‘It’s madness’.
Felicity Arbuthnot
…So what October surprises have the British left for the people of Basra? The ancient, battered, but still heart-wrenchingly beautiful (B.C., – Before ‘Crusade’) ‘Venice of the Middle East’? They have left rubble where homes and historic buildings nurtured and were nurtured , by successive generations. They have left broken doors, windows and walls, kicked down or blown in on raids on families sleeping in their beds. They have left broken hearts and lives.
The have left fundamentalist militias they either brought in with them, or against whom they failed to control the borders (and then blamed the Iraqis.) They have confined women to their homes at best and to death, often by beheading, for even wearing makeup, at worst. Britain’s finest have returned secular women to the equivalent of the burkha they were so keen to free them of in Afghanistan (nonsense of course, it was about strategc interests and a gas pipeline.) They have taken a town, where the worst harrassment a woman walking alone, through streets, by the canals, or the beauty of the Shatt Al Arab would suffer, was small, bare foot boys, selling dates, citrus fruits, sweets, who stuck like glue until they had beguilingly somehow persuaded you to buy the whole lot (then they would be back with more.) The embargo’s children, providing for their families, instead of aiming to be top of the class. Britain and America’s victims…

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Video
Congressman: ‘We’ve Ethnically Cleansed Most of Baghdad’
Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) on the decrease in violence in Iraq: “Sure, there’s less violence, but that’s because we’ve ethnically cleansed most of Baghdad.”

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SADDAM HUSSEIN’S GREATEST LEGACY: DECEMBER 2003 TO DECEMBER 2006 (PART ONE OF THREE)
Malcom Lagauche
Saddam Hussein was Iraq’s leader from 1973 (officially becoming Iraq’s president in 1979) to April 2003. His legacy is two-fold. On the one hand, he and the Ba’ath Party were the impetus behind turning Iraq from an Arab nation indistinguishable from its Arab neighbors to the most advanced Arab country in history. From 1973 to 1990, the literacy rate in Iraq rose from 35% to over 90%. Thousands of miles of roads were built and the country was completely electrified. Excellent universal health care, as well as education from primary school to university, was offered free-of-charge. Foreign scholars and writers were invited to visit Iraq and write about the country, as well as the Arab world. The Iraqi government gave them housing and paid their salaries so they could gain and disseminate information. In 1987, the New York Times called Baghdad “The Paris of the Middle East. On the other hand, after the U.S. attack on Iraq in 1991 that destroyed much of the country, and a 12-year devastating embargo, Saddam Hussein’s critics blamed him for the demise of the country that once was the jewel of the Arab world: the country his leadership produced….

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O little (divided) town of Bethlehem
Donald Macintyre, Independent
The Bethlehem craftsman Tawfiq Salsaa says simply that he was “inspired” to produce the first model with a “political meaning” he has turned out in more than half a century of continuous carving in olive wood and mother of pearl. “I was thinking about our problems and I thought that if Jesus was to come here today, he would find a wall. Then I started working on it. That’s how it came to express our situation.” “It” is certainly the most striking crib you’ll find this Christmas, deftly combining the nativity with the stark realities of Bethlehem 2,007 years later. Its beautifully carved wooden parts, detachable for easier packing and dispatch, depict the familiar scene of the infant Jesus, Joseph and Mary, the three wise men, complete with camels, and depending on the buyer’s taste, a palm tree or a stable, to indicate that there was no room at the inn….

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Beyond the Christmas lights, the real Bethlehem
Fadi Abu Sada, Palestine News Network
Of all the cities in Palestine, Betlehem is by far the most beautiful. Especially at this time of year, when dozens of laborers are decorating the streets in preparation for Christmas. At night, when all the lights come on, it looks even more fabulous. And yet, the city that beats with life during this time of the year is in reality a dead city. The dead city remains largely hidden form the hundreds of journalists from all over the world who have begun to arrive in the city in order to cover the Christmas celebrations. It remains hidden to most of the Christian pilgrims who have come to celebrate Christmas in the birthplace of Jesus Christ…

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U.S. fire kills civilian, injures another in Falluja- eyewitnesses
Voices of Iraq
One civilian was killed and another wounded when a U.S. patrol allegedly opened fire on a civilian vehicle in southern Falluja city, eyewitnesses said on Saturday. “On Friday evening, a U.S. patrol opened fire on a civilian vehicle on a main road in Aamiriya al-Falluja, killing a driver and wounding his companion,” eyewitnesses told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). The dead and the wounded were taken to the Falluja General Hospital, they indicated. U.S. forces searched the vehicle immediately after the shooting, but did not find any weapons, the eyewitnesses indicated….

