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Dear Hassan & list, FYI . 1) Al Jazeera English Edition's Disappointing Launch 2) List of Ministers of the new Government in Iraq (in Arabic) ====================== 1) http://www.muslimwakeup.com/archives/000193.html September 01, 2003 Al Jazeera English Edition's Disappointing Launch After a temporary appearance during the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq that was marred by several hacking attacks, Qatar-based Al Jazeera's long-awaited English website made its official full launch today. The appearance of a well-backed, professionally produced and managed online news source in English that reflects Arab perspectives is much welcomed, and we at MWU! certainly have high hopes for the venture. The English site promises to "provide every visitor with 'the news they don’ t see', daringly and boldly as Aljazeera always does." However, the site's official debut is disappointing. For one, the vast majority of the articles are recycled wire stories that are available at myriad other English-language news sites. The lead original piece, a story by James Gooder about the large number of "green card soldiers" serving in the US military occupation force in Iraq, also leaves much to be desired. Gooder leads off the article this way: "Many of the troops on duty in Iraq do not count English as their first language and would prefer to take orders in their native tongue ... usually Spanish." That may very well be true, but Gooder never once substantiates the specific claims about the soldiers' English proficiency or their language preference for taking orders, not even with one quote from a soldier or family member. Instead, most of the article is spent quoting from an "exclusive" interview with British MP and war critic George Galloway about his views on American troops and the exploitation of African American and Latino soldiers. Gooder takes what could have been an interesting article about the reported 40,000 or so non-citizen soldiers in the US force into what sounds like a propaganda piece. Why couldn't he, for example, have quoted one of the members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus or Congressional Black Caucus, many of whom have been especially critical about the disproportionate percentage of soldiers of color serving in dangerous assignments. Al Jazeera's Arabic reporting has made it one of the finest news organizations in the world. It deserves nothing less than a first-class English service. We hope that the rocky beginning is not indicative of what's to come. ----------------- 2) List of Ministers of the new Government in Iraq بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم مجلس الحكم قرار رقم (28) صادر عن مجلس الحكم قرر مجلس الحكم بجلسته المنعقدة بتاريخ الرابع من شهر رجب لسنة 1424 هجرية الموافق لليوم الحادي والثلاثين من شهر آب 2003 ميلادية تعيين السادة المدرجة اسماؤهم ادناه في المناصب الوزارية المؤشرة ازاء كل منهم: 1- وزارة الاتصالات – الدكتور حيدر العبادي 2- وزارة الاشغال العامة – السيدة نسرين مصطفى صديق البرواري 3- وزارة الاعمار والاسكان – السيد بيان باقر صولاغ 4- وزارة البيئة – المهندس عبد الرحمن صديق كريم 5- وزارة التجارة – الدكتور علي علاوي 6- وزارة التخطيط – الدكتور مهدي الحافظ 7- وزارة التربية – الدكتور علاء عبد الصاحب العلوان 8- وزارة التعليم العالي – الدكتور زياد عبد الرزاق محمد اسود 9- وزارة الثقافة – السيد مفيد محمد جواد الجزائري 10- وزارة حقوق الانسان – الدكتور عبد الباسط تركي 11- وزارة الخارجية – السيد هشيار محمود محمد الزيباري 12- وزارة الداخلية – السيد نوري بدران 13- وزارة الزراعة – عبد الامير عبود رحيمة 14- وزارة الشباب والرياضة – السيد علي فائق الغبان 15- وزارة الصحة – الدكتور خضير عباس 16- وزارة الصناعة والمعادن – المهندس محمد توفيق رحيم 17- وزارة العدل – السيد هشام عبد الرحمن الشبلي 18- وزارة العدل والتكنولوجيا – السيد رشاد مندان عمر 19- وزارة العمل والشؤون الاجتماعية – السيد سامي عزارة آل معجون 20- وزارة الكهرباء – الدكتور ايهم السامرائي 21- وزارة المالية – السيد كامل مبدر الكيلاني 22- وزارة المهجرين والمهاجرين – السيد محمد جاسم خضير 23- وزارة الموارد المائية – الدكتور لطيف رشيد 24- وزارة النفط – الدكتور ابراهيم محمد بحر العلوم 25- وزارة النقل – السيد بهنام زيا بولص كتب في بغداد في يوم الرابع من شهر رجب 1424 لليوم الحادي والثلاثين من شهر آب 2003. الدكتور ابراهيم الاشيقر (الجعفري) رئيس مجلس الحكم ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hassan Zeini" <hasseini@yahoo.com> To: "CASI" <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk>; "IAC discussion" <iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, September 01, 2003 11:17 AM Subject: [casi] US attacked over green card soldiers Friends, The English site of Al-Jazeera is operating again as of today. The folowing article ís from that site: http://english.aljazeera.net/Articles/News/GlobalNews/US+attacked+over+green+card+soldiers.htm The importance of the article is that it could