Is The Partition of Iraq The First Step In A Zionist Project For Partitioning The Entire Middle East ?
Les Politiques
For UrShalim, it is Sykes-Picot all over again, partitioning the Middle East under spheres of western influence ‘protecting’ different ethnicities. And for Nidal, who is commenting on UrShalim, westerners are discarding the Arab perception of USrael’s policies in the Middle East as ‘conspiracy theories’. However, if they look carefully at the history of the region and at what is happening now they will discover that there is a troubling similarity between these so-called conspiracy theories and what the US and Israel are planning for Iraq and the rest of the Middle East (…) The western reader has evidently never heard of the analysis and opinions of Arabs, notably Iraqis, who see in the invasion of Iraq the realization of the Zionist project through Neoconservatives. Westerners have but contempt for the Arab view on what is happening to them, they discard these views by labelling them as conspiracy theories. It is therefore unnecessary to inform the western reader about these views as it is unnecessary to inform him about the mercenaries whose only role in Iraq is to inflame sectarian tensions and provoke confrontations resulting in the partition of the country. This belief is particularly present among Iraqi refugees. It is also unnecessary to watch this movie aired on the website of the Nation showing how Blackwater has actively participated in the sectarian wars in Iraq…

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A New Map of Iraq.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
…This is the New Iraq that America brought to us. This is American Freedom and Democracy. This is American Liberation. This is my Dear Raouf. This is the gentle, kind, Raouf. This is his body. These are the marks of the New Iraq. These are the hands and arms that embrace us daily in the New Iraq. This is the Iraqi body. With its streams, mountains, rivers and skies…Look at it well. Scan it well like you scan our irises. Make prints out of it, like you take our digital fingerprints…Look well, very well (…) This is the new Iraqi body, the partitioned body, the divided body… This is the new Iraqi body, the raped, violated, tortured, mutilated Iraqi body… This is the new Iraqi body, the invaded, occupied, Iraqi body… The new Iraqi body, the piece of meat of Liberation… The kingdom within that has been spoiled and broken without, losing its sacredness, its integrity, its identity… This is the spirit made flesh, that you spit on, insult, scar, wound, stab, piss on, behead, chop, drill, amputate and murder. This is your doing. Your Violence. Your Brutality. Your Greed. Your Evilnesss. Your Silence. Your Apathy. Your Indifference. Your Negligence. Your Irresponsibility. Your Immorality. Your Selling out… Yes You, Right and Left. Yes You. Americans and Westerners alike. Yes You, Iranians. Yes You, Israelis. Yes You, Arabs. This is the New Iraq. This is You…

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8 Million Deaths & Media Holocaust Denial
Gideon Polya, MWC News
…While Mainstream media continue to trumpet the judicially-untested, and reason-, chemistry-and physics-defying “official 9/11 version” of the endlessly lying Bush Administration (aka the OCT, the Official Conspiracy Theory), they ignore the horrendous human consequences of the subsequent Bush II War on Terror – 6 million post-invasion excess deaths as adjudged from the data of world’s best practice, expert UN and American demographers and medical epidemiologists. Indeed the Bush Asian Wars – the continuing US-backed Israeli Occupations (Occupied Lebanon and Occupied Palestine excess deaths 0.4 million), (the Bush I Gulf War (0.2 million Iraqi violent deaths), the Bush I-Clinton I-Bush II Sanctions War (1.7 million excess deaths), the Bush II Iraq War (2.0 million excess deaths), the Bush II Afghan War (3.2 million excess deaths) and the post-2001 world opiate drug deaths due to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed opium industry (0.5 million deaths) now yields a total of 8 million deaths in the Bush Family Asian Holocaust…

