[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 23 May 2005]

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Minutes not Memo -- DOWN WITH BUSHSPEAK !!
Grace Reid
The new Public Editor of the New York Times has made a major strike towards
truth in reporting. He is the first journalist, since the story broke in
the US to address the importance of the Downing Street minutes. On the
twist of a word, this story almost got lost. Not just to the public, but to
editors and journalists, as well. You see, the documents released from
Downing Street are not, and never were a "memo." They were, and are, in
Calame's words "t! he minutes of a high-powered meeting on a life-and-death
issue. Well, it took 30 days, but in the battle to break through the US
media blackout we won our first word. "MINUTES." Thank God you've arrived,
Mr. Calame, you seem to know what every secretary knows. Minutes are not
memos. Phew!...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11980&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11980


Galloway, Israeli spies and more
Joseph Cannon
...Back in November of 2003, Galloway revealed that four members of the
U.N. weapons inspection team were actually Mossad spies. Here, no doubt, is
the real reason for the smear campaign against this British MP launched by
the spooked-up MEMRI, Chalabi, and Coleman. Brad Friedman reports that
Galloway's inflammatory anti-Bush rhetoric was scrubbed from the official
website of Coleman's committee (...) Those who get this story only from
cable news aren't getting the ! story at all. Coleman has been compared to
Joe McCarthy. In fact, he's worse: He reminds me of those lower-level
McCarthy wanna-bes (Myron Fagan comes to mind) who spent much of the 1950s
waving around bogus lists filled with the names of political adversaries...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11989&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11989


The First Casualty
Marcus Hale, Executive Editor Southeast Asia News - Iraqwar.ru
...One of the greatest smoke screens for the truth in Iraq, and used
interminably by the mainstream media, is the term "insurgents". So accepted
is this word that even rational "un-embedded" reporters are now using the
term and it is difficult to find an article on Iraq not written by an Iraqi
which does not contain this terminology. Why is this important? Because of
the impression it is designed to give us. All of us listening to ! and
watching the news every night have this constant reinforcement of the idea
that if not all but most of those fighting against the 'coalition forces'
are not Iraqis, but insurgents, or people "surging in" from somewhere else
with other, more sinister agendas, such arresting the arrival of
democracy...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11987&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11987


Abdullah Al-Hourani: Attacking Palestinians in Iraq a Mossad-plotted
Aljazeerah.info
Head of the Gaza-based Palestinian National Center for Research and
Documentation, Abdullah Al-Hourani, believed Monday that the latest Iraqi
troops attacks on the Palestinian refugees in a Baghdad suburb, has been
plotted by the Israeli Mossad. "Attacking the Palestinian refugees in Iraq
has been a part of the criminal operations carried out by the Iraqi forces
headed by Abdelaziz Alhakim, to revenge from the Palestinians for th! e
national supportive position they had taken towards the deposed Iraqi
regime of Sadam Hussein, which used to protect them", Mr. Al-Hourani told
the IPC in a special interview...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11985&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
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Deliberate Deception—Bush & Iraq: How Much More Evidence is Needed?
Jack Dalton, POAC.
That the single most serious decision which anyone calling them self the
president can make is the decision to go to war, is beyond question. That
George W. Bush & Company were formulating plans to invade Iraq even prior
to 9/11 is also beyond question; at least for those willing to spend the
time looking at the wide body of available evidence. Paul O'Neill, who was
Secretary of the Treasury until Bush replaced him, was very cl! ear when he
stated that invading Iraq was on the table from the first day Bush took
office. Richard Clarke who was the "Terrorism Czar" was also replaced by
Bush. Writing in his book, "Against All Enemies" he is very clear in
explaining how the only thing Bush wanted to discuss, or hear, was invading
Iraq...



<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11988&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11988


Attacks hit vital security in Iraq
Sharon Behn, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Iraq's insurgents are conducting increasingly sophisticated and lethal
attacks on the private security companies that are crucial to the nation's
reconstruction and the eventual departure of U.S. troops, contractors and
U.S. officials say. These contractors and officials point to the surprising
level of planning and brutality involved in a May 8 attack on the British
security company Hart Security Ltd., which provides protection to convoys,
home! s and individuals in Iraq.

