[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 11 Jan 2006 - Part One]

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Does One Good Deed Atone for all the Evils We Have Given Iraq?
Earl J. Prignitz
Isn't it amazing the way the press turns one good turn into such a
spectacular feature story? I would never complain about the concern that
Lt. Jeff Morgan had for Baby Noor. Not for one second, but what about the
thousands of the Iraqi children that have been left with birth defects as a
result of all the depleted uranium we have left for the poor Iraqi's to
live with from now on?
Depleted uranium, known as DU, is a highly dense metal that is the
byproduct of the process during which fissionable uranium used to
manufacture nuclear bombs and reactor fuel is separated from natural
uranium. DU remains radioactive for about 4.5 billion years...
WARNING: Extremely Graphic Images!

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19481&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19481


'Democracy' Brings Bleak Days
Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
...The situation on the ground remains dire, with estimates of unemployment
at 70 percent. "My three sons have graduated from college, yet they still
cannot find decent jobs because there are no jobs available," former deputy
minister for trade Dr. Abdul Hadi told IPS. The Saddam regime "did not
allow any of the graduates to be without jobs," he said. Now there is even
a severe shortage of teachers in the universities. "I will not be satisfied
until I find! that all the people have the will to rebuild their country
instead of humiliating their brothers," said Dr. Hadi. "I want to tell
(U.S. President George) Bush that he has destroyed our country for at least
the next 25 years. He is the greatest terrorist, Arabs can never forget"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19464&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19464


Tomgram: Michael Schwartz on Iraq as a Killing Ground
Tom Engelhardt & Michael Schwartz
...We can gain some perspective on this military strategy by imagining
similar rules of engagement for an American police force in some large
city. Imagine, for example, a team of criminals in that city fleeing into a
nearby apartment building after gunning down a policeman. It would be
unthinkable for the police to simply call in airships to demolish the
structure, killing any people -- helpless hostages, neighbors, or even f!
riends of the perpetrators -- who were with or near them. In fact, the
rules of engagement for the police, even in such a situation of extreme
provocation, call for them to "hold their fire" -- if necessary allowing
the perpetrators to escape -- if there is a risk of injuring civilians. And
this is a reasonable rule... because we value the lives of innocent
American citizens over our determination to capture a criminal, even a cop
killer. But in Iraqi cities, our values and priorities are quite
differently arranged...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19469&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19469


The Anti-Empire Report
Of Plunder and Yankee Karma
William Blum, www.dissidentvoice.org
The sign has been put out front: "Iraq is open for business." We read about
things done and said by the Iraqi president, or the Ministry of this or the
Ministry of that, and it's easy to get the impression that Iraq is in the
process of becoming a sovereign state, albeit not particularly secular and
employing torture, but still, a functioning, independent state. Then we
read about the IMF and the rest of the inter! national financial mafia --
with the US playing its usual sine qua non role -- making large loans to
the country and forgiving debts, with the customary strings attached, in
the current instance ending government subsidies for fuel and other
petroleum products. And so the government starts to reduce the subsidies
for these products which affect almost every important aspect of life, and
the prices quickly quintuple, sparking wide discontent and protests. Who in
this sovereign nation wanted to add more suffering to the already
beaten-down Iraqi people? ...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19483&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
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Word Games
William Bowles, I'n'I
What might be generically termed as 'red scares’ or to bring it up to date,
the 'global terror network’ have an extremely long pedigree, some five
hundred years to be exact. In fact, the idea that there are secret networks
with the objective of overthrowing the 'established order’ can be traced
back to the witch hunts against women that first appeared in the 15th
century, not coincidentally with the rise of capitalism. Over these five
centuries, the demons have changed genders, na! mes and means, but one
thing has stayed constant, 'secret terror networks’ whose one objective is
the destruction of the state...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19482&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19482


