[uruknet.info] - [daily information from occupied iraq] - [newsletter 24 May 2005]





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Fabricating Intelligence as a Justification for War
"The Intelligence and Facts were fixed around the Policy"
Selected articles and essays
Michel Chossudovsky , Editor , Centre for Research on Globalisation
www.globalresearch.ca
The balance-sheet of lies and fabricated intelligence presented in this
selection of articles provides detailed and overwhelming evidence. We have
included news reports dating back to 2002, background analysis, commentary,
leaked intelligence documents, Secret memo! s and the reports by weapons
inspectors. The collection which is intended to provide key references,
also addresses a number of important issues, which have been shoved under
the carpet, including the circumstances of David Kelly's death, the
plagiarism of intelligence documents, the fabricated ricin attacks, etc...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12001&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12001


Iraq Started the Iran/Iraq War?
Jude Wanniski
If you continue to wonder why the "insurgents" in Iraq continue to blow
themselves up to prevent the interim government from gaining credibility
among the populace, please note the report that the new "interim
government" has confessed that Saddam Hussein started the eight-year war
with Iran in 1980. All these years, the people of Iraq believed the war
grew out of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini's call for Iraqi Shiites to
overthrown Saddam in order to install a sectarian S! hiite government in
Baghdad (...) Can it be that practically every member of the new interim
"government" in Baghdad either fought on Iran's side in the war or was in
exile, a la Ahmed Chalabi, openly rooting for the defeat of Iraq by the
Iranians? Hasn't the New York Times, which says it is mystified by the
determination of the insurgents to lay down their lives to preserve chaos,
noticed that the new Baghdad regime is a government of quislings?? ...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11971&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11971


MEDIA ALERT: BBC STILL IGNORING EVIDENCE OF WAR CRIMES
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
...We received the following response from Helen Boaden on May 19: Dear Mr
Cromwell and Mr Edwards, In your original complaint, you criticised the BBC
for failing to support your [sic] contention that US forces in Falluja used
banned weapons and committed other atrocities. Our correspondent in Falluja
at the time, Paul Wood, did not report any of these things because he did
not see an! y of these things (...) We responded on May 24: Dear Helen
Boaden, Thank you for your reply of 19th May. We are grateful that you have
responded, but we are concerned that you continue to evade the points that
have been put to you. Could you possibly please first of all retract your
renewed assertion that claims of banned weapons use by US forces have been
made +by+ Media Lens? That is incorrect. We are asking the BBC to report
such claims; an entirely different matter./i>...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12006&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12006


More blood for less oil?
Nicolas J S Davies, Online Journal Contributing Writer
On Monday, April 11, the Financial Times printed a letter from Ian
Rutledge, the author of "Addicted to Oil," in which he explained that the
United States government and U.S. oil companies had counted on the invasion
and occupation of Iraq to quickly boost Iraqi oil production by 2 million
barrels per day, easing a projected shortfall in global oil supplies.
Instead the war has had the opposite effect, reducing Iraqi exports by 1
mill! ion barrels per day, and the result is now evident at gas stations
from Baghdad to Boston...



<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12013&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12013


Greg Palast IV: Fixed Intelligence to Justify Iraq
Scoop.co.nz
...This is what nailed Nixon in the end, not just Watergate, but it was
fixing the intelligence. In the case of Watergate, Nixon finally went down
because he tried to blame the CIA and in our case, George Bush himself
successfully did this. A month ago, we had a report out saying that the
intelligence was not monkeyed with, rather the Rob Silverman report said
that the CIA simply had the wrong information. Not so, the facts were being
fixed...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11996&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11996


US military atrocities and the moral choice facing the American people
David North and David Walsh, WSWS
A New York Times editorial May 23 accused the president of the United
States, along with other members of his administration, of grave crimes in
Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (...) Everyone knows that the
murders at Bagram and abuse at Abu Ghraib are only the tip of the iceberg.
One can say without fear of contradiction that crimes are being committed
on a daily basis in Iraq, Afghanistan a! nd the US internment camp in Cuba.
If there is not more exposure of the atrocities, and outrage at their
commission, that must be explained by the general support such methods find
within the American ruling elite. The greatest fiction, which the Times
editors continue to maintain, is that the truly savage treatment of
ordinary Afghans and Iraqis can be considered apart from the character of
the war as a whole...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12002&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12002


