[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 25 Apr 2006]

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Slaughterhouse
Mike Whitney
...The civil war storyline is intended to divert attention from the bloody
subjugation of the Iraqi people by a foreign military. This is the real
story of the Iraqi conflict. The current malaise in Iraq is reducible to
three bullet-points; occupation, occupation, and occupation. Any departure
from this essential narrative is simply false. American Intelligence
services are involved in every area of the present hostilities. Author Max
Fuller ("Crying Wolf: Media disinformation and Deat! hs squads in Occupied
Iraq") has documented how CIA operatives have not only trained the Iraqi
death squads operating in the Interior ministry, but created a high-tech
facility with data banks of the names of potential targets for future
attacks...

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Dead Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Makes a Video Debut
Kurt Nimmo
In order to keep the contrived "war on terror" alive, and pump up its
central figure, the dead Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a perpetually looming
threat, "a rare video" has surfaced, posted on the internet. "The video,
released just days after Iraq named a new prime minister and a high-profile
audiotape from bin Laden appeared on Arab TV, seemed a deliberate attempt
by al-Zarqawi to claim the spotlight again following months of taking a
lower profile," reports ! NBC News. "It also came just one day after a
triple bombing at a resort in Egypt that killed at least 24 people,
including 21 Egyptians and three foreigners," an attack not yet connected
to "al-Qaeda," not that it needs to be—as a matter of course, virtually all
terrorism in the Middle East is blamed on al-CIA-duh. "Egyptian authorities
have not yet said who they think was behind the attacks, but other security
experts have said that previous Sinai bombings have borne some marks of
al-Qaida or groups affiliated with it," the neocon owned and operated
Jerusalem Post explains...

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 25 April 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice.
...In a dispatch posted at 1:10pm Makkah time Tuesday afternoon, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that US troops have thrown 23 Iraqi villagers out of
their homes in a farm village west of ar-Ramadi and then turned the area
into a military position. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported
that US troops stormed the al-Bu 'Ali al-Jasim Village west of ar-Ram! adi
a 6am local time Tuesday morning and used loudspeakers to order all the
residents in the area to leave their homes within three hours or be thrown
out by force...

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Shameless Mother Jones
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's Dream
Dear Editor, In "Dead Reckoning: Counting Iraq's Civilian Dead" (By Adam
Shemper, Mother Jones, May/June 2006 Issue), Adam Shemper writes: "This
tally is updated daily on his website, Iraqbodycount.net, which Dardagan
cofounded and runs with a team of 16 volunteers. The site, also known as
IBC, has been the only consistent record of the war’s human toll, making it
the go-to source for reporters, activists, and even the Bush
administration. (...)" I! n February, Stephen Soldz wrote: "If Western
reporters, competing for scarce public attention, are loath to accurately
portray the extent of their ignorance about what is going on in enormous
chunks of Iraq, IBC has no excuse not to acknowledge, openly and
prominently, the resultant limits to their civilian death tally. To not
proclaim loudly that the IBC count is, by its nature, likely a severe
undercount of the true number of deaths, is to participate in the culture
of deceit and denial of the costs in civilian lives and suffering that has
plagued this alleged humanitarian intervention from the beginning. If IBC
does not understand this point, then their efforts at promoting truth have
now turned into its opposite and should cease"...

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The Prophecy of Oded Yinon
Is the US Waging Israel's Wars?
LINDA S. HEARD
...Read the following strangely prophetic segment from an article published
in 1982 by the World Zionist Organisation's publication Kivunim and penned
by Oded Yinon, an Israeli journalist with links to the Israeli Foreign
Ministry. Yinon's strategy was based on this premise. In order to survive
Israel must become an imperial regional power and must also ensure the
break-up of all Arab countries so that the region may be carved up! into
small ineffectual states unequipped to stand up to Israeli military might.
Here's what he had to say on Iraq: "The dissolution of Syria and Iraq into
ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon is Israel's
primary target on the Eastern frontIraq, rich in oil on the one hand and
internally torn on the other is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's
targets"...

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Behind the installation of Jawad al-Maliki as Iraqi prime minister
James Cogan, WSWS
...Maliki’s history is typical of the Shiite fundamentalists who have
collaborated with the US occupation of Iraq over the past three years. Much
of his life was spent in exile (...) By the time of the 2003 US invasion,
Maliki had established himself as one of Da’awa’s key leaders. Over the
past three years, he has been Jaafari’s main political advisor and was the
spokesman for the Shiite-dominated "transitional" government that ! was
formed in 2005. He has also worked in two of the key committees established
by the US occupation. In 2003, he sat on the de-Baathification committee
which purged thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein’s regime from
their jobs. Last year, he was one of the leading Shiite representatives on
the committee that worked closely with Khalilzad to formulate a new Iraqi
constitution...

