SADDAM HUSSEIN’S GREATEST LEGACY: DECEMBER 2003 TO DECEMBER 2006 (PART TWO OF THREE)
Malcom Lagauche
…At 6:00am, Baghdad time, on December 30, 2006, a mere four days after the appeals court ruling, Saddam Hussein was hanged. Until the lever was pulled, he displayed courage and integrity. The U.S. had waited since 1990 for Saddam to admit defeat or show any sign of capitulation or fear. He never did. The hanging was the last chance for the U.S. to attain its goal. Administration members hoped he would cringe or show fear. Just the opposite occurred. Saddam went to the gallows and refused to wear a hood over his head, although his hangmen were hooded. A sanitized version of the execution was broadcast to the world. It showed the hangmen putting a noose around Saddam’s neck and then the hanging. There was no sound. Shortly after, a real view of the execution came forth. Someone in the room recorded the event on a cell phone. In the crowd were hecklers. They taunted Saddam Hussein, yet he never allowed himself to be degraded. When one of the executioners shouted, “Long live Muqtada al-Sadr,” Saddam mocked the Shi’ite upstart, then he began to recite an Islamic verse and the hangman pulled the plug….

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In the same prison together
Sonja Karkar, The Electronic Intifada
As Christmas approaches this year, the thoughts of Christians all over the world will once again turn to Bethlehem, the holy town where Jesus was born over two millennia ago. Voices will be raised in joyful celebration and children everywhere will recreate the Christmas story to help us remember the circumstances in which the Christ child was born. Such a momentous occasion in such humble surroundings heralded a new way of thinking about people’s relationship with God and with each other. It shook the foundations of an unforgiving society presided over by an unforgiving God and proclaimed peace and goodwill on earth amongst all people. There was indeed much to hope for….

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AlQaeda inside the American jails in Iraq
Mohammed, Last of Iraqis
I was watching TV few days ago when I saw a show that really got my attention, it was on Alarabyia satellite news channel, it was about how AlQaeda had a great influence inside the American jails in Iraq and there was statements from witnesses who were prisoners in these jails, they described how the conditions are, and what is really happening there, it was a real shock to me….. here is a small part of the show… Alqaeda is in total control over the American prisons, they have organized cells, they sentence people (prisoners) by laws they make, they kill and torture and there is nothing anyone can do, they even have swords which they use to chop prisoners and cut their heads, they have a Jihad prince who is guarded by many members, who gives orders like he is an army general….

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A criminal conspiracy
White House, CIA hid torture tapes from 9/11 Commission
Joe Kay, WSWS
The CIA withheld videotapes of the abuse of suspected Al Qaeda members from the 9/11 Commission despite repeated requests for information on interrogations directed to top CIA and White House officials, according to the executive director of the commission. The CIA has acknowledged that in November 2005, more than a year after the requests were made, it destroyed tapes of CIA interrogations of two alleged Al Qaeda leaders, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri…

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Iraqi fighters display new weapons
Iraq correspondent Hoda Abdel Hamid, Aljazeera.net
Foreign forces in Iraq are hoping that a much heralded drop in violence in Iraq will continue into the new year. However, in exclusive images obtained by Al Jazeera, it seems fighters from the Islamic Front for Resistance in Iraq (Jami) are merely biding their time and training hard with an array of new weapons in order to drive foreign forces out as soon as possible….

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What has the US “surge” in Iraq accomplished?
James Cogan,WSWS
…The US military has made no attempt to prevent the ethnic cleansing take place. Instead, it has assisted the segregation by throwing up 12-foot concrete walls around Sunni suburbs of Baghdad, transforming the city into a series of sealed off ghettos. A resident of one, the Ghazaliya district, told the Christian Science Monitor earlier this month: “Iraq is a prison and now I live in my own little prison.” Throughout the capital and across the country, the US military abandoned any pretense of trying to develop the authority of the Iraqi government. Instead, it pursued a policy of striking deals with whatever militia force or political formation dominated particular districts or suburbs. In Baghdad’s densely populated Shiite working class slum of Sadr City, arrangements have been made with representatives of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, which is blamed for much of the violence against Sunnis. In return for promising to turn over recalcitrant elements that attack US forces, Sadr’s militia is allowed to openly rule over much of the capital, including areas that it had purged of Sunni inhabitants…

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New American roadmap to overthrow Maliki’s government
Roads to Iraq
The report of the Jordanian newspaper “Alarab Alyawm” today confirms what I said yesterday, sources told the newspaper that the US started a new “Roadmap” to overthrow Maliki’s government in an acceptable manner. The plan being prepared for two months by Condoleezza Rice, which will starts effectively under the slogan (national reconciliation) in the coming Cairo conference and sponsored three Arab countries, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with the participation of Baath party and AMSI. The most prominent features of the project, which is backed by the United Nations, Britain, France, Japan and number of European countries, preparation of a new political map in Iraq to be implemented in the first half of next year, and begin the formation of a new government in February, after the removal of Maliki’s government….

