BUSH DISTORTS TERROR REPORT -- AL-QAEDA IS NOT ACTIVELY DIRECTING TERROR

"In announcing yesterday that he would release the key judgments of a controversial National Intelligence Estimate, President Bush said he agreed with the document's conclusion "that because of our successes against the leadership of al-Qaeda, the enemy is becoming more diffuse and independent."

"But the estimate itself posits no such cause and effect. Instead... it describes the spreading "global jihadist movement" as fueled largely by forces that al-Qaeda exploits but is not actively directing..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092600530.html

BUSH'S CHURCH IS FOR ENDING IRAQ WAR

"... Bush’s own church has called for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and is urging direct action to end the war... United Methodist Church leaders helped launch a week of protest and civil disobedience against the war in Iraq by signing a Declaration of Peace in the capital, urging President Bush to pull US troops out.."
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060924bush.shtml

U.S. MILITARY RECRUITING STANDARDS LOWERED

"... The military has... relaxed its age and education requirements for enlistment, and ... increased enlistments by individuals with "'serious criminal misconduct" in their records," and eased requirements of non-citizens -- of which there are currently about 40,000 in the armed services -- and made them eligible to citizenship after only one day of active-duty military service..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34875

U.S. WARRIOR CREED NOT SUITED TO MIDDLE EAST CONFLICTS

"... The Warrior Ethos was introduced in November 2003 (as) a martial creed that urges soldiers to demonstrate their fighting spirit by destroying the enemies of the United States at close quarter rather than winning the trust of local populations... It begins with the stirring vow, “I am an American soldier”, and goes on to affirm that “I will never accept defeat. I will never quit... I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat”... the Warrior Ethos’s emphasis on annihilating the enemy is inimical to the type of patient, confidence-building counter-insurgency warfare in which America is engaged in the Middle East..."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2372122,00.html

U.S. INTELLIGENCE REPORT SAYS IRAQ WAR INCREASED TERRORISM

"... the findings of a classified US intelligence paper on the effects of the Iraq war.... blames the three-year-old conflict for increasing the threat of terrorism and helping fuel Islamic radicalism worldwide... this latest finding, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, is the most comprehensive report yet, based on the considered analysis of all 16 of the US intelligence agencies..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5375064.stm

"... Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist expressed confidence US voters would not be swayed by the intelligence report. "I think the American people, when they read an article like that ... say, 'Listen, just keep me safe... that's what they want."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0924-01.htm

U.S. HAS LOST A GENERATION OF GOODWILL IN MUSLIM WORLD

"... the Bush administration's tactics has "lost a generation of goodwill in the Muslim world" and its Middle East democratisation programme "has all but disappeared, except for official rhetoric".
--Emile Nakhleh, who retired at the end of June as director the CIA Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0922-03.htm

IRAQ IN ANARCHY

"... Baghdad is now a Hobbesian world where everybody is at war with everybody else and the only protection is self-protection.
Iraq is in a state of primal anarchy... The Iraqi state and much of society have been criminalised.... Beyond the Green Zone, Iraq has descended into murderous anarchy... masked from the outside world because the country is too dangerous for journalists to report what is happening...."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1696153.ece

U.S. OCCUPATION AT MERCY OF MUQTADA AL-SADR AND IRAN

"... The underlying reality in Iraq, which the Bush administration does not appear to grasp fully, is that the United States is now dependent on the sufferance of Iran and its Iraqi Shi'ite political-military allies to continue the occupation... the US military is no longer the real power in Iraq... the main threat to the occupation comes not from the Sunni insurgents but from the militant Iraqi Shi'ite forces aligned with Iran, led by Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. The armed Shi'ite militias are now powerful enough to make it impossible for the US occupation to continue... Muqtada has both the intention and the capability to bring down the US occupation...."

"... It would be surprising if Iran were not urging Muqtada to hold off on attacking the occupation forces until after the Bush administration had either reached a broad political agreement with Tehran or had been replaced in two years by an administration that would do so..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI22Ak01.html

ONLY 18,000 U.S. TROOPS ARE FIGHTING

"... 147,000 American soldiers are deployed in Iraq, the majority of them in the area around Baghdad... But the overwhelming majority of them are not out on the streets, stopping the bombings and kidnappings and murders. The total number of fighting soldiers in the American force is probably about 18,000 - quite a small number, given the area they have to cover and the size of the problem..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5371394.stm

FALLUJAH INCREASED HOSTILITY AGAINST U.S. TROOPS

"... among the five million Sunni Muslims there, about 75% now support the armed insurgency against the coalition. This compares with 14% in the first opinion poll the Defense Department carried out back in 2003. It is a catastrophic loss of support, and there is no sign whatever that it can be effectively reversed...
"The rise in hostility to the US forces is clearly linked to the onslaught against the town of Falluja in 2004....The ferocity of the attack by the US marines persuaded large numbers of Iraqi Sunnis that the Americans were their enemies. The situation in the country as a whole has never seriously improved since then, and Falluja itself has still not been entirely subdued..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5371394.stm

COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT OF CIVILIANS INCREASES RESISTANCE

"US forces are taking to collective punishment of civilians in several cities... Ramadi... is still living with the daily terror of its people getting killed by snipers and its infrastructure being destroyed... has been facing the worst of the American terror and destruction for more than two years... the US military was bulldozing entire blocks of buildings near the governorate to dampen resistance attacks... There are so many killings by American snipers. So many families have lost loved ones trying to visit relatives or even just stepping outside of their house... a government official... (said) "But of course most cities in al-Anbar are being constantly punished by the Americans"... Ramadi... Hit... Haditha... Fallujah... Khaldiyah... Samarra... a local tribal leader... said. "But if they think they will make us kneel by these criminal acts, they are wrong. If they increase the pressure, the resistance will increase the reaction. We see this pattern repeated so often now."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI20Ak02.html

NO U.S. TROOP REDUCTION

"The U.S. is unlikely to cut the number of its troops in Iraq until at least the middle of next year because the sectarian violence is greater than expected... the U.S. has over 140,000 troops in Iraq, up from about 131,600 in February... The precise number of U.S. troops is murky. Abizaid... (said) over 140,000. His staff later said... 142,000... (a) spokesman for Casey... said) 147,000... greater than the 143,000 troops who were in Iraq in April 2003 when Baghdad fell... of the roughly 500,000 active-duty U.S. Army troops, 390,000 are either in Iraq or Afghanistan, on their way home from there or getting ready to go back..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=us&sid=awczI_xLyrc0

BAGHDAD SEWER PLANT CLOGGED

"...So many corpses were clogging the capital's main sewer plant last spring that authorities launched an inquiry, with U.S. technical assistance. Investigators discovered a macabre pattern: Manholes from as far as several miles away had been used as disposal sites, allowing the remains to course underground through broad concrete pipes along with the city's subterranean effluvia. "It's possible some bodies were minced by the pumping system, and we never knew about them," said Ahmed Abdil Elah, assistant general manager of the city sewage system. "There is no trace of them."
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fuj/latimes90.htm

IRAQ THE CENTRAL RECRUITING AND TRAINING FRONT FOR TERRORISTS

"... In 2005, a CIA study reported that Iraq provided 'a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills' of Islamic terrorists. The war, which began on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, has now resulted in the worldwide growth of terrorism, according to Western intelligence agencies. Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the world's centre of lawlessness and now draws terrorists who want to train for future attacks in other countries..."
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1199901.php/Lawlessness_and_terrorism_rule_Iraq_five_years_after_9_11

SHIITE VISION OF A U.S.-FREE IRAQ

"... Mustafa Yaqoubi... a top deputy of Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada al-Sadr... sketched out his vision of the Iraq to come, after the Americans withdraw. First, "there will be a civil war"... No matter when the Americans withdraw, "the first year of transition, it will be worse; after that, it will gradually improve"... (then the) Shiite majority will finally be able to... usher in a Shiite religious government... (that) would be moderate and perhaps comparable in some ways to Iran's...."

