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Bush makes a “Clean Break” with the Baker Plan
Mike Whitney
… All in all, things were looking pretty rosy for Olmert. The neocon master-plan, “A Clean Break: a New Strategy for Securing the Realm”, appeared to be lurching forward according to plan and it was beginning to look like the whole Middle East would be converted into a balkanized hodge-podge of warring factions, armed militias and Islamic extremists killing each other well into the next millennia. Only one country would prevail in this tempestuous stew of battling factions and broken states; Israel, the soon-to-be dominant power in the entire region, a 21st century Middle East Kingdom.(presumably that is what is meant by securing the “Realm”)…
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Oh look at what this poll says
Truth About Iraqis
So, this new poll making the rounds – you know the poll taken by THE US GOVERNMENT – shows nearly 90% of Iraqis believe their country is worse now than in Saddam’s time (…) More than three years ago I predicted this. I predicted this as the whores of the Green Zone spread their legs for the vile invader, hoping to make money by selling their own families. Now the Green Zone whores cry for Iraq, they pretend to be angry about Iraq. The two brothers of terrorism who advocate Iraq is a Model would do well to learn what happened to the Vichy supporters in France. Where is your democracy now? After a year, Iraqis will start to openly call for Saddam and his government back. So what have you learned o whores of Iraq?. (…) Iraqis, wake up, support the Iraqi resistance, it is THE ONLY force that can save Iraq…
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U.S. Troops Raid Hospital Again
Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily, Inter Press Service
Iraqi doctors and medical staff are outraged over yet another U.S. military raid at Fallujah General Hospital. The raid followed a roadside bombing Dec. 7 where four Iraqi policemen were killed and two civilians injured. The injured were taken to Fallujah General Hospital. Shortly after this attack, a U.S. Marine who was on a patrol in the city was wounded by a gunshot. “U.S. soldiers replied to the source of fire then headed straight to the general hospital across the (Euphrates) river hoping that they had shot and injured the sniper,” an eyewitness told IPS…
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“PRESS RELEASE”
A NEW VIOLATION TO THE PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE
ISNAD – The Defense Committee for President Saddam Hussein and his Comrades
In a new violation to the principles of justice and to the fair trial standards, news agencies, newspapers and media outlets have recently reported many statements, which were made by officials in the Iraqi government and the Iraqi High Criminal Court. These statements lead up to the same conclusion, that the Cassation Panel of the Court will confirm the verdicts of the death sentences against President Saddam Hussein and his comrades, and that the verdict against Mr. Taha Yassin Ramadan will be converted to a death sentence, so that he may be executed with the others. These statements only mean that the immature intervention by the Iraqi authorities in the work of justice continues in an attempt to affect the independence of the Iraqi judiciary. Otherwise, how could it be possible for an official to release such statements even before the Cassation Panel looks into the cassation submissions, or the file of the case, which it is still studying?…
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Romano Prodi: Olmert’s Wind-Up Cathy Chatty
Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire
Not long ago, Ehud Olmert was caught admitting Israel has a hoard of nukes, a well-known enough fact, although generally unspoken in the corporate media. For accidentally speaking the truth, angry voices arose from across the Israeli political spectrum—mostly of one monotonous color—demanding Olmert take a hike for speaking the unspeakable. Now Olmert was discovered “coaching” Italian prime minister Romano Prodi “on what to say during their joint press conference,” as if Mr. Prodi is a meathead unable to speak intelligently for himself. “It is important that you emphasize the three principles of the Quartet—that they are not negotiated (sic). They are the basis for everything,” Reuters quotes Olmert as instructing…
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Judge Upholds Detainee Rights Terror Law
Matt Apuzzo, The Associated Press
A federal judge upheld the Bush administration’s new terrorism law Wednesday, agreeing that Guantanamo Bay detainees do not have the right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. courts. The ruling by U.S. District Judge James Robertson is the first to address the new Military Commissions Act and is a legal victory for the Bush administration at a time when it has been fending off criticism of the law from Democrats and libertarians. Robertson rejected a legal challenge by Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden whose case prompted the Supreme Court to strike down the Bush administration’s policy on detainees last year…
