: Hate Radio Pit Bull Continues to Bite Ward Churchill
Kurt Nimmo
... I'm not sure if Bob knows this, but wars are declared by Congress and
the present Congress issued no such declaration. Bush is at invasion, not
war, with Iraq and the mostly mythical al-Qaeda, although the above is
admittedly clumsy usage of a noun. 99.9999% of Americans face absolutely no
threat from terrorism, regardless of what Bob says...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9774&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9774


Attacks at Baghdad mosques kill many
Aljazeera.net
At least 36 people have been killed and dozens wounded in twin attacks near
Shia mosques in southern and western Baghdad, hospital and police sources
have said. Survivors said a man wearing a "suicide belt" blew himself up on
Friday in al-Kathimain mosque in Abu Dushair district south of Baghdad. At
least 31 people were killed and 22 injured in the blast...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9773&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9773


Foreign females wear the hijab now, too
BETH POTTER
...In the Iraq of former president Saddam Hussein, women were allowed to do
as they pleased when it came to covering themselves. The country's small
(less than 5 percent) Christian population did not wear head scarves and
they still don't, says Nemo, the Christian owner of the beauty shop, whose
painted toenails and dyed blonde hair are an advertisement for her shop.
But Nemo declined to give her last name or the name of her shop for
security reasons. The shop n! ow has mirrored windows and has taken down
its sign so as not to attract the attention of conservative "Islamists,"
Nemo said. Cosmetics boutiques, liquor stores and CD and DVD shops have all
been bombed in recent months in an apparent attempt to shut down more open,
Western attitudes and behaviors...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9772&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9772


US Army files reveal more abuse
Aljazeera.net
US soldiers beat up an Iraqi prisoner, broke his nose and arms and then
coerced him to drop an abuse claim to gain his release, newly publicised US
Army files show. In another case, US troops in Afghanistan posed for photos
of mock executions with hooded and bound prisoners, but other pictures
depicting abuse were destroyed to avert another public embarrassment after
the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq surfaced in April 2004...

<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9771&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9771


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 17 February 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member editorial board The
Free Arab Voice.
...An Iraqi Resistance group in the city of ar-Ramadi published a
communiqué giving an account of the Iraqi women who have died as martyrs
fighting battles with the US occupation in various parts of the country
since the American invasion in spring 2003. The communiqué listed 136 Iraqi
Resistance women martyrs, among them four women from other Arab regions, !
who fell in various battle fronts - al-Fallujah, Mosul, ar-Ramadi,
Hadithah, Tal'afar, al-Qa'im, Ba'qubah, Baghdad, al-Yusufiyah, al-Hillah,
an-Najaf, Abu Ghurayb, Hasibah, and other places...


<http://uruknet.info?s1=1&p=9767&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=9767




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