[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 04 May 2006]

uruknet.info   اوروكنت.إنفو :: information from occupied iraq :: informazione dall'iraq occupato

Not One Drop Mike Whitney George Bush has no intention of obeying international law or following the United Nation’s rules. After his Iran resolution fails in the Security Council, he’ll resume his belligerence while trying to cobble together a coalition for sanctions. The media has already begun it disinformation campaign; stressing the "serious concerns" of the international community about Iran’s nuclear programs. It is 100% bunkum. The "international community" has never cared a whit about Iran or its fictit! ious weapons programs. The driving force behind the hostilities is entirely Washington. Even Bush’s allies on the Security Council (Germany, France and England) know the whole performance is a sham designed to elicit public support for a war... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23082 A Certain Peace Amidst a Campaign of Death Karen Button ...Two weeks ago Badr and Mehdi forces were seen operating alongside Iraqi Police in an attack on Adhamiya, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. Fierce street battles between the IP and residents raged. One resident told me, "We’ve seen the Badr; they are trying to gain control of our neighborhood!" It was during these clashes that my friend’s front door was blasted through by bullets. Iraqis have charged for some time that Iranian intelligence! forces are part of these militias and are operating inside the Ministry of Interior. Mainstream news sources such as Knight Ridder and Time Magazine have reported the same. But the Adhamiyans had their own proof when five of the 37 militia captured turned out to be Iranians. "They couldn’t even speak Arabic," said one source I spoke with, and had munitions "unlike those used by the Iraqis... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23071 Iraqi police 'killed 14-year-old boy for being homosexual' Jerome Taylor, Independent Human rights groups have condemned the "barbaric" murder of a 14-year-old boy, who, according to witnesses, was shot on his doorstep by Iraqi police for the apparent crime of being gay. Ahmed Khalil was shot at point-blank range after being accosted by men in police uniforms, according to his neighbours in the al-Dura area of Baghdad. Campaign groups have warned of a surge in homophobic killings by state security services and re! ligious militias following an anti-gay and anti-lesbian fatwa issued by Iraq's most prominent Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23080 EVEN WRESTLING’S ORIGINS HAVE BEEN STOLEN Malcom Lagauche ...Most people think wrestling began in the ancient Greek Olympic Games. However, its history goes back much earlier: to Iraq. In my book I wrote: The first recorded evidence of wrestling as a sport was discovered in 1938. Dr. S.A. Speiser led an archaeological team from the University of Pennsylvania and the American Schools of Oriental Research to excavate an area which was once known as Mesopotamia. At Kyafaje, near Baghdad, Iraq, the team found the ! ruins of a temple in which was a cast bronze figurine that showed two wrestlers, each with a hold on the other’s hips. Archaeologists have concluded that the depiction was created by the Sumerian culture of the time. The find has been judged to be about 5,000 years old. I was again impressed to see another aspect of culture that emanated in Iraq (...) A few days ago, I received a message from Ibrahim, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian origin... He sent me about a dozen-and-a-half photos he scanned of Iraq in the 1980s. Great stuff. Yesterday, he sent me more photos; this time they were of antiquities that had been stolen by U.S. military personnel in 1991 and again in 2003. One photo stuck out. It showed two men with a wrestling hold on each other’s hips and it was labeled, "Wrestling 2600 B.C." It was cast in bronze. Its description was identical to the figurine I mentioned in my book. I called Ibrahim and discussed the similarities. It was no coincidence: the statue menti! oned in my book was the same as the one stolen from an Iraqi m! useum by U.S. troops... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23061 DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, May 4, 2006 Today in Iraq Two U.S. soldiers were killed on Thursday when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in south-central Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement. No further details were immediately available. A roadside bomb hit a U-S military convoy wounding one soldier. "US planes bombed a house in Aziziyah area of Ramadi city centre, killing 13 civilians," Ali al-Obeidi, a medic at the Ramadi hospital sais, adding that four people were wounded. Two contractors working in! Iraq for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers killed and two others wounded in separate roadside bombing incidents, one on Tuesday and one Wednesday. The contractors were killed when the vehicles they were riding in were struck by improvised explosive devices, according to a news release... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23084 McGovern Almost Ejected For Confronting Rumsfeld WMD "Lies" "This is America," former CIA analyst says as security tries to drag him away Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern confronted Donald Rumsfeld on why he lied about weapons of mass destruction in a speech Thursday and was almost ejected from the conference room by security after Rumsfeld again deceptively claimed he never said Iraq had WMD. The video has already gone viral on the Internet. "Why did you lie to get ! us into a war that caused these kind of casualties and was not necessary?" said McGovern. As soon as McGovern starts to ask the question Rumsfeld murmurs and you can see his beady eyes dart to the back of the room in the direction of the security guards who start to move towards McGovern. This proves the event was totally scripted because Rumsfeld is obviously scared stiff about the fact that McGovern has been allowed to speak... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23074 Iraq: The Assassination of Academics : The Jalili Report Sarah Meyer A conference recently took place in Madrid which focused on the 190 murdered academics and 224 murdered health officials in Iraq since the occupation. CEOSI (Statewide Campaign to End the Occupation and Restore the Sovereignty of Iraq) hosted the conference. CEOSI was supported by the respected BRussels Tribunal. Both of these organizations have taken an interest in collating information concerning the criminal assassination of highly esteemed i! ntellectuals in Iraq. A petition, URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IRAQ'S ACADEMICS can be found at http://www.brusselstribunal.org. The final resolution of the Madrid conference may also be found here, along with a wealth of information which world leaders and Mainstream Media ignore – to the detriment of "democracy and freedom." Dr. Ismail Jalili, who is on the advisory committee of the BRussels Tribunal, gave a detailed presentation about the assassinations (see below) at the Madrid conference... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23092 Planet Earth As Weapon and Target LEUREN MORET The 'permanent US war economy’ of the USA traces its roots in organisations and "a culture of death" back to the China opium wars, and through the current Iraq war. Samuel Russell, the primary American opium smuggler, acquired a vast fortune by launching the first clipper ship in 1823. Leading British and American families made vast fortunes with clippers smuggling opium from Turkey and India to China. The illicit proceeds of expanded drug-trafficking today are proli! ferating wars and influencing the foreign policy of modern nation-States. Many researchers tie former President George H W Bush to the CIA as far back as the 1950s, and indicate that one of his jobs was to consolidate and coordinate the world’s biggest industry—the global narcotics trade. The Vietnam 'war’ may have been a cover for US consolidation of the 'Golden Triangle’, formerly under the control of the French... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23088 Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 4 May 2006 Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. ...In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Quds Press, the Brigades of Salah ad-Din said: "everytime the blows of the Resistance on the occupation and its stooges intensify talk surfaces about negotiations between the US forces and the [puppet] government on one side and the Resistance on the other." The statement went on to say, however, that the Briga! des of Salah ad-Din "have not and will not negotiate with any government formed under the protection of the occupation." The statement laid out a number of preconditions for any dialogue, first among them, "a time table for a withdrawal of the occupation that has been ratified by the United Nations and guaranteed by a UN resolution." It also stipulated that "an end must be put to everything that results from the occupation, including all decrees, laws and bodies that have been formed under the occupation."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23089 The Army of Mohammad denies Talabani's claims or to have any contact with this US' stooge. Al-Moharer.net An authorized source belonging to the (Army of Mohammad) has denied Talabani's claims to have established contacts with the (Army of Mohammad) asserting that such claims are totally and utterly false and are a part of a lure and lies' campaign undertaken by the puppet regime in Baghdad... The authorized spokesman ascertained that the Army of Mohammad was and will always be the Army of liberation and the spear! head against the US colonialist occupation of Iraq... The spokesman said also: "The army of Mohammad is the army of the people and of the Armed Iraqi resistance, it is the army of the detained Leader Saddam Hussein (may the Lord free him from the hands of his enemies), adding that these claims confirm one single thing which is the bankruptcy of not only the stooges but also of the US occupier himself who has nothing left but a panoply of disgusting, exposed and well known lies... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23090 GI Special 4E4: " Its Coming Apart" Thomad F. Barton ... 1 copy of Sir No Sir is already on its way to a troop AGAINST the "war" in the 101st north of Baghdad... He told me that some of theirs were commanded to go into a known unsafe zone where they NEVER GO, to look for WMDs because Rumsfeld was coming and wanted to do a photo op in a "bad" area... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23085 Tomgram: On Bombing Iran and Other Fantasies of American Power Tom Engelhardt ... This might be thought of as the we're-so-preponderant-you'll-never-be-able-to-get-rid-of-us fantasy. The Bush administration continues to build-up our major bases in Iraq massively. When you look under the headlines, U.S. officials tend to let leak that we're digging in at our major "consolidated" bases for at least a decade -- and you now find quotes from officials on those bases like this: "It's safe to say Balad will be here for ! a long time." The 15 square-mile American air base at Balad -- in air-traffic terms second only to London's Heathrow Airport -- is indeed a massive American town with at least some of the amenities of home. Dubbed "Mortaritaville" by its residents, it is, according to Hirsh, "shaping up to resemble a warrior's country club." Or, if you're talking "permanent," consider the embassy we're building inside Baghdad's Green Zone... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23076 Message from a Vet of My Lai Time "Our Descent Into Hell Has Begun" TONY SWINDELL ...In Iraq, our descent into hell, our "Apocalypse Now" moment, has begun. First there was Gitmo, then the global rendition program, then Abu Ghraib, then the pulverizing of Fallujah, and now trigger-happy raids that are filling multitudes of sandy graves with men, women and children. Has "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" become the mission in Babylon? Can't anyone remember Vietnam, where we left behind more than a ! million dead civilians? In Iraq, we've way past the half-million mark, probably the million mark, if you count the 1990s sanctions. Are the American people as blind and deaf as they seem? Don't we see ourselves walking through the gates of hell and can't we hear the doors clanging shut on our country?