[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 27 Mar 2006 - Part One]

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Madaen People Fearing "Another Fallujah"
Mazen Ghazi & Nada Omran, IOL Correspondents
Arbitrary arrests and pre-dawn house-to-house raids have cast a pall over
the picturesque Iraqi town of Al-Madaen, southeast of Baghdad, with locals
fearing that the aggressive tactics were a prelude for "another Fallujah."
(...) Scores of people have been detained by Iraqi security forces, backed
by US troops, during crackdown operations in the city since the February
bombing of the Shiite shrine of Imam Ali Al-Hadi in Samarra.! Up to 450
civilians, mostly Sunnis, were killed and 81 Sunni mosques targeted,
including eight completely destroyed, in reprisal attacks triggered by the
bombing of the celebrated Shiite shrine (...) Residents furthers said
threats by self-styled and sometimes government-sanctioned Shiite militias
have added insult to injury (...) Tension has also escalated after Shiite
leader Muqtada Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army controlled the "Salman Al-Farisi"
mosque, run by the Sunni Wakfs Authority...

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Torture and Task Force 121
Sarah Meyer
A recent important NY Times article by Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall
was about abuse in the 'Black Room’1 at Camp Nama near Baghdad. The NY
Times map and the map of Baghdad Airport at US Camp Victory – al Nasr
appear undistinguishable. Schmitt and Marshall say that Task Force 6-26 was
'renamed’ Task Force 121 and moved to Balad. Balad is now the largest US
airbase in Iraq and is situated in the Sunni Triangle, upon which
anti-US-occupation Iraqis lob mortars. However, Ta! sk Force 121 was
already in existence. TF121 was formed from TF5 (Afghanistan) and TF20
(Iraq)...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21966&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=21966


Rival Shia groups unite against US after mosque raid
Jonathan Steele and Qais al-Bashir, The Guardian
Senior ministers from the three main Shia factions united yesterday to
denounce an American raid on a Baghdad mosque complex in which at least 20
people died, opening the biggest rift between the US and Iraq's majority
Shia community since the toppling of Saddam Hussein. "At evening prayers,
American soldiers accompanied by Iraqi troops raided the Mustafa mosque and
killed 37 people," said Abd al-Karim al-Enzi, t! he security minister, who
belongs to the Dawa party of the prime minister, Ibrahim al Jaafari. "They
[the victims] were unarmed. They went in, tied up the people and shot them
all. They did not leave any wounded." Baghdad's governor, Hussein Tahan, a
member of the rival Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq
(Sciri), announced that local officials were ending their contacts with the
Americans in protest at the killings...

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Bush was set on war. Who knew?
Eli Stephens, Left I on the News
Following well behind other news sources, the New York Times is out with
the shocking news that George Bush was intent on war in January, 2003. As
if anyone with two eyes and two brain cells to rub together didn't
recognize that fact well before that January. What's interesting about this
story isn't what the Times is "revealing." What's interesting to me is that
more and more government insiders are trying in some way to jump ship (or !
perhaps to salve their guilty consciences) and get this information out to
the public (e.g., slipping copies of memos to Times reporters), and more
and more news outlets (like the Times) are willing to run with such
stories...

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Saddam deputy calls Arab summit to back resistance
Al-Bawaba
Saddam Hussein's deputy, who has eluded capture since the U.S.-led invasion
of Iraq in 2003, has called for Arab leaders to back Iraq's resistance, in
an audiotape aired Monday. Izzat_IDouriThe tape, which Al-Jazeera
television said was made by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, appeared to be an
address to the Arab League summit in Khartoum, Sudan, which will start
Tuesday. The voice on the tape said Iraq's Sunni-led resistance was "the
sole legitimate represent! ative of the Iraqi people." The voice added Arab
leaders should "boycott the regime of mercenaries and treason and besiege
it by taking the necessary decision to support the people of Iraq, its
courageous, national resistance and its jihad until liberation"...

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Death Squads in Iraq & The Likelihood of Civil War
Interview with Robert Dreyfuss
Scott Harris
... I would say that at the beginning, back when we had the interim
government in place and we were creating the beginnings of an Iraqi
security force, the CIA and the Pentagon did help to create these so called
"Wolf Brigades" and other units within the Interior Ministry -- kind of
police commando units that began on a small scale to engage in death
squad-type activity. And I think we turned a blind eye to it! because we
were so obsessed with combating the insurgency. I have to say that now I
think it's gotten completely out of hand...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21974&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Poverty chronic in Iraq
Azzaman
More than 20% of Iraqis live in abject poverty despite the boost in
government’s social security program, a report by the Ministry of Planning
reveals. The poverty level is bound to increase due to inefficiencies in
the distribution of food rations which are credited for saving the country
from starvation. Facing tough armed resistance and political inaction, the
government has proved much less efficient than the former regime which U.S.
troops ousted three years ago in handing out! food rations...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21971&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=21971


