[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 08 Jan 2006]

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'War on Terror' or Shot in Foot?
Felicity Arbuthnot, Special to PalestineChronicle.com
Addressing the US Naval Academy on 30th November, President Bush cited Iraq
as '..the central front in the war on terror.' The Iraq war is producing
'professionalised' terrorists, states a Report from the US National
Intelligence Council. Well, that went well then. A country which was safe,
stable (as long as, like most of the region, you did not mess with the
regime) is now in mayhem, the region destabilized and bombs have det!
onated across the globe and from Bali to Madrid from London to Sharm
el-Sheikh and in Iraq's neighbor, Jordan. Iraq lies in ruins, the US
foreign fighters illegally occupying the country incessantly say they are
determined to: 'rid Iraq of foreign fighters', whilst incidentally maiming,
mutilating, killing, torturing, demolishing - Syria and Iran now appear to
be in the cross-hairs - and back home their country men and women are
asking: 'Why does the world hate us?'...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19393&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19393


Attending a Human Rights Meeting!!
or
One Morning in Baghdad...
Sabah Ali, BRussells Tribunal
Human rights meetings are always interesting to me, no matter what. Just to
show up in such meetings is support to people who desperately need it.
There are millions of them in Iraq nowadays. That's why I decided to go to
Falloja to attend one of these meeting although I was invited on a short
notice. As usual, no taxi driver was willing to take me to Karkh (western
side of Baghdad), where the Alawy car station i! s (...) At the Amriya fuel
station, kilometers of car queues were waiting. There was no fuel in the
station, but the cars were waiting just in case the tank comes. After the
latest 5-double rise in the oil prices, few could buy it in the black
market. In the Falluja car at last, but the high way was closed. We had to
take a detour through Shu'la, a village north of Baghdad, close to
Kadhimiya, ironically. But Shu'la check point was also closed and we had to
take another detour through a dusty, deserted and dangerous road. An hour
later we were again on the highway, only 5 minutes west of Amriya. Falluja,
by the way, is normally no more than 30 minutes west of Baghdad. When I
entered the meeting room, it was almost 1pm. The meeting was held in a
school, with students, classes and everything. The meeting was ending. A
man was talking passionately about the oil problem, the corruption and the
missing men in jails. His voice collapsed and he broke into tears...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19389&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19389


Five trillion and counting
Xymphora
I guess I'm turning into a warblogger or something in suggesting that the
Iraq war will cost Americans a trillion dollars. The real cost is between
one and two (or here) trillion, or even more. A trillion here, a trillion
there, eventually it adds up to real money. You would also have to add in
the irreparable cost of the Bush misadventure to the American brand around
the world. It has already been calculated that American support for Israel
cost Americans over three trillion d! ollars from 1973 to 2002 alone. If
you add that to the cost of a war that would not have occurred but for the
concerted efforts of Israeli agents working within the American government
and following an Israeli blueprint, Israel has probably, on a conservative
estimate, cost Americans around five trillion dollars...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19390&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19390


John Yoo – Presidential Powers Extend to Ordering Torture of Suspect's Child
Philip Watts, Revolution Online
John Yoo publicly argued there is no law that could prevent the President
from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody – including by
crushing that child’s testicles. This came out in response to a question in
a December 1st debate in Chicago with Notre Dame professor and
international human rights scholar Doug Cassel. What is particularly
chilling and revealing about this is that John Yoo ! was a key architect
post-9/11 Bush Administration legal policy. As a deputy assistant to
then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, John Yoo authored a number of legal
memos arguing for unlimited presidential powers to order torture of captive
suspects, and to declare war anytime, any where, and on anyone the
President deemed a threat...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19386&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19386


GI Special 4A1: Prisoners Against The War - January 1, 2006
www.militaryproject.org
This announcement follows a meeting between members of the Military Project
Organizing Committee and Stanley Howard at Statesville Prison, Joliet,
Illinois, on 12.29.05, at which time permission was given to GI Special to
make known to the public the existence of and statements by members of a
new organization, Prisoners Against The War. In the week leading up to the
Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday, GI Special will lead w! ith
statements written by members of Prisoners Against The War. Organized by
Stanley Howard and five other imprisoned members of the Military Project,
Prisoners Against The War breaks new ground. There has been no organization
like this in recent American history. That may be an understatement, since
no record of a similar organization has been found at any point in American
history. Prisoners Against The War hopes to inspire other prisoners, both
in civilian and military prisons, to organize their own chapters, and
spread the movement nation-wide...

