[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 15 Mar 2005 - Part One]

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The meaning of war: A heterodox perspective
James Petras , Rebelión
This paper will discuss the social, political, economic, psychological and
ideological causes and impacts of war in contemporary history. Obviously we
cannot explore all of these dimensions in detail; instead we will focus on
what we consider the most important dimensions of these general categories.
The first question that requires clarification is "what wars?" There are at
least four kinds of war which have global significance. First and most s!
ignificant in terms of the present and future configuration of inter-state
relations are imperialist wars - such as the US invasion of Yugoslavia,
Afghanistan and Iraq, leading to the forced imposition of direct or
indirect colonial rule, military bases and appropriation of strategic
resources and/or water or overland routes...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10397&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10397


And God created woman!
Abu Assur, Al-Moharer
The world is celebrating these days Women's Day. Our thoughts of course go
first to the thousands of Iraqi women detained by the nazi US in
concentration camps and Gulags in Iraq and elsewhere. How can we forget the
detained Iraqi woman scientist Huda Saleh Mahdi Ammash who is just being
imprisoned for no reasons but to satisfy the sadistic and abased beastly
instincts of the US liberators? (...) How can we forget Iraqi mothers who
struggled through a ferocious US-UN e! mbargo for thirteen years, to mend
for their homes with not enough food, no medicines, no petrol, in the land
of petrol, and are now surviving the horrendous and most difficult
circumstances imposed by the barbarian war waged by the savage US against
martyred Iraq?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10409&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10409


United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan: Public Relations Officer for
the New World Order
Elias Davidsson, www.globalresearch.ca
...According to this definition, the United Nations Security Council would
have to be designated as the major terrorist in modern times for having
imposed and maintained for 12 deadly years the most stringent economic
sanctions in modern history against a poor nation, Iraq, whose foreseeable
and observed consequences included the deaths of half a million children.
The sanctions agai! nst Iraq fulfilled in all respects the definition of
terrorism proposed by Kofi Annan's Panel...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10411&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10411


Who was Rafik Hariri, and who was behind his assassination?
Mohamed Hassan, www.globalresearch.ca
...Faced with an impasse in Iraq, the U.S. is looking for enemies outside
that country. As they did during the Vietnam war, when they bombed Cambodia
and Laos. They could also today bomb Syria and Iran. Because the resistance
in Iraq increases support among the nationalists in Syria and Iran and
stops the comprador bourgeoisie from developing. But if they decide to bomb
Syria or Iran that will only reinforce anti-U.S! . nationalist sentiment
throughout the Arab World...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10412&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10412


Who pays the blood price for Blair's war? The Respect MP sends this message
to everyone marching against the occupation of Iraq
George Galloway
This Saturday's march is no nostalgia trip. The war is very much still with
us — over 15,000 US and British soldiers have been wounded, over 100,000
Iraqis have been killed, and the casualties are mounting daily. Now Bush is
threatening more countries with more wars. With greater stupidity than
normal, Bush declares Syria must withdraw its 14,000 troops fr! om Lebanon
because free and fair elections "cannot take place under foreign
occupation". Did none of his advisers point out that he proclaimed a model
election six weeks ago in Iraq, which is under the heel of 140,000 US and
foreign troops? Did he imagine that across the Middle East people would
forget that Israel has occupied a part of Syria for four decades? Did he
think that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands would go
unnoticed?...



<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10419&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10419


Dahr Jamail on his experience of the Iraqi resistance
Socialist Worker
I first began reporting from Iraq in November 2003 after seeing the
disparity between the mainstream media and independent reports coming out
of the country. I had done so much reading before my first trip that I felt
I knew what to expect. But the reality was much worse than I imagined. I
was shocked by how brutal the occupation was and how intense the
anti-American sentiment was among so many Iraqis. I saw how there was no
reconstruction tak! ing place. Every building was in a complete shambles...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10418&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10418


We will resist U.S. empire, say voices across Middle East
Socialist Worker
"Iraqi culture is being crushed under the tracks of US tanks," says Dahr
Jamail, one of the few independent journalists reporting from occupied
Iraq. He is clear what is happening there. He tells Socialist Worker this
week that "day by day… more people have been enraged by the occupation and
are joining the resistance". The anti-war movement takes to the streets in
force on Saturday to show the massive and continuing anger at the
occupatio! n of Iraq and the threat of war against Iran and Syria...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10417&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10417


