Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Saturday, 24 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 1:38pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that informed sources as saying that the US-appointed “President of Iraqi Kurdistan,” Mas’ud Barzani, was admitted to an “Israeli” hospital after arriving on a secret visit following an assassination attempt upon him near his offices in Irbil, northern Iraq. Yaqen reported the Zionist Haaretz newspaper as saying that a “Kurdish personality” was undergoing treatment in a hospital in central Tel Aviv, but offered no confirmation that the individual was the Kurdish separatist leader Barzani. The newspaper indicated that the unnamed “Kurdish personality” was expected to be flown to the United States on Saturday or Sunday…

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Afghanistan: Fatal Military Quagmire
Occupation Forces unable to defeat armed opposition militarily
Hamayon Rastgar
The American led western adventure in Afghanistan seems to be stumbling towards failure. With every passing day it appears that the Americans and their allies are stuck in a fatal military quagmire; their political and military weaknesses and limitations have been exposed by their inability to defeat an armed resistance which is intensifying daily. The western alliance has serious difficulty in harmonizing their military actions and unifying their political purpose. And the opposition to the war amongst the people of western countries involved in Afghanistan has been growing. All signs indicate that not only are the occupying powers unable to resolve the crises in their favour, but that their troubles are going to intensify in the coming years….

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Railroading A Journalist In Iraq
Tom Curley, Associated Press.
At long last, prize-winning Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein may get his day in court. The trouble is, justice won’t be blind in this case — his lawyer will be. Bilal has been imprisoned by the U.S. military in Iraq since he was picked up April 12, 2006, in Ramadi, a violent town in a turbulent province where few Western journalists dared go. The military claimed then that he had suspicious links to insurgents. This week, Editor & Publisher magazine reported the military has amended that to say he is, in fact, a “terrorist” who had “infiltrated the AP.” We believe Bilal’s crime was taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see. That he was part of a team of AP photographers who had just won a Pulitzer Prize for work in Iraq may have made Bilal even more of a marked man…

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Israel in Darfur and Arab National Security
Ahmad Hussein AS-SHIMI – Translated by Adib S. Kawar. Revised by Mary Rizzo
“Israel’s Success in developing its relations with western African states – especially these falling south of the Great Sahara region bordering Arab African states – shall achieve very important strategic gains for it, which shall overcome areas of its strategic weakness due to the tight band of Arab States surrounding it, to reach to the open Arab back in a place Arabs do not expect”….this is the resume of words ex Israeli chief of staff, General Hayem Laskoff, described his country’s policy in relation to the African continent, that policy in which the Israel role becomes more apparent whenever conflicts comes to the open in its different arenas, especially after the discovery of natural resources such as oil and uranium in the continent. Sudan could be a one of the cornerstones of this strategy, due to the consistent trail of Israel’s successive governments since the early fifties of the 20th century, to obtain for itself a foothold in that region, whether it is in Sudan proper or the Sudanese province of Darfur.

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Depleted Uranium Dust May Kill You
RINF.COM,
They were told depleted uranium was not hazardous. Now, 23 years after a US arms plant closed, workers and residents have cancer – and experts say their suffering shows the use of such weapons may be a war crime. It is 50 years since Tony Ciarfello and his friends used the yard of a depleted uranium weapons factory as their playground in Colonie, a suburb of Albany in upstate New York state. . .Today there are lumps on Ciarfello’s chest – strange, round tumours that protrude about an inch. ‘No one seems to know what they are,’ he says. ‘I’ve also had a brain aneurysm caused by a suspected tumour. I’m constantly fatigued and for years I’ve had terrible pains, deep inside my leg bones. I fall over without warning and I’ve got a heart condition.’ Ciarfello’s illnesses have rendered him unable to work for years. Aged 57 and a father of five, he looks much older….