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US forces planning for the long haul in Iraq
Hindustan Times
The US armed forces are planning to stay in Iraq for at least a decade, a
media report claimed on Monday, quoting military strategists. A report in
Newsweek said that the 38 square kilometres mini-city and airport Balad was
the evidence that American forces were preparing for the long haul. With
27,500 landings and takeoffs a month, Balad is second only to London's
Heathrow Airport in traffic worldwide, Brig Gen Frank Gorenc, the base
commander, was quo! ted as saying...

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The Confusion of Tongues
Jeff Wells, Rigorous Intuition
...But did he really say that? Did he insist that Israel must die? The
headline is drawn from this quote, provided without context: "We say that
this fake regime cannot logically continue to live." To arrive at the
headline, the government has to be conflated with the nation. Likewise we
could say about the Bush administration, and with considerable accuracy,
that "this fake regime cannot logically continue to survive." (Without
knowing Farsi I'll presume t! hat the original could be translated as
either "to live" or "to survive.") And is that the same as saying America
must die?...

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The right-wing terror-sphere
Evan Derkacz, AlterNet
Fox commentator and popular right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin "has crossed
a line." The "line" journalist Don Surber refers to is Malkin's having
pulled the names and contact information of three UC Santa Cruz students
from a press release and published them on her blog, while calling the
protesters "unhinged" and bleating that "[t]his used to be called
sedition." Surber's comments are notable because he's an avowed
conservative editorial writer for the Charle! ston Daily Mail. "She knows
better," Surber continues, referring to the fact that Malkin is a
syndicated columnist and pens the second-most-linked-to right-wing blog in
the nation. "Only a mean person would be so crass as to put that
information in mass circulation"...

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Shifting Footprints and Messianic Missions: Staying In Iraq 'Till Kingdom Come
Maureen Farrell, BuzzFlash
Remember the spring of 2003? Back when Americans were basking in promises
of "cakewalks" and flowers strewn at U.S. soldiers' feet? Saddam's statue
fell, the President dressed up in his flight suit, and all was well with
the world. The national mood (i.e. arrogance) reverberated on television,
magazines and in newspapers. What was not to love? Then came summer, and
doubts began to fester. "They kept telling [! the troops] that as soon as
you get to Baghdad you would be going home," one soldier's wife told the
Guardian in July, 2003. "The way home is through Baghdad, they said." And
though Bush promised troops would not remain in Iraq "for one day longer
than is necessary," within weeks, officials began talking about
"maintaining perhaps four bases in Iraq"...

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Knight Rider: Murder and Plunder Mean Honors for Armitage
Chris Floyd
Richard Armitage: First in war, first in subversion, first in the hearts of
someone else's countrymen. For his outstanding service in leading America
and Britain into an illegal war of aggression that has murdered hundreds of
thousands of innocent people in Iraq, as well as his heroic role in running
guns and money to the dope-dealing terrorist bands that sought to overthrow
the legitimate government of Nicaragua, Richard Armitage has been secr!
etly knighted by Queen Elizabeth Deuce, as the Guardian reports today...

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Subject to the Penalty of Death
Dahr Jamail , t r u t h o u t | Perspective
This weekend I received an email from a friend in Iraq. It read, "Salam
Dahr, I was in Ramadi today to ask about the situation. I was stunned for
the news of a father and his three sons executed in cold blood by US
soldiers, then they blasted the house. The poor mother couldn't stand the
shock, so she died of a heart attack." Sounds unbelievable, until you
consider this short clip from CNN, which shows a war crime being committed
by U! S troops in Iraq. In this clip, shot on October 26, 2003, Marines are
seen killing a wounded Iraqi who was writhing on the ground, and cheering.
One of the murderers then told CNN, "These guys are dead now you know, but
it was a good feeling ... and afterwards you're like, hell yeah, that was
awesome, let's do it again" ...

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Tehran insider tells of US black ops
By an Asia Times Online Special Correspondent
A former Iranian ambassador and Islamic Republic insider has provided
intriguing details to Asia Times Online about US covert operations inside
Iran aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling the regime - or
preparing for an American attack. "The Iranian government knows and is
aware of such infiltration. It means that the Iranian government has
identified them [the covert operatives] but for some reason does not want
to show! [this]," said the former diplomat on condition of anonymity...

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Mixed(up) Messages
William Bowles, I'n'I
The hysteria being generated around Iran’s alleged nuclear 'ambitions’ (the
media’s favourite newspeak word these days) serves several purposes; one,
it conveniently diverts attention away from the situation in Iraq; two, it
acts as a warning to any other country challenging US imperialism’s
increasingly desperate bid for global domination and, it also serves to
divert attention away from the real and present danger of climate
catastrophe which is itself directly the resul! t of the Western world's
suicidal economic system. And, as the real nature of the catastrophe that
confronts us become increasingly impossible to hide, so does the importance
of a propaganda campaign that peddles the hysterical message of 'Islamic
fundamentalism' as being the 'real threat' to Western civilisation...

