[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 02 Apr 2006]

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A TALE OF TWO ASSASSINATION COUPS Malcom Lagauche Two presidential assassination plots are making headlines. In one, Saddam Hussein, the recipient of a presidential assassination attempt, is on trial for his life because those people involved with the aborted scheme were held accountable to Iraqi law. In the other, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen was sentenced to 30 years in prison for plotting to kill President Bush. If the scenarios sound confusing, it is because they are. One president faces death for being shot at and one student will be in prison for most of his adult life for threatening another president. All presidents aren’t created equal. The more we delve into the particulars, the more bizarre these cases become. First, Saddam Hussein was in a motorcade in 1982 and the plotters began shooting. In the end, Saddam was not hit, but many people were rounded up and sent for questioning. Those who were part of the attack were eventually put on trial and sentenced to death. Some of the participants escaped and fled to Iran. One, in particular, is now the Prime Minister of Iraq. In Saddam’s case, real bullets were fired by people trying to assassinate him. And, this was during wartime as his country was fighting a bloody conflict against Iran. Today, Saddam sits in a prison awaiting judgement for being the president of a country in which the justice system gave the death penalty for the assassination attempt (...) Let’s take a look at the case of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali. He is a 25-year-old U.S. citizen who was studying in Saudi Arabia. Last week, h! e was se ntenced to 30 years in prison for plotting to kill Bush. The only "proof" used to convict him was a confession he signed in Saudi Arabia. Once he left the enlightened kingdom and returned to the U.S., he alleged that his signature was only given because he was severely tortured... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22194 My mistake Reg Keys to Condoleeza Reg Keys Might I commend the inspiring peaceful actions of the people and communities of Liverpool, Blackburn and those who have travelled there in protest at this April foolishness of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's visit. After visiting BAE's factory which manufactures depleted uranium weapons used in Iraq which poison the earth and those who live on it, for four and a half BILLION years, she referred to the 'thousands of mistakes' the illegal invasion of Iraq has generated. As she was admitting to this, I was in Oxford Coroners Court, hearing the verdict on six of those 'mistakes'. All, British, American and countless thousands of Iraqi dead are mistakes with names, ages, dreams, families. My 'mistake' was my beloved son Tom Keyes, who believed in western values and died for a war based on lies, at Al Majar, eastern Iraq... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22181 April Fool's Day... Riverbend, Bahdad burning Or 'kithbet neesan', as it is known in Arabic. If the current Iraqi government should choose ANY day for their day- what better day than April 1? It’s appropriately named 'Fool’s Day’, after all. They have been foolishly trying to get a government together since they first announced the election results. And we’ve been patiently waiting. It’s like being under the threat of punishment for weeks and weeks at a time and finally just wanting to have the punishment over with. I don’t think anyone believes they’re going to make any improvements or major changes, we’re just tired of waiting for the final formation. People need to know who’ll be in power because they want to know who to pay bribes to or get a 'tazkiya’ from when they need something done. We need to know which religious party to go to when the Interior Ministry goons take away a relative... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22187 DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 2006 Today in Iraq Two Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers killed by roadside bomb in central Baghdad. Marine dies of injuries suffered March 21 in al Anbar. Task Force Band of Brothers soldier dies of "non-battle related injuries" sustained during an "operation" in Kirkuk province March 30. CentCom confirms 2 crew members presumed dead in crash of AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter west of Yousifiah April 1; confirms crash presumed due to hostile fire (...) In the central Mustansiriyah neighborhood the director of religious tourism at the transport ministry, Walid Sobhi Ahmed, was stopped in his car and kidnapped. The brothers of Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlak and Khalaf Al-Alyan were also kidnapped in separate incidents over the past week, reported an aide to al-Mutlak on Sunday. Police reported finding a total of six corpses around the city, with some showing signs of torture... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22202 GI Special 4D2: Honor The Warrior, Not The War - April 2, 2006 Thomas F. Barton ... Telling the truth - about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington - is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance - whether it's in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22201 IRAQ: More than 40,000 displaced, ministry estimates IRIN More than 40,000 people have been displaced countrywide as a result of ongoing sectarian violence, Ministry of Displacement and Migration officials said on Sunday. "More than 40,000 Iraqis have been displaced in different areas. They lack supplies and require urgent help," said ministry spokesman Sattar Nawruz. "And with ongoing violence, we expect more families to be displaced in the coming days."