The following is an archived copy of a message sent to the CASI Analysis List run by Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq.
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[ 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. Blues for Fallujah (ppg) 2. FPIF News | Iraq Quagmire Deepens (IRC Communications) 3. Fallujah: upcoming actions (Voices in the Wilderness (UK)) 4. US Troops Reportedly Gassing Fallujah (ppg) 5. Satan hides in a hospital By Pepe Escobar (ppg) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com> To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk> Cc: "ppg" <ppg@nyc.rr.com> Subject: Blues for Fallujah Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 18:44:54 -0500 http://www.counterpunch.org/moses11032004.html Blues for Fallujah By GREG MOSES Hush. Enough chatter about the stupid American election. I'm trying to listen to Fallujah right now. Stop telling me how closest advisors to the aggressor in chief hugged each other this morning in the Oval Office, and expressed great relief. Scrubbed teeth, shining all around. I'm trying to hear the sounds of their helicopters overhead, trying to feel the rattle in my bones as chop, chop, chop, over Falluja, they draft the very air into war. No more stories please about the four-hour lines, the embargoed ballots, Supreme Court refusals, or the missing youth vote. Speak of battleground states no more. They didn=EDt even try to change the South. Crashes and cri= es are what I'm listening for. Not more stupid talk about "margins of litigation," that politico-mathmatic trigger point in which stupid embargoe= d ballots exceed differences in stupid ballots cast. Chinaview reports (8 hours ago) that two have been killed and six injured i= n Fallujah, but we know since reading last Friday's article in the Lancet tha= t we have to multiply these numbers times ten. So shush that grating talk about how we're all soon back together in some conspiracy of imperial purpose, all hailing the chief. I'm listening for the still-born child, the heart attack, the stroke. The sound a little person makes when she covers her head with her bare hands. Please mute that electoral count recap, would you? I've got to listen to Falluja right now. Greg Moses writes for the Texas Civil Rights Review. Moses contributed a chapter on civil rights under Clinton and Bush for Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils. He can be reached at: gmosesx@prodigy.net --__--__-- Message: 2 From: "IRC Communications" <communications@DELETETHISirc-online.org> Organization: Interhemispheric Resource Center To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk Subject: FPIF News | Iraq Quagmire Deepens Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 15:54:08 -0700 [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What=92s New at FPIF =93Working to make the U.S. a more responsible global leader and partner=94 http://www.fpif.org/ November 8, 2004 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Introducing a new commentary from Foreign Policy In Focus The Iraq Quagmire Deepens By Erik Leaver Authorities in Washington have not only misread the =93mandate=94 that the = U.S. electorate supposedly gave them on November 2, they have misread the milita= ry and political situation in Fallujah and the rest of Iraq. The administratio= n should learn from past mistakes. The mantra of destroying the village to sa= ve it didn=92t work in Vietnam. Its prospects for success in Iraq aren't any b= etter. Erik Leaver is policy outreach director for the Foreign Policy In Focus pro= ject at the Institute for Policy Studies (http://www.fpif.org). He's one of the authors of a recently released IPS and FPIF report titled "A Failed 'Transi= tion': The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War."=A0 See new FPIF commentary online at: http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0411falluja.html With printer friendly PDF version at: http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0411falluja.pdf ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Produced and distributed by FPIF:=93A Think Tank Without Walls,=94 a joint = program of Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) and Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). For more information, visit http://www.fpif.org. If you would like to add a name to the =93What=92s New At FPIF=94 list, please email: communications@i= rc-online.org, giving your area of interest. Also see our Progressive Response newsletter at: http://www.fpif.org/progre= sp/index.