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WANTED – Who killed the anti-war movement?
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat’s Dream
…On 15 February 2003 millions of people took the streets of the world to denounce their opposition to the mass murderers’ plans; where the United Nations failed, the United Nations’ Peoples claimed their democratic sovereignty: DON’T ATTACK IRAQ – NOT IN OUR NAME. Four and half years later, the anti-war movement is just a shadow of itself while in Iraq the genocide of a whole People and the annihilation of the whole country is business as usual; the banality of evil in XXI Century flavour. What happened? Of course, everybody agrees with Howard Zinn, “there is no magical panacea, only persistence.” But in these past few years the anti-war movement’s establishment has taken all the wrong decisions and the worst directions. In the US especially, the anti-war planners wanted to go mainstream. The oldest, most experienced and committed segments of the movements have been isolated because too “old fashioned” and not presentable to the “new friends”, the generous foundations linked to the Democratic Party. Socialism and Marx can’t really be welcomed at fundraising dinners and cocktail parties. In spite of the many anti-war planners’ claims that the Israel Lobby has no real power to influence the US government’s policies, that Lobby is so very powerful to influence even the anti-war movement from within. The Palestine issue needed to be downplayed and many Palestine’s supporters and campaigners have been marginalized. That part of the movement who would keep asking ques! tions ab out the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington (please, note: questions doesn’t mean conspiracy theories) have also been isolated and now whoever dares to question the official truth of those events is labeled as conspiracy nut…

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Bush’s Global ‘Dirty War’
Robert Parry, consortiumnews.com
George W. Bush has transformed elite units of the U.S. military – including Special Forces and highly trained sniper teams – into “death squads” with a license to kill unarmed targets on the suspicion that they are a threat to American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to evidence from recent court cases. Though this reality has been the subject of whispers within the U.S. intelligence community for several years, it has now emerged into public view with two attempted prosecutions of American soldiers whose defense attorneys cited “rules of engagement” that permit the killing of suspected insurgents…

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MP Baraka: Shabak of blackmailing sick Palestinians for espionage purposes
Palestinian Information Center
Arab member of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) MP Mohammed Baraka has accused the Israeli domestic intelligence department (Shabak) of extorting sick Palestinians from Gaza strip into spying for them. Reports published by the Hebrew Maariv newspaper demonstrated ways and means used by the Shabak in exploiting, trapping, and recruiting sick Palestinian citizens from Gaza Strip for espionage purposes had apparently irked the Arab MP and prompted him to send an official protest to Israeli premier Ehud Olmert over the issue. “The news reports indeed add more evidence to that I have on my desk on the inhuman and unjustified methods used by the Israeli Shabak in extorting sick Palestinians from Gaza Strip seeking medication in the West Bank or inside the 1948-occupied Palestinian lands to recruit and employ them as spies”, Baraka reportedly wrote in his letter to Olmert…

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Support Khaled Mudallal’s right to education
U.N. OBSERVER
Sign the online petition www.ipetitions.com/petition/letkhaledstudy/index.html
Khaled Mudallal is a Palestinian and a business and management student at the University of Bradford. He is currently trapped in Gaza due to the restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by Israel. Khaled needs to return to Bradford urgently to begin the third year of his degree course. Khaled returned to his home town of Rafah in June with the intention of staying only for a few days. He has a British residence permit valid until November 2010. According to Israeli human rights organisation Gisha, Khaled is one of several hundred Palestinian students who are being prevented from leaving Gaza to return to courses abroad. Gisha believes the Israeli government is in breach of international law. The right to education is enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights…

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IRAQ WILL NOT BE DIVIDED
Wafaa’ Al-Natheema
We, Iraqis, have invented the wheel, the alphabet and the law, we began lavish construction of hospitals and libraries, and have made endless scientific discoveries and inventions through the millenniums. In modern history, our country has been filled with scientists who have been so gifted, challenging and accomplished, our enemies has been targeting and killing them. So we are pretty capable of preventing the conspiracy bestowed upon us, which is to control our resources and divide our country. Collectively, we refuse intimidation and occupation and so we are willing, able and ready to prevent IRAQ from being divided. Let us read this as a reminder and act upon it. We, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmans and other ethnic groups must work together and not allow the division of IRAQ to take place, ever…

PLEASE read the statement below in Arabic, which is written by a group of educated IRAQIS and sign it by including your full name and position.

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Archbishop Tutu barred by U. of St Thomas because of criticism of Israel
Cecilie Surasky
Rumors have been circulating for some time that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was banned by the University of St Thomas in Minnesota because of statements he made that some consider anti-Semitic. Now it’s official: winning the Nobel Peace Prize doesn’t protect you from charges of anti-Semitism if you criticize Israeli human rights practices. Neither, apparently, does being one of the most compelling voices for social justice in the world today, or even getting an honorary degree from and giving the commencement address at Brandeis…

