BREMER ORDER 81: IRAQI FARMERS CANNOT USE SEEDS GROWN FROM U.S. SEEDS

Bremer Order 81: Part of it says that if Iraqi farmers use U.S. seeds, they cannot save seeds of their crop for replanting, but must buy new seeds. Order 81 says that U.S. companies have a patent on their seeds, and gives a monopoly on the seed supply to those companies. The part about “the protection of new varieties of plants” begins about 1/2 way into it. The part about “farmers shall be prohibited from re-using seeds of protected varieties” is about 3/4 way into it.
http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2004/Iraq-Plant-Variety-Law26apr04.htm

"Bremer... Order 81 regarding “Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety... (says) the seeds that farmers are now allowed to plant--“protected” crop varieties brought into Iraq by transnational corporations in the name of agricultural reconstruction--will be the property of the corporations... This means that Iraqi farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for replanting seeds of any plant variety registered under the plant variety provisions of the new patent law...”
http://www.fpif.org/papers/0411grain.html

"... Paul Bremer III... left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them is Order 81 on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety"... This new law means that Iraqi farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting seeds of any plant variety registered under the plant variety provisions of the new patent law. This deprives farmers what they and many others worldwide claim as their inherent right to save and replant seeds... What it will actually do is facilitate the penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical - the corporate giants that control seed trade across the globe. Eliminating competition from farmers is a prerequisite for these companies to open up operations in Iraq, which the new law has achieved..."
"... Iraq has the potential to feed itself. But instead of developing this capacity, the US has shaped the future of Iraq's food and farming to serve the interests of US corporations... food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has already been made near impossible by these new regulations. Iraq's freedom and sovereignty will remain questionable for as long as Iraqis do not have control over what they sow, grow, reap and eat."
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6

SILENCE OF CONSENT

"... The Iraqi people are armed... They have the knowledge and the means to mount their own resistance, quietly going about the grim business of penetrating the insurgency and killing those who need killing... But the Iraqi people have chosen to screen the insurgency with the silence of their weapons and the silence of their voices.... The silence of the armed is the silence of consent... Liberators go home. Conquerors stay. For the sake of two nations, America should withdraw from Iraq."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.iraq30nov30,1,2864270.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines

IRAQ HEALTH SYSTEM WORSE

"Iraq's health system is in a far worse condition than before the war, a British medical charity says... poor sanitation in many hospitals, shortages of drugs and qualified staff and huge gaps in services for mothers and children.... Medact accuses the UK and US governments and Iraqi authorities of denying "the true extent of harm" to Iraq's civilians. It also says health relief and reconstruction efforts have been bungled through mismanagement and corruption..."

"However, an official at the Iraqi health ministry, Dr Shakir al-Ainachi, said that in the past year the interim government had made a lot of progress in repairing the health care system. He said government warehouses were full of medical supplies and were being distributed by the lorryload every day."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4054105.stm

FIGHTING IN FALLUJAH AFTER 3 WEEKS

"The Red Crescent found that Fallujah is still under siege, three weeks after U.S. troops launched their... assault on the city, said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)... doctors' and nurses' access inside the city is restricted because of the fighting... The water station is not working because there is nonstop fighting around it. There are no employees in the station... The agency can not enter deep inside Fallujah because it is not able to get minimum security guarantees form the fighting parties..."
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_ID=5845

ASSAULT ON MOSUL INEVITABLE

"Najaf was bombed in August. Samarra was bombed in September. Sadr City was bombed in October. Fallujah was bombed in November. Mosul may be bombed in December... This is the calendar in the runup to the Iraqi elections... Baghdad sources tell Asia Times Online an American assault on Mosul - a city of 1 million - is inevitable. Allawi does not control even a kebab stand in multi-ethnic Mosul. The west bank of the Tigris is under total control of the resistance. The east bank is controlled by both Kurdish political parties and their peshmergas (paramilitaries). And the Turkoman minority controls a few sectors inside the city. There's a mini civil war already going on. Mosul is already the Iraqi Sarajevo..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK25Ak04.html

INTERVIEW WITH THE LATE MARGARET HASSAN ON WATER (October 2002)

"... how was it possible that more than a decade after the previous US invasion, the water system of Iraq was not yet functioning?... Margaret confirmed to me that the machinations of the US-dominated UN Sanctions Committee had denied and delayed many items indispensable for the rehabilitation of Iraq's water system... Margaret handed me a section of pipe of huge diameter. The pipe, however, was so clogged that only a trickle of water could pass through it. What prevented the necessary maintenance of such water treatment pipes? Margaret explained that any items which the Sanctions Committee did, from time to time, permit to be imported were paid for in hard currency generated by the Oil for Food programme. Nevertheless, Iraq was required by the US-dominated UN to pay 100 per cent of the cost of these shipments at the border, before being allowed to inspect even these life-saving articles for usability or completeness. And, according to Margaret, the shipments were almost invariably incomplete and of unusable quality. Such cruelty by officials of my own country shattered me..."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/718/re2.htm

PROBLEMS WITH RESERVES

"... a California Army National Guard battalion preparing for deployment to Iraq said this week that they were under strict lockdown and being treated like prisoners rather than soldiers... Lt. Col. Michael Hubbard of Ft. Bliss said the military must confine the soldiers largely to (base) to ensure that their training is complete... a National Guard battalion undergoing accelerated training at Ft. Dix, N.J., was confined to barracks for two weeks after 13 soldiers reportedly went AWOL to see family before shipping out for Iraq... more than two dozen Army reservists in Iraq refused to drive a fuel convoy to a town north of Baghdad after arguing that the trucks they had been given were not armored for combat duty..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-guard25nov25,1,1153456.story

EFFECT OF IRAQ ON FUTURE OF U.S.

"Seymour Hersh... (who wrote) My Lai in Vietnam, a story he broke as a free-lance reporter, and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, a story he broke for The New Yorker... spoke last week at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass.."

"...Fallujah... is the ancient center of Sunni Wahaabism - the state religion of Saudi Arabia. Now Bush has guaranteed that the Saudi princes, no matter what they say, will be giving money to the insurgents... The United States cannot afford this endless war... The dollar is already falling against the Euro, and the Chinese and Japanese hold trillions of dollars of U.S. debt. Soon China and Russia will start buying oil in Euros. They'll stop buying American in Europe because they hate us so much - Disney in Paris is already going down. Large American corporations doing business abroad are going down... The dollar will fall. Billionaires are now telling other billionaires to get out of the stock market and buy foreign currency and stocks... The market will crash..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1126-10.htm

PENTAGON REPORT SAYS U.S. HAS FAILED TO EXPLAIN ACTIONS TO MUSLIM WORLD

"... a high level report by a Pentagon advisory board... was presented on September 23, but has just been released publicly...

