Thursday, June 22, 2006
DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, June 22, 2006Photo: When I first saw this sign, I missed one word on it and thought it read, "From Falluja to Kufa, Leave this country" (min al falluja ilal kufa, hatha al balad '3ufa). So, I took a picture, thinking that here was a sign expressing ultimate pessimism and the great wish that many Iraqis have for leaving their country. When I uploaded the photo to my computer, I noticed the word, 'man 3ufa', ie. 'we won't leave/let go of.' So the sign actually reads, "God is Great. From Falluja to Kufa, we won't let go of this country (won't give up on this country)." So its actually an expression of the patriotism and optimism of the artist.
Bring 'em on: Three U.S. Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Iraq's Anbar Province.
Bring 'em on: A U.S. Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq's Anbar Province died "after being attacked while conducting security operations," a military release stated.
Bring 'em on: U.S. soldier assigned to Multi-National Division Baghdad died Wednesday morning when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb south of the Iraqi capital.
OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS
Baghdad:
Two Iraqi policemen were wounded in a blast in southwestern Baghdad. Two policemen were wounded and a police vehicle was damaged in the attack.
Fourteen bodies of workers in an electricity plant were found in the city morgue on Tuesday. They were abducted and killed on June 12, the Association of Muslim Scholars said in a statement.
A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded in the Alawwi area in central Baghdad, killing two civilians and injuring eight others.
Najaf:
Gunmen riding a motorcycle shot dead a police officer in Najaf.
Taji:
(Update) The kidnappers of more than 100 Iraqi government employees have freed about half of their hostages: The industry ministry workers were snatched by gunmen Wednesday after their shift ended at a factory north of Baghdad. "Women hostages and those who were Sunnis were set free, and we believe that now about 40 to 50 employees are still held captive," an interior ministry official said on Thursday.
Iraqi police stormed a farm north of Baghdad and freed at least 17 people who were snatched a day earlier in a mass kidnapping of about 85 workers and family members at the end of a factory shift.Karbala:
Iraqi soldiers said they had found several bodies in a violent area north of Baghdad where factory workers were abducted by gunmen a day earlier. "Only 30 employees were kidnapped, of whom 25 were released the same day and only five now are still being held," an official in the minister's office told Reuters.
An Iraqi ayatollah who spent nearly 15 years in exile in Southern California was shot twice as he was returning home after delivering a sermon in the holy city of Karbala last week but survived the assassination attempt, his son, spiritual leader of an Irvine mosque, said Wednesday. Sayed Mortada Al-Qazwini, 76, who joyously returned to Iraq two weeks after the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003, refused to wear a bulletproof vest and mostly shunned security provided to him by the government and Shiite religious authorities, said Moustafa Al-Qazwini.
Dhuluiya:
Gunmen killed an Iraqi soldier in his home in Dhuluiya, 40 km (25 miles) north of Baghdad.
Iraqi forces found a civilian car with two bodies in the town of Bani Saad, west of Baquba. One of the bodies is of an Iraqi Army engineer with a rank of a captain.
The governor of Iraq's Diyala province was wounded and his driver and bodyguard killed when a bomb exploded near his convoy in the city of Baquba. Raad al-Mowla was travelling home from work when the shrapnel from the blast punctured his car's tyre causing it to overturn. The police source said Mowla was flown to a U.S. military hospital in Iraq for treatment.
Hawija:
Gunmen killed a carpenter on Wednesday in Hawija, 70 km (43 miles) southwest of Kirkuk.
Kirkuk:
Iraqi soldiers killed a gunman and arrested two on Wednesday after coming under attack in Kirkuk.
(W. of) An Iraqi civilian was shot dead by unknown militants west of Kirkuk. A source at the police in Kirkuk told KUNA that unknown gunmen, who were riding a black Opel Vectra, opened fire at Mohammad Mohsen Hussein and killed him.
>> NEWS
8 U.S. Troops Charged in Iraqi's Death: Seven Marines and a Navy medical corpsman were charged Wednesday with premeditated murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and other offenses in connection with the April 26 death of an Iraqi civilian in Hamandiya and an alleged cover-up.
The defendants are accused of breaking into a home in the town west of Baghdad, dragging out an unarmed, disabled 52-year-old Iraqi named Hashim Ibrahim Awad and killing him.
An AK-47 and a shovel were left near the body to make it appear Awad was an insurgent caught digging a hole to plant a roadside bomb, military investigators said.
The troops had been searching for an insurgent, and after finding his home empty, they went next door and pulled out Awad, legal papers said. In the U.S. military, a charge of premeditated murder carries a maximum penalty of death.
U.S. Senate rejects calls on Iraq troop pullout: In an 86-13 vote, the Senate turned back a proposal from some Democrats that would require the administration to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by July 1, 2007, with redeployments beginning this year. No Republicans voted in favor of the plan.
Minutes later, the Senate rejected by 60-39 the proposal more popular with Democrats, a nonbinding resolution that would call for the administration to begin withdrawing troops, but with no timetable for the war's end.
That vote was mostly along party lines.
>> REPORTS
al-Sadr calls on countries with foreign troops in Iraq to follow Japan's move and pull out: "The withdrawal of Japanese troops is a good step and I hope that all countries with occupation forces in Iraq would follow suit in a quick and organised way that would not hurt the Iraqi people," Sadr said at a joint press conference with former prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf.
Sadr, who led a bloody rebellion against US and coalition forces in 2004, has remained staunchly opposed to a foreign troop presence in Iraq despite the participation of his supporters in the government.
He is also against the creation of two autonomous federations in the Shiite centre and south, a position advocated by his bitter rival Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of parliament's most powerful Shiite party the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI) in Iraq.
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>> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
ME BIG U.S. LIBERATOR MAN; YOU STUPID NATIVE
Islam Memo reported on June 9 that giant loudspeakers, set up by the US military in the centre of Ramadi, had announced: "To all armed men, your emir has died, and there is no need anymore for you to fight. Therefore, drop your weapons and surrender to the American and Iraqi forces and we promise that we shall not harm you."
[Now we know what hopelessly incompetent former Hollywood writers do for a living. They turn out this inane shit, modeled on the scripts for Tarzan movies produced back in the 1940s. "Ugh. Me Big U.S. Liberator Man. Ugh. Put down your gun. Your big "emir" man dead. Ugh. You one dumb piece of shit who only fight because big "emir" man tell you to. Ugh. You give up now, we treat you good. Ugh. Like Abu G. Or maybe torture cell. Ugh. Or maybe just kill you, wife and kids. Ha Ha Ha. Ugh."]
The announcement was met by repeated volleys of mortars and rocket-propelled grenades from Iraqi resistance fighters. [And no doubt had the reporter been able to get close enough, volleys of hilarity as well, at the sheer condescending dimwittedness of it. The resistance reply certainly takes literary criticism to a whole new level.]
[It would appear that the "emirs" at the Pentagon have not a clue they're dealing with an armed resistance using the most up to date technology, not a bunch of simple-minded characters from a bad Sinbad The Sailor movie, riding around on camels and mouthing stupid dialogue about "emirs." This charming mix of arrogance and stupidity is an old problem for Imperial armies, and one of the reasons they lose wars of occupation with reliable regularity.
[Arrogant underestimation of the enemy (the announcement above is a classic) has been prominent in the defeat of every lost Imperial war of occupation since the revolutions against colonialism began in the 1950s. This war is no exception.]
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HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
There was a facinating piece on the wires today:
Australian security guards mistakenly opened fire at the bodyguards of Iraqi Trade Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudani in western Baghdad on Wednesday, killing one of them and wounding two others, an Interior Ministry source said. (…)Al-Sudani is a power within the dominant Shi'ite bloc. As trade minister he's responsible amongst other things for overseeing the importation of much of the basic foodstuffs such as wheat that in a country with 60% unemployment and a shattered distribution network the population rely upon for survival. Like most Iraqi politicians he was less than impressed when a large cargo Australian wheat contaminated with Iron ore arrived in Iraq back in May 2005. Subsequent contracts went to other suppliers.
I find myself wondering how friendly an eye he'll cast over the next bid from AWB [Australian Wheat Board].* On balance I'd say this sort of thing probably isn't the best way to regain access to a market that you've been a major player in for 57 years.
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US FORCES MAY SOON BE ASKED TO LEAVE
In an exclusive interview with The Australian, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage has given a gloomy assessment of the situation.
"The British used to make a big deal of walking around in their berets in the south," he said. "Now they won't even go to the latrines without their helmets. The south has got much rougher, it's mainly Shia on Shia violence."
Mr Armitage said much of the violence came from differences over how the Islamic religion should be interpreted.
And he said he believed the Iraqis would soon ask the US to leave their country.
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FISK'S CRYSTAL BALL
"We have begun shredding documents that show local staff surnames. In March, a few members approached us to ask what provisions we would make for them if we evacuate." Zalmay Khalizad "Baghdad-memo leaked to 'Washington Post'"Months ago, author Robert Fisk said that he could foresee a dramatic event taking place in Iraq that would reshape the public's attitude towards the war; something comparable to the TET Offensive in Vietnam, which was the turning point for America's fortunes in that war.
Could the disparate Iraqi resistance actually mount an attack on the Green Zone, the last refuge for America's puppet regime?
Here's what Fisk says:
"Sometimes I wonder if there will be a moment when reality and myth, truth and lies, will actually collide. When will the detonation come? When the insurgents wipe out an entire US base? When they pour over the walls of the Green Zone and turn it into the same trashed blocks as the rest of Baghdad? Or will we then be told-as we have been in the past-that this just shows the "desperation" of the insurgents, that these terrible acts only prove that the "terrorist" know they are losing?" (Robert Fisk, "What does Democracy really mean in the Middle East" Aug, 2005)Khalizad's frantic memo seems to indicate that such an assault is possible and that the occupants should prepare accordingly.
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TODAY IS THE DAY MY HEAD FINALLY EXPLODES
Sen. Rick Santorum (R.-Coma) sez:
Congressman Hoekstra and I are here today to say that we have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons...Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent.Also:
The information released today proves that weapons of mass destruction are, in fact, in Iraq. It is essential for the American people to understand that these weapons are in Iraq. I will continue to advocate for the complete declassification of this report so we can more fully understand the complete WMD picture inside Iraq.You know, at this point any American who scoffs at Iran for electing a Holocaust-denying president has no basis for being smug. Because this is exactly the same level of nuts. It's one thing for weirdos with websites to talk like this, but it's really something else when prominent politicians jump into the pool of crazy.
For anyone who's confused by this, here's an explanation:
• Between 1981 and 1991, Iraq produced almost 4,000 tons of chemical weapons agent, which they used to fill perhaps 130,000 munitions. This is obviously a gigantic amount, much of which they expended in their war with Iran as well as against Iraqis. (For more details, see here.)
• After the Gulf War in 1991, Iraq was required to turn over all remaining chemical weapons to U.N. inspectors for destruction. UNSCOM received and destroyed 690 tons worth, as well as 3,000 tons of precursor chemicals.
• UNSCOM determined Iraq hadn't turned over everything it has produced during the eighties. Iraq claimed it had secretly destroyed everything unaccounted for in 1991.
• Essentially everything Iraq produced during the eighties was of low quality and decayed within a few years to near-harmlessness
That's where things stood when we invaded Iraq. I bet someone $1000 that Iraq hadn't intentionally kept anything. However, I assumed there would still be shells scattered all over Iraq that the Saddam regime had lost track of, so that was built into the terms of the bet.
Why did I assume this? BECAUSE IT WAS SO FREAKING OBVIOUS. Governments, as you may have noticed, don't do everything perfectly. According to its inspector general, the Defense Department can't account for $1 trillion in spending. The Army can't find 56 airplanes and 32 tanks.
But not just that: we're still finding misplaced chemical munitions in America from WORLD WAR I. In fact, some were discovered in a fancy Washington, D.C. subdivision in 1993. And these were never even USED in the U.S.-imagine how frequently we'd find them if we'd actually fought battles with them on American soil.
Was this evidence America was secretly hiding a chemical weapons arsenal? The answer is no.
Likewise, I assume people will still be finding decayed chemical weapons in Iraq fifty years from now. The question was whether the Saddam regime actually had an arsenal it was aware of. The CIA's Duelfer report spent $1 billion to confirm that Iraq had been telling the truth when it said it had nothing from 1991 onwards. So, the answer is no.
But that doesn't matter. Rick Santorum, like all Holocaust deniers, Will. Never. Give. Up.
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THE AMERICAN RECORD IN IRAQ
National Public Radio foreign correspondent Loren Jenkins, serving in NPR's Baghdad bureau, met earlier this month with a senior Shiite cleric, a man who was described in the NPR report as "a moderate" and as a person trying to lead his Shiite followers into practicing peace and reconciliation. He had been jailed by Saddam Hussein and forced into exile. Jenkins asked him: "What would you think if you had to go back to Saddam Hussein?" The cleric replied that he'd "rather see Iraq under Saddam Hussein than the way it is now."
When one considers what the people of Iraq have experienced as a result of the American bombings, invasion, regime change, and occupation since 2003, should this attitude be surprising, even from such an individual? I was moved to compile a list of the many kinds of misfortune which have fallen upon the heads of the Iraqi people as a result of the American liberation of their homeland. It's depressing reading, and you may not want to read it all, but I think it's important to have it summarized in one place.
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TO "CUT AND RUN" BY ANY OTHER NAME...
Republicans are shocked, shocked, that Democrats are calling for withdrawals in Iraq. Good golly, Miss Molly, do you want the free world to collapse?
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, called any withdrawal of troops "a significant step on the road to disaster."
"The options on the table have been there from the beginning," he said. "Withdraw and fail, or commit and succeed."
Meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far away:
In the last four months, the Army has tagged 7,000 Humvees and 17,000 other pieces of equipment to be shipped to the United States to be rebuilt. They then will be distributed among reserve units at home or possibly returned to equip Iraqi security forces.So be vewy, vewy qwiet...as long as you don't say the dreaded word "timetable," everything will be alright.
The military said the shipments will result in a reduction in the amount of U.S. equipment in Iraq, a cut made possible because the areas patrolled by American troops is shrinking. The move also anticipates that the number of American troops in Iraq will decline. [....]
Analysts say removing so much equipment now suggests commanders are laying the groundwork for a big reduction.
''It is much harder to move equipment than it is to move people,'' said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. ''So if the Army is increasing its movement of equipment out of the country, that may signal that it expects fewer soldiers in Iraq six or 12 months from now.''
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WAR CRIMES AND WORLD DOMINATION
Some have said that the World Trade Center was intentionally destroyed, and over 3000 people were murdered to create a Pearl Harbor stile event to justify the Iraq war. People are free in America to speculate if they want, but we don't have to speculate about the mass murder of some three hundred thousand people in Iraq. It is obvious that America is stealing their oil and privatizing every aspect of the peoples lives. Iraq has been turned into one giant Bush, Cheney, Halliburton, Bechtel, "free market zone', just another name for total corporate enslavement.
The Bush regime has broken virtually every one of the Geneva Conventions. They have committed crimes for which there are not yet laws written. Crimes against the earth and the environment. His father before him was the first to use depleted uranium weapons, but the son, Dubya, has far exceeded the senior Bush, by spreading over 1000 metric tons of the deadly U238-isotope, America's nuclear waste, over Iraq and Afghanistan, making childhood leukemia and spontaneous abortions commonplace, dooming the people of both countries to endless suffering and premature death. According to a UN Sub Commission report, cancer in Iraq has increased 1000%, and deformities 600%. Depleted Uranium has rendered Iraqi lands infertile, entered the food chain, and contaminated the ground water. With a half-life of 4.5 billion years the Uranium 238 dropped on Iraq and Afganistan by Bush and his father have rendered much of the two countries permanently unfit for human habitation. (...)