".. (he said) Iraq's Shiites owe no gratitude to the Americans. "The Americans are not saving us from Saddam for the sake of the Iraqi people. They gave Saddam clearance in the 1990s to strike at the Shia people. It was in their own interest to get rid of Saddam."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091101337_pf.html

IRAQI VOTE DISSOLVED THE COUNTRY

"... In Iraq's Kurdish north, the Iraqi flag no longer flies... on public buildings... recent fighting between Iraqi government forces and the militia of Shiite powerhouse Moqtada al-Sadr... suggest a further spiraling toward at least a semiautonomous confederacy, if not a complete dissolution of the country... Iraq experts believe dissolution of the country is inevitable... "

"The voters did what we didn't have the courage to do, their voting divided Iraq... pointing to voting that was overwhelmingly along ethnic and sectarian lines. "The question now is whether [Iraq] can continue as a loose confederation - or will it officially break up?..."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0911/p02s01-usfp.html

U.S. HAS LOST CONTROL OVER 1/3 OF IRAQ

"Iraq's Anbar province (is) 'politically lost'... "We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically – and that's where wars are won and lost." ... there are no functioning Iraqi government institutions in Anbar, leaving a vacuum that has been filled by the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has become the province's most significant political force... (a) person familiar with the report said it describes Anbar as beyond repair; a third said it concludes that the United States has lost in Anbar...."
--Comments on report by Col. Pete Devlin, chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001204.html

"The U.S. military has lost control over the volatile al-Anbar province, Iraqi police and residents say... (this) includes Fallujah, Ramadi and other towns that have seen the worst of military occupation... "We are talking about nearly a third of the area of Iraq," Ahmed Salman, a historian from Fallujah told IPS. "Al-Anbar borders Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, and the resistance there will never stop as long as there are American soldiers on the ground."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34587

"... The resistance appears to be in control of the province now. "No government official can do anything without contacting the resistance first," said a government official in Ramadi. "Even the governor used to [get] their approval for everything. When he stopped doing so, they issued a death sentence against him, and now he cannot move without American protection... the US military is working against itself.. Their actions ruin their goal because they use these huge, violent military operations which kill so many civilians, and make it impossible to calm down the people of al-Anbar."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI07Ak01.html

THE "LONG WAR" IS SELF-DEFEATING

"... a new narrative for the conflict was unveiled: "The Long War". War narrative does three essential things. First, it is the organizing framework for policy... Second, this "story" works as a framework... Third... the narrative then serves practically as the anointed rhetorical handbook for how the war is to be argued and described.

"The Long War is a failed narrative because it does not describe actual reality. Reality tells a story of a United States delivering change to the Muslim world, a force of creative destruction... this US-created reality only fires up the long-standing Muslim grand narrative of deliverance and restoration... telling Muslims that the US is the dark force that must be resisted.

"The Long War is thus more than a failed narrative. It is a self-defeating narrative. It has prospered only because it speaks to a highly motivated domestic audience, the conservative Republican base that remains the passionate heart of the Bush administration's war policy..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI09Aa01.html

ARABS AND MUSLIMS ENRAGED OVER PLIGHT OF IRAQIS

"As the slaughter [in Iraq] continues, the Arab and Muslim world are increasingly enraged over the plight of the Iraqi people, with hatred toward the United States reaching new heights."
--Alon Ben-Meir, Israeli international relations professor at New York University

"... Adding to that fury... was last month's war between Israel and Hezbollah,... It succeeded not only in inflaming anti-U.S. opinion throughout the Islamic world, including, significantly, the Shia majority in Iraq..."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34667

U.S. SENATE REPORT SAYS NO SADDAM LINK TO AL-QAEDA

"There is no evidence of formal links between Iraqi ex-leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq prior to the 2003 war, a US Senate report says... The finding is contained in a 2005 CIA report released by the Senate's Intelligence Committee... (the report said) that the (Iraqi) government "did not have a relationship, harbour, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5328592.stm

OCCUPATIONS FUELING ISLAMIC MILITANCY

"... during the first months of the occupation... In 2003 I drove down to Basra in southern Iraq and up to Mosul in the far north without incident. If I tried to repeat any of these journeys in Iraq... today I would certainly be killed. The rest of the Middle East is becoming more dangerous by the day..."

"The real reason of the increasing violence in the Middle East is the return to imperial control and foreign occupation half a century after the European colonial empires were broken up. This is the fuel for Islamic militancy... The attempts by America and Britain to crush Islamic militancy across the Middle East are making sure it will become stronger."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0905-07.htm

WHERE SHOULD BUSH LOOK FOR FASCISM?

"...In classic terms, fascism is defined by five characteristics of governance:
- nationalist aggression;
- fusing of the state with corporate interests;
- single party rule;
- the suppression of civil liberties;
- and pervasive propaganda.
All of these inhered in the Italian, German, and Japanese governments of the 1930s and '40s. All of them would have to be present before the label "fascism" could legitimately be applied to a modern regime..."

"... By these criteria, it is doubtful that Muslims resisting military occupation of their lands, the massacre of their people, and the theft of their resources by western invaders can be considered "fascist"... If Bush, in fact, wants to protect the U.S. against the very real dangers of fascism he so lustily decries, he will need to look for it elsewhere."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0905-22.htm

SUICIDE TERRORISM MOTIVATED BY NATIONALISM, NOT ISLAM

"Nationalism, not Islam, motivates most suicide terrorists... data from all 315 suicide terrorist campaigns from 1980 to 2003, involving 462 individuals... (found that) The major objective of 95 percent of suicide attacks is to expel foreign military forces from territory that the terrorists perceive as their homeland. There is little connection with Islamic fundamentalism or any of the world religions. The taproot of suicide terrorism is nationalism and it's ''mainly a response to foreign occupation.''
http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/anotherview/all-olson9-5sep05,0,5283521.story

PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS SHOULD DETERMINE TROOP LEVELS, NOT GENERALS

"... Bush likes to tell reporters that U.S. troop levels in Iraq hinge on the assessments from top military commanders... take a hard look at that rhetorical scam... Civilian control of the military means that the president is accountable to citizens, not generals... it's not up to military officers to decide whether this is going to be a long war... The president's claim that key deployment decisions rest in the hands of military chiefs is not only a dodge. It's also manipulative -- shoving public discourse toward the mindset of assessing military tactics instead of ethical choices. And the claim dangerously encourages the idea that military leaders should have a major say in U.S. foreign-policy decisions. Under the Constitution, in theory, the president and Congress share that power -- derived from the consent of the governed. We must hold the president and Congress accountable."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0905-20.htm

PENTAGON SPENDING $20 MILLION TO MONITOR TONE OF IRAQ NEW STORIES

"The U.S. command in Baghdad is seeking bidders for a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for monitoring the tone of Iraq news stories filed by U.S. and foreign media..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0901-06.htm

WAR NOT A SOLUTION FOR TERRORISM

"... massive military attacks, inevitably indiscriminate, are not only morally reprehensible, but useless in achieving the stated aims of those who carry them out... The United States, in three years of war, which began with shock-and-awe bombardment and goes on with day-to-day violence and chaos, has been an utter failure in its claimed objective of bringing democracy and stability to Iraq..."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/02/war_is_not_a_solution_for_terrorism/

REALITY CHECK

"... Reality will force this White House to acknowledge that the misadventure in Iraq has gone horribly awry. On that day will come the admission that U.S. troops will either be forced to stay for years, perhaps decades, in order to police another country's civil war or that they will be withdrawn from harm's way.If U.S. troops remain, they will be, first and foremost, targets. And their deaths will almost certainly be in vain, as the root causes of the violence in Iraq will not be eliminated by time or by a massive U.S. troop presence..."
--Editorial, Capital Times, Madison, WI
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0902-22.htm

GRIM REPORT ON IRAQ

"Pentagon Releases Grim Report on Iraq... Iraqi casualties soared by more than 50 percent during the roughly three-month period ending in early August, the product of spiraling sectarian clashes and a Sunni-based insurgency that remains “potent and viable”... President Bush and members of his cabinet have been trying to present a strong case in support of the war... The Pentagon distributed the report on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend, a common time for government officials to put out bad news..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01cnd-military.html?hp&ex=1157169600&en=1fe8dd0fc7c09a05&ei=5094&partner=homepage

EX-BRITISH BASE LOOTED BY IRAQIS

"Military base turned over to Iraqi forces is looted the next day... About 1,200 British forces withdrew on Thursday from Abu Naji, a camp near Amarah in southern Maysan province.... Hours after the British turned over a military base to Iraqi control, looters picked it clean..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15363243.htm

SECTARIAN WAR A GODSEND FOR THE ADMINISTRATION

"... The sharp increase in sectarian tensions... played blatantly into Washington's hands... when all is said and done, Washington's only trump card in Iraq is going to be the sectarian and ethnic divisions among Iraqis, which the Bush administration is exploiting in the most cynical way according to the most classical of all imperial recipes: "Divide and rule." This is what Washington's proconsuls in Baghdad, from L. Paul Bremer to Khalilzad, have tried their best to put in place and take advantage of. Seen in this light, the present flare-up in sectarian tensions is a godsend for Washington.. Iraq is caught in a vicious circle: The occupation fuels the insurgency, which stirs up the sectarian tension that Washington's proconsul strives to fan by political means, which in turn is used to justify the continuing occupation..."
--Excerpt from the Epilogue to Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, by Noam Chomsky & Gilbert Achcar, edited with a Preface by Stephen R. Shalom, to be published by Paradigm Publishers September 15, 2006
http://www.juancole.com/2006/08/achcar-guest-editorial-situation-in.html

BUSH: IRAQ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11

"THE PRESIDENT: ... The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East...
Q: What did Iraq have to do with that?
THE PRESIDENT: What did Iraq have to do with what?
Q: The attack on the World Trade Center?
THE PRESIDENT: Nothing... and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack."
--Press conference, August 21, 2006
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html

IRAQ DOUBLES FUNDING TO IMPORT TURKISH OIL TO EASE SHORTAGE

"Iraq has doubled the money allocated for importing oil products in August and September to tackle the country's worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster... the money normally allocated by the government to buy oil products was doubled in August, to $426 million. The normally allocated amount would be doubled for September, too... the state oil agency would conclude new deals with Turkish companies to supply fuel."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4123452.html

IRAQ REFINERIES AT 1/2 PRE-WAR CAPACITY, THEN OIL WORKERS STRIKE

"Hundreds of oil company employees went on strike Tuesday for higher pay... The job action cut supplies to power stations and factories as Iraq faces its worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein's 2003 ouster... Iraq's three main oil refineries _ Dora, Beiji and Shuaiba _ are working at half their capacity, processing only 350,000 barrels per day compared to 700,000 barrels a day before the war..."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4133591.html

IRAQIS BEING KILLED AT 3 TIMES THE SADDAM RATE

"... Iraqis are now getting killed at a rate of 40,000 a year, more than three times the average annual kill-rate of the Saddam years..."
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Columnists/Essays/colESSAY082206.htm

PARLIAMENT MEMBERS SAY AMERICAN POLICIES FAILED

"The American policy has failed both in terms of politics and security, but the big problem is that they will not confess or admit that... top American officials spend most of their time in the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad and at large military bases across the country, and don't know what's happening in the neighborhoods and provinces beyond."
-- Mahmoud Othman, Kurdish member of parliament.

"All the American policies have failed because the American analysis of the situation is wrong; it is not related to reality. The slaughtered Iraqi man on the street conveys the best explanation."
--Jalaladin al Saghir, Shiite Muslim member of parliament

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/15272800.htm

QUESTIONING U.S. MISSION IN IRAQ CIVIL WAR

"(does)... the original congressional resolution that authorized the president to invade Iraq still apply now that U.S. troops appear to be caught in the drift toward civil war. "What is the mission of the United States today ... if that situation erupts into a civil war? What is the mission of our forces?"
-- Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, questioning Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top generals
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0820-24.htm

IRAQ CIVIL WAR TO SPREAD TERRORISM

"... By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war. Indeed, the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into total Bosnia-like devastation is 135,000 U.S. troops... The war in Iraq has proved to be a disaster for the struggle against Osama bin Laden. Fighters there are receiving training, building networks and becoming further radicalized -- and the U.S. occupation is proving a dream recruiting tool for young Muslims worldwide. As bad as this is, a wide-scale civil war in Iraq could make the terrorism problem even worse. Such terrorist organizations as Hezbollah, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) were all born of civil wars..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/18/AR2006081800983.html

BUSH ADMINISTRATION CONSIDERING ALTERNATIVES TO DEMOCRACY

"... Senior administration officials... are considering alternatives other than democracy,” said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity. “Everybody in the administration is being quite circumspec, but you can sense their own concern that this is drifting away from democracy.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17military.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

