More Than 250 Iraqi Torture Victims Come Forward to Sue CACI for Participating in Conspiracy to Torture, According to Legal Team
PR Newswire
Hundreds of innocent torture victims came forward and filed a complaint late Monday in Washington federal court against CACI, the private military contractor involved in torturing and abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq. The complaint in “Saleh et al. v. CACI et al” alleges that these victims were repeatedly sodomized, threatened with rape and harm to their family members, stripped naked, kept naked in their cells, chained and handcuffed to the bars of their cells, forced to wear women’s panties on their heads and bodies, subjected to electric shock, subjected to extreme heat and cold, attacked by unmuzzled dogs, subjected to serious pain inflicted on sensitive body parts, and kicked, beaten and struck….

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IRAQ: “Bad” Women Raped and Killed
Ali al-Fadhily*
Women are being killed by militia groups in southern Iraq for not conforming to strict Islamic ways, the police say. And, increased threats from militia groups is driving many women away from their homes. Basra police chief Gen. Jalil Hannoon has told reporters and Arab TV channels that at least 40 women have been killed during the past five months in the southern city. “We are sure there are many more victims whose families did not report their killing for fear of scandal,” Gen. Hannoon said. The militias dominated by the Shia Badr Organisation and the Mehdi Army are leading imposition of strict Islamic rules. The enforcement of these ways comes at a time when British troops have left Basra, the biggest town in the south, to the Iraqi government. The Shia-dominated Iraqi government is seen as providing tacit and sometimes direct support to militias…”The situation in Baghdad is not very different,” Mazin Abdul Jabbar, social researcher at Baghdad University told IPS. “All universities are controlled by Islamic militiamen who harass female students all the time with religious restrictions.” A Shia cleric in Baghdad spoke to IPS on condition of anonymity to defend killings…

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The Africa Command prospect and the partition of Somalia
Abukar Arman, Online Journal Contributing Writer
As US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was recently visiting American forces in Djibouti, the Washington Post was reporting how the Pentagon has been spearheading a seemingly dicey initiative to pressure Washington into recognizing the secessionist northwestern region of Somalia, known as “Somaliland,” as an independent state. In a December 4 article, “U.S. Debating Shift of Support in Somali Conflict,” the Post highlights how some Pentagon officials are convinced it is time “to forge ties with Somaliland, as the U.S. military has with Kenya and other countries bordering Somalia.” The article quotes a senior defense official who asserts that “Somaliland is an entity that works.” And another unnamed official who confirms the Pentagon’s view is that “Somaliland should be independent,” and that the US should “build up the parts that are functional and box in Somalia’s unstable regions, particularly around Mogadishu.”…

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Israeli Prime Minister: Airstrikes on Gaza will continue
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, stated Tuesday that the Israeli airforce will continue dropping bombs on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, as long as Palestinian militants continue to fire homemade shells across the border into Israel. Many Palestinians see Olmert’s promise as rather disingenuous, as a truce arranged by Hamas and adhered to by all of the Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza last year did not result in any lessening of Israeli attacks. In fact, Israeli assaults and invasions into Gaza increased after Hamas declared the ceasefire…

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Basra: What the British left behind?
Roads to Iraq
Basra: The Legacy, women being murdered for not not wearing hijab, oppression from the militias, killings for not following the sectarian laws, is this what the British left behind? watch this, it is much worst…

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IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE MARTYRDOM OF SADDAM HUSSEIN ON EID AL-ADHA, THE FEAST OF SACRIFICE.’
Alison Gundle
In the night
of Eid Al-Adha
my beloved soul brother
Saddam was carried up a dank, dark stairway
to the place of sacrifice –
the threshold
of a watered garden
as wide as the heavens.
Though his limbs
were bound and shackled,
the brown lion
did not roar
in anguish and rage,
nor was there any fear in him…

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Iran may now be cooperating with U.S. in Iraq
Charles Levinson, USA TODAY
As violence continues to decline in Iraq, a debate is growing in Washington over whether Iran deserves a share of the credit. A 50% drop in attacks by Iranian-linked armor-piercing roadside bombs, reported last week by the U.S. military, has prompted senior Iraqi officials and at least one U.S. Army general to conclude that Iran may be cooperating with U.S.-Iraqi efforts to stabilize the country. Last month, Maj. Gen. James Simmons said Iran appeared to be standing by its October pledge to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to stem the flow of weapons into Iraq. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari seconded that notion last week, praising Iran for its help….

