SADDAM HUSSEIN’S GREATEST LEGACY: DECEMBER 2003 TO DECEMBER 2006 (PART THREE OF THREE)
Malcom Lagauche
…Many Western observers are not aware that Saddam Hussein was well-regarded in much of the world. Brazilians remembered that thousands of their countrymen were recruited by Saddam to build the advanced highway and bridge systems that once crisscrossed Iraq. Egyptians did not forget that a few million of their countrymen owned and worked land in Iraq prior to January 1991. Indians did not forget the reciprocal dealings with Iraq and how the Ba’athists gave support to Indian causes. The Lebanese remembered the dozens of Iraqi trucks that showed up daily at the Lebanese border during that country’s civil war. They were laden with food and clothing for any Lebanese person in need. The convoys’ recipients included all Lebanese, not a certain faction of those battling in the civil war. Most Palestinians display a picture of Saddam Hussein on their walls. Over the years, many nations have temporarily supported the Palestinian cause, only to withdraw aid once threatened by the U.S. Saddam Hussein, even during the embargo years, supported the Palestinians with no exception, while other Arab regimes did not want to get involved because they did not want to upset their puppeteers in Washington and Tel Aviv….

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FLASHBACK: To Saddam Hussein
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
…They say you were authoritarian and totalitarian. Come and see them now.
See their Fascism infesting the streets. See it in every neighborhood, see it in every corner . You said Women are the Pioneers of this Arab Ummah , come and look at us now. Rape has replaced sexual intercourse, censorship replaced education and forced domestication has replaced public life. You said Education is the sign of a Progressive Ummah. Our schools and universities are empty.And our Brains drained and killed. You said Health is Free for all. Our hospitals are dilapidated and our doctors in exode. You said Kurds are our brothers, they are now being trained as snipers by Israel. You said Christians and Muslims are part of this mosaic called Iraq. The Christians are fleeing by thousands and the churches are deserted. Look at me Sir. I am a product of this wonderful mosaic called Iraq. I am half Muslim and half Christian. And the Muslim half has Shi’as and if you dig hard enough you will find Kurdish, Armenian, Turkish, Chaldean, Arabic roots all the way back… Where is my place now Sir ?…

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Third road between
Mohamed Darwish, Al-Ahram Weekly
…Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Gates both toured the region in late July to underline the message that the 2007 arms deals aim to fortify Washington’s allies in the region aimed at offsetting the negative impact of Al-Qaeda, Hizbullah, Syria and Iran. But observers now believe that, for all the hype about weapon sales to the Gulf, a showdown is unlikely. Washington and Tehran seem to be sorting out their differences in Iraq. And there are signs that Damascus, which took part in the Annapolis conference, may resume talks about the Golan Heights. The Arab world is aware that the current US-Iranian conflict may not last for long. In fact, an Iranian-US alliance, with Israel hopping aboard at some point, is not to be ruled out. Once the Iranians and the Americans forget their current disagreements, they may find a way of dividing the Gulf region between them. The current shouting game is about interests, not principles….

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A year of Palestinian disunity
Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly
2007 has not been an ordinary year for Palestinians and their enduring cause. It witnessed a mini-civil war between Fatah and Hamas, a short-lived government of national unity, followed by a brief but bloody showdown in Gaza that ended with Hamas taking over the coastal strip. For its part, Fatah retaliated by establishing its own separate authority in Ramallah and instigating a vindictive and widespread inquisition against Hamas supporters and institutions in the West Bank. Towards the year’s end, another “peace conference” sponsored by the United States took place in Annapolis, Maryland. However, like numerous prior peace conferences and initiatives, the Annapolis meeting, despite its initial fanfare and euphoria, carried little promise for genuine peace in Palestine….

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Smother until surrender
Laila El-Haddad, Guardian
How have things in Gaza changed over the past 12 months? Sadly, there are no rosy reflections to be found here. Things were bad in Gaza this year. Very bad. Whether looked at from a political or purely humanitarian perspective, it’s difficult to see the upside where there is such an orchestrated global drive to maintain the status quo: smother until surrender. The health indicators are telling: about a quarter of essential drugs and a third of essential medical supplies were unavailable in the Gaza Strip in October 2007. Less than half of Gaza’s food import needs are currently being met. Fuel reserves are almost at zero after punitive cuts by the Israeli government began last month. And with diesel-run water-pumps unable to function, tens of thousands of Gazans are without access to fresh drinking water. Everything considered “non-essential” has disappeared from supermarket shelves…

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Strange pussyfooting on Cairo
Arablinks
There is confirmation of plans for a “reconciliation” conference in Cairo next month that is supposed to include representatives of Baathists and armed factions, in the form of remarks by three Iraqi-parliament officials to the newspaper Al-Hayat, which however publishes the story only in its Saudi edition, and not in the edition that is published on the web…

