[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 06 Jun 2006]

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

How Many My Lais? Felicity Arbuthnot, PalestineChronicle.com The rightful furor over yet another US massacre, this time in the western Iraq town of Haditha, is somewhat belated since it happened in November and was instantly known to most Iraqis and Iraq watchers. Town representatives took evidence to the now puppet Iraq Prime Minister, Nuri Al Malaki near immediately. As for the comparison with My Lai, Iraq has suffered so many My Lai's resultant from the murderous, trigger happy, unaccountable troops, blink and! you have missed one. What danger did a remote, rural wedding party pose, months after the invasion? Virtually every guest was multiply shot by American troops in cold blood. Inquiry? Apology? No chance. 'Even bad people have parties..' commented a US General of a slaughter where the youngest had not reached her first birthday. A survivor hiding in a ditch stated that soldiers stole jewelry off the bloodied, murdered women, dressed for celebration. 'We have a Haditha every day', merchant Mohammed Jassim told journalist Molly Ivens. Haditha was quite a small massacre as US massacres go. The massacre in the first onslaught on Falluja filled two football fields; numerous bodies were buried in gardens and yards, the survivors unable to take their beloved to cemeteries for fear of being shot themselves. In the second siege of Falluja, figures vary, but six thousand is not out of the question. Families were reportedly shot trying to swim the Euphrates to escape the horror... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23772 Afghanistan's Second Intifada Mike Whitney ...Afghanistan has begun to unravel. The Taliban have reemerged in the south and are engaged in a spring offensive that is disrupting wide swathes of the countryside. In many towns they roam freely during the daytime and are attracting more disgruntled locals to their cause. In some areas they are allowed to preach in the mosques and try to persuade adherents to join the struggle. 5 years of occupation have produced nothing for the rural people. Unemployment is soaring a! t 45%, the drug trade is booming, and the presence of foreign troops hasn’t improved security. As unsavory as the Taliban may seem, they are gaining ground in an atmosphere that is increasingly charged with religious fervor and Afghan nationalism. The riots in Kabul will undoubtedly factor in heavily in this new paradigm of burgeoning resistance... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23762 My Lai, Vietnam, 1968. Haditha, Iraq, 2005 International Action Center ...What is the lesson of My Lai and of Haditha? It's that when an occupation army is ordered to suppress a resistance movement (in Iraq this is called the "insurgency") that has popular support, then it commits war crimes. The young Marines know that all the Iraqis hate them, including the civilians, including the children. So when they attack, they kill civilians. They kill children. When this is done with bombs from airplanes, it is called "! collateral damage" in Pentagon newspeak. It is ridiculous to think that a "refresher course" in military ethics will change the situation. The Marines are ordered to go in and win a battle. Rep. John Murtha saw this happen in Vietnam and has exposed this latest war crime in Haditha. But we have to go further than Murtha in our conclusions from these facts. There is no longer a way to hide the criminal nature of the war... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23778 Video Tapes and Liberator’s Justice in Haditha Ahmed Amr, www.dissidentvoice.org ... Haditha is the way America does war when the cameras aren’t rolling. From the wholesale slaughter of Filipino peasants in the Spanish American War to the killing fields of Vietnam -- American forces and American generals have never had qualms about slaughtering innocents abroad. The random civilian victims of American military might are buried in places stretching from Wounded Knee to Dresden and Hiroshima. The criminal nature o! f the American occupation of Iraq was apparent long before Haditha. By definition, a war of choice is a war of aggression. The very first "smart" bomb that killed an innocent Iraqi was a war crime... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23769 Baath Party Statement The liberation of Iraq from the nationalization of the oil until the expelling of the invaders. The Arab Baath Socialist Party Today June the first 2006 we celebrate the anniversary of the nationalization of the Oil and the expelling of the western Oil cartels' usurpers which looted Iraq petrol for long decades, plunging our people in poverty and deepening the backwardness, illiteracy and disease' state Iraq inherited from the Ottoman and foreigners' rule and mainly Persian war lo! rds who controlled the country, after the decay of the Abbassid Caliphate. Moreover Iraq lost his historical role and was controlled by foreigners the latest being the British colonialists who didn't only loot and persecuted Iraqis but it purposely exercised intensive under developpement policies that is why the British colonialist era is considered as the one of the worst global decaying period in the life of the Iraqis, which incited them to arrange their national battle priorities for liberation and to get rid from the colonialist grip as the widest door to get rid of all kind of backwardness and social deviations... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23768 Lawyer determined to defend Saddam despite receiving death threats Gulf Times, Qatar THE team of lawyers defending former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain has succeeded in achieving a major reversal of the proceedings so as to foil the pre-determined plans of the prosecution, according to Dr Najeeb al-Noaimi, former Qatari minister of justice, who is a member in the defence team (...) "The charge against Saddam Hussain of having ordered the killing of 147 persons has been proved false since it has not been substant! iated with any solid evidence. "We are carrying out our work without any assurance of our personal safety or the safety of our witnesses. We have deliberately avoided presenting our witnesses for fear of their lives." He said: "Four of the witnesses were arrested soon after they had made their statements in the court. These witnesses may be eliminated if no action is taken to save them... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23780 US TAXPAYERS FUND HUMAN SLAVERY IN IRAQ Bush Out ...Human brokers and subcontractors from Asia to the Middle East have worked in concert to import thousands of laborers into Iraq from impoverished countries, often employing fraud or coercion along the way, seizing workers' passports and charging recruitment "fees" that make it difficult for workers to escape employment in the war zone... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23777 Recipe for War on Iran: Israeli Hysteria and Imperialist Logic James Brooks, Al-Jazeerah The Bush administration’s agreement to join international talks with Iran has been hailed as a bright hope for a peaceful resolution of the engineered crisis in the Persian Gulf. But the agreement carries a poison pill; Iran must subject its legal rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to negotiation, something it has sworn never to do again. Washington is telling Tehran to surrender its main point before it sits d! own to the negotiating table. It’s simply another move in the effort to establish a great power consensus against uranium enrichment in Iran, which the Bush administration hopes to use as an excuse for war, much as it used UN Security Council Resolution 1441 as a fig-leaf for its illegal invasion of Iraq... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23776 Of Water, Human Beings and Other "Worthless" Commodities How Capitalism Unleashes the Beast of Soulless Avarice Jason Miller ...The United States and its Neocolonial partners guaranteed the economic and political subjugation of developing nations when they forged the Bretton Woods Agreements at the end of World War II. Utilizing organizations like the World Bank and "free trade" agreements like GATT and NAFTA, the Neocolonialists have created a subtle yet powerful economic form of oppression. Providing! loans to deeply impoverished developing nations, the World Bank requires that recipients make "structural adjustments", including privatizing, cuts in social spending, elimination of labor protection laws, and the elimination of trade protections for their people. Multinational corporations are then free to rape, pillage and plunder virtually at will... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23775 The "rules of engagement" Eli Stephens, Left I on the News Confirming yet again my description of the U.S. "rules of engagement" in Iraq, which can be summed up as "civilians be damned," comes the latest incident: On Monday, U.S.-led forces fired artillery at the train station in Anbar's provincial capital of Ramadi, "targeting four military-aged males unloading a weapons cache." A hospital official, Dr. Omar al-Duleimi, said American forces killed five civilians and wounded 15. The U.S. military said the mis! sion had "positive effects on the target," but it denied that civilians were killed or injured in the city west of the capital.... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23774 U.S. controls court, Saddam lawyer says AP The court where former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein is being tried is not purely Iraqi but controlled by Americans who arrange meetings between the defence and defendants and give orders to the judge, a defence lawyer charged Tuesday. Bushra al-Khalil, a Lebanese lawyer who was thrown out of the courtroom by Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman last month, said she believes "a team of American jurists take part in the trial and attend all sessions from a room where they can ! see but not be seen." During a news conference in Beirut, she charged that the team ``directs the court's judge and gives orders," by passing notes to security guards for delivery to the judge... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23773 The “few bad apples” alibi in business, military and political crimes Ben Tanosborn, Online Journal Guest Writer It has become part of our day-to-day lexicon . . . something as American as apple pie. Whatever happens of an unpleasant or nefarious nature, it must have been caused or created by a "few bad apples." We get to hear it -- or read it -- with multiplier frequency these days because of the high profile cases being witnessed involving the worlds of big business, politics and the military... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23770 The U.S. Role in Darfur, Sudan Oil reserves rivaling those of Saudi Arabia? Sara Flounders, International Action Center What is fueling the campaign now sweeping the U.S. to "Stop Genocide in Darfur"? Campus organizations have suddenly begun organizing petitions, meetings and calls for divestment. A demonstration was held April 30 on the Mall in Washington, D.C., to "Save Darfur." Again and again it is said that "something" must be done. "Humanitarian forces" and "U.S. peacekeepers" must be deployed im! mediately to stop "ethnic cleansing." UN troops or NATO forces must be used to stop "genocide." The U.S. government has a "moral responsibility to prevent another Holocaust." Outrage is provoked by media stories of mass rapes and photos of desperate refugees. The charge is that tens of thousands of African people are being killed by Arab militias backed by the Sudanese government. Sudan is labeled as both a "terrorist state" and a "failed state." Even at anti-war rallies, signs have been distributed proclaiming "Out of Iraq—Into Darfur." Full-page ads in the New York Times have repeated the call. Who is behind the campaign and what actions are they calling for? Even a cursory look at the supporters of the campaign shows the prominent role of right-wing evangelical Christians and major Zionist groups to "Save Darfur"... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23764 GI Special 4F4: "That's Not A Terrorist" - June 4, 2006 Thomas F. Barton "We was going along the Euphrates River," says Joshua Key, a 27-year-old former U.S. soldier from Oklahoma, detailing a recurring nightmare -- a scene he stumbled on shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. "It's a road right in the city of Ramadi. We turned a real sharp right and all I seen was decapitated bodies. The heads laying over here and the bodies over here and U.S. troops in between them. I'm thinking, 'Oh my God,! what in the hell happened here? What's caused this? Why in the hell did this happen?' We get out and somebody was screaming, 'We fucking lost it here!' I'm thinking, 'Oh, yes, somebody definitely lost it here.'" Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23763 Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State Allan Uthman, Buffalo Beast ...2. "The Long War" This little piece of clumsy marketing died off quickly, but it gave away what many already suspected: the War on Terror will never end, nor is it meant to end. It is designed to be perpetual. As with the War on Drugs, it outlines a goal that can never be fully attained -- as long as there are pissed off people and explosives. The Long War will eternally justify what are ostensibly temporary measures: suspension! of civil liberties, military expansion, domestic spying, massive deficit spending and the like. This short-lived moniker told us all, "get used to it. Things aren't going to change any time soon." 3. The USA PATRIOT Act Did anyone really think this was going to be temporary? Yes, this disgusting power grab gives the government the right to sneak into your house, look through all your stuff and not tell you about it for weeks on a rubber stamp warrant. Yes, they can look at your medical records and library selections. Yes, they can pass along any information they find without probable cause for purposes of prosecution. No, they're not going to take it back, ever... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23760 US military moves to condone “humiliating and degrading” treatment of prisoners Joe Kay, WSWS The US military is preparing a new version of the Army Field Manual that will eliminate language prohibiting "humiliating and degrading treatment" of prisoners held in US custody, according to a report published Monday by the Los Angeles Times. The new manual would be a further step in the repudiation of international law and the codification of torture as a component of US interrogation policy. Summarizing the essence o! f the discussions, the Times quotes an individual described as being familiar with the debates in the Pentagon as saying: "The overall thinking is that they need the flexibility to apply cruel techniques if military necessity requires it."