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LEBANON: Palestinian refugees still adamant they must return home
IRIN News
Palestinian and Israeli leaders may have agreed at the US-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis on 27 November to work towards a full peace deal by the end of next year, but in the tinderbox refugee camp of Ain Al-Hilweh in Lebanon the lives of 75,000 Palestinians are defined by an intractable issue at the heart of the conflict: the right of Palestinian refugees to return home. “No-one can negotiate on our right to return to Palestine. There is only one country called Palestine and we will never return there except by resistance to Israel,” said Abu Yousef, a fighter with the radical Palestinian Islamist faction Ansar Allah. The right of return polarises peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis like no other issue….

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Cantonization: A key concept
Arablinks
Harith al-Dhari repeated in an AlJazeera interview on Sunday his warning to the Iraqi tribes about the implications of the so-called awakening movement, summarized as follows at Islamtoday.net and picked up by other Islamist sites: “[T]he war being waged by the American occupation forces and the forces that are called ‘awakening against AlQaeda’ is tantamount to a war against the Iraqi resistance as a whole”. After repeating other points earlier included in al-Dhari’s open letter to the tribes of Iraq, including the point AQI membership being overwhelmingly Iraqi and not foreign, this summary adds: He invited the tribes of Iraq to not become part of the American plans, which aim at weakening and dismantling Iraq and turning it into Cantons and armed regions…

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Gaza: Lost in Limbo
Emergency Exit
Where does it start? A question even more to the point, when does it end? In view of the succession of events in the Gaza strip over the past year it is more and more apparent by the day that the stark truth in answering both questions evades the overt claims of both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. Since Hamas attained power the Gaza strip has been explicitly declared as a non-party in bilateral disputes and initiatives, while simultaneously becoming the invisible recipient of both PLO and Israeli radical measures. Where does it start, the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza Strip? From the field, and as an active recipient, it is hard for me to describe the moral, financial, psychological and mental situation the 6-month-long-and-counting Israeli siege has done to people. As Abbas and co. plunge into final status negotiations the Gaza population, shunned and denounced, is getting by on the stock of food, clothing, medical supplies and basic necessities left over from before the siege began, and that has almost run out…

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Israeli official: “We don’t need American approval” to expand settlements
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
An Israeli official announced Monday that Israel will allow construction within settlements that have already been established on Palestinian land in the West Bank, rebuffing a U.S. critique of one planned settlement expansion. The announcement came the same day as a condemnation by the Quartet for Middleast Peace, made up of the US, EU, UN and Russia, of the Israeli plan to build 300 more units in Har Homa settlement near Bethlehem….

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‘Army Times’ Article Describes U.S. Troop ‘Mutiny’ in Iraq
Greg Mitchell, E & P
While violence is down in Iraq, Americans continue to die and fall badly wounded, and suffer severe stress and trauma caused by 15-month tours of duty. A remarkable article on Friday in the Army Times is titled: “Not us. We’re not going: Soldiers in 2nd Platoon, Charlie 1-26 stage a ‘mutiny’ that pulls the unit apart.” Here are two excerpts. The first describes only one of several incidents that drove many soldiers to “stand down.” The second looks at how some responded…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
In a dispatch posted at 3:42pm Baghdad time Tuesday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that US forces shot and killed an Iraqi youth in the city of al-Fallujah, 60km west of Baghdad, around midday Tuesday. Yaqen reported that a US patrol shot a youth of about 15 years of age at the western approach to al-Fallujah because he passed near the American patrol in a civilian car on his way to al-Fallujah General Hospital. A source in the puppet police who asked to remain anonymous said that the Americans opened fire on the boy, who was struck by three bullets, one of which shattered his head, killing him instantly. The boy’s body was then taken to the hospital and from there transported to his home for burial. After the killing, the Americans searched the car and the body but found no weapons or other “prohibited” items….