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11986&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11986


Car bombs, suicide attacks kill 49, scores hurt
Iraqi security official slain; 5 U.S. troops die over weekend
The Associated Press
A string of car bombs and suicide attacks across Iraq killed at least 49
Iraqis and wounded more than 130 Monday, striking a Baghdad restaurant
popular with police, a Shiite mosque and the home of a community leader
near Mosul. Insurgents also assassinated a senior Iraqi general in the
capital, and the U.S. military reported that four American soldiers were
killed! in combat Sunday in northern Iraq and a fifth died in an accident.
About 610 people, including 49 U.S. troops, have been killed since April
28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new government...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11983&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11983


Dozens Have Alleged Koran's Mishandling
Richard A. Serrano and John Daniszewski , Los Angeles Times
...An examination of hearing transcripts, court records and government
documents, as well as interviews with former detainees, their lawyers,
civil liberties groups and U.S. military personnel, reveals dozens of
accusations involving the Koran, not only at Guantanamo, but also at
American-run detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. In one instance,
an Iraqi detainee alleged that a soldier had a guard dog carr! y a copy of
the Koran in its mouth. In another, guards at Guantanamo were said to have
scrawled obscenities inside Korans...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11977&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11977


Legalising torture?
Ray Fulcher, Green Left Weekly
Most of people recoil at the use of torture, Most people would say that the
perpetrators and their governments were guilty of crimes against humanity
and should be severely punished. Not so according to two Australian
academics who argue that these same states should be provided a legal
framework and moral licence to torture foreign captives and their own
citizens. To do otherwise would be "morally unsound" argue Mirko Bagaric,
head of Deakin Law School in Geelon! g, and Julie Clarke of the same
faculty...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11976&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11976


An Exclusive Interview with George Galloway
How to Build a Successful Progressive Alliance
ESTHER SASSAMAN and THOMAS NAGY, CounterPunch
...Sadly, few of the reporters gathered that day asked Galloway about his
newsworthy victory as a Respect candidate in the seat of Bethnal Green, a
seat of immigrants and working class people in east London. What's more,
the progressive reports of Tuesday's hearing have largely focused on his
refutation of the charges and rhetorical prowess, not his historic success
as! a Respect candidate. We caught up with Galloway and his team at Union
Station, in a restaurant on a circular platform towering above the busy
station. As he puffed a cigar, we asked him about the victory of Respect
and its applicability to the problems faced by American activists...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11974&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11974


It was a Fairly Quiet Day in Baghdad
Tom Fox, Electronic Iraq
In Baghdad today, four clerics (three Sunni and one Shi'a) were
assassinated. The bodies of two other Sunni clerics who had been abducted
last week were found. A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle in the Abu
Cher market killing nine Iraqi National Guard troops and injuring
twenty-eight civilians. Two engineering students were killed when a bomb
(or rocket) struck their classroom at a local school. The dean of a high
school in the Shaab neighborho! od was assassinated....

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11978&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
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All the King's horses
Peter Lee
America has a new weapon in the war on terror. Underwear. Our psy-ops
wizards understand that the public spectacle of Saddam in his Y-fronts will
bring about the rapid collapse of the insurgency. At least it should work
better than advertising that we beat innocent people to death in detention
and abuse a few Korans along the way. No doubt that's why the photographs
were leaked...
...and the giant White House megaphone announced WE ARE JUST HORRIFIED,
HORRIFIED THAT THESE PICTURES OF SADDAM LOOKING SILLY ARE OUT THERE FOR THE
WORLD TO SEE and promised -- of course -- a full investigation. What is
perhaps more significant is that the great minds running our military
campaign in Iraq now acknowledge that we're dealing with a Ba'ath-directed
local insurgency fueled by Sunni rage -- and vestigal nostalgia for a
certain underwear-clad ex dictator--not an international terror campaign
ginned up by al-Qaeda jihadniks sneaking in from Syria...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11973&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11973


Sgt. Kevin Benderman, An American Hero
Hon. Cynthia McKinney
I speak with you today about one of America's heroes, Sgt. Kevin Benderman.
Sgt. Benderman is not a hero because he served a tour of duty in the
Occupation of Iraq, though he did. He is not a hero because of the medals
he was awarded, nor his ten years of honorable service in the U.S. Army.
No, Sgt. Kevin Benderman is a hero because when all around him are pressing
forward to prosecute a violent war against the people of Iraq, Kevin
Benderman had the c! ourage to stand up and assert his heartfelt opposition
to war...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11972&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11972


