ICH: A Glimpse of the Ghost of Vietnam in Iraq Lies and Atrocities
12/27/04 "The Independent" -- Who said this and when? “The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient that the public knows... We are today not far from a disaster.” Answer: TE Lawrence (of Arabia fame) in The Sunday Times in August, 1920.
And every word of it is true today. We were lied to about weapons of mass destruction. We were lied to about the links between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11, 2001. We were lied to about the insurgents — remember how they were just “dead-enders” and “remnants”? And we were lied to about the improvements in Iraq when the entire country was steadily falling outside the hands of the occupying powers or of the government of satraps that they have set up in their place. We are, I suspect, being lied to about elections next month.
The biggest development in the Middle East over the past 30 years has been this shaking off of fear. Fear — of the occupier, of the dictator — is something that you cannot re-inject into people. And this, I suspect, is what has happened in Iraq.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
ASIA: TSUNAMI
CitizienTimes: Death toll more than 114,000 in tsunami
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The death toll from Sunday's tsunami disaster has leapt to more than 114,000, after Indonesia dramatically increased its count of the dead
News24: 5 000 000 displaced by tsunami
Hong Kong - Up to five million people have been displaced by the devastating tsunamis that pummelled large tracts of Asia over the weekend, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday
AZtel: U.S. Aid For Victims Of Tsunami $35 Million: Cost Of Bush Inauguration $30 Million:The $250,000 donors include former Enron President Richard Kinder, Dell Computer founder Michael Dell and Texas oilman and corporate takeover specialist T. Boone Pickens.
Crickey: Tracking the tsunami donations
Billions of dollars will be donated to the Asian tsunami relief effort but keeping track of who is giving what will be a big and interesting exercise.
ICH: Mickey Z: A Wave of Questions Putting a Disaster in Context
The recent earthquake/tsunami in Asia raises more questions than answers. Here's a start:
ICH: Grief, relief, and the stingy West
The horrific aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami has revealed what many in the world have known for a long time: Western nations are eager to exploit the under privileged, but slow to lend a helping hand in times of crisis.
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The death toll from Sunday's tsunami disaster has leapt to more than 114,000, after Indonesia dramatically increased its count of the dead
News24: 5 000 000 displaced by tsunami
Hong Kong - Up to five million people have been displaced by the devastating tsunamis that pummelled large tracts of Asia over the weekend, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday
AZtel: U.S. Aid For Victims Of Tsunami $35 Million: Cost Of Bush Inauguration $30 Million:The $250,000 donors include former Enron President Richard Kinder, Dell Computer founder Michael Dell and Texas oilman and corporate takeover specialist T. Boone Pickens.
Crickey: Tracking the tsunami donations
Billions of dollars will be donated to the Asian tsunami relief effort but keeping track of who is giving what will be a big and interesting exercise.
ICH: Mickey Z: A Wave of Questions Putting a Disaster in Context
The recent earthquake/tsunami in Asia raises more questions than answers. Here's a start:
ICH: Grief, relief, and the stingy West
The horrific aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami has revealed what many in the world have known for a long time: Western nations are eager to exploit the under privileged, but slow to lend a helping hand in times of crisis.
IRAQ: RESISTANCE
Prisonplanet: Mujahideen Blow Up House In Fallujah, Killing 24 American Soldiers
Based on eyewitness reports, Mujahideen detonated explosives that blasted apart the house that US soldiers were searching in the city. According to the correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam in Fallujah, the Mujahideen had planted 500kg of TNT as well as the high explosive “Austrian” bombs inside the house, located in the al-Wahdah neighborhood. Mujahideen forces attracted the US forces to the house by making them think that a number of fighters were barricaded in it. The Mujahideen then detonated the explosives in the 450 square meter building when the Americans entered the building to investigate. The blast reportedly killed 24 American troops in addition to seven others whose bodies had not been extracted from the rubble when the correspondent submitted his report, posted at 2:30pm Mecca time Tuesday
Based on eyewitness reports, Mujahideen detonated explosives that blasted apart the house that US soldiers were searching in the city. According to the correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam in Fallujah, the Mujahideen had planted 500kg of TNT as well as the high explosive “Austrian” bombs inside the house, located in the al-Wahdah neighborhood. Mujahideen forces attracted the US forces to the house by making them think that a number of fighters were barricaded in it. The Mujahideen then detonated the explosives in the 450 square meter building when the Americans entered the building to investigate. The blast reportedly killed 24 American troops in addition to seven others whose bodies had not been extracted from the rubble when the correspondent submitted his report, posted at 2:30pm Mecca time Tuesday
USA: OIL
Village Voice: Homeland Insecurity
WASHINGTON, D.C. Running below the surface of the year-end self-congratulatory assertions of American supremacy (as in Monday's Washington Times: "The world really is becoming more 'American' ") are warnings, often ignored, of our decline. The steady loss of the dollar against the euro is one. The spiraling trade deficit is another.
