[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 9 Sep 2005]

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Katrina; relocation or ethnic cleansing?
Mike Whitney
...blocking of aid to hurricane victims was not a "failure of leadership"
or "bureaucratic bungling" as the media has suggested, but was the
intentional policy of the Bush administration. The administration was
executing a strategy to annex local police and National Guard and put them
under direct federal authority. The plan was temporarily subverted when
both the Mayor and the Governor refused to relinquish their power. The
White House then threatened to take! -over regardless; invoking
little-known presidential orders that allow sweeping executive powers in a
national emergency. Currently there are executive orders on the books that
permit the president to seize all modes of transportation, control the
media, take over all energy sources, control all aircraft and airports,
relocate entire communities and operate penal and correctional facilities
in the event of a national emergency...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15561&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15561


The Splendid Failure of Occupation
Part 36: George Bush occupies Iraq
B. J. Sabri, Online Journal Contributing Writer
....Similarly, the ease with which the U.S. toppled the legitimate regime
of President Saddam Hussein did not correspond with equal ease to conquer
his country. I used the terms, legitimate and president, because by all
standing international covenants despite America’s pretentious to the
contrary, Saddam Hussein is still the legitimate presiden! t of Iraq
regardless of the nature of his regime or our opposition to it. The United
States, itself, supplied the precedent to this concept of legitimacy(...)
Upholding Hussein’s status as the legitimate president of Iraq, therefore,
should be and is independent from our opposition to his regime.
Categorically, since the U.S. invasion was illegal, so was Hussein’s
removal, no matter how all theoreticians of imperialism would rationalize
it...



<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15574&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
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Tal Afar Residents Send Out SOS
IslamOnline.net
Residents of the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar has sent out an SOS to the
international community to interfere with the US occupation authorities to
stop their continuing bombing of their devastated city, revealing a
terrible humanitarian situation. "US and Iraqi forces are still besieging
Tal Afar amid ongoing intensive bombing, ordering residents of Hassan Kawi
and Sarray neighborhoods to evacuate immediately," a Tal Afar tribal leader
told IOL over the phone Th! ursday, September 8...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15564&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15564


Who is the Enemy?
Les Blough, Editor, Axis of Logic
...We as a nation are finally beginning to realize - at long last - that
the one who has always claimed to be our friend - our representative - our
protector - is not a friend at all. "He" has deceived us into attacking our
brothers and sisters in foreign lands. He has sent our children off to die
in wars not of our making. He has divided us on domestic issues that are of
little importance to him - issues that pose no threat to his reign of
terror. He has placat! ed a sufficiently sized white middle class with
superfluous toys and simple minded sitcoms. "He" has exploited the very
workers who have funded his pleasure. He has kept us in debt, struggling to
pay our mortgages, car payments and grocery bills. He has maintained our
struggle, just short of a tax revolt for 300 years. Despite the
astronomical amounts of money we have paid him, he has failed to rescue us
from our rooftops in natural disasters while we have waited in vain. Who is
the enemy? He’s the one who has been doing all these things for us and to
us for so many years...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15565&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
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Military Occupation in America and the Prospects for Liberty
Anthony Gregory
The government response to Katrina, aside from being riddled with error and
incompetence, has been downright cruel – forcing people to leave their pets
and property behind, keeping charity out of the city, turning away private
volunteers and assistance, treating people who might only be scavenging for
abandoned and rotting food like dangerous criminals, disrupting private
transportation and burdening flights out of the city with ludicrou! s
post-9/11 security measures, expropriating private property, separating
families and forcefully corralling human beings onto buses and into
buildings without adequate fresh air, water or plumbing. Reading the news
reports, we see the government reacting with a mixture of ineptitude and
martial law, appearing to do everything it can to prevent civilization from
surviving and rebounding after the flood...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15576&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
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Bush — the man with a snafu plan
Sheila Samples
...Of course the neoconservatives who are in control of this country had a
plan for Iraq. I've written about it so often I'm almost embarrassed to
bring it up again. In 1992, Dick Cheney, Lewis Libby and Paul Wolfowitz
laid out their obsesson for world dominance in a secret document, Defense
Planning Guidance wherein they boldly asserted, "our overall objective is
to remain the predominant outside power in the region (Middle East and SW
Asia) and preserve U.S. and W! estern access to the region's oil." Although
such arrogance caused a furor when released to the media, the war jackals
merely retreated into their lair and continued to hone the policy of
preemptive war to seize control of the world's resources....

