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

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Bint Jbeil; Hezbollah’s Blood Victory MIKE WHITNEY There’s a sign at the entrance to Bint Jbeil that says: "Bint Jbeil—Capital of Freedom". The cheery greeting contrasts dramatically with the vast devastation that lies just beyond. Bint Jbeil was a bustling hamlet in Southern Lebanon that became the central battlefield in Israel’s’ war of aggression. It withstood the IAFs withering aerial bombardments as well as a month-long siege which left most of the town in complete ruins. Bint Jbeil is where a small group of! committed nationalists stood up to the mighty IDF in "toe to toe combat and forced them to withdraw. Its where the sluggish wheel of Middle East history shifted ever-so slightly, challenging the dominance of Israeli military power as the sole agent for change in the region. The results of the battle have already sent shock-waves through the area’s political landscape.. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26388 Economic Empire Building and Domestic Decay James Petras While most commentators have in recent months focused on US and Israeli militarism in the Middle East and South Asia, US capitalism is preparing for a new offensive domestically and overseas. Three areas are targeted by the Bush Administration and its Congressional allies: 1) a renewed effort to privatize social security, reduce social programs such as Medicare and Medicaid while increasing individual payments, further reduce taxes on corporations and the r! ich and state regulatory controls over corporations, especially the Sarbanes-Oxley Law, in order to ease corporate global financial transactions, at the risk of small investors; 2) a big push by US multinational corporations to finance their exploitation and takeovers of 'emerging countries’ (Third World) by capturing local savings; 3) a major effort to lower trade and investment barriers – such as local subsidies and tariffs – for US industrial, financial and other service corporations while retaining a privileged place for heavily subsidized US agro-exporters and protected US agro businesses in the domestic market... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26393 Iraq and its enemies Gabriele Zamparini, The cat's dream ...The serious questions regarding Iraq Body Count are not a "ridiculous bickering" as a journalist "on the left" and supposedly "on our side" recently wrote me. These questions regard the very central issue of the Iraq invasion and occupation: the scale of the horror brought to the Iraqi People by our governments, with our money and in our name. But the anti-war movement and the so called "left" is shamefully silent on this subject, when not defending Iraq! Body Count against those who dared to ask questions. Why? Shouldn’t we all be interested in what’s really going on in Iraq? But this seems to be the point. In the West, too many on the "left" and in the so-called "anti-war movement" are not interested in reality. Iraq seems to exist just in function of their power games. Too often "peace and justice" have become a business that has nothing to do with the oppressed victims’ struggle and all to do instead with the acquisition of privileges and power that neutralizes real dissent and block change. The elites in the "left" and in the antiwar movement have become so obsessed with their own power, with their own "place in society" to be completely indifferent to the facts, to compromise with the perils of rewriting history, conceding points that shouldn't be conceded... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26395 New Al Qaeda Video More CIA Black Op Propaganda Pathetic pretence kept up that "Al Qaeda" is still or ever was a real organized terror outfit and not the creation of deep intelligence. Steve Watson / Infowars The latest cobbled together trash home video to be released and accredited to "Al Qaeda" is yet another piece of scripted propaganda that portrays a desperate attempt to give the impression that the group operates as a cohesive unit. It is becoming tiresome to have to address these endless videos ! which are released whenever the Administration is feeling the pressure, something that now seems to be a permanent feature of this government... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26408 The Israel Lobby and the US Response to the War in Lebanon Nihad Awad, John Mearsheimer, and Stephen Walt ...What’s our core argument? We make several big arguments in our paper. First, we just document the level of support the United States provides to Israel—about $3 billion a year in economic and military assistance each year. That’s about $500 per year per Israeli citizen, despite the fact that Israel is a relatively wealthy industrial power. That aid is largely unconditional. It’s not linked to Israeli behav! ior. It gets its aid when it builds settlements; it gets its aid when it spies on us, when it sells American high technology to countries like China, or when it attacks civilians in the West Bank, Lebanon or Gaza. Israel also gets consistent diplomatic support from the United States. Since 1982, for example, we have vetoed 33 U.N. Security Council resolutions that were critical of Israel. That’s a total greater than all of the vetoes by all of the other Security Council members put together. And finally, we take Israel’s side in wartime, as John is going to discuss in some detail. Moreover, over time we have tended to favor Israel’s side whenever peace talks do occur... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26385 The Next Phase of the Middle East War MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY, Global Research Israel's war on Lebanon is an integral part of a US sponsored "military roadmap". The war on Lebanon, which has resulted in countless atrocities including the destruction of the nation's economy and civilian infrastructure, is " a stage" in a sequence of carefully planned military operations. Lebanon constitutes a strategic corridor between Israel and North-western Syria. The underlying objective of this war was the militarization of L! ebanon, including the stationing of foreign troops, as a precondition for carrying out the next phase of a broader military agenda... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26404 Blair and His Extremist-Moderates Yamin Zakaria Blair may be drunk with imperial arrogance riding on the tails of George Bush, but his deputy John Prescott seems to be sober, as demonstrated by his recent comments about Bush. If Bush was present, he might have said: Yo Bush, you and your policy is crap. Perhaps, John Prescott is preparing to give the Labour party a new face, because a new leadership contest may be looming; and criticising Bush is perhaps the first step in distancing from Blair’s foreign policy, p! articularly the unpopular war in Iraq. Just prior to the war in Lebanon, the Christian fundamentalist Blair allegedly got another divine inspiration to aid his ongoing holy crusade ("war on terror"), against the Muslim infidels! Thus, he made the holy proclamation of promoting the moderates, short for moderate Muslims. Who are these moderates? It is easy to deduce that: if Blair wants the moderates to be the voice of the Muslims and Islam, it means they comply with his interests and his foreign policies in the Islamic world. Conversely, extremists are those who oppose Blair’s foreign policies in the Islamic world.... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26403 U.S., Iran share interests in Iraq, Khatami says Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami said Monday that U.S. forces should remain in Iraq until that country's fragile government can assume greater control. In an interview here during his first trip to the United States since leaving office a year ago, Khatami said, "We can't leave this newly formed government at the mercy of terrorists and insurgents." (...) Khatami said that Iran is not the enemy of the United States and that the t! wo countries share strategic interests in Iraq and Afghanistan... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26402 The beautiful game turns nasty as sectarian feud spreads to sport Michael Howard, The Guardian Mohammed Abbas still isn't sure why he was plucked from the street by a group of armed men, some wearing police uniforms, to be interrogated and tortured for five days. He had never been involved in politics, he steered clear of crime, and he kept his religious views to himself. His family was not particularly well-heeled. But perhaps it was the 34-year-old engineer's refusal to play for a local soccer team run by membe! rs of Moqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi militia that made him a target. Certainly, the repeated hammer blows to his knees during his ordeal has meant that Mr Abbas - a popular figure on Baghdad's football scene, a former member of Iraq's youth squad, and an avid Manchester United fan - may never play again. Now in hiding in Iraqi Kurdistan, Mr Abbas (not his real name) said: "I must be very careful because I still have family in Baghdad and I just don't know who exactly took me."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26401 That Old Time Religion Whiskey Bar America’s main organization of Modern Orthodox rabbis is calling on the Israeli military to be less concerned with avoiding civilian casualties on the opposing side when carrying out future operations . . . Because Hezbollah "puts Israeli men and women at extraordinary risk of life and limb through unconscionably using their own civilians, hospitals, ambulances, mosques . . . as human shields, cannon fodder, and weapons of asymmetric warfare," the rabbinical council said ! in a statement, "we believe that Judaism would neither require nor permit a Jewish soldier to sacrifice himself in order to save deliberately endangered enemy civilians."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26400 Shiite cleric, entourage abducted in Karbala Deutsche Presse Agentur A controversial Shiite cleric was abducted late Monday in the southern Iraqi holy city of Karbala, according to reports citing his colleagues. Armed men stormed two houses and kidnapped five men including Ayatollah Mahmoud al-Hassani. The others taken included two of his aides and two bodyguards, the sources said. It was not immediately clear if the abductions were politically motivated or for ransom. Supporters of al-Hassani fought street battl! es last month with Iraqi police... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26411 Imperial Apologia: Senate Prepares Pardon for Caesar Chris Floyd Well, I was going to write about Arlen Specter's "Imperial Apologia" bill -- which "legalizes" Bush's patently illegal warrantless surveillance program and whitewashes five years of clearly criminal behavior -- because it's coming before Congress this week, and I've written extensively about it before. (Craven Image: The Senate Bows to Imperial Power; July 20; Fever Dream: Fast Forward to the End of Democracy; Jan. 27). But I find that, as usual, Gl! enn Greenwald has already got it covered and said just about everything I wanted to say about it. (Greenwald is a both curse and blessing for dissident writers; a curse, because he is so often "the firstest with the mostest" on many of the vital matters of our time; and a blessing, of course, because he does so much of the heavy lifting for you.)... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26399 Israeli Celebrate" First Day in School" - No " First Day in School" Celebration in Palestine & Lebanon Hayam Noor / PalestineFreeVoice "Ehud Olmert uttered on Sunday at a ceremony marking the first day of school year in the northern Israeli settlement of Maalot, that he had unsuccessfully tried to arrange a meeting with the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora to start what he Olmert called "peace talks". The man bombed Lebanon and continued his predessors Ariel Sharons terror on the Palestinian Gaza Strip and W! estbank, refuses to end the occupation of Palestine land - return the Sheeba Farms to the Lebanese... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26398 7 Coalition Troops Killed, 33 Bodies Found The Associated Press A day after Iraqi leaders said the capture of a top terror suspect would reduce violence, police in Baghdad have found the tortured, blindfolded bodies of 33 men. The remains were scattered across the capital. And the U.S.