GI SPECIAL 4D15

Stephen Joseph Perez, 22, with the U.S. Marine Corps, was killed Wednesday in Iraq. (Courtesy photo)

“He Told Us It Wasn’t Like What Was On TV”
“He Said It Was 10 Times Worse”
“It Was The Worst Place Imaginable”
S.A. Family Learns Young Marine Is Dead

04/14/2006 Michelle Mondo, Express-News Staff Writer, KENS 5

The family of a local Marine gathered at a Northwest Side home to grieve Thursday night after learning their 22-year-old relative had been killed in Iraq.

Few details were given to the family concerning the death of Cpl. Stephen Joseph Perez, his brother Kenneth said.

“Two Marines just came to our door at 6:30 and told us that he died,” Perez, 26, said.

Perez said he didn’t know which unit his brother was assigned to, but did know he was based out of Camp Pendleton in California and had been training Iraqi soldiers. He said Perez often traveled from Karma to Fallujah, two known hotspots.

“When he was in Karma I would talk to him at least twice a week and we would get a letter every two weeks,” Perez said. “He was always worried about us worrying about him.”

Perez said the Marines told the family they would have more information in the coming days. Then, they handed the family Perez’s cell phone, his brother said.

Perez joined the Marines after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He had been a freshman at St. Mary’s University studying engineering.

“He couldn’t believe anyone would do that to his country,” he said. “He loved his country so much.”

Perez’s mother was at the house when the Marines delivered the news. Perez’s father and grandfather live in Eagle Pass.

Perez’s first tour in Iraq began in December 2004. He was sent to Southeast Asia to help the tsunami victims but returned to Iraq this January. He was due to come home in August. He wanted to return to St. Mary’s and get his teaching certificate.

“He told us it wasn’t like what was on TV. He said it was 10 times worse. It was the worst place imaginable,” Perez said.

As the news of his death spread Thursday night, cars lined both sides of the street leading to Perez’s house. Family and friends, carrying plastic bags filled with food, consoled each other at the end of the driveway.

“We’re all in shock,” Kenneth Perez said. “It’s like I’ve been dreaming, but it’s not, it’s reality. You never think it would happen to one of your own.”

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

TWO MARINES KILLED,
22 WOUNDED IN AL ANBAR PROVINCE

4/14/2006 HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND NEWS RELEASE Number: 06-04-01CR

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq: Two Marines died and 22 were wounded due to enemy action while operating in al Anbar Province April 13.

One Marine, assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, died at the scene of the attack. Another, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died at a medical facility in Taqqadum.

Eight wounded Marines, all assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, were evacuated by air to a medical facility in Balad. Two were listed in critical condition. Six were listed in stable condition.

Ten wounded Marines, all assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, were evacuated to a medical facility at Camp Fallujah. Four were being held for observation. Six were treated and returned to duty.

Four other Marines assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 received minor wounds.

Three Fort Hood Soldiers Killed,
Another Broke Back And Loses Both Legs

Apr 13, 2006 KCEN TV:

The soldiers were assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, First Brigade Combat Team.

The soldiers killed are Corporal Joseph Blanco of California, Private First Class James Costello of Missouri, and Private First Class George Roehl Junior of New Hampshire.

Private Devon Gibbons, was severely burned during the insurgent attack. Gibbons father told a newspaper in his home state of Washington Devon was badly burned, broke his back and lost both legs.

The Defense Department says a roadside bomb exploded near the soldiers’ Bradley in Taji on Tuesday. Then they were shot at.

The newspaper reports that Gibbons is being transferred from a hospital in Germany to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

Local Marine Killed

Lance Cpl. Marcus Glimpse

April 14, 2006 By JEFF ROWE, The Orange County Register

Lance Cpl. Marcus Glimpse of Huntington Beach was killed Wednesday when an improvised bomb exploded at the security checkpoint where he was deployed in Al Anbar province in Iraq.

Glimpse, 22, is the 26th Orange County resident to die in Afghanistan or Iraq. He was a machine gunner and on his second tour in Iraq.

Glimpse was born in Fort Sill, Okla., and spent his elementary and junior high years in Plano, Texas. He graduated from Huntington Beach Continuing Education High School.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps in October 2003 and had been stationed at Camp Pendleton. His twin brother, Michael, was an Army paratrooper. “He (Marcus) always needed to outdo his brother,” said his father, Guy Glimpse, speaking of Marcus’ decision to join the Marine Corps.

Besides his father and brother, Marcus leaves his mother, Maryan, and sisters Mandy and Megan.

On an earlier deployment, Marcus had helped with tsunami relief in Sri Lanka in early 2005. He returned to Iraq in January.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPREHENSIBLE REASON TO BE IN THIS EXTREMELY HIGH RISK LOCATION AT THIS TIME, EXCEPT THAT A TRAITOR WHO LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU THERE, SO HE WILL LOOK GOOD.
That is not a good enough reason.

