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[casi-analysis] Emergency meeting next Tuesday // Contact your MP



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Dear friends, Voices supporters and fellow anti-war activists,

If you can make it please try to attend next Tuesday's meeting:

26 OCTOBER, LONDON: RESIST THE ASSAULT ON IRAQ’S CITIES. Emergency meeting
to discuss contingency plans for action. 7pm, Caledonian Road, N1 (nearest
tube Kings Cross). Called by Voices.

"VERY BLOODY AND NASTY"
Last Friday a US official told washingtonpost.com that, "If we have to fight
in Fallujah it’s going to be very bloody and nasty" (16 Oct). The UK Defence
Secretary, Geoff Hoon, has now confirmed that 'about 850 troops and support
staff' are to be redeployed 'near the capital, Baghdad' (BBC, 21 Oct). The
aim of the redeployment is to 'free US forces to attack Fallujah'
(Telegraph, 18 Oct).

CONTACT YOUR MP NOW to remind them of the horrors of the first major attack
on Fallujah in April, urging them to condemn the redeployment and support
the call for the withdrawal of British troops (see [A] below).

POSTCARD & WEB-SITE UPDATES
Voices has a new, FREE campaign postcard available, 'Stop the Killing in
Iraq', ideal for stalls, mailings etc... (see [B] below). We've also updated
our on-line web-blog and events listings (see www.voicesuk.org)

Finally, please continue to support war resisters in the US army - both
those in prison in the US and those seeking asylum in Canada (See [D]
below).

Best wishes,

Gabriel
voices uk
www.voicesuk.org

******************************************
[A] The Looming Assault on Fallujah: Contact your MP now
[B] 'Stop the Killing in Iraq': new, FREE campaign postcards available.
[C] Support US war resisters
*******************************************

[A] THE LOOMING ASSAULT ON FALLUJAH: CONTACT YOUR MP NOW

Last Friday a US official told washingtonpost.com that, “If we have to fight
in Fallujah it’s going to be very bloody and nasty” (16 Oct). Just how
bloody and nasty is evident from the last large-scale assault on the city in
April (see below).

Contact your MP now:

- remind them of the horrors of April’s siege of Fallujah (see below) –
horrors which the British Government refused to condemn, ‘insist[ing] that
there were “no disagreements” with the US about its tactics on the ground’
(Independent, 14 April).

- ask them why British troops are being redeployed with the ‘aim of …
free[ing] US forces to attack Fallujah’ (Telegraph, 18 Oct) again – this
time causing possibly even greater carnage.

- urge them to condemn the redeployment and to support calls for the
withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

You may find the following quotes from US and UK soldiers in Iraq helpful:

“We still haven’t found any WMD. It was wrong, totally wrong. The way I feel
is that we are fighting an American war. It is all for Bush’s cabinet and
campaign” (Anonymous UK corporal with the Cheshire regiment in Basra,
Independent on Sunday, 11 July).

“We shouldn’t be here. There was no reason for invading this country in the
first place. We just came here and [angered people] and killed a lot of
innocent people. I don’t enjoy killing women and children, it’s not my
thing.” (Anonymous marine infantryman, AP, 22 September 2004).

MASSACRE IN FALLUJAH: APRIL 2004

- Hundreds of Iraqis were killed, many of them civilians. On 11 April the
director of Fallujah’s general hospital, Rafie al-Issawi, estimated – on the
basis of figures gathered from four clinics around the city as well as the
hospital itself - that more than 600 people had been killed and that ‘the
vast majority of the dead were women, children and the elderly’ (Guardian,
12 April).

- Warplanes, fighter bombers, military helicopters, gunships and remotely
piloted Predator reconnaissance aircraft were all used in the attack on the
city (New York Times, 30 April 2004). Houses - and at least one mosque -
were attacked from the air, reportedly killing scores of civilians:

* ‘An airborne assault on a mosque killed at least 40 worshippers attending
prayers’ on 7 April and '16 children and eight women were reported to have
been killed when US aircraft hit four houses’ the previous day (Independent,
8 April).