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Cairo to host Iraqi conference next month – paper
Voices of Iraq
A reconciliation conference tackling controversial issues and attended by Baathists and representatives of the opposition parties will be held in Cairo next month, parliamentary sources said on Friday. “Cairo conference will be an extension to conferences held in Beirut and the Dead Sea this year with the participation of figures considered affiliated with armed and Baathist factions”, London-based al-Hayat quoted lawmaker Wail Abdel Latif as saying. “The conference will tackle three key issues; federalism, joining the political process and the presence of the foreign troops in Iraq,” the MP said. “An independent figure has been assigned to send invitations to all sides concerned,” he added…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Friday, 28 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 1:37pm Baghdad time Friday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that US troops accompanied by puppet army soldiers and puppet “Iraqi Interior Ministry” troops arrested about 100 civilians in the Baghdad neighborhood of as-Sayyidiyah in a wave of arrests on Wednesday and Thursday. The AMSI reported eyewitnesses as saying that US troops and puppet “Iraqi National Guards” of the al-Muthanna Brigade and puppet “Iraqi Interior Ministry Shock Troops (Maghawir)” carried out mass raids and arrests in the as-Sayyidiyah neighborhoods, rounding up people at random “just for questioning,” as they said. Then in a dispatch posted at 8:28pm Baghdad time Friday night, AMSI reported that forces of the al-Muthanna Brigade of the puppet “Iraqi National Guards” had made another 60 arrests in as-Sayyidiyah as their “security sweep” of the area continued into Friday evening…

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The Israeli army attack school boys near Hebron
Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC
The Israeli army invaded the village of Sourif located near the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday midday and clashed with local school boys. Local sources said that several military jeeps stormed the village and started to provoke the local school boys as they were leaving their school. Soldiers detained some of the children and beat them up. Witnesses said that in response to the soldiers’ actions the children threw stones and empty glass bottles at the invading troops, soldiers in their turn opened fire using live rounds and tear gas, medical sources reported no injures….

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Bhutto Wanted Ties with Israel; Sought Mossad Protection
Jeremy Reynalds, Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
Israeli media reports on Friday revealed that slain Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto intended to establish official relations with the Jewish state if elected, and was seeking Mossad protection in the interim. A story on the Israel Today web site reported that in speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert grieved over Bhutto’s assassination following an election rally on Thursday. Olmert said that upon her return to Pakistan in October after years of exile, Bhutto told him through a mutual acquaintance that she wanted close ties between Israel and Pakistan. Israel Today also reported that the Hebrew daily newspaper Ma’ariv further revealed that Bhutto had asked Israel’s Mossad spy agency, along with the CIA and Britain’s Scotland Yard, to help protect her in the run-up to Pakistan’s January 8 election…

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BHUTTO, BUSH, AND MUSHARRAF
John Chuckman
With the assassination of Ms. Bhutto, we are given to understand, by many newspaper stories and broadcasts, that anti-democratic religious zealots killed Pakistan’s last hope for democracy (…) Ms. Bhutto was regarded in Washington as more amenable to American demands in Pakistan. She had the double merit of being able to give Pakistan’s government the gloss of democracy while serving key American interests. But it couldn’t be clearer that democracy is not what the U.S. was really concerned with, because Musharraf was just a fine ally so long as he did as he was told. The truth is that Musharraf has, in opposing America’s demands, been a rather brave representative of Pakistan’s interests, a patriot in American parlance…..

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The reality behind Britain’s claims of military success in Iraq and Afghanistan
Harvey Thompson, WSWS
…In reality, the occupation of Afghanistan is now entering its seventh year. In that period, the country has slipped further and further into poverty, corruption and social and political instability to where it now stands as one of the poorest, most corrupt and most dangerous places on earth. As recent military operations, such as that surrounding the town of Musa Qala, illustrate, NATO’s so-called “hearts and minds” policy has run into the sand. Popular opposition to the occupation forces and its client government in Kabul has grown in strength and scope year on year since at least 2005. This year, the capital faced its most violent period since the civil war of the 1990s, and 2007 also saw the instability and violence spread northwards.This was by far the bloodiest year of the occupation in the numbers of both civilians and soldiers killed and maimed….

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Christians United For Israel Summit …(and some say there ain’t no lobby?)
Peacepalestine
What follows is a very strange document. It is page 22 of the October edition of the glossy booklet by Christians United for Israel, a lobby that claims it has 50 million members and 5 million Jewish sympathisers. Now, there are many who say, “Lobby? NO WAY!” I ask them to read this document which is the (claimed) testimonial of a young Jewish university student who attended their DC Summit. I have a few doubts that it’s bona fide, because the grammatical errors you see – such as a comma before ‘and’ in a three part clause – are carried through in the rest of the booklet, which has as its publisher John and Diana Hagee and its writers people like David Brog (executive director of CUFI, executive at AOL, proud Jew and author of the article about Randy Travis and Joe Lieberman, “Separated at Birth” and Gary Bauer.) The young man has a secret identity, or else he’s not in the habit of signing his name when making a testimonial, highly irregular! But, there are some very interesting elements in this letter, fake or not….

