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[uruknet] - 17 Jun 2005, Part One



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:: informazione dall'iraq occupato

US lied to Britain over use of napalm in Iraq war
Colin Brown, Independent
American officials lied to British ministers over the use of
"internationally reviled" napalm-type firebombs in Iraq,. Yesterday's
disclosure led to calls by MPs for a full statement to the Commons and
opened ministers to allegations that they held back the facts until after
the general election. Despite persistent rumours of injuries among Iraqis
consistent with the use of incendiary weapons such as napalm, Adam Ingram,
the Defence minist! er, assured Labour MPs in January that US forces had
not used a new generation of incendiary weapons, codenamed MK77, in Iraq.
But Mr Ingram admitted to the Labour MP Harry Cohen in a private letter
obtained by The Independent that he had inadvertently misled Parliament
because he had been misinformed by the US...

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Haditha: A City Crushed under the Occupation
No Authority, No Security, No rights...just the Killings
Sabah Ali, BRussells Tribunal
...In the Name of God the Most Merciful, The most Gracious,
In the name of the people of Haditha, its women, children, and old people
We call upon you, all the people of Iraq and the world: SOS
The American troops, accompanied by the Iraqi National Guards, are waging
the most ferocious attack against our town, for three days now. They
violated our blood, honor, and peaceful houses where not a single piece of
weapon, fighters, or armed men were found. They killed old people, women
and children; they bombed the houses with airplanes. We swear by the name
of God that there was not a single piece of weapon in them. They killed
Sheikh Ismael Al-Zawi, speaker of Al-Seif mosque, while he was going to
pray at dawn. They forced families out of their houses, occupied them and
used them as their headquarters...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12646&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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Apartheid for Arabs in Irbil?
Iranian Kurds Riot
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
An eyewitness has described for me by email driving through the north of
Kurdistan and seeing enormous posters of Massoud Barzani (the new president
of the Kurdistan super-province) after the manner of a cult of personality.
When the Kurdistan parliament is in session, Irbil is closed to Iraqi
Arabs. Iraqi Arab immigrant laborers are said to be stopped at checkpoints
and turned back...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12659&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12659


Bush pressed to answer `Downing Street Memo' questions
RUBY L. BAILEY AND ELY PORTILLO, Knight Ridder Newspapers
A hearing Thursday on a secret British intelligence memo that said
President Bush was committed to waging war on Iraq months before he said so
publicly ended with a request for Congress to open an inquiry into whether
Bush should be impeached for misleading the nation. "All we're asking is to
know the truth," said John Bonifaz, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet,org.
"Some of his supporters want to say i! t's a question of failed
intelligence. If that's all it was, so be it." But if not, said Bonifaz,
"then the American people and the U.S. Congress deserve to know"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12658&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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Tales from Falcon Camp
Tom Fox, Electronic Iraq
...A father has been coming to Falcon camp regularly seeking news on this
two sons who were detained three and a half weeks ago. The last time the
father came to the camp he was told that one son had been released and the
other son was still being held at Falcon. "If he has been released where is
he?" the father asked us on the way into the camp. When he went into check
on his detained son he was told that the detained son and the "released"
son are now in prison at! Abu Ghraib...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12655&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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The Latest Downing Street Memos
David Corn, The Nation
New "Downing Street" memos keep popping up. In recent days, several
confidential memos written by senior officials in Tony Blair's government
in March 2002 have garnered attention. (AfterDowningStreet.org has all of
them posted.) These records--first obtained by Michael Smith, a British
journalist formerly working at the Daily Telegraph and now with the Sunday
Times of London--provide more evidence that Bush's case for war was less
than convincing for his num! ber-one ally. They also illustrate the hubris
that drove Blair in his wartime partnership with George W. Bush...

