COMMENT UNNECESSARY

George W. Bush outside Ladder Company 10 firehouse opposite the site of the World Trade Center in New York, September 10, 2006. REUTERS/Jason Reed

Marine Analyst Reports:
Anbar Is Lost;
“It Says The Emperor Has No Clothes”

September 11, 2006 By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writer

The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country’s western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there, said several military officers and intelligence officials familiar with its contents.

The officials described Col. Pete Devlin’s classified assessment of the dire state of Anbar as the first time that a senior U.S. military officer has filed so negative a report from Iraq.

One Army officer summarized it as arguing that in Anbar province, “We haven’t been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically — and that’s where wars are won and lost.”

The “very pessimistic” statement, as one Marine officer called it, was dated Aug. 16 and sent to Washington shortly after that, and has been discussed across the Pentagon and elsewhere in national security circles.

“I don’t know if it is a shock wave, but it’s made people uncomfortable,” said a Defense Department official who has read the report. Like others interviewed about the report, he spoke on the condition that he not be identified by name because of the document’s sensitivity.

Another person familiar with the report said it describes Anbar as beyond repair; a third said it concludes that the United States has lost in Anbar.

Devlin offers a series of reasons for the situation, including a lack of U.S. and Iraqi troops, a problem that has dogged commanders since the fall of Baghdad more than three years ago, said people who have read it.

These people said he reported that not only are military operations facing a stalemate, unable to extend and sustain security beyond the perimeters of their bases, but also local governments in the province have collapsed and the weak central government has almost no presence.

Those conclusions are striking because, even after four years of fighting an unexpectedly difficult war in Iraq, the U.S. military has tended to maintain an optimistic view: that its mission is difficult, but that progress is being made.

Although CIA station chiefs in Baghdad have filed negative classified reports over the past several years, military intelligence officials have consistently been more positive, both in public statements and in internal reports.

Devlin, as part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) headquarters in Iraq, has been stationed there since February, so his report isn’t being dismissed as the stunned assessment of a newly arrived officer. In addition, he has the reputation of being one of the Marine Corps’ best intelligence officers, with a tendency to be careful and straightforward, said another Marine intelligence officer. Hence, the report is being taken seriously as it is examined inside the military establishment and also by some CIA officials.

No one interviewed would quote from the report, citing its classification, and The Washington Post was not shown a copy of it. But over the past three weeks, Devlin’s paper has been widely disseminated in military and intelligence circles.

It is provoking intense debate over the key finding that in Anbar, the U.S. effort to clear and hold major cities and the upper Euphrates valley has failed.

The report comes at an awkward time politically, just as a midterm election campaign gets underway that promises to be in part a referendum on the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war.

“It’s hard to be optimistic right now,” said one Army general who has served in Iraq.

“In the analytical world, there is a real pall of gloom descending,” said Jeffrey White, a former analyst of Middle Eastern militaries for the Defense Intelligence Agency, who also had been told about the pessimistic Marine report.

Anbar is a key province; it encompasses Ramadi and Fallujah, which with Baghdad pose the greatest challenge U.S. forces have faced in Iraq. It accounts for 30 percent of Iraq’s land mass, encompassing the vast area from the capital to the borders of Syria and Jordan, including much of the area that has come to be known as the Sunni Triangle.

Thirty-three U.S. military personnel died there in August — 17 from the Marines, 13 from the Army and three from the Navy.

[A]n Army officer in Iraq familiar with the report said he considers it accurate. “It is best characterized as ‘realistic,’ “ he said.

“From what I understand, it is very candid, very unvarnished,” said retired Marine Col. G. I. Wilson.

“It says the emperor has no clothes.”

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Another Stryker 172nd Soldier Killed

Spc. Alexander Jordan died of injuries caused by enemy small-arms fire that he received while conducting a mounted patrol in Baghdad Sept. 10, 2006. Jordan, 31, of Miami, was an indirect fire infantryman (mortar) assigned to the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Richardson, Alaska. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

Broaddus Soldier Injured

September 08, 2006 By JOHNNY JOHNSON, The Daily Sentinel

A Broaddus native, serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq, was injured Friday when an IED, or improvised explosive device sprayed shrapnel into his left side.

Spec. William Barth, 23, was critically injured while on maneuvers with the Army 82nd Airborne Division when the device hit his vehicle.

The good news is that it appears that Barth will recover, according to his father, the Rev. Will Barth, who is pastor of First Baptist Church in Broaddus.

“He was awarded the Purple Heart,” his father said. “That’s the first thing he told me, when he got out of surgery.”

When the bomb went off, Barth was hit in the left arm, his side and his left arm, but apparently, he managed to keep driving away from the explosion and make it to a safe point.

The last his father heard, the son was on his way to Germany — and it was not clear if he would have to stay or be transported back to the states. “My wife and I will be going to Germany this weekend, unless they bring him back to Fort Bragg — in which case, we’ll go there,” the elder Barth said.