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Israeli Foreign Ministry plans to drop Syria from ‘radical axis’ list
Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
The Foreign Ministry has placed the Syrian issue as one of its central objectives for 2008. A document published by the ministry states its intention to “formulate a strategic plan to remove Syria from the radical axis.” Senior officials in the Foreign Ministry indicated that there is still no clear program for reaching this goal, but that a list of ideas includes the distancing of Syria from Iran, Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist organizations….

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Baghdad’s wall-building surge makes reconciliation less likely
Rosa Brooks
From Baghdad to Tall Afar, our military has been busily constructing walls between and around Iraqi neighborhoods. In Baghdad, 12-foot-high walls now separate Sunni and Shiite communities. Broken by narrow checkpoints, the walls turn Baghdad into dozens of replica “green zones,” dividing neighbor from neighbor and choking off normal commerce and communications….

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Nakba is now
Serene Assir, Al-Ahram Weekly
Jamila Moussa was 19 when she and her husband fled Kfur Yassin, her village in Akka, north Palestine. They had just had their first child, Nicolas, who now has children of his own. Fearing for his safety they fled, hoping they would return within a matter of weeks. Since that day, Moussa has witnessed several wars — though none of them in Palestine. In interview with Al-Ahram Weekly this spring, from her home in Dbayye refugee camp, Lebanon, she recalled that the force of their expulsion was “a violence like I have never seen since, or had witnessed before. The British used to burn homes, yes, but the Jews, they were flattening our houses, so they no longer existed.” Though Moussa will soon turn 80, she tells her story with remarkable detail, perhaps sensing the foreclosure of time. She has transmitted her memories countless times to her children and grandchildren, all of whom were born refugees, reminding them of who they are. Now, on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) of the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, her story takes on new significance. Of the 6.5 million Palestinian refugees dispersed around the world today, precious few carry firsthand memories of their home….

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Another Washington failure
Xymphora
…Reading the numerous opinions on who killed Benazir Bhutto – and by the way, isn’t she just like Hillary’s long-lost twin sister in so many ways? – is like interpreting the answers to a Rorschach test, telling you much more about the prejudices of the guessers than anything about the assassination. The fact is that she was parachuted in by Washington in order to win a rigged election in a country where just about every power group absolutely hated her, a recipe for disaster. It is not so much a question of who killed her, but who got the first opportunity to succeed…

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Israeli forces gun down bodyguard of chief Palestinian negotiator
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
Just hours after the Palestinian Chief Negotiator, Ahmed Qureia, and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, their envoy was attacked by Israeli forces invading Ramallah. Mu’atasam Sharif al-Mahdi, a member of the Palestinian Presidential Guard, and a top-ranking security official, was killed by Israeli gunfire near Ramallah. Israeli sources claim that al-Mahdi was carrying a (licensed) handgun, which made Israeli soldiers mistake him for a fighter….

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100 Civilians Arrested in as-Sayyidiyah
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
The American occupation forces, Iraqi guard forces and internal ministry forces have arrested nearly 100 civilians in Sayyidiyah district during the raid campaign which took place on Wednesday and Thursday. Eyewitnesses confirmed that the occupation forces, the government Guards (Muthanna Brigade) and the Interior commandos launched a campaign of arrests including Sayyidiyah neighborhood areas. These forces indiscriminately arrested the people just questioning….

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“Economic Downturn,” Your Master Speaks and the 1975 Algiers Agreement
karlmarxwasright
….But, let’s return to a current development in an old story regarding the Iraq/Iran war and the 1975 Algiers Agreement and why it’s so historically important/interesting. According to this current report, the Iranian government now claims the 1975 Algiers Agreement stills stands and is “the cornerstone of relations” between the two countries. This is a textbook case of historical revisionism and the Big Lie technique. It could be used in a courtroom, a legal case. A complete refutation and contradiction of fact. So, how do they all get away with this? Another textbook example of the true meaning of conspiracy and how it operates in the real world and its function. Advancing the Big Lie requires a number of elements, among them, international agreement, complicity, dissemination, financial self-interest, duplicity, expediency by all or most parties concerned, replication, duplication, in the media, academia, positions of authority, and so on…

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Russia denies talks with Iran on S-300 deliveries
RIA Novosti
Russia is not negotiating deliveries of S-300 air defense systems to Iran despite certain media rumors, the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation said Friday. Media reports earlier cited Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar as saying that Iran and Russia had agreed to deliver an unspecified number of advanced S-300 air defense complexes to the Islamic Republic under a previously signed contract. “The issue of the delivery of S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran, raised by the media, is not a subject of current negotiations and has not been discussed with the Iranians,” the agency said in a statement on its website. “Russia and Iran are continuing to develop cooperation in the military-technical sphere in full accordance with international arms export regulations and obligations,” the statement said…

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