[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 24 Apr 2006 - Part One]

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A Farce of Law: The Trial of Saddam Hussein
Curtis Doebbler
...The glaring illegalities of the current process begin with illegal
origins. The invasion and occupation of Iraq is widely understood to be
illegal (...)
The Nuremberg Tribunal described such illegal aggression as "essentially an
evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states
alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression,
therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme
international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it
contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." It is not the
person on trial in Iraq who committed this crime, but the American
President George W. Bush and his allies. Rather than being brought to
justice for their crimes, the Bush administration and it allies resorted to
trying their victims in a manner that insults longstanding concepts of
justice and fair trial — both a central Islamic value and an international
human right. To the Bush administration their actions apparently justified
or at least distracted attention away from their own illegal actions. One
of the ends of this illegal act was to capture, detain, try! , and execute
the President of Iraq who had dared to stand up to the will of a powerful
country like the United States...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22831&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22831


Transforming the World into a War-zone
Mike Whitney
Like everything else, Rumsfeld’s promise to "transform" the military has
been a lie. The Defense Secretary never had any intention of converting the
military into "smaller, more agile units". From the very onset his goal has
been to create a global strike-force that operates as the enforcement-arm
of the multinational corporations. Rumsfeld has done everything in his
power to remove the military from congressional oversight or accountability
to the people it is ! supposed to serve. Under his stewardship, the
Pentagon has lurched from one humiliating scandal to the next. From Abu
Ghraib to Falluja, from Guantanamo to Bagram; his record has been a dismal
chronicle of one disgrace heaped upon another...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22822&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22822


Why Israel must Renounce Violence
Mike Whitney
I was wrong. Last week I wrote an article "Can Hamas make the change to a
Political Organization?" which was published on a number of web sites. In
the article I argued that Hamas should publicly renounce suicide bombing.
That was wrong. True, suicide bombing has been a public relations nightmare
that has only advanced Israeli interests, but that tells us nothing about
who is really responsible for the violence. It is impossible to make a
considered judgment about ! these acts without deciding who should
ultimately be held accountable (...) It is foolish to blame the victims of
oppression as the perpetrators of violence. Occupation is the supreme act
of violence from which all the smaller acts are mere tributaries. Israel
has created a spawning ground for suicide bombing just as America has in
Iraq. Iraq has no prior history of suicide bombing. It is entirely
attributable to the occupation. Hamas has no part in the present violence.
They have never violated their year-long truce...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22797&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22797


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 23 April 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice
...A copy of an official document ostensibly issued by the United Nations
office in Baghdad has been circulating in political circles in occupied
Iraq. The document purportedly indicates that the US ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad agrees to allow the son of the chief of the pro-American Shi'i
sectarian so-called "Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (!
SCIRI)", 'Ammar 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Hakim, to export oil, officially regarding
him as a transportation contractor for the resource. Quds Press reported
from Baghdad on Sunday that copies of the document had reached a number of
offices of political parties in the puppet regime in Baghdad, as well as
the office of 'Ammar 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Hakim himself in an-Nafaf...'

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22825&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
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“People in the military need to be told the truth, just like everybody else
does.”
Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party
...Now, some people have raised: we should support the troops, but not the
war. Well, to show why I believe this doesn't make any sense, you only have
to say: if you support people, you have to support what they're doing. If
you don't support what they're doing, you shouldn't support them. To
illustrate this even more graphically, suppose you came upon a gang rape
and you f! ound this woman in this desperate situation fighting back, but
being jumped on by a number of guys. Would you raise the slogan, "support
the rapists, not the rape"? Obviously not. If what people are doing is
wrong, murderous, against the interests of the people, you cannot support
that and you cannot support them. You support them if and when and in the
ways in which they resist and rise up against that. But you do not raise
the slogan, "support the troops not the war," any more than you would
raise, "support the rapist, not the rape." This is, both literally as well
as metaphorically, what these U.S. troops are doing in Iraq and elsewhere —
rape and plunder in the service of a system that lives and thrives off
plunder and exploitation...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22824&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22824


Inspectors Find More Torture at Iraqi Jails
Top General's Pledge To Protect Prisoners 'Not Being Followed'
Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post Foreign Service
...Since then, there have been at least six joint U.S.-Iraqi inspections of
detention centers, most of them run by Iraq's Shiite Muslim-dominated
Interior Ministry. Two sources involved with the inspections, one Iraqi
official and one U.S. official, said abuse of prisoners was found at all
the sites visited through February. U.S. military authoriti! es confirmed
that signs of severe abuse were observed at two of the detention centers.
But U.S. troops have not responded by removing all the detainees, as they
did in November. Instead, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, only a
handful of the most severely abused detainees at a single site were removed
for medical treatment...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22823&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22823


