16 posts tagged “iraq”

US Christians Apologise [read]
A Call to repentance and resistance (Feb. 2003) [read]
Warcast for Catholics [listen]
Pastor Steve Brown [read]

The featured address is based on the speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam, at Riverside Church in New York City. [read text]

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” (J.F.K., 1962)

It is interesting to see what different results reporters end up with, starting from a different perspective.

The lady here of course, is dear Zelda Herzl who in her zenith, like lady luck, received a gift from the thief who had no right to be the giver in the first place. And that, her father, the mean Theodor, who punted the foul idea that a God in whom he had less than little faith, on the contrary, whom he denied the very existence of, had promised the land be given the lady by the thief who had stolen it. No wonder then, he had no friend who scholarly at that time in 1917 would stand with him, the podium to uphold by scriptures leaned against it so as to support thereupon the speaker, Theo our dear father of Zelda. Now the harlot protests much. "I knowest enough" sayeth she, "and want not more to hurt my delicate frame, with cold hard memory". Of course, she knows a lot, and we forget less than she.

Such argument, made by pimp intellectual de Columbia Universal Scientiae, of late. So eloquently unconvincing an argument to those who had ears to hear, if any there had been there, by Earl of Bollocks Bollinger in his treatise de character suicide. "'is the most researched thing in all history" or something of this kind, now how my weak and ghastly severed mind serveth me feebly, most inaccurately, I'd ask of my readers that ye do me the kindness of granting me pardon. And for his conclusion then, "no more needs to be said nor observed by any other". Again, most inaccurately volleyed he, yet caught i the gist of yon pale line of reason, most tangengial findeth the one who seeks to wander in a forest or maze on sunny afternoon, with parasol to as succour from unkindly sunlight [mp3]. Is it Denmark this time of year, for hear I the geese. Is it so, pray tell me. It reeks foul. Perchance the inhabitors of more eastern regions that seek out the foul this mid-autumn festival to annoint their tables, and make sacrifices to the elders, ancestors? Nay, surely, it be Denmark's fate as well? Nay, ye are the learned ones. The relative of the Hun hath a tradition to impart to all humanity. One of subtle depth, and refin'ed tact. When employee is about to be dismissed, at dinner table, in audience of the entire workforce, he is presented a foul, whose head faceth the benefactor (not so much the benefactor as the foul, for he is most least held so by the employer). In fact, he that receives the foul, glaring squint at him, is the one who next receives the chop, most ungraciously not from the chef, but from the host of such a banquet. It stares at him, his own pageant, such as Bollinger did prepare, and laughs him all the way out of town. Does what the dear Zelda received, this equate: intellecual wanton revelry? For her earlier setting up of the, cause, the terror and the solution most bizarre, the billions in profits that came in coffers galore, and the blood in coffers most macabre. Cry foul! Foul! Yes, foul for sure, we all are in the know. You cry foul and so did we.

Related:
Ahmadinejad Interview on CBS - 60 minutes (location: Tehran Sept 2007)

Watching a video from American and Iraqi correspondent at "Alive in Baghdad" last month, I got a glimpse of children's lives in a refugee camp in Syria. I was struck most of all, not by the sad conditions they face. Not by the uniqueness of their experiences, as terribly inhumane the conditions that gave rise to their seeking refuge so far from home may be. Instead, what was most remarkable about these children was how much their aims in life are similar to those of my own children. These children have the same day to day concerns, though the obstacles along their paths are so different. Sara, one of the children interviewed by Hayder Fahad, said she wants to be a nurse in the future, while one of the young boy's had this to say about his own dreams:

"I wish to be a soldier and never let anyone touch my country"
Abdulla Karim

Quoting Forbes, Alive in Baghdad Blog posted the following:

"Amnesty International released a statement suggesting that, some Iraqi refugee families have even resorted to forcing their daughters into prostitution to help the family survive. Child prostitution and trafficking of Iraqi children is said to be growing, Amnesty said."

