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Iraq’s ‘liberated’ Palestinians : Arrested, Abused, Abandoned, Slaughtered.
Felicity Arbuthnot
Last week many of Baghdad’s Palestinians received hand written notes, delivered by armed men, warning them to leave within seventy two hours or face death, decimation. The same scenario happened earlier this year. Iraq’s Palestinians are another forgotten tragedy in the predictable carnage the US/UK’s criminal, illegal invasion has wrought. There are those who fled Palestine after the British led formation of Israel ! in 1948, ousted from ancestral homes, fleeing just with keys, deeds and that they could carry or load, vowing to return. Other, their children and grandchildren, born in exile, the dream to return nurtured with their mothers’ milk, as Palestinians across the globe. Of Baghdad’s thirty four thousand Palestinians, just twenty thousand remain since the city’s fall in 2003. Given the invasion fuelled sectarianism, with disparate factions and private militias entering the country with US/UK tanks and with Israeli soldiers wearing US uniforms and Israeli intelligence allegedly advising, setting policies and Israeli methods being used to demolish homes, empty villages, build walls and generally terrorise, speculation as to the source of the plight of the Palestinians is an uncertain science…
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With the body count mounting
Pentagon plans to dismember Iraq
Ben Becker, Socialism and Liberation
…The occupation forces are now allowing internecine and sectarian conflict—which they have promoted all along—to tear the country apart. The plan to partition Iraq could be seen in the October 2005 Iraqi constitution. In the name of “federalism,” it spelled out a system that guaranteed regional governmental autonomy should the central Baghdad government prove too weak or fall out of Washington’s control! . This system could at least guarantee Wall Street access to the oil-rich areas of the north and the south (…) Iraq, once a secular state with extensive social programs and an education system that made it the envy of the Middle East, has been torn apart. The only force capable of halting the U.S. plans to exterminate the Iraqi nation is an increasingly effective Iraqi resistance united on the basis of anti-imperialism…
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Coup In Iraq?
Robert Dreyfuss
Is the Bush administration considering a coup d’etat in Iraq before the end of the year, in a desperate effort to salvage its war? It’s not outside the realm of possibility. Like JFK in 1963, who—faced with a notoriously corrupt Saigon regime and a growing Viet Cong insurgency in Vietnam—gave the green light to topple and assassinate President Ngo Dinh Diem in Vietnam, President Bush might give a wink and a nod to the CIA, the U.S. military, and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to get rid! of Iraq’s current regime. The Diem coup didn’t go well. Considering how unlikely it is that Bush has even heard of Diem, I doubt he’s learned that lesson. More and more, it’s beginning to look like the end for Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki…
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Sailor: I watched Marines kill Iraqi civilian
Associated Press
A Navy corpsman testified Friday that Marines in his patrol seized an Iraqi civilian from his home, threw him into a hole and put at least 10 bullets in his head after growing frustrated in their search for an insurgent. “I was shocked and I felt sick to my stomach,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos. Bacos, a medic who had been on patrol with the squad, was charged along with seven Marines in the slaying of Hashim Ibrahim Awad last spring ! in the town of Hamdaniya. But Bacos struck a deal with prosecutors under which he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy and agreed to testify Friday at his court-martial about what he saw…
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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2006
Today in Iraq
…Baghdad police collected 35 corpses over a period of 24 hours, they have said, mostly in the Sunni western half of the city. The bodies — which were found bwteen 6.00 am (0300 GMT) Thursday and 6.00 am Friday — bore the tell tale markings of Baghdad’s grim sectarian war with signs of torture and bullet wounds to the head. In a predominantly Shiite part of eastern Baghdad, police found the bodies of five men in their 30s, apparently victims of sectaria! n death squads. All five had been shot, had their hands and feet bound and showed signs of torture, police Maj. Maher Mousa said. Two US soldiers died from combat wounds they received on October 4 while operating in Anbar province…
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An Unacceptable Nuclear Gamble
Kim Petersen
Warnings have emanated that the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) is preparing to test a nuclear device. The US assistant secretary of state, Christopher Hill, was miffed. “We are not going to live with a nuclear North Korea,” declared Hill, “we are not going to accept it.” There are things that the government of the United States does not accept or want to accept, but that does not mean that reality will bend to what is acceptable to the US. The US military had to ac! cept being shoved out of the DPRK in 1950. It had to accept being forced out of Vietnam in 1975. The US military is now being forced to accept losing a bloody occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan…
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GI Special 4J6: Remote Control – October 6, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
U.S. Losses Mount In Battle Of Baghdad:
“We Have Lost 18 American Service Members In About The Last 96 Hours”
Rumsfeld Gets Another Kill
For the troops of the 172nd, who were deployed to Baghdad two months ago after seeing their year-long tour of duty in Iraq abruptly extended just days before they were due to return home, Rojas’ death was a cruel blow.
