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Shiite militias forcing Sunnis to abandon their Baghdad homes
Nancy A. Youssef and Zaineb Obeid, McClatchy Newspapers
The displacement of Sunni Muslims from a Baghdad neighborhood this weekend could tip a large portion of Baghdad to control by Shiite militias, residents there and militiamen agreed Sunday. Since Saturday Sunni residents have been displaced or voluntarily left the northwest Baghdad neighborhood of Hurriyah after police said three Sunni families were killed. Those who fled voluntarily said they did it because they did not trust the government forces to protect them. On Sunday, they continued fleeing, moving into schools or strangers’ homes, the best immediate refuge they could find. Shiite militiamen loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr openly admit to entering their homes and forcing them to leave. That speaks to the ongoing open battle for control of the capital and the apparent domination by the Mahdi Army, Sadr’s militia…
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George Will: The problem with Iraq is that they’re all savages
Joshua Holland
…Portraying the Iraqis as a bunch of irrational, bloodthirsty savages — people fighting over some religious arcana who are “very difficult to help” — is the latest craze on the right. Last week, the ever-charming Bill O’Reilly said: Do I care if the Sunnis and Shiites kill each other in Iraq? No… Let them kill each other. Maybe they’ll all kill each other, and then we can have a decent country in Iraq. This is a particularly disgusting bit of historical revisionism, but it’s also quite familiar (…) The narrative is intended to shift blame for the catastrophic sequence of events in Iraq from the policy-makers who started it to the Iraqis themselves. It’s also simply wrong — Iraq was a functional, modern and secular society before the Iran-Iraq war, and at least a functional one before the 2003 invasion. The chaos that followed resulted from choices made by the administration, not some deep-seated dysfunction in Iraq’s culture…
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Brothers’ story illustrates what future holds for Iraq
Officers under Saddam regained their social status, then the pendulum of power swung
HANNAH ALLAM, Mcclatchy-tribune
…On July 17, 2005, Imad said, his superiors were called into a meeting with officials from the new Shiite-led government. “When they came out, they looked like they were going to cry,” Imad said. “They told us, ‘It’s out of our hands. There’s nothing we can do.’ Then, one by one, they gave us the letters.” The letters discharged the Marjan brothers. As former members of the Baath Party, they were judged unfit to serve in the new Iraq. They were unemployed again. The newly elected government, Imad said, had access to personal information on him and his brother, as well as dozens of other former Baathists who’d worked with the transitional leadership. He’s convinced that it was through those files that the gunmen tracked him down. Imad is just as convinced that the attackers were Shiites — those who stormed his house on May 17 spoke in the singular dialect of Iraq’s Shiite Muslim south. The Marjans are convinced it was a Mahdi Army death squad linked to militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Imad went to the Baghdad morgue to claim his brother. Two doctors drew back the sheet. Imad saw the full horror of what had happened. Essam’s head had been shattered by a gunshot. He was missing an eye, and there were drill marks on one of his cheeks and on his chest. A broken rib pushed unnaturally against his skin, and there was a burn mark on his left leg…
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 10 December 2006
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice
…In a dispatch posted at 4:50pm Makkah time Sunday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that pro-Iranian Shi’i sectarian Jaysh al-Mahdi militiamen backed up by puppet Iraqi army troops carried out coordinated attacks on Sunnis resident in the al-Hurriyah district of Baghdad beginning on Saturday night and into Sunday morning. In all more than 200 Sunni families were driven out of their homes in the area. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported eyewitnesses as saying that the Shi’i sectarian gunmen and puppet government troops used loudspeakers to declare: “To the children of Mu’awiyah the infidel and ‘Umar the homosexual, you have just half an hour to leave your houses or we will burn them over your heads.” Witnesses said that Iraqi Resistance fighters in the streets and atop roofs in the area did battle with the Shi’i sectarian attackers, killing 14 of them but the US-backed puppet government troops were fighting on the side of the Jaysh al-Mahdi and that gave them the advantage in the engagement…
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For Iraq’s Sunnis, Conflict Closes In
Mixed Neighborhoods Unravel as Shiite Militiamen Expand Violence
Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Foreign Service
…Farouk’s 10-year-old son, Omar, entered the living room. Thin with an angular face, he wore jeans and a yellow shirt. When asked his name, he replied in a voice not much louder than a whisper: “Amar.” Amar is a common Shiite name. Farouk had instructed him to lie about his name to strangers. Why didn’t he use his real name? “Because of those people, the Mahdi Army,” Omar said. Why is his father still staying at home? Omar paused. “Perhaps the Mahdi Army will come and raid the Sunni homes and kill him.” Seven video compact disc recordings of Sadr’s sermons, his stern, bearded visage splashed on every cover, sat on the brown sofa. Farouk’s 15-year-old son had bought them the day after the curfew. When he came home, he slipped one of the discs into the VCD player and turned up the volume so all the family’s Shiite neighbors could hear. Omar pointed at them and said, “We have those VCDs for the Mahdi Army not to hurt us.”…
