The following is an archived copy of a message sent to the CASI Analysis List run by Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq.

Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq (CASI).

[Main archive index/search] [List information] [CASI Homepage]


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[casi-analysis] casi-news digest, Vol 1 #64 - 3 msgs



[ This message has been sent to you via the CASI-analysis mailing list ]



This is an automated compilation of submissions to newsclippings@casi.org.uk

Articles for inclusion in this daily news mailing should be sent to newsclippings@casi.org.uk. 
Please include a full reference to the source of the article.

Today's Topics:

   1. Fallujah may not be Lidice but what difference? (CharlieChimp1@aol.com)
   2. public Meeting - Troops out of Iraq! (=?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?=)
   3. ElBaradei: Doubt on Iraq Nuclear Security (ppg)

--__--__--

Message: 1
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 06:39:15 EDT
Subject: Fallujah may not be Lidice but what difference?
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]


http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/6243/?PHPSESSID=3D1dfbd34ab9=
d1379da5ba3ef35888e279

Reprisal in Fallujah

by Michael Gillespie

for Media Monitors Network

4/14/2004 =E2=80=93 1,974 words



The slaughter in Fallujah was just that =E2=80=93 slaughter.  <I
style=3D"mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Christian Science Monitor, perhap=
s the most widely trusted
newspaper in America, reported on April 14 that =E2=80=9Ca US assault left =
600 dead
last week [and] victims include hundreds of women and children, according t=
o
hospital and clinic records.=E2=80=9D



The U.S. attack on Fallujah was a reprisal operation ordered in reaction to
the killing and dismemberment of four American =E2=80=9Ccivilian security c=
ontractors=E2=80=9D
on Wednesday, March 31.  Chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Army Brig.
Gen. Mark Kimmitt, vowed the following day that American forces would =E2=
=80=9Chunt down=E2=80=9D
 those responsible for the =E2=80=9Cbestial=E2=80=9D killing and mutilation=
 of the four
civilian contractors in Fallujah.  =E2=80=9CWe will respond,=E2=80=9D said =
Kimmitt. =E2=80=9CWe are not
going to do a pell-mell rush into the city.  It's going to be deliberate.  =
It
will be precise and it will be overwhelming.  . . . We will reestablish con=
trol
of that city and we will pacify that city,=E2=80=9D reported <I
style=3D"mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Washington Post on April 1.



What sets the U.S. operation in Fallujah apart from countless previous
instances of civilian =E2=80=9Ccollateral damage=E2=80=9D in both Iraq and =
Afghanistan are Kimmitt=E2=80=99
s statements plainly revealing that the assault on Fallujah was a deliberat=
e,
carefully planned reprisal action.  The killing of large numbers of civilia=
ns
was no accident.  That the deaths of hundreds of non-combatant women and
children were part of the U.S. military plan is borne out by dozens of reli=
able
reports, including statements by U.S. military commanders, that U.S. forces
employed high-explosive munitions in an urban warfare setting.  Fallujah is=
, or
was, a city of some 250,000 people, the vast majority of them civilian
non-combatants.



U.S. commanders did not hesitate to order F-16 fighter-bombers to drop
500-lb. bombs on a Fallujah mosque they said was being used by resistance f=
ighters,
killing an as yet undetermined number of civilians including several childr=
en.
 Despite often-repeated assurances by government spokespersons that U.S.
bombs and bullets are precisely targeted to minimize civilian casualties, r=
eliable
reports from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan have revealed an ugly
contrary reality.  Doctors at Fallujah=E2=80=99s hospitals and civilian ref=
ugees who
fled the city in terror reported that U.S. snipers were shooting old men, w=
omen,
and children in the head, neck, and upper body.



=E2=80=9CI never saw a more despicable and evil action by the Americans.  E=
ven Sharon
or Saddam are better.  They [the American troops] shot children and women i=
n
the face and neck every time,=E2=80=9D Doctor Tariq Atham told United Press
International.



In his press conference on April 13, President Bush told the nation that
America=E2=80=99s men and women in uniform in Iraq are =E2=80=9Cperforming =
brilliantly.=E2=80=9D  But our
closest allies on the battlefield in Iraq have a different view.



