[uruknet.info - daily information from occupied iraq] newsletter 28 Aug 2004.

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Coalition of the Coerced
Eric S. Margolis
...Now, over a year later, many of America’s 32 allies, tributaries,
supplicants, and camp followers that sent a total of 22,000 troops to Iraq
are wishing they had never become involved and are seeking escape or giving
thanks they are well out of the growing carnage in Mesopotamia...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5135&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Australian troops engaged in U.S.-led covert action in Iraq: report
AFP
Around 30 to 40 specially trained Australian soldiers are taking part in
U.S.-led covert jobs in Iraq, including kidnapping and the "full gamut" of
special! operations, a report said Saturday. The Australian Financial
Review's report contrasts with government claims that Australian forces are
only carrying out a limited role in Iraq since most troops were withdrawn
in May...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5134&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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'Iraq Haunts US'.. Powell Cancels Olympics Trip
IslamOnline.net
As demonstrations over Iraq and Palestine broke out in Athens to protest US
Secretary of State Collin Powell's planned visit to Greece to attend the
closing ceremo! nies of the Olympic Games, the trip was cancelled due to
"press of business." "The secretary considered a number of factors. The
press of business in Washington made him decide he could not visit at this
time," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said Friday, August 27...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5131&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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US torturers in Afghanistan were redeployed to Iraq
David Adelaide, WSWS
American intelligence officers, in interviews with journalists, have
alleged that US military interrogators involved in the atrocities at Iraq’s
Abu Ghrai! b prison were also involved in earlier cases of prisoner abuse
that took place in Afghanistan. This helps give the lie to official claims
that the Abu Ghraib crimes were the independent actions of low-level
soldiers and not the result of a deliberate policy aimed at bullying and
intimidating the Iraqi people into accepting the occupation...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5133&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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The Liberators
Nesren Melek
The American police used dogs to frighten detained Iraqi teenagers, I see
the fear on their faces from the pictures but they keep asking why do they
hate us. The American army were using their animal! s to make juveniles as
young as 15 years old urinate on themselves as part of a competition but
they keep asking why do they hate us (...) They kidnapped our past, present
and future but they keep asking why do they hate us...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5130&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Why Would They Bother?
RAY HANANIA; CounterPunch
When I heard that Israel had a man working in the Pentagon as a spy,
providing secret information to its powerful lobbying arm in Washington, I
wa! s surprised. Why does Israel need a spy to steal secret information
when it has several key people there already who hold top positions and can
share instead of steal sensitive data? Paul Wolfowitz? Richard Pearle? Paul
Bremer? Didn't we invade Iraq in part to satisfy the Israeli lobby that
pressured the weakling administration of President Bush?

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5127&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Muqtada Al-Sadr: A Voice of Resistance
Ghali Hassan
...Unlike Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Muqtada Al-Sadr is not controlled by
outside forces, such as Iran. Sistani is an Iranian citizen and draws much
of his support from Iran. Sist! ani has good following in Najaf, but very
little support in the rest of Iraq. Ayatollah Sistani is like Ayatollah
Khomeini who lived in Najaf for many years, and remained unknown to Iraqis
until his departure to Iran in 1979. Sistani is promoted by the Occupation
authority because of his quietness to the Occupation...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5129&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Bring Najaf to New York
Naomi Klein
I've been in New York a week now, watching the city prepare for the
Republican National Convention and the accompanying protests. Much is
predictable: tabloid hysteria about an anarchist sieg! e; cops showing off
their new crowd-control toys; fierce debates about whether the
demonstrations will hurt the Republicans or inadvertently help them. What
surprises me is what isn't here: Najaf. It's nowhere to be found. Every
day, US bombs and tanks move closer to the sacred Imam Ali Shrine,
reportedly damaging outer walls and sending shrapnel flying into the
courtyard; every day, children are killed in their homes...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5124&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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The Cost of the US Colonial War Against Iraq
Lenora Foerstel, www.globalresearch.ca
Most citizens of the world assume that when their country declares war, the
country's army and weapons industry will be called upon to fight th! e
battle. But what we find today is that a group of CEOs heading privatized
military firms are sharing the power once vested exclusively in the
President and Congress. Private military contractors are the new corporate
face of war. They have sent their own mercenaries to Croatia, Macedonia,
Columbia, Afghanistan and Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5123&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Via subito
ANDREA COLOMBO, il manifesto
L'efferato assassinio di Enzo Baldoni, un pacifista che era in Iraq per
denunciare l'occupazione di quel paese, dimostra una cosa sola: che tutti
gli eserciti occupanti devono andarsene i! mmediatamente. Altra via per
sottrarre alle armi la loro attuale egemonia e restituire la parola alla
politica non c'?. Ai pacifisti italiani questa morte assurda chiede, come
fosse un estremo messaggio, quasi un testamento, di riprendere subito la
mobilitazione contro la guerra. E' lo stesso impegno che impone il massacro
di decine di persone perlopi? inermi a opera del governo Allawi,
contemporaneo all'uccisione di Baldoni. Nelle guerre prolungate bisogna
sempre guardarsi dal rischio dell'abitudine. Un rapimento al giorno, una
strage quotidiana e si finisce per considerare normale quel che di normale
non ha nulla. Da troppo tempo il movimento pacifista, noi inclusi, diserta
le piazze, evita di far sentire forte e chiara la sua voce...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5122&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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The unseen cost of war: American minds: Soldiers can sustain psychological
wounds for a lifetime
M.L. Lyke
...He is one of a growing number of local soldiers returning from Iraq with
PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. It's a! brain condition that has
wreaked havoc on warriors' nervous systems since the first shell-shocked
Johnny came marching home with a thousand-yard stare and a million-dollar
question: Will anything ever be the same?...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5121&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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America's problem
The Guardian
It was only last month that the US army formally asserted that the abuse of
Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison consisted of "aberrations" that could
not be put down to systemic problems. This we! ek, however, two official
reports have painted a more disturbing picture. The reports, one for the
Pentagon chaired by the former defence secretary James Schlesinger, and the
other for the US army by Generals George Fay and Anthony Jones, describe a
situation in which the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners was more extensive
than previously acknowledged and in which military leadership was found
seriously wanting...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5120&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Pentagon rocked by Israeli spy case
Aljazeera.net
...The fact that the alleged spy is associated with Feith and Wolfowitz may
prove embarrassing for the White House. Both officials, actively involved
in planning the invasion of! Iraq, have been accused of promoting the war
to serve Israeli interests. Before the invasion of Iraq in April 2003,
Feith created a special intelligence unit that tried to prove Iraq's ties
to al-Qaida - a link that has been almost universally discredited...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5119&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Un rapimento, mille bugie
SARA MENAFRA, il manifesto
Dall'inizio alla fine la storia del rapimento e della morte di Enzo
Baldoni, il pubblicitario e giornalista milanese giustiziato gioved"notte ?
