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FLASHBACK: A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties
Oded Yinon
…Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel’s targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. E! very kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi’ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north…
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America ponders cutting Iraq in three
Sarah Baxter, TimesOnline
AN independent commission set up by Congress with the approval of President George W Bush may recommend carving up Iraq into three highly autonomous regions, according to well informed sources. The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by James Baker, the former US secretary of state, is preparing to report after next month’s congressional elections amid signs that sectarian violence and attacks on coalition forces are spiralling out of control. The conflict ! is claiming the lives of 100 civilians a day and bombings have reached record levels. The Baker commission has grown increasingly interested in the idea of splitting the Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish regions of Iraq as the only alternative to what Baker calls “cutting and running” or “staying the course”…
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INDEX ON AFGHANISTAN : SEPTEMBER 2006
Sarah Meyer, INDEX RESEARCH
…Blackwater, a private security firm founded by a former U.S. Navy SEAL and specialized in “military, law enforcement, peacekeeping, and stability operations challenges” has been contracted by the Pentagon to work and guard American officials and facilities in both Iraq and Afghanistan. … Their [the mercenaries] losses can therefore be hidden from public view…
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U.S. Casualties in Iraq Rise Sharply
Growing American Role in Staving Off Civil War Leads to Most Wounded Since 2004
Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer
The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest monthly level in nearly two years as American GIs fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war. Last month, 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq, the highest number since the military! assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, according to Defense Department data. It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003…
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Another Freedom Cut Short
Iraqi Barbers and Their Customers Feel Threat of Sect-Based Grooming Rules
Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Foreign Service
The cleric’s young men fanned out across the neighborhood, moving from shop to shop, posting the new religious decrees. Printed neatly on white-and-green fliers, the edicts banned vices like “music-filled parties and all kinds of singing.” They proscribed celebratory gunfire at weddings and “the gathering of young men” in front of markets and girls’ sch! ools. Also forbidden were the “selling of liquor and narcotic drugs” and “wearing improper Western clothes.” But at the bottom of the list of prohibitions was a single command. Scrawled in green ink, it read simply: “Cut hair.”…
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Saturday, 7 October 2006.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice
…In a dispatch posted at 9:45pm Makkah time Saturday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that Iraqi Resistance forces were engaged in a fierce battle with a large US force to the south of al-Fallujah. The battle had begun about an hour earlier and was still underway at the time of reporting. The al-Fallujah correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported that ! more than 30 Resistance men were battling with a US force near the al-Anbiya’ Mosque in the ash-Shuhada’ neighborhood…
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“Mid-Death” – in Baghdad local time
Roads to Iraq
…The picture in Washington, with James Baker still retains a copy of the important report prepared by its so-called “study of the situation in Iraq.” seem too crowded, and it is an expression of the conflict between Democrats and Republicans, but that information, Baker allowed to be released to the American public, says: “The difficulty of achieving peace have been exaggerated.” The picture in Iraq is more catastrophic than the White House expected, there is n! o new information for us, discovered by Baker: By conclusion, Can we arguably, presumption a hypothetical meeting between the two men? Baker: I advised your father before fourteen years ago Bush: what the time now? Baker: mid death in Baghdad local time…
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The Forgotten “Humanitarian Crisis” in Gaza
Anthony Newkirk, GlobalResearch.ca
Next month, the Shurat HaDin Law Center will sponsor an eight-day ‘’exploration of Israel’s struggle for survival and security’’ that includes briefings by intelligence officers, demonstrations by masked commandoes, visits to military trials of Hamas members, and a “tour of the IAF [Israel Air Force] unit who carries out targeted killings.” Evidently, a tour of the beach in Gaza where Israeli artillery fire killed seven picnickers in e! arly June is not on the agenda. In any case, one needn’t go on such a bizarre “exploration” in order to grasp the U.S. role in Israeli “peacekeeping” methods in the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian National Authority (PA)…
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Iraq’s Tigris River Yields Hundreds of Corpses
HISHAM K. ALWAN and SALAM T. JIHAD
A system of iron weirs in the Tigris River 20 miles southeast of Baghdad was designed to prevent lily pads, known here as “Nile flower,” from traveling down-river and clogging canals vital to farmers for irrigating Iraq’s south. But now, the weirs also catch corpses that float down from the capital, murder victims in the sectarian violence that blights Iraq. Local police in the nearby town of Swaira say that since January 2005 they ! have collected 339 bodies of men, women and children from the filters. It’s considered one of the highest numbers of corpses found in a single location in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003…
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145 Dead, 41 Wounded, Including US Soldier, in Saturday Iraq Violence
Antiwar.com
In another violent day in Iraq, at least 145 have died and 41 have been wounded. Among the deaths is that of an American soldier who was killed by enemy fire in the northern town of Baiji and the captain of the Iraqi handball team. Also in the news, the Department of Defense released the number of U.S. troops wounded during September. At 776 injured, it was the fourth highest monthly figure since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.! In Baghdad, at least 51 corpses have been discovered, many in the Sunni western half. In addition to those, police found five bodies in the Sadr City district; they were shot and bore signs of torture. Another seven bodies, thought to be victims of sectarian death squads, were also found. Two bodies were found floating in the Tigris River in the Karrada neighborhood and three more downstream at Suweira…
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GI Special 4J7: ya been took!! – October 7, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
ya been took!!