explain the discrepencies in the figures given for the soldiers killed or wounded. Iraqis have claimed since March that hundreds of US/UK soldiers were killed during the fighting especially during the airport battle, before the US used Napalm-type weapons. It seems the US only speaks of "American soldiers" being killed or wounded, and this could explain why the figures are so low.. HZ --------------------------------------- US attacked over green card soldiers By James Gooder Monday 01 September 2003, 0:45 Makka Time, 21:45 GMT Nearly 40,000 of America's frontline soldiers are not US citizens. Many of the troops on duty in Iraq do not count English as their first language and would prefer to take orders in their native tongue ... usually Spanish. The revelation has prompted British MP George Galloway, one of the fiercest critics of the invasion of Iraq, to accuse the US of using its "green card" troops as cannon fodder. Galloway went on to attack the US policy of putting its poor minorities and non-citizens in the frontline of its foreign wars. In an exclusive interview he told Aljazeera.net that it was part of a long US tradition of using its underclass as cannon fodder. The statistics, buried by White House spin doctors, reveal that a significant minority of troops fighting under the US banner are not in fact US citizens but residents hoping to speed up their citizenship. Galloway said that this was typical of a government used to having the marginalised fight its battles. "Nothing has changed since that last failed attempt to invade and determine the future of another country, Vietnam," he told Aljazeera.net from his holiday villa in Portugal. "The proportion of blacks in the army was 40%, while in the US population the number of blacks was a quarter of that," he said "Of course the underclass has now become increasingly more Hispanic than black." Disproportionate casualties This explains why a disproportionate number of the so-called US casualties in the invasion and occupation of Iraq have borne Latino names.' Galloway says that on a weekly Atlanta radio show in which he participates, the callers have repeatedly claimed that Blacks and Hispanics are the fodder army recruiters are after. The Pentagon says that there are 37,401 non-US citizens on active duty, and that joining up has a special incentive for them - an American passport. "The military services have processes and programmes in place to help service members expedite their citizenship," says a US Department of Defence spokesperson. "The estimated time for the application is about six months." Citizenship has been especially hard to come by due to the draconian immigration rules imposed by the US Department of Homeland Security since the 11 September 2001 attacks. It can take several years to gain citizenship, for those lucky enough to get it. Signing up to the army can speed this up, provided the GI comes home alive. Promises Other incentives under the Montgomery GI Bill include the promises of a college fund of up to $50,000, post service employment and training. But activist Carlos Mendes of the Latinos Against the War in Iraq coalition says that many soldiers have told him that these promises often fail to materialise. The US military relies on volunteers, the Pentagon argues, and there is no official draft, therefore no pressure on anyone to sign up. Yet in a country where further education is prohibitively expensive, and medical care privatised, these incentives deliberately target America's poor minorities, as well as those desperate for citizenship, freeing the sons and daughters of those with money and influence from service. "The people who made the decisions never sent their sons to get hot, bloody and dirty on the battlefield," he said. Even when there was a draft, the decision-makers stayed out of trouble. "The white sons of the rulers of America, including a certain George W Bush, have always found ways around the draft, in his case through his bogus service in the air auxiliary, while Dick Cheney took one course after another at university," he said. Outspoken critic Galloway, the Glasgow Kelvin MP who has consistently criticised US and British policy on Iraq, famously called Bush and Blair "wolves" over their war-like rhetoric leading up to the invasion. He opposed UN sanctions imposed after the last Gulf War complaining that they inflicted huge suffering on ordinary Iraqis. Mr Galloway has visited Iraq on numerous occasions and met the country's former president and major figures in the Baathist government. But he was also a vigorous campaigner during the Thatcher years, picketing the Iraqi embassy in London, when the Conservative government supplied arms to Saddam Hussein. Aljazeera __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. 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