A US soldier at a police station damaged in a blast in Mosul. (AFP/Mujahed Mohammed)

Basra Bomb Wounds 4 British Soldiers

4.14.06 Reuters

BASRA, Iraq: A roadside bomb killed two Iraqis and wounded four British soldiers near the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Friday, a British military spokesman said.

Rockets, Mortar Rounds Hit U.S. Base Near Fallujah

April 13, 2006 People’s Daily

Insurgents on Thursday fired rockets and mortar rounds at a U.S. military base near the restive city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, witnesses said.

“Insurgents fired two rockets at 6:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) and three mortar rounds 90 minutes later, at Habaniyah military base, which houses U.S. and Iraqi forces,” witnesses told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

They said they heard loud explosions and sirens in the base and saw U.S. helicopters hovering over the area around the base.

Notes From A Lost War:
Ramadi:
“It Seemed Like We Were Fighting The Entire City”

[This is supposed to be a news story about a lucky soldier. Read between the lines: it’s really about a besieged occupation army stuck in a losing war, and attacked on every side. T]

April 14, 2006 By Todd Pitman, Associated Press

RAMADI, Iraq: The young Marine had just shot a suspected insurgent and was walking back across the villa’s rooftop when he keeled over from a terrific thud to the back of his head.

A sniper had fired a single, well-aimed bullet that tore through the top of Lance Cpl. Richard Caseltine’s helmet, traced a path along the edge of his skull and buried burning bullet fragments in the back of his neck.

Less than a minute later, the 20-year-old from Aurora, Ind., was up on his feet — crouching, shaking and miraculously, still alive.

“You expect when somebody gets shot in the head, they’re dead,” the soft-spoken Caseltine told The Associated Press in an interview, cradling the battered camouflage helmet that saved his life Saturday. “I consider myself very lucky.”

Caseltine was among two squads from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment’s India Company moving through the rocket-blasted streets of downtown Ramadi on a joint foot patrol with the Iraqi army.

Caseltine and several others were tasked with providing “overwatch,” finding a place from where they could watch over the rest of the patrol.

They entered the front gate of a two-story villa and herded a man, his wife and their children into a room.

Four Marines then climbed the stairs to a rooftop enclosed by shoulder-high walls, each taking positions in separate corners to scan adjacent buildings and streets.

Half an hour later, Lance Cpl. Benjamin Congleton, 22, of Lexington, Ky., spotted a man in a black T-shirt crouching on the ground near a light pole. He was fiddling with a tangle of wires and looking from side to side.

Congleton called Caseltine over for a second opinion. They agreed the man was trying to plant a bomb.

Congleton fired his M-16, but missed. The startled man tried to stand up. Caseltine fired his M-4 Carbine, hitting the man in the leg. Congleton then shot the man in the head as he tried to flee down an alleyway, apparently killing him.

Caseltine took three or four steps back to his position in the rooftop corner when he felt something strike the top backside of his helmet.

“It felt like somebody came from behind and punched me in the back of the head as hard as they could,” Caseltine said. “It just rocked me. I went forward and my ears started ringing really bad. I couldn’t hear anything.”

It wasn’t clear at first if one of the Marines had misfired one of their weapons. But in a split-second, they understood the sole shot had not come from them.

Ducking to the ground, they rushed to Caseltine’s aid.

“He was yelling, ‘I got hit! I got hit!’ Congleton said.

A cursory check revealed blood at the back of Caseltine’s neck but no serious wounds.

Caseltine was still conscious. Able to walk, he got up and, crouching, moved to the relative safety of a room downstairs, where a Navy corpsman examined him.

The back of his neck burned, but he was fine otherwise.

“He had this big smile on his face,” said Lance Cpl. Jefferson Ortiz, 21, of Miami. “He knew he’d gotten very, very lucky.”

As troops popped smoke grenades, a Humvee arrived to evacuated the wounded Marine.

Congleton said he believed the sniper had been providing “overwatch” for insurgents planting bombs in preparation for a major assault on the Marine-protected provincial government headquarters. The attack began the minute the rest of the squad exited the villa.

“We were taking fire from every street corner,” Congleton said. “It seemed like we were fighting the entire city.”

Bounding across rubble-strewn intersections nearby, one Iraqi soldier was hit by a bomb that blew other Iraqis into the air.

Some got up and kept running, but one soldier lay writhing and bloodied; one of legs was partially detached. A couple Iraqi soldiers began dragging him by his clothes, but a Marine lifted the soldier onto his back and carried him away, Congleton said.

Caseltine, meanwhile, was flown to a military medical facility at nearby Balad Air Base, where medics removed fragments from the bullet that were lodged a quarter-inch into the back of his neck.

“They said I was lucky it didn’t go in deeper. My luck was running pretty good that day,” Caseltine said. “If I had bought a lottery ticket, I probably would have won.”

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Two British Soldiers Wounded In Lashkar Gah

14 April 2006 Reuters

Three policemen were killed on Friday when a remote-control bomb hit their truck on a main road outside the southeastern town of Khost, said provincial police chief Mohammad Ayoub.