“Daily Revelations Of The Treachery Of Their Superiors Makes For Some, To Put It Mildly, Unruly Troops”
“They Want To Talk About Their Situation And Sometimes I Think They’re Surprised That Anyone Is Interested In What They Have To Say”
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US medic gets a year in prison in Iraqi’s death
Adam Tanner, Reuters
A U.S. medic who helped kidnap an Iraqi grandfather later killed execution-style by an American squad was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday, but will end up serving a year under a plea deal. Military Judge Col. Steven Folsom gave the sentence after Petty Officer Melson Bacos, 21, said his patrol leader’s anger at the release of a suspected “terrorist” from Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison prompted the murder of the man’s neighbor. Bacos agree! d to a plea deal earlier on Friday in which he agreed to testify in exchange for a lesser sentence…
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Statement against International Intervention in the Sudan
Arab Nationalist List
The USA’s arrogant behavior in its mad drive to dominate the world and seize control of countries’ political, economic, social, and cultural resources by undermining the security of states and shredding the social and cultural fabric of peoples has created chaos and insecurity in one place after another. It has become obvious to the people of the Arab Nation, the world Islamic community, and free people everywhere that the US threats,! maneuvers, and machinations and the historically unprecedented feverish propaganda and psychological warfare that accompanies them is aimed at the entire Arab Nation. The American-Zionist scheme seeks to change the map of the Arab homeland, breaking it apart and even fragmenting the Arab states, undermining their fighting ability. It is on this basis that the US is pursuing its feverish effort to attack the Arab states one after the other, with the rape of Palestine and the oppression of its people being one aspect of that drive, followed by the occupation of Iraq and the move to partition it, the threats against Syria, and the attempt to disband and disarm the Lebanese resistance…
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WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, OCTOBER 07, 2006
Today in Iraq
A U.S. military spokesman said the past week had the most car bombs and roadside bombs in Baghdad of the year. At least 24 U.S. troops had been killed in Iraq since Sept. 30, one of the deadliest periods since the formal end of combat operations. The total death count Wednesday was at least 2,727 U.S. troops since the beginning of the war in March 2003, according to the Defense Department (…) A U.S. soldier was killed by insurgents on Friday near the town of! Baiji, the U.S. military said in a statement. Thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers launched a major security crackdown in the restive Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Saturday, searching homes for weapons after all residents were ordered off the streets…
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Experts Warn of an Accidental Atomic War
Nuclear missile modified for conventional attack on Iran could set off alarm in Russia
Eric Rosenberg
A Pentagon project to modify its deadliest nuclear missile for use as a conventional weapon against targets such as North Korea and Iran could unwittingly spark an atomic war, two weapons experts warned Thursday. Russian military officers might misconstrue a submarine-launched conventional D5 intercontinental ballistic missile and conclude that Russia is under n! uclear attack, said Ted Postol, a physicist and professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Pavel Podvig, a physicist and weapons specialist at Stanford. “Any launch of a long-range nonnuclear armed sea or land ballistic missile will cause an automated alert of the Russian early warning system,” Postol told reporters…
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Great wall to seal off Iraq
Harry de Quetteville
SAUDI Arabia plans to build a 900-kilometre, $700 million high-tech fence to seal off its troubled northern neighbour Iraq. The barrier, which will snake across the long desert frontier between the two countries, is due to be completed in 2008. If built in Australia, the fence would easily cover the distance between Sydney and Melbourne. Once complete, it will revolutionise security on a border where currently the best weapons in the fight against terrorists are 10! 0 sniffer-dog teams…
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“Cold War Shivers”: War Preparations in the Middle East and Central Asia
MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY, Global Research
It is essential that people across America and around the World take cognizance of the dangers of a Middle East war directed at Iran and act decisively to challenge the US military agenda and reverse the tide of war. The World is at the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US has embarked on a military adventure, “a long war”, which threatens the future of humanity. This articl! e documents recent developments, focusing on military deployment and preparations in the event of a US led war on Iran. This text follows a number of earlier reports published by Global Research pertaining to the War on Iran…
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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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Iran: The Unthinkable War, Part III
Why They “Hate Us”: Bringing “Regime Change” and “Democracy” to Iran
Juan Santos, www.dissidentvoice.org
… George W. Bush now claims the Iranians are a backward people who hate the US for its “freedoms.” Armed with the facts, one might conclude otherwise; that Iran has already experienced a US sponsored “regime change” and that there are altogether different reasons why any Iranian in her or his right mind would hate and oppose the US Empire. It comes as no surpris! e that, having had their own democracy overthrown by the US, Iranians would offer a flat “No” to US claims that it’s exporting “democracy” and “freedom” rather than torture, degradation, poverty and regional dominion…
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Guards describe Guantanamo prisoner abuse
Will Dunham / Reuters
Guantanamo guards described physically and mentally abusing detainees, including slamming one’s head into a cell door and denying them privileges merely to anger them, a U.S. Marine said in a document made public on Friday. “Examples of this abuse included hitting detainees, denying them water, and removal of privileges for no reason,” the Marine Corps sergeant stated in a sworn affidavit sent to the Pentagon’s inspector general’s office for investig! ation…
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The Secret Letter From Iraq
Time
A Marine’s letter home, with its frank description of life in “Dante’s inferno,” has been circulating through generals’ in-boxes. We publish it here with the author’s approval
…an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.” (…) Worst City in al-Anbar Province — Ramadi, hands down. The provincial capital of 400,000 people. Lots and lots of insurgents killed in there since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small arms. We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers (much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news.
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