[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 16 Oct 2005]

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The Iraqi Constitution; a cynical cover for partition
Mike Whitney
Today's vote on the Iraqi Constitution is the culmination of 15 years of
unrelenting aggression against the Iraqi people. Washington has never
wavered in it's to determination to topple Saddam and control Iraqi oil.
Saturday's balloting is just another public relations stunt to disguise the
criminal intention of the present occupation. There's a straight line that
runs from Gulf War 1, through the genocidal 10 year sanctions, to the
present occup! ation. Are the American people really stupid enough to
believe that this policy will change by today's referendum? Even America's
right-leaning media has conceded that the purpose of the constitution is to
divide the country. So, why do we call it a constitution at all? Only in
the skewed Bush-lexicon does the term "constitution" mean the same as
"partition"...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16796&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16796


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Saturday, 15 October 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice
...An Iraqi Committee for Honesty and Against Corruption announced on
Friday that Shaykh Habib al-Khatib, the First Deputy to pro-American Shi‘i
religious leader Ayatallah ‘Ali as-Sistani in the city of al-Kut was
involved in financial corruption and accepting bribes from local people in
return for facilitating their cases with bureaus in the Iraqi puppet go!
vernment. The committee said that al-Khatib had accepted bribes in cases of
appointments and official procedures...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16812&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16812


Early birds
Imad Khadduri , Free Iraq
...The need for the White House to produce a fantasy picture of Iraq is
because it dare not admit that it has engineered one of the greatest
disasters in American history. It is worse than Vietnam, because the enemy
is punier and the original ambitions greater. At the time of the invasion
in 2003 the US believed it could act alone, almost without allies, and win.
In this it has utterly failed...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16811&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16811


An unwinnable war in Iraq
Matiur Rahman
It’s finally becoming clear on Capitol Hill, and may be even in the White
House that the United States cannot win the war in Iraq. The only question
still to be decided is how many more American lives will be wasted in
George W. Bush’s grand debacle. The wheels have fallen of the cart in Iraq,
and only those in the farthest reaches of denial are hanging on the
illusion of an American triumph over the insurgency.

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16809&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16809


Mr. Bush the Iraqis know your tricks
Ibrahim Ebeid, Al-Moharer.net
The American soldiers will keep dying in Iraq for no valid reason but for
the satisfaction of a president’s ego that is following the illusion of
power. His speech at the “National Endowment for Democracy” speaks for
itself. It is a repetition of the previous pretences that are unfounded.
Iraq was never engaged in terrorism and it was not behind the tragic events
of September 11 at all. Iraq had no links to Al-Qaida or to Bin Laden or to
his fami! ly. This President told the world many excuses about his war of
aggression, many scenarios were presented and none of them made sense, they
were all outright lies and deception...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16806&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16806


Beware the "Augmented" McCain Amendment!
Marty Lederman
The Conference Committee that will consider and reconcile the Senate and
House defense appropriations bills is scheduled to meet this coming week.
The Senate bill contains the "McCain Amendment," which would prohibit all
U.S. personnel from engaging in cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of
detainees -- i.e., engaging in conduct that would "shock the conscience"
under Due Process Clause doctrine -- anywhere in the world. It's
increasingly clear that the st! rategy of McCain's opponents -- the Vice
President and his congressional supporters -- will be to amend the McCain
Amendment in the Conference Committee so as to exempt the CIA from the
prohibition on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16820&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16820


Tomgram: Nick Turse, Casualties of the Bush Administration
Tom Engelhardt & Nick Turse
...Informal memorials and citizens' efforts are part of the growing
movement against George Bush's Iraq War. Walls of every sort are being
built. In Asheville, North Carolina, for example, as part of a "peace
park," townspeople have been building their own Iraq Wall with each
"sponsored" stone representing one American who has died there. Planned
also is "a memorial to the Iraqi dead, presently estimated at over
100,000." Some! times these projects are very personal, even individual,
ranging from spontaneous displays of candles on beaches to, in the case of
one reader who wrote in to Tomdispatch, a garden/labyrinth of the American
dead built in her own backyard. These "walls," each with its own character,
all influenced by architect Maya Lin's Vietnam Wall in Washington (which
movingly reflected a grim American disaster and defeat), are signs of a
growing sense that this war is a horror and a dishonor to which the
honorable have fallen (a sense backed strongly by the latest opinion
polls)...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16805&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16805


