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Today's Topics:
1. In the rubble of Falluja (Mark Parkinson)
2. re Coalition crimes against media and media sources (CharlieChimp1@aol.com)
3. Why Iraqis should boycott the election (CharlieChimp1@aol.com)
4. Blueprint for fair elections-http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=7802&s2=04
(CharlieChimp1@aol.com)
5. You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is (Mark Parkinson)
6. Fallujan men will reportedly be forced to work in
military-style battalions (bluepilgrim)
7. 25,000 US Casualties in Iraq; 9% of Troops Put in Hospital or Killed & Over 2000 Iraqis
Killed in Fallujah (John Churchilly)
8. "Destroying the UN" - Financial Times editorial (Colin Rowat)
--__--__--
Message: 1
From: "Mark Parkinson" <mark44@DELETETHISmyrealbox.com>
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 22:38:09 -0000
Subject: In the rubble of Falluja
An article by Nermeen:
By: Nermeen Al-Mufti on: 03.12.2004
Nermeen Al-Mufti accompanies a relief convoy into the city of untold
stories and unbearable pain
News from Falluja has been scarce and one-sided. Even the photos are
censored. The access road to the city is still closed. The only
people allowed in are those working with the Iraqi Red Crescent (RC).
I am at the RC information office in Baghdad, waiting to travel to
Falluja with an RC convoy. An old man walks in and takes a picture of
a young man from his pocket. It is his son, Raad Maoloud. The father
thinks he has been killed in Falluja, and he wants to know if the Red
Crescent has come across his body or buried it. Another man walks in
with photos of a son and two brothers, asking similar questions.
I remember Umm Omar, my neighbour, who still carries the picture of
Omar, her son, who went missing in 1983, during the war with Iran. My
reverie is interrupted by the voice of Haytham Said, a volunteer,
announcing that RC teams have evacuated 275 bodies which are now
preserved in refrigerators. The photos will be of little help. Most
of the bodies are decomposed and the families have to try and
remember the clothes their relatives were wearing.
According to well-informed sources, 600 bodies or so are still lying
under the rubble in Falluja. Others have been dismembered by dogs,
thrown in the river, or completely decomposed. Most buildings and
markets have been destroyed. The city has no electricity, drinking
water, telephone service, or sewage network.
Our trip begins at 9am. The man leading the mission, RC chief Dr Said
Hiqqi, tells me that the RC is trying to supply the people with the
basic necessities. They have set up Crescent House as a hostel for
the displaced and the homeless, and they are evacuating women,
children, and old people who wish to leave the city, and moving
patients to hospitals. The RC entered Falluja only a few days ago.
Since then, it has evacuated 17 women and children, and more are to
follow.
Within less than half an hour, our convoy arrives at a US checkpoint
near the Abu Ghraib prison, now infamous as a US base and detention
facility. Dozens of floodlights are still on, even though it's broad
daylight. And this, at a time when Baghdad is under electricity
rationing (two hours on, six hours off). Our convoy consists of 33
employees and volunteers, six ambulances, and a relief truck, the
latter carrying supplies and drinking water. The vehicles are clearly
marked with the RC flag.
I don't expect the convoy to be stopped, as it bears the flag of a
neutral international organisation. But instead we do stop, for a
long time. Permits have to be obtained. The convoy vehicles and
passengers are searched. Then we wait some more. A truck arrives
carrying bedding, food, and a sign reading "Relief to Falluja the
steadfast". The truck is turned back.
Two hours into the waiting, three mortar shells, perhaps meant for
the prison, land near us in the dust. Another hour passes, then
finally permission is given and the convoy begins to move. In the
past, the journey from Baghdad to Falluja used to take 45 minutes. We
have an escort of Marine military vehicles. They keep their distance
from the convoy in order to reduce the likelihood of our cars being
attacked.
Arriving at the outskirts of Falluja, we are greeted by columns of
smoke and a checkpoint manned jointly by the Iraqi National Guard and
the Marines. A National Guard soldier tells us that Falluja is calm
and that the smoke and the explosions we can hear are due to the
detonation of the immense quantities of ammunition seized in the
city. In the background, I can make out light arms fire. No one
comments on it.
On our right is the Askari district with its fancy villas now in
ruins. A nearby mosque has lost one of its minarets, and another is
peppered with shellfire. On our left is the industrial area, its
workshops all burnt out or demolished.
We are waiting again. It is time for prayers, but I hear no call to
prayer. Normal life has come to a standstill. Only 10,000 people
remain in Falluja out of a total of 650,000 inhabitants. Two hours
later, we move on, past the empty shells of houses in the districts
of Al-Dubbat Al-Oula, Al-Dubbat Al-Thaniya, and Al-Shurta. The doors
all stand open, on orders from the Marines. Children's toys and
bicycles litter the empty parks, where the unused swings sway in the
wind.
We pass the Al-Hadra Al- Mohamadiya Mosque, which is now a US
detention facility. More ruined mosques. In the deserted streets,
abandoned passenger cars are redeployed as roadblocks.
Finally, we arrive at Crescent House, a magnificent structure that
was originally the home of Khalaf Shadid, a local merchant who has
fled the city with his family. Shadid's son, an RC volunteer, stayed
behind and turned the home into a refugee safe house after the
shelling had stopped.
There, I meet Haj Fouad Al-Kebeisi, 54. He now works as a volunteer
with the RC, burying the dead. Al-Kebeisi tells me how Haj Radif
Abdel-Wahed, 90, the oldest merchant in Falluja, died. Abdel-Wahed
was in the yard doing his ablutions before prayers when a sniper
bullet hit him. His children buried him in the garden.
I run into Haj Mahmoud, accompanied by his wife and six surviving
children. Mahmoud's 13-year- old son, Mostafa, was killed by
shrapnel. The family's house was burned down. Having lost all their
possessions =97 cars, jewellery, money, furniture =97 they took refuge in
the one remaining room of their otherwise destroyed home. The mother
says that during Ramadan she would soak rice in a little water and
the family would eat it for iftar. The day their house was hit, they
ate nothing for 24 hours.