stata circondata da misteri e ! versioni differenti. E anche ora che
l'unico obiettivo rimasto ? ottenere la restituzione del corpo di Baldoni,
i dubbi rimangono...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5113&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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FBI looks at Pentagon worker in Israel spy probe. Report: Suspect has ties
to Wolfowitz, Feith
CNN
The FBI has evidence that a person who has been working at high levels in
the Pentagon may be a spy for Israel, senior U.S. offi! cials confirmed to
CNN on Friday. The suspect could have been in a position to influence Bush
administration policy toward Iran and Iraq, the senior official said.
However, another government official said the suspect is "not in a level to
influence policy." "He is an analyst in an undersecretary's office," this
official said. A senior Pentagon official confirmed to CNN that Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "had been made generally aware that the Justice
Department had an investigation going on"...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5115&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Tehran tesse le lodi di al Sistani
STEFANO CHIARINI, il manifesto
Le truppe americane e quelle dei loro alleati, nonostante tre settimane di
incessanti bombardamenti su Najaf e sulle citt– e i quartieri controllati
dalle forze ! del leader sciita radicale Moqtada al Sadr (da Kut ad Amara,
da Basra a Hilla a Diwaniya), cos" come sulle citt– sunnite (Falluja,
Ramadi, Baqouba, Samarra, parte di Mosul e di Kirkuk) non sembra siano
riusciti nel loro intento di schiacciare la resistenza e di dare un minimo
di potere, se non di consenso, al governo collaborazionista di Iyad Allawi.
N? tantomeno ad eliminare dalla scena politico-militare del paese quella
parallela mobilitazione sunnita-sciita contro l'occupazione che ha messo in
crisi i piani del Pentagono...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5114&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Civilians killed as US bombs Falluja
Aljazeera.net
US warplanes have launched a fresh wave of air strikes on the Iraqi town of
Falluja, killing at least four civilians. Witnesses said warplanes on
Friday dropped at least two bo! mbs in the town's eastern neighbourhood of
al-Askari, damaging 15 houses and destroying several cars. Medical staff at
the hospital in Falluja said four people were killed and 12 wounded,
including a six-year-old girl. US warplanes also bombed the city's
industrial zone, wounding two factory guards...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5112&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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US-Iranian tug and pull over Iraq
Ehsan Ahrari
The deal struck between the old guard, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and
the young guard, Muqtada al-Sadr, on Thursday over the custodianship of the
Imam Ali Shrine is also a con! tinuation of the struggle for the future of
Iraq. The old guard is unwittingly giving the US occupation a little space
to maneuver, with an understanding that the young guard will not be
harmed...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5111&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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Najaf shows government's weakness
Roger Hardy, BBC Middle East analyst
...Both the Americans and Mr Allawi had wanted to avoid the kind of
unsatisfactory compromise which ended an earlier uprising by Moqtada Sadr's
supporters i! n the spring. So in this crisis, Mr Allawi and his top
ministers talked tough, threatening a military assault to remove Sadr's
forces from Najaf's holy shrine. But when the assault never came, their
credibility was dented. Now, once again, Moqtada Sadr's prestige has risen.
Once again, he has walked free. Once again, he has refused to disband his
militia...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5110&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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The Desert Fox
William S. Lind, AntiWar
In Iraq and elsewhere, all eyes are currently on Najaf. As I had guessed,
the battle ended with a whimper, not with a bang, as the Mahdi Army
militiamen exfiltrated, and Moqtada al-Sadr t! urned over the keys to the
mosque to Ayatollah al-Sistani. But the real winner is likely once again to
be the new Desert Fox, Mr. Sadr. How can that be, if in the end his militia
could not stand against American troops? First of all, Sadr and his antics
in Najaf showed all of Iraq that the new Iraqi "sovereign government" is a
false front...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=5109&s2=28>Read the full article / Leggi
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