As the U.S. presidential election approaches a grave danger may be looming over the American people. It seems that the neocons have gone beyond the point of return. They have more than proven their ruthlessness and willingness to do what ever it takes to hold onto power. They have trampled on both international law and the constitutional laws of the land. They cannot risk that a Kucinich or a Kennedy might obtain the office of president in this country ever again lest they face prosecution for their many crimes against America, humanity, and the planet. They cannot even pass their power to another republican, so terrible and dark are their crimes. (...)
It would seam that the preparations are in place to turn America into either a slave labor manufacturing giant or a slave labor driven war machine. All that is needed is a large terrorist event, the declaration of martial law, the institution of the shadow government, and the transferal of millions of Americans into huge manufacturing prisons. America might end up resembling World War Two era Japan. The entire island of Japan, every man woman and child had been conscripted to serve in the war effort against America. The American government learned a very hard lesson while fighting Japan. An entire country transformed into a war machine was a nearly an unbeatable foe. Should the neocons transform a country the size of America into such a war machine, and continue their depleted uranium radioactive march across the continents there will be great death and suffering ahead for humanity.
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>> BEYOND IRAQ
Afghanistan:
Bring 'em on: Four U.S. soldiers have been killed and another wounded in clashes with Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. "Coalition forces attacked enemy extremists in a remote area of the Kamdesh District while conducting security operations to interdict enemy movement through northern Nuristan," the U.S. military said in a statement. "During the mission, four U.S. soldiers were killed." The statement said one soldier was wounded in the clash and was evacuated to a coalition hospital. He was in stable condition, it added.
Officials at Fort Drum have confirmed that three of the four soldiers killed yesterday in Afghanistan were from Fort Drum.A suicide attacker detonated his explosives-filled car near a military convoy in the city of Kandahar, killing one and wounding nine. Two Canadian soldiers were injured and the attacker was killed. In addition, an Afghan bystander was killed and seven others injured, including one policeman and six civilians.
Militants claim to have shot down a military helicopter which crashed on Wednesday. Four soldiers died when the Bell 412 helicopter crashed in Bannu. A spokesman for local militants in North Waziristan, Abdullah Farhad, told the BBC via telephone that the helicopter crash on Wednesday had been caused by a missile fired by militants shortly after it took off from a military base in Bannu.
GEORGE IN HUNGARYLAND
Bush is in Hungary to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising, which George has always found deeply inspirational and moving since he first heard of it this morning after breakfast. He called it "the idea of a revolution that celebrated the notion that all men and women should be free." Celebrated? He does know it was crushed, right? Of course Bush being Bush drew from the events of 1956 his usual conclusion about the universal desire to be free, without quite noticing that they were about the desire of a small nation to be free from the occupying army of a large imperial power attempting to impose its ideology on them. That might have been a less comfortable lesson, and Bush doesn't like those.
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THE DEATH OF NEWS
Our very lives and liberty are at unprecedented risk because our press has long since disappeared into "the media"--a mammoth antidemocratic oligopoly that is far more responsive to its owners, big shareholders and good buddies in the government than it is to the rest of us, the people of this country.
Surely other factors too have helped wipe out the news: an institutional overreliance on official sources; the reportorial star system, with its corruptive salaries and honoraria, and all those opportunities to hobnob with important criminals; the propaganda drive against "the liberal media"; the stupefying influence of TV, which has dragged much of the print world into its too-speedy orbit; etc. The fundamental reason for the disappearance of the news, however, is the media cartel itself. Fixated on the bottom line, it cuts the costs of real reporting while overplaying cheap crapola; and in its endless drive for more, it is an ally of the very junta whose high crimes and misdemeanors it should be exposing to the rest of us. It is past time, therefore, to go beyond the charting and analysis of media ownership, to boycotts, strikes and protests of the media cartel itself.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "There's no way to win an occupation. It's just a matter of choosing the size of your humiliation." -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak speaking to Dick Cheney nearly two years ago
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
DAILY WAR NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, June 21, 2006Photo: Amnesty International in Switzerland broke a new outdoor campaign. The campaign uses the tagline "It's not happening here but it's happening now", in various languages, from French to German. Using the transparent billboards, the campaign aims to show people what is going on in the world, Iraq, Afghanistan Abu-Ghraib and Guantanamo, even if it's not happening in front of them at the bus stop. [More photos at the link]
Bring ‘em on: The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, on June 17, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their HMMWV during combat operations. Both soldiers were assigned to the 40th Engineer Battalion, Baumholder, Germany. Killed were: Sgt. Reyes Ramirez, 23, of Willis, Texas and Spc. Robert L. Jones, 22, of Milwaukie, Ore. (DefenseLink)
Bring ‘em on: Army Spc. Robert Jones, 22, was killed Friday in Baghdad. Kathy Walker, a family friend, told The Oregonian that Jones was hit by mortar and died instantly.
Two California soldiers shot to death in Iraq were murdered by Iraqi civil-defense officers patrolling with them, military investigators have found. The deaths of Army Spc. Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr. and 1st Lt. Andre D. Tyson were originally attributed to an ambush during a patrol near Balad, Iraq, on June 22, 2004. But the Army's Criminal Investigation Command found that one or more of the Iraqis attached to the American soldiers on patrol fired at them, a military official said Tuesday.
Iraqi troops fired on U.S. soldiers: The deaths of Army Spc. Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr. and 1st Lt. Andre D. Tyson were originally attributed to an ambush during a patrol near Balad, Iraq, on June 22, 2004.One of Saddam Hussein's main lawyers was shot to death Wednesday after he was abducted from his Baghdad home by men wearing police uniforms, the third killing of a member of the former leader's defense team since the trial started some eight months ago. His body was found on a street near the Shiite slum of Sadr City.
But the Army's Criminal Investigation Command found that one or more of the Iraqis attached to the American soldiers on patrol fired at them, a military official said Tuesday.
A Pentagon spokesman knew of no other similar incident, calling it "extremely rare."
"When they come I have my list of questions ready, and I want these answers and I don't want lies," McCaffrey's mother, Nadia McCaffrey, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
Soldiers who witnessed the attack have told her that two Iraqi patrolmen opened fire on her son's unit. The witnesses also said a third gunman simultaneously drove up to the American unit in a van, climbed onto the vehicle and fired at the Americans, she said.
"Nothing is clear. Nothing is clear," she said. Her son was shot eight times by bullets of various calibers, some of which penetrated his body armor, she said. She believes he bled to death.
A group linked to al Qaeda in Iraq claims it has killed four Russian diplomats, according to a statement posted on a Web site on Wednesday. The hostages were killed, the statement said, after Moscow did not meet demands to withdraw troops from Chechnya and "release all our brothers and sisters" from prison within 48 hours. The Russian Foreign Ministry, however, assumes the diplomats are still alive, according to a report from the Russian news agency Interfax.
Marine Lance Cpl. Brandon Webb, 20, of Swartz Creek, died Tuesday in Iraq. The Department of Defense has not yet revealed details of his death.
OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS
Baghdad:
A parked car bomb exploded near an ice cream shop in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, killing at least three people and wounding eight.
Australian security guards mistakenly opened fire at the bodyguards of Iraqi Trade Minister in western Baghdad, killing one of them and wounding two others, an Interior Ministry source said. He said that the incident occurred when the Australian security guards were suspicious of armed men outside al-Sudani's office in the restive area.
Gunmen killed the imam of a Sunni mosque on Monday in his house in Shula district, the Association of Muslim Scholars said in a statement.
Gunmen killed a high school teacher in the same neighbourhood, the association added.
An Iraqi soldier was killed in fierce clashes in the western district of Baghdad on Wednesday. A source at the police told KUNA the fierce clashes occurred between the Iraqi army forces and unknown gunmen in Al-Mansour area. The US army-backed Iraqi forces surrounded the area and started exchanging fires with the gunmen killing one soldier, said the source. The size of damage caused by the clashes is still unknown.
An Iraqi patrol stormed a building in Baghdad's Mansour district, detaining 20 people, after a sniper opened fire on the soldiers, killing one, a witness said.
Taji:
Gunmen abducted dozens of Iraqi factory workers on Wednesday as they were being ferried home after work in a fleet of buses just north of Baghdad. Five busloads of employees of the state-owned Great Victory factory at Taji were commandeered by dozens of gunmen in at least five cars. One source put the number of people kidnapped at 80 to 100, another at 100 or more.
Hit:
Two policemen were killed in Hit. Authorities say gunmen killed one officer as he was standing near his house.
Tikrit:
Gunmen kidnapped three relatives of the deputy governor of Salaheddin province.
Mosul:
Two policemen were killed in Mosul. Authorities say the other officer died during clashes with insurgents in Mosul.
16 bullet-riddled bodies were found in various Mosul neighborhoods over the past 24 hours. Ten of them were identified as soldiers, police, traders and a former Iraqi army officer under Saddam Hussein.
Basra:
Unidentified gunmen stormed a school in Basra and assassinated its director in front of students, and then fled.
The deputy chief of the Sunni Endowment religious organisation in Basra was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near his car.
Batofa: (Area)
An Iraqi civilian was killed and another two got injured when a left-over-bomb exploded in Batofa area near the Iraqi-Turkey borders.
>> NEWS
DoD Announces Units for Next Operation Iraqi Freedom Rotation: III Corps Headquarters, Fort Hood, Texas: II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C., 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters, Fort Hood, Texas, 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, 4th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
>> REPORTS
BRITISH TROOPS FACING INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS SECURITY SITUATION IN BASRA
Painting a gloomy picture of British-controlled southern Iraq, Lieutenant General Nick Houghton, Britain's chief of joint operations, also told the Commons defence committee that it would be "some time" before Britain could hand over responsibility to Iraq for defending the country's crucial oil producing region in the northern Gulf. Describing the situation as "worrying" he said provincial elections in the region, originally planned for the summer, would probably have to be delayed until the autumn.
The general's assessment was in contrast with recent upbeat comments about the security situation in Iraq by Tony Blair.
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>> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
THE PLAGUE
The Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, opened its annual conference on international strategy with a speech from the Navy Secretary in a vast hall, followed by a panel on American power composed of three scholars, all of whom had opposed the war in Iraq. (…)
[John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago] told the audience that when he was a teenager, he had enlisted in the Army. Then he'd spent 1966-1970 at West Point. (…)
"I remember once in English class we read Albert Camus's book The Plague. I didn't know what The Plague was about or why we were reading it.
"But afterwards the instructor explained to us that The Plague was being read because of the Vietnam War. What Camus was saying in The Plague was that the plague came and went of its own accord.
"All sorts of minions ran around trying to deal with the plague, and they operated under the illusion that they could affect the plague one way or another. But the plague operated on its own schedule. That is what we were told was going on in Vietnam.
"Every time I look at the situation in Iraq today, I think of Vietnam, and I think of The Plague, and I just don't think there's very much we can do at this point. It is just out of our hands.
"There are forces that we don't have control over that are at play, and will determine the outcome of this one. I understand that's very hard for Americans to understand, because Americans believe that they can shape the world in their interests.
"But I learned during the Vietnam years when I was a kid at West Point, that there are some things in the world that you just don't control, and I think that's where we're at in Iraq."
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DID THE U.S. INVADE IRAQ TO MAKE SURE ITS OIL RESERVES STAYED UNDER THE SAND?
World oil production today stands at more than twice the 15-billion a-year maximum projected by Shell Oil in 1956 -- and reserves are climbing at a faster clip yet. That leaves the question, Why this war?
Did Dick Cheney send us in to seize the last dwindling supplies? Unlikely. Our world's petroleum reserves have doubled in just twenty-five years -- and it is in Shell's and the rest of the industry's interest that this doubling doesn't happen again.
The neo-cons were hell-bent on raising Iraq's oil production.
Big Oil's interest was in suppressing production, that is, keeping Iraq to its OPEC quota or less.
This raises the question, did the petroleum industry, which had a direct, if hidden, hand, in promoting invasion, cheerlead for a takeover of Iraq to prevent overproduction?
It wouldn't be the first time.
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IF A FOREIGN NATION INVADED THE U.S.A WE WOULD BE CALLED INSURGENTS
If a foreign nation invaded the U.S.A. , then there would be a need for some people to stand up to the foreign invaders, like the movie Red Dawn.
We would not need the military, we would just be a bunch of small units of civilians in every town , (here is where the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights applies) we would be called insurgents, and we would take out the foreign invaders any way we could, and that is exactly what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Therefore , there is no need for any American citizen to join the military, and this should be the goal for all of us fighting the NWO and the globalists, to stop the military from recruiting in our hometowns and in our schools.
Anybody who is currently in the military should quit and after facing the wrath of the State, then they could take up a decent and moral way to make a living and provide for their families.
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THE FACADE OF SHI'ITE UNITY CRUMBLING
The violent demonstrations in Basra, Iraq's second city, last week, which led to the destruction of the newly opened Iranian consulate, surprisingly received no more than a passing mention in the Arab and Western press.
The incident could be seen as a chilling reminder of the 1979 storming of the US Embassy in Tehran during the Islamic revolution, with the Iranians getting a dose of their own medicine.
The demonstrations were led by Shi'ite followers of anti-Iranian Ayatollah Mahmud al-Hasani, making the event particularly strange since everybody has the perception that the Shi'ites - all Shi'ites - are loyal to Iran.
This is what King Abdullah II of Jordan says. This is what Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said earlier this year in an interview with Al-Arabiyya TV, causing an uproar within the Shi'ite community of Iraq. He said that the Shi'ites of the Arab world were more loyal to Iran than they were to their respective countries.
The demonstrations in Basra proved the Egyptian president wrong.
Hasani is a Karbala-based cleric who is known in Iraq for his loud anti-Americanism and anti-Iranism. His ultimate goal, like all men of religion, is to establish an Iran-like Islamic theocracy in Iraq, but independent of Iranian influence.
He has never welcomed Iranian meddling in Iraqi affairs, or the great influence that the mullahs of Tehran have over politicians inside the Iraqi Shi'ite community. His supporters, which included many women, stormed the Iranian consulate, destroying parts of it, setting fire to its annex, then bringing down the Iranian flag and replacing it with the Iraqi one.
The residents of Basra, although Shi'ite, still cannot forget or forgive Iran for repeatedly shelling their city during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. This time, their anger was a result of an offensive remark, made by a Shi'ite cleric from Lebanon named Ali Kourani, on Iranian satellite TV.
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MEANS AND ENDS
At the moment, Iraq is not sovereign-the fact that a foreign leader can surprise Iraq's prime minister by dropping in unannounced, as President Bush did last week, shows where sovereign power lies.
The freedom Iraqis most prize amid escalating violence is flight to other countries: Iraq was the world's largest exporter of refugees in the past year, with 644,000 Iraqis seeking refuge in Syria and Jordan alone.
With monthly killings up 50 percent in the past year, insurgent attacks up 28 percent, incidents of sectarian violence up twelve-fold, Iraq is not yet becoming more secure. And Iraqi unity remains elusive, as continued Sunni resistance and bitter political infighting underscore.
The president's ambassador in Baghdad this month cabled to Washington depressing accounts of intensifying Islamist intimidation. The United States, he reported, "is widely perceived as fully controlling the country and tolerating the malaise"; middle class circles "increasingly disapprove of the coalition presence"; "the central government, our [Iraqi] staff says, is not relevant"; and the embassy's Iraqi staffers "ask what provisions we would make for them if we evacuate."
Disdaining such concerns as defeatism, the House Republican leadership described their expansive Iraq mission as integral to the "global war on terror." The war's supporters declared they would set no "arbitrary" date for withdrawal from Iraq, and called on other nations to join the U.S. coalition.
