[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 31 March 2005]

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Infinite Injustice
Chris Floyd
...Each day brings new revelations of torture, murder and government
whitewash in Bush's gulag. At least 108 prisoners have died in Bush's
captivity so far; dozens of these have been listed as homicides, CBS
reported. But last week, the Pentagon declined to prosecute 17 soldiers for
brutal murders of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite the
recommendation of Army prosecutors. Army investigators also released 1,200
pages of new evidence last week detailing widespread "systemati! c and
intentional" abuse of prisoners throughout Iraq, especially in Mosul;
again, the Pentagon declined to prosecute...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10814&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10814


Seymour Hersh: Bush is "Unreachable"
Gloria R. Lalumia, BuzzFlash Columnist
...Hersh charged that the American people are not getting a true picture of
the status of the war. He reflected on the fact that "there are no embedded
reporters now and the bombing continues" even though there are no air
defenses. "We don't know how many sorties are being flown or the tonnage
involved because there are no reporters. We do know that Navy pilots are
doing most of the flying"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10811&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10811


The Pentagon's Secret Stash Why we'll never see the second round of Abu
Ghraib photos
Matt Welch
The images, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress, depict "acts
that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman."
After Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) viewed some of them in a classified
briefing, he testified that his "stomach gave out." NBC News reported that
they show "American soldiers beating one prisoner almost to death,
apparently raping a female prisoner, acting i! nappropriately with a dead
body, and taping Iraqi guards raping young boys." Everyone who saw the
photographs and videos seemed to shudder openly when contemplating what the
reaction would be when they eventually were made public. But they never
were...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10813&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10813


Army whitewash is...
Pentagon's green light for murder
Nicole Colson, Socialist Worker
GETTING AWAY with murder. There's no other way to describe the Pentagon's
announcement that it is refusing to prosecute any of the 17 U.S. soldiers
who contributed to the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in
2003 and 2004. The decision is against the recommendations of the Army's
own investigators. In one case, soldiers at a U.S. base in Al Asad admitted
to assaulting an Iraqi prisoner, at one point ! lifting him to his feet by
holding a baton to his throat. He later died from his injuries...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10806&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10806


Terrorism and the New National Defense Strategy of the US
Adam Williams, www.dissidentvoice.org
On March 18, the Pentagon released the new "National Defense Strategy of
the United States of America," (NDS) a sixteen page guide to US military
policy outlining both the strategic objectives and the methods of attaining
those objectives. While John Bolton's new UN ambassadorship and "the U.S.
withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice
(ICJ) for cases involving the Vienna Convention on Cons! ular Relations,"
on their own make the case for that the US remains in a unilateralist
stance, Jim Lobe, writing for the Inter-Press Service, contends that the
new document solidifies the continuation. Concentrating on the
unilateralist aspects of the document misses the grim reality contained
within. Unilateralism may be the means by which the strategic objectives
presented can be met, but those means are not the objectives themselves...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10801&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10801


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 31 March 2005.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org
...The Board of Muslim 'Ulama' [Scholars] in Iraq denied reports circulated
by pro-American media claiming that the Board was seeking ministerial posts
in the next puppet "government." The reports had claimed that the Board
specifically was seeking the portfolios of defense and the interior in the
next puppet government that is s! upposed to be created by the winners in
the farcical "election" held under US auspices on 30 January 2005...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10816&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10816


Independent journalist Dahr Jamail:"Life in Falluja is a horror story"
ERIC RUDER, Socialist Worker
...I was in Falluja during the April siege last year for a couple of days,
and then I went back in May several times to report on what happened. But I
didn't go in November, because the military cordoned off the city and
maintains that cordon to this day. They're not letting any journalists in
there. I've been getting information by interviewing refugees, or through
some of my colleagues who have bee! n in and out of the city several times.
Life there is horrendous. At least 65 percent of the buildings have been
bombed to the ground, and what's left has been severely damaged. There's no
water, no electricity and, of course, no jobs. And when people go back into
the city, they have to get a retina scan and get fingerprinted, and then
they're issued an ID card...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10803&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10803