Iraq's Missing Billions
Imad Khadduri
In a dilapidated maternity and paediatric hospital in Diwaniyah, 100 miles
south of Baghdad, Zahara and Abbas, premature twins just two days old, lie
desperately ill. The hospital has neither the equipment nor the drugs that
could save their lives. On the other side of the world, in a federal
courthouse in Virginia, US, two men - one a former CIA agent and Republican
candidate for Congress, the other a former army ranger - are found guilty
of fraudulently obtaining $3m (£1.7m! ) intended for the reconstruction of
Iraq. These two events have no direct link, but they are none the less
products of the same thing: a financial scandal that in terms of sheer
scale must rank as one of the greatest in history...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21970&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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The Theater of the Barbarians
radlexi, Blood On Our Hands
I was arrested before we went to war, for protesting the governments’ plan
to invade Iraq. I was arrested by men who had lost their friends and family
in 9-11 and had been told that the only vengeance for 9-11 was the war that
I was protesting. It was then that I began a process of dissociation. I had
been rendered powerless and shrunk. The one consistent image I have had
during the entire war was our governments’ leaders having nightmares that
would bring! them to their knees and call for an end to the war. I felt
that the horror of their nightmares would allow them to look for an
alternative plan. I wanted them to be affected on a deep level. It has been
more than three years at war...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21969&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=21969


Deadly blast hits U.S.-Iraqi base in Mosul, 40 killed
Alajazeera.com
More than 40 people have been killed by a bomb explosion inside a joint
U.S.-Iraqi military base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said,
according to BBC. One witness said the explosion took place around 11:15
a.m. (3:15 a.m. ET) at the Kifak Base, which is located between Tal Afar
and Mosul. Police said the blast targeted Iraqi army recruits and officers.
The attack was carried out by a human bomber strapped with explosives,
officials! said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21967&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=21967


US Soldiers Massacre 22 in Baghdad Mosque
War Crime in a Mosque
PATRICK COCKBURN
US forces killed 22 people and wounded eight at a mosque in east Baghdad in
an incident likely to lead to increased tensions with the Shia community.
Police said the US troops had retaliated after coming under fire. Videotape
showed a heap of male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of the Imam's
living quarters in what was said to be the Al Mustafa mosque. There were
5.56mm shell casings on the floor, which is the typ! e of ammunition used
by US soldiers. A weeping man in white Arab robes is shown stepping among
the bodies...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21972&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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The mosque massacre
Eli Stephens, Left I on the News
Either 17 or 37 people were killed by "coalition" forces (Americans and
their Iraqi "allies") in a Baghdad mosque Sunday, including the 80-year-old
imam. The Iraqi national security minister says they were all unarmed and
not a single shot was fired against the invading troops. The U.S. military
says that U.S. troops never entered the mosque, and that they were just
there "supporting" Iraqi forces. That may (or may not) be true. But they
use that word "suppor! t" to try to leave the impression that, whatever
happened, they weren't responsible...

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The Evil Men Do
Robert Klassen
Just when I think things can’t be worse, I find out they are. Like a good
many people, I’ve gradually become accustomed to the blatant tyranny
emanating from the District of Criminals. It’s almost a relief to have the
executive tell us point blank that the Constitution, the congress, and the
courts don’t matter. Neither do the people, as long as we obediently labor
for the state. Wars of aggression? No surprise. Rendition, torture,
concentration camps? No surprise. Universal snoopin! g? No surprise. What
about depleted uranium bombs, bullets, and armor? Oh my. I suspect that
Americans have little idea of the evil being done in our name...

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Wave of violence kills at least 81 Iraqis
AP
Police found 30 more victims of the sectarian slaughter ravaging Iraq --
most of them beheaded -- dumped on a village road north of Baghdad on
Sunday. At least 16 other Iraqis were killed in a U.S.-backed raid in a
Shiite neighborhood of the capital. Accounts of the evening raid in Baghdad
varied. Aides to the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police both
said it took place at a mosque, with police claiming 22 bystanders died and
al-Sadr's aides saying 18 innocen! t men were killed...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21965&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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The Splendid Failure of Occupation
Part 42: Postwar aftermath or imperialist mutatis mutandis?
B. J. Sabri, Online Journal Contributing Writer
In addressing Soviet concerns on the American intentions in Iraq (early
fall, 1990), former Secretary of State James Baker, borrowed from the vast
repertoire of deception long experimented with by U.S. imperialist circles.
He solemnly declared that once the United States "liberated" Kuwait from
the Iraqi occupation, not even one American soldier would remain in ! the
Gulf region. Baker never meant what he said. In fact, once the U.S.
"liberated" Kuwait, American military bases spread like fungi across the
Arabian Peninsula, and, de facto, all Gulf Sheikdoms (with the exception of
Yemen that voted against the use of force against Iraq) fell under American
tutelage as undeclared protectorates and semi-colonies...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21963&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=21963