Will Barth Sr., said he’s looking forward to a reunion with his son but that he can’t help but wish it was under different circumstances.

“It’s really pretty bad over there,” the Rev. Barth said. “He’s only been there about a month, and it’s the second fire fight he’s been in. We’re really proud of him serving our country. Broaddus has its share over there — quite a few — we’re proud of all of them.”

Son Of Fire Chief Injured

September 6, 2006 turnto10.com

A 23-year-old Marine reservist from Rhode Island is headed home from Iraq.

Patrick Murray was injured in an attack Monday in Al Anbar province. Murray is the son of North Kingstown Fire Chief David Murray.

Patrick Murray will be transfered from a base in Germany to either a burn center in Texas or to Walter Reed Medical Center, the Marine’s father said.

Local Marine Injured In Iraq

09/12/06 Ray Kisonas, Monroe News

A Luna Pier Marine, a young man who knew at an early age that he would serve his country, was wounded Monday in a mortar attack in Iraq and lost a leg.

Lance Cpl. Corey Smith, 19, is in critical but stable condition and is expected to be shipped to Germany, said his mother, Renee Smith.

“We don’t know how bad it is,” Mrs. Smith said. “As a mom I’m hurting because my son is hurting. At the same time I’m grateful he’s alive and he’s okay.”

Mrs. Smith said she does not know which leg was amputated or how much was lost. She believes her son suffered other injuries in the attack but military officials reported only that his condition has stabilized.

“We just have to put our trust in God,” Mrs. Smith said. “The hardest thing right now is to go on with everyday life.”

Lance Cpl. Smith has been in Iraq for about a month. His platoon was on patrol outside Ramadi when it was attacked with mortars. Mrs. Smith said she was not told anything else, including if any others in his platoon were injured.

She expects to speak to him once he isn’t so medicated. When he is transferred to Germany, Mrs. Smith and her husband, Ronnie, will fly there to meet with their son.

Lance Cpl. Smith, a 2005 graduate of State Line Christian School in Temperance, was determined to join the Marine Corps and serve his country in Iraq. Before he left for boot camp, he said in an interview with The Evening News that he has been waiting practically his entire life for the opportunity to join the Marines.

Although he said he clearly understood the dangers of war, he was prepared to fight terrorism and welcomed the challenge. “I didn’t join just to sit around,” he said in the August, 2005, interview. “I signed up to defend my country.”

In fact, Mrs. Smith said he volunteered to leave for Iraq a week early.

“That’s how ready he was,” she said.

Lance Cpl. Smith signed his military papers as soon as he turned 17 and shipped out when he turned 18. He served at Parris Island, S.C., and his goal was to train to become a member of Force Recon, an elite unit of the Marines. He accepted the challenge to be in the infantry, which meant combat.

Before joining the Marines, Lance Cpl. Smith graduated as a staff sergeant from the Young Marines of Monroe County, attended several weeklong Christian Spiritual Warfare Camps in Gaylord and participated in a Junior Leadership School in Chicago, where he was recognized for his motivation.

Mrs. Smith said she last talked to her son Saturday. He told her he was on the outskirts of Ramadi for several weeks and had not seen any action. Even though he hadn’t showered in weeks and was a bit homesick, he sounded good.

Mrs. Smith said she is confident her son will recover. And, chances are, his military career probably is not over. “I would not be surprised,” she said. “He’s doing it out of conviction. He is the type of person that if you believe in something you do it. And he knows what he needs to do.”

U.S. Baghdad Patrol Attacked, Vehicle Burning;
Casualties Not Announced

September 12, 2006 Xinhua

At least two people were killed and up to 13 others wounded when a car bomb went off near a U.S. patrol on a main road in Mansur district in western Baghdad on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

“A car bomb parking on the 14th Ramadan Street in Mansur district detonated at about 12:20 p.m. (0820 GMT) near a passing U. S. patrol,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

“Our first report said that two people were killed and 13 others injured along with setting at least three cars on fire and damaging several nearby shops,” he said.

It was not clear whether there is any casualties among the U.S. soldiers, the source added.

“I saw a U.S. Hummer was hit and set ablaze,” Abu Saad, 40, a witness at the scene told Xinhua.

REALLY BAD PLACE TO BE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

U.S. soldiers inspect one of their damaged and burnt armored vehicle after a car bomb attack, in Baghdad Sept. 9, 2006. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

One Foreign Occupation Soldier Killed In Asadabad, One Injured;
Nationality Not Announced

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer

A U.S. led coalition soldier was also killed and another injured when their Humvee rolled over Monday in Kunar province’s Asadabad district, a coalition statement said.

TROOP NEWS

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

The casket of Army Spc. Qixing Lee at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Sept. 11, 2006. Lee, 20, was among four soldiers killed while on patrol Aug. 27 in Taji, Iraq. Lee was the first Hmong-American soldier from Minnesota to die in Iraq. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Iraq, Other Vets Force Congressional Investigation Of Suzanne Swift Case:
Iraq Veterans Against the War Sit-In Successful

12 September 2006 Truthout Report

Members of, Veterans for Peace, and Oregon constituents achieved a victory on the road to ending military sexual violence today with a pledge from Congressman Peter DeFazio’s (D-Ore.) office that he will be initiating a congressional investigation into the case of Army Specialist Suzanne Swift.

