Popcorn and Champagne – The Trial of Tareq Aziz
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat’s Dream
Getcha popcorn ready! The Green Zone Puppet Theatre in Baghdad is putting on a new show, The Trial of Tareq Aziz. The charges against the former deputy premier of Iraq – when Iraq was still free and a country – are related to the execution of 42 Baghdad merchants in 1992. At the time Iraq was under the genocidal embargo imposed by the United States and its British vassal through the United Nations. The New York Times reported on 5 August 1992: But the final straw came when the Iraqi authorities, facing mounting public anger at rising food prices brought about by the devaluation, arrested some 500 merchants on charges of speculation and profiteering and then executed 42 of them in an effort to force prices lower. It’s difficult to understand what the responsibilities of a deputy prime minister could be in such a case, but if the bloodthirsty puppets wanted to find the responsible they wouldn’t need to look further than their Washington and London’s puppeteers. Tareq Aziz has been held hostage by the illegal, foreign Occupation of his country for five years; he’s not been charged, tried or investigated so far. But the new amnesty law states that anyone held for a year without being referred to court must be released. The puppets and the puppeteers can’t allow that to happen to Aziz who not only refused to testify against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but also praised Saddam defiantly when he was called as a witness…

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PHILIPPE SANDS, QC: THE TORTURE TEAM
Sarah Meyer, Index Research
PHILIPPE SANDS, author of The Torture Team was introduced last evening to a capacity-filled, chandeliered room at The Law Society, 119 Chancery Lane, London WC2. QCs, lawyers and distinguished guests were present, eager to hear the person who was being sponsored by The Guardian. Editor, ALAN RUSBRIDGE opened the evening: “Mr. Sands has a way of orchestrating things. What motivates him? He has a passionate sense of justice and a belief in how lawyers should behave. I am here as a fan and am a big admirer of what he does, and of his bravery, “ Mr. Rusbridge said. The Guardian published several articles (see References) concerning this extraordinary, and quietly spoken, Englishman. Jonathan Cooper, who organises the excellent Human Rights course at The London School of Economics, also spoke briefly…

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Falluja’s struggle after invasion
Dahr Jamail, Aljazeera.net
On April 28, 2003, US soldiers occupying the Al-Qaid school in Falluja opened fire on dozens of demonstrators who had been protesting the use of the premises as a forward base for the US 82nd Airborne Division. Seventeen Iraqis were killed and scores wounded. The US military said its soldiers had responded properly after coming under “effective fire” from some 25 armed men hiding within the Iraqi crowds outside the school and atop adjacent buildings. Human Rights Watch, however, disputed the military’s accounts citing ballistic evidence and called for an independent investigation. The events in Falluja in late April 2003 helped fuel anger throughout the country and led to a 2004 siege of the city…

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IRAQ: Corruption Eats Into Food Rations
Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail*
Amidst unemployment and impoverishment, Iraqis now face a cutting down of their monthly food ration – much of it already eaten away by official corruption. Iraqis survived the sanctions after the first Gulf War (1990) with the support of rations through the Public Distribution System (PDS). The aid was set up in 1995 as part of the UN’s Oil-for-Food programme. The sanctions were devastating nevertheless. Former UN programme head Hans von Sponeck said in 2001 that the sanctions amounted to “a tightening of the rope around the neck of the average Iraqi citizen.” Von Sponeck said the sanctions were causing the death of 150 Iraqi children a day.Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq who quit his post in protest against the sanctions, told IPS they had proved “genocidal” for Iraqis. During more than five years of U.S.-occupation, the situation has become even worse. The rationing system has been crumbling under poor management and corruption. From the beginning of this year, the rations delivered were reduced from 10 items to five…