Earlier, two British soldiers from a NATO-led peacekeeping force were among three people wounded in suicide car-bomb attack in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of the southern province of Helmand.

The attacker died as he rammed his car into a vehicle near the entrance of a base used by foreign troops, said senior provincial official Mahaiuddin, who uses one name. The Taliban telephoned Reuters to claim responsibility.

Elsewhere on Friday, foreign and Afghan forces, backed by air support, launched an offensive against Taliban fighters hiding in Maiwand district of Kandahar province, said Rahmatullah Raufi, a senior Afghan National Army commander.

At least on Afghan soldier was killed in the fighting, a provincial official said.

The Great Afghan Stolen Secrets Farce Rolls On

The troops hadn’t returned to the market by Friday afternoon despite dozens of the flash drives still being available.

April 14, 2006 By Daniel Cooney, Associated Press & Washington Post

BAGRAM, Afghanistan: Shopkeepers outside U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan said Friday that American investigators have paid them thousands of dollars to return stolen computer drives, many of which contained sensitive military data.

But dozens of the memory sticks were still on sale in shops outside the base and the shopkeepers let an Associated Press reporter review about 40 of them on a laptop computer.

One shopkeeper, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution, said soldiers went around the market outside the base Thursday carrying “a box full of afghanis (the Afghan currency), buying all they could find.”

He said he sold about 50 for $2,000, roughly about $40 each. A day earlier, he was selling them for about half that price.

“They said they wanted them all and price wasn’t important,” the shopkeeper said.

The troops hadn’t returned to the market by Friday afternoon despite dozens of the flash drives still being available.

Maps, charts and intelligence reports on computer drives smuggled out of the main U.S. base in Afghanistan and sold at a nearby bazaar appear to detail how Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders have been using southwestern Pakistan as a key planning and training base for attacks.

In one report contained in a flash memory drive, a U.S. handler indicates that the United States discussed with two Afghan spies the possibility of capturing or killing Taliban commanders in Pakistani territory.

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER
Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! (www.ivaw.net)

TROOP NEWS

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

The casket of U.S. Marine Sgt. David Kreuter in Spring Grove Cemetery, Aug. 20, 2005 in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/David Kohl)

Rats Abandon The Stinking Shit:
Two More Retired Generals Demand Rumsfeld’s Resignation,
Six This Month, So Far.

The difference this time is that those insisting that the secretary should step down are recently retired flag officers who appear to reflect widespread sentiment among people still in uniform.

“The senior civilian leadership is going to do everything it possibly can to avoid having responsibility for the war fixed on them, and the senior military leadership is equally determined to have them left holding the bag,” Mr Bacevich said.

April 14,2006 By TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer & Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington, The Guardian

Retired Army Major Gen. John Riggs told National Public Radio that Rumsfeld fostered an “atmosphere of arrogance.” Retired Army Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack told CNN that Rumsfeld micromanaged the war. “We need a new secretary of defense,” he said.

Military experts say the parade of recently retired military brass calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation is troubling and threatens to undermine strong support Bush has enjoyed among the officer corps and troops. [This qualifies as the most out of touch with reality sentence in a news story for April 2006, so far. The troops support Bush like a rope supports a hanging man.]

With public anti-war sentiment increasing, “the president and his team cannot afford to lose that support,” said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense. [In that case, he’s truly fucked. And Campbell must have his head fixed firmly up his ass to have to failed to notice that a Zogby poll found 29% of troops in Iraq are for immediate withdrawal, and 72% say get out no later than Dec. 31, 2005. Duh.]

Yet for Bush to try to distance himself from Rumsfeld “would call into question everything about the last three years’ strategy in ways the White House worries would send a very negative message,” said Campbell, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It’s a bursting of the dam in some ways of the frustration and anger, not only with the policies but with the way that Mr Rumsfeld has interacted with people, the disrespect he has shown to the military,” said Richard Kohn, a military historian at the University of North Carolina.

“You have a group now that is looking back and saying: ‘Wow. I should have said something earlier.’ I think as time goes on it is natural that more and more generals after agonising over what they have seen over the last three years might voice their concerns,” said Robert Work, a retired Marine colonel and an analyst at the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

But some in the military are anxious to avoid blame for the Iraq war.

Republicans in Congress have offered Rumsfeld little in the way of public support.

The defense of Rumsfeld is a perennial exercise for the White House whenever a fresh round of Rumsfeld-must-go demands arise on Capitol Hill or elsewhere in Washington.

The difference this time is that those insisting that the secretary should step down are recently retired flag officers who appear to reflect widespread sentiment among people still in uniform.

MORE:

Dumb General
“Batiste Is Guilty Of Lapses In Judgment Just As Gross As Rumsfeld’s”

From: Don Bacon, The Smedley Butler Society
To: GI Special
Sent: April 14, 2006
Subject: Dumb Generals

[Comment by Don Bacon:]

ISN’T IT ODD HOW GENERALS GET SMARTER WHEN THEY RETIRE?