According to an April 4 report by Sean Rayment, defense correspondent for <=
I
style=3D"mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Telegraph, =E2=80=9CSenior Britis=
h commanders
have condemned American military tactics in Iraq as heavy-handed and
disproportionate. One senior Army officer told <I style=3D"mso-bidi-font-st=
yle: normal">
The Telegraph that America's aggressive methods were causing friction among
allied commanders and that there was a growing sense of =E2=80=98unease and=
 frustration=E2=80=99
among the British high command. The officer, who agreed to the interview on
the condition of anonymity, said that part of the problem was that American
troops viewed Iraqis as untermenschen - the Nazi expression for =E2=80=98su=
b-humans.=E2=80=99
Speaking from his base in southern Iraq, the officer said: =E2=80=98My view=
 and the
view of the British chain of command is that the Americans=E2=80=99 use of =
violence is
not proportionate and is over-responsive to the threat they are facing. The=
y
don't see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermens=
chen.
They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the way the British
are. Their attitude towards the Iraqis is tragic, it's awful.=E2=80=99=E2=
=80=9D



The British officer went on to say that, =E2=80=9CWhen US troops are attack=
ed with
mortars in Baghdad, they use mortar-locating radar to find the firing point=
 and
then attack the general area with artillery, even though the area they are
attacking may be in the middle of a densely populated residential area.  Th=
ey may
well kill the terrorists in the barrage but they will also kill and maim
innocent civilians.  That has been their response on a number of occasions.=
  It is
trite, but American troops do shoot first and ask questions later.  They ar=
e
very concerned about taking casualties and have even trained their guns on
British troops, which has led to some confrontations between soldiers.=E2=
=80=9D



A report like that one, appearing in a leading British newspaper, will be
widely seen for what it is, a none too subtle warning from our closest and =
most
important ally in the Iraq war to the Bush administration, its military lea=
ders
at the Pentagon, and its commanders on the ground Iraq.



Reprisal attacks are not uncommon in war.  The most famous reprisal attack =
on
a town during WWII was carried out by Hitler=E2=80=99s Nazis in Czechoslova=
kia in
June 1942 after the death of Nazi SS security police chief Obergruppenfuhre=
r
Reinherd Heydrich.  During Heydrich=E2=80=99s reign of terror, 5000 anti-Fa=
scist fighters
and their helpers were imprisoned and courts working under martial law were
kept busy.  The Nazis had people summarily executed without a trial in orde=
r to
spread fear throughout the country. Many people from Kladno district of
Czechoslovakia died on the scaffold or in concentration camps.  The operati=
on by
Czechoslovak parachutists in which Heydrich was mortally wounded on May 27,=
 1942
brought reprisals against the village of Lidice, west of Prague, which shoc=
ked
the whole world.



The vague contents of a letter addressed to a factory worker roused the
suspicions of the Kladno Gestapo that there was some connection between Hey=
drich's
assassination and the Horak family in Lidice who had a son serving in the
Czechoslovak army in Britain. Although investigations and a house-search pr=
oduced
no evidence, the Nazis needed to carry out an act of vengeance for the kill=
ing
of =E2=80=9Can outstanding man of the German nation,=E2=80=9D and for this =
they chose the
village and the people of Lidice.



On June 10, 1942 a few hours after midnight the Nazis began their reprisal
against the 503 men, women, and children of Lidice.  The events of that sum=
mer
day are recorded in a documentary, filmed by those who actually carried out=
 the
brutal crime against innocent people. Although it is a silent film, it can =
be
understood by all people, irrespective of race, religion, or national origi=
n.
 This film served as document No. 379 at the Nuremberg trials of the Nazi
German leaders in 1945.



Nazis shot to death one hundred and seventy-three men in the garden of a
Lidice farm.  The women and children were taken to the gymnasium of Kladno =
grammar
school.  Three days later the children were taken from their mothers and,
after babies and small children were selected out for transfer to and
re-education in German families, 82 children were poisoned by exhaust gas i=
n specially
adapted vehicles in the Polish extermination camp at Chelm.  The women were=
 sent
to Ravensbruck concentration camp, which usually meant either a quick or a
lingering death.



Once they had emptied it of its inhabitants, the Nazis began to destroy the
village itself, first setting the houses on fire and then razing them to th=
e
ground with plastic explosives.  They did not stop until they had destroyed=
 the
church and even the cemetery. When they were through, all that remained whe=
re
the village of Lidice had once stood was an empty space.