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McGovern’s Trojan Horse
Charles Jenks, Traprock Peace Center
The Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) trumpets its continued support of Rep. James McGovern bill (HR 4232) as “a top legislative priority.” PDA urges all to sign its petition to support the bill, as PDA is “committed to cutting off all funding for the deployment of US troops in Iraq and for the removal of all funding for the occupation of Iraq.” (…) Code Pink and United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) also support this bill. Warning flags should go ! up by just reading PDA’s pitch for the bill. The bill would not get in the way of the US meddling in governing Iraq – or as PDA puts it “democratic institution building.” And, the bill provides for continued financial and material support for the ’security’ forces (secret police, military and uniformed police) that the US has established in Iraq. So, a lot of dirty business is allowed by the bill, but how to do that without US troops? Well, there’s more to the story, a story not told by PDA in its pitch. How would the US hope to continue shaping Iraq’s governing institutions and its internal ’security’ forces without US troops? (A hint: take a look at how the US is trying to do it in Afghanistan.) The bill has certain exceptions to the prohibition of funds to “deploy or continue to deploy the Armed Forces to the Republic of Iraq.” These exceptions show that the bill is a farce and that PDA has bought, or is trying to sell, the proverbial bill of goods…
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“The Palestine Government has Arab and the Islamic Legitimacy “
PalestineFreeVoice
“We were elected for the resistance platform we presented to the Palestinian people, we did not come with tanks, or with the coalition of Israel and the USA.” “The government has Arab and the Islamic legitimacy, but since the first moments of our governing, many attempts to frustrate us started, the The siege was imposed on us, and the crossings were closed frequently. There are goods held in the Israeli ports, we have witnessed a ! massive escalation in the Israeli military actions and arrests, in addition to the assassinations.” “We have passed through many stages, including demonstrations against the government. The next stage is the adoption of the prisoners document – The Palestinian arena was almost reaching the edge of collapse, and with the strike and the state of lawlessness and disorder, a coup was almost established against the government.”…
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Lies by Omission
William Bowles , I’n’I
The London Independent’s editorial headed “Beware loose talk about a clash of civilisations” boggles the mind and my pen trembles and threatens to skitter right off the page of my ‘little red note book’ as I transcribe the words from this misleading and dangerous distortion of the facts. “This terrorism isn’t our fault … We didn’t cause it … It’s not the consequence of foreign policy … It’s an attack on our way of life … It’s global … It has an ideology.” — Tony Blair, speaking at the Labour Party Conference. The first thing one notices that is entirely missing from this artful piece of dissembling is any reference to Bush and Blair’s endless references to a “clash of civilisations” or indeed to the role of newspapers such as the Independent in spreading fear and loathing of an “intolerant strain of Islam” with its repetition of largely government-sourced stories about ‘terrorist cells’ and ‘home-grown terrorists’ or links to ‘al-Qu’eda’s global network’. References ! entirely divorced from context or history, especially the pernicious ‘war on terror’ fantasy that has created this abominable situation in the first place…
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Palestinian Power-Struggle: Siege Within
Ramzy Baroud
It is no secret that the Palestinian people have always struggled with the problem of impotent, self-seeking leaderships, who have historically invested far greater time fending for their own status and position at the helm — however worthless — than representing the legitimate rights and aspirations of an occupied nation. Alas, the present fails to deviate from that role, although it offers an unprecedented lesson. To differ is only human, indeed. But when po! litical and ideological differences within the Palestinian leadership milieu turn into wide chasms that split further an already weakened and oppressed society in urgent need of national cohesion — amid incessant and sadly successful attempts to splinter its national identity — then one must dare question the wisdom and merit of such leadership that would allow for, in fact, instigate such a travesty…