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Palestinian factions: Annapolis a new station to liquidate the Palestinian cause
Palestinian Information Center
Leaders of five major Palestinian factions considered on Friday during a forum organized by Hamas that the Annapolis conference is one of the stations intended for liquidating the Palestinian cause, warning of imposing defeatist solutions on the Palestinian people. Mushir Al-Masri, the general-secretary of Hamas-affiliated change and reform parliamentary bloc, confirmed that the Annapolis conference comes in the framework of a systematic policy to liquidate the Palestinian cause, swerve it from its track and to impose a foreign agenda…

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West Bank maze of movement restrictions
Report, The Electronic Intifada
Traffic news on the radio in the West Bank is more likely to be about checkpoints and barriers than jams and accidents, as a complex system of controls and permits can make a short journey for work, family or medical reasons into a time-consuming marathon, according to a new UN report. A joint Special Focus by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, released in November, said that only about 18 percent of the people who worked the land are now able to obtain Israeli-issued permits, required to access the zone between the Barrier and the Green Line, Israel’s pre-1967 border….

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The Bush Rules of Evidence
Robert Parry, consortiumnews.com
In the history of the American Republic, perhaps no political family has been more protected from scandal than the Bushes. When the Bushes are involved in dirty deals or even criminal activity, standards of evidence change. Instead of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that would lock up an average citizen, the evidence must be perfect. If there’s any doubt at all, the Bushes must be presumed innocent. Even when their guilt is obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense, it’s their accusers and those who dare investigate who get the worst of it. Their motives are challenged and their own shortcomings are cast in the harshest possible light…

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TEN RECENT REASONS WHY ANNAPOLIS WILL FAIL
Desert Peace
Listed here are ten more recent examples why Israel is not serious about peace. Just days before the start of the Annapolis Conference, nothing has changed…. which indicates that nothing will in the near future…
Sad but true….

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Stocks and IPOs Boom in Arab Gulf
karlmarxwasright
…Dana Gas, not surprisingly, has just opened an office in Kurdistan.
However, Iraq’s puppet government Oil Minister has said he/they, Iraq’s so-called Central Government in Baghdad will nullify all the the new, independent oil contracts recently signed by the KRG. So, that dispute continues onwards. Thus, business and privatization is booming, in the “newly transformed Middle East,” now that the impediment of Hussein’s Arab Baath Socialist Party along with its people and its army has conveniently disappeared, like the USSR. This is the definition of success. May everyone enjoy their newfound prosperity…

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‘Wave Of Violence’ Against Women In Iraq Undercuts White House’s Claims Of Success
Think Progress
In recent weeks, the Bush administration has cited declining violence in Iraq as evidence of the success. Earlier this month, President Bush said that Iraqis are slowly “taking back their country.” But last night, NBC Nightly News aired a segment about a “wave of violence that’s gone largely unreported lately against women in Iraq.” The report noted that Iraqi women, once “the most emancipated in the Arab world,” are increasingly unable to walk around without a hijab, wear cosmetics, or work. Watch the report….

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DON’T FORSAKE THE PEOPLE OF GAZA ~~ WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Desert Peace
There are things that every individual, everywhere can do to help the people in Gaza. The facts are known, despite the occupier’s attempts to keep them hidden. Presented below are just a few things YOU can do to help…. Be sure to sign the petition at the bottom and DO forward this to people and copy it to your Blogs… Don’t forsake the people of Gaza….

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Darfurism, Uganda and the U.S. War in Africa
The Spectre of Continental Genocide
Keith Harmon Snow
President Bush met with Uganda’s President-for-life Yoweri Museveni in the White House on October 30, 2007. Meanwhile, a broad swath of Africa is engulfed in interrelated genocides and covert operations involving both the U.S. and Uganda, there is a growing demand to probe the accounts of “Save Darfur” to find out how the tens of millions collected are being spent due to allegations of arms-deals and bribery, and the “Save Darfur” movement has become the false flag action of the West, supported by most everyone, people who know little or nothing about what it is they are supporting….

