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Tuesday, November 01, 2005

WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2005 Bring ‘em on: Truck bomb kills 25 in village of Huweder (45 miles NE of Baghdad) Bring 'em on: Bomb Blast in Southern Baghdad Kills Three Bring ‘em on: US Quietly Issues Estimate of Iraqi Civilian Casualties (from insurgents only) According to the graph, Iraqi civilians and security forces were killed and wounded by insurgents at a rate of about 26 a day early in 2004, and at a rate of about 40 a day later that year. The rate increased in 2005 to about 51 a day, and by the end of August had jumped to about 63 a day. No figures were provided for the number of Iraqis killed by American-led forces. Extrapolating the daily averages over the months from Jan. 1, 2004, to Sept. 16 this year results in a total of 25,902 Iraqi civilians and security forces killed and wounded by insurgents. Bring 'em on: US Death Toll in Iraq in October is UP to 93 (Iraq Coalition Casualties says 94 US casualties in October, plus three other coalition forces.) Bring ‘em on: One civilian killed in Baghdad from gunshots by Iraqi police, another civilian wounded by IED near US army patrol. Two bodies found in Balad. Police officer kidnapped from his home in Samarra. Two more civilians killed in Baghdad from roadside bomb. Two Iraqi police wounded from gunfire in another part of Baghdad. US Soldier killed on Monday by roadside bomb in Haswa. Bring ‘em on: Embedded in Anbar “As the political process moved forward, embassy officials said all year, the violence should decrease. There would be a coupling in increased Sunni participation and a decrease in violence. But most of the injuries that have befallen 3rd Platoon, says Lt. Carter, have occurred since the Oct. 15 referendum. Bring ‘em on: Al Qaeda Claims US Underestimating Casualties Bring ‘em on: Fight for Town Far From Over. Tal Afar, which has changed hands several times, is again under US control. This city has changed hands more than once in the last 14 months. Bring ‘em on: Seven More US Troops Die in Iraq Bring ‘em on: Two contractor employees with Huntsville-based center die in Iraq Bring ‘em on: “They Tell Me They’ve Assassinated My Brother” Bring ‘em on: Many Iraqi Feared Dead in US Attacks. Witnesses said among the dead in al-Baida were people who had fled nearby Hsaiba to seek refuge with relatives after their village had been the focus of a US fighter jet air raid three days ago. (Includes picture of little girls in hospital beds.) Hsaiba attack: US warplanes supported by ground forces had bombarded Hsaiba destroying six homes, al-Rawi reported. "While we were trying to attend to the wounded, US fighter planes began bombing the place again," he said. “We appeal to the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMS) to help us as we are being killed in large numbers," he added. Bring 'em on: Yanks Kill 12 Kids in Attacks. But local doctors and tribal leaders said the raid had killed mostly women and children. Western TV footage showed Iraqis crying and wailing over several bodies, including those of children, and men digging through rubble with their hands. Bring ‘em on: Rebels kill cabinet adviser, and deputy trade minister wounded in separate attack. Elsewhere, at least five other people were killed in attacks yesterday, including a former Iraqi air force pilot shot dead in Baquba. Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa charged in an interview published yesterday that Washington's refusal to offer a troop withdrawal timetable was threatening the stability of Iraq. "The United States don't believe this issue to be linked to reconciliation efforts while the Arab League argues that it is key," he told the state-owned Roz Al Yusef daily. Bring ‘em on: Terrorist group al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the assassination of Ghalev Abdel Mehdi, cabinet advisor mentioned above. This apparently happened inside the Green Zone. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi police arrest 56 gunmen in Saladin. An Iraqi killed when mortor hits Samarra City, and four truck drivers found dead in Beji. Bring ‘em on: Bomb kills 20 in Iraq after bloodiest month for US. Includes this information on the upcoming elections in Iraq: Launching one of two big Sunni-led blocs expected to figure prominently among dozens of parties on the Dec. 15 ballot, one leader set the tone for his campaign by calling for an end to U.S. occupation. He criticised rivals who returned from exile after Saddam's fall as beholden to Washington or religion. "We are ... working for the liberation of our country," Saleh al-Mutlak said, launching his Iraqi Unified Front as a secular pan-Iraqi bloc. "You won't find anyone in our group who rode into Iraq on an American tank or on a sectarian horse." Bring ‘em on: Car Bomb Explodes in Basra