Haj Mahmoud says that they did not leave the city because they
thought that the fighting would be confined to the outskirts, as it
was last April. They did not expect the whole city to be shelled and
destroyed. The Americans, he assures me, want to punish the city for
not welcoming them. Zarqawi was only a pretext, Mahmoud says.
Mahmoud's daughter Fatema, 16, a student at the Teachers Institute,
says that she used to have big dreams. Now all she wants is to be a
normal person once again, to live without fear. The family's youngest
son Abdel-Gabbar, aged three, has been traumatised by the shelling,
and still runs to his mother's arms whenever he hears a loud noise,
even if it is just a door slamming. Aisha, 14, misses her younger
brother and says she cannot forget the sight of him lying dead in
front of the house.
The whole city is calm. So calm, it is disturbing. Falluja today is a
city of untold stories and unspeakable pain. The only electricity in
the whole town is that produced by the generator at Crescent House.
Mark Parkinson
Bodmin
Cornwall
--__--__--
Message: 2
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 07:17:34 EST
Subject: re Coalition crimes against media and media sources
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]
_http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1366349,00.html_
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1366349,00.html)
You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is
In Iraq, the US does eliminate those who dare to count the dead
Naomi Klein
Saturday December 4, 2004
_The Guardian_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/)
David T Johnson,
Acting ambassador,
US Embassy, London
Dear Mr Johnson, On November 26, your press counsellor sent a letter to t=
he
Guardian taking strong exception to a sentence in my column of the same day=
.
The sentence read: "In Iraq, US forces and their Iraqi surrogates are no
longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian targets and are openly
eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics, journalists - who dares to count the=
bodies." Of
particular concern was the word "eliminating".
The letter suggested that my charge was "baseless" and asked the Guardian
either to withdraw it, or provide "evidence of this extremely grave
accusation". It is quite rare for US embassy officials to openly involve t=
hemselves in
the free press of a foreign country, so I took the letter extremely seriou=
sly.
But while I agree that the accusation is grave, I have no intention of
withdrawing it. Here, instead, is the evidence you requested.
In April, US forces laid siege to Falluja in retaliation for the gruesome
killings of four Blackwater employees. The operation was a failure, with U=
S
troops eventually handing the city back to resistance forces. The reason f=
or
the withdrawal was that the siege had sparked uprisings across the country=
,
triggered by reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed. This infor=
mation
came from three main sources: 1) Doctors. USA Today reported on April 11
that "Statistics and names of the dead were gathered from four main clinic=
s
around the city and from Falluja general hospital". 2) Arab TV journalists=
.
While doctors reported the numbers of dead, it was al-Jazeera and al-Arabi=
ya that
put a human face on those statistics. With unembedded camera crews in
Falluja, both networks beamed footage of mutilated women and children thro=
ughout
Iraq and the Arab-speaking world. 3) Clerics. The reports of high civilian
casualties coming from journalists and doctors were seized upon by promine=
nt
clerics in Iraq. Many delivered fiery sermons condemning the attack, turni=
ng
their congregants against US forces and igniting the uprising that forced =
US
troops to withdraw.
US authorities have denied that hundreds of civilians were killed during
last April's siege, and have lashed out at the sources of these reports. Fo=
r
instance, an unnamed "senior American officer", speaking to the New York Ti=
mes
last month, labelled Falluja general hospital "a centre of propaganda". Bu=
t
the strongest words were reserved for Arab TV networks. When asked about
al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya's reports that hundreds of civilians had been k=
illed
in Falluja, Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defence, replied that "wha=
t
al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable ... " Last mont=
h,
US troops once again laid siege to Falluja - but this time the attack
included a new tactic: eliminating the doctors, journalists and clerics wh=
o focused
public attention on civilian casualties last time around.
Eliminating doctors
The first major operation by US marines and Iraqi soldiers was to storm
Falluja general hospital, arresting doctors and placing the facility under
military control. The New York Times reported that "the hospital was selec=
ted as
an early target because the American military believed that it was the sou=
rce
of rumours about heavy casual ties", noting that "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". The =
Los Angeles
Times quoted a doctor as saying that the soldiers "stole the mobile phones=
"
at the hospital - preventing doctors from communicating with the outside
world.
But this was not the worst of the attacks on health workers. Two days
earlier, a crucial emergency health clinic was bombed to rubble, as well a=
s a
medical supplies dispensary next door. Dr Sami al-Jumaili, who was working=
in the
clinic, says the bombs took the lives of 15 medics, four nurses and 35
patients. The Los Angeles Times reported that the manager of Falluja gener=
al
hospital "had told a US general the location of the downtown makeshift me=
dical
centre" before it was hit.
Whether the clinic was targeted or destroyed accidentally, the effect was
the same: to eliminate many of Falluja's doctors from the war zone. As Dr
Jumaili told the Independent on November 14: "There is not a single surgeo=
n in
Falluja." When fighting moved to Mosul, a similar tactic was used: on ente=
ring
the city, US and Iraqi forces immediately seized control of the al-Zaharaw=
i
hospital.
Eliminating journalists
The images from last month's siege on Falluja came almost exclusively fro=
m
reporters embedded with US troops. This is because Arab journalists who had
covered April's siege from the civilian perspective had effectively been
eliminated. Al-Jazeera had no cameras on the ground because it has been ba=
nned
from reporting in Iraq indefinitely. Al-Arabiya did have an unembedded
reporter, Abdel Kader Al-Saadi, in Falluja, but on November 11 US forces =
arrested
him and held him for the length of the siege. Al-Saadi's detention has bee=
n
condemned by Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of
Journalists. "We cannot ignore the possibility that he is being intimidate=
d for
just trying to do his job," the IFJ stated.
