[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 18Apr 2005]

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Tarmiya: a continuing story
Dirk Adriaensens
I keep on receiving mails from all over the world about the dreadful story
of Tarmiya: the killings of Iraqi civilians by the US occupying forces. It
seems that many people, once they are confronted with the horrors of the
occupation in Iraq, are willing to undertake action, because they are
appaled by the monstrous behaviour of US troops in Iraq once they know the
realities on the ground. That's the importance of these stories. They awake
the world community. And that! is why the US want to eliminate non-embedded
journalists like Juliana Sgrena: they distort the image that the US
corporate media want to give to their audiences: "everything's fine, and
there are some minor problems with Zarqawi terrorists". No, nothing is OK
in Iraq. It's hell, and all human values disappear...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11192&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11192


IT’S ALL A BIG HAZE
Malcom Lagauche
...To many people, the subject of Iraq from the time of August 2, 1990
until today has been a big haze. So many things have occurred that it
appears like the world experienced many versions of the ongoing U.S.-Iraq
war. However, it is still one ongoing war that has included many battles.
No cease-fire has been in place since August 2, 1990. One part of the big
haze that probably has escaped the memory of most people is the last week
of the George Bush I presidency. Incidents of! that week were used as a
warmup for future belligerence against Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11170&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11170


The Bayoil Indictment -- the Real Scandal
Jude Wanniski
...I've been waiting for your final report to be published and make it
clear that Iraq not only had every legal right to charge fees for the
taking of the oil, it charged the fees to every company in the world that
was engaged in the program. After all, Paul, do not forget that the oil
belonged to the government of Iraq in custody for its people. That's the
way it works throughout the world. In addition, every last barrel that came
out of its ! oilfields could not have been lifted without the cooperation
and assistance of the Iraqi government that delivered it to the Iraqi
pipelines that, in turn, delivered it to the companies that held permits.
I'm surprised Saddam only asked 2 1/2%. Indeed, the neo-con team is
brazenly acting as if Saddam did something wrong in selling Iraqi oil in
violation of the United Nations embargo that we insisted by kept on for a
dozen years after the 1991 Gulf War. The U.N. resolution did not prohibit
Baghdad's sale of oil!!! It prohibited its purchase by U.N. members...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11169&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11169


You Call This Normal?
The New York Times in Fallujah
MIKE WHITNEY, CounterPunch
Cameras aren't allowed in Falluja; neither are journalists. If they were
then we would have first-hand proof of America's greatest war crime in the
last 30 years; the Dresden-like bombardment of an entire city of 250,000.
Instead, we have to rely on eyewitness accounts that appear on the internet
or the spurious reports that sporadically surface in the New York Times and
Associated Press...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11176&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11176


Soldiers' 'Wish Lists' Of Detainee Tactics Cited
Josh White, Washington Post Staff Writer
Army intelligence officials in Iraq developed and circulated "wish lists"
of harsh interrogation techniques they hoped to use on detainees in August
2003, including tactics such as low-voltage electrocution, blows with phone
books and using dogs and snakes -- suggestions that some soldiers believed
spawned abuse and illegal interrogations...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11186&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11186


The Hostage Crisis...
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning
...We know a lot of our new officials and spokespeople are blatantly lying
and it's fine to lie about security, reconstruction and democracy- we've
gotten used to it. In fact, we tell jokes about it and laugh about it at
family gatherings or over the telephone. To lie about something as serious
as Sunni-Shia hostage taking is another story altogether. It's unacceptable
and while Sunnis and Shia were hardly going to take up arms against each
other over this latest d! ebacle, but it was still extremely worrisome and
for people who wish to fuel sectarian violence, it was a perfect
opportunity...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11168&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11168


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 18 April 2005
Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 18 April 2005. Translated
and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free
Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org
In a dispatch posted at 10:15am Mecca time Monday morning, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that US aggressor troops staged an air drop of more than
700 American invaders into the middle of the liberated city of al-Qa’im a
short while before. The correspondent quoted witnesses a! s saying that the
skies of the city were covered with parachutes carrying US Marines...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11190&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11190