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From UK to Gaza: Greetings with tears of Rage In Our eyes
Stuart Littlewood & Felicity Arbuthnot
“Felicity Arbithnot and David Halpin join me in sending our thoughts at this unhappiest of Christmas-times in Gaza. Greetings to all the citizens of Gaza, and the many new friends from my short visit last month. And congratulations to you guys at PCAS for producing this excellent website and providing a channel of communication with the outside world. As an Englishman I am embarrassed to show you this letter just received from Kim Howells, Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office responsible for the Middle East, in reply to questions put to him…..

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In Gaza, Santa Is Insolvent
Mohammed Omer
“Santa Claus is empty handed this year…insolvent,” says Father Manuel Musallam, head of the Holy Family School in Gaza City. “All forms of celebration are absent,” he says, raising his empty palms skywards. “We Christians and Muslims all live in fear and instability. The Israeli tanks, bulldozers and warplanes have laid siege on us all.” His school, which has both Muslim and Christian students, likes to celebrate including all; this year few celebrations were planned, for fewer children….

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There really is a War on Christmas- in Iraq!
Turkana, Daily Kos
…Christianity took root here near the dawn of the faith 2,000 years ago, making Iraq home to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities. The country is rich in biblical significance: scholars believe the Garden of Eden described in Genesis was in Iraq; Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees, a city in Iraq; the city of Nineveh that the prophet Jonah visited after being spit out by a giant fish was in Iraq. Both Chaldean Catholics and Assyrian Christians, the country’s largest Christian sects, still pray in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. They have long been a tiny minority amid a sea of Islamic faith. But under Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s million or so Christians for the most part coexisted peacefully with Muslims, both the dominant Sunnis and the majority Shiites. One of the oldest Christian communities in the world, for the most part peacefully coexisting with its Muslim neighbors. And then came Bush (…) For tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians- those lucky enough to have survived the carnage- there will be no Christmas at home, this year. They are the victims of the real war on Christmas, and the man singularly responsible for having launched it and prosecuted it is none other than George W. Bush….

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Sombre Christmas in Iraq
Linda Isam Haddad and Nihal Salem, Aljazeera.net
Rita and Maria Farid, two Iraqi Christians living in the central Baghdad district of Karrada, did not want to celebrate Christmas this year and only bought a tree at the last minute. “Christmas is very difficult for us. It’s a time for family and friends, and this year for the first time, our family is incomplete,” Maria Farid said. In early May, Majid Farid, their brother, was killed in a car bomb blast as he walked to a currency exchange centre not far from the family home. “He was going to convert Iraqi dinars to dollars to go to Jordan and meet a lovely Iraqi woman he had hoped to marry,” Maria recalled….

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 23 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 11:13am Baghdad time Sunday morning, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the Iraqi Resistance fired at least five mortar rounds into the US-occupied al-Bakr Air Base in the area of Yathrib, about 70km north of Baghdad. The Americans have dubbed the base “Camp Anaconda.” Yaqen reported eyewitnesses as saying that they could hear the sound of mortar shells exploding inside the base early Sunday morning….

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Sympathy for the Occupiers
Democracy Now!: Ambivalent on Occupation?
Kim Petersen
Democracy Now! carried an extremely sympathetic interview on the 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company in Adhamiya, Iraq. The platoon refused to go out on patrol fearing that they might commit a massacre. People of good conscience would applaud this “mutiny” of Charlie Company. The interview is with Kelly Kennedy of the Army Times, a newspaper geared toward US Army and US National Guard personnel and their families. It is predictable that Kelly, a veteran, would impart a sympathetic view toward the men of Charlie Platoon. But her propaganda went unchallenged on the “independent,” left-leaning DN. For instance, she talked about “catching insurgents,” a demonization of the Iraqi resistance. Iraqis have a legitimate right to resist occupation (…) DN host Gonzales wondered about “the soldiers finding that they’re on a mission to help a people, but they have so much hostility from the very people that they are there to help, the impact of that on their fighting ability or on the morale.” Does Gonzales really wish to leave the viewers with the impression that he believes the soldiers are in Iraq on a noble mission to help Iraqis!? Does he want to portray Iraqis as ungrateful because of their hostility to foreign occupation?..

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Israel moves to expand settlements; Rice says ‘she understands’
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
Days after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Israel for approving the expansion of settlements on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank, she abruptly changed her position when Israel refused to back down. Now, as Israeli authorities announce further expansion of settlements than what was originally criticized, Rice compliantly responded that ‘she understands’ Israel’s position now, adding that Israeli officials have shown her that they are serious about their responsibilities in the so-called ‘peace process’. The Israeli government has approved the proposed Housing Ministry’s budget for the year 2008, which includes 500 new units in the ‘Har Homa’ settlement built on Palestinian land near Bethlehem, and 240 new units in the ‘Ma’ale Adumim’ settlement east of Jerusalem….