"In stark contrast to the Cold War, the United States today is not seeking to contain a threatening state empire, but rather seeking to convert a broad movement within Islamic civilization to accept the value structure of Western Modernity -- an agenda hidden within the official rubric of a 'war on terrorism. Today we reflexively compare Muslim 'masses' to those oppressed under Soviet rule. This is a strategic mistake. There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-US groundswell among Muslim societies -- except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the US so determinedly promotes and defends."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1125-03.htm

DOES ZARQAWI EXIST?

"... I didn't know of Al-Zarkawi, didn't even think that such person exists!! Dad suggests that he's just an imaginary person made by the Americans to make the resistance look worse! ... Believe me, faking someone exists is so easy nowadays, especially with the technology we have!
- Blogger in Mosul, "A Star From Mosul", Wednesday, November 24, 2004
http://astarfrommosul.blogspot.com/

"... not a single source, anywhere, claims to have actually seen "Zarqawi" since late 2001 in Afghanistan. Ask the Pentagon. Ask the CIA. Ask the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No one, on the record, is able to independently verify that "Zarqawi" actually exists. There are no photos - only that same CIA-owned black and white. The CIA doesn't even know how tall or how fat "Zarqawi" is. All the literature on "Zarqawi" since late 2001 springs from dubious "confessions" by prisoners and "statements" by all sorts of people claiming to be "Zarqawi"... he may have been created by US military intelligence..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ15Ak02.html

"... American counter-terrorism officials are ignoring a wide array of fundamentalist groups at work in Iraq and surrounding countries in their effort to portray all terrorist activity in Iraq as the handiwork of a single mastermind... America needs to create a serious public enemy who is not Iraqi so they can claim Iraqis aren't responsible for the resistance..."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/11/01/zarqawis_role_in_iraq_overstated_analysts_say?mode=PF

BAATHISTS REMOVED FROM SECURITY FORCES

The Iraqi government is reviving its de-Baathification policy after former members of Saddam Hussein's... regime have reportedly managed to sneak back into key positions in the security apparatus. "We have evidence that Baathist elements have infiltrated the national guard, police and interior ministry, and that some of them are leaking information to terrorists."... cited as an example, the recent arrest of the head of security for the interim government headquarters in the Green Zone..."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=12001

CHEMICAL WEAPONS LAB IN FALLUJAH

"... an Iraqi minister claimed that a chemical weapons laboratory was found in Fallujah. "Soldiers from the Iraqi National Guard found a chemical laboratory that was used to prepare deadly explosives and poisons," Minister of State Kassim Daoud said. "They also found in the lab, booklets and instructions on how to make bombs and poisons. They even talked about the production of anthrax."

"... Hans Blix, former UN chief weapons inspector, doubts Iraq chemical laboratory found... "Let's see what the chemicals are," Mr. Blix said, after an Iraqi minister claimed on Thursday that a chemical bomb factory was found in Fallujah. "Many of these stories evaporate when they are looked at more closely," he said. "If there were to be found something, we would all be surprised."

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_ID=5766

PROPHET ARRIVES

"... military sources report the American “Prophet” arrives in Baghdad. Though untried in battle conditions, “Prophet” is hailed as the most advanced and pro-active electronic intelligence system ever provided ground commanders in the field. It displays on their laptops enemy movements up to 150km away and is capable of electronically attacking hostile forces.... 3rd Infantry Division’s “units of action” due for shipment to Iraq will be equipped with the first unmanned vehicles of the Prophet collection system..."
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=942

ALMOST 21,000 U.S. CASUALTIES

"... As of Tuesday, 20,802 troops have been treated at Landstuhl from injuries received in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom..".
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25671

FALLUJAH CIVILIANS WHO REMAINED WERE CONSIDERED AS INSURGENTS

"Allegations of widespread abuse by US forces in Fallujah, including the killing of unarmed civilians and the targeting of a hospital in an attack, have been made by people who have escaped from the city.... a large number of people including children were killed by American snipers... in one case - that of the death of a family of seven, including a three-month baby - the American authorities have admitted responsibility and offered compensation..."

"... refugees from Fallujah describe a situation of extreme violence in which remaining civilians in the city, who have been told by the Americans to leave, appeared to have been seen as complicit in the insurgency... "One of things we noticed the most were the numbers of people killed by American snipers. They were not just men but women and some children as well. The youngest one I saw was a four-year-old boy. Almost all these people had been shot in the head, chest or neck. Anyone in the street was regarded by the Americans as the enemy. "I was trying to get to my uncle's house, waving a piece of white cloth as we had been advised when they started shooting at me. I saw two men being shot. They were just ordinary people."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=586045

ELECTIONS AND THE OCCUPATION

"... The Iraqi elections are designed to inflate the currently non-existent legitimacy of the Allawi regime by co-opting Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties, which are led mostly by long-time exiles. In this scenario, the new regime would technically end the occupation and "request" the U.S. to stay until the country is "stabilized," which means permanently, i.e. fulfilling the long-term agenda of the neo-conservatives, now entrenched more deeply than ever at the pinnacles of power. While it is theoretically possible... that the January election might bring to power a Shiite-led coalition that would ask the U.S. to withdraw troops, that is hardly the intent. The U.S. still plans to permanently remake a new Iraq, plans that include American military bases, a privatized market economy, ready access to oil, a prime target for Western and, especially Christian, proselytizing in the region..."
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/20571/

HUMANITARIAN AID IN IRAQ

"... In our work as Iraq country representatives for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), we've witnessed the deterioration of Iraqi society since the US-led invasion in 2003. An already crippled society has spiraled into chaos. Basic security, fundamental infrastructure, and rudimentary medical care have deteriorated under coalition control - a complete contradiction of the obligations of an occupying force as specified by the Geneva Conventions..."

"US efforts at reconstruction and relief... are virtually indistinguishable from military and political actions. A contractor in an armored Humvee, surrounded by armed guards, does not look like someone who has come to help. The blurring of distinctions between political action and true humanitarian work in Iraq has led to one of the greatest tragedies of all: the crippling - if not complete demise - of the international aid community there..."

