IRAQ: Millions Trapped in Their Own Country
Ahmed Ali*
At least five million Iraqis have fled their homes due to the violence under the U.S.-led occupation, but half of them are unable to leave the country, according to well-informed estimates. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are more than 4.4 million displaced Iraqis, an estimate that many workers among refugees find conservative. The UNHCR announced last week that at present 2,000 Iraqis are fleeing their homes every day. Most of them have received direct threats from death squads or militias. The provinces that have suffered the greatest displacement are the largely Sunni Baghdad, Diyala, al-Anbar and Salahadeen in central Iraq….

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Na’im: Palestinian captives slowly dying in Israeli jails
Palestinian Information Center
Dr. Basim Na’im, the minister of prisoners and ex-prisoners affairs in the PA caretaker government of the democratically-elected PA premier Ismael Haneyya, has warned Sunday that numbers of sick Palestinian captives were on the rise due to the deliberate medical neglect on the part of their Israeli jailors. “Due to this [Israeli] policy, numbers of sick Palestinian captives are on the rise and have, so far, reached 1,300 cases suffering from different moderate and serious illnesses”, affirmed Na’im in a statement issued by the ministry’s information office, and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC. He also said that health condition of tens of Palestinian captives, in need of operations was seriously deteriorating due to the intentional IPA delay in examining and operating on them….

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Iraq’s forgotten refugees
James Bays, Aljazeera.net
Hundreds of Sudanese refugees stranded in no man’s land in Iraq’s western desert are calling on the international community for help. Many of them are from the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan. James Bays travelled to meet the people trapped between two wars. If you travel along the main road from Baghdad towards Jordan and Syria across Iraq’s western desert; in the middle of nowhere, miles from any other settlement, you find a camp. It is home to some of the most unfortunate people in this troubled country. Most of them came to Iraq from Sudan years ago as workers during the time of Saddam Hussein’s rule. They have been forced to endure hot and harsh desert conditions for more than two years after fleeing fighting in the capital Baghdad. Now they have no jobs and nowhere to go. “Militias in Baghdad kicked us out. We received threat letters claiming we are followers of Saddam Hussein. We were threatened with murder,” one of the refugees told Al Jazeera….

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2.3 Million Flee to Elsewhere in Iraq
LAUREN FRAYER, AP
The Shiite militia’s threat came in a typed letter tossed at Mohammed Abdul-Wahab’s door: “Leave this house within 48 hours or you will face death.” The Sunni government worker did just that — fleeing his ancestral home in a mostly Shiite area of Baghdad with his wife and 2-year-old son. Now, struggling to pay rent higher than his salary, Abdul-Wahab is among the nearly 2.3 million people the Iraqi Red Crescent says have been driven from their neighborhoods as Iraq is increasingly carved up along sectarian lines…

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No Sacred Cows.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
…If IRAQIS are telling you and am not the only one, that Iran has a hand in the occupation of our country, then you are to listen to what we are telling you. It is not you who decides who is deemed OK to occupy us and who is not. WE the people of Iraq tell you who is occupying us not the other way around. And for true Iraqis NO occupation is acceptable. Whether it is American or Iranian. If the Iraqi Resistance says there is a dual American – Iranian occupation and if that same Resistance is the one who is resisting the occupier…then you are to shut up and listen/read what the Iraqi Resistance tells you. Not Ahmadinajad, not your Clintons, not any of your so called anti-war Lefties. No. You are to listen to the Iraqi Resistance and understand what it is telling you. And you need to READ and inform yourselves before you spew your bullshit. Otherwise, you just keep confirming what I have always thought about the majority of you —Nothing but accomplices in Bad Faith. And the Iraqi Resistance under its different factions, with its different sects and ethnicities is telling you there is a DUAL occupation of Iraq. Full stop. And just as America is in some nasty quagmire and we did warn America, so will Iran end up in exactly the same quagmire. Iraq is for the Iraqis. Another simple Truth you need to shove down your throats….