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Meanwhile, in the West Bank
Gideon Levy
Don’t let the quiet fool you: It is imaginary. While all eyes are on Gaza, the impression has been created, under the aegis of a media turning a blind eye, that the West Bank is quiet. That’s where the “good guys” are in charge, those with whom we went to Annapolis, those who will be getting the money from the donor nations, and life there is great, so it seems. Well, that is not the case. The lives of the Palestinians in the West Bank are also intolerable, blood is being shed there too. For the Israel Defense Forces it is business as usual, with a frighteningly quick finger on the trigger. The spirit of Annapolis and the lofty words of the prime minister do not prevail there….

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They Do Not Exist, And That Is Official
Mona Alami
In the maze of dirty streets that spreads from Beirut’s revamped Sport City to the shabby Halabi quarters, 20,000 refugees are clustered in what is known as the Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian camp. In a town plagued by poverty, many families live in complete destitution. These forgotten people have fallen through the cracks of legality and belong nowhere: they are known as non-ID Palestinians. With the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, many Palestinians fled their homeland to Lebanon. Today, there are approximately 400,000 refugees living in the ‘Land of the Cedars’, some with no documentation, and not registered with either the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) or the Lebanese authorities….

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U.S. copter fire leaves 9 casualties in Samarra
Voices of Iraq
A U.S. helicopter killed three gunmen while trying to plant an improvised explosive device in central Samarra, an Iraqi police source said on Monday, adding the U.S. fire also left two civilians killed and four others, including a woman, wounded. “The gunmen were planting an IED in al-Dhubbat neighborhood in central Samarra when a U.S. chopper opened fire at them, killing all three gunmen instantly,” the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) by telephone. “The U.S. aircraft also killed two civilian pedestrians and wounded four others, including a woman, who happened to be near the firing scene,” the source added….

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Top 10 Reasons Not to Grow up in Iraq as a Child
Remarking on the Unremarkable Politics of Today
Imagine growing up in Iraq which has been dubbed the world’s best-known conflict and its least well-known humanitarian crisis. 1. The continuing violence in Iraq displaces 25,000 children every month as their families are forced to seek shelter in other parts of Iraq or outside its borders. 2. Approximately 75,000 children were living in camps or temporary shelters by the end of this year. 3. This year alone, 1350 children were detained by military and police authorities for alleged security violations….

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Refusing to accept apartheid in Beit Jala
Adri Nieuwhof and Amer Madi writing from Beit Jala, occupied West Bank, Live from Palestine
Last night the rains finally arrived in Beit Jala, a small town in the West Bank, one kilometer west of Bethlehem and about eight kilometers south of Jerusalem. Its alluring hills are covered with olive trees, vineyards and apricots. In 1967 Israel confiscated 22 percent of Beit Jala’s land. Now, the construction of Israel’s separation wall is in full swing and will cut off another 45 per cent of Beit Jala’s land. We went to visit the area to feel the impact of the wall and listen to the stories of the farmers who didn’t sell their land and choose to resist the its confiscation…

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Drama continues
Nabil’s blog
…The situation in Iraq is just so damn ironic, a month ago I was talking to my cousin through the internet and I was asking him about how the situation is now in that area. He tried to explain to me the changes that have taken place in Baghdad, he said that the situation is about 5% better than how it was when I was Iraq, he says “do you remember the men we used to see on motorbics who used to kidnap people and kill people? Alqa`ida men?” I said “sure”, he goes “well, yeah, now they call themselevs the Awakening men of Adhamiya, they have removed Alqa`ida masks from their stinky faces and now wearing the masks of the awakening wave, he said you would be amazed if you come to the area and see the checkpoints ran by even children, you may see a 14 year old kid rasing a gun in your face and asking you to obey him in order to check you for guns and explosives, he said the only reason that the situation now is a little better in the area is because the American troops have paid those guys money in order to work with them”, he continues saying “the whole issue is about money, give money you get alliances”….”the only thing changed is their name from Alqa`ida to the Awakening men, nothing else have changed”…

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Drug contaminated with HIV-AIDS in Iraq
Alsumaria TV Iraq
Fear spread among Babel Province residents after receiving reports from Babel medical officials that the “Albumin” drug was contaminated with HIV-AIDS.
Babel governor Salem Mehdi Saleh said the Health Ministry ordered to withdraw the drug “Albumin” from the pharmacies and warehouses across Iraq while it is carrying out laboratory tests on the drug. In a statement to Al Hayat Newspaper, Saleh called for an immediate and large scale campaign to withdraw the contaminated drug….

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