Australian media debates legalisation of torture
Richard Phillips, WSWS
Over the past three and a half years, the Howard government, in line with
its embrace of the Bush administration’s “war on terror” and the illegal
invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, has conducted an unrelenting assault on
fundamental democratic rights. With tactical support from the Australian
Labor Party, the government has endorsed the illegal US detention and abuse
of Australian citizens David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib in Guantánamo Bay,
ena! cted its own anti-terror laws, asserted the right to imprison asylum
seekers indefinitely and imposed other repressive measures...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11185&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11185


Analysis: why Iraqis fear militias
James Hider, The Times
..."The idea of using these militias to police Iraq and put down the
insurgency, voiced by President Jalal Talabani today, is not a new one. But
a lot of Iraqis, while torn by the desire for order, are very nervous about
the idea. What kind of accountability do you have from private, sectarian
militia? Trying to use militias against different ethnic communities risks
carving up Iraq on sectarian grounds"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11184&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11184


Iraq Official Connected with Hostage Crisis Killed
Swissinfo
Gunmen on Monday assassinated a seniorIraqi Interior Ministry official who
had told the media that ahostage crisis that fueled sectarian tensions was
exaggerated,police said. Police said 10 gunmen entered the home of
Major-GeneralAdnan Thabet in Baghdad and killed him and his nephew. Hours
before he was killed, Thabet said: "The number ofhostages has been greatly
exaggerated"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11183&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11183


Robotic troops symbolic of U.S. attitude in Iraq
The Asahi Shimbun
A robot soldier detects a person hiding in the shadows. It takes aim and
blasts away, taking yet another human life. While that scene may sound like
something out of a sci-fi movie, it could soon become a reality on the
battlefield. The U.S. Army is planning to deploy mobile robotic weapons for
the enforcement of security in Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11182&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11182


Keep open Iraq to the international solidarity and compromise
A delegation of the Spanish Campaign against the Occupation of Iraq and for
the Iraqi Sovereignty (SCOSI) travels to Iraq
SCOSI, Informative Note - IraqSolidaridad (www.nodo50.org/iraq)
...The SCOSI wants to highlight, through this new initiative, the need and
the solidarity compromise of the international movement against the war and
the occupation to maintain open wide the communication channels with the
Iraqi people and the politi! cal and social organizations who are demanding
the immediate withdrawal of the occupation forces, the whole restitution of
their sovereignty and the establishment of a democratic and non-sectarian
system, which fully respects the political, social and economical rights of
the Iraqi population"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11181&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11181


Iraq: Focus on increase in kidnappings
IRINews.org
...Iraqi families are becoming increasingly concerned over a rise in
kidnappings, where youngsters are being held for huge amounts of ransom
money. According to the Ministry of Interior (MoI), more than 130 cases
have been registered since July 2004 and 31 gangs have been arrested by the
police in the capital, where the majority of kidnappings take place. But
many cases aren't reported to the Iraqi police for security reasons (...)
During the former regime, there! were few kidnappings and the only cases
registered were resolved - they were usually linked to tribal family
disputes and not associated with ransoms or poor security...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11180&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11180


A Math Lesson
The Killing of Nicola Calipari
ELI STEPHENS, CounterPunch
It was reported a few days ago: "U.S. soldiers reportedly have been cleared
of wrongdoing in the shooting of an Italian journalist and an intelligence
agent last month in Baghdad. "The car was about 130 yards from a checkpoint
when the soldiers flashed their lights to get it to stop. They fired
warning shots when the car was within 90 yards of the checkpoint, but at 65
yards, they used deadly force. Calipari was killed and Sgre! na wounded."
Sgrena has told CBS that the car she was in was going 30 mph. At 30 mph, a
car is going 15 yards per second. So, according to the U.S. military, they
fired warning shots within 2.7 seconds of flashing a warning light, and
used "deadly force" 2.3 seconds after that...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11177&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11177


