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Olmert: Thank God for Dead Iraqis and U.S. Soldiers
Kurt Nimmo
On numerous occasions here, I have linked to Philip Zelikow’s remark that the Iraq “war” was launched in the name of Israel’s security, not because Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States, as our unitary decider and his minions have declared ad nauseam since the invasion. “Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I’ll tell you what I think the real threat (is) and actually has been since 1990—it’s the threat against Israel,” said Zelikow, the Bush political hack who worked for the NSC, the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the September 11th whitewash commission, and the CIA, the latter as an official exonerator of politicized intelligence while at Harvard. Naturally, the corporate media did not bother to mention Zelikow’s remark about the invasion. In fact, when people say such things, they are usually considered antisemites. ..
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Jeffrey Blankfort: Jewish-American anti-Zionist journalist
SF-IMC
A few weeks before Israel’s latest assault on Lebanon, SF-IMC interviewed local journalist, historian, photographer, radio producer, and anti-Zionist activist, Jeffery Blankfort. For a variety of reasons, technical and other, we are only just now getting around to publishing it. We apologize for the delay (…) The war in Iraq was clearly a war for Israel. The oil companies want stability. They’re going to make money. They look at the long run. High prices, low prices, they’re going to make money. They control the market. Saddam Hussein would play ball with them. Why the United States would not play ball with him is because the Neo-Cons, which is part of the Lobby, didn’t want that. It’s interesting. Without the Lobby, and without the orchestrated incubator story, we might not have had an intervention in Kuwait because at the time the Senate was split down the middle, and when the incubator story came out, even Amnesty International believed it. People said, oh these horrible Iraqis, and then there was no debate anymore. So we had that first Gulf War, not initiated, but supported by the Lobby
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IRAQ: Medical System Becomes Sickening
Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily
After three and a half years of occupation, Iraq’s medical system has sunk to levels lower than seen during the economic sanctions imposed after the first Gulf war in 1990. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said Iraqis are now extremely vulnerable in their health needs. “Several wars and 13 years of economic sanctions left a heavy toll on the nutrition of the population, on the social structure, on the economy and on the health infrastructure and services,” according to a statement on the WHO website (…) The health situation in Iraq has been in constant decline since the beginning of the U.S.-backed UN-imposed sanctions in 1990. Iraqi doctors were reputed to be the best in the Middle East during the 1980's, but now they are short of medicines, medical equipment and funding to maintain the hospitals. Saddam Hussein’s regime managed to keep basic medical services free of charge for most Iraqis until the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. There was a hospital in almost every town. Surgeries were carried out free of charge. Medicines were imported by the government and sold at affordable prices to those going to private clinics and hospitals…
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AWB ‘knew Iraq plans a year before’
AAP
A YEAR before the invasion of Iraq, the then Australian ambassador to the United Nations, John Dauth, confidentially told AWB’s former chairman Trevor Flugge the Howard Government would participate in miliary action with the US to overthrow Saddam Hussein, new AWB documents reveal. AWB Board minutes show Mr Flugge told the AWB board on February 27, 2002, that Mr Dauth confided in him that he believed US military action to depose Saddam Hussein was inevitable and that the Australian Government would support and participate in such action, Fairfax newspapers report…
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Giving Thanks in the Shadow of the Terror War
Chris Floyd
The “War on Terror” represents a horribly, monstrously wrong turn for the United States, Britain, and the world. Like its offshoot, the aggression in Iraq, the Terror War is a strategic disaster of mind-boggling proportions, a moral, political and cultural failure so immense as to be almost unfathomable, an all-corrupting, counterproductive policy of resounding stupidity. We have not even begun to comprehend the scope and depth — and duration — of the harm that this reckless, witless, ignorant campaign has wrought. Tyranny, bankruptcy, decay, division, murder, cowardice and deceit — these have been the hallmarks and the products of the Terror War launched by George W. Bush and Tony Blair, in supposed reaction to the criminal acts of a small gang of cranks…
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Platitudes Are No Defense Against Zionist Terrorism
Kim Petersen, www.dissidentvoice.org
CBC News ran an article based on Associated Press files that began: “’Massive’ human rights violations are being committed in the Gaza Strip, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said Monday as she kicked off a tour of the region.” Human rights violations — committed by whom and against whom? This passive construction conveys an image of agent-less human rights violations against anonymous victims. The reader is, however, later informed that 19 members of the Al Athamna family in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun were killed in an Israeli artillery attack. CBC News cited “Israeli officials” who acknowledged an error. CBC News never bothered to tabulate the numerous zionist errors/massacres over the years, such as at Qana, Nablus, Jenin, Beit Lahiya, etc. Even if the Beit Hanoun massacre were an error — and the only error — should that exculpate the zionist regime from condemnation and sanction?…
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233 Dead in Civil War Carnage, Health Ministry Besieged, 3,000 Widows Created Each Month
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