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Hollowcaust Hullabaloo
Gabriel Ash, www.dissidentvoice.org
It’s been a good week for the Holocaust. It was in the news all the time. Unfortunately, the media excels in not making connections, which leaves me with the joyful job of bringing together all the recent Holocaust news. In Iran, the clowns at the Foreign Ministry hosted a conference of Holocaust buffoonery graced with the presence of such luminaries as the white supremacist David Duke. In Iran, the clowns at the Foreign Ministry hosted a conference of Holocaust buffoonery graced with the presence of such luminaries as the white supremacist David Duke. In France, Presidential hopeful Segolene Royal stumbled over the question whether she heard the comparison that a Hizbullah deputy made (or didn’t make, in Arabic or not, that was or wasn’t translated to Royal) between Hizbullah and the French resistance to the Nazis. Royal assured us that any such comparison, which implies some measure of likeness between Nazi Germany and Israel, would be, had it been made, completely “inadmissible, odious, an abomination”. Finally, before leaving for a visit to Germany, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert gave a speech at the National Holocaust Museum in which he compared Iran to the Nazis and urged Germany to cut its economic ties to Iran (…) Let me spell out the hypocrisy of the Holocaust hawkers. The West has elevated the crimes of the Nazis into a benchmark of evil. Paradoxically, every subsequent crime, especially when the perpetrator is Israel, can now be excused on the ground that it falls short of the de! ath camp s…
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UN: Palestinians in Iraq threatened
Aljazeera.net
The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has appealed for governments to help Palestinians fleeing Iraq. The request follows an attack on a Palestinian neighbourhood in Baghdad. At least nine people were killed and several injured on Wednesday when militias launched mortars on the Al-Baladiya area. The office of the UNHCR said it was “dismayed” at the lack of protection for Palestinians in Iraq. Radhouane Nouicer, UNHCR’s deputy director for the region, said: “[Palestinians] have very limited freedom of movement and no possibility to leave the country – unlike Iraqis – to find a safe haven”…
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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 14 December 2006.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice
In a dispatch posted at 5:51pm Makkah time Thursday evening, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that an Iraqi Resistance marksman shot and killed a US soldier in the nearby al-Haqlaniyah area on Thursday morning. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported eyewitnesses as saying that a US foot patrol was moving through the middle of al-Haqlaniyah when one of the Americans was struck in the head and instantly killed by an Iraqi Resistance sharpshooter’s bullet. Afterwards, US troops carried out raids and searches in various neighborhoods of the town, looking for the sharpshooter. They found no sign of him…
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WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2006
Today in Iraq
Police found the bodies of two people, shot and tortured, in al-Lij village, 35 km south of Baghdad. A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army convoy and killed two people, including a policeman, and wounded seven, including three soldiers, in Nafaq al-Shurta in western Baghdad. A car bomb killed an Iraqi explosives expert along with his assistant when they were trying to dismantle it on Wednesday night in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad. The tortured, bullet-ridden bodies of 21 kidnap victims were found on the streets of the capital on Wednesday. At least 17 people were killed Wednesday in car bombings against Shiite and Sunni targets in Baghdad. A car bomb struck the largely Sunni area of Yarmouk on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding three. Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped dozens of people Thursday from a major commercial area in central Baghdad, the second mass abduction in the capital in a month. The attackers drove up to the busy al-Sanak area in about 10 sport utility vehicles and began rounding up shop owners and bystanders. Two police officers said 50 to 70 people were abducted…
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GI Special 4L11: Support For War Hits New Low – December 14, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
Support for the war has reached new lows in the United States, according to a CBS poll released Monday. The poll found that 62 percent of Americans said sending troops to fight in Iraq was an error, while 34 percent still backed the decision. According to the Gallup organization, which conducted the poll for the US television network, not even during the Vietnam conflict did so many Americans oppose the war…