* Menem Latif Hussain told the Guardian how a house at the end of his street
suffered from a direct hit from a powerful bomb. “We ran to the house
because they were my friends. In the garden I saw three men had been sitting
on a bench. They were all dead, they had been cut in half by the bomb’
(Guardian, 24 April).

- There were numerous press reports of US snipers firing on – and killing –
unarmed civilians:

* Mohammed Hadi, told the Telegraph that US marines snipers had taken up
position in the minarets of a local mosque and shot dead his neighbour (12
April). “He was just on his way to buy tomatoes,” he told the paper. And
17-year-old Hassan Monem, who claimed that two of his friends ‘were shot as
they stood in my yard.’

* Likewise, Ali, 28, who had managed to escape with part of his family,
related how “one man in an Opel drove his wife and children to the bridge so
they would walk over. As he drove back to town, an American sniper killed
him” (Guardian, 12 April).

* Abu Mohammed (30) told the Guardian that as he “was about to leave
[Fallujah] there were two ladies trying to get out. American snipers shot
them dead. Their bodies are still lying out on the street in al-Jumhuriya”
(30 April).

One US Marine Major told Time magazine that it was “hard to differentiate
between people who are insurgents or civilians. You just have to go with
your gut feeling.” (Time, 11 April). A marine corporal explained that
“Sometimes a guy will go down and I’ll let him scream a bit to destroy the
morale of his buddies,” a marine corporal explained. “Then I’ll use a second
shot”(Daily Oakland Press, 17 April).

A senior UK army officer, told the Sunday Telegraph that “when US troops are
attacked 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 … They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in
the way the British are’, ‘they view [Iraqis] as untermenschen [the Nazi
expression for “sub-humans”]. Their attitude towards the Iraqis is tragic,
it’s awful’ (11 April).

- Several reports strongly suggested that US snipers targeted ambulances in
Fallujah. The head of mission of a European humanitarian agency with staff
in Fallujah told BBC News Online that two of their ambulances had been shot
at ‘probably by US snipers’ (BBC, 23 April); and a UK national, Jo Wilding,
was present in a clearly marked ambulance that she claims was shot at by US
snipers (see www.wildfirejo.org.uk/feature/display/114/index.php ).

- The New York Times reported that at least one battalion [in Fallujah] had
‘orders to shoot any male of military age on the streets after dark, armed
or not (14 April).
Recounting how he shot dead ‘an Iraqi man … walking down the street in
no-man’s land … [who had] his hands suspiciously in his pockets’, Corporal
Ryan Long from Alpha Company explained: “I got one of my juniors to fire a
warning shot, but the guy kept on walking, so I said: ‘Let me do it’ … Last
year I’d have never shot a guy without a weapon’’ (Times, 15 April).

- So many Iraqis were killed that the Fallujah Sports Club was turned into a
makeshift cemetery. Times reporter Stephen Farrell counted 32 graves on the
pitch and 180 more on the practice park, including the graves of Omar (9,
killed 9 April), Wisam Salah (eight months) and Mohammed Khalaf (15 months)
(Times, 3 May). ‘The gravediggers said the cemetery was full of women and
children’ (New York Times, 27 April).

- ‘The city’s main hospital … was closed by the marines’ and, according to
the Iraq emergency co-ordinator for Medicins sans Frontieres – who visited
Fallujah during the fighting – “The Americans put a sniper on top of the
hospital’s water tower” in violation of the Geneva Convention (Guardian, 24
April).

