Consciousness of Guilt
Genocide in Iraq?
DAVID MODEL
…Whether or not the administrations of Bush Senior, Clinton, and Bush Junior intended to commit genocide in Iraq is irrelevant because the consequences of the bombings and sanctions could have been predicted by any reasonable person. The actions of these administrations clearly resulted in mass killing, serious bodily and mental harm, and the infliction of conditions calculated to bring about Iraq’s physical destruction in whole or in part. Iraq is a clear-cut case of genocide….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44242

A Refugee from the Iraq War
Elizabeth DiNovella
When we walked into Samia Kouzah’s dingy two-room flat in Zarqa, Jordan, I almost didn’t recognize her daughter as human. Rahmad, age twenty months, sat on the couch quietly looking at us. She has a severely deformed skull, shaped like a mushroom, and her eyes bulge out like a cartoon. Samia became pregnant with her daughter while living in Baghdad. She suspects radioactive materials used in U.S. bombs caused the deformities. The doctor who delivered Rahmad said she wouldn’t live past one year old. In September, Rahmad will turn two. Rahmad sat on her mother’s lap, enveloped in Samia’s blue and beige veil, and began to fuss. “She has a fever,” Samia explained. “She’s teething.” Samia is a thirty-three-year-old Palestinian woman born in Iraq. Her family was part of the mass 1948 migration of Palestinians…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44249

Will Gaza ever get a whiff of its offshore gas?
Stuart Littlewood
Gaza’s gas… isn’t this home-grown source of energy something the Palestinians should be in charge of? Yes, but the way things are shaping it’ll probably be stolen from them just like their lands, their homes and their precious water. The Gaza marine gas field lies 25 to 30 kilometers off Gaza’s shore. In 1999 the BG Group obtained licences to Israeli offshore concessions, and shortly afterwards was awarded the Gaza licence, for a period of 25 years. BG holds 90% equity in the licence, but this could reduce to 60% if the Consolidated Contractors Company (its current 10% partner) and the Palestine Investment Fund exercise their options….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44228

Iraq: Mass detentions in Mosul as troops move into Sadr City
James Cogan,WSWS
More than 1,300 men have been detained by the US military and the Iraqi government in the northern city of Mosul over the past 10 days…The mass detentions amount to little more than state terror against the Sunni population of Mosul, a majority of whom sympathise with the insurgency and many of whom are former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist Party. The city was under total curfew until May 19 as the arrests were taking place. Vehicles and people were banned from the streets, imprisoning hundreds of thousands of residents in their homes. In a statement issued on May 14, the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS)—an umbrella organisation for several thousand Sunni clerics—opposed the “indiscriminate arrests”. A tribal chief told Azzaman: “Their arrests and raids are arbitrary”. The Arabic web site Fatehoon published an exclusive report on May 20 alleging that a special operations unit of the Badr Brigade was in Mosul and had directed the mass arrests. Its sources claimed that the Badr operatives “specialised in assassinations, kidnappings and intelligence investigations” and had a 60-page list containing the names of “former officers, commanders, pilots and intelligence and security members of the former armed forces”. They also alleged that Kurdish pesh merga militia made up a substantial proportion of the government troops carrying out the house raids….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44236

Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government’s propaganda?
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat’s Dream
Today’s question is: Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government’s propaganda? “The Iraqi government is increasingly confident that it has the upper-hand over its enemies in both the Shia and Sunni communities. It launched a further operation, called “the Roar of the Lion”, against al-Qa’ida in the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, deploying 15,000 troops to seal off the city, and yesterday banned all vehicles from the streets.” – Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, 13 May 2008. “Mosul looks like a city of the dead. American and Iraqi troops have launched an attack aimed at crushing the last bastion of al Qaida in Iraq and in doing so have turned the country’s northern capital into a ghost town.” – Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch, May 19, 2008. Cockburn takes for granted that the so-called Mosul operation is “against al-Qa’ida”. No question there? No skepticism?…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44241

