[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 04 Dec 2004]

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Was it worth it? Ask the child who lost his family'
Christian Hogsbjerg and Kevin Widdop, Socialist Worker
...The media is also ignoring the 15,000 refugees living on the outskirts
of the city. They have no shelter, and it is winter. There is also an
outbreak of typhoid among the refugees. They have no supplies of food. They
were eating the flowers, but now they have nothing. (...) The coalition
forces ... won "hearts and minds" because they cut off the heads and took
out the hearts and minds of the Iraqi peopl! e...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7801&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7801


25,575 US casualties
Raed Jarrar, Raed in the Middle
The Pentagon in 2002 was forced to shutter its controversial Office of
Strategic Influence (OSI), which was opened shortly after the Sept. 11
attacks, following reports that the office intended to plant false news
stories in the international media. But officials say that much of OSI's
mission -- using information as a tool of war -- has been assumed by other
offices throughout the U.S. government. This is what we, normal human
beings, call >>>>>>> T! ELLING LIES...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7813&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7813


To vote or not to vote
Omayma Abdel-Latif, Al-Ahram Weekly
...Al-Husseini, who describes himself as a secular Shia, went on to point
out that there are large numbers of Iraqi Shia who will boycott the
elections despite Sistani's calls to go to the polls, because they believe
that the whole process is merely a charade intended to bestow legitimacy on
an illegitimate order (...) "The real issue is not about a Sunni boycott
versus Shia participation," Al- Husseini insisted. "It is about whether you
are against the o! ccupation and support the national resistance. And there
are as many Shia as there are Sunnis in that camp"...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7815&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7815


Danger! War Criminals
Edward Teague, Investigating New Imperialism
...This violent and aggressive invasion, unleashing over 30,000 bombs,
napalm, and all the terrors of aerial bombing against a civilian
population, was a Hobbesian, "War of each against all". Raw power, military
might, not morality, not legitimacy was the only currency. The Bush
Administration and the UK Government led by Tony Blair, who has made some
Faustian pact with Bush and his war mongering gamg were well aware this
attack had no legal basis! . The legal justifications offered then, and
over which much squalid sophistry, and legalistic casuiatry has been used
and cynically offered are transparently fraudulent. Simply put. The
invasion of Iraq was illegal. It's authors are criminals and should be
tried as such...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7811&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7811


Abuse at US Prisons in Iraq Mirrored at Jails in Afghanistan
Jeffrey Smith
A recent classified assessment of U.S. military detention facilities in
Afghanistan found that they have been plagued by many of the problems that
existed at military prisons in Iraq, including weak or nonexistent guidance
for interrogators, creating what the assessment described as an
"opportunity" for prisoner abuse...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7808&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7808


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 2 December 2004 and Friday,
3 December 2004
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
...US forces have launched a sweeping campaign of raids and searches in the
Abu Ghurayb area west of Baghdad. One of the homes into which US forces
burst belonged to relatives of Shaykh Harith ad-Darri, the Chairman of the
Board of Muslim 'Ulama' [Scholars]. Al-Quds al-'Arabi daily newspaper in
London reported that 11 relatives of Shaykh ad-Darri w! ere arrested
without charge.This is the second time the family has been subjected to
this kind of treatment by the US forces and their stooges...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7810&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7810


You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is
Naomi Klein, The Guardian
Dear Mr Johnson, On November 26, your press counsellor sent a letter to the
Guardian taking strong exception to a sentence in my column of the same
day. The sentence read: "In Iraq, US forces and their Iraqi surrogates are
no longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian targets and are openly
eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics, journalists - who dares to count the
bodies." Of particular concern was the word "eliminating". The l! etter
suggested that my charge was "baseless" and asked the Guardian either to
withdraw it, or provide "evidence of this extremely grave accusation" (...)
Here is the evidence you requested...


<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7806&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7806


Should Iraqis Boycott the Election?
Jude Wanniski
Regular readers of "Memo on the Margin" will recognize Dr. Obaidi as an
acquaintance I've come to trust in recent years as a straight-shooting
Iraqi who has been living in exile in the UK as a medical doctor and now a
university professor. He was sincerely anti-Saddam when I encountered him,
but also unusual in that he agreed completely with Dr. Stephen Pelletiere,
my CIA friend, that Saddam did not commit genocide and that the Iraqi Kurds
who died at Halabja in M! arch 1988 were caught between the Iranian and
Iraqi forces and were collateral victims of Iranian gassings intended for
Iraqi soldiers...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7805&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7805


Defining resistance
Amira Howeidy, Al-Ahram Weekly
Earlier this week Diaa Ali Khedr, head of the Iraqi National Guard (IRG)
battalion in Samaraa, resigned from his job, together with 20 IRG soldiers.
They said they quit in response to a fatwa issued by the Muslim Clerics
Association prohibiting cooperation with the occupation forces in Iraq.
While this is not the first time that members of the Iraqi security
apparatus have shifted their allegiances -- some of them actually joined
the resistance groups in Falluja ! during the coalition-led onslaught on
the town -- these recent resignations may signal a turning point in how
resistance to the occupation is perceived both inside and outside Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7816&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7816


In the rubble of Falluja
Nermeen Al-Mufti
...According to well-informed sources, 600 bodies or so are still lying
under the rubble in Falluja. Others have been dismembered by dogs, thrown
in the river, or completely decomposed. Most buildings and markets have
been destroyed. The city has no electricity, drinking water, telephone
service, or sewage network...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7804&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7804