The Highly Informative Hissy Fit of L. Paul Bremer III
Chris Floyd, Empire Burlesque
We need shed no tears for Paul Bremer, the former satrap of Iraq who now
claims that he was set up by the Pentagon as the "fall guy" for the Bush
Regime's bloodsoaked folly in Iraq. No one put a gun to his head and forced
him to take up the colonial overseer's baton, and if the Bushists, in their
usual manner, used him up then spit him out, that's just too damn bad.
Anyone who cast their lot with this wretched enterprise deserves!
everything they get, in spades. But that doesn't mean that there isn't much
useful information to be gleaned from Bremer's whiny new memoir, especially
the insider confirmation that neither the Bush warmongers nor their corrupt
Iraq collaborators ever had the slightest idea of what to do with the
country once they ripped it to shreds – other than just loot it and kill
people...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19486&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
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SHOULD GOD BLESS AMERICA?
Craig Etchison, Ph.D., Axis of Logic
In the many letters and commentaries published in my local paper since the
beginning of the Iraq war, quite a few conclude with the blazing sentiment,
"God Bless America." Bumper stickers abound with the same words wherever I
drive on the east coast. Signs in front of businesses proclaim, "God Bless
America." almost as if God blessing America is a given, something that goes
without saying because...well, because we're America. This raises a fundam!
ental question that is seldom, if ever, asked or discussed--should God
bless America?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19479&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19479


Was NYT’s David Rosenbaum Assassinated?
Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire
...Is it possible Rosenbaum was assassinated in order to send a strong
message to the corporate media to tow the line? Of course, the corporate
media has more or less dutifully disseminated the neocon line—from the
so-called "war on terrorism" (rife with lies and fakery) to selling the
Straussian neocon invasion of Iraq (more lies and outright fabrication)—but
even so, the New York Times’ primary goal is to sell newspapers and enrich
st! ockholders and no doubt the NSA snoop "scandal," splashed across
headlines a year late, sold a few extra copies of the "Gray Lady" and also
restored to a certain degree the newspaper’s reputation in the wake of the
fact it served (primarily through the neocon shill Judith Miller) as a
propaganda organ for the Straussian total war agenda, beginning with the
invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq....

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19478&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19478


Mass Surveillance Is Not Legal
Rowan Wolf, POAC
I am not sure why it is even a question whether the President has the right
to spurious surveillance of U.S. citizens, but apparently it is. A report
released on January 5, 2005 by the Congressional Research Services, states
that Bush likely exceeded his authority in authorizing the NSA to engage in
warrantless wiretaps. At the root of the Bush argument is that he has
limitless power as president in a time of war. First, while the scope of
presidential authority dur! ing war time is broad, but not limitless - and
not without oversight (...) At the heart of the presidential powers that
Bush argues for, is that we are at "war." However, that "war" is an ever
shifting chimera called the "war on terrorism." We have been told that
there is no specific enemy in this "war," that it is global in reach, and
that it will last for generations. If we accept the war on terrorism as a
legitimate and legal war, then we are essentially making a dictator out of
the presidency no matter who is in office...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19474&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19474


Rumsfeld’s Archipelago of Gulags
Clive Stafford Smith
For four years Guantánamo’s high profile obscured a far shadier world of
US-sponsored interrogation chambers around the world, writes Clive Stafford
Smith. Only now is the world finally asking about the archipelago of US
prisons around the world, and the fleet of CIA aircraft ferrying prisoners
from one torture chamber to the next...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19470&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19470


Cindy Sheehan's Irish Interview
Sheehan to Sheehan
RONAN SHEEHAN, CounterPunch
... I'm very disappointed in the Catholic Church, too, that they haven't
been outspoken against--in America, I don't know about in Europe, but our
American bishops, our American cardinals, have not come out strongly
against the war; they talk about social issues and abortion, and gay
marriage, and thinks like that which are important, but to me the most
important thing as people of faith and people who are followers of Jesus!
Christ is peace...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19468&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19468


Shiites Escalate Conflict with US Over Sunni Strategy
Gareth Porter
In escalating their conflict with the United States over its efforts to
weaken the Iraqi insurgency by coopting Sunni political figures, Shiite
party leaders may have delivered a fatal blow to that strategy. U.S.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been trying to convince the Sunni
population that a share of political power will protect their interests.
But the ruling Shiite party -- supported by the anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr -- has now broken! decisively with that strategy, castigating both
Sunni political leaders and the United States as being apologists for
terrorists...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19467&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19467


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice. ( http://www.freearabvoice.org )
... The Iraqi Resistance group the Islamic Army on Monday issued a
statement refuting claims being made by the US government regarding
negotiations that have supposedly taken place. In a statement, a copy of
which was obtained by Mafkarat al-Islam, the Islamic Army said that it
wanted to issue a declaration to coincide with! the Day of 'Arafah during
the Islamic Pilgrimage to pledge to make a sacrifice of "the enemies of God
who wrecked the country and God’s servants there and violated
sanctuaries"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19466&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19466


