[casi-analysis] casi-news digest, Vol 1 #60 - 16 msgs

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This is an automated compilation of submissions to newsclippings@casi.org.uk

Articles for inclusion in this daily news mailing should be sent to newsclippings@casi.org.uk. 
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Today's Topics:

   1. Dealing with Saddam's regime: how fortunes were made in Iraq through the UN's oil-for-food 
programme (Mike Lewis)
   2. Bush and Blair have lit a fire which could consume them (Hassan)
   3. No Way Out (CharlieChimp1@aol.com)
   4. One Year Later - April 9, 2004/ Riverbend (Hassan)
   5. A war that was founded on lies and illusions has one simple truth: Iraqis do not want us 
(Mark Parkinson)
   6. Liberation after the Liberation-http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-3-18 
(CharlieChimp1@aol.com)
   7. Saddam flown to Qatar (k hanly)
   8. Highway to Hell (CharlieChimp1@aol.com)
   9. Action for Iraq (=?iso-8859-1?q?b=20b?=)
  10. News from activists in Iraq and emergency demo Sun 11 April, 12 noon, Downing St (Emma 
Sangster)
  11. If this has already been posted, I'm sorry. (CharlieChimp1@aol.com)
  12. FPIF News | Of Testimony & Terrorism (IRC Communications)
  13. One Year Later - April 9, 2004 (Mark Parkinson)
  14. Report frpm Fallujah (CharlieChimp1@aol.com)
  15. First-hand account of massacre in Fallujah (R.A. Laurence)
  16. Meltdown in Iraq (CharlieChimp1@aol.com)

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Message: 1
From: Mike Lewis <mhl24@DELETETHIScam.ac.uk>
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
Subject: Dealing with Saddam's regime: how fortunes were made in Iraq through the UN's oil-for-food 
programme
Date: 09 Apr 2004 11:48:46 +0100

Financial Times (UK) 08/04/04: Dealing with Saddam's regime: how fortunes
were made in Iraq through the UN's oil-for-food programme

http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=040408000861&query=oil-for-food&vsc_appId=totalSearch&state=Form

This is an investigative report, apparently pre-empting the current UN
investigation into oil-for-food allegations, by the FT and the Italian
business daily 'Il Sole 24 Ore'.

The core allegation seems to be that, at least in the case they've
investigated, post-1999 oil allocations from the Iraqi Government were
acquired through the services of a government-recommended agent, Al Wasel &
Babel, which they claim was a front company for the GoI. The GoI thus
received substantial agents' commissions. It's unclear whether this would
be in breach of UNSCR 986, which insists upon "payment of the full amount
of each purchase of Iraqi petroleum into the escrow account" (OP 1(b)).

They also claim that oil was sold by the GoI well below market price, the
shortfall being made up in such commissions. Again, this looks ostensibly
like it is in contravention of OP 1(a) of UNSCR 986, which requires the
buyer's application to the sanctions committee to include "details of the
purchase price at fair market value, the export route, the opening of a
letter of credit payable to the escrow account to be established by the
Secretary-General for the purposes of this resolution, and of any other
directly related financial or other essential transaction"
(http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N95/109/88/PDF/N9510988.pdf?OpenElement
)

Nor is it at all clear (or discussed by the FT) whether GoI revenues from
such kickbacks were substantial compared to revenues from non-OFF oil
trading and smuggling.

See Drew Hamre's much more comprehensive post at
http://www.casi.org.uk/analysis/2004/msg00059.html







--__--__--

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 03:51:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Hassan <hasseini@DELETETHISyahoo.com>
Subject: Bush and Blair have lit a fire which could consume them
To: CASI newsclippings <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>


http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1188073,00.html

Bush and Blair have lit a fire which could consume
them

The Iraqi uprising will drive home the forgotten
lessons of empire

Seumas Milne
Thursday April 8, 2004
The Guardian

Where are they now, the cheerleaders for war on Iraq?
Where are the US Republican hawks who predicted the
Anglo-American invasion would be a "cakewalk", greeted
by cheering Iraqis? Or the liberal apologists, who
hailed a "new dawn" for freedom and democracy in the
Arab world as US marines swathed Baghdad in the stars
and stripes a year ago? Some, like the Sun newspaper -
which yesterday claimed Iraqis recognise that
occupation is in their "own long-term good" and are
not in "bloody revolt" at all - appear to be in an
advanced state of denial.

Others, to judge by the performance of the neocon
writer William Shawcross and Blairite MP Ann Clwyd,
have been reduced to a state of stuttering incoherence
by the scale of bloodshed and suffering they have
helped unleash. Clwyd, who regularly visits Iraq as
the prime minister's "human rights envoy", struggled
to acknowledge in an interview on Monday that bombing
raids by US F16s and Apache helicopter gunships on
Iraqi cities risked causing civilian deaths, not
merely injuries. The following day, 16 children were
reportedly killed in Falluja when US warplanes
rocketed their homes. And yesterday, in what may well
be the most inflammatory act of slaughter yet, a US
helicopter killed dozens of Iraqis in a missile
assault on a Falluja mosque.

The attack on a mosque during afternoon prayers will,
without doubt, swell the ranks of what has become a
nationwide uprising against the US-led occupation. By
launching a crackdown against the Shia cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr - and, in an eloquent display of what it means
by freedom in occupied Iraq, closing his newspaper -
the US has finally triggered the long-predicted revolt
across the Shia south and ended the isolation of the
resistance in the so-called Sunni triangle. Bush,
Blair and Bremer have lit a fire in Iraq which may yet
consume them all. The evidence of the past few days is
that the uprising has spread far beyond the ranks of
Sadr's militia. And far from unleashing the civil war
US and British pundits and politicians have warned
about, Sunni and Shia guerrillas have been fighting
side by side in Baghdad against the occupation forces.


This revolt shows every sign of turning into Iraq's
own intifada, and towns like Falluja and Ramadi -
centres of resistance from the first days of
occupation - are now getting the treatment Israel has
meted out to Palestinians in Jenin, Nablus and Rafah
over the past couple of years. As resistance groups
have moved from simply attacking US and other
occupation troops to attempts to hold territory, US
efforts to destroy them - as an American general vowed
to do yesterday - have become increasingly brutal.
Across Iraq, US soldiers and their European allies are
now killing Iraqis in their hundreds on the streets of
their own cities in an explosive revival of the Middle
East's imperial legacy.

For Britain, Iraq has turned into its first full-scale
colonial war since it was forced out of Aden in the
late 1960s. And the pledge by US commanders to
"pacify" the mushrooming centres of Iraqi insurrection
echoes not only the doomed US efforts to break the
Vietnamese in the 60s and 70s, but also the
delusionary euphemisms of Britain's own blood-soaked
campaigns in Kenya and Malaya a decade earlier. The
same kind of terminology is used to damn those
fighting foreign rule in Iraq. Thus President Bush's
spokesman described Shia guerrillas as "thugs and
terrorists", while his Iraqi proconsul Paul Bremer -
head of a 130,000-strong occupation force which has
already killed more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians -
issued a priceless denunciation of groups who "think
power in Iraq should come out of the barrel of a gun
... that is intolerable".

The bulk of the media and political class in Britain
has followed this lead in an apparent attempt to
normalise the occupation of Iraq in the eyes of the
public. The fact that British squaddies shot dead 15
Iraqis in Amara on Tuesday has had little more
coverage than the shameful beating to death of Iraqi
prisoners in British custody. Both the BBC and ITN
routinely refer to British troops as "peacekeepers";
private mercenaries are called "civilian contractors";
the rebranding of the occupation planned for June is
described as the "handover of power to the Iraqis";
the Sadr group always represents a "small minority" of
Shia opinion; and a patently unscientific and
contradictory poll carried out in Iraq last month - in
which most people said they were opposed to the
presence of coalition forces in Iraq - is absurdly
used to claim majority support for the occupation.

The growing panic in Washington over what Senator
Edward Kennedy calls "Bush's Vietnam" is now focused
on the date for the formal - and entirely cosmetic -
transfer of sovereignty to a hand-picked Iraqi puppet
administration, currently timetabled for June 30. The
original idea of an early date was to give the
appearance of progress in Iraq before the US
presidential elections. But there was also an anxiety
that pressure for an elected transitional government
would become unstoppable if the transfer took place
any later - and like all occupying powers, the US
fears genuinely free elections in Iraq. In any case,
according to existing plans, the US will maintain full
effective control - of security, oil, economic policy,
major contracts - under a rigged interim constitution
whenever the formal "transfer" takes place.

The current uprising increasingly resembles the last
great revolt against British rule in Iraq in 1920,
which also cost more than 10,000 lives and helped
bring forward the country's formal independence. But
Britain maintained behind-the-scenes control, though
military bases and ministerial "advisers", until the
client monarchy was finally overthrown in 1958. If
Iraq is now to regain its independence, the lessons of
history are that the Iraqi resistance will have to
sharply raise the costs of occupation, and that those
in the occupying countries who grasp the dangers,
unworkability and injustice of imperial rule must
increase the political pressure for withdrawal.