Remembering Jesús
David Howard, Online Journal Contributing Writer
On March 27, 2003, a week after President Bush began the Iraq War, Jesús
Suárez, a 20-year-old Marine, went on reconnaissance patrol near Baghdad.
He stepped on a cluster bomb and died, becoming one of the first casualties
of our catastrophic occupation of Iraq. The spring of 2003 was the heyday
of "shock and awe." The president had taken us to war on cooked-up claims
of WMD and Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda. Until those false pretenses unraveled,
the Wh! ite House would bask in callow triumphalism. Mr. Bush would
masquerade in his military flight suit while performing a campaign
publicity stunt on the USS Abraham Lincoln. These were heady
high-poll-number days of taunting insurgents with cheap bravado: "Bring 'em
on."...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21964&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Sliding towards the vortex
GAVIN GATENBY
..."Have you noticed how Bush, Blair, and the right-wing columnists have
shifted their rhetoric over the last few weeks? Not so long ago their whole
Iraq dialogue was about evil Sunni Baathist terrorists. Now it’s all about
evil Iranian Shiites and they’re saying the Tehran mullahs are supplying
the roadside bombs used to target Coalition troops. "Of course, that’s
sillier than absurd. In fact, the pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq are
currently the Coalition’s only alli! es – apart from the Kurds – and the
puppet Iraqi army is recruited mostly from their followers. The people
fighting the occupation are Sunnis and Baathists. Every half-bright person
in the world knows that"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21962&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=21962


Iraq’s Militia Problem: Go Blame Iran
Kurt Nimmo
...No mention here of the fact the CIA promised to spend $3 billion over
three years, beginning in early 2004, to recruit and train "Iraqi exile
groups, Kurdish and Shi’ite forces" and "former mukhabarat agents" to
"quell the insurgency," according to the UK Telegraph. Obviously, so long
as CIA fostered "militia groups" were "patrolling cities and towns in many
areas of Iraq" and engaging in "an increasing number of extra-judicial
killings of prominent former Ba’at! hists," there was no problem for
Khalilzad and the neocons. However, the predictable (and in fact engineered
by the neocons) internecine violence must now be portrayed as out of
control and a threat to the entire "democracy" project in Iraq—more of a
threat, if we are to believe Zalmay Khalilzad, than the "insurgency"
itself. It is relatively easy to see where all of this is going...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21960&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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GI Special 4C22 - Somebody Else Came Back In His Body - March 26, 2006
Thomas F Barton
...The truth about the Iraqi resistance is: There are no terrorists: none.
Even if we accept the neocon definition of terrorism (which conveniently
exempts sovereign nations — otherwise, Shock & Awe would be the operative
model), an act of terrorism requires the intent to terrorize. In Iraq, the
intent of roadside or suicide bombs is not to terrorize the most powerful
military force on earth but to exact a price on the enemy oc! cupiers and
their collaborators. supremacy and preemptive strike, at this juncture of
international affairs, there is not a single nation on earth less peaceful
and more threatening than our own...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21959&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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NY Times obtains secret memo of Bush, Blair meeting before Iraq war
RAW STORY
The New York Times reports that a secret memo from January 2003 reveals
that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair agreed to invade Iraq even
without U.N. backing (...) The memo also shows that the president and the
prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found
inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the
planned invasion, Bush talked about several ways to provoke a
confrontation, i! ncluding a proposal to paint a U.S. surveillance plane in
the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating
Saddam...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21958&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Is This a Strategy For Success?
Washington's good news in Iraq isn't quite what it seems.
Rod Nordland, Newsweek International
At last, President Bush had news he could use from Iraq. He devoted an
entire speech in Cleveland last week to the story of how the town of Tall
Afar was wrested from Qaeda control and has become a model for defeating
the enemy. Praise came not just from the administration; CBS's "60 Minutes"
ran a glowing segment on what had been accomplished under Col. H. R.
McMaster and his ! Third Armored Cavalry (...) What it is, though, like so
many places in Iraq now, is a city increasingly divided along sectarian
lines. The neighborhoods we patrolled were largely Shia; those our reporter
found barricaded and dangerous were mostly Sunni. "I'd say that zero
percent of Bush's talk about Tall Afar is true," said Ahmed Sami, 45, a
Sunni laborer. "They turned Shiite neighborhoods into havens, and Sunni
neighborhoods into hells." Even in the Shia neighborhoods, people were far
from satisfied. "This is all just an outdoor prison for us," said school
teacher Abu Muhammed...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=21980&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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