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Angry Kurdish president won’t meet with Rice
Jamie Gumbrecht and Yaseen Taha, McClatchy Newspapers
The president of Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government refused to meet Tuesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , charging that the United States had given Turkey the “green light” to attack separatist Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq. Kurdish President Massoud Barzani called the attacks “crimes” and said he wouldn’t meet with Rice, the first open break between the United States and its allies in Iraqi Kurdistan , one of the few regions of the country that have largely escaped massive sectarian violence….

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GI Special 5L13: “Troops Oppose This War” [ December 18, 2007 ]
Thomas F. Barton
“From My Experience, A Majority Of Troops I’ve Encountered Oppose This War”
“I Know That They Serve With Honor; I Simply Know That That Honor Is Being Betrayed”
We see a lot more than most: from Dick Cheney ‘staging’ reenlistments behind him while speaking so that he could make a point about people eager to go back to Iraq (the soldiers, of course, chosen at random from the audience and not reenlisting in fact at all) to a comment I heard from another NCO when Bush came to speak to us.
“Someone should shoot /him/ with an RPG” she said.

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The long road from Paris to Palestine
The billions in aid secured at yesterday’s conference may not be able to overcome the peace process’s political failures
Daniel Levy
An international donors’ conference that was convened in order to secure pledges of financial support for the Palestinian Authority closed in Paris yesterday. Eighty-seven countries and international organisations were in attendance, including the host, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, Quartet special envoy Tony Blair and representatives of many Arab states. According to initial reports, pledges of $7.4bn were secured, exceeding the target set for the conference. On the face of it, this is impressive stuff and builds on the momentum of the peace summit held in Annapolis three weeks ago. This is the first pledging conference for the Palestinians of its kind since 1996. And the Palestinian economy is certainly in dire need of help, with per capita GDP falling 40% since 1999, unemployment standing at 23% and the PA expecting a fiscal gap for current and capital expenditures of around $1.8bn in 2008 according to the World Bank. This is also an international vote of confidence in prime minister Fayyad, his Palestinian reform and development plan and the sincere efforts he is making to produce a workable program to improve Palestinians’ economic prospects. But the journey from Paris to Palestine is a long one, the obstacle c! ourse is daunting and the lessons from previous failed and similar journeys are in danger of not being learned…

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Hospitality
Robert Kent
What do you say to a 17-year girl whose life was uprooted; left behind her friends, had her house leveled, an uncle killed by a mortar and another lost to Abu Ghraib? Thank you for dinner. We had dinner tonight with an Iraqi family from Baghdad (…) “Saddam is a lion and Bush a zebra.” Ten-year-old Ali told me this. He meant to say donkey instead of zebra but I still think it was funny. I asked how their life was under Saddam. Noor told me it was better in Baghdad than here in Damascus, which is saying something because I think Damascus is a serene city…

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Appeal to Iraqs Muslim Scholars
Hussein Al-alak
The Iraq Solidarity Campaign is appealing to the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, to help provide leadership and perspective in response to the recent statement by the “anti-corruption” committee, which on Saturday announced that there are an estimated five million child orphans now living in Iraq. Whilst the statement has been ignored by the media in most countries, both members and supporters of the Iraq Solidarity Campaign believe that the future of our country’s children cannot be determined by ignorance and their welfare cannot be left until a decision is finally reached by the so-called “international community”….

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UK Guantanamo detainee near suicide after years of torture, doctors warn
Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
A British resident being held in Guantanamo Bay may be close to suicide after five years of captivity and torture at the hands of the Americans, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband has been warned in a medical report sent to the Government this week. The report concludes that Binyam Mohamed, from Kensington, west London, is at the end of his “psychological tether” after guards at the US naval base in Cuba switched off the water supply to his cell when he began spreading his own faeces over the walls. Mr Mohamed is one of at least seven detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay who claim British residency. Three of the men are expected to be reunited with their families before Christmas after the Government successfully negotiated their release. But the Americans have made it clear that Mr Mohamed must remain in detention to face a military tribunal on charges of terrorism….