That coalition, however, is unraveling. Japan today is rushing to follow Italy out the door, and Korea and even Britain are edging toward the exit.
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DOING HARD WORK IN IRAQ
Bush said last night that "right now we're doing hard work in Iraq." Which is funny because he wasn't actually in Iraq but in Washington DC at something called the President's Dinner Gala (Gala >noun. A festive entertainment or performance. From the Old French galer 'to make merry'.) I guess there's hard work and then there's hard work.
Speaking of hard work in Iraq, I'm so looking forward to hearing exactly how those two soldiers - no, let's give them their names, Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker - were tortured and killed. I'm sure this won't make American soldiers even more trigger-happy.
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GETTING BETTER AND BETTER
They really are one-trick ponies, these guys. Anytime one of their wars goes wrong - the enemy grows stronger, more civilians die - they claim it's the "last throes," desperation, one last wild toss of the dice, etc. The worse things get, the better they're about to get; this has been the constant refrain throughout the Iraq fiasco, and, as Afghanistan - the forgotten but uncompleted war - heats up further, we'll hear it again and again from there as well. - And of course, if any of their wars ease up - there's a lull in the chaos and bloodshed, a big honcho (real or hyped) is captured or killed, some cosmetic political "milestone" is reached - then that too means that everything is getting better. No matter what happens - more fighting, less fighting; more chaos, less chaos - every day and every way things are getting better and better.
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>> BEYOND IRAQ
Afghanistan:
A roadside bomb hit a military convoy Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, injuring four Canadian soldiers, the military said. The explosion occurred in the Shahwali Kot district of Kandahar province, said coalition spokesman Maj. Quentin Innis. One of the soldiers was seriously wounded, he said.
A bomb fixed to a tanker supplying fuel to US forces in Afghanistan exploded as the vehicle crossed over from Pakistan, killing six people and destroying 10 trucks.
Scores of British paratroopers were airlifted into a mountainous Afghan town to regain control after reports the Taliban had seized it and massacred 32 civilians: The troops are part of U.S.-led Operation Mountain Thrust, the biggest offensive in Afghanistan since the war began.
FREEDOM, AIN'T IT GRAND
The Afghan secret police have issued an order that journalists may not criticize American and other foreign troops, may not portray the Afghan military as weak, may not interview or film insurgent leaders, may not make militant activities their lead story. Journalists were called to a meeting and issued their new marching orders.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The vulnerability of the US position in Baghdad is so great that the Iraqi military units guarding the perimeter of the Green Zone, the heart of US power in Iraq, are now considered untrustworthy." -- excerpt from "The Embassy Document", a leaked cable from the US embassy in Iraq to Condoleezza Rice published by the Washington Post last Sunday
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, June 20, 2006Photo: Villagers gather at the scene, after U.S.-led forces killed 15 terror suspects and detained three others after a fierce gunfight broke out during simultaneous raids targeting a senior al-Qaida member, according to the U.S. military, in the village of Bushahin north of Baqouba in Iraq Tuesday, June 20, 2006. Angry villagers denied those killed were involved in terrorist activities and a local security official said a 12-year old boy was among 13 civilians killed. (AP Photo/Adam Hadi) (See below)
Thirteen Iraqis, including a child, have been killed in an alleged US air strike on a village north-east of Baquba. Four others who were injured in the strike on two farm houses in the Shaikh Qaddur al-Shahin village early on Tuesday were detained by US forces, Haidar al-Tamimi, an Iraqi journalist, told Aljazeera. Al-Tamimi said US troops were dropped to the ground, after the strike. The troops then opened fire at the targeted houses, he added. Residents also say the injured were arrested. They added that the casualties of the strike were poultry farm workers.
U.S. forces hunting insurgents linked to al Qaeda in Iraq killed 15 gunmen in simultaneous raids north of Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement. "The raids were targeting individuals associated with a suspected senior al Qaeda in Iraq network member targeted in previous Coalition operations," the statement said of the operation, which took place near the insurgent stronghold of Baquba.
An aircraft supporting the troops on the ground hit power lines and had to make a controlled landing. None of the crew were injured, the U.S. military said.U.S. forces recovered the bodies of two American soldiers reported captured by insurgents last week. An Iraqi defense ministry official said the men were tortured and "killed in a barbaric way." Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers, and said the successor to terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had "slaughtered" them: The claim was made in a Web statement that could not be authenticated. The language in the statement suggested the men were beheaded.
U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. He said U.S. troops - part of a search involving some 8,000 American and Iraqi forces - found the bodies late Monday near Youssifiyah, where they disappeared Friday.
Troops did not recover the bodies until Tuesday because they had to wait until daylight to cordon off the area for an ordnance team for fear it was booby-trapped, Caldwell said.
OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS
Baghdad:
A Swedish national employed by the British security company Genric in Iraq was killed in a bomb attack over the weekend in the Iraqi capital, the foreign ministry in Stockholm said today.
A car bomb exploded in a crowded Baghdad market on Tuesday, killing seven people and wounding 18. The bomb exploded among morning shoppers in the market in the eastern district of Jamila, a police source told Reuters.
In the eastern Baghdad district Sadr City, the death toll in a car bomb at the Jamila marketplace rose to three, from the previous one person reported killed, while the number of wounded camed to 81, security sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
A car bomb parked in a street in Saidiya district in southern Baghdad exploded wounding five civilians.
Police Captain Amir Kamil, who provided security for the Yarmouk hospital, was shot to death on Tuesday at a bus station.
A bomb struck a square in central Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 18.
A bomb in the busy Haraj market in central Baghdad killed four persons and wounded 18 others. The same market was the scene of a bomb last week which killed and wounded dozens.
Eleven bodies were found scattered in a number of Baghdad districts. All 11 eleven corpses were found 'blindfolded, with their hands bound, and bore evidence of torture,' a security source in the city said.
A car bomb exploded in central Baghdad killing at least five people and wounding 11. The blast occured in the Hurriya district of the capital.
Al Amara:
Gunmen riding motorcycles killed a traffic officer near his house in al-Amara, 290km southeast of Baghdad. The slain policeman was a former member of Saddam Hussein's Fedayin militia.
Baqubah:
One man was killed by gunmen and another man was wounded when an explosive device went off near his house west of Baquba.
Bahraz:
Gunmen killed a man and his wife and wounded his two daughters in Bahraz, south of Baquba.
Iskandariya:
Police found two dead bodies in the town of Iskandariya south of Baghdad. The bodies were blindfolded and the hands tied, police sources said.
Suwara:
Iraqi police retrieved the bodies of seven people from the Tigris river in Suwayra, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The bodies were handcuffed, blindfolded and bearing signs of torture.
In the city of al-Soweira, 45 kilometres south of Baghdad, police on Tuesday discovered the headless corpses of five Iraqi soldiers. Sources told dpa that police patrols found the bodies of five unidentified soldiers by the side of the road leading to the al- Soweira airbase. The sources added that the five soldiers, wearing Iraqi army uniforms, had their heads cut off, and their bodies bore evidence of torture.
Basra:
A suicide bomber killed a woman and wounded five people when he attacked a crowd of elderly and disabled senior citizens in Basra. The crowd were gathering to receive their monthly pension.
Ak-Kifl:
A roadside bomb directed at a US military patrol killed one civilian and wounded four in al-Kifl, south of the capital. There was no immediate comment from the US military on the incident.
Fallujah:
Gunmen in speeding cars killed Brigadier Hudairi al-Janabi, the chief of police in Falluja.
Ramadi:
A US military spokesman in Iraq has confirmed that US forces have carried out wide military operations, against fighters in al-Ramadi. US forces have set up new checkpoints at all entrances and exits of the city to restrict fighters' movements and cut off their supplies.
Hawija:
Gunmen opened fire on a car near Hawija, 70 km (43 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, killing three members of the same family.
>> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
DAHR JAMAIL: "OPERATION FORWARD TOGETHER", DEEPER INTO THE QUAGMIRE
On Tuesday, June 13th, while Mr. Bush spent a brave five hours in the "green zone" of Baghdad with puppet Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, at least 36 people were killed across Iraq amidst a wave of bombings. 18 of those died in a spasm of bombings in the oil city of Kirkuk in the Kurdish north.
The minute word hit the streets in Baghdad of Bush's visit, over 2,000 supporters of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets in protest. The protestors chanted "Iraq is for the Iraqis," and Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji publicly condemned the peek-a-boo visit of who he referred to as "the leader of the occupation."
Day One
The very next day, not coincidentally, Maliki instituted the biggest security crackdown in the capital city since the US invaded Iraq, dubbed "Operation Forward Together." (...)
back in liberated Baghdad, also on that same day [when the Pentagon announced the death of the 2,500th US soldier in Iraq], I received an email from a very close friend of mine. It is a sobering glimpse into "Operation Forward Together" and what Bush alluded to when he said, "I sense something different happening in Iraq."
Habibi, we are divided in three houses today. I am at our home in Adhamiya. My wife and two youngest boys are at her sister's house in Bab Al-Moudam because it's safer for them. It's a mixed Sunni and Shia area, so there are no detentions. Our daughter is with her husband in their home, and my oldest son is at his house with his wife and baby, although he is not in a safe area. There is often fighting there, but not too many detentions.read in full...
Today Adhamiya is totally under occupation since early morning. None of the shops are open, the soldiers are holding up all cars and searching them, and home raids are happening. The city is a city of ghosts. This situation is the same in all the Sunni areas. Checkpoints are all over Baghdad, the highways between Baghdad and the other cities are all closed and nobody can go on them. The airports are closed, and no flights are coming in or out of Baghdad.
We cannot leave the country until the beginning of next month. By the way, three of my son's friends were killed by explosions two days ago while they were having fruits in the market. He came home crying because of that. The situation is very bad. The son of Abdul Sattar Al Kubaisy, who is in the Ministry of Interior, has been kidnapped from inside the Ministry. He was found in one of the trash cans outside the Ministry of Interior building ... so even the offices of the government are no longer safe!!!
God is with us insh'allah [God willing].
BRZEZINSKI POSES REALISTIC SOLUTIONS
In an interview last week on the Jim Lehrer News Hour Brzezinski said that the invasion "was not worth it" and that it was a "major misadventure".
"This is worse than the bad days of Vietnam... We do not have a free and democratic government that is functioning... The authority we have installed is besieged and relatively helpless, and a civil war is beginning to mushroom, under the occupation which is unable to crush the insurgency, because it is a foreign occupation....We no longer live in an age of colonialism. We no longer have to assume the 'white man's burden' in order to 'civilize' others."
Brzezinski finished the interview by offering a 4-step strategy for withdrawing from Iraq; something that the Democratic leadership should consider immediately.
1. Talk to the leadership about when to leave.
2. Set a date for withdrawal.
3. Let the government convene a conference of all Iraq's Muslim neighbors about stabilizing Iraq and helping it to stabilize.
4 "Convene a donor's conference of interested countries in Europe and the Far East who benefit from Iraqi oil on helping to rehabilitate Iraq. This would allow us to leave and still say that we basically achieved what we wanted-the removal of Saddam-though not providing a secular, stable, united Iraq under a perfect democracy."
Brzezinski poses realistic solutions for a situation that will progressively deteriorate into anarchy. His analysis cannot be easily dismissed. He is respected among his peers as a hard-edged Machiavellian strategist who is not given to flights of fancy. If he says the war is over, it is not because of some heartfelt connection with the Iraqi people, but because it is "unwinnable" and damaging to America's long-term interests.
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FAILING TO LEARN THE LESSONS OF ALGERIA AND VIETNAM
Bush may imagine a scene in which the insurgency is conclusively defeated, perhaps even a signing ceremony, as on the USS Missouri, or at least an acknowledgment, a scrap of paper, or perhaps the silence of the dead, all of them.
But his infatuation with a purely military solution blinds him to how he thwarts his own intentions.
Jeffrey Record, a prominent strategist at a U.S. military war college, told me: "Perhaps worse still, conventional wisdom is dangerously narcissistic. It completely ignores the enemy, assuming that what we do determines success or failure. It assumes that only the United States can defeat the United States, an outlook that set the United States up for failure in Vietnam and for surprise in Iraq."
Haditha is a symptom of the fallacy of Bush's military solution.
The alleged massacre occurred after the administration's dismissal of repeated warnings about the awful pressures on an army of occupation against an insurgency.
Conflating a population that broadly supports an insurgency with a terrorist enemy and indoctrinating the troops with a sense of revenge for Sept. 11 easily leads to an erasure of the distinction between military and civilian targets.
Once again, a commander in chief has failed to learn the lessons of Algeria and Vietnam.
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DEALING WITH REALITIES IN IRAQ AND WASHINGTON
I no longer am convinced that the U.S. adventure in Iraq is lost. There is no guarantee that the Bush administration cannot succeed in its goals there. The only certain thing is that success -- what the president calls "victory in Iraq" -- will come at the expense of thousands more American deaths, tens of thousands more Iraqi deaths, and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.
Indeed, this war would have to be sustained not only by this administration, but by the next one and probably the one after that as well. For over three years, the United States has supported a massive military presence on the ground in Iraq, while taking steady casualties. It may be no less capable of doing so for the next two-and-a-half years, until the end of Bush's second term -- and during the next administration's reign, too, whether the president is named John McCain or Hillary Clinton. At least theoretically, a force of more than 100,000 U.S. soldiers could wage a brutal war of attrition against the resistance in Iraq for years to come. (...)
Just as the antiwar movement in the United States can strengthen the resistance in Iraq, the Iraqi resistance can aid the antiwar movement. The cold reality of the war in Iraq is that, had it not been for the Iraqi resistance, there would be no U.S. antiwar movement. Had Iraq's Sunnis collapsed in disarray and meekly ceded power to the Shiite-Kurdish coalition empowered by the U.S. invasion, President Bush's illegal war in Iraq might have succeeded far more effortlessly.
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GOOGLE KNOWS BETTER THAN TALIBANI, MALIKI AND BUSH
Using Google's translation tool:
For the Arabic phrase ' a people being exterminated ', the English translation is ' Iraqi People '.
posted by Imad Khadduri #
google.com WHY?
Go to: "http://www.google.com/translate_t; it is the free google translation service..
Go o: translating from Arabic and English and write ((___ ____ which means (people annihilated or genocided) yet google translates it into (Iraqi people)!you can try any other phrase to be translated and you will get the correct translation only with this phrase regarding killing and genociding people, the translation will be IRAQI PEOPLE..
Any body could explain? I have mine: it is coming very clear day after another that Iraqis are not allowed more to remain a nation.. They should be eliminated.. WHY?
Bush knows the answer because he is leading the campaign! Do not forget the American massacre against Iraqi civilians all over Iraq.. posted by the woman i was
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KILLING IRAQI CHILDREN
In a short editorial, the Detroit News asked an interesting question:
"Some war critics are suggesting Iraq terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi should have been arrested and prosecuted rather than bombed into oblivion. Why expose American troops to the danger of an arrest, when bombs work so well?"Here's one possible answer: In order not to send a five-year-old Iraqi girl into oblivion with the same 500-pound bombs that sent al-Zarqawi into oblivion. (...)
Some would argue that such "collateral damage" is just an unfortunate byproduct of war. War is brutal. People get killed in war. Compared with the two world wars, not that many people have been killed in Iraq, proponents of the Iraq war and occupation would claim.
Such claims, however, miss an important point: U.S. military forces have no right, legal or moral, even to be in Iraq killing anyone. Why? Because neither the Iraqi people nor their government ever attacked the United States. The Iraqi people had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington. Thus, this was an optional war against Iraq, one that President Bush and his military forces did not have to wage.