Fallujah is no Lidice.  But the parallels between these two reprisal
operations are chilling enough, and it now appears that more non-combatant =
civilians,
including women and children, may have been killed by the U.S. military in
Fallujah than by the Nazis at Lidice.  Thoughtful observers can only wonder=
 how
far the U.S. military would have taken its campaign of reprisal and collect=
ive
punishment against the people of Fallujah, and how many more innocent
civilians would have died, had not the Shiite uprising in the South, a Musl=
im
religious holiday, warnings from Arab and Muslim leaders across the Middle =
East and
around the world, pressure from the British and other allies, the support o=
f
Baghdad Sunnis and Shiites, and fierce resistance by Fallujan fighters them=
selves
all conspired to cause U.S. commanders to agree to a shaky ceasefire.  And
the crisis is not yet resolved.

Some reports indicate that the U.S. military=E2=80=99s problems in Fallujah=
 are
largely of its own making.  Trigger-happy U.S. troops fired wildly into a c=
rowd
killing 13 unarmed demonstrators in Fallujah in late April 2003 and two day=
s
later killed three more in a similar confrontation.  In September 2003, U.S=
.
soldiers just outside Fallujah accidentally shot dead 10 Iraqi policemen wh=
o were
in hot pursuit of a criminal or a terrorist gang.  One of the few objective
accounts of the current problems in Fallujah is an article by Jonathan Stee=
le.
Writing from Fallujah for The Guardian, a British newspaper, Steele reporte=
d on
actions taken by the U.S. Marines in the days that preceded the killing and
mutilation of the four =E2=80=9Ccivilian contractors,=E2=80=9D which he des=
cribed as an =E2=80=9C
eruption of popular hatred.=E2=80=9D

=E2=80=9CAs residents ushered reporters into their homes a few days ago,=E2=
=80=9D wrote
Steel, =E2=80=9Cshortly before this week=E2=80=99s attack on four American =
security guards
(though mercenaries might be a better term), it was clear that deep communa=
l anger
was lurking here, and had reached the boiling point. They wanted to show th=
e
results of several US incursions over four days and nights last week.=E2=80=
=9D

=E2=80=9CRockets from helicopter gunships had punctured bedroom walls.  Pat=
io floors
and front gates were pockmarked by shrapnel. Car doors looked like sieves. =
In
the mayhem 18 Iraqis lay dead. On the American side two Marines were killed=
.
It was the worst period of violence Fallujah has seen during a year of
occupation.=E2=80=9D



=E2=80=9CSo this week=E2=80=99s retaliation [against the four =E2=80=9Ccivi=
lian contractors=E2=80=9D] comes
as no surprise.  The cycle of violence that US troops unleashed looks and
feels increasingly like Palestinian rage in the face of excessive force by =
an
occupying power.=E2=80=9D



Steel called the American reaction to Iraqi resistance =E2=80=9Cheavy-hande=
d and
indiscriminate,=E2=80=9D and went on to describe one Fallujah man=E2=80=99s=
 reaction to the chaos
the Marines left behind after they occupied his home overnight.  =E2=80=9CC=
upboards
were ransacked, a computer had gone, and empty brown bags which once contai=
ned
army rations littered every room.  He was particularly upset at finding the=
m
in his teenage sister=E2=80=99s bedroom.=E2=80=9D



=E2=80=9CNot many of Fallujah=E2=80=99s people are former Baathist loyalist=
s, as the
Americans say, nor have the Americans produced evidence of large numbers of=
 foreign =E2=80=98
jihadists,=E2=80=99=E2=80=9D according to Steel.  =E2=80=9CThey are ordinar=
y families, driven by
nationalist pride, and increasingly by a desire to retaliate when their hom=
es and
neighborhoods are violated and their relatives and friends killed.=E2=80=9D