"At the very moment when Iraqis most desperately need clean water, medical supplies, schools, and housing, the people best equipped to answer those needs without any political agenda are being forced to flee because chaos reigns... We see clearly that the choice to deal with conflict by violent force only creates more violence. Reconstruction has not occurred. Civil society has not been restored... Shock and awe, followed by chaos and increasing militarization, is a failure. We must find a different strategy for Iraq."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1123/p07s02-coop.htm

SUCCESSFUL OPERATION IN MOSUL

"... U.S. forces have carried out raids across Iraq, sometimes netting big targets and gathering key intelligence to help them combat the sort of mounting insurgency that swept through Mosul this month, routing the police force... Dozens of soldiers rammed the white gates of a well-to-do home in central Mosul... the operation was declared a success.... "I feel bad that we didn't get the guy we were looking for," Lackey said. "But you know what, just his knowing that we've been by and that we're looking for him is likely to stop him getting up to his activities."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6898661

MAP OF EXTENT OF RESISTANCE VIOLENCE - Nov 19, 2004
hehttp://healingiraq.blogspot.com/nov_violence2.JPG
-- From blog "Healing Iraq" at http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/

WILLY PETE APPEARS IN FALLUJAH

Effects of "Willy Peter" (white phosphorous):
http://webpages.charter.net/dmarin/cbwbeta/wp.htm

"... We Americans pioneered the use of weaponized "Willy Peter," as GIs call it. Using Willy Peter, my dad's generation barbecued tens of thousands of Japanese. Resembling pelletized napalm, Willy Peter burns so hot that if a glob lands on you it instantly melts your skin and sticks to you. Following gravity, it will burn right through your body and come out the other side..."
http://www.theava.com/03/1119-protection.html

“They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud,” he said, having just arrived yesterday, “Then small pieces fell from the air with long tails of smoke behind them. These exploded on the ground with large fires that burnt for half an hour. They used these near the train tracks. You could hear these dropped from a large airplane and the bombs were the size of a tank. When anyone touched those fires, their body burned for hours.”
hehttp://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/article.php?id=913re

"Usually we keep the gloves on. For this operation, we took the gloves off." Some artillery guns fired white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Insurgents reported being attacked with a substance that melted their skin, a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns... a physician at a regional hospital, said, "The corpses of the mujahedeen which we received were burned, and some corpses were melted."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35979-2004Nov9_2.html
and
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/10/MNG6P9P3ER1.DTL

IRAQI CHILD MALNUTRITION EQUALS BURUNDI, WORSE THAN UGANDA AND HAITI

"Acute malnutrition among young children in Iraq has nearly doubled since the United States led an invasion of the country 20 months ago, according to surveys by the United Nations, aid agencies and the interim Iraqi government.... roughly 400,000 Iraqi children suffering from "wasting," a condition that takes in chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein. Iraq's child malnutrition rate now roughly equals that of Burundi, an African nation torn by more than a decade of war. It is worse than rates in Uganda and Haiti..."
http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/196420-4126-010.html

PROTESTS AGAINST U.S. ATTACK ON FALLUJAH

"... World revulsion against the US attack on Fallujah reached a crescendo during the past five days, with significant street protests breaking out in... Turkey, Palestine and Libya in the region, and Chile..."
Palestine
http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=2588677
Libya
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041120-100834-7655r.htm
Turkey
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?ID=34281
Pakistan
http://www.dawn.com/2004/11/20/nat29.htm

ZARQAWI WAS NOT THE MAIN MAN IN FALLUJAH

"... rebel fighters and others who escaped the U.S. assault on Fallujah say the real power there was wielded by Omar Hussein Hadid, technically Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's underling but in fact the Iraqi face that allowed al-Zarqawi to remain there. "Inside Fallujah, Omar was the leader. Even Abu Musab couldn't say no to him"... Hadid's family and close rebel associates say Hadid survived the U.S. assault and is hiding in another town, still alive, still fighting, and still in charge."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10240762.htm

VIEWS OF SECURITY CONSULTANTS IN IRAQ

"... the coming months will bring several more Fallujah-like fights. "It has evolved into one big vendetta -- a blood feud between us and the Sunnis".
"We are without allies amongst the Iraqi populace. Across Baghdad, Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah, Salman Pak, Baqubah, Balad, Taji, Baiji, Ramadi and just about everywhere else you can name, the people absolutely hate us. . . . The Iraqi people have not bought into what the Americans are selling, and no amount of military activity is going to change this fact."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55407-2004Nov16?language=printer

FOUR INSURGENT GROUPS

1. The Jihadis المجاهدين: They resist the foreign occupation, to protect their country from it according to a religious order. Those are known of warning the people before attacking a certain region, they make sure that they know that in this time they'll come. And they've announced, more than once, and in different places in Mosul, especially in mosques, that they're not attacking any of the Iraqi Police, the Iraqi army, and the civilians.. Their only aim is the occupation troops.

2. The criminals and robbers that Saddam has released before the war: Saddam has used to release the criminals and robbers from the Iraqi prisons every while. We see 'em on TV praising him and admiring him after their release!! They're a bunch of people who broke the law, got loosed in the streets. With no real authority in Iraq, and no job for them to gain their living, they decided to make some gangs. The aim is to steal (houses, shops, cars and government buildings!) and to kidnap innocent people in order to get money in return!!

3. The Ba'athis, the Fedayeen and part of the soldiers of the old Iraqi army: Those people found themselves without jobs after the war and with no source of money. So, they made some groups under the name of RESISTANCE. The aim is to make people feel that other regime after Saddam is worse than Saddam's, and the situation after Saddam Hussein is going from BAD to WORSE. So, they attack the policemen, and the Iraqi army and the government buildings for this aim!

4. The vandals who work for foreign countries (eg. America, Israel, Iran, Kuwait.. Or any other neighboring country): Their only aim is to make a status of horror and untrust, to threat the university teachers, doctors and the other valuable citizens of Iraq to make them go out of Iraq, they might even kill some of them. And to destroy the main power sources of Iraq, like oil pipelines, electricity stations and government's buildings.