The group from Camp Democracy delivered a letter containing the phone numbers of Swift’s chain of command and refused to leave the office until the Congressman acted appropriately on behalf of his constituent and all women in uniform.

In unison with the direct action in Washington, constituents in Oregon and Rep. DeFazio’s district flooded his offices with phone calls, emails and faxes in support of SPC Swift. Rep.

DeFazio also scheduled a personal meeting with Sara Rich, Suzanne’s mother, and members of IVAW for September 21, 2006.

Suzanne Swift is a veteran of the Iraq war who is now held in custody at Fort Lewis, Washington. Swift had completed a tour of duty in Iraq, where she was sexually harassed and assaulted at the hands of three of her commanding officers – continuing over the course of her entire deployment. Her efforts to report her treatment were met with disrespect and dismissed. Finally, Swift suffered a breakdown due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and went absent without leave. She was apprehended in Eugene, Oregon, in June 2006, and instead of seeing her rapists investigated, Swift herself is facing court martial and prison time.

Organizers of the action released the following statement: “Congressman DeFazio has taken an important step toward ending military sexual violence despite the military’s unwillingness to follow its own procedures and regulations. This a good first step toward making sure there is never again another Suzanne Swift.”

www.ivaw.net

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward GI Special 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.

5 From Iraq Veterans Against The War Arrested At The Pentagon

The “Pentagon 5" Iraq War Vets: Delaware Valley Veterans For America Sgt. of Arms Steve Mortillo, of Pennington, NJ, Tristan Watson, Chicago, Toby Hartbarger, Muncie, Indiana, Joe Hatcher, of San Diego, California (holding the Camouflage New Testament), and Sgt Geoff Millard, a Depleted Uranium victim.

September 11, 2006 BpVETforPEACE

8 Iraq Veterans Against the War, 4 Delaware Valley Veterans For America, 4 Veterans For Peace, and 4 VietNam Veterans Against the War made a pilgrimage to the Newly Dedicated Pentagon Chapel, on “opening day”, Sept 9.

5 Iraq War Veterans were arrested.

At a Sunday Morning, September 10th Press Conference at Camp Democracy, Washington, DC, Colonel Ann Wright explains how our “Pentagon Five” Iraq War Veterans took an Oath to “Defend and Protect our Constitution”, yet were denied their 1st Amendment Rights at the “Opening Day” of the repaired and restored Pentagon, after 9-1-1 Sky Jacking.

The “Pentagon 5" Iraq War Vets include Delaware Valley Veterans For America Sgt. of Arms Steve Mortillo, of Pennington, NJ, Tristan Watson, Chicago, Toby Hartbarger, Muncy, Indiana, Joe Hatcher, of San Diego, California, and Sgt Geoff Millard, a Depleted Uranium victim.

Bill Perry, Executive Director of Delaware Valley Veterans For America, asks “Why does our Pentagon Chapel violate Separation of Church and State, with a Camo New Testament, yet prohibit a DU (Depleted Uranium) victim from publicizing our Iraq vets who have suffered the effects of DU, and have every right to educate others about the terrible effects of this illegal substance used in weapons produced by the United States government?”

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

“We Believe That If The Americans Were Occupied By Another Country They Would Do The Same As We Are, Or Even More”
[And The Washington Post Caught Faking A Quote]

“There will be a civil war.” “No matter the number of people who would lose their lives, it is better than now,” he added. “It would be better than the Americans staying.”

[Thanks to D, who sent these two in.]

September 12, 2006 By Ellen Knickmeyer and Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post [Excerpts]

NAJAF, Iraq: In a shabby but spotless living room in the holy city of Najaf, a top deputy of Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada al-Sadr quietly sketched out his vision of the Iraq to come, after the Americans withdraw.

First, “there will be a civil war,” said the aide, Mustafa Yaqoubi, as his three young children wandered in and out of the room. The rising violence and rivalries under the American occupation make a shaking-out all but inevitable once foreign forces go, Yaqoubi said. “I expect it.”

“No matter the number of people who would lose their lives, it is better than now,” he added. “It would be better than the Americans staying.”

No matter when the Americans withdraw, “the first year of transition, it will be worse,” Yaqoubi warned. “After that, it will gradually improve.”

Sadr’s rough-edged, strongly anti-American street movement of poor, largely uneducated Shiites has burgeoned into one of the strongest political and armed forces in Iraq.

While Sadr and his aides, including Yaqoubi, stayed in Iraq throughout the darkest years of Hussein’s rule, others among Iraq’s current leaders went into exile in London, Tehran or Detroit, returning here only after Hussein’s overthrow.