GI Special 3C83:" I Definitely Felt Betrayed" - October 15, 2005
www.militaryproject.org
His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could
not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed
Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical
pain and reimagine his life's possibilities. The last thing on his mind, he
said, was whether the Army had correctly adjusted his pay rate --
downgrading it because he was out of the war zone -- or whether hi! s
combat gear had been accounted for properly: his Kevlar helmet, his
suspenders, his rucksack...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16804&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16804


Bush Feared 'Looking Weak' on Iraq
Robert Parry, consortiumnews.com
Less than two months before invading Iraq, George W. Bush fretted that his
war plans could be disrupted if United Nations weapons inspectors succeeded
in gaining Saddam Hussein’s full cooperation, possibly leaving Bush
“looking weak,” according to notes written by a secretary to British Prime
Minister Tony Blair. The notes, taken by Blair’s personal secretary Matthew
Rycroft, were included in a new edition of Lawless World, a book by
University C! ollege professor Philippe Sands. The notes on the Jan. 30,
2003, phone call between Bush and Blair were reviewed by the New York
Times, which said they were marked secret and personal...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16803&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16803


Iraq refusenik faces RAF court martial
NICHOLAS CHRISTIAN
AN RAF doctor is facing a court martial for refusing to serve in the Iraq
war because he believed the conflict was illegal. Flight-Lieutenant Malcolm
Kendall-Smith, 37, a medical officer based at RAF Kinloss in Scotland, is
to be prosecuted for "disobeying a lawful command". Colleagues of the
officer, who has been decorated for his role in Afghanistan, said the
doctor was prepared to go to prison over his beliefs...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16813&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16813


Nothing New Going On Here
POW Abuse by the US
MICKEY Z.
As news of a prisoner hunger strike finally begins to trickle out from
Guantanamo, rest assured any wrongdoing will be pinned on a few bad apples.
However, even a cursory glance at U.S. treatment of enemies captured during
military interventions will demonstrate that the goings-on at Gitmo (or Abu
Ghraib for that matter) are standard operating procedure for the home of
the brave...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16802&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16802


The Media Are Wrong Again
The Emperor Has No Clothes!
A TvNewsLIES Analysis of Media Neglect
On the morning of October 13th, the Emperor took off all his clothes in
front of the entire nation. He stood stark naked in the illuminating glare
of television cameras and an international video feed, This time, there was
no one around to throw a cloak over his exposed nudity or to convince
onlookers that he was really robed. This time, the Emperor had no clothes
on at all, and everybody saw it. This time, there w! as no way to spin the
story. The entire nation had witnessed the staging of an ‘impromptu’
conversation between the President and a group of soldiers in Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16798&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16798


Fake al-Qaeda Letters and the Kayfabe of Islamic Terrorism
Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire
“Al Qaeda’s wing in Iraq on Thursday rejected as a fabrication a letter by
a top group leader that was issued by U.S. officials and suggested deep
internal rifts among militants,” reports Reuters. “We in Al Qaeda
Organization announce that there is no truth to these claims, which are
only based on the imagination of the politicians of the Black (White) House
and their slaves,” a statement posted on yet another Islamis! t web site
complained. It makes you wonder how many fake al-Qaeda groups there are and
what intelligence organizations are fronting them. Fake al-Qaeda group “X”
has a problem with something fake al-Qaeda group “Z” has posted on yet
another unmolested Islamist web site hosted by somebody who wants the FBI
knocking on their door—except the FBI never investigates hosting services
that host al-Qaeda websites or content, probably because they are too busy
gearing up to bust people for porno...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16794&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
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DESTROYING WORLD ORDER
U.S. Imperialism in the Middle East Before and After September 11th
Francis A. Boyle
Since the war in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Americans have
been surprised to learn that much of the world now views the United States
itself as a major threat to global peace. American international legal
expert Francis A. Boyle examines the imperial dimensions of U.S. policy in
the Middle East, past and present, which may help to account for these
views. In a hard-hitting commentary well! -grounded in fact and in law,
Boyle addresses the train of U.S. transgressions of international law,
leading to havoc in the region, and destabilization of the world system as
a whole...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16793&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16793


