[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 23 Nov 2005]

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This November
Remember Fallujah
In November 2004 the US - with British support - launched a massive assault
on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The scale of the attack - and its effect on
civilians - was unprecedented in the bloody history of the invasion and
occupation, yet the crmes committed in Fallujah received little attention
here and have quickly been forgotten. One year on, we look back at the
events leading up to the assault, the attack itself, and how the lack of
effective global protest led to! many other towns and cities in Iraq facing
similar treatment...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18117&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18117


Savaging the Law in the Padilla case
Mike Whitney
...The government has never produced a shred of evidence that Padilla is
guilty of any of the crimes for which he has been accused. Instead, the
administration has used its unchecked power to indefinitely detain Padilla
while refusing to charge him with a crime. The Padilla case has never been
about Jose Padilla, domestic terrorism, or any of the other spurious claims
made by the government. It is, in fact, about enhancing presidential power,
so the executive is ! no longer required to comply with the law. Padilla
pits the language of right-wing think tanks, "enemy combatant", against
habeas corpus, the cornerstone of the American justice system. So far, the
made-up language of the Bush team has prevailed...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18104&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18104


The real war
How will you behave in your last battle?
John Kaminski
...The real war presents the task of seeing what is real and what is not.
At present the world pretends the freedom-loving American government is
fighting terror all over the world. Precious few people understand that the
freedom-loving American government has actually created the terror it
pretends to fight, by combining with the subterranean intelligence agencies
with its allies in corporate crime, Britain and Israel, to foment conf!
lict in regions it wishes to further subjugate. That’s why they hire all
those mercenaries...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18111&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18111


Life Goes On in Fallujah's Rubble
Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service
A year after the U.S.-led "Operation Phantom Fury" damaged or destroyed
36,000 homes, 60 schools and 65 mosques in Fallujah, Iraq, residents inside
the city continue to suffer from lack of compensation, slow reconstruction
and high rates of illness. The Study Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
based in Fallujah (SCHRD) estimates the number of people killed in the city
during the U.S.-led operation in October and November 2004 at 4,000 to
6,000,! most of them civilians. Mass graves were dug on the outskirts of
the city for thousands of the bodies...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18114&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18114


Please Join Cindy Sheehan, Pablo Paredes, Camilo Mejia
Dec 6 National Day of Counter-Recruitment
Campus Antiwar Network
...Campus Anti-War Network is calling for actions around the country to
show the federal government that they cannot intimidate schools for kicking
out military recruiters. On December 6, the Supreme Court will hear the
FAIR v Rumsfeld case (brought by several universities), which will decide
whether schools can ban military recruiters wihout losing federal funding.
Currently, the Solo! mon Amendment allows the government to cut off federal
funding from schools that ban military recruiters. This policy forces
schools to accept military recruitment, even though the military's anti-gay
"don't ask, don't tell" policy violates university anti-discrimination
policies...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18125&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18125


Woodward's definition of "journalism"? Reporting Bush administration
falsehoods as "their point of view"
Media Matters for America.
Appearing on the November 21 edition of CNN's Larry King Live, Washington
Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward discussed his book Plan of
Attack: The Definitive Account of the Decision to Invade Iraq (Simon &
Schuster, April 2004). Responding to concerns about his objectivity given
the close relationships he cultivated with senior Bush administration
officials while researchin! g the book, Woodward said that the book "has
some pretty tough stuff in it. At the same time, the president or others
[in the government] get to express their point of view." He added: "I
believe that's journalism"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18123&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18123


Opposition, Continued
Annotated Life
...First and foremost we must look beyond the loss of US lives. No matter
if they are killed by roadside bombs, hostile fire, or desperate suicides,
we must recognize that US soldiers, drawn from the working class, are dying
in vain. But there is more to the story, as sad and despicable as that part
is. We must recognize the deaths of not only unarmed but also armed Iraqis
who have been brutally murdered as working class casualties. In order to do
that we must recognize the so! -called insurgency as a resistance to
colonial occupation fought overwhelmingly by Iraqi citizens. If there are
rights and duties in the anti-war movement, they find their most
concentrated form in the right and duty of Iraqi fathers and sons to defend
themselves, their families, and their homes from Imperialist aggression...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18121&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18121


