Notes from the Iraqi Resistance…
Layla Anwar, The Arab Woman Newsbytes
This post is a transcript of the interview with M.Al-Shammari,(head of the Islamic Army of Iraq/IAI) aired on Al-Jazeerah on the 9th of April 2008, an interview conducted by Ahmad Mansour (…) The IR has condemned and condemns attacks on civilians, we do not blow up markets filled with innocent lives. This is a propaganda tactic by the occupier to discredit us. Suicide bombings against Iraqi civilians, beheadings, car bombs and the rest are all the work of the Occupation, the mercenaries, the Mossad, the Iranian militias and its sectarian squads. On many occasions, cars have been stopped at checkpoints only to find out that during their search they (US forces and militias) have planted bombs in them without the car owner’s knowledge. The IR does not do such things. We need the Iraqi people, all of the Iraqi people, it is from them that we draw force and support, how can we target them ?…Our theological differences with Shiism can be resolved through discussion, we are not anti-Shiism. We are anti sectarian Shiite parties and militias who are supported by Iran. Our program is the liberation of ALL Iraqis and Iraq from the Occupation. We are not here to liberate Sunnis alone. Ours was never a Sunni program alone. We do not follow such sectarian thinking. Had Sunnis been sectarian, then historically, during the Abbassid, Ummayad and Ottoman eras (eras of Sunni rule) the Sunnis would have wiped out all other sects, including the Shias, but that has evidently not been t! he case. Our stand is for the Islamic Umma not for the Sunni sect. We defend the whole of Iraq not just the Sunnis….

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U.S. offensives on Falluja have disabled 500 children
Omer al-Mansouri, Azzaman
The number of children who have been handicapped or disabled due to massive U.S. offensives to subdue the restive city of Falluja has reached 500, according to a private aid group. Alaa Hamed of the Society for the Welfare of Children said the U.S-led military operations in the city have left behind “massive destruction and at least 500 mentally or physically handicapped children.” Falluja was once the main stronghold of groups opposing U.S. occupation among them al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia…

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Iraq: Mass Grave Found South of Baghdad
BUSHRA JUHI, AP
Iraqi soldiers acting on tips from detained Shiite militiamen found 14 bodies Saturday that had been buried in a field south of Baghdad, officials said. It was the second discovery this week of mass graves in the area, raising to 44 the number of bodies located by Iraqi troops. Twelve bodies found Saturday had been dumped in one grave about 500 yards away from the local office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement, while two others were buried together in a nearby area on the western outskirts of Mahmoudiya, a city spokesman said….

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Israeli blockade denying children medical aid
Malaysia Sun
Children have the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health, as stated in the UN Convention. Israel, as the occupying power, has a duty to ensure Gazan children have the highest attainable standard of health. However, the closing of almost all of Gaza’s border crossings ensures that doesn’t happen. Children have the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health, as stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)…

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Refugees fight forced return to Iraq war zones
UN dismay as tribunal allows British expulsions
Jamie Doward, The Observer
The United Nations last night accused the government of holding a ‘sword of Damocles’ over the heads of Iraqi refugees in Britain after it emerged that the Home Office had won a landmark test case giving it the power to return refugees to war-torn parts of their home country, including Basra and Baghdad…The Refugee Legal Centre has launched an urgent appeal against the ruling by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, which it says paves the way for the removal of the majority of Iraqi asylum seekers in the UK. ‘If we didn’t appeal the tribunal’s decision, the government would have a free hand to forcibly remove hundreds of Iraqi civilians to Baghdad,’ said Caroline Slocock, chief executive of the legal centre…

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The Cystic Fibrosis Quiz Of The Week
Lawrence of Cyberia
Who can spot the odd one out from among these four children? Well obviously, the little girl is the odd one out. She is an Israeli cystic fibrosis sufferer, whom we are encouraged to support through donations in an advertisement at Ha’aretz online. (See the ad in the right-hand column of this screen capture). In contrast, the three little boys – Muhammad a-Shanti (aged two), Mustafa a-Shanti (16 months), and seven-month-old Muhammad Abu Amra – are Palestinian cystic fibrosis patients who are no longer receiving treatment for their life-threatening condition, due to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip…

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US GIs in Iraq Suffer Worst Week of ‘08
ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
A roadside bomb killed an American soldier in Baghdad on Saturday, capping the bloodiest week for U.S. troops in Iraq this year. Clashes persisted in Shiite areas, even as the biggest Shiite militia sought to rein in its fighters. At least 13 Shiite militants were killed in the latest clashes in Baghdad’s militia stronghold of Sadr City, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said seven civilians also died in fighting, which erupted Friday night and tapered off Saturday. The U.S. military said the American soldier was killed in a blast Saturday morning in northwestern Baghdad but did not say whether Shiite militiamen were responsible.

