|
Pierre Gemayel Assassinated. Cui Bono?
Kurt Nimmo
…However, in order to understand Gemayel’s assassination, we need look no further than the murder of Rafik al-Hariri. “Al Hariri’s assassination provides the raison d’être for severing ties with Syria and for transforming Lebanon into a US vassal,” explains Mike Whitney. “This conforms nicely with Israel’s ambition to surround itself with non-threatening states as well as affording access to the vital water resources of Lebanon’s Wazzani River. In other words, the murder of al Hariri has created some extremely fortunate opportunities for both Israel and the US; merging seamlessly with their overall objectives in the region.” Call it cui bono on steroids. Whitney continues: “The likelihood that Syria was involved in the assassination is zilch. One can hardly imagine a greater disaster for poor Syria who has been scrambling to avoid the American bludgeon for the last four years. Few people realize that Syria provided more assistance in the first year of the war on terror after 9-11 than any other nation. That’s of little consequence now, as the US is on a mission to quickly integrate the entire region beneath the American standard and prove that it can be trusted with its continued stewardship of the world economy.” …
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28438
Going Long In Iraq
Robert Dreyfuss
Last week, the situation in Iraq took another major turn for the worse. That might seem impossible, since the level of carnage and destruction is so immense already that it’s hard to imagine things getting worse. But get worse they did, when the ministry of the interior —the death squad-dominated, Shiite-run agency that has become a factory for torture and murder—announced that it was seeking the arrest of Iraq’s top Sunni cleric, Harith al-Dari, who heads the Muslim Scholars Association. Widely seen as someone who is close to the Sunni-led resistance in Iraq, Dari is hardly a radical. But that didn’t dissuade Iraq’s interior minister. “We have proof that he is involved in terrorism,” said a ministry spokesman. That announcement provoked a storm of outrage from those Sunnis, including moderates and centrists, who’d decided earlier this year to take part in Iraq’s political process rather than remain outside, and many of them immediately threatened to shut down the Iraqi government and boycott parliament. “We have to decide if we want a state, or not,” said Jalal Talabani, Iraq’s president, who would have done better to acknowledge that indeed, Iraq has no state at all…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28441
The Power Issue: The Lives & Deaths of Iraqi Gays
Peter Tatchell Takes A Look At Anti-Gay Death Squads in Iraq
Peter Tatchell
…Large parts of Iraq, including many Baghdad neighborhoods, are now under the de facto control of these fundamentalist militias and their death squad units. They enforce a harsh interpretation of Sharia law, summarily executing people for what they denounce as “crimes against Islam.” These “crimes” include listening to western pop music, wearing shorts or jeans, drinking alcohol, selling videos, working in a barber’s shop, homosexuality, dancing, having a Sunni name, adultery and, in the case of women, not being veiled or walking in the street unaccompanied by a male relative. Two militias are doing most of the killing. They are the armed wings of major parties in the Bush and Blair-backed Iraqi government. Madhi is the militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, and Badr is the militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which is the leading political force in Baghdad’s government coalition. Both militias want to establish an Iranian-style religious dictatorship – or worse. Some of the anti-war left in Britain and the US support Muqtada al-Sadr, despite his goal of clerical fascism and his militia’s involvement in death squad killings. They hail him as a national resistance hero for fighting the US and UK occupation of Iraq; totally ignoring his militia’s sectarian murder of innocent Sunni Muslims, women and gay people…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28448
No Peace, No Place For Palestine
Sheila Samples
Finally. Someone has noticed what is going on in the Middle East. The UK Telegraph reports that Britain is “furious” with Israel because of the damage it is causing in Gaza. Is it because of the wholesale slaughter of innocent Palestinians — the bombing of a Gaza beach that turned the entire family of 12-year-old Huda Ghalia into a smoking pile of human flesh and scattered body parts? No? Then, perhaps it is using innocent Palestinians as human shields, gunning down children as they scurry fearfully to school, burying the wounded alive Jenin-style…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28450
Video
Iraq: The Lost Generation
Roads to Iraq
Posted earlier about two weeks ago by the good people of “Information Clearing House”, I uploaded this High-Quality version of Channel4 documentary: ‘Iraq: Legacy of Hate’: The Lost Generation The documentary shows how the occupation of Iraq destroyed not only the future of Iraqi youths but their hopes and dreams also. A man, his leg was amputated after he was shot by the US soldiers says it all: All this sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunnis is a US setup…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28449
GI Special 4K21: “Soldiers Are Waking Up” – November 21, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
“Soldiers Are Waking Up, Stepping Forward, Standing Up And Choosing Sides”
An officer caught wind of the “conspiracy” and confronted him asking for the film to view it himself. Later on he (the officer) returned the film telling him he’d look the other way but cautioning him not to be caught passing it around because the film was considered subversive.
The soldier summed it all up by stating, “You know, that film puts the whole war in question”.