IRAQI PARLIAMENT SPEAKER SAYS U.S. OCCUPAITON DESTROYED IRAQ

"... During his June trip to Baghdad, Bush sang the praises of Dr. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who had been elected speaker... But when the Iraqi parliament reconvenes next month, the first item on their agenda will be firing al-Mashhadani... the end of his tenure should come as a relief to the Bush administration. "Who destroyed Iraq? Who plundered Iraq?" exploded al-Mashhadani in a recent interview. "It is none other than the blue jinn whose name is: the American Occupation."
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/08/17/mashhadani/index_np.html

CIVIL WAR DEATHS RISING

July Deaths
"... An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to... figures from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, reinforcing criticism that the Baghdad security plan started in June by the new government has failed... the country is already embroiled in a civil war, not just slipping toward one, and that the American-led forces are caught between Sunni Arab guerrillas and Shiite militias..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/world/middleeast/16iraq.html

June Deaths
"An average of more than 100 civilians per day were killed in Iraq last month... 14,338 civilians had died violently in Iraq in the first six months of the year... United Nations officials said they had based their figures on tallies provided by... the Ministry of Health... and Baghdad’s central morgue..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/19iraq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

BUSH CONCERNED ABOUT IRAQ NOT SUPPORTING U.S.

"... Bush made clear in a private meeting this week that he was concerned about the lack of progress in Iraq and frustrated that the new Iraqi government — and the Iraqi people — had not shown greater public support for the American mission... "
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/washington/16policy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

EFFECT OF THE IRAQ OCCUPATION ON THE U.S.

"... Bush is spending more than $260 million a day occupying a hostile Iraq that had nothing to do with terrorist threats until he invaded it. He has yet to offer a real justification for this occupation, or a strategy for successfully ending it. Our troops find themselves in the midst of a civil war, wandering about between hostile factions trying to figure out why they’re there, and why nearly 2600 of their brothers and sisters in arms have died, and nearly 19,000 more have been wounded. Iraqis, for their part, grow increasingly impatient with this occupation in which more than 50,000 Iraqis have died, and their country has been plunged into chaos.

"So far, the payoff for this benighted strategy, beyond fostering a civil war, has been to increase al Qeda’s global recruiting base from a few tens of thousands to several hundred million, while simultaneously alienating the US in the international community, destroying our all-volunteer military, and cranking up the national debt to record levels..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0814-27.htm

DEATH TOLL FROM CIVIL WAR RISES

"... Baghdad mortuary... received 1,855 bodies in July... The figure - the highest yet - is a rise of more than 350 on June... he number of bodies delivered each month to the Baghdad mortuary has risen by almost 700 from January, when the figure was 1,068.... the real death toll in Baghdad could be even higher.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4777419.stm

WAR ON TERROR COST $430 BILLION, MOST PROJECTS CANCELLED

"... (the) "global war on terror" has cost the country at least 430 billion dollars over the past five years in military and diplomatic efforts, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO)... A report in February by the special U.S. inspector general overseeing reconstruction said so much money was being spent on security that most sewer, irrigation, and drainage projects had been canceled..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34040

SHIAS WANT TO PARTITION INTO A SOUTHERN FEDERAL REGION

"... the Shia majority in Iraq are pushing ahead for creating a federal region for themselves in the southern part of Iraq.... As more and more signs of the failure of the reconciliation plan surface, Shia groups are speeding up efforts to carve a federal region for themselves.... Sunnis see the creation of federal structures as a prelude to partitioning of the country..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34250

U.S. TROOPS CALL IT CIVIL WAR

"Army troops... cite a long list of evidence that the center of the nation is coming undone: Villages have been abandoned by Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Sunni insurgents have killed thousands of Shiites in car bombings and assassinations; Shiite militia death squads have tortured and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Sunnis; and when night falls, neighborhoods become open battlegrounds..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15201701.htm

VIOLENCE INCREASED AFTER U.S. HANDED OVER CONTROL

"... Baghdad’s Chaos Raises Questions on U.S. Plan... as Americans handed over responsibilities to the Iraqis, violence in Baghdad increased... Each day, the bodies pile up at Baghdad’s main morgue: burned with acid, riddled with bullets, blindfolded, handcuffed, drilled with holes... To stop the slide, the United States has decided to double the number of American troops in the city, to about 14,200 from about 7,200...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/world/middleeast/06baghdad.html?hp&ex=1154836800&en=afe6256fba601d6f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

U.S. TROOPS CHARGED WITH MURDER OF DETAINEES

"Four US soldiers charged with murdering three detainees in Iraq smiled before shooting them, a military court has heard from a fellow soldier... one of the accused threatened to kill him if he talked... "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5239676.stm

OFFICERS PUSH IRAQI KILL COUNTS

"... commanders created an atmosphere of excessive violence by encouraging "kill counts" and possibly issuing an illegal order to shoot Iraqi men... witnesses painted a picture of a brigade that operated under loose rules allowing wanton killing and tolerating violent, anti-Arab racism... officers ordered them to "engage and kill all military age men."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-probes3aug03,1,2974701.story

CIVIL WAR AND PARTITION MORE LIKELY THAN DEMOCRACY

"Civil war is a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy, Britain's outgoing ambassador in Baghdad (William Patey) has warned Tony Blair in a confidential memo... The prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5240808.stm

CORRUPTION AND VIOLENCE SLOW RECONSTRUCTION

"The much-touted U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq is floundering under threats from rampant corruption and deteriorating security... says Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) Stuart Bowen. Bowen's office, tasked by Congress to oversee the reconstruction efforts, released two reports on Tuesday and one on Wednesday that cited figures showing Iraq losing four billion dollars to corruption every year since the U.S. invasion of the Arab country in March 2003..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34214

AD CAMPAIGN FOR KURDS TO THANK U.S.

"Kurdish officials toured the United States last week to launch a massive advertising and public relations campaign thanking the United States for overthrowing Saddam Hussein and urging U.S. companies to invest in the region.... The ad campaign, as well as a U.S. tour by Kurdish politician Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, was put together by the California PR firm Russo, Marsh and Rogers. In addition to representing the Kurdish government, the firm founded the "Stop Michael Moore" campaign to discredit the film "Fahrenheit 9/11" and a group called "Move America Forward," which has brought parents of dead U.S. soldiers to be counter-protesters at peace demonstrations... "
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34168

U.S. SUPPORT OF ISRAEL COULD HAVE EFFECT IN IRAQ

"... Were the (Iraqi) Shiites actively to turn on the US for its wholehearted support of continued Israeli air raids, the US military could be cut off from fuel and supplies. The US is already not winning against a Sunni Arab insurgency, backed by around 5 million Iraqis. If 16 million Shiites turned on the US because of its wholehearted support for Israel's actions in Lebanon, the US military mission in Iraq could quickly become completely and urgently untenable..."
http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/sistani-threatens-us-over-israeli-war.html

LEBANON WAR SERVING AL-QAEDA LIKE IRAQ WAR

"... Just as Iraq served al-Qaeda's strategy by supplying an endless stream of images of 'heroic mujahideen' fighting against 'brutal Americans'... the Lebanon war offers an unending supply of images and actions which powerfully support al-Qaeda's narrative and world view..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG29Ak03.html

