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The Lancet Study…
Riverbend, Bagdad burning
… The latest horror is the study published in the Lancet Journal concluding that over 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the war (…) So far, the only Iraqis I know pretending this number is outrageous are either out-of-touch Iraqis abroad who supported the war, or Iraqis inside of the country who are directly benefiting from the occupation ($) and likely living in the Green Zone. The chaos and lack of proper facilities is resulting in people being buried withou! t a trip to the morgue or the hospital. During American military attacks on cities like Samarra and Fallujah, victims were buried in their gardens or in mass graves in football fields. Or has that been forgotten already? We literally do not know a single Iraqi family that has not seen the violent death of a first or second-degree relative these last three years. Abductions, militias, sectarian violence, revenge killings, assassinations, car-bombs, suicide bombers, American military strikes, Iraqi military raids, death squads, extremists, armed robberies, executions, detentions, secret prisons, torture, mysterious weapons – with so many different ways to die, is the number so far fetched? There are Iraqi women who have not shed their black mourning robes since 2003 because each time the end of the proper mourning period comes around, some other relative dies and the countdown begins once again.
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The ‘S’ Word
Felicity Arbuthnot
In the U.S., the thought of another humiliation on the scale of Viet Nam sends shivers down spines in the corridors of power. In Britain it is the ‘S’ word: Suez, Prime Minister Anthony Eden’s ill fated foray of exactly fifty years ago this month. As the precise anniversary (29th October) approaches, another Anthony (Blair) is in deep trouble and the parallels are startling. From health to hubris, from deceit to dizzying arrogance, the paths of the two Anthonys seem to conv! erge. In July 1956, Egypt’s President Gamal Abdul Nasser nationalised the
Country’s Suez Canal Company, which operated the Canal, a vital artery for world oil distribution which, for transporation of oil from the Persian Gulf to Europe, cut eleven thousand nautical miles off the journey…
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Iraq Deaths: Politics vs. Science
Curren Warf
Last week, the medical journal The Lancet released an epidemiological study concluding that 655,000 Iraqis died from war-related injury and disease from March 2003 to July 2006. This shockingly high figure has drawn attacks from the Bush administration and right-wing pundits. Speaking as a medical doctor, I wish to set the record straight. The Lancet study is superb science. The study followed a strict, widely accepted methodology to arrive at its sobering conclusion! . The study is being attacked not on scientific grounds, but for ideological reasons…
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My number of dead Iraqis is bigger than yours
Xymphora
The Iraq Body Count is in a snit because the new study published by the Lancet regarding the 655,000 excess deaths seriously trumps the numbers they have been publishing. There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the methodology of the new study, which was made in the face of a determined American effort not to publicize what is really going on (…) The carnage is intentional, required so the Zionists can achieve their goal of breaking Iraq into three ! parts. It is so typical that the ‘progressives’ end up in a pissing match over the numbers, paralleling the bizarre attempts by the right to debunk the study (something like: ‘we didn’t murder 655,000 innocent civilians, it was only 497,000!’). These attempts put the Bush apologists in the same position as the guy who answers the question ‘when did you stop beating your wife?’ The Iraq Body Count now finds itself helping the right-wingers. Nice going! If you have their counter on your website, it is time to take if off…
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Exit Habeas Corpus, Enter Night and Fog
Kurt Nimmo
As if to confirm that Republicans are indeed a fascist rabble, consider their uniform silence in regard to the military commissions bill, otherwise known as the monstrosity that ate the Constitution, specifically Article 1, Section 9, dealing with habeas corpus. Republicans, who are primarily neocons, that is to say fascist authoritarians, consider themselves patriots, and yet almost to the man and a few women they have not said a word about the evisceration of h! abeas corpus, once considered such an elemental liberty it was the only one enumerated in the original text of the Constitution…
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RAPE IN ISRAEL
DesertPeace
For the past few weeks there has been little more on the front pages of the Israeli press except the alleged rapes committed by the President of the state, Moshe Katsav. Soon he will be indicted which surely will mean a ‘second season’ for the latest Israeli soap opera… BUT… there is another rape in progress that has been going on for almost 60 years… the rape of Palestine. No one dares to call it that in the Israeli press… but is there any other way to describe the brutal occ! upation that Palestinians are living under?…
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Federalism, Sectarian War and the American Strategy in Iraq
Sabah Ali, BRussells Tribunal
…The country is devastated, with some dark-minded mullahs controlling its bloody streets. Nothing is functioning in Iraq now. And what the American solution is: Dividing Iraq into 3 petty powerless “countries” in the name of federalism (…) They do not understand that Hakeem, Allawi, Shehristani, Sadr and the rest of the bunch do not represent the Iraqis, and that they are already burnt politically. The Iraqi re! sistance will continue, and get stronger and stronger everyday. The Americans do not understand the logic of history; they do not have any, anyway. If the rest of the world does not recognize the fact that it is only the resistance who represent the Iraqi people, too bad. But does the Iraq resistance give a damn?…
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Nukes: Iran and North Korea are Not the Problem
Mickey Z.