-led coalition is reporting seven combat deaths, five Americans and two Britons in the past two days. Meanwhile, a popular soccer star has been dragged off in Baghdad... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26397 Urgent! Urgent! Breaking News The US Occupation forces in Iraq throw Iraqi detainees in the streets after lacerating theirs faces and killing them Special reports from Baghdad - Al Moharer Reliable sources close to the US Occupiers' authorities ascertained today that hundreds of Iraqi prisoners considered as missing and detained by the US Occupiers' forces in secret detention camps and in particular those detained on US war ships or in European secret prisons since the beginning of the Occupation and ! the year after, are being killed and suppressed through deforming their faces and throwing them into streets to make believe that they were victims of sectarian violence in Iraq... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26396 Two British soldiers killed in Iraq Press Association Two British soldiers were killed and a third was seriously wounded north of Basra, the British military said. The soldiers were killed when their patrol in Ad Dayr was hit by a roadside bomb, British military spokesman Maj Charlie Burbridge said from Basra. Their identities were withheld pending notification of their families. Around 7,200 British troops are based in Iraq, and more than 110 have died there since the 2003 invasion... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26394 Inalienable Human Rights are not Privileges: ACLU Sets the Standard in Struggle for “Liberty and Justice for All” Jason Miller Ecclesiastes tells us there is "no new thing under the sun." Marsha West’s article entitled American Christian Loathers Union provides us with a pertinent and timely example of this aphorism. Throughout the religion’s history, various practitioners of Christianity have defied the compassionate teachings of Christ to perpetrate hateful, fear-mongering, and sometimes quite lethal! campaigns against those who do not share their beliefs. The Inquisitions, the Salem Witch Trials, the persecution of Galileo, the US military’s slaughter of 600,000 Filipinos in an effort to (in the words of then US President William McKinley) "uplift and civilize and christianize" them, and Focus on the Family’s steady assault on homosexuals are but a few examples... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26392 DAILY WAR NEWS FOR MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2006 Today in Iraq MNF reports a Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province September 1. Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province September 3. Ministry of Defence announces deaths of two British soldiers near the town of Ad Dayr, north of Basrah City, in an ambush. One more soldier seriously injured, a se! cond less seriously. CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq – A 15th Sustainment Brigade Soldier died of non-combat injuries during the early morning hours on Sep. 4. CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq – A 1/34th Brigade Combat Team Soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device while conducting a convoy escort mission north of Baghdad at approximately 12:10 a.m. today. A Soldier from the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division died Sunday from wounds sustained after his vehicle was struck by an IED near Mosul."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26391 Pentagon to Congress: Bush Is Wrong The War Is Lost PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS The Pentagon’s latest quarterly "progress" report to Congress on Iraq is a grim tale of a lost war. The Pentagon told Congress what Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and propaganda organs such as Fox "News" never tell the American public, namely: (1) The Sunni-based insurgency remains "potent and viable" despite spiraling Sunni-Shiite violence and beefed up US forces. (2) Since the last report three months ago, Iraqi casualties from "sectaria! n clashes"--the Pentagon’s euphemism for civil war--have soared by more than 50 percent.... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26390 Are Physicists Smart? Disciplined Professionals serve Power "80 % of physicists in North America work for the military" Prof. Denis Rancourt, GlobalResearch.ca It is generally assumed that physicists are smart people. Even some chemists look up to physicists. Physics is reputed to be a difficult subject, the stuff of nightmares in high school. The greatest scientists that come to mind are often the physicists Einstein and Newton. The inventors of the atomic bomb are held in awe, as are the cosmologists! that gave us black holes and worm holes into parallel universes. The proverbial rocket scientists are physicists. It is generally assumed that anyone who has studied quantum mechanics and can work-in the concept of entropy at a cocktail party is pretty smart. I’m a physicist and I’ve trained physicists and I’d like to advance a different view: That generally, physicists, as a group, are pretty stupid, and certainly no smarter than any other group of self-centered and self-serving professionals... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26389 GI Special 4I4: Stand Firm -September 4, 2006 Thomas F. Barton Talks between the United States and Iraq over the transfer of operational command of Iraq's armed forces were deadlocked on Sunday, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanding more independence from the U.S. military. A day after the dispute forced an embarrassing delay of a signing ceremony in Baghdad, an Iraqi Defense Ministry source said disagreements remained over the wording of a document that outlines the new relationship between U.S.-led occupying forces and Iraq's new military. The ceremony, initially set for Saturday, was postponed to Sunday and then canceled altogether. Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=26406 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.