It's not the first time journalists in Iraq have faced this kind of
intimidation. When US forces invaded Baghdad in April 2003, US Central Com=
mand urged
all unembedded journalists to leave the city. Some insisted on staying and
at least three paid with their lives. On April 8, a US aircraft bombed
al-Jazeera's Baghdad offices, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. Al-Jazeera h=
as
documentation proving it gave the coordinates of its location to US forces=
.
On the same day, a US tank fired on the Palestine hotel, killing Jos=E9 Co=
uso,
of the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsiuk, of Reuters. Three US
soldiers are facing a criminal lawsuit from Couso's family, which alleges =
that
US forces were well aware that journalists were in the Palestine hotel and
that they committed a war crime.
Eliminating clerics
Just as doctors and journalists have been targeted, so too have many of th=
e
clerics who have spoken out forcefully against the killings in Falluja. O=
n
November 11, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, the head of the Supreme Association=
for
Guidance and Daawa, was arrested. According to Associated Press,
"Al-Sumaidaei has called on the country's Sunni minority to launch a civil=
disobedience
campaign if the Iraqi government does not halt the attack on Falluja". On
November 19, AP reported that US and Iraqi forces stormed a prominent Sunn=
i
mosque, the Abu Hanifa, in Aadhamiya, killing three people and arresting 4=
0,
including the chief cleric - another opponent of the Falluja siege. On th=
e same
day, Fox News reported that "US troops also raided a Sunni mosque in Qaim,
near the Syrian border". The report described the arrests as "retaliation =
for
opposing the Falluja offensive". Two Shia clerics associated with Moqtada
al-Sadr have also been arrested in recent weeks; according to AP, "both ha=
d
spoken out against the Falluja attack".
"We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks of US Central Command=
.
The question is: what happens to the people who insist on counting the bod=
ies
- the doctors who must pronounce their patients dead, the journalists who
document these losses, the clerics who denounce them? In Iraq, evidence is
mounting that these voices are being systematically silenced through a va=
riety of
means, from mass arrests, to raids on hospitals, media bans, and overt and
unexplained physical attacks.
Mr Ambassador, I believe that your government and its Iraqi surrogates are
waging two wars in Iraq. One war is against the Iraqi people, and it has
claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The other is a war on witnesses.
=B7 Additional research by Aaron Mat=E9
--__--__--
Message: 3
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 08:22:56 EST
Subject: Why Iraqis should boycott the election
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk, Intelligentminds@yahoogroups.com,
al-awda@yahoogroups.com, arabmediawatch@yahoogroups.com
[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]
Why Iraqis should boycott the election
by Mohammed al-Obaidi
Friday 03 December 2004
Forty seven Iraqi political parties met on 17 November and made the decisi=
on
to boycott the coming Iraq election. The People's Struggle Movement
(al-Kifah al-Shabi), which I represent, was one of those groups.
After carefully studying Iraq=E2=80=99s situation, considering the militar=
y
occupation as well as economic and national interests, we felt there were =
enough
reasons for any patriotic Iraqi to boycott the proposed January election.
It is a violation of all international laws. International charters that
regulate the relationship between occupier and occupied do not give occupy=
ing
authorities the mandate to instigate a change in the country's social, eco=
nomic
and political structure.
The planned election will change the political composition of Iraq to suit
the interests of the occupation authorities. The change will also lead to
ethnic, sectarian and religious divisions that the Iraqi state and people =
had
succeeded to avoid.
Historically, Iraqis have been able to coexist and the spectre of civil wa=
r
did not loom until the country was stricken by the US-led occupation.
Many Iraqi political activists believe the coming election results have be=
en
decided already. They also believe the electoral process will not be free
and democratic but will be exclusively for those who maintain strong ties =
with
the US occupation authorities. We feel that all steps have been taken to
secure full US domination of decision makers in Iraq.
A look at the electoral process and the composition of the current nationa=
l
council reveals that the election's main mission will be to install some o=
f
the country=E2=80=99s most notorious politicians who have constantly spoken=
proudly of
their links to international intelligence agencies.
The coming election will give power to every politician who has assisted t=
he
invaders and collaborated with them to consolidate the occupation.
Therefore, we believe that even after the election, the decision making pr=
ocess will
be taken in the US embassy in Baghdad and the elected government will be n=
o
more than a vehicle to carry out Washington=E2=80=99s decisions.
"The US administration works hard to portray the Iraq election as a
political achievement to cover over the scar that the war has left on its
credibility"
It is very difficult for any sensible person to believe that the US would
give up its domination of Iraq after spending billions of dollars and
sacrificing the lives of hundreds of its soldiers.
We cannot believe that after all this the US will simply allow free and
democratic election to take place in Iraq that could install a government =
which
could make it its first priority to tell foreign troops to get out.
We strongly believe that the main purpose of the election process is to
secure a government that will facilitate long-lasting agreements with the =
US to
keep its forces on Iraqi soil and transform the country into an American
colony.
The US administration works hard to portray the Iraq election as a politic=
al
achievement to cover over the scar that the war has left on its credibilit=
y.
Washington will use the election card to pull the wool over the eyes of th=
e
international community to prevent it from seeing the tragic consequences
that the war has left on the Iraqi people.
For all these reasons, many Iraqi political activists feel it is their
national duty to boycott the 30 January election.
* * * * *
[Professor Mohammed al-Obaidi is the spokesman for the People=E2=80=99s St=
ruggle
Movement (Al-Kifah Al-Sha=E2=80=99abi) in Iraq, and works as a University =
Professor in
the UK. He was born and educated in al-Adhamiyah district in Baghdad. This
article, was written exclusively for Aljazeera.net, and was translated fro=
m
Arabic.]