HEZBOLLAH CONNECTION WITH IRAQ

"... Iraq is where... the secretary general of Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah Nasrallah's influence can also be felt... in 2003, Hezbollah began building up organizational and military apparatuses in Iraq... For proof of Hezbollah's active participation in the insurgency there are the arrests made in February 2005 by Iraqi authorities of 18 Lebanese Hezbollah fighters taking part in the insurgency... The connection with Muqtada al-Sadr is total..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG29Ak02.html

U.S. REDUCED TO A BYSTANDER IN IRAQ CIVIL WAR

"The United States has been reduced to the role of passive bystander as a new stage of sectarian civil war has begun in Iraq, marked by military units with heavy weaponry carrying out mass killings... the massacre of Shiites by Sunni gunmen in Mahmoudiya on Jul. 17, in which as many as 58 people were killed and 90 wounded, was a military attack on civilians by Sunnis using heavy machine guns mounted on pick-up trucks and rocket-propelled grenades... the Bush administration acknowledges that the primary problem in Iraq is sectarian violence, not the Sunni insurgency..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34090

IRAQ FUTURE UNCERTAIN

"The outgoing British ambassador in Iraq has admitted he is uncertain about the future of the country... the top British military officer in Iraq, Lt Gen Rob Fry, said the violence was likely to get worse..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5219416.stm

PARSONS FAILS TO COMPLETE IRAQI CLINICS

"... evidence of Parsons’s incompetence was its failure to successfully complete a $243 million contract it had for construction of 150 health clinics in Iraq. In the fall of 2005, Parsons had assured the Army Corps of Engineers that was supervising the project, that 114 units would be completed before the end of the year. Instead, only 20 were completed. Parsons spent $60 million of the $243 million on its own management and administration..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0729-21.htm

PARSONS FAILS TO COMPLETE IRAQI PRISON

"... Parsons had a contract for $99.1 million to build the Khan Bani Saad Correctional Facility North of Baghdad. The prison was to have been completed in June 2006. It was not. According to a spokesman for the Corps of Engineers, Parsons said the project could not be completed before September 2008 and would cost $13.5 million more than the $91 million for which the contract had been awarded. The contract was cancelled..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0729-21.htm

BECHTEL FAILS TO COMPLETE BASRA HOSPITAL

"The U.S. is dropping Bechtel... from a project to build a high-tech children’s hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Basra after the project fell nearly a year behind schedule and exceeded its expected cost by as much as 150 percent... the Basra Children’s Hospital, the project has been consistently championed by... Laura Bush and... Condoleezza Rice... Western engineers were seldom seen at the project... it was simply mismanaged... technically, Bechtel’s contract was not being terminated because the contract did not actually require the company to complete the hospital..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/world/middleeast/28basra.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

WHO WANTS US IN IRAQ?

"... Who wants us in Iraq? North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, and the Al Qaeda. Because they believe as a nation we are distracted; and as the world's superpower, we are depleting our resources...."

--Exerpted fromf remarks by Congressman John P. Murtha made on July 20, 2006 to the Center for National Policy on acceptance of the Edmund S. Muskie Distinguished Public Service Award.

hhttp://www.commondreams.org/views06/0727-36.htmere

MILITARY SOLUTION TO IRAQ CANNOT BE SOLVED BY U.S.

"... Our military is now considered occupiers by most Iraqis.
Iraq is now in a civil war and our military is caught in the middle.
All of us want stability in Iraq.
But this goal cannot be achieved by mere words alone, nor by slogans or broad policy statements.
The key word is "How."
How do we give Iraq a chance at stability?
How do we bring stability and security to the Region?
How do we strengthen our own national defenses?
And how do we keep America safe and strong?
Some say that staying in Iraq is the answer. I disagree!..."

"Listen to what I am saying-- violence has been escalating despite nearly three and a half years of US military operations and the presence of over 130,000 US troops in Iraq.
More than three and a half years in Iraq-- This is longer than our involvement in the Korean War and will soon be longer than our participation in WWII. Yet the battle rages on in Iraq.
Why??
Because the solution to Iraq's security situation cannot be solved by the United States Military..."

--Exerpts of remarks by Congressman John P. Murtha made on July 20, 2006 to the Center for National Policy on acceptance of the Edmund S. Muskie Distinguished Public Service Award.

hhttp://www.commondreams.org/views06/0727-36.htmere

CIVIL WAR RAGING IN BAGHDAD

"... Civil war is raging across central Iraq. Baghdad, a city whose population is almost the same as London, is splitting into hostile and heavily armed districts. Minorities, be they Sunni or Shiite, are being killed or forced to flee. People dare not even take their furniture in case this might alert their neighbors to their departure and lead to their deaths. Sunni no longer let the mostly Shiite police enter their districts. "If this isn't civil war," a senior Iraqi official said last weekend, "I don't know what is."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0726-29.htm

U.S. ATTACKING SHIITE MILITIAS, INVITING WIDESPREAD UPRISING WORSE THAN SUNNIS

"That which Americans should fear has come upon them: U.S. troops in Iraq killed 15 Shiite militiamen... It was part of a systematic drive U.S. forces had been ordered to carry out against the Mahdi Army of anti-American firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr... the U.S. drive against Sadr's forces could trigger a more widespread rising of Shiite militias in Baghdad and across southern Iraq against U.S. forces... the destructive potential of a widespread Shiite uprising in Iraq is vastly worse than the Sunni threat was three years ago. The Shiite population of Iraq is more than three times that of the Sunni community. It is greater by 10 million people. The Shiites control all of southern Iraq, including the U.S. Army's crucial land supply route from Kuwait to Baghdad..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0724-33.htm

IRAN DISSIDENT DECLINES WHITE HOUSE INVITATION, SAYS IRAQ WAR HAS HAMPERED DEMOCRACY
(but accepts Russian invitation for Freedom award)

"Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji declined to meet White House officials during a visit to the US... Mr Ganji said he had been invited to discuss the current situation in Iran... he rejected the offer because he believed current US policies could not help promote democracy in Iran. In a speech last week in Washington DC, he also criticised US policy in Iraq, saying: "You cannot bring democracy to a country by attacking it". He added that the war in Iraq had helped Islamic fundamentalism and hampered the democracy movement in the region."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5211840.stm

"Iran has allowed a leading dissident journalist to leave the country to receive a journalism award in Moscow. Akbar Ganji, who was freed from jail in March... was given permission to go at the last minute. On Monday, he will collect the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom award in Russia's capital."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5047034.stm

MORE U.S. TROOPS NEEDED IN BAGHDAD

24 July
"Fresh American troops are to be brought into Baghdad... US troops patrolling the west of Baghdad... said they were beefing up their presence. The size of the redeployment has not been revealed, but units which were due to be sent elsewhere in the country are being diverted to the capital..."
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060724/1/42add.html

13 July
"... the number of Iraqi and American troops in Baghdad had increased to about 55,000 from 40,000... But the increase has not noticeably restrained the sectarian bloodletting... the senior American commander in Iraq said... that there might be a need to move more American forces into the capital..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