And in the past weeks, there were two serious economic signs signaling momentous change, if not outright decline.
The first concerns China's invasion of Canadian oil fields, heretofore a U.S. energy fiefdom. The second came in the form of an all-but-hidden report from the Department of Agriculture that America, the breadbasket of the world, is now a net importer of food.
WASHINGTON, D.C. Running below the surface of the year-end self-congratulatory assertions of American supremacy (as in Monday's Washington Times: "The world really is becoming more 'American' ") are warnings, often ignored, of our decline. The steady loss of the dollar against the euro is one. The spiraling trade deficit is another.
And in the past weeks, there were two serious economic signs signaling momentous change, if not outright decline.
The first concerns China's invasion of Canadian oil fields, heretofore a U.S. energy fiefdom. The second came in the form of an all-but-hidden report from the Department of Agriculture that America, the breadbasket of the world, is now a net importer of food.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
IRAQ: RESISTANCE REPORT
Iraqi Resistance Report for Sunday, 26 December 2004
Al-Fallujah.
Seven hundred civilian bodies recovered from al-Fallujah ruins to date; 504 of them women and children.
Dr. Tamir Salih al-‘Ani, who is in charge of the morgue in al-Fallujah General Hospital has reported that emergency teams in al-Fallujah Hospital have recovered 700 bodies of Iraqis from the ruins of houses destroyed in the course of the US aggressors’ offensive on the city. Dr. Salih confirmed that among the 700 bodies were 504 bodies of women and children. The rest are the bodies of elderly and middle aged men.
Al-Fallujah.
Seven hundred civilian bodies recovered from al-Fallujah ruins to date; 504 of them women and children.
Dr. Tamir Salih al-‘Ani, who is in charge of the morgue in al-Fallujah General Hospital has reported that emergency teams in al-Fallujah Hospital have recovered 700 bodies of Iraqis from the ruins of houses destroyed in the course of the US aggressors’ offensive on the city. Dr. Salih confirmed that among the 700 bodies were 504 bodies of women and children. The rest are the bodies of elderly and middle aged men.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
911: RUMSFELD
Worldnetdaily: Rumsfeld says 9-11 plane 'shot down' in Pennsylvania
During surprise Christmas Eve trip, defense secretary contradicts official story
WASHINGTON – Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, there have been questions about Flight 93, the ill-fated plane that crashed in the rural fields of Pennsylvania.
The official story has been that passengers on the United Airlines flight rushed the hijackers in an effort to prevent them from crashing the plane into a strategic target – possibly the U.S. Capitol.
During his surprise Christmas Eve trip to Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld referred to the flight being shot down – long a suspicion because of the danger the flight posed to Washington landmarks and population centers.
Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000?
During surprise Christmas Eve trip, defense secretary contradicts official story
WASHINGTON – Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, there have been questions about Flight 93, the ill-fated plane that crashed in the rural fields of Pennsylvania.
The official story has been that passengers on the United Airlines flight rushed the hijackers in an effort to prevent them from crashing the plane into a strategic target – possibly the U.S. Capitol.
During his surprise Christmas Eve trip to Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld referred to the flight being shot down – long a suspicion because of the danger the flight posed to Washington landmarks and population centers.
Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000?
CONTROL TROUGH FEAR
Thom Hartmann: Explosive BBC Doc Exposes Decades-Old Neocon Deceits
What if there really was no need for much - or even most - of the Cold War?
