[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 21 Aug 2006 - Part One]

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The US role in Saddam’s Trial Roads to Iraq When Human Rights Watch questioned the fairness of Saddam’s trial, they kept their statement short, but for many times we heard people saying this is not an Iraqi court, it is a American court, even Saddam said it today. Still we don’t have any details about the American role in Saddam’s court. Here is the only document available from Bushra Khalil a member in the defense team explaining American role the court, I managed to get a copy of the document. "This paper never! published before"... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25964 Israeli Apartheid: Segregation, Control and the Creation of Bantustans in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Bethlehem Bloggers: Voices from the Bethlehem Ghetto The question of Israel as an apartheid state has received increasing attention over the last years as Israel has continued colonial expansion in the West Bank while simultaneously attempting to diverge itself from the Palestinians. The purpose of this post is to highlight the growing systemization of apartheid in the OPT with particular referenc! e to Israel's policy of unilateral disengagement. The need for this debate is highlighted by the effective outcomes of disengagement which has already resulted in the segregation of Palestinian communities and delineation of exclusive Jewish space by means of the segregation barrier. Furthermore the creation of Palestinian enclaves or ghettos in the OPT bears a striking resemblance to the South African policies during the apartheid era which sought the establishment Bantustans as a means to facilitate segregation and to secure privileges for an ethnic minority... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25963 More Free Mazuma Sent to Small Criminal State Kurt Nimmo On the Ynet Money page, there is a photo of Israeli finance minister Abraham Hirchson, a big smile spread across his face. Hirchson is tickled because, once again, the American taxpayer, a royal chump, has come through. "The Bush administration has agreed to an Israel demand that a loan guarantee deal be extended by an additional three years, until 2011," reports Ynet. "In 2003, the United States approved a USD 9 billion aid package to Israel in the form of! loan guarantees which allow Israel to borrow money on the international market for low interest rates.".. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25957 AIPAC, the Religious Right and American Foreign Policy Rodrigue Tremblay, The New American Empire Nobody can understand what's going on politically in the United States without being aware that a political coalition of major pro-Likud groups, pro-Israel neoconservative intellectuals and Christian Zionists is exerting a tremendously powerful influence on the American government and its policies. Over time, this large pro-Israel Lobby, spearheaded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has extende! d its comprehensive grasp over large segments of the U.S. government, including the Vice President's office, the Pentagon and the State Department, besides controlling the legislative apparatus of Congress. It is being assisted in this task by powerful allies in the two main political parties, in major corporate media and by some richly financed so-called "think-tanks", such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, or the Washington Institute for Near East Policy... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25961 Sectarian clashes in Baghdad Zeyad, Healing Iraq A massive wave of sectarian violence engulfed several districts of Baghdad yesterday. The violence was sparked by news reports of sniper attacks against Shi’ite pilgrims heading to the shrine of Imam Musa Al-Kadhim in Kadhimiya to commemorate his death anniversary. When the news had spread, armed members of 'popular committees’ (militias) accompanying the pilgrims opened fire against residences in some Sunni districts surrounding Kadhimiya. Others took over Sunni m! osques in Sulaikh, Dola’I, and Palestine Street, and reprisals were reported from several areas of Baghdad. For some reason, Western news agencies have completely missed these serious developments, highly reminiscient of the confessional violence that followed the Samarra shrine attack, but both the Iraqi Al-Sharqiya and Baghdad satellite channels aired video footage of the clashes. The events were corroborated by dozens of eyewitness accounts. In the Dola’I neighbourhood, just south of Kadhimiya, gunmen occupied the Du’at Al-Islam mosque and kidnapped the Imam, Sheikh Hassan Ali Yassin, and two guards who were in the mosque. Their battered corpses were found later... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25972 Campaign for Accountability for U.S./Israeli War Crimes Ramsey Clark On August 30, 2006 the International Action Center will launch a major campaign to require accountability by the United States and Israel for their wars of aggression and assaults on the equal sovereignty of nations, which are crimes against peace, and their war crimes which include excessive force, indiscriminate bombing, targeting civilians and civilian facilities and collective punishments of entire populations. Reparations are required for more than a thousands deaths, many thousands of injures and an estimated $10 billion for destruction of civilian facilities in Lebanon in one month alone; and thousands of deaths and injuries in Palestine since the Oslo Accords, the systematic destruction of the government of Palestine, the kidnapping of half the cabinet and the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, the assassination of leaders and indiscriminate killing of others, and the destruction of the offices of President Arafat, the Foreign Ministry and civilian facilities t! hroughout Gaza and the West Bank. