An urgent appeal to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC):
The Iraqi political detainees are in danger of death.
The Iraqi Patriotic Committee to defend detainees in the US’ imprisonment’ camps – Al-Moharer
Since the last four days, the Iraqi political detainees jailed in the US’ imprisonment’ camps have been going on a hunger strike to protest against the extremely inhuman and bad treatment they suffer and endure on the hands of the US’ occupiers. Following this hunger strike the health of many Iraqi detainees has gravely deteriorated and five in amongst them went into coma. The US Occupiers refused to take the ailing detainees to hospitals unless they end their hunger strike or meet their fatal death in the US Occupiers’ detainment camp. The political detainees in the hands of the US occupiers, suffer from being held in underground extremely narrow prison’ cells, below the court buildings where the US occupiers stuff two human beings in one extremely tight cell in complete darkness with one open latrine and with no intimity to humiliate even more the jailed Iraqis patriots…

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Iraq: State of instability
Ahmed Janabi, Aljazeera.net
…Islamic Army in Iraq fighter, speaking on condition of anonymity: “First of all, there is nothing called an improved security situation, all that has happened is the government-backed militias who used to butcher people, were stopped from doing so for tactical reasons. “As to us, Iraqis and non-Iraqi volunteers who dedicated ourselves to driving the US occupation out of Iraq, we never stopped working, but the US officials like to distract the world with the monster they created, al-Qaeda. “More than 4,000 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, who killed them? The resistance of course, but they [the US] do not want to talk about it, they only want to continue crying loud ‘al-Qaeda’. “I can assure you, their surge policy is not working, and will never work.” …

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April 22, 2008: 5 GIs, 56 Iraqis Killed; 185 Iraqis Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 56 Iraqis were killed and 185 more were wounded in attacks across Iraq. Many of the wounded died either in Sadr City or during one of several significant bombings. Also, five U.S. servicemembers were killed in separate incidents, and two top aides to Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani died as well…

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400 civilians killed, 1720 wounded in Sadr City in 3 weeks
Voices of Iraq
At least 400 civilians were killed and 1720 others, including women and children, were wounded in the armed confrontations and bombarding operations that took place in Sadr city over the last three weeks, Falah Shenshel, lawmaker, said on Wednesday. “The city’s residents live in tough humanitarian condition because of the blockade imposed by U.S. and Iraqi forces three weeks ago,” Shenshel told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq (VOI) by phone….

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Documents Reveal “Reverse-Engineered” SERE Tactics Used in Afghan Torture
Antifascist Calling…
Documents released last week by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reveal that U.S. Special Forces interrogation teams operating in Paktia province illegally tortured Afghan prisoners. As a result of brutal treatment at the hands of his interrogators, one of the detainees subsequently died.Debriefing files from the military’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID), obtained as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Defense, confirmed that Special Operations officers in Gardez admitted to using “reverse-engineered” Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) techniques on detainees…

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VA confirms 18 vets commit suicide every day
Jason Leopold, Online Journal Contributing Writer
In a stunning admission, top officials at the Veterans Health Administration confirmed that the agency’s own statistics show that an average of 126 veterans per week — 6,552 veterans per year — commit suicide, according to an internal email distributed to several VA officials. Brig. Gen. Michael J. Kussman, the undersecretary for health at the VA, sent the email, dated Dec. 15, 2007. Kussman had inquired about the accuracy of a news report published that month claiming the suicide rate among veterans was 18 per day…

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Acute shortage of foodstuffs in Gaza due to fuel crisis
Palestinian Information Center
The ministry of national economy in Gaza issued Tuesday an urgent warning of an acute shortage of basic foodstuffs as a result of the fuel crisis that slashed the number of vehicles carrying food commodities into the Strip. In a press statement received by the PIC, the ministry called on international human rights organizations to save the lives of 1,500,000 citizens from an impending humanitarian catastrophe as a result of lack of basic foodstuffs and to pressure the Israeli occupation to allow in fuel supplies…