Unlike in, say, Spain or Australia, we are hamstrung
in Britain by the fact that all three main political
parties are committed to maintaining the occupation,
including the Liberal Democrats - whose former leader
and Bosnian governor Lord Ashdown yesterday argued for
at least another decade in Iraq. But opposition to
such latter-day imperial bravura is strong among the
British public and across all parties, and must now
find its voice. There is a multiplicity of different
possible mechanisms to bring about a negotiated,
orderly withdrawal and free elections. Tony Blair
calls that "running away" and admitting "we have got
it all wrong". But he and Bush did get it wrong: there
were no weapons of mass destruction, Iraq wasn't a
threat, there was no UN authorisation, and the
invasion was manifestly illegal. Foreign troops in
Iraq are not peacekeepers, but aggressors. The lessons
of empire are having to be learned all over again.

s.milne@guardian.co.uk

__________________________________
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Message: 3
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 10:22:44 EDT
Subject: No Way Out
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]



No Way Out
William Rivers Pitt  Guerrilla News,  April 6, 2004

These are the numbers out of Iraq: 616 American soldiers killed, 18,000
medical evacuations of wounded American soldiers, 102 non-American coalition
soldiers killed, more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians killed, somewhere in the
neighborhood of $200 billion spent. There are no numbers available for the Iraqi
civilians wounded.

These are the numbers out of the Bush White House, first put forward by
George W. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union Address and which remain even today
on the White House website: 26,000 liters of anthrax in Iraq, 38,000 liters of
botulinum toxin in Iraq, 500 tons of sarin and mustard and VX gas in Iraq, 500
tons being 1,000,000 pounds, along with 30,000 munitions to deliver these
agents. None of this, not one little bit of it, has been found.

This White House webpage, titled 'Disarm Saddam Hussein,' which parrots
Bush's 2003 speech, likewise claims that Iraq is seeking uranium from Niger for use
in a nuclear weapons program. It claims, as Bush did in his speech, that Iraq
possesses mobile biological weapons labs. It claims, as Bush did in his
speech, that Iraq enjoyed an operational relationship with al Qaeda terrorists
during the rule of Saddam Hussein. The Niger claims were proven to be an
embarrassing lie, the mobile weapons labs were revealed to be weather balloon launching
platforms sold to Iraq by the British during the Reagan era, and no proof
whatsoever has been put forth to establish a connection between Hussein and al
Qaeda.

This is what the numbers say: Every reason put forth to justify the invasion
of Iraq has been proven to be either a wretched exaggeration or an out-and-out
fabrication. The number of dead and wounded in the American invasion of Iraq
is appalling, and the amount of money we have spent and will continue to spend
on this misadventure is staggering. It was White House spokesman Ken Adelman
who said on December 6, 2001 in a CNN interview, "I don't agree that you need
an enormous number of American troops. Saddam's army is down to one-third than
it was before, and I think it would be a cakewalk." It has been anything but.

Because the Bush administration has gone out of their way to block media
access to Dover Air Force base where American casualties are brought home from
Iraq, because the Bush administration has gone out of their way to block media
access to Walter Reed hospital in Washington and Fort Stewart in Georgia where
thousands of badly wounded American soldiers have been convalescing after
coming home from Iraq, because the Pentagon has changed the term 'body bag' to
'transfer tube,' because of all this and more, many Americans are not fully aware
of how dangerous it is to be an American in Iraq.

Four Americans were dragged from their car, shot, stabbed, incinerated,
dismembered and hung from a bridge in Falluja. The brutality of this attack sent a
shockwave across America as the images of bodies burned beyond recognition
hanging above cheering crowds found their way onto the pages of American
newspapers. The reaction made it painfully clear that the American people had
forgotten we were in a war, that war does terrible things to human bodies, and that
the Iraqi people are not, in fact, welcoming us with open arms. It was also the
first time many Americans found out that non-military contractors, also known
as mercenaries, are in Iraq to shore up the security shortfalls.

The last several days in Iraq have seen a spiraling of violence and horror
that has taken many Americans by surprise, mostly because those Americans have
been relying on the Bush administration for the straight dope. The images of
butchered Americans were bad enough, but the sudden explosion of violence from
the Shi'ite community in Iraq has unnerved the America people in a way we have
not seen since the Tet Offensive. Fighting raged in Baghdad, Najaf, Nasiriyah
and Amarah as supporters of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr simultaneously
threw themselves at American forces. Many American soldiers have been killed, and
scores of Iraqis have also died.

How is this possible? Didn't Don Rumsfeld and the Bush administration people
say the Iraqis would welcome us with open arms as liberators? How did our
involvement in Iraq come to look suspiciously like the eternal spiral of
bloodletting that takes place between Israel and the Palestinians? Again, the surprise
comes because the American people have been relying on the Bush administration
for the truth, an act of faith that has been proven time and again to be a
very bad idea.

The population of Iraq is divided into three groups: The Shi'ites (60% of the
population), the Sunnis (23% of the population), and the Kurds (17% of the
population). Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, and his Ba'ath Party was dominated by
Sunnis. During his rule, this minority group dominated the country and
oppressed the Shi'ites. The Kurds in the north waged their own separate battle for an
independent nation, clashing with Turkey as often as they did with Hussein.

When Bush came in promising democracy to Iraq, the Shi'ites rejoiced because
they are the majority, and the basic one-person-one-vote principle of
democracy pretty much guaranteed that they would get to run the country. Unfortunately
for them, the Bush people never actually intended for democracy to take root
in Iraq, because they knew the Shi'ites would use democracy to elect a
fundamentalist regime with ideological ties to Iran and then throw democracy out the
back door. For a time, the Shi'ites were willing to cooperate with the
American occupiers because they thought democracy was coming. Shi'ite Ayatollah
Sistani counseled patience to his people, but that patience has ended. The Shi'ite
people are now listening to Muqtada al-Sadr and killing as many Americans as
they can find.

The words 'total failure' do not capture the enormity of this American action
in Iraq during the last year. Why do we stay? Why would we stay?

This, in the end, is the ultimate failure of George W. Bush and his people.
There were no terrorists in Iraq before the invasion, but they are there now.
There was no open warfare between the religious factions in Iraq before the
invasion, but now blood runs in the streets. Bush and his people ballyhooed the
'international coalition' that participated in this invasion, but the truth is
we are all alone. We slapped down the United Nations to such a degree that
this body, which could help us by replacing our troops with a true international
coalition, wants nothing to do with us. That hardly matters, because the Bush
administration wants nothing to do with them.

If a magic wand was waved and Bush decided to pull our soldiers out of Iraq,
the nation would collapse into a bloodbath that would make Rwanda look like a
picnic by comparison. Muqtada al-Sadr and his radical followers would take the
nation, and Iraq would become a terrorist stronghold much the way Afghanistan
did after we abandoned that nation to its fate in 1989. The entire Middle
East would become destabilized. The wobbly House of Saud could fall and place all
that oil into the hands of Wahabbi fundamentalists like Osama bin Laden. The
chaos could reach all the way to Pakistan, where radical fundamentalists would
love to topple that government and come into possession of that nation's
battery of nuclear weapons.

There is no simple solution. An immediate withdrawal will set the stage for
an incalculable slaughter in an Iraqi civil war, more terrorism against the
United States, half a dozen more wars in the Middle East, the world's petroleum
falling into the hands of al Qaeda, and the potential for Pakistani nukes in
the hands of bin Laden. Staying in Iraq, conversely, will bring us more dead and
wounded American soldiers, more dead and wounded Iraqi civilians, more
terrorism against America, and billions and billions more dollars poured onto the
sand.

The only solution involves a long-term strategy. Bush must be defeated in
November, and a new administration that does not get its jollies by urinating in
the faces of the international community must be elected. That new
administration must pull out all the stops to bring a true international coalition into
Iraq, so the American soldiers who inspire such demonstrable hatred from the
Iraq people can be rotated home.

The money being wasted on this Iraq misadventure must be rerouted to fighting
actual terrorists like the ones who bombed the trains in Madrid.
International money-laundering loopholes used by terrorists to fund attacks, loopholes
which were left open by American Congressmen beholden to corporations like Enron
which use those same loopholes to steal from stockholders, must be closed. The
list goes on and on.

None of this is guaranteed to work by any stretch of the imagination. The
truth is we cannot stay in Iraq, and with our current leadership in America, we
will not leave. Even after Bush is defeated in America, our forces will remain
in Iraq until the international community decides to come and rescue us. Make
no mistake, it will be a rescue.

There are no good options for Iraq. None. This will be the legacy of this
administration. Bush and his people have hung this heavy millstone around our
necks, and we are sinking.

William Rivers Pitt is the Managing Editor of truthout.org. He is a New York
Times and international best-selling author of three books - "War On Iraq,"
available from Context Books, "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available from
Pluto Press, and "Our Flag, Too: The Paradox of Patriotism," available in
August from Context Books.




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Message: 4
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 07:45:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Hassan <hasseini@DELETETHISyahoo.com>
Subject: One Year Later - April 9, 2004/ Riverbend
To: CASI newsclippings <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>,
  IAC discussion <iac-discussion@yahoogroups.com>


Friday, April 09, 2004

One Year Later - April 9, 2004
April 9, 2004

Today, the day the Iraqi Puppets hail "National Day",
will mark the day of the "Falloojeh Massacre"=85 Bremer
has called for a truce and ceasefire in Falloojeh very
recently and claimed that the bombing will stop, but
the bombing continues as I write this. Over 300 are
dead in Falloojeh and they have taken to burying the
dead in the town football field because they aren't
allowed near the cemetery. The bodies are decomposing
in the heat and the people are struggling to bury them
as quickly as they arrive. The football field that
once supported running, youthful feet and cheering
fans has turned into a mass grave holding men, women
and children.