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Turkish incursion overshadows Rice visit to Iraq
AFP
Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq Tuesday in the first ground incursion against Kurdish rebels, overshadowing a visit to Iraq by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul said the army was “doing what is necessary in the fight against terrorism,” while Rice said the United States, Iraq and Turkey shared a “common interest” in stopping rebel activities. Annoyance over Washington’s perceived approval of the Turkish action created a diplomatic incident, with the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region reportedly refusing to meet Rice in Baghdad….

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The Israeli government step up attacks on Gaza, death toll by midday hits 12
Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC
Israeli sources reported on Tuesday midday that the Israeli government has decided to step up attacks on the Gaza strip, Palestinian sources said that the death toll in the costal region by midday today had reached 12. The Israeli army claimed that the recent attacks come in response to Palestinian home made shells fired from Gaza into the nearby Israeli towns. The Palestinian home made shells also known as Qassam shells, have killed less than a hand full of Israelis this year. Meanwhile Israeli army attacks on Gaza have left at least 450 killed, among them children and many more others injured….

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Iraq to slash food rations
Abdul-Ilah As-Saadi with Afif Sarhan, Aljazeera.net
Iraq plans to cut food rations and subsidies by almost 50 per cent as part of its overall 2008 budget because of insufficient funds and spiralling inflation. The move the will further undermine the deteriorating rationing system, with critics warning of social unrest if measures are not taken to address rising poverty and unemployment. Mohammed Hanoun, the Iraqi trade minister’s chief of staff, told Al Jazeera that a request for $7.2 billion to cover 10 basic items currently rationed and subsidised by the government was rejected. “In 2007, we asked for $3.2 billion for rationing basic foodstuffs. But since the prices of imported food stuff doubled in the past year, we requested $7.2 billion for this year. That request was denied.” The trade ministry is now set to slash the list of subsidised items by half to five basic food items, “namely, flour, sugar, rice, oil, and infant milk,” Hanoun said….

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The “Paris – Palestinian Aid Conference’ “As Much About Politics As of Money”
Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice
In a press release in Gaza City, the Hamas Government condemned on Monday Mahmod Abbas speech in the Paris Palestinian Aid Conference.Taher Al Nuru said that -”Abbas did not mention the Israelis terrorism under occupation, its aggression against our people. the Palestinians in Gaza Strip and West Bank. On the contrary Abbas gave the impression that he accept the Israelis continued massacres as being normal maneuvers. Al -Nuru the Hamas spokesperson also said that “we [ Hamas]denounce Mahmoud Abbas striking statement to cut the salaries of 77,000 employees in Gaza Strip. Abbas should be forced to publicly defend and explain his thoughtless, immoral statement and the consequence of such and act, he should stand solely responsible for….

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Gays Living in Shadows of New Iraq
CARA BUCKLEY, New York Times
In a city and country where outsiders are viewed with deep suspicion and attracting attention can imperil one’s life, Mohammed could never blend in, even if he wanted to. Mohammed, 37, has been openly gay for much of his adult life. For him, this has meant growing his hair long and taking estrogen. In the past, he said, that held little danger. As is true throughout the Middle East, men have always been publicly affectionate here. But, at least until recently, Mohammed and many of his gay friends went one step further, slipping into lovers’ houses late at night. And, until the American invasion, they said, Iraqi society had quietly accepted them. But being openly gay is not an option in the new Iraq, where the rise of religious extremism has left Mohammed and his gay friends feeling especially vilified. In January, a United Nations report described the increased persecution, torture and extrajudicial killing of Iraqi lesbians and gay men…

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Videos: Ordinary Palestinians pay the price of Israeli sanctions
Sabbah’s blog
First from Gaza. It’s the ordinary Palestinians that are being harmed by Israel’s decision to cut back fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip: Gaza has been virtually cut off from the outside world since Hamas seized control of the strip in June. Its economy has been crippled by Israeli sanctions and checkpoints. Israel insists the restrictions will remain in place, because its border towns are still coming under rocket attacks from Gaza. But as Jacky Rowland reports, a growing number of people in Gaza are living in poverty….