What if, in fact, the Cold War had been kept alive for two decades based on phony WMD threats?
What if, similarly, the War On Terror was largely a scam, and the administration was hyping it to seem larger-than-life?
What if our "enemy" represented a real but relatively small threat posed by rogue and criminal groups well outside the mainstream of Islam?
What if that hype was done largely to enhance the power, electability, and stature of George W. Bush and Tony Blair?
And what if the world was to discover the most shocking dimensions of these twin deceits - that the same men promulgated them in the 1970s and today?
It happened.
The myth-shattering event took place in England the first three weeks of October, when the BBC aired a three-hour documentary written and produced by Adam Curtis, titled "The Power of Nightmares http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3755686.stm
see the documentary online at: Informationclearinghouse.info
What if there really was no need for much - or even most - of the Cold War?
What if, in fact, the Cold War had been kept alive for two decades based on phony WMD threats?
What if, similarly, the War On Terror was largely a scam, and the administration was hyping it to seem larger-than-life?
What if our "enemy" represented a real but relatively small threat posed by rogue and criminal groups well outside the mainstream of Islam?
What if that hype was done largely to enhance the power, electability, and stature of George W. Bush and Tony Blair?
And what if the world was to discover the most shocking dimensions of these twin deceits - that the same men promulgated them in the 1970s and today?
It happened.
The myth-shattering event took place in England the first three weeks of October, when the BBC aired a three-hour documentary written and produced by Adam Curtis, titled "The Power of Nightmares http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3755686.stm
see the documentary online at: Informationclearinghouse.info
Monday, December 27, 2004
THINK TANK: US LOST WAR IN IRAQ
IRNA: ICG Says US May Already Have Lost War in Iraq
Brussels, Dec 24, IRNA -- An international think-tank in a report published here on Thursday announced that the US campaign in Iraq has failed to achieve Washington`s desired goals, warning that anti-US sentiments have deteriorated in Iraq. "In Iraq, the US is engaged in a war it may already have lost," stressed the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) in its latest report on Iraq. "Iraqi hostility toward the American-led occupation, more widespread and deeper rooted than the US has acknowledged, means the Bush administration`s policy there can no longer achieve its original aims."
Brussels, Dec 24, IRNA -- An international think-tank in a report published here on Thursday announced that the US campaign in Iraq has failed to achieve Washington`s desired goals, warning that anti-US sentiments have deteriorated in Iraq. "In Iraq, the US is engaged in a war it may already have lost," stressed the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) in its latest report on Iraq. "Iraqi hostility toward the American-led occupation, more widespread and deeper rooted than the US has acknowledged, means the Bush administration`s policy there can no longer achieve its original aims."
IRAQ: MOSUL RESISTANCE
Guardian: Insurgents operate at will in Mosul, US says
Security failures were known before attack in mess tent
Insurgents have been able to "operate at will" in Mosul, where 22 people died in a bomb attack this week, because the US forces and the Iraqi authorities have failed to tackle them, an intelligence assessment by senior US officials in northern Iraq concludes.
The report, seen by the Guardian yesterday, was drafted before this week's suicide attack on the mess tent at Camp Merez.
It was made after the uprising last month, when most of Mosul's police force either deserted or defected and parts of the city fell, albeit briefly, to the insurgents.
Security failures were known before attack in mess tent
Insurgents have been able to "operate at will" in Mosul, where 22 people died in a bomb attack this week, because the US forces and the Iraqi authorities have failed to tackle them, an intelligence assessment by senior US officials in northern Iraq concludes.
The report, seen by the Guardian yesterday, was drafted before this week's suicide attack on the mess tent at Camp Merez.
It was made after the uprising last month, when most of Mosul's police force either deserted or defected and parts of the city fell, albeit briefly, to the insurgents.
IRAQ: RESISTANCE
Asia Times: Mosul attack 'an inside job'
The deadly suicide attack on a US military base in Mosul this week was an "inside job" carried out by insurgents who are part of the Iraqi armed forces, Asia Times Online has been told. Sources said a strong nexus between Iraqi forces and the resistance is what allowed them to carry out the most devastating attack on US troops since the beginning of the invasion. US forces have imposed a curfew in Mosul and have launched a military operation in the city, but, the sources say, this will have little effect on the problem, for the simple reason that the US-trained Iraqi military is heavily infected with people loyal to the resistance groups.
