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New Militias Push Govt Back Further
Ali Al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail, Inter Press Service
Reports of the setting up of U.S.-backed Sunni militias have brought new uncertainty to deepening chaos within Iraq. Some Sunni leaders from the troubled al-Anbar province west of Baghdad recently met away from their tribes to set up new militias, according to local reports. These new armed groups have received early praise from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki and U.S. officials. The United States had earlier called for ! the disarming of all militias for the sake of social peace and reconciliation, but that policy has clearly changed. The occupation forces now back both Shia and Sunni militias in different areas of the country. These new groups are drawing strong condemnation from other Sunni tribal chiefs. “They are a group of thieves who are arming thieves, and this is something dangerous and nasty,” Sheikh Sa’adoon, chief of a large Sunni tribe near Khaldiyah city in al-Anbar told IPS. “This only means we will have more disturbances here, and it could create local civil war.”…
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Buggergate
Mike Whitney
It’s rare when a scandal hits Washington that’s actually enjoyable to follow, but Mark Foley has really put the punch back in politics. Who would have guessed that after 6 years of slaughtering and torturing people in their own countries, the American people could be so incensed by one rogue congressman bumping boys in his off-hours. It just shows what trivial people we’ve become. Congress is a moral cesspool. It didn’t take Foley to prove that. It is the epicenter of American corruption,! the very heart of the beast. If we had any sense we’d send in the fire-trucks and hose out the whole place and then take a wrecking ball to the rotunda. The system is so far gone and so polluted with corporate money it’s no longer salvageable. Just bring in the dozers and we’ll start fresh…
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Free in Baghdad
first words, first walk, first…in Iraq’s
…E, S’ husband, wanted to visit his brother, who lives in a neighbourhood, which has been the scene of communal violence following the Samara bombing, which has been seemingly dampened yet the area is apparently still infested with pro-militias policemen. The couple’s car was motioned to stop at a real police checkpoint [No, not BOGUS, it was real]. The routine ID check, which has not made any sense to me until the day I heard S’ story, has explained why ! it has been devised in the first place. Only now I could visualize how the usual scenario of the severed heads and bullet-riddled bodies, which are often dumped in abandoned areas, kicks off. It’s no mystery now (…) S’ captors tried to confuse her; first they said they were Baathists, then they were Omar Brigade, only later when she was transferred from one CIVILIAN HOUSE to another, where families lived, she mustered her courage to ask an old woman about her whereabouts. She told her they were in Chwadir in Sadr City. She realized that it was the glorious Mehdi army, who orchestrated the whole thing, which they later confirmed; Sadr city is the militia’s stronghold, it is believed that no one could enter the area without their permission. It is unclear whether the families were accomplices in the crime or they were forced to temporarily harbour the victims…
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AFGHANISTAN: NATO IS NOW US-ATO
Sarah Meyer, Index Research
The pre-planned war in Afghanistan will be 5 years old on 7 October. The PNAC gang had their eyes on Afghanistan and its oil prior to 9/11, as seen in R. M. Gerecht’s (March ’01) NY Times article, reprinted on the PNAC website. “In 1996, it seemed possible that American-built gas and oil pipelines from Central Asia could run through an Afghanistan ruled by one leader. … .To really put Mr. bin Laden out of business, America must shut down his operations i! nside Afghanistan,” he said. Mr. Gerecht wrote a further PNAC document, The Cowering Superpower, on the 30th of July ’01, in which he said: “In December 1999, the Clinton administration issued a worldwide terrorist alert … (because) bomb-toting Islamist militants under the banner of the Saudi terrorist Usama bin Laden had declared war.” Following this comment is a discussion on Bin Laden. Another excellent analysis of pre-9/11 strategy is by Stephen Lendman in his article Afghanistan, The Other Lost War. Further post 9/11 PNAC documents relating to Afghanistan can be seen here. Earlier documents relating to oil and gas in Afghanistan can be read here. Really, the ‘War on Terror’ would be better renamed as ‘The War for GO’ (gas and oil). This is as applicable to Afghanistan as it is to Iraq, and threatened Iran…
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Creative Chaos Continues
Daoud Shirian, Al-Hayat
…Hence, it would be overly optimistic to conclude that Rice’s regional tour is a sign of a change in the policies of the US administration or that it is part of an endeavor to revise US polices following the Israeli war on Lebanon and the deteriorating situation in Iraq, or increasing US concerns. For Washington is going ahead with its constructive chaos scenario, and now that the war on Lebanon has ushered an era portending chaos resembling the chaos in the Pale! stinian territories, and by the time Rice arrives to the region on her next visit, this chaos-based, US directed scenario will already have been aired in more Arab countries…
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Eyewitness Lebanon: Hezbollah helps mend divisions
Sara Flounders, International Action Center
Traveling throughout war-torn Lebanon, we realized it is impossible to understand the historic accomplishment of the resistance or the vast reconstruction underway without understanding the role of Hezbollah in Lebanese society. Everyone we met wanted to discuss this one topic. Lebanon is a complex multi-ethnic, multi-religious country. Under French colonial rule, the entire state structure of Lebanon was rigidly divide! d into religious groupings. There was no civil society and social services in Lebanon were organized by the different religions.