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Officials: Israel to allow construction in existing W. Bank settlements
Reuters
Israel will allow construction within built up areas of existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but will not expand beyond those areas, Israeli officials said on Monday. The position could widen the rift in U.S.-backed peace talks launched by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a regional peace summit held in Annapolis, Maryland last month. The Palestinians say the negotiations, the first in seven years, hinged on Israel committing to halt all settlement activity, including “natural growth,” as called for under the long-stalled road map peace plan…

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Extra-Judicial Execution
PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
When we think of crimes against humanity, we must be aware that governments and governmental groups can be more dangerous than individuals in this regard. Governments have the most power to inflict harm and are most likely to be recidivist. This kind of terrorism is the most dangerous brand. Extra-judicial killing or physical liquidation is the most prevalent practice of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) against the Palestinians. It reveals the immoral nature of the Israeli government. Extra-judicial execution is a policy which is not new or exclusively used since 2000. It is an old, bloody policy that had been implemented by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians for decades. The list of the victims of this practice is too long to mention here. Extra-judicial executions “targeted killing” (as Israeli politicians like to define the practice), is clear evidence of state terrorism. It is execution without trial. It is a policy of killing outside the boundaries of any legal framework….

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41st victim of siege dies in Gaza
Palestinian Information Center
A Palestinian woman died on Monday night in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, after being blocked from travel abroad to receive treatment by the Israeli occupation authority’s tight siege of the Strip. Medical sources said that Amal Subiah, 35, died in hospital after failure of many attempts to secure her travel for treatment, bringing to 41 the number of victims of the inhuman IOA siege and closure of all crossings of the Strip…

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Official complaint to the BBC about Paxman and the British-American Project
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat’s Dream
After my e-mail exchange with BBC’s Jeremy Paxman on his involvement with the British-American Project, I submitted today the following official complaint to the BBC. Please, read here below and use the BBC website’s form to send your complaint to the BBC. *** BBC Editorial Guidelines reads: “Presenters of News and Current Affairs programmes. In the case of those known to the public primarily as presenters of, or reporters on, BBC news programmes and programmes about current affairs, there is a greater possibility of conflict of interest. Care must be taken to ensure that they remain impartial when speaking publicly (see section 2.1 above) and do not promote any political party, campaigning organisation or lobby group which may jeopardise their status as an impartial broadcaster. The chairing of conferences may well be acceptable, but it is essential that the conference is not a promotional exercise or one-sided on an issue of public controversy. They should consult the relevant Head of Department about the suitability of public appearances and conference work. The onus is on the presenters and reporters to inform the relevant Head of Department about the range of public appearances which they undertake.” Not only is BBC’s Jeremy Paxman a Fellow of the British-American Project, he’s also the “face” of such a Project, being his photo on the homepage of the British-American Project’s website where Paxman endorses it with the f! ollowing statement: “A marvellous way of meeting a varied cross-section of transatlantic friends” Among those “friends”, there are Paul Wolfowitz and Diana Negroponte (John Negroponte’s wife) and among the “friends’ supporters” there are Citigroup, BP, Vodafone, US Embassy, JP Morgan and many others…

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Mirage of Improvement in Iraq: Yet Another Facelift for the Failed Occupation
Half the population of Iraq are either refugees, in need of emergency aid, wounded, or dead
Dahr Jamail
….Before swallowing the Bush administration rhetoric of things getting better in Iraq today, we would do well to cast a glance at the real picture of the calamitous occupation. The Just Foreign Policy group in the US places over 1.1 million Iraqis dead as a direct result of the US led invasion and occupation. A conservative estimate of the wounded would be 3 million. The UNHCR enlists an approximate 2.2 million Iraqis that have fled the country altogether, and another 2.4 million that have been internally displaced. An Oxfam International report released in July found another 4 million Iraqis who were in need of emergency assistance. Iraq’s population at the time of the US invasion in March 2003 was roughly 27 million, and today it is approximately 23 million. Elementary arithmetic indicates that currently over half the population of Iraq are either refugees, in need of emergency aid, wounded, or dead….