The deadly suicide attack on a US military base in Mosul this week was an "inside job" carried out by insurgents who are part of the Iraqi armed forces, Asia Times Online has been told. Sources said a strong nexus between Iraqi forces and the resistance is what allowed them to carry out the most devastating attack on US troops since the beginning of the invasion. US forces have imposed a curfew in Mosul and have launched a military operation in the city, but, the sources say, this will have little effect on the problem, for the simple reason that the US-trained Iraqi military is heavily infected with people loyal to the resistance groups.
IRAQ: ELECTIONS
Swissinfo: Iraq rejects vote rigging talk
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's election body has rejected a suggestion in Washington it adjust the results of next month'svote to benefit the Sunni minority if low turnout in Sunni areas means Shi'ites have an exaggerated majority in the newassembly.Speaking of "unacceptable" interference, Electoral Commission spokesman Farid Ayar said: "Who wins, wins. That is theway it is. That is the way it will be in the election."
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's election body has rejected a suggestion in Washington it adjust the results of next month'svote to benefit the Sunni minority if low turnout in Sunni areas means Shi'ites have an exaggerated majority in the newassembly.Speaking of "unacceptable" interference, Electoral Commission spokesman Farid Ayar said: "Who wins, wins. That is theway it is. That is the way it will be in the election."
ASIA: TSUNAMI
Independent: 12,300 Killed As Tsunami Sweeps Across Asia
There was no warning. As the sun began to climb into a cloudless sky, the people of Banda Aceh were going about their lives in this city on the north-western tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. It was early morning when the first gigantic wall of water hit.
USGS: Magnitude 9.0
Magnitude
9.0
Date-Time
Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 00:58:50 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal TimeSunday, December 26, 2004 at 07:58:50 AM local time at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Remarks
At least 3,000 people killed in Sri Lanka, 2,300 in India, 2,000 in Indonesia, 289 in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia, 8 in Somalia and 2 in Bangladesh by tsunamis. Tsunamis also occurred on the coasts of Maldives and Cocos Island. At least 200 people killed, buildings destroyed or damaged in the Banda Aceh area, Sumatra. Felt widely in Sumatra. Also felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. This is now the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake.
There was no warning. As the sun began to climb into a cloudless sky, the people of Banda Aceh were going about their lives in this city on the north-western tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. It was early morning when the first gigantic wall of water hit.
USGS: Magnitude 9.0
Magnitude
9.0
Date-Time
Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 00:58:50 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal TimeSunday, December 26, 2004 at 07:58:50 AM local time at epicenterTime of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Remarks
At least 3,000 people killed in Sri Lanka, 2,300 in India, 2,000 in Indonesia, 289 in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia, 8 in Somalia and 2 in Bangladesh by tsunamis. Tsunamis also occurred on the coasts of Maldives and Cocos Island. At least 200 people killed, buildings destroyed or damaged in the Banda Aceh area, Sumatra. Felt widely in Sumatra. Also felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. This is now the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake.
IRAQ: RESISTANCE REPORT
Iraqi Resistance Report for Friday, 24 December 2004
Tikrit.
US troops stain their hands with the blood of children in Saddam Hussein’s home town, after losing fierce battles with Resistance forces.
Al-Fallujah.
Friday fighting in al-Fallujah
Al-Qa’im.
Iraqi Resistance blows up bridge near al-Qa’im, shoots down US helicopter capturing American supplies, maps, mail and food and killing 16 US troops.
Baghdad.
US troops murder religious figure on his doorstep in al-‘Amiriyah
Tikrit.
US troops stain their hands with the blood of children in Saddam Hussein’s home town, after losing fierce battles with Resistance forces.
Al-Fallujah.
Friday fighting in al-Fallujah
Al-Qa’im.
Iraqi Resistance blows up bridge near al-Qa’im, shoots down US helicopter capturing American supplies, maps, mail and food and killing 16 US troops.
Baghdad.
US troops murder religious figure on his doorstep in al-‘Amiriyah
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