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More Pontification, More Propaganda on Iraq
Dissecting the Disinformation on Western Secret Strategy in the New Middle East Wars
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
….From the very beginning, American planners envisaged that in the long-term, Iraq would be divided up to facilitate the Anglo-American military occupation. Fragments of a plan to fracture Iraq along ethnic and religious lines to facilitate control of the oil reserves and allow population control emerged in September 2002. Richard Perle, who then chaired the prominent Pentagon advisory group, the Defense Policy Board, issued a briefing for Pentagon officials that month. Ha’aretz reported from a “top official in the Israeli security services” that Perle “showed two slides to the Pentagon officials. The first was a depiction of the three goals in the war on terror and the democratisation of the Middle East: Iraq — a tactical goal, Saudi Arabia — a strategic goal, and Egypt – the great prize. The triangle in the next slide was no less interesting: Palestine is Israel, Jordan is Palestine, and Iraq is the Hashemite Kingdom.”13 This outrageous idea advocates a fundamental reconfiguration of power across the Middle East, with a number of highly dubious parameters, including a greatly expanded Israel fully encompassing the Occupied Territories; the expulsion of the Palestinians to Jordan; and the incorporation of the Sunni areas of Iraq with Jordan to form a wider pro-US Sunni Arab Hashemite Kingdom….

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Madhoon: Ethical and human responsibility oblige world community to lift siege
Palestinian Information Center
Dr. Mohammed Al-Madhoon, director of the PA caretaker government premier’s office, on Monday called on the international community to assume its ethical and human responsibility towards the continued siege on the Gaza Strip. Madhoon, in a press release, said that the international community, the UN and human rights organizations should assume their responsibility towards the “serious conditions” in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli occupation’s siege. He urged all parties concerned to launch field visits to see for themselves the daily crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against inhabitants of the Strip….

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Man of the year: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat’s Dream
Two more little children have been slaughtered by the Amerikan war-machine in Afghanistan. Maj. Chris Belcher, Combined Joint Task Forces-82 spokesman, farted “While resisting multiple requests to surrender, the militant barricaded himself in a room. Unbeknownst to Afghan forces, his family was barricaded in the room with him. It is regrettable when innocent lives are put at risk by militant forces. Our sincerest condolences go out to the families of the deceased and wounded.” More than 5,600 Afghans have been slaughtered this year alone, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials. The Afghan resistance has captured a third district in western Afghanistan. Reuters informed us: Poor morale among Afghan police meant that up to 38 officers had defected to the Taliban in the last week in Farah, the security analyst said, and those that remained were unwilling or unable to put up much of a fight. Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon said the international forces in Afghanistan have a “crucial role” in preventing the country from again becoming a “host for terrorist and extremist groups”. “The secretary general notes that it is an unfortunate reality that such operations continue to be necessary in Afghanistan, but reaffirms that the hope for lasting peace and in Afghanistan and the region, and for a world without terrorism, depends on their success,” he said in a statement ov! er the r ole of NATO and Afghan forces in maintaining security…

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Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine
A Land With People, For a People with a Plan
LUDWIG WATZAL
Two rabbis, visiting Palestine in 1897, observed that the land was like a bride, “beautiful, but married to another man”. By which they meant that, if a place was to be found for a Jewish “homeland” in Palestine, the indigenous inhabitants had to leave. Where should the people of Palestine go? Squaring that circle has been the essence of Israel´s dilemma ever since its establishment and the cause of the Palestinian tragedy that it led to. It has remained insoluble. Ghada Karmi’s new book, Married To Another Man, Israel´s Dilemma in Palestine, (published by Pluto Press, London-Ann Arbor) shows that the major reason for this failure was the original and unresolved Zionist quandary of how to create and maintain a Jewish state in a land inhabited by another people. Zionism was never able to resolve the problem of “the other man”….

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DEMOCRATS SPEAK WITH FORKED TONGUES
Malcom Lagauche
To listen to Democrats today, you would think they all opposed George Bush’s illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq. Bush, now at his lowest in public opinion polls, is open game for his Democratic opponents. He is being portrayed as a lying warmonger while the Dems are extolling the virtues of their anti-war philosophy. All this posturing is false. Five years ago, the Democratic Party jumped on board the war bandwagon. Many voted to go to war and gave resounding testimony to the evil of Iraq. However, if you believe the messages being sent by Democrats, you would think that not one supported the war….