FLASHBACK: More on the Iraq intel commission
This will not be a real investigation. It will be a whitewash.
Project for the New American Century
Specifically, the president will appoint the entire commission himself,
breaking the previous tradition of allowing lawmakers from both parties to
appoint commission members. Although lawmakers have raised objections to
the commission's lack of independence, the White House is moving forward
with its plans. Additionally, despite the fact that the commission's wor! k
will be critical to national security, the president will only authorize a
commission that produces a report after the election -- so as to minimize
any political fallout for himself (...) Let's Look at who Bush handpicked
to investigate him and white wash the lies that led to billions in profits
for the employers of his staff, 513 dead American soldiers, and thousands
of dead Iraqi civilians...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10810&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10810


Second Unmanned Predator Aircraft in Three Days Crashes in Iraq
Iraqwar.ru
For the second time in three days, an unmanned Predator spy plane has
crashed in Iraq, officials said. A military statement from Baghdad said the
remotely piloted MQ-1 Predator crashed at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Rawah,
northwest of Ramadi, about 60 miles east of the Syrian border. On Sunday,
an MQ-1 Predator crashed near Balad, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. The
cause of the crashes was not immediately determined...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10812&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10812


The USA's Global Resource War
"The Epic Struggle for World Hegemony"
Nigel H Maund
...All these fields were discovered before WW2, and have been under
accelerating and high sustained production, ever since. Historically, there
have been a mere 7 such field's, 6 of which lie in the Middle East: two are
in Saudi Arabia; one is shared between Kuwait and Iraq; two are in Iraq at
Kirkuk and Mosul; and one is in Iran. With control of the Saudi oil fields
through Saudi ARAMCO (although now Saudi controlled, ! American influence
is still major) and the House of Saud (Royal Family of + 8,000 members),
and now Kuwait, which is a client state of the UK and US, control of Iraq
(US and UK) and forthcoming "regime change" in Iran, the US - UK - Israeli
triumvirates objective becomes patently obvious; namely control of 6 out of
7 of the world's supergiant oil fields. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez
is a major CIA target for "regime change", the objective being to secure
the world's last uncontrolled oil field outside the Middle East...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10808&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10808


Why you can't be antiwar and pro-occupation
Socialist Worker
...Yet within the antiwar movement, some voices say they support continued
occupation. Erik Gustafson, executive director of Education for Peace in
Iraq Coalition (EPIC), said in a statement that the March 19 antiwar
protests across the country were "about pulling U.S. forces and abandoning
the Iraqi people...The only responsible way out of Iraq is through nation
building" (...) Formulations like EPIC's accept the racist assumption that
lies bene! ath both conservative and liberal brands of U.S.
imperialism--the belief that Iraqis are not capable of determining their
own future, so the U.S. government must take charge of "nation building."
Whatever language is used to justify it, this is American chauvinism. There
is no way to be antiwar and pro-occupation...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10807&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10807


A kinder, gentler U.S. imperialism?
Paul D'Amato, Socialist Worker
...Conveniently, a new "bin Laden" has been created in Iraq, too, going by
the name Zarqawi. You don't kill the bogeyman. You can arrest his
"lieutenants," you can destroy one of his "hideouts." But you need him to
live on. For if the war on terror is too successful, then you lose your
justification for occupation, or for more interventions (...) That doesn't
mean that the U.S. doesn't want to crush any resistance when it arises. It
really does w! ant to destroy the Iraqi resistance to the occupation in
Iraq. However, in doing so, it also wants to create the impression that all
resistance to it is bin Laden-style "terrorism," and not legitimate
national resistance. Therein lies the usefulness to the U.S. of Zarqawi...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10805&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10805


UN rights expert charges US using food access as military tactic
AFP
A UN human rights expert sharply condemned the invasion of Iraq and the
global anti-terror drive, accusing the US-led coalition of using food
deprivation as a military tactic and of sapping efforts to fight hunger in
the world. "The situation of the right to food in Iraq is of serious
concern," the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler,
said in a report to the UN human rights commission. The report also
highlighted "widespre! ad concerns about the continued lack of access to
clean drinking water" and allegations by British campaigners that water
sources were deliberately cut off by coalition forces...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10800&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10800


Left Apologists for the Occupation
Iraq's Right to Resist
SHARON SMITH
...Outright hostility to the Iraqi resistance now reaches far inside the
antiwar movement, undermining the notion that Iraqis have the right to
determine their own future, free of U.S. intervention (...) Global justice
activist Naomi Klein chastised, "We shouldn't get involved in offering
blanket cheerleading for the resistance...There are dueling fundamentalists
in Iraq...and [some] are enemies of the Iraqi people." But shouldn't Ir!
aqis themselves decide who are "enemies of the Iraqi people?" So far,
Iraqis have identified their main enemy only as the U.S. occupation...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10804&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10804