BUT THEY’RE STILL NOT SMART ENOUGH TO QUESTION THE FOLLY OF IMPERIALISM

GENERAL BATISTE: “IRAQIS DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES” (LIKE BATISTE?)

LISTEN UP, BATISTE: THEY UNDERSTAND THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES FULL WELL—TO GET US OUT OF THEIR COUNTRY.

YOU WERE WRONG A YEAR AGO AND YOU’RE WRONG NOW.

DO WHAT OLD GENERALS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO AND JUST FADE AWAY.

****************************************

April 13, 2006 David Axe, Defensetech.org

Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, former commander of the 82nd Airborne Division: this year:

Batiste, like (Army Maj. Gen. Charles) Swannack, joined the fray (slamming Rumsfeld) relatively late, in an interview with CNN’s Miles O’Brien on Wednesday.

The interview opened with Batiste slamming Iraq’s potential for democracy: “Iraqis, frankly, in my experience, do not understand democracy. Nor do they understand their responsibilities for a free society.”

The interview continued:

O’BRIEN: So, you’re suggesting a wholesale house cleaning (of Defense Dept. leadership)?

BATISTE: I didn’t say wholesale. I said new leadership in the Pentagon, a fresh start. You know, it speaks volumes that guys like me are speaking out from retirement about the leadership climate in the Department of Defense.

O’BRIEN: What is going on that is — what is it about that climate that is leading to difficulties, leading to trouble, leading to — as you put it — perhaps unnecessary bloodshed?

BATISTE: I didn’t say unnecessary bloodshed. But when decisions are made without taking into account sound military recommendations, sound military decision making, sound planning, then we’re bound to make mistakes.

When we violate the principles of war with mass and unity of command and unity of effort, we do that at our own peril.

****************************************

[David Axe writes:]

Ahem.

I met Batiste a year ago when he was commander of the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq. We spoke for an hour about the insurgency, the Iraqi Army and the upcoming January election for an interim national assembly.

The difference between Batiste’s attitude then and his attitude now is surprising.

Last year, he said the insurgency was “not an impressive effort”, insisted that Al Qaeda was behind the worst attacks in Iraq and predicted that everyday Iraqis would soon turn against insurgents.

And the kicker: he described the chunk of the World Trade Center that he kept in his office to remind himself why we had to invade Iraq.

From the safety of retirement, and with his buddies watching his back, Batiste has lashed out at Rumsfeld.

But Batiste is guilty of lapses in judgment just as gross as Rumsfeld’s.

The only difference is that Rumsfeld ranks higher, so his lapses have greater consequences. I’m not defending Rummy.

But if Batiste were Secretary of Defense instead, I doubt we’d be much better off.

Below are excerpts of my interview with Batiste:

Q: What is the insurgent strategy?

BATISTE: I haven’t seen an insurgent strategy. I’ve seen disparate efforts. A piece of me says that we give them too much credit.

Q: What is the gravest threat (in the 1st Infantry Division area of operations)?

BATISTE: Al Qaeda.

Q: How are Iraqi security forces shaping up?

BATISTE: The enemy … he’s a coward, is what he is. It’s not an impressive effort, and these great Iraqi security forces are figuring that out. [Carve that world class idiocy on his tombstone.]

Q: What does a successful election mean for Iraq?

BATISTE: A good election is a huge victory. Our challenge is to give Iraqis an alternative to an insurgency. You know, I carry a piece of the World Trade Center … to remind me why we’re here.

Q: Why are we here?

BATISTE: To end radical Islamic fundamentalism.

Q: But wasn’t Saddam Hussein’s regime hostile to radical Islamists?

BATISTE: We could argue about that all night.

[end of interview]

David Axe

MORE:

When Batiste Kissed The Rumsfeld Ass

April 14, 2006 Washington Times

On a chilly December night in 2004, General Batiste introduced Rumsfeld to his soldiers thus: “This is a man with the courage and the conviction to win the war on terrorism.”

MORE:

“Are There Really Thousands And Thousands Of American Admirals And Generals Alive Right Now?”

From: A
To: GI Special
Sent: April 14, 2006

Why are all the generals asking Rumsfeld to remove himself? Does shit flush itself down the toilet?

“The fact that two or three or four retired people have different views, I respect their views,” Rumsfeld said.

“But obviously if, out of thousands and thousands of admirals and generals, if every time two or three people disagreed we changed the secretary of defense of the United States, it would be like a merry-go-round.” 4.14.06 TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

Question:

Are there really thousands and thousands of American admirals and generals alive right now?

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top.

Oh Please!
They Can’t Find Him, If He Exists At All, But He Sent General Vines His Travel Schedule?

April 14, 2006 Washington Times

Al Qaeda in Iraq and its presumed leader, Abu Musab Zarqawi, have conceded strategic defeat and are on their way out of the country, a top U.S. military official contended.

