[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 30 Mar 2006 - Part One]

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e-mail to Stop the War Coalition RE: IBC
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's dream
...According to Les Roberts (Center for International Emergency Disaster
and Refugee Studies at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, one
of the world’s top epidemiologists and lead author of the Lancet report)
there might be as many as 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths (Do Iraqi Civilian
Casualties Matter?, By Les Roberts, AlterNet, February 8, 2006) Shouldn’t
this be the starting point of this debate? It seems to me an indisputa! ble
fact that the warmongers have used IBC to re-write history, to neutralize
the western anti-war movement and to discredit the Iraqi Resistance. Does
IBC have anything to say about this? The refusal of IBC to answer the many
questions coming from many sides is outrageous. The Iraqi civilian deaths
are not private property of Iraq Body Count...

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CA-50: Kaloogian new proof of a happy Iraq
Daily Kos
So Kaloogian needs a picture of smiling, happy people in Baghdad to prove
his point that all's peachy over there. He tries to slip by a picture of
smiling, happy people in a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey, but he was stymied
by those meddling kids at dKos (...) The picture was taken from the Rashid
Hotel in the Green Zone. All safe and cozy. Too bad Kaloogian couldn't get
out to where real people lived to snap his pictures of happy and safe
Iraqis. This picture was! apparently taken last year, and one of the
buildings in that picture has been bombed to pieces...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22086&s2=31>Read the full article / Leggi
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Iraq politician says 1,700 Sunnis killed in unrest
Ahmed Rasheed ,Returers
A Sunni Arab leader said on Thursday more than 1,700 Sunnis had been killed
in Iraq's sectarian bloodshed since a major Shi'ite mosque was bombed a
month ago, but it was unclear how he arrived at the figure. The spiralling
violence between Shi'ites and minority Sunnis, with death squads and
militias leaving scores of horribly mutilated corpses in the streets every
day, has stoked fears of an all-out sectarian civil war. "Up to now, more
th! an 1,700 bodies of Sunnis have been delivered to the morgue," Adnan
al-Dulaimi, who heads the largest Sunni bloc in the newly elected
parliament, told Reuters...

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l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22101


Iraq accuses U.S. of damaging ancient city
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
American forces are damaging the ancient city of Kish and must withdraw
from the 5,000-year-old archaeological site, an Iraqi ministry said
Thursday. The Ministry of State for Tourism and Antiquities Affairs said
U.S. forces had set up a camp in Kish, near Hillah, about 60 miles south of
Baghdad. In a statement, the ministry said the U.S. military was preventing
anyone from entering this important archaeological site to assess the
damage, which was n! ot specified...

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"Big Steve" and Abu Ghraib
Salon has uncovered more allegations against a civilian interrogator
accused of abuse at the prison. Why has he never been prosecuted?
Mark Benjamin and Michael Scherer
The man known as "Big Steve" did not attend the court-martial this month of
Sgt. Michael J. Smith, an Army dog handler at Abu Ghraib. But no one could
miss his looming presence in the courtroom. According to both the
prosecution and defense, "Big Steve" was deeply involved in the abuse
committed by Sm! ith, who was convicted March 21 for using his dog to
terrify prisoners. "Big Steve," whose real name is Steven Anthony
Stefanowicz, worked as an interrogator for military intelligence at Abu
Ghraib. But he was no ordinary soldier. Stefanowicz was one of dozens of
civilian employees from Virginia contractor CACI International hired by the
Pentagon to work at the prison...

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Journalist Jill Carroll Freed After 3 Months as Hostage
Jonathan Finer, Washington Post Foreign Service
American journalist Jill Carroll, abducted at gunpoint in January, was
released Thursday after nearly three months of intensive efforts to free
her and public pleas on her behalf from a worldwide chorus of relatives,
politicians and religious leaders. "I was treated very well. That's
important people know that," Carroll said in an interview broadcast on the
TV station run by the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Ara! b organization.
"They never said they would hit me, never threatened me in any way. I was
just happy to be free, and I want be with my family."...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22095&s2=31>Read the full article / Leggi
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United against empire
Amira Howeidy
As Arab leaders didn't quite flock to the Sudanese capital this week to
attend the18th Arab Summit, international and Arab activists in Cairo were
winding up a vigorous anti-war conference that could not have contrasted
more with the diplomatic stands being taken in Khartoum. The fourth Cairo
Conference, held from 23 to 26 March in the Downtown headquarters of the
Press Syndicate, under the title 'With the resistance of Palestine and
Iraq... Against Globalisation, Imperialism a! nd Zionism,' was attended by
Osama Hemdan, Hamas's senior political representative in Lebanon, who sat
on the podium throughout the four days of the conference...