US Intelligence Classified White Phosphorus as 'Chemical Weapon'
Peter Popham and Anne Penketh, The Independent UK
The Italian journalist who launched the controversy over the American use
of white phosphorus (WP) as a weapon of war in the Fallujah siege has
accused the Americans of hypocrisy. Sigfrido Ranucci, who made the
documentary for the RAI television channel aired two weeks ago, said that a
US intelligence assessment had characterised WP after the first Gulf War as
a "chemical weapon." The assessment was ! published in a declassified
report on the American Department of Defense website (...) Yesterday Adam
Mynott, a BBC correspondent in Nassiriya in April 2003, told RAI News 24
that he had seen WP apparently used as a weapon against insurgents in that
city...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18120&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18120


WMDgate: Fixing Intelligence Around Policy - The Aluminum Tubes, Part 2B-1
The left coaster
This post is part of a series (see Introduction, Part 1, Part 2A-1, Part
2A-2, Part 2A-3, Part 2A-4, Part 2A-5) focused on building a case to
demonstrate the Bush White House's intelligence manipulation, fixing and
misrepresentation, mostly using published Congressional reports like the
Phase I Senate (SSCI) Report, the Robb-Silberman WMD Commission Report,
etc. While it is clear that even without the use of Congressional !
reports, the case against the Bush White House is pretty solid ... I wanted
to demonstrate that the parliamentary reports, rather than make the case
against the White House weaker, actually make it stronger...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18119&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18119


While We Were Sleeping
Rebecca Dana, Lizzy Ratner, The New York Observer.
...Forty years later, the United States is in a desert war, transmitted
instantly by satellite and broadband. There are no boundaries on our
technical capabilities to cover events. But there are other
limits—commercial, political, editorial. And they have kept the war in Iraq
marginal in the American media, from soon after the initial invasion in the
spring of 2003 till last week, when Representative John Murtha hurled it
back into the spot! light...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18118&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18118


Death Squads!
an iraqi tear
...the DEATH SQUADS wearing police and ING uniform; driving four wheel
vehicles that used by the high-ranking officials continue their work in
targeting the Suunis. Today Sheikh Kadhim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem, a Suuni
leader was killed along with three sons and a son in law in Baghdad; one
month ago the same SQUADS killed his elder son. Two days ago another Sunni
religion man with two his sons were killed. Many Sunnis were arrested in
Baghdad, Diyala and other parts of Iraq. Today, a new op! eration began
against Ramadi, about 80km west of Baghdad. Ramadi is the main city of
Anbar province; Falluja, Qaim and Haditha are parts of the same province...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18113&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18113


Press groups seek answers on Jazeera memo
Aljazeera.net
Journalists' rights groups are urging the United States and Britain to
provide clarification of a report that suggests US President George Bush
sought to bomb Aljazeera. The controversy surrounds details of a leaked
British government memo published by a UK newspaper, the Daily Mirror,
earlier this week. "This is a very serious charge with grave implications
for the safety of media professionals," said Ann Cooper, executive director
of the Committee to Prote! ct Journalists...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18127&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18127


Iraq's child labor crisis worsens
James Palmer, The Washington Times
...Iraq's child labor crisis began with the sanctions imposed after the
1991 Gulf War. The percentage of children ages 6 to 14 working instead of
going to school rose from 1.3 percent in 1987 to 7.2 percent in 1997.
Officials at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs say the situation has
worsened since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. About a quarter of
Iraqis now live in poverty and the unemployment rate reached 26 percent
during the fir! st half of last year, the Central Statistics Bureau
reports. "We have entire families with no means of support," said Layla K.
Aziz, a director-general in the ministry...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18112&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18112


An Open Letter to The Nation Magazine
The Damage Wrought by Katrina
John Walsh, www.dissidentvoice.org
The Nation declares (posted November 9): "We will not support any candidate
for national office who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq a
major issue of his or her campaign." This is too little, too late and lacks
the apologies that are in order. The statement is too little. First of all,
"a speedy end" is the key phrase here, so important that it is repeated
verbatim two paragraphs later an! d again on the blog site of editor,
Katrina Vanden Heuvel. The Nation does not call for "immediate and total
withdrawal," thus leaving the door open to permanent occupation or another
year or more of killing while discussions of "exit strategies" drag on, as
R. Feingold and other "courageous" Democrats propose...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18110&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18110


The Puppet Masters in Iraq
jouna, iraq-war.ru
The U.S. Coalition of the Killing has dropped out from the great colonial
contest for the oil in the Middle East. It has no friends, and no nothing
except it’s own expeditionary force left there (...). The lack of Iraqi
combat battalions loyal to U.S. is a immediate consequence of the U.S.
monstrous misconduct of the war, which they started and waged solely by
themselves. In short, they got what they deserved. But life goes on,
doesn’t it? The de facto meaningless U.S! . colonial troops are now urged
(translation 'commanded’) to 'exit’ by the Iranians and the former 'puppet
government. This leaves us (and US) in no doubt that the Puppet Masters of
Iraq have changed...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18109&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18109