Leaders of the other main Shiite religious parties were quick to make accommodation with the U.S.-led occupying forces. Overnight, many of them adopted a life of secondhand splendor in the former palaces and villas of Hussein’s regime.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, for example, who leads the Shiite religious party that most nearly matches Sadr’s movement in strength, moved into the marbled villa of former Hussein foreign minister Tariq Aziz, who is now in U.S. military custody.

Sadr and his aides, in contrast, make their homes in the Shiite neighborhoods of the capital and the Shiite holy cities of the south. Sadr lives in a gleaming, whitewashed concrete mansion behind high walls in Najaf. His top aides there have more modest houses, less freshly painted.

Despite their ascendancy now, Yaqoubi said, Iraq’s Shiites owe no gratitude to the Americans.

“The Americans are not saving us from Saddam for the sake of the Iraqi people,” he said. “They gave Saddam clearance in the 1990s to strike at the Shia people. It was in their own interest to get rid of Saddam.”

According to Yaqoubi, the Americans brought the armed resistance on themselves by staying after the invasion and by ignoring Iraqi protests.

For example, he said, tens of thousands rallied this summer in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City to protest the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, but the Americans ignored them.

[No, that’s not what “he said,” because even the pro-occupation press gave the count 8.3.06 as one million marching in Baghdad to support the Lebanese resistance and attacking the U.S. occupation of Iraq. See how the Washington Post turns reality to spin, putting words in Yaqoubi’s mouth he could not possibly have said.]

“It was the largest rally in the world. But with them, it’s useless,” he said, referring to U.S. officials. “No one ever reacts, no one responds to these protests.” [And no one can think the Post tells the truth. Yaqoubi would hardly have claimed that “tens of thousands” constituted “the largest rally in the world.” But one million marching in Baghdad, which the western press reported 8.3.06, would indeed be the largest rally in the world.]

Ordinary Americans, on some level, must understand the resistance to the foreign forces, he said.

“We believe the American people are not coming from Mars. They see on their televisions how it is here,” Yaqoubi said.

“They have the same mentality we have. We believe that if the Americans were occupied by another country they would do the same as we are, or even more.”

Yaqoubi said the U.S. failure to meet even the simplest security needs of Iraq was to blame for much of the current instability.

As a result, he said, “when the Americans pull out, there will be a civil war. They are using that now, as an excuse for staying.”

MORE:

Sadr Movement Joins Sunni Protest:
“Iraq Must Not Be Divided”
“National Interest Is Above Any Other Interest”

September 12, 2006 By Amit R. Paley and Saad Sarhan, Washington Post Staff Writers [Excerpts]

Moqtada al-Sadr, the powerful Shiite Muslim cleric, remains adamantly opposed to a controversial plan to partition Iraq into a federation of three largely independent regions, a top Sadr aide said Monday.

“Iraq must not be divided,” said Riyadh Nouri, the aide to Sadr, who has opposed the U.S. presence in Iraq.

Sadr’s objection to the plan remains steadfast despite a meeting Sunday night in Najaf between Sadr and his intermittent rival Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the prominent Shiite political [collaborator] party that is leading the push for federalism.

The main Sunni bloc in parliament, the Iraqi Accordance Front, boycotted Sunday’s legislative session to protest a measure that would create a mechanism for carving Iraq into three autonomous regions. The Sunnis fear the creation of a predominantly Shiite region in the south of Iraq that would resemble the largely independent zone controlled by the Kurds in the north. The Sunnis would be left with swaths of the country devoid of the oil reserves in the other regions.

Sadr’s bloc broke with Hakim’s party to support the Sunni boycott on Sunday. That move prompted Hakim to meet later in the day with Sadr and then with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, although he declined to describe their conversations.

“We stand to benefit from federalism because the Sadr movement enjoys wide support of the majority of the people in the center and the south,” said Nouri, the Sadr aide.

“But we will not accept that, because national interest is above any other interest.”

Resistance Gets A Head;
“This Is The Destiny Of Those Who Work With The Americans”

September 12, 2006 Aljazeera & (KUNA) & Reuters & By Edward Wong and Nazila Fathi, The New York Times

Two bodies and a human head were discovered in three different parts of Baghdad.

The head had a note attached: “This is the destiny of those who work with the Americans.”

A design editor of a state-run [translation: occupation government] Iraqi newspaper was shot on his way to work in Baghdad.

Abdel Karim al-Rubai, 40, who was the design editor for Al-Sabah newspaper and was shot on Saturday morning by several militants.

In Mosul, guerrillas opened fire and killed Iraqi police Captain Ziad Ramzi.

One policeman was killed and nine people were wounded, including three policemen, when a roadside bomb went off in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

A policeman was gunned while he was leaving for work in Bayaa district, southern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

Army Colonel Ali al-Jibouri was killed by a bomb as he left his home to go to work in Baquba, police said. He was the head of emergency operations in the area.