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My Favorite ‘Anti-Semite’
Tony Karon, Rootless Cosmopolitan
The utterly charming thing about the Zionist Thought Police is their apparent inability to restrain themselves, even from the very excesses that will prove to be their own undoing. Having asked sane and rational people to believe that Jimmy Carter is a Holocaust denier simply for pointing out the obvious about the apartheid regime Israel maintains in the occupied territories, the same crew now want us to believe that Archbishop Desmond Tutu is an anti-Semite. No jokes! That was the reason cited for Tutu being banned from speaking at St. Thomas University in Minneapolis. “We had heard some things he said that some people judged to be anti-Semitic and against Israeli policy,” explained university official Doug Hennes. The “anti-Semitic” views Tutu had expressed were in his April 2002 speech “Occupation is Oppression” in which he likened the occupation regime in the West Bank, based on his personal experience of it, to what he had experienced as a black person in South Africa…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice.
…In a dispatch posted at 4:40pm Baghdad time Wednesday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that an Iraqi Resistance car bomb blasted into the motorcade of the Polish ambassador in Baghdad, General Edward Pietrzyk in Baghdad on Wednesday morning. The AMSI reported a diplomatic source as admitting that five personnel who were on the motorcade were killed in the attack but that General Pietrzyk was able to leave the scene on his own. The Iraqi puppet “Interior Ministry” acknowledged that the Polish ambassador’s motorcade consisted of four four-wheel-drive vehicles flying the Polish flag. The car bomb destroyed three of the vehicles in the convoy. The puppet “Interior Ministry” reported that the Polish ambassador had been wounded in the attack and that the Iraqi regime forces were trying to evacuate him…

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Al-Rashideen Army to the Americans: Don’t walk behind a mirage, we will fight you till the last man falls
Roads to Iraq
…These are some of the main features of our political program and whoever wants to learn more , then he can check the program issued by the Jihad and Reform front which we are part of. 1- Armed resistance and cooperating with the entities that are unsupportive to the occupation and recognize that the resistances as the legitimate representative of Iraq have the right to self-determination. 2- Working to rebuild the political socity and the Iraqi state based on justice, and work to create institutions that serve the community and provide a decent life for all Iraqis. 3- Work on the liberation of Iraq from foreign occupation and achieve full independence, and ensure people’s freedom, the full political and economic independence and rejected influence and guardianship from any external force on the country’s interests and to bind the occupiers compensate the Iraqi people for all the material and moral damage due to the invasion and its consequences. 4- work to free all prisoners from the occupation forces and the government prisons and honoring the martyrs who paid the highest price for freedom. 5- To identity of Iraq as an Arab, Islamic state and its natural wealth belongs to all Iraqis, regardless their affiliation…

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IRAQ: Difficult to access the needy in Diyala Province, say aid workers
IRIN News
The humanitarian situation in Diyala Province, eastern-central Iraq, is deteriorating because of continuing tension between armed factions and the difficulty of accessing internally displaced persons and the needy, said local aid workers. “We are unable to reach thousands of families because of the serious security situation in the area. Many armed factions have prevented us from delivering humanitarian assistance to groups opposed to them, leaving families without food and other support,” said Nafie Obeidi, vice-president of the Iraq Aid Association (IAA), a local nongovernmental organisation. “We were advised to leave the delivery of aid to the [Iraqi] military or to warring factions but with the increase in violence we doubt if food will reach local families,” Obeidi added…

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Defend Student from Gaza
Welcome to Baqa’a Refugee Camp
Comrades, it is essential that people take action on the matter explained in the article below and urge immidiate Parliamentary attention to this, from British members of parliament and demand condemnation and active protest from Bradford City Council. People in colleges and universities should also speak to their lecturers, teachers etc to get their unions invovled but questions should be aimed in the direction of the national media and at the British Foreign and Common Wealth Office, with the demand that Khaled has the right to go back to University, as stated under international law…

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It’s About Palestine
Ben White
The clinking champagne glasses on Engage’s website said it all. The movement established to oppose the proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions was celebrating a victory, as the British University and College Union (UCU) announced that to even discuss the boycott risked “infringing discrimination legislation”. The boycott of Israel, it seemed, had suffered a blow. Engage and their fellow-travellers popped open the bubbly at the end of what must have seemed like a rather good week. Days earlier, the UK’s Socialist Worker had published an article in which the boycott was called into question for tactical reasons. Smugly, it was noted that “even” the “Israel-demonising” Socialist Worker’s Party now doubted the boycott…

