[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 28 Jan 2006 - Part One]

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Hostage-taking in Iraq...by the U.S.
Eli Stephens, Left I on the News
AP writes today about military documents which show "The U.S. Army in Iraq
has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in
hopes of 'leveraging' their husbands into surrender." Like most Americans,
the AP has a short memory. The two incidents described in the AP article
occured in 2004. But this post from last April describes another incident,
and this one, from November 2003, discusses an article by AP itself
covering! the arrest of the wife and daughter of Izzat al-Douri. Yet
another post, from June 2004, notes that the detention of al-Douri's wife
and daughter continued, and links to a (no-longer online) Newsday article
which wrote that "the U.S. military is holding dozens of Iraqis as
bargaining chips to put pressure on their wanted relatives to surrender,
according to human rights groups...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20017&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20017


The Truth About Guantanamo -- An Interview With Capt. James Yee
Q&A, Sandip Roy, New America Media
...Q: Donald Rumsfeld has called the prisoners some of the "worst of the
worst." How did you find them? A: I disagree with that characterization.
Clearly many of them are innocent. At least three were between 12 and 14.
There are a dozen Uighurs from western China. Some of them have been deemed
to be not enemy combatants by the Pentagon's own review board but still
haven't been released. I saw prisoner! s who were so despondent they would
no longer eat. At least two were permanently in the hospital being
force-fed through a tube. One prisoner attempted suicide and ended up in a
coma. There were also mass suicide attempts.

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20031&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20031


Fatah, Israel and Hamas—Bush Doesn’t Have A Clue
Sam Hamod, Ph.D.
...Hamas’ rise to power is not that of a "terrorist group," but a group
that represents the Palestinian people who are sick and tired of the Israel
and American continually focusing on the "process talks," but never getting
any decisions that fair to Palestinians, and people who are sick and tired
of seeing their lands, their homes, their churches and mosques destroyed by
Israel and its "security wall," and through more army attacks on
Palestinian ! civilians, abuses at checkpoints that dot every hamlet,
village and Palestinian city or route, and who are sick of the corruption
inside the old Arafat Fatah leadership that has taken care of itself but
not taken care of the Palestinian people...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20029&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20029


The unimaginable cost of the Iraq war
LeiLani Dowell
As activists gear up to protest the third anniversary of the Iraq war, the
cost of that war—in money spent, wounds sustained and lives lost—continues
to grow. A report released by 2001 Nobel-Prize-winning economist Joseph
Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes has now set the
war’s monetary cost to the United States at between $1 trillion and $2
trillion. This up to 10 times more than previously estimated. Stiglitz
stressed to the Guardian t! hat the report’s estimates are actually
conservative, and do not include costs to Iraq or Britain...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20028&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20028


GI Special 4A19 - The Civilian Politicians Stick Us - January 28, 2006
Thomas Barton
...While you’re off in Iraq fighting for oil and Empire on behalf of
Americans’ corporate elite, this is what the rats in control of the U.S.
government are doing back home. We need you back here to defend what’s left
of our liberties. There is no enemy in Iraq. Iraqis and U.S. troops have a
common enemy: the traitors in control in Washington DC...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20035&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20035


War News for Friday Jan. 27 and Saturday Jan. 28
Today in Iraq
...Fierce fighting between police and insurgents in southwestern Baghdad
areas such as Jihad and Saydiyah early Friday. Policemen blaring their
theme song "Where is the terrorist today?" from car speakers raided homes
in several suburbs, arresting about 60 people. Jihad was the scene of the
fiercest street battles, with some insurgents brandishing rocket-propelled
grenade launchers. Cars and shops were deserted in the areas as ordinary
Iraqis fled for! cover...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20032&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20032


Polls Show Many Americans are Simply Dumber Than Bush
Blind Ignorance
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Two recent polls, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll and a New York
Times/CBS News poll, indicate why Bush is getting away with impeachable
offenses. Half of the US population is incapable of acquiring, processing
and understanding information. Much of the problem is the media itself,
which serves as a disinformation agency for the Bush administration. Fox
"News" and right-wing talk radio are the worst, but with pr! opagandistic
outlets setting the standard for truth and patriotism, all of the media is
affected to some degree. Despite the media's failure, about half the
population has managed to discern that the US invasion of Iraq has not made
them safer and that the Bush administration's assault on civil liberties is
not a necessary component of the war on terror...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20033&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20033


