[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 28 Apr 2005]

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Rumsfeld to Free Saddam If He Stops Insurgence
Anadolu News Agency (aa)
There are claims that US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during his
last visit to Iraq met with ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. According
to a news article based on Iraqi Baath sources in Jordan published in the
London based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, Rumsfeld met with Saddam in his
cell in Bagdat (Baghdad) and the US Secretary of Defense asked Saddam to
end the insurgence (...) Baath sources in Jordan have reported that Saddam
refu! sed the offer...

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The Mysterious Death of Marla Ruzicka:
The US Military has Detailed Statistics on Civilian Casualties
Michel Chossudovsky, www.globalresearch.ca
The official position within the US Military, which is part of the media
consensus, is that "nobody really knows exactly what the civilian toll is".
Marla Ruzicka had refuted the official statements regarding civilian deaths
in Iraq. She revealed that 1,995 civilians died and 4,959 were injured in
the first 50 days of the invasion (...) Marla Ruzicka had discovered, !
through careful investigation, that the US military authorities were
involved in a cover-up. There was a policy of compiling precise statistics
on civilian casualties. These figures, however, were classified and were
not intended to be made public...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11371&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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AHAB THE ARAB RE-EMERGES
Malcom Lagauche
...Let’s take a look back and see the gradual ascent of literacy in Iraq. I
will use statistics from various sources. In 1980, a few years after the
beginning of the war against illiteracy, according to PBS, 49% of those in
Iraq under the age of 15 were literate. By 2002, that figure had risen to
75%. There may have been a possible decline in the 1990s because of the
embargo, but the figures are impressive. By the end of the 1980s, shortly
before the U.S. aggression agains! t Iraq began, 87% of the Iraqi public
was literate. In other words, about twice as many people could read and
write than could 15 years earlier (...) Even in March 2003, most figures
from international organizations stated that Iraq still had a literacy rate
of over 60%. Two years later, and the rate is under 40%. To make it simple,
about two of every three Iraqis today can not read or write. This decrease
in literacy fits U.S. imperialistic aims. If the people can not read or
write, they can not understand all the diabolical effects of the
occupation...


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Jafari's Government: The House of Cards
Raed Jarrar, Raed in the Middle
When the elections happened nearly three months ago, I had a pessimistic
vision about what would happen, and I considered the elections as “early”
and as a “sham”. I said that those early elections would “open the doors of
hell”, while most of the other media resources and bloggers were dancing in
the streets and crying out of joy because of the big victory and the finger
crap. I didn’t see elections by themselves as a victory. I wondered wha! t
would be happening after the elections...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11365&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Have Those Responsible Gotten Off?
Abu Ghraib One Year Later
KEVIN ZEESE, CounterPunch
When the Abu Gharib prison photogaphs emerged one year ago the Bush
Administration said - now the Iraqis will see that there is justice in the
United States. Leading Republican Senators, John Warner, Lindsay Graham and
John McCain, promised that everyone culpable would be held accountable, no
matter how senior. Hopefully, the Iraqis were not watching too closely. The
Army Inspector General recently announced that th! ey have completed their
investigations, all the senior officers investigated were exonerated except
for one Brigadier General who received an administrative reprimand...

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Duped by Bush: the Persistent Vegetative State of America
Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire
Gallup reports half of all Americans now believe what some of us believed
years ago: Bush lied about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction (...)
Slowly, like a person emerging from a coma, around fifty percent of the
American people are dimly realizing their president is a pathological liar.
Most, however, have not gleaned the whole truth and nothing but the
truth—Bush is not only a pathological liar, he is also a mean-! spirited
sociopath, a warmonger and former executioner (who gleefully mocked the
condemned), and has contempt for most people, that is to say the vast
majority of Americans who are not his “base,” in other words the stinking
rich plutocrats who believe they have the right to steal at gunpoint (or
cruise missile or bunker buster point).