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Bloody fight over Kirkuk’s future
Mohammed A Salih
The security situation in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk has further deteriorated over the past few weeks after the Iraqi government formed a committee assigned to “normalize the situation”. The creation of that committee under a constitutional provision has led to a rise in ethnic tensions among Kirkuk’s Kurdish, Arab and Turkoman populations. Violence has risen with the tensions. September was one of the bloodiest months for Kirkuk, with an unprecedented ! number of attacks. For many, the message behind the attacks is to stop implementation of Article 140 of Iraq’s constitution, and to inflame sectarian strife in the city…
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GI Special 4J5: SecDef PCS USDB Ft. Leavenworth – October 5, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
Thirteen U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad since Monday, the American military reported, registering the highest three-day death toll for U.S. forces in the capital since the start of the war.
The latest losses — four soldiers who were killed at 9 a.m. Wednesday by small-arms fire — are part of a recent spike in violent attacks against U.S. forces that have claimed the lives of at least 24 soldiers and Marines in Iraq since Saturday, the military said.
Independent databases showed the three-day toll for American troops to be the highest in Baghdad so far.
“When you go into bad neighborhoods, you’ll have more attacks,” said Lt. Col. James A. Gavrilis, a Special Forces officer and expert on the Iraqi insurgency. “If we have more people in one area, there will be an opportunity.” He said enemy fighters “are reacting to an opportunity to attack.”
Seventy-four soldiers and Marines were killed in Iraq in September, representing the highest monthly toll since April, when 76 died, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.
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The real “state of denial”: 9/11 red herrings as bipartisan election-year volleyball
Larry Chin, Online Journal Associate Editor
With US mid-term elections one month away, it is not surprising to find Washington’s elite criminal factions (neocon and neoliberal) engaged in a new game of political chicken over 9/11 red herrings. The appearance of bickering hides the fact that operatives of both factions are lying. Both sides are cynically continuing the massive bipartisan cover-up of 9/11 and the “war on terrorism.! “ It is an amply documented fact — no news whatsoever — that the Bush administration had absolute foreknowledge of 9/11, and deliberately ignored warnings received within the US and from officials and intelligence agencies outside the US. As written by Michel Chossudovsky, “the foreknowledge issue itself is a red herring, a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue . . . Of course the Bush administration knew.” Of course Washington “knew” about its own false flag operation. Of course Washington “knew” about using its own covert intelligence network. Of course Washington “knows” that 9/11 was an intelligence “success,” not an intelligence “failure.”…
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Tomgram: David Swanson, The Impeachment Moment
Tom Engelhardt & David Swanson
If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve lived through moments — there were a couple of striking ones in the Vietnam era — when all the collective, practical wisdom of pundits and policy makers about what is possible in this world seems to fall away and suddenly the previously inconceivable enters the mainstream. The next thing you know, it’s a commonplace and everybody is proudly ready to take credit for making it so. That was the ! case when it came to the issue of the impeachment of Richard Nixon back in 1973. Will it, in the near future, be true again when it comes to George W. Bush (and Dick Cheney)?…
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Voluntary transfer?
Sabbah’s blog
Not only do they have this wonderful idea – but the US should pay! Not an original idea, the Nazis had it first, but the part of the US paying, that’s original Israeli. “This money would be given to every family of the million refugees of the Gaza Strip region, and each family would emigrate with $100,000 dollars.” The money would be given them as they emigrate, Elon said… Many countries would absorb them if they came not as refugees, but with $100,000 dollars… (…) Of ! course, their land, orchards, whatever… will remain in the hands of Israel without restitution, which is clear…
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Is Condi Rice Being Drug Tested?