Mental Disorders Are On the Rise Among Afghanistan, Iraq Veterans
Marilyn Elias, USA Today
As many as one out of four veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq treated at
Veterans Affairs hospitals in the past 16 months were diagnosed with mental
disorders, a number that has been steadily rising, according to a report in
today's New England Journal of Medicine. Records show that 20% of eligible
ex-soldiers came to VA hospitals seeking medical treatment between October
2003 and February 2005. Overall, 26% of them were dia! gnosed with mental
disorders, say Han Kang and Kenneth Hyams of the VA...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10802&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10802


Iraqi puppet parliament adjourns in disarray
James Cogan, WSWS
Two months after the January 30 elections in Iraq, the Bush administration
is no closer to establishing a pro-occupation regime in Baghdad. The
formation of a government has been postponed again, after the second
sitting of the new Iraqi National Assembly on March 29 broke up in
disarray. The cause of Tuesday's crisis was the unexpected refusal of Sunni
Muslim tribal leader Ghazi al-Yawar, installed by the US as Iraq's interim
president last year, to ! accept the post of parliamentary speaker. After a
delay of an hour-and-a-half, during which frantic attempts were made to
change Yawar's mind, the assembly session opened with the farcical
announcement that the naming of the speaker was being delayed
"indefinitely"...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10797&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10797


Iraq's women of power who tolerate wife-beating and promote polygamy
Catherine Philp
...More than 50 per cent of female parliamentarians belong to the
cleric-backed United Iraqi Alliance, which won the election in a landslide
with just over half the seats. It has called the implementation of Sharia
"non-negotiable". (...) Under Saddam Hussein, Iraqi women were among the
most free in the Middle East, with many rights equal to those of men.
Conservative Shias say that the code that ensured those rights is an alien
! secular one that belongs to the old regime and should be dropped...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10796&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10796


Revelations from an Insider
Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on the Bush Administration, Civil
Disobedience and the Eternal Fires of Hell
Mira Ptacin, CommonDreams.org
...Well, every sign is that they're still on course on the program that
some of these people laid out on The Project for the New American Century,
going back to when they all worked under Dick Cheney back in '91-92.
Enforcing regime change in Iraq was at the head of the list. In general it
was a remaking of the Middle East. I ! noticed former weapons inspector
Scott Ritter says June is the likely time [to strike Iran] and I think
Ritter's predictions are to be taken very seriously...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10792&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10792


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 30 March 2005.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member editorial board The
Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org
...In a dispatch posted at 6:45pm Mecca time Wednesday evening, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that Iraqi Resistance forces were, at the time of
reporting, fiercely bombarding the US base east of al-Fallujah with rockets
and heavy mortars, targeting various parts of the American-occupied
facility. The correspondent reported that the ! bombardment was most
intensely forcusd on the western parts of the base, in particular, however,
and the sound of explosions could be heard as they rocked the camp...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10793&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10793


'An Illegal, Immoral Order'
An American soldier explains why he is refusing to fight in Iraq
Tracy McNicoll, Newsweek
...It was established at [the post-World War II trials at] Nuremberg, you
can't act preemptively, you have to wait until the gun is pointed or you're
actually being attacked. And as a soldier, they tell you from day one, that
it is your duty and obligation [to follow those principles], and you will
be punished if you go along with an illegal, unlawful, immoral order. And I
feel that the order! to attack and occupy Iraq is an illegal, immoral order
and it's my duty as a soldier to refuse to carry it out...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10791&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10791


Pentagon seeks to create robotic battlefield surgeon
AFP - The Truth Seeker
Before the Terminator, the US military is looking to hire the Operator, a
top-notch battlefield surgeon. But those made of flesh and blood need not
apply. A contract awarded by the Pentagon to a consortium of universities
and high-tech firms on Monday calls for creating a versatile robot able to
perform life-saving surgery on wounded soldiers right on the battlefield.
"The result will be a major step forward in saving lives on the battl!
efield," said Scott Seaton, an executive director with SRI International, a
company that will be the lead contractor on the 12-million-dollar, two-year
project...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=10790&s2=01>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=10790




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