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Iraq’s KRG signs four more oil deals
UPI
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government has announced four more controversial oil deals, despite Baghdad’s condemnation, and says more are on the way. The KRG said in a statement that an initial $500 million will go toward upstream exploration projects now the deals have been signed. “The projects will spearhead international investment for the whole of Iraq,” KRG Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami said in the statement. Companies involved in two of the production-sharing contracts have been announced: a subsidiary of the Canadian firm Heritage Oil and Gas and a subsidiary of the French firm Perenco S.A. The other two deals will be detailed soon, the statement said…

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Iraqi leaders turn against US-created ‘militias’
AFP
The Iraqi government lashed out on Thursday against a US military initiative that pits civilians against Al-Qaeda fighters, accusing it of creating new militias in the war-weary nation. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s media adviser Yasin Majeed said the Shiite-led government was now trying to bring armed groups set up by the US military under the control of the Iraqi army. “There are groups which have set up checkpoints without coordinating with the government,” he said. “Apparently they coordinated with the (US military). They should be placed under army control.” Maliki and his Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) parliamentary bloc this week sharply criticised what it said was a US policy of creating armed groups outside the control of central government…

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America in Iraq: The 10-Year Plan
Mark Kukis, Time
The comments by Iraq’s deputy foreign minister hardly caused a stir when they appeared Saturday in Asharq al Awsat, an Arabic newspaper published across the Middle East. But they are a strong indication of the depth of the Bush Administration’s military commitment to the region. “Iraq needs a new resolution to determine the shape of the relationship between the two countries and how to cooperate with the U.S. forces,” Labid Abawi was quoted as saying. “We will ask the Council to include an article that allows Iraq to enter into negotiations with the United States to reach long-term security agreements to meet Iraq’s security needs bilaterally.” It all seemed to be standard diplo-speak, designed to set up a provision calling for lower numbers of U.S. forces…

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Nationalist Iraqi insurgent groups form new coalition ready to talk to U.S.
The Associated Press
Nearly two dozen previously unknown Iraqi insurgent groups announced a new coalition to fight foreign occupation and set conditions to talk to U.S. forces, said a statement on a web site affiliated to Iraq’s deposed Baath party. The 22 groups named as their leader Izzat al-Douri, the highest ranking member of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s ruling Baath party still at large. In the nearly half hour video message, an unidentified man, face blurred, was shown sitting behind a table with an Iraqi flag on his right side reading a statement announcing the formation of the new alliance called “The Jihad and Liberation.” The new alliance laid down a series of principles for talks with the U.S. including that the “enemy” should agree to unconditionally withdraw their forces from Iraq, immediately or according to a brief time table, the release of all detainees, return of the security forces to their status before the occupation and to cease all operations against the people…

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Al Arabiya TV: Iraq insurgents form front under ex-Saddam aide
Reuters
Several Iraqi insurgent groups have formed a front led by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most senior member of the past regime still at large, Al Arabiya television reported on Wednesday. The U.S. military has accused Ibrahim, who was vice-chairman of Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council, of helping lead the Sunni Arab-led insurgency which erupted after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein. The television station said the main group in the new front was the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order, one of the smaller insurgent groups. It did not name the other groups…

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Blackwater contractor wrote government report on incident
CNN
The State Department’s initial report of last month’s incident in which Blackwater guards were accused of killing Iraqi civilians was written by a Blackwater contractor working in the embassy security detail, according to government and industry sources. In this September 24 photo, an Iraqi looks at a car that was destroyed during the September 16 incident. A source involved in diplomatic security at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said a Blackwater contractor, Darren Hanner, drafted the two-page “spot report” on the letterhead of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security for the embassy’s Tactical Operations Center…