The people in Falloojeh have been trying to get the
women and children out of the town for the last 48
hours but all the roads out of the city are closed by
the Americans and refugees are being shot at and
bombed on a regular basis=85 we're watching the
television and crying. The hospital is overflowing
with victims=85 those who have lost arms and legs=85 those
who have lost loved ones. There isn't enough medicine
or bandages=85 what are the Americans doing?! This is
collective punishment =85 is this the solution to the
chaos we're living in? Is this the 'hearts and minds'
part of the campaign?

A convoy carrying food, medication, blood and doctors
left for Falloojeh yesterday, hoping to get in and
help the people in there. Some people from our
neighborhood were gathering bags of flour and rice to
take into the town. E. and I rummaged the house from
top to bottom and came up with a big sack of flour, a
couple of smaller bags of rice, a few kilos of
assorted dry lentil, chickpeas, etc. We were really
hoping the trucks could get through to help out in the
city. Unfortunately, I just spoke with an Iraqi doctor
who told me that the whole convoy was denied entry...
it seems that now they are trying to get the women and
children out or at least the very sick and wounded.

The south isn't much better=85 the casualties are rising
and there's looting and chaos. There's an almost
palpable anger in Baghdad. The faces are grim and sad
all at once and there's a feeling of helplessness that
can't be described in words. It's like being held
under water and struggling for the unattainable
surface- seeing all this destruction and devastation.

Firdaws Square, the place where the statue was brought
down, is off-limits because the Americans fear angry
mobs and demonstrations=85 but it doesn't matter because
people are sticking to their homes. The kids haven't
been to school for several days now and even the
universities are empty. The situation in Baghdad feels
very unstable and the men in the neighborhood are
talking of a neighborhood watch again- just like the
early days of occupation.

Where are the useless Governing Council? Why isn't
anyone condemning the killings in the south and in
Falloojeh?! Why aren't they sitting down that fool
Bremer and telling him that this is wrong, wrong,
wrong, wrong??? If one of them were half a man or even
half a human, they would threaten to resign their
posts if there isn't an immediate ceasefire=85 the
people are enraged. This latest situation proves that
they aren't Iraqi- they aren't here for the welfare of
the Iraqi people.

The American and European news stations don't show the
dying Iraqis=85 they don't show the women and children
bandaged and bleeding- the mother looking for some
sign of her son in the middle of a puddle of blood and
dismembered arms and legs=85 they don't show you the
hospitals overflowing with the dead and dying because
they don't want to hurt American feelings=85 but people
*should* see it. You should see the price of your war
and occupation- it's unfair that the Americans are
fighting a war thousands of kilometers from home. They
get their dead in neat, tidy caskets draped with a
flag and we have to gather and scrape our dead off of
the floors and hope the American shrapnel and bullets
left enough to make a definite identification=85

One year later, and Bush has achieved what he wanted-
this day will go down in history and in the memory of
all Iraqis as one of the bloodiest days ever...


- posted by river @ 4:32 PM
-------------------------------------
Occupation Day - April 9, 2003

The last few days, I've been sorely trying to avoid a
trip down memory lane. I flip the channel every time
they show shots of Baghdad up in flames, I turn off
the radio as they begin to talk about the first few
days of occupation, and I quietly leave the room as
family members begin, "Remember how=85" No, I don't
*want* to remember some of the worst days of my life.
I wish there was some way one could selectively delete
certain memories as one does files on a computer=85
however, that's impossible.

Today, I'm letting my mind wander back to last April
quite freely. April 9, 2003 in particular. The day our
darling Puppet Council has chosen to represent our
'National Day'=85 the day the occupation became not a
possibility, but a definite reality.

The day began with heavy bombing. I remember waking up
at 5 a.m. to a huge explosion. The hair almost stood
on my head. We were all sleeping in the living room
because the drapes were heavy and offered some small
security against shattering glass. E. instantly jumped
up and ran to make sure the Klashnikov was loaded
properly and I tried to cover my cousin's children
better with the heavy blankets. The weather was
already warm, but the blankets would protect the kids
against glass. Their older daughter was, luckily,
still sound asleep- lost in a dream or nightmare. The
younger one lay in the semi-dark, with eyes wide open.
I sensed her trying to read my face for some small
reassurance=85 I smiled tightly, "Go back to sleep=85"

After a few more colossal explosions, we all knew
sleep would be useless. It was still too early for
breakfast and no one was in the mood anyway. My mother
and I got up to check the bags we had packed, and
waiting, by the door. We had packed the bags during
the first few days of war=85 they contained some sturdy
clothes, bottles of water, important documents (like
birth certificates and ID papers), and some spare
money. They were to remain by the door in case the
ceiling came crashing down or the American tanks came
plowing through the neighborhood. In either case, we
were given specific instructions to run for the door
and take out the bags, "Don't wait for anyone- just
run and take the bags with you=85" came the orders.

Our area was one of the more volatile areas. We had
helicopters hovering above, fighter planes and
explosions. An area just across the main street had
been invaded by tanks and we could hear the gun shots
and tanks all night. My mother stood, unsure, at the
window, trying to see the street. Were we supposed to
evacuate? Were we supposed to stay in the house and
wait? What was going to happen? E. and my cousin
volunteered to ask the neighbors their plans.

They came back 5 minutes later. E. was pale and my
cousin looked grim. Everyone on our street was in the
same quandary- what was to be done? E. said that while
there were a few men in the streets in our immediate
area, the rest of Baghdad seemed almost empty. We
negotiated leaving the house and heading for my
uncle's home on the other side of Baghdad, but my
cousin said that that would be impossible- the roads
were all blocked, the bridges were cut off by American
tanks and even if we were lucky enough to get anywhere
near my uncle's area, we risked being shot by a tank
or helicopter. No, we would wait it out at home.

My cousin's wife was wide awake by then. She sat in
the middle of her two children and held them close on
either side. She hadn't spoken to her parents in
almost a week now=85 there were no telephones to contact
them and there was no way to get to their area. She
was beyond terrified at this crucial point=85 she was
certain that they were all dead or dying and the only
thing that seemed to be keeping her functioning was
the presence of her two young daughters.

At that point, my mind was numb. All I could do was
react to the explosions- flinch when one was
particularly powerful, and automatically say a brief
prayer of thanks when another was further away. Every
once in a while, my brain would clear enough to do
some mindless chore, like fill the water pots or fold
the blankets, but otherwise, I felt numb.

It was almost noon when the explosions calmed somewhat
and I risked going outside for a few moments. The
planes were freely coming and going and, along with
the sound of distant gunshots, only they pierced the
eerie silence. My mother joined me outside a few
minutes later and stood next to me under a small olive
tree.

"In case we have to leave, there are some things I
want to be sure you know=85" she said, and I nodded
vaguely, studying a particularly annoying plane we
were calling 'buggeh' or 'bug', as it made the sound
of a mosquito while it flew. We later learned it was a
'surveyor' plane that scanned certain areas for
resistance or Iraqi troops.

"The documents in the bag contain the papers for the
house, the car=85" I was alert. I turned to her and
asked, "But why are you telling me this- you know I
know. We packed the stuff together=85 and *you* know
everything anyway=85" She nodded assent but added,
"Well, I just want to be sure=85 in case something
happens=85 if we=85"

"You mean if we get separated for some reason?" I
finished quickly. "Yes, if we get separated=85 fine. You
have to know where everything is and what it is=85" By
then, I was fighting hard against tears. I swallowed
with difficulty and concentrated harder on the planes
above. I wondered how many parents and kids were
having this very same conversation today. She
continued talking for a few moments and seemed to
introduce a new and terrible possibility that I hadn't
dared to think about all this time- life after death.
Not eternal life after death- that was nothing new-
but the possibility of *our* life, mine and E.'s,
after *their* death.

During the war, the possibility of death was a
constant. There were moments when I was sure we'd all
be dead in a matter of seconds- especially during the
horrific 'shock and awe' period. But I always took it
for granted that we'd all die together- as a family.
We'd either survive together or die together=85 it was
always that simple. This new possibility was one I
refused to think about.

As we sat there, she talking, and I retreating further
and further into the nightmare of words, there was a
colossal explosion that made the windows rattle, and
even seemed to shake the sturdy trees in the little
garden. I jumped, relieved to hear that sound for the
very first time in my life=85 it was the end of that
morbid conversation and all I could think was, "saved
by the bomb".

We spent the rest of the day listening to the
battery-powered radio and trying to figure out what
was happening around us. We heard stories from the
neighbors about a massacre in A'adhamiya- the
Americans were shooting right and left, deaths and
looting in the south=85 The streets were unsafe and the
only people risking them were either the people
seeking refuge in other areas, or the looters who
began to descend on homes, schools, universities,
museums and governmental buildings and institutions
like a group of vultures on the carcass of a freshly
dead lion.