The attack on Iraq was akin to, say, attacking Bolivia or Uruguay or Mongolia, after 9/11. Those countries also had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks and so it would have been illegal and immoral for President Bush to have ordered an invasion and occupation of those countries as well. To belabor the obvious, the fact that some people attacked the United States on 9/11 didn't give the United States the right to attack countries that didn't have anything to do with the 9/11 attacks.
That made the United States the aggressor nation and Iraq the defending nation in this conflict. That incontrovertible fact holds deep moral implications, as well as legal ones, for U.S. soldiers who kill people in Iraq, including people who are simply trying to oust the occupiers from Iraq. Don't forget that aggressive war was punished as a war crime at Nuremberg.
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EVEN A FICTIONAL CHARACTER HAS TO DIE SOME TIME
"What one man can invent, another can discover." (Sherlock Holmes)
When "Zarqawi" was killed off the evening of Wednesday June 7, 2006, at a house on the outskirts of the village of Hibhib, outside Baquba, I wasn't at all surprised.
Even a fictional character has to die some time.
This one had lost all credibility. The plot had become unbelievable.
So I argued a little over month ago, following release of the embarrassing Zarqawi promotional video and the fortuitous find by the Americans of some "out-takes", showing him decked-out in American gear and fumbling his M-249.
See Deceived "R" US: The al-Zarqawi story (Friday, May 12, 2006)
It was then I knew for sure that this "Zarqawi" was an impostor and his entire "narrative" a work of military deception.
There is an instinctive truth known to every animal: the ways in which individuals hold themselves, move, and talk tells us how they feel and who they are.
The body language, movement and voice of this "Zarqawi" scream "phony!"
That Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Bedouin from the Bani Hassan tribe, who fought and distinguished himself in Afghanistan-this we know with some certainty-could not operate an automatic weapon is simply unbelievable.
The intent of these out-takes, supposedly chanced upon by the Americans in a raid on yet another "safe" house, was to ridicule Zarqawi. And this they did, but at the expense of destroying the credibility of the character itself.
There was much puzzlement when the video was released as to why the most wanted man in Iraq, known only by a dated photograph, would risk capture by revealing his much-changed face, not to mention his dramatically increased girth, in this way.
A real guerrilla, of course, would not. But a simulated guerrilla, especially one scripted to die shortly, would.
Now we know the purpose of that video: it was to familiarise us with al-Zarqawi's new appearance, so we could identify the body a month later.
Sure enough, it was an image taken from that video that was placed alongside a photograph of a man, presumed to have been killed by two 500 lb bombs. Their silent juxtaposition suggesting that they are the same man and that he is Zarqawi.
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THIS IS WHAT THE OCCUPATION DID TO IRAQ
A little while ago, I saw on one channel an interview with an American man in Washington, perhaps in the Congress, or something connected to the government and its address, saying: The Shia'ats were orderly at the beginning, but with time, and with the violence by the Sunnie militias against them, especially the Samara bombing, the Shia'at anger exploded, and the Shia'at militias moved out of control, even out of Al-Systani's control.
So,...
This is the viewpoint of the American sitting in Washington, in the government, this is how he sees things from there, and explains things as he likes.
As for my viewpoint, as an Iraqi, I see the picture like this: Historically, there has never been any sectarian violence in Iraq, except on the times when some foreign fingers interfered; like the Turkish attacks on Iraq, at the times of the Ottoman Empire, and its conflict with the Safawi state in Iran; for both had their greed in Iraq, wanting to occupy it, and turn it into a subject, and they fought inside Iraq in a fashion that seemed sectarian, the victims of which were the innocent Iraqis.
This was in the old, dark centuries...
But since 1900 and till now, in the modern Iraqi state, Iraqi never witnessed any sectarian conflict. And under the British occupation, the Sunnies and the Shia'ats united in the National movement, and threw the occupier out of Iraq.
So, the story of AL-Zarqawi was invented, and his extremist Sunnie address, malicious against the Shia'ats.
Meaning, in truth; there isn't any Party or Sunnie Iraqi militia that ever declared it was against the Shia'ats or had a grudge against them. So, AL-Zarqawi, not an Iraqi person, was invented, and inserted into the equation to rip the unity of the Iraqis, and destroy the fabric of the one society.
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>> BEYOND IRAQ
Afghanistan:
Bring 'em on: An explosion tore apart a coalition tank in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing one Romanian soldier and wounding four others, the military and a witness said. It said one vehicle drove over an explosive device, killing a 38-year-old corporal instantly and wounding three other soldiers, one seriously. A fourth soldier suffered leg wounds when he stepped on another explosive device after the remaining Romanian vehicles stopped to help the targeted vehicle, the statement said. The explosion was so powerful that it split a tank in two pieces and left its hull engulfed in flames, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:"I will not do it even if they pay $1 million. They deserve all that they are facing... We are living a hard life because of them." -- a Youssifiyah resident, who said his house was searched by U.S. soldiers Sunday afternoon, also said the Americans used translators to offer $100,000 for information leading to those who took the soldiers.
Monday, June 19, 2006
DAILY WAR NEWS FOR MONDAY, June 19, 2006Photo: U.S. Army soldiers and U.S. Marines rest in a house in Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, June 19, 2006. Hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops pushed into an eastern section of Ramadi, one of Iraq's most violent cities, the latest step in a campaign to gradually bolster their presence in city neighborhoods that for months have largely been under insurgent control. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg) (See below under "Ramadi")
Iraqi rebels 'holding US troops': An insurgent group in Iraq says it is holding two missing United States soldiers. In an internet statement, the group said it had abducted the soldiers during an attack on a checkpoint near Yusufiya, south of Baghdad, on Friday.
Within minutes the group issued a second statement saying it had kidnapped four Russian diplomats and killed a fifth on 3 June. The claims, on a site linked to militants, have not been confirmed.
They were posted by the Mujahideen Shura Council - a grouping of insurgents that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq. The first message read: "Your brothers in the military wing of the Mujahideen Shura Council kidnapped the two American soldiers near Yusufiya."
One US soldier was killed during Friday's incident, but nothing had been heard of his two colleagues. They were named by the US military as Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker, both from the 101st Airborne Division.
In the second message, the group said it had carried out an attack on a convoy carrying Russian diplomats in the Mansour area of Baghdad, where many embassies are based. "God has enabled the lions of monotheism to arrest four Russian diplomats in Iraq and kill the fifth," the statement read.
The message urged Moscow to withdraw its troops from Chechnya within 48 hours or "face the consequences".
Bring 'em on: Spc. Jeremiah S. Santos, 21, of Minot, N.D., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 15 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations. Santos was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. (DefenseLink)
Bring 'em on: Spc. Brent W. Koch, 22, of Morton, Minn., died on June 16, in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV. Koch was assigned to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 136th Infantry Combined Arms Battalion, Hutchinson, Minn. (DefenseLink)
Bring 'em on: Cpl. Michael A. Estrella, 20, of Hemet, Calif., died June 14 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. (DefenseLink)
OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS
Baghdad:
A parked car bomb struck an Iraqi army convoy on Monday, killing five people and wounding nine. The explosion occurred at 10 a.m. on Mustansiriyah Square in eastern Baghdad, Lt. Ahmed Muhammad Ali said. He said three soldiers and two civilians were killed and nine passers-by were wounded.
A car bomb targeting a police checkpoint in southern Baghdad killed three people and wounded three.
A car bomb struck a patrol in western Baghdad killing four commandos and wounding six.
(25M. West of) An insurgent sniper killed an Iraqi soldier some 25 miles west of Baghdad. An Iraqi convoy fired back at the attacker and two civilians were wounded.
Najaf:
One person was killed and five wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in Kifil town near Najaf.
Al Madain:
Police said gunmen stormed a house in Al-Madain town, south of the capital, and shot dead a woman, her son and daughter, who had been asleep inside.
Fallujah/Hillah:
Roadside bombs in Fallujah and Hillah killed four civilians.
Karbala:
(Near) Police Lieutenant Colonel Shahid Salah Hammud from Ain al-Tamur police station was killed, along with his three bodyguards, when gunmen ambushed his convoy on a highway between Al-Tamur and the southern city of Karbala.
(West of) Gunmen killed police Col. Abdel-Shahid Saleh as he was heading to work west of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad.
Amarah:
An electrical worker identified as Saadoun Abdul-Hussein Radi, a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, was gunned down as he was going to work in downtown Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad.
An armed group shot dead four policemen in a residential area in central Amarah.
Gunmen killed an army officer during a raid on his house in Amarah.
A soldier was injured when gunmen opened fire on him as he was leaving his house in Amarah.
Ramadi:
Hundreds of American and Iraqi troops backed by a U.S. gunship pushed into eastern Ramadi. No U.S. casualties were reported but six insurgents were thought to have been killed by fire from the AC-130 Spectre gunship in the initial hours of the operation, U.S. commanders on the ground said. Sporadic gunfire between U.S. troops and insurgent snipers echoed throughout the neighborhood.
Helicopters flew over the Iraqi town of Ramadi and warplanes could be heard screaming overhead as U.S. troops hunted down insurgents in the rebel stronghold on Monday, a Reuters witness said. He said seven tanks moved along Masarif Street and July 17 Street. Two explosions were heard but the cause was not clear.Mosul:
Gunmen trying to kill a former army major in the northern city of Mosul missed their target but killed a civilian. The army major was injured.
A car bomb detonated near an American convoy, which rolled through the blast apparently unscathed.. The explosion killed a high school girl and wounded 19 other civilians.
Latifiya:
A family of four Iraqis were killed in al-Latifiya, south of Baghdad, a police source said. The source said that gunmen raided the house of a Shiite Iraqi, assembled the house's residents and shot them dead.
Gunmen killed three civilians Monday when they opened fire on their vehicle in Baquba, north-east of Baghdad.
Basra:
An Iraqi translator working for the British armed forces in the country was shot dead in Basra, security sources said on Monday. The Iraqi security sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that gunmen stormed the home of the translator in central Basra on Sunday night. The sources said the gunmen had opened fire, killing the translator and wounding his wife.
Baqubah:
Insurgents shot three Iranian men to death near the Diyala province travel office in Baqubah. A police source said that when they searched the bodies, they found Iranian national documents and forged Iraqi credentials. Police also said the men had U.S. and Iranian currency and a small video.
Mahmoudiya:
A bomb exploded in a market in Mahmoudiya, about 30km south of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 10.
>> NEWS
London welcomes coalition withdrawal from Iraqi province: "I welcome the announcement today by the Iraqi prime minister that the Iraqis are taking over full control of al-Muthanna province," [Blair's official spokesman] said Monday. "That means they are taking control of civil institutions as well as the security responsibility."
Based on the city of Samawa, the province is patrolled by Australian troops under British command. Some 600 Japanese service personnel are also deployed in Al-Muthanna.
An environmental disaster is brewing in the heartland of Iraq's northern Sunni-led insurgency, where Iraqi officials say that in a desperate move to dispose of millions of barrels of an oil refinery byproduct called "black oil," the government pumped it into open mountain valleys and leaky reservoirs next to the Tigris River and set it on fire. The resulting huge black bogs are threatening the river and the precious groundwater in the region, which is dotted with villages and crisscrossed by itinerant sheep herders, but also contains Iraq's great northern refinery complex at Baiji. The fires are no longer burning, but the suffocating plumes of smoke they created carried as far as 40 miles downwind to Tikrit, the provincial capital.
Italian prosecutors request indictment of a U.S. soldier over shooting of an Italian intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Iraq last year.
Death penalty asked for Saddam Hussein and two of his co-defendants.
Iraqi government announces it will release 300 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison today, another in a series of releases that began this month and will eventually free 2,500 people.
Two Lebanese businessmen arrested by Iraqi police who suspected them of links to terrorism were freed in Baghdad, an official source in Beirut said.
>> REPORTS
NYT poll: 60 percent support for setting a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops, vs. 36 percent opposed.
87% Of Iraqis Want U.S. Troops To Get Out: Iraq's prime minister says he wants Iraqis to take over security from the U.S.-led coalition in 18 months, and a recent poll found that 87 percent of ordinary Iraqis want a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
10% Of Total British Military In Iraq Down With PTSD: The number of soldiers diagnosed with psychiatric problems brought on by the stress of service in Iraq has dramatically escalated since the beginning of the war, according to new figures from the Ministry of Defence.
In 2005, the military authorities were notified of 727 cases of troops with psychiatric disorders brought on by their period in Iraq - an average of 60 each month, or two every day.
The figure is nearly 10 per cent of the total British military presence in Iraq. It includes 66 troops who developed such serious mental problems that they had to be airlifted out for treatment back home.
An Oregon soldier who was arrested after refusing to deploy with her Army unit to Iraq for a second tour says she was coerced into a sexual relationship with her immediate supervisor: Suzanne Swift, a specialist with the 54th Military Police Co. based at Fort Lewis, Wash., said three sergeants began propositioning her for sex shortly after she arrived in Iraq in February 2004.
Swift said she ended up having a sexual relationship with her immediate supervisor, but it wasn't her choice. "In a combat situation, your squad leader is deciding whether you live or die," she said in an interview with the Register-Guard newspaper on Wednesday. "If he wants you to run across a minefield, you run across a minefield."
HOW TO DRIVE 98 PERCENT OF ALL MEN INSANE
"What Jim had seen tallied with the studies conducted after the Second World War by military historian General S.L.A. Marshall. He interviewed thousands of American infantrymen and concluded that only 15 to 20 percent of them had actually shot to kill. The rest had fired high or not fired at all, busying themselves however else they could.
"And 98 percent of the soldiers who did shoot to kill were later found to have been deeply traumatized by their actions. The other 2 percent were diagnosed as "aggressive psychopathic personalities," who basically didn't mind killing people under any circumstances, at home or abroad.
"The conclusion, in the words of LTC Dave Grossman of the Killology Research Group, was that "there is something about continuous, inescapable combat which will drive 98 percent of all men insane, and the other 2 percent were crazy when they got there."
read in full...
MERCENARY FEELS BETRAYED BY HALIBURTON
David Meredith was one of tens of thousands of American civilians who believed the high salary to be earned as a contractor in Iraq outweighed the risks.
"Before, I was a cool, laid-back, easygoing guy," said the 37-year-old truck driver and father of four. "Since I came back from Iraq, I have suicidal thoughts, angry outbursts, insomnia, flashbacks."
Meredith, who spent one year in Iraq from 2004-2005, is among thousands of military and civilian veterans of the Iraq conflict to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
US soldiers get psychological treatment. Meredith says he gets no help from his former employer, Halliburton, which had major contracts in Iraq. (...)
Now back at home in Kansas, the driver relies heavily on anti-depressant drugs and his wife's health insurance to pay the medical bills.
A local doctor diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but Halliburton's insurer refuses to pay for treatment. He can no longer work as a driver because of the drugs he takes. "I feel betrayed," he said.
read in full...
BOMB BLAST AND FLAMES - A CLOSE CALL IN BAGHDAD
The familiar sound of a siren blared as I drove around Baghdad searching for signs of a government security crackdown.
A police car sped past. Seconds later, a car bomb targeting the vehicle exploded just 10 metres away.
After covering the relentless bloodshed in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, I had photographed so many victims of bombings, sectarian beheadings and shootings that I thought I had grown numb to violence.
But nothing prepared me for the scene unfolding on the wide, two-laned road in Baghdad's northern Qahira district, a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite area of the capital.
The blast sent shrapnel flying in all directions as huge balls of flames moved skyward. People fled the scene screaming and crying.
The charred body of a dead man sat upright, engulfed by huge flames. A teenage boy was also on fire. He managed to grab a rod extended to him, and was pulled out of the inferno.
I counted four bodies, but couldn't tell if they were dead or seriously wounded.
I had always arrived at the scene after the bombings or shootings. This was the first time I was actually there at the moment of attack.