The assassination of David Rosenbaum
Xymphora
...David Rosenbaum was a high-level NYT journalist, not the kind of guy
from whom you'd expect to get much real truth (he was no Gary Webb), but
had recently (a month ago) retired from the newsroom of an organization
that has a lot to hide. Was he hinting that he might reveal some of the
secrets behind the odd relationship of the Times to the Bush Administration
(holding stories of extreme national importance back for a year, and
engaging in discussion of what news is! 'fit to print'), or behind the
campaign of lies told by the Times to help the Bush Administration trick
the American people into the attack on Iraq?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19465&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19465


US sees Iraqi oil production choked for years
Miriam Amie
Iraq has vast hydrocarbon potential that could rival major producers such
as Saudi Arabia and Russia, but United States government analysts are
predicting that Iraqi oil production development will remain thwarted for
years to come. Its enormous reserves of an estimated 115-billion barrels of
proven crude are the world's third largest after those of the Saudi Kingdom
and Canada. As of December 2005, Iraqi net oil production was averaging a
modest 1,9-milli! on barrels per day (bpd) according to the latest country
report on Iraq compiled by the US government's Energy Information Agency
(EIA)...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19463&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19463


McClellan: Nuh-Uh, We're Not Talking to Them
Robert Dreyfuss
Scott McClellan ... made a special point of saying that the United States
isn't talking to the bad guys in Iraq. Like Bush in December, he made a
curious distinction among the insurgents, separating them into terrorists,
Saddamists, and rejectionists. Only the latter, said McClellan, are worth
talking to. But he fails ot make the case for not talking to the Baathists,
whether they are "Saddamists" or not. As I have argued repeatedly, talking
to the resi! stance without including the Baath means endless war--since,
getting a few "rejectionist" Sunnis or Sunni religious leaders to join the
government will not end the insurgency.

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19476&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19476


MoveOn.org Surrenders
Silence is Complicity
Joshua Frank
It’s a good thing for MoveOn.org that George W. Bush was reelected. If he
hadn’t been, the liberal troupe would have nothing to contest. Even if the
bloody occupation had continued under a John Kerry presidency (it most
certainly would have), the cowering office-chair activists would have
ducked behind their computer screens awaiting the return of another brutal
Republican administration. Activism should never be partisan, but
Moveon.org isn’t ab! out to hold the Democrats accountable for supporting
Bush’s war agenda. I’m not even all that sure MoveOn opposes the Iraq war...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19462&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19462


Bremer Whitewashes His Record In Iraq
Think Progress
Today, Paul Bremer, the former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority,
releases a new book on his year in Iraq. Bremer is currently embarking on a
media tour to pitch the book, and in doing so, is contradicting many of the
false assertions he made about Iraq while he was in a position of
authority...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19461&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19461


National Security Agency mounted massive spy op on Baltimore peace group,
documents show
Kevin Zeese, Raw Story
The National Security Agency has been spying on a Baltimore anti-war group,
according to documents released during litigation, going so far as to
document the inflating of protesters' balloons, and intended to deploy
units trained to detect weapons of mass destruction, RAW STORY has learned.
According to the documents, the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, a
Quaker-linked peace group, has been monitored b! y the NSA working with the
Baltimore Intelligence Unit of the Baltimore City Police Department...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19495&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19495


Canada: The time to speak on Khadr is now
RICK WILSON AND MUNEER AHMED
As the new year begins, 19-year-old Canadian Omar Khadr continues his
fourth year in American captivity at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Only 15 at the
time U.S. troops took him prisoner, for the past three years Khadr has been
held in solitary confinement, virtually incommunicado, without charge, and
subject to torture and abuse during continuous interrogation by his
captors. The U.S. has now charged Khadr with alleged war crimes, and plans
to try hi! m before a military commission beginning Wednesday. Despite
international condemnation of the commission as fundamentally unfair, the
Canadian government, regrettably, has kept silent on Khadr's prosecution...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19459&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19459


U.S. Admits Opening Private Mail
Free Internet Press
U.S. officials are opening personal mail that arrives from abroad when they
deem it necessary to protect the country from terrorism, a Customs and
Border Protection spokeswoman said Monday. News of the little-known
practice follows revelations that the government approved eavesdropping on
U.S. citizens without judicial oversight after the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001, which sparked concern from civil liberties advocates
and some lawmakers, who called! for congressional hearings...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19487&s2=11>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19487




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