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Stewart in Leg-irons; the latest victory in the war on terror
Mike Whitney
So far, Bush’s only triumph in his muddled war on terror has been locking up the two Stewart Sisters, Lynne and Martha. (They’re not really sisters) Neither posed any threat to national security, but that’s beside the point. Their arrest sends a chilling message to “home-decoration mavens” and 67 year old cancer patients that they’d better “watch their step” or they’ll find themselves in prison-pinstripes. Do Americans really see how craz! y this is or have we been so subsumed in “terror-hysteria” that we’ve lost our sense of humor altogether? Consider this: while attorney Stewart is tottering off to prison for defending a “blind Sheik”, a tan and rested Bin Laden is somewhere in the Pakistan-outback working on golf swing and his memoirs? Does that make any sense? Only if the real objective is to intimidate lawyers who defend unpopular clients rather than nailing terrorists…
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Fundamentally Dishonest Codswallop
Gorilla’s Guides
I don’t link to Iraq Body Count and I don’t cite their figures. There’s a reason for that, and the reason is that I regard them as so flawed as to be worse than useless. Now they’re at it again, defending their turf that is. Nobody, but nobody, should trespass on their turf. Especially not people who know what they’re doing. I’ve long regarded Iraq Body Count as little better than fraudulent. This fundamentally dishonest press release merely confirms me in that ! opinion. They don’t dare try to attack the methodology, about which one could raise questions, so instead they resort to “examining a number of implications” which they describe as “anomalous.” Ergo the study can be dismissed. This type of thing is called “circular reasoning” and is the sort of logical fallacy for which, aged 14, I would have been sent out of the classroom in disgrace had I attempted to engage in it. I’m very short of time this week but this sort fundamentally dishonest codswallop and shameful parasitism upon the misery of the people of Iraq shouldn’t be allowed stand…
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GI Special 4J16: Dinner At The White House – October 16, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
Marine Families Must Stand In Line For Charity Food Handouts Or Go Hungry: “The Lower-Ranking Enlisted Guys Do All The Hard Work And Still Have The Stress Of Not Being Able To Take Care Of Their Families The Way They Wish They Could”
[As War Profiteers And Imperial Politicians Stuff Their Pockets With Billions]
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Back In Baghdad…
Nabil’s Blog
…Entering Baghdad was the worsest thing that happend to me ever.. I mean I haven’t seen Baghdad for three months.. and now its just not the same.. my first words were (THIS IS NOT BAGHDAD).. it was filled with both American and Iraqi tanks.. the streets were filled with barrages.. the soldiers were everywhere.. I mean is that a war forehead or a city??? Next day.. I woke up in the morning.. there was no electricity as always..
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 17 October 2006.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice
In a dispatch posted at 10:54pm Makkah time Tuesday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that it had been reported that the Iraqi Resistance had shot down a US helicopter in the Makr adh-Dhib area near al-Qa’im in western Iraq not far from the Syrian border. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported local residents as saying that they had seen a surface-! to-air rocket strike the US Apache helicopter, which then crashed to earth. The nighttime curfew was in effect at the hour when the news first surfaced, making it impossible to obtain further details, other than the fact that swarms of US helicopters were prowling the area over al-Qa’im at the time of reporting…
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Iraqis Ask Why U.S. Forces Didn’t Intervene in Balad
MICHAEL LUO
…In the aftermath of the reprisals, some residents of Balad asked why American troops had not intervened when the killings began in earnest on Saturday. One of the largest American military bases in Iraq, Camp Anaconda, which includes a sprawling air base that serves as the logistical hub of the war, is nearby. “People are bewildered because of the weak response by the Americans,” said one Balad resident who asked not to be identified for fear of ! reprisals. “They used to patrol the city every day, but when the violence started, we didn’t see any sign of them.”…
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Families Flee Iraqi River Towns On 4th Day of Sectarian Warfare
Ellen Knickmeyer and Muhanned Saif Aldin, Washington Post Foreign Service
amilies fled in search of safety Monday as open warfare raged for a fourth day between Shiite militias and armed Sunni men in Tigris River towns north of Baghdad. Militias allied with Iraq’s Shiite-led government held sway in Balad city, forcing out Sunni families and leaving the bodies of slain Sunni men to rot in the streets, according to police, residents and hospital offici! als (…) Local police officers accused Shiite-dominated government police forces of working alongside Shiite militias in executing Sunnis and appealed for more help. As the carnage mounted, President Bush called Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to reassure the Iraqi leader of his support and assure him he was under no time pressure from the United States to curb sectarian violence (…) Shiite elders of Balad said they called in the Baghdad militias of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr — whose bloc is the largest in Iraq’s Shiite-led government — to take revenge. Most of the victims since then have been Sunni men in Duluiyah and neighboring Sunni towns. Hasanein al-Badawi, a physician at Balad’s hospital, said almost all had been shot and some had been tortured with electric drills. Members of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia were blocking Sunni families from picking up more of their dead from the streets, he said…
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Government Targets American Bloggers As Enemy Propagandists
