“Iraqi President” Jalal Talabani says Israeli President Peres “welcome in Iraqi Kurdistan”
Yaqen News Agency
Iraqi “President” Jalal Talabani welcomed statements by “Israeli” President Shimon Peres in effect endorsing “independence” for the Kurds of Iraq. Talabani described Peres’ statements as “realistic” and said that the Zionist leader was “an individual welcome in Iraqi Kurdistan.” Talabani said, “unfortunately it is not possible for the Kurds in Iraq to declare independence because neighboring countries are not agreeable to that.” Talabani said that therefore the best thing is to remain in current status of a federation under which the Kurds can rule themselves in the north and participate in governing the other parts of Iraq. Shimon Peres, the Prime Minister of Israel since 15 July 2007, said “the best way to solve the internal problems of Iraq is through federalism. For that to take place, it would be best for Iraq to be partitioned in the three independent federal regions…”

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38244

No Remembrance, No Remorse for the Fallen of Iraq
John Pilger
On Remembrance Day 2007 – Veterans Day in America – the great and the good bowed their heads at the Cenotaph. Generals, politicians, newsreaders, football managers and stock-market traders wore their poppies. Hypocrisy was a presence. No one mentioned Iraq. No one uttered the slightest remorse for the fallen of that country. No one read the forbidden list. The forbidden list documents, without favor, the part the British state and its court have played in the destruction of Iraq. Here it is: 1. Holocaust denial: On 25 October, Dai Davies MP asked Gordon Brown about civilian deaths in Iraq. Brown passed the question to the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who passed it to his junior minister, Kim Howells, who replied: “We continue to believe that there are no comprehensive or reliable figures for deaths since March 2003.” This was a deception. In October 2006, the Lancet published research by Johns Hopkins University in the US and al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad which calculated that 655,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the Anglo-American invasion. A Freedom of Information search revealed that the government, while publicly dismissing the study, secretly backed it as comprehensive and reliable. The chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defense, Sir Roy Anderson, called its methods “robust” and “close to best practice.” Other senior governments officials secretly acknowledged the survey’s “tried and tested way of measuring mortality in conflict zones.” Since then, t! he Briti sh research polling agency, Opinion Research Business, has extrapolated a figure of 1.2 million deaths in Iraq…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38251

Outrage! NATO Transfers Prisoners to Afghan Torture
Valtin
…In November 2005 Kabul’s Police Chief General Abdul Jamil Junbesh, allegedly tortured and killed a civilian named Hussain. In December 2005 police beat and killed a detainee at the Kabul police station. In both cases human rights activists characterized official investigations as ineffective and no formal charges were made…. Complaints of serious human rights violations committed by representatives of national security institutions, including arbitrary arrest, unconfirmed reports of torture, and illegal detention were numerous. There were allegations that local commanders operated private prisons where they abused individuals in detention, in some cases resulting in their death…. For example, human rights organizations reported that local authorities in Herat, Helmand, Badakhshan, and other locations continued to routinely torture and abuse detainees. Torture and abuse consisted of pulling out fingernails and toenails, burning with hot oil, beatings, sexual humiliation, and sodomy….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38249

120 US war veteran suicides a week
Herald Sun
THE US military is experiencing a “suicide epidemic” with veterans killing themselves at the rate of 120 a week, according to an investigation by US television network CBS. At least 6256 US veterans committed suicide in 2005 – an average of 17 a day – the network reported, with veterans overall more than twice as likely to take their own lives as the rest of the general population. While the suicide rate among the general population was 8.9 per 100,000, the level among veterans was between 18.7 and 20.8 per 100,000….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38242