Bring ‘em on: Second blast in Basra Bring 'em on: This Morning, Basra Death Toll is Over 50. Bring ‘em on: “Many Dead” in US strike in Iraq. Doctors in a hospital in the nearby town of Qaim said there were more than 30 dead, including women and children. Also, in the town of Bani Saad, two mortar rounds hit an Iraqi Army base, killing two soldiers. Also, two mortar rounds hit Iraq’s oil ministry killing a civilian. Bring ‘em on: Before dawn on Monday, US bombs dropped on insurgent positions near the Syrian border. AP television news video from the scene showed residents wailing over the bodies of about six people, including at least three children. At the local hospital, Dr. Ahmed al-Ani claimed 40 Iraqis, including 12 children, were killed in the attack. (Listed at end of article.) Bring ‘em on: Motor attacks on a network of oil and gas pipelines 40 miles west of Kirkuk. A update on attacks on pipelines up to October 24, 2005 Bring ‘em on: Two insurgents killed in Kerbala. Two Iraqi Army soldiers killed in Baquba. US bombs a house in Ramadi. Iraqi translator killed in Duloeyah while he was driving to work. Suicide bomber kills one person besides himself in Sinjar. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi Police Uncover 14 Bodies in Shallow Grave. Twelve were bound and shot, two were decapitated. Bring ‘em on: US and Iraqi forces Sweep up 49 Terror Suspects. (So says Central Command) In an earlier mission Oct. 28, 1-184 Inf. Soldiers detained 16 terror suspects and discovered a large weapons cache during a cordon and search. The cache was hidden in a second-story crawlspace underneath a bathtub and included 13 AK-47 assault rifles, three MPK machine guns, 20 AK-47 barrels, one pistol, U.S. currency and an ammunition stockpile. (That does not sound so large to me.) Bring 'em on: US Marine Killed South of Baghdad Bring 'em on: Unit Searches for Missing Ohio Soldier. Sgt. Bryan Hatfield, 27, of Oklahoma City, said hope of finding Maupin keeps him searching. "We may go out there day after day, time after time, scouring the grounds ... then comes that one time, you might find something, and it'll be worth it," Hatfield said. "The hope is always there that, yeah, he could be here. So I'll go and look." (And I can tell you that in Batavia, Ohio and in the northeastern part of Cincinnati, Matt Maupin is well remembered and prayed for constantly, if all the signs out there are any indication. It is heart breaking. They truly want some answers.) Bring 'em on: Northern Marianas Troops Killed In Iraq (Balad) by IED. Bring 'em on: US Soldier Killed by IED in al Haswah, near Fallujah Bring 'em on: .50-calibar Ammo Used So Much That Supplies Run Low. At closer ranges, it is so powerful that a round will obliterate a person, penetrate a concrete wall behind him and several houses beyond that, gunners in Iraq have said. "You can stop a car, definitely penetrate the vehicle to take out the engine - and the driver," said Army Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack Jr., who recently retired after commanding the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq. Bring ‘em on: Civilian Deaths Could Total 30,000 or Higher (It’s higher.) Bring ‘em f**king on: I am having trouble finishing this post because I keep hearing about more and more. NPR just said that four bombs have gone off in Baghdad this morning, at least two Iraqi civilians dead. INSIDE IRAQ: Training a New Army from the Top Down - In testimony in September before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. John P. Abizaid, who leads the U.S. Central Command, said that a single Iraqi battalion was at "Level 1" combat readiness, meaning it was capable of taking the lead in combat without support from coalition forces. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who oversees U.S. forces in Iraq said the number of Level 1 battalions had dropped from three to one since June. INSIDE IRAQ: Kurds Reclaiming Prized Territory in Northern Iraq "The Arabs will not give up Kirkuk," said Mohammed Khalil, the leader of an Arab bloc within the Kurdish-dominated Kirkuk provincial council. "If America really wants to help Iraq, it will try to stop the Kurds from gaining control over Kirkuk, which would start a civil war." INSIDE IRAQ: Talabani Rejects Any Strike on Syria from Iraq (Someone needs to tell him that it is already happening.) INSIDE IRAQ: Iraqi Women Demand Saddam’s Death INSIDE IRAQ: The guy who did ride in on a tank says US troops stay – Chalabi is the head of the Iraqi National Council (INC), and has been at the helm of the organization since 1992. The INC had provided much of the so-called evidence regarding Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction to the US. INSIDE IRAQ: Kurdistan Close To Iraq Yet So Far Away. Fifteen years ago the very existence of southern Kurdistan as a Kurdish entity in Iraq was in