Bush told Blair of 'going beyond Iraq'
Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
George Bush told Tony Blair shortly before the invasion of Iraq that he
intended to target other countries, including Saudi Arabia, which, he
implied, planned to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Mr Bush said he
"wanted to go beyond Iraq in dealing with WMD proliferation, mentioning in
particular Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan," according to a
note of a telephone conversation between the two men on January 30 2003...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16801&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16801


Britain "apologizes" for terrorist act in Basra
Rescue of SAS men who were planning to place bombs in Basra City Square
Michel Chossudovsky, GlobalResearch.ca
In earlier reports, we focussed on the operation of two undercover British
SAS operatives, dressed in traditonal Arab clothing, who were planning to
set of bombs in the main square in Basra, coinciding with a religous event.
They were arrested by Iraqi police and subsequently "liberated" by British
forces in a major military assault! , directed against the Iraqi police
authorities with tanks and armed cars...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16800&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16800


From Chaos to Conscience to Peace
Monica Benderman
...On July 27, 2005, Sgt. Kevin Benderman was found guilty of Missing
Movement and sentenced to 15 months confinement, loss of pay and
dishonorable discharge. In actuality, Sgt. Benderman’s crime was daring to
tell the truth, and daring to challenge the very philosophy of the military
machine in which he had volunteered to serve, by filing for Conscientious
Objection for no longer wanting to participate in war, and for speaking out
to end violence as a means of r! esolving our differences. Conscientious
Objection is not just objecting to war. It is objecting to chaos, to
everything about life that keeps it from a peaceful path. War is chaos, but
chaos is also war...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16788&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16788


Iraqis to vote on neo-colonial constitution
James Cogan, WSWS
The referendum today in Iraq on the draft constitution is a cynical and,
for the Iraqi people, humiliating event. Far from an exercise in
self-determination, it is the next stage in a US-crafted, but increasingly
crisis-ridden process aimed at turning Iraq into an American client state
in the Middle East. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others among the clique
responsible for the illegal 2003 invasion will use today’s vote to justify
their crimes with the c! laim that “democracy” is being realised in Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16785&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16785


US practice of starving out Iraqi civilians is inhumane, says UN
Bradley S Klapper
The United States-led coalition's alleged practice of cutting off food and
water to force Iraqi civilians to flee before attacks on insurgent
strongholds is a "flagrant violation" of international law, a United
Nations rights advocate said yesterday. The action is inhumane and causes
innocent people to suffer, said Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on
the right to food. The Geneva Conventions on warfare, which form the basis
! of international humanitarian law, not only forbid denying food to
civilians, but actually make the occupying force responsible to provide it,
he said. "This is a flagrant violation of international law"...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16783&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16783


The 2005 International Commission of Inquiry
Bush Crimes Commission
When the possibility of far-reaching war crimes and crimes against humanity
exists, people of conscience have a solemn responsibility to inquire into
the nature and scope of these acts and to determine if they do in fact rise
to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity. That is the mission
of the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity. The
first session will be held October 21-22 in New York City. This tribunal !
will, with care and rigor, present evidence and assess whether George W.
Bush and his administration have committed crimes against humanity...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16787&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
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22 US Troops Killed in the Last Week
Including one who died of wounds received in July
Antiwar.com
Today the Department of Defense announced the death of a Marine supporting
the war in Iraq. Kenneth E. Hunt Jr., 40, died of wounds recieved in July
"when the vehicle he was riding in struck an anti-tank mine while
conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Taqaddum, Iraq."
This death bring the total American combat deaths from 'Operation Iraqi
Freedom' to 1574 and total deaths to 1967. Ov! er just the last week, 22 US
troops have been killed in operations in Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=1&p=16810&s2=16>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.com/?p=16810




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