Tariq Ali on empire and those who fight it
Socialist Worker
...Every resistance movement against imperialism has been categorised as
terrorist — the Mau Mau in Kenya were demonised and brutally tortured by
the British; the Algerian FLN by the French; the Vietnamese by the French
and the Americans (...) It's hardly surprising that the Iraqi resistance is
characterised in the same fashion. Obviously the means used to drive out
imperial occupiers are determined by the nature of the occupation. The
brutality of the U! S troops and systematic torture they have used has been
well documented. So how can the resistance be beautiful?...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10416&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10416


Army Ignored Broker on Arms Deal
Ken Silverstein and T. Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times
Soon after interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi took office last summer, he
announced plans to create a tank division for the new Iraqi army. The
$283-million project was supposed to display the power of Iraq's new
government. But under the guidance of a task force overseen by one of
America's top generals, it has become another chapter in a rebuilding
process marked by accusations of corruption...



<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10415&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10415


The Trials of Tony Blair
John Nichols, The Nation
...Last week's newspaper headlines brought more bad news for the prime
minister. It was revealed by London's Independent that Blair apparently
violated the official code of conduct for Cabinet ministers by failing to
share the full advice of the country's Attorney General on the legality of
the Iraq war with his own Cabinet. Clare Short, a member of the Cabinet
prior to the start of the war, issued a statement in which she declared
that the Cabinet had been "misle! d" and that support for military action
against Iraq had been obtained :"improperly"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10413&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10413


'The torturers among us'
Carol Towarnicky, "Philadelphia Daily News"
"Somebody tell me frankly, what times are these, what kind of world, what
country?" THESE words come from a poem about torture that Chilean writer
Ariel Dorfman composed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. But
they resonate through the seemingly daily revelations from government and
military reports of the abuse of prisoners by Americans in Guantanamo,
Afghanistan and Iraq. They fit all too well the testimony of those whom the
CIA alleg! edly delivered to countries where they were tortured. Yet, in
response, a disturbing number of Americans just shrug - or even applaud.
What times are these? In the past, torture was inimical to the image of
America...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10414&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10414


Two years out
After two years, Americans need to demonstrate against an insane and
destructive war
Geov Parrish, WorkingForChange.com
Two years ago this week, the United States launched an unprovoked invasion
of Iraq. It is pointless, at this juncture, to rehash the reasons why the
invasion was launched: except to note that democracy didn't figure into it.
For public consumption, of course, there were the nonexistent weapons of
mass destruction and the nonexistent links between Saddam and Al-! Qaeda
and 9-11; privately, of course, there was oil, the chance to enrich friends
through privatization, the geopolitics of the Middle East and the "we're
the boss" message intended for the world. None of it can excuse what has
happened in the last two years. The so-called "liberation" of the people of
Iraq has resulted, according to the conservative estimates of the British
medical journal Lancet, in the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqi civilians in
the last two years. The entire population of Peoria...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10410&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10410


The Plan is Still on Track
Bush Strategy for Syria, Lebanon and Iran
GARY LEUPP, CounterPunch
As someone who believes that the Bush administration fully intends to
implement the neocon plan for regime change in Syria, Iran, and Lebanon in
the next couple years, I've watched it and the compliant media build the
cases necessary for attack. Just as the disinformation apparatus spun out
charges one after one against Iraq (many of them now forgotten, although
they produced a climate of fear and hatred and s! erved their psy-war
purpose at the time) from 9-11 to March 2003, so they have piled on
accusations and insinuations against Syria, Iran and Lebanon's Hizbollah...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10408&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10408


Iraq Insurgency 'Still Very Strong'
Jamie Lyons, PA Political Correspondent
Iraqi insurgents will not be defeated for many months, Britain admitted
today. Senior Foreign Office officials said attacks were widespread and
becoming increasingly sophisticated. It had been hoped January's elections
would deal a major blow to the insurgents, but officials said troops and
citizens still faced months of bloodshed. "The insurgency is still very
strong," said one official...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10407&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10407