-- By a school girl in Mosul who writes the blog "A Star from Mosul", Sunday, November 21, 2004
http://astarfrommosul.blogspot.com/

SECURITY POORER AFTER FALLUJAH

"... Security in the so-called Sunni Triangle, as well as the northern city of Mosul, is poorer than it was six weeks ago, said William Taylor, director of the reconstruction office at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad... In cities such as Baghdad, Fallouja, Ramadi, Samarra and Mosul, security "is worse today than it was, and we are having greater difficulties" than six weeks ago, said Taylor..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-rebuild20nov20,1,2518283.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

COST OF REBUILDING CITIES
Najaf - $500 Million for partial destruction, bogged down
Fallujah - Only $200 Million for complete destruction of much larger city

"... a coordination group of the American forces, civil agencies, and the Iraqi government, will supervise a budget of $200 million dedicated for rebuilding Fallujah; whereas I would like to remind that the reconstruction of Najaf was given a budget of $500 million. How could we explain the difference, when the destruction was partial in Najaf, whereas it is complete in Fallujah..."
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/OPED/11-2004/Article-20041118-4c64544f-c0a8-10ed-006c-75ed71dfa517/story.html

"... The reconstruction effort in Fallouja will require... U.S. funds to compensate residents for damaged property and to rebuild large parts of the city damaged by weeks of U.S. airstrikes and street-by-street fighting. The project seems likely to dwarf the large-scale rebuilding scheme in the southern city of Najaf, where damage was estimated at $500 million after a Marine offensive in August ousted Shiite Muslim militiamen..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-111504rebuild_lat,0,6690749.story?coll=la-home-headlines

"... relief aid was beginning to flow into Falluja, and... engineers were now in the city, examining how to restore electricity. Military programs for disbursing aid and restoring infrastructure have bogged down in other cities, like Najaf, where American-led assaults caused huge damage..."
http://nytimes.com/2004/11/16/international/middleeast/16cnd-iraq.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5094&en=556b47999fa314da&hp&ex=1100667600&partner=homepage

RAID ON SUNNI MOSQUE IN BAGHDAD

"U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least four and wounding up to 20 worshippers... about 50 U.S. soldiers with 20 Iraqi National Guardsmen (ING) entered the mosque, a witness reported... Abu Talat told IPS on phone from within the mosque while the raid was in progress. Talat gave his account over short phone calls. He said he was witnessing a horrific scene. Everyone starting yelling 'Allahu Akbar' (God is the greatest) because they were frightened. Then the soldiers started shooting the people praying... Women and children were sobbing... We were here praying and now there are 50 here with their guns on us. They are holding our heads to the ground, and everyone is in chaos. This is the worst situation possible. They cannot see me talking to you. They are roughing up a blind man now.” Pieces of brain were splattered on one of the walls inside the mosque while large blood stains covered carpets at several places."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1119-02.htm
and
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000125.php#more

IF SUNNIS BOYCOTT THE ELECTIONS...

"... only one way to avoid disaster. This would be some sort of emergency decree by the current government that sets aside, say, 20% of seats in parliament for the Sunni Arabs. This procedure would seat Sunni Arab candidates in order of the popularity of their lists and in order of their rank within the lists on which they run... Remember, the first thing the new parliament will do is craft a permanent constitution. You want Sunni Arabs sitting at that table, or else..."
Juan Cole in Informed Comment, Friday, November 19, 2004
http://www.juancole.com/

FALLUJAH AND THE DRAFT

"... the US simply does not have enough troops to hold Fallujah and also do all the other fighting that is now necessary... the attack on Fallujah has strengthened the resistance and weakened the US occupation.. the only remedy... is a vast increase in the number of US troops in Iraq. And that means a draft in the United States."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK20Ak01.html

MAJOR AID ORGANIZATION QUITS

"... One of the few remaining aid agencies in Iraq is pulling out of the country. World Vision announced it was ending operations, following the murder of its senior manager in Iraq, and attacks on other aid workers. World Vision has been in Iraq for 18 months, and says it has helped about 600,000 people, by improving schools, hospitals, clinics, and water supplies..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4025171.stm

TROOP ROTATIONS TO BE DELAYED FOR ELECTIONS

"... the US military is now planning to boost combat forces to secure the country for elections in January... expand(ing) the force by thousands of GIs in coming weeks by delaying the departure of more experienced units from Iraq as fresh troops rotate in... by overlapping new arrivals with others whose tours would be extended as large units of 20,000 to 30,000 troops rotate..."
http://search.csmonitor.com/2004/1119/p03s01-usmi.html

FALLUJAH PULVERIZED

"... Almost all of the city has been pulverized, and the biggest question facing American and Iraqi officials is how residents will react to seeing the vast swaths of destruction.... American commanders say rebuilding efforts will win over the Fallujans, but reconstruction efforts by the Americans in other urban battle zones in Iraq, like Najaf, have stumbled badly... the Iraqi interior minister, said at a news conference in Baghdad that families who fled would receive food rations and 150,000 dinars, or about $110, on their return..."
http://nytimes.com/2004/11/18/international/middleeast/18cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1100840400&en=acd7ab8762e092fc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

WHAT DO THE IRAQIS THINK OF FALLUJAH?

"... the assault on Falluja has given the Iraqi people a lot to look at, and a lot to think about. Some 200,000 people -- the great majority of Falluja's population of some 300,000 -- were driven out of their city by news of the imminent attack and the US bombardment. No agency of government, US or Iraqi, which turned off the city's water and electricity in preparation for the assault, offered assistance. Nor did the United Nations Refugee Agency or any other representative of the international community appear. And where are the people now? And what stories are the expelled 200,000 telling the millions of Iraqis among whom they are now mixing? We don't know. No one seems to be interested...."
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1118-31.htm

WHO KILLED MARGARET HASSAN?

"... In the background of these appalling pictures, there were none of the usual Islamic banners. There were none of the usual armed and hooded men. There were no Qur'anic recitations. And when it percolated through to Fallujah and Ramadi that the mere act of kidnapping Hassan was close to heresy, the combined resistance groups of Fallujah... demanded her release. So, incredibly, did Abu Musab al-Zarqawi... Other abducted women were freed when their captors recognised their innocence. But not Margaret Hassan, even though she spoke fluent Arabic and could explain her work to her captors in their own language.

"If anyone doubted the murderous nature of the insurgents, what better way to prove their viciousness than to produce evidence of Margaret Hassan's murder? What more ruthless way could there be of demonstrating to the world that the US and Interim Prime Minister Iyad Alawi's tinpot army were fighting "evil" in Fallujah and the other Iraqi cities?

"Even in the topsy-turvy world of Iraq, nobody is suggesting that people associated with the government of Mr Allawi had a hand in Margaret Hassan's death. Iraq, after all, is awash with up to 20 insurgent groups but also with rival gangs of criminals seeking to extort money from hostage-taking. But still the question has to be answered: who killed Margaret Hassan?"

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=132&fArticleId=2302694

U.S. SOWING DRAGONS' TEETH

"... For every Iraqi killed, either in Fallujah or overall, there are five, maybe 10, maybe 20 sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, parents, children. For every dead Iraqi there may be 20 people who are now committed to a blood feud... the US forces may have sown dragons' teeth. In Greek mythology, dragons' teeth, once planted, grow into fully-armed warriors... the British forces, mainly deployed in the south of the country, have striven to avoid sowing seeds of longer-term discord..."
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=583641

THE SOLDIER WHO KILLED THE WOUNDED IRAQI

"... The legal basis for the Fallujah operation, and thus the case against the soldier involved, is far from clear. What is happening in Iraq...