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The Curse
Layla Anwar
…To be frank, I can no longer recognize Iraqis. What has happened to us , what on earth is going on here? Where has this violence and brutality been stored all this time , in which secret hideout? Since when do Iraqis abduct women, rape them, mutilate their genitals and then kill them. Since when do they drill holes in skulls and pluck eyes out from their sockets? Since when do they massacre innocent labourers in search of their daily bread? Since when do they blow up children in market places or immolate people in prayers to be charred alive, since when are worship places set on fire? And many more heinous acts … Since when? Yes I no longer recognize this place. What is this telluric hideous ugliness painted on the walls of this city? What is this vicious cruelty that erupts from the belly of the earth and spreads like a tumor in every street and in every neighborhood? What is becoming of us? Maybe this is our curse. A first Gulf War waged by Neolithic Barbarians that knocked Iraqis down, followed by 12 years of sanctions that killed millions , followed by yet another War of “shock and awe” that took back the country to the Stone age era, followed by a ruthless occupation that has stripped thousands of their basic human dignity and killed thousands in the process. Finally allowing evil, monstrous, thuggish cronies to rule whilst these Cavemen actively engage and guide from a distance. Bestiality is indeed contagious…
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The Bloodbath We Created
Gareth Porter, TomPaine.com
…The bloodbath argument evades the central fact that the U.S. occupation has never been aimed at avoiding or reducing sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites. On the contrary, the U.S. has used sectarian conflict for its own purposes. The main purpose of the U.S. occupation has been to claim victory over those who resisted it, which has meant primarily suppressing the Sunni armed resistance throughout the Sunni zone. The Bush administration had to have Iraqi allies against the Sunni resistance, and after Sunni security units showed in 2004 that they would not fight other Sunnis on behalf of the occupation, the administration began relying primarily on Shiites to assist its war against the Sunnis. Thus the militant Shiite political parties and their military wing became the administration’s primary Iraqi allies…
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Bush’s Mad-dash to History’s Dustbin
MIKE WHITNEY
…The rumors in the Times suggest that Bush is snuggling up to his new throat-slitting buddy who runs the Iranian-trained, death squads, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim. Al-Hakim is the slipperiest guy in all of Baghdad and oversees the most feared militia in Iraq, the Badr Brigade. You’ve probably seen their handiwork in the form of the mutilated young Sunnis bobbing along the Euphrates after being tortured and shot gangland-style in the back of the head. That’s our new soul-mate, al Hakim. Sounds like Bush’s kind-a guy. In fact, Bush refers to him as “His Eminence” (I kid you not) and gave him the “red carpet” treatment when he paid a visit to the White House last week. Does Bush really think he can out maneuver this guy? You can’t put-one-over on a thug like al Hakim. Guys like al-Hakim invented treachery, Bush is just a novice. He’ll use Bush until all of his enemies are removed and then he’ll start to work on the occupation. Anyone can see that…
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Tears of Rage; Tears of Grief
Chris Floyd – TO Correspondent
Mass death came again to the Iraqi town of Ishaqi last Friday. Nine months after an American raid that killed 11 civilians, including five children under the age of five, another ground and air assault on suspected insurgents in the area left behind a pile of corpses, including at least two children. As with the earlier incident, Friday’s attack has produced conflicting stories of what really happened, but the end result is clear: a multitude of grieving, angry Iraqis further embittered against the American occupation. The latest Ishaqi attack – with “only” 20 fatalities – is of course a mere sideshow in the garish carnival of death that is Iraq today. But in many respects it is a microcosm of the largely unseen reality of the war that grinds on day after day behind the obscuring fog of political rhetoric that enshrouds both Washington and Baghdad…
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U.S. training Fatah in anti-terror tactics
Underlying motive is to counter strength of Hamas, analysts say
Matthew Kalman, San Francisco Chronicle