Blueprint for fair elections
Abdul-Ilah Al-Bayaty
...The occupation authorities and their allies want to use the elections as
an alibi for their continued rule. But the Iraqi people will not fall into
this trap. The Iraqis are going to boycott the elections, and they will
resist those who seek to silence them, and who deserve only their attempt.
The only elections acceptable to the Iraqis would be those which meet the
following conditions: The departure of all foreign troops ahead of the
elections, or at the very! least, an enforceable timetable for their
withdrawal (...) The unconditional release of all political detainees,
including those who took up arms against the occupation...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7802&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7802


Fallujah Refugees Tell of Life and Death in the Kill Zone
Dahr Jamail, The NewStandard
..."Americans did not have interpreters with them," Fasa'a said, "so they
entered houses and killed people because they didn't speak English. They
entered the house where I was with 26 people, and [they] shot people
because [the people] didn't obey [the soldiers'] orders, even just because
the people couldn't understand a word of English."...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7807&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7807


US Marine's mystery "suicide" deepens
Ernesto Cienfuegos, La Voz de Aztlan
.. You see, the US Marines declared the death of Pfc Milczark a suicide,
however, there is one small detail that really bothers the town and the
family . . . the one gunshot that killed the marine was to the back of his
head. No one who knew Pfc Milczark personally believes that he could commit
suicide. His family has been pressing for information to no avail. They
have contacted their local congressperson with no results and they are now!
concerned that the truth may never be known. What really happened to Pfc.
Matthew G. Milczark?...


<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7800&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7800


Navy Probes New Iraq Prisoner Photos
SETH HETTENA, Associated Press Writer
The U.S. military has launched a criminal investigation into photographs
that appear to show Navy SEALs in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed
detainees, and photos of what appear to be bloodied prisoners, one with a
gun to his head. Some of the photos have date stamps suggesting they were
taken in May 2003, which could make them the earliest evidence of possible
abuse of prisoners in Iraq. The far more brutal practices photographed in
A! bu Ghraib prison occurred months later.

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7798&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7798


US Soldiers Seek Asylum in Canada
Marty Logan, Antiwar
Canadian leaders, not the country's refugee system, should decide the fate
of soldiers who have deserted the U.S. military to apply for asylum in
their northern neighbor, according to a support group. One of those
soldiers, Jeremy Hinzman, will go before Canada's refugee board Monday for
a hearing on whether he qualifies for asylum. The adjudicator who will
decide the case has already announced he will not consider the argument
that Hinzman did not have to s! erve because the U.S.-led war on Iraq was
illegal...



<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7799&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7799


Torture charges filed against George W. Bush in Canadian Court
www.globalresearch.ca
Today, Tuesday November 30 2004 in Vancouver, Lawyers Against the War filed
torture charges against George W. Bush under the Canadian Criminal Code.
The charges were laid by Gail Davidson, co-chair of Lawyers against the
War--LAW, under provisions enacted pursuant to the U.N. Torture Convention,
ratified by both Canada and the United States....

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7796&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7796


Escaping Blame for Abu Ghraib
Derrick Z. Jackson
SOLDIERS face jail. Commanders get 15-gun salutes. Soldiers are pilloried.
White House officials are promoted. The cost of hypocrisy in the billowing
prison abuse scandal has not mattered much up to now. Tomorrow we might
care a lot more. The next victim of the hypocrisy could be you or me (...)
Lynndie England may get nearly four decades in jail. Alberto Gonzales is
about to get four years to rewrite our laws. If England is the face of
abuse, Gonzales is the hidde! n hand. If he becomes attorney general, you
should not be shocked if new abuses of civil liberties occur in your
school, your library, perhaps even in your home...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7797&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7797


More troops in Iraq, more trouble
Jim Lobe
...Given the recent disappointing performance of Iraqi police and security
forces, the influx of more US troops marks at least a symbolic setback to
the larger strategy of "Iraqification", or giving indigenous Iraqi forces
more responsibility for maintaining order and keeping the largely Sunni
insurrection in check. "I fear that it signals a 're-Americanization' ...
of our strategy in Iraq," retired army Colonel Ralph Hallenback, who worked
with the US occupation in 2003! , told Thursday's Washington Post...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7791&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7791


Very, Very Dirty Pictures You want explicit? You want raw and uncensored
and free of media bias? Here you go
Mark Morford, Axis of Logic
... Here is your uncensored truth: fallujahinpictures.com. Real pictures
from Fallujah. Real pictures of war. Brutal and explicit and shocking and
just one site of many. Be warned: this is very graphic content. Horrific
and deeply disturbing. No censorship. No suppression. No Photoshop. No
bogus shots of happy Iraqi children running in the streets begging for
candy from American! soldiers. No night shots of Marines in bitchin'
night-vision goggles bustin' down the door of some palace and then
cheering...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7795&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7795


Why Iraqis should boycott the election
Mohammed al-Obaidi , Aljazeera.net
Forty seven Iraqi political parties met on 17 November and made the
decision to boycott the coming Iraq election. The People's Struggle
Movement (al-Kifah al-Shabi), which I represent, was one of those groups.
After carefully studying Iraq's situation, considering the military
occupation as well as economic and national interests, we felt there were
enough reasons for any patriotic Iraqi to boycott the proposed January
election...

<http://www.uruknet.info?s1=1&p=7792&s2=04>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info?p=7792




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information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts
of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.





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