Today in Iraq

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, May 31, 2006 Photo: An Iraqi mother crying after US soldiers have left her Baghdad house arresting her four sons (Assafir, 5/29/06). Bring 'em on: Spc. J. Adan Garcia, 20, of Irving, Texas, died on May 27 in the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., of injuries sustained May 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, when his convoy encountered small arms fire received while returning from an explosive ordnance mission. Garcia was assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. (Defenselink) Bring 'em on: A roadside bomb struck a Japanese-Australian patrol in northern Samawah, on the Euphrates River about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad, damaging the last vehicle of the convoy and slightly wounding an Iraqi man who was selling ice, the man told AP Television News. It wasn't clear if there were any casualties among the troops. Some 1,500 more troops have arrived in Iraq's western Anbar province to help with the war against militant rebels in Anbar's capital, Ramadi. USA Today reporter Kimberly Johnson talks to Steve Inskeep about the situation there. She is the only western reporter embedded with the U.S. Marines in Ramadi [no less than the notorious Kilo Company; according to Johnson's NPR report mentioned above, the April total of attacks in Ramadi equals all three previous months combined, resulting in patrols being carried out at night only, because during the day the Marines "usually receive combat action in every foot patrol" - zig]. The US military said today two Iraqi women were shot to death in a city north of Baghdad after coalition forces fired at a car that failed to stop at an observation post. The statement came after Iraqi police said a pregnant woman and her cousin were killed by American troops as they were driving to a maternity hospital in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: At least 40 corpses, shot in the head and showing signs of torture, found in different locations around Iraq. The largest cache of 16 bodies turned up in Baladiyat in the eastern outskirts of Baghdad, while five were found in Husseiniya, northeast of the capital. Another four were found in Baghdad's impoverished Shiite district of Sadr City, three decapitated bodies were discovered in Muqdadiya, northeast of the capital and another 12 around Baghdad. Gunmen killed a Shiite muazzin, the man who calls for the five daily prayers, as he was leaving his house to go to the Imam Ali Mosque in southwestern Baghdad. A roadside bomb hit a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol on the highway near the Dora Refinery in southern Baghdad and the area was blocked off. No casualties were immediately reported. Gunmen killed Ali Jaafar, sports anchorman for Iraqi state television, as he left his home in Baghdad.

Reporters Without Borders voiced its condolences to the family of TV sports presenter Jaafar Ali, who was gunned down this morning in Baghdad. He was the third journalist to be killed in Iraq in the space of 48 hours and the 11th employee of the national TV station Al-Iraqiya to be killed since the start of the war in March 2003.

Two policemen were seriously wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Baghdad. Masked gunmen killed a real estate broker, a baker and the owner of a convenience store in separate attacks in Baghdad. Four civilians were killed during clashes that erupted between insurgents and policemen in northern Baghdad. Seven people, including policemen, were wounded. Defence Ministry adviser Muaid al-Jouburi escaped unharmed when gunmen attacked his motorcade in western Baghdad. Three of his bodyguards were wounded. (South of): Iraqi police found the bodies of four poeple with bullet wounds in their bodies in an area 65 km south of Baghdad. Diwaniyah: The former governor of Diwaniyah city south of Baghdad was killed in a drive-by shooting that also wounded two of his guards. Muqdadiyah: A bomb hidden in an air conditioner exploded in the mayor's office in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, killing the mayor, Sheik Allaywi Farhan al-Dulaimi, a member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, and wounding three of his guards. Provincial Gov. Raad Rashid al-Mula Jawad imposed a curfew on the city and deployed Iraqi army forces there. Tikrit: Gunmen killed two police officers in two different incidents in Tikrit on Tuesday. Mosul: A parked car packed with explosives hit a police patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing at least five policemen and wounding 14, including a senior officer. A suicide car bomber tried to ram into an Iraqi army checkpoint in a village west of Mosul, but Iraqi soldiers opened fire, killing the driver. Kirkuk: Iraqi police found a corpse bearing signs of torture with gunshot wounds in his head in Kirkuk. Gunmen killed a civilian and wounded two others outside a mobile shop in Kirkuk. Hawihja: Six civilians were seriously wounded when three mortar rounds landed in a crowded market in the town of Hawija, 70 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk. Khalidiya: An Iraqi soldier was killed and four others were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Khalidiya, 85 km west of Baghdad. Ramadi: Three people were killed and 10 others were wounded in Ramadi, although the circumstances were unclear. >> NEWS Iraqi PM declares state of emergency for a month in Basra. >> REPORTS Pentagon reports frequency of insurgent attacks in Iraq is at its highest level since commanders began tracking such figures two years ago. In its quarterly update to Congress, the Pentagon reports that throughout Iraq from Feb. 11 to May 12, insurgents staged an average of more than 600 attacks a week. From August 2005 to early February, when Iraqis elected a Parliament, insurgent attacks averaged about 550 a week. Before the United States handed over sovereignty in the spring of 2004, the attacks averaged about 400 a week. RESISTANCE ATTACKS CUT BAGHDAD PETROLEUM SUPPLIES As Iraq's brutal summer heat sends temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), a dire shortage of petroleum products is damaging the economy and cutting electricity supplies in Baghdad to new lows. "In addition to attacks on pipelines, trucks carrying petroleum products are in the sights of the rebels. Some gas stations had to close after their drivers refused to go pick up gasoline and other products stored in the dangerous areas around Baghdad," said Assem Jihad. Sabotage of the oil infrastructure is also ongoing, aggravating the situation, he added, nothing there had been two attacks in the past week on pipelines to the north and south of the capital. "Two units of the Baiji refinery were closed last week and this cut production," said Jihad, who also reported a fire in the offshore terminal of Khor al-Amaya in the Gulf. Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, Baghdad residents have always suffered from a lack of electricity, with some neighborhoods receiving power only one hour out of five. read in full... >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS DAHR JAMAIL: COUNTLESS MASSACRES IN IRAQ The media feeding frenzy around what has been referred to as "Iraq's My Lai" has become frenetic. Focus on US Marines slaughtering at least 20 civilians in Haditha last November is reminiscent of the media spasm around the "scandal" of Abu Ghraib during April and May 2004. Yet just like Abu Ghraib, while the media spotlight shines squarely on the Haditha massacre, countless atrocities continue daily, conveniently out of the awareness of the general public. Torture did not stop simply because the media finally decided, albeit in horribly belated fashion, to cover the story, and the daily slaughter of Iraqi civilians by US forces and US-backed Iraqi "security" forces had not stopped either. Earlier this month, I received a news release from Iraq, which read, "On Saturday, May 13th, 2006, at 10:00 p.m., US Forces accompanied by the Iraqi National Guard attacked the houses of Iraqi people in the Al-Latifya district south of Baghdad by an intensive helicopter shelling. This led the families to flee to the Al-Mazar and water canals to protect themselves from the fierce shelling. Then seven helicopters landed to pursue the families who fled ... and killed them. The number of victims amounted to more than 25 martyrs. US forces detained another six persons including two women named Israa Ahmed Hasan and Widad Ahmed Hasan, and a child named Huda Hitham Mohammed Hasan, whose father was killed during the shelling." The report from the Iraqi NGO called The Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (MHRI) continued, "The forces didn't stop at this limit. They held an attack on May 15th, 2006, supported also by the Iraqi National Guards. They also attacked the families' houses, and arrested a number of them while others fled. US snipers then used the homes to target more Iraqis. The reason for this crime was due to the downing of a helicopter in an area close to where the forces held their attack." The US military preferred to report the incident as an offensive where they killed 41 "insurgents," a line effectively parroted by much of the media. (...) read in full... 2006: THE YEAR THE CARVING OF IRAQ GOES INTO EFFECT At some point in the next few weeks and months, officials in Basra will proclaim: "Why is the central government not helping us? Why are you forsaking us? Then to hell with you, we will take matters into our hands, we don't need Baghdad." And the first real sign of break-up will become visible. Dear reader, do not misunderstand, the signs of the break-up of Iraq emerged on April 9, when Saddam's statue was torn down. Now, Iran, of course will delight in this. Iran in the 1980s' War sought to gobble up the south of Iraq and create an Islamic Republic there. Well, thanks to the moron Americans in the Bush White house and their vagabond army of bloggers and pro-war pundits, Iran is getting its wish. Iran is also getting its wish in Saddam's trial. He is not standing trial for crimes against Iraqis but for upsetting an Iranian assassination attempt using Iraqi proxies in the south of Iraq in 1982. Had Saddam died in Dujail, chaos would have ensued and the Iranian military would have seized Iraq. This is Iranian payback, not justice for the Iraqi people. An obscene miscarriage of justice to the Iraqi people. This trial is for Iran's benefit make no mistake about it. Now, when Basra moves towards secession, the Kurds will say: "Hell, we wanted to do that too but we thought we would give Iraqi unity a chance and now you Iraqis don't want to be unified? To hell with you." And they will move towards secession as well. So, all this would be timed around the time judgment will be passed (it already has been passed - Iran has decided that Saddam will be executed). See, violence will not abate at all. Death squads will roam freely. The resistance will fight back against US and Iranian occupation. Militia will continue to kill doctors and scientists. And the Baghdad government will say we can't do anything about Basra. Iraq, which is both Iran and Israel's greatest threat will be done with. And Iran and Israel will proceed to carve up the rest of the Middle East. Democracy and liberty and so-called economic prosperity will lie in the sandpits of the western deserts of Iraq along with the faces of Bush and Blair who asked the world to support Iraq. Today I watched the Kurdish foreign minister of Iraq, Hoshiar Zebari berate the Arab World for not congratulating the formation of the new Iraqi government. Sorry, Hoshi, the Arabs know your plots. But it seems, Americans, at least, the lay person do not. So, to the next moron to send me an email or comment telling me the kids of Alpharetta, GA or Federal Way, WA died for freedom in Iraq, I will say shut up and learn to say that in Farsi (that's Persian, Joe!) because those kids got their heads blown off for Iran. FOR IRAN. Git? read in full... BADR GROUPS MOVE FROM TROUBLED PAST TO UNCERTAIN FUTURE It could be instructive to recall that the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and its armed wing, the Badr Corps, arose from a conference of Iraqi opposition parties called in Iran in 1982. The Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) was a breakaway faction of the Da'wa movement that had been outlawed in Iraq. The Badr Corps, estimated before the war to be approximately 10,000 to 15,000 strong was similarly outlawed, along with its parent organisation, the SCIRI. The Badr Corps was considered a terrorist group by Saddam's regime. But in 2002 and 2003, the SCIRI and the Badr Corps, also known as the Badr militia, joined negotiations with United States officials, including now ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad over the liberation of Iraq. During initial negotiations, it was proposed that the Badr Corps would participate in the invasion of Iraq alongside U.S. troops. That plan was abandoned in January 2003. It was decided at this time that the United States would temporarily administer Iraq, through what became the Coalition Provisional Authority. At this January meeting, Ayatollah Bakir al-Hakim from the Badr Corps (who was killed in August 2003) told Zalmay Khalilzad that if the United States presence began to appear like an occupation, he would order his forces to attack Coalition troops. Badr groups have emerged now from those controversial origins. Members of the Badr Corps, now known as the Badr Organisation, reflected on the change, and how it came about, in the course of several conversations with IPS. A Badr member who gave his name as Abu Haider told IPS that while the group did not participate in the initial invasion, the Badr Corps swiftly joined the coalition forces "to destroy Saddam's regime." Soon after the invasion two militant Shia groups became visible in Iraq - the Badr Corps and Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. These groups have long been engaged in conflict with one another, each vying for control over Iraq's Shia majority. (...) read in full... U.S. GENERAL "MAD AS HELL" AT RUMSFELD A senior American general who served as a combat commander in Iraq has accused the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, of squandering the lives of United States soldiers by ignoring military advice on how to conduct the campaign. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Major General John Batiste, who resigned last year after 12 months stationed in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, said the Pentagon chief had caused "unnecessary deaths" by committing "strategic blunders of enormous magnitude". His outspoken comments come as the US military death toll in Iraq approaches 2,500, and put him at the forefront of the chorus of former generals who have called in recent months for Rumsfeld to step down. Unlike most of his colleagues, who are expected to settle back into comfortable and low-key retirement after making their point, General Batiste has no intention of keeping quiet. Instead, the former career soldier, who resigned last year after commanding 22,000 troops of the US Army's 1st Infantry Division, is planning a sustained public offensive aimed at driving Rumsfeld from office. "I'm as mad as hell," he said. "I'm not stopping. They can hand wave me off, dismiss me, but I'm coming back, again and again and again until there is some accountability." The transformation of a once loyal soldier into an outspoken rebel is a stark indicator of the growing disquiet at the heart of America's military establishment, and will renew the pressure on President George W. Bush to replace his defence chief. read in full... FORECASTING Forecasting in business or similar endeavors is hard enough. What market share will a certain company have in 2008? How many of a certain product will be sold in 2010? How could you possibly know? It depends on a thousand factors, involving everything that company does between now and then, everything each one of their competitors does, what the economy itself does, and so on. Yet analysts do quite a lucrative business making exactly such forecasts, always making out that they know the future with remarkable certainty even when their past predictions have proven inaccurate. How much more ludicrous, then, is a forecast like this:

The Pentagon report said the strength of insurgents aiming to drive U.S.-led foreign forces out of Iraq "will likely remain steady throughout 2006 but that their appeal and motivation for continued violent action will begin to wane in early 2007."

Isn't it funny how the waning of the insurgency, or the decrease in American troop strength, is always six months away, no matter when you ask the question? link IRAQI CHILDREN USED AS DETERRENTS, ALSO KNOWN AS HUMAN SHIELDS A reader, Mark from Ireland sent me an article from Military.com. An excerpt from the article:

"In Iraq, repetition of any sort could be an invitation of the wrong sort - an event for which insurgents could plan. So Mayer and Schuller took out some of the candy they carried, thinking that if children were around, perhaps the terrorists wouldn't attack."

The article later shows the US soldiers thinking fondly of the children, who served as reprieve from the horrors of war. But let us examine the aforementioned excerpt. "...if children were around, perhaps the terrorists wouldn't attack". Therefore, the children were being used as deterrents against attack, correct? And if so, were they notified of being used as deterrents against attack? Were their parents notified? The Iraqi children were used as deterrents, also known as human shields. Children were intentionally and willfully brought into the vicinity of US soldiers who knew they are targets for attack and who knew that if they were attacked there could result collateral damage. It is a brilliant strategy - the resistance targets US troops, Iraqi children get killed, news headline screams "Insurgents killed Iraqi children", subheading reads "US troops passing out candy". American public goes "awwwwww" for the troops' kindness. American public gets outraged against the Iraqi fighters and deems US troop presence necessary to protect Iraq's children. read in full... RIVERBEND: VIVA MUQTADA... I listened to [Muqtada Al-Sadr's] fatwa [prohibiting football (soccer)], with him getting emotional about playing football, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Foreign occupation and being a part of a puppet government- those things are ok. Football, however, will be the end of civilization as we know it, according to Muqtada. It's amusing- they look nothing alike- yet he reminds me so much of Bush. He can barely string two sentences together properly and yet, millions of people consider his word law. So when Bush raves about the new 'fledgling Iraqi government' 'freely elected' into power, you can take a look at Muqtada and see one of the fledglings. He is currently one of the most powerful men in the country for his followers. So this is democracy. This is one of the great minds of Bush's democratic Iraq. Sadr's militia control parts of Iraq now. Just a couple of days ago, his militia, with the help of Badr, were keeping women from visiting the market in the southern city of Karbala. Women weren't allowed in the marketplace and shop owners were complaining that their businesses were suffering. Welcome to the new Iraq. It's darkly funny to see what we've turned into, and it is also anguishing. Muqtada Al-Sadr is a measure of how much we've regressed these last three years. Even during the Iran-Iraq war and the sanctions, people turned to sports to keep their mind off of day-to-day living. After the occupation, we won a football match against someone or another and we'd console ourselves with "Well we lose wars- but we win football!" From a country that once celebrated sports- football (soccer) especially- to a country that worries if the male football players are wearing long enough shorts or whether all sports fans will face eternal damnation... That's what we've become. read in full... LIONS LED BY DONKEYS There is a goddam world of difference between asking a man to risk his life to defend the nation and waste his life proving a point. That these unquestioning war devotees will not sacrifice their lives, their comfort, their safety: that's hardly a sin in modern society. But they are not even willing to risk emotional discomfort by admitting their faith has been misplaced. That they will not even risk this, this tiny, tiny thing ... that is the sin. It is not that that you're not risking your life. It's that you are risking nothing. The problem is, there is no single word in English for a man risking absolutely nothing, who demands someone else risk absolutely everything. I'm sure there's a word in German -- they are a whizzer with those kicky compound nouns -- but none in English for that precise combination. So, for now, we must let "chickenhawk" be its placeholder. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: In Zabul, rebels battled U.S. forces, though it was not immediately clear whether there were any militant casualties, said coalition spokesman Maj. Quentin Innis. Hundreds of suspected Taliban fighters attacked a remote central Afghan town Wednesday and briefly occupied its police headquarters after driving out security forces. The militants took control of the police compound in the Uruzgan province town of Chora around dawn Wednesday, after hours of fighting with 100 police inside the headquarters, said Rozi Khan, the regional police chief. The militants left the compound by late morning after torching police vehicles, but fighters remained in the area and police weren't immediately returning to Chora, Khan said, citing witnesses in the town. "If our police go there, they'll be ambushed," Khan said by phone from the region. Khan said no police were wounded in the battle. He had no details on militant casualties. Taliban guerrillas have killed at least a dozen Afghan police and abducted up to 40 others in two separate attacks in the south of the country. Canada is not at war in Afghanistan, says Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor. Fighting violent insurgents is just one task among many for Canadian soldiers trying to bring stability to the troubled country, O'Connor told a Commons committee Tuesday. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "By the time we're done America may very make look Nazi Germany look like Switzerland" -- comment by still here at Information Clearinghouse 05.29.06 - 10:21 pm

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, May 30, 2006 Photo: American soldiers taking Iraqi children hostages until their father's surrender. (See more photos at the link.) Bring 'em on: A U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire on Monday in the northern city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. The bodies of two marines who went missing after their helicopter crashed on Saturday in western Iraq have been recovered, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: A roadside bomb in southern Baghdad killed one police officer and wounded four. Bodies of three blindfolded and handcuffed men who had been tortured and shot in the head found in different areas of Baghdad. A car loaded with mortar rounds and explosives exploded near the Interior Ministry, killing a man there and wounding three city workers on a soccer field. Two Iraqi women were killed and two other people wounded Tuesday when a mortar bomb slammed near the Ministry of Interior's building in Baghdad. The Imam of Ansar al-Muhajrin Sunni mosque, was assassinated Tuesday by gunmen in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Shula. A number of gunmen stormed Abdullah's house adjacent to the mosque and shot him to death. The Iraqi army said it arrested an insurgent who opened fire at guards at the Ministry of Transport. A car bomb killed at least five people in the northern Baghdad district of Husaniya. Tikrit: Gunmen wounded an Egyptian national while he was driving in his car in Tikrit. The U.S. forces arrested a former major general in Saddam Hussein's army along with his three sons in Tikrit. Balad: Gunmen kidnapped an employee of the Oil Protection Facility in Balad, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad. Samarra: Gunmen killed two brothers on Monday night while they were walking in the street in the city of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad. Hilla: A suicide bomber in a car killed at least eight people in the Iraqi town of Hilla, police sources said, adding the death toll was expected to rise. They said the attack occurred near a car dealership in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad. Aziziya: Two people from the Mehdi Army militia run by Moqtada al-Sadr were wounded on Monday night during clashes with members from the Iraqi Accordance Front, a Sunni Arab Umbrella Group, in Aziziya, a small town between Baghdad and Kut, 170 km (105 miles) south of Baghdad. Suwayra: Police killed three people with suspected links to al-Qaeda in Iraq on Monday near Suwayra, south of Baghdad, police said on Tuesday. >> NEWS RAMADI THE NEXT FALLUJAH? The U.S. military said Monday it was deploying the main reserve fighting force for Iraq, a full 3,500-member armored brigade, as emergency reinforcements for the embattled western province of Anbar, where a surge of violence linked to the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has severely damaged efforts to turn Sunni Arab tribal leaders against the insurgency. (...) Gen. George W. Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has called up the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, the main standby reserve force for the roughly 130,000 American troops in Iraq, Maj. Todd Breasseale, a Marine spokesman in Baghdad, confirmed. The call-up leaves a Marine Expeditionary Unit, which typically includes one combat infantry battalion and air and logistical support, in Kuwait as the only American reserve in the Iraqi theater, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said. CNN reported last week that as many as two of the brigade's three battalions were headed to Ramadi. U.S. military officials would not comment then, citing security of any ongoing troop movements. (...) U.S. forces have called in repeated strikes by air and by artillery on the heart of Ramadi. Marines defend a five-block area of downtown that holds the local government, now a sniper's alley where U.S. forces move at a run to elude insurgent guns. Marines have temporarily suspended new embedding of journalists in Ramadi. Time magazine, U.S. News & World Report and the Associated Press, all with embedded reporters already in Ramadi last week, quoted both officers and the enlisted Marines at sandbag firing positions as saying that Ramadi had to have reinforcements to do more than fight insurgents to a draw around the town hall. Time quoted officers as estimating it would take three brigades, up from one. (...) Rumors routinely circulate of a Fallujah-style clearing operation in Ramadi. read in full... A lawyer for Saddam Hussein said one of his witnesses had been killed and complained of restrictions on the case. The defense did not identify the slain witness or give details on how or when he was killed, but it said the death illustrated the difficulties undermining an effective defense of Saddam and seven former members of his regime. 249 prisoners who had been suspected of ties to the insurgency have been released from three U.S. detention centers in Iraq. An Iraqi Justice Ministry official says the freed prisoners are part of a group of two thousand cleared for release by a joint committee. There are still 14,000 detainees, including five women, in prisons nationwide. Work tarted on a multimillion-dollar international airport near Najaf, financed mostly by a low-interest loan from Iran. The airport is designed to serve Shiite religious pilgrims visiting Najaf's shrines and provide a major boost to the economy of Iraqi's impoverished Shiite south. It's a coalition of the dwindling: The U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq is losing two of its most important allies - Italy and South Korea - and up to half a dozen other members could draw down their forces or pull out entirely by the end of the year. >> REPORTS Autopsy reports reveal homicides of detainees in U.S. custody (released by the ACLU 10/24/05) Document Number: DOD003164 - DOD003170; DOD 003301 Title of Record: Final Autopsy Report (Addendum); Death Certificate Description of Record: Died as a result of asphyxia (lack of oxygen to the brain) due to strangulation as evidenced by the recently fractured hyoid bone in the neck and soft tissue hemorrhage extending downward to the level of the right thyroid cartilage. Autopsy reveleaved bone fracture, rib fractures, contusions in mid abdomen, back and buttocks extending to the left flank, abrasions, lateral buttocks. Contusions, back of legs and knees; abrasions on knees, left fingers and encircling to left wrist. Lacerations and superficial cuts, right 4th and 5th fingers. Also, blunt force injuries, predominatnly recent contusions (bruises) on the torso and lower extremities. Abrasions on left wrist are consistent with use of restraints. No evidence of defense injuries or natural disease. Manner of death is homicide. DOD 003329 refers to this case as "strangulation, found outside isolation unit." Date of Death: 6/6/2003 Autopsy Number: A03-51 Place of Death: Whitehorse Detainment Facility, Nasiriyah, Iraq Cause of Death: Strangulation Manner of Death: Homicide BLOODY SCENES HAUNT A MARINE Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones says he is tormented by two memories of Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha, Iraq. The first is of the body of his best friend and fellow Marine blown apart just after dawn by a roadside bomb. The second is of the lifeless form of a small Iraqi girl, one of two dozen unarmed civilians allegedly killed by members of his Camp Pendleton unit - Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. (...) Briones said he took pictures of at least 15 bodies before his camera batteries died. He said he then helped other Marines remove the bodies and place them in body bags. He said his worst moment, and one that haunts him to this day, was picking up the body of a young girl who was shot in the head. "I held her out like this," he said, demonstrating with his arms extended, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs." As he spoke, his mother, Susie Briones, 40, a Hanford community college teacher, who was sitting beside him at the kitchen table, silently wiped away tears. Earlier she confided to a reporter that her son called frequently from Iraq after he experienced nightmares over the little girl. "He called me many times," she said, "about carrying this little girl in his hands and her brains splattering on his boots. He'd say, 'Mom, I can't clean my boots. I can't clean my boots. I see her.' " (...) In early April, less than 36 hours after his return from Iraq, Ryan Briones got into serious trouble in his hometown that he and his family say was related to stress from the Haditha incident [some 'incident' indeed - zig]. Briones was charged with stealing a pickup truck, crashing it into a house, leaving the scene of the accident, driving under the influence and resisting arrest. A picture of the spectacular crash with a white Ford F-150 lodged in a Hanford living room appeared on the Hanford Sentinel's front page April 4. Released from Kings County jail April 5 on $35,000 bond, Briones has a court date set in mid-June. read in full... A DONKEY TOO FAR SAS troops blew up the wrong house, destroyed three cars and ran over two donkeys during a bungled night-time raid in Iraq. Fifty British and US Special Forces swooped on a home, thought to be where a terror cell was hiding 20 SA16 surface-to-air missiles and an SA80 assault gun. Acting on information from US intelligence, the SAS abseiled from a helicopter on to the roof and blew in the roof and walls. They then arrested two Iraqi brothers, who were later found to be totally innocent. Squaddies have dubbed the mission at Majar Al Kabir, near Basra, "A Donkey Too Far," after the failed WW2 operation made into the movie A Bridge Too Far. A Whitehall source said: "An armoured column hit a donkey on the way in and a Challenger II crushed cars as it turned around. Then an armoured vehicle ran over another donkey." link WELCOME TO LIBERATED BAGHDAD: RUNNING WATER 1 HOUR A DAY "Leaving aside security," Kassim the carpet salesman asked rhetorically, "when you come home, what do you need?" He ticked off the answers on the fingers on his right hand: "Electricity. Water. Food." "Getting any of this in Baghdad is a problem," he said. The Iraqi Shiite's elegant, two-story house in the busy central Baghdad district of Karrada gets power four hours a day - "one hour on, six hours off," said Kassim, a divorced father of three. Running water is available for one hour, between 1 and 2 in the morning. Kassim pours the water into giant plastic jugs he stores in his bathroom, kitchen and on the rooftop. "It's a good thing that I go to bed late," he said. link >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE LAST SESSION OF THE NEWLY 'ELECTED' IRAQI PARLIAMENT (May 28, 2006):

"After a closed stormy session, the members of parliament agreed on the number of security guards for each member of parliament. The two chambers of the parliament agreed that 20 security guards should be assigned to each member of parliament and 30 security guards for each minister. Apparently, the mere number of personal security guards had become a contentious issue reflecting the jockeying of power among the various factions; as the I'itilaf (Shi'aa) insisted on the number 15 and the Kurdish and Sunni wanted 25. The issue of the privileges of the presidency of the parliament was postponed till the coming Monday, and conflicting statements have been issued regarding what these privileges should be. Shi'aa parliament members insist that an agreement has been reached, while the Sunni members deny that it has. Apparently, the issue of privilege has created a deep chasm in parliament, for while the Sunni insist on giving the parliament President wide privileges, the Shi'aa and Kurds want to spread these privileges among the two vice-presidents of parliament".

Update: By the way, what is the cost of these security guards, who are foreign mercenaries and whose average daily salary is $1,000 (for their blood is more expensive than Iraqi blood)? 278 members of parliament X 20 security guards each X $1,000 = $5,560,000 per day 37 ministers (11 of whom are shadow ministers, i.e. without any work) X 30 security guards X $1,000 = $1,100,000 per day Hence, the total is $6,670,000 per day which comes to $2,473,520,000 per year (there are no holidays for security, you see) read in full... SCOTT RITTER: THE HARDEST WORD One has to wonder as to what must have been going through the minds of those who were advising George W Bush and Tony Blair to "come clean", so to speak, about their respective shortcomings regarding the conduct of the war in Iraq. With over 2,460 American and 106 UK soldiers killed in Iraq (not to mention untold thousands of dead Iraqis), the two people in the world most responsible for the ongoing debacle in Iraq displayed the combination of indifference and ignorance that got them neck deep in a quagmire of their own making to begin with. President Bush kicked himself for "talking too tough", while the British prime minister ruminated on the decision to disband the Ba'athist infrastructure that held Iraq together in the aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein. Neither expressed any regret over the decision to invade Iraq in the first place. Bush made no reference to the exaggerated and falsified claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction he and his loyal ally bandied about so freely in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Blair, recently returned from a visit to Baghdad where he met with the newly appointed prime minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, did not reflect on the reality that the Iraq of Saddam Hussein was a more peaceful and prosperous land before British and American troops overthrew the Iraqi president and condemned Iraq to the horrific reality of insurgent-fed civil strife. (...) Blair shared his reflective insights at moment when the people of the United Kingdom were wrestling with new revelations concerning how he misled their attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, into putting forward a legal finding that enabled Britain to go to war with Iraq void of a second United Nations security council resolution. Blair had apparently told Lord Goldsmith that Iraq was in "material breach" of its obligations, despite the fact that no new intelligence on WMD had been unearthed, and UN weapons inspectors were on the ground in Iraq receiving total cooperation from the Iraqi government. Not a peep from the prime minister on this matter, though. (...) Perhaps the advisors of Bush and Blair thought they were going to put a human face on two leaders who had been so vilified over the Iraq debacle. If so they failed. The joint press conference was little more than a pathetic show where two failed politicians voiced their continued support of failed policies, which had gotten their respective nations embroiled in a failed war. To quote Blair: "What more can I say? Probably not wise to say anything more at all." read in full... THE REST IS JUST CONSEQUENCES Tony Blair is a fairly bright man, and George W. Bush is not as dim as he seems, so how can they be so obtuse about Iraq? De-Baathification, re-Baathification, retro-Baathification - nothing can change the basic fact that the Baath party that had ruled Iraq since the 1960s was deeply nationalist and profoundly hostile to the United States (because it is Israel's closest ally) and to Britain (the former imperial ruler of Iraq). Fire all the Baathists, and they will go underground and join the resistance. Leave them in their jobs, and they will be a fifth column of spies and saboteurs for the resistance. Likewise for the empty debate about whether US Proconsul Paul Bremer made a fatal mistake by disbanding the entire Iraqi Army in the spring of 2003. Disband the army, and several hundred thousand trained men will take their skills and their weapons and join the resistance. Leave the existing army in place, and its officers will sell the foreign occupation troops out to the resistance at every opportunity while awaiting the right moment for a national uprising against the foreigners. The original decision to invade Iraq was the fatal mistake; the rest is just consequences. read in full... THE PENTAGON'S TIMELY STRAWMAN Only time right now for some quick thoughts on Haditha. Or rather, Haditha's elevation as Iraq's official, bad apple atrocity. Even for those who try to pay attention to what filters through the fog of war crimes, these things tend to run together. Haditha isn't Abu Sifa where, according to Iraqi police, US forces "on a rampage" executed a family of 11, then bombed their house, burned their cars and slaughtered their animals. What more will we hear of Abu Sifa, now Haditha has become the representative and inevitable example of honour's exception? Because along with Haditha comes Jesse Macbeth, allegedly a former Army Ranger and Iraq war veteran, whose claims that massacre was method rather than madness rapidly went viral on the Net. His story was unsubstantiated and exteme, yet plausible because it was extreme, and provided a template to the pattern of force on exhibit in Iraq. A pattern rarely admitted by the West's institutional media. But Macbeth, it now appears, is the Pentagon's timely strawman to buttress its case for Haditha's exceptionalism, and to discredit influential anti-war voices such as Iraq Veterans Against the War. Whether unaware or not of his status as a COINTELPRO asset, it doesn't matter, because regardless, Macbeth became a lucky charm for those who refuse to believe the program of horror in which US troops are engaged, and there are many. Similar stories may now be said to have been "debunked," without examination or a straining of battlefield ethics. read in full... THE IRAQ WAR - ON DRUGS "It concerns us when we hear military doctors say, 'It's wonderful that we have these drugs [sleeping pills, antidepressants and tranquilizers] available to cope with second or third deployments,'" Joyce Raezer of the National Military Family Association told In These Times. "But that statement makes military spouses cringe," she continues, "Soldiers are saying 'we don't have time to recover.'" Marine psychiatrist Cmdr. Paul S. Hammer confirmed to San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Rick Rogers that Marines with PTSD are returning to Iraq. In many cases, their problem is labeled stress. "Army docs have told me that commanders pressured them not to diagnose PTSD because it would cut into combat power-the ability to project men and women into war," says Robinson. "The docs admit that the decision [to misdiagnose] is unethical, but are unwilling to take the huge career risk of becoming a whistle blower." "The military has an obligation to ensure your readiness," says Raezer. "It is in its long-term benefit to have the person healthy." But those goals may conflict with themselves and with reality. Ready for deployment is not the same as mentally healthy, and the army's long-term interests smack hard against its need for warm bodies, no matter how dangerous continued action may be to an individual's mental health. read in full... THE EVIL IN OUR GOVERNMENT Is the Bush Regime a state sponsor of terrorism? A powerful case can be made that it is. (...) The criminal Bush Regime has now murdered more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein. The Bush Regime is also responsible for 20,000 US casualties (dead, maimed for life, and wounded). Bush damns the "axis of evil." But who has the "axis of evil" attacked? Iran has attacked no one. North Korea has attacked no country for more than a half century. Iraq attacked Kuwait a decade and a half ago, apparently after securing permission from the US ambassador. Isn't the real axis of evil Bush-Blair-Olmert? Bush and Blair have attacked two countries, slaughtering their citizens. Olmert is urging them on to attack a third country-Iran. Where does the danger to the world reside? In Iran, a small religious country where the family is intact and the government is constrained by religious authority and ancient traditions, or in the US where propaganda rules and the powerful executive branch has removed itself from accountability by breaking the constitutional restraints on its power? Why is the US superpower orchestrating fear of puny Iran? The US government has spent the past half century interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, overthrowing or assassinating their chosen leaders and imposing its puppets on foreign peoples. To what country has Iran done this, or Iraq, or North Korea? Americans think that they are the salt of the earth. The hubris that comes from this self-righteous belief makes Americans blind to the evil of their leaders. How can American leaders be evil when Americans are so good and so wonderful? (…) The former terrible tyrant ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, is on trial for killing 150 people. The US government murdered 500,000 Iraqi children prior to Bush's invasion. When the US government murders people, whether Serbs, Branch Davidians at Waco, or Iraqi women and children, it is "collateral damage." But we put Saddam Hussein on trial for putting down rebellions. Gentle reader, do you believe that the Bush Regime will not shoot you down in the streets if you have a rebellion? -- Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: Four aid workers were killed by a gunman riding a motorbike in northern Afghanistan. Three female employees of ActionAid International and their male driver - all of whom were Afghan - died when the gunman pulled alongside their vehicle and opened fire, Khan Ahmdar, the governor of Jawzjan province, said. Hundreds of Afghan and coalition troops took up positions around the Afghan capital on Tuesday to prevent further anti-American riots. The city of 4 million was calm as stores reopened and residents commuted to work. The death toll from the unrest rose to at least 11, most of them from gunshot wounds, according to three city hospitals where casualties were taken. Kabul Emergency Hospital said it had 66 wounded, all shot. Dozens of other wounded residents were at other hospitals. WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR CONJURING UP THIS NONSENSE? "Israel has warned European and American intelligence bodies of possible attempts by Hizbullah cells, led by Imad Mugniyah, to carry out terror attacks during the upcoming World Cup tournament in Germany," reports Yedioth Internet. "According to the report, the terror plot is aimed at proving to the international community that Tehran is capable of retaliation if attacked." Of course, if Iran actually does this, it will demonstrate its leadership has gone stark raving bonkers, as it would provide an ironclad pretext for Israel and the United States to shock and awe the nation into Stone Age submission. Considering this, and the fact the Israelis and neocons are shopping for just a handy pretext, we can assume with a fair degree of accuracy the above mentioned "intelligence bodies," with the unmentioned Mossad taking the lead, are responsible for conjuring up this nonsense. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Every response was 'kill', every chant we had, whether it was in line for the chow hall or PT was somehow involved with killing. And not simply killing the enemy, we had one just standing in line for chow which was "1, 2, 3, attack the chow hall (repeat) Kill the women, Kill the Children, Kill, Kill, Kill 'em All" -- a former marine recruit describing boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, 2002

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR MONDAY, May 29, 2006 Photo: Iraqi firemen extinguish a burning U.S. Humvee as soldiers treat victims after a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad May 29, 2006. REUTERS/Ali Jasim (See below "In Baghdad's Tahariyat Square…") Bring 'em on: With deep regret the [UK] Ministry of Defence can confirm that two members of the Queen's Dragoon Guards were killed and two others suffered minor injuries in an incident which took place in Basra, Iraq, yesterday, 28 May 2006, at around 2130 local time. The incident appears to have been an attack from an Improvised Explosive Device. The soldiers were from the Queen's Dragoons Guards part of the Basra City Battlegroup. (UK MoD) CBS personnel killed and injured after their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Veteran cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James Brolan, 42, were killed, CBS said in a statement. Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, 39, was in critical condition at a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad after undergoing surgery.