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Two brothers killed by Israeli army in northern Gaza
Rami Almeghari – IMEMC
Palestinian media sources announced Saturday death of two brothers in northern Gaza Strip, after the Israeli army opened fire on them near the Eritz checkpoint (Beit Hanoun crossing). Dr. Moawiya Abu Hasanain, chief of emergency and ambulance department at the Palestinian health ministry, identified the killed as Ra’fat and Talal Abu Shraina, 40 and 41. The health official confirmed that several bullets riddled in the victims’ bodies, before they were pronounced dead….

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U.S. blames Iran-backed group for Baghdad bombing
Paul Tait, Reuters
Iranian-backed militants were behind a bombing that killed 13 Iraqis at a Baghdad pet market, the U.S. military said on Saturday, raising concerns that Shi’ite militias might be switching tactics. U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said it appeared the Shi’ite militants wanted Friday’s bombing, the deadliest attack in Baghdad in two months after a lull in violence, to look like the work of al Qaeda….

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Palestinian old man dies in Gaza after IOA blocked his travel abroad
Palestinian Information Center
A 69-year-old Palestinian man died on Saturday of cancer after the Israeli occupation authority refused to allow him travel to seek treatment outside the Gaza Strip. Medical sources said that the health condition of Ali Owaida, inhabiting Nusseirat refugee camp, rapidly deteriorated of late until he died on Saturday morning….

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U.S. to reduce Iraq troop levels by 5,000
Reuters
Overall U.S. troop levels in Iraq will fall by about 5,000 when a combat brigade completes its pullout from the country’s volatile Diyala province next month, U.S. military officials said on Saturday. The 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division is the first brigade not be replaced by fresh troops from the United States since the U.S. commander in Iraq General David Petraeus announced plans to cut forces by some 20,000 by July 2008 as violence ebbs….

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The Gaza Strip: Disengagement Two Years On
Kris Petersen, The Electronic Intifada
Two years ago, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. We all remember the intense media campaign shamelessly portraying the settlers as dispossessed victims of a bold move for peace. Among others, Harvard economist Sara Roy argued that Israel’s version of disengagement would bring disaster to an already desperate Gaza. Today, we are witnessing emergence of an unparalleled economic catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and with it, the evaporation of the last remaining hopes for a Palestinian state….

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Palestinian dies of kidney failure due to Gaza siege
Palestinian Information Center
A Palestinian citizen suffering kidney failure has died on Friday in Jabalia to the north of the Gaza Strip after being blocked from travel abroad for treatment by the IOF troops’ tight siege. Medical sources told PIC correspondent that Jamil Hamad, 49, a father of seven children, could not have his dialysis after 23 of those machines in the Strip were out of order out of a total of 66 ones found in the Strip. Rami Abdo, the spokesman of the popular anti-sanctions committee, has warned that patients with kidney failure were in danger of death due to shortage in necessary medical materials and the big number of broken dialysis machines…

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Who are the Palestinian refugees?
Annie’s letters
…The Palestinian refugee problem arose from a systematic policy of ethnic dispossession and elimination, the results of which are apparent in the Palestinian refugee camps and in the Palestinian Shatat (exile). These policies continue to this day. Zionist policy sought to create an exclusive homeland for Jews in Palestine, a region that already had an indigenous population with a history stretching back thousands of years. The characterization of Palestine as “a land without a people for a people without a land” was a myth created to suggest that Palestine was waiting to be populated. Nothing was further from the truth and this has been evidenced by the atrocities of 1948 and since….

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Friday: 1 U.S. Soldier, 50 Iraqis Killed; 107 Iraqis Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
Although the prayer day is often the quietest day for news, this Friday has been markedly violent with an attack on a weekly pet market in Baghdad and more bombings in Mosul among the numerous incidents. Meanwhile, a shrine and a mosque were also attacked, and Khalis was taken over by gunmen. At least 50 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 107 more were wounded in the latest attacks. Also, the DOD reported that one American soldier died in an accident on Wednesday….

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