[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 08 Feb 2006 - Part One]

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Iraq stories slowly moved off front pages
Truth About Iraqis
If you haven't noticed by now, keep this in mind: Iraq war coverage is very
slowly and subtly moving off the front pages of major US news outlets. But
this isn't a surprise, is it? Maybe they are done reporting all the "Good
News that's fit to print". But, as I mentioned in my blog yesterday, there
are nearly two-dozen specific stories of crime, death, kidnapping,
firefights, Badr terrorism and US thievery emerging from Iraq each and
every day. Consider! also that 18 US soldiers have died in Iraq in less
than a week. Yet, it seems Americans no longer care...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20418&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20418


Gasoline Crisis in Iraq
Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch
Contract mismanagement and possible corruption in the Iraqi government are
fueling a crisis over international gasoline delivery into Iraq. Citing a
mountain of unpaid bills, the governments of Turkey and Saudi Arabia have
shut off gasoline exports to Iraq. With it's options dwindling and
beleaguered Iraqis demanding fuel, Baghdad has begun to negotiate with
former arch-rival, Iran. Meanwhile, hundreds of irate Iraqi security
guards, who work for the! gasoline delivery companies, are threatening to
protest along the Kuwait border to demand payment...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20441&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20441


As liberal Democrat calls for special prosecutor on Iraq, Democrats duck
John Byrne, RAW STORY
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the feisty septuagenarian congressman who serves
as the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee will issue yet
another missive to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales later this week
calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate possible
criminal misconduct in regard to the Bush Administration's march to war in
Iraq. Just five other Democrats have signed Conyers' let! ter: Reps.
Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) Mike Honda (D-CA) and Jim McDermott (D-WA), Susan
Davis (D-CA,) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) along with Bernie Sanders (I-VT)...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20440&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20440


GI Special 4B7: "A Casket Full Of Betrayal" - February 8, 2006
Tomas F. Barton
When I saw the picture of Robson de Lima Barbosa looking at his son,
Corporal Felipe Carvalho Barbosa in his casket, I am reminded of a stark
truth. The people who are in control of America's war machine, will never
wind up in a casket with a military uniform on. It is so easy for them who
don't go, to say he or she died for their country. That line rolls off
their lips with such ease. Kind of like saying, "Our thoughts and prayers !
are with you and your family." Such concern, and thoughtfulness. I heard
this so many times during the Vietnam War, until I went to Vietnam. Two
weeks after I came home, something was wrong with me. Something died inside
of me, and when I saw an American flag, I felt a sense of profound
betrayal. For years, I imagined putting an American flag in a casket, so I
could grieve. Because, that symbol is the most painful death of my life...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20438&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20438


PAUL BREMER – NEW CANAAN’S PONTIUS PILATE
William A. Collins
...You’ll recall that President Bush appointed Bremer as the first head of
the Coalition Provisional Authority, as soon as the military’s mission in
Iraq was "accomplished." The Romans once called this job "proconsul," the
appointed ruler of a conquered territory. Their most storied incumbent was
Pontius Pilate, though our grasp of his actual duties and performance in
Judea remain somewhat hazy. Not so with Bremer’s. His work was precisely
laid out in W! ashington and he performed it with quiet ferocity. His first
task was to turn over Iraq’s traditional publicly owned enterprises to
foreign investors...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20436&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20436


Cartoons of Mass Destruction
Paul Richard Harris, Axis of Logic
...But while the present reaction to the cartoons is astonishing to some,
and expected by others, these were just jokes, right? No, they weren’t just
jokes. Leaving aside whether Muslims are stiff-necked and unable to
appreciate a joke, at least one at their own expense, these cartoons were
not published to be funny. Nor were they published, as claimed by the chief
editor of Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten, to "examine whether people would
succumb to self-! censorship, as we have seen in other cases when it comes
to Muslim issues." They were published to inflame, to denigrate, to anger,
to humiliate...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20435&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20435


BLAIR: 'BRITISH TROOPS IN IRAN? WE CAN NEVER SAY NEVER'
Bob Roberts Deputy
TONY Blair yesterday refused to rule out a British military invasion of
Iran. He told MPs the rogue Middle Eastern state was helping to spread the
"virus" of Muslim fanaticism across the world. It was a problem which
needed "sorting", the Prime Minister said. And asked if the British
military option was on the table, he admitted: "You can never say never in
any of these situations"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20434&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20434