The three journalists were covering American troops for Memorial Day while with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. The journalists had gotten out of their armored vehicle after a "curious incident," CBS said. A nearby car packed with explosives then detonated, the network said.

The U.S. military said a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi contractor also were killed in the attack on their convoy. Six U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack, the military said.

In Baghdad's Tahariyat Square, a car bomb targeting an American convoy killed one civilian and wounded nine. It was not known if there were any U.S. casualties, but at least one Humvee was seen on fire. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Sunni tribal chief who sent fighters to help U.S. troops in western Iraq died in a hail of bullets: Sheik Osama al-Jadaan was ambushed by gunmen as he was being driven in Baghdad's Mansour district. Al-Jadaan's driver and one of his bodyguards also were killed. Al-Jadaan was a leader of the Karabila tribe, which has thousands of members in Anbar province, an insurgent hotbed stretching from west of Baghdad to the Syrian border. He had announced an agreement with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government to help security forces track down al-Qaida members and foreign fighters. A car bomb placed near Baghdad's main Sunni Abu Hanifa mosque killed at least nine Iraqis and wounded 25. The bomb exploded at noon in north Baghdad's Azamiyah neighborhood and was so powerful it vaporized the vehicle. Following the attack, clashes erupted between insurgents and the Iraqi army in the area. A bomb planted in a parked minivan killed at least seven and wounded 20 at the entrance to an open-air market selling clothes in the northern Baghdad suburb of Kazimiyah. A parked car exploded near Ibin al-Haitham college in Azamiyah in northern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding at least five, including four Iraqi soldiers. Twelve people were killed and 24 were wounded when a car bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol detonated in Adhamiya district, northern Baghdad. Most of the victims were students from a nearby university. A second bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol near the square killed one person and wounded 10, including four police. A roadside bomb killed two police officers and wounded three others in downtown Baghdad's Karradah district. One man was killed and six were injured when a bomb hidden in a minivan exploded in Baghdad. Gunmen killed two police officers when they attacked a convoy in western Baghdad. Two other Pakistanis were killed in a militant attack in Baghdad. A suicide car bomber blew up a police patrol in Baghdad's southern district of Masbah on Monday, killing three and wounding five others.. Among the casualties, a policeman was killed and two was wounded. A car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in Karrada district, central Baghdad, killing one person and wounding four people. The Pakistani government confirmed on Monday that two of its nationals were killed in Iraq when their sleeping places in a U.S. military camp in Baghdad came under mortar attack on May 22. The two Pakistanis were employed with a company and were working at the camp as laborer and electrician. Ghazaliyah: A group of attackers seriously wounded several police colonels in Ghazaliyah near Baghdad. Khalis: A roadside bomb killed 10 Iraqis who worked for an organization of Iranian dissidents living in Iraq. The blast targeted a public bus near Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad in Diyala province. Twelve people were wounded, police said. All the dead were Iraqi employees heading to the main camp of the Mujahedeen Khalq, which opposes Iran's regime. Iskandariya: To the south of Baghdad, Hilla police reported four mortar rounds had fallen into the town of Iskandariya, wounding 10 civilians. Dujail: Gunmen opened fire at an army checkpoint on Saturday, killing one soldier and wounding two others near the town of Dujail, 90 km north of Baghdad. Amarah: Two police officers, identified as former Baathists, were killed in Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad. Kirkuk: An Iraqi civilian was injured when a car exploded in Kirkuk. In Country: Two Pakistani drivers kidnapped in Iraq last week have been killed and their bodies have been sent to Kuwait for repatriation to the country, a TV channel reported on Monday. There was no official confirmation of the deaths. >> NEWS Iraqi FM said Baghdad will never take part in any military aggression on Iran: Speaking to IRNA, the minister said that Baghdad had repeatedly declared that it would never allow its territory to become a launching pad for any military action or be used to materialize threats against Iran. He was responding to a question at a press conference here on whether Iraq would allow the US to use its soil to materialize threats on Iran. "Iraq's security and stability is intertwined with the security and stability of Iran," Zebari said. (…) Zebari, talking to reporters, said his country believes peaceful nuclear technology is Iran's indisputable right. He further said that any provocation or moves against Iran that exacerbates the problem and endangers its security would have negative effects on security in the entire region. "Given the wisdom of Iranian officials and their logical attitude," said the foreign minister, "Iraq is confident that Tehran's nuclear problem will be settled through peaceful ways." Italy to pull 1,100 of its troops from Iraq in June, the new government said Friday, giving its first specific numbers about the planned withdrawal. "In June we will reduce our troops from 2,700 to 1,600," Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said during an evening television show. Al-Sadr calls on Iraqi Parliament to take immediate measures for the withdrawal of the US troops from the country: He addressed the US President George Bush urging him to respect the just demands of the Iraqi government and people about the withdrawal of the troops from the country. Muqtada al-Sadr explained that after the end of political disagreement and the formation of a new government, Iraq doesn't need international help any more. Speaker of Iraq's national assembly condemns arrest of the brother of a member of parliament by US and Iraqi forces in a raid on her house on Friday: Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said in a statement that US and Iraqi forces arrested the brother of Sunni Arab parliamentarian Taysir Awwad at her home. "I condemn the arrest which violates the immunity of the house because she is a member of parliament," he said. The US military had no immediate comment. Multi-National Forces are offering a USD 2,500 reward for information on a wanted sniper that has been targeting policemen and civilians in Kirkuk. >> REPORTS Hundreds of British security guards in Iraq being urged to resign en masse next month over a pay dispute that could cripple operations at diplomatic missions and put the safety of officials at risk. The unprecedented industrial action by staff at Control Risks raises questions about the use of private security companies for tasks such as guarding embassies and convoys and acting as bodyguards for diplomats and aid workers in conflict zones. Since the US-led invasion of Iraq, dozens of private security companies have made hundreds of millions of pounds from dangerous jobs. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent £110 million on private security in the first 21/2 years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But with less money being spent on reconstruction and more security firms competing for the work, the contracts have become more competitive. Control Risks, whose 450 employees in Iraq provide close protection for British diplomats and aid workers, had its contract renewed by the Foreign Office, but only after it reduced charges by cutting salaries to some frontline staff by 19 to 37 per cent. (…) The dispute is a blow to Control Risks, which promotes itself as a respectable company in a business that attracts a motley collection of players, including mercenaries and conmen. IT TAKES TWO TO PLAY 4th GENERATION WARFARE

"THEY'RE MORE EFFECTIVELY NETWORKED THAN WE ARE" [During a U.S. raid in Ad Duluiyah] suddenly [First Lt. Brian] Feldmayer [of Charlie Company, part of the Army’s first “digital division,”] cuts off the conversation and urges the man and the interpreter around a corner. "He says he knows who the bad guys are around here," Feldmayer says. The interpreter takes notes as the informant rattles off names and addresses. If the Pentagon's vision of networked forces were realized here, he would be typing into a handheld computer, wirelessly connected to a network. The names would immediately be cross-checked with databases of known guerrillas and disseminated to local commanders. But for now, the patrol's interpreter writes down the Ad Duluiyah suspects on paper, using a pencil. It's at this point, just beyond the edge of the American network, where the guerrillas are best connected. Using disposable cellphones, anonymous e-mail addresses at public Internet cafés, and "lessons learned" Web sites that rival Cavnet, disparate guerrilla groups coordinate attacks, share tactics, hire bomb makers, and draw in fresh recruits. It's an ad hoc, constantly changing web of connections, so it's hard for U.S. spooks to know where to listen in next. It also lets the insurgents keep a loose command structure, without much hierarchy-just like the network-centric theorists call for. Even if their communications are compromised, only a small cell is exposed, not the entire insurgency. "They're more effectively networked than we are," says Hammes, the guerrilla-war expert. "They have a worldwide, secure communications network. And all it cost them was two dinars." read in full… Anti-U.S. rebels active in Fallujah turn against digital cameras U.S. troops installed to monitor their movement: The cameras can monitor movement of people at least three kilometers away and have apparently restricted the rebels' ability to raid U.S. camps. Residents say they have counted at least 35 such cameras guarding U.S. troops' concentrations close to the restive city of Falluja. And recently several of these high-tech cameras were destroyed mainly by rebel sniper fire. (…) Falluja has resurfaced as a major stronghold of anti-U.S. resistance despite a massive U.S. assault that had almost turned the city of nearly 300,000 inhabitants into ruins.

At least 1,000 UK soldiers desert: Cases of soldiers deserting the army are said to be rising More than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted since the start of the Iraq war, the BBC has learned. Figures for those still missing are 86 from 2001, 118 from 2002, 134 from 2003, 229 from 2004, 377 from 2005, and 189 for this year so far. The news comes as Parliament debates a law that will forbid military personnel from refusing to participate in the occupation of a foreign country. (…) John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington told, Parliament last Monday that the number of absconders had trebled since the invasion with more soldiers "questioning the morality and legality of the occupation". Video of a young survivor of the Haditha Massacre. Her entire family was murdered by American soldiers in their home. On November 19 of last year a massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians occurred in Haditha located about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad. The killing rampage by 12 US Marines included seven women and three children who were shot point blank inside their homes. The war crime surfaced only because of its recent strong condemnation by Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired US Marine. The Iraqi Hammurabi Organization for Monitoring Human Rights and Democracy documented the massacre and produced a video showing corpses lined up at the local morgue with bullet wounds in the head and chest. The video shows homes with bullet holes in the walls, pieces of human flesh, pools of blood, and clothes scattered on floors. Iraqi civilian witnesses described the horrible killing rampage by the US Marines. Poll: For the first time since the Iraq invasion, fewer than four-in-ten Americans believe the war was worth fighting. 76 per cent of respondents think there have been an unacceptable number of U.S. military casualties in Iraq >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS SO THIS IS THE NEWS ON IRAQ? On her last visit to the U.S., Faiza al-Arji, a native Shia Iraqi woman, whose blog "A Family in Baghdad" provides details of everyday developments in Iraq, was invited by a non-governmental American organization opposed to the war, went to different states, and spoke about the truth of what's happening in Iraq. Her greatest disappointment, she says, was to discover that the mainstream media of a country, which claims to be the world's foremost protector of freedoms and human rights, is not as objective as we're being told. (...) "When I passed through the offices of CNN, Fox News and other major news agencies," says Al-Arji, "I saw they were funded by government-friendly sources. I smiled to myself" "Their news reports were clipped and vague, and essentially meaningless. For example, they showed President Bush saying, 'we are making progress in Iraq.' A commander from the occupied forces would also be shown for a few seconds saying that everything was going smoothly. Then they would flash a picture of a safe, beautiful Baghdad before the war--the Tigris river was beautiful, glimmering and clean. Then the news piece would be over." "People pay attention for seconds, waiting for a new and useful sentence. When they don't hear it, they turn and talk about something else. I said to myself: So this is the news on Iraq? What might the American citizen actually understand from this?" "I started asking people in my interviews: In the past three years, do you remember seeing one Iraqi opposing the war in the mainstream media? They shook their heads and say no. I would then tell them that the U.S. media is in partnership with the government in this war. You Americans don't know anything about Iraq, about Islam, about our culture, our civilization, our religion, I said. All that reaches you is through the lens of a distorted, biased and deceitful media that sows disdain and discrimination and justifies wars and hatred between us. read in full... URANIUM AS A FORCE MULTIPLIER It always pays to listen, and to listen exactly, to what the senior U.S. military officials say about fighting wars. In 1991, Gen. Colin Powell sent 500,000 men with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, lots of 70-ton Abrams Tanks and other soldier equipment for a 100-hour war against a weak third world country - Iraq. It was called the Powell Doctrine and required a quick enemy defeat by "overwhelming force," "defined goals" and an "exit strategy." Another George Bush, George Bush the second, sent only 145,000 troopers for the much more ambitious conquering and occupation of Iraq 12 years later. What changed? Why send 355,000 fewer troopers for a much larger, tougher, sure to get you killed job? The American war policies did not change. The answer is that the Americans had millions of pounds of a deadly microscopic "helper" called depleted uranium as a "force multiplier" deployed in Iraq. A force multiplier is a technological method to multiply the aggressiveness and lethality of an armed force. Dr. Katsuma Yagasaki of Ryukyus University in Okinawa, a physicist, stated publicly that the atomicity equivalent of the weaponized uranium gas deployed in Iraq by U.S. military forces is hundreds of thousands of times the radioactivity of the Nagasaki atomic bomb. Marion Fulk, who started working on nuclear weapons more than 60 years ago during the Manhattan Project, says, "I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people." A leading scientist, Leuren Moret, speaking out on the use of depleted uranium today, says flatly, "Iraq is uninhabitable," due to widespread radiation poisoning. read in full... THE PLOY THAT DIDN'T WORK On Friday 26 May, just hours after Tony Blair and George Bush began talks in Washington on the "progress" of their occupation of Iraq, a curious article appeared on the BBC's website. Headlined "Iran FM begins first Baghdad trip", it was posted at 0617 GMT. Penned by one Pam O'Toole, it painted a faux-objective, strangely upbeat, picture of the Iranian foreign minister's impending visit to Iraq. This was all the more extraordinary because the US and British governments, through compliant sections of the media - including the BBC which is now virtually the official mouthpiece of the Blair government - have been engaged in a propaganda campaign demonising the Tehran government in preparation for an aerial assault on Iran. (...) The BBC article was almost certainly part of the stage management for Blair's talks with Bush. It would not have gone unnoticed by the president's media minders. It certainly reads as if it were meant to send a public signal to the American president that Blair wanted out of Iraq, wanted no part of a bombing campaign against Iran, and was prepared to enter negotiations with Tehran. Indeed the article underlined the fact that Tehran controls the fate of the Green Zone government. It is not surprising that Blair would want to emphasise this point by making it public through the BBC. Britain's military position in Iraq's south is dangerously untenable. The safety of British troops already depends on Britain's accommodation with Tehran's Iraqi surrogates. If this was the ploy it didn't work. Blair backed down. Perhaps he unexpectedly caved in to Bush before the article could hit the airwaves and the web. On the night of Thursday 25 May, Blair "looking weary and under pressure after his visit to Iraq" (to quote the Sydney Morning Herald) stood beside Bush to insist that despite reports there were no plans to withdraw US or British forces. In classic Stalinist style, O'Toole's article, suddenly redundant, disappeared as if it had never existed. On Friday 26 May, the puppet Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, said that Iran had the right to develop a peaceful nuclear program. Who knows what blackmail Bush applied to get Blair to stay in Iraq. (...) In any event, George screwed Tony again. British troops will remain in Iraq, in spite of Blair's misgivings. The pro-Iranian politicians of the Iraqi puppet government would certainly have welcomed the withdrawal of the Coalition from the Southern provinces and the handing of formal control to their sectarian militias and the police and army units they own.Tehran will be angered by the Coalition's failure to withdraw and in response it is likely to use its surrogate forces to gradually apply more and more military pressure to the Coalition's outnumbered troops in the South. Tony Blair has only himself to blame. read in full… THE BANALITY OF GUN VIOLENCE In the last few weeks friends of mine in Iraq have experienced a rash of deaths amongst their friends and coworkers. It began with a courier we know being killed by gunfire. I'm still not sure whether it was at some kind of checkpoint, a carjacking, or other random violence. At least five friends of Omar and his brother Mhyar were killed in the previous 2 or 3 weeks. One of those killed was the brother of a guy named Wisam, Omar's best friend. I've never met Wisam personally, but because Omar is often at his house and, because of the curfew, stays the night often as well, I've had a few chance conversations with him. He's a nice guy, though a bit strange-his nickname is Weirdo! He and Omar bond over their love for metal, metallica, and other similar things any American boy in his late teens/early 20s might be prone to. Wisam's brother was killed last week in a carjacking gone wrong. Apparently he shot back, but wasn't able to scare them off or stop the assault. They shot back, and he was killed. Two days later, the husband of Um Abeer, a woman who works with Omar's mother, was killed in another carjacking. Both times the deaths were caused by guns. For Wisam, his situation is made even worse by the fact that his father died two weeks earlier. No, he wasn't killed by gun violence or deathsquads, just a good old fashioned heart attack. I was having dinner with my friend Rafat last night and I mentioned to him that it had been a good two days. Two days since I heard of any of Omar's friends being killed, or any other friends for that matter. That's when Rafat told me that the husband of his friend's sister was killed the day before yesterday. read in full… BECAUSE NOTHING SAYS "I'M SORRY" LIKE SNIPERS The Haditha massacre story seems to be heating up, as it did not do after the initial Time magazine article in March, because the media have been waiting since then for the Pentagon to do the investigating for them. This is a little troubling because the Pentagon's track record is not good, not just on Abu Ghraib but on Haditha itself. When the Marines' first story (the civilians were killed by an IED) was disproved, the Pentagon simply accepted their second story (gun battle) without investigating. Without the Time article, that would have been the end of it (unlike after My Lai, no American military personnel came forward to tell the truth). Dunno, maybe it's just me, but if US Marines are pointing guns at four-year olds and pulling the trigger, I'd like that looked into. A detail from the London Times, which sent a reporter to talk to a 10-year old survivor: "An American unit attended the funeral to apologise, but not before it had positioned snipers around the mourners". Hearts and minds, eh? read in full… "THE NAZIS CALLED US TERRORISTS" Three years ago I met a Dutch journalist, Willem Oltman, at the International Campaign Against US Aggression on Iraq in Cairo, Egypt. Oltman described his teen years during World War II in the Dutch resistance movement. "The Nazis called us terrorists," he exclaimed. "Now as the US invades and occupies other countries you do the same thing," he added. link >> BEYOND IRAQ Afghanistan: In Kabul, a traffic accident involving U.S. troops is blamed for sparking city-wide rioting, and gunfire was later heard near the U.S. Embassy. Authorities say at least five people have been killed, and another 60 injured. The unrest started after three U.S. Humvee vehicles coming into the city from the outskirts before the vehicles ran into a rush-hour traffic jam, hitting several civilian cars, witnesses said. At least three people were killed and 16 injured in the crash, while U.S. forces killed one person and wounded two when they fired on dozens of stone-throwing rioters shouting "Death to America!". Associated Press Television footage showed hundreds of angry young men hurling rocks at what appeared to be three U.S. military trucks and three dun-colored Humvees as they sped from the area after the crash, their windscreens cracked by the stones. A center-mounted machine gun on one of the Humvees was seen firing into the air over the crowd as the vehicle sped away.

Hundreds of Afghan army troops and NATO peacekeepers in tanks were deployed around the city, as chanting protesters marched on the presidential palace and rioters smashed police guard boxes, set fire to police cars and ransacked buildings, including the compound of aid group CARE International. Computers were set on fire and smoke billowed from the buildings, according to an Associated Press reporter.

Hundreds of protesters marched to the palace of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai in the city center, shouting "Death to Karzai! Death to America!" AP reporters elsewhere in the city heard a 20-second burst of heavy automatic gunfire, apparently coming from the direction of the U.S. Embassy. It subsided but gunfire was then heard sporadically. Staff at the U.S. Embassy were moved to a secure location within the heavily fortified embassy, said Chris Harris, an embassy spokesman. He had no immediate information on the reported gunfire.

A mob had gathered outside the British embassy and was trying to force its way into Wazir Akbar Khan, where most of the city's embassies and international organisations are based. They were held back by scores of soldiers who were blocking the main roads to the area, a reporter on the scene said. "We are hearing a lot of gunshots," UN employee Marina Walter said from a government office in the centre of the city.

Five Canadian soldiers injured and as many as six Taliban militants killed during gunbattle in Kandahar - the city that was headquarters to the Taliban. More than 50 Taliban militants believed killed in U.S. airstrike on Kajaki district in Helmand provinces, although police had yet to reach the mountainous location to confirm the casualties, said provincial deputy governor, Amir Mohammed Akhunzada. Taliban have regained control of all southwestern provinces of Afghanistan, Al Jazeera television quoted the group commander, Mullah Dadullah, as saying. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The Coalition troops in the south [of Iraq] are effectively already hostages of Iran." -- Gavin Gatenby, Possum News Network

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2006 An Iraqi man comforts his injured son following a bomb blast in one of Baghdad's main squares. (AFP photo by Wisam Sami) SECURITY INCIDENTS Two bombs in central Baghdad killed two people and wounded 17 others Sunday, a Baghdad police official said. First bomb strikes an Iraqi Army patrol. Second bomb explodes as police and firefighters respond to the first. VOA gives the death toll in this incident as 3. Al Bawaba reports that an AP photographer and cameraman were among the wounded in this incident Odd that AP doesn't have that information -- C. Also reports:

• North of Baghdad, in the city of Baquba, gunmen shot dead a merchant selling children's clothes in the city's main market.
• Just to the west of the city, as well, the governor's convoy was attacked and raked with bullets, killing a bodyguard and wounding five others.

CNN reports bomb targeting a police patrol in Mosul injures 3 police and one civilian Also:

• A roadside bomb struck a Diyala provincial council convoy northeast of Baquba, killing a guard and wounding five other people, police said. Council head Ibrahim Hassan Ahmed Bajilan escaped unharmed in the morning incident, which occurred in Wess -- nearly 45 miles northeast of Baquba.
• Police on Sunday found three unidentified human heads in a plastic sack near a drainage canal just northwest of Baquba.

Reuters reports one insurgent was killed in a clash with Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers in Samarra, which erupted after three militants in a car opened fire on Saturday, the U.S. military said in a statement. The two other insurgents escaped on foot, it said. Reuters also reports that police said Gunmen threw three severed heads out of their car as they drove through a village 20 km (12 miles) north of Baquba. I presume these are the same heads mentioned by CNN, but the details of the stories differ. Reuters also reports that police found six beheaded corpses wearing military uniforms in the small towns of Numaniya, Suwayra and Shihaimiya near Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said. It was not clear if the three incidents were linked. Sunni Sheik who collaborated with U.S. in Western Iraq is assassinated in Baghdad. Crew of Marine Cobra helicopter down yesterday is still missing. FYI, the Cobra is a heavily armed attack helicopter. Replacement cost is pegged at $10.7 million. Info here. POLITICAL NEWS AND OTHER DEVELOPMENTS New Iraqi government is fractious.. Al-Maliki fails to name security ministers as promised by today; Shiite and Kurdish blocs try to curtail powers of Sunni Speaker. Excerpt from AP story:

Iraq's fractious political, ethnic and sectarian parties again failed to reach agreement on who will run the interior and defense ministries, despite a promise by al-Maliki to do so within a few days of his Cabinet being sworn in just over a week ago. ``They will not be named today,'' Shiite deputy Baha al-Araji said. ``We hope within three days.'' There had been hopes that al-Maliki would swear in the two new ministers when the 275-member parliament convened Sunday after the Iraq weekend. The Shiite-dominated interior ministry has been promised to that community, while Sunni Arabs are to get the defense ministry. It is hoped the balance will enable al-Maliki to move ahead with a plan to take over security around Iraq over the next 18 months and also attract army recruits among Sunni Arabs, who make up the core of the insurgency. The list however, has been whittled down to two candidates for the interior ministry and three for defense. During what appeared to be a stormy closed-door session, deputies argued over a demand by the Shiite and Kurdish coalitions to curb the power of Sunni Arab parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. They demand that he be obliged by parliamentary regulation to consult his Shiite and Kurdish deputy speakers before taking any decisions. The demand, staunchly opposed by Sunnis, was an indication the struggle for more power and authorities among Iraq's factions. The speaker has little authority.

Read in Full According to Turkish Press, President Talabani is intervening to try to break the deadlock over the security ministries. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki concludes two-day visit to Iraq. The countries issue a joint statement pledging cooperation. The Iranian news agency IRIB issued the following summary in English:

Tehran, May 28 - Iran and Iraq issued a joint statement on Saturday evening at the end of a two-day visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to Iraq. In the statement, the two countries referred to the deep-rooted historical, cultural and religious ties and great commonalties between the two nations and called for promotion of bilateral ties in all fields based on the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affair and commitment to bilateral agreements. The two sides stressed the importance of maintaining national unity and territorial integrity of Iraq as well as promoting stability and security in that country. They also welcomed active participation of all Iraqi groups in materialization of the country's political trend as well as inauguration of the country's parliament and formation of a long-term government. The statement condemned terrorist acts in Iraq including massacre of innocent people, violation of sanctities and bombing of the shrines of Shiite Imam Ali Al-Naqi (AS) and Imam Hassan Al-Askariya (AS) in Samarra and denounced plots by enemies of Islam aimed to fan the flames of tribal and ethnic war and establish links between terrorism and Islam. It also praised the pivotal role played by Ulema and religious jurisprudence in establishing tranquility and stability in Iraq. The two countries stressed the importance of providing assistance to the Iraqi government and people to restore stability and security and expressed readiness to help materialize the decisions made during previous meetings of foreign ministers of Iraq's neighboring states to reconstruct and develop the country and restore stability and security to the country. The statement called on all states and international organizations to participate in Iraq's reconstruction and economic development as a fundamental factor for restoration of sustainable stability and security to the country and the region. Pointing to protection of joint borders as borders of peace and friendship, they stressed expansion of cooperation between the two countries' provinces, determination of zero points at Iran-Iraq border, activation of markets and effective campaign against illegal activities including smuggling of weapons and illicit drugs, and terrorist acts. Iran praised the Iraqi government's readiness to release a number of Iranian pilgrims detained in that country. The two sides stressed acceleration of the release of detainees of the two countries. Iran and Iraq also condemned brutal measures taken by the Zionist regime against the oppressed Palestinian people and called for intensification of international efforts to restore Palestinians' rights.

Link here. As summer heat rises, Iraq faces severe shortage of petroleum products, AFP reports. Excerpt:

BAGHDAD - As Iraq's brutal summer heat sends temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), a dire shortage of petroleum products is damaging the economy and cutting electricity supplies in Baghdad to new lows. The shortage is due to a host of reasons, including rivalries among political parties in the south, but an interior ministry spokesman said the security situation was a major cause. "In addition to attacks on pipelines, trucks carrying petroleum products are in the sights of the rebels. Some gas stations had to close after their drivers refused to go pick up gasoline and other products stored in the dangerous areas around Baghdad," said Assem Jihad. snip Sabotage of the oil infrastructure is also ongoing, aggravating the situation, he added, nothing there had been two attacks in the past week on pipelines to the north and south of the capital. "Two units of the Baiji refinery were closed last week and this cut production," said Jihad, who also reported a fire in the offshore terminal of Khor al-Amaya in the Gulf. "Certain countries have stopped providing Iraq with petroleum products," he said, without elaborating, after the government halved the six billion dollars allocated to pay for imports. An oil ministry official, however, singled out the actions of "an internal party that is trying to hinder the improvement of the supply situation". The official, who asked to remain anonymous, was alluding to the Shiite party Fadhila, which holds 15 seats in parliament and forms part of the dominant Shiite United Iraqi Alliance. But it angrily walked out of talks on forming a new government after it failed to secure the oil ministry. The party reportedly is interfering with oil supplies heading north to Baghdad, while threatening a strike action, and demanding a cut of export royalties.

Read in Full BBC reports that 1,000 British soldiers have deserted since the start of the war. Excerpt:

More than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted the armed forces since the start of the 2003 Iraq war, the BBC has discovered. It comes as Parliament debates a law that will forbid military personnel refusing to participate in the occupation of a foreign country. During 2005 alone, 377 people deserted and are still missing. So far this year another 189 are on the run. Some 900 have evaded capture since the Iraq war started, official figures say.

Read in Full Talabani urges al-Maliki to send delegation to mediate infighting in Basra. Excerpt:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's presidency has urged the government to send a high-level delegation with wide-ranging powers to the southern city of Basra, in the grip of a Shi'ite power struggle that threatens oil exports. The office of President Jalal Talabani issued a statement late on Saturday urging new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite Islamist, to dispatch senior officials to Basra. He stressed they should have wide-ranging powers, saying that "whoever goes to Basra should be authorised to dismiss and appoint" officials and to take other necessary measures. Security has deteriorated in Iraq's second largest city, patrolled by British forces, in the past year as rival factions of the country's Shi'ite majority vie for influence. Accusing each other of corruption and organised crime, the opposing sides control militias, some of which are believed to have taken control of rival police units in the southern city. The struggle intensified earlier this month when the governor of Basra province demanded the dismissal of the city's police chief, who took the job last year on a promise to end corruption. British officials hope that Maliki's new national unity government in Baghdad will focus on calming tension in the south. Iraqi officials and political sources last week said it risked being held to ransom by a dissident Shi'ite faction using its influence to obstruct vital oil exports. They warned that the locally powerful Fadhila party, which controls the governor's office, was threatening to have members in the oil industry stage a go-slow to halt exports if it did not win the concessions it wanted from Baghdad.