The group’s failure to disrupt national elections and a constitutional referendum last year “was a tactical admission by Zarqawi that their strategy had failed,” said Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, who commands the XVIII Airborne Corps.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Elaborately Planned Resistance Ambush Wipes Out Occupation Cop Convoy:
U.S. Troops Help The Insurgents Set It Up:
Heavy Losses For Collaborator Regime

4.14.06 By Nelson Hernandez and Saad Sarhan, WASHINGTON POST & Omaha World-Herald & Aljazeera & Reuters & AP & BAKU TODAY

The assault on a convoy of 50 to 60 police cars erupted outside the town of Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad, said 1st Lt. Mouayiad Shukor in Najaf.

Shukor said approximately 90 officers from four stations in Najaf had just picked up new cars in Taji and were traveling south to get new weapons and ammunition when they found the main road blocked by U.S. troops.

The Americans told the Iraqis that they had discovered a bomb on the road and told them to take a detour through the countryside, following them part of the way before letting them go on alone, Shukor said.

A roadside bomb exploded, and attackers hidden in the orchards and farmhouses flanking the road opened fire on the convoy with Kalashnikov assault rifles and RPK machine guns. Over the course of a two-hour firefight, all the police cars were destroyed, Shukor said, and survivors fled to a nearby military base on foot and by hitching rides.

Shukor said that only five of the 22 men in his unit returned to Najaf alive.

As ambulances loaded with wounded police trickled back into Najaf, a team of special police commandos guarded the entrance to the local hospital and refused to allow journalists inside.

A senior Najaf police official, General Abbas Mohammad, said that at least 17 were killed, 10 were wounded and 50 missing after the bombing.

Authorities were still trying to determine casualties, Interior Ministry and police sources said on Friday.

Most of the police vehicles were destroyed, officials said.

The sources said they feared at least 30 policemen were either dead or missing after Thursday’s attack.

In Najaf, a senior official in the governor’s office said only 35 of 80 members of the police convoy had returned to the Shiite city 100 miles south of Baghdad.

Assorted Resistance Action

4.14.06 KUNA & Aljazeera & Reuters & KUNA

Police major from the northern oil centre of Kirkuk was killed in drive-by shooting Friday.

Another Iraqi Police officer was assassinated on Friday by guerrillas in Kirkuk.

Chief of Aqdhiya Police, Brigadier Sahrad Qader told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that they opened fire on Lieutenant Marwan Yousef on a road between Kirkuk and Tikrit, killing him instantly.

Resistance fighters captured police Superintendent Maytham Abas Ali in Dor Al-Faylaq west of Kirkuk, taking him to an unknown destination, said the source.

Five police officers and a civilian were wounded early on Friday when a car bomb exploded at a police station in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

Five Iraqi policemen were wounded, including a lieutenant, when an explosive device went off targeting their patrol in Hawijah district west of Kirkuk.

The attack occurred at 7am.

Police opened fire on the car, detonating its explosives. The vehicle was metres away from hitting the main station building when it exploded, police said.

The station sustained heavy damage from the blast, and nearby shops were destroyed.

Guerrilla fighters in cars killed three Iraqi contractors working for a U.S. military base in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

“A Statement From Iraqi Armed Forces General Command”
“This Command Declares The Names Of Its Factions On The Operations Field Level”

The bloodthirsty Occupation machine was never able to eradicate your heroic army, rather here is your army with its officers, all the ranks of its soldiers, and includes within its ranks all the components of dignified Iraqi people.

4th April 2006, Translated from Arabic by Abu Assur, www.uruknet.info

Dignified Iraqi people!

Our brothers, our sisters and our cousins in the Arab nation!

Since the sacred land of Iraq has been maculated by the invaders-occupiers and by those who collaborated with them from inside and outside Iraq, your brothers belonging to the heroic Armed Forces were absolutely determined and resolute, first because they deeply believe in God Almighty and second, they stood steadfast defying and resisting this occupation and its creations which led to the present sectarian strife fomented and inflamed but still denied by the US occupation, its stooges and those with filthy intentions.

Since that very time your brothers and your sons and daughters in the Armed Forces came forward with their field command to combat the enemy on our soil according to a clear strategy and in a successful tactical style, which made the enemy lick its wounds, drink the venomous cup of his deeds and of his wicked plotting..

We got organized in an extremely secretive way as you can imagine to avoid infiltration and early uncovering for our factions and commands which always provided the heroic armed Jihadi Resistance brigades, with the qualified combatants, who are able to plan, to maneuver and to execute the operations in the field.

We in the General Command of the Iraqi Armed Forces, we do declare our responsibility concerning many heroic operations undertaken by your sons and your brothers on the most beloved soil of Iraq -we shall in the appropriate time confirm what we say through documents – and declare to the whole world that the Iraqi resistance is pure Iraqi in blood and identity undertaken by dignified Iraqis from the Armed Forces and the heroic national armed Resistance factions.

Moreover the Command declares its condemnation of whatever act, which targets defenseless civilians.

Sons and daughters of the Arab nation!

Sons of Great Iraq!