Iraqi Army soldier was killed and three wounded by a roadside bomb explosion south of Kirkuk.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

High On Heroin In Vietnam

From: Richard Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: September 08, 2006

High On Heroin In Vietnam

I took this picture of an American soldier high on heroin in a tent.

I happened to walk into this situation unannounced. I had a point and shoot camera in my pocket, and for some reason, I took a picture.

I came across the negative years after I came back from Vietnam.

As I look back on that tragic war, heroin addiction was one of the final episodes of destroying young American lives.

According to the book, “ Opium-A History,” by Martin Booth, he states on page 272: “In the Summer of 1971, Army medical officers reckoned 25,000 to 37,000 serving rank-and-file troops were heroin addicts.

“Many took their habits home with them.

“In November 1971, there were about 10,000 Vietnam veteran addicts in New York.”

I knew several heroin addicts in Vietnam that never made it home.

And now, there is Iraq and Afghanistan.

The legacy of those two wars may follow Vietnam, as American involvement continues to rapidly disintegrate.

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
September 8, 2006

Photo and caption from the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net) T)

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004

OCCUPATION PALESTINE/LEBANON

“We Fired More Than A Million Cluster Bombs In Lebanon”
“What We Did Was Insane And Monstrous, We Covered Entire Towns In Cluster Bombs”

09/12/2006 By Meron Rappaport, Haaretz [Excerpts]

“What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs,” the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.

Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets.

In addition, soldiers in IDF artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law.

According to their claims, the vast majority of said explosive ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war.

The rocket unit commander stated that Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) platforms were heavily used in spite of the fact that they were known to be highly inaccurate.

MLRS is a track or tire carried mobile rocket launching platform, capable of firing a very high volume of mostly unguided munitions. The basic rocket fired by the platform is unguided and imprecise, with a range of about 32 kilometers. The rockets are designed to burst into sub-munitions at a planned altitude in order to blanket enemy army and personnel on the ground with smaller explosive rounds.

The use of such weaponry is controversial mainly due to its inaccuracy and ability to wreak great havoc against indeterminate targets over large areas of territory, with a margin of error of as much as 1,200 meters from the intended target to the area hit.

The cluster rounds which don’t detonate on impact, believed by the United Nations to be around 40% of those fired by the IDF in Lebanon, remain on the ground as unexploded munitions, effectively littering the landscape with thousands of land mines which will continue to claim victims long after the war has ended.

Because of their high level of failure to detonate, it is believed that there are around 500,000 unexploded munitions on the ground in Lebanon. To date 12 Lebanese civilians have been killed by these mines since the end of the war.

According to the commander, in order to compensate for the inaccuracy of the rockets and the inability to strike individual targets precisely, units would “flood” the battlefield with munitions, accounting for the littered and explosive landscape of post-war Lebanon.

When his reserve duty came to a close, the commander in question sent a letter to Defense Minister Amir Peretz outlining the use of cluster munitions, a letter which has remained unanswered.

It has come to light that IDF soldiers fired phosphorous rounds in order to cause fires in Lebanon. An artillery commander has admitted to seeing trucks loaded with phosphorous rounds on their way to artillery crews in the north of Israel.

A direct hit from a phosphorous shell typically causes severe burns and a slow, painful death.

International law forbids the use of weapons that cause “excessive injury and unnecessary suffering”, and many experts are of the opinion that phosphorous rounds fall directly in that category.

The International Red Cross has determined that international law forbids the use of phosphorous and other types of flammable rounds against personnel, both civilian and military.

The Defense Minister’s office said it had not received messages regarding cluster bomb fire.

A Zionist Concentration Camp For Palestinians Up Close And Personal:
[The SS Would Be Jealous Of The Exquisite Refinements Of Sadism These Twisted Freaks Employ]

“This constant attack is something that no human being can endure. We are now completely at the whim of the soldiers. This happens in front of the eyes of the whole world and all internationals and official representatives coming to the village to see the reality. None of them has done anything. Our suffering is getting worse daily.”

Expulsion and ethnic cleansing is perpetrated by a myriad of mechanisms that make life impossible. Isolation, harassment, house demolition and the cutting off of vital services and infrastructure can turn any village to hellish prisons without chances of survival.

August 7th, 2006 Community Voice, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign [Excerpts]

Jamal Darawi, 40, from Nu’man village, is part of the popular committee to defend the land in the Bethlehem district. He tells how the Occupation is forcing the villagers to leave Nu’man.

The Zionist drive to expel the people from their lands and homes has a concrete target — 21 villages all along the path of the Wall. The land which was used to provide the villagers with the means of independence now is used to provide the means of their imprisonment.

“Nu’man is one of the villages to the southeast of Jerusalem and east of Bethlehem and Beit Sahour occupied in 1967,” explains Darawi. “We all have West Bank IDs. The village and its lands are part of the Bethlehem district and it has never been considered part of Jerusalem proper. The village lands comprise 5,000 dunum with around 300 inhabitants. We are just at the foot of the Abu Ghneim mountain, a small forest that has been destroyed to build the colony of Har Homa.