…In Iraq (commencing in 1991), Afghanistan (since 2001), Yugoslavia (1999), and testing ground such as Vieques, Puerto Rico (only recently halted), the U.S. has continued to spread the radioactive aromatherapy via depleted uranium (DU) armor-piercing shells. “When fired, the uranium bursts into flame and all but liquefies, searing through steel armor like a white hot phosphorescent flare” explains James Ridgeway in the Village Voice. The heat of the shel! l causes any diesel fuel vapors in the enemy tank to explode, and the crew inside is burned alive. As grisly as that may sound, the effects of DU do not end with the scorched bodies of Iraqi “collateral damage.” Anti-nuclear activist Dr Helen Caldicott explains that DU shells create “tiny aerosolized particles less than five microns in diameter, small enough to be inhaled” and can travel “long distances when airborne.” …
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 18 October 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice
In a dispatch posted at 3:18pm Makkah time Wednesday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that two Iraqi Resistance bombs exploded by a passing column of US vehicles in the ash-Shayshan neighborhood, about 3km from the center of ‘Anah. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported eyewitnesses in the neighborhood as saying that the bombs directly hit a ! Humvee and a US military Massey-Ferguson tractor. The witnesses said that after the two bombs went off, Resistance men attacked the column with rockets, destroying the two vehicles. In the course of the attack, the witnesses said, five US troops were killed. At the time of reporting, the two wrecked vehicles were stilly lying by the side of the road…
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Converting Syria into a Shiite state
Roads to Iraq
This is a warning from the Association of Muslim Scholars in Syria [Sunni Muslims] responded to the ongoing campaign of Shiism in Syria under the Iranian influence in the state, which is fully supported by the Syrian government. The association urges all Sunnis in the world to take the call seriously and move to save Syria. The statement says “The government adopted the principles of secularism before and fought against religiousness in Syria, […] But after a fe! w years we found out that this government is fighting Sunni Islam only and not other religions…
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Iraqi PM hopes for Saddam death sentence
Reuters
IRAQI Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said today he hoped legal proceedings against former president Saddam Hussein would be short and that he would be found guilty and sentenced to death soon. The Shiite prime minister’s comments come just one month after his government sacked the chief judge trying Saddam on genocide charges, saying he had sacrificed his neutrality by stating the ousted leader was not a dictator. That prompted criticism by some international legal ! rights groups, who have said government pressure and sectarian violence in Iraq make a fair trial of Saddam impossible. Mr Maliki met Moqtada al-Sadr today in the holy city of Najaf and held a joint news conference afterwards with the powerful Shiite cleric who heads the Mehdi Army militia and whose followers are in the government…
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Poverty in Iraq
Jeff Severns Guntzel, Electronic Iraq
The UN news agency, IRIN, has published a report on poverty in Iraq. It was published yesterday, a nod to the UN’s International Day for Poverty Eradication. Poverty in Iraq was endemic even before the war, a result of the economy’s collapse under crippling economic sanctions, imposed by the UN itself, through the Security Council, and lasting more than a decade. The effect of economic sanctions on Iraq’s collapse is often left out of the narrative when report! ers talk about Iraq. IRIN, sadly, has repeated this troubling omission. Still, it’s a very important report…
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GI Special 4J18: Get The Message? – October 18, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
Iraqis celebrate as a British military SUV burns after being hit by a rocket propelled grenade in Basra Oct. 16, 2006. One soldier was wounded in the attack. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
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U.S. hopes Sadr will cooperate with Maliki, play constructive role in Iraq
Kuna
The United States hopes Muqtada al-Sadr will cooperate with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and play a constructive role in Iraq, White House spokesman Tony Snow said on Wednesday. Asked if Sadr was a U.S. enemy, ally or something else, Snow, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One with President George W. Bush en route to political events in North Carolina, said Sadr “is a factor in Iraq. He is somebody who ! obviously has adherents, and the most important thing, I think, if Muqtada al-Sadr wants to play a constructive role, is to make sure to cooperate with Prime Minister Maliki in dealing with militias.”…
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MEDIA ALERT: DEMOCRACY AND DEBATE – KILLING IRAQ
The Lancet Reports 655,000 Excess Iraqi Deaths As A Consequence Of The Invasion
Media Lens