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Now That You Could be Labeled an Enemy Combatant…
Heather Wokusch, www.dissidentvoice.org
Since Congress recently handed Bush the power to identify American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” and detain them indefinitely without charge, it’s worth examining the administration’s record of prisoner abuse as well as the building of stateside detention centers. As Texas governor (from 1995-2000) Bush oversaw the executions of 152 prisoners, and thus became the most-killing governor in the history of the United S! tates. Ethnic minorities, many of whom did not have access to proper legal representation, comprised a large percentage of those Bush put to death, and in one particularly egregious example, Bush executed an immigrant who hadn’t even seen a consular official from his own country (as is required by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to which the US was a signatory). Bush’s explanation: “Texas did not sign the Vienna Convention, so why should we be subject to it?”…
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The Ultimate Mission to Israel!
Ignacius O’Reilly, A Signs of the Times Exclusive
We know that Israel is beseiged. Facing a Palestinian population armed to the teeth with deadly rocks and rusting weapons, and Hizbullah to the north in Lebanon with its powerful katyusha rockets, a powerful techology dating back to the Second World War, Israel remarkably refuses to fall, backed solely by the strongest army in the Middle East, an arsenal of nuclear weapons, false flag operations, unlimited funding and arms from the ! United States whenever they are required, a permanent veto via the US on any UN Security Council resolution, and a compliant Western press. The web site linked from the above image invites supporters of Israel to come and see Israel’s ‘weapons of mass security’ for themselves. Included in the tour are a “Live exhibition of penetration raids in Arab territory” and a meeting with “Israel’s Arab agents who infiltrate the terrorist groups and provide real-time intelligence”. As you can see, the page offers an antiseptic language that whitewashes the true horrors of Israeli brutality…
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THE EROSION OF DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM IN AMERICA
SteveLendman
…On two late September, 2006 days of infamy, the US House and Senate passed and sent to President Bush for his certain signature the Military Commissions Act of 2006 appropriately called “the torture authorization bill.” This clear unconstitutional act gives the administration extraordinary powers to detain, interrogate and prosecute alleged terror suspects and anyone thought to be their supporters. The law grants the executive branch (specifically Pr! esident Bush) the extraordinary right to label anyone anywhere in the world an “unlawful enemy combatant” and gives him the legal right to arrest and incarcerate them indefinitely in military prisons. Persons liable will include anyone who even innocently contributes financially to a charitable organization thought to be associated with any nation or group the US believes supports terrorist or hostile actions against the US. On September 27 and 28, 2006, freedom and justice effectively died in the US, and no one will be secure anywhere in the world as long as this act is the law of the land. One day it will be repealed – if the republic survives long enough to do it which now is very much in question…
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 3 October 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice
…In a dispatch posted at 10:10pm Makkah time Tuesday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that at the time of reporting US warplanes were violently bombing and rocketing the city of ar-Ramadi, about 110km west of Baghdad. The ar-Ramadi correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the American fighter bombers were simultaneously striking the districts of as! -Sajariyah, as-Sufiyah, and al-Jazirah, aiming for residential housing. At the time of reporting there was still no information on the nature or extent of casualties…
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Not My Son in Video, Declares Atta Senior
Kurt Nimmo
In fairness, you’d think the corporate media would hear out Muhammad al-Amir al-Sayd Atta, father of patsy hijacker Mohammed Atta, who has told the Saudi daily al-Watan the latest intelligence video fabrication, allegedly showing Mohammed and Ziad Jarrah, is a crass fake. “The video-testament of my son is false and I continue to believe he is innocent,” Atta said. “There is a big difference between this photo and the images shown by the Americans—that one is no! t my boy… “The Americans tampered with and falsified that video … they want to change the truth in order to achieve their goals in the Middle East.” A Google News search returns exactly one reference to Atta’s comments, posted on the Adnkronos International web site. But even Adnkronos International accepts as gospel truth the dubitable myth the younger Atta “flew one of the planes that brought down the World Trade Center.” …
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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, October 3, 2006
Today in Iraq
At least 17 US soldiers have been killed around Iraq since Saturday, including eight in a single day in Baghdad, the US military announced, saying the toll had brought “a tragic day”. The toll represents a dramatic spike for US casualties in Iraq which generally average no more than a couple of wounded a day, especially for the Baghdad-based forces. “I don’t have any comparative figures,” said Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, who declined to say whether t! he toll was an increase. “We have tragic days and this was a tragic day.” Monday saw four soldiers killed when their vehicle was obliterated by a roadside bomb in northwest Baghdad, as well as four soldiers killed by small arms fire in various other spots throughout the city. (…) Seven of the other US casualties since Saturday have been in the western Al-Anbar province, the center of a fierce anti-US insurgency that generally claims the lion’s share of fatalities…
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UNHCR deeply concerned by plight of Palestinian refugees in Iraq, region
UNHCR
UNHCR is deeply concerned over the well-being of Palestinian refugees inside Iraq, as well as those who fled targeted harassment and violence in Baghdad and are now stuck at the border between Iraq and Syria and in camps in Jordan and Syria. The security situation of Palestinian refugees in Iraq has deteriorated – particularly since the Samarra bombings last February – and an increasing number of them have left or are trying to leave t! he country. Palestinians in Iraq lack protection, have serious problems obtaining identity cards, and have been the target of continuing harassment, threats, kidnapping and killings…
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Nine U-S soldiers, two more Marines killed in Iraq
Associated Press
There’s word this morning of eleven more American deaths in Iraq. The U-S command reports the toll includes nine Army soldiers and two Marines. Four soldiers were killed in separate small-arms-fire attacks yesterday in Baghdad. Four more died when a roadside bomb blew up as their patrol passed by northwest of the city. The ninth soldier was killed Sunday when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. The military today also reports that two more Ma! rines have been killed, both in fighting in western Iraq’s particularly dangerous Anbar province…
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Afghanistan is “falling,” have you noticed?
