[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 9 Apr 2006]

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APRIL 9
Malcom Lagauche
Three years ago, many of us awoke to see Saddam Hussein’s statue being torn
down in Baghdad. The media ate it up. This was as eventful as the tearing
down of the Berlin Wall, George Bush stated. Iraq was free, most pundits
wrote or spoke. The U.S. proved its naysayers to be wrong. Baghdad had
fallen with a minimal loss of U.S. lives. A democratic Iraq was just over
the horizon. What you saw wasn’t real. Saddam’s statue was not torn down by
Iraqis. The event was staged and well-rehearsed by the U.S. military. Look
at the aerial photo of the event. Maybe there are three or four dozen
Iraqis. The "crowd" comprises U.S. military personnel and tanks, and about
50 or so journalists who were alerted in the Palestinian Hotel, near the
venue, to come a witness this historic event...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22375&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22375


Silence kills and silence is complicity - email to IBC's Sloboda
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's dream
Dear Mr. Sloboda, I hope all is well with you and IBC. I have read your
reply to Joe Emersberger on ML board. I would like to make just two points,
even though I am afraid you won’t reply my email as you have never in the
past. Hard to believe we both belong to the same antiwar movement and to
the same international network, the BRussells Tribunal (...) Do you think
that the IBC’s figures give a realistic picture o f the Iraqi civilian
deaths? Since there are other studies and analysts talking about hundreds
of thousands of civilian deaths in Iraq since the US-led invasion, what
should one think of the enormous and terrifying difference between your
IBC’s figures [max. 37943] and the hundreds of thousands of the other
studies?...

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l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22391


Resultant Documents of the Founding Conference of the Resistant Arab
People's Alliance
Cairo, March 27-29, 2006
...We stand with the right of our people in Iraq to resist the occupation
by all means and on top of these means: armed resistance. We refuse all the
secretions of the occupation and their collaborators, and we consider the
resistance the legitimate representative of the people in Iraq, and we
stand with it in the same trench, and we refuse all the attempts aiming at
mutilating the image of t he resistance, and we condemn the ordered,
intentional assassinations of Iraq's scientific and academic expertise by
the occupation and the collaborators. We consider the Arab struggle in
Palestine a struggle of existence and not a struggle of borders, thus we
refuse all "settlement" solutions, and we stand with our people in
Palestine in one trench for the liberation of the entire Palestinian soil,
and we stress on the right of all Palestinians to return to their homes and
land...

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Three years on : ' ... the embargo years look like golden days.'
Review of 'Winter in Baghdad.' (Dedicated : 'To the People of Iraq'.)
Felicity Arbuthnot
The 9th April marks three years since the fall of Baghdad. A time recently
described by a Baghdad resident as: 'Making the embargo years look like
golden days.' This film encapsulate the tragedies of daily life, the losses
- and the indomitable spirit which successive invasions have always failed
to extinguish. On the third anniversary of the invasion of I raq, this
poignant, unforgettable, searingly moving film , first premiered at the
Emirates FIlm Festical in February, was premiered in London. Part of the
Human Rights Watch Film Festival, it was screened at the Institute of
Contemporary Arts, in central Pall Mall, minutes walk from Buckingham
Palace at one end and eqidistant from the Prime Minister's Downing Street
residence. Had Prime Minister Blair dropped in for the viewing, he just
might, finally, have realised the horror of historic proportions he had
colluded in releasing, on the people of Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22408&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22408


Baath Party Statement
The 9th of April 2003 is a black day in the generations' memory.
The Arab Baath Socialist Party
Three years have passed on the occupation of Iraq, a fourth and extremely
heavy year started and from its very beginning it indicates incoming ugly
and bloodthirsty strife seen through the piles of the immaculate bodies
thrown into the streets of the Al Mansur capital city announcing the scope
of what the Occupation has planned for! These ugly and horrible phenomenon
against our Mujahid a nd persevering people have absolutely nothing to do
with its reality and its social behavior.. A very heavy black dark cloud
has spread over our immaculate land. This old good land of pure people, has
been maculated by the evil troops, the evil allies of the bloodthirsty
criminal US which has attacked and violated the rights and the sovereignty
of the free peoples around the globe and in particular against Mujahid Iraq
using its tyrannical military power and occupying the land of Iraq on 9th
April 2003...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22416&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22416


The Iraqi Special Court Denies Defence request for time to prepare
Defense and Support Committee of President Saddam Hussein, his Comrades and
all P.o.W.s and Detainees in Iraq. (ISNAD)
...Defence lawyers coming from outside Iraq cannot even enter Iraq to visit
their clients regularly. In Iraq, defence lawyers are held under virtual
house arrest without access to telephones, faxes, computers, books, or any
adequate facilities to do their work. Even their legal notes are read and
only papers approved by American of ficials can be passed to their clients.
"Such conditions violate the most basic human rights of fair trial and
provide defendants in Iraq fewer rights than they ever had before," said
Professor Curtis Doebbler, an American advisor to the defence team.
According to Professor Doebbler, "it is quite incredible that the
international community silently watches a process that continues to
violate more and more human rights. We have called to have the trial
brought under United Nations auspices, but while everyone agrees that human
rights are not being respected they are too intimidated by the United
States government to stand up for human rights"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22388&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22388