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Democrats Cite Downing Street Memo in Bolton Fight
Vicki Allen, Reuters
U.S. Senate Democrats rejected a Republican compromise over John Bolton's
nomination as U.N. ambassador on Thursday and cited a British report
backing their view that the Bush administration hyped intelligence on Iraq
before the 2003 invasion. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee
Republican, said the Senate would hold a procedural vote on Monday to try
to break the deadlock on Bolton. Democrats said they had enough votes to
block th! e nomination, but Republicans hoped they would be viewed as
obstructionists...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12653&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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Eleven U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, Coalition deaths top 1,900
Big News Network.com
Eleven U.S. soldiers have died in a series of attacks in Iraq, nine as a
result of explosive devices. Five U.S. Marines were killed when a roadside
bomb detonated near their vehicle on Wednesday near Ramadi, about 70 miles
west of Baghdad, according to a U.S. military statement Thursday (...) A
sailor attached to the same Marines' division was also killed Wednesday
when he came under attack from gunfire in Ramadi, the U.S. milita! ry said.
Two Marines again from the same division were killed by improvised
explosive devices in separate incidents Tuesday, military officials in
Baghdad reported...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12654&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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Army Zeroes In on Dog Handler in Abuse Scandal
Richard A. Serrano, LATimes Staff Writer
The second of two Army dog handlers accused in the Abu Ghraib scandal is
emerging as the lead defendant, with criminal charge sheets obtained
Tuesday accusing him of abusing five Iraqi detainees, including a pair of
juvenile prisoners, in a macabre game to frighten inmates at the U.S.-run
prison near Baghdad. Army Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, expected to appear
soon at a preliminary hearing at Ft. Myer, Va., is one of two soldie! rs
accused of using trained military dogs to scare prisoners into urinating
and defecating on themselves...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12648&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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LMSM, the ‘Lying Mainstream Media’
Robert Parry, I'n'I
The Washington Post is reasserting its august judgment over what qualifies
as news in the face of citizen complaints that it and other mainstream
media outlets neglected leaked British memos about the deceptions behind
George W. Bush’s war in Iraq. The Post’s lead editorial on June 15 mixed a
patronizing tone with derisive comments in assuring its readers that “the
memos add not a single fact to what was previously known about the
administration’s prewar deli! berations. Not only that: They add nothing to
what was publicly known in July 2002.” Oh, really?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12649&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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Why We Will Lose the War in Iraq
Douglas Herman
Before the war in Iraq began--the covert black operation known as Operation
Iraq Freedom--then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill predicted a cost of
approximately $200 billion for the operation. The media storm that greeted
his forecast cost O'Neill his job. Unfortunately, the meter's still
running, while the war machine idles at the curb, like an overheated Abrams
tank. Now the estimate is $300 billion and rising. I'd rather be a
Pollyanna than a Cassandra. Pollyanna! s live happier lives, right up to
the moment of impact of their merry little ship with that iceberg in the
night. But the Pollyanna option was wrenched from a lot of us who've
watched Washington these last 40 or 50 years. We saw a coup (JFK) that led
to a fraudulent foreign war that lasted almost a decade. Likewise, the
fraudulent foreign war in Iraq seems equally doomed, equally destined to
last nearly as long, especially with the Pollyanna running the world from
the White House. We will lose the war in Iraq. Let us count the ways...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12651&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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Saddam defence team kept in the dark - chief lawyer
Ibon Villelabeitia, Reuters
Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer on Thursday accused the Iraqi Special
Tribunal and United States of deliberately keeping his team in the dark by
ignoring repeated requests for legal documents. Ziad Khasawneh also told
Reuters in an interview that he was unaware until the last minute that
Saddam was to be questioned by a war crimes judge about killings of Shi'ite
villagers...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12662&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12662


With American collaboration, Mossad kills 350 Iraqi scientists, 200
University professors
Palestine-info.co.uk
The Israeli espionage apparatus, Mossad, was able to liquidate around 350
Iraqi scientists in various fields of knowledge and 200 university
professors with the full cooperation of the US occupation forces in Iraq
since the fall of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, last March 2003, a report
prepared by the US State Department revealed...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12661&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12661


Downing Street Memo: Deception and Cover-up
David Swanson - infoZine Staff
On Thursday June 16, 2005, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room HC-9 of the
U.S. Capitol, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary
Committee, and other members of Congress will hold a hearing on the Downing
Street Minutes and related evidence of White House efforts to cook the
books on pre-war intelligence. Later on the same day at 5:00 p.m. ET in
Lafayette Square Park, in front of the White House, Congressman Conyers w!
ill deliver to the White House a letter addressed to President Bush and
signed by over 500,000 Americans and over 90 members of Congress...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12644&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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Dems' Stance Even Less Popular Than Bush's
Making Sense of the Iraq War Polls
JOHN WALSH, CounterPunch
The media was howling full force over Michael Jackson on June 13, so the
results of the new Gallup poll on Iraq registered barely a ripple, and that
mostly on the back pages of a few newspapers in the provinces. Gallup
asked: "Which comes closest to your view about what the U.S. should now do
about the number of U.S. troops in Iraq: the U.S. should send more troops
to Iraq, the U.S. should keep the num! ber of troops as it is now, the U.S.
should withdraw some troops from Iraq, (or) the U.S. should withdraw all of
its troops from Iraq"? (...) Bottom line is that 59%, or 6 in 10, Americans
want troop withdrawal from Iraq - starting now...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12642&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12642