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25975 Poll: Opposition to Iraq war at all-time high CNN Opposition among Americans to the war in Iraq has reached a new high, with only about a third of respondents saying they favor it, according to a poll released Monday. Just 35 percent of 1,033 adults polled say they favor the war in Iraq; 61 percent say they oppose it -- the highest opposition noted in any CNN poll since the conflict began more than three years ago. Despite the rising opposition to the war, President Bush said the U.S. will not withdraw from Iraq ! while he is president... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25973 Who Started Terrorism in the Arab-Israeli Conflict? The Angry Arab News Service Bombs in Cafes: first used by Zionists in Palestine on March 17th, 1937 in Jaffa. Bombs on Buses: first used by Zionists in Palestine Aug. 20th-Sep. 26, 1937. Bombs in Market Places: first used by Zionists on July 6th, 1938 in Haifa. Bombing of Hotels: first used by Zionists on July 22nd, 1946 in Jerusalem. Bombing of Foreign Embassies: first used by Zionists on October 1st, 1946 in Rome (against the British). Mining of Ambulances: First used by Zionists on October 31st, 1946 in Petah Tikvah... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25967 Video Bush Now Says What He Wouldn’t Say Before War: Iraq Had ‘Nothing’ To Do With 9/11 Think Progress President Bush was in the midst of explaining how the attacks of 9/11 inspired his "freedom agenda" and the attacks on Iraq until a reporter, Ken Herman of Cox News, interrupted to ask what Iraq had to do with 9/11. "Nothing," Bush defiantly answered. Watch it... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25966 Losing its Morals and Marbles: Israel’s Fight for Lebanon Remi Kanazi If Hezbollah were a military, given Western standards, it would certainly be the most moral in the world. During Israel’s five week offensive, Hezbollah killed 118 Israeli soldiers and 41 Israeli civilians (18 of which were Israeli Palestinians). Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers for every one Israeli civilian. In contrast, Israeli forces killed more than 1000 Lebanese civilians during the onslaught (more bodies are expected to be discove! red during the current period of "calm"). Robert Fisk, based in Lebanon, reported, "They are digging them [Lebanese bodies] up by the hour." Israeli forces killed 25 Lebanese civilians for every Israeli civilian killed by Hezbollah. Israel claims it killed three to four hundred Hezbollah fighters during the 33 day war. Hezbollah argues the number is much lower, but since the world maintains that Hezbollah is a "terrorist organization," Hezbollah’s figure is swiftly rejected. Supposing Israel’s numbers are accurate, the state still killed roughly three Lebanese civilians for every one Hezbollah fighter... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25962 An outlaw state: Israel breaks ceasefire, threatens to assassinate Hezbollah leader Patrick Martin Israeli forces on Saturday carried out a flagrant violation of the ceasefire along the Lebanon-Israel border, as dozens of military commandos attacked the village of Boudai, near Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon. The raid was the first full-scale breach in the ceasefire between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in south Lebanon which took effect on Monday, August 14. Both Lebanese and United Nations officia! ls denounced the raid. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora issued a press statement in Beirut calling the attack a "flagrant violation" of the UN ceasefire resolution, while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25976 Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 21 August 2006 Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice ...In a dispatch posted at 1:15pm Makkah time Monday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that gangs of Shi'i sectarians, including members of the Badr Brigades and Jaysh al-Mahdi militia, at that moment were attacking the predominantly Sunni district of al-A'zamiyah. Local residents of al-A'zamiyah were battling the attacking gangs near the Ra’s al-Hawass Fu! el Station opposite the courthouse and around the cathedral Mosque of Abu Hanifah an-Nu'man and its adjoining madrasah (religious school). The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the Shi'i sectarian gangs were being backed up by puppet "Iraqi National Guards."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25974 Rove Revisited Joseph Cannon, Cannonfire Just when it seemed Rove's status in the CIA leak case had gone the way of Florida's 2000 election results and bin Laden's whereabouts, Jason Leopold provides us with an updated refresher. For those of you following this case, the only information the public has gained in the past several months, technically since Libby was indicted, has come from Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin of "my innocent client paid me in gold bricks" fame, and Robert Novak, of "publish the CIA identit! y" fame. Like we should trust either one of these guys... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25977 Interview With Ray McGovern, Part 1 Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Perspective During the Veterans for Peace National Convention in Seattle, I conducted an interview with Ray McGovern. McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years and is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). In this first installment of this short interview series for Truthout, I asked McGovern what he thought of the fact that Israel had been planning their attack on Lebanon for well over a year. Ray McGovern: The! most important thing, from our perspective, is to determine what role the US government played. It's very clear that the US government not only gave the green light to the Israelis, but actively encouraged them to do what they are doing now, and then blocked diplomatic efforts to prevent them, to halt them, or to have an immediate cease-fire. That much is clear. You can even read Charles Krauthaumer, who says precisely that: that we are proud that we not only gave the permission, but we encouraged them to do precisely what they are doing... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25958 Four US servicemen killed in Iraq Reuters The U.S. military said on Monday four U.S. servicemen had been killed in action in Iraq in the past 24 hours. Two Marines and a sailor were killed on Sunday in the western province of Anbar, where Sunni Arab insurgents are active, the military said in a statement. U.S. Navy medics serve with the Marines in the desert province... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25959 Bush Loses Lebanon at the Roulette Table Ahmed Amr, www.dissidentvoice.org On the Arab Street, the United States is getting a well-deserved share of vilification for promoting the orgy of violence that has already claimed the lives of over a thousand Lebanese civilians. That figure might be no more than a statistic in America. But, because of extensive live coverage on satellite TV, millions of Arabs now have the ability to attend the funerals of many of the victims. Every casualty is seen as an individual traged! y more so when the funerary rituals are for a child. After weeks of exposure to the mutilated lifeless bodies dug up from the wreckage of south Lebanon, Arab audiences now get to witness what the victims looked like before some anonymous Israeli assassin pulled the execution switch from an air-conditioned plane financed with American tax dollars.... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25956 Pakistan's ISI assists Scotland Yard, while also supporting the terror network MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY, Global Research According to The Senate Foreign Relations Committee (July 2004 Hearings), Pakistan's Military intelligence has played a key role in developing the Islamic terror network with financial assistance provided by Saudi Arabia. (Committee on Senate Foreign Relations, Hearings, July 14, 2004). More recently, The Nixon Center (July 2005) has confirmed that the ISI still supports the main Kashmiri Islamic gr! oups including Lashkar-e-Tiaba and Jaish-e-Muhammad. Recent Indian Press reports provide concrete evidence and details regarding the ISI's links to Lashkar e Taiba, which is suspected of having played a key role in the foiled UK terror plot:. Reports suggest that LeT operational commander had meetings with ISI's top brass... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25955 Are You Proud to be an American and a Supporter of Fascism? "Confessions of an American Ex-Patriot, Revisited" Dhane Blue It all began about a year ago. I had just finished watching the morning news over a cup of coffee, and nothing felt quite right. Having dutifully pecked the cheek of my wife with a kiss, I stood beside my sporty new car with mug in hand. The engine was purring away before my drive to work, and my favorite bumper sticker caught my eye. "Proud to be an American" it read. I paused for ! a moment, reflecting upon this. For some reason it just didn’t set well, like a lunch eaten too fast. On the way to the office I was at a loss to explain, in fact, why it began to seriously irritate me. I see statements like these on countless other cars every day, and I wondered how many people think for themselves these days. Then the question arose…What are we so proud of?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25954 Scientists suspect Israeli arms used in South contain radioactive matter Mohammed Zaatari, Daily Star staff Mohammad Ali Qobeissi, a member of the National Council for Scientific Research, said on Sunday that a crater caused by an Israeli munition in Khiam contained "a high degree of unidentified radioactive materials." Qobeissi, along with Ibrahim Rashidi from the Faculty of Sciences at the Lebanese University, have inspected the crater - which is 3 meters deep and has a diameter of 10 meters - in the Jlahiyyeh ! quarter in Khiam, with a Geiger-Muller radioactivity counter and nuclear material detector. "A team from the council will test a sample from the crater in order to find out what kinds of radioactive materials it contains," Qobeisi told The Daily Star... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25953 GI Special 4H21: Comment Unnecessary - August 21, 2006 Thomas F. Barton What prompted you to enlist in the military? Well there were two things that really affected my decision to enlist. One was 9/11, and being a native New Yorker and seeing those people on that day. I didn’t know President Bush at the time. And he came on TV at one time and said, "Every man should do two years for his country." So I said, "You know what, the dude is right." There was also no direction in my life. I didn’t want to do the college thing yet, I’d just finished high school, and I didn’t know where to go. So I just checked army.com, and put in my information. It just so happens that the week the recruiter called, I was going through a life crisis, if you want to call it that. So it was good timing on his part. . . . Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25952 Bernard Lewis’ Hidden Imam Campfire Story Kurt Nimmo Be afraid, very afraid—and cash in your life insurance policy. "In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time—Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined," warns neocon doyen and "Orientalist," Bernard Lewis, in the War Street, er Wall Str! eet Journal. "Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the U.S. about nuclear development by Aug. 22. This was at first reported as "by the end of August," but Mr. Ahmadinejad’s statement was more precise." Naturally, since them Ay-rabs—er, Persians, not that most Americans can tell the difference—are crazy, hate our freedoms, and want to convert every last human on the planet to Islam—or short of that, kill 'em all—we need to make darn sure Iran does not get its hands on nukes, and also confront Ahmadinejad over his desire to build up a stockpile of nukes, never mind there is no evidence of this. But since when did the neocons ever need evidence?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=25978 www.uruknet.info: a site gathering daily information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts of iraqi resistance available in Italian and English.