Between Boycott and Apartheid
History will also remember those academics and university presidents who stood on the side of apartheid, oppression, and colonial domination.
Hammam Farah:UCU
After passing a motion in May that called for the circulation and debate of the Palestinian call for the academic boycott of Israel, Britain’s University and College Union (UCU)’s strategy and finance committee unanimously accepted a recommendation from its Secretary-General, Sally Hunt, that not only is the call to boycott apparently unlawful under discrimination legislation, but even debates on the issue at the union’s meetings should be silenced “to ensure that the union acts lawfully.” Consequently, the union also cancelled a UK speaking tour in which Palestinian academics would discuss the academic boycott of Israel with their counterparts at UK universities….

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Rebuilding Iraq – with guidance from “Lonely Planet”
extra! extra!
I’m just about to watch the below-mentioned documentary on the BBC. But here’s what the Sunday Mirror has to say: We tried to rebuild Iraq based on info in the 1994 Lonely Planet guide book “The plan to rebuild Iraq was so vague that those given the job of reconstruction turned to an out-of-date Lonely Planet guide book for help and inspiration. “Former American ambassador Barbara Bodine, who was given the job of helping to reconstruct Iraq, said: “It is a great guide book, but it should not be the basis of an occupation.” “Ms Bodine was one of 170 officials sent to rebuild Iraq after the UK and US invasion toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003. “But in a BBC investigation shown tonight, Ms Bodine reveals how the team of diplomats was given no information about how they should go about it. “So they consulted the 1994 Middle East edition of the Lonely Planet for information on the economy, the Government and addresses of important buildings and embassies….

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The Undead Walk Among Us: Chalabi Returns!
Chris Floyd , Empire Burlesque
Ahmad Chalabi, that “hero in error” whose self-serving mendacity was a major tool of the Bush Regime’s PR drive toward the war of aggression they had long planned to wage on Iraq, has made yet another comeback. After the Regime’s plans to parachute Chalabi into Baghdad as the strongman went awry – chiefly because he was widely despised by the Iraqi people – Chalabi was handed various plum sinecures in the various colonial arrangements that followed. Then a bout of intercine warfare between the various factions of the security apparat led to Chalabi’s exposure as an Iranian spy, and at one point, he seemed hoosegow-bound. But so wedded were the Bushists to the convicted fraudster who had helped them despoil his country and slaughter a million of his fellow Iraqis, that Chalabi somehow hung on in the bowels of the satrapy….

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Of Course Iran is in Iraq—We Brought Them In
WhirledView
…Many of Iraq’s current leaders were exiles in Iran. SCIRI (Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq), developed in Iran. Earlier this year, it changed its name to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC). Wikipedia lists some of the major Iraqi figures who have been members of SCIRI/SIIC. Cole gives a more detailed history. The US has supported SCIRI since before the invasion of Iraq. Its leader is Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a former commander of the Badr Corps, which was the military arm of SCIRI. It was largely trained in Iran. Hakim visited President Bush in December 2006, when Bush expressed his support for him…

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Maybe It’s Not What We Think!
24 Steps to Liberty
…Barzani has in fact started to act as if he is governing an independent state. First with refusing to raise the Iraqi flag, and then the Kurdish authorities prevented Arab families from entering Kurdistan unless they have a Kurdish sponsor. Now, if any Arab family wants to live in Kurdistan, they have to get residency. In fact, if you want to go to Kurdistan, you can get a Kurdistan visa that is different from the Iraqi one! Then comes the oil law. Before even the Iraqi parliament discussed it [it hasn’t passed yet] the Kurdish parliament passed it and activated it. They have signed contracts with foreign companies. There are huge numbers of Kurds in Syria, turkey and Iran. If the Iraqi Kurds succeeded to separate and get their own state, why not the others? Is that another enormous problem in the region or what! Can you imagine the size and depth of such a conflict?…

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Five flagrant, fallacies Bush exploits to wage illegal war, demonize his critics, and subvert the rule of law
Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
…The conduct of the “war on terrorism” is not merely premised upon circular argument, it IS a circular argument, causing resistance which Bush conveniently calls “terrorist”. If the US put ten million men in arms at any part of the world now at peace, they will be greeted by armed resistance. Bush will summon the circular argument and call them all “terrorists”. But Bushies would not be done! Having justified such an aggression by citing “terrorism”, Bush will cite the opposition as evidence in proof of his absurdity. Of all fallacies, this has the potential of being the most pernicious….