U.S. officials training Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas are emphasizing urban anti-terrorist techniques as part of a systematic effort to bolster Abbas and his Fatah loyalists to counter the political success of Hamas, according to Palestinian analysts and officers receiving the training. But one officer who has received the training says the purpose of the newly beefed-up force is to protect the Palestinian president from assassination. The Presidential Guard, made up entirely of Fatah activists loyal to Abbas, has been increased to 1,000, up from about 90 officers under his predecessor, Yasser Arafat…
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Video
U.S. soldiers lead Iraq children in obscene chant
RAW STORY
American troops lead a group of Iraqi children in a profane chant, as seen in a video viewed by RAW STORY. In the brief, undated video at the site liveleak.com, a U.S. soldier appears atop a military vehicle as another mills about, directing the children to shout, “F*ck Iraq.” The youngsters, though smiling, do not seem to understand what it is they are saying…
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The Cash Cows of Personal Debt
The Credit Card Industry and Predatory Capitalism
Charles Sullivan
The booming credit card business is one of the most profitable and destructive industries to ever emerge from the inventive capitalist mind. Citibank is raking in more money than Microsoft and Wal-Mart. Obscene profits are realized without lifting a finger to perform any physical work. In 2004 a single credit card company—the MBNA—realized 1.5 times the profits of fast food industry giant McDonald’s. Collecting on credit card debt is a very lucrative business. With origins in South Dakota, the modern credit card industry began realizing obscene profits as a result of deregulation. The Supreme Court also played a pivotal role in expanding banking industry profits by lifting limits to the amount of additional fees credit card companies could charge their customers. The sky is the limit now. Industry deregulation has resulted in the systemic fleecing of consumers by practices that can only be described as willful and predatory in nature…
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WHY?????? ISRAELI ARMY BLAMED FOR DESTROYING GAZA AIRPORT
Desert Peace
Why???? Because it was there. Why???? Because they could. The collective punishments inflicted upon the Palestinian nation are endless. Aside from the needless killing of civilians, the infrastructure of the land has been destroyed by the occupiers… the sources of electricity and water… and now the airport. There is no reason that can justify these attempts to prevent Palestine from ever becomming a free state. If Gaza had an airport, the International Commision which was to be led by Desmond Tutu earlier in the week could have taken place, just one of many reasons why Israel might justify its destruction. The occupier must have complete control on who enters and leaves the occupied… the answer is to end the occupation allowing Palestine to rebuild, literally from the ashes. Israel was at that point once in history… they should not be inflicting the pain on others…
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Gunmen Kidnap Dozens of People in Baghdad; Nearly 30 Others Killed Elsewhere in Iraq
SINAN SALAHEDDIN, The Associated Press
Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped dozens of people Thursday from a major commercial area in Baghdad, the second mass abduction in the capital in a month, and nearly 30 people were killed or found dead elsewhere in Iraq. The attackers drove up to the busy al-Sanak area in about 10 sport utility vehicles and began rounding up shop owners and bystanders. Two police officers said 50 to 70 people were abducted, but the Interior Ministry declined to give a number, saying it was still under investigation. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber slammed into an Iraqi army check point, killing a soldier and a civilian and wounding nine other people, police said…
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Iraq events: 14 Dec 2006
Roads to Iraq
The kidnapping of 30 people today in Al-Sink. Al-Sink is an area very close to Baghdad center, it is a place where people can buy spare parts for their cars, trucks and heavy machinery. The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq issued a statement about the kidnapping saying: The kidnapping of 30 Iraqis in Baghdad, today, Thursday, (14-Dec), was based on identity. The body in a statement Thursday (14 / 12), A group of armed men wearing official uniforms and riding seven government cars blocked the road and surrounded area Al-Sink in Baghdad, and abducted persons on the basis of identity, took to an unknown destination. The Board expressed its condemnation of this action, which, clearly reflected the nature of those who stand behind it. We consider the American occupation and the current government fully responsible for this action which is being committed against the innocent people, in a time they declare to the world their interest in the stability and security in the country…
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