This Army doesn’t belong to any party, doesn’t represent any side or any community at the expense of the other.. It is the United Army for the united Iraq which was and will always be, God willing, the shield for this homeland cooperating with all the good people from our Arab and Islamic nation and the freedom loving people from around the world until achieving the objectives, which we can summarize as the following:

1- To liberate Iraq from the Occupation’s rapacious claws and assert its sovereignty, its independence, and its unity and achieving its liberty to use its economical riches in order to insure a dignified life for the people in general.

2- To re-organize the Iraqi army on the patriotic, quality and loyalty basis, and provide it with the most advanced arms and equipment according to the Iraqi army’s doctrine.

3- To liberate all the prisoners and detainees held in the Occupation and its collaborators imprisonment’s camps, those who were held and jailed because of their patriotic stand, which rejects the Occupation.

4- To combat all sectarianism and ethnic phenomenon fomented and inflamed by the Occupation and its collaborators in order to tear down Iraq, and its national unity; the Army will do whatever possible to ensure security and peaceful life for all its sons.

5- To demand compensation for all the damages suffered by Iraq on the material, and moral level due to the Occupation and due to the embargo which led to its occupation.

Ye Iraqis!

Be reassured!

You have brothers who vowed and took an oath in front of God and the Nation and they promise you to sacrifice their blood to achieve the objectives above.

Here we would like to increase your confidence in what we said above, that is why this Command declares the names of its factions on the operations’ field level and they are:

1- “Al Mansour Forces Command” In Baghdad district

2- “Saad Ibn Abi Waqqas Forces Command” in Diyala district

3- “Al Hamza Forces Command” Salah al Din’s district

4- Dhu al Fuqar Forces Command” Dhi Qar district

5- Abu Ubaida Forces Command” in Central Euphrates

6- Al Hussein Forces Command” in al Anbar district

7- Mohammad al Qassim Forces Command” in al Basrah district

8- “Al Rashid Forces Command” in Al Ta’amim district

9- “Amurya Forces Command” in Nineveh district

Dignified Iraqis!

When we announce this, we have profound confidence that we do act in amongst our family and brothers and for their sake; and we swear by the great gracious God, by the immaculate soil of Iraq, by the blood of our innocent martyrs, by the honor of the freedom loving honorable men and women of Iraq, by the innocence of our infants, and by the suffering of our mothers and our elderly that we will remain prepared to sacrifice ourselves and ready for martyrdom until liberation and until achieving our objectives.

God is the Greatest and victory for Iraq!

God is the Greatest and dignity for Iraq!

God is the Greatest and unity for Iraq!

General Command of the Armed Forces
Iraq on the 4th April 2006

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

On Iran

4.12.06 Lt.-Gen. Gennady Yevstafiyev (Ret.), Foreign Intelligence Service, for RIA Novosti

MOSCOW

The Iranian authorities and elite are busy transferring their bank accounts from Europe to Asia, or to Switzerland, whose territory is usually outside sanctions. These are multi-billion sums.

Many analysts see this as Tehran’s precaution ahead of a potential armed clash with the U.S. and its allies, which may take place if the attempt to settle the situation around Iran’s nuclear program falls through.

Apparently, the Iranians have learnt their own lessons well and remember the sad experience of neighboring Iraq, which was attacked for its alleged attempt to hide the weapons of mass destruction from the world community.

For all the differences between the two regimes and their political and economic potentialities the Washington-drafted plan of action against Iran is strangely similar to the U.S. scenario for Iraq. But there are some indications that the U.S. strategists have lost some of their confidence since the cruel lesson in Iraq. This fact creates an additional chance for a diplomatic settlement of the problem.

According to U.S. political tradition, George W. Bush is an outgoing president, a lame duck. It would seem nothing should prevent him from being totally reckless in foreign policy, except for a natural desire to go down in history with a more positive image. The problem is that his entourage is not motivated to make a positive contribution to history.

To the contrary, it is obsessed with a messianic idea to prove single-handed the prevailing military force of the U.S. super power, and its readiness to bear the heavy cross of the only propagator of American democracy, the only true democracy in the world.

It is this entourage that sets the pace of the attempts to step up the preparations for a strike against the Iranian regime. Clearly, the latter is no bargain either to professional diplomats or international officials who are trying to find a compromise on the Iranian nuclear problem.

U.S. long-term goals in Iran are obvious: to engineer the downfall of the current regime, establish control over Iran’s oil and gas, and use its territory as the shortest route for the U.S.-controlled transportation of hydrocarbons from the regions of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea bypassing Russia and China. This is not to mention Iran’s intransient military and strategic significance.

It is not yet clear what long-term goals are in the minds of the Iranian leaders, whose positions are far from flexible.

Of course, for starters, they would like to have nuclear weapons like their second-rate neighbor Pakistan. Incidentally, it was the U.S., a vigorous fighter for the non-proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction, that allowed Pakistan to get the bomb without a problem. Now it is making declarations of love to its enemy India.