Read in Full UN News Agency warns of refugee problem in Kurdistan as border tensions escalate with turkey. Read in Full. COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS AP's Robert Reid reviews the Haditha massacre case, notes two other ongoing investigations of war crimes. Excerpt:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military is bracing for a major scandal over the alleged slaying of Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha — charges so serious they could threaten President Bush's effort to rally support at home for an increasingly unpopular war. And while the case has attracted little attention so far in Iraq, it still could enflame hostility to the U.S. presence just as Iraq's new government is getting established, and complicate efforts by moderate Sunni Arab leaders to reach out to their community — the bedrock of the insurgency. U.S. lawmakers have been told the criminal investigation will be finished in about 30 days. But a Pentagon official said investigators believe Marines committed unprovoked murder in the deaths of about two dozen people at Haditha in November. With a political storm brewing, the top U.S. Marine, Gen. Michael W. Hagee, is headed to Iraq to personally deliver the message that troops should use deadly force "only when justified, proportional and, most importantly, lawful." Haditha is not the only case pending: On Wednesday, the military announced an investigation into allegations that Marines killed a civilian April 26 near Fallujah. The statement gave no further details except that "several service members" had been sent back to the United States "pending the results of the criminal investigation." Last July, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Samir al-Sumaidaie, accused the Marines of killing his 21-year-old cousin in cold blood during a search of his family's home in Haditha, a city of about 90,000 people along the Euphrates River 140 miles northwest of Baghdad. The military ordered a criminal investigation but the results have not been announced. Together, the cases present the most serious challenge to U.S. handling of the Iraq war since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, which Bush cited Thursday as "the biggest mistake that's happened so far, at least from our country's involvement in Iraq." "What happened at Haditha appears to be outright murder," said Marc Garlasco of Human Rights Watch. "It has the potential to blow up in the U.S. military's face." He said that "the Haditha massacre will go down as Iraq's My Lai," a reference to the Vietnam War incident in which American soldiers slaughtered up to 500 civilians in 1968. snip In March, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said about a dozen Marines were under investigation for possible war crimes in the incident. Three officers from the unit involved have been relieved of their posts. Such incidents have reinforced the perception among many Iraqis who believe American troops are trigger-happy — a characterization U.S. officers strongly dispute. "America in the view of many Iraqis has no credibility. We do not believe what they say is correct," said Sheik Sattar al-Aasaf, a tribal leader in Anbar province, which includes Haditha. "U.S. troops are a very well-trained and when they shoot, it isn't random but due to an order to kill Iraqis. People say they are the killers." Ayda Aasran, a deputy human rights minister, said Iraqis should be allowed to investigate such cases — something the U.S. command has refused to permit. Sunni political leaders will find it difficult to defend U.S. actions, even those aimed at establishing the truth, if they want to maintain their position as leaders of the Iraqi minority that provides most of the insurgents. Even if criminal charges are brought in the Haditha incident, Sunni insurgents are likely to claim the case is simply a charade and argue that the Marines will escape serious punishment.

Read in Full Editor and Publisher analysis of recent coverage finds Haditha massacre, control of large sections of the country by partisan militias, many with strong Iranian influence, dominate recent U.S. press coverage of Iraq. Read in Full WHISKER'S ROUNDUP OF WOUNDED A rocket-powered grenade took away both of Brookfield native Steven Anthony Smith’s legs and injured his arm and face. A Marine from Dothan was seriously injured when the Humvee he was driving in Iraq struck an explosive device, killing three other Marines. Steven Bradley Pinkston survived an April 20th truck crash. He was riding in a convoy that was delivering supplies when his truck flipped over several times. Pinkston was seriously hurt -- he suffered a broken nose, fractured facial bones and his elbow was severely punctured. The wound destroyed the bones connecting his upper and lower arm. Doctors had considered amputating the arm, but they will attempt to realign the bones. The Marine has had five surgeries in the last month. On November 4th, 2004 in the City of Fallujah, Sergeant Slawatycki says, the urban assault to take down that city began. He was shot in the right calf during that assault and says three days later he managed to pull the bullet out with a tool he had. Pvt. 2nd Class Dennis Davis II and two other soldiers were in a Humvee that ran over 1,000 pounds of TNT on May 17. All three of the soldiers were airlifted to Camp Cash Combat Hospital in Bagdad, Iraq, after suffering non life-threatening injuries. A former Akron-area resident battling Taliban violence in Afghanistan was seriously wounded by a grenade last week. Lt. Derek Martin of the Army's 10th Mountain Division could lose his right eye, and his sinuses and the bones in his cheek are shattered, said his father, Tom Martin of Bath Township. Derek Martin, 33, also has shrapnel in his arm and back, his father said. The lieutenant and his platoon were supporting Afghan troops when he was wounded Thursday. Specialist Sean Long's leg is badly scarred from the 50-calibre bullets that tore through him on December 29 of last year. The bullets could have taken my leg off," Long told 11Alive's Jerry Carnes. "Both of them had the power to do that. They said I should have died there from the loss of blood." U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. William Eugene Gibson, a 1989 Pryor graduate, was shot below the left knee May 16 while patrolling streets in Ramadi, Iraq. The wound resulted in Gibson having his leg amputated below the left knee. Matt Davis, the Blooming Grove native hurt in Iraq while on duty with the U.S. Marine Corps. Davis was released from Bethesda Medical Center late Monday, where he had been since May 5 being treated for injuries received in battle in Iraq. Davis is showing steady improvement after undergoing numerous surgeries for his injuries. He has metal plates and pins in his left arm, but is able to walk more as his therapy continues. He remains under the care of occupational and physical therapists, as well as medical specialists for continued medical treatment of his leg and hand injuries. Lance Cpl. Gary Rodriguez got wounded on the 13th of May, 2004, and I've just been dealing with the medical (issues) and trying to get better again."I received shrapnel to the right side of my head, It went through behind the ear and punctured the nerves to the right side of my face."--two of the steel balls punched into Rodriguez' right lung-- hit on the leg with some of the white phosphorous, which burned away flesh and required skin grafts to repair his mangled right elbow, the soft- spoken Marine only says he is happy to still have the arm. Staff Sgt. Clarence Eady--Doctors amputated Clarence's left leg below the knee. Last August, U.S. Army Cpl. Pisey Tan lay in a road in Samara An IED - improvised explosive device - had torn through the side of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle he'd been driving, nearly shearing his legs from his body. Army Sgt. 1st Class Juanita Wilson lost part of her arm during combat in Iraq. Wilson, 32, was injured when a makeshift bomb exploded under her armored Humvee vehicle nearly two years ago near Baghdad. Her left arm was amputated below the elbow. Marine sniper Eddie Ryan. . .. that mission ended when nearby American troops accidentally fired two bullets that hit him in the head. One projectile crashed through the front of his brain, the other through his jaw.--Eddie sat cradled in a wheelchair. With braces, he stands on his own an hour a day, but he is not yet walking. His right arm is weaker than the left and the right hand tends to curl at the wrist. Sergeant Elano Chavez was providing security as part of the 812 Quartermaster Unit deployed to Iraq. He was hurt in a roadside bomb attack two weeks ago. Doctors say Chavez has a broken left leg, fractured femur and tissue damage Sgt. Tim Bird of the 3rd Forward Support Battalion got hit by three IEDs. One hit on the front, one on the driver's side and one on my side. It blew us off the road. he sought medical help for a leg broken in two places. But the doctor said they'd have to do surgery to put screws and plates in there to put the tib and fib back together. PVT2 Dennis L Davis, II--On May 17, Dennis, along with two other MP Soldiers ran over a I.E.D. filled with 1000lbs. of TNT, flipped the vehicle over trapping the three soldiers underneath the 14,000lb vehicle. Dennis sustained internal bruising, a laceration on his chin, nerve damage to his left foot and slight hearing loss on his left ear. A Pryor Marine who lost his leg in combat in Iraq says he wants to return to the front lines. Gunnery Sgt. Bill Gibson wounded last week, told family members he'd be back on duty as soon as possible. Editor's Note:Iraq Veterans Against the War disavows Jessie Macbeth, who claimed to have served in Iraq as an Army Ranger and to have participated in atrocities. IVAW says, "MacBeth’s false statements unfortunately have played into the hands of those who would deny that any atrocities whatsoever are occurring in Iraq. While such murders by military personnel are reprehensible, ultimate blame for these actions must be placed on the responsible commanding officers, Donald Rumsfeld, and the Bush administration who have created the context for chaos in through an illegal and unjust war and occupation which they admit has no end in sight." Of course, all we can do here is link to information from credible sources. Macbeth was indeed a member of IVAW and his video came with their imprimatur, which they now say was used without authorization. We will always do our best to update stories and correct any that are erroneous. Please do visit the IVAW site. This Memorial Day, I ask you to consider making a donation to IVAW as an appropriate commemoration. Quote of the Day MEMORIAL RAIN For Kenneth MacLeish, 1894-1918 Ambassador Puser the ambassador Reminds himself in French, felicitous tongue, What these (young men no longer) lie here for In rows that once, and somewhere else, were young. . . All night in Brussels the wind had tugged at my door: I had heard the wind at my door and the trees strung Taut, and to me who had never been before In that country it was a strange wind, blowing Steadily, stiffening the walls, the floor, The roof of my room. I had not slept for knowing He too, dead, was a stranger in that land And felt beneath the earth in the wind's flowing A tightening of roots and would not understand, Remembering lake winds in Illinois, That Strange wind. I had felt his bones in the sand Listening. Reflects that these enjoy Their country's gratitude, that deep repose, That peace no pain can break, no hurt destroy, That rest, that sleep. . . At Ghent the wind rose. There was a smell of rain and a heavy drag Of wind in the hedges but not as the wind blows Over fresh water when the waves lag Foaming and the willows huddle and it will rain; I felt him waiting. . . Indicates the flag Which (may he say) nestles in Flanders plain This little field these happy, happy dead Have made America. . . In the ripe grain The wind coiled glistening, darted, fled, Dragging its heavy body: at Waereghem The wind coiled in the grass above his head: Waiting--listening. . . . . .Dedicates to them This earth their bones have hallowed, this last gift A grateful country. . . Under the dry grass stem The words are blurred, are thickened, the words sift Confused by the rasp of the wind, by the thin grating Of ants under the grass, the minute shift And tumble of dusty sand separating From dusty sand. The roots of the grass strain, Tighten, the earth is rigid, waits -- he is waiting -- And suddenly, and all at once, the rain! The living scatter, they run into houses, the wind Is trampled under the rain, shakes free, is again Trampled. The rain gathers, running in thinned Spurts of water that ravel in the dry sand, Seeping in the sand under the grass roots, seeping Between crack boards of the bones of a clenched hand: The earth relaxes, loosens; he is sleeping, He rests, he is quiet, he sleeps in a strange land. -- Captain Archibald MacLeish

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, May 27, 2006 Photo: Celeste Zappala, center, and her son Dante Zappala, right, protest against the war in Iraq, as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld spoke at a luncheon for the World Affairs Council, in this May 25, 2005 file photo, in Philadelphia. Celeste is holding a photo of her oldest son who was killed in Baghdad, Iraq. Celeste Zappala of Philadelphia has become a peace activist since her 30-year-old son, Army Sgt. Sherwood Baker, was killed by an explosion in Baghdad while deployed with the Pennsylvania National Guard. (AP Photo/H. Rumph, Jr., File) Bring 'em on: A U.S. Marine was killed in clashes in Iraq's restive Anbar province on Friday, the U.S. military said on Saturday. Bring 'em on: Marine Adam Lucas, of Greensboro, was killed by enemy fire early Friday morning while serving in Iraq. Bring 'em on: A U.S. Marine AH-1 Cobra helicopter crashed in an insurgent stronghold in western Iraq on Saturday, and two crew members were missing, the U.S. military said. Hostile fire was not suspected as the cause. Seven civilians were killed and ten others injured by US troops over the last 24 hours in Ramadi. Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) reported on doctor Ahmed Dhiya in Al Ramadi Hospital as saying that children and women were among the victims of a US blitz that targeted their houses under the pretext of striking armed groups. Dr. Ahmed added that autopsies and medical examinations revealed that some of the injured were targeted by snipers. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: At least four people were killed and 15 wounded when a mortar round landed in a crowded market in southern Baghdad. Hospital sources had earlier said it was a bomb. A roadside bomb went off near a police patrol in western Baghdad on Saturday, killing an Iraqi policeman and wounding three others. Three policemen were wounded when gunmen ambushed a convoy of Interior Ministry commandos in the southern neighbourhood of al-Bayaa in the capital. A bomb in a parked car exploded today near a busy bus station in Baghdad, killing at least four civilians and wounding seven others. In the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad four people were hurt when a roadside bomb exploded. Clashes between insurgents and an Iraqi army patrol in the capital's western Al-Jamia area left a soldier and a civilian wounded. Gunmen broke into a gardening store in Baghdad and killed the owner. A Palestinian refugee living in Iraq was abducted and and shot dead by unknown gunmen in Al Dawra area. A group which calls itself "Kata'eb Ahrar Al Iraq" (The Brigades of the Liberals of Iraq) distributed a leaflet on Friday at night giving the Palestinians in Iraq a ten-day period to leave the country. In southern Baghdad, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up in the middle of a popular marketplace, killing 2 Iraqis and injuring 11, witnesses said. Baqubah: Gunmen killed five people -- two sets of brothers -- in Baquba. First they stormed an ironsmith workshop and shot dead three brothers working there, then they attacked a nearby tyre repair shop and killed two brothers from another family. A police colonel and his bodyguard were killed when gunmen ambushed their car near the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. Two other bodyguards were seriously wounded. Gunmen killed a former Baath-era police officer and a relative in Baqubah as they traveled in their car. Three police officers were wounded in a roadside bombing west of the city. The director of the Baquba branch of the Iraqi Association for the Defense of Human Rights, was wounded in a gun attack on his vehicle north of the city. Gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint, seriously wounding three policemen. The head of the press office at a human rights body was wounded after he was shot at while driving in his car in central Baquba. Muqdadiya: An Iraqi groom celebrating on the dance floor was dragged off and later found beheaded in a field after uninvited guests showed up at his wedding. Gunmen took 26-year-old merchant Khudair al-Tamimi away along with his father, uncle, cousin and a guest at the party on Thursday in Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Their bodies were discovered on Friday, beheaded and dumped in farmlands just north of the town. Dinwaniya: A Police Colonel was seriously wounded when a roadside bomb went off near his house in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad. Samarra: A merchant in the city's central Bazaar was killed by gunmen. Tikrit: Two police officers were shot dead in separate incidents in Tikrit. Gunmen attacked a police patrol, killing a Lieutenant and wounding two policemen. Baiji: A roadside bomb killed two oil truck drivers and wounded another near a refinery in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad. Kirkuk: One police officer was shot dead in Kirkuk. An Iraqi army major was killed and three soldiers were wounded when gunmen in a car blocked their patrol and opened fire on a main road 40 km (25 miles) south of Kirkuk. Unknown men assassinated an officer in the center of Kirkuk. Many checkpoints were set up at city exits following the incident. Kirkuk witnessed a number of explosions. One bomb exploded in front of a gas station and two others blew up. No damage or casualties were reported. A bomb targeting an Iraqi patrol blew up on the road leading to Kirkuk and Tikrit. No damage or casualties were reported. >> NEWS Iranian FM met al-Sistaniin Najkaf and thanked him for promoting unity between Iraq's groups: [Manouchehr] Mottaki, who had talks with Iraq's new, Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad on Friday, also visited another Shi'ite shrine city, Kerbala, before going to Najaf, home to the shrine of Imam Ali, whose descendants founded Shi'ite Islam. (...) After meeting Sistani, Mottaki thanked the Shi'ite religious establishment, or Marjaiya, which Sistani heads. "I presented my gratitude to the Marjaiya for working for the unity of the Iraqi people," he told reporters. He also noted Iranian willingness to invest up to $1 billion in projects to help Iraqis, mentioning seven possible projects in the oil, electricity and health fields in five cities in northern and southern Iraq. Mottaki also held talks in Najaf with Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shi'ite cleric who gained popularity by leading two armed revolts against U.S. and Iraqi forces. An oil pipeline exploded after a breakdown in the control network. According to a source at the southern Iraq oil company, the accident was causing a loss of 10,000 barrels a day. >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS THE HADITHA MASSACRE

IN HADITHA, MEMORIES OF A MASSACRE Witnesses to the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha say the Americans shot men, women and children at close range in retaliation for the death of a Marine lance corporal in a roadside bombing. Aws Fahmi, a Haditha resident who said he watched and listened from his home as Marines went from house to house killing members of three families, recalled hearing his neighbor across the street, Younis Salim Khafif, plead in English for his life and the lives of his family members. "I heard Younis speaking to the Americans, saying: 'I am a friend. I am good,' " Fahmi said. "But they killed him, and his wife and daughters." The 24 Iraqi civilians killed on Nov. 19 included children and the women who were trying to shield them, witnesses told a Washington Post special correspondent in Haditha this week and U.S. investigators said in Washington. The girls killed inside Khafif's house were ages 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1, according to death certificates. (...) In Haditha, families of those killed keep an ear cocked to a foreign station, Radio Monte Carlo, waiting for any news of a trial of the Marines. "They are waiting for the sentence - although they are convinced that the sentence will be like one for someone who killed a dog in the United States," said Waleed Mohammed, a lawyer preparing a file for Iraqi courts and the United Nations, if the U.S. trial disappoints. "Because Iraqis have become like dogs in the eyes of Americans.'' read in full... HADITHA: THE "M" WORD HITS THE MEDIA I was actually shocked to read the headline in the Washington Post: "In Haditha, Memories of a Massacre." 24 Iraqi civilians were killed in cold blood by U.S. Marines in Haditha last November, and for once this slaughter is being called by its right name: "massacre." Just last week, 16 Afghan civilians and a larger number of alleged Taliban fighters were killed by U.S. bombing in Kandahar, and not one corporate media source joined me in calling that a massacre, just as they wouldn't call the aerial murder of 45 people at an Iraqi wedding party a massacre either. Does it have to be a face-to-face confrontation, murder "in cold blood" before it qualifies as a "massacre"? Does that antiseptic, you can't see the whites of their eyes aerial bombing never qualify? read in full... THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE MURDERERS I keep remembering that Bob Herbert column in the Times last May, relating the story of Aidan Delgado, a U.S. soldier who served in Iraq: "He wasn't happy when, even before his unit left the states," Herbert wrote, "a top officer made wisecracks about the soldiers heading off to Iraq to kill some ragheads and burn some turbans. "He laughed,' Mr. Delgado said, "and everybody in the unit laughed with him.' The officer's comment was a harbinger of the gratuitous violence that, according to Mr. Delgado, is routinely inflicted by American soldiers on ordinary Iraqis. He said: "Guys in my unit, particularly the younger guys, would drive by in their Humvee and shatter bottles over the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by. They'd keep a bunch of empty Coke bottles in the Humvee to break over people's heads.' He said he had confronted guys who were his friends about this practice. "I said to them: "What the hell are you doing? Like, what does this accomplish?' And they responded ju! st comp letely openly. They said: "Look, I hate being in Iraq. I hate being stuck here. And I hate being surrounded by hajis.'' "Haji' is the troops' term of choice for an Iraqi. It's used the way "gook' or "Charlie' was used in Vietnam. Mr. Delgado said he had witnessed incidents in which an Army sergeant lashed a group of children with a steel Humvee antenna, and a Marine corporal planted a vicious kick in the chest of a kid about 6 years old. There were many occasions, he said, when soldiers or marines would yell and curse and point their guns at Iraqis who had done nothing wrong." The banality of evil doesn't have to rise to the level of genocide to find its stage. To the contrary. Evil at its most routi ne is localized affair, the more debased for being either completely out of sight and accountability, or for being tacitly, happily condoned by its execut ioner's posse. The Haditha massacre stands out only because in its case someone was there to report it. But who doubts that these atrocities aren't routine, or that a soldier's swift kick in the chest of a six year old boy is any less of an atrocity, considering what that soldier would do to an adult if can be such a brute toward children? read in full...

WHY EXITING IRAQ IS NOT THAT HARD In These Times has published an article by Chris Toensing called "Why Exiting Iraq Won't Be Easy." Dahlia Wasfi, an Iraqi-American doctor who testified last month before a Congressional hearing on exiting Iraq, has drafted the following reply: It will be a blessing for Iraq when the last American soldier, mercenary, and businessman leave Iraq. It will not be a "noble course of action" for after invading a country illegally and killing hundreds of thousands in a textbook case of colonialism, we've lost the right to even think the word "noble." And I agree that it won't be a "panacea for Iraq's ills." But it will be the first step in the right direction. And it is easy. Ask anyone who's been in Iraq, and I don't mean the Green Zone. I visited my family in southern Iraq for 3 months between December 2005 and March 2006. I thought I knew what was going on there, but people who have lived their entire lives there don't know what's going on. There are at least 11 militias operating throughout the country. Iranians have flooded into Iraq, home to the 2 holiest Shiite shrines in Najaf and Karbala, under the banner of Islamic parties (and maybe one saying "Mission Accomplished"). Occupation forces are there. American CIA agents are there. And Israeli Mossad and military are operating from a heavily guarded base in northern Iraq. And we are training death squads as we did in Vietnam and El Salvador. Iraqis know that every day may be their last, and while any number of sources may pull the trigger, responsibility lies with the United States. The concept of civil war and sectarian strife is well-described by Iraqi Sami Ramadani, a political refugee from Saddam Hussein's regime and senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University:

"It is not withdrawal that threatens Iraq with civil war, but occupation...The occupation's sectarian discourse has acquired a hold as powerful as the WMD fiction that prepared the public for war. Iraqis are portrayed as a people who can't wait to kill each other once left to their own devices. In fact, the occupation is the main architect of institutionalised sectarian and ethnic divisions; its removal would act as a catalyst for Iraqis to resolve some of their differences politically."

Toensing describes the "insurgency" as "roughly 20,000 Sunni Arab[s]." However, no uprising can last without popular support, and three and a half years after Baghdad fell, the legitimate resistance to our illegal occupation is alive and well. Toensing describes that sectarian violence worsened after the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra in late February, but the reality I saw on the ground didn't substantiate that. read in full... CHANGING HISTORY A letter I received from a Palestinian reader prompted me to write today's column. He had responded to an article written by Jack Random in which the author called for the U.S. to leave Iraq. But, he also denigrated Saddam Hussein. The Palestinian wrote to Random and said: The "dictator" you talk about was right in each and every sense of the word. That "dictator" could have kept the country that was looted intact, united and in the process of becoming a first rate country. The Palestinian then told me: There is a funny notion that each and every writer has to demean Saddam in order for him/her to have their pieces published or read. Is it a taboo or a given norm that Saddam must by cursed in order for an intellectual to show his/her credentials and "objectivity?" read in full... WAR OUTSOURCING FACILITATING IMPUNITY "The United States has become a world leader in avoiding human rights accountability; a case in point is the reliance of the United States government on private military contractors, which has helped create virtually rules-free zones sanctioned with the American flag and firepower," said Larry Cox the executive director of Amnesty International's US Chapter. He further said, "Business outsourcing may increase efficiency, but war outsourcing may be facilitating impunity. Contractors' illegal behavior and the reluctance of the U.S. government to bring them to justice are further tarnishing the United States' reputation abroad, hurting the image of American troops and contributing to anti-American sentiments." read in full... "VICTORY"? FORGET IT Newsweek reported this week that the U.S. military, in fact, is no longer pursuing a strategy for "victory." "It is consolidating to several 'superbases' in hopes that its continued presence will prevent Iraq from succumbing to full-flown civil war and turning into a failed state. Pentagon strategists admit they have not figured out how to move to superbases, as a way of reducing the pressure -- and casualties -- inflicted on the U.S. Army, while at the same time remaining embedded with Iraqi police and military units. It is a circle no one has squared. But consolidation plans are moving ahead as a default position, and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has talked frankly about containing the spillover from Iraq's chaos in the region." Yet Bush continues to declare as his goal (with encouragement from his polling expert on the NSC) the victory that the U.S. military has given up on. And he continues to wave the banner of a military solution against "the enemy," although this "enemy" consists of a Sunni insurgency whose leadership must eventually be conciliated and brought into a federal Iraqi government and of which the criminal Abu Musab al-Zarqawi faction and foreign fighters are a small part. [the author is certainly excluding the untold number of Zarqawi lieutenants -- zig] (…) Bush doesn't know that he can't achieve victory. He doesn't know that seeking victory worsens his prospects. He doesn't know that the U.S. military has abandoned victory in the field, though it has been reporting that to him for years. But the president has no rhetoric beyond "victory." read in full... "IT IS A PUPPET GOVERNMENT NOTHING MORE OR LESS" You have said that the series of interim governments that have occurred over the last few years, since the invasion, have been a total disaster. What about the latest attempt at a government? The new government of national unity? Hardly anything has changed really. What we are witnessing in this new government is almost the cloning of the same people, or the same sectarian and ethnic divide they were establishing under Paul Bremer, the ex-ambassador of Iraq. Will it work as a government? You're making it sound like a puppet government. It is a puppet government nothing more or less. I don't think it is going to accomplish anything different than the previous one. All they are receiving They are on the receiving end of orders from the unexpected visits by Condoleezza Rice, Jack Straw previously, and to orders from Bush and Blair. So you don't see it as a true attempt at an Iraqi government at all? It isn't at all. It is not even a government even. It is a government of the green zone. It is an occupation government. An occupation government, no matter what it does, it doesn't represent people and their aspirations. People have the right to rule themselves. -- Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi, she is also a writer and an activist for women's rights in her savagely battered homeland. She was an opponent of Saddam Hussein and his regime; indeed, she was imprisoned and tortured by the dictator. Video interview with transcript >> BEYOND IRAQ THE BUSHEVIKS The Busheviks are not conservatives -- they are neo-fascists with an agenda aimed at protecting a privileged elite and using the unbridled power of an authoritarian government to enhance and protect their wealth. They're not wearing black shirts, boot-stomping down Pennsylvania Avenue in the style of the more theatrical of their ilk. But their insidious threat is real and chilling. Doug Olson, a reader from Madison, Wis., provided me with an important analysis of what the Busheviks are doing. Doug says when he brands them fascists, he doesn't mean it as a "barstool put-down." Doug has a good grasp of what fascism historically is. "I mean it quite literally," he says. "Most people have no idea what fascism is. They think you need to have a bunch of swastika-wearing thugs out rounding up the Jews. This is completely wrong. The Bush people fit my definition of fascism to a T: They are radical, conservative, corporate, authoritarian, nationalist supremacists. "Their supreme 'master race' is not racial but economic -- the top 10th of a percent of wealth-holders in America. They have no respect for human rights. They have no respect for democracy, except as a cover and propaganda tool. They pervert language -- for them, language is merely a tool of deceit." read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The biggest reason Iraq has been so difficult is the determination by our opponents to defeat us'' – Tony Blair in a news conference at White House with Bush, May 25, 2006

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, May 26, 2006 Photo: A woman screaming that she has lost three sons arrives at al-Kindi hospital after a roadside bomb placed under a car exploded in an outdoor market in the Nahda area of Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 31, according to police, in Baghdad, Iraq Friday, May 26, 2006. The blast occurred at a time when the market - where old furniture, household goods and appliances are sold - would have been especially busy during the start of the Islamic weekend. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) Bring ém on: Two Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers were killed at approximately 2 p.m. May 25 when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad. (CENTCOM) Bring 'em on: A U.S. Marine was killed on Tuesday in combat in Anbar province, the U.S. military said. Bring 'em on: A Knoxville soldier, Army Pfc. Class Caleb Lufkin, died Thursday while under treatment for severe wounds he suffered early this month from a roadside bomb in Iraq, family members said. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: A Katyusha rocket struck destroying a building in the city-center of Baghdad, Iraq wounding four people. A car bomb exploded in a public market in in the Nahdha district of Baghdad, killing at least ten people and wounding 30. A bomb went off in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Bayaa wounding 18 people. A roadside bomb missed a U-S convoy in Baghdad, but injured three Iraqis on a minibus. Iraqi police found the bodies of two men shot dead in Dora district in southern Baghdad. The bodies where handcuffed, blindfolded and shot dead and were left near a farm in the area. Police found three bodies in western Baghdad with bullet wounds and showing signs of torture. In the upscale neighborhood of Mansour, a roadside bomb exploded near the motorcade of Ahmed al-Chalabi, a former deputy prime minister who is currently head of the De-Baathification committee. Chalabi was not injured. The coach of the Iraq tennis team and two players have been shot dead by armed gunmen in the Saidiya district of Baghdad, the Iraqi Olympic Committee chief said today. According to eye witnesses, the three men were killed because they were wearing shorts. Baqubah: Armed men wearing Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped nine civilians from their houses Thursday night. Ali al-Khayam, the spokesman of the Joint Coordination Center in Diyala Province, said four of the kidnapped were security guards at the Diyala TV network, a TV and radio station in the province. The fifth was a translator for the US forces while the other four were government employees. Gunmen execute two policemen held with them before being released, one of the hostages said. Tikrit: U.S. soldiers brought 14 bullet-riddled bodies, including those of two children, to the morgue in Tikrit. It was unclear who had killed them. Maqdadiya: Four unidentified corpses bearing fatal bullet wounds were found in different parts of al Maqdadiya. Muqdadiya: Gunmen stormed a wedding party and abducted the groom, his uncle and cousin and a guest at the party and all were found the next day beheaded near Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said on Friday. Basra: A Sunni Imam and a bodyguard were killed by gunmen in a drive-by shooting as they travelled to their mosque. British forces in southern Iraq have come under bomb, mortar, rocket and sniper attack almost twice in the Basra area a day since January, losing 12 dead to hostile fire, according to figures seen by The Herald. Ten corpses bearing fatal bullet wounds were found in the Al Moqal district of Basra. The corpses were discovered with their hands bound and bore evidence of torture along with fatal bullet wounds to their heads. Khour Al-Emmaya inlet: A fire broke out in an oil supply pipeline at a docking station for oil tankers north of the Arabian Gulf. Fire fighters are still fighting blazes in Khour Al-Emmaya inlet, as well as the oil leakage. A fire that had been burning aboard one of Iraq's two oil terminals, the Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal (KAAOT), May 26 has burned itself out. No U.S. personnel were injured in the fire. Several Iraqi personnel were injured in the fire. Kirkuk: A roadside bomb detonated near a police patrol in the south ofKirkuk, killing one policeman and wounding four. Sinjar: Police reported the explosion of a bomb left in a sack in a liquor shop in Sinjar, 125 miles west of Mosul. The shop's owner was killed and two customers were wounded. Ramadi: (Yesterday) Four policemen who were shot dead by insurgents in Ramadi. The policemen were heading to their homes when they were ambushed by gunmen on a little travelled farm road and killed. US forces shot dead three firefighters in Ramadi. A security source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the firefighters were killed as they extinguished blazing homes and vehicles that had caught fire following armed clashes between insurgents and US forces in the al Aziziya district of Ramadi. >> NEWS Sunni leaders order closure of all Sunni mosques in the southern city of Basra and urged preachers not to hold Friday prayers to protest the killing of a Sunni cleric today. Iraq's new government risks being held to ransom by a dissident Shi'ite faction using its local clout in Basra to hobble vital oil exports, Iraqi officials and senior political sources said on Friday. They warned that the locally powerful Fadhila party was threatening to have members in the oil industry stage a go-slow to halt exports through the key southern oil port if it did not win the concessions it wanted from Baghdad. Iran warns it will retaliate in the event of a US strike, during the highest level visit of an Iranian official to neighboring Iraq since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won power in Tehran last summer. "In the event that America launches a strike from any place, Iran will retaliate by targeting that place," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told journalists in Baghdad after expressing his support for Iraq's new government. He confirmed his country's decision not to hold direct talks with the United States over the situation in Iraq, while saying he thought "the risks of a confrontation are minimal." "I don't think the United States is in a position to create a new crisis for US taxpayers," Mottaki said Friday The assassination of Tony Blair by a suicide bomber would be morally justified as revenge for the War in Iraq, according to George Galloway. The Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow said that such an attack would be "morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq - as Mr Blair did". He was speaking during an interview for GQ magazine with Piers Morgan, the former Daily Mirror Editor. Speaking about an assassination attempt, Mr Galloway said: "I am not calling for it but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7." >> REPORTS Security forces will be deployed in all major cities with the aim of protecting the more than five million students bracing to take their final exams, officials from the Ministry of Education said on Wednesday. "Our ministry is cooperating with the ministries of interior and defence in order to protect exam centres, mainly in Baghdad's more restive areas," said Minister of Education, Dr Khudier al-Khuza'i, in his first ministry press conference. "Every student has the right to take his or her exams in a safety." (…) According to a report about threats against schools and students killed issued on 28 February by the education ministry, 64 Iraqi schoolchildren have been killed by bombs, rockets, mortar shells and machine-gun fire between last November and February. At least 169 teachers and 84 other school employees have been killed in the same period. Additionally, attacks and frequent threats have resulted in the intermittent closing of hundreds of schools, further disrupting the education of thousands of children. >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS OIL FOR OCCUPATION, BUT NONE FOR IRAQIS The ongoing war in Iraq will likely be won or lost based on the availability of one commodity: motor fuel. For the moment, the U.S. military has all the fuel it needs--about three million gallons per day - to continue prosecuting the war in Iraq. The same cannot be said for Iraqi civilians. Indeed, the supply of motor fuel in Iraq remains highly precarious. Evidence of that can be found by looking at the case of Lloyd-Owen International, a small American company which provides security for hundreds of gasoline tanker trucks hauling fuel from Kuwait into Iraq. For the past month, Lloyd-Owen has been facing a May 25 deadline. Effective today, according to the U.S. military, Lloyd-Owen was to be prevented from moving its fleet of tankers through a military checkpoint near Safwan on the Iraq-Kuwait border. Lloyd-Owen provides security for transporters who haul about 6 million liters of fuel per day to various locations in southern Iraq. That fuel is then distributed to service stations in the region for use by civilians. Lloyd-Owen's trucks were to be barred from using the checkpoint under a new policy which said that only trucks working under contracts with the U.S. military will be allowed to use the military checkpoint. Lloyd-Owen's contract is with Iraq's Oil Marketing Company, known as SOMO, which has been buying fuel from the Kuwait Petroleum Company in order to meet domestic demand. Thus, even though Lloyd-Owen's work is directly related to the rebuilding and stabilization efforts in Iraq, its trucks would not be issued special badges by the U.S. military. And without those badges, their trucks would not be allowed to use the checkpoint. On May 11, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) intervened on behalf of Lloyd-Owen and sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asking him to look into the matter. Waxman wrote that "in light of the potential consequences of a fuel shortage in Iraq, I would like an explanation for the new policy of the Defense Department." Waxman's office said they got a response from Rumsfeld's office but that it was "non-substantive." Then, about mid-day yesterday, May 24, just a few hours before the deadline, the Army suddenly rescinded its policy, and determined that Lloyd-Owen's trucks could use the military checkpoint until a "to be determined date." read in full... THE WAR ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN The tragedy of post-colonial Iraq since the return of Western armies in 1990 illustrates the perversion of humanitarian values, scientific approaches and rational risk assessment. The bottom-line parameter in any discussion about social policy is the human cost. According to the latest, Web-accessible UN Population Division data and UNICEF data, the "under-5 infant deaths per 1,000 births" in oil-rich Iraq versus impoverished Syria were 200 vs 170 (1953), 50 vs 44 (1990) and 125 vs 16 (sixteen) (2004) i.e. infant mortality decreased enormously under the dictator Saddam Hussein but increased hugely after 1990 due to Western intervention. The post-1990 under-5 infant mortality in Iraq under war-criminal UK-US sanctions, bombs and occupation now totals 1.6 million and the post-1990 excess deaths (i.e. avoidable deaths) now total 2.2 million. The 1990-2003 under-5 infant mortality and excess mortality in Iraq under sanctions and bombing totalled 1.2 million and 1.7 million, respectively; the 2003-2006 figures for post-invasion Occupied Iraq are 0.4 million and 0.5 million, respectively. In comparison, the post-invasion under-5 infant mortality and excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan now total 1.4 million and 1.8 million, respectively. These tragedies could have been averted by commitment by the responsible Western democracies to the scholarly and scientific ethos of truth, reason, sensible communication and application of the scientific method. Everyone is now familiar with the numerous, outrageous lies that preceded the illegal Coalition war on Iraq in 2003. However relatively few are familiar with the above mortality statistics - while deriving from authoritative, publicly-accessible UN and UNICEF reports just a click away on the Web, this crucial information is comprehensively ignored by Mainstream Media in a continuing process of racism, lying by omission and holocaust-denial. The horrendous under-5 infant mortality in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan (1,300 infants dying every day, 0.5 million infants dying each year and with 90% of these deaths avoidable) is occurring because of the non-provision by the Occupying UK-US-led Coalition of the life-preserving requisites demanded unequivocally of Occupiers by the Geneva Conventions. Indeed these horrendous crimes constitute "passive genocide" and are the subject of formal complaints to the International Criminal Court. The appalling, continuing, avoidable mass mortality of infants in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories is a gross violation of the fundamental human behavioral imperative of respect for Mother and Child and reveals the semantically-absurd War on Terror as in actuality a War on Women and Children. read in full... UNDERMISINTERPRETATING "BRING 'EM ON" During the Bush/Blair press conference, the former admitted that saying "bring them on" may have been, you know, undermisinterpretated in certain parts of the world. "I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner, you know." That's true: since July 2003 the sophistication of his discourse has astonished us all. Of course earlier, he'd once again praised Maliki's declaration that he would use "maximum force" against the insurgents. Actually, I don't have that much of a fix on Maliki yet, but he does seem to be a bit of a blowhard. Indeed, when asked to respond to Maliki's claim that his regime would be in charge of Iraqi security within 18 months, Bush made his usual stock comment that "our commanders on the ground will make that decision" and "the conditions on the ground will make the decision" and politics won't make the decision. Of course he was on autopilot, but he accidentally suggested that Maliki a) has nothing to do with the decision, b) is just engaging in politics. read in full... WHEN WILL US CRIMES IN IRAQ END?