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11364&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Iraq: We Are Winning, Not
Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire
In Bushzarro world, an undiminished “insurgency” over the period of a year
is considered winning the “war” (occupation), according to Chairman of the
Bushzarro Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers. “I’m going to say
this: I think we are winning, okay. I think we’re definitely winning. I
think we’ve been winning for some time.” Sure, General, we’re winning, and
I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. According to Myers, since
“coalition force! s” (more accurately a loose and shifting cabal of the
bribed) have thwarted “half the attacks” launched by the resistance, this
means the United States is winning the war against the Iraqi people. In
non-Bushzarro terms, the idea of winning means you defeat your opponent and
roll back his gains...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11363&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11363


Casualty-hit US marines use dummies to fool rebels
London Telegraph
US marines who suffered the highest casualty rate of any unit in Iraq have
revealed that they were so short of soldiers that they used cardboard
dummies to fool insurgents into believing that they faced more men. Company
E of the First Marine Division dressed the cutouts in camouflage shirts and
placed them in observation posts to trick Iraqi rebels into thinking that
they were manned...

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 27 April 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org
...Dr. Mahmud al-‘Amiri, Director of Oncology in al-Yarmuk Hospital in
Baghdad, told the press on Wednesday that the current and still on-going
war in the country was creating deadly diseases. In a Baghdad press
conference attended by a correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam, Dr. al-‘Amiri
said “The United States has been using in i! ts current war in Iraq 61
untested rockets, which it only tested in Iraq. The US used uranium and
limited nuclear weapons in very large amounts in al-Fallujah, ar-Ramadi,
Samarra’, Mosul, Tall ‘Afar, and Ba‘qubah, and in an-Najaf with the Jaysh
al-Mahdi, causing an increase in cancer cases. Dr. al-‘Amiri drew on
offical puppet ministry statistics quoting a rate of 40 cases of cancer
every month afflicting Iraqis, with 7,500 cases of skin cancer alone
registered at the end of last year...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11373&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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IRAQ: Doctors warn of increasing deformities in newborn babies.
IRIN
Doctors in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, have reported a significant increase
in deformities among newborn babies. Health officials and scientists said
this could be due to radiation passed through mothers following years of
conflict in the country. The most affected regions are in the south of the
country, particularly Basra and Najaf, according to experts. Weaponry used
during the Gulf war in 1991 contained depleted uranium, which could be a
pri! mary source for the increase, scientists in Baghdad said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11376&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Horror Of Depleted Uranium Not Limited To Iraq
James Denver, Axis of Logic
"I'm horrified. The people out there - the Iraqis, the media and the troops
- risk the most appalling ill health. And the radiation from depleted
uranium can travel literally anywhere. It's going to destroy the lives of
thousands of children, all over the world. We all know how far radiation
can travel. Radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales and in Britain you
sometimes get red dust from the Sahara on your car." The speaker is not so!
me alarmist doom-sayer. He is Dr. Chris Busby, the British radiation
expert, Fellow of the University of Liverpool in the Faculty of Medicine
and UK representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk, talking
about the best-kept secret of this war: the fact that, by illegally using
hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU) against Iraq, Britain and America
have gravely endangered not only the Iraqis but the whole world...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11382&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11382


Iraqi Parliament Approves “Incomplete” Cabinet
IslamOnline.net
Iraq’s Parliament approved Thursday, April 28 , a partial Cabinet of
ministers, ending three months of political deadlock that crippled efforts
to form a new government since the January elections in the war-torn
country. Sunni Arab leaders expressed their disappointment over the partial
line-up and warned a fresh political crisis loomed if their demands for
better representation were not met, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP)...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11381&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11381