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GI Special 4D25: " A Defiant Movement Among Soldiers" - April 25, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
... A vital new chapter in the book of protest, documentarian David
Zeiger's "Sir! No Sir!" is a revealing account of the anti-war activities
of soldiers on the ground in Vietnam. Though their political defiance was
eclipsed by civilian protests, thousands of American soldiers risked their
careers, and, in some cases, their lives, to expose the truths of the
campaigns they were ordered to fight.
Learning that their reality was far different from the one being presented
to the American public, many G.I.s began contributing to underground
newspapers, planning demonstrations and refusing to continue in battle.
Toward the end of the conflict, some even turned on their own officers,
tossing grenades into their tents as they slept....

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 24 April 2006.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice.
...In a dispatch posted at 9:35pm Makkah time Monday night, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that two Iraqi Resistance fighters were attempting to
plant a bomb in the path of a US patrol that was in the western Baghdad
area of al-'Amiriyah near the al-Bayt al-'Iraqi car lot when the Americans
came upon them and shot and killed them. The Americans then desecrated th!
e bodies. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported local
eyewitnesses as saying that after shooting the two Resistance fighters, the
Americans used a rope and tied the bodies to two of their Humvees and drove
around four streets in the predominantly Sunni district of al-'Amiriyah
dragging the bodies behind them as trophies...

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Shiite militias move into oil-rich Kirkuk
Control of Iraqi city has long been in dispute
Jonathan Finer, The Washington Post
Hundreds of Shiite Muslim militiamen have deployed in recent weeks to this
restive city -- widely considered the most likely flash point for an Iraqi
civil war -- vowing to fight any attempt to shift control over Kirkuk to
the Kurdish-governed north, according to U.S. commanders and diplomats,
local police and politicians (...) The Mahdi Army, led by firebrand cleric
Moqtada al! -Sadr, has sent at least two companies, each with about 120
fighters, according to Thomas Wise, political counselor for the U.S.
Embassy's Kirkuk regional office, which has been tracking militia activity.
The Badr Organization, the armed wing of Iraq's largest Shiite political
party, has also boosted its presence and opened several offices across the
region, military officers here said...

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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, April 25, 2006
Today in Iraq
...Gunmen kill senior judge in Baghdad. He was gunned down in the insurgent
stronghold of Amiriya. Roadside bomb explodes in Baghdad targeting American
military convoy in the neighborhood of Baya. No casualties were immediately
reported. In Baghdad's neighborhood of Azamiya, roadside bomb explodes near
Iraqi police patrol, wounding two policemen and a bystander. Bullet-ridden
bodies of two Iraqi men - their hands and legs bound with rope - found in
an open ! area near the neighborhood of Kamaliya in eastern Baghdad. Four
policemen wounded when car bomb explodes near police checkpoint near
Yarmouk hospital in western Baghdad...

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BBC's al-Zarqawi show
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's dream
...I have just three simple questions and I would be really grateful if you
could give me just three short but honest answers. QUESTION 1. You write:
"a man who appears to be the Iraqi insurgency's most wanted leader, Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi." Who says that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is "Iraqi
insurgency's most wanted leader"? A better phrasing could have been: "a man
whom The US government claims to be the Iraqi insurgency's most wanted
leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqaw! i." QUESTION 2. You write: "US experts told
the BBC they believed the recording was genuine." Who are these "US experts
[who] told the BBC they believed the recording was genuine"? I think this
is a very important information for the BBC to give to its readers so that
everyone can make up her/his own mind...

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Kevin Zeese: “Hawkish Israeli Lobby Wants War with Iran!”
William Hughes

Kevin Zeese was the first speaker at a public forum held on Monday evening,
April 24, 2006, at the West End Neighborhood Library, near the community of
Georgetown. The topic for the event was, "Is the Israel Lobby Promoting War
on Iran?" He said the question of whether the hawkish, hard-right,
pro-Israeli Lobby in America wants to see war with Iran "gets answered in
an ad which was in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and other
newspapers. It’s a full page ad by the American Jewish Committee, put out
on April 4th. The center of the bull’s eye is Iran and the headline is:
'Can Anyone Within Range of Iran’s Missiles Feel Safe?’ I think that’s a
pretty inflammatory ad. It’s signed by more than a hundred people...I think
it’s a pretty strong indication of where the Lobby stands. That isn’t the
only proof we have that the hawkish Israeli Lobby wants to go to war."...

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Meet the new Osama, Imad Mughniyah
Xymphora
The Bush Administration needs a new terrorist attack before the fall. It
has to keep control of Congress to avoid any impeachment problems, but must
keep the polls close enough to be able to continue to use the crooked
voting machines without the American public becoming suspicious and
trashing them before the next presidential election (the Republicans
haven't honestly won a presidential election since 1988, and won't be
winning another one soon without a little elect! ronic help). In order to
sell the terrorism 'product' they need a new scary guy to front the
operation. Bin Laden is past his sell-by date, and Al Zarqawi has been
officially retired and really only worked the market for Iraq anyway. I
think we now know who the new Osama is, a name from the past...

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