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Hudna or Not: Palestinian Rights Must Be Preserved
Ramzy Baroud
Palestinian groups have recently suggested a ceasefire, in exchange for a cessation of Israeli violence. Ehud Olmert responded with a conciliatory speech, cleverly timed with President Bush’s arrival to Jordan on November 29 for a two-day conference with top Iraqi officials. Israel, then, accused Palestinians of firing five rockets into Israel in violation of the ceasefire; a Palestinian militant group said that the violation was in response to Israel’s continuous military activities in the West Bank. Meanwhile, standing side by side with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, PA President Mahmoud Abbas, yet once again, declared a deadlock in his talks with Hamas aimed at forming a national unity government…
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DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2006
Today in Iraq
Gunmen attacked two Shiite homes in western Baghdad, killing 10 people, police said Sunday. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred at about 11 p.m. Saturday in the mostly Sunni Arab al-Jihad neighborhood, two policemen said. The attack appeared to have been conducted by Sunni Arabs in retaliation for earlier attacks on Sunnis in the capital. 17 corpses, three of them headless, were recovered by police in nothern Baghdad’s Al-Hurriyah neighbourhood, according to “a security official.” Five people were killed and six wounded in clashes between Shiite militiamen and members of the Sunni Janabat tribe in the nearby Al-Amil neighbourhood on Sunday. Police Colonel Yarub Khazal from the security team of former deputy prime minister Ahmed Chalabi was shot dead by gunmen as he was driving his car in west Baghdad’s Yarmuk neighbourhood, the security official added. A total of 40 bodies — many of them shot and tortured — were found across Baghdad on Saturday, an Interior Ministry source said…
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GI Special 4L10: Guess Who – December 10, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
GUESS WHO DOESN’T NEED U.S. MILITARY “ADVISORS” TO TELL HIM WHAT TO DO OR BILLIONS PISSED AWAY ON HIS TRAINING:
GUESS WHO DOESN’T HAVE TO WATCH HIS BACK
NOW, FOR THE BIG BUCKS, GUESS WHY:
COULD IT BE THOSE FOLKS IN THE PHOTO WITH
HIM THINK HE’S ON THEIR SIDE?
THEY DON’T EXACTLY LOOK “TERRORIZED,” DO THEY?
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UNICEF: Children suffer when women face discrimination
Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers
…Still, the real heart of the report is the data, page after page of sobering statistics about women and children in every country. Comparisons with past studies can be illuminating. In 1995, for instance, UNICEF found that 54,000 Iraqi children under age 5 died. At the time, dictator Saddam Hussein was in charge. Last year, though, with Saddam gone and the United States occupying the country, 122,000 Iraqi children under age 5 died…
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Bread, Bread, Everywhere, Yet not a Morsel to Eat
Jason Miller
…Blaming starvation’s victims for populating the planet beyond its capacity may assuage many people’s guilt, but this heartless conclusion is based on pernicious myths. Humanity produces more than enough food to sustain the entire world population. The United States alone wastes a shocking 96 billion pounds of food each year even as we experience an epidemic of obesity. In its rush to dominate, plunder and exploit “developing nations, the “developed world” (led by the United States), causes many of the famines it duplicitously attributes to irresponsible procreation…
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Talks Under Way to Replace Iraq PM
HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, The Associated Press
Major partners in Iraq’s governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his failure to quell raging violence, according to lawmakers involved. The talks are aimed at forming a new parliamentary bloc that would seek to replace the current government and that would likely exclude supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a vehement opponent of the U.S. military presence. The new alliance would be led by senior Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who met with President Bush last week. Al-Hakim, however, was not expected to be the next prime minister because he prefers the role of powerbroker, staying above the grinding day-to-day running of the country…
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Iraq events: 10 Dec 2006
Roads to Iraq
I think you already read Times Online article “Secret American talks with insurgents break down” The meetings came about after persistent requests from the Americans. It wasn’t because they loved us but because they didn’t have a choice. According Al-Hayat, the reason is the US forces will give countless political support to the Shiite majority, and abandoning reconciliation attempts with armed groups. It was Dick Cheney’s plan because [try not to laugh] The United States should not abandon the Shiites after failed to support them in their “Intifada” in 1991 [which was a setup by Iran] against Saddam Hussein. This is my take: Cheney knows that Iraqi Shiite government is backed by Iran, by the US supporting the same government means chaos in Iraq continues…
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GI Special 4L9: “A Bright Red Coat” – December 9, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
“Next Time I Go To Iraq Perhaps I Should Wear A Bright Red Coat”
“Would You Not Rise Up To Protect And Defend Your House And Your Neighborhood If Someone Invaded Your Country?”