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22197 IRAQ: Food prices rise after reduction of monthly rations IRIN The price of some staple food has increased in Iraq after the Ministry of Trade announced last week that several items provided by a monthly food-ration programme would be cancelled. This prompted shopkeepers to raise the cost of items which are being imported at a high price. "Many products offered for years by the monthly food-ration programme have been taken out," said Omar Abdel Kareem, an economist at Baghdad University. "Consequently, prices have risen"... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22196 Will U.S. air power remain in Iraq? CHARLES J. HANLEY, Associated Press Balad's two runways, among the world's busiest, launch 27,500 aircraft a month, hundreds of them bomb-laden jets flying close air support for U.S. troops moving against insurgents. But as the U.S. Army "stands down" and the Iraqi army "stands up," will American combat pilots likewise fly into battle behind Iraqi ground units? "That's a good question," says the Air Force's tactical commander in Iraq... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22195 Government in secret talks about strike against Iran Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent, The Telegraph The Government is to hold secret talks with defence chiefs tomorrow to discuss possible military strikes against Iran. A high-level meeting will take place in the Ministry of Defence at which senior defence chiefs and government officials will consider the consequences of an attack on Iran (...) The United States government is hopeful that the military operation will be a multinational mission, but defence chiefs believe that the Bush administration is prepared to launch the attack on its own or with the assistance of Israel, if there is little international support. British military chiefs believe an attack would be limited to a series of air strikes against nuclear plants - a land assault is not being considered at the moment... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22191 20 Questions for President Bush About Iraq Arianna Huffington As part of his latest PR push on Iraq, President Bush has been giving another round of speeches and -- wonder of wonders -- fielding questions from audience members and reporters alike. He even took a question from Helen Thomas for the first time in over three years -- a decision he later said he "semi-regretted." Well, as long as he's in a question-answering state of mind (or is it a poll-driven state of desperation?), I thought I'd offer up a few questions of my own about Iraq for the president... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22200 Your Huddled Masses are now my Wretched Refuse: Locking the Golden Door JASON MILLER If she drew breath, the Statue of Liberty would drop her torch in disgust and hang her head in shame. Inculcated with the belief that they are morally superior and endowed with an inalienable right to world domination, the members of America’s ruling White Patriarchy and their ardent supporters have an immigration problem. Too many "little Brown people" are streaming across their southern border. As America’s de facto ruling class wrangles with numerous potential solutions, they are overlooking the obvious: ask the Native Americans what to do. After all, those who forged the American Empire nearly drove the indigenous people of North America to extinction. At the very least, the relatively few survivors of the Native American genocide could help their White "superiors" put their comparatively minute problem into perspective by reminding them that things could be much worse... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22190 Editor hits back over Israel row Peter Beaumont, The Observer She is, in the words of her many admirers, the 'mater familias of London's liberal intelligentsia'. This weekend, however, Mary-Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books, is on the defensive - speaking out for the first time in an escalating transatlantic row that has seen her respected journal accused of promoting anti-Semitism. The argument has erupted over a cover article in the latest issue of the LRB by two prominent American academics on the influence of the pro-Israel lobby in the US... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22188 America's war on the web Sunday Herlald IMAGINE a world where wars are fought over the internet; where TV broadcasts and newspaper reports are designed by the military to confuse the population; and where a foreign armed power can shut down your computer, phone, radio or TV at will. In 2006, we are just about to enter such a world. This is the age of information warfare, and details of how this new military doctrine will affect everyone on the planet are contained in a report, entitled The Information Operations Roadmap, commissioned and approved by US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld and seen by the Sunday Herald... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22205 Nomination... Riverbend, Baghdad Burning After an internet absence of a few days, I returned to find my inbox flooded with dozens of emails with the subject "Congratulations!!!". In mid March, "Baghdad Burning" won Best Middle East and Africa blog and received a Bloggie so I thought the sudden surge of congratulatory emails was for that esteemed blog award (we would like to thank the academy…). But, I was shocked to find out the BOOK "Baghdad Burning" had made the short list for the Samuel Johnson Prize- a prestigious, British award for non-fiction!!... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22186 Iraq Violence Kills at Least 50; 6 U.S. Personnel Reported Dead John Ward Anderson, Washington Post Foreign Service At least 50 people were killed Sunday in Iraq in a catalogue of violence that included a mortar attack, military firefights, roadside bombings and other explosions. In addition, the U.S. military reported the deaths of six soldiers and airmen, including two who were killed when their helicopter apparently was shot down during a combat air patrol southwest of Baghdad on Saturday... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22184 Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Saturday, 1 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 10:25pm Makkah time Saturday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the sound of intensive gunfire and explosions were rocking the area around the government-run Orphans’ Village in the western Baghdad area of al-'Amiriyah at the time of reporting. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that helicopters could also be heard prowling the skies overhead. The curfew was in place, however, making it impossible to ascertain any further information regarding the situation. Fierce fighting breaks out in western Baghdad’s al-Ghazaliyah Saturday evening as Resistance fighters attack US and puppet "National Guard" forces trying to storm the district. Resistance fighters disengage and slip away when US brings in air cover and reinforcements... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22183 How to effectively discourage U.S. military recruitment Imad Khadduri "In the first two years of Iraq, convoys (under attack) just fired and kept rolling," said Maj. Roger Gaines, the battalion’s operations officer said Thursday. "That gave bad guys the perception that Americans run away. Now, convoys will stop and engage the enemy." Convoys will now stand and fight when attacked in Iraq This 'policy' has already been implemented : "Instead of facing the Resistance fighters, the American soldiers choose the nearest house and kill everybody in it. This is what has recently occured in Haditha, Al-Ishaqi massacre, and in Samarra"... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22180 'Very warmly welcomed' Sploid When Condoleezza Rice visited two English cities with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, she received a passionate greeting. It was a passionate "Go home." "We wish she hadn't been invited here," said a student at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. "Why should we be seen to condone the actions of this woman?" (...) She received an honorary soccer jersey in an empty Blackburn Rovers stadium. Hundreds of protesters stood outside the Blackburn town hall, jeering and chanting, as Rice and Straw arrived to meet with local muslim leaders. Rice declared her visit an unmitigated success. She told a news conference in Blackburn that she'd been "very warmly welcomed"... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22198 Only a constitution can save us from this abuse of power Henry Porter, The Observer New Labour presented itself as a modernising force in 1997. Modernising? Well, that's a moot point when peerages are being sold to Labour party donors out of a hatch at the back of Number 10. Nearly nine years on, what we can say - quite categorically - is that Labour's programme of legislation challenges the British constitution like no other administration before it. In a thousand tiny - and not so tiny - cuts Labour threatens our rights and freedoms, the rule of law and the sovereignty of Parliament... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22204 Democrats, Liberals, and "Progressives": There They Go Again. Jozef Hand-Boniakowski ...I am sorry, but I have no sympathy for liberal, "progressive", Democrats whose candidates enthuse no-one and whose ideas are much like their opponents. Ralph Nader was not the problem in the 2000 election. It was Al Gore who won and then rolled over and played dead, and the Democratic Party played dead along with him for seven years. Ralph Nader was not the problem in 2004 either. John Kerry was. And Ralph Nader is not the problem now. The problem was, and is, the Democratic Party, and their candidates, like John Kerry, who try to out-Bush, George Bush. John Kerry voted for the Iraq war. That makes them no better than their opponents (...) Yes, I will vote for Ralph Nader, or someone else whose views and ideology are like my own, if the Democrats offer me no viable option. I will vote for third parties again if their issues are my issues, and if they speak what needs (in my opinion) to be said. That is what democracy is all about. Or, are Democrats that in name only?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22206 Things sometimes are what they seem Eli Stephens, Left I on the News ...But here's my favorite sentence in the article: Former CIA terrorism analyst Paul Pillar said any U.S. or Israeli airstrike on Iranian territory "would be regarded as an act of war" by Tehran. Would be regarded??!! How about just "would be"? The implication that this might not really be an act of war, but just "regarded" as such by those dangerous Iranians, is nothing short of outrageous... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22185 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. 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