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interhemispheric Resource Center(IRC) http://www.irc-online.org/ Siri D. Khalsa Outreach Coordinator Email: communications@irc-online.org =A0 Siri D. Khalsa Communications Coordinator Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) siri@irc-online.org IRC Projects Online: IRC (www.irc-online.org) FPIF (www.fpif.org) Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org) Self-Determination In Focus (www.selfdetermine.org) Project Against the Present Danger (www.presentdanger.org) --__--__-- Message: 3 Reply-To: <voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk> From: "Voices in the Wilderness \(UK\)" <voices@DELETETHISviwuk.freeserve.co.uk> To: "Voices UK" <voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk> Subject: Fallujah: upcoming actions Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 19:10:37 -0000 [A] Anti-war actions tomorrow, Wednesday 10th November (including nonviolen= t direact action in London) [B] Nonviolent Direct Action training workshop this Sunday, 14th November [C] Rapid response alert re. the BBC from Media Lens. ************************************************************** Dear friends and fellow anti-war activists, 'U.S. Army and Marine units thrust through the center of ... Fallujah' toda= y (AP, 9 November) as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared that '[c]ivilians in the city ... got plenty of warning to steer clear of the fighting between U.S. and insurgent forces' (AP, 9 November). Those remaining - including men under 45, whom US forces 'warned ... through loudspeakers and leaflets on Friday' would be detained if they tried to leave the city (Reuters, 5 Nov) - will, presumably, have only themselves to blame when their houses are flattened by US bombs or they are shot by US snipers. SQUELCHING THE TRUTH On Sunday, Fallujah General Hospital 'was selected as an early target because the American military believed that it was the source of rumors about heavy casualties. "It's a center of propaganda," a senior American officer said Sunday' (NYT, 8 Nov). 'This time around, the American military intends to fight its own information war, countering or squelching what has been one of the insurgents' most potent weapons' ie. the truth. Author and activist Rahul Mahajan (who spent time in Fallujah during the April siege) notes that 'doctors were allowed to resume treating patients, but it's for damn sure that few if any of Fallujah's wounded will be brough= t there -- and, in fact, with both bridges seized, it will be nearly impossible (Fallujah General is across the Euphrates from most of the city)= , as it was during the last assault' (www.empirenotes.org). PROTEST BREAKS OUT ACROSS UK Meanwhile here in the UK, there were protests in over 30 towns and cities last night, including vigils and protests in Swindon, York and Brighton. Four people were arrested in Edinburgh as the US Consulate was spattered with blood red paint and covered in anti-war slogans. In Cambridge, protestors staged a rush-hour demonstration, a rally in Market Square, as well as taking to the roof of the Guildhall with banners [more pics], and spraying anti-war graffiti. In London hundreds demonstrated outside Downing Street while others blocked roads and painted anti-war graffiti (see www.indymedia.org.uk). Army recruitment centres were surrounded with police tape (London) and splattered with fake blood (Brighton). Tonight actions will be taking place in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brighton, Bristol, Oxford, Sheffield, and Wrexham (again see www.indymedia.org.uk for details). More actions are planned for tomorrow (see [A] below). Also, don'= t forget this Sunday's nonviolent direct action training workshop (see [B] below) - Fallujah is just one of 20-30 towns and cities across Iraq that where the Pentagon is planning to 'take back control' before January. Yours in solidarity, Gabriel voices uk www.voicesuk.org ********************************************************8 [A] ANTI-WAR ACTIONS: WEDNESDAY 9TH NOVEMBER EMERGENCY PROTEST AT PARLIAMENT 5.30pm WEDNESDAY NOV 10 [Please send us the details for your upcoming actions] LONDON: - PROTEST AND RALLY: 5.30 - 7pm, in Parliament Square. Organised by the Sto= p the War Coalition (www.stopwar.org.uk) - NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION: Meet 7pm at the statue of Edith Cavell (opposit= e the entrance to the National Portrait Gallery, north-east of Trafalgar Square). Called by an ad hoc collection of nonviolent activists. Please bring your own placards, banners etc...! MANCHESTER: Rally and Vigil for peace: No more bloodshed - Withdraw the Black Watch troops Wednesday 10th November @ 5pm, The Peace Gardens, (next to Manchester Town Hall). Bring candles MILTON KEYNES: outside railway station Central Milton Keynes, 5:30-7:00pm, www.mkstopwar.org.uk OSWESTRY: Oswestry, Wednesday 10th, Bailey Street, 11.30am-1pm. Oswestry Coalition for Peace WREXHAM: Candle-lit vigil at Plas Coch Roundabout on Mold Road, Wrexham every weekday night this week (8th - 12th November). The vigils will be held from 5.30 =96 7.00pm. Organised by the Wrexham Peace & Justice Forum, call 0845 330 4505 (local rate number) or email wrexhamsaw@yahoo.com. ************************************************* [B] NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION TRAINING WORKSHOP IN LONDON THIS SUNDAY, 14 NOVEMBER Sunday 14th November, 11am - 4pm, 7a Rampart Street, London E1 2LA (nearest tubes Whitechapel and Shadwell). Angry at the ongoing carnage in Iraq? Want to take part in (or organise) some direct action or civil disobedience but feel you lack the confidence, skills or knowledge? Then this is the workshop for you! The aim of the NVDA workshop is to give you the chance to explore issues an= d techniques that will help build confidence