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12 Killed in Blackhawk Crash
Associated Press
A Blackhawk helicopter with 12 people believed aboard crashed just before
midnight in northern Iraq, killing all passengers and crew, the military
said Sunday. The UH-60 Blackhawk crashed just before midnight Saturday
about 12 kilometers (seven miles) east of Tal Afar. The military said
records indicated that eight passengers and four crew members were aboard.
The Blackhawk was part of a two-helicopter team moving between bases when
communications were lost, the milit! ary said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19391&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19391


US Propaganda vs. Iraqi Reality
Dahr Jamail
It appears as though the Cheney administration will soon "redeploy"
thousands of US troops out of Iraq. While several permanent US military
bases are under construction there as I type this, the Capital Hill Cabal,
desperate to paint the Iraq disaster in a glorious hue, are working their
pundits and spokespeople overtime to convince the ill-informed they have
not failed dismally in every aspect of their illegal invasion and
occupation of Iraq. In his weekly radio addres! s on Saturday, Mr. Bush did
not mention Iraq once. Instead, he spoke of the bright and shining US
economy and the need to maintain current tax cuts (...) What better time to
maintain tax cuts in the US, particularly when a new study by Nobel
Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard budget expert Linda Bilmes estimates
the cost of the Iraq war to be between $1-2 trillion, and the national debt
already over $8 trillion?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19395&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19395


Follow-up Video: Iraqi Civilians Killed in U.S. Air Strikes
David Edwards, Brad blog
As BRAD BLOG reported when this story broke earlier this week, US air
strikes north of Baghdad destroyed a house and killed an Iraqi family as
they prepared for bed (...) This translated Syrian TV report is the only
significant video coverage we could find detailing the deadly air strikes
reported by BRAD BLOG earlier this week...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19378&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19378


Ariel Sharon, man of "peace"
Eli Stephens, Left I on the News
That's the "peace of the grave," of course (...) Most people on the left
have heard of the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, in which somewhere between
460 and 3,500 Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps were killed by
Lebanese Christian forces, while Israeli troops under the command of Ariel
Sharon were surrounding those camps. Even an Israeli commisson found that
Sharon "bears personal responsibility" and recommended his removal as
Defense Ministe! r. But that was in 1982. What I had never heard about, and
I wager most people haven't either, is the first event in the history of
this "man of peace," another massacre, this one in the Lebanese (now West
Bank) town of Qibya in 1953...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19401&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19401


The Rule of Law in the 'New Iraq'
Iraqi Vice-President; "Saddam must be put to death without trial”
Ali Rifat, Baghdad
AN Iraqi who is one of the favourites to become the country’s next prime
minister has said that Saddam Hussein should have been summarily executed
and warned that his continuing trial is having a negative effect on the
country. In an interview last week, Vice-President Adel Abdul Mahdi, 63, a
moderate Shi’ite, said that the former Iraqi leader’s many crimes, from
atrocities ! against his own people to the war with Iran, were evidence
that "he deserves to be put to death without trial" (...) He also defended
the Badr Brigade, blamed for the mistreatment of Sunni prisoners. "The Badr
organisation has sacrificed a lot," he said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19400&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19400


Criminal Charge Dropped Over Afghan Beating Deaths
Talk Left
In December, 2002, Mullah Habibullah and a man named Dilawar died while
being held for interrogation at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan. Their deaths
were ruled homicides, caused by blunt force trauma. In other words, they
were beaten to death. An investigation ensued but the military would not
release the details. Subsequently it was revealed that both died while
shackled to the ceiling of their cells, after repeatedly being kneed in the
legs...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19398&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19398


Blair Should Be Impeached Over Iraq War: UK General
IslamOnline.net
British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be impeached for his role in the
Iraq war, a leading British Army officer was quoted as saying by Britain's
the Mail on Sunday. "I think the politicians should be held to account ...
my view is that Blair should be impeached," General Sir Michael Rose, a
former UN commander in Bosnia, said in a television documentary to be aired
on Channel Four television on Friday, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP)...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19394&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19394


Five U.S. Marines killed in western Iraq
Reuters
Five U.S. Marines have been killed in western Iraq this weekend, the U.S.
military said on Sunday. They said three Marines were killed in three
separate attacks while conducting combat operations near the Iraqi city of
Falluja on Sunday. All three were killed by small arms fire. The other two
were killed on Saturday in two separate bomb attacks on their patrols in
villages near Falluja...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19392&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19392


US troops raid Sunni clerics' Iraq office: report
Reuters
U.S. troops launched a pre-dawn raid on Sunday on the headquarters of the
influential Sunni Arab Muslim Clerics' Association, which opposes the U.S.
occupation, and detained five people, the association said. U.S. troops
burst into the Umm al-Qora mosque complex in western Baghdad at 3 a.m.,
blowing doors off hinges and ransacking offices, an association official
who declined to be named told Reuters...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19396&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19396


An inaccuracy in Risen's book, "State of War"
Imad Khadduri , Free Iraq
A recent book, The State of War, by James Risen claims to expose several
scandals in the American intelligence community. On the book cover, Risen
himself pins his own commendation as "a member of the team that won the
Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2002 for coverage of September
11 and terrorism". If explanatory includes doing the proper search and
taking the pains to verify what you write, then his book fails dismally in
one in! stance...