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Palestinian Children Forced onto Street
Mel Frykberg
The deteriorating economic situation in the Palestinian territories has forced many Palestinian children to leave school and take up menial work in an effort to try and help their families survive economically. This Middle East Times journalist has traveled through both the West Bank and Gaza and is regularly accosted by young children at checkpoints hawking a variety of goods from food and refreshments to plastic toys and kitchen implements. “Please madam only two shekels” (about 45 U.S. cents) pleaded one wide-eyed youngster. He was bedecked in torn and grubby clothing as his grimy hand offered a few school utensils at the Qalandia checkpoint, which separates Ramallah from Jerusalem….

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ABC: BUSH Says He APPROVED TORTURE. What About SEXUAL Torture?
Troutfishing, Daily Kos
…ABC’s team, Jan Crawford Greenberg, Howard L. Rosenberg and Ariane de Vogue, landed an exclusive interview with president George W. Bush, who seemed unperturbed and unrepentant about the torture program he had ultimately spawned. The story breaks little ground, past details revealed last Wednesday by ABC, except to make crystal clear the fact that George W. Bush “approved” of torture methods prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. The ABC story byline is in itself misleading: “President says he knew his senior advisors approved tough interrogation methods.” Actually, Bush is head of the NSC – so, he didn’t merely “approve” the torture methods in the sense of “condoning” them. In this case “approval” meant that Bush put pen to paper and signed an NSC document authorizing the torture methods that the NSC “Principals” had hashed out. Then, Bush would have delegated authority to Rumnsfeld, Rice and whomever else to implement the torture policy. But, that’s misleading and, furthermore, we need to consider the obvious question of why Bush granted ABC the interview in the first place. Maybe the intent is to downplay the story and held defuse the issue. The Friday release of this certain lends support to that hypothesis…

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Victim 132 of Israeli Closure on Gaza Strip Dies
WAFA
Medical sources said on Saturday that a sick infant died as being unable to leave Gaza Strip for proper treatment due to the continued Israeli closure. They added that sex-month-old infant Basheer Hamo died after fighting severely with sickness due to heart disease. The number of the victims of the Israeli closure mounted to 132. A long list of patients awaits death as being unable to get proper treatment outside Gaza Strip due to the Israeli tight closure imposed several months ago…

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Sistani wants to meet al-Sadr, fights continue
Roads to Iraq
…Newspaper Al-Qabas own sources confirm the return of Muqtada al-Sadr to Najaf three days ago after Iran asked to take a decision about the recent splits between supporters and opposers of “disband and disarmament of Mahdi Army”, especially in Sadr-City. The interesting part about the report is: The Sadrists feel the growing political isolation and the need to invest in David Petraeus’ recent comments:” I think the way, the best way to characterize Muqtada al-Sadr is that he is the face and the leadership of a very important and legitimate political movement in Iraq””…

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Al khudari says” due of lack of fuel Gaza Strip will be plunged into darkness within days”
Manar Jibrin – IMEMC
Jamal al Khudari, head of the popular committee against the siege warned on Saturday with the continued stoppage of fuel to Gaza, then the power plants will be forced to shut down. During a press conference held in the main power plant in the central Gaza Strip, Al khudari called for Palestinian, Arab and international efforts to pressure Israel into lifting the siege of Gaza and to allow the fuel into the Gaza Strip. “When the power plant shuts down then everything shuts down causing devastion in the strip.” …

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Several dead in Iran mosque blast
Aljazeera.net
Eight people have been killed and 66 others wounded in an explosion in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, a national news agency has reported. The explosion on Saturday was caused by “a powerful bomb at Shiraz’s Mosque of the Martyrs after evening prayers”, a report by Fars news agency said, citing city officials. The death toll is expected to rise due to the severity of some people’s injuries, officials said. Mohamed Hasan al-Bahrani, Al Jazeera’s Tehran bureau chief, said that available information pointed to a bomb going off in the mosque after Maghreb and Isha prayers…