in new and more experienced activists alike. This workshop will look at practical techniques to deal with confrontational situations nonviolently, hold an effective blockade or sit down protest, and make decisions quickly and democratically in an actio= n situation. It'll also look at the support roles that are vital to making actions happen. There will also be a full briefing on your legal rights and what happens should you get arrested. The workshop is a largely practical one, so come prepared for some physical exercises. Don't worry if there are limits to your physical mobility - we can accommodate everyone, just let the workshop leaders know when you get there. Please wear loose, sturdy and comfortable clothes. Organised by Voices UK. 0845 458 2564. If your group would like to attend the workshop but can't make it into London then Seeds for Change (www.seedsforchange.org.uk, 0845 458 4776 ) run excellent workshops on these and other topics and - provided you can cover their travel expenses - are prepared to travel the length and breadth of the country to come to you. Use them! ***************************************************** [C] RAPID RESPONSE ALERT: THE BBC - LEGITIMISING MASS SLAUGHTER IN FALLUJAH BY MEDIA LENS (www.medialens.org), NOVEMBER 8, 2004 Introduction - Pacifying The Population In 1984, Edward Herman and Frank Brodhead described how "demonstration elections" are "organised and staged by a foreign power primarily to pacify a restive home population, reassuring it that ongoing interventionary processes are legitimate and appreciated by their foreign objects." (Herman and Brodhead, Demonstration Elections, South End Press, 1984, p.5) In the case of Iraq, it is of course vital that domestic audiences in the U= S and UK be persuaded that their governments are killing Iraqis with the support of, even on behalf of, Iraqis themselves. The possibility that Iraqis might be dying in their tens of thousands for Western power and profit must, of course, be kept so far out of sight that it is barely even thinkable. In this morning's ZNet commentary, Herman notes that there may be a demonstration election planned for Iraq in January: "But meanwhile it is nominally ruled by Ayad Allawi, openly selected by US officials, but taken by the media (and Kofi Annan and the UN) as a genuine leader of Iraq. In the runup to 'saving' Fallujah, US military officials sa= y that they are awaiting a go-ahead from the head-of-sovereign-Iraq, Mr. Allawi, for permission! Like the United States needed a go-ahead from [Sout= h Vietnamese] Generals Ky and Thieu to ravage their country with Agent Orange and napalm!" (Herman, ZNet Commentary, 'We Had To Destroy Fallujah in Order to Save It,' November 8, 2004) The Iraqi leader's mythical go-ahead being, again, vital in providing legitimacy for an attack on a Third World city with main battle tanks and supersonic bombers. SOME WOULD CALL IT A FICTION Today, the broadcast media announced that the long-awaited superpower assault on Fallujah - a city of 300,000 people, of whom some 30,000 are sai= d to remain - had begun. Remarkably, the courageous ITV News reporter, Julian Manyon, did not fall into line. On today's 12:30 Lunchtime News, Manyon said: "We've had now, this morning, the formality - some would call it, I'm afraid, the fiction - that Iyad Allawi, the prime minister of Iraq, has given the official order to commence the operation against Fallujah. Of course in reality it is an American operation." (Manyon, ITV News, 12:30pm, November 8, 2004) This is not the hymn sheet from which the media is supposed to be singing. Fortunately, the post-Hutton BBC is on hand to channel official propaganda with the power to reassure and bamboozle the viewing public. The BBC's lunchtime news anchor, Anna Ford, opened today's news with this solemn announcement: "Iraq's prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has said he has given American and Iraqi forces the authority to clear Fallujah of terrorists." (Ford, BBC 1, 13:00 News, November 8, 2004) Almost everything in this statement is false: Allawi is not the legitimate prime minister of Iraq, he is an American-installed stooge. Allawi did not give authority to US forces to attack Fallujah - +they+ are the authority i= n Iraq, Allawi is their mouthpiece. The US goal is not to "clear Fallujah of terrorists"; it is to crush Iraqi resistance to US control of their country= . BBC executives justify affording such high-profile coverage to Allawi's words on the grounds that he is the Iraqi leader. If similar coverage had been proposed for the Soviet-imposed rulers of Afghanistan in the 1980s, th= e same BBC executives would have fallen about laughing. Might, quite simply, makes right. On the same news programme, the BBC's 'embedded' correspondent, Paul Wood, gave a report that included footage of US forces and an Iraqi commando unit storming a hospital in Fallujah. Iraqi prisoners were shown being tied up and blindfolded. Wood said: "The insurgents here were quickly overpowered, and without a shot fired." On ITV, Manyon had told us 30 minutes earlier that half of these hospital "insurgents" had immediately been released. Footage followed of a speech by US marine