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28453
Iraq’s Ministry of Health stealing Sunnis’ dead bodies
Aljazeera.com
…Citing reliable sources, Islamemo revealed a new crime committed by the ministry headed by Ali Al-Shamari from Al Sadr Army, named minister of health in the new Iraqi government, headed by Nouri Al Maliki who was brought to power with the help of the U.S. occupation authority. According to “Islamemo” correspondent in Baghdad, Al-Shamari had agreed to use the bodies of slain Sunnis, who filled refrigerators of medical collages for autopsy, and he approved the use of Sunni dead body parts and organs. According to the source, “The minister gave order No. 7598 in 9-17-2006 under the title “confidential” which has been distributed among all medical centers and hospitals in Iraq.” The source added that the continuing loss of Sunnis’ corpses and the failure to find them after the abduction is caused by the staff of the Ministry of Health who takes the Sunni corpses from the refrigerators giving them to colleges and medical schools for conducting autopsy…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28451
DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY. November 21, 2006
Today in Iraq
U.S. and Iraqi forces raided the overwhelmingly Shiite Sadr City slum on Tuesday and detained seven militia members, including one believed to have information about an American soldier kidnapped last month, the military said. Tuesday’s raid in Sadr City was the third in four days by U.S. and Iraqi forces in the slum, which is the headquarters of the Madhi Army, the Shiite militia suspected of having carried out the mass kidnapping at a Ministry of Higher Education office in Baghdad on Nov. 14. Iraqi Police Capt. Mohammed Ismail said a young boy and two other people were killed in the early morning raid and 15 people were wounded. Ten people were killed in Baquba, the capital of Diyala, and one outside the city as gunmen carried out a series of attacks on civilians. Gunmen killed Ali al-Shimari, the mayor of the town of Hibhib, near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, and wounded four of his guards…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28447
Cabinet ministers desert offices following threats
Azzaman
Many Iraqi ministers are staying away from work, fearing attacks from militias or insurgents. Violence has exacerbated in Baghdad with street battles reported daily in several parts of the city. Despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops, residents say there is no street in Baghdad where one can feel safe. “We live in a city which has gone wild,” one resident, refusing to be named, said. Gunmen have already kidnapped a deputy minister and attacked the convoy of another, killing two bodyguards…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28446
The joint letter of the Middle East Studies Association and the American Association of University Professors on the killing of Iraqi academics:
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
…A significant portion of the current violence against academics has been perpetrated by sectarian militias affiliated with the ruling political coalitions. Professors have been threatened, harmed, kidnapped and assassinated because of their actual or alleged political affiliations, or because they failed to respond resolutely to demands of students for special treatment. Communities of students are becoming politicized in a way that threatens the institutionalization of tolerance and the protection of intellectual diversity…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28444
Street Battles in Baghdad; 75 Bodies Found; Diplomatic Ties with Syria Bruited
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that on Monday running street battles erupted in several districts of Baghdad between guerrillas and Iraqi police. In Salikh, the Bank district, Sumer, and Tujjar, residents were forced to flee their homes lest they be exposed to kidnapping or caught in the cross-fire. The fighting, mainly with small arms fire, began when guerrillas attacked a police checkpoint. Police attempted to close off the affected neighborhoods. They also closed Salikh Bridge, which is among the main point of access to Baghdad from northern provinces such as Diyala, Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah. The closing created traffic jams and forced drivers to use an alternative route into the city. The toll of killed and injured from this fighting was not known when reporters put al-Zaman to bed…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28443
CACI: Torture in Iraq, Intimidation at Home
Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Consider the unique problems faced by the corporate suits at CACI International, a defense contractor whose services have included “coercive” interrogations of prisoners in Iraq – interrogations most people simply call “torture.” Think about the image problems a major multinational corporation faces after becoming inextricably linked with the abuses at Abu Ghraib, a firm whose employees have contributed to the iconic images of the occupation of Iraq – the symbols of American cruelty and immorality in an illegal war. What can a company like that possibly do to protect its brand name after contributing to the greatest national disgrace since the My Lai massacre?…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28442
Iraq: Unwinnable and Unsolvable – And Exactly As Planned.
Reggie, TvNewsLIES.org
Don’t kid yourself. This is exactly the way they want it to be: chaotic, devastating, confusing, horrendous, and right on target. Clever bastards, these neocons – their goals were always so damn clear, and they finally got there: get into Iraq and find a way to stay there forever. Forever, folks, – that’s always and into eternity. That was the plan from day one, and that’s the way it’s working out. Henry Kissinger came out of the woodwork this past weekend and said it in terms that were impossible to misunderstand if you really listened closely. In a television interview the aging assassin and war criminal of yesteryear played a little game of bait and switch. First, he lured the public into a moment of reality by acknowledging that the war against Iraq was “unwinnable.” But then came the zinger: “But” he said as he delivered the follow up punch, “I don’t think that the alternative is between military victory…or total withdrawal.”…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28440
Another Neocon Demands the Decimation of Iran
Kurt Nimmo
Joshua Muravchik, neocon “scholar” at the American Enterprise Institute, the criminal organization where Bush gets his “minds,” wants to shock and awe Iran, and soon. “The only way to forestall” Iran’s figmental nuclear weapon program, writes Muravchik in the “liberal” Los Angeles Times, “is by the use of force. Not by invading Iran as we did Iraq, but by an air campaign against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.” Muravchik hankers to “inflict severe damage,” supposedly on Iran’s phantasmal nuke program, but since such a program does not exist, the damage will likely be on the people of Iran, who after all support the mullahs and thus, under the demented rubric of neocon logic, deserve to be killed and maimed, as the Iraqis continue to be killed and maimed…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28439
GI Special 4K20: “We Are There For You” – November 20, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
There are a lot of crappy things to the war and as members of the armed services we do have an opinion of whether the war is necessary or not, but do keep in mind that we signed the contract knowing that there is a possibility of war and we know the consequences.