(A) Could be classed as internal armed conflict, and therefore still subject to the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Those conventions say that a combatant who has surrendered or is rendered hors de combat by sickness, wounds or any other cause must be treated humanely and is protected, in particular, against "murder of all kinds". If that is the case, whatever the mitigating circumstances, the Marine could be tried for a war crime.

(B) Alternatively, defeating the "insurgency" (could be) a matter for internal Iraqi law. The US forces are a form of military aid to the civil power - just like the British Army in Northern Ireland. The latter were always subject to civilian law. Therefore, the Marine's action ought to be dealt with under the Iraqi criminal code. In that case, most lawyers would agree there is a prima facie case of murder. If the investigation finds the soldier thought the dead man was about to detonate a grenade, that would be mitigation - but not defence.

The coalition cannot have it both ways. Either this is an armed conflict, in which case the 1949 Geneva Conventions apply, or else they are giving aid to the provisional Iraqi government, in which case they must be subject to its laws. It seems they want neither...."

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=583641

SSS AND DEPT OF EDUCATION COMPARING REGISTRATION RECORDS

"With continuing war in Iraq and U.S. armed forces dispersed to so many other locations... The Selective Service System (SSS) and the U.S. Department of Education now are gearing up to compare their computer records, to make sure all men between the ages of 18 and 25 who are required to register for a military draft have done so. The SSS and the education department will begin comparing their lists on Jan. 1, 2005, according to a memo authored by Jack Martin, acting Selective Service director... the computer records check would help Selective Service with its compliance rates..."
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_more.php?id=62232_0_10_0_C

COUNTERINSURGENCY STRATEGY - TAKE AWAY THE WATER

"... the Pentagon still has not been able to put an Iraqi army in place... the backup plan has been to give US troops a counterinsurgency field manual... in counterinsurgency "success does not require attacking the enemy directly but destroying the environment, physical and social, that supports it. Take away the water and the fish will die..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK18Ak03.html

FALLUJAH CIVILIAN CASUALTIES UNUSUALLY LOW

"... The number of Iraqi casualties has not been officially announced. The Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, has said he does not believe any civilians were killed in the offensive, which has left more than 1,200 insurgents dead, according to a Reuters report.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/16/international/middleeast/16cnd-fall.html?oref=login

REPORT FROM MOSUL

From the blog "A Star in Mosul", by a precocious computer-savvy westernized schoolgirl who was sooo not critical until her own city was attacked and people she knew were killed...

“... There's a car in front of our house, a white Volvo.. The Americans have killed the driver!! The door is opened and the car is parked in the middle of the street with a lake of blood under it...
"... You can't just worn us and tell us to leave Mosul before you destroy it, what will happen if we left and came back to see the house gone!! Can we start from ZERO again!! So many won't be able to leave, as it happened in Falloja, some would prefer to die in pride than to live in shame (And that's not stupidity, that's reality). Some don't have transportation, or the money to leave...
"Please don't just assume that we left and start shooting and destroying! Can't you get rid of few but by killing many others.. Here you went, killed everybody in Falloja, why? To get rid of Al-Zarkawy. Did you get rid of him? Apparently not!!.."

A Star in Mosul
Monday, November 15, 2004
http://astarfrommosul.blogspot.com/

800 CIVILIAN DEATHS OUT OF 50,000 IN FALLUJAH - U.S. BLOCKS RED CROSS

"... a high-ranking official with the Red Cross in Baghdad told IPS that ”at least 800 civilians” have been killed in Fallujah so far... His estimate is based on reports from Red Crescent aid workers stationed around the embattled city, from residents within the city and from refugees... The official estimated that at least 50,000 residents remain trapped within the city. They were too poor to leave, lacked friends or family outside the city and therefore had nowhere to go, or they simply had not had enough time to escape before the siege began."

"... both Red Cross and Iraqi Red Crescent relief teams had asked the U.S. military in Fallujah to take in medical supplies to people trapped in the city, but their repeated requests had been turned down. A convoy of relief supplies from both relief organisations continues to wait on the outskirts of the city for military permission to enter..."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1116-04.htm

ANOTHER FALLUJAH IN MOSUL

"Mosul was about to be lost," Brigadier Anwar Dolan, commander of the ING brigade in Suleimania in the Kurdish-controlled north, said... (so) outside the city, the American-ING forces were mobilising for what some military officials promise would be another Falluja-type assault... Because Mosul is a much larger city than Falluja and its Arab populace is showing sympathy for the insurgents, the fighting there could be more bloody than in Fallujah..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=582912

FALLUJAH IN RUINS

"... a shattered landscape of gutted buildings, crushed cars and charred bodies.... utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles down, power and phone lines hanging slack and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets... rotting corpses being piled up and thousands still trapped inside their homes, many of them wounded and without access to food, water or medical aid..."

"... The US Defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed last week that Iraqi civilians had been warned how to avoid injury. "Innocent civilians in that city have all the guidance they need as to how they can avoid getting into trouble. There aren't going to be large numbers of civilians killed and certainly not by US forces," he said.... Prime minister Iyad Allawi said there had been no civilian casualties during the battle for Fallujah, contradicting accounts from residents inside the city..."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=582915

ELECTIONS COULD BE DELAYED

"Iraq's deputy prime minister has indicated for the first time that the much-heralded elections due in January could be derailed by the country's violent insurgency. Barham Salih said the authorities were determined to hold the vote, but admitted they would have to assess the security situation nearer the time..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1351481,00.html

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN FALLUJAH

"The full cost of the battle of Falluja emerged last night as large numbers of wounded civilians were evacuated to hospitals in Baghdad ... The horrific conditions for those who remained in the city have begun to emerge in the last 24 hours as it became clear that US military claims of 'precision' targeting of insurgent positions were false.... civilian injuries were caused by the massive firepower directed on to city neighbourhoods during the battle.... the Red Crescent says people have been bleeding to death for lack of medical attention... The fears of large numbers of civilian injured have raised fresh warnings that the suffering in Falluja will be used to rally insurgents across northern Iraq..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1350926,00.html

ARAB NEWS REPORTS ON FALLUJAH AND MOSUL

"Fallujah is getting out of the U.S. control... The U.S. is facing tough resistance and starting to loose control over the city unlike previous claims that the U.S. military has managed to control about 80 percent of the city..."
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=5684