Neocon Academic Glorifies P2OG Terrorism
Kurt Nimmo
On occasion, I receive an email suggesting I’m a mental case for
speculating that "al-Qaeda in Iraq" is a black op perpetuated by the
Pentagon and various intelligence organizations. Now comes vindication, of
a sort, issued by a neocon at the Hoover Institution "on War, Revolution,
and Peace," a conspiratorial and criminal brotherhood with members such as
Paul Wolfowitz, Condi Rice, Richard Scaife, Robert Kagan, Don Rumsfeld, and
others, and connected at the hip! to other warmongering organizations such
the American Enterprise Institute, where Bush gets his "minds," deplorable
creatures such as Bill Kristol, Michael Ledeen, John Bolton, and other war
and mass murder hounds, in short the most "influential" of the Straussian
neocon coterie...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22818&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22818


Pentagon implements Global Military Policing
Second 9/11 to provide an "Opportunity" to Intervene
Michel Chossudovsky, Globalresearch.ca
The following report raises some very serious concerns. It points to the
involvement of US special forces in countries which do not represent a
threat to the US and with which the US is not at war. The SOCOM program
essentially carries out the mandate of the 2000 Project for a New American
Century, which contemplated the sending in of Special Forces in "non
theater w! ar" situations. These operations were described in the PNAC as
part of the so-called "constabulary functions"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22816&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22816


Iraq Antiquities Find Sparks Controversy
Sue Biggin and Andrew Lawler, ScienceNOW Daily News
Italian researchers in Iraq claim to have stumbled upon an important cache
of ancient clay tablets in one of the world's oldest cities. But others
dispute the claim, and Iraqi authorities say the scientists have been
acting illegally. (...) Donny George, chair of Iraq's State Board of
Antiquities and Heritage, sent an irate e-mail to the Pettinato team on 6
April in search of an explanation. An Iraqi group sent recently t! o Eridu
to investigate found no evidence of tablets, he wrote: "Why all this media
propaganda ... for something that is not real?" George also scolded the
Italians for unauthorized work at nearby Ur, another ancient Sumerian city,
where he says they have dug out "foundation stones and door sockets" and
taken them to a nearby museum. As at Eridu, he wrote, they only had
permission to take photos, so their actions are "a clear violation of the
Iraqi antiquities law. ... This means that you may be taken to an Iraqi
court"...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22815&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22815


Bush Brandishes Jail Time at Critics
Robert Parry
Over the past five-plus years, the American people have gotten a taste of
what a triumphant George W. Bush is like, as he basked in high approval
ratings and asserted virtually unlimited powers as Commander in Chief. Now,
the question is: How will Bush and his inner circle behave when cornered?
So far, the answer should send chills through today’s weakened American
Republic. Bush and his team – faced with plunging poll numbers and
cascading disclosures of wrongdoi! ng – appear determined to punish and
criminalize resistance to their regime.

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22811&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22811


US combats 'slavery' of private firms in Iraq
Truth about Iraqis
...So, in summary: Article on human-trafficking introduced by US security
firms in Iraq: "Gen. George Casey ordered that contractors be required by
May 1 to return passports that have been illegally confiscated from
laborers on U.S. bases after determining that such practices violated U.S.
laws against trafficking for forced or coerced labor." Time Magazine
article on Selling of Iraqi Girls. "Safah is part of a seldom-discussed
aspect of t! he epidemic of kidnappings in Iraq: sex trafficking. No one
knows how many young women have been kidnapped and sold since the fall of
Saddam Hussein in 2003" (...) I would wager US officials are complicit in
this. They brought us terrorism. And slavery. And they are selling our
women. Rejoice O Iraqis, for you are truly free and your sisters, mothers,
daughters are now the whores of Babylon...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22810&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22810


Rage and Light: Militarism and its Discontents
Chris Floyd
...As often noted here, this PNAC document from 2000 explicitly stated that
America should establish a military presence in Iraq no matter what the
political situation in that country might be; this was an urgent need that
"transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein." It is now
abundantly clear, from a nearly overwhelming number of sources, including
some from inside the Bush Administration itself, that the Bush Faction
intended to invade Iraq f! rom their first moments in power. As for the
effect of September 11 on the faction, we also know that in the very first
hours after the devastating attacks, Donald Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were
pushing for an attack on Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22809&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22809


And We Think We Are Free
Nolan K. Anderson
...Did Abu Ghraib sound un-Christian, uncivilized and unlawful to we
Americans or did it sound like a sophomoric college prank? Did the second
set of photos from Abu Ghraib, which were finally released to the public
after having been screened and judged by our lawmakers to be so graphically
horrific that the American public should not be allowed to see them, goad
we Americans into finding who was REALLY responsible, impeaching the
responsible party and trying his underli! ngs for war crimes? Did the
description of the destruction of Fallujah seem right to us? Did we
Americans try to pry open the CIA's rendition operation and prosecute all
the way to the gas chamber those responsible for rendition and torture and
black prisons? ...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22808&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22808