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Iraq’s losses during five years reached US$250 billion
BI-ME staff
On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the fall of the former regime, the head of the Integrity (Al Nazaha) Committee, Judge Moussa Faraj revealed that Iraq’s losses during these five years have reached US$250 billion, due to financial and administrative corruption. In statements to Al Hayat newspaper, Faraj said he considered that the Ministerial Council General Secretariat is the most dangerous source of corruption after canceling the Economic Affairs Committee, whose authorities were transferred to the General Secretariat…

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Iraqi Christians Struggle With Fear After Slayings
Recent Priest Killings Follow Years of Violence, Leaders Say
Sholnn Freeman, Washington Post Staff Writer
…The Iraqi Christian population numbered 1.35 million before the Persian Gulf War in 1991, according to politicians who cite government statistics from the time. That number has dropped by at least half, according to politicians, priests and religious organizations, mainly because Christians have fled the country in the years since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003…Abdal also blames Americans for the sectarian problems in Iraq. He said the U.S. government’s early emphasis on allocating power in Iraq along ethnic and sectarian lines only heightened tensions…

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Detainees Allege Being Drugged, Questioned
Joby Warrick, Washington Post Staff Writer
…Nusairi, now free in Saudi Arabia, was unable to learn what drugs were injected before his interrogations. He is not alone in wondering: At least two dozen other former and current detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere say they were given drugs against their will or witnessed other inmates being drugged, based on interviews and court documents. Like Nusairi, other detainees believed the injections were intended to coerce confessions. The Defense Department and the CIA, the two agencies responsible for detaining terrorism suspects, both deny using drugs as an enhancement for interrogations, and suggest that the stories from Nusairi and others like him are either fabrications or mistaken interpretations of routine medical treatment. Yet the allegations have resurfaced because of the release this month of a 2003 Justice Department memo that explicitly condoned the use of drugs on detainees. Written to provide legal justification for interrogation practices, the memo by then-Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo rejected a decades-old U.S. ban on the use of “mind-altering substances” on prisoners…

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Dutch journalist deported from Israeli airport
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC
A Dutch journalist who arrived at the Israeli Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday was detained by Israeli forces there for 24 hours, then deported to Holland and not allowed to enter Israel. The journalist, Abir Sarras, is employed by Radio Netherlands International, and was travelling to the Palestinian territories to report on the Catastrophe (Naqba) commemorations taking place in May. She was told by Israeli security at the airport that, due to the fact that she is part Palestinian, and carries a Palestinian ID in addition to her Dutch passport, she is not allowed to enter Israel through Ben Gurion airport. The Israeli Ministry of the Interior confirmed that any person who carries a Palestinian ID must travel the ‘Palestinian route’ through Jordan….

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Negotiable or not, the American Way of Life must be extinguished….
Jason Miller
Is the Western consumerist culture that we inflict upon the rest of the world truly the pinnacle of our evolution? If it is, I resign my membership in the human race. Though I don’t fear that I’ll be compelled to tender my resignation any time soon because our so-called “non-negotiable American Way of Life” is a piece of shit, for myriad reasons. We in the Western “developed” nations, particularly in the United States, are an utter disgrace to our species….

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Saddam’s VP al-Douri in Damascus, Syria, Iran export death to Iraq – Iraqi official
Voices of Iraq
Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwafaq al-Rubaei accused Syria and Iran of exporting death to Iraq, underlining that former vice president Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri exists in Damascus. In an interview with London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper in its edition today, al-Rubaei said “death comes to us from Syria and Iran…Syrian system is an intelligent one and they could control the flow of suicide bombers who come from North Africa, Yemen and gulf.”…He underlined that former vice president Izzat al-Douri is in Syria. “We have an accurate intelligence reports which indicate that he is Syria and he finance several armed groups,” the national security adviser said. However, “Syrians deny these reports,” he added…

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Negotiations with Americans “red line” – Sadrist lawmaker
Voices of Iraq
Salih al-Igaili, a lawmaker from the Sadrist parliamentary bloc, denied on Tuesday that former Premier Iyad Allawi is mediating to put an end to U.S. military operations in Sadr city, and to resolve this city’s crisis, asserting that the Sadr movement considers negotiations with the Americans as a “red line.” “I totally deny this news,” al-Igaili told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI)….

