[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 05 Jan 2006 - Part One]

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Ahmed Chalabi – Petroleum’s Point Man
William Bowles, I'n'I
...Convicted fraudster, bagman, carpetbagger, (dis)informant, playboy,
opportunist, failed mercenary army leader, go-between creature of
imperialism, of one thing we can be sure, Ahmed Chalabi is a survivor by
virtue of (almost) always being on the 'right’ side. Son of a wealthy
Hashemite family with connections to British colonialism going back to the
1920s, he now occupies the most powerful position in the post-Saddam puppet
hierarchy, head of the oil ! ministry, no doubt a position he has coveted
for some time. And moreover, a position he has been groomed for by his US
masters...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19292&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19292


Trillion-dollar bill
Xymphora
...This is just confirmation of what we already knew: as part of a massive
Zionist conspiracy involving Israeli agents planted in the Bush
Administration, the New York Times published a long series of lies about
alleged Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruction. The Times, from at
least one of its own reporters whose reporting they stifled, knew these
stories to be lies, but published them anyway in order to force an illegal
and immoral war that is going to cost American taxpay! ers at least one
trillion dollars. Americans should send the Times a bill for that trillion
bucks. Why anyone would continue to buy this lying rag is completely beyond
me...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19291&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19291


"Diversity" comes to the White House
Eli Stephens, Left I on the News
Continuing his PR offensive on the war, George Bush today "reached beyond
his inner circle" (in the words of The New York Times) and pretended to
care about the opinion of other people on the subject of the war in Iraq.
Cindy Sheehan? Sorry, no. Medea Benjamin? Brian Becker? Anyone outside the
establishment, or even inside the establishment but who disagrees
fundamentally with what the U.S. is doing in Iraq? Sorry, no again...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19297&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19297


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 4 January 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice. ( http://www.freearabvoice.org )
In a dispatch posted at 5:35pm Mecca time Wednesday evening, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that in the last 24 hours, an Iraqi Resistance
sharpshooter had killed an American soldier and other Resistance attacks
had left two Iraqi puppet troops dead in al-Fallujah, some 60km west of
Baghdad. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-I! slam reported that an Iraqi
Resistance marksman had shot and killed a US soldier in al-Fallujah as the
American was standing guard at a US camp in the city. The Resistance
sharpshooter’s bullet struck the US soldier directly, killing him
instantly, the correspondent reported...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19287&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19287


The NSA Program
Cryptome
Hayden wanted the American public to know that the NSA was abiding the
rules. "Could there be abuses? Of course, there could, but I am here
looking you and the American people in the eye and saying there are not,"
Hayden told CNN. "After Church and Pike, on this question, the ball and
strike count on the agency is no balls and two strikes," Hayden added. "We
don't take any pitches that are close to the strike zone. We are very, very
careful. We can't go back to the American people with, '! Oh, well, we're
sorry for this one, too.' We don't get close to the Fourth Amendment...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19286&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19286


The Neocon Brotherhood
Robert Dreyfuss
The decision today by the Iraqi Islamic Party to take part in the gestating
Iraqi government is important news, but not good news. There’s at least an
outside chance that the IIP’s decision was partly the result of a U.S.
covert operation by the Pentagon (...) It is at least the third time that
the IIP broke ranks with the opposition: when it joined the earlier Iraqi
interim government, when it decided in October to support the constitution
draft, and now its decision to joi! n the Shiite-led coalition...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19285&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19285


130 Dead in Series of Attacks in Iraq
Iraq Attacks on Police Recruits, Shiites, U.S. Soldiers Kill 130 in Second
Day of Heavy Violence
SAMEER N. YACOUB Associated Press Writer
Suicide bombers targeted Shiite pilgrims in the south and police recruits
in central Iraq, and a roadside bomb killed five U.S. soldiers, bringing
Thursday's death toll to at least 130 people in a series of attacks as
politicians tried to form a coalition government. The two-day toll from
insurgent attacks rose to 183, re! flecting a dramatic upsurge in bloodshed
following the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. Some leading Sunni
politicians accuse the Shiite-led government of condoning fraud in the
voting...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19290&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19290


The death of freedom
John Pilger
On Christmas Eve, I dropped in on Brian Haw, whose hunched, pacing figure
was just visible through the freezing fog. For four and a half years, Brian
has camped in Parliament Square with a graphic display of photographs that
show the terror and suffering imposed on Iraqi children by British
policies. The effectiveness of his action was demonstrated last April when
the Blair government banned any expression of opposition within a kilometre
of parliament. The high court subsequently! ruled that, because his
presence preceded the ban, Brian was an exception...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19296&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19296


