Bible lawyers are coming to a court near YOU

Inside Guantanamo: the new symbol of US democracy?

The bad news is: Saddam's deputy, the pathetic `Izzat Ad-Duri has not been found despite massive raids. The good news is: his wife and daughter were found and arrested, as was his secretary. Let us hope that they find and arrest his grandchildren and his maid. Keep hope alive.

I knew that this was coming: playing by the Israeli playbook of occupation. US forms a paramilitary militia in Iraq. Nothing hardened people's positions against the Israeli occupation in South Lebanon more than the South Lebanon Army (the militia of thugs that Israel founded). The name of the new militia in Iraq is: "South Iraq Army." The head of the South Lebanon Army fled for his life when Israel was forced to leave Lebanon, and is now nicknamed General Hummus (not to be confused with Gen. Falafil) in the Israeli press because he just opened a Middle East restaurant in Israel. He promised to not shoot at his customers. Old habits are hard to break: he has been accustomed to shooting at Lebanese civilians.

Please offer your condolences: the Kyoto Accord is dead. Flowers are being sent to American oil corporations, and to the Republican and Democratic parties. The Russian government is accepting candy.

On the small, very small, number of Israeli pilots who did not want to kill innocent Palestinians.

A group of military lawyers (who served as defense team in Guantanamo) was fired by the US government, because they protested the unfairness of the trial. US government rules that it is unfair to declare anything unfair in the land of the free and fairness. Oh, and Fox News is Fair and Balanced. Never forget that.

A special report with images on the war in Samarra'

Media and democracy, or media vs. democracy?

A group of Israeli rabbis issued a fatwa, declaring the Israeli negotiators in Geneva to be "traitors" who "should be brought to justice and declared outside the brotherhood of humanity"

Apparently, Disney Chief Eisner used to call his rivals "Shi`ite Muslims" (allegedly). He meant it as an insult.

I try to post items in English only on this website, but this is an exception. Two hours after posting the item below about the new report about the Iraqi resistance, and its constituent elements, my friend Abu Fiona sent me the full report. It has the most detailed information on who is who in the Iraqi resistance. It shows a diverse group of organizations that cannot be reduced to "Saddam's thugs" or to "infiltrators" from Syria. Apparently, Sunni fundamentalist groups play the major part, but others play a part too: nationalist groups, the dissolved elements of the Iraqi army, and some possible presence of AlQa`idah (which distributed flyers in Iraq). AlQaedah most likely came into Iraq after the war, taking advantage of the chaoes of the battle. But AlQa`idah has no chance of gaining a foothold in Iraq, or anywhere else in the region (perhaps with the exception of Saudi Arabia). There is no popular base for that group, and Bin Laden's speeches and messages are ignored (outside of Saudi Arabia, I should add where he remains popular among the Wahhabi fanatics). AlQa`idah, we have to remember, comes out of the Wahhabi tradition, which contains a fanatically anti-Shi`ite component. For Wahhabis, Shi`ites are not even Muslims. (You will read about all that in my new book about Saudi Arabia coming out in a few months). And we have to remember that Saddam indirectly unleashed fundamentalist powers after 1995 when he declared his "faith campaign," which stressed the role of religion in politics. With every defeat, Saddam gets more religious and pious.

Amnesty International raises questions about the death of two Afghans in US custody:

Full report: merchants of toture equipments

Why does this article on a police video showing US officers fatally beating a black man appear in UK newspapers, but not in US newspapers?

This is quite interesting: the Al-Arabi newspaper in Cairo published a study by an Iraqi researcher, `Abdul-Karim Al-`Uluji, in which he details the names and nature of Iraqi resistance organizations. He lists some 27 different names of organizations that have claimed responsibility for attacks against various targets in Iraq (and Arab media cannot publicize their names or proclamations because the royal decree by Paul Bremer bans that) in Iraq. According to his list, the primary element of the resistance is comprised of Islamic fundamentalist groups, followed by different Arab nationalist and Iraqi nationalist groups, and in third place are the groups that are loyal to the deposed Iraqi regime. This of course clashes with the picture that is presented by US media about all these groups being loyal to the previous regime. This proves that Gen. Abizaid was right: Saddam is NOT capable of leading or planning an military campaign of any kind. He is too incompetent. (I have not read the aforementioned report in AlArabi. The website of the paper has been off for a few days. I read about it in an article by Fahmi Al-Huwaydi in As-Safir newspaper today).

The is the most comprehensive public opinion survey of Iraqis that I have seen: conducted by people from the Department of Sociology at Oxford University. It reveals that nearly 80 percent of Iraqis have little or no trust in US occupation forces. Please, I plead with you to not tell the US administration. They will get upset. They still think that they are regarded as forces of liberation.

Jealous of the anger of the Angry Arab, American liberals are getting angry. High time, I say.

Among those killed by Israeli troops is a 9-year old boy. Israel continues its heroic battle against terrorism, and terrorist women and children.