Kondracke Advocates Ethnic Cleansing Policy In Iraq, ‘Also Known As Winning Dirty’
Think Progress
Roll Call executive editor and Fox News contributor Mort Kondracke writes today that if President Bush’s escalation policy doesn’t work, his Plan B should be “winning dirty,” which involves “accepting rule by Shiites and Kurds, allowing them to violently suppress Sunni resistance and making sure that Shiites friendly to the United States emerge victorious.” Kondracke, the “left-leaning” counterpart to Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes on Fox News’ The Beltway Boys, acknowledges that his “winning dirty” policy will lead to ethnic cleansing: Winning will be dirty because it will allow the Shiite-dominated Iraqi military and some Shiite militias to decimate the Sunni insurgency. There likely will be ethnic cleansing, atrocities against civilians and massive refugee flows. He also reveals that at least one member of Congress agrees with his plan…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38237

Iraq war is a betrayal of American democracy
MATT HOWARD
In 2003 I illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq with 1st Tank battalion 1st Marine Division (…) Let me say again so that there is no misunderstanding. I stand here today as a former U.S. Marine saying we are killing women and children in Iraq. This is the true nature of war. War lends itself to atrocities. Don’t think you can use an organization designed to kill other human beings for anything humanitarian. That has never been our mission. That was crystal clear from the moment I was forced to bury the crate of humanitarian food given to me in Kuwait. Four and a half years later we as soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are done. We are done being told under threat of court martial to run over children that get in the way of our speeding convoys. We are done raiding and destroying the homes of innocent Iraqis on a nightly basis. We are done abusing and torturing prisoners. We are done being hired thugs for the 160,000 contractors and U.S. corporate interests in Iraq….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38247

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 14 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 3:05pm Baghdad time Wednesday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the US military has begun building a concrete wall around the city of al-Fallujah, 60km west of Baghdad, at the cost of US$3 billion. Yaqen reported a source in the local puppet “al-Fallujah Governing Council” as saying that the US military had contracted with a local construction firm run by a businessman from al-Fallujah to build a concrete wall three meters high surrounding the city on all sides so that the occupation forces can seal it off from the outside world. The source, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the local contractor has close relations with the American occupation authorities and was therefore able to secure a price tag of $3 billion for the project. Construction of the wall began on the northern side of al-Fallujah a week ago, the source added….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38241

Iraq: The Mehdi Army’s Transformation
Stratfor
IraqSlogger, an online news service, reported Nov. 14 that the Mehdi Army — the armed wing of the radical Iraqi Shiite movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr — is in the process of being revamped into a mainstream organization. A key element in this process is the institution of an entrance exam testing potential members’ Islamic knowledge. The tests will be administered by senior Mehdi Army officials in the Shiite city of An Najaf. The report adds that the al-Sadrite bloc’s high command has ordered Mehdi Army militiamen to refrain from interfering in public affairs, leaving the issue of law and order to police. The move to refurbish the Mehdi Army, which comes after al-Sadr ordered the group to halt its activities, is part and parcel of the recent progress made in U.S.-Iranian back-channel discussions. The United States, Iran and the Iraqis — especially the Shia, and particularly the al-Sadrites — all see it in their interest to bring both the political and military wings of al-Sadr’s movement into the political mainstream..

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38246

JORDAN: Host to half a million Iraqis, says survey
IRIN News
Jordan is home to nearly half a million Iraqis, mostly Sunnis, who have fled sectarian violence, an international survey reveals. The Norway-based FAFO Institute for Applied International Studies conducted a six-month study at the request of the Jordanian government to determine the number of Iraqis in the kingdom, their religious backgrounds and economic profiles. “While figures as high as one million or about 16 percent of the total population have been aired, this study concludes that there are between 450,000 and 500,000 Iraqi residents in Jordan as of May 2007,” FAFO’s managing director Jon Pedersen said on 13 November. The study found that most Iraqis live in the capital, Amman; nearly 95 percent do not plan to return home, while 20 percent plan to emigrate to a third country….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38245