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ANOTHER KUWAITI DIRTY TRICK
Malcom Lagauche
Most people blame Iraq for the August 2, 1990 military actions against Kuwait. George Bush I quickly lambasted Iraq and world public opinion considered Kuwait the aggrieved party in the conflict. In reality, the Iraqis ran into an ambush that began long before August 2, 1990. During the Iran-Iraq War, Kuwait was already dealing with the U.S. in concocting plans to undermine the Iraqi economy. After the cease-fire, the shenanigans of Kuwait and the U.S. went into high gear. Shortly after the Iraqis crossed the border with Kuwait, they came across documents showing collusion to harm Iraq’s economy and keep the country servile for years to come. Below is a letter sent on November 22, 1989 from Brigadier Fahd Ahmed Al Fahd to Sheikh Salem Al Sabah, the Kuwaiti Minister of the Interior….

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Baath Party Statement
About the day light killing of our people’ sons and daughters on the hands of the US, British and Australian so called “Security civil contractors” companies
The Arab Baath Socialist Party
While you resist the US occupiers and their collaborators, inflict the US occupation and the its forces horrendous losses, and you teach them the lessons of bitterest defeat, you confront mass murder on identity, compulsory displacement and suffer from the deprivation of any requirements for a dignified livelihood and services such as running water, electricity, fuel an you name it while the US, British, Australian etc. so called security companies, shed with impunity your innocent and pure blood. This what ugly Blackwater gangsters have undertaken when murdering thirteen Iraqi martyrs and wounding 25 others in the al Nessur square in Baghdad’s al Mansur neighborhood, for no reason and restarted their criminal business as usual in Iraq, four days only after the US puppet Maliki government fake announcement “to withdraw their permit to work in Iraq!” Everyone knows that this government has no authority whatsoever to withdraw any thing, due to “Bremer’ bills” who imposed these governments and all the other precedent puppet governments…

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Video: Why Democracy – Taxi to the Dark Side
Over one hundred prisoners have died in suspicious circumstances in U.S. custody during the “war on terror”. Taxi to the Dark Side takes an … all “ in-depth look at one case: an Afghan taxi driver called Dilawar who was considered an honest and kind man by the people of his rustic village. So when he was detained by the U.S military one afternoon, after picking up three passengers, denizens wondered why this man was randomly chosen to be held in prison, and, especially, without trial? Five days after his arrest Dilawar died in his Bagram prison cell. His death came within a week of another death of a detainee at Bagram. The conclusion, with autopsy evidence, was that the former taxi driver and the detainee who passed away before him, had died due to sustained injuries inflicted at the prison by U.S. soldiers. The documentary, by award-winning producer Alex Gibney, carefully develops the last weeks of Dilawar’s life and shows how decisions taken at the pinnacle of power in the Bush Administration led directly to Dilawar’s brutal death….

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ABBAS HAS A ‘PEACE PARTNER’, BUT DOES ISRAEL OR PALESTINE?
Desert Peace
Mahmoud Abbas, the man who represents NO ONE claims to have found a ‘serious partner.’ Of course he did, the very man that has installed him in his position of ‘leader’ of the Palestinian Authority, the very man that is about to turn off electricity to the Gaza Strip, the man that since taking over the position of Israeli Prime Minister from the (still) comatosed Ariel Sharon has proven to the world that Sharon was not alone in his desire to rid the world of the Palestinian nation. Yes, Abbas found a partner. Together they will forge ahead to their November conference. Together they will collaborate with the United States, seeking new ways to continue the genocide of Palestine….

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GPA: Slashing fuel supplies to Gaza would lead to big crisis
Palestinian Information Center
Ahmed Ali, the deputy director of the Gaza Petroleum Authority, has affirmed that the Israeli decision to slash the already minimum supplies of fuel and gas to the Gaza Strip would lead to a big human crisis. Ali, in a press release on Sunday, pointed out that acute shortage of electricity, gas and water supplies would be the result of such an Israeli measure other than negatively affecting work in hospitals, sewage treatment stations, water wells, public social utilities and movement of traffic….

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Ziegler: Israel is the worst colonial regime
Palestinian Information Center
Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur on right to food, castigated the Israeli occupation and described it as the only “colonial regime” which refuses to abide by any international law, calling on the UN to adopt an effective policy forcing Israel to respect human rights and the Geneva Convention. “The Israeli occupation is a colonial regime and an illegal military occupation from the UN’s point of view, it continues to annex more Palestinian lands; and thus the Israeli occupation is the worst in the history of colonialism,” Ziegler stated in a TV interview….

