[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 26 Jan 2006 - Part One]

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APPEAL FOR THE PROPER TREATMENT OF MR. TARIQ AZIZ
Denis J. Halliday & Hans von Sponeck, BRussells Tribunal
The BBC has reported that Mr. Tariq Aziz has suffered a stroke and that his
lawyer fears "he may not live more than a month" following a "cerebral
embolism". The lawyer, Badie Arif Ezzat, has said that Mr. Tariq Aziz is
being held in a two square meter cell that was "only fit to keep dogs in".
Given his apparent health situation and the fact that he has not been
charged after giving himself up in April ! 2003, this is a request for his
release from Hans von Sponeck and Denis J. Halliday, former United Nations
Humanitarian Coordinators in Iraq (1997-2000). In keeping with the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions and
Protocols, Mr. Tariq Aziz, former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime
Minister of Iraq is entitled to humane treatment and should not be further
held without charges after three years if incarceration...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19975&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19975


MEDIA ALERT: PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS – IRAQ BODY COUNT – PART 2
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
...But why has IBC not made crystal clear on its website that its figures
under-represent the true figure in a particular direction – one that
clearly favours the US-UK 'coalition'? Where are the caveats on the website
advising that sources based on a largely Western press reporting on Western
armies engaged in a ferocious war are inherently biased against filling in
the wrong ! gaps – the gaps that reflect badly on the West? Why has IBC not
mentioned the obvious reluctance of the 'coalition’ to allow journalists to
discover, research and confirm examples of mass killing by US-UK forces?
Why has IBC not mentioned the long history of Western media failing to
report Western responsibility for suffering and death in the Third World?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19966&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19966


The forgotten war - US soldier killed
Truth About Iraqis
The above title may have seemed an odd choice. War is raging in Iraq:
dozens of people go missing every one or two days; kidnappings; attacks on
US forces; on Sunni leaders; on Iraqi police; on oil infrastructure. Then
there is the dwindling state of health care in the south of the country,
in-fighting between ideologically diametrical Shia factions in the south,
poor drinking water nation-wide, missing coffers of reconstruction funds
... too many ne! wsworthy items to list. So, why has the war in Iraq (and
its consequences) slipped off the pages of America's press?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19962&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19962


Some Humans Ain't Human
Anwaar Hussain, Fountainhead
Today, I will introduce two persons in this column. One is an Australian,
the other an American. Presumably, neither knows the other. Together,
however, they make a huge point. The Australian is one Dr. Gideon Polya. I
recently received an email from him that contained a formal complaint he
made to the International Criminal Court charging the Coalition with war
crimes in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. The abridged gist of Dr. Polya
formal complaint to the Int! ernational Criminal Court at The Hague,
Netherlands over Coalition war crimes in Occupied Iraq & Afghanistan is
reproduced below (...) Dr. Gideon Polya's appeal to the International
Criminal Court regarding the crimes of these human monsters against their
fellow human beings brings us to the second person to be introduced in this
column. He is an American singer by the name of John Prine. Prine is a
Grammy Award winning country/folk singer/songwriter who has achieved
widespread acclaim since the early 1970s. He recently sang a song in which
the repeat lyric line was; Some Humans Ain’t Humans. Prine knows. Indeed..

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Try them in Falluja
Baghdad Dweller
For sure you don’t find this on American newspapers, so that’s why there
are Blogs: Lawyer: Saddam Wants to Sue Bush, Blair "We will sue Bush, Blair
and Rumsfeld in The Hague for using such weapons of mass destruction,"
al-Dulaimi, in Jordan, told The Associated Press in Baghdad during a
telephone interview...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19963&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19963


Iraqi journalist murdered by US troops
Truth About Iraqis
Yesterday, news emerged that an Iraqi journalist was killed by US troops in
Ramadi. The journalist's body was riddled with bullets - some 20 of them. I
held my tongue, I had suspicions. It's a pattern, you see. Iraqi
journalists getting picked off one by one. Today, thankfully and to their
credit, the Washington Post shed light on the incident...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19980&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19980


WE DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME
Progressive Religion and Politics: The Ten Commandments in a Time of War
Rev. Rich Lang, The Source (Seattle's Ecumenical Church Newspaper) and
GlobalResearch.ca
...The office of the president, with the acquiescence of the Congress, is
fast becoming the office of a supreme leader who can change law through
"signing statements" and extinguish law through an assumption of war
powers. We have become a nation that practices torture. We have become a
nation that targets an! d kills civilians. We have become a nation that
disappears people. We imprison people without trial. We monitor what we
say, who we say it to, when we say it, where we say it. All of this in the
name of freedom and all of this disguised as justice. All of this covered
with the silence and blessing of the clergy who will not blow the trumpet.
The signs are clearly all around us. We have students spying on their
professors. We have government agencies spying on us. We have our computer
transactions monitored. We have our children accosted by military
recruiters at school, through the mail, through the media, at the mall...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19976&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19976