You can find this article at:
_http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D1C660D3-31C9-44C5-92
5F-4070AC17D606.htm _
(http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D1C660D3-31C9-44C5-925F-4070AC17D60=
6.htm)
_http://www.uruknet.info/?p=3D7792 _ (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=3D7792)
--__--__--
Message: 4
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 08:42:07 EST
Subject: Blueprint for fair elections-http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=7802&s2=04
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk, Intelligentminds@yahoogroups.com
[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]
Blueprint for fair elections
Abdul-Ilah Al-Bayaty
The current electoral law is biased to ensure the occupying authorities
remain in control. Abdul-Ilah Al-Bayaty* proposes an alternative vision
December 3, 2004 - Iraq needs a democratic state based on equality among all
its citizens, with no discrimination, exclusion, or marginalisation. Iraq
needs a state run by the people, through freely elected institutions. Only such
a state can achieve social peace, run the country's finances, pass
acceptable laws, and allow cultural, political, ethnic, and religious diversity to
flourish in a climate free from terror, oppression, delusion, hatred, and
conflict.
Only such a state can meet the needs of the Iraqis, who deserve to live like
any of the world's advanced nations. Iraq needs to emerge from the social,
economic, and political turmoil that has gripped the country since 1958 and
hampered its efforts to achieve progress and attain prosperity. It is now
possible to bring about such state. It is possible because our people know --
after years of living under successive dictatorships -- that the ballot box is
the fastest way to reconciliation, that dialogue is the best method of
resolving problems with the other Arab and Islamic countries, and that democracy is
the best form of government.
Occupation is the opposite of democracy, for it is a way of deciding,
through military force, the future and laws of the country. Occupation undermines
Iraq's right to independence, sovereignty, and self-determination, a right
upheld by international laws and defended by the resolve of our people.
The upcoming constitutive assembly elections should be the first step
towards a democratic state in Iraq. The UN Security Council has called for the
holding of these elections, but the occupation authorities and their allies are
trying to turn them into a farce, a charade held under the heels of American
soldiers and carried out in between, and during, bombardments. The occupation
authorities and their allies want their laws to govern the elections, and
their agencies to run them.
The constitutive assembly will write the country's permanent constitution.
This assembly should be elected through the participation of all Iraqi groups
without exception. Otherwise, it will lose its legitimacy, and be reduced to
a propaganda ploy on the part of the occupying forces.
The elections have to be fair and free and held with the participation of
all Iraqis, for on these elections rests not only the fate of our permanent
constitution, but the entire future of our country. Any fraud, interference, or
obstruction of the freedom and right of citizens to participate would rob the
elections of their meaning and credibility.
The constitutive assembly will have to discuss and even pass legislation on
such crucial matters as the Kurdish issue, the structure of the state, the
oil industry, the country's economy, labour rights, the army and security
policy, and the withdrawal of foreign troops from our soil. There is also the
matter of compensation for the damage done to Iraq by the US-UK invasion, as well
as Iraq's relations with the rest of the world. These are all issues that
will affect Iraq's future for decades to come.
The occupation authorities and their allies want to use the elections as an
alibi for their continued rule. But the Iraqi people will not fall into this
trap. The Iraqis are going to boycott the elections, and they will resist
those who seek to silence them, and who deserve only their attempt. The only
elections acceptable to the Iraqis would be those which meet the following
conditions:
1. The departure of all foreign troops ahead of the elections, or at the
very least, an enforceable timetable for their withdrawal. In the latter case,
all foreign troops should withdraw from the Iraqi cities ahead of the
elections and stop carrying out military operations against Iraqi cities and
villages. The occupation authorities must pledge to pay compensation for the damage
they have inflicted on Iraq since the invasion.
2. The unconditional release of all political detainees, including those who
took up arms against the occupation.
3. The cessation of ethnic cleansing campaigns against Ashurites, Turcomans,
and Arabs.
4. The electoral process should be governed by the UN Security Council
resolutions, and not by the laws passed by the occupiers, as the latter are
designed to influence the outcome of the elections.
5. The current elections committee must be disbanded and replaced with an
agency representing all Iraqi parties. The role of the new agency would be to
approve the election procedures. The elections themselves should be
supervised by one or more appropriate international bodies, such as the UN, the EU,
the Arab League, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, or the Carter
Foundation.
6. The elections agency should ensure that all Iraqi citizens are allowed to
take part in the elections, both as voters and as candidates -- former
Baathists and militia members included.
7. The elections agency should prevent the interim government, which has
been appointed by the occupation authorities, from influencing the elections
whether through financial gifts, control of the media, or acts of violence.
8. The elections should be held under a law which allows all Iraqi parties
to be represented in the constitutive assembly. To this end, Iraq should be
divided into electoral constituencies of roughly equal size, and the winning
candidates in each constituency would be those who receive the majority of the
votes cast, just as in the US, the UK, and France.
9. The occupiers and the interim government must undertake to abide by the
outcome of the elections, even if their candidates lose.
* The writer is an Iraqi political analyst based in France.
Thanks to Dirk Adriaensens
--__--__--
Message: 5
From: "Mark Parkinson" <mark44@DELETETHISmyrealbox.com>
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2004 00:04:59 -0000
Subject: You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador. Here it is
By: Naomi Klein, The Guardian
In Iraq, the US does eliminate those who dare to count the dead
Saturday December 4, 2004
David T Johnson,
Acting ambassador,
US Embassy, London
Dear Mr Johnson, On November 26, your press counsellor sent a letter
to the Guardian taking strong exception to a sentence in my column of
the same day. The sentence read: "In Iraq, US forces and their Iraqi
surrogates are no longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian
targets and are openly eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics,
journalists - who dares to count the bodies." Of particular concern
was the word "eliminating".
The letter suggested that my charge was "baseless" and asked the
Guardian either to withdraw it, or provide "evidence of this
extremely grave accusation". It is quite rare for US embassy
officials to openly involve themselves in the free press of a foreign
country, so I took the letter extremely seriously. But while I agree
that the accusation is grave, I have no intention of withdrawing it.
Here, instead, is the evidence you requested.