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Gates and Petraeus differ over troop levels in Iraq
Peter Spiegel and Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
President Bush, accepting the recommendation of Army Gen. David H. Petraeus to halt the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in July, said Thursday that he would give the war commander “all the time he needs” to decide on future troop cuts. But in a surprising show of public concern about an open-ended U.S. commitment, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told a Senate hearing that he hoped to resume troop reductions soon after a “brief” 45-day pause this summer. Gates’ comments, along with similar testimony from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were in stark contrast to those of Petraeus, who spent two days this week on Capitol Hill telling lawmakers that it could be months before conditions in Iraq permitted further troop withdrawals…

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A new screenplay for Cheney?
badger, Arablinks
…Meanwhile Petraeus, in Washington, realizing or having been told that the political de-Sadrization cum disarmament wasn’t working, called on Maliki (via Washington press-conference remarks) to not only recognize the legitimacy of the Sadrist trend, but to “work with” it, and not only that but to “hold out his hand” to it. So the Plan—for disarming Sadr and reconstituting a Maliki support-group with broad non-Sadr support—looks to be pretty much officially a shambles. Not only that: AlHayat this morning quotes two senior people in the GreenZone Interior and Defence Ministries who say if the Mahdi Army was ever put down in the South, probably what would happen would be a resurgence of the messianic groups that go by Army of Heaven, Followers of AlYamani, and so on, particularly in their strongholds in Basra, Najaf, and Karbala…

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Fighting Resumes Despite Muqtada al-Sadr’s Calls For Calm
Associated Press
The fighting has resumed between Shiite militants and U.S. and Iraqi forces around Baghdad’s Shiite district of Sadr City despite a call for calm by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The U.S. military says at least 13 Shiite militants died in the clashes, which erupted last night before tapering off today, a day after the assassination of one of al-Sadr’s top aides. Iraqi police say seven civilians were killed as a result of the fighting…

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Iraqi Parliament condemns “crime” of assassinating al-Nuri
Voices of Iraq
Iraqi parliament condemned on Saturday “the criminal act” of assassinating Sayid Riyadh al-Nuri, a senior aid to Sayid Muqtada al-Sadr. “The Iraqi Parliament speakership board condemns the criminal act of assassinating Sayid Riyadh al-Nuri, manager of ‘Martyr al-Sadr’ office in Najaf, on Friday,” said a release issued by the board and received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI)…

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289 killed, 1448 injured in two weeks in Sadr City – medic
Voices of Iraq
More than 289 persons have been killed and 1448 others wounded since the beginning of armed clashes in Sadr City on March 25, an official source in the health ministry said on Friday. “The death toll of the clashes and bombarding operations in Sadr City which started on March 25 rose to 289 dead and 1448 wounded,” the source, who asked for anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq (VOI)…

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In Gaza, Israel Unleashes Terror
Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News
A 12-year-old boy was among eight Palestinians who were killed when Israeli tanks, bulldozers and helicopters streamed into Gaza City yesterday wreaking havoc and unleashing carnage in the besieged territory. The boy, Ryad Al-Ewesi, was huddling with dozens of other children near the Burije refugee camp when he was fatally hit by the Israelis. Six other civilians were killed when a house in the same area was hit by tank and helicopter fire. Palestinian medics said the boy was shot in the abdomen and chest. Ten tanks and two armored bulldozers, backed by two US-made assault helicopters, entered Gaza early yesterday, drawing heavy resistance from Palestinian fighters, medics said….

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The Politics of Archaeology in East Jerusalem
Digging for Trouble
YIGAL BRONNER and NEVE GORDON
“Archaeology has become a weapon of dispossession,” Yonathan Mizrachi, an Israeli archaeologist, said in a recent telephone interview with us. He was referring to the way archaeology is being used in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood in the oldest part of Jerusalem, where, we believe, archaeological digs are being carried out as part of a concerted campaign to expel Palestinians from their ancestral home. That effort is orchestrated by an Israeli settler organization called Elad, a name formed from Hebrew letters that stand for “to the City of David.” …

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Iran Top Threat To Iraq, U.S. Says
Focus on Al-Qaeda Now Diminishing
Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer
…Bush reiterated yesterday that if Iran continues to help militias in Iraq, “then we’ll deal with them,” saying in an interview with ABC News that “we’re learning more about their habits and learning more about their routes” for infiltrating or sending equipment. But he also reaffirmed that he has no desire to go to war with Tehran. Saying that his job is to “solve these issues diplomatically,” Bush suggested heightened interest in reaching a solution with other countries. “You can’t solve these problems unilaterally. You’re going to need a multilateral forum.” Iran has long been seen as a spoiler in Iraq, with such strong ties to all of the major Shiite political and militia groups, including that of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, that other Arab countries have begun to regard Iraq as almost a client state of Iran…

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