How bad the situation is in Iraq is suggested by this email I just got from a professional who used to be in Iraq but now is in a nearby country: ‘ It is desperate in Iraq, worse then ever and there is no end in sight. I had lunch with [a former high ranking medical educator in Iraq] two days ago. [He]noted that Iraq no longer has neuro-surgeons, no cardiac surgeons, few pediatric doctors – they are all gone, killed or fled to neighboring countries like him. He was given seven days to get out or be killed. He is one of the lucky ones. He and his family have an opportunity for a new life in the US. But what about all the others. Where are they to go? Another friend, a Sunni sheikh of the Shammar tribe noted to me that thousands of former officers are prepared to assault the G[reen] Z[one]. It is no longer a matter of can they do it, they are only mulling over the timing. The breach of the Green Zone security the other day was a test of their ability to get in, and not a real attempt at a coup, though it is reported as such. Every Iraqi I talk to says unambiguously that the resistance attached to the former regime would take out the Shiite militias with barely a fight, but that the resistance will not commit wholesale revenge against the Shiite population. They just want to get rid of the “carpet baggers” from Iran. ‘…
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Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 45/2006 ( 16 – 22 November 2006 )
PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
# 19 Palestinians, including 5 children, 3 women and an old man, were killed by IOF. # 4 of the victims, including a civilian bystander, were extra-judicially executed by IOF. # Two of the victims died from previous wounds. # 92 Palestinians, including 41 children and one woman, were wounded by IOF. # IOF have continued to launch air strikes on houses and civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip; 12 houses, a mosque, a pharmacy shop, a kindergarten and 3 shops were destroyed, and 19 houses were severely damaged. # IOF conducted 30 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and 6 into the Gaza Strip. # IOF arrested 59 Palestinian civilians, including 7 children, in the West Bank, and two others in the Gaza Strip..
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 23 November 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice
In a dispatch posted at 1:59pm Makkah time Thursday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that US occupation troops seized several private homes in al-Fallujah and threw the residents out, turning the houses into a US camp. The al-Fallujah correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported a source in the Iraqi puppet police as saying that US troops surrounded a number of rural houses in the an-Nu’aymiyah area south of al-Fallujah at dawn on Thursday. The Americans then threw the families of the four houses out in the street and took over their homes, turning them into an American Marine camp and posting snipers atop their roofs. US forces had commandeered other houses in the city earlier in the month…
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Thanksgiving a Time of Remembrance
John Calvin Jones, www.virtualcitizens.com
…And so today, Bush has ordered the invasion and conquest of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands killed by American bombs and bullets – some burned alive with chemical weapons like white phosphorous and bunk busting bombs. On the 2006 campaign trail, Bush openly celebrated the fact that now Iraqi oil was not in the hands of people who might raise the price on Americans – implying that record profits for his friends in the oil business are now acceptable as the petroleum economy is safely in the hands of Americans instead of, oh God no, the indigenous peoples of the world. Instead of sowing salt into the fields of Iraq, Bush’s bounty has irradiated the fertile land between two rivers with depleted uranium … now cancers grow and babies are deformed in record numbers. What will the future hold?…
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Iraq’s Leaders Appeal for Unity After Attacks Claim 161 Lives in Baghdad’s Bleakest Day
Airport closed and curfew imposed after bombings
Guardian Unlimited
A barrage of car bombs and mortar rounds aimed at three street markets in Sadr City, Baghdad’s biggest Shia district, brought carnage to one of the most densely populated suburbs of Iraq’s capital yesterday and the heaviest loss of life on a single day in the country’s sectarian war. At least 160 people were killed when at least five cars packed with explosives were detonated in rapid succession. The authorities imposed an immediate curfew throughout the capital to prevent revenge attacks, and late last night closed the international airport to all commercial flights. Leaders of Iraq’s three main communities stood side by side on national television appealing for calm. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, was grim-faced as he and his Sunni and Shia vice-presidents asked for unity and self-restraint…
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ANTI ZIONISM=ANTI SEMITISM? IT SEEMS SO TO SOME
Desert Peace
I have in recent days seen and heard ridiculous charges leveled against Gilad Atzmon, claims that he is an anti semite and should not have been invited to speak for the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in Edinburgh last night. There were protests coming from renowned anti zionists in Britain as well as from the zionist ‘alert rag’ Engage. Engage, the very source that referred to me as an anti semite a few weeks ago has now added Atzmon to their ‘list’. All I can say is that if Engage’s positions on who or who is not an anti Semite are being taken as Gospel Truth by anti zionists, then our movement is in serious trouble. Atzmon is a musician not a politician. He is an anti zionist. That’s all that matters. If we cannot all work together to defeat the zionist beast,we lose…meaning occupation wins… is that our new agenda? I don’t think so… Below is an excerp of the speech he gave last night… can any true anti-zionist say they do not want this man’s participation in the struggle?…
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IRAQ: Singing “the devil’s music” will get you killed
IRIN