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The plan for Iraq is (was) partition
Zaidan, The Future of Iraq
In recent years, the US media has continued to float hints and innuendos that the Bush administration was coming up with an alternative plan to the Iraq quagmire. But three events which occured over the past several weeks shed light on what is in store for Iraqis. The first is news that presidential hopeful Senator Clinton has been secretely meeting with senior Bush advisers to map out a strategy for post-Bush Iraq. The second is reports that Bush himself is prepping a new generation of US leaders for continuing administration (occupation) of Iraq. And finally, we have the report that the US Congress passed a non-binding vote to break up Iraq into cantons. These three tidbits of news offer us a glimpse into what the “alternative” approach to Iraq really is. The partition of Iraq is vaunted as the alternative to a failed US policy in Iraq. But use of the word “alternative” is grossly misleading, if not an outright lie. The plan works thusly: The White House will be occupied by a Democratic president in 2009. This president will wax condemningly of the previous tenants and the failed policies inherent to the predecessor administration. The Bush (GOP) administration will be painted as the “bad cop”. The Democratic president will be the “good cop” valiantly trying to correct the errors of predecessors. Because Bush continued to push for maintaining Iraqi sovereignty as a unified nation, his efforts in Iraq failed, made the US look bad in the eyes of the international community, and c! ost tril lions in monies and human resources. To correct this course, the Democratic president will say, we must reverse all his actions at the foundations. Why must American lives be sacrificed for a country that itself at its heart is disjointed. The Democrats will point to the Kurds as the epitome of a nation that has seceeded (…) When the US invaded Iraq it used a loosely interpreted and purposefully confusing UN resolution as legal support. The US, much despite its disdain for the UN, resorted to the UN. It did this again in 2004 when the UN legalized the US occupation. And it is about to embark on yet another mandate for the US agenda in Iraq, this time, partition. The UN partitioned Palestine in 1947 and will do so again in Iraq 60 years later. The US needs an international mandate to divide Iraq. It can’t do it alone. After four years of doing nothing for the Iraqis, the UN is about to re-enter Iraq but for what purpose if there is no human rights to protect and no humanitarian assistance programs? The plan for Iraq is and always has been partition…

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UK-US Iraqi Holocaust And Iraqi Genocide – 3.9 Million Deaths
Gideon Polya. Countercurrents.org
A bottom-line measure of the consequences of human actions is provided by excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that should not have happened, excess mortality, avoidable mortality). Excess deaths can be VIOLENCE-related (from bombs and bullets) or NON-VIOLENT (due to deprivation). Authoritative estimates of violent and non-violent Iraqi excess deaths now show that the post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq total 2.0 million, the 1990-1990 Gulf War violent deaths totalled 0.2 million, and the 1990-2003 Sanctions War was associated with 1.7 million excess deaths. The total 1990-2007 excess deaths in Iraq now (September 2007) total 3.9 MILLION…

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A Bittersweet Homecoming
For every Palestinian Israel decides to release as a “goodwill gesture” to President Abbas, it turns around and arrests ten others.
Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
…On October 1 and 2, as a show of “goodwill”, Israel released 57 prisoners from the West Bank and 29 from the Gaza Strip. The scenes of homesick prisoners returning to their families would pull at anyone’s heartstrings, especially knowing the conditions under which these prisoners lived. Israeli prisons are infamous for their harsh treatment of Palestinian political activists, including inhumane hours of interrogation, torture, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and family visits, which are almost never consistent if not cancelled altogether. So, let there be no mistake. Any Palestinian who is freed from Israeli shackles is one less prisoner behind those oppressive bars. Still, the euphoria of their homecoming is painfully incomplete. While these 86 Palestinians can finally join their families at dinner at the end of a long day, there are approximately 11,000 others who will not get that chance. For every Palestinian Israel decides to release as a “goodwill gesture” to President Abbas, it turns around and arrests ten others…

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A Misanthrope in Ramadan – Act II
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
…A plate of dates was served. One of the women, with perfectly manicured nails picked one and ate it. “ Mmmm, these dates are wonderful… Are they made in Iraq ? “ The guy sitting opposite, without even lifting his head from his deck of cards replied. “ No. Iraqi dates and carps are forbidden these days. “
The woman trying to pick her best card and without flinching said: “Ohhh…yalla ma’alech. “ (nevermind). She did not even bother to ask why. She placed her “narghileh” pipe in the corner of her mouth, pursing her equally perfectly painted lips around it and inhaled deeply, thinking ever so intensely of her next move… Indeed, it does not matter. Why should it matter to anyone that the import of Iraqi dates and carps is forbidden. The ban came after it was finally decided that Iraqi dates and carps are doubly contaminated with depleted Uranium and Cholera. Not that you really care, but cholera outbreaks have infected over 15’000 individuals in Iraq and have spread from “ Kurdistan” to Baghdad, Basra and the Anbar. As for the depleted Uranium, well if the dates are filled with them, what about Iraqi bodies ? Yalla, nevermind. Nevermind the occupation, the exodus, the destruction, the annihilation, the prison and torture camps. Nevermind the starved, the undernourished, the begging for food, Iraqi adults and children alike… Nevermind the genocide. Why should you mind ?…