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15575&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
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New Orleans: covert operations underway?
Larry Chin, Online Journal Associate Editor
Wednesday's broadcast of KPFA's "Flashpoints" featured a telephone
interview with Malik Rahim, who gave a gut-wrenching and shocking firsthand
account of the staggering horror of still-neglected New Orleans that he and
other survivors are facing. In stark contrast to increasingly optimistic
mainstream media coverage (cover-up) about "improving relief efforts" and
"rebuilding," Rahim exposed the fact that there is no relief. No Re! d
Cross, no food, no emergency medical care under a FEMA lockdown that has
kept any relief from getting into New Orleans. Meanwhile, as the Bush
administration's combat operations ramp up, and troops prowl the streets,
no help whatsoever has been offered to residents, according to Rahim.
Rotting corpses litter the streets...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15572&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
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Back to Blogging...
Riverbend, Baghdad burning
...The electrical situation deteriorated this summer in Baghdad. We’ve gone
from a solid 8 – 10 hours daily to around six. During the winter, we have
generators in the area providing electricity when it goes off. In the
summer, however, with the heat and the heavy electrical load from
air-conditioners AND the fuel shortage, many generators have to be turned
off for most of the day. We’re also having water difficulties, though
people have grown accustomed to that. You! can tell first thing in the
morning that the water is cut off...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15571&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
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GI Special 3C47: "Killed For Some Bullshit Reason" - September 9, 2005
www.militaryproject.org
...A simple formula concerning guerrilla warfare always states that as long
as the motivation for resistance remains strong, the ill-equipped and much
deprived guerrilla fighters will continue in their endeavors, constantly
surprising the occupying force with new tactics and amazing resiliency. It
is yet to be seen how advanced this Iraqi insurgency will become in the
near future. Only through morbid statistics and a gr! owing number of
flag-draped coffins will the analysts in Washington be able to tell...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15570&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
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FEMA - The Secret Government
Harry V. Martin with research assistance from David Caul
Some people have referred to it as the "secret government" of the United
States. It is not an elected body, it does not involve itself in public
disclosures, and it even has a quasi-secret budget in the billions of
dollars. This government organization has more power than the President of
the United States or the Congress, it has the power to suspend laws, move
entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant and! hold
them without trial, it can seize property, food supplies, transportation
systems, and can suspend the Constitution. Not only is it the most powerful
entity in the United States, but it was not even created under
Constitutional law by the Congress. It was a product of a Presidential
Executive Order...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15569&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15569


Tomdispatch Interview: Howard Zinn, The Outer Limits of Empire
Tom Engelhardt & Howard Zinn
You have to be careful these days about predicting the obvious. In my last
piece, Iraq in America, I wrote, "…don't hold your breath about either the
Pentagon's or the administration's nation-building skills in the U.S. (But
count on ‘reconstruction' contracts going to Halliburton.)" Well, as
readers were quick to inform me, I was already behind the times. The first
contract -- to repair Katrina storm damage at Gulf Coast ! naval facilities
-- had already been issued to our Vice President's former company. In fact,
as National Guards and other troops finally poured into New Orleans, the
Iraq-in-America parallels only grew. There was the FEMA attempt to prevent
the taking of news photos of dead bodies -- think of those bodies coming
home to Dover Air Force Base from Iraq -- and the Army Times piece that
referred to "the insurgency" in New Orleans, not to speak of GIs in that
city and Iraq who noted eerie resonances between the two situations, or the
Louisiana National Guardsman who referred to potential snipers in New
Orleans as "terrorists."...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15567&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15567


Katrina and the Constitution: the Rules Have Changed
Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire
Brian Williams, writing for MSNBC: “While we were attempting to take
pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions
outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered
us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won’t be
any pictures of this particular group of Guard soldiers on our newscast
tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim)! like those
do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from
the United States.” Williams may not know it, but New Orleans is “separate
from the United States.” It is now a testing ground for the sort of
incremental military dictatorship our elitist rulers have in mind for us...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15562&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15562


Second Amendment Nixed in New Orleans
Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire
New Orleans is no longer part of America. It is a brave new world devised
by FEMA and the Ministry of Homeland Security. In the new New Orleans,
there are no constitutional rights. Not only are soldiers allowed to break
down doors (as they do in Iraq) in violation of the Fourth Amendment and
even “shoot to kill” if they believe they are threatened (as soldiers in
Iraq “shoot to kill” grandmothers and kids at Israeli-styled checkpoints),
n! ow the Second Amendment no longer exists...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15563&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
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Apartheid America and the Right of Return
Xymphora
...The plan is to use the ethnic cleansing to return the city to Republican
party control. Remember these rebuilding plans when you keep hearing how
'uninhabitable' the city will be. Apparently, it will only be uninhabitable
for blacks. With all the money that is going to be pouring into the pockets
of local bigwigs to realize their grandiose white plans, it should be
possible for the government to fund the return of all displaced residents.
As Glen Ford states: ! "Displacement based on race is a form of genocide,
as recognized under the Geneva Conventions. Destruction of a people's
culture, by official action or depraved inaction, is an offense against
humanity, under international law. New Orleans – the whole city, and its
people – is an indispensable component of African American culture and
history"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15560&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15560