Baghdad is drowning and the list of the killed Iraqi academics
Baghdad Dweller
These are recent pictures from Baghdad, drowning in rain water. Dirty and
neglected. Millions Dollars spent on "Iraq reconstruction" and the
situation as you see in the pictures. Another disaster? Here it is: This is
a list of Iraqi academics killed by US, Iran and the zionists, Our
engineers and doctors are recognized world wide and are some of the best
around. Iraq’s education wasn’t restricted to any ethnic group or
background, free! education for all. Iraqis without exception will not
benefit from assassinating educated people...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20027&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20027


Media coverage of NSA story continues to fall short
"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser
Last week, noting the lack of resources news organizations have devoted to
the domestic spying scandal, we listed some of the many stories related to
the scandal they should pursue. This week brought a perfect example of the
kinds of stories that any news organization, with little more than some
research time on Lexis-Nexis, could produce that would greatly improve the
public's understanding of the spying operation -- but it cam! e not from
The New York Times or ABC News or USA Today; it came from attorney and
blogger Glenn Greenwald...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20023&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20023


The US arms Israel against Iran
Voltaire.net
In the framework of the "strategic association", the US allotted
significant additional funds to Israel in order to increase its arsenal.
This way, in late December 2005, the US Congress approved a sum of 133
million dollars for the development of the Arrow missile project (photo),
as well as the transfer of another 600 millions to Israel for common
defence projects, in addition to what the Hebrew State receives annually.
In fact, under the pretext of creating an Israe! li shield, the US is
arming Israel against Iran. This is how 600 million dollars will be
assigned to build drones, and purchase armoured transport vehicles and
detection systems...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20024&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20024


BYU professor's group accuses U.S. officials of lying about 9/11
Elaine Jarvik, Deseret Morning News
Last fall, Brigham Young University physics professor Steven E. Jones made
headlines when he charged that the World Trade Center collapsed because of
"pre-positioned explosives." Now, along with a group that calls itself
"Scholars for 9/11 Truth," he's upping the ante. "We believe that senior
government officials have covered up crucial facts about what really
happened on 9/11," the group says in a statement relea! sed Friday
announcing its formation. "We believe these events may have been
orchestrated by the administration in order to manipulate the American
people into supporting policies at home and abroad"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20021&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20021


'Question of Torture' Gives Horrific Answers
Mark Meadows
You're probably familiar with the 1961 psychology experiment that showed
that ordinary people would willingly play the roles of Nazi torturers,
electrocuting a total stranger just because someone in a white coat told
them to. What you probably didn't know is that it may have been conducted
on behalf of the CIA, not to prevent atrocities, but to repeat them. Alfred
W. McCoy, after studying the timing, funding and political connections
behind the study, sugg! ests it was actually a test to see whether the CIA
could train ordinary Third World policemen to become torturers...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20020&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20020


A Revolt Against The Architects Of Oslo
Hasan Afif El-Hasan, Ph.D., Special to PalestineChronicle.com
Hamas victory over Fatah in the legislative race should not come as a
surprise to any Middle East observer after the failure of Oslo. This is a
democratic revolt against Oslo and its architects and the second phase of
the Palestinian Intifada. The political leadership of Fatah has not been
capable of correcting the mistakes and repair the damage inflicted on the
Palestinian cause by Oslo that empowered Israel to ! create the facts on
the ground. The Palestinians have realized that Oslo has only provided the
legal cover for Israel to colonize what was left of Palestine while
ironically the PA under Fatah pretends that there is a peace process in
place...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20019&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20019


Bush defends NSA spying program at White House press conference
Joe Kay
US President George W. Bush’s remarks at a White House press conference on
Thursday, and in an interview with CBS News broadcast on Friday, are
further indications that the administration is going on the offensive in
support of one of its central tenets: an insistence on the unconstrained
powers of the executive branch. On the CBS program, Bush was asked by
anchorman Bob Shieffer, "Do you believe that there is anything that a
president cannot! do if he considers it necessary" in time of war? In
response, Bush called it a "good question." After some hesitation, he said
he thought torture and the assassination of foreign leaders might not be
acceptable. He called it, however, "a very interesting Constitutional
question"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20018&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20018