The Bush administration=E2=80=99s war in Iraq is rapidly becoming the polit=
ical,
economic, military, and humanitarian disaster that many peace and social ju=
stice
activists predicted up to the moment it began, precisely the kind of war th=
at
millions of anti-war protesters around the world feared when they poured in=
to
the streets in the hope of stopping it.  It is difficult to imagine an Amer=
ican
administration or military command more out of touch with reality, but the
Orwellian disconnect was apparent on March 25 last year when, with the soun=
ds
and images of the U.S. military=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9CShock and Awe=E2=80=9D b=
ombardment of Baghdad still
reverberating, Secretary of State Colin Powell assured National Public Radi=
o=E2=80=99s
Juan Williams that, =E2=80=9Cthe Arab public will realize that we came in p=
eace.=E2=80=9D
Shock and awe have long since given way to shock and disgust as the preside=
nt=E2=80=99s
war for personal, corporate, and national aggrandizement has proved, again
and again, to be impossible to spin convincingly as a fight to bring democr=
acy
to the Middle East and peace to an increasingly terrified world



--__--__--

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:50:09 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?The=20Iraq=20Solidarity=20Campaign?= <mcr_coalition@DELETETHISyahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: MCR_Coalition@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: public Meeting - Troops out of Iraq!
To: MCR_Coalition@yahoo.co.uk


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]


PUBLIC MEETING

TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ!

Speakers:

Burham Fatah

 Federation of Iraqi Refugees.

Hussein Al-Alak

The Iraq Solidarity Campaign



Venue;    The People's Centre, Hardeman Street, Liverpool.

Date;   Tuesday 27th April          Time: 7pm.

organised by,   the Merseyside Socialist Alliance.



---------------------------------




The Iraq Solidarity Campaign

---------------------------------
Too much spam in your inbox? Yahoo! Mail gives you the best spam protection for FREE! Get Yahoo!Mail



--__--__--

Message: 3
From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com>
To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: ElBaradei: Doubt on Iraq Nuclear Security
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 12:13:56 -0400

Probe Casts Doubt on Iraq Nuclear Security
Thu Apr 15, 6:51 PM ET
http://tinyurl.com/264xt

UNITED NATIONS - Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and
radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the U.N.'s nuclear
watchdog agency reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that
has turned up in European scrapyards


The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a letter to U.S. officials three
weeks ago informing them of the findings. The information was also sent to
the U.N. Security Council in a letter from its director, Mohamed ElBaradei,
that was circulated Thursday.


The IAEA is waiting for a reply from the United States, which is leading the
coalition administering Iraq (news - web sites), officials said.


The United Sattes has virtually cut off information-sharing with the IAEA
since invading Iraq in March 2003 on the premise that the country was hiding
weapons of mass destruction.


No such weapons have been found, and arms control officials now worry the
war and its chaotic aftermath may have increased chances that terrorists
could get their hands on materials used for unconventional weapons or that
civilians may be unknowingly exposed to radioactive materials.


According to ElBaradei's letter, satellite imagery shows "extensive removal
of equipment and in some instances, removal of entire buildings," in Iraq.


In addition, "large quanitities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been
transfered out of Iraq from sites" previously monitored by the IAEA.


In January, the IAEA confirmed that Iraq was the likely source of
radioactive material known as yellowcake that was found in a shipment of
scrap metal at Rotterdam harbor.


Yellowcake, or uranium oxide, could be used to build a nuclear weapon,
although it would take tons of the substance refined with sophisticated
technology to harvest enough uranium for a single bomb.


The yellowcake in the shipment was natural uranium ore which probably came
from a known mine in Iraq that was active before the 1991 Gulf War (news -
web sites).


The yellowcake was uncovered Dec. 16 by Rotterdam-based scrap metal company
Jewometaal, which had received it in a shipment of scrap metal from a dealer
in Jordan.


A small number of Iraqi missile engines have also turned up in European
ports, IAEA officials said.


"It is not clear whether the removal of these items has been the result of
looting activities in the aftermath of the recent war in Iraq or as part of
systematic efforts to rehabilitate some of their locations," ElBaradei wrote
to the council.


The IAEA has been unable to investigate, monitor or protect Iraqi nuclear
materials since the U.S. invaded the country in March 2003. The United
States has refused to allow the IAEA or other U.N. weapons inspectors into
the country, claiming that the coalition has taken over responsibility for
illict weapons searches.


So far those searches have come up empty-handed and the CIA (news - web
sites)'s first chief weapons hunter has said he no longer believes Iraq had
weapons just prior to the invasion.











End of casi-news Digest

_______________________________________
Sent via the CASI-analysis mailing list
To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-analysis
All postings are archived on CASI's website at http://www.casi.org.uk


[Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]