UN Chides Iraqi Troops Over Rights Violations
IslamOnline.net
In a new damning evaluation of the situation in Iraq, the UN mission
(UNAMI) on Thursday, September 8, chided Iraqi troops over rights
violations and an excessive use of force. "There are serious allegations of
extra-judicial executions taking place which underline a deterioration in
the situation of law and order," said report, posted on UNAMI's Web site.
"Corpses appear regularly in and around Baghdad and other areas. Most bear
signs of torture and a! ppear to be victims of extrajudicial executions,"
it added. The report cited the discovery of bodies of 36 men, blindfolded,
handcuffed, bearing signs of torture and summarily executed, on 25 August...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15584&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15584


Bush and the Democrats Failed the Citizens of New Orleans.
Sam Hamod
...Bush and his team failed the people. The ignorant Democrats are doing
the same by doing nothing about the situation. The least they could do
about New Orleans and Iraq is to call for Bush's impeachment and rid us of
this mentally unbalanced and ignorant president and his team of Cheney,
Rumsfeld, Rove and Wolfowitz.
Isn't it time the Democrats woke up? Or, are they not part of the problem.
I think they are, certainly John Kerry and his coterie are part of the
problem...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15559&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15559


Evacuees and Refugees
Observe the twilight zone juxtaposition in the LA times presented without a
hint of irony... Are two pictures worth two thousand words? Can anything
more be said or be more sad?

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15558&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15558


GI Special 3C46: Pissed Sailors Cut Off Patches
www.militaryproject.org
Two Navy helicopter pilots and their crews returned from New Orleans on
Aug. 30 expecting to be greeted as lifesavers after ferrying more than 100
hurricane victims to safety. Instead, their superiors chided the pilots,
Lt. David Shand and Lt. Matt Udkow, at a meeting the next morning for
rescuing civilians when their assignment that day had been to deliver food
and water to military installations along the Gulf Coast. "I felt it was a
great ! day because we resupplied the people we needed to and we rescued
people, too," Lieutenant Udkow said. But the air operations commander at
Pensacola Naval Air Station "reminded us that the logistical mission needed
to be our area of focus"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15555&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15555


Are we bloggers by choice or is it the sheer necessity?
Maher Osseiran
I proudly shared a draft of the first article I ever wrote with a friend
activist. After he read it, he commented with a shrug: “if this is what you
like to do?” I was taken aback by his comment but since I have a great deal
of respect for him and his work, I let it pass. Still, the question stayed
with me and morphed into, what do I really like to do? Certainly not
writing; it is not one of my strongest points. It took me a while to decide
to! write this, and since I was going to discuss an old topic, I had to
think plenty about the kind of information I would be bringing to the
reader. Since the information was new, the perspective fresh, and felt that
the reader would gain new insight worth my time and theirs. The old topic I
am going to address is that of the biological weapons mobile labs as
presented to the UN and the world by Colin Powell. I will be using the
topic as an example of where and how Big Media and our government,
intentionally or through dereliction of duty, betrayed our democracy and
failed to bring us the truth we need to properly exercise it...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15550&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15550


No Gas, No Food, No Lodging
Hurricane Victims Get a Taste of Life in Occupied Iraq
Ted Rall
...It only took a few days for New Orleans to descend into anarchy, for the
survivors of Katrina to lose hope, for disgusted Americans to conclude that
their leaders are too staggeringly stupid, incompetent and uncaring to
protect them from bad weather, much less a terrorist attack. Now think
about this: the citizens of cities under U.S. occupation in Iraq and
Afghanistan have been suffering under simi! lar conditions, exacerbated by
an identical lack of planning by the same U.S. officials, for nearly 900
days. New Orleans is Baghdad plus water minus two and a half years. Still
wondering why they hate us?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15556&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15556


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 8 September 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice. ( http://www.freearabvoice.org )
Quds Press reported on Wednesday that its correspondent had learned that
the ..."Ministry of Health" in the US-appointed puppet regime in Baghdad
operates detention and torture cells inside the "Health Ministry" building
used for holding and interrogating any "Ministry"employee whose loyalty to
the American-backed "governme! nt" comes into question. Sources told the
London-based Quds Press news agency that four Iraqi physicians had been
arrested by the Iraqi puppet police in Medical City Hospital on Wednesday,
31 August 2005. Medical City in Baghdad is one of the largest hospitals in
the country. The sources reported that the Iraqi puppet police locked up
the doctors in a cell inside the "Ministry of Health" building on the
pretext that they were "Wahhabi" fundamentalists – even though two of the
four were Shi`ah...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=15581&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=15581




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