[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 12 Apr 2006 - Part Two]

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Haditha, Iraq Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation As the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday, this much is known to be true: On November 19, after a roadside bomb killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, 15 Iraqi civilians – including seven women and three children – were allegedly shot and killed by a unit of US Marines operating in Haditha, Iraq. Then, this past Friday, a battalion commander and two company commanders from the same unit were relieved of their duties. We also know that the Marine Corps initially claim ed that the 15 Iraqi civilians were killed by a roadside bomb. But in January, after Time magazine presented the military with Iraqi accounts and video proof of the attack's aftermath, officials acknowledged that the civilians were killed by Marines but blamed insurgents nonetheless who had "placed noncombatants in the line of fire." However, video evidence shows that women and children were shot in their homes while still wearing nightclothes... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22503 Silence kills and silence is complicity - email to Phyllis Bennis Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's Dream Dear Phyllis Bennis, I hope you are well. I read with interest your article on ZNet "Thinking Strategically, Challenges Facing the Anti-War Movement". You write: "Additionally, the U.S. air war has escalated dramatically, again raising the spectre of Viet Nam, especially at the moment the U.S. is attempting to reduce the level of U.S. troop casualties, and instead move to "change the color of the corpses," as it was described in Indochina." (Thinking Strategically, Challenges Facing the Anti-War Movement, ZNet, April 06, 2006) I was surprised though that in your article there is no mention of the Iraqi civilians that have already been killed since the US-led invasion... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22521 A Tale of Two Emails, from Ramadi and Capitol Hill Brian Conley So when I woke up this morning I had two emails of considerable note. One email came from a friend of a friend, Qasem Aldulaimy(Al’Dulaimi), who is Iraqi. He is apparently from Ramadi and has family there (...) hi all peace friends. I am Qasem from Iraq. at 10/ April 2006 during being in Amman …I got news about my people in Ramadi….I got news that there is big fighting when US troops start military operation ( as usual ) . I became sure later that fighting was closed to my house ( almost infront of my family house)…but…. I couldnot contact them at all to make sure if they are ok or not …all telphone lines and mobile had been already destroyed few monthes ago. I am scared and thinking to go back Iraq to my house now even I cant reaching them I will try strongly….. what happened to my family ??? what can be happened ??? killed ??? US bombing destroyed and killed my family my nephews ????... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22504 The Al Qaeda Myth Tom Porteous We now know that Al Qaeda had nothing to do with the London bombings in July 2005. This is the conclusion of the British government's official inquiry report leaked to the British press on April 9. We now also know that the U.S. military is deliberately misleading Iraqis, Americans and the rest of the world about the extent of Al Qaeda's involvement in the Iraqi insurgency. This was reported in The Washington Post on April 10, on the basis of internal military documents seen by that newspaper. What do these revelations tell us about the arguments of President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Blair that in Al Qaeda the "Free World" faces a threat comparable to that of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, a world-wide terrorist network which seeks to build a radical Islamist empire over half the world?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22507 CURVEBALL AND THE TRUCKS Malcom Lagauche A couple of 15-year-old vehicles made world headlines in 2002. At first, the U.S. and British administrations heralded them as conclusive proof of Iraq concealing biological weapons. Today, Blair and Bush wish these trucks never existed. Making them a focal point for going to war against Iraq has backfired. We all heard of the "mobile germ factories" that Iraq had traveling the highways of the country to keep from getting discovered. Dick Cheney said that inside these vehic les the most devastating germs were being manufactured and the Iraqis were going to pelt the east coast of the U.S. with a deadly brew that would kill millions. Cheney maintained that these germ weapons would be carried by secret drone aircraft that Iraq was developing. There actually were a few drones being manufactured in Iraq. The Iraqis showed them to the world. They were made from balsa wood and had a range of about 25 miles and were to be used for mapping purposes. However, such a small fact that the U.S. east coast is thousands of miles out of range of these drones did not matter to Cheney... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22511 DAILY WAR NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, April 12, 2006 Today in Iraq U.S. soldier killed by roadside bomb in Baghdad, the eighth American soldier killed since Sunday. [According to ICC, in April 36 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq so far.]. "A Multi-National Division – Baghdad servicemember died at approximately 10 a.m. April 12 when he was struck by an improvised explosive device during a patrol east of Baghdad." (CENTCOM). "Two Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb sou th of Baghdad at approximately 9:20 a.m. April 12." (CENTCOM. "Three Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers died April 11 at 3:45 p.m. after the vehicle they were riding in was struck by a roadside-bomb north of Baghdad." (CENTCOM). Two rockets hit the British military base at the Basra airport complex about 3am local time, but there were no damages or casualties... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22518 For quality of life, Baghdad ranks last in world, survey finds IRIN News Residents of the capital were not surprised by the results of a recent survey that ranked Baghdad as the worst city in the world in terms of the quality of living. "We have to admit, this city is getting worse everyday in regard to the quality of life," said Fadia Ibraheem, a senior official at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. "As long as US troops remain, the city will continue to deteriorate." Zurich ranked first in the survey, c onducted by London-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting, with a total score of 108.2 points. In contrast, Baghdad was ranked as the least attractive city for expatriates, for a third consecutive year, with a total score of 14.5... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22524 Lies, damn lies and George W. Bush Doug Thompson No doubt about it. George W. Bush's lying, rotten, putrid, soulless destruction of a once-great nation called America is now open for all to see. Bush is not just a liar. He's a serial liar who avoids truth at all costs because facts don't' support his perverted, twisted view of the world. Truth exposes his corrupt administration and lays bare his many crimes against the American people and the Constitution of the United States. Impeachment? Nah. Too good for this l owlife. Arrest the son-of-a-bitch, lead him from the White House in chains, parade him down Pennsylvania Avenue and then lock him in stocks on the Washington Mall so everyone can see what happens when anyone thinks they are above the law of the land... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22523 Saddam was not an enemy of the Shiites Carsten Kofoed, Free Iraq Blog of Denmark At the illegitimate "court" of the occupying power, President Saddam Hussein is charged with the execution of 148 Shiites following an attempted murder of him in Dujail in 1982. In accordance with existing Iraqi law, they were sentenced to death after having admitted, according to the judge, that they were working for Iran, which Iraq was at war with at the time. Death sentence for treason and attempted murder of heads of state is not uncommon. The occupying power and the Shiites of the puppet regime, backed by and imported from Iran, are using the Dujail case as sectarian fuel. But Saddam did not persecute the Shiites as a group. They made up the majority of the governing Baath Party and held high civil and military positions in the state... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22522 Your Right to Privacy? Not in the War on Terror Nicholas von Hoffman, The New York Observer ...In times past, the American government’s attempts to spy on citizens have only been able to proceed with a lot of public support. What was done during Senator Joseph McCarthy’s ascendancy was done with vast approval by the members of what is now referred to as the Greatest Generation. During the time of the civil-rights and anti–Vietnam War struggles, the spying went on until the public turned against it. Then and only t hen was it stopped. It is an open question as to whether the spying will stop this time if and when the broad ... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22520 An occupier's diplomatic transgression ... and ... servitude Imad Khadduri Samir Al-Sumaida'ie was appointed as Iraq's "ambassador" to the U.S. on March 10, 2006. On April 11, 2006, Secretary Condoleezza Rice proclaimed: "We are delighted that we have the opportunity to receive the credentials of an ambassador from a free Iraq". There are two points that are of note: 1- Why is the U.S. in such a hurry to officially install an ambassador, representing a transitional government, and before the formation of the 'elec ted' new Iraqi government?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22519 Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 12 April 2006 Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org ...In a dispatch posted at 12:20pm Makkah time midday Wednesday, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that pro-American Shi'i sectarian militias backed up by puppet "Interior Ministry Shock Troops (Maghawir)" had killed a total of 68 residents of the south Baghdad suburb of ad-Durah. The Baghdad correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported local eyewitnesses in ad-Durah as saying that the puppet "Shock Troops" and sectarian militiamen carried out a series of raids on the al-Mikanik neighborhood and the 60 Street area of ad-Durah and arrested 68 citizens, four of them Christians and the rest Sunni Iraqis... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22517 Imminent Decline of Empire? Ramzy Baroud The miscalculated policies of the US administration in the Middle East are quickly depleting the country’s ability to sustain its once unchallenged global position. Winds of change are blowing everywhere, and there is little that Washington’s ideologues can do to stop it. The above claim is increasingly finding its way into the realm of mainstream thinking, despite all attempts to mute or relegate its import. A recent speech by US Republican congressman and chairman of the House of international relations committee, Henry Hyde was the focal point of analysis by Martin Jacques in The Guardian... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22515 Hawk-Tied Democrats Robert Dreyfuss As the Russian foreign minister correctly reminds us, there is a lot about the manufactured crisis over Iran that is déjà vu : the axis of evil again, attempts to tie Iran to Al Qaeda, accusations about WMD, U.S. government efforts to play footsie with Iranian exiles, and bluster about demanding action by the United Nations or else. One other thing looks familiar, too: just as the Democrats meekly got in line to support the invasion of Iraq, many (perhaps most) elected Democrats are demanding a confrontation with Iran, too. Some, such as Hillary Clinton, are even trying to out-Bush the president in demanding a showdown with Iran... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22514 The Cheney conspiracy? David Corn Did special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald come close to hitting the vice president of the United States with a conspiracy charge? Consider these facts. * In the Scooter Libby indictment, Fitzgerald notes that Cheney informed Libby on June 12, 2003, that Valerie Wilson worked at the CIA's Counter-proliferation Division. The CPD is part of the operations directorate, the CIA's clandestine services. Many, if not most, of its employees are undercover. Certainly, their employment status a t the CIA is classified information. The indictment does not note exactly what Cheney told Libby about Valerie Wilson--whether he said she was an undercover operative or not. But he was passing on classified information to Libby... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22513 Neocon: Iran will have Nuke in Sixteen Days Kurt Nimmo First it was ten years, then it was five or six, and now it is sixteen days. Iran will have a nuke in sixteen days and no doubt they will nuke Israel on the seventeenth day, if we are to believe the mendacious neocons. "Iran, which is defying United Nations Security Council demands to cease its nuclear program, may be capable of making a nuclear bomb within 16 days if it goes ahead with plans to install thousands of centrifuges at its Natanz plant, a U.S. Stat e Department official said," Bloomberg reports, or rather repeats verbatim, no questions asked, as corporate media hacks never ask questions and take every whopper dispensed by the neocons at face value... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22512 End of story: Israel triumphant M K Bhadrakumar, Asia Times ... The support for Israel among the organized Christian groups in the US has increased dramatically in recent years. Christian evangelicals, who currently wield unprecedented influence in US politics, regard the return of the Jews to their ancient homelands as a prerequisite for the Second Coming. No serious politician in either the Republican or Democratic camp can ignore the resurgence of Zionism in US politics. Iran has been implanted in the US evange lical consciousness as Israel's Enemy No 1 (...) Many US evangelicals believe that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people and that the Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza should be removed to another Arab country. Some evangelicals believe that God punished assassinated former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin for offering to trade land for peace with the Palestinians... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22510 Bush's Crumbling "Coalition" in Iraq John Nichols, The Nation "We have won, and now we have to start working to implement our program and unify the country," Romano Prodi told Italians after the official count confirmed from that country's national elections confirmed exit polls showing Prodi's center-left coalition had deposed the government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had allied Italy with George W. Bush's foreign policies (...) If all goes as planned, one of the new prime minister's first m oves will be to pull Italy's contingent of 2,600 troops out of Iraq. That will deprive the Bush administration's "coalition of the willing" occupation force in Iraq of its fourth largest contingent... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22506 SOS over Iraqi scientists Ahmed Janabi, Aljazeera.net Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, an alarming number of the country's leading academics have been killed. A human rights organisation puts the number at about a thousand and has a documented list of 105 cases. These professors, it says, were not random casualties - they were assassinated. The first documented case is that of Muhamad al-Rawi, the president of Baghdad University, who was killed on 27 July, 2003, when two men entered his private clinic, one of them feigned severe stomach pain and was doubled over. Concealed against his stomach was a gun with which he shot al-Rawi dead. Assassination incidents continued after al-Rawi's shooting... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22505 Now Powell Tells Us Robert Scheer The president played the scoundrel -- even the best of his minions went along with the lies -- and when a former ambassador dared to tell the truth, the White House initiated what Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald calls "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." That is the important story line. If not for the whistle-blower, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, President Bush's falsehoods about the Iraq nuclear threat probably would never have been expos ed. On Monday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told me that he and his department's top experts never believed that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat, but that the president followed the misleading advice of Vice President Dick Cheney and the CIA in making the claim. Now he tells us... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22502 US soldiers cry in frenzy as they come under attack Truth About Iraqis Click on picture, then register, takes a second and get ready to be shocked ... Will CNN show this? Thanks to Baghdad Dweller and her reader Keld Bach for this. I guess they weren't scared when they butchered the family in Haditha and then lied about it under investigation... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22516 www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.   You receive this newsletter because you subscribed it. If you think it was an abuse, or simply if you don't want to receive it any more, click here to unsubscribe from the newsletter.