…The media response to the latest Lancet report consisted of initial, relatively high-profile coverage in the broadcast media and more subdued coverage in some print media. Coverage focused heavily on government dismissals and on the alleged ‘controversy’ surrounding the figures. Expert commentators were few and far between, with journalists exhibiting the usual ! confusion on the methodology behind, and significance of, the figures. Passing mentions aside, the story was dropped within 24 hours from media coverage, with essentially zero meaningful follow up reporting or analysis since. Journalists did respond with considerably less scepticism than after the 2004 Lancet report was published. However, the extent of coverage has, if anything, been less than in 2004…
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Shame on Us All
Robert Parry
History should record October 17, 2006, as the reverse of July 4, 1776. From the noble American ideal of each human being possessing “unalienable rights” as declared by the Founders 230 years ago amid the ringing of bells in Philadelphia, the United States effectively rescinded that concept on a dreary fall day in Washington. At a crimped ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President George W. Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 while sitting behind a sign read! ing “Protecting America.” On the surface, the law sets standards for harsh interrogations, prosecutions and executions of supposed terrorists and other “unlawful combatants,” including al-Qaeda members who allegedly conspired to murder nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. “It is a rare occasion when a President can sign a bill he knows will save American lives,” Bush said. “I have that privilege this morning.” But the new law does much more. In effect, it creates a parallel “star chamber” system of criminal justice for anyone, including an American citizen, who is suspected of engaging in, contributing to or acting in support of violent acts directed against the U.S. government or its allies anywhere on earth…
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Regrets
Zeyad, Healing Iraq
Another close friend of mine has been killed in Baghdad. We had lunch together in Baghdad just days before I left. I can’t concentrate on anything any more. I should not be here in New York running around a stupid neighbourhood, asking people about their ‘issues’. I now officially regret supporting this war back in 2003. The guilt is too much for me to handle…
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Iraqi Judge Sentences U.S. Citizen To Death After U.S. Military “Demanded” the Man Be Executed
AMY GOODMAN, Democracy Now!
An Iraqi-born US citizen is in a battle to save his life as he tries to avoid execution in Baghdad. But he’s not up against insurgents groups – he’s up against the Iraqi and US governments. The man, Mohammad Munaf, was arrested by US troops last year. He was charged with kidnapping three Romanian journalists and holding them hostage for nearly two months. Last week, Munaf was sentenced to dea! th. He’s being held in a US-run prison at the Baghdad airport. Munaf maintains his innocence. Just weeks ago, it appeared he would be set free. Munaf’s attorneys say the presiding judge promised to dismiss the charges after he concluded there was no material evidence to support a conviction. But then came a strange intervention. Two US military officers appeared in court to advocate giving Munaf the death penalty…
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U.S. military says 10 troops killed in Iraq
Ibon Villelabeitia, Reuters
The U.S. military announced on Wednesday the deaths of 10 U.S. troops in Iraq on Tuesday, an unusually bloody day for American soldiers battling sectarian violence and a Sunni Arab insurgency. The rise in U.S. deaths in Iraq coincides with the run-up to U.S. congressional elections next month, in which the Iraq war has become a major issue. President George W. Bush’s popularity has been hurt by growing discontent over the war. Former U.S. Sec! retary of State James Baker, who is drafting a widely anticipated report on possible alternatives to current U.S. policy in Iraq, has warned there is no “magic bullet” to solve deepening problems in Iraq…
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GI Special 4J17: Third Deadliest Month – October 17, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
“October Is On Track To Be The Third-Deadliest Month Of The Entire Conflict”
The deadliest months for American troops since the beginning of the war have been associated with major offensives. In contrast, the military has not conducted any major operations this month. The military has not initiated a new urban cordon-and-search operation for more than two weeks and has instead focused on patrolling the areas already swept, officials say.
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Over 650 000 souls…
Khalid Jarrar, Tell Me a Secret
I believe that all of you are familiar with the study of the lancet (you need to register to read it) concluding that over 650 000 Iraqis have been killed since 2003. [check this fact sheets, I should write a post about it]. And then one of the Iraqi blogs known for its support to the occupation, wrote a shameful post denying these results. And then! Iraqi bloggers decided they had enough of this blog (and the few other blogs supporting the occupation) lies ! and started to talk about it, one of the Iraqi bloggers, The confused kid have started a mailing list among Iraqi bloggers, in about three days the numbers of emails exchanged was over 150 maybe, and as you would expect when you put any group of Iraqis in a discussion: Lots of really good points, and a bit of swearing and cursing…
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