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Bush administration moves to block inquiries into CIA’s destruction of torture tapes
Joe Kay, WSWS
The Bush administration has taken aggressive steps to undermine congressional and judicial inquiries into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes showing the torture of at least two prisoners. The move is only the latest demonstration of the administration’s lawlessness and contempt for democratic and constitutional norms. The tapes in question recorded hundreds of hours of interrogation of two alleged Al Qaeda members, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, both captured by the CIA in 2002. Among the techniques used on the prisoners was water-boarding, a notorious torture method involving the near-drowning of the prisoner. Earlier this month, CIA director Michael Hayden acknowledged that the intelligence agency had destroyed the tapes in November 2005….

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Iran-U.S. talks on Iraq at ambassador level: Mottaki
Tehran Times
Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said here on Sunday that the talks between Iranian and U.S. officials over security situation in Iraq would be held at the ambassadorial level at the highest. “There is no need to raise the level of talks,” Mottaki told Al-Alam News Network. Iran has agreed with a fourth round of talks with the United States on Iraq security condition. The Iranian and U.S. ambassadors to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi and Ryan Crocker, met on August 6 in Baghdad for their third round of security talks. The first and second rounds of negotiations were held in Baghdad on May 28 and July 24…

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U.S. reviews Afghanistan mission amid fears of losing battle against Taliban
The Canadian Press
The United States is turning more attention to the war in Afghanistan amid concerns about rising violence and fears of losing the battle against the Taliban. American officials are reviewing all facets of their operation and President George W. Bush, under pressure to shift American troops from Iraq, will start holding regular videoconferences with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The United States is considering its long-term strategy as NATO conducts its own review of the mission. Other countries like Canada are assessing their future in the country, plagued this year by a resurgent Taliban, increased opium harvests and signs that al-Qaida terrorists are regrouping….

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Official complaint to the BBC about Paxman and the British-American Project
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat’s Dream
After my e-mail exchange with BBC’s Jeremy Paxman on his involvement with the British-American Project, I submitted today the following official complaint to the BBC. Please, read here below and use the BBC website’s form to send your complaint to the BBC. *** BBC Editorial Guidelines reads: “Presenters of News and Current Affairs programmes. In the case of those known to the public primarily as presenters of, or reporters on, BBC news programmes and programmes about current affairs, there is a greater possibility of conflict of interest. Care must be taken to ensure that they remain impartial when speaking publicly (see section 2.1 above) and do not promote any political party, campaigning organisation or lobby group which may jeopardise their status as an impartial broadcaster. The chairing of conferences may well be acceptable, but it is essential that the conference is not a promotional exercise or one-sided on an issue of public controversy. They should consult the relevant Head of Department about the suitability of public appearances and conference work. The onus is on the presenters and reporters to inform the relevant Head of Department about the range of public appearances which they undertake.” Not only is BBC’s Jeremy Paxman a Fellow of the British-American Project, he’s also the “face” of such a Project, being his photo on the homepage of the British-American Project’s website where Paxman endorses it with the fo! llowing statement: “A marvellous way of meeting a varied cross-section of transatlantic friends” Among those “friends”, there are Paul Wolfowitz and Diana Negroponte (John Negroponte’s wife) and among the “friends’ supporters” there are Citigroup, BP, Vodafone, US Embassy, JP Morgan and many others…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 17 December 2007
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
…In a dispatch posted at 8:36pm Baghdad time Monday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the US military admitted that one of its troops had been killed near at-Taji camp, in the northern suburbs of Baghdad on Monday. Yaqen reported a US communiqué as saying that the American died of wounds received in the camp but offered no further details other than to assert that the death was not combat related…

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The GCC Party Continues in Paris
karlmarxwasright
Everybody is aware of an “international donors conference” currently happening in Paris regarding Palestine. A general statement, first, about that conference, in case you happen to live on the moon. However, as the following two articles explain, the GCC and Arab states are emerging as THE major donors in this ongoing, extended GCC and Islamic Finance extravaganza and feeding frenzy, about which I’ve been writing throughout the month of November up to and including the present with Kuwait and the Saudi’s being among the largest of the INVESTORS, the more proper term than donors…