Diplomacy as a real option: Avoiding Iraq fallout with Iran
Ramzy Baroud
...The Islamic Republic invaded no one and is not exactly known to be the
Middle East’s foremost violator of international law. Currently, it is the
Bush administration that has a blatant record of breaching the sovereignty
of independent nations, through invasions and the like, including that of
its own allies, through the newly discovered secret prison network
maintained throughout Europe. Moreover, it is Israel that has the infamous
reput! ation of recklessly dashing through the borders of its neighbors
(all four of them to be exact), ordering bombing raids and assassinations
across the region. However, few in Washington and even fewer in the
mainstream media seem at all bothered by the fact that Israel’s nuclear
program, clearly not built for peaceful purposes, is ready to charge with
the press of a button...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19974&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19974


Real international terrorism: How and why the West supports terrorism
Roy Naganathan, Online Journal Contributing Writer
...Thus, the typical terrorist is not the real threat to the world. The
governments and institutions of the West, who engineer and commit
international terrorism through their sponsorship of state terrorism, are
the true threat to the world; since terrorism leads to the dismantling of
democracy and the inevitable backlash of the oppressed. Topics discussed
and analyzed will be the use of terror! ism by the West, the backlash of
the oppressed, media disinformation, the dismantling of democracy, and the
effects of "terrorism" on Canadian Law. The following issues analyzed and
discussed shall be on current events in areas of the world that are
normally ignored or trivialized by the mainstream media...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19973&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19973


A New World Is Possible
Cindy Sheehan
And necessary! This is the theme for the World Social Forum that I (along
with tens of thousands of people from all over the world) am attending in
Caracas this week. I know the idea of a world where everyone lives in peace
and with justice is very "subversive," but the theme is very close to my
heart and soul. We need a new world. This one is broken. Before my son
Casey was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, I had never traveled much to
speak of. I had gone to Israel and Mexi! co and that was about it. I had a
barely used passport. Since I began to speak out against the dishonesty and
deception that led to this illegal and morally reprehensible occupation of
Iraq, I have journeyed all over the United States and now am starting to
fill my passport with stamps...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19972&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19972


Bush on Trial for Crimes against Humanity
Marjorie Cohn
he International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes against Humanity Committed
by the Bush Administration convened last weekend in New York City's
Riverside Church. Martin Luther King Jr.'s portrait hangs in the foyer. Dr.
King delivered his historic 1967 speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Place to Break
the Silence," opposing the war and calling for the removal of all foreign
troops from Vietnam, in that same church. Center for Constitutional Rights
President Michae! l Ratner, who delivered a keynote address to the
commission of inquiry, invoked Dr. King's words from 1967: "A time comes
when silence is betrayal." The following year, the Bertrand Russell War
Crimes Tribunal put the US government on trial for "crimes without
precedent" it was committing in Vietnam. In the tradition of the Russell
tribunal, the panel of judges at the commission of inquiry heard evidence
of George W. Bush's war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, and elsewhere...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19971&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19971


German government blocking inquiry into secret aid provided for Iraq invasion
Justus Leicht and Peter Schwarz, WSWS
The German government is strenuously seeking to prevent a parliamentary
committee of inquiry aimed at clarifying the role played by Germany’s
former Social Democratic (SPD)-Green Party coalition in supporting the Iraq
war and other illegal practices carried out by the US government. All of
the parties in Germany’s current grand coalition elected last autumn—the
SPD, the conservative Christian Democr! atic Union (CDU) and Christian
Social Union (CSU)—are working in unison to prevent any parliamentary
investigation...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19970&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
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President Jonah
Gore Vidal
While contemplating the ill-starred presidency of G.W. Bush, I looked about
for some sort of divine analogy. As usual, when in need of enlightenment, I
fell upon the Holy Bible, authorized King James version of 1611; turning by
chance to the Book of Jonah, I read that Jonah, who, like Bush, chats with
God, had suffered a falling out with the Almighty and thus became a jinx
dogged by luck so bad that a cruise liner, thanks to his presence aboard,
was about to sink in a storm at sea...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19969&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19969


Where to now, Palestine? Some reflections
Gilad Atzmon, peacepalestine
...Let’s all face it; the Palestinian people have chosen to live in a
Muslim state rather than in a secular one. If we are as democratic as we
claim to be, it is down to us to respect and welcome the Palestinian
people’s choice. I would suggest that to support Palestine is to support
the Palestinian people and their right of return regardless of their
political, theological or cultural choices. However, we have to remember
that almost half of! the Palestinian people voted for the Fatah movement,
in other words, very many Palestinians may prefer to live in a secular
state. It is necessary to add as well that the vote today represents the
choice of the Palestinian people who live in Palestine. It is rather
possible that an election that would include Diaspora Palestinians in the
region and overseas might well lead to different results altogether...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19968&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19968