Day faded into night=85 the longest day of my life. The
day we sensed that the struggle in Baghdad was over
and the fear of war was nothing compared to the new
fear we were currently facing. It was the day I saw my
first American tank roll grotesquely down the streets
of Baghdad- through a residential neighborhood.

And that was April 9 for me and millions of others.
There are thousands who weren't so lucky- they lost
loved ones on April 9=85 to guns, and tanks and Apaches=85
and the current Governing Council want us to remember
April 9 fondly and hail it our "National Day"=85 a day
of victory=85 but whose victory? And whose nation?

- posted by river @ 4:28 PM

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway
http://promotions.yahoo.com/design_giveaway/


--__--__--

Message: 5
From: "Mark Parkinson" <mark44@DELETETHISmyrealbox.com>
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2004 16:49:08 +0100
Subject: A war that was founded on lies and illusions has one simple truth: Iraqis do not want us

By Robert Fisk  - 09 April 2004

A war founded on illusions, lies and right-wing ideology was bound to
founder in blood and fire. Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He
was in contact with al-Qa'ida, he was involved with the crimes
against humanity of 11 September. The people of Iraq would greet us
with flowers and music. There would be a democracy.

A war founded on illusions, lies and right-wing ideology was bound to
founder in blood and fire. Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He
was in contact with al-Qa'ida, he was involved with the crimes
against humanity of 11 September. The people of Iraq would greet us
with flowers and music. There would be a democracy.

Even the pulling-down of Saddam's statue was a fraud. An American
military vehicle tugged the wretched thing down while a crowd of only
a few hundred Iraqis watched. Where were the tens of thousands who
should have pulled it down themselves, who should have been
celebrating their "liberation"?

On the night of 9 April last year, the BBC even managed to find a
"commentator" to heap abuse on me and The Independent for using
quotation marks around the word "liberation".

In fact, freedom from Saddam's dictatorship in those early days and
weeks meant freedom to loot, freedom to burn, freedom to kidnap,
freedom to murder. The initial American and British blunder - to
allow the mobs to take over Baghdad and other cities - was followed
by the arrival of the far more sinister squads of arsonists who
systematically destroyed every archive, every government ministry
(save for Oil and Interior which were, of course, secured by US
troops), Islamic manuscripts, national archives and irreplaceable
antiquities. The very cultural identity of Iraq was being
annihilated.

Yet still the Iraqis were supposed to rejoice in their "liberation".
The occupying power sneered at reports that women were being
kidnapped and violated - in fact, the abductions of men as well as
women were at the rate of 20 a day and may now be as high as 100 a
day - and steadfastly refused to calculate the numbers of Iraqi
civilians killed each day by gunmen, thieves and American troops.

Even this week, as the promises and lies and obfuscations fell apart,
the American military spokesman was still only able to give military
casualties - this when more than 200 Iraqis are reported to have been
killed in the US attack on Fallujah.

Over the months, the isolation of the occupation authorities from the
Iraqi people they were supposed to care so much about was only
paralleled by the vast distance in false hope and self-deceit between
the occupying powers in Baghdad and their masters back in Washington.

Paul Bremer, America's proconsul in Iraq, started off by calling the
resistance "party remnants", which is exactly what the Russians used
to call their Afghan opponents after they invaded Afghanistan in
1979. Then Mr Bremer called them "diehards". Then he called them
"dead-enders". And, as the attacks against US forces increased around
Fallujah and other Sunni Muslim cities, we were told this area was
the "Sunni triangle", even though it is much larger than that implies
and has no triangular shape.

So when President Bush made his notorious trip to the Abraham Lincoln
to announce the end of all "major military operations" - beneath a
banner claiming "Mission Accomplished" - and when attacks against US
troops continued to rise, it was time to rewrite the chapter on post-
war Iraq. "Foreign fighters" were now in the battle, according to the
US Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld. The US media went along with
this nonsense, even though not a single al-Qa'ida operative has been
arrested in Iraq and of the 8,500 "security detainees" in American
hands, only 150 appear to be from outside Iraq. Just 2 per cent.

Then as winter approached and Saddam was caught and the anti-American
resistance continued, the occupying powers and their favourite
journalists began to warn of civil war, something no Iraqi has ever
indulged in and which no Iraqi has ever been heard discussing. Iraq
was now to be frightened into submission. What would happen if the
Americans and British left? Civil war, of course. And we don't want
civil war, do we?

The Shia remained quiescent, their leadership divided between the
scholarly and pro-Western Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani and the
impetuous but intelligent Muqtada Sadr. They opened their mass graves
and mourned those thousands who were tortured and executed by
Saddam's butchery and then asked why we used to support Saddam, why
it took us 20 years to discover the need to stage our humanitarian
invasion.

If the occupation authorities had bothered to study the results of a
conference on Iraq held by the Centre for Arab Unity Studies in
Beirut recently, they might be forced to acknowledge what they cannot
admit: that their opponents are Iraqis and that this is an Iraqi
insurgency.

An Iraqi academic, Sulieman Jumeili, who lives in the city of
Fallujah, told how he discovered that 80 per cent of all rebels
killed were Iraqi Islamist activists. Only 13 per cent of the dead
men were primarily nationalists and only 2 per cent had been
Baathists.

But we cannot accept these statistics. Because if this is an Iraqi
revolt against us, how come they aren't grateful for their
liberation? So, after the atrocities in Fallujah just over a week ago
when four US mercenaries were killed, mutilated and dragged through
the streets, General Ricardo Sanchez, the US commander in Iraq,
sanctioned what is preposterously called "Operation Vigilant
Resolve". And now that Sadr's thousands of Shia militiamen had joined
in the battle against the Americans, General Sanchez had to change
the narrative yet again.

No longer were his enemies Saddam "remnants" or even al-Qa'ida; they
were now "a small (sic) group of criminals and thugs". The Iraqi
people would not be allowed to fall under their sway, General Sanchez
said. There was "no place for a renegade militia".

So the marines smashed their way into Fallujah, killing more than 200
Iraqis, including women and children, while using tanks fire and
helicopter gunships against gunmen in the Baghdad slums of Sadr City.
It took a day or two to understand what new self-delusion had taken
over the US military command. They were not facing a country-wide
insurgency. They were liberating the Iraqis all over again! So, of
course, this will mean a few more "major military operations". Sadr
goes on the wanted list for a murder after an arrest warrant that no
one told us about when it was mysteriously issued months ago -
supposedly by an Iraqi judge - and General Mark Kimmitt, General
Sanchez's number two, told us confidently that Sadr's militia will be
"destroyed".

And so the bloodbath spreads ever further across Iraq. Kut and Najaf
are now outside the control of the occupying powers. And with each
new collapse, we are told of new hope. Yesterday, General Sanchez was
still talking about his "total confidence" in his troops who were
"clear in their purpose", how they were making "progress" in Fallujah
and how - these are his actual words, "a new dawn is approaching".

Which is exactly what US commanders were saying exactly a year ago
today - when US troops drove into the Iraqi capital and when
Washington boasted of victory against the Beast of Baghdad.

http://www.robert-fisk.com

Mark Parkinson
Bodmin
Cornwall




--__--__--

Message: 6
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 12:37:50 EDT
Subject: Liberation after the Liberation-http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-3-18
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]

Liberation after the liberation
 Anthony Barnett
8 - 4 - 2004

...