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Tuesday, 22 April 2008.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
In a dispatch posted at 9:35pm Baghdad time Tuesday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that two US Marines were killed when a car bomb exploded by a checkpoint in ar-Ramadi…In a dispatch posted on its Arabic website at 3:40pm Tuesday afternoon Beijing time (11:40am in Baghdad), the Xinhua News Agency reported that The US military admitted that a bomb had exploded by US troops and their Iraq army and tribal “Awakening” allies on combat operations somewhere in Salah ad-Din Province, north of Baghdad, on Monday…

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IRAQ: The Arab media gang up on Rice
Raed Rafei, Los AngelesTimes
Try as it might, the U.S. has apparently failed again to convince its Arab allies in the Persian Gulf to promise to step in with their cash and credibility in support of the fledgling, Shiite-led Iraqi government. In a visit to Bahrain on Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to convince oil-rich Persian Gulf nations to relieve Iraq of billions of dollars of debt, open embassies in the war-torn country and help counter Iran’s growing influence. She walked away empty-handed. Instead, Rice’s latest visit to the region has prompted a fresh storm of criticism against U.S. policy in Iraq, which is the subject of a big conference in Kuwait today…In today’s London-based pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi, columnist Abdelbari Atwari called Rice’s demand to support the Maliki government as a bulwark against Iran “perhaps her most provocative and offensive” request: That Iranian influence in Iraq is expanding and rising is only to be expected. This is because the architects of the U.S. war in Iraq paved the way for it by disbanding the Iraqi army, dismantling Iraqi state institutions, criminalizing the Baath Party, setting up Iran’s allies and militias as the new rulers, and providing them with money, weapons, and political and moral support. Now, these same architects are coming to demand that the Arabs fix what they themselves have ruined, and to support the sectarian hate-filled Maliki government that makes no secret of its loathing for the Arabs…

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COVERING ISRAEL-PALESTINE – THE BBC’S DOUBLE STANDARDS
Media Lens
The media reported last week that at least 22 people, including five Palestinian children, had been killed during Israeli ‘incursions’ into Gaza. The Israeli military ‘operations’ were ‘sparked’ by a Hamas ambush that had left three Israeli soldiers dead. Reporting followed the usual script that Israel’s state-of-the-art weaponry is deployed as ‘retaliation’ for ‘militant’ Palestinian attacks. The latest deaths followed the killing in early March of over 120 Palestinians under a massive Israeli assault on Gaza….

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Iraq Press Roundup
HIBA DAWOOD, UPI Correspondent
The Association of Muslims Scholars’ Al Basaer Newspaper highlighted in an editorial titled “A superpower or a gang?” the United States and its relationship with the chaotic situation in Iraq. The editorial said the failure of the U.S. occupation is a sign the term “superpower” doesn’t apply to it anymore because the U.S. presence has turned out to be no more than a joke. It said the United States spent more than $600 billion to invade Iraq but the security, political and economic situation in Iraq is worse today than during the first years after the occupation. Despite the death of U.S. troops and thousands of injuries, the United States can’t control any city or even the Green Zone, the most “secure” area in Baghdad, the paper said…
“The political process failed in presenting even one political bloc that gains any respect because they were well-known for being untrustworthy,” the Sunni newspaper said. It said after the militias within the Iraqi government fought each other — a reference to the latest clashes in Basra — the “superpower” couldn’t find any solution except to beg Iran to interfere and end the clashes…

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Gaza will plunge into darkness within 24 hours
Palestinian Information Center
The Palestinian authority of energy and natural resources in Gaza warned that the power station will shut down and Gaza will plunge into darkness by Wednesday evening because the fuel supply in the station almost ran out. The energy authority underlined that the lack of fuel will also lead to the collapse of the whole electricity system in Gaza, adding that it will not be possible to exclude crucial human services such as hospitals, sewage pumps, and water wells from the coming power outage…

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American arrested as nuclear spy for Israel
Randall Mikkelsen, Reuters
The United States arrested an 84-year-old American on Tuesday suspected of giving Israel secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles in the 1980s, in a case linked to the Jonathan Pollard spy scandal that rocked U.S.-Israeli relations. The arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish indicates that Israeli spying revealed by the Pollard case, still an irritant to the U.S. alliance with Israel, may have spread wider than previously acknowledged. “It was bigger than we thought, and they hid it well,” said former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova, who prosecuted Pollard…

