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

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The Media's Bloody Footprints Mike Whitney We don’t know why the media giants have veered from their traditional cheerleading and focused on the atrocities at Haditha. There have been scores of similar incidents over the last 3 years; what makes Haditha so special? It’s impossible to exterminate 100,000 civilians without producing a lengthy list of war crimes. Haditha just fits into the familiar pattern of serial killing that is casually dismissed as "pacification". The lack of coverage ensures that things will p! robably stay the same. It’s doubtful that the media executives are suddenly bothered by "pangs of remorse" about the suffering they have created. More likely, the unexpected attention to Haditha indicates the growing divisions among American elites about Bush’s mismanagement of the war. In fact, the media still supports the occupation; it’s obvious by the cheery nationalism that accompanies their news programming. Haditha is characterized as an anomaly that diverges from the norm of military conduct. But, that is not what the Iraqis say... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23714 INTERVIEW-Saddam defence lawyer accuses court of bullying Suleiman al-Khalidi, Reuters Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer on Sunday accused the court trying the former leader of bullying and intimidating the defence team and its witnesses to try to undermine its case. Khalil Dulaimi said a complaint was being lodged with the court and U.S. authorities over "gross harassment, mistreatment and beating of defence witnesses" who began taking the stand when the trial resumed on May 15 after a three-week recess. "There is a! systematic and deliberate policy to terrorise witnesses and lawyers alike and to prevent the remaining witnesses from delivering their testimonies. This is hampering our efforts to reach the truth," Dulaimi told Reuters in Amman... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23721 DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 4, 2006 Today in Iraq Gunmen kill 21 commuters, many high school students, in apparent sectarian attack near Baqoubah. Nine killed in Sunni mosque in Basra by Iraqi police. Police find 10 bound, tortured, and bullet-riddled bodies in Baghdad. 3 civilians killed in separate incidents in Kirkuk, 9 year old girl kidnapped. Farm fields set afire in Juragh, north of Kirkuk Note: No details are given of this incident but it sounds like ethnic cleansing. One police officer killed, 2 i! njured by roadside bomb, also in Kirkuk. Iraqi Police in Mosul announced Sunday that six of its members were killed in attack by unknown militants. About 19 civilians were killed in a shooting by unknown militants in the Governorate of Diyala north east of Baghdad... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23722 US probe of Ishaqi killings no surprise for Iraqis Reuters ...Recalling the sounds of gunfire and explosions, Khalaf stands over what was once his brother's bedroom and remembers some of the dead, like Osama, 7. He clutches death certificates. "They (U.S. troops) went into the house and fired for about 30 minutes," he said. The Ishaqi findings come amid an investigation into allegations U.S. Marines massacred up to two dozen unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha in November. Several other killings are also und! er investigation. New Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has promised Iraqis justice and criticised the American actions. But judging by the mood in Ishaqi, Iraqis have learned not to expect too much from their new U.S.-backed democracy "We know these probes never lead to anything," said Kassim Jaafar, 25 (...) "Our government will just leave us to the mercy of American soldiers," said Dhiya Ahmed... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23727 Haditha and Rumsfeld's Ratio Mickey Z. In the most recent variation on this theme, the high ranking official was Secretary of Defense (sic) Donald Rumsfeld and his public assurance went as follows: "We know that 99.9 percent of our forces conduct themselves in an exemplary manner. We also know that in conflicts things that shouldn't happen do happen." One needn't be a math major to recognize that even a passing knowledge of American military history would produce enough war crimes and atrocities to surpass Rumsel! d's .1% solution. (...) However, for the sake of broadening the scope here, let's assume that Rummy's got it right. Let's take him at face value that 99.9 percent of American military personnel "conduct themselves in an exemplary manner." (...) How exactly does one define "exemplary manner"? By Rumsfeld's reckoning (and the standard company line of most every politician, pundit, and peon) "exemplary" includes the use of Daisy Cutters, cluster bombs, and B-52s dropping payloads from 15,000 feet. One-tenth of one percent bad apples slaughter non-combatants without orders...but the other 99.9% are the heroes deploying depleted uranium, napalm, and white phosphorus. "Exemplary" warriors with "core American values" launch cruise missiles into crowded cities, blow up dams to deliberately flood rice paddies and starve civilians, and destroy villages in order to save them... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23726 Independence Day William Bowles There could be no better exemplar of the mindset of the servants of capital than yesterday’s (3/6/06) editorial in the London Independent. Titled 'A protracted and messy conflict, with its myriad dark corners’, at first reading it would seem to be a condemnation of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, but a closer examination reveals anything but. In fact, it is in its own devious way, a defence of the imperial mindset replete with all the by now, predictable rationales for a war '! gone wrong’. A war conducted with the 'best of intentions’ but badly planned and executed, though executions are what the occupiers do best as those of us who have been following the occupation since day one, are all too well aware of... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23725 Hassan family blames Blair as abduction trial begins in Iraq Daniel McGrory THE family of Margaret Hassan, the British aid worker kidnapped and murdered in Iraq, yesterday blamed the Government for her death by refusing to speak directly to her Iraqi kidnappers. "We believe that the refusal by the British Government to open a dialogue with the kidnappers cost our sister her life," her brother, Michael Fitzsimons, and three sisters, Deidre, Geraldine and Kathryn, said in a statement issued on the eve of the openin! g of her alleged abductors’ trial in Baghdad. "Margaret, who was vocally opposed to the war in Iraq, was sacrificed for the political ends of Tony Blair and George Bush." The family revealed that the kidnappers contacted Mrs Hassan’s Iraqi husband, Tahssen, four times using Mrs Hassan’s mobile telephone, demanding to talk to a member of the British Embassy... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23724 HEAD IN THE SAND Malcom Lagauche A few days ago, Der Spiegel of Germany ran a piece by Fleming Rose of Jyllands-Posten called "Why I Published the Muhammad Cartoons." He begins by mentioning his surprise at the reactions the cartoons elicited. Then, he changes subjects. Rose gives his opinions on assimilation into a foreign country; his apologies for being a communist in his earlier years; reasons why Muslims have to change; the European welfare state’s failures; the grand capitalist model of the U.S.; and how th! e U.S. is a great model for the world in how to make immigrants a functioning part of a society. At the end of my piece, I have included his article so you can make up your own mind about his views of the world. I only want to discuss Rose’s view of immigrants in the U.S. He seems to be talking about another world because the U.S. he mentions is far from that of reality in the areas of immigration... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23723 Men killed at Basra mosque: police, Sunnis say Reuters A Sunni religious group in the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi city of Basra said on Sunday that police had gunned down 12 unarmed worshippers in a Sunni mosque (...) Sunnis often accuse Shi'ite militias of infiltrating Iraqi police units and of carrying out killings against members of Iraq's once-dominant minority. "We accuse the security forces (police) in Basra for what happened," said the Sunni Endowment in a statement read to Reuters by one of its officials. "On! ly worshipers were killed in the mosque," it said. "They killed unarmed people inside the mosque."... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23720 No less than Iraqi court or International court Baghdad Dweller Because of the quantity of articles and opinions, appeared on the media in the media about the crime, one thing you need to know, many missed about Ishaqi crime: The Joint Co-ordination Centre (JCC) in Tikrit have compiled the official report, The JCC is a regional security centre set up in partnership with the US military. (JCC) is the highest Iraqi police investigation authority. The report read literally the following: "American forces used hel! icopters to drop troops on the house of Faiz Harat Khalaf [a 30-year-old man who died in the raid]. The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people … then they bombed the house…………….. all the victims had bullet shots in the head and all bodies were handcuffed"... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23718 Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Saturday, 3 June 2006. Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org ...In a dispatch posted at pm Makkah time Saturday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that at about 11pm Friday night, the 'Adnan Khayrallah General Hospital in Baghdad received the bodies of 22 Iraqis, all Sunnis and all bearing signs of torture and savage beatings. The Baghdad correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported a do! ctor in 'Adnan Khayrallah Hospital as saying that a puppet police unit found the bodies of the 22 victims in the so-called "Madinat as-Sadr" district in the eastern part of Baghdad. The doctor said that 17 of the bodies belonged to members of the Sunni tribes of Zawbi', ad-Dulaym, al-Jabbur, and Shammar. The doctor said that the puppet police actually discovered the bodies on Friday afternoon, but delayed dropping them off at the hospital so that news of this grizzly discovery would not come too closely on the heels of the Wednesday announcement of the discovery of 43 Sunni torture victims murdered by the puppet security services... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23717 Haditha Was Inevitable Mickey Z. The Haditha Massacre was more than horrific...it was predictable. More than predictable, it was inevitable. Equally horrific, predictable, and inevitable is the devious reporting by the supposedly liberal media. The "alleged" war crimes at Haditha might be the work of a "handful" of Marines who "snapped" and, for those reading between the lines, those Marines are guilty of something far worse than mass murder: They’ve soiled the pristine, courageous image of the American military ! in Iraq. As Stan Goff sez: "The bad apple defense is back." Someone turn down the lights and start the My Lai slide show, please… Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23716 8 of Saddam’s Defense Witnesses Flown to Amman for Safety Abdul Jalil Mustafa, Arab News Eight Iraqis testifying in favor of the ousted President Saddam Hussein have been flown to Amman out of "concern on their safety", a local newspaper reported yesterday (...) The eight witnesses, seven men and a woman, said they were flown to Amman after the detention of four other defense witnesses by US troops and "agents of the Iraqi Interior Ministry", which is reportedly run by overwhelmingly Shiite personnel... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23715 A New Bio Warfare Arms Race Begins in Maryland KEVIN ZEESE The United States has come along way since our British ancestors used small pox poisoned blankets as a biological weapon against Indians. But, sadly, biological weapons are still with us--indeed they are becoming a major thrust of the U.S. military and a threat to humanity. Ft. Detrick in Frederick, MD, just 45 miles away from the nation's capitol, is going through a massive expansion into the largest bio-weapons facility in the world. The federal governm! ent is installing a 220 acre campus that will bring together numerous federal agencies anchored by a massive U.S. Army building--22 acres in size. The National Interagency Biodefense Campus (NIBC) is likely to ignite a bio-weapons arms race... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23713 The emergence of the Resistance Journalists ... Imad Khadduri, Free Iraq ...After the lecture, I discussed this observation with Fisk and pointed out the emergence of truly dedicated young Iraqi journalists, many of whom have been actively, courageously and consistently working with, for example, Islam Memo site.( Several of them have been killed by the American occupation forces, such as Khalid Abdul Jabbar near Balad on April 9, 2005. He had refused to work with AP and Reuters for a $1,000 salary describing the! m as "more dangerous than the occupation weapons themselves". His salary with Islam Memo was $30 per month). In preparing their reports on the events and casualties, these reporters often quote members of the 'Iraqi police' or the 'Iraqi Army', with their name and rank, as well locals who witnessed the event being reported. Often, their reports precede by hours any of the 'corporate media' reporting of the same event. They seem to be in most Iraqi cities. They report every few hours, if the development of the news require so. Why would Fisk not give them due reference and respect for their stand, professionalism and dangerous journalistic mission? Fisk lamely admitted their value and mentioned that he had the opportunity to train some of them himself during one of his visits to Baghdad. He also promised that he will mention them in his coming lectures and interviews that he was going to give on the next leg of his tour in the West coast of the USA. He never did... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23712 The “few bad apples” alibi in business, military and political crimes Ben Tanosborn ...It’s a safe bet that the "just a few bad apples" excuse will continue to play well with our complacent and complicit society as we meet the crisis du jour, this time Haditha. And the question will not likely come up as to how many little "hadithas" have been covered up; or will continue to be perpetrated in Iraq; or in new frontlines, in our imperial march. For now, resolution is being met by providing ethics lessons for the gr! unts… when the greater need exists high in the chain of command, all the way to the very top... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23711 DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, June 3, 2006 Today in Iraq An alleged suicide attacker blew up his car bomb at the main market in Basra, killing at least 15 people and injuring 30. The explosion occurred in the late afternoon when a large number of people were in the square, police Capt. Mushtaq Kadhim said. Iraq's second-biggest city has seen growing violence recently, prompting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a visit last week to declare a monthlong state of emergency in the mainly Shiite city. An official a! t Russia's Embassy in Baghdad says one diplomat has been killed and four embassy employees kidnapped. Witnesses at the scene told them than gunmen opened fire on a car that belonged to the Russian Embassy in west Baghdad's upscale Mansour district. Interior Ministry Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohamedawi said one person was killed in the incident, which took place just outside the embassy. Two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in eastern Baghdad. Police found 22 bodies with signs of torture and bullet wounds in different parts of Baghdad... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23710 Return to Ishaqi: The Pentagon's Shaky Self-Exoneration Chris Floyd It seems that the Pentagon, that veritable fount of veracity, has probed itself for the alleged execution-style slaying of civilians in Ishaqi, and found that the operation -- which left 11 civilians dead, including five children under the age of five -- was in fact an exemplary feat of arms, strictly by the book (...) We can say that the available evidence gives many deeply troubling indications that some kind of atrocity indeed occurred at Isha! qi. And we can say that key portions of the Pentagon's self-exoneration are flatly contradicted by photographic evidence, and also by the credible testimony from villagers, US-backed Iraqi officials and Western news agencies (including Reuters, Knight-Ridder, AFP and AP) as to the nature of the victims' fatal wounds... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23709 No, In Ishaqi 11 Iraqis were killed by US soldiers Baghdad Dweller This is the shortest investigation in a murder I ever heard about, in less than 24 hours the army cleared the soldiers from the killing, I mean investigating a normal burglary will take a bit longer. Here is the news on Yahoo: U.S. troops cleared in Ishaqi raid probe The soldiers pulled back and called in airstrikes by an Air Force AC-130 gunship, which attacked and collapsed the building, the defense officials said. Video images sho! w the building wasn’t totally damaged, contrary to the US story most of the building was still standing, and the death caused by bullets wounds... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23707 US Propaganda in Iraq: Manure Manufactured by Bush & Co. Christopher Brauchli, CommonDreams.org It keeps coming up roses. Now the roses are being fertilized by manure manufactured by Bush & Co. instead of fertilizer purchased from outside sources. In 2005 we learned that the administration paid a group known as the Lincoln group $5 million for manure. The Lincoln Group is an American company that is paid for putting out favorable news about the war in Iraq to the Iraqi people who, seeing their friends and neighbo! rs being blown up daily, might otherwise think things were not going well. Here is how it works. The Pentagon has something called a "storyboard". It is literary fertilizer prepared by the Pentagon and given to the Lincoln Group that then translates the text into Arabic and disseminates it in Iraq under the by-lines of Iraqi writers thus causing it to look like homegrown manure instead of Pentagon offal... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23729 USA out-flanked in Eurasia Energy Politics? F. William Engdahl, Globalresearch.ca Curiously and quietly the United States is being out-flanked in its now-obvious strategy of controlling major oil and energy sources of the Persian Gulf, Central Asia Caspian Basin, Africa and beyond. The US’s global energy control strategy, it’s now clear to most, was the actual reason for the highly costly regime change in Iraq, euphemistically dubbed 'democracy’ by Washington. George W. Bush restated his democracy mantra as recen! tly as May 28 at the West Point military graduating ceremony where he declared that America's safety depends on an aggressive push for democracy, especially in the Middle East. 'This is only the beginning,’ Bush said. 'The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future belongs to freedom, and we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people in every nation.’ If the trend of recent events continues, it won’t be Bush-style democracy that is spreading, but rather, Russian and Chinese influence over major oil and gas energy supplies... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=23728 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.