Victory for the US in Iraq: defeat for forces of democracy and elections: the Iraqi puppet council rejects the idea of elections. Why should they stand for elections when most of them know that they will never win (not in Iraq, anyway). The right to stay in power, without electoral legitimacy, is aright defended by US troops in Iraq. This is the new era of democracy and freedom promised by Bush in that famous speech of his when he said: "freedom, free, liberty, freedom, freed, free, liberty, free, freedom." Eloquently put.

The city of Rotterdam plans to ban poor immigrants from moving in

Save the Children UK refuses to be silenced: they decide to ignore the disgusting pressures from Save the Children US which wants it to be silent about hte plight of Iraqi children

Rumsfeld receives a prestigious prize for obfuscation (thanks to Munzir, Rania, Amal, Julie, and Allen, among others that I may have forgotten who have sent this to me; quite an amusing story)

Iraqis challenge US version of events in Samarra'

No wonder Angry Arab is angry: Donald Rumsfeld, not to be confused with Donald Duck, expressed anger at Arab satellite stations AlArabiya and Aljazeera because he said that they sometimes get advance notice of attacks on US troops. There is absolutely no evidence of that. And both indicated that they have never aired footage of attacks or bombings live in Iraq. Yet, they were singled out for criticisms (and both are funded by client governments of the US), and AlArabiya was banned by the US colonial administration in Iraq, and its puppet council. And yet I have not heard criticisms of the French sensational magazine ParisMatch (which combines politics and celebrity) which has put on its website video footage of the attempt to shoot down a DHL cargo plane in Iraq (a civilian target for sure). Notice that when the page comes (wait for a few seconds) the cover of the web site combines Michael Jackson's story with "Irak Exlusif".

Text of the Geneva Accord: signed by an Israeli and a Palestinian who barely represent themselves. The accord abolished the right of return, gave Israel the right to keep some 80 percent of settlements, and the right to dominate a tiny demilitarized Palestinian state. But why should the Israeli army have to face armed Palestinians? Should they not enjoy the right to kill and maim without opposition from the Palestinians?

Coming to a war near you: US war robots.

I will be interviewed live tomorrow Tuesday morning at 7:30AM Pacific Time (10:30AM Eastern Time) on the Morning Show on KPFA. You may listen Live.

a boy punished for mentioning his lesbian mom (thanks Krista)

This is the official account of the event at Samarra' by the US military: notice that the estimate of enemy dead is now 24 (not 54), but who is counting.

The new "liberated" Iraq (which may resemble Saddam's Iraq): the media order of the Calition Provisional Authority (read US military administration) bans media that, among other listed reasons, contain material that "is patently false and is calculated to promote opposition to the CPA or undermine legitimate processes towards self-government." (see p. 2, section 3, item (i)

..now more stories about what happened in Samarra': (see below). Iraqi hospital sources are now reporting 8 Iraqis dead (not the 54 reported by US military). And they insist that they were civilians. Some accounts mention that the men may have been bank robbers waiting for a convoy of cars carrying the new Iraqi currency. So where does the figure 54 come from? And who were those people? And I also doubt that Saddam's Fida'iyyin would wear their identifiable uniforms, as the US media are reporting: let us not forget that many, if not most, Iraqis loath and detest those units of Saddam's worst henchmen, and regard them, rightly, as thugs as they did the dirty work of their leader `Udayy Saddam Husayn. Many Iraqis would arrest them or kill them if they see them. Mystery of the story expands.

..and Shi`ites are pushing for autonomy in South

Even stupid Time magazine is reporting about losing hearts and minds in Iraq

So US troops killed some 46 Iraqis. The US press is calling all of them terrorists (or "assassins and thugs" in the precise language of Bush). Now if these were insurgents (and wearing the uniforms of Fida'iyyi Saddam, as the US government is claiming), why would they concentrate together in such larger numbers? The most basic rule of guerrilla warfare is to not concentrate in large numbers to create such an easy target for the enemy? But we are led to believe that those not only gathered together in large numbers, but dressed in recognizable uniforms to be easily identifiable for US troops. What are they going to tell us about them next? Will the US military now also claim that they had t-shirts carrying the signs:"We are Saddam's thugs and assassins"? Have you noticed that not a single US newspaper carried a skeptical story about them.

For a skeptical and different account of what happened, go here

Sharon may annex part of West Bank: Ayatollah Bush is pleased

Pork feast

On how the US is losing its bottle

Iraqi puppet council is changing its views on the "US plan" for Iraq: it suddenly noticed public opinion

That Iraqi scientists lied about the existence of Iraqi nuclear weapons, and that Bush officials lied about Iraqi weapons and everything else

"Confessions" of a UK prisoner

How the US is moving quietly toward a flat tax (thanks Julie)

Why Zionism IS racism: how Israeli universities try to limit the number of Arab students by resorting to "special admission tests":

The rise of the Ayatollahs in Iraq: Anthony Shadid (who used to write for the Boston Globe) is the best Washington Post reporter, and did a decent job during the war

God on the quad: the rise of Christian evangelism on US campuses: (Neil, a reporter for the Boston Globe) was my student some 455 years ago)

...and the number of Americans who claim no religion has increased (thanks Shawna)