jeopardy. The discovery of another mass grave recently that included about 20 000 bodies, including some of the remains of 8000 Barzanis “lost” with no trace during Saddam Hussein’s reign is yet another reminder of those dark days. What the Kurds have achieved in this section of Kurdistan in the last few years is remarkable. INSIDE IRAQ: Iraq Asks UN to Let Forces Stay. Iraq has asked the United Nations (UN) Security Council to let a US-led multinational force remain in Iraq for another year, acknowledging its own troops could not yet assure national security. The request came in a letter to the 15 nation council from Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. INSIDE IRAQ: An Iraqi City Becomes Turnaround Story. How long the peace will hold in Baquba is unclear, as the city has been pacified before. Driving through Buhritz, Risberg points to the bustling Mufrak police station, a citadel-like building that was overrun by insurgents last November but had recently been reoccupied. It was the second time that had happened. In June 2004, insurgents took the station, killing 13 people, seven of them police officers. (This is presented as a positive story. I suspect the new police are part of the insurgency.) INSIDE IRAQ: Mosul Leaders Threaten to Join Guerrilla Movement. Protest Firing of Police Commissioner. OUTSIDE IRAQ: Plan for Iraqis Abroad To Vote Is In Doubt OUTSIDE IRAQ: CSIS Head Says Iraq War "Serious Concern" for Canada Safety. Although Canada didn't join the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Paul Martin's government has avoided publicly contradicting claims by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration that it is making the world safer. But 10 days ago Judd said the U.S. war in Iraq was creating "long-term problems" for other countries. And testifying before the Senate committee he said Iraq provides militants with both motive and opportunity. OUTSIDE IRAQ: Cheney’s New Security Adviser Linked to Bogus Information On Iraq Vice President Dick Cheney replaced I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as his national security adviser on Monday with an aide identified by a former Iraqi exile group as the White House official to whom it fed information on Iraq that turned out to be erroneous. The Bush administration relied on some of the information from the Iraqi National Congress to argue that Saddam Hussein had to be ousted before he could give banned biological or chemical weapons to al-Qaida for strikes on the United States. (Note for the slow-to-catch-on!) But no such weapons were discovered after the March 2003 invasion, and U.S. intelligence agencies and the independent commission on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks found no evidence of operational cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaida. (But wait! It gets even better!) The White House also announced that David S. Addington, who's been Cheney's legal counsel, would assume Libby's duties as chief of staff. The Washington director of Human Rights Watch accused Addington of helping draft policies that led to the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Well, at least Knight Ridder still does some real journalism.) THE TRAGEDY OF IRAQ: Poor Planning Hinders Iraq Reconstruction Government watchdogs say the U.S. government had no comprehensive policy in place for staffing the management of postwar Iraq. THE TRAGEDY OF IRAQ: Funds Fade, Deaths Rise and Iraq Rebuilding Is Spotty The report, by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, describes some progress but also an array of projects that have gone awry, sometimes astonishingly, like electrical substations that were built at great cost but never connected to the country's electrical grid. THE TRAGEDY OF IRAQ: Violence Drives Iraq’s Brightest Abroad THE TRAGEDY OF IRAQ: The scam of Iraq oil-for-food programme continues to unravel. Going by the shocking statistics unveiled in a report this week, this is easily the biggest scam of our times. Over 2000 firms — some of them prominent multinationals — and movers and shakers spread all over the world availed themselves of the huge booty that belonged to Iraq’s unfortunate people. While the oil exported by the Iraqi regime outside the oil-for-food programme is estimated to be about $11 billion, kickbacks to the value of $2 billion were paid to hundreds of firms and individuals. Apparently, the former Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein was not the only one to exploit Iraqi people. From the Western multinationals to European and Indian politicians to top UN officials, the whole world appears to have helped itself to Iraq’s vast oil wealth. This is most disgusting and completely unacceptable. Now that we know the truth and who bled Iraq white, those responsible for this unprecedented global loot must be brought to justice. The