Anti-al-Qaida Sunni sheik claims US forces killed his followers
Associated Press
The leader of an anti-al-Qaida Sunni group is accusing U.S. troops of mistakenly killing dozens of his fighters during a battle north of Baghdad. The sheik told Al-Jazeera television that he had tried repeatedly to call American commanders and tell them they were fighting “their friends.” U.S. military officials confirm troops killed 24 fighters in a battle in the same area. The military says the clash began as soldiers searched for al-Qaida extremists believed hiding there….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38239

AT ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES JEWS CAN…. BUT ARABS CAN’T
Desert Peace
Israel… the ‘only Democracy in the Middle East’ seems to have found another contradiction to that phrase…. it’s obviously only a Democracy for its Jewish citizens. The Palestinians that live here and have Israeli citizenship might as well have Identity Cards proclaiming that they are SECOND CLASS CITIZENS! The following report from Ynet tells of the latest incident, this time at two major Israeli universities….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38238

Press conference by office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 13 Nov 2007
United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI)
…Of particular concern were the serious difficulties of women, who made up a large portion of the refugee population, including many women heads of households, single women, women with children and women without male support, she went on. There had been a resurgence of problems, such as “weekend marriages”, in which young girls in a family were made available for traditional marriage ceremonies for a weekend to men willing to pay for such a ceremony. A divorce was then arranged at the end of the weekend. Such an arrangement was not labelled as prostitution, but as marriage, although in reality it was “survival sex”. That protection issue also needed to be addressed. Other issues included detention of Iraqis, she said, noting that, in Lebanon, there was a high rate of detention of Iraqi asylum seekers. That problem tended to go up and down depending on the security environment….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38236

Pro-Taliban militants take over key town in NWFP
The Times of India
Militants owing allegiance to pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah have taken over a key town in northwestern Pakistan despite a renewed offensive launched against them by the army two days ago. After over-running most towns and villages in Swat district over the past few weeks, the militants have captured the district headquarters of Shangla in Malakand Division, from where hundreds of Chinese engineers and workers were evacuated last week. The militants have taken over Alpuri, the headquarters of Shangla district and home to political affairs minister Amir Muqam, ‘Dawn’ newspaper reported on Wednesday. The militants already control almost 80% of the territory of nearby Swat district….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38235

GI Special 5K9: Thumbs Up From The Troops [ November 13, 2007 ]
Thomas F. Barton
As Activists Block Stryker Movements At Olympia Port, “Overwhelmingly Positive Gestures Such As ‘Thumbs Up’ From Troops As They Drive By In Their Strykers And Other Vehicles”
NCO “Pulled Over, Got Out Of His Car, Came Over, Shook Their Hands And Said, ‘I Just Want To Thank You People For What You’re Doing’”
“He Told Them That He Had Been Deployed To Iraq Twice Before And Found It To Be A Hopeless Situation”

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38234

War News for Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Iraq today
MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of Two Multi-National Division – North Soldiers in an explosion in Diyala Province on Tuesday, November, 13th. Four other MND-N Soldiers were wounded. MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Corps – Iraq Soldier by gunfire near the city of Mosul on Wednesday, November 14th. CJTF-82 is reporting the death of a Coalition servicemember of a non-combat related injury on Tuesday, November 13th. The release names Bagram Airfield however no other details were released….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38240

Stop the Lies, Stop the Funding, Stop the Genocide: STOP IT
Arthur Silber
The time has arrived to prove to you a conclusion I have intended to discuss for some time. The conclusion will undoubtedly dismay some of you greatly. As a very wise philosopher once observed, or certainly should have observed: Tough. The general subject is The Neverending Dance About Funding of the Iraq Occupation. Let’s reword that, to make it more accurate: The Neverending Dance About Funding the Iraq Genocide. Genocide is what it is. Let’s endeavor to be minimally honest about what the United States government is paying for — with your tax dollars, I remind you. Honesty should be possible to us; after all, we’re not the ones dying in incomprehensibly, monstrously huge numbers…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38227