The ayatollahs believe that nuclear weapons would make Iran invulnerable to foreign pressure, and turn it into the number one nation of the Persian Gulf.

Well-known Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus thinks that the Iranian nuclear program is not anti-Western, but was a response to Saddam Hussein’s nuclear bid.

But now that Saddam is no longer in the picture, and that Tehran has declared that its nuclear program is exclusively civilian, why repeat all these loud statements about the need to erase Israel like Carthage from the face of the Earth?

Why make them sound as if Tehran already has nuclear weapons?

It seems that if Tehran’s policy were peaceful and well balanced, it would bring it many more benefits and allies against the background of the aggressive line adopted by the U.S., and would rule out any military initiatives.

In the absence of this line anything may happen; all the more so if the Americans or Israelis decide to provoke some particularly malicious act of terror in the Middle East through their local agents (Israel has more of them than the U.S.), and blame it on the verbose ideologists from Tehran.

The mentality of the current U.S. Administration officials suggests the following tentative scenario.

First, they will persuade the world that the talks with Iran are a thing of the past, and that priority should be given to sanctions against it. A Security Council resolution on the imposition of any sanctions will be a key element.

Once adopted, the sanctions will be followed by a chain of consistent steps, which, regardless of what the world might think, would result in the use of military force to overthrow the current regime.

But this far from simple task requires a lot of effort.

To begin with, it is necessary to consolidate the Western alliance. It seems that although British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said more than once that military solution is unthinkable, Prime Minister Tony Blair is, as usual, in Mr. Bush’s pocket, and already taking part in drafting a plan of joint action as a junior partner.

It may be that the Brits have been told to deal with the Shiites in Iraq because without at least some appeasement of this group it will be very difficult to guarantee success in the operation against Iran, which may use the Shiite lever any time for an asymmetrical but very painful response.

Incidentally, this is evidence of the fact that the second-stage task – Iran’s complete isolation – is far from being fulfilled.

Therefore, now the focus of attention is still on exerting heavy psychological pressure on Iran, as well as on those countries, which do not give the U.S. complete carte blanche.

Last January the Director of the U.S. National Intelligence John Negroponte appointed Ms. S. Leslie Ireland as the Mission Manager for Iran. She was involved in intelligence in the Middle East for more than 20 years.

It is easy to see what this mission is all about. Obviously, some Gulf nations already have their own Gateway, which became so infamous during the effort of the Security Council Special Commission to disarm Iraq.

Moreover, Joseph Sirinsione, a major expert on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, admitted that he was not right when he thought that the Bush Administration was not going to deal a military blow at Iran. Now he is sure that it will strike.

When told that the Iranians have many underground nuclear and military installations, the Pentagon proudly responds that it is already testing 700-ton precision bombs designed to destroy facilities (bunkers and depots) deep underground.

The U.S. has inspired the leak that the Iranian rulers are trying to persuade Turkmenbashi to let them stay in Turkmenistan during hostilities.

Even the Pentagon’s latest attack on Russian security services for alleged transfer of information about a future U.S. aggression to Iraq, is obviously aimed at creating a political atmosphere where nobody would even think of backing Tehran.

And what about a resolution submitted to the Senate in early 2006 with the demand of a ban (to be imposed by whom?) on Russian and Chinese arms supplies to Iran?

And what to do about Ukraine, which has ostensibly supplied Iran with 250 nuclear charges? What kind of an Orange ally is it?!

In general, the Americans have started playing the bear, like they did in Iraq.

Needless to say, Condoleezza Rice would like Iran to surrender, but this seems to be wishful thinking. Tehran has its own hawks. So the remaining options are to engineer a coup, preferably velvet, or to go for a blitz-intervention, or a completely disarming sudden attack.

It is clear that the Administration will try to minimize its military casualties, and will focus on the use of cruise missiles, and pilotless reconnaissance and assault aircraft.

This is exactly why the Iranian hawks defiantly demonstrated their military arsenal not long ago. But they will fight the U.S. with other instruments, and their asymmetrical response may cost Washington dearly. Its allies will pay even more.

The situation is developing in fits and starts with monthly intervals.

One more moment of truth is approaching today.

The Iranians took a step when their Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced at the disarmament conference on March 30 Tehran’s readiness to consider the formation of regional uranium-enrichment consortiums where all interested parties will take an equal part.

Apparently, it is necessary to quickly analyze this step. What is it – a proposal of compromise, or an attempt to gain time?

Meanwhile, another IAEA inspection is at work in Iran (all in all, IAEA inspectors have already spent 1,700 working inspection days in Iran, but the evidence of its involvement in the military program is not yet there).

Let’s repeat: the world sees these tricks as clumsy.

However, the promotion by the Bush Administration of its ideas at home has produced results – the polls have shown a steady increase in the number of people who are ready to accept the use of any military force against Iran.

As of March 15, their number was well over 55%. Continuous advocacy of even the most unjustified demands works wonders, as the Third Reich proved a long time ago.