Active-Duty Military Support for Bush and the Iraq War Dropping
Kevin Zeese , DemocracyRising
According to a poll of Military Times readers, support for President Bush's
leadership as commander-in-chief and support for the war in Iraq is
dropping among the U.S. military. Over the course of the last year support
for the Iraq War dropped 9 percent, and barely a majority, 54 percent, view
the commander-in-chief's performance as positive. Losing the support of
active duty military could be the final straw for Presid! ent Bush in Iraq.
Already, the foreign policy establishment – former military, former
intelligence officials and former foreign service officers – have publicly
expressed their opposition to the war...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19295&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19295


When Sharon Meets His Maker
Gilad Atzmon
... A peaceful man is on his way to meet his Creator. The Lord may ask him,
just as he enters the gate of heaven, "Hey Grandpa Arik, why are your hands
so red?" Sometimes the Dear Lord pretends to be ignorant, he loves to give
his chosen followers a chance to repent. Somehow, they tend to forget to do
so while they are still amongst the living. But Grandpa Arik is not that
silly, the Dear Lord isn’t going to fool him that easily. "What red, what
blood? This is me painting ! your land in my favourite colour, I thought
you'd like it". Grandpa Arik winks to the Lord. The Lord is left cold,
unaffected. For more than a while, he seems to have been perplexed by the
conduct his chosen followers...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19294&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19294


Seven U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq-military, police
Reuters
Five U.S. soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle while
on patrol in Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said. Another two
American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb near the southern Iraqi
city of Najaf, Iraqi police said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19293&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19293


Thomas Friedman and the Murder of Civilians
Paul Street
Maybe New York Times columnist and corporate globalization champion Thomas
Friedman should consult his paper’s news desk before crafting his creepy,
power-worshipping editorials. On page A21 of yesterday’s Times, Friedman
praises the supposedly benevolent United States for "provid[ing] the basic
governance that keeps the world stable and on a decent track." America
provides this noble service, Friedman argues, "through its vast military
deployments, diplom! atic engagements, and vital role buttressing the
global economy and its rules" (...) After reading Friedman’s ode to
Mandelbaum and Uncle Sam, readers of Wednesday’s Times could turn to page
A8 to find a jarring and curious example of the "nourishment" and
"stability" the noble American "elephant" gives to the world system’s
"weaker animals" through virtuous "military deployments" and "diplomatic
engagements." According to Times correspondents Richard A. Oppel and Omar
Al-Neaml, "American F-14 warplanes killed nine members of an Iraqi family,
including women and young children, during a bombing and cannon strike on
Monday night that obliterated a home near the northern industrial city of
Baiji...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19299&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19299


Impeaching Bush
Hassan Nafaa, Al-Ahram Weekly
...Who would ever have believed that a US president could so much as
contemplate, even if he couched the thought as a joke, bombing a television
station located in one of America's allies because he felt that that
station was opposed to American policy? Would anyone have ever thought it
remotely conceivable that security agencies in the US -- supposedly the
bastion of individual, religious and political freedoms -- would raid
Muslim houses of worship on the off-chance! that they might find weapons of
mass destruction? Regretfully, the impossible has become possible in the
age of George W Bush...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19300&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19300


Anti-war activist cheered
Sheehan urges about 750 to help stop the war and impeach Bush
Mary Vorsino
Peace activist Cindy Sheehan urged a standing-room-only crowd at the Church
of the Crossroads last night to unite to stop the war in Iraq, impeach
President Bush and "see justice" for those killed since the war started in
2003. "If you don't want the war machine to invade your island, don't let
it happen," said Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son died in Iraq and who gained
international attention fo! r staging an anti-war demonstration outside
Bush's ranch in Texas...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19301&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19301


A new year’s message from Ramsey Clark
Ramsey Clark
The year 2005 brought new hardships but also new hope to the people of the
world. Hope because the Bush administration has shown itself before the
world to be lawless, cruel and brutal but also inept and incompetent. In
Iraq the Pentagon has shown it is incapable of repressing a growing
resistance from the Iraqi people. Meanwhile the government has been caught
running torture camps inside Iraq and outsourcing torture around the world.
The people of the U.S. have! decided the war is unjust and not worth the
price in Iraqi lives or the sacrifice of our youth. Young people are
refusing to enlist in the military in sufficient numbers to carry on the
illegal occupation and continuing assault on the Iraqi people. In New
Orleans the government did nothing for a week while the city drowned. Now
more than four months later tens of thousands remain homeless. More and
more of the population is outraged by the crimes emanating from the White
House and are enlisting in the campaign to stop those crimes...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19283&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19283