In April, US forces laid siege to Falluja in retaliation for the
gruesome killings of four Blackwater employees. The operation was a
failure, with US troops eventually handing the city back to
resistance forces. The reason for the withdrawal was that the siege
had sparked uprisings across the country, triggered by reports that
hundreds of civilians had been killed. This information came from
three main sources: 1) Doctors. USA Today reported on April 11 that
"Statistics and names of the dead were gathered from four main
clinics around the city and from Falluja general hospital". 2) Arab
TV journalists. While doctors reported the numbers of dead, it was al-
Jazeera and al-Arabiya that put a human face on those statistics.
With unembedded camera crews in Falluja, both networks beamed footage
of mutilated women and children throughout Iraq and the Arab-speaking
world. 3) Clerics. The reports of high civilian casualties coming
from journalists and doctors were seized upon by prominent clerics in
Iraq. Many delivered fiery sermons condemning the attack, turning
their congregants against US forces and igniting the uprising that
forced US troops to withdraw.
US authorities have denied that hundreds of civilians were killed
during last April's siege, and have lashed out at the sources of
these reports. For instance, an unnamed "senior American officer",
speaking to the New York Times last month, labelled Falluja general
hospital "a centre of propaganda". But the strongest words were
reserved for Arab TV networks. When asked about al-Jazeera and al-
Arabiya's reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed in
Falluja, Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defence, replied that
"what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable ...
" Last month, US troops once again laid siege to Falluja - but this
time the attack included a new tactic: eliminating the doctors,
journalists and clerics who focused public attention on civilian
casualties last time around.
Eliminating doctors
The first major operation by US marines and Iraqi soldiers was to
storm Falluja general hospital, arresting doctors and placing the
facility under military control. The New York Times reported that
"the hospital was selected as an early target because the American
military believed that it was the source of rumours about heavy
casual ties", noting that "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". The Los
Angeles Times quoted a doctor as saying that the soldiers "stole the
mobile phones" at the hospital - preventing doctors from
communicating with the outside world.
But this was not the worst of the attacks on health workers. Two days
earlier, a crucial emergency health clinic was bombed to rubble, as
well as a medical supplies dispensary next door. Dr Sami al-Jumaili,
who was working in the clinic, says the bombs took the lives of 15
medics, four nurses and 35 patients. The Los Angeles Times reported
that the manager of Falluja general hospital "had told a US general
the location of the downtown makeshift medical centre" before it was
hit.
Whether the clinic was targeted or destroyed accidentally, the effect
was the same: to eliminate many of Falluja's doctors from the war
zone. As Dr Jumaili told the Independent on November 14: "There is
not a single surgeon in Falluja." When fighting moved to Mosul, a
similar tactic was used: on entering the city, US and Iraqi forces
immediately seized control of the al-Zaharawi hospital.
Eliminating journalists
The images from last month's siege on Falluja came almost exclusively
from reporters embedded with US troops. This is because Arab
journalists who had covered April's siege from the civilian
perspective had effectively been eliminated. Al-Jazeera had no
cameras on the ground because it has been banned from reporting in
Iraq indefinitely. Al-Arabiya did have an unembedded reporter, Abdel
Kader Al-Saadi, in Falluja, but on November 11 US forces arrested him
and held him for the length of the siege. Al-Saadi's detention has
been condemned by Reporters Without Borders and the International
Federation of Journalists. "We cannot ignore the possibility that he
is being intimidated for just trying to do his job," the IFJ stated.
It's not the first time journalists in Iraq have faced this kind of
intimidation. When US forces invaded Baghdad in April 2003, US
Central Command urged all unembedded journalists to leave the city.
Some insisted on staying and at least three paid with their lives. On
April 8, a US aircraft bombed al-Jazeera's Baghdad offices, killing
reporter Tareq Ayyoub. Al-Jazeera has documentation proving it gave
the coordinates of its location to US forces.
On the same day, a US tank fired on the Palestine hotel, killing Jos=E9
Couso, of the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsiuk, of
Reuters. Three US soldiers are facing a criminal lawsuit from Couso's
family, which alleges that US forces were well aware that journalists
were in the Palestine hotel and that they committed a war crime.
Eliminating clerics
Just as doctors and journalists have been targeted, so too have many
of the clerics who have spoken out forcefully against the killings in
Falluja. On November 11, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, the head of the
Supreme Association for Guidance and Daawa, was arrested. According
to Associated Press, "Al-Sumaidaei has called on the country's Sunni
minority to launch a civil disobedience campaign if the Iraqi
government does not halt the attack on Falluja". On November 19, AP
reported that US and Iraqi forces stormed a prominent Sunni mosque,
the Abu Hanifa, in Aadhamiya, killing three people and arresting 40,
including the chief cleric - another opponent of the Falluja siege.
On the same day, Fox News reported that "US troops also raided a
Sunni mosque in Qaim, near the Syrian border". The report described
the arrests as "retaliation for opposing the Falluja offensive". Two
Shia clerics associated with Moqtada al-Sadr have also been arrested
in recent weeks; according to AP, "both had spoken out against the
Falluja attack".
"We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks of US Central
Command. The question is: what happens to the people who insist on
counting the bodies - the doctors who must pronounce their patients
dead, the journalists who document these losses, the clerics who
denounce them? In Iraq, evidence is mounting that these voices are
being systematically silenced through a variety of means, from mass
arrests, to raids on hospitals, media bans, and overt and unexplained
physical attacks.
Mr Ambassador, I believe that your government and its Iraqi
surrogates are waging two wars in Iraq. One war is against the Iraqi
people, and it has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The other is a
war on witnesses.
Mark Parkinson
Bodmin
Cornwall
--__--__--
Message: 6
Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 11:26:21 -0600
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
From: bluepilgrim <bluepilgrim@DELETETHISgrics.net>
Subject: Fallujan men will reportedly be forced to work in
military-style battalions
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=3D7877&hd=3D0&size=3D1&l=3Dx
US Plans Police State Measures for Fallujans: Report
Fallujan men will reportedly be forced to work in military-style battalions=
.
IslamOnline.net
[photo]
FALLUJAH, December 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) =96 The tens and may=
be
hundreds of thousands of Fallujans who fled the western Baghdad city before
the US-led onslaught have more to be concerned about than just flattened
houses, devastated infrastructure and bullet-ridden mosques.