“Zionist greed and expansion now want to annex the entire village and its land for the settlement. This move forms part of the Israeli plan to stranglehold Jerusalem through a settlement belt around the city. Seventy percent of the village land belongs to Palestinian owners in Bethlehem and Beit Sahour. These lands were to be the area on which Beit Sahour could develop and its people build and cultivate.

“Now, there is no way Palestinians can build and live on this land because the land that was to be used as cultivation has now been confiscated to create a prison for them. They took most of this land to build a Wall around Nu’man village.”

“Until 1992 we were still able to have a dignified life. We were able to build our houses, no one imposed choking restrictions on us, we continued our life between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The village is a part of the Ta’amre area which extends from Sur Baher and Um Toba in the North and to Hebron in the South. Our families live for the most part within this area. Most of my relatives, for example, live in Ash-Shawawre, Za’tara and Dar Salah, east of Bethlehem, while my immediate family has lived for 150 years in Nu’man.

“In Nu’man, people have developed caves as homes as the rocks keep a very constant temperature in summer and winter. You can still see the cave my family has lived in. These structures are unique and form part of our history and heritage. Seventy years ago my family moved to build our family house.

“After the start of the al Aqsa Intifada, the attack on us got worse as the Occupation began to build the Wall. The Wall is the worst thing that has ever been done to us. It is erected on our village land. In addition to the wall they have started destruction for a settlement road which connects the settlements on Bethlehem land with those built in Jerusalem.

“This road confiscated land from el Khass and Nu’man. Our two villages are twin villages with one village council and complete interdependency. This wall has separated us. They also built what they call “Mazmouriya Terminal”. Mazmouriya was the Roman name for our village and now they steal it for a check point to oppress us.

“Now that they have finished the Apartheid Wall, the system they build is clear.

“They are building the Mazmouriya checkpoint for commercial use and products only and are keeping a gate, further away for the people from Nu’man. Occupation forces are stationed at the gate.

“Every day we face complicated procedures of oppression. Life gets to be a hell like this. Nevertheless, we are living and we are struggling.

Just to mention a few things. For two months now – and all the human rights organizations, the Red Cross and OCHA know about it – the forces don’t allow the rubbish car to enter the village. The rubbish is piling up in the village and people have turned to burning it as we have done 40 years ago.

The gas trucks are not allowed to enter and at the same time we are not allowed to carry gas bottles in our cars. They claim it is dangerous and prohibited but we don’t have anything to cook and heat with. If we want to bring gas bottles to the village, we have to try several times. If they don’t allow us to get it in today, then we try tomorrow. The rule is completely random.

The lorries that sell the vegetables can’t enter the village.

Even our close relatives living outside the village are not allowed to visit us anymore.

For example, I have nine sisters living in el Khass, Deir Salah, in Deheiseh, Beit Jala and Hebron. None of them is able to come to visit us as their residency is not officially registered as “Nu’man”.

“My mother is about 80 years old and she is sick. For two months I didn’t see her. No one is allowed to enter the village. Even people with Jerusalem IDs tried to enter but they are blocked at the gate as well.”

“When you enter the village the soldiers check everything possible in the cars. Our life has become a life entirely subjected to their “security” claims. They move the chairs in the cars, the spare parts, they check our bodies. Their aim is to frustrate any resistance within us to force us to accept this life.

Even if you pass 10 times through this gate you will still undergo these checks.

Nothing of all this has to do with security. They want to create frustration in the people to encourage a slow and steady exodus.”

“Imagine your refrigerator breaks. It is heavy. Usually the one who repairs it, comes to take it. But they won’t allow him to enter. We need to bring it out of the village to be repaired.

“The veterinarian is not allowed to enter either. There are around 200 sheep and goats belonging to the people in the village. They didn’t allow the doctor to come to give them an important vaccination against diseases that can be transmitted to human beings.

“They have asked us to bring the sheep and the goat to Bethlehem.

The wheat sacks – even if signed by the company – are not allowed in. In case somebody wants to buy one for his family to make bread, they will ask him to go back to Beit Sahour and to put the wheat in small bags and bring it like this.

Even if it is only one kilo of tomatoes or two kilo of bananas, each time we bring vegetables to the village, they accuse us of smuggling it to “Israel”.

The aim of all of this is nothing more but to destroy the life of the people here and to create the worst conditions possible within the village.”

“The people cannot leave the village as they might lose the chance to return by 5 or 6 pm. If anyone is late, he will face terrible harassment.

“The area around the gate is empty and dark. Soldiers force him to walk 100 meter away from the car until they see him and tell him to come. He has to take off his trousers and to raise his t-shirt. Sometimes, even undergoing this degrading procedure, the Occupation forces won’t let you pass. As a result, the people don’t go out of the village after 5 and people that have to stay away late, prefer passing the night outside instead of coming back through the gate.”

“Finally, we have some cases of marriages with Palestinians from Jordan in the village. They have no IDs from Nu’man because the Occupation doesn’t allow the PA to give any IDs after the outbreak of the al Aqsa Intifada.