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Soldier Lozano is Saved – Calipari’s Murderer will not face trial
Claudio Fava, Peacepalestine
The American soldier has been acquitted by the third Higher Court of Rome by entering a non suit. Hence, not only will he never be put on trial, no judgment will be expressed on his involvement in the murder of Nicola Calipari. How should we consider the decision of the third Higher Court of Rome which strips Italy of any jurisdiction about Nicola Calipari’s death by letting a murder and its perpetrator go unpunished? Should we see it as a legal whim? As the extreme obedience to a literal interpretation of legal codes? As a mere jurisdictional flaw? And above all, who, according to our court, should now see to demanding justice and truth over the death of our officer? Maybe a US military court? The Iraqi justice system? Or our good Lord?…

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The Ethnic Cleansing Of Palestine
Round Two
Terrell E. Arnold, www.rense.com
Having sent up numerous trial balloons over the past several weeks, Israel now will work on shutting down the Gaza Strip. Having kept it virtually sealed off from the outside world ever since Hamas beat Fatah for control of it, Israel now plans to use creeping electric power outages to make life in that open-air prison totally intolerable. Since no major power appears to have objected loudly enough to the trial balloons, Israel seems confident it can shut Gaza down without significant political repercussions. Gaza, indeed Palestine as a whole, now poses a unique case of global insensitivity, and we should ask why. Is it because everybody else considers the Palestinian people less than human?…

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Creation of a Virtually Independent Kurdish State in Northern Iraq Was Certain to Provoke Turkey
Eric Margolis
… Hundreds of Turkish soldiers have been killed in Turkish Anatolia by Kurdish fighters known as “pesh-merga.” Fiercely nationalist Turks demand their armed forces invade Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish mini-state to destroy PKK bases. Turkish attacks are already under way. Washington urged “restraint” on its key ally, Turkey. By contrast, after two Israeli soldiers were captured last year in a routine border clash with Hezbullah guerillas, the White House gave Israel a green light to bomb and invade Lebanon, killing over 1,100 civilians and causing $4-billion damage….

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Israel begins cutting off fuel supplies to Gaza
Rami Almeghari – IMEMC
Israel began today cutting off fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip, Palestinain Authority sources said Sunday. Media sources said that the amount of fuel supplies that reached Gaza on Sunday have been reduced, in a time the region already suffers from shortage of food, medicine and fuel supplies, after Israel further tightened the siege on Gaza in mid June. Last month, Israel declared Gaza ‘a hostile entity’, as the Israeli cabinet decided to strict movement of travelers and commodities from and to the 1.5-million populated area….

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UK: 850 more troops in Iraq ‘before Christmas’
Michael Smith, TIMES
NEARLY 1,000 extra troops are on standby to be sent to Iraq before Christmas to cover the handover of Basra to the Iraqis. The troops represent an overall increase in the size of the force in Iraq despite the pledge by Gordon Brown this month, when “election fever” was at its height, that 1,000 troops would be home by Christmas. It later emerged that half of them had already returned while the others would not even be setting foot in Iraq…

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Chalabi back in action in Iraq
Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers
Ahmad Chalabi , the controversial, ubiquitous Iraqi politician and one-time Bush administration favorite, has re-emerged as a central figure in the latest U.S. strategy for Iraq . His latest job: To press Iraq’s central government to use early security gains from the surge to deliver better electricity, health, education and local security services to Baghdad neighborhoods. That’s the next phase of the surge plan. Until now, the U.S. military, various militias, insurgents and some U.S. backed groups have provided those services without great success….

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Iran, U.S. likely to Resume Talks on Iraq
Tehran Times, Iran
An Iranian official said on Sunday that the resumption of Iran-US talks on Iraq is still possible. Speaking to FNA in the central city of Qom, Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Undersecretary for Home Security Mohammad Jafari reiterated once more that in case the two sides continue their Baghdad meetings, the talks would merely center on Iraq’s problems…

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Doctors, Torture, and the War
Dr. J. Wesley Boyd
Various reports have alleged physicians’ complicity in the mistreatment of prisoners being held by the United States at Abu Ghraib and at Guantanamo. Physicians are reported to have advised interrogators as to whether particular prisoners were fit enough to survive physical maltreatment, informed interrogators about prisoners’ phobias and other psychological vulnerabilities that could be exploited during questioning, failed to report incidents of alleged torture, force-fed prisoners who were on hunger strikes, and altered the death certificates of prisoners who died. Any or all of these actions by physicians violate the standards of the Geneva Conventions…

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11 Sunni tribal chiefs kidnapped in Baghdad
AFP
Eleven Sunni tribal leaders from the restive province of Diyala were kidnapped in Baghdad on Sunday after meeting a top official in Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office, a security official said. The tribal chiefs were seized in the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Shaab which has a strong presence of Shiite militiamen loyal to the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the official told AFP. Eight of them belonged to the Anbakiyah tribe, two to the Bayati tribe and one to the Al-Azza, he added. He said the tribal leaders were part of a local movement against the Al-Qaeda in Iraq group….

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