The US occupation forces are planning a set of police state measures to be
strictly applied to any of the battle-scarred city=92s residents yearning t=
o
come back, reported the Boston Globe Saturday, Sunday December 5 (
<http://www.uruknet.info/?p=3D7845>http://www.uruknet.info/?p=3D7845 ).
This includes funneling Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers
on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities
through DNA testing and scanning, according to the American paper.
Fallujans would also be forced to wear, at all times, badges displaying
their home addresses while the use of cars would be banned inside the city,
added the Globe.
About 80-to-90 percent of Fallujah's 300,000-strong population are said to
have evacuated the city, escaping the hell of continuous US air raids.
Some 10,000 US marines and army forces, alongside some 2,000 Iraqi national
guardsmen unleashed a long-expected onslaught on the resistance hub on
November 8, capping long nights of massive US raids.
The successive air strikes have caused huge damage in the western Baghdad
city, with dead bodies littering the streets.
Slave-Like
Another humiliating proposal, which even triggered debate among Marine
officers in control of the city, is to force all Fallujan men to work in
military-style battalions, reported the Globe.
They would work in such fields as construction, waterworks, or
rubble-clearing platoons and get paid, it added.
=93You have to say, 'Here are the rules,' and you are firm and fair. That
radiates stability,=94 said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Bellon, intelligence
officer for the First Regimental Combat Team, the Marine regiment that took
the western half of Fallujah during the US assault and expects to be based
downtown for some time.
=93They're never going to like us,=94 he admitted, echoing other Marine
commanders who cautioned against raising hopes that Fallujans would warmly
welcome troops when they return to ruined houses and rubble-strewn streets.
An eyewitness, who escaped the hell in Fallujah, told IslamOnline.net
Saturday, November 13, that bodies of children and injured in the western
Iraqi city were =93deliberately=94 crushed by US tanks.
Model City
The US occupation forces and the interim government repeatedly said they
wanted to make Fallujah a =93model city,=94 where they can maintain the
security that has eluded them elsewhere, according to the Globe.
The US forces maintain that the use of such coercive measures is allowed by
the martial law imposed last month by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
=93It's the Iraqi interim government that's coming up with all these ideas,=
=94
Major General Richard Natonski, who commanded the Fallujah assault, said of
the plans for identity badges and work brigades.
The interim government declared on Sunday, November 7, a state of emergency
across the war-torn country, except for the Kurdish-run north, which gives
it sweeping powers.
In an unusual criticism of the bloody situation in war-torn Iraq, the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) lambasted Friday, November
19, =93utter contempt=94 for humanity shown by all parties.
=93As hostilities continue in Fallujah and elsewhere, every day seems to
bring news of yet another act of utter contempt for the most basic tenet of
humanity: the obligation to protect human life and dignity,=94 said Pierre
Kraehenbuehl, the ICRC's director of operations.
Red Crescent Forced Out
The Iraqi Red Crescent complained Sunday it had been forced to leave the
war-battered city on US military orders.
=93Multinational forces asked the IRC to withdraw from Fallujah for securit=
y
reasons and until further notice,=94 the organization's spokeswoman Ferdus
al-Ibadi told Agence France-Presse.
The IRC distributed food, water and blankets to around 1,500 people in the
city, whose population was around 300,000 before a massive assault by
US-led forces began on November 8.
The US military had since Thursday been interviewing military-age males who
came to the IRC for food aid as well as testing them for gun powder, an AFP
correspondent said.
There had been friction between the IRC and the US military as the agency
was prevented from distributing aid throughout the city.
US occupation forces have for many days banned relief teams from entering
war-battered Fallujah to help the wounded and bury the dead.
:: The address of this page is :
<http://www.uruknet.info?p=3D7877>www.uruknet.info?p=3D7877
:: The original address of this article is :
www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-12/06/article01.shtml
:: Article nr. 7877 sent on 06-dec-2004 14:35 ECT
--__--__--
Message: 7
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 13:28:38 -0800 (PST)
From: John Churchilly <meso999@DELETETHISyahoo.com>
Subject: 25,000 US Casualties in Iraq; 9% of Troops Put in Hospital or Killed & Over 2000 Iraqis
Killed in Fallujah
To: analysis CASI- <casi-analysis@lists.casi.org.uk>
[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]
Friday, November 26, 2004
http://www.juancole.com/2004/11/25000-us-casualties-in-iraq-9-of.html
25,000 US Casualties in Iraq; 9% of Troops Put in Hospital or Killed
Over 2000 Iraqis Killed in Fallujah
CBS has elicited from the Pentagon the real figure of US casualties in Iraq=
, which is more like 25,000. That number includes the 1230 or so killed and=
the 9300 classified as "wounded in battle," but also 17,000 classified as =
non-combat sick or injured, of whom 80 percent do not return to their units=
in Iraq. Although some of the 17,000 are victims of disease, some unspecif=
ied number have actually been injured as a result of being in a theater of =
war. If you have an "accident" while guns and bombs are going off all aroun=
d you, is it really an "accident"?
The Editor and Publisher piece blames the "US press" for under-reporting th=
ese figures. But obviously it is the Department of Defense that constructed=
the categories that allowed some war heroes to be shunted off as victims o=
f "accidents." So it isn't the press's fault. It is Donald Rumsfeld's fault=
(and, sure, Karl Rove and George W. Bush, the Teflon Twins).
The Iraqi Defense Ministry has admitted that 2085 Iraqis were killed in the=
course of the US assault on Fallujah. The same ministry, along with US mil=
itary spokesmen, keep denying that any civilians were killed.
Personally, I would take all these statistics with a big grain of salt. The=
US has bombed so many buildings in Fallujah in recent weeks that there mus=
t be bodies still in the rubble. Will the rubble be combed for dead bodies?=
And, even if, as some US military personnel have suggested, 95% of civilia=
ns had fled, that would be on the order of 15,000 persons. How likely is it=
that a massive military assault on residential neighborhoods killed none o=
f them?
