23/12/07

Iraq resistance still in operation
Aljazeera.net
Al Jazeera has obtained video footage that appears to show that Iraq’s resistance movements are very much in operation, despite the US administration’s claims. The US has been pointing to the decreasing number of violent deaths in recent months as a sign the country is being brought under control. The footage shows the inner workings of the Islamic Front for Iraqi Resistance, known as Jami…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39497

Inside Iraq’s Only Women’s Prison
Women And Their Children Held In Jail Because Their Husbands Are Accused Of Terrorism
Elizabeth Palmer, CBSNews
Imagine women in prison because their husbands are accused of terrorism. Now imagine their infants and children in prison with them. Worst of all, it seems they have no way out. CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer visited such a place with Iraqi Vice President Tareq al Hashemi, who had come to inspect Iraq’s only women’s jail. The women prisoners of Khadimiya jail had been waiting a long time for the chance to be heard, some shouting from behind bars…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39491

Occupation forces released Baath members from prison
Roads to Iraq
Sources reported to “Iraq News” that the American occupation forces released a leading member of theBaath Party (Fadhil Al-Mshihdani), he is one of the 55 in the wanted list, Al-Mshihdani was a high rank Baathist in Mosul province and assistance of Izzat Al-Duri. The source noted that the occupation forces also released “Sabar Al-Mashihdani”, who was Baath Party representative in Egypt, the source also added that there will be many other Baathists to be released soon…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39487

1927
Arablinks
…The roles in 2007 compared to 1927 are partly reversed, with a Shiite instead of a Sunni puppet under pressure by the colonial power to toe the line, but at least some of the ingredients of pressure are the same, notably Shiite/Sunni animosity fanned by the colonial power. When it comes to the colonial power’s manipulation of takfiiri raids as a way of enhancing the puppet government’s sense of weakness and sense of reliance on the colonial power, that is something where Batatu saw circumstantial evidence, in the first place, and also documentary evidence in the form of the colonial secretary’s memo….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39493

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Saturday, 22 December 2007.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
In a dispatch posted at 11:20am Baghdad time Saturday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that US troops killed one civilian and severely wounded a second in the city of al-Fallujah, 60km west of Baghdad. Yaqen reported a medical source who asked not to be identified as saying that puppet policemen brought in two civilians, one of them dead, both of them with multiple gunshot wounds to the body. The two had been shot by American troops in the al-Fallujah suburb of ‘Amiriyat al-Fallujah on Friday evening. Eyewitnesses close to the victims said that a US patrol fired on a civilian car in which the two men were riding down the main road in ‘Amiriyat al-Fallujah, 20km south of al-Fallujah during the time when the Americans allow such traffic. The shooting killed the driver of the car and wounded his companion who was sitting next to him. Both were taken immediately to al-Fallujah General Hospital….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39484

UN issues Iraqi children aid plea
Aljazeera.net
The United Nations has called for immediate action to assist about two million Iraqi children affected by poor nutrition, disease and disrupted education. “Iraqi children are paying far too high a price,” said Roger Wright, Unicef’s special representative for Iraq, in a statement. “We must act now.” Unicef, the UN’s children’s fund, said young Iraqis were also getting caught up in violence, with hundreds killed or injured…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39482

Basra in turmoil
Abed Battat, Azzaman
The southern city of Basra, where most of Iraq’s oil exports originate, is in the throes of a power struggle in which militia rivals compete with provincial police forces and central government authorities. The head of the provincial council says security committees the government has set up in Basra refuse to cooperate with the provincial police forces. These committees have troops and National Guard corps at their disposal. Meantime, the disparate militia groups have carved out their own ‘fiefdoms’ where irregular gunmen impose their interpretation of law and order and even have imposed a crude system of taxation….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39499

INTERVIEW-New Iraqi cardinal calls for release of Saddam aide
Mussab Al-Khairalla, Reuters
…Aziz is now in U.S. custody and is reported to be in poor health, suffering from diabetes. He is being held without charge and his family has repeatedly called for his release. “In terms of Tareq Aziz, who has worked so long for Iraq and I am sure still wants good things for Iraq, we have to demand the release of all those who were captured and which have no evidence against them … as soon as possible,” Delly said. Delly, a critic of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, said he had tried to visit Aziz, but his request had been turned down…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39500