In late March 2003, as Coalition troops moved towards Baghdad and before th=
e
US overthrow of Saddam Hussein was complete, Neal Ascherson warned:
> =E2=80=9CLiberation hurts. In Iraq, it comes with humiliation and fear ab=
out the
> future. A UN transition regime must replace the military governors as soo=
n as
> possible, and must move quickly towards democracy. And the White House
> fanatics have to realise that a free Iraq cannot be designed to suit thei=
r ideology.
> It will be ungrateful. It will have policies they dislike. This is called
> independence. If it is denied, then the real liberation of Iraq will happ=
en
> unpredictably, and bloodily, in the future.=E2=80=9D
A year later it seems that the =E2=80=98real liberation=E2=80=99 has begun.=
 Perhaps the
trigger was the local elections which showed that secular candidates would =
defeat
religious ones in a fair and open vote. Writing on 5 April 2004 from Nasiri=
ya,
capital of the Shi=E2=80=99a province of Dhi-Qar in southern Iraq, Jonathan=
 Steele
reported that seventeen of the province=E2=80=99s towns had voted in munici=
pal elections
over the previous six weeks and =E2=80=9Cin almost every case secular indep=
endents
and representatives of non-religious parties did better than the Islamists=
=E2=80=9D.
Faced with the prospect of possible marginalisation as an opposition rather=
 than
governing force, were Shi=E2=80=99a drawn to polarise the situation to gain=
 advantage
from an American over-reaction?If so, have they got what they wanted? In
openDemocracy.net, Firas Al-Atraqchi and Laura Sandys consider the conseque=
nces as
the young Shi=E2=80=99a leader Muqtada al-Sadr not only raises the banner o=
f militant
opposition to continued American occupation, but in doing so seeks Sunni
support in a bid for nationalist and (to that extent his form of) secular s=
upport.
United States commanders insist before the cameras that they are in control=
.
No mistake could be graver than to treat the political leadership of a soci=
ety
as a matter of =E2=80=98control=E2=80=99 when the stated aim is democracy. =
Is President Bush =E2=80=98
in control=E2=80=99 of America? Of course not. Democratic rule is a matter =
of consent
- and the outcome of consent cannot be designed or controlled. This is the
glory and the menace of democracy.How can Iraq become a democracy? How can =
a
broken society, finally freed of a 35-year dictatorship, be assisted toward=
s
consent-based rule? It needs calm understanding, the de-escalation of viole=
nce,
the establishment of law, a growing acceptance of legitimacy, friendly rela=
tions
with neighbours and international support. This is hardly a description of
American policy, which our columnist Paul Rogers has regularly detailed as =
being
one of foolishly playing Osama bin Laden=E2=80=99s game =E2=80=93 and who t=
his week examines
the intense strains on a US military stretched to the limit by George W. Bu=
sh=E2=80=99
s strategic ambitions. But what should be done? As American =E2=80=98contro=
l=E2=80=99 over
Iraq comes under fire, there is a sound of chortling from some who opposed =
the
US invasion. Scorn is poured especially on those who, as Neal Ascherson spe=
lt
out, look to a swift United Nations takeover of outside security forces and=
 a
swift move to self-rule, including the right to expel US bases and condemn
Israel, if that is the considered will and opinion of Iraq. By advocating a=
ny
form of international support, these soft opponents of America are presente=
d as
acting as =E2=80=98cover=E2=80=99 for the west and imperialism. At a time o=
f polarisation it
can be hard to hold onto judgments regarding the larger picture, the comple=
xity
of the forces at work, the realities behind the two sides of =E2=80=98eithe=
r you are
with us or against us=E2=80=99. I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein, who lo=
nged for
his overthrow. But I was obliged to march against the US invasion. However =
much
I sympathised with Saddam=E2=80=99s Iraqi opponents I argued in openDemocra=
cy.net (=E2=80=9C
World opinion: the new superpower?=E2=80=9D, 18 March 2003) that the Americ=
an move on
Iraq was part of an ill-conceived global strategy carried out by a leadersh=
ip
that cared little for the people and realities of Iraq: =E2=80=9CThis is wh=
y the
popular opposition to the war will not be proved wrong, as Bush and Blair p=
resume it
will be, if the two leaders get to Baghdad with relatively little human cos=
t
to be welcomed there as liberators. For America=E2=80=99s capacity to act w=
ithout
legal restraint is not in doubt, nor is its ability to avoid human casualti=
es if
it so wishes. The question the world is asking is to what larger ends will =
such
power be used?=E2=80=9D The danger now is that a new US administration (or,=
 if Rupert
Murdoch is to be believed, the current administration after it is re-electe=
d)
will default back to supporting another dictatorship that fits more or less
snugly with the kinds of regimes America has made its allies across the Ara=
b
world. The neo-cons have declared the need for democracy across the =E2=80=
=98greater
Middle East=E2=80=99. Are they right! But the less credibility they have as=
 the people to
introduce democracy the moreimportant it becomes to support it. It remains
the right thing, even if they are the wrong people going about it in the wr=
ong
way. As Iraq moves towards its own liberation and throws off America=E2=80=
=99s
timetable, it is important for us to extend every hand and ear to all Iraqi=
 democrats
of every creed and sect - Kurd and Arab, Sunni and Shi=E2=80=99a - for they=
 cannot
build democracy on their own.









--__--__--

Message: 7
From: "k hanly" <khanly@DELETETHISmb.sympatico.ca>
To: "newsclippings" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: Saddam flown to Qatar
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2004 17:27:24 -0500

The Hindu
April 8, 2004

Saddam Secretly Flown Out of Iraq

By Hasan Suroor

The former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, has been
secretly flown out of Iraq by his U.S. captors and moved
to a high-security air base in Qatar to prevent his
supporters from forcing his release, a British newspaper
claimed today.

In a front-page despatch from its authoritative and
internationally respected West Asia correspondent,
Robert Fisk, The Independent said the operation had been
so hush-hush that even the authorities in Qatar were not
told about it.

The U.S. officials, it said, refused to discuss
"Saddam's place of imprisonment'' and Iraqis continued
to believe that he was still in Iraq, "possibly at the
big American base at Balad, 60 miles north of Baghdad,
on the road to Tikrit, Saddam's home''. The newspaper
said that the move was prompted by fears that the
"increasingly sophisticated attacks against Americans''
in Iraq might lead to attempts to "stage a spectacular
prison escape''. Qatar was chosen as the "safest place''
in the region to hold Mr. Hussein. "Even senior Qatari
intelligence officers were not informed of Saddam's
presence in the Emirate, home to the largest U.S.
military base in the Middle East,'' Mr. Fisk wrote,
adding that surrounded by thousands' of U.S. troops and
intelligence men, Mr. Hussein was "as well-guarded as he
would be at Guantanamo Bay''. Mr. Hussein, who was
picked up by U.S. forces in December, is reported to
have given little joy to his interrogators.

"He does not want to help the FBI-CIA team who are
questioning him, and gives vague replies to many of the
questions he is asked, often stating the Iraqi
Government's official position on the Iran-Iraq war, the
invasion of Kuwait and U.N. sanctions,'' according to
Mr. Fisk. Americans, he said, were reluctant to put Mr.
Hussein on trial before the U.S. presidential elections,
fearing that he would disclose details of the close
relationship that U.S. administrations had with his
regime.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=509212




--__--__--

Message: 8
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 10:40:44 EDT
Subject: Highway to Hell
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]

Aljazeera
Highway to hell: The road to Falluja
By Odai Sirri in Garma

Sunday 11 April 2004, 1:29 Makka Time, 22:29 GMT

As we drive through the back roads on the way to Falluja, US jets
are pounding the area around the tiny village of Garma.

The sight of US reinforcements flying into the area and the
continuous sound of explosions and gunfire proves too much for my
driver. He pulls into the village, unwilling to go any further.

Half way between Baghdad and Falluja, Garma is well placed to witness
the US bombardment of the latter, where the steadily rising toll of
dead Iraqis from the past week's fighting has passed 400. At least
1000 have been reported wounded.

With the main routes into the town blocked or too dangerous, Garma =E2=80=
=93
just 15 minutes from Falluja =E2=80=93 has become a stepping stone for
resistance fighters on their way to help their besieged compatriots.

Witnesses report seeing scores of fighters passing through Garma
daily.

A lorry of what appear to be 15 tribesmen stops next to us. But the
tribesmen =E2=80=93 each man's face covered by an aqal (the Iraqi headscarf=
) =E2=80=93
are from Baghdad.

Stopping to rest at a tea shop before entering the besieged town,
Ahmad, a 25-year-old with the worn face of a battle-hardened warrior,
tells me of his intentions.

"We're going to assist our brothers in Falluja and try to prevent the
massacre of Iraqis."

Bloodbath

But Ahmad and his colleagues will have their work cut out for them.
Breaking news from Aljazeera on a nearby television shows fresh
images from Falluja: scores of dead, including many children. The
town has turned into a bloodbath.

The images prove too much for Ahmad; he drops his face into his hands
and breaks down. As he walks away, I call an Aljazeera cameraman in
Falluja to check on his safety.

Falluja's hospitals are overflowing  with dead and wounded

My colleague's voice is panic-stricken as he describes the scene,
echoing the pictures that have shocked Ahmad.

"There are images we can't show because it's just too gruesome. I
have never seen anything like this before," he says.

"There are bodies everywhere, and people can't go out to retrieve
them because they're too afraid of being blown away themselves.

"I can't believe the number of children here, we were at the hospital
and it's full of dead and wounded kids.

"The ones that aren't dead have lost limbs and are wailing in pain,
begging for their parents. What parents?" he screams. "I don't have
the heart to tell them that their parents are in pieces.

"Back at our office the Americans are shooting at us. I walk out of
the bathroom and a laser is pointed at my chest," he says, referring
to US sharpshooters in the area.

"We 'd just bought cigarettes from a store across the street; no more
than ten minutes later it was bombed."

Tired of fighting

Ahmad returns and orders another cup of tea. But our conversation
shifts focus as he asks about my life growing up in Canada. He looks
at me curiously and asks my age.

"You see? We're the same age, but look at my face, I look many years
older than you," he says, his voice quivering with emotion.

Deadly fate: An insurgent lies dead in the battle-ravaged town

"We Iraqis are tired of all this fighting, why doesn't the US just
leave us alone? What did we ever do to them?"

"You know what the funny thing about this entire mess is? If Saddam
were to come back right now, all this fighting would stop in two
hours, isn't that right Ali?"

Ahmad and his companion begin laughing.The laughter ends as more
images of the Falluja scene appear on TV.

"The US will never leave Iraq," he says more soberly. "You know what
I want to see happen in Iraq? I want to see a federal Iraq where
everyone from north to south, and east to west is fairly represented.
We Arabs, Sunni, Shia, and Christian; the Kurds, the Turkmen =E2=80=93 we a=
re
all Iraqis."

But his hopes and desires seem far away as the sound of bombs and
mortar shells reverberate through our caf=C3=A9. A few minutes later the
driver of his lorry sounds the horn. Ahmad takes a final sip of his
tea and says goodbye.

If the mounting toll is any indication, Ahmad will probably not make
it out of Falluja alive.