The Counter-Recruitment is Gaining Strength
Military Recruiters Target Campus Activists
HADAS THEIR and KATRINA YEAW, CounterPunch
On Wednesday, March 9, three students from the City College of New York
(CCNY), Justino Rodriguez Nicholas Bergreen and one of the authors of this
piece (Hadas Their) were brutalized and arrested by campus security guards
for peacefully protesting the presence of military recruiters at CCNY's
"career fair." We were charged with misdemeanor counts of assaulting an
officer, r! esisting arrest, and disturbing the peace, among other things.
Hospital records from Mt. Sinai confirm that Bergreen and Rodriguez
suffered multiple contusions and post-concussion syndrome. A court date is
set for April 5...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10406&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10406


AWOL in America: Why Over 5,500 U.S. Soldiers Discharged Themselves
Democaracy Now!
The Pentagon has estimated that since the start of the current conflict in
Iraq, more than 5,500 U.S. military personnel have deserted. We speak with
journalist Kathy Dobie who wrote the cover story for this month's issue of
Harper's magazine titled "AWOL in America: When Desertion is the Only
Option." Dobie says, "Some of them leave because they're unwilling to kill,
some because of family and personal problems and some because o! f the
unjust recruiting process"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10421&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10421


Iraqi general shot dead by US troops at checkpoint west of Ramadi: police
AFP and Turkish Press
The deputy commander of the Iraqi army in western Al-Anbar province was
shot dead by US troops at a checkpoint Tuesday night, a police officer
said. "The US forces opened fire at 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Brigadier General
Ismail Swayed al-Obeid, who had left his base in Baghdadi to head home,"
police Captain Amin al-Hitti said. "They spotted him on the road after the
curfew, which goes into effect at 6 pm," the officer ! said in Baghdadi,
185 kilometres (142 miles) west of the capital...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10405&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10405


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 14 March 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member editorial board The
Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org
...Three Iraqi civilians, two of them children, were killed and five more
wounded when a US helicopter opened fire on two civilian cars in the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul witnesses reported Monday. The US occupation
army issued a statement claiming that an American helicopter came under
small arms fire from a nearby building and said! that the aircraft returned
fire. The American propaganda statement said that at least five Iraqi
civilians were wounded in the incident and said that they were taken to a
hospital in the city for treatment and that the US was investigating the
case...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10402&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10402


Peacemaker Team Returns From Iraq
Antiwar.blog
...The topic of most concern during our stay was the November 2004 invasion
of Fallujah. We interviewed a young Iraqi man who was in Fallujah City
during the Nov. invasion, survived and was then taken into US custody for
over 2 months. He was finally released after it was determined he was not
part of the "insurgency". He reported seeing numerous examples of human
rights abuses starting with the fact that men between the ages of 16 and 50
were not allowed to leave F! allujah when residents were told to evacuate.
He told us about execution style killing of civilians by US soldiers,
killing of women and children carrying white flags, and dead bodies with
massive burns and unusual injuries indicating the use of white phosphorus
(napalm) and other chemical weapons...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10399&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10399


Bush administration clears US troops in slaying of Calipari and wounding of
Sgrena
Wayne Madsen, Online Journal Contributing Writer
The Bush administration took specific legal steps that cleared a U.S.
Special Forces assassination team in Iraq from any future criminal
proceedings arising from their assassination of Italian SISMI intelligence
number two man Nicola Calipari...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10398&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10398


Playing cowboys in Basra
Hasan Suroor, The Hindu
...So, what went wrong? How did an army that took pride in its
"discipline," "traditions" and "core values" come to such a pass? Official
claims that what happened in Iraq was simply an "aberration" are not taken
seriously even in pro-war circles, and those who have long memories say
that they are not surprised that the troops behaved the way they did, given
the British army's record in India (remember Jallianwala Bagh?), Africa
(notably Kenya), South East Asia, W! est Asia, Cyprus — and, nearer home,
in Northern Ireland. They also find it hard to accept that the soldiers,
accused of misconduct in Iraq, had acted on their own. On the contrary,
they are more inclined to believe the "Nuremberg defence" offered by these
men that they were acting on "orders"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10396&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10396




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information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts
of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.





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