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Amnesty unveils shock ‘waterboarding’ film
Nigel Morris, Independent
An American expert in torture techniques has denounced his government for allowing “waterboarding” to be practised against terror suspects, just as a graphic advertisement showing the brutal reality of the technique is unveiled to British cinema-goers. Malcolm Nance, who trained hundreds of US servicemen and women to resist interrogation by putting them through “waterboarding” exercises, demanded an immediate end to the practice by all US personnel…

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In Sadr City, Basic Services Are Faltering
MICHAEL R. GORDON, NYTimes
Even as American and Iraqi troops are fighting to establish control of the Sadr City section of this capital, the Iraqi government’s program to restore basic services like electricity, sewage and trash collection is lagging, jeopardizing the effort to win over the area’s wary residents. For weeks, there have been reports that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is preparing to move ahead with a multimillion-dollar program to rebuild the southern swath of Sadr City, which is currently occupied by Iraqi and American troops. But almost a month after American and Iraqi forces pushed into the area, there are no signs of reconstruction. Instead, the streets are filled with mounds of trash and bubbling pools of sewage…

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Addressing the root problem
Edith Garwood, The Charlotte Observer
Sixty years ago, more than 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes, not knowing where they were going, not knowing when they would return. This displacement of over half of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine created the largest and oldest refugee population today and is the root of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. This tragedy is called Al Nakba in Arabic. We are often told the Palestinians fled of their own accord, but British and Israeli archives opened in the late 1970s tell a different story. The indigenous Arabs – Muslim, Christian, secular – were systematically driven out of areas desired for a new Jewish state…

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ISRAEL-OPT: ICRC concerned by suspension of family visits to prisoners
IRIN News
For families in the Gaza Strip with sons or daughters in Israeli jails, the past 11 months have been especially hard, as they could no longer visit their imprisoned relatives and have only had contact through brief written messages. “This issue is a humanitarian concern for us, for the families and the prisoners,” Katharina Ritz, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem, told IRIN….

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Watching warily from the Gulf
Marc Lynch, Abu Aardvark
…But for today I’ve been following Rice’s attempt to once again increase the pressure on Arab states to take a more active role in support of Maliki’s government by focusing on Iran. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh had an op-ed in the Saudi al-Sharq al-Awsat today making a similar pitch, while Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshayr Zebari made the argument in Bahrain today. Presumably this will be a major part of Rice’s and Maliki’s appeal to the neighbors conference in Kuwait tomorrow. To this point, the Gulf response has been muted: no commitments to reopening embassies or sending ambassadors or heads of state visiting (but vague promises to think about doing so “soon”), no new Saudi or Kuwaiti promises for relief of Iraq’s billions in Saddam-era debt. In her press conference in Bahrain today, after meeting with representatives of 9 Arab states, Rice focused upon the prospect that Iraq might participate in future GCC meetings – “That’s a very good step forward for the reintegration of Iraq into regional affairs” – without noting that Iran itself has recently been invited to such GCC meetings. Arab columnists don’t seem particularly swayed at this point…A number of Gulf-based columnists have been arguing that Iran has already become the main player in Iraq, and only the United States seems unaware of it…

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As if occupation wasn’t bad enough…
Eli Stephens, Left I on the News
…it’s now being carried out by an increasing number of actual criminals: The U.S. Army and Marine Corps let 861 convicted felons join their ranks in 2007, an 88 percent jump over the previous year that helped meet recruiting goals in wartime, according to data released on Monday. The waivers for convictions ranging from assault and burglary to manslaughter and sex crimes allowed the military to enlist people otherwise precluded by recruitment standards…

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Israeli Policy Leaves Palestinians Homeless in the South Hebron Hills of the Occupied Territories
Ahmad Jaradat, Alternative Information Center (AIC)
In the south hills of Hebron, ever since Jewish settlers arrived to colonize the region, we witness a comprehensive and ongoing policy of mass deportation of Palestinians from the area in order to create space for the expansion of surrounding Israeli settlements. The main settlements surrounding the area—Susya, Karmel, Maon and Yatir—are known to be inhabited by some of the most militant and violent settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories. The main settlements surrounding the area—Susya, Karmel, Maon and Yatir—are known to be inhabited by some of the most militant and violent settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories. The area was originally inhabited by a small Palestinian population of approximately 2,000 pastoralist herders and farmers living in caves carved out of the hillside, hence, their designation as “cave dwellers….