SADDAM ON FEEDING TUBE

"... Saddam Hussein was hospitalized on a forced feeding tube... The 68-year-old went on a hunger strike July 7 to protest the killing of one of his lawyers... Three members of the defense team have been killed since the trial began in October..."
http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20060724-093057-8491r.htm

"... A spokesman for the U.S. detention command would not say whether Saddam had been hospitalized but said he was under medical supervision and was "voluntarily" taking nutrients through a feeding tube..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-23-saddam-health_x.htm

100,000 IRAQI TROOPS TRAINED IN YEAR, VIOLENCE GROWS WORSE

"Iraqi government security forces have grown by about 100,000 soldiers and police in the past year thanks to U.S. training efforts, but this big expansion has not translated into a drop in violence... New data showed tens of thousands more Iraqis have fled their homes in fear of death squads and that some 6,000 civilians may have been killed in May and June."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20208950.htm

U.S. GENERAL: SECTARIAN VIOLENCE WORSE THAN INSURGENCY

"... The top American commander for the Middle East said on Friday that escalating sectarian violence in Baghdad had become an even greater worry than the insurgency and that plans were in fact being drawn up to move additional forces to the Iraqi capital..."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N21319542.htm

PARLIAMENT SPEAKER CALLS COALITION BUTCHERY OF IRAQI PEOPLE

"... parliament speaker Mashhadani... gave a combative opening address in which he blamed many of Iraq's problems on US forces, and called for foreigners to end their interference. "Just get your hands off Iraq and the Iraqi people and Muslim countries, and everything will be alright," he said, addressing coalition forces. "What has been done in Iraq is a kind of butchery of the Iraqi people..."
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060722/1/429g5.html

IRAQ CIVIL WAR DEATHS: 100 PER DAY, ALMOST 15,000 THIS YEAR

"An average of more than 100 civilians per day were killed in Iraq last month... 14,338 civilians had died violently in Iraq in the first six months of the year... United Nations officials said they had based their figures on tallies provided by... the Ministry of Health... and Baghdad’s central morgue..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/19iraq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"... U.S. officials are insisting Iraq is not on the brink of civil war..."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N21319542.htm

Fox News: "Iraq Civil War “Made Up By The Media?”
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/01/fox-media-civil-war/

Fox News: "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200602240003

COST OF WAR NOT PUT IN BUDGET

"...It has all been a tissue of lies, from weapons of mass destruction to the irresponsible low-ball estimates of the war’s costs, to the unfulfilled claims that Iraqi oil would pay for our troops. Even today the administration refuses to tell the truth. There is still an ongoing deception about cost. Appropriations for the war in Iraq are supplemental rather than regular, which means that our military costs in Iraq are off-budget. Over 90 percent of the costs of the "war on terror" have been provided for in supplemental appropriations bills or as "emergency" funding... wars have never before continued to be funded in this off-budget manner..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0719-24.htm

CURIOUS AFTERMATH OF DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN THE MID-EAST

"Iraq is destroyed, Afghanistan is destroyed, the Gaza Strip is destroyed and soon Beirut will be destroyed for the umpteenth time, and hundreds of billions of dollars are being invested solely in the vain war against the side that always loses and therefore has nothing more to lose."
http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/opinion//index.php?ntid=91454

"... the overthrow of the secular Sunni leader Saddam Hussein has extended a fiery arc of Shiite-dominated religious fanaticism blazing across the Mideast skyline that betrays Bush’s claim to be bringing democracy and stability to the region."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060718_robert_scheer_bush_open_mike/

STAY THIS COURSE?

"... after spending more than $350 billion, after more than 2500 American soldiers have died and more than 18,000 more have been wounded, and more than 50,000 Iraqis killed, this is what we have to show for it: in Iraq, a once secure secular state is transforming into either a despotic Islamic theocracy or a splintered and failed state; at home, a less secure homeland open to sabotage of our ports, industrial and power infrastructure, transportation systems, and schools; Globally, a recruiting bonanza for al Qaeda; a US military that is broken; and a USA that has lost the world’s trust, squandered our prestige, and weakened our position with many of our allies. Stay this course?..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0717-20.htm

IS U.S. WINNING? ARMY CHIEF AT A LOSS FOR WORDS.

"... Is the U.S. winning? ... for Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff... it proved a hard one to answer. Schoomaker paused for more than 10 seconds after he was asked the question... before venturing: "I think I would answer that by telling you I don't think we're losing... I think we're closer to the beginning than we are to the end of all this."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-usiraq15jul15,1,3864684.story?coll=la-news-a_section

IRAQ WAR LOST THE DAY IT STARTED

"... Iraq was "lost" the day the war started... It... ended for all practical purposes when the Americans arrived... the Kurds already have an independent country, the Shiites have established their own regional governments with close ties to Iran and the Sunnis have launched a civil war.... No foreign army is capable of policing these areas of continuing conflict. The central government that we have created will at best be able occasionally to mediate among these independent enclaves..."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel14.html

SEXUAL TERRORISM OF IRAQI WOMEN

"... since the American invasion of their country, the reported incidence of sexual terrorism has accelerated markedly. -- and this despite the fact that few Iraqi women are willing to report rapes either to Iraqi officials or to occupation forces, fearing to bring dishonor upon their families.

"... Amid the daily explosions and gunfire that make the papers is a wave of sexual terrorism, whose exact dimensions we have no way of knowing, and that no one here notices, unleashed by the Bush administration in the name of exporting "democracy" and fighting "the war on terror."

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0713-33.htm

A U.S. SPECIAL FORCES RAID DENIED

"... U.S. military helicopters landed near the home of Sinan Abdul-Ilah al-Mashadani in the al-Jughaifi district of Fallujah... the doors of his home were blasted open and "a strange looking group of people" stormed inside... "This force is not totally unknown to us here in Fallujah. They are a special force of Americans that assassinates more people than it arrests... big men with long hair and beards, some wearing earrings, and others with little black caps on the top of their heads at the back."

"... a student at al-Mustansiriya University and the sole supporter of his mother and younger brother and sister, was killed in the raid... "Their (special forces troops') dogs were biting everybody including children and women in the neighbourhood. They killed the poor boy in cold blood and arrested his little brother."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33920

"... IPS sent an email to Major Douglas Powell at the Combined Press Information Center for the Multi-National Force in Iraq to request comment on the incident. There was no reply. Later, IPS phoned the US military spokesperson in Baghdad to request information on the incident. The spokesman, who declined to give his name, said, "We have no information confirming this event ever took place."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG13Ak02.html

STATE DEPT REJECTS DIRE GAO FORECAST ON IRAQ

"... (in a) report unveiled Tuesday at a hearing in the House of Representatives... the GAO... (issued) a dire forecast: "Security, political, and economic factors will hamper US efforts to stabilize Iraq and achieve key US goals."