"... Inside Fallujah, intense fighting erupted in the north-west of the city, just as US commanders were declaring that they had trapped resistance fighters in the southern end and were about to launch a final assault to take control... A little later the American headquarters inside Fallujah came under repeated fire, leading to US tanks and armored cars heading back into areas which US forces had claimed to be firmly under control..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=582476

"Iraqi insurgents control Mosul... Insurgents appear to have free reign of streets in Mosul, (but) US forces insist restive city is under control..."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=11869

ISLAMIST GROUPS VOW TO SPREAD RESISTANCE

"Islamist groups... vowed in a video obtained on Saturday to take their battle in the rebel city of Falluja to all corners of Iraq... "In response to the crimes and mass annihilation the Muslims of Falluja are facing, the groups Qaeda Organization of Jihad in Iraq, the Islamic Army, the 1920 Revolution Brigades ... announce the spread of the battle to all governorates and parts of Iraq."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=51KS5VJ1HCXCICRBAEKSFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=6804960

AFTER U.S. ELECTION, HUNGARY DECIDES TO WITHDRAW TROOPS BY MARCH

"... The interim Iraqi government recently asked Hungary to maintain its troop presence for about another year... Defense Minister Ferenc Juhasz had said the government would await the outcome of the U.S. presidential election before making a decision about Iraq... the country's new prime minister said Wednesday that Hungary will withdraw its 300 non-combat troops from Iraq by March 31... because staying longer would be an "impossibility."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1103-05.htm

NETHERLANDS ALSO TO WITHDRAW BY MARCH

"The 1350 Dutch troops in Iraq will be brought home as planned in March, the Defence Ministry said..."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AD5B64FC-824B-42F8-A745-E8EAA56395ED.htm

SHIITE LEADER OUT OF ELECTIONS IF CITIES UNDER ATTACK (Nov 13)

"... A senior aide to Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric who has already led two uprisings against the Americans, said Saturday that Mr. Sadr would not take part in elections scheduled for January as long as "Iraqi cities are under attack."
http://nytimes.com/2004/11/14/international/middleeast/14falluja.html?hp&ex=1100408400&en=9b2efb7224c39d38&ei=5094&partner=homepage


SUNNI PARTY QUITS THE GOVERNMENT, BOYCOTTS ELECTIONS (Nov 9)

"Iraq's official Sunni Muslim political party quit the US-backed government Tuesday in protest over the assault on Fallujah..."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=11832

"A powerful group of Sunni Muslim clerics called Tuesday for a boycott of national elections set for late January to protest the U.S.-led attack against the Sunni insurgent stronghold Fallujah... Iraqi officials have expressed concern that a lack of Sunni participation would raise question about the legitimacy of the vote."
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=238258

RESISTANCE IN BAGHDAD

"... (There is an) almost impenetrable media blackout imposed by the Pentagon... all mainstream Fallujah war "news" comes from embedded media censored by the Pentagon... the resistance now controls parts of Baghdad neighborhoods, such as al-Dora, Abu Ghraib and Amiriyah.. there's no electricity in the Aadhamiyah neighborhood - one of the key centers of the resistance, as well as in most of Baghdad. The lines outside gas stations stretch for as long as four kilometers. Water has been cut off. Many shops are closed. And significantly, "the Green Zone continues to be bombed by mortars every day, sometimes for extended periods of time"; and "the US base in the old Saddam palace in Aadhamiyah has been mortared every single night now for at least a week straight".
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK13Ak04.html

FUTURE OF THE RESISTANCE

"For an insight into the dynamics of the resistance, Asia Times Online spoke to Pakistan's retired former director general of Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant General Hamid Gul. He was one of the masterminds of the International Muslim Brigade, a force raised in Afghanistan to fuel the independence movements of Muslim-occupied territories. This later evolved into Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front. Gul spoke to Asia Times Online by telephone from Rawalpindi...."

ATol: It is inevitable that US-led forces will ultimately prevail in Fallujah. What will the resistance do next?

Gul: Yes you are right, the present resistance in Fallujah obviously cannot last long in front of US military might... (but) Muslim youths will see their success in military struggles and I see an emergence of a "Muslim International" in which Iraq will be the center...

ATol: How big could the resistance be?

Gul: About 40,000 to 50,000, including former Ba'ath Party members, Fidayeens, other military and para-military forces, and foreign fighters. In addition, the number of foreign fighters will grow immensely and Iraq will be the hub of an anti-US movement. You know, there is a new phenomena emerging in which a man is himself a weapon. No military can withstand this. You have to keep in mind the nature of Arab fighters. They do not surrender or retreat easily. ... So, I think, the resistance movement will increase multifold in the coming weeks.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK13Ak01.html

ASSISTING THE INTERIM GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE INSURGENCY

"... what Iraq needs at the minimum is a stable government. This government need not be democratic, it need not be pro-American, it doesn't even need to be popular or nice. If the Iraqi insurgency showed any interest or ability to actually be this government, then power should be turned over to them. This is not the case, and before the American public grows tired of this mess (as it will eventually), it is wise that American military forces assist the Iraqi interim government, which does have the interest to govern all of Iraq, to assert control within its borders."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK12Ak03.html

FALLUJAH CASUALTIES

"At least 600 Iraqi fighters have been killed in the U.S.-led deadly offensive in Fallujah, the U.S. military estimates... About 13 U.S. soldiers and Marines have been killed so far in the Fallujah assault, according to military reports.. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany is expecting to receive not less than 90 wounded U.S. troops on Thursday. The center said it has received earlier this week another 125 soldiers..."
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=5404

RELIGIONS AT WAR

"... Evangelical Marines prepare to battle barbarians... Outside Fallujah, 35 marines swayed to Christian rock music and asked Jesus Christ to protect them... waved their hands in the air... and chanted heavy metal-flavoured lyrics in praise of Christ..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1107-02.htm

A rosary hangs from a tank's machine gun at Fallujah.
And resistance fighters shout "God is Great" in a video of convoys being attacked.

MORE TROOPS NEEDED

"... The French failed to hold Algeria against a nationalist revolt despite fielding an army of half a million. With similar numbers the United States failed in Vietnam. With a much smaller army in Iraq, it will fail again.."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/198898_fallalujah10.html

DESTRUCTION OF FALLUJAH

"... Fadhil Badrani, a journalist in Falluja who reports for the BBC World Service in Arabic, compared the city to Kabul, the Afghan capital largely reduced to rubble after years of warfare... An unnamed man claiming to be a rebel fighter told the BBC's Today programme that the destruction in Falluja was "total".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3998049.stm

"... To get the measure of this, think of the Warsaw rising in 1944, or the Russian Army's destruction of the Chechen capital, Grozny."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Opinion/All-the-makings-of-a-war-crime--with-Australia-silently-onside/2004/11/08/1099781320025.html?oneclick=true

COLLATERAL DEATHS, RECKLESS MURDER?