***********************************
[B] STOP THE KILLING IN IRAQ: NEW, FREE CAMPAIGN POSTCARDS AVAILABLE

Voices has produced another FREE campaign postcard to Tony Blair (see text
below), this time featuring recent images from Iraq. Ideal for stalls,
mailings etc... copies of the card are available from the Voices office:
voices@voicesuk.org or 0845 458 2564 (local rate call). Please specify how
many cards you would like. The card can be viewed on-line at
http://www.voices.netuxo.co.uk/postcardtexts.htm

POSTCARD TEXT BEGINS

In April US forces laid siege to the Iraqi town of Fallujah. In one week
more than 600 were killed - 'the vast majority of the dead were women,
children and the elderly' according to local doctors (Guardian, 12 April).
Warplanes, fighter bombers and helicopter gunships were all used to attack
the city (New York Times, 30 April). Ambulances were shot at and at least
one battalion was given 'orders to shoot any male of military age on the
streets after dark, armed or not' (NYT, 14 April)

In August US forces launched an assault on the city of Najaf. Roughly 400
civilians were killed according to the Iraqi health ministry (Independent, 9
Sept). "If we take fire from it, we destroy the whole building," an Army
commander told the Washington Post (28 August). Meanwhile a British
commanding officer in Basra told the Observer that his Company had "fired
more rounds, killed more people and t[aken] more casualties" in August than
during the invasion (5 Sept).

On 30 Sept US forces launched a massive assault on Samarra - the first in a
new series of major offensives against Iraqi cities, including Fallujah. The
US 'cut off power and water, and American snipers were said to be firing at
anything that moved' (Independent on Sunday, 3 Oct).

This carnage must stop. I demand that US and British forces stop killing
Iraqis and end their military occupation of Iraq.

POSTCARD TEXT ENDS

*********************************
[C] SUPPORT US WAR RESISTERS

US SOLIDERS SEEKING ASYLUM IN CANADA
Three US soliders - David Sanders (20), Brandon Hughey and Jeremy Hinzman -
are currently seeking refugee status in Canada. All three refuse to serve in
Iraq on moral grounds and now await the determination of their claims to
refugee status (Felushko had Canadian as well as US citizenship so there is
no problem with his staying in Canada, though he will be arrested if he
returns to the US).

It is crucial to put the Canadian Government under as much pressure as
possible to accept these claims – not only for their sake but also for
future US soldiers who may which to flee to Canada.

PLEASE WRITE TO:
-  the Candian High Commissioner to the UK, Mel Cappe (1 Grosvenor Square,
London W1K 4AB);
- The Right Honourable Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada, Office of the
Prime Minister, 80 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A 0A2; and
- Hon. Judy Sgro, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Room 239,
Confederation Bldg, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6. Urge them to
recognise Hinzman, Sanders and Hughey’s right to asylum in Canada.

An up-to-the-minute interview with Hinzman and Hughey can be viewed on-line
at http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl?issue=20041015

FREE ABDULLAH WEBSTER & CAMILO MEJIA
Two soldiers from the US army – Abdullah Webster and Camilo Mejia - are
currently in prison for refusing to fight in Iraq. Amnesty International
considers both to be prisoners of conscience. Please write to the following
addresses, urging their immediate and unconditional release, noting that
Amnesty International considers both men to be prisoners of conscience.

Abdullah Webster (sentenced to 14 months imprisonment in June 2004)
PLEASE WRITE to: Colonel William H. Haight III, 1 ID Engineer Brigade, Unit
27562, APO, AE 09139, USA; Lieutenant Colonel Gerald P. O'Connor, HHC 82nd
Engineer Battalion, Unit 27522, APO, AE 09139, USA; Major David K. Kennedy,
Rear Detachment Commander, Unit 27562, APO, AE 09139 USA; and
The Honorable Les Brownlee, Acting Secretary of the Army, 102 Army Pentagon,
Room 3E588, Washington DC 20310-0102, USA.

Camilo Mejia (sentenced to one year imprisonment in May 2004)
PLEASE WRITE to Major General William G. Webster, Jr,  Commanding General,
Fort Stewart 42 Wayne Place, Ft. Stewart, GA 31314, USA; and The Honorable
Les Brownlee (see above).
    Please also send letters of support to Pt. Camilo Mejia, Building 1490,
Randolph Rd, Fort Sill, OK 73503, USA. Please cc these to Camilo’s mother so
that she can make sure they are not being destroyed: Maritza Castillo, 201
178 Drive # 323, Miami, FL. 33160, USA.

For more information see www.tomjoad.org/WarHeroes.htm
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