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Western forces ‘in Basra raids’
BBC News
US and UK special forces are carrying out operations in Basra in southern Iraq against Shia militiamen, a Western military source has told the BBC. The aim is to detain senior figures in the Mehdi Army and other Shia militias, and members of a local tribe. Iraqi forces now have a presence throughout the city, local reports say. Fighting is continuing in Shia areas of Baghdad. The US military said it had killed five suspected militiamen overnight in the district of Sadr City…

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Professor Yoo Should Be Dismissed by Boalt and Prosecuted for War Crimes
Carlos Villarreal
War crimes start at the top. The torture and deaths at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo; the humiliation of Iraqi and Afghani detainees in the field; extraordinary rendition; the indiscriminate killing by rifles and cluster bombs; these are becoming the new norms of war for which the leaders in the United States are responsible. And as with the war crimes of the past, the spilling of blood began with the spilling of ink. The most culpable are not the young foot soldiers in fatigues holding a naked prisoner with a dog leash; they are the men and women in suits who craft the policies. John Yoo is one of those men in suits, and it is disgraceful that he is paid by the people of California to shape the law and young minds at one of our most distinguished law schools…

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Hamas says it’s willing to accept Gaza Strip cease-fire
DIAA HADID, AP
Hamas has softened its position and is willing to accept a cease-fire in just the Gaza Strip, dropping a demand that the truce immediately include the West Bank, the group’s senior representatives said Tuesday. The move marked a significant concession by Hamas as Egyptian mediators try to halt fighting between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army in Gaza. For weeks, Hamas insisted on a mutual cease-fire in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hamas lawmaker Salah Bardawil said the group is now ready for a cease-fire that “will begin in Gaza, and then move to the West Bank” sometime in the future. Another senior Hamas official also confirmed the group’s new position….

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Israel partially reopens two crossings in Gaza
Rami Almeghari – IMEMC
Israeli sources said today that Israel decided to partially reopen the Eritz checkpoint (Beit Hanoun crossing), to the north of Gaza Strip. The sources told Israel’s radio that the reopening is meant to allow entry of scores of Gaza patients who are in need for medical treatment outside Gaza as well as several other foreign journalists, international staff and diplomats. Also, the Israeli radio reported that the Sufa commercial crossing in southern Gaza Strip, was reopened on Tuesday after it has been closed following a cross border attack on Kerem Shalom crossing early this week….

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Israel Sees Iran Threat Recede
Peter Hirschberg, IPS
In the clearest indication yet that Israel now believes Iran’s nuclear aspirations will be curbed, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that efforts being undertaken by the international community will ensure that Tehran does not acquire nuclear capability. In a series of interviews on the eve of the Passover holiday, Olmert sounded the same message: Iran will not get the bomb. “I want to tell the citizens of Israel: Iran will not have nuclear capability,” he told the daily Haaretz newspaper in one of the interviews. “The international community is making an enormous effort — in which we have a part, but which is being led by the international community — so that Iran will not attain non-conventional capability. And I believe, and also know, that the bottom line of these efforts is that Iran will not be nuclear.”…

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Gaza power plant to shut down by tomorrow due to lack of fuel
Rami Almeghari – IMEMC
The sole power plant in Gaza declared on Tuesday it will stop generating electricity for Gaza’s 1.5 million residents by tomorrow evening, due to sharp shortage of gasoline, needed to generate current. In a statement , faxed to press today, the power plant said the Strip will suffer a deficit of 35 to 50 percent of current , because the plant only has some quantities needed for making power available for one day and few hours only….

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US snipers accused of targeting civilians in Sadr City
Middle East Online
Civilians caught up in the crossfire during raging street battles between Shiite militiamen and security forces in Baghdad’s Shiite bastion Sadr City are blaming an unseen danger – US military snipers. At least 321 people have been killed in Sadr City since March 25 and hundreds more wounded, many of them brought to hospitals with wounds that doctors say appear to be caused by high-powered rifles and “American bullets.” US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover dismissed claims that US snipers are targeting women and children as “preposterous” and said the wounds could be the result of “un-aimed” militia fire. Residents of Sadr City, however, bastion of the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, blame US snipers whenever someone is shot in the stomach or the legs….