This August 30th report by Ali al-Fadhily from INSIDE IRAQ, appears on the Dahr Jamail hard News site (extract):

John Sifton, researcher for Human Rights Watch, told reporters Aug. 24 that "the allegations of abuse are far worse for Iraqi facilities than for those detainees in U.S. custody. It is difficult to know the Iraqi detainee population. There are both official and unofficial Iraqi detention systems."

Sifton said Human Rights Watch and other human rights organisations "have concerns about a 50 percent increase in detainees because it is 50 percent more people at risk of having been arbitrarily detained or, worse, of being handed over to Iraqi officers who might subject them to torture."

Sifton added that there are no reliable numbers provided by the Iraqi government on the number of detainees, and that the U.S. military will not provide the numbers either.

"My three sons were selling vegetables in Baghdad at the wholesale market when Americans took them away over a year ago," 55-year-old Saadiya from the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad told IPS. "We learned three months later that they were taken to Bucca prison near Basra. They were only farmers, and now they are listed as terrorists just because they are Sunni."

Stories like this are recounted all over the western areas of Iraq, where Sunni Arabs are the dominant population.

"A roadside bomb exploded near our house and killed three Americans," Sumaya, a woman from the Dora area of southwest Baghdad told IPS. "Then American tanks came with hundreds of soldiers and arrested over 30 men from the neighbourhood, including my husband. We were asleep when the blast occurred at 5 am, and it was curfew hours, but they still wanted us to tell them who did it. Now I have to work and feed my four children."

Continue reading [full "August 30th SURGE article"]

Abuses by American troops in full view of the public are also very common, as Fadhily reports in this article dealing with Samarra district 125 km north of Baghdad, (extract):

Thul-Faqar Ali, a lawyer and human rights activist who fled Samarra to Baghdad told IPS. "It is true that there was strong resistance to the occupation, but most of those who got killed, injured or detained were innocent civilians. The U.S. occupation forces in Samarra were so brutal that they conducted many executions on site."

The survivor of two young males who were forced into the Tigris River at gunpoint by American troops had this to say:

"I could hear them laughing," Marwan told a reporter of the Jan. 3, 2004 incident, recalling how U.S. soldiers pushed him and his cousin into the river. "They were behaving like they were watching a comedy on stage."

A U.S. military court acquitted Sgt. 1st Class Tracy Perkins, 33, of involuntary manslaughter but convicted him of assault, according to Ali al-Fadhili's report [full "Samarra Sept 6th article"]

TEHRAN

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3570255.stm

SyriaTimes
August 29th, 2007
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday the power of the United States was rapidly collapsing in Iraq and that Iran was ready to step in to help fill the vacuum, in comments likely to irritate Washington.

"The political power of the occupiers (of Iraq) is being destroyed rapidly and very soon we will be witnessing a great power vacuum in the region," Ahmadinejad told a news conference broadcast live on state television.

"We, with the help of regional friends and the Iraqi nation, are ready to fill this void."

[section from Syria Times' report, deleted]

"They are trapped in the swamp of their own crimes and have no choice but to accept the failure and accept the independence and rights of the Iraqi nation," Ahmadinejad said.

"If you stay in Iraq for another 50 years nothing will improve, it will just worsen."

[section from Syria Times' report, deleted]

I think the question should be easily answered. No major scientific breakthroughs in investigative science are required, so we should have an answer once they clear the rubble from the four houses that were destroyed. A battle with militia turned into an air raid. So the battle must have been a heavy one. The funniest thing is that residents (according to my sources) were not aware of any BATTLE, NO EXCHANGE OF GUNFIRE, NO SMOKING GUN, NO MILITIA SMOKING MUSHROOM CLOUDS. But then this could be because the sound of gunfire no longer wakes these residents from their early morning sleep. It happened before the Fajr prayer (pre-dawn). My sources say the 14 killed were ALL women and children, and that none of them were sleeping with weapons in their pajamas or even under their beds.