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Review:’ Swimming up the Tigris’, by Barbara Nimri Aziz
Felicity Arbuthnot
This is a book that had to be written, an insight in to a land and a people demonised and villified for sixteen years, written by an author, journalist, broadcaster, academic, and anthropologist, who walks in the shoes of so many, who have suffered so uniquely grievously, due to United Nations’ policies, driven almost entirely by the United States and Britain. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the United Nations imposed an embargo on both countries, seemingly to pressure for a resolution to the dispute. It was, ironically, implemented on Hiroshima Day (6th August) and heralded a silent holocaust and one of the U.N.’s most shameful eras, as it was lifted on Kuwait and ground on for thirteen years for Iraq. Then replaced by illegal invasion, occupation, slaughter and ongoing, unimaginable destruction, heartbreak and bloodshed. As the western propoganda machine rampaged through the the years, the Iraqi people – their warmth, ingenuity, generosity, their humbling welcome to those from countries who had brought them such suffering – were air brushed out of the picture, except by a small band of journalists, activists and aid workers, consumed by an historic injustice and love for those of this complex, haunting, ancient land. Barbara Nimri Aziz, usually travelling alone, was one such, who repeatedly returned, broadcasting and writing, speaking for people whose voices too, had become embargoed…

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MEDIA ALERT: IRAQ BODY COUNT: “A VERY MISLEADING EXERCISE”
Media Lens
The mainstream media are continuing to use figures provided by the website Iraq Body Count (IBC) to sell the public a number for total post-invasion deaths of Iraqis that is perhaps 5-10% of the true death toll. As we recently reported, only a handful of media outlets covered a new ORB poll revealing that 1.2 million Iraqis had been murdered since the 2003 invasion. BBC Online provided a rare example: “A UK-based polling agency, Opinion Research Business (ORB), said it had extrapolated the figure by asking a random sample of 1,461 Iraqi adults how many people living in their household had died as a result of the violence rather than from natural causes. “The results lend weight to a 2006 survey of Iraqi households published by the Lancet, which suggested that about 655,000 Iraqi deaths were ‘a consequence of the war’…

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The Bush administration’s ties to Blackwater
Blamed in the deaths of Iraqi civilians, the private security firm has long ties to the White House and prominent Republicans, including Ken Starr.
Ben Van Heuvelen, Salon.com
When Blackwater contractors guarding a U.S. State Department convoy allegedly killed 11 unarmed Iraqi civilians on Sept. 16, it was only the latest in a series of controversial shooting incidents associated with the private security firm. Blackwater has a reputation for being quick on the draw. Since 2005, the North Carolina-based company, which has about 1,000 contractors in Iraq, has reported 195 “escalation of force incidents”; in 163 of those cases Blackwater guns fired first. According to the New York Times, Blackwater guards were twice as likely as employees of two other firms protecting State Department personnel in Iraq to be involved in shooting incidents…

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Abu Ghraib prisoners accuse US companies of torture
AFP
Two US Army subcontractors accused of torturing prisoners at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib jail go to court Wednesday in a case that highlights the murky legal status of private US companies in Iraq. Titan and CACI International were hired by the Army to provide interrogators and interpreters at the notorious prison, the scene of well-documented abuses of detainees following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. One former Iraqi prisoner now living in Sweden says that under the companies’ watch, he was sodomized, nearly strangled with a belt, tied by his genitals to other detainees, and given repeated electric shocks. “This is probably the most important case still standing against Abu Ghraib because the cases against the government have essentially failed so far,” said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “This case represents our last hope for getting some accountability for the torture in Iraq and getting any compensation for the victims,” said Ratner, whose group has fielded lawyers to assist in the lawsuit…

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Psychopathic, Mass-murdering, Sons-of-Bitches.
Smoking Mirrors
I have been watching this Blackwater saga unfold. I’ve seen the youtube videos of these sub-human psychopaths gunning people down on the highway; picking off whoever happened to be walking down the road, shooting into cars at random on the highway- generally, indiscriminately murdering whoever was in their path. I have followed the testimony of eyewitnesses and have measured the magnitude of recorded assaults against the slim possibility that this is all a put-up job against beautiful people making the world safe for democracy. I have seen the large percentage of Blackwater personnel who were charged and discharged for all manner of violations and I have come to the inescapable conclusion that they are psychopathic, mass murdering sonsofbitches…