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The ‘Body Contractors’
Death squads are killing fewer people, but they’re also taking more care to hide their grisly handiwork.
Alaa al-Marjani / AP
Jabber Sowadi’s job says something about the depths to which Iraq has sunk. He’s a mutahid al juthath—a “body contractor.” A 38-year-old Shiite who sports a thin beard and a checkered black-and-white kaffiyeh, Sowadi charges clients $300 to $500 to track down missing relatives, or more often their corpses. For the past two years he’s been nurturing contacts in prisons, hospitals, morgues and cemeteries. He doles out bribes for tidbits of information or favors. He even volunteers to bury unidentified bodies at the morgue, carefully noting what they look like and where they were found—details that may help him with cases later. He says business is slower now that security has tentatively begun to return to Baghdad. But the job has also gotten tougher: death squads, he says, have taken to hiding their victims’ corpses rather than dumping them openly in the street. “The kidnapping and killing of people … is in a more secret way than before,” he says….

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Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill five Palestinians
Rami Almeghari – IMEMC&
One more Israeli air strike on Gaza killed on Monday night three Palestinian resistance fighters of the Islamic Jihad group’s armed wing ‘Saraya aL-Quds’. Such a strike came shortly after leader of the Saraya aL-Quds, Majed aL-Harazin and his aid were killed during a missile strike on their car in western Gaza city earlier tonight. Media reports said those killed were the chief of the manufacture unit at the Saraya aL-Quds of the Islamic Jihad, Abdelkarim aL-Dahdouh, his brother Ahmad and Ammar aL-Said. Medical sources reported that corpses of the killed reached the hospital dismembered as some children were among five other people injured during the air strikes…

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Monday: 2 US Soldiers, 47 Iraqis Killed; 59 Iraqis Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 47 Iraqis were killed and 59 more were wounded in the latest round of violence. A bomber tried to collapse a dam in northern Iraq that could have cost the lives of tens of thousands of people downriver. Another bomber in Balad Ruz caused over two dozen casualties. Also, a U.S. soldier died in a non-combat incident at Camp Taji today, and another soldier died yesterday during an event that is under investigation. In Balad Ruz, a suicide bike bomber killed seven and wounded 24, including children, at a marketplace….

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CAN A DEMOCRACY BE RACIST?
A DesertPeace Editorial
Sixty years of being denied access to certain aspects of society or being treated without full dignity has become a way of life for an entire segment of the population. An attitude of ‘there is nothing we can do about it’ is not prevalent among the majority, but it does exist. Acceptance of this wrong is as wrong as the problem itself. It is manifested most noticeably through the racial profiling practiced in Israel, again, most noticeably in public places where security checks are carried out. People entering shopping malls are checked for munitions or anything else questionable….

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AF: Resuming demolition of Maghareba path is demolition of Aqsa Mosque
Palestinian Information Center
The Aqsa Foundation catering for Islamic shrines in Palestine on Monday warned of the Israeli government’s decision to resume demolishing the Maghareba historical path leading to the Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. The Foundation in a statement said that the decision would mean destroying part of the Aqsa Mosque because the Maghareba path is part and parcel of the Mosque. Such destruction works would greatly endanger the holy site and destabilize its foundations especially when the Israeli occupation authority’s excavations under it did not stop ever since its occupation of the Mosque 40 years ago, the AF pointed out….

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GI Special 5L12: “ I Gave Birth To The Military” [ December 16, 2007 ]
Thomas F. Barton
“I Often Say I Was Born In The Military, I Married The Military And I Gave Birth To The Military”
“I Support Our Military, Not The Reasons For The Wars”
“I Speak Out Against The War, With My Family’s Full Support”
I wish I could believe this whole exercise in Iraq was completely justified, at least then if the worst happens, I could believe that the loss of one of my loved ones might actually accomplish something. Sincerely I hope I am proven wrong, for it to be otherwise is such an unbelievably painful place to be.

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