[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 17 Feb 2006 - Part One]

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

Iran's Iraq Robert Dreyfuss By now it’s not surprising when the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page utterly contradicts news accounts in its own pages, but this week the Journal did it in spades. And it goes to the heart of the crisis in Iraq, where the Bush administration has just about handed Iraq to Iran on a silver platter. First, on Tuesday, the Journal reported, in a page one lead story by Jay Solomon and others, that Iran is winning the game in Iraq (...) Then today, in a rosy-scenario editorial called "The Shiite Choice," the Journal’s editors delivered an extended tribute to Jaafari, saying that he has "an untainted record of courageous opposition to Saddam Hussein’s regime And it added: "Of all the Shiite alliance’s conceivable choices for the post [of prime minister], Mr. Jaafari is also the least beholden to Iran. … Mr. Jaafari and his Dawa Party don’t seem dependent on Teheran and are unquestionably indigenous Iraqi patriots." It was, of course, the Dawa that was supported by Iran, first by the Shah of Iran’s SAVAK intelligence service in the 1970s and then by Khomeini’s intelligence service in the 1980s, and whose "opposition" to Saddam included unbridled terrorism... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20714 Is Salon's Abu Ghraib DVD Everything There Is? amleft, Daily Kos The web magazine Salon in a recent article states that Salon is in possession of a DVD of images and video that it speculates contains all material that exists regarding the crimes that were committed at Abu Ghraib. However, its description of the DVD's content fails to mention inclusion of videos of rape and no-fooling torture that have been mentioned by Seymour Hersh and by, for example, MSNBC's coverage of Rumsfeld's appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee just after the original scandal broke... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20731 Abu Ghraib leaked report reveals full extent of abuse Suzanne Goldenberg · 1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse · 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse · 660 images of adult pornography · 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees · 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts Nearly two years after the first pictures of naked and humiliated Iraqi detainees emerged from Abu Ghraib prison, the full extent of the abuse became known for the first time yesterday with a leaked report from the US army's internal investigation into the scandal... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20717 The Dangers of a Middle East Nuclear War New Pentagon Doctrine: Mini-Nukes are "Safe for the Surrounding Civilian Population" Michel Chossudovsky, Globalresearch.ca The Bush administration's new nuclear doctrine contains specific "guidelines" which allow for "preemptive" nuclear strikes against "rogue enemies" which "possess" or are "developing" weapons of mass destruction (WMD). (2001 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations (DJNO) ). The preemptive nuclear doctrine (DJNO), which applies to Iran and North Korea calls for "offensive and defensive integration". It explicitly allows the preemptive use of thermonuclear weapons in conventional war theaters. In the showdown with Tehran over its alleged nuclear weapons program, these Pentagon "guidelines" would allow, subject to presidential approval, for the launching of punitive bombings using "mini-nukes" or tactical thermonuclear weapons... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20729 Salon.com Runs Abu Ghraib Torture Photos Leaked from Internal Army Source Democracy now! Salon.com published even more torture photographs from Abu Ghraib a day after the Australian report aired on SBS public broadcasting. The online publication obtained photos, video and other electronic documents from an internal Army investigation. We speak with salon.com reporter Mark Benjamin, who obtained the files and other electronic documents... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20730 Iraqi Interior Ministry investigates death squads Truth About Iraqis Following the US military's confirmation that it was holding an apparent death squad targeting dissidents and Sunni Arabs within the ranks of the Iraqi Interior Ministry, Iraqi officials have promised to investigate (...) I have a slight problem with this. The death squads were working from within the Interior Ministry. They could not have done so without some official help from the Ministry. And now the Ministry is investigating itself?... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20728 Gaza as the Warsaw Ghetto Kurt Nimmo, Another day in the empire Ehud Olmert, acting like Governor-General Hans Frank, has decided to turn the Gaza Strip into the Warsaw Ghetto. Frank was of course Governor-General of occupied Poland and Olmert is the acting PM of Israel, also known as occupied Palestine (ministerial powers were transferred to Olmert after the war criminal Ariel Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke). Frank was prosecuted during the Nuremberg trials and sent to the gallows. Olmert will never face trial for killing Palestinians and will likely go on to become a big cheese in the "centrist" Kadima party... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20725 GI Special 4B15 - He's A Good Man - February 16, 2006 Thomas F. Barton ...After giving my country ten years of honorable service, I came to the conclusion—probably in Iraq; no doubt because of my service there—that I could no longer participate in war. For this, and this alone, my personal integrity and character have been attacked, in a continuous and blatant manner. Perhaps separation from service is implicit in a CO application of any sort. If it is, then all the more reason for both Army and me to make a clean break, rather than have the Army trying to hold onto me, as it were, via incarceration. All things considered, maybe that’s the best way of looking at the matter: CO application means separation; so why not let me and the Army separate, as amicably as we can. We’re obviously no longer suited to each other. Rather than resist this conclusion, let’s embrace it and act on it!... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20724 Conservatives Endorse the Fuhrer Principle Our leader über alles Paul Craig Roberts ...The siren call of "national security" is all the cover Bush needs to have the FISA law repealed, thus legally gaining the power to spy however he chooses, the protection of political opponents be damned. However, Bush and his Federalist Society Justice Department are not interested in having the law repealed. Their purpose has nothing to do with national security. The point on which the regime is insisting is that there are circumstances (undefined) in which the president does not have to obey laws. What those circumstances and laws are is for the regime to decide. The Bush regime is asserting the Fuhrer Principle, and Americans are buying it, even as Bush declares that America is at war in order to bring democracy to the Middle East... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20727 Iraq attacks up 30 percent, US military blames conspiracy for Abu Ghraib pictures Truth About Iraqis US Major-General Rick Lynch said the attacks had shifted somewhat to target Iraqi security forces as more of these US-trained forces assume responsibility and US military personnel hole up in their bases. "He attributed the spike to the increased role of Iraqi security forces, as well as the interim period between the December 15 elections and the formation of a new government, which is still pending," the Pakistan Tribune reported... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20726 War Crimes, continued... An open letter to the American people Katherine Brengle I wrote yesterday about the urgent need for the rest of the world to hold the United States, my own country, accountable for its crimes against prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. I received a number of emails from readers expressing agreement, but more importantly, a consuming feeling of helplessness (...) It's time to destroy that helpless feeling. In the coming days, I will be communicating with every progressive organization I can find and asking them to join me in planning a massive demonstration in Washington D.C. I don't want the people of this country to feel like they can't effect change, and I don't want you to give up... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20732 The Abu Ghraib photos and the anti-Muslim “free speech” fraud David Walsh The release of more horrifying photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison sheds a revealing light on the hypocritical and genuinely sinister character of the supposed "free speech" campaign surrounding the publication of anti-Muslim cartoons in the European and international press (...) These horrific images of systematic torture, abuse and murder serve to remind us in the starkest fashion what the "values" of "Western Civilization"—as proclaimed by those who are now championing the "clash of civilizations" crusade against Muslims—mean in practice in much of the world, certainly the Arab and Muslim world. George W. Bush, his media apologists, and his accomplices in the Democratic Party can chatter all they like about "bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq," but the US presence in that country is synonymous in the minds of masses of people with pervasive and sadistic forms of oppression and terror... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20722 Iraq police death squad arrested at checkpoint Oliver Poole, Telegraph The United States military announced yesterday that it had captured an Iraqi police "death squad". It was the first time one of the uniformed Shia Muslim groups that Sunni Arabs claim have killed hundreds in recent months has been identified in public. Twenty-two highway police officers, wearing police commando uniforms, were held in late January at an Iraqi army checkpoint in north Baghdad. When asked where they were going, they answered that they were taking away a Sunni man to shoot him... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20716 Iraq economy falls below pre-war levels Guy Dinmore, Financial Times The Bush administration on Thursday conceded that key sectors of the Iraqi economy had fallen below pre-war levels because of the insurgency, but insisted it was making enough progress on the political and security fronts to press ahead with reductions in US forces. Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, told the Senate budget committee that production of crude oil and electricity was down from three years ago. Attacks had also hit oil exports... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20712 Why They Fight Jeff Wells, Rigorous Intuition ...It's wrong, I think, to call what's coming the "War with Iran," when actually it's just another campaign in the Long War that's intended to survive us, and walk the world through its greatest crisis of conflict and resolution. This is spelled out clearer than ever in the Pentagon's latest Quadrennial Defense Review, a .pdf of which can be read here. (See also this thread on the RI discussion board.) As Bill van Auken notes, the language has been massaged so the enemy is no longer identified as "terrorists" but as "extremists" or "violent extremists." US forces are transitioning from "battle-ready" to "battle-hardened" to meet the "new strategic environment" in which the United States will not only be going to war with nations, but also "conducting war in countries we are not at war with." The Pentagon also intends to "provide US NORTHCOM with authority to stage forces and equipment domestically prior to potential incidents when possible"... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20711 Weathering the Globalization Storm Ramzy Baroud I spent much of the last three years working and traveling across the Middle East and Asia in one of the most unique and fulfilling experiences of my life. Not only did my journey require me to question and adjust a range of values and perceptions which for long I've held as absolutes, but in fact it cemented my sense of "out-of-placeness," which has become a integral part of me, being a descendant of Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes in Palestine nearly six decades ago. And yet, through living and visiting many countries on four continents, I came to accept that "not belonging" is no longer a limitation, but a unique position that has helped me forcefully transcend beyond stereotypes and superficialities... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20718 The Iraq war's defining weapon Sudha Ramachandran The threat posed by Iraq's reported possession of weapons of mass destruction was the excuse US President George W Bush gave for his invasion of Iraq in 2003, but it is the simplest of technologies - the roadside bomb - that has emerged as the biggest nightmare for US occupation forces in Iraq. The improvised explosive device (IED), which is the insurgents' weapon of choice in Iraq, has accounted for more than half of all US injuries and deaths in combat since March 2003 - by far the single greatest cause of death for US service members... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20710 Outrage Spreads over New Images Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed New footage of British soldiers beating up young Iraqi men in Amarah city in 2003, and the release of more photographs of atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison has spread outrage across Iraq. The timing of the new images is potent, in the wake of violence spreading through Iraq and much of the Muslim world over cartoons of Prophet Mohammed carried by a Danish newspaper and then other European publications. "We in Basra have decided not to cooperate in any way with the British troops," 43 year-old food merchant Ali Shehab Najim told IPS. "These occupiers of Basra are invaders and we will not sell them any of their requirements"... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20709 Munich Conference: accession of Israel to NATO and attack Iran Voltaire.net The 42nd Annual Conference about the security policy was held in Munich between February 4-5, 2006. The 300 participants discussed about expanding NATO and the Iranian crisis. Angela Merkel, Donald Rumsfeld, John McCain, Michèle Alliot-Marie and Mijail Sakachvili succeeded each other at the platform. NATO expansion project to include the US allies had been explicitly requested in a report submitted by the former Spanish Prime Minister José-María Aznar, L’OTAN, une alliance pour la liberté in which he talked about the possibility of including not only Ukraine and Georgia, but also Japan and Australia, and why not Israel. The Alliance would become then a permanent coalition for the service of Good as defined by the White House... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20708 Mid-Winter Feasts, Spooks and Other Imaginings Les Skeates, Outside the Gates ...There is a way that American and British people can help in stopping the war. In fact their role is crucial. It is still not to late and Gandhi was right. Non-violent, mass participatory civil disobedience and direct action along with the myriad of actions from petitioning to leafleting by individuals and small groups. The war machine needs to be stopped and big sacrifices will need to be made if billions be saved. But the going to war in America or Britain to stop war will not work. There is no such thing as 'the war to end all wars' unless by it we mean the war of our species extinction. One of the global organisations whose presence should be universal amongst the anti-war movements in America and Britain and in the blogosphere but isn't, is the BRussells Tribunal. Their findings and recommendations for actions, as presented by the World Tribunal on Iraq, are the only game in town for the anti-war movement in America, Britain and Europe. The actions are the means by which the non-violent anti-war movement can coalesce and unite around, so why are they being ignored?!... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20707 Denmark, Where Are You? A Story Of Longing Thomas Koppel, www.thesavagerose.com In the following open letter, an outstanding figure in Danish culture, the composer Thomas Koppel (Savage Rose), challenges the Danish government to step down over its handling of the Mohamad provocation - and its responsibility for Denmark's participating in the illegal war and occupation of Iraq. He suggests a new independent popular movement to represent the popular demands.(...) The war is a crime in defiance of UN's decisions and thereby in defiance of the Danish constitution. This comprehensive war crime is the framework around innumerable other war crimes - meaningless murders, torture, destruction and assaults on the population and its necessary installations and institutions. They are also in defiance of the Nuremberg treaty and all international human rights and war crime tribunals. After our experiences under the German occupation, this is beneath our dignity... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=20720 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.