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Hamas: Rice’s conditions are rejected
Palestinian Information Center
The Hamas Movement expressed its rejection of the conditions set by American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice for the Movement during her visit to Bahrain Monday, underlining that the American administration does not recognize the Movement and thus cannot set such terms. In an exclusive statement to the PIC, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, stated that “once Rice and the US Administration recognize Hamas and the Palestinian people’s rights, the Movement will be willing to hold dialogue with them, but in light of their attitude, their conditions are rejected.”…

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Italian energy giant Eni eyes Iraq contracts: report
AFP
Italian energy giant Eni is considering investing in Iraq with the expected passage of new legislation on oil revenue distribution, the daily Corriere della Sera reported Monday. “It will be possible … to sign contracts in a new legislative framework,” Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni was quoted as saying on the sidelines of an energy meeting in Rome. The Italian company would initially go in for three- to four-year engineering projects, Corriere said. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said during a visit to Brussels last week that his country was close to adopting a key energy law to encourage investment, notably from the European Union…

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Iraqi children desperate to learn in ruined schools
Wisam Mohammed and Salim Ureibi, Reuters
…The education system in Iraq, once the envy of the Middle East, is now in tatters. Violence, a collapse of school infrastructure and the mass displacement of both pupils and teachers have turned many of Iraq’s schools into fetid overcrowded ruins, jeopardizing the futures of millions of children like Saadoun. At the end of the 1980s, after pouring oil money into schools, Iraq had virtually eliminated illiteracy. But after two decades of economic sanctions and war, one third of Iraqi adults now cannot read, Education Minister Khodhair al-Khozaei told Reuters…

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What About the War, Benedict?
Ray McGovern
Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the United States last week against a macabre backdrop featuring reports of torture, execution and war. He chose not to notice….Can the pope possibly be so suffused with his peculiar brand of theology that he is oblivious to what happened when he was a young man during the Third Reich. Is it possible that papal advisers forgot to tell him that the post-WWII Nuremberg Tribunal described an unprovoked war of aggression, of the kind that the Third Reich and George W. Bush launched, as the “supreme international crime, differing from other war crimes only in that it contains the accumulated evil of the whole?” Could they have failed to tell the pope he would be hobnobbing with war criminals, torturers and the enabling cowards in Congress who refuse to remove them from office? For this Catholic, it was a profoundly sad spectacle – profoundly sad…

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Five US troops killed in Iraq
Associated Press
A suicide car bomb and roadside bombings have killed five US troops, including three marines, the American military announced on Tuesday. Two marines were killed and three others wounded when a bomber slammed his explosives-laden car into a checkpoint near the western Iraqi city of Ramadi at around 7:30 am (0430 GMT), the military said. Two Iraqi policemen and 24 civilians were also wounded in the attack near the city, the capital of Anbar province, which was once the symbol of Sunni Arab insurgency against US forces. A third marine was killed and another wounded in a separate roadside bomb attack in Basra on Monday, the military said in a separate statement….

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OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE WHAT ISRAEL IS TRYING TO HIDE
Desertpeace
How am I expected to celebrate a ‘Festival of Freedom’ when my brother is in chains? How am I expected to rejoice when my brother just buried his son? Am I expected to close my eyes, my ears, my soul? Even if I do the screams from the ‘other side’ are loud enough to hear, the blood running through the streets cannot be missed…. Yet there are those that are celebrating, rejoicing…. not looking at what is happening. Perhaps the following video will help them see the reality… it’s THE VIDEO ISRAEL DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE…

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Israeli military refuses entry of food aid to Gaza
Saed Bannoura – IMEMC News Report
A shipment of food aid for the people of the Gaza Strip was denied entry by Israeli military forces on Monday. The shipment consisted of several trucks full of food aid from Egypt that were denied entry at the Israeli-controlled Karem Abu Salem crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian news Agency Wafa, the Israelis had apparently agreed Sunday night to allow the entry of several truckloads of food. But when the trucks arrived at the border crossing, they were not allowed to enter Gaza…