Turkey in fresh Iraq air strikes
BBC News
Turkey has launched fresh air strikes across the border into northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels, the army says. Aircraft have been attacking positions held by the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), according to the army’s official website. Turkish airstrikes earlier this month were followed by the incursion of several hundred Turkish soldiers across the border into Iraq. Turkey says the PKK is using bases in Iraq to launch attacks on Turkey…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39479

Iraqi Gov’t Pledges to Disband Sunnis
DIAA HADID
Iraq’s Shiite-led government declared Saturday that after restive areas are calmed it will disband Sunni groups battling Islamic extremists because it does not want them to become a separate military force. The statement from Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi was the government’s most explicit declaration yet of its intent to eventually dismantle the groups backed and funded by the United States as a vital tool for reducing violence. The militias, more than 70,000 strong and often made up of former insurgents, are known as Awakening Councils, or Concerned Local Citizens. “We completely, absolutely reject the Awakening becoming a third military organization,” al-Obaidi said at a news conference….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39480

Turkey in Fresh Iraq Air Strikes
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122307A.shtml
According to BBC News, “Fighter planes attacked positions held by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in a 35-minute raid, the army said. Similar air strikes last Sunday were followed two days later by an incursion into Iraq by Turkish troops.”

Gang bang Green Zone?
Guardian Unlimited – UK
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, was working in Iraq for military contractor, KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton) when she says she was drugged and …
commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/yvonne_
roberts/2007/12/gang_bang_green_zone.html

DOJ Shuns Hearing on Halliburton/KBR Rape Cases
By Cecelia
The Department of Justice refused to send a representative to answer questions from Congress today on the investigations into allegations of rape and sexual assault on female American contractors.”I’m embarrassed that the Department of …
thinkgirl.net/?p=2913

Where HR, Iraq, and the Government Collide
By Laurie
The aforementioned employer was a subsidiary of Halliburton. Surprised, right? *. Did you also know that Jamie Leigh Jones can’t sue her former employer in civil court for negligence in the hiring process of her (alleged) rapists? …
laurieruettimann.com/2007/12/22/wher
e-hr-iraq-and-the-government-collide/

Iraq: At Least 12 killed in another bloody day of US occupation:
A suicide bomber blew himself up near an Iraqi police and army checkpoint in western Baghdad, killing four people and wounding six, police said.
www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL2214785720071222
 
Iraqi civilian killed by US fire – report:
An Iraqi civilian was killed and another was gravely wounded allegedly by US military fire in a town west of Baghdad, witnesses told a local news agency on Saturday.
snipurl.com/1vplo
 
UN issues Iraqi children aid plea :
The United Nations has called for immediate action to assist about two million Iraqi children affected by poor nutrition, disease and disrupted education.
snipurl.com/1vplq
 
Fred Thompson: “Iraq War Going Well”: “
We saw some of these atrocities I think in the last day or two day, al Qaeda torch hospitals or whatever they call them. That’s indicative of what’s been happening out there and people are sick and tired of it. And they’re coming to our side. Some of the Sunni leadership is coming to our side”
snipurl.com/1vpls
 
Life ‘better’ under Saddam says vicar of Baghdad:
Life was “better” for Christians in Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein than it is today, according to the only Anglican vicar working in Baghdad.
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3084957.ece
 
Rudd Says Australian Troops to Leave Iraq by June:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on an unannounced visit to Iraq, said Australian combat troops will be withdrawn from the nation by the middle of next year, making good on a manifesto commitment that helped him win the election.
snipurl.com/1vplw
 
Poland To Pull Troops From Iraq :
Poland plans to withdraw its 900 troops from Iraq by the end of October 2008.
snipurl.com/1vplx
 
Turkish aircraft bomb Northern Iraq: :
The military carried out the raid between 1pm and 2pm local time (11:25-12:00 GMT), following up with artillery fire, it said in a statement
snipurl.com/1vplz
 
Iraqi Gov’t Pledges to Disband Sunnis:
Iraq’s Shiite-led government declared Saturday that after restive areas are calmed it will disband Sunni groups battling Islamic extremists because it does not want them to become a separate military force.
snipurl.com/1vpm1
 
The Vote for Endless War:
 Only 23 Democrats and one independent supported an amendment by Senator Feingold that would have required the safe redeployment of troops from Iraq. Here are the senators who voted to end the war:
snipurl.com/1vpm2
 
Gordon Prather: Justifying the Iraq War:
 Why the NIE Is Wrong :
www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=12092