"... the State Department rejected the congressional findings, saying in its response that the GAO report "rests on a flawed understanding of the strategic architecture guiding United States policy in Iraq."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0712-04.htm

PROMOTION OF DEMOCRACY WAS NOT THE REASON FOR INVADING IRAQ

"It is not wholly surprising that funding for democracy promotion in Iraq is dwindling. Democracy promotion was not the reason for invading Iraq, not even the stated reason for going into Iraq. Democracy promotion only came to the fore as a reason for invading Iraq after the invasion and after the 'weapons of mass destruction' justification and the 'connections to al Qaeda' justification had been discredited."
--Christopher J. Roederer, associate professor at the Florida Coastal School of Law
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33924

LIEBERMAN ON IRAQ

"The situation in Iraq is a lot better that it was a year ago," Lieberman observed. The Iraqis "are on the way to building a free and independent Iraq. Two-thirds of their military is now ready, on their own, to lead the fight with some logistical backing from the U.S. or stand up on their own totally. That's progress. And the question is, are we going to abandon them when they are making that progress?"
>http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_4834769,00.html

2 U.S. SOLDIERS TORTURED IN REVENGE FOR RAPE MURDER

"Two soldiers from the same (platoon) were slain this month when they were kidnapped at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah. The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers had been tortured and beheaded... (and that) the (Iraqi) killings (in March) appear to be unrelated to the (soldiers) kidnappings (in May)... "
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060630.wsoldie0630/BNStory/International/

"... The Mujahideen Shura Council said it had captured and killed the soldiers in revenge for the alleged rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman by US troops... the film - published on the internet - showed "extremely graphic footage" of the two men's corpses... The groups said capturing and killing the soldiers was "revenge for our sister who was dishonoured by a soldier of the same brigade".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5167524.stm

U.S. FIGHTING THE MILITIA OF SHIA PARTY

"US forces in Iraq have launched a series of bloody attacks on Shia militia forces... The US army is masking the fact that it is increasingly at war with the Iraqi Shia militias by referring to both Sunni and Shia as insurgents... This conceals the fact that the US is fighting the Mehdi Army, which is controlled by Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party is an important part of the Iraqi government."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1166538.ece

NO GOOD U.S. OPTIONS IN IRAQ

"(1.) ... stay the course. The problem is that the war, at any politically imaginable level of US troop commitment, seems hopelessly unwinnable...
(2.) ... partition... ... has been promoted by the Kurds... But it doesn't work for Sunnis and Shi'ites.... Partition would require the forced removal of millions of people... except for the India-Pakistan partition of 1948... forced mass relocation has never been sponsored by a democracy in the name of peace...
(3.) ... withdrawal... (but) The intermittent anarchy would probably become open civil war. Iraq would become a haven for every known terrorist faction... (and) would likely end with a Sunni or Shi'ite dictator..."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/07/08/few_good_options_in_iraq/
and
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0708-25.htm

IRAQ WAR RECRUITING SHORTFALLS ALLOW HATE GROUPS IN MILITARY

"... recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military... The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands... a Defense Department investigator (said)... "Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members."

"... An article in the National Alliance magazine Resistance urged skinheads to join the Army and insist on being assigned to light infantry units... "Light infantry is your branch of choice because the coming race war and the ethnic cleansing to follow will be very much an infantryman's war. It will be house-to-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood until your town or city is cleared and the alien races are driven into the countryside where they can be hunted down and 'cleansed. As a professional soldier, my goal is to fill the ranks of the United States Army with skinheads. As street brawlers, you will be useless in the coming race war. As trained infantrymen, you will join the ranks of the Aryan warrior brotherhood."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/washington/07recruit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"... Department of Defense investigators estimate thousands of soldiers in the Army alone are involved in extremist or gang activity. "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," said one investigator. "That's a problem."
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?site_area=1&aid=197&splcnewsletter=dalert-071206

WHO REPLACED ZARQWI?

"... Maj Gen William Caldwell, the US military spokesman in Iraq, said at the time: "This is Ayyub al-Masri, probably the person who's going to be responsible for al-Qaeda in Iraq... But... the Egyptian interior ministry has disclosed that al-Masri is in fact the nom de guerre of an Egyptian militant by the name of Sharif Haza... Mr Haza has been in jail for seven years on terrorism charges..."

"... The question of the identity of the successor to Zarqawi took another twist a few days ago when Osama Bin Laden said in an audio message that a man by the name of Abu Hamza al-Muhajir was the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq... no-one has heard of al-Muhajir... the names being released by the Americans and Bin Laden, are probably part of disinformation campaigns from both sides, whose sole purpose is to confound each other."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5153364.stm

IRAQ CONSIDERS ARMING INSURGENTS

"Iraq's government is studying a request from some local insurgent leaders to supply them with weapons so they can turn on the heavily armed foreign fighters who were once their allies... Leaders claiming to represent about 11 insurgent groups asked for weapons to fight foreign al-Qaeda elements in Iraq... Foreign fighters account for 4% to 10% of the estimated 20,000 or more insurgents in Iraq, according to a U.S. State Department report..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-07-04-insurgents-weapons_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

U.S. IS LOSING WAR ON TERROR AND FEEDING AL-QAEDA'S VISION OF WORLD

"...(of) 116 leading US experts -- a balanced mix of Republicans and Democrats -- 84 percent believe the United States is losing the "war on terror," 86 percent that the world has become a more dangerous place in the past five years, and 80 percent that a major new attack on their country was likely within the next decade..."

"It was a doomed enterprise from the very start: a 'war on terror' -- it's as ridiculous as a 'war on anger'. You do not wage a war on terror, you wage a war against people"...

"Our insistence that Islamic fundamentalist ideology has replaced communist ideology as the chief enemy of our time feeds Al-Qaeda's vision of the world."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0705-03.htm

THE TWO FACES OF AL-QAEDA

"... the two faces of post 9/11 al-Qaeda. On the one side there is a hard core of experienced fighters whose ranks are and will continue to be swelled by volunteers fighting the US military in Iraq; on the other are small, vague autonomous groups who find their own motivation—often via the Internet—to turn radical and join the jihad.... taking their jihad straight into the hearts of major western capitals...."
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/july/06/yehey/opinion/20060706opi8.html

4TH OF JULY HUNGER STRIKE FOR RETURN OF U.S. TROOPS

"About 150 protesters sat in front of the White House on Monday to savour their last meal before starting a hunger strike that some said will continue until American troops return from Iraq... Some protesters said their fast would continue beyond July 4th.
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, said she would drink only water throughout the summer, which she said she would spend outside President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas..."
hehttp://asia.news.yahoo.com/060704/3/2mp47.htmlre

IRAQ WAR RELATED TO CLOSURE OF CIA'S BIN LADEN UNIT

"... (the CIA) has closed a unit... known as Alec Station... that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden... In recent years, the war in Iraq has stretched the resources of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, generating new priorities for American officials... Intelligence officials said Alec Station was disbanded... (because) the agency needed to reorganize to better address constant changes in terrorist organizations..."

"Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was. Mr. Scheuer said that view was mistaken. "This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda," he said. "These days at the agency, bin Laden and Al Qaeda appear to be treated merely as first among equals."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04intel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

IMAGE OF U.S. AS A BENIGN HEGEMON SHATTERED BY INVASION OF IRAQ

"... a series of surveys from around the world over the past three years makes clear that... the image of the U.S. as a benign hegemon -- consciously cultivated by Washington for more than a century -- has been effectively shattered by the unilateralism of the administration of President George W. Bush and particularly its invasion of Iraq..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=33844

THE WORTH OF AN IRAQI LIFE

"How much is an Iraqi life worth? Answer: A lot less than an American or British life... (in) an April 2004 firefight, the American military commander in the area paid $1,500 for each fatality and $500 for each injury... By comparison, the Libyan government recently settled a lawsuit for victims of Pan Am 103... (and) paid $2.7 billion for 270 passengers with an average payment of $10 million per death..."

"For Iraqis to get a claim paid... you must have all your documents in order - birth certificates, witness accounts, proof of identity... for some is nearly impossible... Then, you must get "proof of negligence of US soldier from a US soldier or unit."
That's a task that is virtually impossible, being that US soldiers are instructed not to assume blame. The claim must be filed within 30 days of the death along with a phone number for contact, making it out of the question since the overwhelming majority of Iraqis do not have phones... Iraqis have become like dogs in the eyes of Americans."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0703/p09s01-coop.htm

IRAQIS BELIEVE U.S. INTENDS PERMANENT BASES FOR INDEFINITE OCCUPATION

"... Eighty percent of Iraqis, according to a poll conducted five months ago, believe that the US government is planning to leave permanent bases in Iraq. I am sure the number will dramatically increase now. The perception that the U.S. intends to occupy Iraq indefinitely is one of the major reasons behind the escalating violence there... Consistent U.S. interference in Iraq, and the misuse of the Iraq war for gaining advantages in the U.S. domestic sphere, eliminates any hope for Iraqis to get their country back through diplomacy and democracy, and it is pushing more Iraqis to adopt violence as a means in building a better future for Iraq’s next generations."
--Raed Jarrar, the Baghdad Blogger, Friday, June 30, 2006
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

5 U.S. SOLDIERS INVESTIGATED FOR KILLING 4 IRAQIS AFTER RAPE
(Iraqis later beheaded 2 other members of same platoon)

"Five U.S. army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq... The killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity"... The soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.The soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman... at least one of the soldiers, all assigned to the 502nd Infantry Regiment, has admitted his role and been arrested..."

"Two soldiers from the same (platoon) were slain this month when they were kidnapped at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah. The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers had been tortured and beheaded... (and that) the (Iraqi) killings (in March) appear to be unrelated to the (soldiers) kidnappings (in May)... "

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060630.wsoldie0630/BNStory/International/

U.S. LOSING TERROR WAR BECAUSE OF IRAQ

"The United States is losing its fight against terrorism and the Iraq war is the biggest reason why, more than eight of ten American terrorism and national security experts concluded in a poll released yesterday... Of the experts queried, 45 identified themselves as liberals, 40 said they were moderates and 31 called themselves conservatives..."
http://www.dispatch.com/national-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/06/29/20060629-A3-00.html

EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM USED BY U.S. ON IRAQIS

"... As we “protected ourselves... from Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction, we opened our own arsenal of WMD on them... the estimated DU use on defenseless Iraq is 1,700 tons, far more of it in major population centers... We were pounding Baghdad... with low-grade nuclear weapons, raining down cancer, neurological disorders, birth defects..."

“Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with two cancers — one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney — he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. . . . My wife has nine members of her family with cancer.”
Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, director of the oncology center at the largest hospital in Basra

--Common Wonders, June 29, 2006
http://www.commonwonders.com/

MARINE SONG IN IRAQ: " HADJI GIRL "


Link to video of the song.

Excerpts:
"... Then suddenly to my surprise
I looked up and I saw her eyes
And I knew it was love at first sight.
And she said…
Dirka Dirka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
Hadji girl I can’t understand what you’re saying.
The girl says that she “wanted me to meet her family
But I, well, I couldn’t figure out how to say no.
Cause I don’t speak Arabic.”

They visit her home, a “side shanty” down “an old dirt trail,” and as soon as they arrive:

"Her brother and her father shouted…
Dirka Dirka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
They pulled out their AKs so I could see
So I grabbed her little sister and pulled her in front of me.
As the bullets began to fly
The blood sprayed from between her eyes
And then I laughed maniacally
Then I hid behind the TV
And I locked and loaded my M-16
And I blew those little fuckers to eternity.
And I said…
Dirka Dirka Mohammed Jihad
Sherpa Sherpa Bak Allah
They should have known they were fucking with a Marine."

http://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/2381/The_Hatred_Behind_Hadji_Girl

STATEMENT FROM JOSH BELILE, AUTHOR AND SINGER OF "HADJI GIRL"

"... if you want to share your thoughts, good or bad, please feel free at www.myspace.com/zelph99. I am planning on recording and releasing a professionally produced and engineered version of "Hadji Girl" which will be aired on the Mike Church show, and will be available for sale through their web site within the coming weeks. I have decided to take this step to show that I am in full support of every American's right his or her own freedom of speech, military or civilian... I am within my legal rights as an American..."
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/005450.htm

3 MYTHS THAT WON'T QUIT

"The myth of sovereignty... continues to be hyped as a reality when in fact... Iraq remains very much an occupied nation where the United States... gets to call all the shots..."

"The myth of Zarqawi... never anything more than a minor player in Iraq... hyped up by a Bush administration anxious to prove that the insurgency... in Iraq was foreign-grown and linked to the perpetrators of the 9/11 terror attacks... The reality... (is that) The war against the American occupation in Iraq is being fought overwhelmingly by Iraqis..."

"The myth of WMD... some 500 artillery shells have been found in Iraq by U.S. forces since the invasion... lying about the ground... all been reported before by the Bush administration... The degraded sarin nerve agent and mustard blister agent contained in the discovered munitions had long since lost their viability, and as such represented no threat whatsoever..."

--Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons Inspector
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13764.htm

WAR COSTS: $500 BILLION BY 2007 AND $808 BILLION BY 2016

"The overall cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other global anti-terror operations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will top $500 billion next year, according to congressional estimates... Even assuming an eventual troop drawdown to 74,000 by fiscal 2010, war costs between fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2016 could total another $371 billion... Adding that to the $437 billion appropriated through the end of this fiscal year, total costs would reach $808 billion by fiscal 2016..."
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34428&dcn=e_hsw

PARLIAMENT BLAMES U.S. FOR DEATHS OF 4 RUSSIANS

"... The Russian government confirmed the four men's deaths this week, after an insurgent group released a video showing two of them being killed.... the lower house of the Russian parliament approved a statement condemning the killings, and appearing to blame Iraq's "occupying powers". "The whole responsibility for the situation in Iraq, including guaranteeing the security of its citizens, and also foreign specialists, as before lies on the occupying powers," the statement said..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5125416.stm