Journalist death toll in Iraq exceeds that of Vietnam, Reporters Without
Borders says
More journalists and media staffers have been killed during the Iraq war
than during 22 years of conflict in Vietnam, Reporters Without Borders said
Wednesday. Worldwide, at least 63 journalists were killed last year, the
press freedom group said in its annual report. That was up from at least 53
killed in 2004, the group said. Earlier this week, the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists said 47 reporters were killed ! in 2005.
The group said the discrepancy resulted from its standards for determining
who was a journalist and whether someone died as a result of working as a
reporter...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19282&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19282


Tomgram: A Cult of Presidential Power
Tom Engelhardt
...Having established their global war on terror, and so their "war
powers," in the fall of 2001, top administration officials then moved
remarkably quickly to the outer limits of power -- by plunging into the
issue of torture. After all, if you can establish a presidential right to
order torture (no matter how you manage to redefine it) as well as to hold
captives under a category of warfare dredged up from the legal dustbin of
history in prisons especially es! tablished to be beyond the reach of the
law or the oversight of anyone but those under your command, you've
established a presidential right to do just about anything imaginable.
While the get-tough aura of torture may indeed have appealed to some of
these worshippers of power, what undoubtedly appealed to them most was the
moving of the presidential goalposts, the changing of the rules. From Abu
Ghraib on, the results of all this have been obvious enough, but one
crucial aspect of such unfettered presidential power goes regularly
unmentioned...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19281&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19281


The Army of Good Americans
Manuel Valenzuela
...The army of good Americans, like their counterpart in 1930’s Germany,
blindly follows and seldom asks questions, always with a wink and a nod
turning a blind eye to criminality, rapidly forgetting morality and
humanity, pretending not to know the actions of their government and later,
when the consequences to those actions finally arise, saying they did not
understand, denying complicity and accepting ignorance. Yet purposefully
they cover their eyes when it is conv! enient, but not when it is suitable
to their wants and needs, when their fears and hatreds have fed on the
vicarious crimes against humanity committed by their leaders. Through quiet
acquiescence to the crimes of their masters they become complicit actors to
the actions of madmen, their psyches becoming a vacuum devoid of virtue and
morality, their failure to speak out or act against the crimes they allow
to continue making them as guilty as those committing them...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19308&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19308


Iraq’s sham election deepens ethnic and religious divisions
U.S. fans the flames
ERIC RUDER, Socialist Worker
RESIDENTS OF Baghdad spent New Year’s Eve in darkness, filling many with
gloom about their prospects in the coming year. "Baghdad’s already sporadic
electrical power supply was cut to about an hour [on December 31], causing
a legion of private generators to roar steadily and dampening the spirits
of millions of Iraqis preparing for New Year’s Eve, traditionally a joyous
time of fireworks, famil! y gatherings and public outings," reported the
Los Angeles Times. "The power outages added to the building frustration
over last week’s steep increase in gasoline prices. Baghdad residents
waited up to three hours in lines...to get fuel, apparently prompted by a
shortage and fear of further cuts in subsidies"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19278&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19278


12 Political Insights: A 2006 Starter-Kit
Bernard Weiner, Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers
Bush&Co.'s scandals are coming so rapidly and getting so huge that it's
hard to lay off talking about them at length, but in this new year, let's
step back a bit for some longer-range perspectives. In no particular order,
here from decades of politics-watching are a dozen bits of insight, most of
which were reinforced by events in year 2005. Below each is some discussion
of how those truisms flowered in the Bush era...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19277&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19277


Anger as Britain admits it was wrong to blame Iran for deaths in Iraq
Kim Sengupta, Ben Russell and Terri Judd
MPs and soldiers' families have demanded an explanation from the Government
after a U-turn over claims that Iran was complicit in the killing of
British soldiers in southern Iraq. Britain has dropped the charge of
Iranian involvement after senior officials had repeatedly accused the
Tehran regime of supplying sophisticated explosive devices to insurgents.
Government officials now acknowledge that there i! s no evidence, or even
reliable intelligence, connecting the Iranian government to the infra-red
triggered bombs which have killed 10 British soldiers in the past eight
months...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19298&s2=06>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19298




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