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23759 No to referendum Israel Shamir Mahmud Abbas, the PNA’s president, is about to do a big mistake. So big that it will be a cause for regret for many years to come. He decided to push for a referendum whether the Palestinians agree with The Prisoners’ Agreement. The Prisoners’ agreement was made by leaders of Fatah, Hamas and other groups presently in Israeli captivity, so one could think it is a bilateral and non-controversial document. Indeed it is: this agreement says the Palestinians are ready for peace with the Jewish state on fulfilment of three conditions: (1) all POWs should be released; (2) Israel should withdraw to 67’ borders, (3) and accept the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees of 1948. The three conditions are fully based upon UN resolutions and on the norms of international law; and there is no slightest doubt Olmert’s government is not going to fulfil them (...) So who needs this referendum? Next step, cats will run a referendum for offering peace to dogs provided they will cease to pur! sue them. If all Palestinians will answer yea, will it make the Jewish state to tremble and accept the conditions? No, no, and again no. Fatah and Hamas know that; Abbas understands that, and still he pushes for this meaningless referendum. He is doing this to embarrass the legitimate government of Palestine... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23758 BLAME IT ON THE BULLS Malcom Lagauche Today, rarely a word is spoken about the embargo on Iraq that lasted from August 3, 1990 to May 2003. And, if it is mentioned, it is only in context of a long-forgotten aspect of the 16-year U.S.-Iraq war. Let’s take a brief look at how the sanctions came into being and then elaborate on the deceitful methods used to keep them in place. On August 3, 1990, the U.S. pushed a sanctions resolution through the U.N. After the cease-fire of the Gulf War, they were kept under certain! conditions. Iraq could not have the sanctions lifted until it destroyed certain designated weapons, called weapons of mass destruction (WMD). At the time, two assessments were in place in the U.S.: (1) Iraq would never destroy all the WMD and if it tried, it would take years (2) Under such strict observation, the people of Iraq would rise up and overthrow Saddam Hussein within six months. Saddam’s tenure surprised the U.S. administration, so, after about a year, the stated objective was to keep the embargo in place in perpetuity... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23756 Haditha, Bush & Nuremberg's Law Peter Dyer, Consortiumnews.com George W. Bush -- in his first public comment on the alleged massacre of 24 civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha, Iraq, last November -- said: "If, in fact, these allegations are true, the Marine Corps will work hard to make sure that ... those who violated the law -- if indeed they did -- will be punished." Now that President Bush has resolved publicly that those who committed war crimes will be punished, the subject of U.S. war crimes may begin to m! ove closer to its deserved prominent place in the American public discourse. If this happens, more Americans are likely to realize that the man who spoke of punishing war criminals has himself violated the law and should be accordingly punished. In fact, according to the Nuremberg Charter, a document which the U.S. had a major role in drafting, those who initiate a war of aggression quite literally bear individual criminal responsibility, not only for waging unprovoked war, but for the war crimes which inevitably flow from aggression... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23754 Getting away with murder at Ishaqi: The American’s “rational” defence Richard Marsden, The Business of Emotions The U.S. military has exonerated itself of any wrong-doing concerning its role in the deaths of five children, four women and two men in the Abu Sifa area of Ishaqi, eight miles north of Balad, during the early hours of March 15, 2006 (...) This self-exoneration warrants the closest scrutiny. It is plainly contradicted by: * BBC-authenticated video-taped evidence of the immediate aftermath of the attac! k * photographic evidence of the bodies * the Iraq police report on the deaths * autopsy reports. The U.S. Department of Defence has revealed no evidence in support of its claims. It has simply asserted their evidence and challenged us to dispute it. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23752 Stop the Beast Marjorie Cohn, t r u t h o u t In an annual security conference on Saturday, Donald Rumsfeld assured the audience, "We don't intend to occupy [Iraq] for any period of time. Our troops would like to go home and they will go home." Why, then, would the United States be building an enormous embassy in Baghdad and a base so large it eclipses Kosovo's Camp Bondsteel, which had been the largest foreign US military base built since Vietnam? The new embassy, which occupies a space two-thirds the area of! the national mall in Washington DC, comprises 21 buildings that will house over 8,000 government officials. It has a huge pool, gym, theater, beauty salon, school, and six apartment buildings. The gargantuan military base, Camp Anaconda, occupies 15 square miles of Iraqi soil near Balad. The base is home to 20,000 soldiers and thousands of "contractors," or mercenaries... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23751 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.