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April 21, 2008: 2 US Soldiers, 41 Iraqis Killed; 112 Iraqis Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 41 Iraqis were killed and 112 more were wounded in the latest attacks. Much of the violence involved continued fighting in Sadr City. Two American soldiers were killed. An IED in Salah ad Din province killed two American soldiers today. Two other American soldiers were wounded along with two Sons of Iraq members and a civilian interpreter. Meanwhile, a U.S. patrol was blasted by an IED, but casualties are as yet unreported…

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US News Media’s Latest Disgrace
Robert Parry
After prying loose 8,000 pages of Pentagon documents, the New York Times has proven what should have been obvious years ago: the Bush administration manipulated public opinion on the Iraq War, in part, by funneling propaganda through former senior military officers who served as expert analysts on TV news shows. In 2002-03, these military analysts were ubiquitous on TV justifying the Iraq invasion, and most have remained supportive of the war in the five years since. The Times investigation showed that the analysts were being briefed by the Pentagon on what to say and had undisclosed conflicts of interest via military contracts…

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Machiavelli or Paranoia ?
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
Something is bothering me. Actually a few things are bothering me, but am not sure where to begin… It might be an attack of political paranoia, the DSM must really start including this “mental disorder” as it is epidemic in the Arab World, but not only in this part of the world… But as the joke goes- just because am paranoid, doesn’t mean that they’re not out there to get me. And I believe the Arab people have been had. In particular the Iraqis and the Palestinians. This paranoia attack has been triggered by three things, seemingly unrelated… The first one was a “detail” I read in an article regarding Mullah Atari, also known as Muqtada Al-Sadr. The second was also triggered by another article I read regarding Hamas. And the third, triggered by the latest from Syria….

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New Britney Spears Sex Tape Bares All!
Chris Floyd , Empire Burlesque
I know no one cares about Somalia, because every time I write about it on the website, the traffic drops like a stone. (Let’s see if that headline draws a few eyeballs, though. If it works, we might just rename the whole damn blog.) But I don’t care if no one cares. There is a continuous slaughter and ravaging of innocent human beings going on in Somalia, a vast atrocity that is sponsored, funded, greenlighted and directly aided by the United States government, and I’m going to keep on writing about it. This third Terror War campaign of “regime change” by the American military machine has already spawned what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and every day leaves more civilian bodies rotting in the streets, and more fleeing families stranded in the middle of nowhere, with nothing…

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‘Effort’ made on Syria-Israel talks
Aljazeera.net
Syria’s president has confirmed exchanging messages with Israel through an unnamed third party, saying that both sides are exploring the possibility of resuming peace negotiations. Commenting on reports of indirect contact with Israel on Sunday, Bashar al-Assad said mediators were already working to re-launch negotiations but did not identify the third party involved in the process…

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Violence in Iraq disrupts lives and education
Claire Hajaj, UNICEF
In recent weeks, families in Basra and Baghdad’s Sadr City have been plunged into one of the most violent episodes in Iraq’s recent history. As Iraq’s security forces mobilized against militia groups, widespread clashes and curfews kept families trapped indoors and led to shortages of water, food and medical supplies. While life is slowly returning to normal in Basra, fighting is ongoing in Sadr City. Life for children there has become harder and more frightening. Addressing shortages of water and medical supplies in Sadr City are immediate humanitarian priorities…

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Army [& Militia] arrives in Mosul
Roads to Iraq
Images taken from Mosul satellite channel [al-Mosullia] yesterday show Iraqi army arrives to Mosul, for a new [Basra-like] fight, assuming that the battle is going to be soon , the image above [click on the image to enlarge] is very interesting, as you see these are civilians with arms riding the military vehicles…

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Hunger Plagues Haiti and the World
Stephen Lendman
Consumers in rich countries feel it in supermarkets but in the world’s poorest ones people are starving. The reason – soaring food prices, and it’s triggered riots around the world in places like Mexico, Indonesia, Yemen, the Philippines, Cambodia, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania, Egypt, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Peru, Bolivia and Haiti that was once nearly food self-sufficient but now relies on imports for most of its supply and (like other food-importing countries) is at the mercy of agribusiness. Wheat shortages in Peru are acute enough to have the military make bread with potato flour (a native crop)….