CIA Torture Flights are Crimes Against Humanity
Joel Wendland
"The U.S. government is systematically outsourcing torture," says Bill
Goodman, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Commenting on the release of an Amnesty International report earlier this
week that provides evidence for the CIA's use of " torture flights" to
evacuate terror suspects secretly to locations where interrogators are not
bound by US laws against prisoner abuse, Goodman added, "It is shameful
that the Bush Administration has used the CIA and private aircraft
operators to send people abroad for torture"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22409&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22409


US & EU cut aid to PA - it amounts to a boycott against the Palestinian people
Peacepalestine
The Pressure exerted by the US and the EU, against the right of the
Palestinians to choose their own government through democratic elections is
continuing and worsening. The decision on the part of the EU in suspending
financial aid (see enclosure 1) to the Palestinian National Authority
constitutes a grave violation, a brutal threat, a true and proper boycott.
Instead of recalling Israel to adhere to international law ac cording to
the decision of the International Court of Justice of 9th July 2004 on the
Wall of Apartheid, Instead of strongly demanding that the Israeli
government end its military operations, targeted assassinations, incursions
in refugee camps and checkpoints that are becoming true borders between the
Palestinian Bantustans, Instead of impeding that Palestinians be starved
(see enclosure 2), Instead of assuming an autonomous position to that of
the USA, The European Union: Aligns itself to the American positions on
"the global war of terrorism",Sides with Israel and the USA, Is complicit
with the war crimes that Israel continues to perpetrate against the
Palestinians...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22406&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22406


THE WAR ON IMMIGRANTS
Stephen Lendman
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore." Once that was true, but
no longer. Emma Lazarus' beautiful and memorable words we've all heard many
times and know well are fading into memory. If we're honest, they should be
removed from "Lady Liberty" and be replaced with something like: We'll take
your Anglos, especially well-off ones, and the ones we choose with needed
skills; you keep the rest, esp ecially your poor, dark-skinned and
desperate. We needed 'em once for our homegrown sweatshops. No longer.
We've got plenty all around the world. It now looks like we'll make an
exception though for the menial or toughest low pay, no benefits, no
security jobs no one else wants. We're still debating it and will let you
know...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22402&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22402


Memo paints grim picture of life in Iraq as killings worsen
Eric Schmitt and Edward Wong
AN INTERNAL staff report by the US embassy and military command in Baghdad
provides a sobering province-by-province snapshot of Iraq's political,
economic, and security situation, rating the overall stability of six of
the 18 provinces "serious" and one "critical". The report contrasts with
some recent optimistic public statements by top US politicians and military
officials. Publication of the report's key findings comes as a senior
official in the Iraqi Government for the first time said the country was in
a state of civil war...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22413&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22413


America’s Noble Cause:
Preserving Its Right to Murder, Exploit, Torture, and Impoverish with Impunity
JASON MILLER
I was involved in this exchange with a co-worker about two months ago. I
was utterly perplexed at how this individual managed the obvious cognitive
dissonance created by thinking that we are fighting to protect our
"freedoms" while simultaneously holding the notion that non-violent
dissidents "should be rounded up and shot". In retrospect, why was I so
surprised? As a vehement critic of the United States government’s foreign
and domestic policies, I have received numerous death threats from
"patriotic" loyalists to the American Empire over the last year. Recently,
a severely brain-washed US resident who maintains a site called American
Jihad issued a "Farwa" (his spelling) against the editors of Counterpunch,
Dissident Voice, and Uruknet and against dissident writers Mike Whitney and
Kurt Nimmo. Many of my essays have appeared on Dissident Voice and Uruknet,
so I suppose I am a target of the "Farwa" too...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22400&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22400


U.S. Lawyer: Saddam Lawyers Denied Rights
JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer
Saddam Hussein's lawyers are denied the same rights and resources as the
prosecutors in his trial, a U.S.-based legal adviser to the deposed Iraqi
leader said Sunday (...) Doebbler, a Washington-based law professor
specializing in international law, said the non-Iraqi lawyers for the
defense "cannot even enter Iraq to visit their clients regularly." In Iraq,
Saddam's attorneys are "held under virtual house arrest without access to
tel ephones, faxes, computers, books, or any adequate facilities to do
their work," he said (...) He rebuked human rights groups without citing
any by name, saying they had failed to protest the conditions of Saddam's
trial. "It is quite incredible that the international community silently
watches a process that continues to violate more and more human rights," he
said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22401&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22401


DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 2006
Today In Iraq
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died from wounds sustained
due to enemy action while operating in al Anbar Province April 7. Iraqi
police arrest 30 employees of a security company, accuse them of plotting
attacks on civilians. U.S. troops and air strike kill 8 "suspected
insurgents" north of Baghdad. Also, 4 bodies, handcuffed and shot in the
head, found in Dora district. At least five car bombs in and near Baghdad.
A bomb meant for police killed a civilian when it exploded at Maysaloun
Square in eastern Baghdad. One of the attacks targeted police near a Sunni
mosque in the western neighborhood of Ghazaliyah, wounding at least three
people...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22399&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22399