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Iraq Boy’s Family Describes Fatal Blast
Parents Tell ABC News About the US Bombing that Killed Their 2-Year-Old Boy
MARCUS BARAM
Just like any other day, the Hussein family was getting ready for lunch at their home in Baghdad, Iraq, when the house suddenly shook and the brick walls came down around them. That was the dramatic account told to ABC News by the parents of 2-year-old Ali Hussein, the Iraqi boy killed during a fierce battle in Sadr City Tuesday. Dramatic photographs of Hussein’s dust-covered body being pulled out of the rubble of his home appeared on front pages and TV news reports around the world. When a U.S. patrol in the Shiite militia stronghold was fired on by a dozen fighters, American forces fired 200-pound guided rockets that devastated at least three buildings in the district. The U.S. military said 28 militiamen were killed. Local hospital officials said dozens of civilians were killed or wounded. Hussein’s mother recounted being buried in rubble and crawling around the home, looking for her children…

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Those Who Look the other Way are Accomplices to Israel’s Crimes in Gaza
The Daily Star (Editorial)
…While the Americans certainly deserve plenty of blame for this situation, it has also been made possible by governments around the world that are too timid to speak out. From Arab monarchies to European republics, the great majority of them have failed and even betrayed the Palestinian people by looking the other way. It is as though the capacity for outrage has become atrophied in capitals around the world. Or perhaps they have misinterpreted all those calls for “restraint” from the Security Council to mean that they should not speak out when a scoff-law regime oppresses an entire people. Whatever the reason, the silence is itself a form of complicity in serial criminality, and those who practice it should be ashamed of themselves…

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Cage Match: Criminal Complicity on the Campaign Trail
Chris Floyd , Empire Burlesque
We’ve examined various aspects of America’s Torture State many times at this site (most recently here), but in his latest column, Ted Rall pulls it all together and provides a succinct and powerful bill of indictment (excerpts below), drawing the only conclusion that anyone not corrupted or cowed into servility can possibly draw: George W. Bush and his chief advisers should be arrested and tried on charges of torture and murder…

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Sami al-Hajj speaks of his Guantanamo ordeal – 02 May 2008
AlJazeeraEnglish
The Al Jazeera cameraman describes how he was treated during the seven years he was detained at the US detention center in Cuba.

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Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 18/2008(24 – 29 April 2008)
PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law seriously escalated in the OPT, especially in the Gaza Strip, during the reporting period (24 – 29 April 2008): Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed 9 Palestinians, including 5 children and a woman, and wounded 29 others, including 6 children and a woman in the Gaza Strip. The victims include a woman and her 4 children who were killed when IOF shelled their house….

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A VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS ~~ IN PALESTINE
Desertpeace
Mohammed Omer, my dear Brother living in Gaza, was interviewed yesterday by Crossing The Line. He speaks about the latest incidents there including the brutal murder of his fellow photojournalist and friend Fadel Shana…

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A Hebrew paper exposes IOF troops’ excesses against Palestinians
Palestinian Information Center
The weekly Hebrew Kol Zaman newspaper on Friday said that the “Border Guards” use their mobile phones to record violations carried out by their colleagues against Palestinians waiting to cross roadblocks. The paper also said that the soldiers play games with their weapons reflecting irresponsibility on the part of the occupation soldiers. A video tape received by the newspaper documents how three Palestinians who were detained at one of the roadblocks were tormented by two border guards….

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Iran backs Iraq’s crackdown on lawbreakers: report
MehrNews.com, Iran
Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi-Qomi has reiterated that Tehran supports a crackdown on lawbreakers and illegal armed groups by the Iraqi government. “Iran Supports serious confrontation of the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki with lawbreakers and (illegally) armed groups,” Kazemi-Qomi said in an interview with Asharq Alawsat newspaper released on Thursday. Tehran supports the actions that the Iraqi government is taking to establish security in Iraq, the newspaper quoted the ambassador as saying…

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Two Italians injured, one Palestinian kidnapped as Israeli settlers attack Tuwani
George Rishmawi – IMEMC
A number of Israeli settlers attacked the villagers of Tuwani, near Hebron Friday afternoon. The settlers, who were armed with automatic assault rifles, demanded the Palestinian villagers to evacuate the village claiming that the land where the village is located belongs to them. International peace activists who were in the village called the Israeli police and army, who arrived nearly one hour after the settlers. Two Italian activists were wounded as they were assaulted by the settlers…