Luciana Bohne, Online Journal Contributing Writer
You’ve probably not heard that Afghanistan is “falling” and that the Taleban is winning. The Nation magazine points out, in part, why you don’t know. Newsweek has an international edition, the front page of which features a Taleban warrior and proclaims that the Taleban is taking Afghanistan back. The US edition of Newsweek, however, sports on the front page a picture of Annie Leibowitz, photographer to the stars, comple! ting her rigorous and danger-ridden assignment of interviewing Angelina Jolie. If you don’t know that Afghanistan is “falling,” then you don’t know why British Prime Minister Tony Blair has “fallen…
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Save AKKA old City – Palestinian Great Ancient Culture Heritage
Hayam Noir – PalestineFreeVoice
Akka has for long been considered to be the port entrance to Palestine-because of its location by the Mediteranian sea that made Akka an exellent seaport, perfect for trading and culture-exchange (…) Akka today battle a very difficult economical and social situation.The ancient and historical buildings of Akka needs restaurations – As everywhere else on occupied Palestine lands,the Zionists “ Israel” is preventing th! e Palestinian inhabitants to start their own projects of restaurations of their ancient historical landmarks.On the contrary the “Israeli govenment” are deliberately destroying all arabic Islamic signs and old buildings from the past.The Arab Palestinians love their old culture and buildings that remind them of their great past history…
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George W. Bush “Failed to Tell the Truth?” What the Hell Does That Mean?
Jesse, TvNewsLIES.org
A while back I wrote an editorial highlighting the many euphemisms being used by the media and Bush apologists alike so that they can avoid pointing out the obvious: George W. Bush is a chronic liar. He and his administration lie with virtually every statement on virtually every issue. Keep in mind part of the definition of the word lie includes the notion of leaving someone with a false impression. But with all the eup! hemisms for lying, “failed to tell the truth” takes the cake! This is the new buzz phrase surrounding the new Bob Woodward book about George W. Bush…
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A political culture of lies and war
Rodrigue Tremblay, Online Journal Guest Writer
As a principle, a democratic government should not rely on misinformation, half-truths and outright lies in order to defend its public policies. Indeed, public affairs should be discussed in the open and policies judged on their merit. To do otherwise is to betray the necessary trust a responsible government must have with the citizens. But everybody knows that politicians do lie, and the more they get away with it, the more they r! esort to this subterfuge…
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GI Special 4J3: “A War Fought For The Filthy Rich” – October 3, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
One of the things that’s surprised me most as I returned from travels around the U.S., up to Canada, and over to Germany talking with soldiers opposed to the Iraq war is how few civilians know about the growing resistance within the military to Bush policy in Iraq.
Over and over, when people asked me what I was working on and I told them of the collected stories of opposition, I heard comments like “There are soldiers against the war? I didn’t know that.”
These soldier’s stories are critical to hear. Their credibility cannot be impugned. They volunteered for the military. They’ve seen it from the inside.
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2 GIs, 1 British Soldier Killed – 113 Bodies Found – Debaathification Targets Interior
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
There is an enormous discrepancy between the casualty figures reported by al-Zaman [The Times of Baghdad] (Ar.) and those of the Western wire services. The Iraqi newspaper reports that Iraqi security forces found 113 bodies in the streets on Monday, including 50 in Baghdad, 50 in Kut, and 31 elsewhere. I believe that al-Zaman’s numbers are the right ones, and that the Western press has been vastly un! der-reporting deaths in Iraq, perhaps by a factor of 1 to 4. There were no casualty figures on Monday from hot spots such as Ramadi or Baquba, or from Basra in the South (except the British soldier), but it is a fairly sure bet that people died in those areas…
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Human rights groups condemn US law on military commissions
Patrick Martin
Civil liberties and human rights organizations have denounced the Military Commissions Act adopted by Congress last week, calling it a fundamental break by the US government with democratic principles. The bill passed the Senate Thursday and the House of Representatives Friday, and will be signed into law by President Bush within days. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which has provided legal representation for hundreds of prison! ers detained indefinitely at the Guantánamo Bay concentration camp, said it would file a legal challenge to the law as soon as Bush signs it, focusing on its denial of the right of prisoners to seek a writ of habeas corpus, a formal review of the reason for their detention by a court independent of the arresting authority…
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