Don't look now!
Ed Naha
Shhhh. Don't tell anyone but...there's a war going on and Americans are
dying. I know, it's hard to believe, but trust me on this one. We can all
go back to watching Michael Jackson news in a minute. As I write this,
1,636 American troops have died in Iraq, 49 this month alone, and over
12,000 have been injured. And how is America responding to this? With a big
yawn. Last week, "The Los Angeles Times," printed the results of a study it
conducted, tracking six newspapers and two news magazi! nes on their
coverage of the Iraq invasion from the period of September 1, 2004 to
February 28 of this year. Just how many photos of American casualties had
been shown to our fellow citizens during that time period?...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12017&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12017


The dissonance of the NPT is getting louder
Imad Khadduri
The constant drumbeat of US propaganda about how Iran has to "come clean"
with the world and "stop conducting a secret nuclear weapons program" is
relentless, though dissonant in tone. The latest US demands would impose
conditions--specifically, a permanent ban on reprocessing uranium--that
goes far beyond anything that the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) actually
stipulates. The US is demanding that Iran voluntarily agree to unilaterally
American-imposed r! estrictions and submit to intrusive, unrestricted
American inspections of its nuclear facilities, anywhere, anytime,
anyplace, without any guarantees that these inspections won't be used to
determine targets for a later (and, of course, illegal) US attack...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12008&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12008


Insurgents Kill Iraq's Counter-Insurgency Chief
Fintan Dunne, BreakForNews.com
The assassination on Monday of Iraq's new counter insurgency coordinator is
a sign of either how inept, or now undermanned is the fledgling Iraqi
security administration: An insurgent squad shot dead the commander of
Iraq's new counter-insurgency headquarters as he drove to work Monday in
Baghdad, as US and Iraqi troops conducted a massive sweep for insurgents
(...) The Arab media report above makes quite clear the pivotal role ! of
Rubaye in counter-insurgency, but scrambling to downplay the severity of
the blow, the London Independent describes Rubay merely as a 'security
advisor'...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12014&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12014


Wounded lioness Iraq !
Abu Assur
Here you are Iraq, wounded, riddled with bullets and arrows but still
defying your US murderers and Idol Zion thugs. Lioness Iraq you are
crucified every day and your jailers US laugh and joke, not knowing that
they are digging their own graves in your sacred soil. Wounded Baghdad, you
are trailing the suffering of the world, you are dragging a mountain of
pain and great sorrow of what has happened to the human race at the hands
of the US assassins...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12003&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12003


At least 8,000 treasures looted from Iraq museum still untraced
Louise Jury, Arts Correspondent, Independent
Evidence of how quickly and irretrievably a country can be stripped of its
cultural heritage came with the Iraq war in 2003. The latest figures,
presented to the art crime conference yesterday by John Curtis of the
British Museum, suggested that half of the 40 iconic items from the Iraq
National Museum in Baghdad still had not been retrieved. And of at least
15,000 items looted from its storerooms, about 8! ,000 have yet to be
traced...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11991&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11991


Fleeing Iraqi Christians on road to Damascus
SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN
...In the past two years, Syria has taken in as many as 20,000 Iraqi
Christians fleeing violence and persecution in their native land (...)
Syria's constitution requires a Muslim to be president, but the ruling
Baath Party was founded by a Christian who believed in secular government.
Christians also benefit from the fact that Syria's most recent leaders,
members of the minority Alawite sect, have embraced other minorities as a
way of strengthening ! their power. A similar situation existed in Iraq,
where the Baath Party ruled until 2003. As a Baathist and a member of the
Sunni minority, Saddam Hussein had a secular government that included
Christians - among his best-known advisers was the Christian deputy prime
minister, Tariq Aziz...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12005&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12005


Sadr Mediates Sunni-Shiite Dispute
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Al-Sharq al-Awsat /DPA: Young Shiite nationalist leader Muqtada al-Sadr
said Monday that the attempts of his aides to mediate between the Sunni
Association of Muslim Scholars and the Shiite Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq's Badr paramilitary had achieved advances. Deutsche
Press Agentur reported that Sadr told them in Najaf, "Our delegation
detected a desire on the part of both parties to make an opening and to
ensure the triumph! of the language of dialogue, rather than that of
bigotry and prejudice. I can say that the delegation took the process to
the next level"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12009&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12009


Eight American Soldiers Killed in Iraq
CNN
Insurgent attacks during the past 24 hours have killed eight U.S. soldiers
in Iraq, the military said Tuesday. Three soldiers died in a car bombing in
central Baghdad on Tuesday and a fourth -- who was manning an observation
post -- was killed by a drive-by gunman, Task Force Baghdad spokesman, Maj.
Darryl Wright said. Four other American soldiers were killed by a bomb on
Monday, the military said. They were assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat
Team, 2nd Marine Expediti! onary Force...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12018&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12018