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Iraqi girl tells of US attack
ITV
A young Iraqi girl has exclusively given ITV News a shocking first hand
account of what witnesses claim amounts to mass murder by US troops in the
war-torn country. Ten-year-old Iman Walid lost seven members of her family
in an attack by American marines last November. The interview with Iman was
filmed exclusively for ITV News by Ali Hamdani,our Iraqi video diarist. If
Iman's story is true - and it has been disputed by the US military - human
rights workers say it is the worst m! assacre of civilians by US troops in
the country...

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Mosul slips out of control as the bombers move in
Patrick Cockburn
When the 3,000 men of the mainly Kurdish 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Division of
the Iraqi Army go on patrol it is at night, after the rigorously enforced
curfew starts at 8pm. Their vehicles, bristling with heavy machine guns,
race through the empty streets of the city, splashing through pools of
sewage, always trying to take different routes to avoid roadside bombs.
"The government cannot control the city," said Hamid Effendi, an
experienced ex-soldi! er who is Minister for Peshmerga Affairs in the
Kurdistan Regional Government...

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War deserter tells of atrocities
ANDREW DAVIDSON
A "trigger-happy" U.S. army squad leader shot the foot off an unarmed Iraqi
man and soldiers kicked a severed head around like a soccer ball, a U.S.
war deserter told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Thursday. Joshua
Key, the first U.S. deserter with combat experience in Iraq to apply for
refugee status in Canada, told the board he witnessed numerous atrocities
committed by U.S. forces while serving eight months as a combat engineer.
Key, 27, said he was ne! ver trained on the Geneva Convention and was told
in Iraq by superior officers that the international law guiding
humanitarian standards was just a "guideline."...

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Now It’s All Saddam’s Fault?
Canuck Attitude
According to Bush it is: President Bush today blamed the recent sectarian
violence that has roiled Iraq on Saddam Hussein, rejecting criticism that
the United States' 2003 invasion and continued military presence is tearing
the country apart. In a speech in Washington to address what he called
"legitimate" concerns about the war by many Americans, Bush said the former
Iraqi president was a brutal "tyrant" who deliberately divided the
country's religious and ethnic g! roups to keep himself in power. (...)
Let’s check in with someone who actually lives in Iraq and see what she has
to say. Riverbend at Baghdad Burning has her own take on changes in
religious tolerance in Iraq, in her post to commemorate the third
anniversary of the war...

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The US propaganda machine: Oh, what a lovely war
Andrew Buncombe
This is the news from Iraq according to Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush
administration. A week after the US Defence Secretary criticised the media
for " exaggerating" reports of violence in Iraq, The Independent has
obtained examples of newspaper reports the Bush administration want Iraqis
to read. They were prepared by specially trained American "psy-ops" troops
who paid thousands of dollars to Iraqi newspaper editors to run these
unattributed reports! in their publications. In order to hide its
involvement, the Pentagon hired the Lincoln Group to act as a liaison
between troops and journalists. The Lincoln Group was at the centre of
controversy last year when it was revealed the company was being paid more
than $100m (£58m) for various contracts, including the planting of such
stories...

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Saddam Better for Women
Sanjay Suri
Women were far better off under former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein, a
women's group has found after an extensive survey in Iraq. ''Under the
previous dictator regime, the basic rights for women were enshrined in the
constitution,'' Houzan Mahmoud from the Organisation of Women's Freedom in
Iraq told IPS in an interview. The group is a sister organization of MADRE,
an international women's rights group. Under Saddam, she said, ''women
could go out to work, university and get ma! rried or divorced in civil
courts. But at the moment women have lost almost all their rights and are
being pushed back into the corner of their house.'' The recent constitution
which was written under the U.S. government's supervision is ''very
backward and anti-women,'' Mahmoud said..

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Weinberger, Bushes & Iran-Contra
Robert Parry, Consortium News
On Christmas Eve Day 1992, as many Americans were wrapping holiday gifts or
rushing off to visit relatives, the nation's history took a turn that
blacked out key chapters of the recent past and foreshadowed troubling
developments in the future. At the center of that historic moment was
former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who died on March 28 at the age
of 88. In 1992, he was one of six defendants in the Iran-Contra scandal who
received Christm! as Eve pardons from President George H.W. Bush less than
a month before Bush left office. If Bush had not granted those pardons,
Weinberger would have gone on trial in early 1993 facing perjury and
obstruction charges, a courtroom drama that could have changed how
Americans perceived key figures from the Reagan administration, including
Colin Powell and President Bush himself. At stake was not only Weinberger's
guilt or innocence but more importantly the legacy of the Reagan-Bush era.
Quite likely, too, President Bush would have been caught up in this final
unraveling of the Iran-Contra cover-up - and the prospects for his family's
resumption of political power might have been dealt a fatal blow...