“Personally I Have A Hard Time Believing That If I Was An Iraqi That I Wouldn’t Be Doing Everything In My Power To Kill And Maim As Many Americans As Possible”
(…)
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Iraqis need refuge
George Packer,
The brother of my friend Osman was one of seven Sunni workers in a shop in a mixed neighborhood of western Baghdad who were rounded up at gunpoint recently by Mahdi Army militiamen and taken to the local Shia mosque. There, they were taunted about Saddam Hussein’s death sentence, and then, one by one, shot in the head. Osman’s brother was only grazed and survived. But, when the bodies were loaded into a pickup and brought to a nearby Iraqi Army checkpoint, a soldier in uniform noticed that he was still alive. “Let’s see you stay alive now,” the soldier said and shot him again, through the eye. Somehow Osman’s brother survived the second bullet, too, though he lost his eye and his brain began to swell…
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Three Iraqi soldiers killed by US friendly fire
German Press Agency
US troops mistakenly shot dead three Iraqi soldiers during a raid in Dolouiya, 80 kilometres north of Baghdad, early Saturday. As the US soldiers were performing a dawn raid on a house north of the city, the Iraqi soldiers approached them. Mistaking them for insurgents, the US troops shot them dead. The three soldiers were deployed to guard the home of an Iraqi army general near the house the US soldiers were raiding…
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Don’t let your media fool you about Beirut demonstration
Roads to Iraq
Don’t let western media fool you with such headlines: “Massive Hizballah protest” or “Nasrallh supporters”. The Lebanese opposition is much bigger and wider than that, western/American media are using this sectarian division since the colonials period because this is the how divide and conquer works. Petty that some of the Arab writers fall in this trap. Here is a list of none-Islamists opposition protesting against the US backed Lebanese government puppets…
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Iran looks like the winner of the Iraq war
Alissa J. Rubin, LATimes Staff Writer
The report issued last week by the blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group provides fresh proof of Iran’s strengthened hand in the Middle East since the U.S.-led invasion: It mentions the Islamic Republic more than 50 times and makes clear that the U.S. will have to seek Iran’s help for any resolution. “The report told the Iranians, You are mighty now in the region and in Iraq. The Iranians feel now they are untouchable,” said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center, an independent think tank in Dubai, United Arab Emirates…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28919
Iraq events: 10 Dec 2006
Roads to Iraq
I think you already read Times Online article “Secret American talks with insurgents break down” The meetings came about after persistent requests from the Americans. It wasn’t because they loved us but because they didn’t have a choice. According Al-Hayat, the reason is the US forces will give countless political support to the Shiite majority, and abandoning reconciliation attempts with armed groups. It was Dick Cheney’s plan because [try not to laugh] The United States should not abandon the Shiites after failed to support them in their “Intifada” in 1991 [which was a setup by Iran] against Saddam Hussein. This is my take: Cheney knows that Iraqi Shiite government is backed by Iran, by the US supporting the same government means chaos in Iraq continues…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=28930
Ashkar: “Zionist trend” within Fatah pushes Abbas to a showdown with Hamas
palestine-info.co.uk
Hamas’ lawmakers and coordinator of the PLC’s security and interior committee Dr. Ismail Al-Ashkar has held PA chief Mahmoud Abbas fully responsible for the attack on the PLC headquarters in Gaza city Saturday by a number of “unruly” security elements in his capacity as the general-commander of the security apparatuses. The Hamas deputy also explained that Abbas as PA chief has limited authorities stipulated by the PA bylaw, and therefore, he added, any trespassing on the constitution will be regarded as a grave constitutional violation that Abbas and those working to topple the elected PA government will be held responsible for…
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GI Special 4L8: The Message – December 8, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
The military is no the problem, this administration and these chicken-hawks, hero-wanna-bes are the problem and I am doing everything I know how to do.
After reading an issue of Traveling Soldier and GI Special, I was both deeply moved and jumping for joy because while my message as a member family member has power and credibility, the message ultimately has to come from the soldier, as it finally did in Vietnam.
(…)
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