Mystery surrounds dead U.S. contractor
DEBORAH HASTINGS, Associated Press
...Yet Stoffel had expectations that seemed naively arrogant for a man of
the world. He was an arms dealer with a mysterious past, a swashbuckling,
larger-than-life character who'd been around the block of international
intrigue more than once. But in all the chaos, in a place overrun with
mercenaries, privateers and shady government officials, he nonetheless
expected everyone in Iraq to play by his rules. It was a dangerous
expectation. At! first, he complained to U.S. military and Baghdad
officials: He wasn't being paid for his contracting work; corruption
plagued his dealings with the Iraqi interim government. When that didn't
produce a satisfactory response, he wrote to the Pentagon and to members of
Congress saying the Iraqi Defense Ministry was ripping him off. Then, after
one year in country, after he hired powerful Washington lobbyists and
pressed the flesh with connected Iraqis such as Ahmed Chalabi, after he
secured contracts with the Iraqi government potentially worth hundreds of
millions, someone killed Dale Stoffel...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20030&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20030


So Many Reasons Why the World Can't Wait
Missy Comley Beattie
As of January 26, 2006, there are more than 250,000 reasons why George W.
Bush and Richard Cheney should be impeached. That number likely will have
increased by the time I place the last period at the end of this article.
One of the those reasons is agonizingly real to my family—the death of
Chase Johnson Comley, killed in Iraq on August 6, 2005, number 1,828,
1,829, or 1,830 (we don’t know for sure because so many died that week) of
the 2,238 American! dead and counted as I write this article. Casey Sheehan
is Cindy Sheehan’s personal reason. Thomas J. Sweet II is Elizabeth Sweet’s
personal reason. Daniel Torres is Sergio Torres, Beatriz Saldivar, and
Christina Torres’s personal reason. Jeremy Smith is Amy and Maxx Branham’s
personal reason...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20014&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20014


Cindy Sheehan to Dianne Feinstein: Fillibuster Alito or I’ll Challenge Your
Senate Seat
AfterDowningStreet.org
Gold star mother Cindy Sheehan has decided to run against California
Senator Diane Feinstein if Feinstein does not filibuster the Supreme Court
nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. While in Venezuela attending the World
Social Forum, Sheehan learned that several Democratic Senators had
announced their plans for a filibuster but that Senator Feinstein, who’s up
for re-election in November, had stated she wou! ld vote against the
nomination but not filibuster it. "I’m appalled that Diane Feinstein
wouldn’t recognize how dangerous Alito’s nomination is to upholding the
values of our constitution and restricting the usurpation of presidential
powers, for which I’ve already paid the ultimate price," Sheehan said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20013&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20013


Jailing the Peacemakers: Iraq War Protesters Sentenced
Dahr Jamail
The date is March 17, 2003. St. Patrick’s Day and just two days before U.S.
bombs began raining down on Baghdad, 40 year-old Teresa Grady, her older
sister Clare, Daniel Burns and Vietnam veteran Peter De Mott decided to
take action against the impending illegal Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.
The group of Catholic Workers from Ithaca, New York, known as the "St.
Patrick’s Four," entered an Army-Marine Recruiting Center and poured their
blood on ! the walls, recruiting posters and an American flag in an act of
non-violent civil resistance to what they knew already was to be the first
of countless violations of international law the Bush Administration would
commit during their invasion and occupation of sovereign Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20012&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20012


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Friday, 27 January 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice
...In a dispatch posted at 3:30pm Mecca time Friday afternoon, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that the Tribal Affairs Council of al-Hadithah in Western
Iraq had reported a short while earlier that US occupation troops had
arrested 50 local residents in a new campaign of mass arrests launched
Friday morning. It was the third such mass arrest campaign in the last 10!
days. The al-Hadithah correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported Shaykh
Khalid al-Hadithi the General Secretary of the Tribabl Affiars Council as
saying that occupation troops with helicopter air support and puppet Iraqi
regime troops to accompany them arrested 50 Iraqis ranging in age from 15
to 50 years in sweeps in the neighborhoods of ash-Shurtah, ad-Dubbat,
al-Haqlaniyah, and al-Hawijah. No reasons for the arrests were given...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20011&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20011


Halliburton swings to $1.1 billion profit, cites 2005 as company's best
Steve Quinn, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oilfield services conglomerate Halliburton Co. swung to a profit in its
fourth quarter on robust sales and increased rig activity, and called last
year the best in its 86-year history. The income reversed a loss from a
year earlier for Houston-based Halliburton, the company once led by Vice
President Dick Cheney. Its KBR unit has become known for its support work
for troops stationed in the Middle East...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20010&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20010


Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006
Project Censored
#1 Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government
#2 Media Coverage Fails on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Death
#3 Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage
#4 Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In
#5 U.S. Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia....

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20015&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20015




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