“These women can’t leave the village as they will not be able to get back. So these women prefer to stay sick and to treat their illness by themselves and not to go out of the village to see a doctor. This would be a bigger catastrophe for them than the illness itself. I am not speaking about cases of illness only, it is the same for any reason to leave the village—to run errands or go out for occasions.”

“Every day children go through the harassment and racist procedures at the gate. All kids more than 5 or 6 years old must carry their birth certificate to prove that “Nu’man” is written there as their birthplace. Otherwise they stop the children from entering the village and from coming home.

“The whole village has become isolated from social life and from relatives. Each weekend, our relatives and friends from the surrounding villages came there to visit us and stay. I have 24 close relatives and they came and played with our kids. Now they are prohibited from coming here.

“We don’t see kids in the village anymore. Our kids are not more than 30 or 40 and they are now separated from the rest of the world.

“It’s even hard to find ways to take them out of the village. Usually, when you go to a restaurant or for any other occasion, you go after 4 pm. Yet, we have to return before 6pm. So, there is no time to take them anywhere. I can’t risk coming late with them to the gate and then I am forced to take off my trousers and my t-shirt in front of my kids. I prefer to keep up my ethics and dignity in front of my kids and so being home is better.”

No doubt, the children in the village are facing psychological problems. You can’t imagine, the village has no services, institutions or anything – only one small shop and the Wall and settlements around it.

“There is nothing to do. And even the shopkeeper, if he wants to bring something, he needs to bring it in small packaging and they check every single item before he can bring it in.”

“The whole village is threatened to be demolished. They have already demolished three houses this year. There are another seven houses still under demolition orders.

“Yesterday the Occupation forces came and took photos of one of these houses. So, it seems they will demolish it soon. Nobody will care about it or raise a protest, especially now that there are no journalists or other people who could support us, as nobody can pass through the gates that isolate us.

“We are now refugees of the 21st century. I don’t know how long we can resist in this situation. It is clear that they are determined to expel all the people from the village for the sake of Zionist expansion.

“The people, whose houses are demolished, where do they go with their wives and children? They are not allowed to build another house.

“For 14 years, we haven’t been not allowed to build anything anymore. There are new generations to come. Where shall they go? The only thing they can do is to rent a house or to build on land outside the village.”

“The Occupation has no respect even for the ill people and the pregnant women. They need to walk or find somebody with a car from the village to bring them out of the village and to the hospitals. The ambulance is not allowed to enter the village.

A month ago, somebody needed an ambulance but it couldn’t enter. So they took him with a car to the gate, carried him across the gate and then the ambulance could take the person.

Firemen are also not allowed to enter the village.

A short time ago there was a fire and it burned all trees in the village. They didn’t allow the Palestinian firemen to stop the fire and they didn’t allow Israeli firemen to come either.

Now the village has been transformed into a prison. A real prison with two gates – one between the village and Jerusalem and one between the village and Bethlehem district.

We are completely cut off from any services. We can’t reach neither services from Bethlehem nor Jerusalem. We used to get services – such as electricity, water and the phone line – from the Palestinian Authority. But already in 1996, they confiscated the telephone pillars and broke them. So we aren’t allowed to have telephone lines in the village. Now we use cell phones to make sure we are not completely cut off from the world.

Not one of the workers from the electricity and water company is allowed to enter the village to bring the bills or to ensure maintenance of the system.

When the Occupation was working at the Mazmouriya checkpoint thy set fire to the electricity cables and as a result we were without electricity for five days.

They didn’t allow the company to come and to repair it. After five days of struggle and complaints to Red Cross and human rights organizations, they allowed somebody with a Jerusalem ID to repair it.”

“Are you surprised about what I am saying?

“But I challenge anybody that this is what is happening and it is only a small part of what we are facing daily. I have just pointed out briefly the main issues. Life in the village now is like 70 years ago. Very basic.

“This constant attack is something that no human being can endure. We are now completely at the whim of the soldiers. This happens in front of the eyes of the whole world and all internationals and official representatives coming to the village to see the reality. None of them has done anything. Our suffering is getting worse daily.”

Expulsion and ethnic cleansing is perpetrated by a myriad of mechanisms that make life impossible. Isolation, harassment, house demolition and the cutting off of vital services and infrastructure can turn any village to hellish prisons without chances of survival.

Palestinians are determined not to let another Nakba happen but staying on in the villages slated for destruction has become a daily act of heroic resistance.

[To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.”]

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Terrorists In Police Uniforms Killing U.S. Citizens

September 2, 2006 by Radley Balko and Joel Berger, Wall Street Journal

Radley Balko is a policy analyst specializing in civil liberties issues and is the author of the Cato study, “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America.” Mr. Berger is an attorney representing the Williams and Garrison families and a former New York City Law Department executive.