Does Israel Conduct Covert Action in America? You bet it does.
Michael Scheuer
...For years – even decades – U.S. citizens have been the subject of a
political action campaign designed and executed by Israel. Currently,
Israel's campaign is part steady-as-she-goes and part improvisation to
neutralize an unexpected and – for Israel – worrying development. So far,
Israel's covert political action is succeeding hands down. Americans are
gradually being indoctrinated to believe Islamists are today's Nazis and
that the re is no "Israeli lobby" in America. Simply put, Israel is
conducting a brilliant covert political action campaign in the United
States, a campaign any intelligence service in the world would rightly be
proud of...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22398&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22398


Tomgram: De la Vega on the President's Final Jeopardy Question
Tom Engelhardt & Elizabeth de la Vega
The latest in a parade of horrors emanating from the Bush administration
appeared Thursday in the form of a revelation buried in papers filed in
federal court by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in his investigation
into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice
President Cheney's former chief of staff, now under indictment on charges
of perjury and obstruction of justice, told the Grand Jury Fitzgerald
convened that President Bush had -- via Vice President Cheney -- authorized
him to disclose selected information from a National Intelligence Estimate
(NIE) to New York Times reporter Judith Miller, which he did during a
private breakfast meeting at the St. Regis Hotel on July 8, 2003...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22395&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22395


Iran reporting trip
Christopher Allbritton
Oh, President Bush, you rascal. You do so like to repeat yourself. Now that
Iran is, unsurprisingly, number one — with a bullet! — on the "Countries We
Don’t Like" list, the question in the White House is, what to do about it?
Why, bomb the snot out of them, of course. I don’t think I need to go into
why this is a horrible, no-good, very bad idea, but apparently, "Bush views
Tehran as a serious menace that must be dealt with before his presidency
ends, aides said, and the White House, in its new National Security
Strategy, last month labeled Iran the most serious challenge to the United
States posed by any country." Sy Hersh also weighs in with a terrifying
article full of extra details...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22394&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22394


U.S. Is Studying Military Strike Options on Iran
Any Mix of Tact, Threats Alarms Critics
Peter Baker, Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writers
The Bush administration is studying options for military strikes against
Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran
to abandon its alleged nuclear development program, according to U.S.
officials and independent analysts. No attack appears likely in the short
term, and many specialists inside and out side the U.S. government harbor
serious doubts about whether an armed response would be effective. But
administration officials are preparing for it as a possible option and
using the threat "to convince them this is more and more serious," as a
senior official put it...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22393&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22393


Shiites Politicians Make No Decision on PM
QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
Shiite politicians met Sunday to discuss the crisis over their nomination
of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for a new term but made no
decision to replace him, officials said. Instead, they decided to form a
three-member committee better ascertain the reasons for Sunni and Kurdish
opposition to al-Jaafari, said Shiite official Ridha Jawad Taqi. He said
representatives of the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite block, woul d meet
again Monday to review the committee's findings. Sunnis and Kurds oppose
al-Jaafari because they blame his government for failing to stop a rise in
sectarian violence. Their reasons are well known, and it appeared the
Shiites were playing for time...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22392&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22392


Iraqi prisoners vanishing in 'black hole': Blair envoy
AFP
Iraqis arrested by United States-led forces have been vanishing into a
"black hole", British Prime Minister Tony Blair's human rights envoy told a
Sunday newspaper. Had the United States taken this problem seriously from
the beginning, it may have helped prevent the abuse of prisoners in Iraq,
Ann Clwyd, a Member of Parliament for the governing Labour Party, told The
Observer newspaper in a rare interview about her work. Clwyd, who reports
directly to Bla ir, expressed concern about the "tremendous effort"
required to trace detainees. "You did feel that people were disappearing
into black holes and it's very difficult," she said...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22387&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22387


GI Special 4D9: "It Is Treason" - April 9, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
... SEC. 601. (50 U.S.C. 421) (a) Whoever, having or having had authorized
access to classified information that identifies a covert agent,
intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to
any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing
that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the
United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's
intelligence rel ationship to the United States, shall be fined under title
18, United States Code, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22389&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22389


Criminally Insane Neocons Embrace Nuclear War
Kurt Nimmo
As Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the
Reagan administration, notes in his latest column, the Straussian neocons
are so hubris-filled and suicidally arrogant they now endanger the very
prospect of life on the planet. "An article in the current issue of Foreign
Affairs," Roberts writes, "long regarded as a voice of the American foreign
policy establishment, concludes that the Bush regime 'is openly seeking
primacy in every dimen sion of modern military technology, both in its
conventional arsenal and in its nuclear forces.’ The article suggests that
the US has now achieved nuclear superiority and could succeed with a
preemptive nuclear attack on both Russia and China...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22403&s2=10>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22403




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