UN, whose own officials including secretary-general Kofi Annan’s son are implicated, must initiate the process sooner than later in coordination with the US, the occupying force in Iraq. The least the world can do for Iraqi people is get them justice. THE TRAGEDY OF IRAQ: Iraq Attacks ‘stunt rebuilding’ In all, the report is a carefully-worded yet quite powerful critique of the way the reconstruction effort has progressed. It says insurgency; corruption, uncertain funding and patchy planning are all taking their toll on the rebuilding of Iraq. HE’S WRONG AGAIN: Rumsfeld Says US Defeating Iraq Insurgency update: correct link HERE SOMETHING I DON'T GET AT ALL: 500 Detainees Freed in Iraq for Ramadan' End (Are they innocent? Why are they detained?) BUT THEY ARE ARRESTING MORE: Cent Com says "Security Forces Take More Weapons and Terrorists Off the Streets in Northern Iraq" (And do they release them during the next holidays? Are they innocent or not?) THE SHAME OF AMERICA: SOS ‘Was Written In Blood’ He claims he has been savagely beaten, tortured, sexually humiliated, fed bug-infested, rotten food and denied medical treatment, in a systematic campaign of abuse meted out for over three years. His weight has dropped 30kg to 55kg and he is so weak he can barely stand, he says in the diary, written in July and just released to his lawyers by US authorities. Mr Al Dossary says he regularly vomits blood, has heart and blood pressure problems, has fainting fits and suffers pains in his head, stomach and left arm - but has been persistently denied proper medical treatment. The abuse has gone on since his arrest on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border in December 2001, but took a new form after he complained about the conditions to his lawyer during a visit in March this year. THE SHAME OF AMERICA: Hearing Begins for Accused US Sergeant. He is accused of killing two superior officers in June, 2005 near Tikrit. THE SHAME OF AMERICA: Bush: Treaty Outlawing Torture Doesn’t Apply Beyond US Soil OPINION: More Milestones in Iraq. “The game is over. It’s time to go home. But you know they won’t.” (from Trinidad News) OPINION: As a parent, what I care most about is him. Not politics. Not history. Not some so-called noble cause. I would agree, in principle, that there are things in this world worth fighting and dying for. But whether or not Iraq is one of them is certainly debatable. What really matters to this mother, and to others whose sons and daughters are over there right now, is that our kids return home - safe, sound, whole. The feeling is as powerful as it is instinctual. Ideology pales in comparison. Democracy in the Middle East? Or, dancing someday at your child's wedding? In my heart, it's no contest. OPINION: Opposition to the war in Iraq is not just widespread, it's quite intense. More than 80 percent of war opponents say they "strongly" object, and more than half say they are angry about the war, not merely dissatisfied. OPINION: Condoleezza Rice, for example, gave us nightmare fantasies of mushroom clouds and declared on television that aluminum tubes seized en route to Iraq "were only really suited for nuclear weapons programs." Perhaps she forgot that a year earlier her own staff had been advised that experts had serious doubts about that. In any event, she would be promoted to secretary of state. Gen. Eric Shinseki met a different fate when, as chief of staff of the Army, he dared to speak an uncomfortable truth to a Senate committee: that it would take several hundred thousand soldiers to pacify postwar Iraq. There was no promotion for him. His long and honorable career evaporated. OPINION: And as for the media: these days, there is much harsh, justified criticism of the failure of major news organizations, this one included, to exert due diligence on rationales for the war. But the failures that made the long nightmare possible began much earlier, during the weeks after 9/11, when the media eagerly helped our political leaders build up a completely false picture of who they were. So the long nightmare won't really be over until journalists ask themselves: what did we know, when did we know it, and why didn't we tell the public? OPINION: And Now It’s 2,000 One of the few things George Bush made clear when he ran for president is that he would not participate in nation-building. That is precisely what we are doing in Iraq. The administration has handled it so poorly that terrorists have flocked to Iraq to make it their new home. And yet, as vital as he says this effort is, however he defines it, the president can't bring himself to commit enough resources to do the job properly. This can only mean more sad milestones for American families (and tens of thousands more for Iraqis) and presidential calls for sacrifice that will ring increasingly hollow. Infuriating. OPINION: Iraq: Americans Are