Belgian Doctors Bill U.S. for Treating Iraqi Girl
Reuters
Belgian doctors sent an Iraqi girl home on Thursday after treating her for
leg wounds caused by a bomb during the U.S. invasion -- and sent the 51,570
euro ($66,650) bill to the U.S. embassy. "We haven't heard from them yet,"
said Bert De Belder, coordinator of the humanitarian agency Medical Aid for
Third World which brought the girl to Belgium. "I'm curious to know their
reaction," he told Reuters. "We're giving them 10 days to respond ... I
don't think ! they will pay it"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11379&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Secret Iraq war advice published
Reuters
Publication of a secret 2003 memo from the government's top lawyer
questioning the Iraq war's legality buffeted Prime Minister Tony Blair on
Thursday, just a week before the May 5 election. Trailing in opinion polls,
opposition parties pounced on the report from Attorney General Lord Peter
Goldsmith as showing Blair had deceived Britain. "If you can't trust Mr
Blair on the decision to take the country to war -- the most important
decision a prime minister can take -- how c! an you trust Mr Blair on
anything else ever again," asked Conservative leader Michael Howard...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11378&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Iraq's Ahmad Chalabi: He's now Mr. Oil
Reuters
Iraq failed to name an oil minister for its new government on Thursday and
controversial politician Ahmad Chalabi was appointed acting minister of an
industry plagued by sabotage attacks and uncertainty. Chalabi, speaking to
Reuters by telephone shortly after his appointment, said he might only be
in the job for “a short time” but he pledged to work to ensure smooth
exports and honor contracts struck by the previous government. With the oil
market anxious to see Iraq! move toward stability and offer steady crude
supplies, Chalabi said, “There will not be abrupt changes. My focus will be
stability.”...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11375&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Families prepare Iraq war indictment
Press Association
Families of British soldiers killed in Iraq are preparing a legal case
against the prime minister, following the leaking of the attorney general's
pre-war advice, it was revealed tonight. Rose Gentle, whose son, Gordon,
was killed in Basra last year, said she and other families were preparing
an indictment against Tony Blair...

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Lawyer: Saddam in Good Spirits on Eve of Birthday
Khaled Yacoub Oweis
Saddam Hussein met his lawyer for the first time in four months Wednesday,
on the eve of his 68th birthday, the head of the defense team for the
former Iraqi president said. "The president is in good health and good
spirits in his illegal captivity," Ziad Khasawneh told Reuters. Khasawneh
said Saddam met for six hours with Khalil al-Duleimi, an Iraqi member of
the Jordanian-based defense team hired by his family to defend him against
charges in! cluding killing thousands of Iraqis...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11368&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Hold, Fold or Raise?
Bush's Iraq Poker Game
Col. DAN SMITH, CounterPunch
...From the White House to the battlefield commanders, the official line is
the insurgents are “desperate” after the January 30, 2005 National Assembly
elections. Daily attacks have fallen from the hundreds to the forties,
sometimes lower. The new Iraqi police and army are assuming more and more
of the security burden, allowing U.S. and coalition forces to fade into the
background. The public, both in the U.S. and Iraq, hold anoth! er view. In
the U.S., polls going back to before the November 2004 election have
registered a lack of support for the president’s handling of Iraq.
Fatalities among U.S. military and civilian contractor personnel continue
to rise, standing at more than 1,560 and 85, respectively – with no end in
sight. In the week ending April 23, the number of attacks rose 40 percent...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11366&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Giuliana Sgrena Blasts U.S. Cover Up, Calls for U.S. and Italy to Leave Iraq
Democracy Now!
In her most extended interview to date in the U.S., Italian journalist
Giuliana Sgrena blasts a Pentagon report that clears the U.S. soldiers who
opened fire on her car, wounding her and killing one of Italy's highest
ranking intelligence officials. Sgrena says, "It is important that the
Americans press their government to tell the truth. Because it is in the
interest of Americans, the truth. Not only of Italians...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11362&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Three Sunni MPs quit Iraqi alliance
Aljazeera.net
Three key Sunni Arab lawmakers have resigned from the dominant United Iraqi
Alliance (UIA). The three, Fawaz al-Jarba, Mudhar Shawkat and Abd al-Rahman
al-Niaimi, announced their resignation on Tuesday from the UIA which is led
by Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, Aljazeera learned. The three members of parliament
said they were resigning in protest against the attempt to marginalise
Sunni Arabs. They also expressed resentment against what they called
foreign interference in ! ministry-making decisions...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11359&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11359


U.S.: Abu Ghraib Only the "Tip of the Iceberg"
Reuters
The crimes at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of abuses against
Muslim detainees around the world, Human Rights Watch said on the eve of
the April 28 anniversary of the first pictures of U.S. soldiers brutalizing
prisoners at the Iraqi jail. Human Rights Watch released a summary (below)
of evidence of U.S. abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, as well as of the programs of secret CIA detention,
"extraordinary renditions," ! and "reverse renditions"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11358&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts
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