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Israel wants to annihilate Palestinians, not reach peace with them
Comment by Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
I know I should be observing and enjoying the Eidul Adha, the most important holiday in the Islamic calendar. However, the ongoing orgy of killings and maiming in Gaza, carried out by the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of the holocaust, leaves me no choice but to identify with these unwept victims of Zionist wickedness and arrogance of power. In less than forty eight hours, more than 24 Palestinians have been killed. A large number of people have also been injured, some sustaining serious wounds that will leave them crippled for the rest of their lives…

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Ailing Gaza shut off from the world
Karin, MUNICH – AND A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING
SEVEN-MONTH-OLD Mohammed Abu Amra has been confined to Gaza’s main children’s hospital for four weeks now, suffering from suspected cystic fibrosis and immune deficiency. The hospital has run out of the drugs needed to treat the persistent high fever and the strained, painful breaths which convulse his thin ribcage at almost twice the healthy rate per minute. Fearing for his life, his doctors applied late last month for permission to transfer him to a hospital in Israel, but this week his family was still waiting to find out if the Israeli Government would allow him to leave the Gaza Strip….

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The Butcher’s Apron
Mike Whitney
…Don’t make me laugh. The entire system is marinated in a culture of violence and dishonesty. Nothing is salvageable. It all stinks. The real difference between the parties is minuscule but significant. The Democrats have become the party of traditional imperialism spearheaded by Brzezinski, Holbrooke, Albright and the other guardians of Empire. These are the master-puppeteers who operate behind the scenes for their well-heeled benefactors. Their focus is mainly on Central Asia; controlling resources from the Caspian Basin, “pacifying” Afghanistan, rallying the EU to a greater role in NATO, and continuing the apocryphal “war on terror” into infinity. It’s the Great Game redux. The Republican Party has become the party of neoconservatives. Their operational plan is “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm”. It aligns the US with the foreign policy objectives of Israel’s Likud Party. The focus is balkanizing the Middle East, undermining Arab nationalism, installing US-Israeli client regimes, and controlling the regions prodigious natural resources. It is a straightforward strategy for regional hegemony….

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Abdullah, Ahmadinejad Hold Wide-Ranging Talks
Arab News
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held talks here yesterday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on major regional and international issues as well as ways of strengthening bilateral ties, the Saudi Press Agency said. Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to perform Haj as guest of a Saudi king, arrived in the Kingdom on Monday accompanied by top aides. Nearly three million pilgrims from different parts of the Islamic world including several thousands from Iran performed Haj this year. “In my discussion with King Abdullah we discussed different ways to consolidate the brotherly relations among Muslim nations,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the Iranian media covering his trip. He described Tehran’s relations with Riyadh as “friendly,”….

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Iraq warning over Sunni patrols
BBC News
Iraq will not allow US-backed neighbourhood patrols to become a “third force” alongside police and the army, Iraq’s defence minister has said. Gen Abdel Qader Jassim said the Sunni-dominated patrols should be integrated into the regular Iraqi security forces. The patrols have been credited with the recent drop in violence in Iraq. But Shia leaders fear the patrols will turn against them after US troops leave Iraq, correspondents say….

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ISRAELI APARTHEID IS OLDER THAN THE WALL ITSELF
Desert Peace
Zionism is Racism! So it was declared in the United Nations with the only objections coming from Israel itself and their closest allies. The following excerpts taken from THIS essay state very clearly why zionism is racism…

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Israeli President refuses Hamas offer for a ceasefire
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
For the third time in as many years, the Israeli government has flatly refused an offer for peace made by the Palestinian government led by the Hamas party. “There will be no peace talks with the Palestinians until Qassam [homemade shells made by Palestinian resistance factions] attacks on Israel cease”, said Israeli President Shimon Peres on Friday, reiterating the refusal made earlier this week by the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. This puts the impetus entirely on the Palestinians, with no promise that Israel will stop their nightly invasions and daily bombings of the Gaza Strip if the Palestinian resistance stops the firing of homemade shells across the border into Israel. But Palestinian factions have reason to be doubtful, because past ceasefires which were carried out by Hamas and other resistance factions did not result in a subsequent ending of attacks by Israel…