Waking Up to a Fiction There is more to my story, of course. It will include a prosecutor, straight as a west Texas horizon, who is totally apolitical and humble and shows eyes worn weary by determination to serve the law. The deeper he digs, the closer he comes to discovering the most powerful people in the land appear to have acted as covert agents against their own country, manufactured evidence to deceive a great democracy into a hopeless war, committed the crime of lying to the US Congress and an investigating grand jury, and cost the lives of young people from America, the UK, Spain, Italy, Australia, Iraq, and numerous Arab nations. The law and democracy are in great peril as my narrative approaches its denouement. My publisher scoffs. A book won’t sell without a believable plot. My novel, though, keeps intersecting with reality. Libby is indicted. Karl Rove remains under investigation. A nation trembles. And like a father reassuring a frightened child, I keep telling myself and my friends, “Don’t worry. It’s only a story. It’s only a story.” OPINION: An Iraqi speaks about Americans, Plamegate and our illusions: Those who venture out without their little screens or filters and have a good look at the real world, come back in disgust and start yelling like madmen… but no one listens to madmen in that bustling room. They, as well as the people on the other side of that image curtain… remain unheard. I sometimes find myself looking at some of the misery caused by American policies in the world and wondering: are Americans so evil to be so insensitive to the harm their country has done and is doing to innocent people? The answer is a definite no! They simply cannot see the real world from behind that image curtain. OPINION: Two central pillars supporting the case for war in Iraq long ago fell to pieces. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, not until we dropped our own terrifying array of depleted-uranium weaponry. There was no al-Qaeda movement there, not until we launched the war - thus “achieving bin Laden’s ends,” to borrow the words of former Marine Corps commandant Joseph Hoare. A third pillar has begun to crumble as well - the case for liberation. It is no longer possible for any serious person to argue that Iraq has been liberated or bettered by the invasion and subsequent occupation, given the massive death, destruction, chaos, and strife that has resulted since February 2003. But another new argument now appears to have braced this falling pillar and spared the entire pro-war edifice from total collapse: the idea that the war is being fought to liberate not just Iraqis, but Americans. There is, of course a gaping contradiction here –how can we be dying to make Iraqis safer if Iraqis are dying to make us safer? Placing that aside, however, the idea that we are now fighting in Iraq to protect America has gained some currency, and its popularity is a testament to how far down the rabbit hole we have truly fallen. OPINION: 2,000 US Troops Dead in Iraq: One Survivor Tells His Story Brave Tomas Young saw it as his patriotic duty to join the Army three days after 9/11. Tomas, 25, wanted revenge on the terrorists who murdered nearly 2,750 people in the Twin Towers. But on his first mission in Iraq - and before he had fired a single bullet in anger - he was left paralysed from the chest down after being shot in an ambush. But so far there have been 2,000 dead American soldiers and some 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians. "That's certainly a lot more than we lost on September 11. What has happened in Iraq is wrong." Tomas, now confined to a wheelchair, is bitter that his Government's lies got him to enroll. PEACE ACTION: Torture permission to be slipped into law? The vice-president of the United States is publically advocating giving a US government agency statutory authority to use torture. The McCain anti-torture amendment may be rendered meaningless by loopholes under consideration in conference committee. Contact Congress and tell them that the US must never use cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Tell them that torture does not reflect our values, by clicking above. PEACE ACTION: Shut Down the School of the Americas and Change Oppressive US Foreign Policy. Join United for Peace and Justice in speaking out for truth and to change oppressive US foreign policy on the weekend of November 18-20, 2005. CASUALTY REPORTS Local Story: “You Do Not Get Over This” Local Story: Hillsdale Co. (Michigan) Marine Killed Near Fallujah Local Story: Chilton County (Alabama) Native Killed in Iraq Laid to Rest Local Story: Long Island Marine Killed in Iraq QUOTE OF THE DAY: Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. - US Federal Bureau of Investigation The Iraq war is unlawful in the eyes of the world.

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