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The Chomsky/Blankfort Polemic and the philosophy of conspiracy theory
Xymphora
This interview, by Silvia Cattori of Jeffrey Blankfort, is the single most
important thing to read about the pernicious influence of the Israel Lobby
on American policies. I need to write more about this, but Blankfort
touches on the basic philosophical debate between conspiracy theory, which
focuses on what actually happens in the world (and really needs more
respect and a philosophical structure), and doctrinaire Marxism, which tie!
s to fit every issue into the Procrustean bed of class analysis. Why
Marxism, which has been disproved in every possible way in praxis is still
so compelling in theory to so many people is one of the great mysteries of
our times. I’ve got nothing against class analysis – it’s certainly the
single most useful way to analyze many political and social issues – but
the idea that it is the only permissible way to analyze what happens in the
world is, in a word, moronic...

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Which Soldier Will Be The Last To Die For Bush's Mistake?
Evelyn Pringle
The war in Iraq is a mistake. No its worse than a mistake. Lets quit
pussy-footing around and call it like it is. The war in Iraq is a grand
profiteering scheme gone awry and Americans need to take off their blinders
and face the truth. As the cost of the war leaves a deeper black hole of
debt for our great-grandchildren, people need to ask themselves whether the
hundreds of billions spent thus far have helped anyone other than
reconstructio! n companies and defense contractors. It takes no thought,
the answer is no. And after that, to paraphrase a powerful John Kerry
comment from the Viet Nam era, Americans need think about which soldier
will be the last to die for this mistake...

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Safely Home
Beth Pyles, A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
...I left Baghdad last Saturday by bus along with another CPT'er and a
group of Palestinians seeking to leave Iraq for their safety. The decision
to go this way was difficult as the road is dangerous and it felt like
abandonment to leave our team mates behind so soon in the wake of Tom's
death. But we have worked long with the Palestinian community in Baghdad
and know the dangers they face there are very real. Going with them seemed
the right thing to do..! .

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Sectarian threats purge 30,000 Iraqis from homes
Ahmed Rasheed, Reuters
Sectarian violence has displaced more than 30,000 Iraqis -- victims of
gunmen who warn them to leave or die -- since a Shi'ite shrine was bombed
last month, the government said on Wednesday. The attack on the mosque in
Samarra on February 22 touched off reprisals and pushed Iraq toward civil
war. The bodies of hundreds of victims of communal violence have been
dumped along the streets, many bound and showing signs of torture. The
bloodshed ha! s also created a potential humanitarian crisis. Thousands of
families had to flee their homes after being threatened with death because
of their sect...

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UK court rejects Iraq detainee's plea
Aljazeera.net
A British court has rejected an appeal by a prisoner against his detention
without charge by British forces in southern Iraq. Hilal Abdul-Razzaq Ali
al-Jedda, a father of four with both British and Iraqi citizenship, has
been held since late 2004 and argued his human rights had been breached.
But the Court of Appeal in London ruled on Wednesday that the British
forces' policy of internment for terrorism suspects was lawful under a
United Nations Security Council! mandate...

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 30 March 2006.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org
...US forces have begun implementing a new identity system for residents of
'Amiriyat al-Fallujah, similar to that they imposed on the city of
al-Fallujah itself at the end of 2004. The move in 'Amiriyat al-Fallujah
follows an upsurge of Resistance attacks on US occupation forces in the
town. A source in the local puppet police! told Quds Press that under the
system involves issuing a special identity card that local residents are to
display on their chests that will allow them to enter or exit the town
through the many American checkpoints set up all over the area...

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Iraqis have right to resist foreign forces, clerics declare at conference
Religious leaders back attacks meant to speed up troops' withdrawal
TOD ROBBERSON / The Dallas Morning News
Two years after U.S. authorities restored sovereignty to Iraq, top
religious leaders say Iraqis still don't govern themselves, remain under
military occupation and have a right to fight foreign troops. Their
statements, made at the conclusion of a peace conference in London on
Tuesday, provided a stamp of approval from Iraq! 's most influential Sunni
and Shiite Muslim clerics for their countrymen to step up attacks aimed at
hastening the withdrawal of U.S., British and other troops. Two Christian
archbishops and ethnic Kurdish leaders, whose community has previously
supported the foreign military presence, joined Jordan's Prince Hassan bin
Talal in endorsing a communiqué underscoring the "legitimate right" of
Iraqis to resist what they called the occupation...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22102&s2=31>Read the full article / Leggi
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