[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 12 May 2006 - Part One]

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Final phase of the Iraqi war Firas Al-Atraqchi The argument to divide Iraq into three or five distinct regional and ethnic entities resurfaced with renewed poignancy in recent months. Such ideas came to head when a senior Democratic Senator offered his blueprint for resolving the Iraq debacle last week. United States Senator Joseph Biden and foreign policy expert Leslie Gelb wrote in The New York Times that dividing the country into three separate entities would be the surest way to end the violence (...) The tim! ing of this declaration is not at all surprising because it follows a long list, like a recipe for civil war and decimation, which has been employed by foreign occupiers -- and covert allies -- in Iraq. The first phase was to invade Iraq. The second phase was propping up Iraqi exiles in power. The third phase is fomenting civil strife and conflict. The fourth phase is the division of the country and its oil wealth... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23234 Ahmadinejad: Is he John Locke or John Brown? Mike Whitney President Ahmadinejad’s 18 page letter won’t soften attitudes in Washington or deter the western press from slandering him as the "new Hitler", but it may dispel the illusion that he is a fanatical jihadi who is endangering the free world. The letter shows that Iran would like to open a dialogue with the United States so the current standoff can be resolved peacefully. The Bush administration, however, has brushed aside Iran’s gesture leaving many to bel! ieve that another war is imminent. Ahmadinejad’s letter is statesmanlike, but heartfelt; more John Locke than John Brown. It articulates Iran’s long list of grievances with the United States, but it also offers a constructive vision for working towards a common goal... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23230 Trail of Deception: Remembering how we got here occams hatchet, Daily Kos The United States has been at war in Iraq for 38 months. As of this writing, more than 2,400 U.S. soldiers and 100,000 Iraqis, mostly civilians, have died. More than 18,000 U.S. soldiers have been permanently injured. The financial cost for the war is nearing 300 billion dollars, and could ultimately exceed 2 trillion dollars. How did we get to this place? We didn't arrive in the middle of the bloodiest war since Vietnam by accident, or ha! ppenstance. Far from it. Like Hansel and Gretel from the children's fairy tale, the American people were led deeper and deeper into a frighteningly dark forest, to a terrifying place where horrible things happen to little children - and to children not so little (for we are all - every last one of us - children). But unlike Hansel and Gretel, it is possible for us to retrace our steps, to look back and see clearly the path that brought us here, to hold accountable those whose guidance we trusted and followed. The statements below are the breadcrumbs that mark the trail of deception that led us into war... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23235 Shotgun Wedding Chris Floyd ...Yet it is painfully obvious that the forces which come closest to matching this ignorant propaganda term have in fact been empowered by Bush's war. Obscurantist clerics and deadly sectarian groups backed by Bush now rule in Iraq, while his war of aggression there -- and his global gulag of torture and unlawful detention -- are swelling the ranks of violent extremists around the world, as his own State Department acknowledges in its latest report on international terrorism. For examp! le, last month, 14-year-old Ahmed Khalil was shot dead by the Bush-backed Iraqi police on the doorstep of his home, the Independent reports. His crime? Homosexuality. He was just one of scores of homosexuals -- or suspected homosexuals -- systematically slaughtered by the sectarian militias that Bush is arming and training to serve as Iraq's official "security" force... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23241 Ramsey Clark's brief to IST Ramsey Clark, Aljazeera.net Text of the brief sent by Ramsey Clark, the former US general-attorney to the Iraqi Special Tribunal: The Iraqi Special Tribunal must direct a verdict of acquittal and dismiss the Dujail case for failure to prove its charges. The prosecution has completed its presentation of evidence on the Dujail charges and must be judged on that evidence just as the Chief Prosecutor at Nuremberg asserted that the Nuremberg Tribunal and Prosecutor would be judged on! the record there. The whole prosecution case presented in this first trial before the IST is either a profound misunderstanding of the time, the place, the people, the events and the circumstances addressed, or it is a deliberate misrepresentation of them. The failure to properly prepare its case and the chaotic manner in which witnesses arid documents were presented by the Prosecutor contributed to the confusion in the courtroom and misunderstanding by the media (...) No other evidence to support the charges against President Saddam Hussein, or of merely wrongful conduct by him, was presented by the prosecution. The defendants are entitled to directed verdicts of acquittal and dismissal of the charges... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23245 This Time, It Really Is Orwellian Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com Given George W. Bush’s history of outright lying, especially on national security matters, it may seem silly to dissect his words about the new disclosure that his administration has collected phone records of some 200 million Americans. But Bush made two parse-able points in reacting to USA Today’s story about the National Security Agency building a vast database of domestic phone calls. "We’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of! millions of innocent Americans," Bush said, adding "the privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities." In his brief remarks, however, Bush didn’t define what he meant by "ordinary Americans" nor whether the data-mining might cover, say, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people, just not "millions." For instance, would a journalist covering national security be regarded as an "ordinary American"? What about a political opponent or an anti-war activist who has criticized administration policies in the Middle East?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23252 Why the United States Invaded Iraq and is Now Thinking About Invading Iran Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar, Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar ...But why did the United States attack Iraq and why is she so keen on attacking Iran now? We now know that from the beginning, this administration was looking for any excuse to invade Iraq. Washington has, over time, given a number of different reasons for invading Iraq: starting with Iraq's developing Nuclear weapons, to war on terror, to spreading democracy in the Middle East. All these reasons ha! ve proven to be false. Iraq did not possess any Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD); and did not have any link to Al Qaeda. And instead of democracy, Iraqis have had to endure Abu Ghraib, car bombs, and shortage of basic services such as electricity, clean water, and health care. None of the ministries are functioning properly and in addition Iraq has to deal with half a million displaced people. There is also talk of a partitioning of Iraq... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23251 Global Eye: Bush Spy Program a Pale Echo of Echelon Chris Floyd Once again, we must ride to the rescue of President George W. Bush, who is being unfairly maligned by a few malcontents unhappy with his secret program to capture and data-mine every single phone call made by anyone anywhere in the United States. These irrational "Bush-haters" refuse to believe the Leader's minions - and even the Leader His Own Self! - when they assure us that the personal data sucked into these vast Orwellian black holes will never,! ever, ever, never be abused in any way. I mean, what more do the Leader's anti-American, terrorist-coddling critics want?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23248 Iraqi Army? What Iraqi Army? Shia and Kurd soldiers in fire fight Truth About Iraqis ...Seems the Kurdish peshmerga contingent of the Iraqi army and the Shia contingent of the Iraqi army don't like each other much. According to the Associated Press, they've been having a shootout with one another. "Clashes erupted Friday between two Iraqi army units following a roadside bombing north of the capital, and Iraqi police said a Shiite solder was killed in an exchange of fire with a Kurdish unit." Was this an isolated ! incident or was it induced by, oh, I don't know, someone from a neighboring country, perhaps?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23247 US network to laugh at Iraqi dead journalists Truth About Iraqis Sensationalistic this headline is? Perhaps. But what else can you say about HBO - one of the most popular cable entertainment network's in the US - deciding to produce a comedy about journalists in Baghdad. In Baghdad? Yes, Baghdad where some five Iraqi journalists have died in the past week. Yes, Baghdad where dozens of foreign and Iraqi journalists have been killed, kidnapped, beheaded, garotted, you name it. So, to honor them, the US goes full th! rottle with a comedy... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23246 U.S. tank falls off bridge into canal in Iraq, killing 4 Marines AP Four U.S. Marines drowned when their tank rolled off a bridge into a canal, the military said Friday. Gunmen killed a Sunni preacher and his son in the mostly Shiite city of Basra despite an appeal for tolerance by Iraq's top Shiite cleric. The four Marines died Thursday near Karmah, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Baghdad in Anbar province... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23249 Misleading news item of the day Eli Stephens, Left I on the News From AP: Rep. John Murtha, a Vietnam veteran first elected in the anti-war fever of 1974, says American troops will be brought home from Iraq by 2007. Not just misleading, quadruply so. First, the clear implication that Murtha was somehow part of the "anti-war fever of 1974" (like, say, John Kerry) is simply nonsense; Murtha has been a hawk his entire life and as far as I know has supported every war the U.S. has fought. Second, what does "! by 2007" mean? To me it means by the end of December, 2006--7 1/2 months from now... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23242 US fuel tankers burned in North Baghdad ambush KUNA Three US fuel transport tankers were set on fire Thursday in an attack by militants in North Baghdad, eyewitnesses said Friday. The witnesses told KUNA unknown militants attacked late last night a convoy of US army trucks near Al-Mshahda, North Baghdad. They added three fuel tankers were burned completely. The witnesses also said US forces quickly returned fire and surrounded the scene while helicopters were seen hovering in the area in search for the perpetrato! rs... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23253 UN hearings probe Washington’s systematic use of torture at home and abroad Tom Carter, WSWS A US delegation’s claim that Washington is abiding by international treaties barring torture was met with open skepticism at a United Nations hearing held in Geneva.(...) The US delegation repeated the old lie that the incidents documented in the photographs that emerged from the US prison at Abu Ghraib in Iraq merely reflected the deeds of a few "bad apples," and did not flow directly from official government policy. Thi! s contention has recently been further discredited by the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU’s) release of a document revealing that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, then commander of US forces in Iraq, had ordered interrogators to "go to the outer limits" to "break" prisoners... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23240 Still crazy after all these years Eli Stephens, Left I on the News World Can't Wait alerts us to a case of one of its supporters who was arrested for the egregious crime of posting a "Bush Step Down" sign on a utility pole, thereby violating a Cleveland Heights city ordinance, and then convicted of resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. The "criminal" is a 53-year old woman, but according to the police, they could hardly constrain her: "Downey said Fisher gave him and his partner all that they could ha! ndle even though the officers weigh over 200 pounds, lift weights and are 20 years younger than Fisher." But a possible sentence of three years in jail wasn't enough for the U.S. injustice system... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23239 Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 11 May 2006 Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. ...In a dispatch posted at 7:25pm Makkah time Thursday evening, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that US warplanes rocketed residential apartments in the northeast of ar-Ramadi, about 110km west of Baghdad. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that at the time of reporting the American fighter-bombers had so far fired seven rockets into homes in the area.! Clouds of smoke could be seen rising from the houses and the US aircraft were continuing with their intensive rocket bombardment. The American planes fired one rocket into an ambulance that was trying to get into the neighborhood. That strike killed the ambulance driver and two first aid workers who were riding inside.... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23236 GI Special 4E11: "It's Life And Death Every Day" Thomas F.barton Maria Gomez, center, mother of Sgt. Jose Gomez, with her husband Felix Jimenez, as she and Gomez's fiancee Marie Canario mourn during her son's funeral service, May 10, 2006 in New York. Gomez died in Baghdad on April 28, 2006 when a roadside bomb detonated near his Humvee. The soldier was assigned to the 10th Cavalry, 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23233 120 American snipers in Ramadi are also killing women and children Imad Khadduri, Free Iraq ...An Iraqi Resistance Fighter in Ramadi has confirmed that the number of American snipers on the roofs of buildings in the city are estimated to be 120 snipers. They are dispersed on the roofs of civilian houses that were forcibly occupied by them. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Dulaimi further stated that the dispersion of the American snipers in this manner has made it very difficult for the Resistance fighters to move and manoeuvre..! . Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23231 DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, May 11, 2006 Today in Iraq Attack on an American patrol on a US Army convoys southwest of Baghdad on Thursday, killing one soldier, the US command said. Roadside bomb attack on an American patrol in the same region killed two soldiers, the military said.Veteran of Baltimore police force who went to Iraq to work for a company that trains Iraqi police died last week in that country. A spokeswoman for the David J. Weber Funeral Home, the family said the death was not combat-related. Poli! ce in Baghdad say a body found last week has been identified as that of a journalist. He's at least the fourth Iraqi journalist or media worker killed in Iraq this month... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23228 Four US soldiers killed in Iraq AFP The US military on Thursday announced the deaths of four soldiers, including three in two separate roadside bombings southwest of Baghdad. On Thursday two soldiers were killed near Batrah when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb at around 9:00 am (0500 GMT), while another soldier died in a similar bombing at 6:30 am (0230 GMT) near Zaybaq in a separate attack. Both the attacks occurred in locations southwest of Baghdad. The military also announced the death of a soldier th! at occurred on Tuesday of "non-combat related wounds" near the northern city of Mosul... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23229 Third Reich Tyrants Cindy Sheehan ...I have had a chance since Camp Casey in August to travel the world. I have had the honor of meeting hundreds of fellow souls who are just plain sick and tired of the way BushCo is cavorting around the world and comporting themselves as fledgling 3 rd Reich tyrants (Hitler didn't need warrants either) who are threatening the way of life of every person who inhabits our world. I was only just in Canada and got to meet many of our brothers and sisters north of the border... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23244 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.