Military, Homeland Security, Bush White House strategy sharpen knives against anyone critical of the “war on terror”
Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com
Recent scientific polls that show around 84% don’t believe the government’s explanation behind 9/11 and others confirming the fact that support for the war in Iraq is at an all time low have led the Bush administration to sharpen their knives against the new breed of perceived “enemy propagan! dists,” bloggers, journalists and online activists who dissent against the “war on terror.” As Raw Story reports, CENTCOM announced earlier this year that a team of employees would be “[engaging] bloggers who are posting inaccurate or untrue information, as well as bloggers who are posting incomplete information.” So when you’re wasting your time arguing the finer points of the collapse of Building 7 or the quagmire in Iraq with someone who seems unable to grasp basic principles, your foe could well be sat behind a plush U.S. government desk in a uniform. CENTCOM is infiltrating blogs and message boards to ensure people, “have the opportunity to read positive stories,”presumably about how Iraq is a wonderful liberated democracy and the war on terror really is about protecting Americans…
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2 U.S. army copters crash in Baghdad
The Hindu
Two U.S. Army helicopters crashed in south-west Baghdad, killing two soldiers and injuring two others, the U.S. military said. The 1st Cavalry Division said the cause of the crashes, which occurred about 8:30 p.m. yesterday, had not been determined. The aircraft went down in south-west Baghdad. Names of the dead and injured were withheld pending notification of relatives, but U.S. officials said they were assigned to Task Force Baghdad…
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Cheney: ‘General Overall Situation’ In Iraq Is Going ‘Remarkably Well’
Think Progress
Rush Limbaugh interviewed Vice President Cheney on his show today. At one point, Limbaugh asked Cheney to respond to growing frustration over U.S. efforts in Iraq. Cheney acknowledged there is a “natural level of concern out there” because fighting didn’t end “instantaneously.” (Next month, the war will have lasted longer than U.S. fighting in World War II.) Cheney then pointed to various news items to paint a positive picture o! f conditions in Iraq and concluded, “If you look at the general overall situation, they’re doing remarkably well.” …
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Why Bush Smiles: Victory is at Hand in Iraq
Chris Floyd
…Yes, victory. You wonder why Bush and his minions maintain the seemingly irrational belief that “things are going well” in Iraq, that “we’re making progress,” etc.? That’s because things are going well in the war they are fighting: the war for money and power. What happens to the human beings caught up in this war – Iraqi civilians, or American citizens at ever-greater risk from the terrorism spawned by the war – is, again, no concern of the Bush gang. In! fact, the worse things are from that standpoint, the better it is for the Bushists. The war profits (and stolen swag) they and their corporate cronies have accrued from the Iraq War (and the “War on Terror” as well) have given them unimaginable wealth with which to continue their overall dominance of American society – no matter who wins the elections in 2006 or 2008, or for decades beyond. As I’ve stated often before, no matter what happens, Bush and his cronies have already won the war…
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Bush’s Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq’s Oil
Joshua Holland
Iraq is sitting on a mother lode of some of the lightest, sweetest, most profitable crude oil on earth, and the rules that will determine who will control it and on what terms are about to be set. The Iraqi government faces a December deadline, imposed by the world’s wealthiest countries, to complete its final Oil Law. Industry analysts expect that the result will be a radical departure from the laws governing the country’s oil-rich neighbors, giving foreig! n multinationals a much higher rate of return than with other major oil producers, and locking in their control over what George Bush called Iraq’s “patrimony” for decades, regardless of what kind of policies future elected governments might want to pursue…
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Qasem’s First Day Under Arrest
Alive in Baghdad
For the last 2 days…many people were killed by US snipers in Qattanah sector, it is the central houses in old Ramad. It is known that there are US snipers in the building of Ramadi museum in addition to snipers in the Passport building, general library and some other buildings near them… Those snipers found to prevent civilians from use the main street in Ramadi…in addition to killing anybody who is moving around the buildings… Oh my ……sorry, I could not finish ! 25 September 2006, I was arrested by US Marines…
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Fateh Affiliated Armed Group Attacked the Palestine Workers Radio
PalestineFreeVoice
PCHR strongly condemns an attack launched on offices of Palestinian Workers Radio, which falls under the scope of repeated attacks on media intuitions by armed Palestinian groups. PCHR calls upon the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), represented by the Attorney-General, to investigate this crime and bring its perpetrators to justice. According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 23:10 on Thursday, 12 October! 2006, dozens of gunmen, including a number of masked ones, broke into the headquarters of the Union of Palestinian Workers Radio in al-Saftawi neighborhood to the west of Jabalya town. The gunmen held the guard of the offices, 70-year-old ‘Abdul Karim al-Hindi, in the car park. A number of the gunmen entered the 4-stotey building, and the other ones deployed in it yard…
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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, October 17, 2006
Today in Iraq