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Video: The looting of Nahr al-Bared camp
Ray Smith, The Electronic Intifada
In May 2007 the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, home to around 40,000 Palestinian refugees, became the site of a three-month battle between the Lebanese army and the extremist group Fatah al-Islam that had established itself in the camp. During the fighting over 40 Palestinian civilians, 167 Lebanese soldiers and over 200 Fatah al-Islam militants were killed. All 40,000 of the camp’s refugees were displaced. From the official end of the fighting in early September until 10 October the camp has been exclusively under the control of the Lebanese army. When parts of the “new camp” area of Nahr al-Bared were re-opened and the first thousand families were allowed to return, they returned to houses that had been burnt, looted and vandalized. Witnesses attest to what appears to be a systematic pattern of burning and looting….

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The Origins of America’s World Wide Image Problem in Bush’s Embrace of the ‘Science of Lying’
Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
Successful lying has become a science. Highly paid consultants taught Bush officials the new science of effective lying at the outset of Bush’s new regime. The cost, however, will be picked up by US taxpayers; it is no coincidence that new studies show US prestige declining as the world learns the truth about Bush’s hidden agenda. Typically, the US responds with promises of more spin and PR, more ludicrous attempts to put a smiley face on torture, lies, and aggressive war. The US will try to spread the guilt around and “reframe” the issue….

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Iraq reiterates LUKOIL deal is dead
Reuters
Iraq’s Oil Ministry reiterated on Monday that a $4 billion, Saddam Hussein-era deal with Russian oil major LUKOIL (LKOH.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) had been scrapped and said it would not be revived. LUKOIL had hoped to resuscitate the deal to develop the vast West Qurna field in Iraq’s southern desert. Russian oil officials had said LUKOIL and other firms were prepared to change the terms of old contracts. “Iraq has declared before that all the contracts made or signed during the Saddam era were cancelled,” oil ministry spokesman Assem Jehad said. “All old contracts will be reviewed and they all must be subjected to the new Iraqi oil law,” he said….

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Iraq fuel in hands of militias
Earthtimes
Iraq’s fuel is coming under the control of politically connected militias as corruption seeps into the country’s oil sector. “Militia groups have imposed their control over filling stations,” former Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloom told the Iraq newspaper Azzaman. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s top energy adviser, Thamir Ghadhban, said militias affiliated with religious groups are “imposing levies on fuel products sold to the public.”…

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IRAQ: Christians seek new life in Europe
IRIN News
Members of the Iraqi Christian community in the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk have asked European countries to expedite their visa applications and grant them asylum, according to Christian leaders there. “Most of the Christians in Iraq have moved to northern provinces as they flee violence against their religious group. Most of them were taking refuge in Mosul and Kirkuk but in the past two months, at least 27 Christians were killed in Mosul and Kirkuk as they were leaving their churches or community prayers in private residences,” said cleric and spokesman for the Christian Peace Association (CPA), Lucas Barini. “Panic has spread, especially since women and children were among the victims,” Barini added. “In the past two weeks, at least 120 families have received threatening letters at their homes giving them a month to leave Mosul and Kirkuk but they don’t have anywhere else to go.”….

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Growing Old in Palestine
Gabriel Khano
I was born in Palestine during the British Mandate, and one of my early memories is of the Arab General Strike of 1936 – the first of a series to protest the heavy Zionist immigration: my father did not go to work, shops were shut, and my mother had to find groceries and vegetables where she could. My reaction was that of a typical small boy: I summoned some of my more lively school friends; we armed ourselves with a good collection of pebbles and waited for a contingent of the Black Watch to pass our way. This was a Scottish regiment, and they wore navy-blue and green tartan kilts. When they came marching correctly past, we flicked our pebbles under their kilts and, before we knew whether we had hit our mark, we ran for our lives. But the Jews of those days had more lethal forms of resistance: they were the ones who introduced terrorism into the Holy Land, and they directed it against both the British and the Palestinians…