Tomgram: John Brown's Wake-up Call for the President
Tom Engelhardt & John Brown
Just a week back, I suggested that there was no reason to believe the
President's approval ratings had bottomed out. In fact, I wrote, "There is
no reason to believe that a polling bottom exists for this President, not
even perhaps the Nixonian Age of Watergate nadir in the lower 20% range."
Now, the latest Fox News poll puts the President at an all-time low -- a
33% approval rating...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22812&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22812


GI Special 4D23: "Most Of The Guys Assume It's About Oil" - April 23, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
... Braga says most of the guys in his unit assume the war is based on lies
and that it's all about oil, but they won't get involved in peace activism
because "They say, 'You can't change anything.' "But if you read history
you see that usually people already have changed things," he says.
"Movements have made lots of things happen"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22806&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22806


DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 2006
Today in Iraq
Three U.S. soldiers killed by roadside bomb in Baghdad at 11:30 am Sunday.
CentCom gives no further details. Note: This brings the total of U.S.
military personnel killed in Iraq to 2,389. Average U.S. military deaths
per day in April have been 2.74, the most since November. Mortar attack on
Iraq Defense Ministry kills 5, wounds 3, according to Reuters. AP account
of this incident gives death toll as 7. Also reports on 8 additional mortar
rounds, apparently ! attacking the Interior Ministry, which did not result
in casualties. Police find the bodies of six young men in Adhamiya, bound
and shot in the head. Two Iraqi actors murdered by Islamic militants,
troupe's building burned down...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22805&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22805


A Plan To End The War
Joshua Frank
...In fact antiwar allegiance to the pro-war Democrats may well be our
biggest problem. Despite the mounting opposition across the US to the war
in Iraq, not one major Democrat has endorsed an immediate unconditional
withdrawal of troops from Iraq. A few have supported Rep. Murtha’s
"strategic redeployment" plea, which would sanction air strikes of Iraq as
well as continued US military outposts throughout the region. But not one
leading Democrat wants US troops home now. And wha! t has the antiwar
movement done to punish them? Nothing...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22804&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22804


NYT Op-Ed Proposed ethnic cleansing in Iraq
Troutfishing, Daily Kos
"The proposal appeared in a [2003] November 25 column by Leslie Gelb, a
former editor and senior columnist for the Times. Gelb calls for dividing
Iraq between the "Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and Shiites in
the south." He continues: "Almost immediately, this would allow America to
put most of its money and troops where they would do the most good
quickly--with the Kurds and Shiites. The United States could extricate most
of i! ts forces from the so-called Sunni Triangle, north and west of
Baghdad, largely freeing American forces from fighting a costly war they
might not win. This sort of approach had been considered even earlier than
Gelb's version...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22802&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22802


Stop Bush: Troops out of Iraq, hands off Iran!
Simon Cunich and Katie Cherrington
After being detained by the Wolf Brigade — an elite police squad controlled
by the US-backed Iraqi Interior Ministry — in February 2005, Khalida
Zakiya, a 46-year-old woman from Mosul, appeared on Iraqi television saying
that she supported an armed anti-occupation group. According to a report
released by Amnesty International on March 6 — Beyond Abu Ghraib: detention
and torture in Iraq — "she later withdrew this confession and alle! ged
that she had been coerced into making it. She was reportedly whipped with a
cable by members of the Wolf Brigade and threatened with sexual abuse." The
Amnesty report cites evidence of widespread torture of detainees held by
the US occupation forces and the US-backed Iraqi security forces...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22801&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22801


CHENEY AND HALLIBURTON
Last year's paychecks heighten the perception our vice president is tainted
by personal interests
Marie Cocco
It's not the $2 million tax refund. It's the $211,465. That's the amount of
deferred compensation Vice President Dick Cheney received from Halliburton
last year. It's the final payment, his lawyer says, of money due Cheney
under an agreement that had the giant oil-services firm paying him for his
past services as its chief executive officer. The payments continued after
C! heney was elected and became chief honcho of American energy policy and
one of the chief architects of the war in Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22800&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22800


The Generals Revolt
A Symptom Of U.S. Malaise
K Gajendra Singh
The retired generals' revolt only highlights the malaise in the US polity
which has crept in , specially in recent decades. The disconnect between an
arrogant, ill informed Administration and the military executors of its
policies in Iraq has opened a Pandora's box which hopefully might become
the tipping point for much needed changes in US polity. Even before the
illegal invasion of Iraq and since then , there was dissent from
independent ! analysts , retired generals and diplomats like Ambassador
Joseph Wilson who exposed the Administration's false claims that Saddam
Hussein tried to obtain yellow cake from Niger...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22803&s2=25>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22803




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