Iraqi Refugee Crisis Described As World’s Biggest
Newsroom America
A senior official with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Erika Feller, has called on countries to increase their support for the agency’s efforts to protect nearly 33 million refugees. Ms Feller highlighted the needs of the more than 4.4 million Iraqis that have left their homes, which she described as “probably the biggest refugee problem we have at the current time.” Speaking to reporters in New York, she pointed out that UNHCR is assisting some 2.2 million Iraqis who are displaced internally, as well as the more than 2.2 million who have fled to neighbouring countries, including Syria and Jordan….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38223

Autumn ‘07 in Afghanistan
Sarah Meyer, Index Research
The US war in Afghanistan was in deep shadows in the autumn of 2007. NATO, controlled by the US, was having difficulty: countries would join but refuse to fight; few countries paid their dues. The people of Canada and the Netherlands, and Germany are not happy about participating in this US war. Warnings have been given by generals from various countries. Governments don’t listen; too much money is being made from their wars. NATO responded by looking for more countries to join the melee, playing war games and by wanting to oursource the air force and helicopters . The US ally, Musharraf in Pakistan, to whom the US have paid millions, gives an example of what martial law is all about. Bush tells him to take his uniform off and proposed $845m more….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38221

Bhutto: the new Chalabi
Dilip Hiro
…During her several trips to the United States, the silver-tongued Bhutto has convinced the Bush team that she was the one with the popularity and political skills to pull Pakistan back from the encroaching anarchy. This continues. In an impromptu speech on Friday, Bhutto warned that Pakistan could turn into another Iraq. “We have seen what happens in Iraq,” she said. “There was a dictatorship, the people revolted, and there was a bloody end.” The people revolted in Iraq! Such make-believe analysis and interpretation is popular with the Bush White House. By now, the Bush administration’s assumption that Bhutto is all set to become the democratically-elected prime minister has acquired an air of self-evident truth…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38232

Baghdad blast shows security ‘fragile’: US
AFP
A US commander warned on Wednesday that despite improving security in Iraq, progress is fragile and “far from irreversible”, hours after a massive bomb ripped into a US military convoy in Baghdad. “The enemy still has both the will and the capacity to cause significant loss of life and damage to property,” US military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a press conference. He referred to Wednesday’s bombing of the military convoy outside the highly fortified Green Zone in which a US soldier and two civilians were killed, and to an attack by a large group of Al-Qaeda gunmen on the town of Adwaniyah near Baghdad on Monday that was eventually repulsed by US and Iraqi forces…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38224

US, Israel refuse to cooperate with inquest into Syria strike
Larisa Alexandrovna
UN nuclear watchdog has no evidence Syria had nuclear facility. The International Atomic Energy Agency – the United Nations nuclear watchdog – has not been able to conduct an investigation into the events surrounding the Sept. 6 Israeli bombing of a Syrian military installation because neither the Bush administration nor Israel are cooperating. A diplomatic source close to the Vienna based IAEA told Raw Story that both the United States and Israel have been approached by the organization requesting supporting evidence of a nuclear reactor which media sources have cited, based on anonymous sources in both governments, as the reason for the Israeli strike….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38226

Israeli legislature votes to seize East Jerusalem
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
The Israeli Knesset (Parliament) gave preliminary approval on Wednesday to a bill that would seize East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law and UN resolutions, and make it part of Israel. The move comes just after the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged that the Palestinians would never give up East Jerusalem, as it is an integral part of a future Palestinian state. In addition, Palestinian and Israeli leaders are gearing up for a peace conference that will take place on November 26th in Annapolis, MD, in the U.S. Before being passed into law, the proposed bill must be approved by a parliamentary committee and go to three more votes — a process that could take months….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38228

Torturing Palestinian Detainees
Stephen Lendman
B’Tselem is the conservative Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories with a well-deserved reputation for accuracy. A group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists and Knesset members founded the organization in 1989 to “document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel” to convince government officials to respect human rights and comply with international law. Its work covers a wide range of human rights issues that include detentions and torture. In May, 2007, it prepared a detailed 100 page report titled “Absolute Prohibition: The Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees” that’s now available in print for those who request it. This article summarizes its findings that represent a joint effort by B’Tselem and HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual that was founded in 1988 to support Palestinian rights during the first intifada in the late 1980s….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38209