Depleted Uranium Shells Used by U.S. Military Worse Than Nuclear Weapons
David Gutierrez
The use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by the U.S. military may lead to a death toll far higher than that from the nuclear bombs dropped at the end of World War II. DU is a waste product of uranium enrichment, containing approximately one-third the radioactive isotopes of naturally occurring uranium. Because of its high density, it is used in armor- or tank-piercing ammunition. It has been fired by the U.S. and British militaries in the two Iraq wars and in Afghanistan, as well as by NATO forces in Kosovo and the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44229

Celebrate !?
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
…All of this big political orgy was only made possible by destroying my beloved – Iraq. All of this was made possible by murdering the only true anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, anti-Zionist in this whole fucked up region called the Arab World – Saddam Hussein. Yes Saddam Hussein, the sacrificial lamb on the eve of the Eid, the one you vilified, demonized, slandered, defamed, called a CIA agent, a Zionist, an imperialist puppet, a traitor… You, sons of whores, who are the traitors and the agents today ? Iraq was the buffer zone. Iraq was the safety valve against both fanatical Iranian sectarianism and backwardness and against Zionist-US Imperialism. Iraq was the aspiring model of trying to combine both modernity, development, and gender rights whilst at the same type preserving its indigenous Mosaic and its Arab – Muslim and Christian identity and heritage. Iraq was the cornerstone, the pillar, the backbone of the Arab World….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44245

US Defends Policy Of Detention For Juveniles in Iraq, Afghanistan
Lisa Schlein
The United States has defended its policy of detaining juveniles in prisons in Iraq, and Afghanistan. The issue is expected to be high on the agenda Thursday when the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child examines U.S. compliance with U.N. rules on dealing with children in armed conflict. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva. In a report submitted to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, the United States acknowledges it has detained almost 2,500 youths under the age of 18 since 2002. Almost all have been detained in Iraq under President Bush’s anti-terrorism campaign…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44246

Reproducing Oslo-era illusions
From Khalid Amayreh in Bethlehem
A three-day economic conference aimed at attracting foreign investments to revive the dilapidated Palestinian economy got underway in this southern Palestinian town on Wednesday amid tight security. Opening the conference, Palestinian Authority ( PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas welcomed hundreds of Arab and foreign investors, saying that economic prosperity in the occupied Palestinian territories would expedite the political process and enhance Palestinian steadfastness vis-à-vis the Israeli occupation…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44248

IOF troops destroy agriculture sector in Gaza; kill Palestinian farmers
Palestinian Information Center
The agriculture ministry in the PA legitimate government in Gaza Strip asserted on Wednesday that the IOF troops had bulldozed vast agricultural areas in the eastern sector of the Gaza Strip which is considered the food basket of the 1.5 million Palestinians living there. According to a report issued by the ministry and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC, the Israeli occupation army uprooted fruitful trees and destroyed greenhouses and artisan wells in Shokeh and Sofa villages, east of Khan Younis city over the past week in addition to ruining poultry farms estimated at 1.5 million dollars…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44244

PALESTINE ~~ ‘THE LAND THAT NEVER WAS’
Desert Peace
The old lie that Palestine was dry desert waiting for a people is just that–a lie. This clip for all people to see the Beauty of the Palestinian People before they were ethnically cleansed and murdered and made into refugees by the State of Israel….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44243

Olmert to U.S.: Impose naval blockade on Iran
Barak Ravid and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents and AP
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has proposed in discussions with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, that a naval blockade be imposed on Iran as one of several ways to pressure Iran into stopping its uranium enrichment program…The Iranian issue was central in Olmert’s meeting over lunch Monday with Pelosi, together with 12 other members of Congress in the bipartisan delegation Pelosi led. Among those present were House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, and heads of the House Appropriations Committee, Nita Lowey and Gary Ackerman…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44239