"Too many innocent people are dying in Iraq. A recent report, in the medical journal The Lancet, estimates 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the beginning of the US-led invasion. Half of them are women and children... The popular website http://www.iraqbodycount.com puts the figure at a minimum of 14,000..."

"We speak of Iraqi civilians... not as victims, but as collateral damage. We did not murder them as terrorists murder their victims, because there was no intention to kill them... lawyers call this reckless murder, and once stripped of euphemism, that is what collateral damage is..."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/08/1099781319933.html?oneclick=true

COMPOSITION OF IRAQI NATIONAL GUARD AT FALLUJAH

"... (there was a) reported desertion over the weekend of more than one-half of a 500-man battalion of Iraqi National Guard that was supposed to fight alongside the Marines... The weekend's desertions reportedly left only one fully intact Iraqi unit deployed with the Marines on the outskirts of Fallujah -- the 36th Battalion, whose troops were recruited mostly from Kurdish and Shi'a militia. ''If the 36th turns out to be the 'Iraqi face' of the new government in Fallujah'', noted one worried administration official, ''it'll be seen as another occupation force''.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1109-01.htm

IRAQI NATIONAL GUARD DESERTIONS AT FALLUJAH

"... A National Public Radio correspondent embedded with the Marines outside Fallujah reported desertions among the Iraqis. One Iraqi battalion shrunk from over 500 men to 170 over the past two weeks - with 255 members quitting over the weekend..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4603777,00.html

"... at least 200 Iraqi troops... deserted their posts in the American-led offensive on Fallujah... with another 200 "on leave"... illustrating the predicament faced by men who are torn between orders from commanders and outrage from their countrymen... The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni umbrella group said to include 3,000 mosques, issued a religious edict calling for all Iraqi soldiers, national guardsmen and police officers to quit immediately or become legitimate targets for the rebels."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10131052.htm

MUSLIMS GOING TO IRAQ TO SUPPORT RESISTANCE

"... Muslim masses across the globe... are becoming motivated to take up arms in support of the Iraqi resistance... sources in Saudi Arabia (say) as many as 10,000 Saudi youths might be in or going to Iraq. And with the strong presence of organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in such countries as Syria and Jordan, it can be safely estimated that jihadis from these countries are also flooding into Iraq, or are preparing to do so..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK09Ak01.html

FALLUJAH A WAR CRIME

"... Falluja will be a war crime and crime against humanity, morally indefensible by any civilised standard... it will obviously breach the laws of war and the Geneva conventions... The message the siege of Falluja sends is brutally simple: resist us and we will destroy you. It is the same message that the Wehrmacht sent in Warsaw in 1944, and the Russian Army in Grozny in 1999..."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Opinion/All-the-makings-of-a-war-crime--with-Australia-silently-onside/2004/11/08/1099781320025.html?oneclick=true

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1108-26.htm

FALLUJAH TO BE AN IRAQI ALAMO OR MASADA

"I hate to call it the insurgency capital, but yeah, it's where they have been able to make a stand with the Marines... They have vowed to make it the Alamo", said a high-ranking U.S. military official in Baghdad."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10080225.htm

"... Falluja will be the Iraqi people's Masada, and it will sow seeds of deep anti-Western hatred in the Middle East for decades to come..."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Opinion/All-the-makings-of-a-war-crime--with-Australia-silently-onside/2004/11/08/1099781320025.html?oneclick=true

4,000 STINGER-TYPE MISSILES MISSING IN IRAQ

"... invasion forces did not secure all weapons depots in Iraq... Several thousand shoulder-fired missiles -- the kind that could be used to shoot down aircraft -- are missing in Iraq... anaylysts figure that as many as 4,000 surface-to-air missiles once under the control of Saddam Hussein's government remain unaccounted for..."

"... Concern about the Iraqi missiles was raised during a conference on aviation threats last week at the DIA's Missile and Space Intelligence Center in Huntsville, Ala. The new estimates, based on analysis done by the DIA and with the proliferation section of the CIA, were first reported yesterday by the New York Times..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31050-2004Nov6.html

WILL FALLUJAH BE LIKE SAMARRA?

October 2004:
"US forces declared yesterday that they had "pacified" the rebel stronghold of Samarra..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=568511

November 2004:
"... US and Iraqi troops stormed Samarra) to wrest control from the insurgents at the start of October... (but) A wave of coordinated attacks in the Iraqi city of Samarra on Saturday illustrates the capacity of insurgents to regroup and fight on, and bodes badly for an expected assault on rebel-held Fallujah...

""No matter how many troops are massed outside these so-called rebel cities, the American army and Iraqi forces are unable to restore order in the long-term. The solution rests in dialogue. It is vital that all parties to the conflict gather around the same table and resolve their differences", said Abdeljabbar Ahmed, a professor of political science at the University of Baghdad."

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=11801

HOLY WAR AGAINST SATAN IN FALLUJAH

"... Evangelical Marines prepare to battle barbarians... Outside Fallujah, 35 marines swayed to Christian rock music and asked Jesus Christ to protect them... waved their hands in the air... and chanted heavy metal-flavoured lyrics in praise of Christ..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1107-02.htm

"The marines that I have had wounded over the past five months have been attacked by a faceless enemy," said Colonel Brandl. "But the enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He lives in Falluja. And we're going to destroy him."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3989639.stm

AND THE DEVILS IN FALLUJAH PRAY, TOO

"... If a big bomb lands somewhere nearby, you often hear crying and wailing afterwards... Another sound you hear during the bombing is that of prayers. People pray loudly because they are so scared. Sometimes, you hear people say quite unusual things - they improvise, making up their own prayers..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3986085.stm

U.S. DESTROYS FALLUJAH HOSPITAL

"US strikes raze Falluja hospital... The air strikes reduced the Nazzal hospital, run by a Saudi Arabian Islamic charity, to rubble... "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3988433.stm

LACK OF INTELLIGENCE ON STIFFENING INSURGENCY

"As a well-funded insurgency stiffens, US military officials worry about lack of inside knowledge of resistance cells.... the insurgency has gained both tactically and numerically, with Pentagon estimates of core fighters rising as high as 12,000. Tens of thousands part-time backers may join in on any given day....
http://search.csmonitor.com/2004/1105/p02s02-usmi.html