Aljazeera




--__--__--

Message: 9
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 18:12:29 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?b=20b?= <baraka379@DELETETHISyahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Action for Iraq
To: a.r@anita.roddick.co.uk, ariana_uk@yahoo.com,
  Armand Bytton <tulpa@worldnet.it>, asceptic@burntmail.com,
  basilfahmy@hotmail.com, Betty Hunter <psolidarity@lineone.net>,
  Bristol Peace <bristolpeacevigil@yahoogroups.com>,
  Bruce Gagnon <globalnet@mindspring.com>, CAABU <info@caabu.org>,
  campeace@gn.apc.org, campeace@gn.apn.org, casi-analysis@lists.casi.org.uk,
  chrissy777@hotmail.com, Clare Hariri <ch20018@cam.ac.uk>,
  danrobicheau@hotmail.com, Dave Rolsten <voices@hanidden.co.ukl>,
  davey garland <thunderelf@yahoo.co.uk>, du-watch@yahoogroups.com,
  Enlighten <enlighten@mailcity.com>, Father Benjamin <angelico@tecnonet.it>,
  gabrielle.london@btopenworld.com, george.galloway@clix.pt,
  Ghada Karmi <ghada_karmi@hotmail.com>,
  Glenda MP Jackson <jacksong@parliament.uk>,
  Hans Von Sponeck <von_sponeck@yahoo.com>, hasanjaja@hotmail.com,
  HP-4 Just Peace <shahed@4justpeace.com>,
  Hussein AL Ali <hussy_al_2000@yahoo.co.uk>, imad.khadduri@rogers.com,
  Indymedia <imc-cambridge-events@lists.indymedia.org>, info@uncoveriraq.com,
  James Thring <james.thring@virgin.net>, janet.walker3@ntlworld.com,
  Jean-Paul Jourdan <jourdan.j.paul@wanadoo.fr>,
  Jeremy MP Corbyn <corbynj@parliament.uk>,
  John Smith <johnsmith@btintenet.com>, John Kaminski <skylax@comcat.ne>,
  karen parker <ied@igc.org>, Lenora Forstel <Foerstel@aol.com>,
  Leuren Moret <leurenmoret@yahoo.com>, lowryd@parliament.uk,
  M Miraki <mdmiraki@ameritech.net>, Marco Saba <max@ocdbgroup.net>,
  mariom Keupler <mariom.keupker@compuserve.com>,
  Micheal Moore <mike@michealmoore.com>,
  Milan Rai <milanrai@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk>,
  Nelson Mandela <nmf@nelsonmandela.org>, office@stopwar.org.uk,
  omarfomar@hotmail.com, Piotr Bein <piotr.bein@imag.net>,
  pjw8@dana.ucc.nau.edu, Rae Street <raecnd@gn.apc.org>,
  Roger Ingle <rog.ingle@ntlworld.com>,
  Sabah Al-Muhktar <sabah@arablaw.demon.co.uk>,
  Sanaa AlKhayyat <SAlkhayyat@aol.com>, Ted Glick <indol@igc.org>,
  vvwai@oz.net, Yahia kabil <ykabil@yahoo.com>
Cc: iaccenter@action-mail.org


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]

Dear All,
PLEASE, WITH THE ESCALATING DESTRUCTION OF THE PEOPLE OF FELLUJA COUPLED WI=
TH DEAFENING SILENCE FROM THE WORLD, THE UN, THE SECURITY COUNCIL, THE NGO'=
S, THE HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS ETC... LET US THINK WHAT CAN BE DONE TO G=
ALVANISE ACTION OF THE STRONGEST ARMY IN THE WORLD AGAINST A CIVILIAN POPUL=
ATION. ONE IDEA WAS TO PUT PRESSURE ON THE MEMBERS OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL.=
 BUT PLEASE THINK OF SOMETHING MORE EFFECTIVE., NETWORK YOUR FRIENDS AND AQ=
UAINTANCES AND LET US WORK TOGETHER TO STOP THE MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS OF =
THE EARTH. THIS IS GOOD FRIDAY, THE DAY FELLUJA WAS CRUCIFIED..

Beatrice Boctor


---------------------------------
  Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Dow=
nload Messenger Now



--__--__--

Message: 10
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 13:44:58 +0100
To: casi-analysis@lists.casi.org.uk
From: Emma Sangster <emma@DELETETHISdrifting.demon.co.uk>
Subject: News from activists in Iraq and emergency demo Sun 11 April, 12 noon, Downing St

Dear friends and fellow anti-war activists,

In response to the current wave of US/UK repression and killings in Iraq
- which have claimed the lives of hundreds of people over the last week
- Voices UK has called an EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE DOWNING STREET
TOMORROW, Easter Sunday (11th April) between 12 NOON and 1.30 PM (see
press release [1] below).

Please come if you can. If you can't make tomorrow's demo. please WRITE,
PHONE, FAX AND EMAIL YOUR PROTEST, using the links in [4] below.

Among the speakers will be activists who have visited Fallujah, Sadr
City and Amara over the last seven years as well as Iraqis living in the
UK with relatives in Iraq. Many of the Voices UK sanctions-breaking
delegations to Iraq visited Fallujah during the period 1998 - 2002,
visiting the market place (which was hit by an RAF bomb in 1991) as well
as the general hospital (where doctors are now estimating that the
death-toll in Fallujah alone has topped 400).

Over 50 similar protests are taking place across the US ([2]) and
solidarity activists in Iraq are also planning to hold a demo. at a US
checkpoint tomorrow (see the call for action [3] from Ewa Jasiewicz
below).

Please see also the call for international solidarity from the
International Occupation Watch centre [5].

Yours in solidarity,

Gabriel
Voices in the Wilderness uk
www.voicesuk.org
********************************************
[1]PRESS RELEASE  Voices in the Wilderness UK [A]
10th April 2004
Contact 0845 458 2564 or 07791 486484

EASTER SUNDAY PROTEST CONDEMNS COALITION KILLINGS IN IRAQ

Sunday 11th April, 12 noon, Downing Street, London:  British campaigning
organisation, Voices UK, delegations from which have visited Fallujah on
numerous occasions over the past six years [B], will be co-ordinating an
Easter Sunday protest outside Downing Street tomorrow, Sunday 11th
April, to condemn the current wave of killings and repression by US/UK
forces in Iraq. A banner will be displayed bearing the words 'US/UK:
Stop Killing Iraqis' along with images from Fallujah and photographs of
Iraqi civilians who have been killed by US/UK forces over the last year.
Over 50 similar protests are taking place across the US [C] and
solidarity activists in Iraq are also organizing a protest at a US
checkpoint.

On Friday doctors at Fallujah's main hospital estimated that 280 Iraqis
had been killed - and at least 400 wounded - in fighting in the city
over the past week [D]. The dead apparently include 16 children and up
to eight women, killed when warplanes struck four houses late Tuesday
[E], and as many as forty people were killed when the US dropped two
500-pound bombs on a mosque compound [F]. Fallujah has been under siege
since last Monday and whilst an agreement has now apparently been
brokered to let women, children and the elderly leave the city, all men
of "military age" have been ordered to remain. Meanwhile British troops
have killed at least a dozen Iraqis in the southern city of Amara - in
one instance apparently 'opening fire on people nearby' the British
military headquarters when it came under anti-tank rocket fire [G].

Voices spokesperson Gabriel Carlyle said 'This Easter Sunday, as Tony
Blair suns himself in Bermuda, we'll be at the heart of the British
Government with a simple message for the US and Britain: stop killing
Iraqis. This callous indifference to the deaths of Iraqis must stop -
the 16 children killed last Tuesday could have been the same ones I
chatted with in Fallujah market place two years ago and their lives were
every bit as valuable as the lives of British children.

'On Friday Jack Straw had the audacity to claim that it 'was not the
Americans who cast the first stone =E2=80=A6 in Fallujah' - apparently unaw=
are
that the current resistance movement in Fallujah stems from the killing
by US forces of 13 unarmed demonstrators in April 2003 [H]. Not only is
the current policy - in the words of the pro-US Governing Council member
Adnan Pachachi - 'unacceptable and illegal' but it is also making
matters much, much worse. The repression and killings must stop.'

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: 12 noon, opposite Downing Street
CONTACT: 0845 458 2564 or 07791 486484

THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS ARE AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW : =C2=B7 Milan Rai:
author of War Plan Iraq and Regime Unchanged, who travelled to Fallujah
four times during 1998 - 2003 =C2=B7 Ewa Jasiewicz: recently returned from
an eight month stay in Iraq, during which time she worked with
Occupation Watch (www.occupationwatch.org ) and Voices US (www.vitw.org)
and spent time in both Sadr City and Amara) =C2=B7 Haifa Zangana, UK-based
Iraqi-born novelist and artist, former political prisoner under the
Ba'ath regime. =C2=B7 Salih Ibrahim, Iraqi pathologist with relatives in
Baghdad and Basra who has spent the last 20 years here in the UK =C2=B7
Gareth Evans and Gabriel Carlyle (Voices UK members who visited Fallujah
in May 2002)

NOTES
[A] Voices in the Wilderness UK has been campaigning on Iraq for the
last six years. For more info. see www.voicesuk.org. [B] In 1991 the RAF
dropped a bomb on Fallujah marketplace killing an estimated 200
civilians. Voices UK visited Fallujah market place - and general
hospital - on many occasions during its 11 sanctions-breaking
delegations to Iraq between 1998 and 2002. [C]
http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/a10/a10events.html [D]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=3D509890
[E]
http://www.fox23.com/news/world/story.aspx?content_id=3D6143C15E-2396-42AB-
A5B8-B486F44DF7A3 [F]
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/08/1081326808226.html?from=3Dstoryrhs
[G]
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=3Dstory&cid=3D1514&e=3D61&u=3D/afp/20=
040406
/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_unrest_amara_toll_040406154012 [H]
http://www.j-n-v.org/AW_briefings/JNV_briefing047.htm

**************************************
[2] UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL:
Nationwide protests against Iraq war

WASHINGTON, April 8 (UPI) -- Opponents of the war in Iraq are gathering
in cities across the United States over the Easter weekend in response
to a call to action to protest the war.