Crooks, thieves, charlatans, and demagogues: Bush’s Doctrine in 2006
The Angry Arab News Service
Now, really. It is high time to evaluate Bush’s doctrine in this year. This
new Palestinian election-under-occupation is big, and the results are quite
significant not only in terms of Palestinian struggle, but also in terms of
Bush’s so-called project for changing the Middle East. You have to think
about it: his policies has helped install the rule of the Ayatollah in Iraq
(and the fragmentation of Iraq), and now t! he rule of Hamas in Palestine.
Make no mistake about it: the Palestinians were not voting for Hamas’
ideology; nor for its peculiar style of rhetoric and "actions." This was
merely a strong vote against Bush’s Palestinian candidates: a vote against
the charlatans, crooks, thieves, and demagogues who lead the Fath’s list of
Bush’s candidates...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19982&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19982


How the BBC hollows out the ‘news’
William Bowles, I'n'I
...Thus in the instance of the BBC’s presentation of (entirely legitimate)
Palestinian resistance to occupation, it becomes "armed confrontation", a
phrase which is not only inaccurate but provocative as it implies that it
is the Palestinians who are instigating the violence in trying to obtain
their legitimate rights to a national home. The 'confrontation’ is entirely
one-sided consisting only of Palestinian "armed confrontation". Israel has
been completel! y removed from the equation...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19967&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19967


Osama and the J. Edgar Hoover Memorial Vacuum Cleaner
Kurt Nimmo
Osama, dead and buried, is the reason George Bush and the NSA are snooping
your daughter’s cell phone calls to her boyfriend, or reading your email,
disregarding the Constitution, and turning America into an Orwellian police
state. All of this is necessary because, who knows, your neighbor might be
a member of a sleeper cell or a vegetarian. "US President George W. Bush
said today that a controversial domestic spying program that some critics
say is! illegal was necessary in light of new threats on an audiotape from
Osama bin Laden," reports the Herald Sun...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19964&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19964


Report Finds Future of Army In Danger; Rumsfeld Responds By Blaming Clinton
Think Progress
Yesterday, former Defense Secretary William Perry released a study that
found that "the strain of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan is
endangering the nation." A copy of the report is available here. The Perry
study came on the heels of an official Pentagon study that came to a
similar conclusion. Even the top U.S. commander in Iraq recognizes the
military is overstretched. Everyone seems to acknowledge the problem
except! Donald Rumsfeld. The Secretary of Defense defiantly claimed: "The
force is not broken. … I just can’t imagine someone looking at the United
States armed forces today and suggesting that they’re close to breaking.
That’s just not the case"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19977&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19977


Why are European governments pretending to be unaware of CIA torture centres?
Steve Watson / Infowars
This week it has been confirmed that European governments were aware of CIA
renditioning flights and the existence of torture centres. The European
Council Parliamentary Assembly (ECPA) member Dick Marty declared European
administrations were in fact aware of the CIA's secret torture prisons. The
report also highlights evidence that the CIA has set up a coordinated
system to outsource the interrogations of terror! ism suspects to countries
where torture is used. If this is the case then we have to ask the
important question: Why are other governments pretending to be unaware of
such things? "It is obvious that the CIA attempted to conduct illegal
activities in Europe, which the European intelligence services were aware
of." Commented Swiss Senator Marty...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19983&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19983


Iraq struggles in power vacuum
Paul Krugman, The New York Times
In the State of the Union address, President Bush will surely assert, to
choreographed applause, that he has a strategy for victory in Iraq. I don't
believe him. In fact, I believe that three years into the conflict his
administration refuses to admit defeat but has given up even trying to win.
To explain, let me tell you some stories about electricity. Power shortages
are a crucial issue for ordinary Iraqis, and for the credibility of their
governme! nt. As Muhsin Shlash, Iraq's electricity minister, said last
week, "When you lose electricity the country is destroyed, nothing works,
all industry is down, and terrorist activity is increased"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19981&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19981


How Israel and the United States Helped to Bolster Hamas
Democracy Now!
As Hamas wins an upset victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections,
we take a look at the little-known rise of the militant group with
investigative journalist Robert Dreyfuss, author of the new book "Devil's
Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam." In it,
Dreyfuss reveals how the U.S. looked the other way when Israel's secret
service supported the creation of Hamas...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=19965&s2=27>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=19965




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