As many as seven Marines are accused of dragging an innocent Iraqi man from his home in April, killing him in cold blood and then trying to cover up the crime, NBC News has learned. Further, military officials tell NBC that at least one of the Marines has reportedly confessed in the killing, saying they find the allegations especially disturbing because the case appears to have been a premeditated killing and not carried out in the heat of combat.

No! Imagine my shock.

The alleged incident occurred April 26 in the town of Hamandiyah. The Marines are accused of dragging the innocent man from his home, shooting him to death, then planting an AK-47 rifle and a shovel next to his body, apparently to make it appear the man had been burying an IED, one of the roadside bombs that have been so deadly to U.S. forces in Iraq.

Oh, wait, you mean he might not be an insurgent ... so, when the US lists the deaths of dozens of insurgents is it ... well, gosh, could it be those were innocent civilians. Planting? Planting. Planting? Yes, planting. But we had heard these accusations before only to be called liars, Islamofascists, yada, yada, yada by the usual suspects. read in full... DINING WITH TERRORISTS "How would you feel if Iraqi soldiers were ambling through your streets? And let's say they even once in a while broke into your homes to arrest someone dear to you? If I were to tell you that they have come to Italy to give you a better life, would you joyfully welcome their presence?" Phil Rees, BBC correspondent for 17 years in Asia and in the Middle East, was at the Turin Book Fair (4-8 May), to present his first book, Dining with Terrorists, an incredible voyage on the trail of the world's most wanted men, trying to find answers to a question that has never been so timely: "Who is a terrorist?" (...) Were you able to find a definition of terrorist? The book is in the search of a definition of this word. The best one for me still is that of Professor Rubinstein, from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution of the George Mason University in Virginia: terrorism is simply the violence that you don't like. In the Middle East, Bush is a terrorist to the people who live there. The UN has not found any definition of this word. Are we all potential terrorists? Yes. Terrorists don't come from Mars, there are conditions that push these persons to do certain things: even Tony Blair's wife, if she was born in Gaza, could become a kamikaze. Don't you run the risk, with this publication, to be accused of justifying terrorism? I wouldn't use the term "justification". The purpose of my book is to invite readers to put themselves in other people's shoes. The Muslims of the entire world feel victimised and threatened by the dominant economic and military power of the West. There are millions who believe that their vision of the world is not guaranteed the dignity or a satisfying space of development next to those of Western civilisation. Any type of violence should have the same checks made on it: no one has the right to occupy another nation. read in full… BUSH'S REVENGE ON THE NATIONAL GUARD Remember that horror movie back in 1976 where a girl who was humiliated and made fun of comes back to seek revenge? Well, we got an update on that plot. And George W. Bush is now playing the role of Carrie. Here's the new script: Back in 1968-73, Bush served in the Texas National Guard where he was teased and humiliated when he scored 25% on his pilot aptitude test and was suspended and grounded from flying duty. Well, Carrie, er, I mean George waited a long freaking time to get his revenge on the National Guard -- BUT HE DID. America's National Guard is now almost completely destroyed after being sent to Iraq with unprotected Humvees and inadequate body armor. But was that revenge enough? No. George went further and administered the coup de grace. This week he assigned the remaining tattered remnants of the National Guard -- who had somehow managed to survive being butchered in Iraq, cut off economically at home and strangled in New Orleans by FEMA -- to the ultimate humiliation: Border patrol. And if the National Guard somehow manages to survive trudging through the Arizona desert in 140-degree heat while leaving their home states unprotected (again), I'm 100% sure that Bush will figure out some other humiliating and/or deadly revenge to finally finish them off. Trust me. Carrie will not rest until there is NOTHING left of the National Guard. link… THE ISSUE OF DEPLETED URANIUM A couple of years ago an international tribunal that met in Japan, made up of five judges - all professors of international law - concluded that President Bush was guilty of war crimes for indiscriminately attacking civilians in the Afghan war. Robert Akroyd, one of the judges and a former head of legal studies at Aston University in Britain noted the U.S. military's use of "indiscriminate weapons such as the Daisy Cutter, cluster bombs and depleted uranium shells," According to the Japan Times,

Civilians and experts who have supported the tribunal movement agreed to work for creation of an international treaty that would prohibit the production, stockpile and use of depleted uranium rounds, like the Ottawa process that succeeded in 1997 in outlawing antipersonnel land mines.

In what he terms a public health disaster for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, Doug Westerman points out that:

The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation.

Although there are other concerns now, in the aftermath of the war this subject is inevitably going to come to the fore. We need to bring this subject out into the open now, especially given the deliberate attempt by US military authorities to suppress the issue altogether. Westerman adds that:

Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries who can help. The U.S. Military doesn't want the rest of the world to find out what we have done.

read in full: >> BEYOND IRAQ An Afghan human rights group said Friday an estimated 34 civilians were killed in a U.S. airstrike on a southern village this week - far higher than the official toll. A WARBOT LETS THE TRUTH SLIP Commenting on the Iranian missile test is The Strata-Sphere (cute, huh?):

I seriously doubt Iran is so crazy they would launch missiles at US or Israeli targets (though I would not bet $1 on that premise), but the missiles do represent a very tough defense against military action by the West, whether it is pre-emptive or reactive. This is the problem with a nuclear armed Iran. If one of their bombs makes it to a target on the back of a suicide bomber, then attempting to deliver a response becomes a more complex problem.

And there you have it: Iran is bad, and bad countries are not entitled to self-defense. It's not about Iran actually posing a threat to the U.S. or even Israel - unless, as he ludicrously suggests, they're going to take us down one backpack bomber at a time, while we fume and curse those darn medium-range missiles that prevent any counterattack. Whatever the moral merits of the "bad people have no right to self-defense" argument may be, it's geopolitical fantasy. No government in the world is going to say, "Yes, you're right, we do suck. Feel free to bomb us without fear of retaliation." To think that they would, or that a constant stream of threats will enhance our own security, is to see the world through the eyes of a spoiled child. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: "We're locked into a bogged-down problem not dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam. The longer we stay, the more problems we're going to have." -- U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, May 25, 2006 "What is your opinion about Operation Spreading Democracy?" by the Iraqi cartoonist Khudair Al-Humairi (See below "Freedom is not…") SECURITY INCIDENTS In Country: An Iraq Landmine Impact Survey Team Leader suffered second-degree burns from an explosion Sunday in northern Iraq. While traveling in a taxi, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) detonated nearby, severely injuring this team member and one of his medical colleagues. Two other unknown passengers in the taxi were killed by the blast. Baghdad: Gunmen wounded an Iraqi general Thursday in southeast Baghdad. Brig. Gen. Khalil al-Abadi, head of the Defense Ministry logistics office, was ambushed as he was driven to work in the Zafraniyah district. His driver was also wounded. A blast killed three people in central Baghdad, It occurred in a building on Tahrir Square, killing three and wounding 11. Police suspect the building housed a bomb-making factory. Four bodies were discovered in Baghdad. Three civilians were wounded when two bombs exploded on the central Tahrir Square, sending a thick white cloud drifting over the Tigris river. At least one of the explosions took place inside a building on Tahrir Square. On one of Baghdad's main throughways, Palestine Street, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol injured two police officers. Two Iraqi officers were hurt in a bomb attack in the Al-Jedidah area. Baqubah: Two bodies were found in Baquba. Two Iranian truck drivers were kidnapped in the Iraqi city of Baquba. The drivers were kidnapped in the Imam Veis region about 60 kilometers from Baquba, near the joint Iran-Iraq borders while carrying propane gas to Iraq. Abu Ghraib: U.S. forces killed three insurgents who were placing roadside bombs near Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Balad: U.S. forces handed over five decomposed bodies to the hospital in the town of Balad north of Baghdad, doctor Firas al-Timimi said. He did not say where they were found, who they were or how they had died. Tikrit: Dujail judge Walid Ahmed was traveling on a highway between Saddam's hometown of Tikrit and the city of Samarra when he was abducted from his car. Two bombs exploded inside a Sufi religious building on Wednesday killing two of its bodyguards in Tikrit. (near): U.S. forces and Iraqi police found three bodies with bullet gunshot wounds. Mosul: A member of the regional council of the northern Mosul province, and his driver were killed in drive-by shooting as they were heading to the Mosul administration building. Kirkuk: (near): Gunmen kidnapped the head of the Turkmen Front party in the town of Tuz Khurmato, and his son near Kirkuk when they were returning from Baghdad. The body of a nine-year-old girl was found in Al-Riyadh province in Kirkuk. Three men were injured as a result of a hand grenade explosion. Unidentified gunmen driving a light blue Opel Vectra with veiled plates shot an Iraqi civilian who works in a health center. The victim was transferred to hospital by police. A truck driver was fired at by unidentified gunmen while driving through Kirkuk-Tikrit highway. Iraqi military troops were searching Al-Riyadh province and arrested three suspects. Mishahda: Gunmen shot dead a tribal leader in Mishahda, a town 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad. >> NEWS Muslim Clerics Association accuses U.S. forces and Iraqi troops of killing 10 innocent civilians and detaining 40 others near the town of Yusufiya south of Baghdad. The U.S. military and the Iraqi army on Wednesday issued separate statements on clashes in the same area, saying they had killed three and four militants respectively. Top Marine general says he fears some Marines could become "indifferent to the loss of a human life." His office announced that he was enroute to Iraq to reinforce the Corps' standards of behavior in combat. "We do not employ force just for the sake of employing force. We use lethal force only when justified, proportional and, most importantly, lawful," Gen. Michael W. Hagee wrote in a statement issued by his office. His statement and the announcement of his trip to Iraq came just hours after the Marine command in Iraq disclosed a criminal investigation into allegations that an unspecified number of Marines killed an Iraqi civilian west of Baghdad on April 26. Iraqis made the charge during a meeting with Marine officers on May 1. "Many of our Marines have been involved in life or death combat or have witnessed the loss of their fellow Marines, and the effects of these events can be numbing," Hagee wrote. "There is the risk of becoming indifferent to the loss of a human life, as well as bringing dishonor upon ourselves." Former commander Guantanamo urged the use of dogs to the "maximum extent possible" to control detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, but did not order their use in interrogations, a witness said on Thursday. Bush, Blair unlikely to announce troop withdrawals after they meet to discuss “the way ahead in Iraq”, the White House said. "They're not going to race out and say, we're all coming home. You know, there aren't going to be people kissing in Times Square tomorrow. But I do think what you will have is a very forward-leaning set of discussions about how to proceed forward," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. >> REPORTS DHULUIYA “BESIEGED BY U.S. FORCES FROM ALL SIDES FOR FIVE DAYS NOW” Residents of an Iraqi town north of Baghdad on Thursday accused U.S. forces of blocking traffic for the past five days and complained they were running out of food and could not go to work. The U.S. military rejected charges that its forces were "besieging" Dhuluiya, a town of 40,000, saying an insurgent attack on an army checkpoint on the outskirts that killed five Iraqi soldiers had caused a "traffic disruption" in the area. "There is no 'siege'," said a spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Loomis, in an e-mail response to a question. U.S. and Iraqi soldiers were patrolling Dhuluiya, 90 km (55 miles) north of the capital, and checking traffic to prevent any new attacks, he said. (…) However, mayor Rashad Daham told Reuters that living conditions in the mainly Sunni Arab town were worsening and he and the police chief spoke of a town under "siege". The Iraqi Red Crescent society sent food aid. "The living situation is deteriorating because of the lack of food stuffs, employees and university students cannot go to work, even the ambulances are hindered by U.S. forces," Daham said. "We ask them to lift the siege of the town because it has nothing to do with these acts," he said of Sunday's violence. Dhuluiya police chief Mohammed Khalif Hussein said: "The town has been besieged by U.S. forces from all sides for five days now. read in full... MYSTERIOUS ATTACKS In a dispatch posted at 2:05pm Makkah time Tuesday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that a mysterious car bomb exploded in the Baghdad al-Jadidah district in the eastern part of the occupied Iraqi capital. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported eyewitnesses in Baghdad al-Jadidah as saying that an explosives-laden car that had been parked by the side of them ian road near the ad-Darwish Baking Ovens blew up damaging a number of shops and killing six local civilians and wounding seven more. In contrast to Iraqi Resistance attacks, which have clear and defined targets - occupation troops or armed forces, officials, or collaborators with the US-installed puppet regime - there have been numerous attacks in recent days apparently targeted exclusively on civilians. Such mysterious attacks are widely viewed as a part of an Anglo-American effort to rescue their failing fortunes in Iraq by sparking a sectarian civil war in the country enabling them to fulfill their plans of partitioning the country along ethnic and religious lines. link KHALILZAD ADMITS LOSS OF MUCH OF ANBAR PROVINCE TO RESISTANCE And in a stark admission of the security problems Iraq faces, three years after President Bush asserted that "major combat operations" in Iraq were complete, the American ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, acknowledged that American forces do not control regions of western Iraq. "I believe that parts of Anbar are under the control of terrorists and insurgents," Mr. Khalilzad said in an interview on CNN. Anbar Province stretches from Falluja, just west of Baghdad, all the way to the Syrian and Jordanian borders. link >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS MORE TRUTH SLIPS OUT The situation is quite complicated and made more complicated by the fact that even by U.S. statistics, of the approximately 700 attacks in the month of March, which is the last month I saw numbers for, about 650 attacks were directed at the U.S. military and 30 or so were directed either at the Iraqi police or military, and only 20 were directed at civilians. So you're talking about less than 10 percent of all the attacks are directed at anyone except the U.S. read in full… HOPE IS STILL THE PLAN Newsweek's Michael Hirsh is trying to figure out what the Bush administration is planning to do about Iraq. Best of luck to him. I gave up this game long ago, mainly because the administration doesn't even seem to have a plan, apart from muddling through and perpetually hoping that in six months time, things will get magically better. And that still seems to be the case:

So the very best that can be hoped for in Iraq, probably for many years to come, will be a non-bloodbath, a low-level civil war that doesn't get worse than the current cycle of insurgent killings and Shiite death-squad reprisals. This is bad, but it could be much worse. Containment, says one Army officer involved in training in Iraq, is at least "doable." He adds: "The only real question is: How do we keep Iraq from becoming a permissive environment for terrorists."

People will keep killing each other, sure, but at least it won't be some unspecified really large number of people killing each other. That's the plan. Although there still seem to be some technical problems:

The U.S. military is already gearing up for this outcome, but not for "victory" any longer. It is consolidating to several "superbases" in hopes that its continued presence will prevent Iraq from succumbing to full-flown civil war and turning into a failed state. Pentagon strategists admit they have not figured out how to move to superbases, as a way of reducing the pressure-and casualties-inflicted on the U.S. Army, while at the same time remaining embedded with Iraqi police and military units. It is a circle no one has squared.

Er, perhaps that's because it can't be done? It seems awfully hard for the military to stay out of the way and avoiding getting its soldiers killed and continue trying to influence events on the ground in Iraq. Pentagon strategists seem to agree. Really, no one seems to know what to do anymore. On the bright side, Ralph Peters says that this year more Americans will die in highway accidents than get killed in Iraq so I guess we can all clap our hands now.. read in full… WHEN THE DOUBTS SURFACE The poll [a recent Zogby poll showing that 72 percent of soldiers currently serving in Iraq believe the U.S. should get out within a year.] also showed a lot of confusion as to why we are in Iraq. Forty-five percent said they did not know why and over 80 percent of those who thought they knew why said it was because of Saddam's role in 9/11 and Saddam's work with Al Qaeda. Is that kind of misinformation and lack of understanding consistent with your research? No. The vets I interviewed knew that wasn't the case. I interviewed a medic who was still in Iraq, but the rest of my interviews were done with soldiers who had already returned home. But those who served in the beginning of the war believed at the time it was because of 9/11, weapons of mass destruction and Al-Qaeda, which is what many Americans believed. Some of the veterans I interviewed want to hold on to the idea that the war was a good thing for the Iraqis. You have to understand that for those who serve, who risked their lives and in some cases now suffer from PTSD, have lost limbs, or watch their friends being blown up, it's very hard for them to say all that they went through, all that they suffered, was because of a lie or misinformation. Many want to stay the course because to say it was mistake is too horrible a thought for them to bear. Those who serve in the military are trained to follow their leadership, if they doubt or ask too many questions it would be very difficult to maintain their focus on their mission. In war you can't sit around and have long talks with your comrades on what you think. That can get you killed. For most it's when they come home when the doubts surface. -- Yvonne Latty is the author of In Conflict: Iraq War Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss and the Fight to Stay Alive (2006) and We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans, from World War II to the War in Iraq (2004). read in full... THE PROBLEM ABOUT THE WITHDRAWAL The US and British armies in Iraq have both failed, though they could argue that the root of the failure is political rather than military. Three years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, they control extraordinarily little territory. Watching American forces in Baghdad since 2003, it always seemed to me that they floated above the Iraqi population like a film of oil on water. Shiite animosity toward the American and British forces is now beginning to look like that of the Sunni at the beginning of the guerrilla war. In Basra, crowds spontaneously dance and cheer when a British helicopter is shot down, just as the Sunni used to celebrate the destruction of every US Humvee in Baghdad (even then Tony Blair and George Bush claimed that the insurgents were just a small group of foreign fighters and Saddam loyalists). The problem about the withdrawal is that it may be coming too late. The White House and Downing Street never took on board the sheer unpopularity of the occupation and the extent to which it tainted the Iraqi government, soldiers and police in the eyes of ordinary Iraqis. The Iraqi Army and police are 230,000 strong, and this figure is due to rise to 320,000 men by the end of next year. But in reality the allegiance of these forces is to the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish communities, and not to the central government. The problem has always been loyalty rather than training. read in full... FREEDOM IS NOT... Freedom is not worth 200,000 lives, am sorry. Freedom is not worth having your brothers and sisters tortured and mutilated. Freedom is not about having tens of thousands of armed units - gangs - kidnapping and murdering people and working under government supervision. A government you brought to power. Freedom is not about having 60% unemployment and child nutrition far worse than pre-war levels. Freedom is not about a debilitated power grid or failing phone system. Freedom is not about Halliburton coming in and robbing both the Iraqi people and American taxpayers blind. Freedom is not about raising the flag of reconstruction and then stealing monies from Iraq's oil money. Freedom is not about standing idly by while the government is looted. Most of Iraq's advanced machinery is now in ... Iran. Freedom is not about detention without charge. 35,000 Iraqis are in detention. Their families dont know where they are. No charge. No court. Freedom is not about the massacres in Haditha. Freedom is not about the US humiliation of Abu Ghraib. There were no elections in Iraq. So dont ask me. Bark all you want about it. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ IRAN OFFERED 'TO MAKE PEACE WITH ISRAEL' Iran offered in 2003 to accept peace with Israel and cut off material assistance to Palestinian armed groups and to pressure them to halt terrorist attacks within Israel's 1967 borders, according to a secret Iranian proposal to the United States. The two-page proposal for a broad Iran-US agreement covering all the issues separating the two countries, a copy of which was obtained by Inter Press Service (IPS), was conveyed to the US in late April or early May 2003. (…) The two-page document contradicts the official line of the Bush administration that Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel and the sponsorship of terrorism in the region. (...) An Iranian threat to destroy Israel has been a major propaganda theme of the Bush administration for months. On March 10, President George W Bush said, "The Iranian president has stated his desire to destroy our ally, Israel. So when you start listening to what he has said to their desire to develop a nuclear weapon, then you begin to see an issue of grave national-security concern." But in 2003, Bush refused to allow any response to the Iranian offer to negotiate an agreement that would have accepted the existence of Israel. read in full... BATTLE SPREADS IN AFGHANISTAN The bulk of the fighting in Afghanistan in the past week, which has claimed more than 300 lives among the Taliban, US-led forces, the Afghan National Army (ANA) and civilians, has taken place in the southern Pashtun heartland of the country. However, the Taliban's spring offensive is fast turning into a massive resistance against the foreign presence all over Afghanistan, and already some influential characters are jockeying for a post-spring role. And the indications are that the resistance could transcend a simple Taliban-led insurgency to evolve into a powerful Islamic movement. read in full... POLL: OVER 70 MILLION AMERICANS DISTRUST OFFICIAL EXPLANATION OF 9-11 ATTACKS. 42% believe there has been some kind of coverup; 45% believe that Congress on an international tribunal should investigate the attacks again. An August, 2004 poll showed that nearly half of New Yorkers believed that U.S. officials consciously allowed the attacks to happen, and 2/3 of New Yorkers want a new investigation of the events. read in full… GOOD POINT You probably know lots of whiny college professors and snobby Hollywood elitists and gay-married Saddam-lovers claim President Bush was lying when he said this:

...any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so.

And it's true, this does look bad for the president...at first. But David Rosnick has written me to point out that when taken literally, everything Bush said was completely accurate. Read that again carefully. Did the president say the government was GETTING a court order for a wiretap? No he didn't. He merely said the government was TALKING ABOUT getting a court order. And that, my friends, is 100% true. My sources (i.e., David Rosnick) tell me this discussion happens constantly at the highest levels of government: NSA AGENT: Sir, should we get a court order for this wiretap? BUSH: No. link THE BEASTS WHO WOULD DESTROY US America has lost its way. We are a confused nation, beset on all sides by fear and paranoia. After the orchestrated 9-11 attack on New York City and Washington D.C., and its follow-up anthrax attack on Democratic legislators, Americans of all stripes rushed en masse to George Bush's Fools' Gate to trade their morality and compassion for empty promises of security. The consequences of that Faustian trade are unbelievable. In order to be safe we signed a pact with Decider Bush to condone any atrocity he could dream up so long as it happened in other lands to other men, other women, other children. He agreed, and further decided that no law conjured up by mere man applied to him, especially the U.S. Constitution, and demanded we sacrifice our freedoms as collateral for this evil pact. How easily we were fooled! Fat, indolent, and full of self-righteous pus, we were ripe for harvest. We are at the mercy of The Decider, who is manipulated from behind the scenes by unelected neo-Straussian thugs lusting for the matrix of a One World Order. They are joined by Christo-fascists soiling themselves at the thought of gaining dominion over the government apparatus and realizing their dream of stoning gays and liberals to death, and by rapacious corporations intent on ransacking the universe until it is stripped of all treasure and resources. Although their agendae differ, this greedy axis shares a single goal -- that of complete power and control -- an area where morality dies aborning. They also share one other critical attribute -- they are aggressively anti-American -- traitors contemptuous of representative democracy who will not rest until every last vestige of it is wiped from the face of the earth. The war they are waging is on us. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Terrorism is simply the violence that you don't like.” -- Phil Rees, BBC correspondent and author of Dining with Terrorists quoting Professor Rubinstein from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, May 24, 2006 I Am Iraq: In the last half of the preceding century, the great Iraqi poet, Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri, himself the son of a Shia cleric and born in the holy city of Najaf, could express his detachment from religious sectarianism and affirm his faith in an Iraqi nationalism: ana al-Iraqu, lisani qalbuhu, wa dami furatuhu, wa kiyani minhu ashtaru (I am Iraq, her heart is my tongue, my blood her Euphrates, my very being from her branches formed). It seems a very long time ago. Bring 'em on: A U.S. soldier was killed when his patrol was attacked by small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades south of the town of Balad on Tuesday, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: A drive-by shooting killed a college student riding a minibus and wounded three other passengers in Baghdad. The attackers then stopped the bus and kidnapped another college student, the officer said. In western Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car shot two brothers who were selling gasoline at the side of a street in the Iskan neighborhood. Many Iraqis buy gas that way to avoid waiting in long lines at petrol stations. Gunmen also dead a grocery store owner in his shop, a police officer heading to work and a taxi driver. In Baghdad, eight separate drive-by shootings killed nine people: a university professor, two taxi drivers, and a builder. Two roadside bombs wounded nine Iraqis, including two soldiers in Baghdad. The deputy chief of special protection forces in Baghdad municipality was shot dead while on his way to work by unknown militants. No other details on the incident were available. The bodies of eight people who apparently had been kidnapped and tortured by death squads also were found in Baghdad and another area. A bomb exploded near the Ministry of Culture causing the injury of three civilians and damaging a car. A bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad injuring three women, and a third one blew up near a shop close to Al-Shuhada square in Bakuba without causing any damage. Militants shot university professor Ahmad Hussain in Palestine road in Baghdad leading to his death. A bomb exploded close to a crowd of Iraqi workers gathered to seek day labouring jobs in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Wednesday, wounding a number of people. The blast in the Kadhimiya area, in the north of the capital, was the second such attack in the past few days that has targeted crowds of mainly Shi'ite men looking for work. Police said it did not appear as if the blast had caused any deaths. In Baghdad, 10 drive-by shootings killed 14 people. The victims included a member of Iraq's national tennis team and two of his friends. Taji: (Near): Gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi military highway checkpoint near the Taji U.S. military base north of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi soldier and wounding two. Dayera: In Dayera, a rural area about 35 miles south of Baghdad, police found seven bodies of Iraqis who had been shot in the head. Another body, also shot in the head, was found in the Iskan neighborhood of western Baghdad. Latifiya: A bomb explosion set fire to an oil pipeline in Latifiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad. The pipeline carries oil from a storage area to the Dora refinery in Baghdad, which often is bombed by insurgents. Kirkuk: In Kirkuk, a militant, was injured as he was trying to attack an Iraqi Army vehicle using a hand grenade. A source from the Iraqi Army told KUNA the militant threw the grenade at the vehicle but it bounced back at him after hitting the car and then exploded injuring him seriously. Militants riding a civilian car kidnapped an Iraqi civilian, a brother of a famous doctor, while Iraqi Army arrested a convict in Kirkuk city. Diyala Prv: A drive-by shooting killed a member in Diyala provincial council, and two of his bodyguards in their convoy in northern Iraq. Suwayra: (Near): Clashes between two rival tribes south of Baghdad have killed around 16 people. Eighteen people were wounded in Tuesday's fighting in a village close to the town of Suwayra, about 40 km south of the capital. One police source said the violence was linked to land disputes between the two feuding tribes. Another source said it may have been a clash between a Shi'ite and a Sunni tribe. Fallujah: A car bomb near a joint Iraqi/U.S. checkpoint in Falluja wounded four Iraqi policemen. Lake Thar Thar: A gunbattle between U.S. forces and insurgents killed four militants and detained two, one of whom was wounded, northwest of Baghdad near Lake Thar Thar, the U.S. command said Wednesday. It said one of the detained insurgents was Sudanese. Youssifiyah: (Near): In a separate operation Tuesday near Youssifiyah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Baghdad, U.S. forces searching for a wanted al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgent killed three members of the group who were riding in a vehicle equipped with grenades, small arms, a suicide bomb vest and foreign passports, the U.S. command said. >> NEWS Iraq's new VP says Blair assured him he and Bush would discuss timetable for withdrawing troops when the British prime minister flies to Washington on Thursday. Though Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi conceded that Blair did not agree to set a timetable, the Sunni politician told Reuters on Wednesday that the British leader agreed to consider a suggestion that would go some way to satisfying demands from Sunni insurgents that the occupiers set a firm date for leaving. (...) "Iraq is witnessing a new era," [Tareq al-]Hashemi said. "What is needed now is the U.S. administration should announce it is serious about withdrawal by setting a timetable." Iraqi kidnappers have freed a Lebanese man abducted two weeks ago . Carlos Michel Dakkash, 43, was scheduled to arrive in Lebanon later Wednesday after travelling through Jordan, the ministry said in a statement. Seven people arrested while protesting the delivery of military vehicles to the Port of Olympia for shipment to Iraq >> REPORTS U.S. riding roughshod over human rights by outsourcing key anti-terror work in Iraq to private contractors, who operate beyond Iraqi law and outside the military chain of command, Amnesty International said Tuesday. It called for tighter rules on the use of contractors in a statement released with its 2006 annual report detailing human rights violations in 150 countries around the world. The rights watchdog said contracting for military detention, security and intelligence operations had fueled violations. "We're concerned about the use of private contractors in Iraq because it creates a legal black hole of responsibility and accountability," Amnesty's Secretary-General Irene Khan told AP Television News. "These contractors are protected from being prosecuted under Iraqi law, but they're not part of the U.S. military command. So when they commit crimes, or when they abuse human rights, they're accountable to no one." >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS THERE WAS AN EXCUSE UP UNTIL NOW? The Iraqi government I keep hearing described bears little resemblance to the one that actually exists. Blair said it was "directly elected by the votes of millions of Iraqi people." A directly elected government would have taken office immediately after the elections, not after five months of haggling. Bush said today, "Although Iraq's new leaders come from many different ethnic and religious communities, they've made clear they will govern as Iraqis." Again, five months of haggling about which sects would get which ministries. Blair says that with this directly elected government, "There is now no excuse for people to carry on with terrorism and bloodshed." So he thought there was an excuse up until now? read in full... ESCAPING FROM THE IRAQI HELL Perhaps the most important reason behind the welcoming of this government by Mr Bush, is the exploitation by his regime and that of his British ally of the formation of the Iraqi government to escape from the Iraqi hell, as indicated by the emerging reports stating that majority of the invading forces will withdraw from Iraq within a year at most. In the past, Mr Bush had also used the same welcoming sentences and expressions to the previous Iraqi governments under his occupation of Iraq, which were also preceded by the Iraqi Governing Council, the illegitimate-child of the invasion-turned-occupation, all of which staffed by shady characters, some of which are known interlational criminals, who had supported the invasion and continue to promote the occupation. It is noted that Mr Bush did not remind us, on this allegedly historical day, that Iraq is in a better state that it ever was before, and that the world is safer than ever before after the occupation of Iraq, both of which are indeed the greatest failures of the American-Anglo invasion-turned-occupation of Iraq. On the contrary, Mr Bush has marked this allegedly historical day with predictions of further violence, death, killing, torture and terror. read in full... MEDIA MISCONCEPTIONS OF RAMADI CONTINUE Todd Pittman has been reporting from Ramadi for the AP over the last month or two. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that the falsities he's been writing lately are based more on misunderstanding than malice. (...) Mr. Pittman's account of the civilian toll appears to be diametrically opposed to everything I've heard from the residents of Ramadi:

When U.S. and Iraqi troops question civilians, insurgents follow in their footsteps to visit and sometimes kill the suspected informants. After U.S. troops use residential rooftop walls as observation posts, insurgents have been known to knock them down. Ramadi is dangerous not only for combatants, but for civilians caught in the crossfire. "It's getting worse. Safety is zero," Col. Hassan said. (…)

According to Qasem and others, many residences have been abandoned, because the families were killed or fled the increasing violence. Despite his own home being used as a sniper's nest by the Americans, while he was locked in a closet downstairs, he doesn't fear reprisals. He informed me that such things have happened before, and if the Americans decide they particularly prefer a certain home for this use, resistance members have contacted the family and asked them to leave, possibly providing them some support to find a new residence. Qasem and Sheikh Majeed both assured me that the resistance has rarely, if ever, targetted civilian buildings with residents inside. The same cannot be said for the US troops, who are so desperate to "win" that they seem to subscribe to an increasingly liberal interpretation of the Geneva conventions, setting up residence in civilian buildings, destroying civilian infrastructure, and allegedly guilty of negligence in the sniper deaths of several civilians. read in full... SOVEREIGNTY INDEED Today, Centcom announced that an Iraqi court sentenced to death one Iraqi "insurgent" and charged a few others with violating Coalition Provisional Authority Order 3. What? CPA Order 3? Wait a minute. Wasn't the CPA dissolved? Who is really running Iraq? Who is drafting the laws? The CPA or Iraqi officials? Hmmm ... sovereignty indeed. read in full... FRUSTRATIONS OF AN ANGRY IRAQI IN USA I'm in a very bad mood tonight. I just got home from a protest in Dearborn, Michigan, largest home to Arabs outside the Middle East. My throat is a bit sore, but not as sore as my spirits. I was one of six people who protested outside the Arab-American Museum this evening. You see, the museum, unwittingly of her crimes, I'd like to think, granted the Arab-American Institute venue to host Madeline Albright. The Clinton administration's Secretary of State was to speak about her new book "The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs." I was there with one other Arab, two other protesters were Caucasian, one was Jewish, and one cute baby whose delightful smile made the rainy weather easier to protest in. We stood at each of the museum's two entrances with our signs. "Madeline Albright, 500,000 kids' lives do matter," "The 'price' is not worth it," "Uncle Scum kills kids," "Remember the Nakba [the refugee flight of Palestinian Arabs during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, meaning "disaster" or "cataclysm"]". (...) On this night that I will never forget, I was excluded from an Arab museum although I'm an Arab, and I was excluded from a mosque although I'm a Muslim. This was so that I don't disrupt the otherwise harmonious visit of a child killer who was generously received at both places. Forget about the misjudgments of the event's organizers. Where was the Arab community of Dearborn? Why were there only two Arabs protesting her presence while the rest of us competed for photos with her? Does our obsession with survival in the United States of America so aggressively trump our concern for our people, our homelands, and our identities? Remember what happened the last time a war criminal visited a mosque? The entire Palestinian population rose up. The second intifada started in 2000 because a warmonger dared to set foot on Muslim holy property. How exactly is Madeline Albright any different from Ariel Sharon? If she's not, then are occupied peoples the only ones with a duty to resist? read in full... SEARCHING FOR A SCAPEGOAT FOR THE IRAQ WAR Q: In a Los Angeles Times op-ed, you said the revolt of the retired generals against Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld represented the beginning of a search for a scapegoat for the Iraq War. I wondered whether you also considered it a preemptive strike against the Bush administration's future Iran policy. Andrew Bacevich: The answer is yes. It's both really. Certainly, it's become incontrovertible that the Iraq War is not going to end happily. Even if we manage to extricate ourselves and some sort of stable Iraq emerges from the present chaos, arguing that the war lived up to the expectations of the Bush administration is going to be very difficult. My own sense is that the officer corps -- and this probably reflects my personal experience to a great degree -- is fixated on Vietnam and still believes the military was hung out to dry there. The officer corps came out of the Vietnam War determined never to repeat that experience and some officers are now angry to discover that the Army is once again stuck in a quagmire. So we are in the early stages of a long argument about who is to be blamed for the Iraq debacle. I think, to some degree, the revolt of the generals reflects an effort on the part of senior military officers to weigh in, to lay out the military's case. And the military's case is: We're not at fault. They are; and, more specifically, he is -- with Rumsfeld being the stand-in for [Vietnam-era Secretary of Defense] Robert McNamara. Having said that, with all the speculation about Bush administration interest in expanding the Global War on Terror to include Iran, I suspect the officer corps, already seeing the military badly overstretched, doesn't want to have any part of such a war. Going public with attacks on Rumsfeld is one way of trying to slow whatever momentum there is toward an Iran war. -- Andrew Bacevich is a former contributor to the Weekly Standard and the National Review and a former Bush Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He is the author of "American Empire" (2002) and "The New American Militarism, How Americans Are Seduced by War" (2006) read in full... WHY THIS PART FROM AZIZ'S TESTIMONY IN COURT, NOT TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH? From Tariq Aziz testimony in the court today [in Saddam's trial] a significant part, you cannot find any translation by western media. Deliberately not mentioned by the media because its touch a sensitive issue (the US), while everything else mentioned (Iraq's internal affairs) because it's not very interesting for westerners. On the accusation issue of razing the farms in the village of Dujail, Tarik Aziz said the following:

The American razed the trees on the both sides of the Airport road, farms around Fallujha and Ramadi why they are not in court for trial.

Link in Arabic here. Tariq Aziz is right. US military in some parts of Iraq changed the whole geography of the area, destroying farms, razing trees and building sand fences around cities and villages. link >> BEYOND IRAQ WHY NOT? In Ted Koppel's New York Times column, he isn't afraid to ask the tough questions: So, if there are personnel shortages in the military (and with units in their second and third rotations into Iraq and Afghanistan, there are), then what's wrong with having civilian contractors? Expense is a possible issue; but a resumption of the draft would be significantly more controversial... So, what about the inevitable next step - a defensive military force paid for directly by the corporations that would most benefit from its protection? If, for example, an insurrection in Nigeria threatens that nation's ability to export oil (and it does), why not have Chevron or Exxon Mobil underwrite the dispatch of a battalion or two of mercenaries? Really: why not have Chevron or Exxon Mobil underwrite the dispatch of a battalion or two of mercenaries? Seriously, what possible problems could arise? read in full... WAR PARTY FABRICATION FACTORY REVVING UP ITS MOTOR AGAIN The world was horrified to learn the other day, courtesy of Canada's National Post, that a law supposedly passed by the Iranian Parliament would require non-Muslims to wear special clothing identifying their religious affiliations: Zoroastrians were assigned blue, Christians red, and Jews - in a public relations faux pas so enormous as to defy belief - were to be fixed up with a yellow stripe. You know, like the yellow badges Jews in Nazi Germany were required to wear. There was only one problem with this "news" story - it wasn't true. According to Reuters:

"A copy of the bill obtained by Reuters contained no such references. Reuters correspondents who followed the dress code session in parliament as it was broadcast on state radio heard no discussion of proscriptions for religious minorities. "Senior parliamentarian Mohsen Yahyavi described the Canadian report as 'completely false.' 'The bill aims to support those designers that produce clothes that are more compatible with Islam, but there will be no ban on the wearing of other designs,' he told Reuters. "Iran's Jewish MP Moris Motamed also agreed the bill made no attempt to force special garments on the minorities. 'There is no single word in the bill about a special design or color for the religious minority groups,' he said. 'Our enemies seek to create tension among the religious minorities with such news and to exploit the situation to their benefit,' he added."

Iran has a Jewish member of Parliament? Who knew? This seems highly unusual, given the portrait painted by the warmongering media - of which the National Post is one - of an Iranian state that is the closest thing to the reincarnation of Hitler's Germany. But then again, perhaps the depiction of Iran as the new Fourth Reich has little, if anything, to do with reality - and is, instead, part of a campaign to gin up another war in the Middle East. read in full... IT'S COME TO THIS--WORLD LEADERS LAUGH IN OUR FACES I wrote on Saturday how Egypt's Hosni Mubarak opened the World Economic Forum on the Middle East by responding to State Department criticism of his respect for democracy. Basically he threw the criticism back in the Bush administration's faces for their unilateralism and sets of double standards. It didn't get any better when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick attended a panel on Sunday where he attempted to defend the administration's position on Iran's nuclear program:

Zoellick was forced to defend the American position on Iran several times, citing the hard-line Tehran leadership's denial of the Holocaust and its calls to destroy the Jewish state. During a panel Sunday with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister, talks devolved into interruptions and accusations. "What about Israel's nuclear program?" Moussa demanded at one point. "It does not have a declared program. I don't know for sure what it may or may not have," a visibly flustered Zoellick responded. Guffaws rippled through the audience.

Folks, there's a lot of positions one could take over Iran's nuclear ambitions, but leave it to this crew to pick the one that's so patently absurd that it gets laughed out of the room. link QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Had the Shia parties decided to give up their own struggles to resist the occupation, it would have been over long ago " -- Tariq Ali

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, May 23, 2006 Cartoon: "A Bloody Mess", by Steve Bell - (See below"Bush & Blair to try to escape Iraq quagmire") SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: A roadside bomb damaged one Humvee in a U.S. convoy in the Dora neighborhood. An Iraqi woman and a child were wounded in gunfire that followed. A car bomb exploded in New Baghdad, killing two police commandos and three civilians. The attack, which damaged nearby shops and cars, also wounded five commandos and three civilians. Gunmen killed a cigarette vendor in a drive-by shooting in the capital. Gunmen killed a professor at Baghdad's Technology University, in northeastern Baghdad. An industry ministry employee was shot dead in northeastern Baghdad. Three corpses were found in Baghdad: two floating in different spots on the Tigris River, and one of a 10-year-old boy from the neighborhood of Dura in the south, police said. The boy, who was kidnapped on Monday, had been tortured before being shot through the head. In west Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on three elderly men, one of whom was blind and another disabled, killing them all. In the city centre, a mortar round struck near the Green Zone, killing one person and wounding four. In Amiriyah on the capital's western outskirts, one person was killed and four wounded when a minibus hit a roadside bomb. A civilian was killed and four others wounded when a roadside bomb went off in western district of the capital. A car bomb caused an unknown number of casualties in the Sadr City district of east Baghdad on Tuesday. The bomb went off at a busy time late in the afternoon at a city square and traffic intersection. Gunmen in western Baghdad's Amriya neighborhood killed an employee working with Iraq's Facilities Protection Service. Baqubah: (near): A drive-by shooting killed three Iraqi day laborers and wounded four as they rode in a minibus to work at a farm near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Ain al- Tamur: Iraqi police found the bodies of four people, handcuffed, blindfolded and shot dead, in the town of Ain al- Tamur, about 90 km (55 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. Najaf: Four mortar rounds landed in different districts in Najaf wounding two people. Muqdadiya: Gunmen wounded three mechanics at a car repair shop in Muqdadiya, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Baquba. Balad Ruz: East of Baquba, in Balad Ruz, a bomb went off near the courthouse killing a 10-year-old boy and wounding two others. Mosul: Gunmen riding in a car shot and killed four ironsmiths and wounded one as they were riding in a pickup truck to work in Mosul. A former official of the Baath party was killed in a drive-by shooting in front of his house in Mosul. Kirkuk: A high school teacher was killed in a drive-by shooting on his way to work near Kirkuk. One person was wounded in two bombing attacks in the Kirkuk region. Local authorities located several bombs set to go off. In Kirkuk, a member of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party working for the city education department was gunned down as he drove away from his home. Huwaijah: Gunmen showered a car driven by an army soldier in Al-Huwaijah. He was taken to hospital where he succumbed to his serious injuries. Ramadi: Two civilians were killed and three others, including two children, wounded when clashes erupted between U.S. forces and insurgents in Ramadi. Three mortar rounds landed on a house in the city of Ramadi wounding three people from one family. BUSH, BLAIR TO TRY TO ESCAPE IRAQ QUAGMIRE

Bush to meet Blair in Washington on Thursday: White House spokesman Tony Snow said the meeting will cover a "full range" of strategic issues, including "supporting the new Iraqi government, preventing Iran from acquiring the means to build nuclear weapons, bringing peace to the Middle East, ending the violence in Darfur and promoting free trade." (…) Snow added in an informal briefing with reporters Tuesday that while the leaders' agenda would be filled several pressing issues, recent events in Iraq would "top the agenda." "Obviously, he's going to talk about his conversations with (Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki) ... on what's going on in Iraq," the spokesman said. (…) Meanwhile, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Tuesday that Blair and Bush will discuss plans for an accelerated exit of troops from Iraq beginning in July and will seek the assistance of other governments to help with that ambitious timetable. A CRUCIAL ILLUSION At the end of this month Tony Blair flies to Washington to discuss with George W Bush how to escape. What was to be a neocon beacon of democratic stability has become a hell-hole of anarchy. Iraq is no longer just a mistake: it is the outcome of an intellectual and moral catastrophe from which the image of western democracy will take a generation to recover. Bush and Blair have been shielded from this truth by years of sycophantic briefing, but they cannot be shielded from opinion polls. The war is overwhelmingly unpopular on both sides of the Atlantic. Since both leaders are planning their departures, they are frantic to have the incubus removed from their shoulders. Iraq policy is a matter of dates. (…) A crucial illusion of American and British policy is that the occupation is somehow maintaining the integrity of the state and its government. It is not. It is undermining both. In truth there is no state and coalition troops are merely squatting in camps dotted across the landscape, emerging occasionally to kill or get killed. read in full… BUSH AND COMPANY IN THE INDIAN MONKEY TRAP The more we read news reports of continuing butchery in Iraq and Afghanistan, the more we get disappointed. Most of us — from dictators, such as General Musharraf, at the top to the common man in the United States and the Muslim world, have come to believe that there is no option but to submit to the will of Bush and company. The situation, however, is not that simple. I have a simple theory of Bush and company’s dilemma and the dichotomy. There is a device known as south Indian monkey trap. It is a coconut shell, tethered to a pole and with a hole in the centre. A small fruit or nut is put in it. Monkey will put its hand through the hole, grab hold of the fruit or nut. The hole is small enough that the monkey cannot take its hand out with the closed fist. The monkey is trapped, simply because it is not smart enough to release the nut so that it can escape, usually from certain death. Letting go the fruit can save their life. Usually monkeys don’t. Bush’s insistence to “stay the course” and the unrepentant Blair’s determination that he would "do it all again" shows that they won’t let the fruit go and are destined to pay the price in the near future. There are great advantages to changing the mind set than facing forced amputation or certain death. The signs are all around us that show that time for Bush, Blair and company to pay the price is fast approaching. read in full…

>> NEWS Yet another Zarqawi lieutenant/aide/deputy/associate captured: A suspected member of Al-Qaeda group in Iraq confessed on Jordanian television Tuesday to murdering last year a Jordanian driver in Iraq and abducting two Moroccan embassy employees. The Jordanian authorities announced Karbuli's arrest on Monday and identified the suspect as "an important figure in the Al-Qaeda in Iraq organisation led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi". >>REPORTS Video: Former U.S. Navy Senior Council Says Bush Administration Open To War Crime Charges Albert Moro in his first broadcast interview (BBC Newsnight 05/22/06) Acts of violence have killed nearly 2 500 people and forced more than 85 000 to flee their homes in Iraq, the United Nations assistance mission in Iraq said on Tuesday in a March-April report on the human rights situation. The fatality count was comprised of death certificates issued by the Baghdad morgue, the report said. SUNNI GROUP FORCES BOYCOTT OF IRANIAN GOODS Shopkeepers in the town of Hawije have pulled Iranian imports from their shelves after a militant group threatened to kill traders and burn down stores shops that failed to comply with a boycott. The threat came from a previously unknown group called the High Command for the Mujahidin, and was reportedly issued in several majority Sunni Arab cities in central Iraq, including Baqubah, Tikrit, Samarra and Fallujah. The group posted leaflets on the walls of mosques telling shopkeepers to boycott Iranian products from May 1 or suffer violent consequences. The group accused Iran of fuelling sectarian conflict in Iraq and of supporting the US interventions in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It also said Iran was exporting products that were past their sell-by date. read in full... >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS WHICH IS THE REAL IRAQ? Blair's view: 'We have a government of national unity that crosses all boundaries. Iraqi people are able to write the next chapter of their history themselves' - Tony Blair on a visit to Iraq yesterday Another view: Two car bombs explode in Baghdad, killing nine. At least 23 more die in attacks elsewhere, bringing the death toll in May to 848 as sectarian violence spreads. A frustrating aspect of writing about Iraq since the invasion is that the worse the situation becomes, the easier it is for Tony Blair or George Bush to pretend it is improving. That is because as Baghdad and Iraq, aside from the three Kurdish provinces, become the stalking ground for death squads and assassins, it is impossible to report the collapse of security without being killed doing so. read in full... GEORGE LEARNS A NEW WORD From the Associated Press today:

More than three years after the Iraq invasion, President Bush acknowledged to war-weary Americans Monday that the situation is improving only gradually and urged patience with "more days of challenge and loss." "Our progress is incremental," Bush said during a freewheeling question-and-answer session with restaurant industry representatives after a speech on Iraq and the war on terror. "Freedom is moving, but it's in incremental steps and the enemy's progress is almost instant on their TV screens." (…) Yet, with the new government facing security challenges and a host of other problems and the U.S. public increasingly disapproving of his leadership of the war, Bush repeatedly returned to the word "incremental" to describe progress there. (…)

That's impressive -- he's up to four syllables now! Unfortunately, it takes so much concentration for him to spit out words of that length, he sometimes loses track of their meaning. In this case, I think he meant to say that our progress in Iraq is "negligible" or "microscopic," or perhaps "nonexistent." Or maybe just "irrelevant" ... read in full… "IT'S OUT OF CONTROL" Whole neighborhoods are lawless, too dangerous for police. Some roads are so bomb-laden that U.S. troops won't use them. Guerrillas attack U.S. troops nearly every time they venture out - and hit their bases with gunfire, rockets or mortars when they don't. Though not powerful enough to overrun U.S. positions, insurgents here in the heart of the Sunni Muslim triangle have fought undermanned U.S. and Iraqi forces to a virtual stalemate. "It's out of control," says Army Sgt. 1st Class Britt Ruble, behind the sandbags of an observation post in the capital of Anbar province. "We don't have control of this ... we just don't have enough boots on the ground." read in full… IRAQ DOCTOR BRINGS EVIDENCE OF US NAPALM AT FALLUJAH Evidence to support controversial claims that napalm has been used by US forces in Iraq has been brought to Australia by an Iraqi doctor. Dr Salam Ismael, of the Baghdad-based group Doctors for Iraq, said the evidence pointed to the use of napalm on civilians during the second siege of Fallujah in November 2004. It is contained in film and photographs that doctors took of bodies they collected when they were finally allowed to enter the city after being barred for three days of the military operation. "We said that napalm had been used, because napalm is a bomb which is a fuel bomb that burns only on the exposed part of the body, so that the clothes will not be affected," Dr Ismael said from Perth at the start of a speaking tour. Doctors For Iraq, an independent group founded in 2003, is calling for an international investigation that would allow the bodies to be exhumed for autopsies "because we want to know the truth of what happened". read in full... STATE DEPARTMENT MEMO: "16 WORDS" WERE FALSE Sixteen days before President Bush’s January 28, 2003, State of the Union address in which he said that the US learned from British intelligence that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium from Africa - an explosive claim that helped pave the way to war - the State Department told the CIA that the intelligence the uranium claims were based upon were forgeries, according to a newly declassified State Department memo. The revelation of the warning from the closely guarded State Department memo is the first piece of hard evidence and the strongest to date that the Bush administration manipulated and ignored intelligence information in their zeal to win public support for invading Iraq. The memo says: "On January 12, 2003," the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) "expressed concerns to the CIA that the documents pertaining to the Iraq-Niger deal were forgeries." read in full… >> BEYOND IRAQ IRAN DEPLOYS ITS WAR MACHINE Accordingly, Iran has been quietly restructuring its military, while carrying out a series of military exercises testing its new military dogma. In December, more than 15,000 members of the regular armed forces participated in war games in northwestern Iran's strategically sensitive East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan border provinces that focused on irregular warfare carried out by highly mobile and speedy army units. In another telling development, a second exercise was launched in the majority-Arab province of Khuzestan, reportedly aimed at quelling insurgencies in areas subject to ethnic unrest and prone to foreign influence. Involving 100,000 troops, the exercise provided a taste of how the Islamic Republic would respond to further disturbances in the strategic, oil-rich province. The exercise came on the heels of news that the irregular Basij forces that led Iran's offensives against Iraq were being bolstered by so-called Ashura battalions with riot-control training. It is all part of a fundamental transition that Iran's Revolutionary Guard (RG) is undergoing as it moves away from focusing on waging its defense of the country on the borders - unrealistic in view of the vast territory that requires securing and the gulf separating Iranian and US military capabilities - and toward drawing the enemy into the heartland and defeating it with asymmetrical tactics. (…) Foreign diplomats who monitor Iran's army make it clear that Iran's leadership has acknowledged it stands little chance of defeating the US Army with conventional military doctrine. The shift in focus to guerrilla warfare against an occupying army in the aftermath of a successful invasion mirrors developments in Iraq, where a triumphant US campaign has been followed by three years of slow hemorrhaging at the hands of insurgents. (…) "The US is being completely ridiculous. While it wishes to police the region, it is dealing with a country that is significantly more powerful than Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Vietnam, and every other country bar Germany that it has ever fought," said Abdurrahman Shayyal. read in full… THE IMPERIAL NUCLEAR ORDER There is a certain logic to the possible American use of nuclear weapons against Iran. As we have pointed out time and again, Iran is the real prize in the current war on West Asia. With countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan in the American pocket, with Syria greatly weakened, and with Afghanistan and Iraq vanquished, Iran is the only remaining obstacle in the way of unchallenged and unchallengeable U.S.-Israeli hegemony in the region. As the U.S. sinks into a quagmire in Iraq while Iran gains much influence there, a powerful body of opinion in and around the White House now exists that a direct assault on Iran and consequent weakening of it is essential if the U.S. is to stabilise its position even in Iraq. The great pressure from Israel for the U.S. to act - and act quickly as well as decisively - is of course there. More recently, a formidable combination of Arab/Sunni client regimes, from Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Egypt and Algeria, has arisen to warn the U.S. that it (and they), face the gruesome prospect of what the Jordanian king calls "the rise of a Shia crescent" led by Iran and comprised of its allies in Iraq as well as the restive, pro-Iranian Shia populations in Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, the eastern provinces of Saudi Arabia and elsehwere; bombing Iran back to Stone Age is the only solution. But why nuclear weapons? Why not "Shock and Awe" of the sort we witnessed in the case of Iraq, just on a much grander scale? The objective that governs the policy decisions regarding use of the so-called "tactical" nuclear weapons against Iran shall be essentially the same as in the case of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs: obtaining a quick surrender by a still powerful enemy which would now be facing savage, overwhelming, unanswerable power. The U.S. knows that at the end of an eight-year war that took a million lives, Iran eventually sued for peace only when Saddam Hussein started spraying the Irani ground forces with chemical and biological weapons from the air, indiscriminately, for which Iran had no answer. This past experience provides a further impetus for nuclear escalation, all the way. The immediate argument being trotted out (with or without evidence, even against a great deal of evidence) by the weaponeers is (a) that Iran has nuclear facilities buried so deep that the most powerful of the conventional bombs cannot penetrate and (b) that the modern-day, new-generation mini-nukes are "safe for the civilian population". This conception of a "safe-for-civilian nuke" is actually no more credible today than the claim President Harry Truman made about the safety of nuclear bombs when he was about to use them in Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

"We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark.... This weapon is to be used against Japan.... [We] will use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new. ... The target will be a purely military one."

read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Why even discuss the so-called 'Iraqi government'? No such thing exists outside the realm of propaganda. To write about this or that Green Zone politician, or even to criticize the impotence, ineptitude and corruption of this group of puppets, is to promote the narrative of the puppetmasters. If people are talking and writing about an Iraqi government, then there must be one, and if there is one (especially a weak, pathetic one), then there is a purpose for the continuing occupation other than murder, destruction, pillage and plunder.” -- comment posted by John C. at Just World News, May 21, 2006 10:17 PM

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR MONDAY, May 22, 2006 Photo: Iraqis standing on a bridge look down as one of them pours petrol onto a burning British military vehicle after an attack which wounded two British soldiers in Basra, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani) Bring 'em on: A U.S. Marine was killed in action in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province, the U.S. Command said Monday. Bring 'em on: Three female UK soldiers were injured when the small British camp in Maysan was pounded by 42 mortars and rockets in the most violent and concerted attack yet.

British forces have endured 41 separate attacks and the deaths of seven colleagues in just over a fortnight.

OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Body of a police captain who had been shot in the head found in the Aziziya area, south of Baghdad. Nine unidentified bodies found in various locations around the capital in the past 24 hours. All the victims had been shot in the head and the bodies showed signs of torture. A car bomb exploded near a road in northern Baghdad around noon causing no casualties. A car bomb went off in a crowded street in southeastern Baghdad, killing six civilians and wounding three. A car bomb went off near a market and health clinic in the capital's New Baghdad district killing three people and wounding 12. Gunmen killed a former Brigadier General in western Baghdad. Two of his relatives were also killed. Roadside bomb missed a police patrol in eastern Baghdad Baladiyat's neighborhood, wounding two civilians. A department head in the youth and sports ministry was shot dead by armed men while on his way to work in south Baghdad. An unnamed education ministry official was killed in the southwest of the capital. Ten civilians were killed in the central Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Keradah when a roadside bomb, apparently targeting a passing US patrol, detonated. No further details were available. Baqubah: In Baquba five civilians and a police officer were reported killed in separate attacks. Moqtadiyah: Three people were kidnapped in Moqtadiyah. Mahmudiya: Unidentified “insurgents” killed three Iraqi civilians and wounded another four after firing mortar rounds which missed their target and hit a house instead. The attack took place at Mahmudiya, 35 kilometres south of Baghdad. Muqdadiya: Two men were killed by gunmen in a shop in Muqdadiya, 90 km northeast of Baghdad. Samarra: Gunmen killed a police colonel in Samarra, north of Baghdad. Musayyib: Four Iraqi police were killed when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Musayyib, about 70 km south of Baghdad. Balad: Two Iraqi army soldiers, who were guarding an oil pipeline, were shot dead by armed men in two vehicles near the town of Balad. Five bodies were taken to hospital in Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, after clashes with insurgents that erupted in the nearby town of Dhuluiya. Jbela: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed three people and wounded six in the town of Jbela, 65 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad. Basra: Mortar attack on the Basra airport base. Hawija: One policeman died in hospital after gunmen shot at him in central Hawija, 70 km southwest of Kirkuk. Kirkuk: University student arrested by the Iraqi police in Kirkuk, "for carrying out terrorist operations in the city". Attacks on oil infrastructure: (updated) May 7 - attack on an oil pipeline near Mussayab. May 10 - attack on an oil pipeline pipeline carrying oil from Daura refinery to Mussayab power station. May 15 - attack on pipeline in the Daura refinery. >> NEWS Blair visits Green Zone to meet new puppet Iraq PM Guards grabbed Saddam Hussein's only female defense attorney and pulled her from the courtroom Monday, and the chief judge shouted down the deposed Iraqi leader — a raucous start to a new session of his trial. Man detained for attempting to poison Iraqi brigadier general French government denies paying USD 25 million in ransoms for the release of three journalists taken hostage in Iraq between 2004 and 2005. >> REPORTS Blair and Bush will announce they are to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq at a summit in Washington as early as this week, RAW STORY has learned. The process has already been carefully choreographed in an attempt to bolster the popularity of both Bush and Blair who have suffered domestically for their handling of the war. The scope of the phased withdrawal, which will see the 133,000 US force levels cut to around 100,000 by the end of the year and British numbers almost halved, has already been agreed, one senior defence source said. Number of U.S. soldiers who took their own lives increased last year to the highest total since 1993, despite a growing effort by the Army to detect problems and prevent suicides. MORE ABOUT HOME OCCUPATION IN RAMADI During the time of our being in the dark hot room, we heard sound of single shots, the sounds coming from above the house-seems like on the roof. I asked the Iraqi soldiers about these sounds of shooting. They told me that there is some American snipers staying on the roof of my house. Oh my! They used my house as a snipers base, to kill the people. This is what happened many times for the last year. They will shoot all the people who are leaving their house in the early morning, yes they will. We kept silenct and some of us tried to sleep but nobody can-it is too hot and became wet, in addition to difficulty breathing. Maybe because the air cant be recycled, the room is completely closed, the window and door. I felt hungry and thirsty...oh it is not fair...hungry and thirsty inside my own house... And I felt bad because my house will be a killing tool, it is very criminal for me... read in full... IRAQ: THE CONTINUOUS WAR a film by Ashwin Raman This German documentary details the work that American troops are actively involved in Iraq as a reporter embedded with them. It details there views and opinions as to the why the war is being waged and how the war is being fought on the ground. See the video… >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS STOP THE GENOCIDE AND ABUSE BY THE BADER BRIGADE We, the undersigned, petition the United Nations, its Security Council, Heads of States, and all International Organizations to declare that the Genocide and abuse of the Iraqi people (Sunni and some of Shia) and in particular the Arab Sunnis, by the Bader Brigade Militia and the Iraqi Minister of Interior (Beyan Jaber Soulak ( and the chief of Bader Militia (Hadi Al Ameri) and his team firmly constitutes a Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and we demand that proper legal action be taken against the perpetrators of these crimes. Furthermore, we insist that these crimes which have reached the terrifying extent of randomly executing around a hundred of innocent Iraqi Sunni Arab civilians each day after being arrested by the forces of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior at their homes or during while praying at their Mosques only to discover their bodies a few days later dead with marks of widespread torture and bullets in their heads. Integrating Bader Militia in army and police forces, gave it legalization to carry it's terrorist act against Iraqi people without any obstacle. Bader Militia involved in assassinating Iraqi academics, Iraqi Doctors, Iraqi writers, Religion men, Iraqi Artist, Iraqi Pilots and officers who did there duty as officers in Army during Iraqi-Iran war, as Bader Militia sectarian organization with a link to the Iranian Intelligent organization. Also it involved in the operations of eviction of Sunni and Shia Muslims from there homes, in order to initiate the civil war and divided Iraq. -- The International Islamic Human Right Association in Iraq (IHRAS) read in full... THE "DEAL GOVERNMENT" FIASCO AND IRAQ'S FUTURE Much more interesting, and telling, however, is the fact that all these "patriots" were quarreling on three main ministries: Oil, Defense, and (especially) Interior. No one fought for the ministry of health, education, transportation, or electricity....etc, those ministries which are in shambles and which are badly needed by the Iraqis, but not seen as important enough for the contesters. This does not mean that the three most wanted ministries above are in a better condition, on the contrary, they are eaten up by corruption and mismanagement according to high officials in the government them selves*, but these are the "sovereignty" posts. It is widely understood by the Iraqi politicians now, that those who "own" the interior ministry, for example, own Iraq and its future. The Shiite United Coalition leader, Al- Hakeem, built his center-south federal region project on a fallacy that the (Shiite Iraq) extends from Samarra (north center) to Faw port on the Gulf. Large parts of Baghdad, Anbar, and Diyala are supposed to be parts of the "Shiite Iraq". This "theory" explains the brutal sectarian cleansing in the Baghdad suburbs in all geographical directions. It also sheds good light on the Samarra explosions enigma which ignited the sectarian riot. It is very important for the Shiite to keep the Interior Ministry now to "finish" the job of liberating the Shiite areas from the Sunni occupation with the help of the Americans. (…) What makes all this fiasco looks even worse, whether Maliky succeeded in making this deal government work or not, is that the Iraqi government, whatever it is, actually has no authority at all, less of control on any thing: security, resources, corruption, armed militias, death squads, the occupation atrocities, the Turkish and Iranian military threats, and the promised constitution revision, not to mention any thing about the country that collapsed, in all the senses of the word. The failure the new prime minister has shown so far, the huge problems of just putting a government together, and the conflicts of interests and loyalties, do not light up any corner in the dark tunnel this nation is going through, as far as the occupation is there. read in full... FUBAR IN IRAQ Today's New York Times story about the Bush administration's Keystone Kops approach to training police in Iraq might as well be an encyclopedia entry for "FUBAR." Three different groups wrote plans that nobody on the ground ever heard of; the number of trainers was laughably minuscule to start with and got even more laughable over time; and nobody really seemed to care much because they didn't figure we'd be staying around for long anyway. It's the usual story with this gang. You have to read the whole thing to really get a sense of what was going on, but in the meantime here's a small aside. According to Jay Garner, a plan to dispatch 6,000 police officers to Iraq was opposed by Frank Miller, a former NSC official who coordinated the American effort to govern Iraq. Is that true?