The Kinsley Paradigm
Downsizing the Downing Street Memo
JEFFREY KOLAKOWSKI, CounterPunch
In all of the reactions to the "Downing Street Memo," the one by Michael
Kinsley in the June 12 Los Angeles Times (where he's the editorial page
editor) was surely the most irksome and disingenuous. Even as Kinsley
dismisses the memo as evidence of something everybody already knows, he
claims to be "enjoying it, as an encouraging sign of the left's revival".
He then classifies the furor over the memo as a paranoid c! onspiracy
theory being advanced by the left...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12643&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12643


House Democrat's Forum to Examine Downing Street Memo
Ruby L. Bailey, Knight-Ridder
The secret British memo of 2002 that reported that President Bush was
determined to go to war against Iraq months earlier than he publicly
acknowledged will get its first official hearing on Thursday - sort of. In
the closest version so far to a congressional hearing on the Downing Street
memo, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., will head a forum examining the document.
That will be followed by an Internet-organized rally in front of t! he
White House. Conyers plans to deliver the signatures of 105 congressional
Democrats and more than 500,000 citizens on petitions demanding a detailed
response from the Bush administration to the memo's allegations...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12647&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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Yet another 'New' U.S. strategy ... according to Rumsfeld's sacrosanct
'metrics'
Imad Khadduri , Free Iraq
... In an interview for the BBC's Newsnight programme, Mr Rumsfeld said
Iraq had passed several milestones, like holding elections and appointing a
government. But asked if the security situation had improved, he admitted:
"Statistically, no." "But clearly it has been getting better as we've gone
along," he added. "A lot of bad things that could have happened have not
happened." Immoral Morals, Gover! nment Lies, Fixed Intelligence,
Corruption, 'Freedom and Liberty' in Iraq, Oil Theft, 22,000 Rich
Mercenaries, Abu Ghraib torture, Fallujah, Qaim, Ramadi, Hit, Haditha,
Najaf, Karbala, Tallaa'far, 100,000 + 1700+++ ... anybody for "have not
happened" say Aye ?..

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12640&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12640


Fatal shooting of teacher illustrates why Iraqis fear U.S. convoys
NANCY A. YOUSSEF, Knight Ridder Newspapers - Iraq Tunnel
Farqad Mohammed Khinaisar was driving to work in her dark green Kia Sephia
at 8 a.m. on May 29 when she came up behind three American Humvees that
were about to enter a traffic circle in Baghdad's Sadiya neighborhood. A
high school Arabic teacher, she'd left home five minutes earlier, and she
was 15 minutes from work. In the American convoy were soldiers from the 3rd
Battalion, 7th Infantry! Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division, based at
Fort Stewart, Ga...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12639&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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State Department cable details ethnic cleansing by US-backed forces in Iraq
Patrick Martin, WSWS
US-backed Kurdish police and security units have kidnapped hundreds of
minority Arabs and Turkmen in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, according
to a confidential State Department cable leaked to the Washington Post.
Quoting from the cable, the Post on Wednesday reported that the
kidnappings, accompanied in some cases by torture and ransom demands, were
part of a “concerted and widespread initiative” by the two leadi! ng
Kurdish parties “to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an increasingly
provocative manner”...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12637&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
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Some questions for media dismissing Downing Street Memo as old news
Media Matters for America.
The U.S. press is finally beginning to pay attention to the Downing Street
Memo and other British documents recently released. Yet as they do so, some
news outlets are arguing that we should be talking about something else.
The Washington Post's editorial page, which enthusiastically supported the
Iraq war, stated on June 15: "The memos add not a single fact to what was
previously known about the [Bush] administration's! prewar deliberations."
This seems to have become a talking point of the right: Move along, nothing
to see here...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12638&s2=17>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12638




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