[UrukNet] - [Daily Information from Occupied Iraq] - [newsletter 27 Apr 2006]

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Iraq Body Count’s John Sloboda? - NO THANK YOU!
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's dream
Iraq Body Count’s John Sloboda gave an interview to the BBC and published
on IBC’s website "Speculation is no substitute: a defence of Iraq Body
Count". In the interview and in the "Speculation is no substitute: a
defence of Iraq Body Count", Sloboda insults Media Lens, John Pilger, Dahr
Jamail, Les Roberts, Stephen Soldz and myself (but I assure you, I am
delighted to be in such a wonderful company and I hope to deserve such an
h! onor!) Our crime: we dared to ask a few questions about IBC (...)
Please, note that Sloboda gave the interview to the BBC, calling it
"responsible media"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22904&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22904


“Diplomacy,” the smokescreen for savagery
Ghali Hassan, Online Journal Contributing Writer
Open any Western newspaper and you are struck by the abundant use of the
word "diplomacy." It is the second most used word after "democracy."
However, careful analysis shows that U.S. version of diplomacy has become
the favourite smokescreen of U.S. wars of aggression. Iraq and Iran provide
the best cases. In relation to Iran, the Bush administration alleged that
it is using "diplomacy" to convince Iran to give up her right! s to nuclear
technology. President Bush frequently says that "we are working with
European allies" to use diplomacy to avert a nuclear impasse with Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a "diplomatic solution"
will be found to the Iranian nuclear crisis. The reality is the opposite.
By accusing Iran of intending to manufacture nuclear weapons, the U.S. and
its European vassals are using the so-called "diplomacy" to coerce as many
nations as possible to report Iran to the UN Security Council and pave the
way for sanctions and most likely war of aggression against Iran...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22917&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22917


Kerry Sponsors Collective Punishment of Palestinians on Behalf of Israel
Genevieve Cora Fraser
As a former state prosecutor and lieutenant governor whose father was a
Foreign Service officer, the former Presidential candidate Senator John
Forbes Kerry should know a violation of international law when he sees one.
Perhaps he could blame intimidation by the American Israeli PAC
organization or a need to pander to his Jewish benefactors as he makes
another run for the Presidency, but Kerry’s recent co-sponsorship of! the
Palestinian Compliance Act of 2006 is a violation of Article 33 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention that forbids collective punishment and states
"that a person shall not be punished for an offense he or she has not
personally committed. This article explicitly relates to administrative
punishment imposed on persons or groups because of acts that they did not
personally commit. Article 50 of the Hague Regulations states a comparable
prohibition"...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22918&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22918


Seminar in Spain charges:
U.S. occupiers complicit in Iraq murders
John Catalinotto

Representatives from anti-war groups in eight countries met here the
weekend of April 21 to 23 to discuss a grim emergency: the assassinations
and disappearances of hundreds of Iraqi scientists, doctors, teachers and
other intellectuals under the U.S.-UK occupation. They heard firsthand the
plight of Iraqi academics and medical professionals who struggle to live
amid constant threats, physical violence, kidnappings and the operation of
death squads. Academic officials and trade union leaders in the Spanish
state also spoke out at a seminar against the U.S. occupation. Evidence was
presented that the U.S. occupation is responsible for the suffering of the
Iraqi people, including the assassinations, and that the U.S. has the
motive and means for carrying them out...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22919&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22919


House votes 397-21 for “Iran Freedom Support Act”
Ben Frank
As if Iraq isn’t a big enough mess, the House of Representatives has just
voted to 'hold Iran accountable and support a transition to democracy’.
Sound Familiar? Only this time Iran is a democracy. They just held an
election where their president was actually elected by the people. How
refreshing. After everything that has been exposed…the lies, the
profiteering, the long list of war crimes, 397 'Representatives’ gave Bush
the go ahead on attackin! g Iran. Only 21 Patriots voted Nay.