Passengers of 13 different cars were kidnapped today in an operation near Balad town, north of Baghdad. An Iraqi security source said that an armed group disguised in police uniforms set up a phony check point after policemen moved from Sayed Ghareeb check point, south of Balad. They abducted tens of individuals and drove them, in the vehicles they were in, to unknown destinations. Two people were killed and four wounded in a mortar attack on a downtown n! eighborhood of Baghdad. Two people, including a policeman, were killed and four wounded in a mortar attack on the downtown Ilwiyah neighborhood of Baghdad. Authorities report finding the blindfolded and bound bodies of two unidentified men. 65 bodies were found in different districts of Baghdad since Sunday night, an Interior Ministry source said…
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Alliance of Iraqi resistance against the new “Al-Qaida State”
Roads to Iraq
Al-Hayat reported that there is a new allaince among Tribes in Anbar govern ate, Ba’ath party and some resistance fractions to encounter the so called “Al-Qaide self-claimed State”, among the Iraqi resistance groups such as (Islamic Army, Almurabitoon, Al-Rashdeen, and 1920 revolution brigade) (…) I personally don’t believe in this so called “Al-Qaida State”, this is just a part of American-Zionists plan, so invaders can stay as long as! possible. Other news, yesterday, about 500 tribe’s chiefs gathered in Kirkuk openly and declared their loyalty to Saddam Hussein, some leaders of Ba’ath party participated in the meeting, this is the first time since the occupation Ba’ath party leader appeared openly in public…
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Azzaman stands tall
Arablinks.blogspot.com
Reuters reported on Monday that the Iraqi parliament had asked the government of president Talabani to close down the newspaper Azzaman and the TV station Al-Sharqeya as punishment for their coverage of the federalism vote last Wednesday (…) In fact, the whole point of this struggle over the bill (according to Azzaman, and I agree), is that there is such a thing as legitimate Iraqi nationalism, with the aim of holding the country together and preserving the millenium-! long tradition of different sects living side-by-side under the same political umbrella. Iraqi nationalism has disappeared from the political vocabulary of the Western experts and the Western media, and I regret to say the latest example of this is Juan Cole’s description of Azzaman and Al-Sharqeya as having a “mild secular, Arab nationalist tone”. See what I mean? The newspaper spills its guts to keep alive a point of view that represents Iraq and all Iraqis, including Kurds who are not Arab, and any racially Persian Shiites who are also not Arab, with the idea of holding the country together, and our friendly expert tells us this newspaper is of an”Arab nationalist” tone. It was only a slip, but it illustrates how far our experts are from helping us understand what is happening..
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NATO “Peace Keeping” Forces collaborate with Israeli Military
Gloabalresearch.ca
The deployment of a multinational naval force and the stationing of NATO troops in Lebanon has nothing to do with peacekeeping. The following report suggests that “the peace-keeping forces” from NATO countries deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, are directly collaborating with the Israeli military, which is responsible for extensive war crimes in Lebanon and Palestine. What we are ! dealing with is a militarization of the Eastern Mediterranean. The multinational force is working hand in glove with Israel…
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A TALE OF TWO RESISTANCES
Malcom Lagauche
History does repeat itself. We see that the same ethnocentrism and bigotry released in 1991 during the Gulf War was repeated in 2003 with the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq by the U.S. However, there are more precedents from antiquity that mirror those actions. William Apess was a Native-American author and activist for Native causes. In 1836, he gave a speech in Boston to the descendents of the Pilgrims who had decimated the once-proud Wampanoag Indian tribe of ! Massachusetts and Rhode Island. His speech was not an attempt at diplomacy; Apess gave the citizens an historical look back at the 17th century and his message was that the current American population should take note of the atrocities and not let them ever happen again. The presentation was called “Eulogy on King Philip…
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Parliament asks government to close Azzaman
Azzaman
A statement by the Iraqi parliament urges Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki to close down Azzaman newspaper. The statement also asks Maliki to ban Al-Sharqiya television, the nation-wide network operated in coordination with Azzaman newspaper. The statement issued Monday cites what the parliament describes the outlets’ coverage of a recent draft law the legislators passed on turning the country into a federal state. Both the newspaper and al-Sharqiya television were! critical of the law, warning that it represents a prelude to the division of the country on sectarian and ethnic grounds. Azzamman is Iraq’s most read newspaper. Al-Shariqiya is the most viewed television network in the country…
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Disgusting
Treasure of Baghdad
…Today, two things frustrated me. The first one was Maliki’s decision to wait to disarm militias. He said this will happen by “the end of this year or the beginning of the coming year.” When I saw the headline in USA Today’s article, I was so frustrated. I read the article and was more frustrated. What the heck he is talking about? Hundreds of people are dying because of the militias and death squads. I mean HUNDREDS!!! Which means a digit followed by two more digits on the right.! Each digit is a soul! A life! A person! A mother! A father! A friend! A baby! Are these nothing? Were they born just to be killed? For what? For fake democracy and some stupid slogans? For what? For the sake of a group of white and black turbaned extremists? Does waiting till the end of the year is going to solve something? Let’s count. Let’s suppose there are only 100 people die in Iraq per day. That means 3000 per month which also means 3000 multiplied by 90 days [Oct., Nov., and Dec.] wow! You find out the sum…and wait! Send the number to Maliki because it seems he’s bad in Math!…
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