The anti-war ANSWER Coalition has issued a call for "emergency local
demonstrations" nationwide to protest the war in Iraq, call for the
return of U.S. troops from Iraq, and a call for money for healthcare and
education, not the war. ANSWER is an acronym for "Act Now to Stop War
and Racism."

As of Thursday demonstrations were planned for Friday through Monday in
17 towns and cities [now more than 50], including New York, Chicago, Los
Angeles and Washington at the White House.

"The revolt sweeping Iraq in opposition to foreign occupation has
resulted in the White House and Pentagon ordering a reign of terror
against all those who defy U.S. dictates," the organization said in a
statement announcing the protests.

"Hundreds of Iraqis have been killed. A large number of U.S. troops have
also died. And there is no let up in sight. ... The current crisis in
Iraq is again stimulating protests around the country and around the
world," the statement said.

* * * * *

Cities holding demonstrations include:
Albuquerque, NM
Atlanta, GA
Augusta, ME
Baltimore, MD
Binghamton, NY
Birmingham, AL
Boston, MA
Buffalo, NY
Carlsbad, CA
Cedar Falls, IA
Charlotte, NC
Chicago, IL
Detroit, MI
Fayetteville, AR
Ferndale, MI
Gettysburg, PA
Grand Rapids, MI
Kingston, NY
Long Island, NY
Los Angeles, CA
Massachusetts, MA
Middletown, NY
Mill Valley, CA
Milwaukee, WI
Minneapolis, MN
Mountain View, CA
New Haven, CT
New York, NY
Portland, OR
Providence, RI
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Jose, CA
Sarasota Springs, NY
Seattle, WA
Springfield, MA
St. Petersburg, FL
Washington, DC
& more!

See http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/a10/a10events.html for
more
information.
***************************************
[3] APPEAL FROM EWA JASIEWICZ

Iraq Solidarity Action ? Resist the Massacre in Falluga

Urgent information and appeal from Ewa Jasiewicz, who worked with Voices
in the Wilderness and Occupation Watch in Iraq, lived there for 8 months
(Basra and Baghdad) and in Palestine, mainly Jenin camp for 6 months,
speaks Arabic, and who got back from Iraq 2 months ago. She is in
regular contact with her friends in Basra and Baghdad.

I just spoke to friends in Baghdad - Paola Gaspiroli, Italian, from
Occupation watch and Bridges to Baghdad, Journalist Leigh Gordon,
England, (NUJ, Tribune, Mail on Sunday) and a Palestinian friend with
family in Falluja and friends in the Iraqi Islamic Party. Both he and
Leigh have been ferrying out the injured from Falluja to Baghdad for the
past three days. Ambulances have been barred from entry into the
blood-drenched city.

Here is their news, which they told me over the telephone tonight
(Friday)

PAOLA:

There has been a massacre in Falluga. Falluga is under siege. 470 people
have been killed, and 1700 injured. There has been no ceasefire. They
(Americans) told people to leave, said they have 8 hours to leave and
people began to leave but they're trapped in the Desert. The Americans
have been bombing with B52s (Confirmed also by Leigh in an email three
days ago). Bridges to Baghdad are pulling out. We have flights booked
out of Amman. Tomorow a team will go to Sadr City to deliver medicines.
50 people have been killed there. ?? (Forgotten name) the 'elastic'
shiekh in Sadr City (I've met him, young, brilliant guy, describes
himself as 'elastic' because he is so flexible when it comes to his
interpretations of Islam and moral conduct definitions etc, he's pretty
liberal) he has told me I should leave. He says that even he can't
control his people. Foreigners are going to be targeted. 6 new
foreigners have been taken hostage. Four of them are Italian security
firm employees - they were kidnapped from their car, which was found to
be full of weapons, and there were black uniforms. Baghdad was quiet
today except for Abu Ghraib (West Baghdad, where a vast prison is
located and is bursting at the seams with 12,000 prisoners) an American
convoy was attacked there and 9 soldiers were injured and 27 were
kidnapped. That?s right 27. None of the newswires are reporting it
though. And I heard this from (*name best not to supply without
permission). Its really really bad. They (Americans) have been firing on
Ambulances, snipers are following the ambulances, they cannot get in.

Falluga, there are people in the Desert, they've left Falluga but
they're not being allowed into Baghdad, they're trapped in the Dessert,
they're like refugees, its terrible but the people, Iraqi people are
giving all they can; they?re bringing supplies, everybody is giving all
their help and support to Falluga.

I want to stay but I have to go, if I want to come back and be useful,
you know I think its best to leave, Bridges to Baghdad has decided this.
It?s getting really dangerous for Italians. We feel like we?re being
targeted now. (Italy has a 2500+ force including Carabinieri occupying
Nassiriyah which has been subject to a number of resistance attacks
including the devastating attack on the Police station which claimed the
lives of 4 soldiers, one civilian, one documentary film maker, 12
Carabinieri police and 8 Iraqis).

(?) and Leigh have been great. They?ve been driving into Falluga and
bringing out people, going back and forth. They know what?s going on,
really they have been great. They want more people to help them but we
couldn?t from here. It?s getting much much worse.

EWA: My friend who?s been in Falluga today and for the past few days:

We?ve been seeing it with our own eyes. People were told to leave
Falluga and now there are thousands trapped in the Desert. There is a 13
km long convoy of people trying to reach Baghdad. The Americans are
firing bombs, everything, everything they have on them. They are firing
on Families! They are all children, old men and women in the dessert.
Other Iraqi people are trying to help them. In Falluga they (Americans)
have been bombing hospitals. Children are being evacuated to Baghdad.
There is a child now, a baby, he had 25 members of his family killed,
he?s in the hospital and someone needs to be with him, why isn?t anyone
there to stay with him, he just lost 25 from his family!??? The
Americans are dropping cluster bombs and new mortars, which jump 3-4
metres. They are bombing from the air. There are people lying dead in
the streets. They said there?d be a ceasefire and then they flew in, I
saw them, and they began to bomb. They are fighting back and they are
fighting well in Falluga. But we are expecting the big attack in 24-48
hours. It will be the main attack. They will be taking the town street
by street and searching and attacking. They did this already in a
village near-by, I forget the name, but they will be doing this in
Falluja. Please get help, get people to protest, get them to go to the
Embassies, get them out, get them to do something. There is a massacre.
And we need foreigners, the foreigners can do something. We are having a
protest, Jo (Jo Wilding www.wildfirejo.org.uk) and the others from her
group are coming to the American checkpoint tomorrow. We haven?t slept
in 3 or 4 days. We need attention. I have photos, film, we?ve given it
to Al jazeera, Al Arabiya but get it out too. Do everything you can. We
are going back in tomorrow.

LEIGH GORDON: It?s kicking off. Come by all means but me and (..)
probably won?t be around. I mean they?re going to crazy. (?) is saying
for foreigners to come but its not safe. Sheikh ?. from Falluga said he
couldn?t guarantee my safety. I mean its going to go crazy, I think
foreigners will start getting killed soon ? I mean people are going to
start getting desperate, when they?ve seen their mother father, house,
cat, dog, everything bombed they?re going to start to attack. They
(Americans) have said this operations only going to last 5 days? it?s
drawing to an end. They need to free up troops on other fronts breaking
out all over the country. They?re going to go in for the kill. There?s
no way of guaranteeing anybody?s safety. I think you can be useful but
its not like you can just not tell your mum and think you?ll be back in
a week. We?re probably going to get killed tomorrow. Come, but we might
not be here.

EWA:

What to Do

This is an appeal to the anti-war movement, to the peace movement,
eco-action movement, animal rights movement, anti-fascists, everybody
active, everybody who can respond, can call a demo, can organise a
protest, an office occupation, an embassy storming, a road blockade,
mass civil disobedience, industrial shut-down, work-place occupation,
solidarity work stoppage, blockade the US Embassy, Fairford Military
Base action campaign ? what?s taking off at Fairford? Are B52s being
deployed? Shannon Peace Camp protestors ? are there new movements at
Shannon? We need to address this, we need to resist this. We become the
solidarity resistance in Iraq by taking action in our neighbourhoods and
in our cities. Print up a leaflet. Paint up a banner. Take to the
streets. Only a small group can make a change. Show people in Iraq that
we are standing by them. 700 more British troops have been flown in to
quell the uprising in the South. No Pasaran. Take to the embassies, the
bases,  the US interests, the streets.