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Having a Carnage Party
We Count, They Don’t
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch
At least Caesar was just commenting on reality when he wrote that “all Gaul is divided into three parts.” Last week, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden attempted to create reality when an overwhelming majority of the U.S. Senate voted for his non-binding resolution to divide Iraq into three parts – Shi’ite, Sunni, and Kurdish autonomous zones. Shailagh Murray of the Washington Post reported that the 75-23 Senate vote was “a significant milestone … carving out common ground in a debate that has grown increasingly polarized and focused on military strategy.” Murray added, “The [tripartite] structure is spelled out in Iraq’s constitution, but Biden would initiate local and regional diplomatic efforts to hasten its evolution.”…

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Iraq’s Armed Groups Form Alliance, Who Runs the World (And Why?)
karlmarxwasright
…In response to the clear policy of “federalism,” or, Yugoslavia on the Tigris, the following, “Iraq’s Armed Groups Form Alliance”. This represents not just the/a Iraq resistance, it is presently the world center of an armed, militant class struggle that will NOT die. Just the opposite. It will expand. This new/old “policy” spells the end of the US and its Fascist allies as the war expands throughout the “arc” represented in Nazamroaya’s previous articles to which I’ve linked in numerous blogs. Once again, this time around, the same assortment of folks are busy talking about imminent war with Iran. This is now the upteenth time they’ve done this. The last time nobody seemed to notice a war between Israel and Lebanon and subsequent UN/EU occupation, instead. The solution to the war with Iran, this time, of course, will be Iraq’s federalism, a so-called “national alliance, unity or salvation government,” of some sort, the “let’s make a deal” folks, the coming rapproachment with Iran, internationalism, Ahmadimidget’s ultimate replacement, Rafanjani’s rise…

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The State Dept.’s Murderous Guardians
Robert Scheer

How did it come to be that the ostensibly best-educated and most refined representatives of the United States in Iraq are guarded by gun-toting mercenaries who kill innocent civilians? More urgently, why did State Department employees and their bosses in Washington tolerate—and pay to conceal—the wanton murder conducted on their watch? That’s the real scandal of the more than $832 million the U.S. State Department paid Blackwater, investigated this week by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, headed by Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). The issue is not simply that of the Blackwater forces’ horrid behavior but, more important, why the mayhem they unleashed upon innocent Iraqis was approved and covered up by the Bush administration…

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UPDATE ON LT. WATADA’S CASE
Desert Peace
The Army appears ready to retry First Lt. Ehren Watada a week from now—Tuesday, October 9—at Fort Lewis, Washington. As scheduled, the retrial will be heard by the same military judge that orchestrated the February mistrial in order to give the prosecution a “do-over” after they rested their case against the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. Supporters of Lt. Watada and GI resisters are being urged to take action to highlight double jeopardy outrage! Michael Wong, a member of the Watada Support Committee and Veterans for Peace, is working hard to mount a public response…

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Iran Instead of America…Samarra Instead of Baghdad
Dhia al-Hashimi – translated by AMSI Press Department.
Within the tension in the Arabian Gulf prior to the failure of the US occupation to reach its aims starting from Iraq and having a big casualties and lose in equipments caused by heroes of the Iraqi resistance. It seems that the American Administration started to work on the plan “B” in the region. America thinks that by this alternative plan it could reach to its aim… The mean pivot in this plan is Iran…It is more preferable to US to support big role to the Iranian regime in order to perform things which America couldn’t do along the passed four years. US and Iran are considered the same face of a currency… “Islamic Republic” didn’t have any difficulties to declare in many occasions that the US forces could not occupy Iraq or Afghanistan in the absence of Iran. This words are 100% true…