Some un-embedded wire service reports suggest a different picture, saying t=
hat Fallujah survivors : "charged, in interviews, that as well as deaths fr=
om bombs and artillery shells, a large number of people, including children=
, were killed by American snipers. Some of the killings took place in the b=
uild-up to the assault on the rebel stronghold, and at least in one case, t=
hat of the death of a family of seven, including a 3-month-old baby, Americ=
an authorities have admitted responsibility and offered compensation. Men o=
f military age were particularly vulnerable. But there are also accounts of=
young children, women and old men being killed.
Mere common sense, it seems to me, makes these reports more credible than b=
lithe claims of no "collateral damage" at all. On the other hand, Iraqi gue=
rrillas are perfectly capable of manufacturing US war crimes where none exi=
sted, as part of their own propaganda war. That there were almost certainly=
civilian casualties does not in and of itself tell us whether the military=
assault was necessary, or whether it was conducted as it should have been.
The fog of information war thrown up by the Allawi government, the US milit=
ary, and the guerrilla sympathizers, however, does make the episode difficu=
lt to judge morally and ethically. In a democracy, such judgments are neces=
sary, so that there is something radically wrong with the system, when we o=
rdinary Americans don't have a realistic idea of how many US troops have be=
en harmed in the prosecution of this war, and likewise have no clear idea o=
f the human cost of an operation like Fallujah II.
The irony of the twenty-first century Information Age is that the American =
public is uninformed as never before about the most crucial information in =
our lives. The new Age of Ignorance amidst information riches is made possi=
ble precisely because modern means of communication lend themselves to mani=
pulation by wealthy, powerful forces that understand how to make an emotion=
al impact that will obscure the real issues. This observation is as true of=
the Baath Party as it is of the Republican Party, as true of al-Jazeerah a=
s it is of Fox Cable News.
The difficulties of political interpretation are, it seems to me, underscor=
ed by the interview that Majid Musa, deputy speaker of the Iraqi National C=
ouncil and leader of the Iraqi Communist Party, gave to Egyptian Radio (BBC=
World Monitoring, Nov. 23).
The Egyptian interview asked what the participants at the Sharm El Sheikh c=
onference could be expected to agree on.
"Majid: I believe that there is a common ground and that a consensus is pos=
sible. The continuation of the unstable conditions, the deteriorating secur=
ity situation in Iraq and the activities of terrorists and saboteurs will n=
ot be restricted within Iraqi borders. The impact of those crimes and this =
terrorism will spread throughout the region, unless we take timely measures=
and cooperate to ward off such dangers." He added that the issue of the ex=
act shape of Iraqi federalism was an internal affair.
The Cairo interviewer asked him about a deadline for withdrawal of US troop=
s. (France had pressed for a deadline of Dec. 31, 2005, for this withdrawal=
, but the other Sharm El Sheikh participants, including Egypt, rejected it)=
.
"Majid: As for the other issue, which is the withdrawal of foreign forces, =
it is an objective that all Iraqis without exception seek to achieve. Nobod=
y could claim that they are keener than the Iraqi people to see a quick end=
to the presence of foreign troops. However, the problem is deciding when t=
hose troops could depart. We have not yet built sufficient military, police=
or security forces to protect the security of Iraq."
It appears to me that the stance of the Iraqi Communist Party, at least for=
now, is not so far from that of the US government-- curb terrorists and sa=
boteurs, decide on federalism in the Iraqi parliament, and be patient about=
foreign troops until an Iraqi military can be trained. That is, the ICP se=
ems somewhat to the right of the Gaullists here!
What seems indisputable to me is that Spencer Ackerman at Iraq'd is correct=
to be skeptical of the Bush administration arguments, reported by David Ig=
natius of the Washington Post, that the Sunni Arabs can be so beaten down a=
nd terrified that they will fall in line behind Iyad Allawi! See the commen=
ts, above, of Mark Levine.
Rather, the political wages of Fallujah are ethnic division, anger and sull=
enness that could cripple Iraq well into the future.
If this observation is true, then the current operation in Babil province, =
which continued on Thursday, is also unlikely to yield the political fruits=
sought.
In addition, AFP writes, "On the ground, four people were killed and 16 wou=
nded in two bomb attacks in Samarra, one of them a suicide attack, and anot=
her south of the main northern oil capital of Kirkuk."
Radio Sawa Iraq is reporting, via Reuters, a huge explosion at the Green Zo=
ne (government offices and US embassy) in Baghdad, resulting in a big colum=
n of smoke. How you have elections when the most politically important part=
s of the capital are in this condition, I have no idea.
According to AFP, the story being trumpeted all day on Fox Cable News about=
the discovery of chemical and anthrax weapons labs in Fallujah by Iraqi tr=
oops is questionable to say the least. The US military denies it and Hans B=
lix is skeptical. I smell the troika of Iyad Allawi, Naqib al-Falah, and Ha=
zem Shaalan behind this announcement, which will be remembered even if it i=
s discredited.
----------------------QQQQQQQQQQQQQQ------------
Fallujah: America's Guernica
http://www.aztlan.net/fallujah_guernica.htm
-------------------QQQQQQQQQQQ-------------
'Unusual Weapons' Used in Fallujah
Dahr Jamail
http://ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=3D26440
BAGHDAD, Nov 26 (IPS) - The U.S. military has used poison gas and other non=
-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah, eyewitnesses report..
=94Poisonous gases have been used in Fallujah,=94 35-year-old trader from F=
allujah Abu Hammad told IPS. =94They used everything -- tanks, artillery, i=
nfantry, poison gas. Fallujah has been bombed to the ground.=94
Hammad is from the Julan district of Fallujah where some of the heaviest fi=
ghting occurred. Other residents of that area report the use of illegal wea=
pons.