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Mishaal: Hamas accepts a state on 1967 borders without recognizing occupation
Palestinian Information Center
Head of Hamas’s political bureau Khaled Mishaal has affirmed on Monday that his Movement was amenable to establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital but without recognizing the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Mishaal’s remarks were made in a press conference he held in the Syrian capital Damascus where he also emphasized the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland in occupied Palestine. He also explained that his Movement has “politely” turned down a request by former US president Jimmy Carter to announce a unilateral ceasefire for 30 days, underlining that the Palestinian rocket attacks on IOF positions and on the Israeli settlements around the Gaza Strip were “reaction rather than an action”….

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‘OPERATION WHITEWASH’ BEGINS IN ISRAEL
Desertpeace
“Unlike terrorist organizations, the IDF does not intentionally attack civilians, and takes various precautionary measures to avoid and prevent such incidents from occurring.” So says the murders of the gorgeous young man to the left… he just happened to be ‘in the way’ of the projectile that killed him. So starts the official whitewash of the incident, commonly referred to as an ‘investigation’. When the murderers themselves conduct the ‘investigation’, you can be pretty sure what the outcome will be….

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Haneyya: Carter is not a mediator
Palestinian Information Center
Ismail Haneyya, the premier of the PA caretaker government, on Monday stressed that former American president Jimmy Carter was not an intermediary but underlined that his visit was politically important because it dealt with the Palestinian de facto conditions. He explained in a press release that Carter got acquainted with the true situation in the region especially Hamas’s positions. Commenting on Carter’s announcement that Hamas had agreed to a plebiscite on any political agreement between the PA and Israel, Haneyya said that the formula, which Hamas accepted, was the same one included in the national concord document approved by majority of Palestinian factions….

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Rice fails to clinch Arab commitments on Iraq
Lachlan Carmichael, AFP
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Sunni-led Arab allies on Monday to try to persuade them to back Iraq’s Shiite leadership but failed to clinch any concrete commitments on debt relief or diplomatic presence. Speaking after the meeting in Bahrain with counterparts from eight Arab countries and Iraq, Rice said the talks covered relieving Iraq of billions of dollars in debt and sending ambassadors to the war-torn nation, but she did not report any decision on either score….

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More Palestinian patients being denied entry to Israel
Meital Yasur-Beit Or, Ynetnews
The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) organization asserted on Monday that there has been a significant rise in the number of rejections issued to Palestinian applicants seeking entry into Israel on medical grounds. The group said that since early April Shin Bet authorities have been rejecting a significantly larger number of permits for Gazans seeking treatment in Israeli medical facilities.Figures presented by the organization point to 12 cancer patients in serious condition who have been waiting to undergo lifesaving procedures in Israel, but who have so far been barred from crossing the border. Among the dozen are five women, some of whom are battling breast cancer, and two men diagnosed with malignant brain tumors….

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Allawi called to broker Sadr cease-fire
UPI
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said Monday members of the Sadrist Movement appealed to him to negotiate a cease-fire with U.S. troops in Sadr City. Allawi made his comments at a news conference Monday with Fattah al-Sheikh of the Sadrist Movement and members of the Shiite Fadhila party in Baghdad. Allawi said Sadrist lawmakers called on him to intervene Saturday to mediate a cease-fire with the U.S. military and to seek a halt to the construction of a wall around Sadr City, Voices of Iraq reported….

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“My Hands are Clean and Bloodless, Something Uribe Can’t Say”
Gorka CASTILLO, Translated by Machetera – Tlaxcala
In an interview with Público, the Ecuadoran head of state accuses the Colombian government of lying, and its president, Álvaro Uribe, of links with paramilitaries. Ecuador’s president doesn’t mince words. Over an hour’s interview he analyzed the Latin American political situation and didn’t hide the wound opened by Colombia that will take some time to heal…

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 21 April 2008.
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
…In a dispatch posted at 9:03pm Baghdad time Monday night, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that a bomb exploded by a British patrol to the north of al-Basrah on Monday….

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