Muck and menace in Maliki’s Iraq
Sami Moubayed, Asia Times
…Unemployment under Maliki has reached a staggering 50%. There are over 50,000 agricultural engineers, for example, searching for jobs – willing to sell commodities on the streets, in order to make a living. The Baghdad Security Plan has failed – to say the least – and there is a major sewage problem in Basra, dragging into its sixth month, which despite numerous calls from residents, has not been addressed by the Maliki government. The Ministry of Health is on alert, fearing spread of cholera, and the Municipality of Baghdad is making life more miserable for residents of the Iraqi capital…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44238

CAN WE LOOK FORWARD TO MORE INTERNET CENSORSHIP SOON?
Desertpeace
We already know what Google has been doing lately…. that is silencing any voice that dares to criticise Israel or it’s policies. Now Microsoft is claiming to be as much an Israeli company as an American one….. just what does that mean to Internet Freedom and Freedom of Speech in General?…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44237

Hizbullah gets veto power in unity government
Roee Nahmias, Ynet
Major triumph for Lebanese opposition: All demands made by Nasrallah materialized in breakthrough agreement between feuding factions announced by Arab mediators after five days of talks in Qatar to end Lebanon’s 18-month political crisis; Damascus welcomes deal..

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44235

Israeli soldiers sentenced to “10 days” imprisonment for killing a Palestinian
Palestinian Information Center
An Israeli military court sentenced three Israeli servicemen to ten days behind bars as a disciplinary measure for “killing” a Palestinian man in northern Ramallah during a picnic. The Israeli army radio said late Tuesday that the three soldiers, all from Beit Eil settlement, had fired at the man in Ein Yabroud killing him instantly…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44234

Palestinian doctor dies due to Gaza siege
Palestinian Information Center
The popular anti siege committee has announced that a Palestinian doctor in Gaza had died of brain cancer that could not be treated in Gaza Strip and at the same time he could not travel outside the Strip for treatment due to the Israeli siege. Rami Abdo, the committee’s spokesman, identified the new victim of the Israeli imposed siege as Dr. Abdul Karim Abu Oda, 69, who had been suffering of brain tumor for a long time…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44231

Congratulations, America … Children are Being Tortured in Your Name
George Washington’s Blog
…Well, the U.S. has imprisoned 2,500 children since 9/11 as “enemy combatants”, in violation of the Geneva Convention against classifying children as POWs. Still not disgusted? Okay . . . Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Seymour Hersh says that the U.S. Government has videotapes of boys being raped at Abu Ghraib prison. This doesn’t come as a complete surprise, given that assistant deputy Attorney General John Yoo has publicly argued that the president can order the torture of a child of a suspect in custody – including by crushing that child’s testicles….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44247

WHERE WOULD AMERICA BE TODAY WITHOUT ISRAEL?
Desertpeace
No country in the world helps the United States more than Israel does, asserted Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu in the Knesset Monday afternoon. The address came as part of a special welcome session for US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is currently heading a delegation of US congressmen…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44232

Israel says it is holding peace talks with Syria
MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer
Israel and Syria on Wednesday said they were holding indirect peace talks through Turkish mediators — the first official confirmation of contacts between the longtime enemies. In statements issued minutes apart, the two governments said they “have declared their intent to conduct these talks in good faith and with an open mind,” with a goal of reaching “a comprehensive peace.” Both nations thanked Turkey for its help, and Turkey issued its own confirmation. Muslim Turkey has good ties with both Israel and Syria…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44226

May 20, 2008: 23 Iraqis Killed, 38 Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
Iraqi troops peacefully entered Sadr City today to coordinate a security takeover with Sadrist representatives. At least 23 Iraqis were killed and 38 more were wounded in other incidents. No Coalition deaths were reported. Iraqi troops arrived en masse in Sadr City as part of a cease fire agreement that allows them to take over security in the area. No bloodshed was reported, but at least 100 bombs have been recovered during the operation….

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=44233