The reason why we are able to go to war and accept what happens is because we know that what we are doing is keeping everyone back home safe. I personally would go back and do it again if it meant keeping my family safe.
My family supports me on my decision even though they don’t agree with it. I believe that it is the persons right to believe in the war or not but by advertising your negative feelings constantly shows that you have no support for the troops in harms way and remember we are there for you.
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28452
Iraqi defence minister declares ‘state of war’
Aseel Kami, Reuters
Gunmen killed a much-loved Iraqi comedian yesterday as attacks and kidnaps of senior politicians and dozens of ordinary people prompted the defence minister to declare that Iraq was now in a “state of war”. As pressure mounted on US President George Bush to change tack and his allies urged him to approach Washington’s adversaries Syria and Iran to help stabilise Iraq, Syria’s foreign minister visited Baghdad for the first time since the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in March 2003…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28437
Lt. Ehren Watada to face court-martial for resisting Iraq war
Jane Cutter, Socialism and Liberatio
On Nov. 11, the U.S. Army announced that Lt. Ehren Watada will be court-martialed for missing troop movement as well as for multiple counts of “Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman.” These charges result from his public opposition to the imperialist war in Iraq. Political charges of “contempt towards the president” were dropped. However, Watada still faces a possible four years in prison for political speech critical of Iraq war. The trial date for the court-martial has not yet been set, but is expected to be in early 2007.
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28436
Trapped in Lies and Delusions
Jacob G. Hornberger
…Hanging over the Iraq debacle, however, is that one overriding moral issue that unfortunately all too many Americans have yet to confront: neither the Iraqi people nor their government ever attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. That means that in this conflict, which has killed more than 600,000 Iraqis, the United States is the aggressor nation and Iraq is the defending nation. Why is that issue so important? Because it involves morality, not pragmatics. Do U.S. troops have the moral right to be killing people, when they are part of a military force that has aggressed against another country? Do they have the moral right to kill people who have done nothing worse than defend their nation from attack or attempt to oust an occupier from their midst? Does simply calling an action “war” excuse an aggressor nation from the moral consequences of killing people in that war?…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28431
Iraq and Syria resume diplomatic ties
Palestinian Pundit
…IT TOOK THE SYRIAN REGIME 24 YEARS TO RESTORE FULL DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS. IT IS PATIENT, STRONG AND A REAL BELIEVER IN THE BA’TH AND PAN ARABISM. IT WAITED FOR JUST THE RIGHT TIME TO DO THAT; AND THAT TIME HAS ARRIVED. WHAT WITH IRAQ OCCUPIED BY US TROOPS, AND SYRIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER SECURE UNDER THE AMERICAN GUNS IN THE GREEN ZONE, WHAT COULD BE A BETTER TIME? THE IRAQI PUPPETS PRESENTED HIM WITH A US-DRAFTED DOCUMENT WHICH ASKS FOR THE CONTINUED PRESENCE OF US FORCES, AND HE CHEERFULLY SIGNED IT. MR. ASSAD: SINCE YOU LIKE THOSE AMERICAN TROOPS SO MUCH, SOON YOU WILL HAVE SOME IN SYRIA, COMPLETE WITH A SYRIAN GREEN ZONE…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28428
Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 21 November 2006.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice
…In a dispatch posted at 12:04pm Makkah time midday Tuesday, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that unknown armed men shot and killed a professor in the Babil University College of Medicine northeast of al-Hillah, which is about 100km south of Baghdad, on Monday. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported eyewitnesses as saying that unknown armed men opened fire on Dr. ‘Ali Fallih al-Ghariri as he came out of his house in the Jablah – al-’Aziziyah – al-Hillah junction area about 50km northeast of al-Hillah. Dr. al-Ghariri was on his way to the al-Hillah Surgical Hospital where he worked at the time of the shooting. The assassins fled in their car after killing the doctor. The killing came amidst a wave of assassinations of Iraqi doctors, scientists, and academics. Such attacks have frequently been blamed by some on the Zionist secret service, the Mossad. Hundreds of Iraqi intellectuals have been mysteriously shot and killed since the US invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003. On 14 June 2005, the Palestine Information Center published a report maintaining that the Mossad had killed 530 Iraqi scientists and professors in the previous seven months…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28445 |