Bush, Blair & Howard Photo Atrocities
Joe Vialls
On December 9, 1937, a crowd of vicious war criminals set a precedent for
what is happening today in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and inside the American
concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. On that fateful winter day
back in 1937, invading Japanese troops launched a massive attack on the
Chinese city of Nanking. On the 12th, the defending Chinese troops decided
to retreat to the other side of Yangtze River. On the 13th of December, the
6th and the 116th Division! s of the Japanese Army first entered the city.
At the same time, the 9th Division entered Guanghua Gate, and the 16th
Division entered Zhongshan Gate and the Pacific Gate...
Warning - Extremely Graphic Images

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12015&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12015


Iraq launches hunt for freed Saddam regime official
AFP
Iraq said on Tuesday that police were hunting for a leading member of
ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime who was freed from custody by
the former government because of poor health. Ghazi Hammud al-Obeidi, one
of a list of 55 notorious former regime leaders wanted by US authorities,
was arrested soon after the fall of Saddam in April 2003. But he was freed
recently by a US-appointed government committee headed by former prime
minister Iyad Allawi, ! said Leith Kubba, a spokesman for new premier
Ibrahim Jaafari. "There was a failure in the justice system and the current
government does not intend to release any other prisoners" on the list of
55, Kubba said, adding that police have issued an arrest warrant for
Obeidi. The former Baath Party leader has cancer and is not expected to
live long...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12019&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12019


AWOL: McCain and the Democrats
The Pork War
WINSLOW T. WHEELER, CounterPunch
It was business as usual last month as the Senate loaded pork into the
spending bill President George W. Bush requested for the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. The bill that the Senate passed on April 21 was crammed with
essential war-fighting treasures like $500,000 to study wind energy in
North and South Dakota, $20 million for a fish hatchery in Fort Peck,
Mont., $26 million to move nuclear materials out of New Mexico into Nev!
ada, and $4 million for West Virginia's Upper Tygart Watershed Project...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=12016&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=12016


Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 23 May 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 4:46pm Mecca time Monday afternoon, Mafkarat
al-Islam reported that the so-called "Wolf Brigade" of puppet so-called
"Iraqi interior ministry" forces, backed up by US occupation troops had
arrested Shaykh 'Abd as-Salam 'Ali Husayn as-Zabidi, a member of the Board
of Muslim 'Ulama' Scholars as he was re! turning to his home in Abu
Ghurayb. The Board of Muslim 'Ulama' issued a statement saying that the
puppet troops stopped the Shaykh in his car on the highway near the
al-Yarmuk establishment and led him away with no explanation...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11999&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11999


Soldier's murder trial spurs debate on war zone killings
Monica Davey The New York Times
The American soldier and the Iraqi police officer were on patrol together
outside a flea market south of Baghdad, chatting from time to time, when
one of them suddenly started shooting. What prompted the gunfire is a
matter of dispute, but one thing is not: The soldier, Corporal Dustin Berg,
fired three times at his Iraqi partner, Hussein Kamel Hadi Dawood
al-Zubeidi, and killed him. As Berg ran away, he picked up Zubeidi's A!
K-47 and shot himself in the side. In the days that followed, Berg lied
about what happened, saying Zubeidi was the one who had shot him. And for
months he went right on lying, after he recovered from his wound, after he
left Iraq, even after he received a Purple Heart he did not deserve, with
his parents watching at a solemn ceremony back home in Indiana...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11993&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11993


Students protest outside military recruiting stations
MELANTHIA MITCHELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Students from area universities, colleges and high schools rallied Monday
outside a military recruiting station downtown, pounding on windows and
demanding an end to U.S. operations in Iraq. Protests also were staged
outside recruiting stations north of Seattle and in the University District
next to the University of Washington. Students called for an end to
military recruitment in schools and said money spent on the! war should be
used to better fund all levels of public education...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11992&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11992


Baath Party slams U.S. over Saddam photos-newspaper
Reuters
Saddam Hussein's Baath Party has said pictures of the former Iraqi leader
in jail reflected the moral decline of the United States, a pan-Arab
newspaper reported on Monday. "When the Defense Department leaks pictures
of the defiant leader in prison … it confirms the failure of its strategy
in Iraq and, foremost, the moral and political collapse of the U.S.
government and officials," London-based al-Quds al-Arabi daily quoted a
Baath Party statement it re! ceived as saying...


<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=11990&s2=24>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=11990




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