Mr. Miller, who left the government last year, confirmed his opposition. He said the assessment by the C.I.A. led administration officials to believe that Iraq's police were capable of maintaining order. Douglas J. Feith, then the Defense Department's under secretary for policy, said in an interview that the C.I.A.'s prewar assessment deemed Iraq's police professional, an appraisal that events proved "fundamentally wrong." But Paul Gimigliano, a spokesman for the C.I.A., said the agency's assessment warned otherwise. "We had no reliable information on individual officers or police units," he said. The "C.I.A.'s written assessment did not judge that the Iraqi police could keep order after the war. In fact, the assessment talked in terms of creating a new force." A copy of the document, which is classified, could not be obtained.

If Doug Feith says it, it's a pretty good bet that exactly the opposite is the case. Still, why is this report classified? Surely this would be one of those cases that Scott McClellan told us about in which declassification would be in the public interest? Right? read in full… SPENDING OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY TO FINANCE A WAR What's happened to the rebuilding of Iraqi society, and real governance based on transparency and accountability? In the few weeks before Bremer left Iraq, the CPA handed out more than $3 billion in new contracts to be paid for with Iraqi funds and managed by the US embassy in Baghdad. The CPA inspector general, now called the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, has just released an audit report on the way the embassy has dealt with that responsibility. The auditors reviewed the files of 225 contracts totalling $327 million to see if the embassy 'could identify the current value of paid and unpaid contract obligations'. It couldn't. 'Our review showed that financial records . . . understated payments made by $108,255,875' and 'overstated unpaid obligations by $119,361,286'. The auditors also reviewed the paperwork for a further 300 contracts worth $332.9 million. 'For 198 of 300 contracts, documentation was not available . . . to indicate that contract execution was monitored for performance and payment . . . Files did not contain evidence that goods and services had been received for 154 contracts, that invoices had been submitted for 169 contracts, or that payments had been made for 144 contracts.' Clearly the Americans see no need to account for spending the Iraqis' national income now any more than they did when Bremer was in charge. Neither the embassy chief of mission nor the US military commander replied to the auditors' invitation to comment. Instead, the US army contracting commander lamely pointed out that 'the peaceful conditions envisioned in the early planning continue to elude the reconstruction efforts.' This is a remarkable understatement. It's also an admission that Americans can't be expected to do their sums when they are spending other people's money to finance a war. read in full... THE IMF IN IRAQ: THE SECOND INVASION Last December the US-backed Iraqi government agreed to a $685 million loan from the International Monetary Fund, and effectively sold their country down the river called economic slavery-the master being the Free Market Economy. They will have a lot of company. Many of the world's so-called third world and developing nations are already on that river, barely afloat. Most of Latin America has been under the thumb of the IMF's brutal austerity programs for decades, though certain countries, most notably Venezuela and Bolivia, who are nationalizing their resources, are testament to the pervasive undercurrent of socialist ideals. For Iraq though, the journey has just begun. That $685 million loan came with a heavy price tag: end oil subsidies and open Iraq's economy to the free market. In other words, dismantle any form of socialised society and make it a commodity. Just days after Iraq's constitutional election gave oil companies their first taste of Iraqi crude by requiring all unexplored fields be open to the highest bidder, Prime Minister Al-Jaafari implemented the first of the IMF policies, cutting fuel subsidies. Nearly overnight fuel prices rose nine-fold. Now, five months later, a canister of gas costs about $14 USD in a country where the average monthly income is maybe $200 USD. (…) Now, even though the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs reported in January that poverty among Iraqis had risen by 30 per cent since the US-led invasion, the government is bravely marching toward the free market. At the end of March, the Ministry of Trade, largely responsible for food distribution, announced that it would cancel several items from the long-instituted food ration program. According to figures from the trade ministry itself, nearly 26.5 (or 96 per cent) of Iraq's 28 million people are dependent on the monthly ration. During Saddam Hussein's reign, 12 items were included in the rations. That's now been cut to four essential items, including sugar, rice, flour and cooking oil. The ministry is expecting to cut rations altogether, perhaps by the end of the year, according to the Ra'ad Hamza, a senior trade ministry official. "If you keep Iraq under socialist laws, the economy won't improve," he said to the Integrated Regional Information Networks. "But we'll continue to provide the population with essential items at least until the end of the current year," (…) With half of Iraq's population under the age of 18, it will be the children who bear the brunt of these tried and failed IMF policies. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ WE ARE NOT A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS We are not a nation of immigrants. We might have been. We nearly exterminated the entire population of indigenous peoples but in the end we failed. The natives are still here despite our determined drive to genocide. The tribes are still identifiable despite our determined campaign to scatter and destroy their languages, cultures and religious beliefs. We are not a nation of immigrants; we are a nation of conquerors. We are a nation that seizes by force what we desire. We are a nation that has never been content to share our discovered treasures. We did not steal the land from Mexico; we stole the land from the Apache, Lakota, Iroquois, Cherokee, Nez Perce, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Seminole, Blackfoot, Ute, Paiute and countless other tribes that still exist. We joined Mexico is stealing the land from those who did not wish to possess it but merely to live on it in harmony. We are not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of natives and ungrateful visitors. read in full… AFGHANS' URANIUM LEVELS SPARK ALERT A small sample of Afghan civilians have shown "astonishing" levels of uranium in their urine, an independent scientist says. But he found no trace of the depleted uranium (DU) some scientists believe is implicated in Gulf War syndrome. Other researchers suggest new types of radioactive weapons may have been used in Afghanistan. The scientist is Dr Asaf Durakovic, of the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC), based in Canada. Dr Durakovic, a former US army adviser who is now a professor of medicine, said in 2000 he had found "significant" DU levels in two-thirds of the 17 Gulf veterans he had tested. In May 2002, he sent a team to Afghanistan to interview and examine civilians there. (…) It says Nangarhar province was a strategic target zone during the Afghan conflict for the deployment of a new generation of deep-penetrating "cave-busting" and seismic shock warheads. The UMRC says its team identified several hundred people suffering from illnesses and conditions similar to those of Gulf veterans, probably because they had inhaled uranium dust. To test its hypothesis that some form of uranium weapon had been used, the UMRC sent urine specimens from 17 Afghans for analysis at an independent UK laboratory. It says: "Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium internal contamination. "The results were astounding: the donors presented concentrations of toxic and radioactive uranium isotopes between 100 and 400 times greater than in the Gulf veterans tested in 1999. "If UMRC's Nangarhar findings are corroborated in other communities across Afghanistan, the country faces a severe public health disaster... Every subsequent generation is at risk." It says troops who fought in Afghanistan and the staff of aid agencies based in Afghanistan are also at risk. (…) Dr Durakovic said he was "stunned" by the results he had found, which are to be published shortly in several scientific journals. He told BBC News Online: "In Afghanistan there were no oil fires, no pesticides, nobody had been vaccinated - all explanations suggested for the Gulf veterans' condition. "But people had exactly the same symptoms. I'm certainly not saying Afghanistan was a vast experiment with new uranium weapons. But use your common sense." read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Media coverage of the Iraq War has generally portrayed the current quagmire as the result of an American failure to achieve a set of otherwise admirable goals.... This rather comfortable portrait of the U.S. as a bumbling, even thoroughly incompetent giant overwhelmed by unexpected forces tearing Iraqi society apart is strikingly inaccurate.... The engine of deconstruction was—and remains—the U.S.-led occupation." -- Tom Engelhard

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SUNDAY, MAY 21, 2006 Members of the new Iraqi government, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (3rd L) attend a national assembly meeting in Baghdad. (AFP Photo) Passers-by walk down the street past a pool of blood left when a roadside bomb missed its target - a police patrol - but wounded five civilians in the mostly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Saidiyah in Baghdad, Iraq Sunday, May 21. (AP Photo) Note: I've adopted Zig's format of posting links to the full story after the excerpt, for the sake of consistency. As always, constructive suggestions on presentation are welcome in the comments. SECURITY INCIDENTS A suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and injured 17 when he blew himself up Sunday in a downtown Baghdad restaurant frequented by police. Bomb targeting police patrol in eastern Baghdad kills three civilians. Bomb explosion in market southeast of Baghdad injures 15 Additional incidents from Reuters BAGHDAD - Five people were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in Baghdad's southwestern Bayaa district, police said. BAGHDAD - Two people were killed and six wounded when a car bomb exploded in the northwestern Shula district of the capital, police said. NAJAF - Police found the bodies of two beheaded women in the Shi'ite city of Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. Separately, Najaf hospital received the body of an engineer who had been shot dead, hospital sources said. FALLUJA - Police found the body of a policeman on Saturday near Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad, police said. He was kidnapped hours earlier. Police arrested five suspects in the killing in a raid on Sunday, police added. AFP also reports two oil pipeline guards shot dead in Tikrit; City Council employee shot dead in Al-Madain, south of Baghdad. AP also reports gunmen kill a grocer in Shiite neighborhood of Ubaidi; and three attacks in Dora: Mortar rounds hit two separate houses, killing a 4-year-old girl and wounding her mother in one dwelling, and injuring a man and his son in the other, police said. A roadside bomb narrowly missed a U.S. convoy but wounded three civilians. Note: Every wire service dispatch and newspaper story gives a selection of incidents, but leaves the impression that it is a complete inventory. And of course, many if not most incidents never get reported at all. This means that readers get the impression that the level of violence is lower than it really is. We do our best to round up information from as many sources as we can, but the information you read here is far from complete. POLITICAL NEWS OF THE DAY I'm going to provide a range of perspectives on the new government. As usual, the opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Today in Iraq, its editors, or your Aunt Fannie. New Iraq Cabinet takes office, pledging to stop terrorism

By Megan K. Stack and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times | May 21, 2006 BAGHDAD -- Iraq's battling communities came together yesterday to approve their first full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein, placing a nation fractured from three years of war into the hands of a diverse but weak Cabinet. In a stuffy chamber tucked deep inside rings of blast walls, barbed wire, and bomb-sniffing dogs, parliament voted in favor of a 35-member Cabinet cobbled together by new Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. In the heart of the Green Zone, far from the reach of ordinary Iraqis, lawmakers raised their hands to vet each member of the mostly male government. Although it was marked by a walkout by a handful of angry Sunni lawmakers, the inauguration shattered the deadlock that had paralyzed Iraqi governance since December. ''I stand solemnly before the souls of our martyrs and the precious blood offered by Iraqis, and seek inspiration from our people's steadfastness, sacrifices, and pains, the imprisonment, torture, killing, and terrorism they've faced," Maliki told parliament. ''Just as we did away with the tyrant [Saddam Hussein] and the days of oppression and despotism, we will do away with terrorism and sabotage." But Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim whose political acumen is tinged with a deep-seated Islamism, faces a perilous obstacle course. He has a Cabinet so wide-ranging it's prone to collapse, a 34-point program that runs the impossible gamut of Iraq's wish list -- and a disillusioned, weary nation to govern. The new prime minister has yet to quell a swelling crisis over the management of Iraq's security services. In the end, staring down a Monday deadline to appoint a Cabinet, Maliki delayed decisions on the key posts of interior, defense, and national security. To buy time and push the government through parliament, he nominated temporary fill-ins -- himself and his two deputies. ''This government won't be a panacea for solving all problems, but it's a beginning," said Hoshyar Zebari, the Kurdish foreign minister. ''We wanted to present the whole Cabinet; it would have been better."

Read in Full Daunting security challenge ahead of new Iraqi government

By Ola Galal May 21, 2006, 14:06 GMT. Baghdad/Cairo - Following tedious and dispute-ridden negotiations among Iraqi political blocs, a new cabinet - with the exception of three ministerial portfolios - was finally approved by parliament and sworn in on Saturday. Almost five months after election results brought Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis closer to a national unity government, Iraq's first permanent administration since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003 has yet to face the overwhelming challenge of bringing the security melee under control. With the illegal circulation of arms and the rising civilian death toll, this is not merely a stumbling bloc on the path to political stability, but, in the words of prime minister-designate Nouri al- Maliki, an 'exceptional' challenge. 'The upcoming challenges are huge and critical and we are in need of exceptional effort to confront the security challenge and terrorism that is claiming the lives of Iraqis,' al-Maliki said. As al-Maliki was making his statement, there were several bomb blasts across the suburbs of Baghdad, killing at least 19 and injuring 53 others in a wave of violence that has swept through coalition-occupied Iraq. The bombing of the highly-revered al-Askary Shiite shrine last February and the delay in the formation of a coalition national unity government has caused violence to escalate and edged the country closer than ever towards a civil war. That's why the approval of a new Cabinet - albeit without the key posts of interior, defence and national security - is largely expected to quell the flames of sectarian killings. The crucial security posts have been given to interim ministers: Sunni Vice-Prime Minister Salam al-Zaubai will temporarily assume the defence ministry, Kurdish Barham Salih, al-Maliki's other vice-prime minister, will act as interim national security minister, and al- Maliki himself will temporarily oversee the interior ministry. 'The defence minister and interior minister posts will be announced within the next three days,' al-Maliki told journalists on Saturday.

Read in Full The Decider says "A free Iraq" will be an ally in the "war on terror" and an "example in the region for others who desire to be free." However, U.S. Secretary of State says it is too early to make any commitments about troop withdrawals. Read in Full Juan Cole's Optimism is Somewhat More Restrained

MP Nur al-Din al-Hayali of the Sunni religious Iraqi Accord Front said at a press conference, "the Front has reservations about the program of the government . . . We have reservatons about the laws related to fighting terror, which do not distinguish between the Resistance, which plays a heroic role for the sake of liberating Iraq, and acts of violence that all reject." He added, "It was obligatory to specify the techniques to be used to dissolve the militias altogether, and to transform them into state institutions and to keep them from infiltrating the security apparatuses." The ironies here are manifold. Iraq has had to wait over 5 months after the December 15 elections for a government finally to be formed. The US intervened with local Iraqi parties to overturn the democratic vote of the United Iraqi Alliance for Ibrahim Jaafari. It got instead a long-time member of the Damascus politburo of the then-radical Islamic Dawa Party, which helped form Hizbullah in Lebanon. Nuri al-Maliki has finally been elected prime minister, but has not presented ministers for any of the key three cabinet posts having to do with national security. Wouldn't you think that addressing national security might be the first priority? He has given us a minister of Tourism but not a Minister of Defense or a Minister of the Interior? Of course, it probably doesn't matter that much. The Sunni Arab guerrilla movement will only redouble its efforts to overthrow this new government. And, there is no evidence that the troops and security forces of the new government can effectively curb the guerrillas, even if they had new leadership. There are now four distinct wars going on in Iraq simultaneously 1) The Sunni Arab guerrilla war to expel US troops from the Sunni heartland 2) The militant Shiite guerrilla war to expel the British from the south 3) The Sunni-Shiite civil war 4) The Kurdish war against Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk province, and the Arab and Turkmen guerrilla struggle against the encroaching Peshmerga (the Kurdish militia). Moreover, all of these wars involve strongly entrench militias, which both keep some order and also substantially disrupt it. When Basra security fell apart recently, Bice President Adil Abdul Mahdi was asked to send envoys to consult with major forces. He ignored powerful tribal chieftains but consulted with the Badr Corps commanders! As a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, he may believe that party's militia, the Badr, is best placed to calm things down. But many in Basra see Badr as unaccountable and as a part of the problem, not the solution. In any case, what else could Abdul Mahdi have done? It is not as if he has a proper army to send south. If he sent the Sunni Arab or Kurdish battalions, it would anyway be regarded as a provocation. And if he sent the Shiite battalions, there is no guarantee that they would be willing to fight the Badr Corps, as opposed to just going over to it.

Read in Full For Some, a Last, Best Hope for U.S. Efforts in Iraq

By JOHN F. BURNS, The New York Times. BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 20 — As Iraq's new government was announced Saturday, some senior American military and civilian officials watched from the sidelines, apprehensive that they were witnessing what might be the last chance to save the American enterprise in Iraq from a descent into chaos and civil war. While others took a less bleak view, the common feeling among a wide range of officers and diplomats interviewed before Saturday's events was that the formation of the first full-term government since the toppling of Saddam Hussein marked a critical juncture for Iraq, and for the American stake in its future. The 36 men and women appointed to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's cabinet — in an ominous sign of continuing divisions, three key ministries were left vacant — took over from a transitional government that has been widely viewed as a miserable failure. In his year in office, the departing prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, presided over a rising wave of sectarian violence. Basic government services, especially health and electricity, slipped deeper into the chaos that enveloped Iraq in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion three years ago. This time, American officials played a muscular role in vetting and negotiating over the new cabinet. Dismayed at what they have described as the Jaafari government's incompetence, American officials reversed the hands-off approach that characterized American policy as Mr. Jaafari formed his cabinet in early 2005. Then, the policy laid down by John D. Negroponte, President Bush's first ambassador to Iraq, now back in Washington as director of national intelligence, was to respect Iraq's standing as a sovereign state, avoiding heavy-handed American interference in the government's formation to discourage an attitude of dependence among Iraqi leaders. During these negotiations, diplomatic sensitivities were played down as the envoy who succeeded Mr. Negroponte last summer, Zalmay Khalilzad, acted as a tireless midwife in the birthing of the new government. An Afghan-born scholar who worked on Iraq policy in Washington prior to the invasion, Mr. Khalilzad worked closely with Mr. Maliki, the new prime minister, in reviewing candidates for crucial ministries, and shuttling between rival Iraqi party leaders in an effort to sign them up to the American vision of a national unity government. How far Mr. Khalilzad succeeded was uncertain as the new ministers were confirmed by Parliament on Saturday. The failure to win the agreement of top Sunni and Shiite party leaders on the interior, defense and national security posts was an embarrassing blow, emphasizing the gulf between Iraq's two main communities on the crucial issues of sectarian bloodletting and the Sunni-led insurgency. The walkout of key members of the Sunni parliamentary bloc, including hard-liners with links to the insurgency, boded ill for hopes that the new government could draw some elements of the insurgency into talks and an eventual cease-fire.

Read in Full The Eternal Six Months

By JOHN DANISZEWSKI, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. ambassador said Sunday the next six months will be critical for Iraq as its new national unity government seeks to win public confidence and improve security so that American and other international troops can begin heading home.

Read in Full Laundry Lists List of government ministers. Maliki's 34 point program BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS Patrick Coburn Describes Widespread Ethnic Cleansing

By Patrick Cockburn in Khanaqin, North-East Iraq Published: 20 May 2006 The state of Iraq now resembles Bosnia at the height of the fighting in the 1990s when each community fled to places where its members were a majority and were able to defend themselves. "Be gone by evening prayers or we will kill you," warned one of four men who called at the house of Leila Mohammed, a pregnant mother of three children in the city of Baquba, in Diyala province north-east of Baghdad. He offered chocolate to one of her children to try to find out the names of the men in the family. Mrs Mohammed is a Kurd and a Shia in Baquba, which has a majority of Sunni Arabs. Her husband, Ahmed, who traded fruit in the local market, said: " They threatened the Kurds and the Shia and told them to get out. Later I went back to try to get our furniture but there was too much shooting and I was trapped in our house. I came away with nothing." He and his wife now live with nine other relatives in a three-room hovel in Khanaqin. The same pattern of intimidation, flight and death is being repeated in mixed provinces all over Iraq. By now Iraqis do not have to be reminded of the consequences of ignoring threats. In Baquba, with a population of 350,000, gunmen last week ordered people off a bus, separated the men from the women and shot dead 11 of them. Not far away police found the mutilated body of a kidnapped six-year-old boy for whom a ransom had already been paid. The sectarian warfare in Baghdad is sparsely reported but the provinces around the capital are now so dangerous for reporters that they seldom, if ever, go there, except as embeds with US troops. Two months ago in Mosul, I met an Iraqi army captain from Diyala who said Sunni and Shia were slaughtering each other in his home province. "Whoever is in a minority runs," he said. "If forces are more equal they fight it out." It was impossible to travel to Baquba, the capital of Diyala, from Baghdad without extreme danger of being killed on the road. But I thought that if I took the road from Kurdistan leading south, kept close to the Iranian border and stayed in Kurdish-controlled territory I could reach Khanaqin, a town of 75,000 people in eastern Diyala. If what the army captain said about the killings and mass flight was true then there were bound to be refugees who had reached there.

Read In Full This one's for the Wiz Tommy Franks tells the NRA Iraq dead are the price of security

By COLIN FLY. MILWAUKEE May 21, 2006 (AP)— Those who count the increasing number of American soldiers killed in Iraq are missing the bigger picture, retired Gen. Tommy Franks said Saturday night. "What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives," Franks said at the National Rifle Association's annual banquet. "Terrorism is a thing that threatens our way of life. It doesn't have anything to do with politics." More than 2,400 soldiers have died since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, the plan for which Franks developed and executed. He also oversaw combat in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. "I watched as America changed," Franks said. "That's not near done. We have to secure ourselves. We have to secure our Constitution."

Read in Full NEWS FROM THE HOMEFRONT(S) A backbench MP is to investigate the "unanswered questions" from the official inquiry into the death of weapons scientist Dr David Kelly.

Hélène Mulholland, The Gurdian. Friday May 19, 2006 The former Liberal Democrat environmental spokesman Norman Baker today revealed his decision to stand down from the shadow cabinet two months ago was based on a quest to establish the "truth" behind Dr Kelly's death. Mr Baker said he wanted to return to the issue because the 2003 Hutton inquiry had "blatantly failed to get to the bottom of matters". He vowed to question ministers and to unearth new facts in a bid to establish the "truth" of the case. Dr Kelly was found dead on July 18 2003 after being named as the possible source of a BBC story on the government's Iraq dossier. Later that month Lord Hutton was appointed head of an independent inquiry into the events surrounding Dr Kelly's death. After a two-month inquiry, Lord Hutton concluded the scientist had taken his own life. Oxford coroner Nicholas Gardiner subsequently looked into the possibility of reopening the inquest into Dr Kelly's death, but after reviewing the evidence with the lord chancellor, decided that there was no case for doing so. Mr Baker explained that he had decided to wait until he relinquished his environmental role before embarking on an investigation to find out the "truth" that the Hutton inquiry had failed to deliver. "It did not answer questions," he told Guardian Unlimited today. "It was not carried out using proper rules of evidence, people were not giving evidence under oath and the whole thing became a criticism of the BBC."

Read in Full Army Ranger's Testimony: war crimes in Iraq were ordered from higher up the chain of command.

There is a current story in the US press about a squad of Marines that are being investigated for "war crimes" after they murdered a whole Iraqi family one night a few months back. US officials are approaching this story as if this wasn't standard procedure, and are focusing on holding the individual Marines accountable. Jessie Macbeth blows the lid off that story. Macbeth is a former US Army Ranger, who served in Iraq for 16 months before being wounded and ultimately discharged. His squad did night raids, using the same techniques the Marines are accused of, 4 or 5 times a night for many months. Macbeth, who is now a member of "Iraq Veterans Against the War," was interviewed for the public access TV show "Indymedia Presents." His story is available here: www.peacefilms.org. In this interview Jessie describes killing children to make the parents talk. He describes one episode where his squad responded to the much-reported incident in Falluja where 4 US mercenaries were killed and hung from a bridge. Shortly after Iraqis killed the mercenaries, according to Macbeth, his squad of Rangers gunned down Iraqis praying inside a mosque on a holy day, then hung some of the bodies from rafters, and defaced the mosque with graffiti. Macbeth's hand held the smoking gun, and his testimony in this interview shows clearly that the Marines who are now in trouble for very similar actions are not the exception to US tactics in Iraq, but represent only one in many incidents of war crimes.

Read in Full Video of interview with Macbeth is here Some Iraq war vets go homeless after return to US

by Daniel Trotta NEW YORK (Reuters) - The nightmare of Iraq was bad enough for Vanessa Gamboa. Unprepared for combat beyond her basic training, the supply specialist soon found herself in a firefight, commanding a handful of clerks. "They promoted me to sergeant. I knew my job but I didn't know anything about combat. So I'm responsible for all these people and I don't know what to tell them but to duck," Gamboa said. The battle, on a supply delivery run, ended without casualties, and it did little to steel Gamboa for what awaited her back home in Brooklyn. When the single mother was discharged in April, after her second tour in Iraq, she was 24 and had little money and no place to live. She slept in her son's day-care center. Gamboa is part of a small but growing trend among U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- homelessness. On any given night the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) helps 200 to 250 of them, and more go uncounted. They are among nearly 200,000 homeless veterans in America, largely from the Vietnam War. Advocates say the number of homeless veterans is certain to grow, just as it did in the years following the Vietnam and Gulf wars, as a consequence of the stresses of war and inadequate job training.

Read in Full Now, this will definitely work

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles will stand in for Baghdad this weekend for the filming of a $1 million, special effects-laden commercial against suicide bombings that will air on Iraqi television. The 60-second public service announcement is being filmed through today in the warehouse district near downtown. The commercial is being co-produced by Los Angeles-based 900 Frames and a Beirut, Lebanon, company called EFXFilms. "They probably could find a place closer to Baghdad, but it was a question of the talent and know-how and that exists in Hollywood," Jonathan Zaleski, a publicist for the production, said Friday. "It was the type of thing that you don't normally expect out of Beirut." The production will use 200 cast members, simulated explosions and a "Matrix"-style time-suspension moment utilizing numerous cameras to portray the consequences of a suicide attack. There will be cars flipping and people flying through windows, Zaleski said. "It covers the moments before, during and after a suicide attack: Someone walking into a square wearing explosives ... how that moment changes the lives of innocent people," he said. In Iraq, where there are dozens of suicide bombings each year, the idea is to give a would-be attacker "one more opportunity" to think about the consequences, Zaleski said.

Read in Full Quote of the Day What America has done over the last six years makes plain that the lesson of the Titanic, even with its last US survivor gone, has yet to be learned in Washington. It is 1912 again. -- James Carroll

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR SATURDAY, May 20, 2006 Photo: A group of youths - one throwing stones, in foreground, and another giving the victory sign, at top - gather on a bridge above a burning British military vehicle after a roadside bomb attack which slightly wounded two British soldiers in Basra, Iraq Saturday, May 20, 2006. The soldiers were transported back to their base and required little medical attention, according to a British Army spokesman. (See below “Bring ‘em on”) Bring ‘em on: Land mine injures two British soldiers in Basra (Video)

Summary: At least two British soldiers are injured after a land mine exploded in the southern Iraqi province of Basra on Saturday Shotlist: Shots of dark smoke, fire rising from military vehicle, Iraqis gathering around it, British soldiers investigating, military vehicles [note the kids throwing stones at the Brits on the bridge. – bob]

OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: A bomb killed at least 19 people in the poor Shi'ite Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, blasting a spot where crowds of workers had gathered in the hope of being hired for day laboring jobs. A further 58 people were wounded in the blast. A three-car drive-by shooting and mortar attack on the Fakhri Shanshal Sunni Arab mosque in the neighborhood of Jihad killed two people and wounded five. Update: The death toll from clashes between police commandos and insurgents in the Jihad District rose to six civilians killed and five wounded. Two police were among the wounded. Mosul: A suicide car bomber detonated himself near a U.S. military convoy, wounding three civilians in Mosul. No casualities were reported among the convoy. Mussayab: The bodies of 19 people killed over the last two months were found in different parts of Mussayab, some 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad. They will be buried on Saturday in the holy city of Kerbala. Al-Udhaim: A man and his wife were killed and three of their children wounded when gunmen broke into their house and opened fire in Al-Udhaim, the town about 100 km (68 miles) north of Baghdad. The motives are unknown. Kirkuk: An Iraqi civilian was killed and another injured in a bomb blast in southern Kirkuk. A police source said the bomb went off while a civilian car was passing on the highway of Kirkuk killing one and injuring another. (South of): A journalist and television director of the Iraqi Media Network were wounded in a bomb blast in the region of Daouq south of the northern city of Kirkuk on Saturday. Qaim: In the town of Qaim, near the Syrian border, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-packed vest inside a police station killing five policemen and wounding 10. >> NEWS Iraqi parliament approves government without security ministers Japan begins making arrangements to withdraw its troops from Iraq beginning in June, a press report has said. The move Saturday was initiated as the southern Iraqi prefecture of Al-Muthanna, where the troops are stationed, was expected to regain authority from the multinational force by the end of June, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun said in its evening edition. >> REPORTS IRAQ WAR TAKES NEW TOLL ON WOMEN SOLDIERS When it comes to casualties, the war in Iraq has been an equal opportunity employer, by killing and injuring a historic number of female soldiers in combat situations. "Our convoy came under fire, and the IED detonated," said Sgt. Juanita Wilson. It was seven months into her tour of Iraq. "I started feeling some tingling on myself," Wilson said. "By then, I looked down and there was no hand." Wilson is now living with a prosthesis. read in full… A SPLIT-SECOND DECISION Adel is 26. He is tall and well built, with long, thick dark hair styled with gel and a thin goatee beard. With his basketball shirt and knee-length shorts, he looks more like a rapper than a vigilante commander. Four years ago, when most of his friends were still reeling from the shock and awe of America's occupation, Ali stepped out of his life as a wealthy playboy from the leafy neighbourhood of Yarmouk in the west of Baghdad, and into the life of a Sunni insurgent. "When I saw the first American patrol in my street I went to my room and cried for three days," he said as we sat in his family's huge living room. He emerged from his bedroom, crossed the street to a school that was used during the war as a Ba'ath party office, collected some RPG rockets, a launcher and ammunition, and drove around the neighbourhood looking for American troops. He soon found them. "You think you are brave and you want to fight for your country and defend your home, but when I stood in front of them with the RPG on my shoulder, my legs were shaking from fear and my body went stiff. I just remember a huge bang and a cloud of dust and my friend grabbed and pushed me to the car and we drove away. "Now its much easier. I am more focused and I know it's a split-second decision: either I kill or get killed." read in full… >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS THE HADITHA MASSACRE EXPOSED

MURTHA’S MY LAI Murtha is telling the public that the Pentagon investigation will show that the US Marines massacred civilians in Haditha in November 2005. That is why I am grateful to Representative John Murtha for not adhering to what is considered good manners. He is not only defying the spineless and oportunistic Nancy Pelosi’s directive to avoid the issue of the Iraq war, when he says saying we need to get our troops out of there pronto; he is now being very explicit about why. The fact that he is a former Marine with scar tissue from Vietnam only makes his public statement, that the result of the investigation will confirm a massacre at Haditha, discomfit the war-boosters of the right and the Schumer-Pelosi sales managers of the center that much more. They know Murtha has an inside line to the Pentagon. That’s why he prefigured the rebellion of the Generals earlier this year with his declaration last year that the aggression in Iraq is a disaster that will only improve by ending it. Murtha knows what I know, and a lot of veterans who are willing to tell the truth know. Imperial occupations are by their very nature — in the words of Daniel Ellsberg — atrocity producing situations. read in full… YOU GOT YOUR DAMN WAR And for every "regrettable incident" like this [the massacre at Haditha of unarmed Iraqi civilians, including women and children, by U.S. Marines -- zig], where mountains of evidence force the military to admit the truth, there are other little massacres -- God only knows how many -- that are buried in reports of civilians "killed by an IED" or "caught in a firefight with insurgents." Recall the reports of snipers taking out old ladies trying to get food during the siege of Falluja, or the video of that marine killing a wounded Iraqi in cold blood. The soldiers, regardless of whether they're ever brought to trial, will be punished forever by the memories of their crimes. There's no escape; my grandfather told me he had nightmares from World War II every single night, without exception, until the day he died sixty years later. And he was a medic with a clean conscience. But the real culprits won't be punished. There are two damn many of them. It's not just Bush and Cheney and the rest of the madmen who conjured up this war, it's the Democratic hawks that enabled them. It's Kerry and Lieberman and all the rest and, yes, even Jack Murtha. And it's the cowardly scumbags who spun their glorious war narrative and convinced a whole bunch of ordinary citizens to jump on board. It's the Tom Friedmans and the Peter Beinarts -- and even some on this very site -- who only realized this war was a mistake when it proved to be as disastrous as every other "war of choice." We told them that war is bloody hell and they called us "pacifists" and "appeasers." Well there's your fucking war. It's not a video game and it's not glowing green explosions on CNN; it's "a mother and young child bent over on the floor as if in prayer, shot dead." And there's a lot more mothers and young children waiting for you maniacs in Iran. read in full…

DISMANTLING IRAQI LIFE A telling indicator of the condition of the Iraqi infrastructure and its immediate prospects can be found in descriptions of the elaborate embassy, referred to as "George W's palace" by Baghdad residents, that the U.S. is now constructing inside the capital's fortified Green Zone. According to the London Times, the $592 million structure will be "the biggest embassy on earth," and will feature "impressive residences for the Ambassador and his deputy, six apartments for senior officials, and two huge office blocks for 8,000 staff to work in. There will be what is rumoured to be the biggest swimming pool in Iraq, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, a cinema, restaurants offering delicacies from favourite US food chains, tennis courts and a swish American Club for evening functions." What's more, once the construction is finished next year, embassy personnel can be reassured that the site, the size of Vatican City, "will have its own power and water plants," completely independent from Baghdad's, thus protecting it from the outages and pollution suffered by Iraqi residents of the city. It is clear that American authorities preparing for their new embassy are not expecting the rejuvenation of any element in the Iraqi infrastructure in the foreseeable future. read in full… THE MYSTERY OF THE BATTLE FOR BAGHDAD'S AIRPORT

Majid Al Ghezali : They used incredible weapons Patrick Dillon: Experimental weapons? Majid Al Ghezali : Yes… Yes, I think. They shoot the bus. We saw the bus like a cloth, like a wet cloth. It seemed like a Volkswagen, a big bus like a Volkswagen.

