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uruknet.info information from occupied iraq |
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20 October 2005 |
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Palestine/Israel Index >> UrukNet Index |
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The Show Trial of the Century President Saddam Hussein's "trial" before a U.S.-orchestrated Kangaroo Court is hailed as the "trial of the century". Those who committed the crimes are rewarded and protected, while their victims are put on a show trial. It is not Saddam who is on trial; it is the international legal system (...) Saddam trial is a theatre. It is a Hollywood show to divert attention from the destruction of Iraq and the massive war crimes committed against the Iraqi people. Like the invasion, the "tribunal" is illegal and has no legitimacy in occupied Iraq. There is overwhelming prima facie evidence to convict George W. Bush and Tony Blair of crimes against humanity than to convict Saddam Hussein. Under the U.N Convention, Bush and Blair are guilty of crimes against humanity, torture, and guilty of wanton destruction of the Iraqi state (...) It is not Saddam who is guilty of crimes against humanity; Bush and Blair are... Marching Miller to the Gallows ...Let's investigate the lead up to the war and see if Miller and Sulzberger colluded with the White House to create the deceptive news that duped the Congress into supporting the war. Let's see if the "facts were fixed to fit the policy" in the newsroom as well as in the Oval Office. Perhaps, there's a connection between Miller and her Washington benefactors that goes beyond mere ideological compatibility. The 1st amendment does not prohibit rigorous, independent investigations nor does it preclude assigning blame where it belongs. If Miller and Sulzberger were part of a larger conspiracy to initiate hostilities against adefenseless nation, we need to know. The Iraq war is the greatest crime of the new century. We need to find out who is responsible and hold them accountable... 16 Fatal Words Indictments are expected to come down shortly as special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald completes the investigation originally precipitated by the outing of a C.I.A. officer under deep cover. In 21-plus months of digging and interviewing, Fitzpatrick and his able staff have been able to negotiate the intelligence/policy/politics labyrinth with considerable sophistication. In the process, they seem to have learned considerably more than they had bargained for. The investigation has long since morphed into size "extra-large," which is the only size commensurate with the wrongdoing uncovered-not least, the fabrication and peddling of intelligence to "justify" a war of aggression... Memo to Bill Keller: The War in Iraq is Not a "Loose End" In the memo he sent to his staff earlier this week, Bill Keller, who is traveling in China, wrote, "When I get back I'll still have some important loose ends to tie up from this episode." And what might those be? Find out who was Judy Miller's "other source"? Find out which phantom editor rejected Miller's "strong recommendation" that an article be written about Joe and Valerie Wilson? Find out why officials from the CIA, the DIA, and the Pentagon all say they have no idea what Miller was talking about when she claimed she had "security clearance"?... Abducted Guardian journalist is freed Rory Carroll, the Guardian journalist kidnapped in Baghdad on Wednesday, was freed last night. Carroll phoned the Guardian to confirm that he had been released from an underground cell. The end came when one of his captors received a mobile phone call and unbolted the door to the cell, telling him he was free to go. "He put me in the boot of his car and drove me alone and dropped me in the middle of Baghdad," Carroll said. Last night he was under the protection of the Iraqi government in the heavily fortified Green Zone... Cindy Sheehan Pledges Civil Disobedience Campaign Cindy Sheehan made a return visit to the streets of New York Wednesday, joining the weekly vigil of Grandmothers Against the War outside Rockefeller Center. In contrast to the scene in Union Square last month, when the police stormed the podium and cut off Sheehan's mic, this time the NYPD went out of its way to be gracious to America's leading peace mom. Police politely urged the jostling camera crews and passing tourists to "please clear the sidewalk," overseen by the NYPD's top spokesperson Paul J. Browne, who said he was there to prevent any rush-hour snafus. "It's the hometown of NBC, so it's a big TV area," Browne said, with a shrug... Attack Syria? Invade Iran? By What Constitution? Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 19, Condoleezza Rice was asked whether the Bush administration was planning military action against Syria. She answered, "I don't think the President ever takes any of his options off the table concerning anything to do with military force." Last time we read the U.S. Constitution, the grave decision to use military force against another country was a matter for Congress to decide -- not an "option" for a President... Defence lawyer in Saddam trial abducted in Baghdad A lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants was kidnapped on Thursday, a day after his client sat in the dock next to the former president on the opening day of their trial for crimes against humanity. Saadoun Janabi is defence counsel for former judge Jawad al-Bander, a senior legal source involved in the trial said. "(He) was kidnapped this evening around 8:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) from his office, which is also his home, in the Shaab district by eight armed men," the source said... A Small Victory On Monday, October 17th Gail Davidson and Howard Rubin along with Jason Gratl and Micheal Vonn representing B.C. Civil Liberties stepped into courtroom 55 of the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver with the hopes of lifting the publication ban which, since December of 2004 August, has kept the case out of the public eye. After a relatively short session of 45 minutes they emerged successful. "I don't know that I would call it a victory quite yet," said Ms. Davidson, "but it is at least a step in the right direction. People deserve to know what is happening here." What is happening is that Ms. Davidson and Lawyers Against the War have laid charges against George Bush Jr; accusing him of aiding, abetting, and counseling the commission of torture... A Rotten Foundation "It wouldn't surprise me if the election was rigged," said a U.S. Army officer