The Rumsfeld Stain
Bob Herbert, New York Times
Much of what has happened to the military on his watch has been
catastrophic. In Iraq, more than 1,600 American troops have died and many
thousands have been maimed in a war that Mr. Rumsfeld mishandled from the
beginning and still has no idea how to win. The generals are telling us now
that the U.S. is likely to be bogged down in Iraq for years, and there are
whispers circulating about the possibility of "defeat. Potential recruits
are staying away from the armed fo! rces in droves. Most Americans want no
part of the administration's hapless venture in Iraq...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11970&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11970


Patterns of Abuse
Editorial New York Times
President Bush said the other day that the world should see his
administration's handling of the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison as a model of
transparency and accountability. He said those responsible were being
systematically punished, regardless of rank. It made for a nice Oval Office
photo-op on a Friday morning. Unfortunately, none of it is true.
The administration has provided nothing remotely like a full and honest
accounting of the extent of the abuses at American prison camps in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It has withheld internal reports and
stonewalled external inquiries, while clinging to the fiction that the
abuse was confined to isolated acts, like the sadistic behavior of one
night crew in one cellblock at Abu Ghraib....

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11969&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11969


Iraqi Sunnis make their demands public
Le Monde - Translated by Siv O'Neall, Axis of Logic
"While we condemn the raids and the arrests of Sunni imams and worshipers
in the mosques under the cover of the law, we demand that an independent
commission be set up to investigate the murders and the torture of
prisoners and to dismiss the minister of the interior", was the request of
several Sunni leaders who got together at a conference on Saturday in
Baghdad to send out a press release. The conference, which gathered ! about
a thousand Sunni representatives was held in the middle of a prayer strike
in Sunni mosques to protest against the murder of 14 people working in the
mosques, of whom three were imams...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11967&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11967


Great Lies of the Amercian free press
David R. Hoffman, Legal Editor of PRAVDA
In several previous PRAVDA articles, I discussed the Bush dictatorship's
prominent use of Adolph Hitler's "great lie theory" - the political tactic
where a leader fabricates "great lies," then "eternally" repeats them until
a significant portion of the population comes to accept them as truth. The
Bush dictatorship also discovered a residual benefit of the "great lie
theory": People are often so myopic or so embarrassed by their gull!
ibility that, even after the "great lies" are exposed, they would rather
reward the liar than acknowledge the lie...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11966&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11966


U.S. looks to consolidate troops at 4 large bases
Bradley Graham, Washington Post
U.S. military commanders have prepared plans to consolidate U.S. troops in
Iraq into four large air bases as they look ahead to giving up more than
100 other bases now occupied by international forces, officers said.
Several officers involved in drafting the consolidation plan said it
entailed the construction of longer-lasting buildings at the sites,
including barracks and office structures made of concrete block instead of
the me! tal trailers and tin-sheathed buildings that have become the norm
at bigger U.S. bases in Iraq. The new, sturdier buildings will give the
bases a more permanent character, the officers acknowledged...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11963&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11963


Murdoch's 'Sun' Still Shamelessly Defends Saddam Photos, in Violation to
Geneva Convention
Agencies Arab News
...In his disgusting and shameless defense, the editor of the Zionist
newspaper, Tom Newton Dunn, described the captured Iraqi President and
other captured Iraqi leaders with terms as ugly and disgusting as his
arrogance in breaching the privacy of prisoners of war. The Sun, owned by
Rupert Murdoch, said the photos it published Friday and yesterday were
provided by a US military official it did not identi! fy who hoped their
release would deal a "body blow" to the insurgency(...) The Sun also quoted
an unidentified "senior British military source" as saying that the top
brass at the British Defense Ministry and the Pentagon were secretly
pleased by the media exposure...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11960&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11960


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 22 May 2005
Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board,
the Free Arab Voice. http://www.freearabvoice.org
A large force of Iraqi Resistance forces armed with rockets mounted a
sweeping attack on a giant US truck convoy loaded with prefabricated
housing that was on its way to a US base in al-Khalidiyah, east of
al-Fallujah, Sunday morning. The Resistance attack, that took place in the
al-Jazirah area near al-Khalidiyah, completely destroy! ed eight US trucks
driven by Marines, together with their cargoes...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11962&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11962


For Bush, Iraq lies are fundamental
Robert Parry, Consortium News
More than two years and 1,600 dead U.S. soldiers later, George W. Bush's
defenders concede Iraq may not have had weapons of mass destruction, but
the defenders still get their backs up when someone accuses Bush of lying.
A mistake maybe, but a lie never! That defense is anchored in their
assessment of Bush's fundamental decency as a born-again Christian who
would never knowingly mislead the American people, especially on something
as important as s! ending U.S. soldiers off to war...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11952&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11952




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