“Those Who Are Guiltiest Are Never Held Accountable”

“One of the frustrating things for those of us who have spent so much time in war zones is to come back and see how those who are guiltiest—those who pushed the country into war, who told the lies that perpetuated the war—are never held accountable.

And those who suffer the most, those who endure the trauma and have to live with the memories for the rest of their lives, are blamed unjustly.” Pulitzer Prize-winning war reporter and Nation Institute Fellow, Chris Hedges, quoted by Katrina vanden Heuvel in The Nation, April 13, 2006

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to thomasfbarton@earthlink.net. Name, I.D., address withheld unless publication requested. Replies confidential.

“There Is A Civil War,
Between The Party Militias On One Side And The People On The Other”

“There is a civil war, but not between the religious groups, but between the party militias on one side and the people on the other,” said Saleh al- Mutlak, chairman of the Sunni National Dialogue Front.

April 14, 2006 Ghali Hassan, Online Journal Contributing Writer [Excerpt]

The violence in Iraq is a US-orchestrated campaign to destroy Iraq’s nationalism and liquidate any opposition to the Occupation.

The perpetrators of violence entered Iraq on the back of US tanks, and continue to have symbiotic (parasitic) relationships with the Occupation.

There were no death squads and militias in Iraq before the invasion.

They have infiltrated the new police and military. They are murdering anyone (men, women and children) and anyone who seems to be anti-Occupation.

In the last three years Iraqis have been reduced to “Shiites” and “Sunnis.” Their Arab and Muslim identity has been deliberately removed.

Talk of “Shiites” and “Sunnis” entered Iraq with the Occupation and immediately became the dominant propaganda vocabularies of the mainstream media, amplified by the likes of CNN and the BBC.

Every criminal attack on the civilian population is labelled according to these two labels in a deliberate campaign of disinformation and distortion. It is part of a propaganda campaign to associate Iraqis with violence, to bail the Occupation of any crimes, and to discredit the Iraqi Resistance to the Occupation.

Even the American linguist Noam Chomsky has joined the chorus of this propaganda campaign by calling the legitimate Iraqi Resistance “violent insurgency.”

After three years of occupation and bloodshed, the US and Britain have only encouraged and instituted violence in Iraq. They have yet to prepare for a full withdrawal of their troops from Iraq and stop meddling in Iraqi affairs.

The end of Occupation is the only way to end the violence.

OCCUPATION REPORT

2003: Sowing The Wind
2006: Reaping The Whirlwind

United States Army soldiers looking for weapons stop and search Iraqi citizens at a roadblock in Baghdad, May 31, 2003. REUTERS/Aladin Abdel Naby

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

House Of Reps Cuts DoD Collaborator Troop Training Money

April 14, 2006 By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press

The U.S. military has spent just 40 percent of the $7 billion appropriated in 2005 for the training of Iraqi and Afghanistan security forces, a top Pentagon priority that is the lynchpin for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The slow pace of spending was outlined in a congressional report that also raised questions about whether the Pentagon needs the full $5.9 billion it has requested for training this year in an emergency spending bill that is pending in Congress.

The report comes as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Bush administration have complained about cuts in the funding for Iraqi forces that is included in the House-passed version of the bill.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

U.S. TO SEND ONE TROOP TO IRAN
Rumsfeld: Army of One Can Get it Done

April 13, 2006 The Borowitz Report

In an effort to punish the government of Iran for its nuclear ambitions, the Pentagon announced today that it was preparing to send one troop to Iran.

The troop, Private John R. Klugian, who is currently stationed at Fort Dix, could be deployed to Iran as early as next month, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon

For Mr. Rumsfeld, who has been criticized for not sending sufficient troops to Iraq, the decision to send only one troop to Iran seemed guaranteed to create even more controversy.

But the Defense Secretary used the better part of his Pentagon press briefing to explain that sending one troop, in this case Private Klugian, was more than enough to quell Iran’s nuclear threat.

“In the Army’s recruitment ads, they talk about an ‘Army of One,’” Mr. Rumsfeld said. “In the case of Iran, we are taking that literally.”

With U.S. troop levels stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan, sending Pvt. Klujian to deal with Iran on his own may have been a necessity, military analysts believe.

But Secretary Rumsfeld denied that by sending only one troop to Iran he was fighting the war there “on the cheap.”

“I am fully prepared to send one additional troop to help with the reconstruction,” he said.

Mr. Rumsfeld said that he fully expected his latest military strategy to come under fire from his detractors, but he had stern words of warning for those who would criticize it: “I would ask them to support our troop.”

“That Light Bulb Has Served Honorably”

[Thanks to Mary R, who sent this in.]

Q. How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A. None.

Nothing is wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day.

Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media.

That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect.

Why do you hate freedom?

Received:

Correction To Wire Service Story On Batiste

From: Don Bacon, smedleybutlersociety@msn.com
To: GI Special
Sent: April 14, 2006
Subject: Batiste

I believe he commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, not the 82d Airborne Division as stated. [Right. T]

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER

Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! www.ivaw.net

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