in Mosul who requested anonymity from Time and who worked on security arrangements for the poll with Iraqi security and election officials. "I don't even trust our election process." If democracy is supposed to provide legitimacy to government what does a fraudulent election provide? The U.S. occupation, already suffering a host of problems false reasons for the invasion, lack of international support, wanning support in the U.S., Abu Gharib prison scandals, the Fallujah attack, the killing of civilians, a strengthening insurgency, lack of support by former generals and foreign service officers, and generals on the ground saying the presence of U.S. troops are increasing the strength of the insurgency now has a voting scandal on its hands... Impeachment Comes to NYC While things continue to get hotter in and around the White House and Blair House in Washington, impeachment is in the air in New York City. On Friday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22, a group called Not in Our Name ( http://www.nion.us ) will be hosting an International Commission of Inquiry to examine and condemn the actions of the Bush administration in the U.S. and around the globe. At this event, which is closely modeled on the War Crimes Tribunal of 1967 organized by philosopher Bertrand Russell to air the crimes of the U.S. in Vietnam, President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald rumsfeld and a number of other key administration officials will be symbolically put on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity... Iraq: The Unseen Dead ...The real reason for the blanket ban on photographs of dead soldiers, dead mothers, fathers and children is that people might have sympathy for "the enemy." There might be protest. Well, I protest at this denial of reality. I protested at the time, and I continue to protest. I wrote a poem, Witness to War, when Al Jazeera was printing the faces of dead children on their front pages. The poem was printed on the website, Poets Against the War... Vote Figures for Crucial Province Don't Add Up The early vote totals from Nineveh province, which suggested an overwhelming majority in favor of Iraq's draft constitution that assured its passage by national referendum, now appear to have been highly misleading. The final official figures for the province, obtained by IPS from a U.S. official in Mosul, actually have the constitution being rejected by a fairly wide margin, but less than the two-thirds majority required to defeat it outright... Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 19 October 2005 ...In a dispatch posted at 11:55am Mecca time Wednesday morning, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that a short while earlier Iraqi Resistance forces had fired four heavy 120mm mortar rounds into the area of the Republican Palace in Baghdad - the area dubbed the "green zone" by the Americans, where the US maintains its largest embassy in the world under the tightest possible security, and where the British embassy and headquarters of the US - installed "Iraqi government" are also to be found. The barrage coincided with the "trial" in that "zone" which is being staged by the US occupation, itself is illegal under international law, of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein... Guantanamo Hunger Strikers Say Feeding Tubes Employed as Punishment Prisoners on hunger strike at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay say troops force-fed them with dirty feeding tubes that have been violently inserted and withdrawn as punishment, according to declassified notes released by defense attorneys Wednesday. The repeated removal and insertion of the tubes has caused striking prisoners to vomit "substantial amounts of blood," and to experience intense pain that they have equated with torture, the lawyers reported to a federal judge after visiting their clients at the U.S. base in eastern Cuba... More On that Fake al-Zawahri Letter If the CIA or military intelligence wants us to believe their fakery, they will need to do a bit more research. For instance, they goofed really bad when they created the "al-Qaeda" letter, the one purportedly sent by Ayman al-Zawahri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the letter Bush mentioned in his radio address last weekend, saying it "lays out why al Qaeda views Iraq as 'the place for the greatest battle' of our day"... Gag Order Lifted On Canadian Torture Charges Against Bush Lawyers Against the War (LAW) is claiming a victory in its battle to have George W. Bush face charges in Canada for torture. The charges stem from the notorious cases of torture practiced by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They were laid on the occasion of George W. Bush's controversial visit to Canada in November 2004. The charges were laid under sections of the Canadian Criminal Code enacted pursuant to the United Nations Torture Convention which requires extra-territorial jurisdiction to be exercised against officials, even Heads of State, who authorize or are otherwise responsible for torture... Former CIA Analyst: Government May Be Manufacturing Fake Terrorism Ray McGovern, former CIA Analyst during the Regan and Bush 41 regimes, joined Alex Jones on his daily radio show Monday 17th October as part of a round table discussion of issues surrounding the Iraq war and the "war on terror". McGovern launched straight into the War in Iraq and suggested that over the last few months there has been a "sea change" in public opinion, and now over two thirds of Americans, according to major opinion polls, are against the war and can now see through the Neo-con Propaganda that so clouded their judgment in the lead up to the war... An important and an urgent statement ...The illegitimate "trial" opens an outstanding Jihadi phase for the Iraqi armed Resistance. This is not an isolated action in the ongoing and current battle on the soil of Iraq, between the Baath and the Resistance from one side and the occupation and its stooges from the other. This "trial" which, Comrade Saddam Hussein, will change into an Iraqi, an Arab and a battle in the name of all human beings... will inspire the heroic resistance and will strengthen even more the will of the valiant Mujahidins and harden the positions of militant Baathists and reinforce the hope of liberation in the souls of dignified Iraqis, root the spirit of unity and resistance in the souls of Palestinians and Arabs and enrich freedom and independence loving human beings. This trial will be a stain of dishonor, in its legal settings for it is totally illegal... | |
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