Bush administration lied about Gitmo detainees, many of them are innocent
Daisy Cutter, Daily Kos
...But thanks to a new report, we now know what we've suspected for a long
time: that many of the detainees at Gitmo are innocent of any crime. 1.
Fifty-five percent (55%) of the detainees are not determined to have
committed any hostile acts against the United States or its coalition
allies. 2. Only 8% of the detainees were characterized as al Qaeda
fighters. Of the remaining detainees, 40% have no definitive conne! ction
with al Qaeda at all and 18% are have no definitive affiliation with either
al Qaeda or the Taliban. 3. The Government has detained numerous persons
based on mere affiliations with a large number of groups that in fact, are
not on the Department of Homeland Security terrorist watchlist. Moreover,
the nexus between such a detainee and such organizations varies
considerably. Eight percent are detained because they are deemed "fighters
for;" 30% considered "members of;" a large majority - 60% -- are detained
merely because they are "associated with" a group or groups the Government
asserts are terrorist organizations. For 2% of the prisoners their nexus to
any terrorist group is unidentified...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20433&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20433


The Twin Plagues
Inequality and War
DAVID SWANSON
Ending the extreme inequality of wealth and well-being in the United States
would end the war in Iraq. Ending the war in Iraq and others like it would
go a long way toward reducing the inequality. Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery
honored Coretta Scott King at her funeral, speaking in front of four
presidents, when he challenged injustice, saying: "We know now there were
no weapons of mass destruction over there [standing ovation]... but Coretta
knew and we kno! w that there are weapons of misdirection right down here.
Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more
but no more for the poor." This wasn't just a challenge to the powerful.
This should be taken as a challenge to peace activists to start fighting
poverty and to the poor to become peace activists...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20432&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20432


Bush Balkanizes the world
Jerry Mazza, Online Journal Contributing Writer
Paradoxically, Bush & Company’s relentless push for world hegemony seems to
be Balkanizing the world, that is, splintering countries, regions, even zip
codes, into smaller units, which are more hostile to each other though
ethnically more homogenous. Additionally, this push is having the same
effect in the United States, breaking it into red and blue states, a
division beyond traditional North-South divisions. What’s more voting
districts a! re being split into religious, ethnic, racial, and economic
sectors as well, creating the specter of Balkanization...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20431&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20431


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 8 February 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice
...In a dispatch posted at 12:10pm Mecca time midday Wednesday, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that mercenaries working with the US military shot and
killed two Iraqi civilians near the main garage in the al-'Allawi district
of Baghdad. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported a traffic
warden, who was nearby when the shooting occurred, as saying that t! here
was a column of four-wheel drive vehicles of the sort used by mercenaries
working for the US military driving through the area. Without any warning,
the traffic warden said, one of the mercenaries in one of the vehicles
opened fire on two Iraqi civilians who were crossing the street and who had
not noticed the presence of the column. Both civilians died instantly...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20430&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20430


Tale of a Connecticut donkey
Sheila Samples
...Democrats in that very blue, anti-war state are unhappy with their
three-term senator, Joe Lieberman, for his stubborn, rabid support of
President Bush and his bloody, illegal war. They pleaded with Joe to
recognize that the war on Iraq was planned long before 9-11, that there
were no weapons of mass destruction in that pitiful, unarmed country, and
that thousands of US citizens and tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and
children are being blown to pieces, maimed,! and poisoned with depleted
uranium -- all because of a lie. But Joe refused to move. He responded by
penning an op-ed in the Nov. 29, 2005, Wall Street Journal, entitled Our
Troops Must Stay. In that piece, Lieberman "catapaulted the propaganda"
that Iraq was experiencing a great deal of progress, underscored by
"continuing security and growing prosperity."...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20439&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20439


Soldiers Face Debilitating Diseases
NBC 30
They served their time in the military in places like Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait, and more recently, Iraq and Afghanistan. Most returned in good
health. But an NBC 30 investigation has found that for some soldiers, their
service has meant a long and debilitating death sentence with mysterious
diseases. "I have good days, I have bad days," said M. Sterry, of New
Haven. "There were eight of us that served together. Six of my friends are
dead." She looks healthy, but Sterry is! a very sick woman who has no idea
how much longer she will live (...) State Sen. Gayle Slossberg said one of
the sources of the diseases may be depleted uranium...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20429&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20429