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WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN?
Malcom Lagauche
The most important fact, however, is that Saddam Hussein never offered to leave Iraq. This makes all the recent speculation false. It is incredible that the Washington Post could begin the article stating that Saddam “signaled he was willing to go into exile” without being challenged by any U.S. media. This allegation came from the mouth of George Bush, not from reliable sources. According to the article: “The Egyptians are talking to Saddam Hussein,” Bush said. “He seems to have indicated he would be open to exile if they would let him take one billion dollars and all the information he wants on weapons of mass destruction.” Later in the conversation, Aznar returned to the subject. “Is it true there’s a possibility Saddam Hussein might go into exile?” “Yes, it’s possible,” Bush responded. “It’s also possible he could be assassinated.” In any case, Bush said, there would be “no guarantee” for Hussein. “He’s a thief, a terrorist and a war criminal. Compared to Saddam, [former Yugoslav president Slobodan] Milosevic would be a Mother Teresa.” Many pundits who should know better are now using Bush’s almost incoherent statement about Saddam to condemn Bush because he would give “no guarantee” for Saddam to leave Iraq. Let’s look at the reality of the situation. On February 22, 2003, if Saddam Hussein wanted to leave Iraq with a billion dollars and some documents, he easily could have. He did not need George Bush’s permission. Don’t forget, this occurred at a similar time of the U.S. stating that Ta! riq Aziz had fled the Iraqi government and was asking for asylum in the Kurdish area of Iraq…

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Agha: IOA strikes the Palestinian economy in depth
Palestinian Information Center
Mohamed Agha, the agriculture minister in the PA caretaker government, confirmed that the IOA wants to strike the Palestinian economy in depth by closing the crossings, pointing out that the Israeli occupation still targets economic sectors and sabotages agricultural lands in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Agha considered the closures a crime against humanity in Gaza, a form of mass punishment against civilians and a violation of the norms of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, for the protection of civilians in time of war, and human rights principles…

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Health official warns of cholera epidemic in Iraq
Voices of Iraq
A senior Iraqi Ministry of Health official on Wednesday warned of cholera outbreak in the country in the coming two months and said in a speech before the parliament that his ministry is unable to prevent the disease from spreading. “The disease is expected to break out in October and November,” Adel Mohsen told the parliament. Linking the cholera epidemic to the low level of chlorine in potable water, Mohsen indicated that the ministry needs 150 million chlorine pills until the end of the year…

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Psychopathic, Mass-murdering, Sons-of-Bitches.
Smoking Mirrors
I have been watching this Blackwater saga unfold. I’ve seen the youtube videos of these sub-human psychopaths gunning people down on the highway; picking off whoever happened to be walking down the road, shooting into cars at random on the highway- generally, indiscriminately murdering whoever was in their path. I have followed the testimony of eyewitnesses and have measured the magnitude of recorded assaults against the slim possibility that this is all a put-up job against beautiful people making the world safe for democracy. I have seen the large percentage of Blackwater personnel who were charged and discharged for all manner of violations and I have come to the inescapable conclusion that they are psychopathic, mass murdering sonsofbitches…

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Student trapped in Gaza loses fight to return to study in Britain
Donald Macintyre, Independent
A third-year Bradford University student – one of hundreds whose continued studies are at risk because they cannot leave Gaza – yesterday lost his legal attempt to be allowed urgently to return to Britain. Israel’s Supreme Court yesterday rejected a petition brought on behalf of Khaled al-Mudallal by the Israeli human rights organisation Gisha, which it hoped would pave the way for the departure of Palestinian students trapped since Hamas’s seizure of Gaza in June. Mr Mudallal returned to Gaza in June to collect his new bride Duaa – who also has a British residence permit valid until November 2010 – but was prevented from leaving when Israel closed the crossing into Egypt after the Fatah-Hamas infighting that broke out after he arrived…

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GI Special 5J2: The Uniform [ October 2, 2007 ]
Thomas F. Barton
“The Uniform Took On New Meaning”
“It Was No Longer Worn With The Intention Of Fighting For The Government, But Fighting Against It”
“A Significant Factor In Ending The War In Vietnam Was The Ability Of Protesters And GIs To Strike Fear In The Heart Of The Government”
“This War Will End … When The Army They Sent To Spread Imperialism Becomes The Army That Marches To Their Offices And Charges Through The Police Barricades”

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 2 October 2007.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
In a statement dispatch posted on its website Tuesday, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) issued a statement denouncing the pro-American Kurdish separatist leaders for supporting the American Senate’s vote to partition Iraq into three states, and for committing crimes against the Iraqi people. The AMSI statement condemned the pro-American Kurdish political leaders for their involvement and complicity in killings and executions of Iraqis. The AMSI noted that the Kurdish separatists urged the United States to occupy Iraq in 2003 and collaborated with the American invaders in all the US plans for the country. They willingly joined the American occupiers in the US attacks on the Iraqi people which have by now claimed more than a million Iraqi lives and done untold damage to the country…

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