Four American troops lose life in Iraq — army
KUNA
Four American soldiers have been killed in separate incidents in Iraq, the US Army said in a statement released on Wednesday. One soldier was shot dead with insurgents’ gunfire in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday. Two others were killed and four suffered injuries in a blast that targeted the victims’ patrol in the governorate of Diyala, northeast of the capital. Another American soldier was gunned down in the town of Al-Wahda, south of Baghdad, on Monday….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38210

Palestinian 6-month-old baby dies after IOA refuses her entry for treatment
Palestinian Information Center
A six-month-old Palestinian baby died in Gaza’s Nasr hospital on Wednesday after the Israeli occupation authority refused to allow her entry for treatment in the 1948 occupied lands. Medical sources said that the baby girl died of kidney failure that could not be treated in the besieged Gaza Strip. A relative of the child said that IOA closure of crossings did not enable them to transfer the baby abroad for treatment, leading to her death….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38212

Loyalties, Jihad & Terrorists…
Layla Anwar, Uncensored Arabwomanblues
…I find Jihad or Self Defense – because this is what Jihad is in its “warrior” sense – a legitimate right for any opppressed people. Would anyone call a guerilla fighter a Jihadist/terrorist? Not likely. Yet this is what a guerilla fighter is – a Jihadist. A Resister. This deliberate amalgamation between the right to self defense i.e Jihad and Terrorism is serving a two fold purpose : 1) neutralize any form of Resistance and 2) alienate any support for a resistance movement by purposeful violent actions against innocent civilians….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38220

Stranded Palestinians to commence hunger-strike
Nisreen Qumsieh – IMEMC News
A group of Palestinian stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday stated that they would soon commence a hunger strike in protest against their continued predicament. In a message directed to the Palestinian Embassy in Egypt and the Egyptian and Israeli governments, the group called for an end to their plight, which has now lasted for more than three months, warning that they would soon have no choice but to commence with a hunger strike….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38222

Mentes Peligrosas: Confession of an American Thought Criminal
Jason Miller
If you needed more evidence that most of our “esteemed” members of Congress are members of a criminal class of ruling elites, who regard the likes of us in the poor and working classes with the disdain most people reserve for cockroaches, look no further than H.R. 1955. 93% of the filth “representing” us in the House voted in favor of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. Once this vile piece of legislation sails through the Senate and the sociopath on Pennsylvania Ave gleefully slaps his endorsement on it, the mechanisms will be in place for our lords and masters to initiate programs that will make Cointelpro and the murder of Fred Hampton look like child’s play…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38233

Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedure
Wikileaks exclusive
Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) standard operating procedures (SOP) for Camp Delta (Guantanamo Bay prison). This is the primary document for the operation of Guantanamo bay, including the securing and treatment of detainees. The document is extensive and includes, in addition to text various forms, identity cards and even Muslim burial instructions. It is signed by Major General Miller, who Donald Rumsfeld later sent to Abu Ghraib to “Gitmoize it”. The document is also the subject of an ongoing legal action between the ACLU, which has been trying to obtain it, and the Department of Defense, which has withheld it in full…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38214

Gunmen loot 3,500-old Sumerian site
Azzaman
Tall Asmar, the famous ancient Sumerian settlement, has been stripped of its contents and digging implements, the Antiquities Department said in a statement. The site in the restive and violent Diyala Province is Iraq’s most important and significant Sumerian settlement in central Mesopotamia. Known as Eshnunna among Mesopotamian scholars, it has given the Iraq Museum its famous and priceless collection of votive stone and marble sculptures representing tall and bearded figures with huge, staring eyes and long, pleated skirts….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38211