Iraqi voices are drowned out in a blizzard of occupiers' spin
The deception that launched the invasion of Iraq now increasingly shapes
media coverage of the occupation
Sami Ramadani, The Guardian
Three years after invading Iraq, George Bush and Tony Blair are still
dipping into the trough of deception and disinformation that launched the
war: hailing non-existent progress, declaring sanctimonious satisfaction
with sectarian elections and holding out the mirage of early withdrawal. In
reality, t! he occupation and divide-and-rule tactics have spawned death
squads, torture, kidnappings, chemical attacks, polluted water, depleted
uranium, bombardment of civilians, probably more than 100,000 people dead
and a relentless deterioration in Iraqis' daily lives. Much of this goes
unreported in the British and American media, stripped of context or
consigned to the small print...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20427&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20427


The terror of President Bush: How one word granted one man so much power
and control (commentary)
Mike Adams
Following accelerating criticism that the Bush Administration's domestic
spying program violated every possible U.S. law and Constitutional
amendment, the Bush Administration has now renamed its blatantly illegal
domestic spying program the "terrorist surveillance program." Fox News has
already adopted the moniker, resorting to classic Orwellian Newsspeak to
convince viewers that since this illegal governm! ent operation contains
the word "terrorist," it must be okay. Where would George Bush be today
without the word "terror," by the way?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20426&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20426


Bush’s budget plans
More war at home and abroad
Fred Goldstein
There is nothing more political than the budget of a capitalist government.
And the budget that the Bush administration has submitted to Congress truly
embodies the reactionary politics of the White House. Hundreds of billions
of dollars for present and future wars. Hundreds of billions in tax cuts
for the super rich. Cutbacks and hardship for the workers and the poor. The
proposed $2.7 trillion proposal gives $439 billion to the Pentagon, ! an
increase of 6.9 percent. In addition, there is $120 billion more in
"emergency" funds for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The total military
spending will be $560 billion this year alone...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20423&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20423


The Wider War in Iran
Robert Dreyfuss
Too many observers are adopting a relaxed attitude about the likelihood of
a U.S. attack on Iran. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal told us all to let
our guard down, that the influence of the neoconservatives on U.S. foreign
policy has evaporated: "As 'Neocons’ Leave, Bush Foreign Policy Takes a
Softer Line," said the soothing page one story. An attack on Iran might
seem foolish by standards that reasonable people use—but so was the
invasion of Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20421&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20421


Three More U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq
PAUL GARWOOD, The Associated Press
...On Wednesday, the U.S. military said an Army soldier from the 4th
Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment died of wounds suffered three days earlier
in a roadside bombing in Anbar province. A Marine assigned to the 2nd
Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) was killed
Monday in a bombing in Anbar, the command said. Another Marine assigned to
the 2d Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died in a
non-! hostile vehicle accident Tuesday during combat operations near Qaim
on the border with Syria, the military said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20443&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20443


22 US Reps Want Impeachment Probe
Matthew Cardinale, Atlanta Progressive News
22 US Representatives–including two members of the Georgia delegation–have
now signed on as co-sponsors of H. Res 635, demanding a probe which could
recommend Bush’s impeachment, including the initial sponsor, US Rep. John
Conyers, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. 23 US Representatives now
total want Bush either to face an impeachment probe or to resign...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20420&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20420


When American convoy pass….
Baghdad Dweller
US occupation forces killed two innocent Iraqi citizen in the district
"Allawi Al-Hilla" this morning. Eyewitness confirmed that A convoy of
civilian American cars with shaded glasses fired on two civilians during
crossing not paying attention to the passing convoy. This accident above is
one of many daily accidents in Iraq, "Americans kill innocent civilians"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20417&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20417


Tomdispatch: Alfred McCoy on How Not to Ban Torture in Congress
Tom Engelhardt & Alfred McCoy
Alfred McCoy, an expert on the CIA and its history of torture, has some
actual news -- the sort that's been sitting unnoticed right in front of our
collective, reportorial eyes. Last year's clash between John McCain and the
Bush administration over the senator's successful attempt to attach a ban
on torture and other abusive interrogation techniques to the Defense
Appropriations Bill was heavily reported. After all, it w! as a heroic tale
of a man -- himself tortured pitilessly earlier in his life -- who held off
the powers-that-be, rejected their attempts to amend his ban, and finally
triumphed by a handy margin in Congress. The ban, now in place, is the law.
End of story. Only one problem, reality turns out to lurk in the fine print
-– and the McCain amendment has some striking fine print that mainstream
reporters failed to attend to; in fact, McCoy tells us, it has a loophole
big enough to absolve torturers of their acts and, in combination with an
amendment by Senator Lindsey Graham, drive testimony obtained by torture
directly into our courts. I would call that news...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20415&s2=09>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20415




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