Youssef Jabry, 32, is a singer who loves western music. He sings for a living in parties, weddings and all sorts of gatherings. But what was once a dream job has become a nightmare with the rise of Islamic extremists who say western music is unreligious and must be prohibited. Six months ago, Jabry’s brother, Muhammad, who was also a singer, was killed by such extremists. “They broke into our house shouting his name loudly. They carried him off and a week later we found his decapitated body with a note saying that this was the destiny of those who sing American words,” Jabry said (…) Jabry fondly remembers the “good days” during former president Saddam Hussein’s time when his voice was heard in many parties. “Once I sang to Saddam at his birthday party and got good money for it because he liked my voice. Today, the only thing I get for singing in English is a threat or a bullet as payment,” he said…
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On human shields (and Human Rights Watch)
Helena Cobban
I’ve been having a bit of an email exchange today with Sarah Leah Whitson, the director of the Middle east Division of Human Rights Watch, over their decision, yesterday, to rush out a press release criticising the Gazans’ latest use of nonviolent mass action to halt israel’s resumed practice of punitive home demolitions in Gaza (…) I still strongly question why Sarah Leah and the rest of HRW’s very comfortably paid apparatchiks rushed to get this very definitive and accusatory press release out so very quickly. Especially given that over the past four months HRW had said not one word about Israel’s horrible, very harmful resumption, back in July, of the practice of demolishing large numbers family homes in the Gaza Strip for purely punitive purposes…
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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2006
Today in Iraq
More than 140 killed in Baghdad’s Sadr City, and more than 200 wounded in a series of bombings. The bombs and mortar shells stuck at 15 minutes intervals beginning at 3 PM, with the first bomb at a vegetable market. There were six car bombs from one report, many details are unknown in this tragedy, and the death toll is expected to rise. Another report says the mortar barrage was aimed at a nearby Sunni enclave. The Health Ministry compound was attacked by at least 30 gunmen today. There were at least three mortar rounds inside the compound. These gunmen also attacked that Shi’ite Endowment, which manages Shi’ite institutions around the country. There are no immediate reports on casualties…
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Government-backed militias killed comedian
Azzaman
A militia group linked to the government is leading a campaign of intimidation and murder against reporters and employees of Azzaman and its sister media outlets. On Monday, al-Shariqiya, the television network which is part of Azzaman Group, lost its star comedian who made Iraqis laugh at their corrupt politicians, the U.S. occupiers as well as the insurgents. This murderous militia group is targeting Azzaman and its sister outlets as part of a campaign to forced them to leave the country. Azzaman has lost numerous reporters and employees amid threats from government officials to close its television down…
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GI Special 4K22: Majority Of Shia Say Kill US Troops – November 22, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
A majority of Sunni have been for killing U.S. troops for months.
Now the Shia have swung over to the same action plan.
That would seem to be a subtle indication that it’s time to get the fuck out. The majority has spoken.
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Attacks kill 146 in Baghdad’s Sadr City
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
In the deadliest attack since the beginning of the Iraq war, suspected Sunni-Arab militants used three suicide car bombs and two mortar rounds on the capital’s Shiite Sadr City slum to kill at least 145 people and wound 238 on Thursday, police said. The Shiites responded almost immediately, firing 10 mortar rounds at the Abu Hanifa Sunni mosque as Azamiya, killing one person and wounding seven people in their attack on the holiest Sunni shrine in Baghdad. Beginning at 3:10 p.m., the three car bomb attackers blew up their vehicles one after another, at 15 minute intervals, hitting Jamila market, al-Hay market and al-Shahidein Square in Sadr City. At about the same time, mortar rounds struck al-Shahidein Square and Mudhaffar Square, police said…
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United Nations – Where are Your Troops ? The Israelis are Heading for Large Scale Massacres on Gaza Strip !
“Israel” Is Planning New Ground Offensive
Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice
Inside “Israel” there are demands for a larger- scale offensive against the Gaza Strip. The “Israelis” decided on Wednesday to step up the offensive against the Gaza Strip, demanding a high-scale ground operation. The “Israeli” terrorist operations on ground continues in the northern Gaza Strip for the third consecutive day.”Israeli” tanks and armored vehicles broke in and trespassed earlier today into the eastern parts of Jabalia refugee camp – in the northen parts of Gaza Strip.The “Israeli” terrorists blocked the main road leading to the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. Meanwhile in Jabalya “Israeli” state terrorists openened random fire towards the residents of people at the refuge camp, wounding many – including children…
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Gunmen raid Iraq health ministry
CNN
Gunmen have attacked the health ministry in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, sparking heavy gun battles with guards. About 30 gunmen are trying to take over the building, Iraqi TV reported. Reports said they were believed to be Sunni Muslim insurgents. Shia militias were suspected of a mass kidnapping of education ministry staff last week. Deputy Minister Hakim Zamili told reporters by telephone that that gunmen were in positions outside the health ministry building in the Bab al-Muadham area and were opening fire. “Terrorists are attacking the building with mortars, machinegun fire and we can even see snipers. Any employee who leaves the building will be killed,” Mr Zamili he told Reuters. The health ministry is headed by a group loyal to the Shia cleric, Moqtada Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia is accused of involvement in sectarian attacks on Iraq’s Sunni Muslim community…
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