U.S. morale in Iraq is marked 'fragile'Seeing friends die, injured is
taking its toll on many American soldiers
Louise Roug, Los Angeles Times
A handful of Delta Company soldiers leaned against a barracks wall the
other night, smoking. The subject of conversation: what limb they would
rather part with, if they had a choice. On the door of a portable toilet a
few feet away, someone was keeping the company death toll amid a scribble
of obscenities: five KIA. "When I first got here, I felt like I ! could
actually do some good for the Iraqi people," Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Barker
said. But the last six months had hardened him, he said. "We're not going
to change the Iraqis. I don't care how many halal (Muslim) meals we give
out." Of the 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, some have been deployed to the
country for the first time. Others are returning for their second or third
tour of duty. Those returning find a country that has become even more
dangerous...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18107&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18107


UK Media Gagged Over Contents of Bombing Memo
Targeting Al Jazeera
LINDA S. HEARD
On Tuesday, Britain's Daily Mirror published an explosive story riddled
with implications concerning the character and intent of the US president
when pursuing his so-called 'war on terror', and perhaps, shedding light on
the bombing of Al Jazeera's offices in both Kabul and Baghdad. Twenty-four
later, the Mirror and all other British papers had been subjected to a "gag
order" under Section 5 the Official Secrets Act at p! ain of prosecution...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18106&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18106


Up close: the reality of Iraq's hidden war
Sean Smith in Qaim, The Guardian
I was attached to squads from the 3rd Battalion/Sixth Marines and 2nd
Battalion/First Marines as they moved into Iraqi towns along the border
with Syria (...) When people saw a ferocious assault was under way, they
began to leave town. Women and children came out carrying white flags. It
was eerie seeing columns of people appearing through the smoke and
explosions, with no one knowing which direction the shooting was coming
from. I am sur! e we will hear of more casualties. All men of military age
were detained. They had material sprayed on their hands to reveal whether
they had handled explosives or gunpowder. Families were split up and
loudspeakers were barking commands. Some of the detainees came back and
some did not...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18105&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18105


GI Special 3D22: How To Prepare For Deployment - November 22, 2005
www.militaryproject.org
...A letter writer said that we should show the pictures of the Pentagon,
World Trade Center and the hole in the ground in Pennsylvania and then show
all the good things in Iraq if we show photos of U.S. war dead ["Show both
sides," Letters, Oct. 31]. What does Iraq have to do with the attacks of
Sept. 11? Every investigation, every bit of information we have shows that
Iraq and Saddam had nothing to do with Sept. 11. There! were no al-Qaida
groups in Iraq before we invaded. There were no weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq before we invaded. As a colonel told me in September 2003 in Qatar
as I waited for a transport into Afghanistan, "We are not going to find
anything." He was in charge of a unit looking for WMDs in Iraq...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18103&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18103


The theft of Iraqi oil wealth
Xymphora
Based on an inappropriate contractual model imposed by the U. S. State
Department, Iraq stands to lose, on the assumption of an oil price of $40
per barrel and from only the first 12 oilfields to be developed, between
$74 billion and $194 billion over the lifetime of the proposed
oil-development contracts. Oil company rates of return would range from 42%
to 162%, rather than the usual industry minimum target of around a 12%
return on investment. The type of contract is calle! d a 'production
sharing agreement', and is in use in no comparable oil fields (in fact such
contracts are in use with respect to only 12% of world oil reserves, a
number which is likely to decline as Russia stops using them)...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18101&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18101


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 22 November 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice.
...The General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Muhammad Mahdi
'Akif, on Monday met with the US-installed "Iraqi Prime Minister" Ibrahim
al-Ja'fari where he was staying in Cairo (...) The call for "working to end
the occupation" is in keeping with the official position taken by
al-Ja'fari. Although al-Ja'fari’s position as "Prime Minister" depends ! on
the continued US military control of Iraq, the American occupation is so
widely unpopular in the country that the US-installed al-Ja'fari must
himself claim to be committed to "ending the occupation," actual plans for
which entail not the total withdrawal of US forces but their re-designation
as an "allied" military force...



<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=18100&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=18100




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information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts
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