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22916&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22916


Who really runs Iraq?
Truth About Iraqis
...So, here is what happened, Rummy and Condi flew in to hand Maliki his
orders for the new government and likely delivered a few warnings about
death squads and militia. "He understood his role and the role of the new
government to really demonstrate that it's a government of national unity
in which all Iraqis could trust," Ms Rice said. Translation: We told them
how they should act, what they should say, when, where and how - Simon says
or Monkey see, monkey do, basicall! y (...) Maliki, of course as Iraq newly
selected PM, can't confer with his advisors like anywhere else in the
civilized world, or with his cabinet. No, instead, he took his
newly-arrived orders and flew with all speed to confer with Sistani -
Iran's main man in Iraq. Sistani, who refuses to accept Iraqi citizenship...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22915&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22915


GIs, Beware Radioactive Showers!
Irving Wesley Hall
...Was Army Sgt. Michael Lee Tosto the first American victim of the Bush
administration’s March 2003 "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq? The 24-year-old
North Carolina tank operator died "mysteriously" in Baghdad on June 17,
2003. The Iraqi capital was saturated with radioactive dust from the
initial explosions of 1,500 American bombs and missiles, many of them made
from solid depleted uranium. After the saturation bombing, the city was the
scene of street battles w! ith M-1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles,
A-10 Warthog attack jets and Apache helicopters firing DU munitions. The
army told Sgt. Tosto’s family that he died from pulmonary edema and
pericardial effusion, or cardiac failure, after showing flu-like symptoms.
Young Michael Tosto believed George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza
Rice. He believed he had been deployed to Iraq to stop Saddam Hussein from
nuking the United States. Michael died before we all learned that Bush,
Cheney, and Rumsfeld are nuking the world...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22913&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22913


DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, April 27, 2006
Today in Iraq
A bomb blast rocked an Italian convoy at a base in southern Iraq on
Thursday, killing three Italian soldiers and a Romanian, the Defense
Ministry said. The roadside bomb targeted a four-vehicle convoy on its way
to relieve troops at an Iraqi police station in the city of Nasiriyah, the
ministry said in a statement. One of the vehicles was destroyed, killing
the four soldiers and seriously injuring at least one more passenger (...)
"400-500 fighters" attack! several police checkpoints in Baquba: The
afternoon raids, including mortar fire, lasted several hours and the rebels
were only repelled when U.S. forces came to the aid of the police (...)
Relative of Iraq's new Sunni Arab vice president shot and killed. The
sister of Tariq al-Hashimi was killed by unidentified gunmen today as she
was leaving her home with her bodyguard. Police say the bodyguard also
died. One man killed while his son escaped death when gunmen in a car shot
at them in a southern Baghdad area. Bodies of 16 Iraqis who had been
kidnapped and tortured were found in Baghdad and other cities. Roadside
bomb in Baghdad hits Iraqi army patrol, killing a soldier...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22912&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22912


GI Special 4D27: Troops Join Pro-Immigrant Rallies - April 27, 2006
Thomas F. Barton
... The war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and a pending war in Iran, is
draining the U.S. economy. It is a bending stick that will eventually
break. And, when it finally breaks, it will be like a tidal wave across
America. If the Bush Administration is not stopped very soon, Americans and
people around the world who have been brutalized by U.S. Imperialism, will
all be in lifeboats. By the time I left Vietnam in 1971, the U! .S. war
machine had left a trail of tears in every minute corner of Southeast Asia.
The U.S. had killed at least one million innocent civilians. The U.S.
government had dropped bombs and artillery rounds on everything. Nothing,
absolutely nothing was off limits when it came to killing people. The U.S.
government committed atrocities EVERY SINGLE DAY IN VIETNAM!...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22911&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22911