general John Sattler to troops: "This town's being held hostage by mugs, thugs, murderers and intimidators. All they need is for us to give them the opportunity to break the back of that intimidation." Wood added: "Officers from this battalion are meeting now. I think, probably, following the press conference by prime minister Allawi, they will come back to tell these marines that finally the operation is on." Anna Ford spoke again from the studio: "Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, said the rule of law will be imposed in Fallujah very soon." And then to a clip of Allawi's press conference: "We are after terrorists, we are not after anybody else. And all the Iraqi people, including people in Fallujah, they want us to go ahead and finish the terrorists, and have the rule of law prevail in Fallujah, and this is what we intend to do." Again and again, the impression was given that Allawi was in charge, that h= e was giving the orders, that he was intent on bringing 'law and order', rather than US control, to Iraq. You could not guess from today's BBC lunchtime news that this is in fact a war between illegal foreign occupiers and local resistance fighters. The impression given was that Iraqis were directing the war being waged on their own people, with Western control and goals whitewashed to invisibility. This has the effect of pacifying and disarming British public opinion, so reducing resistance, so making it easier for the West to continue killing for control and profit. Claire Marshall then reported from Baghdad: "He [Allawi] said that he has given his authority to the multinational and to the Iraqi forces. This does seem to be the authority which they were waiting for in order to carry out their full-scale assault, possibly into the centre of Fallujah." Imagine how horrified we would have been to hear crude propaganda of this kind from a Soviet journalist reviewing Red Army actions in Afghanistan. Marshall continued: "Prime minister Iyad Allawi also suggested that the fight will go on. He said that 'any place in Iraq which houses terrorists will now be cleaned'." Thus, on seven occasions, the BBC gave the impression that Allawi was the real authority in Iraq, so promoting the lethal myth that the assault on Fallujah is essentially an Iraqi operation against "terrorists" and "mugs, thugs, murderers and intimidators", to be "cleaned" and "cleared". There were no balancing words from commentators opposed to the US waging an illegal high-tech war against city slums. Marshall added: "Basically the people who are still in the town of Fallujah are those who either have nowhere else to go, or those who are trying to protect their houses from looting, or those who want to join in the fight." One other category springs to mind - those who are too young, old, sick and infirm to move at all. SUGGESTED ACTION The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect fo= r others. In writing letters to journalists, we strongly urge readers to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone. Write to Anna Ford Email: anna.ford@bbc.co.uk Write to Paul Wood Email: paul.wood@bbc.co.uk Write to Claire Marshall Email: claire.marshall@bbc.co.uk Write to Helen Boaden, director of BBC News Email: helen.boaden@bbc.co.uk Please also send all emails to us at Media Lens: Email: editor@medialens.org Visit the Media Lens website: http://www.medialens.org This media alert will shortly be archived at: http://www.MediaLens.org/alerts/index.html --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.779 / Virus Database: 526 - Release Date: 19/10/2004 --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.779 / Virus Database: 526 - Release Date: 19/10/2004 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.779 / Virus Database: 526 - Release Date: 19/10/2004 --__--__-- Message: 4 From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com> To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk> Cc: "ppg" <ppg@nyc.rr.com> Subject: US Troops Reportedly Gassing Fallujah Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 13:57:14 -0500 US Troops Reportedly Gassing Fallujah http://tinyurl.com/54ay6 FALLUJAH, November 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988. "The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally-banned chemical weapons," resistance sources told Al-Quds Press Wednesday, November 10. The fatal weapons led to the deaths of tens of innocent civilians, whose bodies litter sidewalks and streets, they added. "They use chemical weapons out of despair and helplessness in the face of the steadfast and fierce resistance put up by Fallujah people, who drove US troops out of several districts, hoisting proudly Iraqi flags on them. Resistance has also managed to destroy and set fire to a large number of US tanks and vehicles. "The US troops have sprayed chemical and nerve gases on resistance fighters, turning them hysteric in a heartbreaking scene," an Iraqi doctor, who requested anonymity, told Al-Quds Press. "Some Fallujah residents have been further burnt beyond treatment by poisonous gases," added resistance fighters, who took part in Golan battles, northwest of Fallujah. In August last year, the United States