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Iraq, Afghanistan War Costs Top Vietnam
Aaron Glantz
Congress’ approval Wednesday of $70 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mean the twin conflicts are now more costly to American taxpayers than the war in Vietnam. According to a study by the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Congress has now approved nearly $700 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Using inflation-adjusted dollars, the total cost of those wars has now surpassed the total cost of the Vietnam war (which ran to $670 billion),” the group’s Travis Sharp told OneWorld. “It’s also more than seven times larger than the Persian Gulf War ($94 billion) and more than twice the cost of the Korean war ($295 billion).”…

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‘Father Christmas’ beaten in West Bank demo: organisers
AFP
Israeli guards beat five demonstrators, including one dressed as Father Christmas, during a protest on Friday against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank, organisers said. About 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists attended the rally in the village of Um Salomona, near Bethlehem, the Biblical birthplace of Jesus that is preparing to celebrate Christmas. Israeli border guards armed with truncheons briefly detained one activist and beat another five during the rally, the organisers told AFP, adding that one was wearing a Santa Claus costume…

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U.S. soldier killed, 11 wounded in Iraq bombings
Xinhua
An American soldier was killed and 11 others were wounded when two roadside bomb attacks hit their vehicles in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Saturday. The attack took place when the soldier’s unit was conducting combat operations in Kirkuk province on Friday, a military statement said. The wounded soldiers were transported to a military medical facility for treatment, the statement added….

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BROADCAST EXCLUSIVE: Yemeni Man Imprisoned at CIA “Black Sites” Tells His Story of Kidnapping and Torture
Democracy Now!
Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, a victim of the CIA rendition program—kidnapped, held in secret jails, and tortured—speaks out in his first broadcast interview. In the fall of 2003, Bashmilah was detained in Jordan and turned over to the CIA. He was eventually flown to a secret prison he later found out was in Kabul, Afghanistan. In CIA custody, Mohamed says he was held in a freezing-cold cell, interrogated, shackled, force-fed and subjected to sleep deprivation and loud music for days. He attempted suicide at least three times. He talks about his interrogators and the American psychiatrists or psychologists who also played a role. Bashmilah has brought a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary, accused of abetting his kidnapping. In an in-depth and detailed interview from his home in Yemen, Bashmilah tell us his harrowing story…

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Truth, Lies, Errors and Bullshit About Iraq and Iran
Walter C. Uhler
…Mr. Gibson might have also assessed the tactical success of the surge in the context of increased Iranian influence in southern Iraq, in the context of Muqtada al-Sadr’s order to the Mahdi Army to stand down for six months (which ends in February), or even in the context of the increasing tension between Turkey and the Kurds in northern Iraq. He might have assessed the tactical success of the surge against the immense violence, death and destruction that the U.S. unleashed in Iraq since March 2003. Similarly, Mr. Gibson might even have assessed the tactical success of the surge in the context of the number of close air support sorties that dropped a “major munition” on Iraq in 2007…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Friday, 21 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 10:15am Baghdad time Friday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the US military admitted that one of its troops had been killed when a man wearing an explosive belt walked into a puppet police recruiting station in Mandali, in the Kan’an area of Diyala Province on Friday. Yaqen reported the American communiqué as saying that in addition, 10 US troops and their translator were wounded when a man wearing an explosive belt blew himself up in an attack on recruits to the puppet security forces on Thursday. Another five “civilians” were also wounded in the blast, according to the US announcement – the five being a reference to the recruits to the puppet police…

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Lupolianski calls for establishment of 40,000 housing units in E. Jerusalem
Palestinian Information Center
Uri Lupolianski, the Jewish mayor of occupied Jerusalem, has called for the construction of 40,000 housing units in the occupied holy city to impose new de facto conditions on the ground and to foil any attempt to surrender Jerusalem or parts of it to the Palestinians in final status negotiations. The Hebrew media quoted Lupolianski as saying that the Israeli government should heed his words and endorse the building of those new settlements…

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Rice: US Has ‘No Permanent Enemies’
MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday held out the prospect of improved relations with the remaining two members of President Bush’s “axis of evil,” Iran and North Korea, as long as they meet international demands over their nuclear programs. Rice said the Bush administration in its remaining year would welcome fundamental changes in its dealings with the two countries, as well as with Syria, and as an example pointed to warming ties with Libya, which renounced weapons of mass destruction in 2003….

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