And now I was watching its victims. I have never seen someone just sit there and burn, a helpless victim of Iraq's carnage.
A police source later said two people were killed and seven were wounded in the blast, which he said had apparently targeted the police patrol which had swept past me.
read in full...
MORGUE REVEALS IRAQ'S DESCENT INTO HELL
The morning rush had begun at the health ministry's morgue in Baghdad, and by 9.30am last Thursday 36 coffins already lined the street outside. A muffled wailing came from the minibuses parked nearby where women shrouded in black waited to go inside and search for loved ones, knowing too well what they would find.
The single-storey Al-Tub al-Adli morgue, whose nondescript appearance belies the horrors within, has become synonymous with the seemingly unstoppable violence that has turned Baghdad into the most frightening city on earth.
It is here that bodies from the nightly slaughter are dumped each morning. The stench of decaying flesh, mingled with disinfectant, hits you at the checkpoint 100 yards away.
read in full...
FROM THE EMBASSY, A GRIM REPORT
Hours before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees. This cable, marked "sensitive" and obtained by The Washington Post, outlines in spare prose the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government.
read in full...
>> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
FINALLY! THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS A PLAN FOR IRAQ
A new one, I mean. The old plan - accept flowers from grateful Iraqis, locate WMD, create democracy and the rule of law, depart in five months - had definite appeal, but it didn't work out.
The new plan is that we're going to get the Iraqis to come up with a plan.
That's why the president paid a surprise visit to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki this week. Perhaps sensing that Maliki's response to a cheery "See you shortly!" from George W. Bush might be something along the lines of "Not if I see you first," Bush dropped in on Baghdad's Green Zone unannounced, giving Maliki only five minutes' notice of his arrival.
That's leadership for you. As the president explained: "One reason I went to Iraq yesterday, no matter how secretive the trip was, was to get a firsthand feel for how those people are thinking over there.... I understand leadership.... You've got to have a plan. And that's what I found in Iraq."
In fact, he found that the Iraqis have a "plan to succeed," "a robust plan" and "a plan to improve security." They also have a "plan to bring militias and other armed groups under government control," a plan a "plan ... to improve the Iraqi judicial system," "a plan to revitalize the Iraqi economy" and "plans on electricity and energy."
The president may have mentioned other nifty Iraqi plans too, but after I got past 20 references to the word "plan" in the transcript of Bush's post-Baghdad news conference, I lost count. (The president also managed to use some form of the word "success" 33 times.)
But let's not get distracted here.
The bottom line, for you doubters, is that Bush really does have a new Iraq plan. It consists of making it "clear to the government there that ... it's really up to them to put a plan in place and execute it."
Now is that a plan or what?
link
HADITHA UNCOVERS THE UGLINESS OF THE WAR PARTY
The Haditha massacre is far worse than My Lai, which has been committed by hastily trained and generally reluctant soldiers. Haditha was the work of the elite corps of America's Imperial Forces. Years of training and tens of thousands of dollars have been spent on these Marines, and now people are asked to believe that they suddenly went crazy and shot unarmed civilians when one of their comrades died? (...)
War supports are claiming that the antiwar movement is "exploiting" Haditha as an excuse to "cut and run" - but, as usual, they miss the point. The real impact of the Haditha massacre is going to be felt in Iraq, among those whose hearts and minds should be won by occupation forces, who failed to accomplish this mission from day one. Before the occupiers lose the "will to win" in the face of American war crimes, Iraqis will regain the will to resist an occupation that has become intolerable. Some analysts even suggest that the Iraqis could achieve unity by a common hatred for the occupiers.
Those who challenge the physical evidence, including the videotape and the photographs, and discredit the testimony of the Iraqi witnesses represent the extreme wing of the Haditha revisionists - the denialists, who view the world through a distorting lens. In fact, the Haditha massacre reveals the War Party in all its ugliness; a group of shameless professional liars who will say anything rather than admit the truth about this increasingly disastrous war.
The Haditha massacre wasn't committed by a few bad soldiers. It is the inevitable consequence of a flawed policy that cannot be implemented without inflicting massive casualties on the enemy, and that includes Iraqi civilians, none of whom are presumed to be "innocent" in a country where the overwhelming majority wants the occupation to end.
read in full...
FIVE YEARS OF WAR ON TERRA
Come September this year, it will be full five years of President George Bush's War on Terra (Texanese for 'terror'...I won't be reminding you again).
As the duration of War on Terra has now almost matched that of the 2nd World War, let us see how the man from Texas has done in his War on Terra in the last five years.
Let us turn to a survey done by one hundred leading American foreign policy analysts. Released by the Foreign Affairs Journal on June the 14th, the report is titled as "Terrorism Index".
The participants of the survey included an ex-secretary of state and former heads of the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, along with well-known members of the U.S. foreign-policy establishment. The majority served in previous administrations or in senior military ranks. Chances are, they know what they are talking about.
The overwhelming consensus of the report on the War on Terra is not quite what the ruling cabal in the US wants to hear.
read in full...
>> BEYOND IRAQ
Afghanistan:
Bring 'em on: Sgt. Russell M. Durgin, 23, of Henniker, N.H., died on June 13, in Korengel, Afghanistan, when his unit took small arms fire. Durgin was assigned to the 32nd Infantry Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y. (DefenseLink)
Bring 'em on: Capt. Patrick D. Damon, 41, of Falmouth, Maine, died in Bagram, Afghanistan, on June 15, from a non-combat related cause. Damon was assigned to the Army National Guard's 240th Engineer Group, Augusta, Maine. (DefenseLink)
Bring 'em on: Sgt. Roger P. Pena Jr., 29, of San Antonio, Texas, died in Musa Qulah, Afghanistan, on June 14, when his convoy came under enemy small arms fire during combat operations. Pena was assigned to the 10th Sustainment Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. (DefenseLink)
Bring 'em on: Two coalition soldiers were killed conducting combat operations in Afghanistan's Asadabad district in Kunar province today, officials in Afghanistan said. A coalition force patrol was conducting security operations in Asadabad when its all-terrain vehicle struck a roadside bomb.
British troops, backed for the first time by attack helicopters, today pushed deep into rebel territories in southern Afghanistan that have not been under government control for 30 years.
Taliban fighters have killed 30 people in an ambush the in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.
U.S. soldiers descended on a mountain ridge Sunday, setting up fortified posts and mortar positions overlooking a key Taliban transport route.
There are signs that insurgents in Afghanistan are planning to attack Kandahar city.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "When the leaders of the West today talk about 'human rights', the only human right they really care for is the right to property" -- Al-Intiqad's interview with Swedish activist and writer Jan Myrdal
Sunday, June 18, 2006
DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2006
A woman who lost her brother grieves near the morgue of Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, June 18, 2006, following a parked car bomb which detonated in the Um al-Mea'alef neighborhood of southwest Baghdad on Saturday night killing 6 and wounding 22 civilians. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
UPDATE ON STATUS OF U.S. KILLED AND MISSING
Iraqi witnesses say two U.S. soldiers missing after checkpoint attack in Youssifiyah on Friday evening were captured. Iraqi witness and CentCom spokesman say U.S. has blockaded all roads into the area. Tensions are high after raids on houses. Note: It is seldom remembered that PFC Keith Maupin, captured in April 2004, is still missing. There is an obvious contrast between the attention paid by supporters of this war to U.S. casualties and prisoners, and the kind of attention given in past wars. Where are the yellow ribbons on behalf of PFC Maupin? In this war, calling attention to U.S. losses is widely derided as unpatriotic. -- C
A Note on the mysterious three.On Thursday, June 15, at a time when the known count of U.S. military deaths in Iraq stood at 2,497, DoD announced that the toll had reached 2,500. However, they did not announce the identities of the 3 new fatalities and any specifics of the circumstances of their deaths. The identity of a soldier killed on June 15 has now been released (see below), but it is not entirely clear to me whether he was one of them. The "confirmed" - i.e., identified -- count now stands at 2,499. CentCom used to report on most deaths promptly, without identification, which would then come from DoD after notification of next of kin. But they have become far more reticent recently. The last CentCom announcement of a U.S. fatality in Iraq was released on June 12.
Bring 'em on: DoD Identifies Army Casualty: Spc. Jeremiah S. Santos, 21, of Minot, N.D., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 15 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations. Santos was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
SECURITY INCIDENTS
Armed gang kidnaps 10 bakery employees in Shiite Kadhimiyah neighborhood of Baghdad. AFP also reports that police found the bodies of nine men who had been tortured to death.
Later AFP dispatch reports that Three brothers from a Shiite family were shot dead by gunmen in the town of Muqdadiyah, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Baquba. Also has "Rebels also fired three mortar bombs near the Imam Sadaq university in west Baghdad, wounding three civilians." (Not clear whether this is the same incident Retuters reports below, with six wounded.)
Reuters reports:
Gunmen killed three people in a car as they traveled in central Baquba around 1:45 p.m., according to a police official. CNN also reports:
OTHER MILITARY AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
U.S. begins operation in Ramadi described as a siege rather than an assault. Excerpt from AP article:
Compelled by commitment to the IMF, Iraq raises price of petroleum products. (from Deutsche Presse-Agentur):
In spite of earlier appearing to back off in the face of U.S. pressure, Iraq government moves ahead with amnesty plan for insurgents. Excerpt:
London Sunday Times reporter Hala Jaber says "morgue’s grim scenes testify to a disintegrating nation.". Excerpt:
THE HOME FRONT
Army Sgt. opposed to war deserts, joins fellow deserters in Canada. Excerpt:
Fox News asks FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs John Miller whether alleged al-Qaeda documents released by U.S. after Zarqawi's death are fake. He dodges the question. Excerpt:
Telepathic president determines future of Iraq government from eye gazing. Excerpt:
(EXTENDED) QUOTE OF THE DAY
-- Iraqi blogger Ibn al-Rafidain
Note: Blogger has a scheduled outage this morning, so I am rushing to get this post in. I will update if warranted. Sorry for the lack of craft today -- C.
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A woman who lost her brother grieves near the morgue of Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, June 18, 2006, following a parked car bomb which detonated in the Um al-Mea'alef neighborhood of southwest Baghdad on Saturday night killing 6 and wounding 22 civilians. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)UPDATE ON STATUS OF U.S. KILLED AND MISSING
Iraqi witnesses say two U.S. soldiers missing after checkpoint attack in Youssifiyah on Friday evening were captured. Iraqi witness and CentCom spokesman say U.S. has blockaded all roads into the area. Tensions are high after raids on houses. Note: It is seldom remembered that PFC Keith Maupin, captured in April 2004, is still missing. There is an obvious contrast between the attention paid by supporters of this war to U.S. casualties and prisoners, and the kind of attention given in past wars. Where are the yellow ribbons on behalf of PFC Maupin? In this war, calling attention to U.S. losses is widely derided as unpatriotic. -- C
A Note on the mysterious three.On Thursday, June 15, at a time when the known count of U.S. military deaths in Iraq stood at 2,497, DoD announced that the toll had reached 2,500. However, they did not announce the identities of the 3 new fatalities and any specifics of the circumstances of their deaths. The identity of a soldier killed on June 15 has now been released (see below), but it is not entirely clear to me whether he was one of them. The "confirmed" - i.e., identified -- count now stands at 2,499. CentCom used to report on most deaths promptly, without identification, which would then come from DoD after notification of next of kin. But they have become far more reticent recently. The last CentCom announcement of a U.S. fatality in Iraq was released on June 12.
Bring 'em on: DoD Identifies Army Casualty: Spc. Jeremiah S. Santos, 21, of Minot, N.D., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 15 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations. Santos was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
SECURITY INCIDENTS
Armed gang kidnaps 10 bakery employees in Shiite Kadhimiyah neighborhood of Baghdad. AFP also reports that police found the bodies of nine men who had been tortured to death.
Later AFP dispatch reports that Three brothers from a Shiite family were shot dead by gunmen in the town of Muqdadiyah, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Baquba. Also has "Rebels also fired three mortar bombs near the Imam Sadaq university in west Baghdad, wounding three civilians." (Not clear whether this is the same incident Retuters reports below, with six wounded.)
Reuters reports:
- Attackers hurled a grenade at a shop selling alcohol and seriously wounded three people Kirkuk, police said.
- Gunmen on Saturday evening ambushed and killed a policeman near his house in Najaf, police said.
- Gunmen in a car shot dead three persons including two Iranians in Baquba, police said.
- Six people were wounded in a mortar attack in northern Baghdad, police said.
- A woman was seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle taking her to hospital in, police said.
Gunmen killed three people in a car as they traveled in central Baquba around 1:45 p.m., according to a police official. CNN also reports:
- Earlier in and near Baquba, gunmen killed five people, including a schoolteacher and an Iraqi army officer, in three separate drive-by shootings, according to a Diyala Joint Coordination Center official. The incidents occurred over a 30-minute period.
- Car bomb in Mosul, targeting a U.S. convoy, kills a female high school student and wounds 19 others, according to hospital and police officials.
- In the Waziriya section of northern Baghdad, three civilians were wounded by mortar rounds that landed near the Imam al-Sadesk University around 9 a.m., police said.
OTHER MILITARY AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
U.S. begins operation in Ramadi described as a siege rather than an assault. Excerpt from AP article:
ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press. RAMADI, Iraq — Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops set up outposts Sunday in southern parts of Ramadi as part of an operation to establish Iraqi army bases in the country's largest Sunni Arab city and wrest it away from months of insurgent control.
U.S. commanders stressed that the operation was not a large-scale assault on the city but rather an "isolation" tactic to prevent insurgents from receiving supplies or reinforcements from outside. Arab television networks and some Western outlets have reported on an impending attack on the city. Two long columns of U.S. and Iraqi armoured vehicles late Saturday encircled the southern side Ramadi, the capital of volatile Anbar province, and met little resistance.
"The good news is that we didn't get as much resistance as we're prepared for," said Lt. Col. V.J. Tedesco, commander of the 1st Battalion, 37th Armour Regiment, 1st Armoured Division. "I really think the fight will be in the coming days."
Large swaths of Ramadi have been in insurgent control for months. Powerful roadside bombings and gunbattles take place every day, confining U.S. patrols to small sections of the city. Prominent tribal leaders who have cooperated with U.S. forces have been assassinated or forced to flee outside the country.
The overnight operation involved thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops who trickled out of area bases and began erecting two outposts where Iraqi soldiers are expected to begin patrolling a southern neighborhood known as the Second Officer's Quarter. The area of about 10,000 people, a cluster of homes once set aside for Baath Party officials and Iraqi soldiers in an artillery brigade, has rarely seen U.S. or Iraqi troops.
Resistance was initially light, with a handful of roadside bombs discovered and detonated, but commanders expected insurgents to soon fight back. Insurgents fired two mortar shells that landed about 500 yards away from where the troops were establishing the outposts. U.S. troops fired back, but no injuries were reported.
Compelled by commitment to the IMF, Iraq raises price of petroleum products. (from Deutsche Presse-Agentur):
Iraq's Oil Ministry announced Sunday an increase in gas and fuel prices for the second time in six months in line with Iraq's commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Iraq has reaced a deal with the IMF whereby the latter will write off Iraq's debts in return for certain conditions, including increased fuel prices. Moatassem Akram, deputy oil minister told al-Mashreq newspaper on Sunday that the increase in the prices of oil products would take effect from Monday.
The price of gas and gasoline will increase one dinar per litre, while oil will increase from 25 dinars to 100 dinars. 'The plan to increase the prices of oil products is one of the conditions of the IMF. This increase won't be the last but there will be more increases,' Akram said.