admitted dropping the internationally-banned incendiary weapon of napalm on Iraq, despite earlier denials by the Pentagon that the "horrible" weapon had not been used in the three-week invasion of Iraq. After the offensive on Iraq ended on April 9 last year, Iraqis began to complain about unexploded cluster bombs that still litter their cities. Media Blackout The sources said that the media blackout, the banning of Al-Jazeera satellite channel and subjective embedded journalists played well into the hands of the US military. "Therefore, US troops opted for using internationally banned weapons to soften the praiseworthy resistance of Fallujah people. "More and more, the US military edits and censors reports sent by embedded journalists to their respective newspapers and news agencies," the sources added. Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Al-Shaalan had said Tuesday, November 9, would be decisive. "Al-Shaalan declaration meant nothing but the use of chemical weapons and poisonous gases to down Fallujah fighters," observers told Al-Quds Press. --__--__-- Message: 5 From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com> To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk> Cc: "ppg" <ppg@nyc.rr.com> Subject: Satan hides in a hospital By Pepe Escobar Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 14:03:11 -0500 [ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] Asia Times November 11 http://tinyurl.com/6ubbw Satan hides in a hospital By Pepe Escobar Everything one needed to know about the true, unspinnable foreign policy of= the second George W Bush administration is represented by the "capture" of= the first strategic target in the assault on Fallujah: the general hospita= l, on the left bank of the Euphrates, now totally cut off from the city. Ac= cording to the Bush administration world view, this is the house where Sata= n lives. Bush-installed interim Iraqi Prime Minster Iyad Allawi announced with a smi= le of victory that he personally ordered the capture of the hospital. So ma= ybe it was not the Pentagon: it was an unelected politician asking a foreig= n occupation army to attack a hospital in his own country and preventing do= ctors and ambulances from entering a city under siege. The assault, dubbed Operation Phantom Fury, perversely started on Laylat e-= Qadr, the most important and holy night of the year for the Islamic world. In terms of the information war, the hospital was indeed the most strategic= of targets. During the first siege of Fallujah in April, doctors told inde= pendent media the real story about the suffering of civilian victims. So th= is time the Pentagon took no chances: no gory, disturbing photos of the eld= erly, women and children - the thousands unable to leave Fallujah in advanc= e of this week's offensive, the civilian victims of the relentless bombing. But this did not prevent the world from seeing doctors and patients at the = hospital handcuffed to the floor - as if they were terrorists. Hospital dir= ector Dr Salih al-Issawi told Agence France-Presse that the Americans block= ed him and other doctors from going to the center of Fallujah to help anoth= er clinic in distress; he also said an ambulance that tried to leave the ho= spital was shot at by the Americans - just like in April, when all ambulanc= es were targeted. The Geneva Convention is explicit: in a war situation, ho= spitals and ambulances are neutral. The Pentagon does not do "collateral damage" body counts. But as its relati= onship with the people of Fallujah now consists of a non-stop barrage of he= avy metal, the Pentagon is certainly in a much better position than Falluja= h's doctors to estimate the amount of civilian victims of its own bombing. The marines are not only occupying a hospital; they even turned it into a m= ilitary position, as they were using positions around it to attack the resi= stance. Cluster-bomb democracy The Pentagon's key primary target in Fallujah has been information: doctors= in hospitals, telephone lines that people use to tell the world about the = civilians' plight. Most of the world is interpreting Fallujah through embed= ded, Pentagon-censored reporters and Arab television. The Pentagon line is = American "heroes" on the way to "liberate" the people of Fallujah. Iraqis, = Arabs, 1.3 billion Muslims, the majority of European public opinion and dec= ent Americans won't be fooled - again. Asia Times Online sources close to the resistance say the talk in the stree= ts of Baghdad is that the bulk of the estimated 2,500 mujahideen in Falluja= h have already left to Baghdad, Ramadi, Samarra, Haditha, Khaldiya, and eve= n Mosul in the north. Even before the assault on Fallujah, there were more = than 100 resistance attacks a day all over the country. The main story play= ing in the Arab world in the past 24 hours is that of Mohammed Abboud - who= saw his nine-year-old son bleed to death of shrapnel wounds when his house= in Fallujah was hit because he could not venture out to go to a hospital. = Abboud had to bury his son in his own garden. Terrified Fallujans calling Baghdad tell of A-10 jets raining cluster bombs= on the city's streets. Iraqi (very) black humor qualifies