<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19387&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19387


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Saturday, 7 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 5:50pm Mecca time Saturday evening, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that a short while earlier US warplanes had attacked a
family home in the city of ar-Ramadi. The correspondent for Mafkarat
al-Islam reported a medical source in the city as saying that four children
had been killed and three more wou! nded in the American air raid. Tow
women and one man also perished in the house. The correspondent reported
that as of the time of writing, the Americans had offered no explanation
for the attack on the civilian home. Iraqi puppet troops spoke to Mafkarat
al-Islam, however and claimed that the reason for the air raid on the house
was that an Iraqi Resistance sharpshooter had used the building about one
hour earlier to open fire on American occupation soldiers, killing two of
them. The Iraqi puppet troops said that the American assault on the house
was in response to that alleged attack...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19384&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19384


U.S. Troops Build Wall of Sand in Iraq
RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer
Villagers watched from rooftops as U.S. military bulldozers heaved a wall
of sand into snaking lines around their homes Saturday in an attempt to
trap insurgents believed to be hiding among them. The drastic tactic in
Siniyah came after weeks of increasingly bold insurgent attacks, including
almost daily roadside bombs targeting 101st Airborne Division soldiers
patrolling the village, 155 miles north of Baghdad...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19382&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19382


Guantanamo Bay force feeding raises painful memories for Irish republicans
Evan Short, Irelandclick.com
January 11 marks the fourth anniversary of detainees being held in the US
Military Detention Centre in Guantanamo Bay. In what has become one of the
most contentious issues surrounding the so-called war on terror, men and
boys who were arrested by the US Army after the invasion of Afghanistan and
labelled "unlawful combatants" were transferred to the camp in Cuba. The UN
special rapporteur on torture has revea! led that there are allegations
that Guantanamo hunger strikers are being force-fed in a cruel manner (...)
Denied access to a judicial process and forced to live in what human rights
groups have described as 'dog kennels' that offer little protection from
the elements, prisoners, some believed to be as young as 13, have in the
words of Amnesty International been involved in a "travesty of justice".
Such shocking abuses bring back painful memories for New Lodge man Sam
Millar. The former republican prisoner – now a major selling author – was
the longest man on the blanket protest. He said watching the scenes from
the horror camp were extremely distressing...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19381&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19381


He-Said, He-Said, and a 2006 Prediction
Karen Kwiatkowski
...The destruction of a sovereign Iraq was the primary objective of this
war - and that mission has in fact been accomplished. Bush was and remains
correct from the moment he famously landed on an aircraft carrier and
announced, "Mission Accomplished." Subsequent presidential medals, awards
and profuse praise for his Iraq war planners and leaders are consistent and
just in this regard. The cost in human lives, spirit, and hope on all
sides, as well as the ! financial cost may not have been worth it for those
"piling on" and going "defeatist" in the reality based world, but who
cares?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19375&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19375


BATTLE FOR AMERICA HAS BEGUN
The time has now come when silence is betrayal
Allen L Roland, Ph.D
The battle for America has begun. The time has now come when silence is
betrayal. The reasons are blatantly obvious; The Cheney/Bush administration
has not only launched an illegal war and occupation of Iraq based on lies
and deception, condoned and championed illegal torture and rendition of its
enemies, built a billion dollar Embassy and four super bases in Iraq with
no intention of leaving, but also mad! e a mockery of the ban on torture
signed into law on Dec. 30, 2005, by simultaneously signing a document
asserting the Presidents right to ignore the ban -- a further
demonstration, if one were needed, of their belief that as "commander in
chief" Bush is above the law...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19376&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19376


Neocon Police State Spreads Disinfo and Paranoia
Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire
Since when does an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history
professor, corresponding with a devout Catholic retired Filipino history
professor, pose a threat to the national security of the United States? Of
course, the answer is never. However, the fact the Ministry of Homeland
Security opened Grant Goodman’s mail has nothing to do with national
security or "al-Qaeda" and it has everything to do with sending a message—!
we live in a police state here in America, a one-time constitutional
republic where the authorities can and will snoop not only your mail but
your telephone, email, web destinations, credit card statement, bank
transaction records, library checkout information, etc., ad nauseam. In
fact, the reason this story appeared on the MSNBC website is to let you
know the corporate dominated government is watching...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19388&s2=08>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19388




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