The Iraqi government began fuel price increases in January. But the move has aroused the anger of the Iraqi people. The government said that the profit from the price hikes would be distributed through a network of social benefits to the poor, displaced and handicapped segments of the society. Iraqi cities are now witnessing a shortage of gas with thousands of vehicles queuing up daily in front of gas stations.
In spite of earlier appearing to back off in the face of U.S. pressure, Iraq government moves ahead with amnesty plan for insurgents. Excerpt:
Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad, June 19, 2006
THE Iraqi Government has crafted a far-reaching amnesty plan for insurgents, even as at least 43 people died and 100 were injured in a string of bomb and rocket attacks in the capital and the US military hunted for two missing American soldiers.
snip
The amnesty plan includes people who allegedly staged attacks against Americans and Iraqis, and calls for the creation of a national committee and local subcommittees to "welcome insurgents" and begin a "truthful national dialogue", said a version in an Iraqi newspaper. It would be the Iraqi Government's most comprehensive attempt to engage insurgents.
"The main thing is that there are no clear red lines for the participation of the bloody-handed people in the political process," said Haidar Abadi, a leader of Mr Maliki's Dawa party, a big part of the dominant Shiite political coalition.
The plan, mysteriously released then rescinded by the Prime Minister's office last week, calls for a prisoner release and pardons for those "not proven guilty in crimes and clear terrorist activities".
London Sunday Times reporter Hala Jaber says "morgue’s grim scenes testify to a disintegrating nation.". Excerpt:
THE morning rush had begun at the health ministry’s morgue in Baghdad, and by 9.30am last Thursday 36 coffins already lined the street outside. A muffled wailing came from the minibuses parked nearby where women shrouded in black waited to go inside and search for loved ones, knowing too well what they would find.
The single-storey Al-Tub al-Adli morgue, whose nondescript appearance belies the horrors within, has become synonymous with the seemingly unstoppable violence that has turned Baghdad into the most frightening city on earth.
It is here that bodies from the nightly slaughter are dumped each morning. The stench of decaying flesh, mingled with disinfectant, hits you at the checkpoint 100 yards away.
Each corpse tells a different story about the terrors of Iraq. Some bodies are pocked with holes inflicted by torturers with power drills. Some show signs of strangulation; others, with hands tied behind the back, bear bullet wounds. Many are charred and dismembered.
So far this year, according to health ministry figures, the mortuary has processed the bodies of about 6,000 people, most of whom died violently. Some were killed in American military action but many more were the victims of the sectarian violence that US and Iraqi forces are struggling to contain.
For all the coalition’s recent successes in securing elections that brought a new government to power and in killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the commander of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the morgue remains a chilling reminder of the scale of the challenge ahead.
It receives 20 to 30 bodies on a quiet day. Last month it processed a record 1,384. Most autopsies have been cancelled; there are simply not enough doctors or officials to cope.
For Iraqis who suffer the loss of a family member, a dreaded ritual ensues. Everyone knows there is no point in reporting a missing person to the police — no action will be taken. The first stop is always the morgue. The lucky ones find a body straight away. For others, the morning walk past the coffins has to be repeated. Their search can last for days.
As a former trauma specialist in a hospital casualty department, Dr Baker Siddique, 29, thought he was inured to scenes of carnage. But nothing he had witnessed prepared him for a visit to a pathologist friend working at the mortuary.
“I saw a street packed with people and coffins standing up vertically,” he said. “There wasn’t enough room to lie them horizontally.”
His voice faltered and his eyes filled with tears as he recounted the agony of a woman in black who discovered the bodies of her four sons that day.
“I have never heard screams of pain like that,” he said. The woman collapsed on the floor, throwing dirt over her head — a gesture of grief and helplessness that has become tragically commonplace in Iraq.
As the doctor talked to his friend, a police pickup truck pulled up with a dozen or more bodies piled in the back. “I could not believe that the dead were brought in such a way,” Siddique said. “They were one on top of the other like animal carcasses.”
When the police found that no porters were available to help, they threw the bodies off the truck. It was then that Siddique noticed the corpses of two boys aged about 12 lying in the pile on the ground.
“Each had a piece of knotted green cloth tied around his neck and I could see they’d been strangled,” the doctor said. He also noticed round holes that were slightly inflamed in several parts of their body, a sign that they had been tortured with electric drills before being killed. “Even their eyes had been drilled and only hollow sockets remained,” he said.
When he pointed out the injuries to his friend, the pathologist shrugged and took another drag on his cigarette, saying this was now routine.
“We have turned into a zoo,” Siddique told me. “What level have we sunk to, to kill people in such a manner and hardly to notice any more?”
THE HOME FRONT
Army Sgt. opposed to war deserts, joins fellow deserters in Canada. Excerpt:
By MARK SOMMER, Buffalo News Staff Reporter. 6/18/2006
TORONTO - Sgt. Patrick Hart was eager to get his first look at quarterback J.P. Losman. The rabid Bills fan had received a weekend pass from his unit in Fort Campbell, Ky., to attend the Aug. 20 preseason game against the Packers.
But Hart was anxious for other reasons, too. His company was headed to Iraq in five weeks, and the nine-year Army veteran - whose three enlistments included nearly a year in Kuwait - opposed the war. He left Buffalo, where he grew up in the Riverside area, the next day. But instead of returning to his base, he drove across the Peace Bridge to Toronto, met with a war resisters group and then deserted the Army.
Hart filed for refugee status with the Canadian government, joining about 20 other American deserters seeking asylum north of the border. Ten months later, he expresses no regret about a decision many of his fellow countrymen would consider an act of cowardice or treason. The Iraq War, Hart believes, is being waged over oil and to line the pockets of multinational corporations while poor and lower-middle-class recruits serve on the front lines.
"When I enlisted in the Army, part of my oath was to defend the Constitution against all enemies - foreign and domestic. I can't go over there and put other kids in harm's way for lies. I'm not going to do that," Hart said in a recent interview in the two-bedroom apartment west of downtown overlooking Lake Ontario, which he shares with wife, Jill, and 4-year-old son, Rian.
He met Saturday with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a slain Army soldier and a symbolic leader against the war, in a rally and and picnic in Fort Erie.
Fox News asks FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs John Miller whether alleged al-Qaeda documents released by U.S. after Zarqawi's death are fake. He dodges the question. Excerpt:
MR. GIBSON: The alleged al Qaeda document found during raids in Iraq paints a dismal outlook for al Qaeda, as we have just been discussing. What do we know about it? Do we know if it authentic?
Here now is FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs John Miller.
So John, this document is now being challenged. It was challenged by Senator Harry Reid today -- as much as said it could be a fake. You just saw Congressman Cummings not sure whether to believe it. And those people who oppose the president and oppose the war are claiming it was made up.
What do we know about this thing?
MR. MILLER: Well, I'm actually not briefed on that and that's not what I was told we were talking about today or I would have gotten briefed on it. But I'm not sure it's in the FBI's portfolio. This is something recovered by the military. We may have something to do with looking at it down the road, but I can't answer you question, John.
MR. GIBSON: Well, when you find these -- well, let me put it this way, John. Does the American government fake terrorist documents?
MR. MILLER: The American government doesn't fake terrorist documents. But again, John, I don't want to get pulled into a discussion that I'm not briefed on, so I can't talk about these particular documents, per se. Not to characterize them one way or the other, I just wasn't told this was going to come up and I've not read into those.
Now, as far as the FBI goes, our role in sensitive site exploitation overseas is we will go in with the military. We will collect evidence. We will process that evidence. We'll examine that evidence. We'll authenticate that evidence, and that may be happening in this case. That would be in the normal course of business, but I can't refer to these with specificity.
Telepathic president determines future of Iraq government from eye gazing. Excerpt:
By Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post Staff Writer. Sunday, June 18, 2006-- President Bush flew to Baghdad last week to size up Iraq's new leader. "I have come not only to thank you," he told American troops gathered in the Green Zone on Tuesday, "but to look Prime Minister Maliki in the eyes -- to determine whether or not he is as dedicated to a free Iraq as you are."
The presidential determination? "I believe he is," Bush said.
The snap assessment recalled Bush's famous assertion that he had sensed Vladimir Putin's soul and showed how Bush often appears more comfortable with his gut-level assessment of foreign leaders than the one he gets from briefing papers prepared by his intelligence agencies.
(EXTENDED) QUOTE OF THE DAY
About four weeks ago one of my acquaintances and his son were killed by Americans. The man was in his early sixties and the son was in his early twenties. It was a raid on their home around 4:30 AM. The man was a retired and his interest was in hunting and barbecuing. . . .The eldest daughter is a senior dentistry student. According to her story, the American soldiers broke into the house after heavy knocking on the doors with shouts ordering them to open the door. The girl's storey says:
"It was completely dark (because of power shortage in Iraq) and we were asleep. The noise awoke us in alarm. My father hurried to open the door. As soon as he passed by the window he was shot in the abdomen and fell on the ground, which made my brother to follow him distracted between helping my father and opening the door. They gave him no time to decide and they shot my brother too. The doors blasted and a bunch of flashlights rushed into the house. I could not see faces or any sign that might reveal who were those men. My father and brother were bleeding and I asked the invaders to take them to hospital. One of them, I think he was the leader, asked me with complete frigidity 'Where did you learn to speak English?' I was in complete anger trying to make these rude men help my father and brother. The leader put a gum in his mouth and said to me 'We have our own doctor with us and he will help them'.
The soldiers dragged me and my two sisters out of the house to the street. The neighbors were helpless since laser dots were very clear in the darkness inside their houses. We heard several shots in our house then the soldiers brought out two bodies in sacks. They detained my cousin who were sleeping over the roof of the house (sleeping over roofs in summer is an old Iraqi custom). The home was turned upside down, our IDs, my collage papers, a computer, photos…and many other personal things were taken."
Hours later the man's relatives went to the police station in the district, in which there is a coordination office to organize work between Iraqi and American forces. They asked for the bodies and the astonishing answer was "There wasn't such activity in the district by the Americans" which left them in a state of confusion.
As a result they launched a campaign to look for the bodies in hospitals & morgues. Family representatives were assigned at police stations. After three days they found the bodies at a hospital. A shot in the forehead was clear on both bodies, which raised questions about killing them in cold blood. On asking the hospital about where from the bodies were received, the answer was from a police station. And the police station said that they had received the bodies from the Americans who said that they had found these two anonymous bodies in the countryside of Al-Dijail (a town 60Km. north to Baghdad).
-- Iraqi blogger Ibn al-Rafidain
Note: Blogger has a scheduled outage this morning, so I am rushing to get this post in. I will update if warranted. Sorry for the lack of craft today -- C.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, June 17, 2006Photo: 6.15.06: Iraqis burn Israeli and US flags as they demonstrate against the U.S. occupation in the holy city of Karbala. (AFP/Mohammed Sawaf)
Bring 'em on: U.S. troops searched Saturday for two soldiers who went missing after an attack that killed one of their comrades at a traffic checkpoint in the so-called "Triangle of Death" just south of Baghdad, the military said.
U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said four raids had been carried out since Friday's attack and that ground forces, helicopters and airplanes were taking part in the search.
The soldiers came under attack at a traffic checkpoint southwest of Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad. A quick reaction force arrived at the scene after hearing small arms fire and explosions, according to the military.
"We are currently using every means at our disposal on the ground, in the air and in the water to find them," Caldwell said.
He said that troops at an adjacent traffic control point heard an explosion and small arms fire just before dark in the vicinity of the checkpoint where the attack occurred at a canal crossing near the Euphrates River.
A quick reaction force reached the scene within 15 minutes, found the dead soldier but not the other two. A dive team was to search the canal.
OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS
Baghdad:
(Update) On Friday, a suspected shoe bomber targeting a Shiite imam who criticized terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi blew himself up inside the Buratha mosque during the main weekly religious service, killing 13 people and wounding 28. That attack was carried out despite a four-hour driving ban intended to prevent suicide car bombs during Friday prayers.
The mosque's imam, a leading Shiite politician, blamed al-Qaida in Iraq. He said the terrorist group was trying to reassert itself after the death of its leader in a U.S. airstrike last week.
"Al-Qaida is trying to restore some respect after the killing of the terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by targeting one of the leading Shiite clerics, but they will fail," said the imam, Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer.
The imam, who was not injured, said the bombing came after guards found two pairs of shoes containing explosives outside the mosque. The guards entered the mosque and began searching everyone who had carried their shoes inside, he said.
When they approached the attacker, he detonated what would have been a third pair of explosives-laden shoes, he said.
But the Interior Ministry, noting the scale of destruction, suggested the attacker may have detonated a vest rather than shoes. Police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said the attacker was indeed wearing a suicide vest.
The device contained metal balls and fragments, according to an Interior Ministry police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. Metal balls and fragments could fit into either shoes or a vest.
It was the second attack on the Buratha mosque in just over two months. On April 7, four suicide bombers, including a woman, set off their explosives during Friday prayers, killing at least 85 worshippers. The U.S. military blamed al-Zarqawi.
Al-Sagheer said the terrorist group had threatened to kill him in an Internet posting this week. A similar warning preceded the April attack, he said.
A car bomb exploded near Iraq's National Theatre in central Baghdad, killing one person and wounding five.
Two people were killed and 16 wounded when four mortar rounds struck a house and a shop in Baghdad's Sab al-Bur neighbourhood.
A mortar shell was fired at one of Baghdad's oldest markets in the suburb of Kazimiyah. At least four people were killed and 13 wounded.
A bomb in a plastic bag exploded at an outdoor market for secondhand goods, killing two people and wounding 24.
A roadside bomb missed a police patrol in Karradah, a popular shopping area in downtown Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding two.
A suicide car bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol near Wathiq Square in the Karradah neighborhood, killing seven people, including four soldiers, and wounding 10 people, including two civilians.
In the New Baghdad area, a bomb left aboard a minibus exploded, killing three passengers and wounding 15 others.
Unknown gunmen killed the owner of a vegetables store in the Somar neighborhood. The store exploded shortly after the police forces removed the dead body. The store was demolished and a child was killed due to the blast.
Police found two bodies, handcuffed and shot in the head, in separate areas of eastern Baghdad.
Amarah:
Gunmen attacked the house of Iraqi army Col. Makki Mindil, killing him after engaging his guards in a gunfight. Four guards also were wounded in the attack in Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad. The bullet-riddled body of another Iraqi soldier was found elsewhere in the city.
Mahmoudiya:
A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle as it was being towed near a police checkpoint in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, killing four civilians, said Capt. Rashid al-Samarie. He said the bomber claimed his car had broken down and hired a tractor to tow it while he rode inside.
A mortar barrage killed one civilian and wounded three others, all from the same family, in Mahmoudiya.
Suwayrah:
(Near) Gunmen in two trucks stormed two villages in the early hours Friday and killed three people and kidnapped nine others. The two villages are located near the town of Suwayrah, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Baghdad.
Madain:
One person was killed and another kidnapped when men dressed in Iraqi army uniforms attacked a house in Al-Jahar village near the town of Madain, 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of baghdad. "The gunmen stormed the house, dragged the two men out and killed one of them in front of the house and took away the other," a police officer said.
Fallujah:
(Near) Three Iraqi policemen were wounded when four mortar rounds landed on a police station of Ameriyat al-Fallujah town, 7 km south of Fallujah.
Khaldiyah:
The Iraqi police found three unidentified bodies near the cemetery of Khaldiyah town, some 80 km west of Baghdad, he said. The bodies showed signs of torture with bullets in the head and chest
Mosul:
Gunmen in a speeding car killed a College of Nursing student in northern Mosul as he walked near his dormitory.
Kirkuk:
(Near) Two mortar shells struck Iraqi Army facilities near Wadi Al-Zgheitoun, without causing damage.
Hawija:
An Iraqi army soldier was shot dead by gunmen in the northern town of Hawija
Gunmen in a car shot dead a civilian near his house in the town of Mahaweel, 75 km (45 miles) south of Baghdad.