unexploded clust= er bombs as the Iraqi version of Toys "R" Us: children get injured or kille= d because they think cluster bombs are toys. Everyone is talking of "scores= of bodies" in streets destroyed by US bombing. There is no power, no water= , shops are closed, food is scarce and practically no medical supplies rema= in, according to Dr Sami al-Jumaili, speaking to al-Jazeera. No more clinic= s are open throughout the city - and there is no possible way to estimate h= ow many civilians are dead, blown up, burned or injured, although al-Jumail= i tells of "scores of injured civilians". A brand-new clinic funded by a Sa= udi Islamic relief non-governmental agency was bombed by the Americans duri= ng the weekend, as well as a medical dispensary in the city center: this wa= s apparently the last place where anybody could get any medical attention. Fadhil Badrani, a reporter for the British Broadcasting Corp (BBC) World Se= rvice in Arabic, is one of the very few journalists inside Fallujah. He wri= tes that "a lot of the mosques have also been bombed. For the first time in= Fallujah, a city of 150 mosques, I did not hear a single call to prayer th= is morning. I broke my Ramadan fast yesterday with the last of our food - t= wo potatoes and two tomatoes. The tomatoes were rotten because we have no e= lectricity to run the fridge. My neighbors - a woman and her children - cam= e to see me yesterday. They asked me to tell the world what is happening he= re. I look at the devastation around me and ask - why?" The mujahideen battle plan Apart from a maximum of 1,500 "Arab brothers" - as the Iraqis call them - f= rom Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Syria and Tunisia, most of the remaining m= ujahideen in Fallujah are nationalist Iraqis whose tribal code mandates tha= t they defend at any cost their homes, their families and their city under = foreign attack. They have been preparing for this onslaught for months. And they do have a = battle plan - as it was relayed to Asia Times Online by sources in Baghdad.= Former or retired Iraqi army officials have always been serious students o= f Viet Minh tactics and Che Guevara's theory of the guerrilla foco (center = of guerrilla operations). Now they are applying this to urban warfare. This= , in a smaller version, is what the Battle of Baghdad would have been like = in April 2003. The Americans are closing in toward the city center, under fire from mujahi= deen equipped with only Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades hidden i= n clusters of low-roof houses. The Americans are firing back at the houses = and at anything that moves. They have been prevented - at least for now - b= y the resistance from storming any buildings. Their priority is to control = the main bombed-out roads. The mujahideen are operating with small mobile units of five or six or a ma= ximum of 20 fighters, changing positions all the time. As a counter-measure= , American snipers are trying to control the rooftops. The mujahideen are t= rying to attract as many American troops to the city center as possible - s= o they can unleash what seems to be hundreds of coordinated car bombs and i= mprovised explosive devices. People in Baghdad are also telling of US$3,000 being offered for any batter= ed old car to be used as part of a counter-offensive coming in behind the U= S positions once the house-to-house battle in the city center is fully enga= ged. Boycotting the election The US approach in Iraq appears to be a rehashing of the British imperial d= ictum of "divide and rule". Dr Harith al-Dhari, secretary general of the po= werful Association of Muslim Scholars, says the scheduled January election = would be held "over the corpses of those killed in Fallujah and the blood o= f the wounded", and has called on all Iraqis to boycott it. The association= sides with the people of Fallujah - not Allawi: "We have said we support t= he resistance since the occupation of this country began. This is our right= as Iraqis. Therefore, we don't need a fatwa on this issue as this matter i= s clear." As yet another measure - if any were needed - of the illegitimacy of the Al= lawi government, Secretary of Defense Hassim al-Sha'alan recognized on al-A= rabiya TV that the resistance won't be finished, even when the Americans fi= nally take Fallujah, because "they have already prepared to fight in other = places". This only confirms the above-mentioned that the bulk of the mujahi= deen have already left Fallujah - and are now launching dozens of daily att= acks in Baghdad itself, Ramadi, Baquba, Latifiyah, Samarra, Khaldiya, Kirku= k ... Hospitals "captured", showers of cluster bombs, Fallujah burning, civilians= dying, not to mention the more than 100,000 Iraqis killed since the beginn= ing of the invasion-occupation, the country's infrastructure in tatters, th= e center of Najaf and a great deal of Sadr City razed to the ground. This i= s the way Phantom Fury will end: not with terrified Iraqis voting for an Al= lawi-modeled puppet regime in a sham election, but with a Bush administrati= on forced to deal with Iraqis who are ready to die to achieve real democrac= y. 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