In Iraq, Security in Name Only
The new police force is largely untrained, frequently unreliable, and all
too ready to abuse civilians. How can U.S. troops hand over control?
The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
The Bush Administration and senior military commanders have suggested in
recent days that the training of Iraqi security forces -- one of the
linchpins of America's exit strategy -- is going so well that significant
troop reductions may be possible by early next year (...) Nonetheless,
while t! he Iraqi army seems to be getting up to speed, the training of the
142,000-member police force -- about half the total security forces
supposedly needed -- is moving more slowly and fraught with bigger problems
than reports by U.S. officials might suggest..

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11175&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11175


The Contradiction of Supporting the Troops, While Opposing Their Actions: A
Reply to Joshua Frank’s “Contradictions of the Anti-War Movement”
Richard Moreno, www.dissidentvoice.org
...We should always patiently explain to our fellow antiwar activists why
supporting the troops should really mean supporting the troops who refuse
to fight. Nevertheless, we must untiringly combat the slogans that
implicitly or otherwise neutralize the just character of our antiwar
struggle. As for the Iraqi resistance, I can! say without any compunction
that it is the objective expression of the U.S. occupation. Our task, as
citizens of the aggressor country, is to denounce the war as unjust while
mobilizing a movement that will hasten its end. This is what it means to be
not only antiwar but an anti-imperialist...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11173&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11173


People Around the World Mourn Marla Ruzicka's Tragic Death
CIVIC
Dear Friends of Marla and CIVIC, It is with deep sadness and regret that I
am writing to inform you that Marla died on Saturday at the age of 28 in a
suicide bomb attack. Faiz, CIVIC's Iraq Country Director, was also killed.
It is tragically ironic that two beautiful people who devoted their lives
to helping innocent victims of war have now become them. The attack
occurred on the Baghdad Airport road as she traveled to visit an Iraqi
child injured b! y a bomb, part of her daily work of identifying and
supporting innocent victims of this war...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11172&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11172


You are dreaming my yob!
Abu Assur, Al-Moharer
...The Iraqi insurgency is not declining. It is your wishful thinking. US
you have already lost the war. You are just playing with time and the lives
of US youth and squandering billions of dollars. The Iraqi resistance is
your nightmare, and it will stay until you are totally and utterly defeated
and humiliated. The Iraqis are fighting in the name of the Humankind to get
the world over rid of your muck, mess and filth. Iraqi rebellion, Iraqi
insurgency, rather Iraqi! resistance is declining only in your daydreams...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11178&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11178


No sign of hostages in Iraq's al-Madain
Aljazeera.net
The Iraqi army has found no hostages in the besieged town of al-Madain,
where fighters have reportedly been holding Shia residents hostage. A
1500-strong Iraqi force moved into al-Madain - known also as Salman Pak -
30km southeast of Baghdad, according to an AFP correspondent embedded with
the US military. Abd al-Salam al-Kubaisi, a member of the influential and
mostly Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMS) told Aljazeera
that he had contacted some! people in al-Madain and they confirmed there
was a fierce attack on the town despite the apparent absence of fighters.
"We can call this another Falluja," al-Kubaisi said. He went on to say that
the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced on 14 April that there would be an
attack against al-Madain town...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11167&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11167


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 17 April 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org
...Numerous residents of the al-Mada’in area southeast of Baghdad have
refuted the claims, carried by western wire services and satellite TV
stations, that some 80 or 100 Shi‘i citizens had been kidnapped by an armed
“insurgent” group that threatened to kill them if all Shi‘i families fail
to evacuate the city. Shaykh Ibrahim al-Ja! bburi, a local notable and
tribal chief in the district of al-Mada’in denied that there were any armed
actions of this sort. A report carried by albasrah.net said that he called
such stories lies that the media had been relaying without doing any
investigation...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11165&s2=19>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11165




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information concerning occupied Iraq: news, analysis, documents and texts
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