=94They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud,=94 =
Abu Sabah, another Fallujah refugee from the Julan area told IPS. =94Then s=
mall pieces fall from the air with long tails of smoke behind them.=94
He said pieces of these bombs exploded into large fires that burnt the skin=
even when water was thrown on the burns. Phosphorous weapons as well as na=
palm are known to cause such effects. =94People suffered so much from these=
,=94 he said.
Macabre accounts of killing of civilians are emerging through the cordon U.=
S. forces are still maintaining around Fallujah.
=94Doctors in Fallujah are reporting to me that there are patients in the h=
ospital there who were forced out by the Americans,=94 said Mehdi Abdulla, =
a 33-year-old ambulance driver at a hospital in Baghdad. =94Some doctors th=
ere told me they had a major operation going, but the soldiers took the doc=
tors away and left the patient to die.=94
Kassem Mohammed Ahmed who escaped from Fallujah a little over a week ago to=
ld IPS he witnessed many atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers in the city.
=94I watched them roll over wounded people in the street with tanks,=94 he =
said. =94This happened so many times.=94
Abdul Razaq Ismail who escaped from Fallujah two weeks back said soldiers h=
ad used tanks to pull bodies to the soccer stadium to be buried. =94I saw d=
ead bodies on the ground and nobody could bury them because of the American=
snipers,=94 he said. =94The Americans were dropping some of the bodies int=
o the Euphrates near Fallujah.=94
Abu Hammad said he saw people attempt to swim across the Euphrates to escap=
e the siege. =94The Americans shot them with rifles from the shore,=94 he s=
aid. =94Even if some of them were holding a white flag or white clothes ove=
r their heads to show they are not fighters, they were all shot..=94
Hammad said he had seen elderly women carrying white flags shot by U.S. sol=
diers. =94Even the wounded people were killed. The Americans made announcem=
ents for people to come to one mosque if they wanted to leave Fallujah, and=
even the people who went there carrying white flags were killed.=94
Another Fallujah resident Khalil (40) told IPS he saw civilians shot as the=
y held up makeshift white flags. =94They shot women and old men in the stre=
ets,=94 he said. =94Then they shot anyone who tried to get their bodies...F=
allujah is suffering too much, it is almost gone now.=94
Refugees had moved to another kind of misery now, he said. =94It's a disast=
er living here at this camp,=94 Khalil said. =94We are living like dogs and=
the kids do not have enough clothes.=94
Spokesman for the Iraqi Red Crescent in Baghdad Abdel Hamid Salim told IPS =
that none of their relief teams had been allowed into Fallujah, and that th=
e military had said it would be at least two more weeks before any refugees=
would be allowed back into the city.
=94There is still heavy fighting in Fallujah,=94 said Salim. =94And the Ame=
ricans won't let us in so we can help people.=94
In many camps around Fallujah and throughout Baghdad, refugees are living w=
ithout enough food, clothing and shelter. Relief groups estimate there are =
at least 15,000 refugee families in temporary shelters outside Fallujah. (E=
ND/2004)
-------------------QQQQQQQQQQQQQQ--------------------
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we.
--__--__--
Message: 8
From: "Colin Rowat" <c.rowat@DELETETHISespero.org.uk>
To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: "Destroying the UN" - Financial Times editorial
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 11:53:12 -0000
"Destroying the UN", Financial Times, 4/5 December 2004
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6d719b52-459a-11d9-8fcf-00000e2511c8,ft_acl=3D,s01=
=3D1.
html
The witch-hunt against Kofi Annan and the United Nations over the Iraq
oil-for-food scandal is, quite simply, a scandal all on its own. The leader=
s
of this lynch mob in the US Congress and the rightwing commentariat are not
gunning for Mr Annan so much as aiming to destroy the UN as an institution.
That would be a disaster - for all of us, including, especially, the US.
It is hard to know whether those conducting this campaign are being
deliberately mendacious, or whether they cannot add up or understand which
bits of what institutions policed the sanctions against Saddam Hussein.
True, the oil-for-food regime presented genuine moral dilemmas about
unpleasant policy alternatives in dealing with the Iraqi dictatorship.
Furthermore, any sanctions policy against any country offers rich pickings
to those with the skills to circumvent it. But let us look at the facts.
First, the oil-for-food policy was devised and run by the member states of
the UN Security Council, not by the UN Secretariat. All of the roughly
36,000 contracts were approved by a Security Council committee dominated by
the US and the UK. Of these, about 5,000 were held up. But objections were
entirely about imports to Iraq that might have offered Baghdad dual-use
technology with which to reconstitute its weapons programmes. There was not
one objection about oil-pricing scams, although UN officials brought these
to the attention of the committee on no fewer than 70 occasions.
Second, the "headline" figure touted by a Senate sub-committee of a $21bn
(=A311bn) leakage from the scheme - transmogrified by editorialists into "U=
S
taxpayers' dollars" - is fantasy, albeit a damaging one. This covers
smuggled oil and, even though oil-for-food only started in 1996, Iraqi
shipments to Jordan and Turkey from 1991 sanctioned by waivers voted by
Congress.
Forgotten in this intellectually dishonest campaign is the fact that
sanctions worked: Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. And that
oil-for-food mitigated their effect on the Iraqi people: malnutrition was
halved, whereas since last year's invasion of Iraq it has almost doubled.
If the independent inquiry headed by Paul Volcker, the former Federal
Reserve chairman, finds any UN official complicit in Iraq's roughly $4.4bn
oil price skimming, then that person should have his diplomatic immunity
lifted and be prosecuted. But there is nothing here to be laid at the door
of Mr Annan, even though the lobbying activities of his son Kojo, who was
still receiving severance payments from a company seeking Iraq's trade afte=
r
oil-for-food started, will have hurt him.
President George W. Bush should also reflect on just how much the US needs
the UN, not just in Iraq but in dealing with potential crises such as Iran,
and on just how much more dysfunctional the world could become if the UN
went the way of the League of Nations between the two world wars. We know
that that way lies chaos.
End of casi-news Digest
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