MEDICAL GROUP WITHDRAWS FROM IRAQ

"The Nobel prize-winning aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) says it is pulling out of Iraq because of "escalating violence"... MSF has 90 Iraqi staff. Its foreign workers left Iraq a month ago... In Afghanistan, MSF continued to work through Soviet invasion, mujahideen wars and Taleban rule... An MSF statement released on Thursday said: "We deeply regret the fact that we will no longer be able to provide much needed medical help to the Iraqi people."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3982689.stm

EVIDENCE AGAINST SADDAM LOST

"... crucial evidence for the trials of Saddam Hussein and other former Iraqi officials has been lost or tainted... coalition forces failed to secure relevant sites after last year's invasion of Iraq... They failed to prevent people from looting thousands of official documents from government buildings... (they) also failed to stop relatives... from digging up remains found at some mass grave sites..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3981107.stm

"... In the case of both documents and mass graves, U.S.-led coalition forces failed to secure the relevant sites at the time of the overthrow of the former government. They subsequently failed to put in place the professional expertise and assistance necessary to ensure proper classification and exhumation procedures, with the result that key evidentiary materials have been lost or tainted."
-- Iraq: State of the Evidence
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/iraq1104/

TERRORISM IS PRIVATISATION OF WAR

"... Terrorism is only the privatisation of war. Terrorists are the free marketeers of war. They believe that the legitimate use of violence is not the sole prerogative of the state. It is mendacious to make moral distinction between the unspeakable brutality of terrorism and the indiscriminate carnage of war and occupation. Both kinds of violence are unacceptable. We cannot support one and condemn the other."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Opinion/What-we-call-peace-is-little-better-than-capitulation-to-a-corporate-coup/2004/11/03/1099362219754.html?oneclick=true

A COWARDLY WAR

"... The invasion will surely go down in history as one of the most cowardly wars ever. It was a war in which a band of rich nations, armed with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, rounded on a poor nation, falsely accused it of having nuclear weapons, used the United Nations to force it to disarm, then invaded it, occupied it and are now in the process of selling it..."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Opinion/What-we-call-peace-is-little-better-than-capitulation-to-a-corporate-coup/2004/11/03/1099362219754.html?oneclick=true

TURKEY MAKES PLAN TO ENTER NORTHERN IRAQ

The Turkish government has formulated a contingency plan that would place at least 20,000 Turkish troops inside northern Iraq... to rout out Turkish-Kurdish militants... and to prevent further Iraqi Kurdish migration to Kirkuk... (An Istanbul paper reported that) military forces have already begun their deployment toward the Turkish-Iraqi border... Iraq's Kurds would interpret such as move as an invasion, and large-scale fighting would ensue... (a news agengy reported that) Kurdish paramilitary forces were moving troops further north and digging tunnels and establishing military outposts... close to the Turkish border...."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK04Ak01.html

ALLAWI'S NEO-BAATHISTS WANT ELECTIONS TO FAIL

"... a tightly knit group of... political and security elites in Baghdad share the same aspiration as the insurgents. The key difference between them is that while the insurgents are set on sabotaging the elections to undermine not only the multinational forces but also the new Iraqi political elites, the neo-Ba'athists in Iyad Allawi's administration want the elections to fail in order to postpone the formalization of Shi'ite power in Iraq."

"... neo-Ba'athists can best be described as old-time Ba'ath members who broke with Saddam in the 1980s and early 1990s and formed small opposition groups in exile. The most important of these was Allawi's Iraqi National Accord... Allawi himself can be tentatively described as a neo-Ba'athist... if their power is left unchecked, the neo-Ba'athists - more than any other constituency, including the insurgents - will contribute to the eventual defeat of the United States in Iraq"

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK03Ak01.html

ZARQAWI NOT SEEN SINCE 2001

"... not a single source, anywhere, claims to have actually seen "Zarqawi" since late 2001 in Afghanistan. Ask the Pentagon. Ask the CIA. Ask the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No one, on the record, is able to independently verify that "Zarqawi" actually exists. There are no photos - only that same CIA-owned black and white. The CIA doesn't even know how tall or how fat "Zarqawi" is. All the literature on "Zarqawi" since late 2001 springs from dubious "confessions" by prisoners and "statements" by all sorts of people claiming to be "Zarqawi".

"... The truth may be that the real one-legged, squat, tattooed thug Zarqawi is dead, but a composite Zarqawi lives... he may have been created by US military intelligence. This American "Zarqawi" is definitely a Hollywood improvement on the original: tall, urbane, highly articulate, and with agile legs... "

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ15Ak02.html

THE ORIGINAL ZARQAWI

"... Convicts who spent time in a Jordanian prison remember Zarqawi as a ''prison prince" -- a hands-on block leader who commanded a few dozen followers with a nod or a glance, but who left arguments about religious ideology to more educated jihadists. They recall him as brutal and inarticulate, dependent on others for direction.... "
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/11/01/zarqawis_role_in_iraq_overstated_analysts_say?mode=PF

ZARQAWI THE MASTERMIND A CREATION

"... American counter-terrorism officials are ignoring a wide array of fundamentalist groups at work in Iraq and surrounding countries in their effort to portray all terrorist activity in Iraq as the handiwork of a single mastermind... America needs to create a serious public enemy who is not Iraqi so they can claim Iraqis aren't responsible for the resistance..."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/11/01/zarqawis_role_in_iraq_overstated_analysts_say?mode=PF

ZARQAWI NOT IN FALLJAH (NO CREDIBILTY, THOUGH)

"... (A mid-October) U.S. Military Intelligence report found that Abu Mus’ab Al Zarqawi wasn’t and has never been in Fallujah. However, the Bush administration and the U.S. media insist on spreading the lie that he’s hiding there in some secret location... For this is the justification the U.S. occupation forces use to terrorize the people there, just as Saddam would terrorize the Kurds and Shi’a, and Israel is terrorizing the Palestinians..."
From Rense.com site with no link to any US intelligence report:
http://www.rense.com/general58/zarq.htm
As picked up by Alternative News:
http://www.todaysalternativenews.com/index.php?event=link,150&values[0]=&values[1]=1939
As picked up by Al-Jazeera:
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/review/article_full_story.asp?service_id=5321

WAR IS ALREADY LOST

"Bush's wars in Iraq -- which has caused 100,000 civilian deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University study -- and Afghanistan are already lost. Not on the battlefield, but on the strategic level. War is the extension of politics by other means, as Karl von Clausewitz postulated. Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan must be judged defeats because no viable solution is remotely in sight in either nation now run by unpopular U.S.-imposed puppet regimes. Soviet-style rigged elections will not legitimize them."
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/2004/10/31/694068.html