This testimony was reported to American filmmaker Patrick Dillon a few weeks after the battle for the airport (April 2003) . The person interviewed, Majid al Ghezali, is a well-known and respected man in Baghdad, who is the first violinist in the city orchestra. In addition to describing the battle, Majid al Ghezali wanted to show Patrick Dillon the site near the airport where this mysterious weapon was used, along with the traces of fused metal still visible, and the irregularly sized ditches where the cadavers were buried before they were exhumed. We sought out Majid al Ghezali to hear more details of his story. We met up with him in Amman and he pointed out some inexplicable peculiarities on the bodies of the victims of the battle for the airport. read in full… AN APOLOGY FROM A BUSH VOTER There’s nothing harder in public life than admitting you’re wrong. By the way, admitting you’re wrong can be even tougher in private life. If you don’t believe me, just ask Bill Clinton or Charlie Sheen. But when you go out on the limb in public, it’s out there where everyone can see it, or in my case, hear it. So, I’m saying today, I was wrong to have voted for George W. Bush. In historic terms, I believe George W. Bush is the worst two-term President in the history of the country. Worse than Grant. I also believe a case can be made that he’s the worst President, period. (…) I watched and tried to justify the looting in Iraq after the fall of Saddam. I watched and tried to justify the dismantling of the entire Iraqi army. I tired to explain the complexities of building a functional new Iraqi army. I urged patience when no WMDs were found. Then the Vice President told us we were in the “waning days of the insurgency.” And I started wincing again. The President says we have to stay the course but what if it’s the wrong course? It was the wrong course. All of it was wrong. We are not on the road to victory. We’re about to slink home with our tail between our legs, leaving civil war in Iraq and a nuclear armed Iran in our wake. Bali was bombed. Madrid was bombed. London was bombed. And Bin Laden is still making tapes. It’s unspeakable. The liberal media didn’t create this reality, bad policy did. (…) Does this make me a waffler? A flip-flopper? Maybe, although I prefer to call it realism. And, for those of you who never supported Bush, its also fair to accuse me of kicking Bush while he’s down. After all, you were kicking him while he was up. You were right, I was wrong. -- Doug McIntyre, Host of the talk radio show McIntyre in the Morning read in full… AGE OF NEOCONS HEADED FOR DUSTBIN OF HISTORY "The final hours of the North American empire have arrived . . . Now we have to say to the empire: 'We are not afraid of you. You’re a paper tiger.’" These were the words of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez during his recent visit to Vienna. He may be right. The concept of a "New American Century," conceptualized by neoconservatives who envisioned total US hegemony over land, seas, skies and even space, is fast fading. In the post-Sept. 11 climate of fear it seemed that all Washington had to do was wag its finger at errant nations for them to cave and do its bidding. Not so today. The US chose Iraq as an example of what Washington’s military might could achieve under the banner of democracy. "Shock and Awe" was supposed to stand as a warning to neighboring countries. Watch out! Do as we say, or you’ll be next. But the plan has gone badly wrong. Some might say it has had the opposite effect of what was intended. (…) The plan didn’t work simply because human beings aren’t that stupid, especially those who aren’t being indoctrinated on a daily basis by the skewed outpourings of Fox News and other US propaganda arms. Iraq today is an example all right. It stands as a stark salutary warning to the world: Uncle Sam has grown fangs and he must be kept at bay. read in full… >> BEYOND IRAQ Bush has positive job approval in just three of the 50 United States. This according to 50 separate but concurrent statewide public opinion polls conducted by SurveyUSA for its media clients across the country. Only residents of Utah, Wyoming and Idaho view the president favorably. POLL: WORLD TURNING AGAINST AMERICANS In the past, while Europeans, Asians and Arabs might have disliked American policies or specific U.S. leaders, they liked and admired Americans themselves. Polls now show an ominous turn. Majorities around the world think Americans are greedy, violent and rude, and fewer than half in countries like Poland, Spain, Canada, China and Russia think Americans are honest. The dislike is accelerating among youths, Stokes said. For instance, 20 percent of Britons under age 30 have an unfavorable opinion of Americans, double the percentage of 2002. More than half of those asked in France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Britain said the "spread of American ideas and customs" was a "bad thing." (…) Almost half of those polled in Britain, France and Germany dispute the whole concept of a global war on terrorism, and a majority of Europeans believe the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. More than two-thirds of Germans, French and Turks believe American leaders lied about the reasons for war and believe the United States is less trustworthy than it once was. In Brazil, 52 percent held a favorable view of the United States in 2002; by the following year that had dropped to 34 percent. In Russia, the pro-America portion of the population dropped from 61 percent to 36 percent over a year. read in full… GITMO: THE HELL YOU CAN'T ESCAPE BY DYING Is it any wonder there was a riot at Guantanamo yesterday, as reported by AP?

Prisoners wielding improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the military said Friday. The fight occurred Thursday in a medium-security section of the camp as guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day at the detention center on the U.S. Navy base, said Cmdr. Robert Durand. Detainees used fans, light fixtures and other improvised weapons to attack the guards as they entered a communal living area to stop a prisoner who was trying to hang himself, Durand said.

Got that? Four suicide attempts in one day. (…) My guess is the prisoners who tried to kill themselves yesterday - and those detainees desperate enough to use fans and light fixtures to attack guards trying to stop a suicide hanging - have about as much faith in the United States taking UN advice as we do. While I'm not advocating letting people kill themselves on our watch, there is a level of desperation in these acts that screams of hopelessness, and rationally so. There is, you see, no exit. Not even death, in the rules set under this one-party Republican state. read in full… VIVA CHAVEZ Chavez is slowly transforming Venezuelan politics and making significant headway in areas of redistribution and social welfare. The country’s 25 million people now have full access to free health care and illiteracy has been eliminated. Government programs now provide15 million people with subsidized food, medicine and other essentials. Medical clinics have sprung up in every barrio in Caracas and college enrollment has increased exponentially. Chavez has created a model of governance that is based on human needs rather than rigid ideology. This has made it more difficult to discredit him as dogmatic or authoritarian. His policies of income redistribution have created a burgeoning Venezuelan middle class which is changing the political dynamic throughout Latin America. He has become Washington’s "biggest nightmare" and a threat to America’s economic dominance in the region. (…) No one has done more to reenergize the Left than Hugo Chavez. He has become the face of anti-imperialism and the champion of progressive socialism. His views on education, poverty-reduction, social justice, and the equitable distribution of oil revenues are sweeping the hemisphere; brushing aside centuries of colonialism. The politics of personal accumulation and perennial war are on the decline. Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. As Chavez says, "We must embrace a new type of socialism, a humanist one, which puts humans, not machines and not the state, above everything". This century’s Enlightenment is coming from south of the border. read in full… QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Dick Cheney is ugly. The Pentagon is ugly. An Abrams tank is ugly. Executing helpless women and children while they're huddled on the floor, praying to their God, is a war crime committed by terrorists." -- Billmon on the comment "This one is ugly" made by "one military official" to NBC News about the Haditha massacre.

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR FRIDAY, May 19, 2006 Cartoon by Nick Anderson (See below "A Seven-Point Plan For An Exit Strategy In Iraq") Bring ‘em on: First Lt. Robert Seidel III, 23, died when the Humvee he was riding in was struck by an improvised explosive device, Seidel's mother, Sandy, told The News-Post of Frederick. Bring ‘em on: A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. convoy exploded in Dora district, southern Baghdad, seriously wounding one U.S. soldier and damaging his vehicle, the U.S. military said. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Five civilians killed during clashes between police commandos and insurgents in Jihad District, southwestern Baghdad. Two police commandos were wounded in the attack. Three Iraqi army soldiers were wounded when their patrol was struck by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad. A police Lieutenant escaped death when a roadside bomb exploded near his home in the eastern New Baghdad district. Five members of his family were wounded. When police arrived at the scene, a second bomb went off, without causing further injuries. A roadside bomb went off next to an Iraqi police patrol in the Karrada district of central Baghdad wounding four civilians. Two roadside bombs targeted Iraqi forces in the capital. In Baghdad, authorities say they found the bullet-riddled bodies of two Iraqis who had apparently been kidnapped by insurgents. Iraqi security forces raided apopular Baghdad market Thursday and seized large amounts of military gear ready for sale. The Freedom Brigade stormed the Haraj market in the Bab al-Sharqi area in central Baghdad, seizing a number of bullet-proofvests. Kerbala: Gunmen shot deada leading member of a Shi'te Islamist political party in Kerbala. Babylon Prov.: A member of the provincial council escaped death when gunmen attacked his home on Thursday night in Babylon province, south of the capital. Abu Ghraib: Unknown gunmen attacked 10 passengers abroad a bus in the Abu Ghraib district today, including three security men in civilian clothes and seven citizens. All 10 were severely injured and the militants escaped. Kirkuk: An employee of the northern state-oil company was gunned down in Kirkuk. (near) Corpse of an unidentified man with gunshot wounds and bearing signs of torture found 10 km (six miles) from Kirkuk. Ramadi: Clashes erupted between the US forces and Iraqi rebels in Ramadi, killing three civilians. The clashes also damaged a nearby mosque. Numaniya: Beheaded, handcuffed body found in Numaniya, 80 miles southwest of Baghdad, In New Baghdad district, south eastern Baghdad, a bomb planted near one of the walls of the home of an Iraqi police officer blew up. Five of his family members were wounded. Fallujah: Four policemen were killed in clashes in Fallujah. Clashes erupted after insurgents fired mortars at the US-protected seat of local government. >> NEWS A captive diplomat from the United Arab Emirates has reportedly been set free in Iraq. The hostage's brother tells The Associated Press kidnappers let the embassy's first secretary go and that he's "on his way to the embassy." At least 120 shops were damaged when huge fire roared through markets of central southern city of Diwaniya wounding several people. Plans by a Boston Jesuit school to award Condoleezza Rice an honorary degree are stirring protests by some students and faculty who say her support for the Iraq war contradicts Catholic teaching. Boston College theology professor David Hollenbach and Kenneth Himes, the department's chair, issued a petition to the school's president objecting to a planned commencement address by Rice on Monday when she will receive the honorary degree -- a custom for commencement speakers. One faculty member, Steven Almond, resigned in protest. "We'll be turning our backs during the honorary degree ceremony," said Sasha Westerman, a graduating student at the college who plans to distribute 1,000 protest armbands along with placards reading: "not in our name." >> REPORTS Opposition to Iraq War at 62% in U.S. U.S. tested new generation microwave weapons on Iraq civilians in 2003: A new Italian documentary shade more lights about US troops tested new generation of Laser, Microwave weapons on Iraq’s military and civilians back in 2003 in the “battle of the Airport”. An interview with Iraqi eyewitness reveals the whole truth.

Saad al Falluji: This bus was very crowded, they were going from Hilla to Kifil, to find their families, but before they had arrived at the American checkpoint the villagers said to them “return back, return back”. When the bus tried to return back it was shot by the checkpoint. Geert Van Morteer: No gunshot wounds? Saad al Falluji: No, no, I don’t know what it was. We are here 10 surgeons and we couldn’t decide which was the weapon that hit this car.

The documentary is in Italian Language but you can download the Arabic and English transcript, from the “right sidebar”. NOTES FROM A LOST WAR 2 Second Lt. Will Shields started night patrol for his 2nd Platoon Delta Company with the Baghdad basics: a reminder to speed up instead of slow down if a bomb hits the convoy, and a heads-up on where to stash any victims of killings, sectarian and otherwise. Shield's patrol the next night started the old-fashioned way: with the sudden snap of a roadside bomb. Getting out of his Humvee, Shields found one Iraqi dead in a passing open-sided truck, his head flipped onto his back. Four Humvees back from Shield's vehicle, the soldier in the driver's seat nursed a mangled, bleeding foot. One passenger in the targeted Humvee, 1st Sgt. Larry Philpot, lay sprawled on the ground, eyes closed. At first glance, Shields took him for dead. Another passenger, Staff Sgt. Robert Cortez, limped by, a spear of steel wire jutting out of the flesh of his foot. A brown line rimmed the teeth of the stunned men from the battered Humvee, trademark of the smoke that filled the vehicle. Shield's men doused the flames, put the pieces of the Iraqi bystander in a body bag, held their fire against another anguished Iraqi rushing to the dead man, called for the Iraqi army, and treated the wounded. The convoy inched back to its base near Baghdad's airport a little more than an hour after heading out. The 2nd Platoon dropped off their wounded and grabbed a quick meal in the dining hall, frowning in annoyance at the fellow troops around them cheering a boxing match on TV. Then they went back out on patrol, a lightly concussed Philpot among them. read in full... AS DEATH STALKS IRAQ, MIDDLE-CLASS EXODUS BEGINS Deaths run like water through the life of the Bahjat family. Four neighbors. A barber. Three grocers. Two men who ran a currency exchange shop. But when six armed men stormed into their sons' primary school this month, shot a guard dead, and left fliers ordering it to close, Assad Bahjat knew it was time to leave. "The main thing now is to just get out of Iraq," said Mr. Bahjat, standing in a room heaped with suitcases and bedroom furniture in eastern Baghdad. read in full… IRAQ WAR VETS GO HOMELESS When the single mother [Sgt. Vanessa Gamboa, supply specialist] was discharged in April, after her second tour in Iraq, she was 24 and had little money and no place to live. She slept in her son's day-care center. Gamboa is part of a small but growing trend among U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- homelessness. On any given night the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) helps 200 to 250 of them, and more go uncounted. They are among nearly 200,000 homeless veterans in America, largely from the Vietnam War. Advocates say the number of homeless veterans is certain to grow, just as it did in the years following the Vietnam and Gulf wars, as a consequence of the stresses of war and inadequate job training. read in full… >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS BRITAIN'S MESOPOTAMIAN MESS REVISITED Basra, a predominantly Shi'ite city, has been won over from the British by the rebel-cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The young rebel gained the minds and hearts of the inhabitants of Basra when he began his rebellion against the Americans, and then-prime minister Iyad Allawi, in 2004. The people of Basra originally welcomed the British as liberators, but the expression on everybody's face was: "Thank you for what you did and for helping us get rid of Saddam. Now, when are you leaving?" Muqtada found an excited crowd willing to listen to his anti-Anglo-American rhetoric in 2004-05 and was able to recruit members of the British-trained Iraqi police force in Basra into his Mehdi Army, where they now serve as undercover agents for Muqtada. By day, they officially patrol the streets and gather information about logistics, and by night, they don the costume of the Mehdi Army and pick fights with traditional enemies of Muqtada. read in full… A SEVEN-POINT PLAN FOR AN EXIT STRATEGY IN IRAQ 1) A timetable for the complete withdrawal of American and British forces must be announced. I envision the following procedure, but suitable fine-tuning can be applied by all the people involved. A) A ceasefire should be offered by the Occupying side to representatives of both the Sunni insurgency and the Shiite community. These representatives would be guaranteed safe passage, to any meetings. The individual insurgency groups would designate who would attend. At this meeting a written document declaring a one-month ceasefire, witnessed by a United Nations authority, will be fashioned and eventually signed. This document will be released in full, to all Iraqi newspapers, the foreign press, and the Internet. B) US and British command will make public its withdrawal, within sixth-months of 80 % of their troops. C) Every month, a team of United Nations observers will verify the effectiveness of the ceasefire. All incidences on both sides will be reported. D) Combined representative armed forces of both the Occupying nations and the insurgency organizations that agreed to the cease fire will protect the Iraqi people from actions by terrorist cells. E) Combined representative armed forces from both the Occupying nations and the insurgency organizations will begin creating a new military and police force. Those who served, without extenuating circumstances, in the previous Iraqi military or police, will be given the first option to serve. F) After the second month of the ceasefire, and thereafter, in increments of 10-20% ,a total of 80% will be withdrawn, to enclaves in Qatar and Bahrain. The governments of these countries will work out a temporary land-lease housing arrangement for these troops. During the time the troops will be in these countries they will not stand down, and can be re-activated in the theater, if the chain of the command still in Iraq, the newly formed Iraqi military, the leaders of the insurgency, and two international ombudsman (one from the Arab League, one from the United Nations), as a majority, deem it necessary. G) One-half of those troops in enclaves will leave three-months after they arrive, for the United States or other locations, not including Iraq. H) The other half of the troops in enclaves will leave after six-months. I) The remaining 20 % of the Occupying troops will, during this six month interval, be used as peace-keepers, and will work with all the designated organizations, to aid in reconstruction and nation-building. J) After four months they will be moved to enclaves in the above mentioned countries. They will remain, still active, for two month, until their return to the States, Britain and the other involved nations. read in full… DECONSTRUCTING IRAQ Ultimately the failure at Al Fatah [an attempt to reestablish an oil pipeline damaged early in the war by an American air attack on a bridge across the Tigris River over which it traveled] is emblematic of the larger deconstruction of Iraq. Except when it comes to the American embassy (whose construction is, miraculously, on schedule), the pattern has been approximately the same wherever you look: First, the American military fatally damaged existing, already weakened facilities and support systems. Second, inadequate reconstruction was proposed, and given to large, foreign (usually American) corporations that knew next to nothing about local conditions (and generally cared less). Third, reconstruction itself was sabotaged by the contractors' programmatic inefficiency and corruption, compounded by damage from the ongoing guerrilla war. Fourth, the money ran out, while the cost of finishing projects escalated well beyond original projections. Finally, ongoing destruction promises to erode further an already hopelessly compromised system. (…) The image of the Bush administration in Iraq as a bumbling giant, overwhelmed by the destructive forces within Iraqi society, is a pernicious misrepresentation. A close look at the facts on the ground demonstrates that the American occupation itself has been the primary destructive force in Iraq as well as the direct or ultimate source of the bulk of the violence; that the American military, in its zealous pursuit of the resistance, still generates much destruction; and that American reconstruction efforts have -- through greed, corruption, and incompetence -- only deepened the infrastructural crisis. The American presence in Iraq continues to be a force for deconstruction. read in full… >> BEYOND IRAQ Guantanamo Prison Guards, Inmates Clash: Prisoners wielding improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the military said Friday. The fight occurred Thursday in a medium-security section of the camp as guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day at the detention center on the U.S. Navy base, Cmdr. Robert Durand said. U.S. should close Guantanamo prison, and avoid using secret detention facilities in the war on terror, the U.N. panel that monitors compliance with the world's anti-torture treaty said Friday. AXIS OF EVIL CENTRED ON WASHINGTON Freedom and democracy? Or torture and murder? What does the United States of America stand for today? After Abu Ghraib, shocking revelations reach us of Taleban bodies being burnt and placed facing Mecca and Saddam Hussein being subjected to torture. The United States of America of George W. Bush makes a mockery of his country's culture, history and Constitution. Far from being the land of the free, the land where dreams come true, George Bush's Washington is the Great American Nightmare. With its foreign policy dictated by a clique of conservative corporate elitists, the procedure followed by Washington today is one of bullying, belligerence, deception, deceit, lies, mass murder, criminal negligence, criminal and wanton destruction of civilian structures with military hardware, war crimes and increasingly, torture. read in full… IMPEACHMENT IS TOO GOOD FOR BUSH There's talk of impeachment making the rounds these days ... and it's not just partisan hyperbole. As Dave Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky explain in their new book, "The Case for Impeachment," the legal argument for removing George W. Bush from office is clear, present, and urgent. However, for those seeking peace and justice, there are two reasons why impeachment should only be judged as a means to an end: 1. Impeachment is too good for him Sure, the planet would breathe a sigh of relief should Dubya get the boot, but why let him off the hook so easily? As Lindorff and Olshansky state: "The evidence of ... constitutional transgressions, violations of federal and international law, abuse of power, and criminal negligence as chief executive ... are so blatant one might think conviction would be a foregone conclusion." Well then, why stop there? "The call for impeachment trivializes the crimes," declares journalist Rosemarie Jackowski. "Where is the demand for war crimes trials?" Good question. read in full… BUSH IS CERTIFIABLE Bush has become inflated with an archetype of the collective unconscious, which is an expression of madness. He has become identified with one side, the light, of an inherently two-sided polarity, and projects out the other, dark side, which he then tries to destroy. By shadow projecting in this manner, Bush has become possessed by the very evil he is projecting outside of himself. This is to fall under the spell of the Devil, who is rightly called “the deceiver.” A clearer case of madness is hard to imagine. Jung describes such a situation by saying it is an “…overwhelming manifestation of the “blond beast” [of prey, a figure popularized by Nietzsche], which seizes the unsuspecting soul with nameless shudderings. The seizure transforms him into a hero or godlike being, a superhuman entity. He rightly feels himself “six thousand feet beyond good and evil.” read in full… QUOTE OF THE DAY: "When the full scope of America's defeat in the Wars of Mass Destruction ignited by Iraq becomes apparent, the political result is likely to go far beyond any election (…) We are likely to see that interesting time known by historians as 'change of dynasty,' where a defective and corrupt Establishment is all swept away." -- William S. Lind

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR THURSDAY, May 18, 2006 Photo: U.S. soldiers from the 1st Armored Division kick down an Iraqi citizens' door in the Al Jazeera Desert area May 8, 2006. REUTERS/SSgt. Aaron Allmon II/Handout (See below "How to Arouse an Intense Desire to Kill You") Bring 'em on: Four U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed on Thursday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement. The statement issued by the 4th Infantry Division that patrols the Iraqi capital did not give further details. Bring 'em on: A Sailor assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province May 17. (MNF- Iraq) Bring 'em on: In Abu Skher, a village south of Najaf, an AFP correspondent saw what appeared to be a sports utility vehicle typical of the kind used by US contractors burning fiercely after it was hit by a roadside bomb. US soldiers were securing the area, but the military said it could not immediately confirm the incident or provide casualty figures. In Manathera, a town south of Najaf, two roadside bombs exploded near a U.S. military and civilian convoy, wounding some passengers. U.S. soldiers then shot "by mistake" at an Iraqi policemen in the area, [Iraqi army Maj. Bshari] Ghazali said. "The soldiers thought he planted the bombs, so they shot at him and killed him immediately." In Country: "Insurgents" kidnapped 15 Tae Kwon Do athletes who were traveling through western Iraq en route to a training camp in neighboring Jordan. They were members of a private sports club that hopes to one day send athletes to the Olympics, the Associated Press reported. Police and Olympic committee officials said the athletes were snatched on the road between the restive cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in western Iraq, one of the most violent parts of the war-torn country. "We are negotiating with the kidnappers who are demanding $100,000 in ransom" said Jamal Abdel-Karim, an official with the Olympic committee, told the AP. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Gunmen stopped a minibus in southwestern Baghdad and killed all eight Iraqis aboard, a group of car mechanics and their driver. A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in northern Baghdad's Waziriya neighborhood, killing three police officers and five bystanders. Another nine people were wounded. A mortar round struck an open market in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, killing four guards and wounding another. Gunmen kidnapped a senior Iraqi Finance Ministry official in Baghdad. Muhib Abdul-Razzak, director-general of the ministry's auditing department, was snatched from his home in northern Baghdad on Sunday. Baqubah: Bombers destroyed a small Sunni shrine near the city of Baqouba less than a week after similar bombings heavily damaged six Shiite shrines. No one was injured in any of the attacks. Karbala: Gunmen killed a math teacher and former senior Baath party member as he was leaving his house. Najaf: A policeman was killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a convoy of U.S. military and Iraqi police vehicles near Najaf. Jisr Diyala: A journalist working for the independent Iraqi News Network has been killed in Jisr Diyala, south of the Iraqi capital. Al Malih: Iraqi police found the bodies of two people, handcuffed, blindfolded and shot dead, in al-Malih village, about 75 km south of Baghdad, police said. Basra: A police chief narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb hit his convoy as he was heading to work in Basra. The blast damaged one vehicle but caused no casualties. Gunmen killed a former football player in Iraq's national team. Gunmen wounded a military intelligence lieutenant-colonel along with his driver. Mosul: Coalition forces killed three insurgents and wounded 10 in fighting in and around Mosul, the U.S. command said. Kirkuk: In northern Kirkuk, police reported that two people had been killed in a drive-by shooting. Police found the beheaded body of woman labor activist affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party one of two that administers the Kurdish regional government. A member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was killed by gunmen in central Kirkuk. Fallujah: A policeman and two "insurgents" were wounded in clashes in Falluja. >> NEWS Iraqis armed with bombs destroyed a Sunni Arab shrine near Baqouba on Thursday less than a week after similar bombings heavily damaged six Shiite shrines in the area. The attack, like the previous ones, was carried out early in the morning, resulting in no casualties. In Thursday's strike, hidden bombs exploded inside the small Sharhabil bin Hassan shrine in Kanan, a town about 13 miles northeast of Baqouba, police said on condition of anonymity. The building was destroyed. Last Saturday, six Shiite shrines were heavily damaged or destroyed by bombs hidden in or near them in the Baqouba area. US and coalition forces cannot yet be withdrawn from even Iraq's most stable regions, the US military chief said. Testifying alongside US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, General Peter Pace was asked whether coalition forces could withdraw within the next three months from any of 14 Iraqi provinces that he had described as calm and stable. "No, sir," Pace told members of a Senate appropriations subcommittee considering an administration request for 66.3 billion dollars in additional military funding, most of it for Iraq. New Italian Premier restates campaign promise to withdraw nation's troops from Iraq: "We consider the war and occupation in Iraq a grave error that hasn't solved — but has complicated — the problem of security," Prodi said. "Terrorism has found a new base and new excuses for internal and external terrorist action." Murtha accuses US marines of killing innocent Iraqi civilians: "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," John Murtha told reporters. "There was no firefight" that led to the shootings at close range, the Vietnam war veteran said, contradicting early official accounts saying a roadside bomb had killed the Iraqis in the November 19 incident. "There were no (roadside bombs) that killed these innocent people," he said. On March 27, a Time magazine report cited an Iraqi human rights group and residents of Haditha, Iraq, who said Marines barged into the home throwing grenades and shooting, killing 15 unarmed Iraqis including women and children. Murtha said the death toll could be "twice as high". "It's much worse than reported in Time magazine," he said.

WMP video -- QT video of Murtha discussing the issue on MSNBC's Hardball.