Ahmed Amr, www.dissidentvoice.org
The setting was an editorial board meeting with the war mongering Likudniks who operate the New York Post — a rag owned by Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul most responsible for the Iraq war. In attendance was none other than Murdoch himself — playing the role of chief interrogator. The part assigned to the American Secretary of State was to answer leading questions for a choreographed pre-election media farce. Condoleezza Rice knew she was in fri! endly territory and correctly assumed that no serious analyst would bother to pick up a copy of the Post — a neo-conservative daily propaganda bulletin. Fortunately for Condi, the interview went unnoticed — except by the horde of know-nothings that actually pay to read the thoughts of Chairman MU — as in MUrdoch. What was extraordinary about the interview was Rice’s confession of her role in orchestrating the murderous 34-day Israeli assault on Lebanon…
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Return of the War Criminal
Molly Ivins
The Old War Criminal is back. I try not to hold grudges, but I must admit I have never lost one ounce of rancor toward Henry Kissinger, that cynical, slithery, self-absorbed pathological liar. He has all the loyalty and principle of Charles Talleyrand, whom Napoleon described as “a piece of dung in a silk stocking.” Come to think of it, Talleyrand looks pretty good compared to Kissinger, who always aspired to be Metternich (a 19th century Austrian diplomat). Just count the n! umber of Americans and Vietnamese who died between 1969 and 1973, and see if you can find any indication he ever gave a damn. As for Kissinger’s getting the Nobel Peace Prize, it is a thing so wrong it has come to define wrongness—as in, “As weird as the time Henry Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize.”…
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Six Flags over Neo-Nuremberg: Bush, Oprah, the San Diego Chicken and a proto-fascist panopticon of the mind
Phil Rockstroh, Online Journal Contributing Writer
Many believe fascism will come to the United States of America resembling contrived spectacles such as the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, and American Idol, with the proceedings intercut with teary, yet ultimately triumphant, Oprahesque tales of how redemption can be gained through the renunciation of one’s rights and liberties, as well as, the dutiful tur! ning in of one’s subversive neighbors. Don’t reach for that remote, folks: It’s already here. Our journey to fascism began at the end of the Second World War, when the tenets of the hyper-commercialized entertainment / military / corporate state became sacrosanct by means of our internalization of it from constant mass media reinforcement…
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Existence of “Al-Qaeda” Is Crap; Quite Literally
Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com
The origins of the name “Al-Qaeda,” and its real arabic connotations prove that every time the Bush administration, Fox News, or any individual who cites the threat of “Al-Qaeda,” as a mandate for war and domestic authoritarianism, they are propagating the myth that such a group ever existed. An organization by the name of “Al-Qaeda” does not exist and has never existed outside a falsely coined collective term for offshoot loose! knit terror cells, the majority of which are guided by the Pakistani ISI, Mossad, the Saudis, MI6 and the CIA, that were created in response to America’s actions after 9/11 – as the recent NIE report shows. According to the BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, the infamous footage of Bin Laden marching around with armed soldiers was a ruse on the part of Osama himself, graciously propagated by the lapdog press, in which actors were hired off the streets, given uniforms and guns and told to look aggressive…
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Revenge of the Jedi Bag Lady
Mickey Z.
Communists are long out of vogue, welfare moms are so 1995, and Osama has taken the reclusive shtick a little too far for our short attention spans. My fellow Americans, we obviously-desperately-need a new super-villain to fear, a new reason to circle the wagons, surrender our rights, and embrace a lifetime of Code Orange. Well, hold on to your yellow ribbons, put down your cell phones, and take a good look what the Federal Bureau of Investigation has just dropped on our col! lective doorstep: a 95-pound, 51-year-old homeless Iranian widow with severe digestive problems (from Queens, no less). Armed only with a tattered coffee cup, a shopping cart overflowing with newspapers, and a name that will make Hollywood drool, say hello to our latest national nightmare: Zeinab Taleb-Jedi…
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