>> NEWS
Iraqi detainees were held with their eyes taped shut in tiny box-like cells for up to seven days at a time while loud music blared at a special operations holding facility in 2004, a US military investigation found.
The investigation conducted by Brigadier General Richard Formica following the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in 2004 also found that detainees were fed only bread and water for up to 17 days at another special operations location.
Formica's report, released in heavily redacted form Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, dismissed other allegations that prisoners were physically abused or humiliated at the so-called tactical holding facilities. (...)
The allegations about the tiny cells were brought by three detainees, who gave remarkably similar stories of being held for days in boxes of crates so small that they had to sit with their knees to their chests.
One of the detainees said he was kept inside for two days, another for five days, and the third for seven days.
The one kept for seven days alleged "that before he was placed in the box his clothes were cut off. He alleges that while held in the box, his captors duct-taped his mouth and nose, making it hard for him to breath."
"He further alleges that water was thrown on him, that he was beaten, kicked, electrocuted, and a Kurd threatened to bring (redacted) two wives there and have sex with them in front of him," it said.
"He alleges he was not given food or water for five days," the report said.
The general recommended no disciplinary action against any US special operations personnel.
>> REPORTS
Iraqi insurgents are using new "pop and drop" bombs that are quickly set down in the path of US or Iraqi forces, a US commander said.
>> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
DEATH TO 'AL-ZARQAWI'! LONG MAY HE LIVE!
Since the 'death' of 'al-Zarqawi' reams have been written from both a 'left' and right perspective on the significance of his death or even, as I along with other writers have asserted, whether the damn fellow existed in the first place, at least as he has been portrayed.
Regardless, the one thing that seems to be missing from all the 'analysis' (whether he existed or not is not really relevant), and that is the role of these 'personalities' in the scheme of things, or rather their use in mystifying events and their causes.*
The BBC produced an extremely hurried so-called documentary the other night on the 'life and death' of the man, that regurgitated every piece of US propaganda without criticism including the seminal Colin Powell speech at the UN in early 2003.
The gist of the piece was that 'al-Zarqawi' was pivotal to the so-called insurgency and that with his death, things could only get better. Central to the propaganda piece was the notion that behind the 'insurgency' is 'al-Qu'eda', Iraq branch. 'al-Zarqawi' then is the 'match that ignited the fire'.
All notions that the 'insurgency' is not only home-grown but a direct response to the invasion and occupation has to be expunged from the public consciousness. Equally as important is linking the 'insurgency' to an 'international conspiracy', from which springs the 'war on terror'. (...)
And given the nature of 'news' reporting these days-which by the way is no mere result of technology, that is, 24-hour 'rolling news' etc-but a reflection of the ideology of the state which would have us believe that we are all at the mercy of forces over which we have no control.
At best we respond to them but an 'al-Zarqawi' character is to all intents and purposes a 'lose cannon'; a "psychopath" as the BBC described him, a force that acts outside of history. This is precisely why the BBC uses the word to describe him, as a psychopath is not susceptible to logic, nor does a psychopath have a conscience.
This is also why without a hint of irony, the media has 'al-Zarqawi' flying all over the place and indeed often in different places at the same time! A 'Will-O-the-Wisp', who can transport himself to any convenient location that suits the script writers. 'al-Zarqawi' is, in every sense of the word, an invention, whether he exists or not as a 'real person' just as a well known actor becomes the part he or she plays to the degree that the public can no longer distinguish between the two.
In this regard, it is important that he not actually appear 'in person', only via anonymous videos, audio tapes or written statements, else he ceases to be a character and instead becomes a 'real' person. Kept at a distance he can made into anything the media/state want him to be.
This can only happen because 'al-Zarqawi' operates as a 'celebrity', a cypher, a symbol for all that ails Capitalism. He has no real history anymore than Saddam Hussein does except the one invented for him at any given time and supplied to the public. There is nothing paradoxical about Saddam the 'ally' and Saddam the 'devil', as the nature of the way the 'news' works never makes the connection between the different 'Saddams'. 'Saddam' exists outside of history in just the same way 'al-Zarqawi' does.
read in full...
AMERICAN GODS
Not withstanding the fact that Aristotle had said long back that, "the gods too are fond of a joke" and that there were no American gods then, now there are and we the hadjis of the world need to understand that like all gods, the American gods too are fond of a joke.
Not withstanding the fact that the term "hadji" is used by American forces in Iraq as the word "gook" was for Vietnamese to signify the subhuman scum of the earth and that the term "hadji" had to be coined for Iraqis because unfortunately there are no 'Mai Lais' in Iraq, only Fallujahs and Hadithas and Ramadis and Ishaqis, we the hadjis of the world understand that American gods too are fond of a joke. (...)
Not withstanding the fact that that the vast majority of Americans have no clue whatsoever that there indeed is a larger global reality and not just in the sense that the price of gas goes up because of us dark skinned hadji terrorists living in desolate sandy tracts of planet earth, we the hadjis of the world understand that American gods too are fond of a joke.
Not withstanding the fact that the mini American gods have swallowed the blatant lies of their supreme gods for far too long and that these lies have now started to devour them from inside out and that the "great American life" is becoming increasingly hard to swallow even as they flaunt their values in the face of us hadjis and that they are in fact reduced to nothing more than the resident bullies of human race on planet earth, we the hadjis of the world understand that American gods too are fond of a joke.
Not withstanding the fact that far too many mini American gods are so thoroughly drenched in popular myths and propaganda that their supreme gods have created for them that they are now unable to recognize reality even if it hits them in the face and that they desperately need to cling to the absurd myths conjured by their supreme gods, we the hadjis of the world understand that American gods too are fond of a joke. (...)
Not withstanding the fact that we do appreciate that the ultimate American god is a god alone having no similarity whatsoever with the rest of the worlds' gods and that in this god's name the American mini gods have been destroying whole nations, peoples and the planet for centuries, we the hadjis of the world understand that American gods too are fond of a joke. (...)
Not withstanding the fact that some of us have indeed read William Shakespeare's profound words that say, "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that", we the hadjis of the world understand that American gods too are fond of a joke.
Yet, despite all the understanding that most of us hadjis have of the American gods' inviolable right to violate us in any way that they like, some of us do not.
They tend to push back.
Write that on the wall somewhere.
read in full...
REFLECTIONS ON THE "CIVIL WAR" IN IRAQ
I do not believe the canard of "ethnic strife" in Iraq. There certainly is violence and chaos and it is being ascribed to ethnic motives -- a paradigm Americans have been educated to understand, thus the tailoring of the "ethnic strife" theory to their intellectual resources and capacities. What Americans cannot do is bring a political understanding to the Iraqi situation. What they lack is a grasp of political economy -- the filter through which alone they could assess their nation's peril and determine to neutralize it. This is not to say Americans are stupid, but it is to say that they have not been educated to understand the economic imperatives that drive industrial economies. It is for the purposes of undereducating them that the vast network of disinformation has existed and exists -- from the McCarthy congressional witch hunts to Fox News, from Hollywood to the tame academic environment, from the entertainment opiates to those of the most obscurantist religious sects.
That Iraqis live in a state of terror is hard to dispute, but I doubt that astute Iraqis call it a "civil war" -- unless they are in the service of the occupation and training to suppress the people's call for ending the occupation. Ordinary Iraqis, judging from independent journalistic sources and accounts in the foreign press, complain of murder and abductions, of rapes and disappearances, of massacres and detentions, of bombing raids and chemical weapons -- and they have no doubt that this violence is generated under and because of the occupation. Everything is a struggle: access to employment, electricity, medicines, schools, security. I would like to ask the promoters of the "civil war" theory: who is responsible for this massive humanitarian crime, the American invasion of Iraq or the Iraqi "civil war"?
read in full...
U.S. IS RUNNING AFTER A MIRAGE
U.S. military failure has been demonstrated by the inability of the most well-funded, sophisticated armed force in the world to defeat the resistance of a small country and its poor people. Technology can level entire neighborhoods, but it cannot break the human dignity of the Iraqi people. Americans can develop their presence in Iraq, but they cannot destroy the belief of Iraqis that they have the right to live as any other people in the world. They will not bow to Americans, even if they stay for centuries. In this regard, we should remember that Iraqi Christians have defended their ancestral culture for more than 4000 years, and that the Palestinian people have defended their land since the 100 year.
Occupying Iraq is an economic disaster, because the costs of the war for the US have increased beyond any economic gain it would have from controlling Iraqi oil. Whatever the motive for invasion, and whatever control the U.S. may exert on Iraq's resources now, it is only temporary. This is because no Iraqi [EXCEPT SOME INDIVIDUAL PROFITERS! :)] can accept oil plans imposed on them by military force. Our fathers struggled for the nationalization of our oil.
When this was accomplished, Iraq proved capable of directing oil production and sale and using the profits to develop and advance Iraq. Why would Iraqis accept the handover of contracts and profits to U.S. oil companies while they suffer in poverty? Why would Iraqis allow foreign oil companies to control the quantity, price, and profits of their oil? The US is running after a mirage.
The occupation is a political disaster because none in the world can argue that the US is playing a progressive [?liberating] role. The Iraq war proved that the US isn't working for peace, development and progress. What the U.S. administration wants is an empire, which it has no right--nor ability--to impose on the world. We see now the hesitation of other governments to support the U.S. occupation. (...)
How can the world--Americans included--be identified with such brutal and savage enterprise like the war and occupation of Iraq? The U.S. administration has succeeded in nothing but destruction, bloodshed, and lies. The occupation is a disaster for the United States, but for Iraqi society, it is an utter catastrophe. With the aid of its allies, the US has destroyed all that Iraqis built in modern times.
We will need 15-20 years after the end of the occupation to restore what Iraq achieved since the first world war. It should come as no surprise that Iraqis will continue struggling against the occupation in order to restore their society. Resistance is the only road to true liberty, democracy, dignity and achieving their interests, both as individuals and as a people.
read in full...
WHERE IS THE VOICE OF SANITY
The evil that is being enacted on our planet could only happen because of a sufficient number of people who are passively standing on the sideline and doing nothing about it. Not doing anything about the evil we see being acted out in the world is to ourselves become an unwitting instrument of evil, as our in-action allows, enables, and feeds the further propagation of evil in the field. Evil is truly calling us to pick up an empowered role, whatever that is, and "act," as if we are actors in a play or characters in a dream. Recognizing our responsibility for the collective situation we find ourselves in, we access our ability to respond creatively in the world and act-ively do something about it.
Something is being revealed to us about ourselves by the fact that we are being ruled by people who are mad. Imagine, what would we do if we truly recognized that our government is being run by people who have collectively gone mad? What would we do if we realized that the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet, the person with his finger on the button, is a genuine psychopath? This is not a make believe question: How would we respond if enough of us not only recognized that our leaders were truly insane, but that we urgently needed to do something about it? What do we imagine we would do? This is a very relevant question, as this is the true nature of our current situation.
Do we go belly-up, imagining that there is nothing that we could possibly do about our insane situation? Do we imagine ourselves collapsing into impotence, being totally dis-empowered, unable to do anything about being ruled by a bunch of psychopaths? Or do we imagine that enough of us, realizing the gravitas of our situation, connect with each other and access our collective genius so that we can truly make a positive change in the world? The question is: Will the darkness that is manifesting in our world destroy our species or wake us up to our true nature? The choice, and responsibility, is truly ours.
read in full...
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Gotta fight 'em there or they'll attack us here. I wish we would have just dropped a big bomb and done the job." -- a trucker in central Illinois
Friday, June 16, 2006
DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 2006
A woman walks past a shop damaged by a car bomb attack in Baghdad, June 16, 2006. (Ali Jasim/Reuters) As is often the case, this incident was reported only in the photo caption
REPORTED SECURITY INCIDENTS
11 killed, 25 wounded in suicide bombing at Shiite mosque in Baghdad. The bombing came 1 hour before the main Friday prayers, avoiding greater casualties. This AFP story also has the following incidents:
People's Daily gives the death toll from the Sab al-Bur attack as 3.
Unidentified Gunmen ambushed five trucks near Iraq's near Fallujah on Friday morning, killing the five drivers, before setting the trucks on fire. Xinhua also has these incidents:
A high ranking Iraqi police officer was assassinated in front of his house by unidentified gunmen on Friday Mosul, an Interior Ministry source said. KUNA also has some attacks not mentioned elsewhere that did not cause casualties.
Gunmen killed Yusif al-Hassan, a senior member of the Muslim Scholars Association, near the mosque where he led prayers in Basra. The MSA is a Sunni organization opposed to the occupation.
OTHER NEWS AND IN-DEPTH REPORTING
UK downplays suggestions that coalition troops may hand over control to Iraqi forces in the south in coming weeks, say "it's a matter for the Iraqi government," as Japan prepares to withdraw its forces.
Investigation launched of death of 3 Iraqis in U.S. custody in May. Excerpt:
Iraq's Deputy Justice Minister says Shia militias control jails. Al-Jazeera story presented here in full:
UN News agency reports that child labor is a major and growing problem in Iraq. Excerpt:
Global Research discusses the new boogieman the U.S. has invented to succeed Zarqawi. Excerpt:
I'm going to do something we seldom do here, and that is to make an extended personal statement -- the reason being that the available reporting on this is so warped that I can't let it stand on its own. The discussion, both here and in Iraq, over Maliki's suggestion of a possible amnesty for resistance fighters who have attacked occupation forces, has been truly Orwellian. People in the U.S., including I am sorry to say much of the Democratic congressional delegation and a good part of the liberal blogosphere and chattering classes, apparently do not understand that the United States attacked and invaded Iraq. The Iraqi army fought back. Ultimately much of it went underground and continued to fight in guerilla mode. There has been no peace settlement. In fact, although as far as I know nobody has pointed this out, the government of Iraq never surrendered.
When a war ends and a peace treaty is signed, combatants return to home, and POWs are released. People who fight against foreign invaders are not terrorists, criminals, or murderers. Obviously, if the new Iraqi government ever wishes to end the insurgency and establish a true national unity government, it must come to agreement with the resistance and bring it into the political structure.
This Washington Post story tells the bizarre story of Maliki trying to maneuver between reality and his American masters. On Wednesday, he gave a press conference, in Arabic, which was televised, at which he said, "reconciliation could include an amnesty for those 'who weren't involved in the shedding of Iraqi blood. Also, it includes talks with the armed men who opposed the political process and now want to turn back to political activity.'" Yesterday, he fired an aide who had, in essence, repeated Maliki's own words to reporters, saying "Mr. Adnan Kadhimi doesn't represent the Iraqi government in this issue, and Mr. Kadhimi is not an adviser or spokesman for the prime minister. It is not true what some of the media outlets, including The Washington Post, have said about the willingness of the Iraqi government to talk with armed groups." Not true, except that Maliki said it himself, on television.
Meanwhile, back in the U.S.A., in the warped Congressional debate on Iraq staged by the Republicans, Republican Senators defended the amnesty idea - which I suppose they have to do since the administration line is that the new Iraq government is sovereign and legitimate -- while Democrats and their supporters attack them for supporting amnesty for "terrorists" who have "murdered" American forces "serving heroically in Iraq to provide all Iraqis a better future." Listen folks -- get this straight. It's a war. That's what happens in wars, people try to kill each other. If Iraqi resistance fighters who attack U.S. forces are terrorists and murderers, then by the precise same standard, U.S. troops in Iraq are terrorists who have murdered tens of thousands of Iraqis. You can't have it both ways.
RELEASES FROM THE U.S. MILITARY
Chief Journalist Lucy Quinn, USN, of the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, sent us the following and asked us to post it. From time to time we get such requests from military information services, and I thought our readers might be interested in how they want us to view the mission. You can follow the links on these sites and learn more. C.