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Secretary General of AMSI Talks to “International Reality”
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
However, they wish to divide an independent State Iraq and then they will call to Iraqi Federalism which plotted by the enemy. So the project as an idea and aim has passed over it more than four or five decades. It has actually been applied since two years through the current constitution which content to an article that accepts Iraq as a federative country formed of three federal regions even if they say that the federalism is not a partition and is only an administrational federalism. However as far as we know and everybody knows that the project is a definite partition. The federalism is only a cover to the project as the Zionist Joseph Biden has declared it is a partition. Before a couple of days an interview was made with him by one of the Israeli broadcast. He said when a question of “Who are you?” was directed to him he answered: I am a Zionist and came from a Zionist. Anyhow Joseph Biden is not hiding his Zionism but the Israeli lobby is hiding its interest to the project and also other lobbies which they have beneficial in partition Iraq. They are too pleased to this project…

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Taliban capture third western Afghan district
Sharifuddin Sharafiyar, Reuters
Taliban insurgents have captured a third district in western Afghanistan, local officials said on Monday, defying Western assertions the rebels are unable to mount large military offensives. The hardline Islamist Taliban relaunched their insurgency two years ago to topple the pro-Western Afghan government and eject the 50,000 foreign troops, expanding their operations further from the mainly Pashtun south where they are strongest. Western forces say the Taliban’s greater reliance this year on suicide and roadside bombs is a result of heavy battlefield casualties they and Afghan troops have inflicted on the rebels and the insurgents’ inability to hold ground. But in the last week, the Taliban have captured three districts in the western province of Farah, bordering Iran, forcing lightly armed Afghan police to flee and defying Afghan and foreign forces to retake the lost ground (…) Poor morale among Afghan police meant that up to 38 officers had defected to the Taliban in the last week in Farah, the security analyst said, and those that remained were unwilling or unable to put up much of a fight. “As soon as the Taliban attacked in numbers they did their best to make a tactical withdrawal — they basically got out of there as quick as they could,” he said. “Their motivation is not there to fight.”….

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Trial Nearer for Shiite Ex-Officials in Sunni Killings
MICHAEL R. GORDON and ALISSA J. RUBIN, NYTimes
An Iraqi judge has ruled that there is enough evidence to try two former Health Ministry officials, both Shiites, in the killing and kidnapping of hundreds of Sunnis, many of them snatched from hospitals by militias, according to American officials who are advising the Iraqi judicial system. The Iraqi investigation has confirmed long-standing Sunni fears that hospitals had been opened up as a hunting ground for Shiite militias intent on spreading fear among Sunnis and driving them out of the capital. Even before the case, Baghdad residents told of death threats against doctors who would treat Sunnis, of intravenous lines ripped from patients’ arms as they were carried away, and of relatives of hospitalized Sunnis who were killed when they came to visit. The case, which involves officials allied with the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, would have been difficult for the Iraqi government to take on in the past because Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki received crucial support from Sadr supporters in Parliament….

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 4 November 2007
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
…In a dispatch posted at 9:22am Baghdad time Sunday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that US occupation troops together with their puppet army allies had gone through the city of al-Kubaysah and arrested one member of every family in the city, which is located 185km northwest of Baghdad. The AMSI reported a source in the puppet security forces who asked not to be identified as saying that the Americans, accompanied by their puppet regime allies, sealed off all the entrances and exits around al-Kubaysah at 5pm local time Saturday afternoon, and proceeded to raids houses in the city…

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?nevitable Turkey-Iran-Syria-Russia alliance
ATA ATUN, Today’s Zaman
…Surprisingly, US strategists seem to be pushing Turkey and Iran together to fight against violent Kurdish attacks or into an alliance to fight together against the common enemy in the region at the cost of losing Turkey as a faithful ally. The sympathy of Turkish people towards the US had fallen sharply over the past couple of years, and it will take decades for US to recover it. It seems it is now mandatory for Turkey and Iran to form a common cooperative ground in regard to common problems and interests. New and stronger cooperative action in the economic field by Turkey and Iran will play a major role in the eradication of the political distrust and concerns between the two countries. The parties have announced an upcoming doubling of the volume of their trade. Both countries have already agreed on the elimination of the main source of discord: support for each other’s separatist and oppositional organizations. Iran has committed to adding the PKK to its list of “terrorist organizations.” Turkey has done the same concerning the Iranian group “Mojahedin Halk.”….

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