TERRORISM IS TERRORISM!
Randy Atkins
The Christian Science Monitor tries to redefine the definition of
terrorism. No where does it mention the United States acts of terrorism!
Clearly the United States is the largest terrorist state in the world and
by our own definition. The US Department of Defense defines terrorism as:
"the unlawful use of -- or threatened use of -- force or violence against
individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies,
often to achieve political, religious, or i! deological objectives." Is
this not what the United States is doing to Iraq? Divide and Conquer! You
don’t have to look hard to find articles that explain it...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22910&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
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Iran is Bush's bogeyman
Firas Al-Atraqchi
In February 2003, several thousand members of a Shia militia infiltrated
Iraq from Iran and took up positions in anticipation of an imminent United
States invasion. Once US forces penetrated Iraqi defenses, the militia
vanguard were joined by a heavily armed and fully mechanised Badr Brigade,
the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq
(SCIRI), ideologically and financially supported by their host country Iran
(...) Iraqi Shia Ayatollahs and l! esser clerics, who had been based in
Iran (and to a lesser extent, Syria) were allowed to return to Iraq en
masse (...) Three years later, the bizarre US-Iran nexus has been turned on
its head and condemnation of Iran's involvement in Iraq is all the rage in
US media. How did this reversal of fortuitous friendship come about?...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22909&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22909


Big-Mouth Bush Told Clinton How To Handle OPEC
Evelyn Pringle
...Since Bush took office, gas prices have increased 62.5% from $1.44 per
gallon in January 2001 to $2.34 in March 2006. The average household with
children will spend about $3,343 on transportation fuel costs this year, an
increase of 75% since 2001, according to the Energy Information
Administration, Retail Gasoline Prices, and Household Vehicle Energy Use:
Latest Data and Trends, November 2005. And gas prices are still rising. As
of April 24, 2006, ! the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge report said, nationally, the
average price for a gallon of regular gas was $2.90, or a 15.5% hike over
the $2.51 price per gallon a month ago. So where is all the money going?
One need not look far. In 2005, the world's largest oil company,
Exxonmoblile, reported the most profitable year in US corporate history,
earning more than $36 billion...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22908&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22908


So this is the 'national unity government'?
Haifa Zangana
...Over the weekend, the search for someone else that may be able to lead a
"national unity government" came to an end. Jawad al Maliky, the second man
in Al Da'awa (Jaafari's party), was appointed as a prime minister. Jalal
Talabani kept his post as a president. Adel Abdul Mahdi of the Supreme
Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which was established
in Iran with its notorious Badr Brigade, and Tariq al Hashimi of the
Islamic party were ap! pointed as his deputies. The "national unity
government" is feasible at last. Or is it? Will it make any difference to
the plight of Iraqi people, to the bleak political landscape? Or is it just
another "puppet" government singing homilies to the occupation? Judging by
early statements by Talabani and Maliki there is no prospect of change.
Iraq will remain under occupation. Militias are there to stay. The
re-shuffling of the same playing cards indicates that the "national unity
government" will be reconstituted as a copy of the governing council of
former pro-consul Paul Bremer, on the ethnic, sectarian and gender quotas
he established....

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22907&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22907


House passes draconian intelligence bill
Bev Conover, Online Journal Editor & Publisher
The cretins in Congress better start using their gray matter, if they have
any, because the repressive legislation they pass that bites the people
today will also bite them tomorrow. No one is immune from the horrors of a
police state. No one. None. Fall out of favor with the ruling clique, for
whatever reason, and your goose is cooked. And a police state is what they
are creating, all under the guise of "national security" an! d keeping us
"safe" from "terrorists." The latest nightmare is buried in the HR 5020,
the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, which the House of
Representatives passed, 327-96, yesterday...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22906&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22906


Ahmadinejad Needs to Learn
Anwaar Hussain, Fountainhead
...The little matter of Israel having historically trampled upon more than
60 resolutions of the same august body that it has appealed to not
withstanding, this is a pristine example of how responsible leaders of
responsible nations talk. Ahmadinejad needs to learn. Also, if one’s memory
serves right, Ariel Sharon is the same considerate gentleman who in an
interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956, said, "I don't know something
called International Princi! ples. I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian
child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is
more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence
infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I
vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would
burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I've
killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in 1956). I wanted to encourage my
soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian women is a slave for
Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall
do but we tell others what they shall do." The most charitable sentiment,
indeed, if there ever was one that one has had the pleasure of reading in a
long time. Ahmadinejad needs to learn...

<http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22905&s2=29>Read the full article / Leggi
l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=22905




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