USJFCOM hosts Joint National Training Capability training technology exposition.
Also, our friend Brian, who is interested in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, asked us to post this about their training as they prepare (apparently) to return to Iraq.
24th MEU ‘Leathernecks’ train for war.
Quote of the Day
The Republican-controlled Congress maintained its track record of providing absolutely no checks and balances on the Bush administration's war-making this week when it voted 351-67 in the House and 98-1 in the Senate to authorize another $66 billion in "emergency" spending for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. What was truly frustrating about the House vote, however, was the failure of the Democrats to use the emergency funding debate as an opening to object to Bush's determination to keep the U.S. fully engaged in a war that the overwhelming majority of Americans characterize as a mistake.
-- Editorial in the Madison, WI Capital Times
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A woman walks past a shop damaged by a car bomb attack in Baghdad, June 16, 2006. (Ali Jasim/Reuters) As is often the case, this incident was reported only in the photo captionREPORTED SECURITY INCIDENTS
11 killed, 25 wounded in suicide bombing at Shiite mosque in Baghdad. The bombing came 1 hour before the main Friday prayers, avoiding greater casualties. This AFP story also has the following incidents:
- Two killed and 16 wounded when four mortar rounds struck a house and a shop in Baghdad's Sab al-Bur neighbourhood.
- Gunmen in two trucks stormed two villages near the town of Suwayrah, 50 km south of Baghdad, in the early hours Friday, and killed three people and kidnapped nine others, police said.
- One person killed, another kidnapped when men dressed in Iraqi army uniforms attacked a house in Al-Jahar village near the town of Madain, 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of baghdad.
- An Iraqi soldier was shot dead in the northern town of Hawija.
- An employee of the Northern Gas Company shot dead near the oil city of Kirkuk.
- Thursday night, a woman and her four children were killed in Baquba when a bomb went off in a neighbor's house bringing the ceiling down on the family sleeping in the garden.
People's Daily gives the death toll from the Sab al-Bur attack as 3.
Unidentified Gunmen ambushed five trucks near Iraq's near Fallujah on Friday morning, killing the five drivers, before setting the trucks on fire. Xinhua also has these incidents:
- Three Iraqi policemen were wounded when four mortar rounds landed at about 7:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) on a police station of Ameriyat al-Fallujah town, 7 km south of Fallujah.
- Iraqi police found three unidentified bodies near the cemetery of Khaldiyah town, some 80 km west of Baghdad. The bodies showed signs of torture with bullets in the head and chest.
A high ranking Iraqi police officer was assassinated in front of his house by unidentified gunmen on Friday Mosul, an Interior Ministry source said. KUNA also has some attacks not mentioned elsewhere that did not cause casualties.
Gunmen killed Yusif al-Hassan, a senior member of the Muslim Scholars Association, near the mosque where he led prayers in Basra. The MSA is a Sunni organization opposed to the occupation.
OTHER NEWS AND IN-DEPTH REPORTING
UK downplays suggestions that coalition troops may hand over control to Iraqi forces in the south in coming weeks, say "it's a matter for the Iraqi government," as Japan prepares to withdraw its forces.
LONDON (AFP) - The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said that any decision to transfer power from the US-led coalition to Iraqi forces is a matter for the Baghdad government, after reports the first handover could happen next week. Newspapers in Japan reported Friday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will announce the end of his country's military mission in Iraq's Muthanna province next week.
Japanese troops are constitutionally barred from combat and the 600-strong contingent working on the reconstruction effort in the south of the country is currently protected by British and Australian forces. But both the MoD and Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said they could not comment on reports that Tokyo had been told that Iraqi troops will assume control there next week.
Speaking in Brussels, where Blair is attending an EU summit, his official spokesman said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said recently there would be a province-by-province transfer "if circumstances allow", possibly from July. "I cannot confirm these reports because essentially, first and foremost, this is a matter for the Iraqi government," he told reporters. "But the way this would work is that the Iraqi government would decide when it is ready to take over a province."
Investigation launched of death of 3 Iraqis in U.S. custody in May. Excerpt:
NBC News and news services. Updated: 8:31 a.m. ET June 16, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said on Friday it had started a criminal investigation into the deaths last month of three men in the custody of U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
Several U.S. soldiers were apparently involved in the deaths, which were witnessed by other soldiers who reported the incident, military sources at the Pentagon told NBC's Jim Miklaszewski. "It doesn't look good" for those men being investigated, one of the sources said.
Iraq's Deputy Justice Minister says Shia militias control jails. Al-Jazeera story presented here in full:
Iraq's prisons are overrun by Shia militias who abuse and kill inmates, the Iraqi deputy justice minister has said. "Our jails are infiltrated by the militias from top to bottom, from Basra to Baghdad," Pusho Ibrahim Yei said, adding that of special concern were the prisons run by Iraq's interior ministry that house 1,797 inmates, 90% of whom are Sunni Arabs. He also said the government had suspended the transfer of prisons and prisoners from US to Iraqi control.
"We cannot control the prisons. It is as simple as that," he said on Friday. Yei said he had written to the US officer in charge of US-run prisons in Iraq, asking him to suspend plans to transfer five facilities housing more than 15,000 inmates to Iraqi control, saying his ministry was "unprepared" for that.
US army Major-General John Gardner told The Washington Post that the transfer would not take place "until each respective facility and the Iraqi corrections system have demonstrated the ability to maintain" US standards of care and custody.
Yei said that because of concern over treatment of inmates at prisons run by the interior and defence ministries, the Iraqi police and army had agreed to turn over all their prisoners by the end of June to the justice ministry, whose facilities now house 7,426 inmates. Some local officials, however, were already resisting the transfer order, the Post said.
Without naming Shia militias as the abusers, Yei said since 2004 they had released or helped about 725 prisoners in several cities to escape from jail. In some instances, Sunni and foreign inmates were taken out of jail and shot to death by the militias, he added.
Salam al-Zobaie, the deputy prime minister, described the treatment of prisoners in the interior ministry prisons as "inhumane", and produced photographs showing signs of torture on prisoners' bodies.
Muhammad al-Dayni, a Sunni parliament member who made a surprise visit last week to an interior ministry prison in Baquba, north of Baghdad, said: "The detention facilities of the ministries of defence and interior are places for the most brutal human rights abuse." Dayni said he saw as many as 120 detainees kept in a 10.5m by 12m cell. "They told us that they've been raped. "Their families were called in and tortured to force the detainees to testify against other people," he said.
UN News agency reports that child labor is a major and growing problem in Iraq. Excerpt:
BAGHDAD - Child labour remains an overriding concern in Iraq, according to one local NGO.
"We found that child labour has increased by nearly 15 percent, with many children working in unsafe environments," said Saleh Muhammad, spokesperson for the Baghdad-based Children Saving Association, one of the few organisations dealing with the issue. "We developed a study on child labour, which is less extensive in the north of the country, where the situation is considered more stable."
The phenomena had emerged before the launch of the US-led invasion and occupation of the country in 2003, with reports of child labour increasing during the period of UN-imposed sanctions against the regime of former President Saddam Hussein.
In April 2005, a survey conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs found that children between the ages of two and five years (some 7 percent of the total) were engaged in child labour, usually in the form of street-begging. "We've begun to see more children on the streets of the capital compared to last year," said senior ministry official Haydar Ahmed. "And many of them are begging rather than working."
The report further indicated that 16 percent of boys and 43 percent of girls were illiterate. Only 50 percent of the children surveyed reported that both their parents were still alive. Children are also vulnerable to abuse.
The ministry is currently working with UNICEF to ensure that children living and working on the streets are eventually re-united and reintegrated with their families and communities. "UNICEF is engaged in a project for out-of-school children, so they're in school acquiring knowledge and skills rather than working," said Patrizia Di Giovanni, child protection officer of UNICEF. "This is being organised through the Ministry of Education through an 'accelerated learning' project."
Di Giovanni went on to explain that further support was being provided to street and working children via a number of children-friendly drop-in-centres, supported by UNICEF, designed to help children in need of special protection.
In the meantime, though, many children continue to work gruelling jobs, in hopes of improving the lots of their families. "I hope one day to return to school," said 9-year-old Hussein Abdel Rahman, who sells cigarettes on the streets of the capital. "But now, I have to help my father because he's sick and alone, and he can't put food on the table."
Global Research discusses the new boogieman the U.S. has invented to succeed Zarqawi. Excerpt:
No sooner did the corporate media parade gruesome photos of the freshly killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, or the person we are expected to believe was al-Zarqawi, then it set about arranging his successor, as evil Muslim boogiemen must remain front and center in the forever war against manufactured terrorism. “An Egyptian associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claims to have succeeded him as the new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, even though an Islamic Web site said Monday that another man was in power,” reports the Bush Ministry of Scary Campfire Stories, Fox News division. “Brig. Gen. Carter Ham said at a Pentagon news conference on Wednesday that Abu al-Masri, whose name surfaced shortly after reports of Zarqawi’s death became widespread as a successor, had claimed to be in charge of Al Qaeda in Iraq.” In short, the covert op pseudo-gang “al-Qaeda in Iraq” needs a new face, as the demonization of the resistance must continue.
According to Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, “If you had to pick somebody” as the probable new boogieman, it would be Abu al-Masri. Caldwell did not bother to tell us who would do the picking but this is of course a no-brainer—the picking was accomplished in the PSYOP unit at the Pentagon. Several candidates were bantered around the corporate media prior to al-Masri’s selection: most notably Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, pegged as an “al-Qaeda” leader or “emir” (since he is dead, al-Iraqi was quickly removed from the candidate list) and Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, who we are told is sort of the CEO of the Iraqi resistance (the Mujahedeen Shura Council). Obviously, for the Pentagon, al-Masri has the most attractive skillset and thus he was appointed. Now it is up to the corporate media to build him up, probably only to eventually tear him down, as al-Zarqawi (or rather his stand-in) was torn down with the help of a couple 500lb bombs.
I'm going to do something we seldom do here, and that is to make an extended personal statement -- the reason being that the available reporting on this is so warped that I can't let it stand on its own. The discussion, both here and in Iraq, over Maliki's suggestion of a possible amnesty for resistance fighters who have attacked occupation forces, has been truly Orwellian. People in the U.S., including I am sorry to say much of the Democratic congressional delegation and a good part of the liberal blogosphere and chattering classes, apparently do not understand that the United States attacked and invaded Iraq. The Iraqi army fought back. Ultimately much of it went underground and continued to fight in guerilla mode. There has been no peace settlement. In fact, although as far as I know nobody has pointed this out, the government of Iraq never surrendered.
When a war ends and a peace treaty is signed, combatants return to home, and POWs are released. People who fight against foreign invaders are not terrorists, criminals, or murderers. Obviously, if the new Iraqi government ever wishes to end the insurgency and establish a true national unity government, it must come to agreement with the resistance and bring it into the political structure.
This Washington Post story tells the bizarre story of Maliki trying to maneuver between reality and his American masters. On Wednesday, he gave a press conference, in Arabic, which was televised, at which he said, "reconciliation could include an amnesty for those 'who weren't involved in the shedding of Iraqi blood. Also, it includes talks with the armed men who opposed the political process and now want to turn back to political activity.'" Yesterday, he fired an aide who had, in essence, repeated Maliki's own words to reporters, saying "Mr. Adnan Kadhimi doesn't represent the Iraqi government in this issue, and Mr. Kadhimi is not an adviser or spokesman for the prime minister. It is not true what some of the media outlets, including The Washington Post, have said about the willingness of the Iraqi government to talk with armed groups." Not true, except that Maliki said it himself, on television.
Meanwhile, back in the U.S.A., in the warped Congressional debate on Iraq staged by the Republicans, Republican Senators defended the amnesty idea - which I suppose they have to do since the administration line is that the new Iraq government is sovereign and legitimate -- while Democrats and their supporters attack them for supporting amnesty for "terrorists" who have "murdered" American forces "serving heroically in Iraq to provide all Iraqis a better future." Listen folks -- get this straight. It's a war. That's what happens in wars, people try to kill each other. If Iraqi resistance fighters who attack U.S. forces are terrorists and murderers, then by the precise same standard, U.S. troops in Iraq are terrorists who have murdered tens of thousands of Iraqis. You can't have it both ways.
RELEASES FROM THE U.S. MILITARY
Chief Journalist Lucy Quinn, USN, of the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, sent us the following and asked us to post it. From time to time we get such requests from military information services, and I thought our readers might be interested in how they want us to view the mission. You can follow the links on these sites and learn more. C.
USJFCOM hosts Joint National Training Capability training technology exposition.
By JOC(SW/AW) Chris Hoffpauir
USJFCOM Public Affairs
(SUFFOLK, Va. – June 1, 2006) – U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) gave visiting general and flag officers a walking tour of displays and technology demonstrations today to showcase the command's efforts in training transformation.
USJFCOM's Joint Warfighter Center (JWFC) coordinated the event to highlight current and future investment strategies for supporting joint and service training programs. The demonstrations provided a unique opportunity for service, combatant command and DoD officials to see the latest technologies and Joint National Training Capability (JNTC) initiatives the command is pursuing.
"This technology demonstration is part of USJFCOM's ongoing effort to foster a rapid transition of innovative science and technology from the laboratory to the field, focus research and development activities, and promote partnerships with industry that expedite capability solutions," JWFC Commander and USJFCOM's Director of Joint Training Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Jon Gallinetti said in a letter welcoming the group.
Navy Capt. David Frost, director of the JNTC Joint Management Office at JWFC, said today's event focused on the technologies used to provide credible opposing forces (OPFOR) for training.
"Having realistic opposing forces is one of the key elements of the JNTC initiative," Frost said. "What we're demonstrating here is what we're doing within the OPFOR realm and where our investments are going. We're using 80 to 90 percent of what's on display today now in JNTC-enabled exercises.
Also, our friend Brian, who is interested in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, asked us to post this about their training as they prepare (apparently) to return to Iraq.
24th MEU ‘Leathernecks’ train for war.
ABOARD USS IWO JIMA(June 15, 2006) -- Marines with Alpha and Weapons Companies, Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) tested their fast roping skills June 14 while underway aboard the USS Iwo Jima.
As the Ground Combat Element of the 24th MEU, each infantry Marine may be called upon to enter a number of chaotic battlefield situations that may not allow a helicopter to land. Fast-roping is a technique used to deploy Marines quickly without the aircraft landing - helping to preserve air assets from enemy fire. Fast-roping can also be used as a means of engaging the enemy in a tactical manner with an elite, quick-reaction force.
Marines with the MEU are undergoing an aggressive program to further enhance their technique by first sending Marines down the rope from a stationary aircraft and progressing to fast roping from an aircraft hovering above the flight deck.
The MEU completed its last overseas deployment -- a seven-month tour in Iraq -- in February 2005 and returns to the front lines of the Global War on Terrorism equipped to operate as a flexible force capable of devastating the enemy in both small-scale, low intensity conflicts and larger, Marine Air Ground Task Force-size engagements.
The 24th MEU last week began an expected six-month deployment to the European and Central Command theaters of operation. The MEU is composed of its command element; Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment; Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 365 (Reinforced); and MEU Service Support Group 24.
Quote of the Day
The Republican-controlled Congress maintained its track record of providing absolutely no checks and balances on the Bush administration's war-making this week when it voted 351-67 in the House and 98-1 in the Senate to authorize another $66 billion in "emergency" spending for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. What was truly frustrating about the House vote, however, was the failure of the Democrats to use the emergency funding debate as an opening to object to Bush's determination to keep the U.S. fully engaged in a war that the overwhelming majority of Americans characterize as a mistake.
-- Editorial in the Madison, WI Capital Times