But we will have to wait for the full report if it ever sees the light of day.

Here is an extract from the famous and reliable sources most people who also watch CNN and FOX will be familiar/comfortable with:

David Rising of Associated Press reporting from BAGHDAD on Sept 6th, 2007 --American and Iraqi Special Forces clashed with suspected Shiite militiamen Thursday in western Baghdad before calling in airstrikes, the U.S. military said. Residents and police said at least 14 people were killed.

As the troops entered the area, they came under fire from more than a dozen militiamen firing from the rooftops.

"Iraqi and U.S. forces then responded with well-aimed and suppressive fire," the military said. "Forces also directed proportional aerial fire onto targeted buildings against positively identified armed gunmen directing small arms fires onto the assault force."

The military reported that four buildings were damaged, "including two enemy strongholds that sustained major damage and two surrounding buildings that sustained moderate damage."

My guess is that the US terrorists are engaged in a campaign to soften the community into ejecting the militia who now control this area. Watch the press for further details about this incident. Search term for your own follow-up:

A video on Alternate Focus, entitled THE BASES ARE LOADED, descibes a situation of a permanent force in IRAQ. There seems to be no plan at all to leave Iraq.

Will the U.S. ever leave Iraq? Official policy promises an eventual departure, while warning of the dire consequences of a "premature" withdrawal. But while Washington equivocates, facts on the ground tell another story. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail, and author Chalmers Johnson, are discovering that military bases in Iraq are being consolidated from over a hundred to a handful of "megabases" with lavish amenities. Much of what is taking place is obscured by denials and quibbles over the definition of "permanent." The Bases Are Loaded covers a wide range of topics. Gary Hart, James Goldsborough, Nadia Keilani, Raed Jarrar, Bruce Finley Kam Zarrabi and Mark Rudd all add their observations about the extent and purpose of the bases in Iraq.

Website, Alternate Focus

Related Blog:
This Azanian Blogger known as JEXX, discusse her perspective which she reached while doing promotional work for American clients and a commercial website related to the OCCUPATION OF IRAQ. The article is:
JUSTIFIED INVASION

Fallujah_111404_m November 2004

60km west of Baghdad, there is peace. But residents describe it as the peace of the dead. Resistance to the invasion is still common however. Unemployment is at 80%. Car movement is banned. There is no longer freedom of the press. People often go missing and then turn up as unidentified bodies in the streets. Medical supplies are denied to the residents. It is a slow death that residents are being subjected to.

The city sees no more of the kind of resistance attacks of old, and no more of the 2004 kind of crackdown. "We are so happy that our city is peaceful and quiet after all the battling that killed thousands of our citizens," a captain in the local police force of Fallujah, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "We can patrol the streets without fear now, and arrest any person that we suspect to be a terrorist." ...

... Several of those found dead had been arrested earlier, eyewitnesses and families of several of the men killed have said.

"This is fascist behaviour that shows the brutality of the Americans and the so-called Iraqi government," a former member of the Fallujah city council who asked to be referred to as Mahmood told IPS. "Those young guys were executed without any trial. This brutality was not known in our city before this occupation began." ...

... Journalists inside the city are also quiet after a few of them were arrested and held for several days.

One of the detained journalists spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity. Visibly shaken, he said that a major in the Fallujah police force had told him that freedom of the media had been misused and that the police would not allow it any more. He said the major told him that "the news you transmit to the world will be what we tell you, not what you pick up from the street". ...

... Medical services also continue to suffer under the vehicle ban. Doctors at Fallujah General Hospital told IPS that the government in Baghdad is not supplying them with medicines and medical equipment.

"The officials of the Ministry of Health tell us we are terrorists, and so we do not deserve their support," a doctor said. "As if they own Iraqi money and it is up to them whether to give it or not."

The Ministry of Health was headed by Ali al-Shemari from the group of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr until Sadr withdrew from the government Apr. 16.

Inter Press Service
By Ali al-Fadhily (August 28th, 2007)