The Supreme Court ruled this June that evidence seized in an illegally performed “no-knock” police raid can still be used against a defendant. Though disturbing in its own right, Hudson v. Michigan touched on only a small part of a larger problem — the trend toward paramilitary tactics in domestic policing.

Criminologist Peter Kraska estimates that the number of SWAT team “call-outs” soared past 40,000 in 2001 (the latest year for which figures are available) from about 3,000 in 1981.

The vast majority are employed for routine police work — such as serving drug warrants — not the types of situations for which SWAT teams were originally established. And because drug policing often involves tips from confidential informants — many of whom are drug dealers themselves, or convicts looking for leniency — it’s rife with bad information.

As a result, hundreds of innocent families and civilians have been wrongly subjected to violent, forced-entry raids.

Last year, for example, New York City police mistakenly handcuffed Mini Matos, a deaf, asthmatic Coney Island woman during a pre-dawn raid. While her young son and daughter burst into tears, Ms. Matos’s plea to use her asthma pump was ignored until an officer realized they entered the wrong apartment.

Home invasions can also provoke deadly violence because forced-entry raids offer very little margin for error.

Since SWAT teams began proliferating in the late 1980s, at least 40 innocent people have been killed in botched raids.

There are dozens more cases where low-level, nonviolent offenders and police officers themselves have been killed.

Last summer a SWAT team in Sunrise, Fla., shot and killed 23-year-old Anthony Diotaiuto — a bartender and part-time student with no history of violence — during an early-morning raid on his home. Police found all of an ounce of marijuana.

This January a member of the Fairfax, Va. SWAT team accidentally shot and killed Salvatore Culosi, a local optometrist with no criminal record, no history of violence and no weapons in his home. Police were investigating Culosi for wagering on sporting events with friends.

Public officials are rarely held accountable when mistakes happen.

The Culosi family has yet to be given access to documents related to the investigation of his death, including why a SWAT team was sent to apprehend him in the first place. More than a year after Diotaiuto’s death, his family too has been denied access to any of the documents it needs to move forward with a lawsuit.

New York City provides perhaps the most egregious example of public officials’ reluctance to rein in the excessive use of paramilitary tactics. Throughout the 1990s, the city’s newspapers reported a troubling, continuing pattern of “wrong door” drug raids. In many cases, tactical teams raided homes based solely on uncorroborated tips from unproven informants.

Members of the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board cautioned that they were seeing increasing complaints of botched raids, but limited jurisdiction and bureaucratic turf wars prevented them from doing anything about it.

The principal result of the CCRB’s warnings was the creation of a special police unit for the sole purpose of fixing locks, doors and windows in cases where forced-entry searches were performed on the wrong premises.

Civil rights attorneys warned that without more substantial changes, it was only a matter of time before an innocent person would be killed in a botched drug raid.

They were right.

In 2003, acting on a bad tip from an informant, police mistakenly raided the Harlem home of Alberta Spruill, a 57-year-old city worker. The violence of the incursion literally scared Spruill to death; she died of a heart attack at the scene.

The raid spurred public outrage, calls for reform, and promises from the city to change its ways. The NYPD published new guidelines calling for more reliability when taking tips from informants. The city also promised greater vigilance in conducting surveillance and double-checking addresses before a SWAT team was sent in.

But later, during the course of a lawsuit stemming from another, mistaken raid — in 1992, on corrections officer Edward Garrison, his elderly mother and two young daughters — the city declared that all of the post-Spruill reforms it had promised were merely discretionary, not enforceable in court, and could be revoked at will by any future mayor or police commissioner.

In any case, botched raids have not stopped.

In 2004, police arrested a Brooklyn father of two in a drug raid and held him for six months at Riker’s Island. In March of this year they dropped all the charges, conceding that he had been wrongly targeted. The man’s lawyer called it the worst case of malicious prosecution she’d ever seen.

Also in 2004, police mistakenly raided the home of Martin and Leona Goldberg, a Brooklyn couple in their 80s, when an informant provided bad information. “It was the most frightening experience of my life,” Mrs. Goldberg later said. “I thought it was a terrorist attack.” [Mrs. Goldberg was 100% right. That’s exactly what it was. By terrorist garbage in government employ.]

The NYPD goofed again in 2005, when a SWAT team raided the Brooklyn apartment of the Williams family, instead of the targeted apartment on the same floor. Police continued to search the apartment even after it was obvious they were in the wrong home. This year, according to the CCRB, there have already been at least 15 mistaken raids.

A few cities, such as New Haven, Conn., and San Jose, Calif., restrict the use of SWAT teams to cases where a suspect presents an immediate threat. Denver dramatically cut back the number of “no-knock” raids conducted after a SWAT team shot and killed an innocent man in a botched raid in 1999, and follow-up investigations revealed severe deficiencies in the how police had obtained “no-knock” warrants.

But these examples are few and far between. Most of the country is moving toward more militarization, more aggressive drug policing — and less accountability when things go wrong.

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to contact@militaryproject.org. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

[Thanks to Z, who sent this in.]

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

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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