>> REPORTS A health crisis may be just around the corner in the southern Missan governorate, some 290km southeast of the capital, Baghdad, unless the government adopts urgent procedures to improve the health services available to residents, a local health official warned. "Cases of tuberculosis, kalazar [a skin disease caused by sand flies] and chicken pox are increasing daily due to the shortage of doctors and the absence of the appropriate health care and government funds," said Dr Zamil Mohamed, director of Missan's municipal health directorate. "These numbers will increase further if the government doesn't improve services and build new hospitals, and if the shortage of modern laboratory equipment isn't addressed." Mohamed went on to note that 1,784 cases of different acute respiratory diseases had been registered over the past three years due to bad potable water and poor sewage systems. >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS HOW TO AROUSE AN INTENSE DESIRE TO KILL YOU There's nothing quite like invading somebody else's country and busting into their houses by force to arouse an intense desire to kill you in the patriotic, self-respecting civilians who live there. But your commanders know that, don't they? Don't they? "In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit," said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay's Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday's raid. "Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead." link NEWS FROM RAMADI, BLACKHOLE OF THE OCCUPATION May 13,2006 Today in the morning the US troops tried to get more houses to use them as snipers bases.......and many fighters appeared with their guns to stop this. US soldiers use all the power that they can get from tanks and helicopters that attacked many houses and killed many people (most of the victims were civilians). This time the US soldiers chose my house to use it as snipers base. At 3 am 10s of US soldiers destroyed the outer gate of my house and came in the house while my family were sleeping .....they hid in the garden for a while. I was woken up. I heard their sounds and steps. After awhile they got inside after crashing the two main doors of my house. Then I came out of my room to show myself with some English words that can help my family to avoid the harmful reaction of the American way of getting in the bedrooms. The US soldiers shouted on me " Freeze! Turn back to the wall with raised hands now!" the US soldiers shouted on me. I did what he asked me. Another US soldier inspected me then he said "he is clean" he said for the officer who was watching me carefully......there was three Iraqi soldiers whose cant speak English at all.......but they where speaking each to other "OK..... can you help US to finish our job here......we need you to tell us about this house and what kind of people living here." The officer asked me this while the other soldiers moving around me ..in fact I cant see them, it was dark but they see me by their instruments found in their helmets ....but I noticed that the officer brought our kerosene lamp to help to see my steps and to see him while he talking to me. "Please do not hurt us we are a peaceful family and my family includes kids and women and an old man (my father) ...please let me wake them by my self to be ready for inspection....... read in full... A VERY GOOD MOTHER'S DAY PATROL The Pentagon website has a day-in-the-life piece about a "presence patrol" in an Iraqi village, designed to "assure people the coalition is there," much in the same way that cats mark their territory, although they (the soldiers, not cats) seem to have spent most of their times looking for what the insurgents no doubt call "presence bombs." They're looking for anything out of the ordinary. Says another sergeant, "We have been here four months now. We know what looks out of place." Oh yeah, you're a regular T.E. Lawrence, you are. The patrol spots a stopped car and checks to see if it is really broken down. They ascertain that it is and so refrain from shooting the driver. Then they spot some fresh dirt! They get very excited! But they find out it is just some local children building a speed bump. "They need to tell us that," says Army Staff Sgt. Timothy Long. "That's a good way to get shot." Finally, after a long day of not shooting children and people whose cars broke down, they returned to base. "The soldiers often conduct dismounted patrols, but this day it was enough to let the people see them and know they are there, the soldiers explained. The team checked out a number of things, spoke with groups of people and came home safely. All in all, they declared it a very good Mother's Day patrol." read in full... SET YOUR PHASER TO STUN, PRIVATE The number of confrontations at checkpoints with Iraqi drivers who won't stop has dropped by half, but wouldn't it be cool if you could zap 'em with a laser? The military is claiming this new use of laser technology is purely for "humane" reasons, but I have my doubts. These devices are less strong than lasers designed to blind people--a good thing, since that's banned by the Geneva Convention--but then, with new technology like this, who knows what'll happen: The U.S. military is deploying a laser device in Iraq that would temporarily blind drivers who fail to heed warnings at checkpoints, in an attempt to stem shootings of innocent Iraqis. The pilot project will equip thousands of M-4 rifles with the 10 1/2 -inch-long weapon, which projects an intense beam of green light to "dazzle" the vision of oncoming drivers. [....] One Washington-based defense analyst said American troops and commanders should not underestimate how the laser could complicate relations with Iraqis. "If this 'safe' high-intensity laser damages retinas, we're in for a whole new type of [angry] Iraqi civilians," said Winslow T. Wheeler, who spent three decades as a Capitol Hill staffer and is now at the Center for Defense Information. Ah, what a gloomy Gus. Obviously the troops will be properly trained to use this brand new weapon just as safely as they use the ones they already have. I mean, their current training teaches them how to handle these checkpoints as best they can, right? read in full... "THERE IS A DISCONNECT" Karl Rove explains the source of Bush's low poll numbers: "People like this president. They're just sour right now on the war." Imagine them blaming that nice Mr. Bush for something he had nothing to do with. Rove points out that Bush's likeability numbers are higher than his approval numbers, saying "There is a disconnect." I couldn't agree more, although Rove seems to think that people should approve of Bush's policies because they like him, while I think they should dislike him because of his arrogant, harmful, reckless policies. read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ Today in Afghanistan: Fiercest violence since Taliban's 2001 ouster erupted across Afghanistan, with coalition forces engaging in multiple firefights, two suicide car bombs and a massive rebel assault on a small village. Up to 105 people were killed. The estimates of Taliban fighters and suicide bombers killed ranged up to 87, with 15 Afghan police, an American civilian, an Afghan civilian and a Canadian soldier also killed in the multiple attacks late Wednesday and Thursday, officials said. The battles between Afghan or coalition forces and Taliban militants - which were concentrated in the south, follow months of stepped-up attacks in the region. ONE MORE CLUE THAT THE AMERICAN EMPIRE IS WANING There are many signs along the road that leads to the dark end of an empire. Some, like the pattern of American monetary policy and her associated incursions in the Middle East, have been up for so long they are now covered with kudzu and shotgun holes. Others, like the extraordinarily troubled presidential elections of a troubled child of privilege and ambition, are relatively new. That this president surrounds himself with corrupt officials who whisper sweet nothings such as "How 'bout that big fish!" and "Your very word is law," as they gorge at the public trough is to be expected. But in an age where manners don't matter in this country the President's irresponsible behavior has newly offended many average Americans who are beginning to think he is obsessed, self-centered, even somewhat stupid and unpatriotic. But empire is never just about the emperor. The enablers of empire - the big purple socialist hegemonic American state - include not just a slavish and well-paid royal military, but also corporate interests, state-funded educational institutions, and an ever-devoted media. read in full... IMMIGRATION PLAN IS CRONY PORK BONANZA My, my, my, isn't this a surprise! It turns out that George W. Bush's "Secure Border Initiative" to "control illegal immigration" is actually just a great big pork trough for his cronies and benefactors in the weapons biz to cash in big-time off the suffering and poverty of dusky foreigners. Now where have we seen that before? The NYT reports that Bush is limbering up the federal checkbook to funnel even more millions to masters of war like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, still feasting sumptuously off the bloated corpse of conquered Iraq. These fine purveyors of contemporary "defense" (who says irony is dead?) will soon string the border with all manner of hugely expensive high-tech gizmonics designed to keep the hemisphere's most desperate and vulnerable people from crossing over to take the slave-wage, no-benefit, no-protection jobs offered to them by, well, Bush's cronies and benefactors in big business and among the wealthy elite (whom he has recently larded with more tax-cut largess). It's a neat scam, really, a win-win situation: your corporate cronies get even more loot from the public treasury - and they still get the cheap Latino labor that keeps them in clover. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: "We're here to guard the ice-cream trucks going north so that someone else can guard them there."-- a U.S. captain near Tikrit answering one sergeant who'd asked him "What's our mission here?" (as quoted by a reporter for the military newspaper Stars & Stripes)

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR WEDNESDAY, May 17, 2006 Photo: U.S. Marines ride in the open back of a humvee during a patrol in Fallujah, May 1, 2006 [on the third anniversary of 'Mission Accomplished'] (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg) SECURITY INCIDENTS Baghdad: Three men standing at a meeting point for people looking for day-to-day work in west Baghdad died when gunmen opened fire. Two guards were wounded in a bomb blast at the Al-Kindi hospital in east Baghdad. Eight bodies found with gun shot wounds in different parts of Baghdad. Two civilians injured after a roadside bombing of a police patrol in east Baghdad. A Sudanese driver for an Arab diplomat in Baghdad has died after being shot as he tried to stop gunmen kidnapping the envoy. Diplomat Naji al-Noaimi of the United Arab Emirates was still missing after being snatched following a short drive from the embassy to visit a colleague on Tuesday evening. Four people wounded when a roadside bomb went off in eastern Baghdad. Two policemen wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a police check point in eastern Baghdad. Four civilians killed when two roadside bombs went off in quick succession in central Baghdad. The body of a general director in the Finance Ministry was found in the morgue after he was kidnapped earlier in the week. Baqubah: Gunmen killed one man and wounded another in a gun attack on a bakery. "Insurgents" then killed three policemen and wounded five others in a subsequent bombing of the same site. Al-Malemeen: An explosive device blew up while a patrol vehicle was passing by Al-Malemeen area, killing an Iraqi officer was killed and injuring two others. Karbala: Gunmen kidnapped a tribal leader after storming into his house in Kerbala. Kirkuk: An Iraqi soldier was killed and three others wounded on the Tikrit-Kirkuk road, when an explosive device blew up as a military convoy was passing by. Four employees of an oil company that had been kidnapped yesterday were released. Police found the body of a woman who was shot dead near Kirkuk. >> NEWS THE "TROUBLES" IN BASRA

Video: Pro-Sistani demonstrators stage protest against Basra governor Summary: Iraqi Shiites protested the Governor of Basra, in Basra, on Wednesday. Governor Muhammad al-Vaili, had previously claimed that representatives of the Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, were "inciting people to revolt." Protesters were also backed by a number of Iraqi policemen. Video: Basra residents threaten more attacks on British troops Summary: Following two weeks of attacks on British troops and rising tension in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, residents told IHA on Monday that they supported insurgent attacks to drive foreign troops out of Iraq.

Government of Iraq's Kurdistan region accused Turkish forces of shelling an area inside northern Iraq. Iraq PM plans to unveil cabinet Saturday Bush hits new low in polls: Bush holds a 33 percent approval rating, the lowest of any US president in 25 years ABC News and the Washington Post have been publishing such polls. Some 65 percent of those polled disapprove of Bush's performance, the highest level in those 25 years, the two news organizations said. The reason is the US war in Iraq, ABC said. >> REPORTS An average of 70 civilians are killed in Baghdad every day. Every month, the mortuary receives more than 1,500 bodies, not including the bodies of people killed in the north and south of the country. One person is being assassinated in Basra every hour, according to an Iraqi Defence Ministry official. And a quarter of all Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition, a survey of 20,000 households by the Iraqi government and Unicef says. 52 American women have died in Iraq from hostile fire, and 378 have been wounded in action. NOTES FROM A LOST WAR A few miles west of Baghdad, a brand-new water truck backed gingerly off a flatbed truck and down a makeshift dirt ramp, completing its 7,000-mile journey from a factory in Texas to a government ministry in Iraq. Considering the enormous effort the United States had made to get it to its destination, there was not much celebration among the small crowd of Iraqis who looked on as the truck was driven away. Nor was there any particular joy among the guards and drivers who had delivered the truck. (…) After setting his gun trucks into defensive positions, Jones walked over to the manager's small office, dropped a bulky envelope on his desk and handed him the paperwork to sign for shipment No. 10,687. "There are the keys for the trucks," Jones said. Outside, Truck 103 was being unloaded. There was no ramp to back the trucks off the flatbeds, so an Iraqi bulldozer operator made one out of dirt. After several minutes of work, they had one that was sturdy enough for the truck to slowly back down to the ground. Mission accomplished. A little piece of America had been delivered to Iraq. Jones walked back to his gun trucks, waiting for the rest of the cargo to be unloaded. It was slow work; more than an hour and a half passed. Iraqis from town came and went. The men of Team 7 relaxed and chatted. It was at this moment that the men with guns chose to strike. read in full... >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS A WORD FROM THE ISLAMIC ARMY Call them terrorists, call them resistance fighters. A significant member of one such group spoke to IPS about why he joined. Abu Ayoub, a 35-year-old living in Baghdad, is a member of the Islamic Army. He spoke to IPS in the Adhamiya neighbourhood.. "When the occupation forces entered Baghdad, they killed my brother in front of my eyes. He was wounded and bleeding but the occupation forces didn't allow me to save him. When I tried to save him they began shooting at me and after a few minutes my brother died. After that I swore to fight them to the death." (…) After his brother was killed, friends just came up to support him in his resistance fight, he said. "At first I was fighting in a small group, because we didn't trust many people to join with us. But now, after three years fighting, we became part of Islamic Army. Now everything has become organised, we make good plans before any attack." (…) When asked why he was fighting the U.S. forces, he said: "I want you to ask this question to the U.S. forces, not to me. They came from the other side of the world and crossed the ocean to occupy my country. Bush and Blair lied to all the world when they spoke about weapons of mass destruction. All the world knew very well their governments were lying, but no country said 'no'. Most of the world supported them to occupy my country." (…) There will be no civil war in Iraq if the occupation retreats, Abu Ayoub says. "We will control Iraq and push out all the militias and Iraqi politicians who came on American tanks. Then we will find many honest Iraqi politicians to lead Iraq. But for now you can see how the Iraqi people are between two hammers, the occupation and the militia - or even the Iraqi government, because they support them." read in full... CONDOLEEZZA RICE AT BOSTON COLLEGE? I QUIT Dear Father Leahy, I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College. I am doing so -- after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret -- as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year's graduation. Many members of the faculty and student body already have voiced their objection to the invitation, arguing that Rice's actions as secretary of state are inconsistent with the broader humanistic values of the university and the Catholic and Jesuit traditions from which those values derive. But I am not writing this letter simply because of an objection to the war against Iraq. My concern is more fundamental. Simply put, Rice is a liar. read in full… SMOKE ALARM: YET MORE EVIDENCE FOR WAR CRIMES Here's yet another smoking gun revealing the fireless smoke of lies that the Bush Regime spread across the land to justify its outright war of aggression in Iraq. How many more times do we have to be shown glaring evidence that the war was a con job from the word go, that lies were told - deliberate lies, knowing lies, lies now soaked with innocent blood - by leaders who drape themselves in Christian piety, before this crime is at last called by its rightful name, and the long-dormant, hard-rusted machinery of justice begins to move against these death-dealing hypocrites? Excerpts from AP: A year after Bush administration claims about Iraqi "bioweapons trailers" were discredited by American experts, U.S. officials were still suppressing the findings, says a senior member of the CIA-led Iraq inspection team. At one point, former U.N. arms inspector Rod Barton says, a CIA officer told him it was "politically not possible" to report that the White House claims were untrue. In the end, Barton says, he felt "complicit in deceit." .... Much sought after for his expertise, Barton served on the U.N. Iraq arms inspection teams of 1991-98 and 2002-03. After the U.S. invasion, he was an aide to chief U.S. inspector Charles Duelfer. The Washington Post reported last month that a U.S. fact-finding mission confidentially advised Washington on May 27, 2003, that two truck trailers found in Iraq were not mobile units for manufacturing bioweapons, as had been suspected. Two days later, President Bush still asserted the trailers were bioweapons labs, and other administration officials repeated that line for months afterward. read in full... OBJECTIVELY PRO-FASCIST It seems to have gone out of style for the moment, but during those early, urgent days of the War on Terror, many right-wingers enjoyed using this George Orwell quote: "Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other." Thus, people opposed to the Iraq war, for example, were objectively pro-Saddam. A thought occurs to me, though. These right-wingers obviously have no sympathy for communism -- in fact, this whole terrorism thing is basically a consolation prize for them now that their treasured communist enemy is no longer a major threat (even China is not usually considered a threat qua communist). Interestingly, though, in World War II, if the pacifists were objectively pro-fascist, then the Allies were objectively pro-Stalinist. Our hagiographic accounts of World War II (surely what these right-wingers were trying to invoke with the Orwell quote) would have the Allies on the side of freedom and democracy -- yet they allied themselves with what would be considered the foremost enemy of freedom and democracy for the next several decades. So what can we say that the current crop of Orwellians were disavowing? Is Andrew Sullivan objectively pro-death squad? Is Donald Rumsfeld objectively pro-insurgency? Or is the whole administration objectively pro-bin Laden, objectively pro-al Qaeda, since they hampered the effort to track down the real perpetrators of 9/11 in favor of their idiotic Iraq adventure? Maybe they're even pro-9/11 attacks, since they viewed those attacks as an opportunity to sell the Iraq War. read in full... A LITTLE PERSPECTIVE America erupts because... the Bush administration has been secretly trying to build a database of every single phone call in the country, and it probably already includes your calls. (...) Although it will clearly require regime change, civil liberties now being lost in this country can be restored. The lives of the nearly 3,000 people who died when Bush ignored warnings about 9-11 cannot be restored. They aren't coming back. Neither are over 2,400 American soldiers. Neither are all those people who drowned during and after Katrina, many of whom are still "missing" and whose bodies will never be found. But even the cost of this cabal in American lives is a drop in the bucket compared to what they are willing to spill in other peoples' blood -- societies whose members, it ought to go without saying (but can't), value life just as much as you or I. The lives of over 200,000 Iraqis, lost in a war launched illegally and sold by lies, can never be restored. Millions of Afghans narrowly avoided the same fate. And now these zealots are seriously considering nuking Iran, an action which could not only directly result in untold additional numbers of deaths, but which would spark a conflagration that would make Iraq's dead look like loners. So: why do we care about someone knowing who we called, but not about the obliteration of whole cities or countries? Don't we need a little, like, perspective here? Aren't we talking not about not just criminal actions and civil liberty violations here, but war crimes? read in full... >> BEYOND IRAQ WAR ON IRAN: 4TH "SUPREME INT'L CRIME" IN SEVEN YEARS With the United States having initiated wars in violation of the UN Charter, and hence engaged in the "supreme international crime," against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq in 1999, 2001, and 2003, one might have expected that its commencement of a fourth aggression only a few years later against Iran would arouse the UN, EU, other international institutions and NGOs, and even the supposedly moral and independent Free Press, to serious protest and counter-action, including referral to the UN Security Council under Chapter VII's "threat of peace" articles and support of possible diplomatic and economic sanctions. This has not happened, and in fact the Bush administration has successfully mobilized the UN, whose "primary responsibility" is the "maintenance of international peace and security," and the EU, as well as the Free Press, to facilitate its fourth attack. read in full... VENEZUELA WEIGHS SELLING U.S. JETS TO IRAN Venezuela's defense minister said Tuesday that there are no immediate plans to sell U.S.-made fighter jets despite a dispute over replacement parts _ backing away from one general's statement that the planes could go to Iran. Defense Minister Adm. Orlando Maniglia said a sale of the 21 F-16s wasn't in the works and President Hugo Chavez "has not given any order" as to what to do with the aircraft. Gen. Alberto Muller, an adviser to Chavez, said earlier he had recommended to the defense ministry that Venezuela consider selling its F-16s after the U.S. announced a ban on arms sales to the South American country. Muller said he thought it worthwhile to consider "the feasibility of a negotiation with Iran for the sale of those planes." read in full… THE BUBBLE MACHINE Now I'm getting really depressed. I'm constantly reminded that this is not a B movie I'm watching; this is actually happening in real time, in real life. All of this mayhem and slaughter could end tomorrow if the "leaders" of the "civilized" world faced the fact that they have two choices: They can stop it all now, or they can wait for it to get worse. Says William Clark, "one of the dirty little secrets of today's international order is that the rest of the globe could topple the United States from its hegemonic status whenever they so choose with a concerted abandonment of the dollar standard. This is America's preeminent, inescapable Achilles Heel." The choice is obvious: waiting till later is inevitably the worst choice. The irony is that the Islamic banking system and their thoughts about money and business seem, from what little I know about them, quite egalitarian - far more evolved and sophisticated than that of the West - yet they are seen to be the villains by US workers -- 80% of the US population -- who could benefit from Islamic thinking, but prefer to stay under the jackboots of American oppression, with wages declining for the past 35 years. You really gotta applaud the US worker at least for their remarkable ability to look DOWN on Muslims from their vantage point in the gutter. read in full... QUOTE OF THE DAY: "And so while the mad men decide whether to nuke or not to nuke [Iran], patting their Little Boys and Fat Men, let us heed the words of Edward Abbey who once wrote, 'While you can. While it`s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for awhile and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space'. May we always have our 'sweet and lucid' air. -- from Of Little Boys and Fat Men by Anwaar Hussain

DAILY WAR NEWS FOR TUESDAY, May 16, 2006 Photo: The real criminal face of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" as never shown in today's totalitarian MSM. (See below “Iraq War Images Uncensored”) Bring 'em on: Two Soldiers from 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division were killed May 15 near Balad. The Soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck an IED. (CENTCOM) Bring ‘em on: A Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier was killed by a roadside bomb at approximately 7:30 a.m. May 16 in southern Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: A U.S. Army soldier died when a roadside bomb exploded near Rasheed airfield, a former Iraqi air force installation in southern Baghdad, damaging a Humvee and also wounding an Iraqi civilian. Bring ‘em on: Army Capt. Shane Mahaffee, 36, died Sunday of wounds he suffered when the vehicle he was riding in south of Baghdad was struck by a roadside bomb May 5. OTHER SECURITY INCIDENTS In Country: Iraqi army says it arrested 52 people, including seven “insurgents”, and killed another “insurgent” in the cities of Kirkuk, Kerbala, Ramadi and Falluja. Baghdad: A bomb destroyed a liquor store in Baghdad in what appeared to be the third attack on the shop by militants determined to impose Islamic customs by closing down such establishments. A gunbattle in Baghdad broke out between suspected “insurgents” riding in three cars and Iraqi police in Dora, one of Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods. At least six civilians were killed and four wounded in the crossfire, said police 1st Lt. Maithem Abdel-Razaq. A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in western Baghdad, wounding one policeman. Gunmen in eastern Baghdad killed a police 1st Sgt. who worked in Interior Ministry intelligence. A civilian was wounded when a roadside bomb went off in southeastern Baghdad. Bodies of three people, bearing signs of torture and with gunshot wounds in the head found in different districts in Baghdad. A car bomb killed at least four people and wounded 26 others in eastern Baghdad. A police source said seven people were killed when the bomb went off in a busy part of the Shaab neighbourhood. Gunmen raided a parking garage in northeastern Baghdad on Tuesday, killing nine people and injuring at least 31. The gunmen shot five guards at the garage in the Shaab neighborhood and then detonated a bomb planted on a parked oil tanker, killing another four people. (N. of) Four people working at a U.S. military base north of Baghdad killed when gunmen opened fire on their minibus while they were travelling home. Buhriz: The Electoral Commission director in Diyala province escaped unharmed when a roadside bomb exploded near his car in Buhriz, 35 miles north of Baghdad. Karbala: Gunmen shot dead an Egyptian man who worked in a bakery in Kerbala. Iraqi police found the body of a man shot dead, blindfolded and handcuffed in Kerbala. Gunmen killed a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party in Kerbala. Kut: A drive-by shooting killed an Iraqi man in Kut city, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, who had served as a secret agent in Saddam Hussein's government. Kirkuk: Suspected “insurgents” attacked a police patrol in Kirkuk, killing two policeman. Two Iraqi citizens were kidnapped; Fathi Najim Abid in Ahmad Agha area was kidnapped by four gunmen, while Dhafir Khudhir Nema was kidnapped south of Kirkuk by a gunmen on motorbikes. Al-Huwaija: An explosive device blew up in Qadha'a Al-Huwaija targeting a Riyadh Police Station patrol, injuring two Police personnel and a woman in the area. Mosul: Unidentified armed gunmen assassinated the Director of the handicap care hospital in front of his clinic in Mosul. Basra: Gunmen killed a manager of a local soccer team, near his home in Basra. Suspected “insurgents” fired rockets at the Shat al-Arab Hotel, headquarters of the British army in Basra, causing no casualties. Shirqat: Three “insurgents” killed when a roadside bomb they were planting exploded prematurely in the town of Shirqat, 80 km (50 miles) south of the northern city of Mosul. >> NEWS U.S. Army warns a new film about an Iraq war medical unit may trigger mental health problems for some viewers: Army brass have sent a cautionary warning to military medical personnel about the soon-to-be-aired HBO documentary "Baghdad ER," which gives a graphic view of the Iraq war through the eyes of trauma doctors and nurses, even filming during an amputation. Despite many disturbing scenes, filmmaker Jon Alpert said the film had actually been toned down. ONE CAPTURED LIEUTENANT A DAY KEEPS ZARQAWI AWAY? Iraq has apprehended an aide to the country's most-wanted man, Iraq Al-Qaeda chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in the city of Ramadi, the interior ministry said on Tuesday. It said the suspected insurgent, Salah Hussein Abdel Razak, had a mobile telephone with a picture of himself and Zarqawi together but a statement did not specify when the arrest took place. read in full… >> REPORTS VIOLENCE ROBS IRAQ OF CHRISTIAN HERITAGE The flight of religious minorities escaping violence in post-war Iraq is threatening to rob the country of its once diverse Christian heritage. In the early 1980s, Iraq's Christian population numbered 1.4 million but economic strife brought on by the war with Iran and UN sanctions after the 1991 Gulf War pushed some in the ancient community to emigrate. Nevertheless, the Christian community continued to enjoy religious freedoms in the majority Muslim country until the US-led invasion of 2003, says Adli Juwaidah, a former director of cultural relations in Iraq's ministry of higher education. read in full… BACK FROM IRAQ Bad stuff happened in Iraq, stuff Adam Reuter doesn't want to talk about. Not with his friends, not with the line cooks in the burger joint where he worked when he first came home or the tenants in the apartment complex he manages now. He doesn't even want to talk about it with his wife, who worried because he was jumping out of bed in the middle of the night. But when he agrees to talk about the war -- really talk about it -- he goes right to how the insurgent crumpled after he pulled the trigger. How later, during the firefight, he ended up just a few feet from the corpse. Bullets buzzed by, and he was supposed to keep an eye on the alley, but he couldn't help but glance over. "He just lay there," Reuter remembers. His eyes and mouth open. His whiskers a few days old. The bullet had gone in his neck cleanly, just to the right of his Adam's apple, but had come out ugly from the back of his head. He was maybe 25, a little older than Reuter. And his blood was pooling, thick and almost black in the darkness. How can you describe what that was like? Who would understand it? read in full… >> COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS PILING UP WAR CRIMES IN IRAQ

IRAQ SUNNIS CRY "ATROCITY" OVER US RAIDS Iraq's main Sunni religious grouping accused U.S. forces on Monday of killing 25 civilians in raids near Baghdad in the past two days, rejecting the U.S. account that only suspected insurgents had died. "We hold the Iraqi government and the occupiers responsible for this brutal atrocity," the Muslim Clerics Association said in a statement. The U.S. military earlier on Monday said its forces had killed more than 41 insurgents in and around the villages of Latifiya and Yusifiya, south of the capital, on Saturday and Sunday. It also said a U.S. helicopter was shot down, killing two soldiers. Two separate U.S. statements on the air and ground raids did not mention any civilian deaths, but said several women and children were wounded. read in full… YET ANOTHER MY LAI MASSACRE IN LATIFIA "At 10 p.m. on Saturday [May 13, 2006] night, American occupation forces and Iraqi 'national guards' launched a heavy offensive in the area of (Shakh Wahid) near Latifia, South of Baghdad. The attack started with an intense strafing by American helicopters of the houses in the village causing the families to flee into the surrounding farm land and hide in irrigation ditches to escape from the fierce attack. Seven helicopters then landed American soldiers who pursued and killed on site the fleeing civilians, 25 of whom were martyred. They captured six civilians including two women, Israa' Mahmoud Hassan and Widad Ahmad Hassan and a child, Huda Haitham Mohammad Hassan, whose father was killed during the attack. The attack on the same area, again supported by Iraqi 'national guards', was renewed at 4 a.m. on Monday [May 15, 2006]. This resulted in more civilian arrests and their houses were used as sniper positions." read in full…

IRAQ WAR IMAGES UNCENSORED This collection of photos is the most complete we are aware of. Many of them are being made public here for the first time. Many of them are extremely gruesome. These must not be censored, because this is what a war really looks like, and that is something citizens need to see in order to cast informed ballots and lobby our representatives for or against war. Please copy all of these images onto your own website. No need to ask permission. Please simply give credit to AfterDowningStreet.org. This first category is the worst: posed war trophy photos. Photos 1-50. / Photos 51-73. Here are photos, uncensored, from Abu Ghraib. Photos 1-25. / Photos 26-54. Here are more startling torture photos from an unknown location. Photos 1-9. Here are photos of the war taken between 2003 and 2005. Photos 1-30 / Photos 31-60 / Photos 61-90 / Photos 91-120 / Photos 121-133. And these are early Iraq War photos. Photos 1-11. Here are photos from Fallujah. Photos 1-25 / Photos 26-50. And, finally, a few assorted photos. Photos 1-4. link "WEST POINT GRADUATES AGAINST THE WAR” We members of West Point Graduates Against The War stand appalled at the deceitful behavior of the government of the United States and, in particular, its widely known malefactors. Their lying, cheating, stealing, and rendition of evasive statements not only has demeaned these deceivers and our country, but they have placed vast numbers of innocent people in deadly peril as a direct result of their deceptions. We will not serve these lies, that is, we will not work for, be a servant to, provide for, assist, or promote the interests of this dishonorable administration. By remaining silent we tacitly serve; we are no longer silent. The illegal assault and occupation in Iraq has killed tens of thousands of innocents, both American, Iraqi, and others, causing incalculable damage to Iraq and the Iraqi people, as well as the reputation and honor of the United States of America. The behavior of this administration is particularly odious since it makes mockery of the code of conduct instilled in us at West Point. "A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do." This has provided us with a lifelong respect for the truth, and a sense of responsibility to do the right thing, even if that means admonishing our country's leadership. read in full… MISLEADING NEWS ITEM OF THE DAY From AP:

Rep. John Murtha, a Vietnam veteran first elected in the anti-war fever of 1974, says American troops will be brought home from Iraq by 2007.

Not just misleading, quadruply so. First, the clear implication that Murtha was somehow part of the "anti-war fever of 1974" (like, say, John Kerry) is simply nonsense; Murtha has been a hawk his entire life and as far as I know has supported every war the U.S. has fought. Second, what does "by 2007" mean? To me it means by the end of December, 2006--7 1/2 months from now. Murtha says "Either President Bush will bow to public opinion or Democrats will have won control of the House of Representatives and increased pressure on the White House." But the election isn't until November, so Murtha's theory would mean that within a month of the Democrats winning control of the House, they would have forced Bush to pull out troops; considering that they have already voted the money to keep the troops there past that time, that would be rather difficult to do. Third, because the implication that Democrats as a whole are somehow pushing for, or even support, withdrawal from Iraq, is simply untrue. And finally, there's the subtle distinction between "American troops will be brought home" and "all American troops will be brought home," which even Murtha doesn't advocate. Do 3,000 count? 30,000? For sure neither of those numbers will make much difference to the Iraqi people, nor to the families of the American troops who continue to be killed and wounded. Other than that, you can believe every word. Murtha is a Vietnam vet, and was first elected to Congress in 1974. :-) read in full... INSPECTOR: POLITICS STUNTED 'BIOTRAILER' FINDINGS A year after Bush administration claims about Iraqi ''bioweapons trailers'' were discredited by American experts, U.S. officials were still suppressing the findings, according to a senior member of the CIA-led inspection team. At one point, former U.N. arms inspector Rod Barton says, a CIA officer told him it was ''politically not possible'' to report that the White House claims were untrue. In the end, Barton says, he felt ''complicit in deceit.'' read in full… KILLING WITHOUT QUESTION According to an AP story, "A decorated soldier accused of killing his teenage wife about three months after returning from Iraq went on trial Monday, with prosecutors showing video of a blood-smeared kitchen and the woman's mutilated body." Given all the atrocities perpetrated by US forces in Iraq, this case is rather important because it betrays the ease with which the trained soldier can kill without question, even killing loved ones. This is not the first time, nor am afraid the last, we have heard of brutal murders committed by returning US soldiers. The problem is not simply the usual culprit - post-traumatic syndrome. Let us not neglect the fact that Iraq has become an open killing ground for US soldiers targeting Iraqis. The system of letting most US soldiers off the hook for killing armed, wounded, and innocent Iraqis creates an environment of irresponsibility. read in full… GROUNDHOG DAY IN IRAQ America's foreign policy elite seems incapable of understanding the limited uses of hard power. Until they do, we'll continue to get into wars like Iraq -- over and over again. As the architects of the Iraq war cast about for someone to blame for their debacle, they've turned their sights inward -- to the U.S. public. A lack of fortitude among the American people is to blame; only the folks back home can defeat our awe-inspiring military. Others, despairing of the Bush administration's "soft approach" to the Iraq insurgency -- and casting hungry eyes toward Tehran -- have adopted a feverish, almost genocidal view of the war. If only we had the stomach to bring more firepower to bear on the Iraqi people, they say, "victory" would be assured. In both formulations, the media is ultimately at fault for poisoning Americans' view of the war and sapping our national strength. But the war's advocates have no one to blame but themselves; we are in Iraq because of their delusion that raw military power can solve even the most complex transnational issues. They're incapable of grasping the importance of real moral legitimacy in modern warfare. Without that legitimacy, even the most powerful military in the world is likely to get dragged into a quagmire and, when it does, the public's weariness is entirely predictable. File it away as another error in post-war planning. read in full... STARTING OVER WHEN BUSH IS GONE Big Brother Bush has finally descended into the hell of public scorn and degradation. The once-mighty George 2, the “War President”, who towered over the global landscape after 9-11, has slumped into disrepute with the popularity-meter resting on empty. Oh dear. Just 29% approval. There’s no place to hide now. 6 years of demagoguery and deception have smashed the Orwellian façade and fueled the public rage. The country is on tender-hooks; one paltry incident away from a citizen revolt and massive political upheaval. Don’t believe it? The fury of the masses is silently brewing just below the surface. The specter of violence is quite real. Bush’s popularity is now somewhere below Nixon’s and just above venereal disease; the perfect spot for a draft-dodging poseur whose bravado cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Bush managed to surpass Nixon by claiming a 71% disapproval rating; a triumph that Hitler would have admired. Still, given the 3 years left on his tenure as president, there’s room for improvement in that category as well. read in full… >> BEYOND IRAQ WHERE IS THE GLOBAL OUTCRY AT THIS CONTINUING CRUELTY? Israel is 58 years old today. Israelis have already celebrated with barbecues and parties. And so they should, for they've pulled off an amazing stunt: the creation of a state for one people on the land of another - and at their massive expense - without incurring effective sanction. Some of those not celebrating, the Arab citizens of Israel, were also there, demonstrating to remind the world that Israel displaced 250,000 to take their land without compensation. Millions more Palestinians will demonstrate today in the refugee camps of Gaza, the West Bank and neighbouring Arab states against their expulsion by Israel. The world, however, is not listening, any more than it did in 1948, when most of Palestine's inhabitants were expelled to make way for Jewish immigrants. read in full… CHAVEZ: BUSH IS 'GENOCIDAL ASSASSIN' Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez branded US President George W Bush Monday a 'genocidal assassin' and the 'worst criminal in humanity' during a a private visit to London. During a visit hosted by Ken Livingstone, London's controversial mayor, Chavez described the Iraq war as the 'Vietnam of the 21st century' and said he did not believe Iran was trying to gain nuclear capability. Livingstone, standing next to the radical Venezuelan leader, said: 'I sometimes have views on George Bush - not too dissimilar from yours.' read in full… QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The US is really beyond reason now. It is beyond our imagining to know what they are going to do next and what they are prepared to do. There is only one comparison: Nazi Germany" -- Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel Prize of Literature, quoted in the Guardian, June 2003 (from The Gallery of "Bush = Hitler" Allusions)

# posted by zig : 5/16/2006 09:59:00 AM