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Iraq’s Shiite clerics deeply divided on militia crackdown
SELCAN HACAOGLU
Shiite clerics offered sharply different visions Friday in the showdown between government forces and Shiite militias — one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people. The contrasting views — given during weekly sermons — showed the complexities and risks in the five-week-old crackdown on Shiite militia factions. The clashes have brought deep rifts among Iraq’s Shiite majority and have pulled U.S. troops into difficult urban combat in the main militia stronghold in Baghdad. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, shows no indication of easing the pressure on groups including the powerful Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr…

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Five years of war in Iraq
Amanecer
The unprovoked aggression launched by the US and Britain against Iraq five years ago has already gone down across the world as, in the words of President Roosevelt, “a day which will live in infamy”. These five years have seen the physical and social destruction of Iraq, mass killings, tens of thousands thrown into jail without trial, rampant torture, an epidemic of sectarian terror attacks, widespread poverty and the complete breakdown of basic services and supplies. Five years of occupation have destroyed Iraq as a country….

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Sadrists: The delegation is “too Iranian”
Roads to Iraq
Now get this surprise, you probably read the NYT report “Iraq Team to Discuss Militias With Iran”, which in reality they went to negotiate with Muqtada al-Sadr, what happened right now is that the Sadrists condemned this delegation saying it is “too Iranian”…

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SA Soldier Acquitted By Military Court
KSAT.com.
A military jury Thursday acquitted an Army sergeant of premeditated murder in the death of an unarmed Iraqi insurgent who was killed in a village overrun by al-Qaida operatives. The family of Sgt. Leonardo Trevino gasped, clapped and sobbed Thursday after the verdict in his court-martial was read. The 31-year-old from San Antonio also was cleared on charges of attempted murder, solicitation to commit murder and three counts of obstruction of justice. Trevino’s attorneys said he followed the rules of engagement because he thought the insurgent was reaching for a gun…A medic had testified that Trevino ordered him to suffocate the Iraqi, and when he told his sergeant that the man was still alive, he shot him — this time, fatally…

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It’s a God Thing about Trees, Doors, Day and Vanunu
eileen fleming, thepeoplesvoice.org
…During my travels through occupied Palestine and after listening with my heart to the people who shared their stories with me, I asked everyone, “How can I help? What can I do to try to be a peacemaker of the Holy Land?” Everyone responded, “Tell our stories.” Dorothy Day and Rachel Corrie told the stories of the oppressed. They both are dead, but as long as I can do something and have breath, I too will try to be a peacemaker by seeking justice and persist to hope for the best. May you do something too….

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May 1, 2008: 2 US Soldiers, 93 Iraqis Killed; 212 Iraqis Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 93 Iraqis were killed and 212 more were wounded in the latest violence. Two mass grave were found in Duluiya, but the number of bodies was not reported yet. An American soldier was killed during a car bombing today in central Baghdad. Also, the DOD announced the death of a Marine in Texas; he died from wounds received in 2005 in Anbar province….

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Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Thursday, 1 May 2008
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice. www.freearabvoice.org
In a dispatch posted at 7:30pm Baghdad time Thursday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the US military had admitted that a car bomb explosion in central Baghdad had claimed the life of another US soldier, the first killed in the month of May this year. Yaqen reported an American communiqué as saying that the car bomb exploded by a US Humvee that was a part of an American patrol…

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Dockworkers Protest Iraq War
JOHN HOLUSHA, NYTimes
Thousands of dockworkers at West Coast ports stayed off the job on Thursday in what their union said was a call for an end to the war in Iraq. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said more than 25,000 members in 29 ports stayed off the job. The action came despite an order issued Wednesday by an arbitrator directing the union to tell its members to report for work as usual in response to a request from employers. “Longshore workers are standing down on the job and standing up for America,” Bob McEllrath, the union’s president, said in a statement. “We’re supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq.”…

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