US government denies visa for South African scholar critical of Iraq war
The Associated Press
The U.S. government has denied a visa for a South African scholar who has been an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, claiming he “engaged in a terrorist activity” — an accusation he vehemently denies. Adam Habib, a deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Johannesburg, has denounced the Iraq war and the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston in September, the American Civil Liberties Union said U.S. authorities were letting his visa application languish because of his political views. The State Department formally denied his visa late last month, citing terrorist activity as the reason….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38218

The Moral Responsibility we all Bear
Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
When late President Yasser Arafat declared an independent Palestinian state on November 15, 1988, it is fairly safe to say that the situation today is not what he envisioned. The bloodletting that took place in Gaza City on November 12 during which seven Palestinians were killed by fellow Palestinians is a disgrace by all standards – a disgrace that is so potentially self-destructive that, if it continues, will obliterate everything the Palestinians, Arafat and otherwise, have ever fought for.-…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38207

Al-Qaida ‘s presence in Iraq (brought on by the American occupation) is weakening the Iraqi Resistance.
“Iraqi Sunnis turning Iraq’s victory into a defeat for fistful of dollars”
Imad Khadduri, Free Iraq
“Just look at how some so called Iraqi Sunnis turned Iraq’s victory into a defeat for fistful of dollars?” “…. When Capt Cosper had gone, the men were beaten up and taken to the cell. Later, one of Abu Abed’s men drove up and shouted: “I brought another one.” His face was shining with happiness.
“Where is he?” asked a captain. “In the boot,” replied the gunman. “I found him standing in the street behind Abu Omar’s building.” “Are you sure you didn’t capture Mudhar? I asked him to guard the back.” “No, no, I am sure he is one of them,” said the fighter. The captain pulled out a shaking man from the boot like a magician pulling out a rabbit. “Ah Mudhar, I am sorry,” said the captain. “I told you he is one of us.” The fighter kissed Mudhar twice and said he was sorry but Mudhar should try not to look so suspicious in future. Mudhar, still shaky, looked at him. Then, confused and angry, walked away.”….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38208

Iraq Forces Seize Powerful Sunni Office
SINAN SALAHEDDIN
The Iraqi government seized the west Baghdad headquarters of a powerful Sunni Muslim group Wednesday, cordoning off the building and accusing the group of supporting al-Qaida, officials said. The Association of Muslim Scholars, a hard-line Sunni clerics group with links to insurgents, has its headquarters in the Um al-Qura mosque in the capital’s Sunni-dominated Ghazaliyhah neighborhood. Iraqi security forces dispatched by the Sunni Endowment, a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, surrounded the mosque complex at 9 a.m. and demanded that the building be evacuated before noon, the association said in a statement posted on its Web site….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38217

Hamas: Negotiating on “Jewish state” conspiracy to liquidate Palestine cause
Palestinian Information Center
The PA leadership’s negotiation with Israel in Annapolis on the basis of accepting a “Jewish state” in return for a Palestinian state would constitute a serious plot to liquidate the Palestine cause, a senior Hamas leader said on Wednesday. Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, spokesman of Hamas’s parliamentary bloc, asserted that the Israeli president’s talk about a “Jewish state” was “very serious” because it would practically mean that such a state was entitled to expel one and half million Palestinians living in the 1948 occupied lands….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38215

Why No American President Will Stand Up to Israel
The Lobby
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Experts in the West and ordinary people in Arab lands have understood for many years that the United States does not have an independent policy toward the Middle East. President Jimmy Carter, a man of good will, tried to use American influence to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the source of dangerous instability in the Middle East. However, Israel was able to block Carter’s attempt, while blaming Yasser Arafat. Carter’s plan would have given rise to a Palestinian state. Israel did not want any such state, because obvious military aggression is necessary in order to steal the territory of an official state with defined borders. It is much easier to steal land from a non-state. By preventing the rise of a Palestinian state, Israel has been able to continue with its theft of the West Bank….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=38216