[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 23 May 2006 - Part One]

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What happened in Kurdish Halabja? ...Of course, if Saddam had ordered the gassing of his own Iraqi Kurds, even one who died of poison gas would be enough to convict. But the official reports of our own Intelligence Community conclude that there was an exchange of gas attacks between the Iraqi and Iranian armies at Halabja and those civilians who died were caught in a crossfire... and were most likely casualties of the Iranians, using a cyanide agent that the Iraqis were not known to possess. A Marine Corps repor! t of December 10, 1990, on chemical weapons used in the war also "finds no evidence whatsoever that the Iraqis have ever employed blood gasses," which the Army war college says were used by the Iranians and caused the civilian deaths at Halabja... (Jude Wanniski) Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23481 Massacre in Kandahar Eli Stephens, Left I on the News ...And here in Kandahar we have the same story repeating itself. The U.S. military says, "The purpose of this operation was to detain individuals suspected of terrorist and anti-Afghanistan activities." But it's kind of hard to "detain" people when you are dropping bombs on them from the air. The U.S. military also says, "These individuals were active members of the Taliban network and have conducted attacks against coalition and Afghan forces as well as civi! lians" (note how the word "suspected" suddenly disappears; between the last sentence and this one the individuals went from being "suspected" of certain activities to having "conducted attacks," no question about it). And to top it off, this was a night-time operation. The assertion that, even with the best night-vision goggles, a pilot could identify "individuals" is implausible to put it mildly (...) So "massacre" -- the murder of a group of people who were not in the process of fighting back -- is definitely the right word... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23479 Stinkin' yellow badges and Israel's Nuremberg Race Law Xymphora You have to wonder what the National Post was up to, when it published its amazing lying articles on alleged Iranian sumptuary laws involving identification of minority groups. By publishing the original front-page article with a huge picture from Nazi Germany (front page reprinted here and here, but the article itself appears to have disappeared; by the way, is there an uglier front page design in the world?), it explicitly connected the current Ir! anian government with Nazi Germany... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23474 Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 22 May 2006 Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. In a bulletin posted at 9pm Makkah time Monday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that a short while earlier the Iraqi Resistance had opened fire on an American Apache helicopter gunship over the al-'Ubaydi area near al-Qa’im in western Iraq near the Syrian border. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the helicopter was struck by medium machinegun! fire as it was hovering at low altitude. The witnesses told Mafkarat al-Islam that the helicopter could be seen going down with smoke coming out of its underside. It made a forced landing in the al-Bu Jum'ah Gardens area... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23478 Sharon's Legacy in Action Prof Tanya Reinhart At the present, Western world seems still under the spell of the legend of Ariel Sharon, who, so the story goes, has brought a gigantic change in Israeli policy - from expansion and occupation to moderation and concessions a vision to be further implemented by his successor, Ehud Olmert. Since the evacuation of the Gaza Strip settlements, the dominant Western narrative has been that Israel has done its part towards ending the occupation and declared its readiness to ! take further steps, and that now it is the Palestinian’s turn to show that they are able to live in peace with their well intending neighbor. How did it happen that Sharon, the most brutal, cynical, racist and manipulative leader Israel has ever had, ended his political career as a legendary peace hero?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23477 Palestinian Catastrophe: Myths Revisited Prof. Ramzy Baroud Palestinians and their faithful supporters throughout the world commemorated May 15, as Nakba Day, the day when Israel was declared a state atop the ruins of Palestinian homes and hundreds of ethnically cleansed towns and villages, 58 years ago. Many writers, mostly Palestinians, attempted to once again articulate a solid position, reinforce an alternative reading to an intentionally confused history, reminisce on what was lost and on the very little tha! t remains... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23476 GI Special 4E22: Last Letter Home - May 22, 2006 Thomas F. Barton Hours after he buried his soldier son, David Timmons Sr. said yesterday that people should ask questions about the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I think I need answers," he said. "We ask questions, that's what America's all about." Army Spc. David "J.R." Timmons Jr., 23, of Lewisville was one of 10 soldiers killed May 5 in a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan. The soldiers were conducting combat operations in a mountainous area as par! t of a search for al-Qaida and Taliban militants. The Army is still investigating the crash. Timmons said that Army officials told the family that the helicopter crashed during a sandstorm... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23473 Implementing Israel’s Strategy Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar ,Pravda.ru ... This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right. Here we see that Israel’s strategy as presented in the document is the removal of Saddam Hussein from power. Israel could not do this on its own. But again Israel didn’t have to. United States achieved the strategic objective of Israel, without Israel spending a single dollar. So far Israel has achieved most of its main ob! jective except completely neutralising Hezbollah, Iran and Syria... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23469 The Storm over the Israel Lobby Michael Massing The nasty campaign waged against John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt has itself provided an excellent example of the bullying tactics used by the lobby and its supporters. The wide attention their argument has received shows that, in this case, those efforts have not entirely succeeded. Despite its many flaws, their essay has performed a very useful service in forcing into the open a subject that has for too long remained taboo... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23468 Iraq doctor brings evidence of US napalm at Fallujah Andra Jackson EVIDENCE to support controversial claims that napalm has been used by US forces in Iraq has been brought to Australia by an Iraqi doctor. Dr Salam Ismael, of the Baghdad-based group Doctors for Iraq, said the evidence pointed to the use of napalm on civilians during the second siege of Fallujah in November 2004. It is contained in film and photographs that doctors took of bodies they collected when they were finally allowed to enter the city after! being barred for three days of the military operation. "We said that napalm had been used, because napalm is a bomb which is a fuel bomb that burns only on the exposed part of the body, so that the clothes will not be affected," Dr Ismael said from Perth at the start of a speaking tour... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23466 Easily Dispensable: Iraq's Children Dahr Jamail ...That women and children suffer the most during times of war is not a new phenomenon. It is a reality as old as war itself. What Rumsfeld, Rice and other war criminals of the Cheney administration prefer to call "collateral damage" translates in English as the inexcusable murder of and other irreparable harm done to women, children and the elderly during any military offensive. US foreign policy in the Middle East manifests itself most starkly in its impact on the! children of Iraq. It is they who continue to pay with their lives and futures for the brutal follies of our administration. Starvation under sanctions, and death and suffering during war and occupation are their lot. Since the beginning of the occupation, Iraqi children have been affected worst by the violence generated by the occupying forces and the freedom fighters... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23465 Photographs From Iraq: May 1 - 20, 2006 combat - Indymedia A selection of recent photos from the war in Iraq.: Riots in Basra, resistance in Ramadi, killing everywhere. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23464 To Impeach or not to Impeach-That shouldn’t even be a question! Ben Frank To anyone who has read the Constitution and and has any sort of need for justice, it has become blatatly obvious that the only way to uphold our Constitution and stop these criminals with sinister intentions is to Impeach Bush and Cheney immediately to stop them from committing any more atrocities, looting the treasury and prevent them from being in charge during any more national emergencies. We have been given a line of excuses as to why ! this hasn’t happened which goes something like this 1.We cannot impeach unless there is an investigation. 2. We cannot have an investigation unless we have a democratic majority... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23463 Don't Attack Iran petition delivered to White House - video, audio and photos available Charles Jenks, Traprock Peace Center On May 18th, hundreds rallied against war in Lafayette Park in front of the White House, and a large delegation led by Cindy Sheehan delivered the Don't Attack Iran petition, with over 42,000 signatures, to the White House. Administration officials would not take the petition from the delegation, so the delegation left the petition at the gate. Watch videos of this historic event, including! the dramatic delivery of the petition to the White House, download mp3 audio of the rally and see the 75 photograph album of the rally and petition delivery at http://www.traprockpeace.org/iran_petition_video.html... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23462 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.