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23063 The Splendid Failure of Occupation Part 44: Burning the cradle of civilization B. J. Sabri, Online Journal Contributing Writer ...In the current analysis of the American bombardment of Iraq in 1991, I am not going to debate, refute, or uphold that Nazi violence has inherent qualities that make it less abhorrent than the one employed by the United States in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and elsewhere. What I intend to demonstrate, instead, is that American violence in Iraq has qualities that belies and contrad! icts American claims of civilized conduct and the possession of superior moral standards over other civilizations, and irrevocably puts the American brand of violence in a category by itself. Once this demonstration is in place, the resulting picture would be uncompromising: by all standards of impartial comparison and considering the time we live in, the American model of supremacist violence supersedes by its magnitude, cruelty, fascism, cynicism, motives, myths, rationales, execution, details, and ideology, any other form of violence throughout history... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23058 Pro-American = Anti-BushCo Cindy Sheehan I (and every single other individual on this planet working for peace and justice) am often accused of being "anti-American" for dissenting against my feral government that has gone wild with lawlessness and greed, even though dissent from our government is as American as apple pie. Some people believe that if one is critical of the Bush criminal regime, then one is anti-American. I steadfastly believe that to be anti-BushCo means being pro-American, pro-life, and most of ! all, pro-peace. In a recent editorial in the Boston Globe (Sunday, April 30, 2006) the Bush regime is blamed for breaking or giving itself permission to break over 750 laws. George is the only sitting president to have admitted to breaking laws and to openly disdaining the Constitution as an "old scrap of paper" ... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23075 Invisible in Plain Sight: CIA Torture Techniques Go Mainstream ALFRED W. MCCOY, Amnesty International Magazine ...After CBS broadcast those notorious photos from Abu Ghraib prison in the April 2004, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed them as unrepresentative acts "by a small number of U.S. military," whom the conservative New York Times columnist William Safire branded "creeps." If, however, we read these prison photos carefully, they reveal CIA torture techniques that have metastasized like an undetecte! d cancer inside the U.S. intelligence community over the past half-century. That iconic photo of a hooded Iraqi with fake electrical wires hanging from his arms shows, not the sadism of a few "creeps," but the telltale signs of sophisticated torture. The prisoner is hooded for sensory deprivation. His arms are extended for self-inflicted pain. These are the key components of the CIA’s psychological paradigm, first developed during the Cold War and then disseminated within the U.S. intelligence community and among allied agencies around the world... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23072 Ramadi: US Accused Of Killing Children Reuters Iraqi doctors and neighbours in the Sunni Arab city of Ramadi accused U.S. troops of killing children in a missile strike on Thursday but the military said no civilians, only eight insurgents, were killed. Local television footage showed the body of a boy lying in the rubble of a house. Hospital and police officials gave death tolls ranging from five to 13, with up to another 15 wounded. Muhannad al-Fahadawi, a doctor at the main hospital, said two girls and a boy ag! ed 8 were among at least 11 people he believed had been killed in the violence. A teenage girl was shown to reporters being treated for wounds in the hospital... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23069 IRAQ: In capital, frequent power cuts inconvenience thousands IRIN About six million households have suffered regular power shortages since 30 April when insurgents attacked a major power plant supplying the capital, causing serious problems for families without access to private generators. For three consecutive days, residents of the capital, Baghdad, have received less than one hour of electricity per day. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Electricity said it could take a week or more to restore the power supply to ! previous levels of about six hours daily... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23068 THE BBC SMEARS MEDIA LENS - an email exchange with the BBC Gabriele Zamparini, Tjhe Cat's Dream ... Lacking this factual evidence, the accusations by Mr Sloboda and BBC’s Fuller (and yours?) fall in defamation’s territory. Once again, I politely and kindly must insist and reiterate my request for an explanation. I believe the BBC launched a brutal, biased, violent and dishonest attack against respectable people without providing proofs for its claims. Because of the gravity of Mr Sloboda accusations, I hope you a! nd the BBC will dedicate this matter all your attention... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23065 13 civilians killed in US air assault Agence France-Presse AT least 13 people were killed in an air assault by US forces on a house in Iraq's restive city of Ramadi today, medics said. "US planes bombed a house in Aziziyah area of Ramadi city centre, killing 13 civilians," Ali al-Obeidi, a medic at the Ramadi hospital sais, adding that four people were wounded. The US military confirmed it had conducted the assault but did not give casualty figures. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23064 Iran Freedom Support Act to Pass US Senate with 21 Democratic Cosponsors Ben Frank Thank you to the WhatReallyHappened reader who has alerted me to the fact that Rick Santorum has already introduced the "Iran Freedom Support Act" in the US senate and with 58 cosponsors the vote is only a formality. It turns out we have 21 democrats to thank for this act’s easy passage and wouldn’t you know it the AIPAC website has the list of cosponsors. The following Democrats COSPONSORED this bogus legislation including the inf! amous Barbara Boxer, known as the only Democrat in the senate to stand up for democracy when challenging the election November 2004... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23093 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.