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/ukaddres.html - addresses of US Embassies in
London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff

http://cndyorks.gn.apc.org/caab/ - Campaign for the Accountability of
American Bases ? this site has a list of the locations of all the main
US air bases used in the UK

http://www.caat.org.uk/links/companies.php - full list of arms
companies. BAE Systems, and Lockheed Martin have been principal supplies
of weapons of mass destruction for the war on Iraq

http://www.caat.org.uk/support/confronting-companies.php - tips on
confronting arms companies by Campaign Against the Arms Trade

***************************************
[4] CONTACT DETAILS

[PLEASE NOTE: if you can only contact one person, make it your MP. This
will then get passed up the food chain and have the biggest impact. One
imagines that 'e-mails to Tony Blair' probably disappear (more or less)
into the void.]

** You can find an alphabetical list of MPs, including (where they have
them) their web-sites, e-mails etc... on-line at:
http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/alms.cfm

** If you know your postcode you can also fax your MP on-line using
http://www.faxyourmp.org

** If you want to leave a message for Jack Straw, the main switchboard #
at the Foreign Office for general enquiries is 020 7008 1500.

** You can fax the Prime Minister on 020 7925 0918 or send him an e-mail
via http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page821.asp. Alternatively you
can write to him at 10 Downing Street, London, SW1A 2AA

** You can phone the Defence Attache's Office at the US embassy by
calling (0207) 894 0745, fax it on 020 7894-0726 or e-mail
WereszczynskaAM@state.gov. According to the Embassy's web-site
(http://www.usembassy.org.uk/dao/index.html) the DAO 'performs
representational functions on behalf of the Secretary of Defense, the
Secretaries of the Military Services, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the
Chiefs of the U.S. Military Services and the Commander of European
Command. The Defense & Naval Attach=C3=A9 at the American Embassy, London i=
s
Captain David L. Wirt, USN.'

** Contact the MoD: a list of contacts is available on-line at
http://www.mod.uk/contacts/index.html. You can write to them at
Ministerial Correspondence Unit, Ministry of Defence, Room 220, Old War
Office, Whitehall, London SW1A 2EU or e-mail them at
public@ministers.mod.uk (including your postal address).

***************************************
[5] EMERGENCY CALL FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE IRAQI PEOPLE

by Eman Ahmed Khammas, Director of International Occupation Watch
Center,
International Occupation Watch Center
April 8th, 2004


Eman Ahmed Khammas
Director, International Occupation Watch Center
Occupied Baghdad

To the peoples of the world and their representatives at the United
Nations:

The Iraqi people call for international solidarity as they resist
attacks by US-led Occupation Forces. It is clear that these attacks are
designed to terrorize entire populations of Iraqi towns and
neighborhoods.

According to reports, in Fallujah alone, over three hundred Iraqis have
been killed and hundreds more injured since attacks began on Sunday,
April 4. There is fighting in Baghdad, particularly in the neighborhoods
of Sadr, Adaamiya, Shula, Yarmok, and the cities and towns of Fallujah,
Ramadi, Basrah, Nasiriya, Kerbala, Amarah, Kut, Kufa, Najaf, Diwaniya,
Balad, and Baquba. Residences, hospitals, mosques and ambulances trying
to transport the injured are being bombed and fired at by Occupation
Forces=E2=80=99 guns and tanks.

Fallujah and Adaamiya are currently under siege, surrounded by
Occupation Forces, in contravention of the Geneva Convention that
prohibits holding civilian communities under siege. Hospitals do not
have access to sufficient medical aid, essential medicine and equipment
or blood supplies. In Fallujah, the hospitals have been surrounded by
soldiers forcing doctors to establish field hospitals in private homes.
Blood donors are not allowed to enter; consequently, mosques in both
Baghdad and Falluja are collecting blood for the injured. Water and
electricity have been cut off for the past several days.

In Sadr City US helicopters have fired rockets into residential areas
destroying homes. Although no curfew has officially been imposed, US
soldiers have made a practice of aiming tank fire on cars they find
moving through the streets after dark. On Tuesday night alone, at least
6 people were killed in this way. US forces continue to occupy and
surround all the police stations and the Sadr municipal offices.

While these attacks have escalated sharply over the past week, they are
in no way a new phenomenon in occupied Iraq. The indiscriminate killing
of civilians and the refusal to provide people with security,
electricity and decent medical infrastructure have characterized the
=E2=80=98freedom=E2=80=99 that Occupation Authorities have brought to Iraq.

We call on the international community, civil society and the
anti-war/anti-occupation movements to respond to this US-led war of
terror with tangible displays of solidarity and support for Iraqi people
facing this gruesome manifestation of the occupation.

Please take to the streets to demand an end to the US-led aggression.
Organize protests in front of US consulates and embassies around the
world and demand: an immediate end to this massacre; an immediate end to
the siege of Iraqi cities and neighborhoods; immediate access to
humanitarian and medical aid organizations seeking to provide assistance
to Iraqi people who are living under attack; and an end to the
occupation of our nation.

Cities in which demonstrations have already been organized include
Milan, Montreal, Tokyo, Istanbul, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Washington D.C. and New York City.

To contact the International Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad, please
call 001 914 360-9079 or 001 914 360-9080. You can also email
eman@occupationwatch.org
--
Emma Sangster



--__--__--

Message: 11
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 13:38:48 EDT
Subject: If this has already been posted, I'm sorry.
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]

Iraq Solidarity Action ? Resist the Massacre in Falluga

Urgent information and appeal from Ewa Jasiewicz, who worked with
Voices in the Wilderness and Occupation Watch in Iraq, lived there for
8 months (Basra and Baghdad) and in Palestine, mainly Jenin camp for 6
months, speaks Arabic, and who got back from Iraq 2 months ago. She is
in regular contact with her friends in Basra and Baghdad.


I just spoke to friends in Baghdad - Paola Gaspiroli, Italian, from
Occupation watch and Bridges to Baghdad, Journalist Leigh Gordon,
England, (NUJ, Tribune, Mail on Sunday) and a Palestinian friend with
family in Falluja and friends in the Iraqi Islamic Party. Both he and
Leigh have been ferrying out the injured from Falluja to Baghdad for
the past three days. Ambulances have been barred from entry into the
blood-drenched city.

Here is their news, which they told me over the telephone tonight
(Friday)

Paola:

There has been a massacre in Falluga. Falluga is under siege. 470
people have been killed, and 1700 injured. There has been no
ceasefire. They (Americans) told people to leave, said they have 8
hours to leave and people began to leave but they?re trapped in the
Desert. The Americans have been bombing with B52s (Confirmed also by
Leigh in an email three days ago). Bridges to Baghdad are pulling out.
We have flights booked out of Amman. Tomorow a team will go to Sadr
City to deliver medicines. 50 people have been killed there. ??
(Forgotten name) the 'elastic' shiekh in Sadr City (I?ve met him,
young, brilliant guy, describes himself as 'elastic' because he is so
flexible when it comes to his interpretations of Islam and moral
conduct definitions etc, he's pretty liberal) he has told me I should
leave. He says that even he can't control his people. Foreigners are
going to be targeted. 6 new foreigners have been taken hostage. Four
of them are Italian security firm employees - they were kidnapped from
their car, which was found to be full of weapons, and there were black
uniforms. Baghdad was quiet today except for Abu Ghraib (West Baghdad,
where a vast prison is located and is bursting at the seams with
12,000 prisoners) an American convoy was attacked there and 9 soldiers
were injured and 27 were kidnapped. That?s right 27. None of the
newswires are reporting it though. And I heard this from (*name best
not to supply without permission). Its really really bad. They
(Americans) have been firing on Ambulances, snipers are following the
ambulances, they cannot get in.

Falluga, there are people in the Desert, they've left Falluga but
they're not being allowed into Baghdad, they're trapped in the
Dessert, they're like refugees, its terrible but the people, Iraqi
people are giving all they can; they?re bringing supplies, everybody
is giving all their help and support to Falluga.

I want to stay but I have to go, if I want to come back and be useful,
you know I think its best to leave, Bridges to Baghdad has decided
this. It?s getting really dangerous for Italians. We feel like we?re
being targeted now. (Italy has a 2500+ force including Carabinieri
occupying Nassiriyah which has been subject to a number of resistance
attacks including the devastating attack on the Police station which
claimed the lives of 4 soldiers, one civilian, one documentary film
maker, 12
Carabinieri police and 8 Iraqis).

(?) and Leigh have been great. They?ve been driving into Falluga and
bringing out people, going back and forth. They know what?s going on,
really they have been great. They want more people to help them but we
couldn?t from here. It?s getting much much worse.

ends

My friend who?s been in Falluga today and for the past few days:

We?ve been seeing it with our own eyes. People were told to leave
Falluga and now there are thousands trapped in the Desert. There is a
13 km long convoy of people trying to reach Baghdad. The Americans are
firing bombs, everything, everything they have on them. They are
firing on Families! They are all children, old men and women in the
dessert. Other Iraqi people are trying to help them. In Falluga they
(Americans) have been bombing hospitals. Children are being evacuated
to Baghdad. There is a child now, a baby, he had 25 members of his
family killed, he?s in the hospital and someone needs to be with him,
why isn?t anyone there to stay with him, he just lost 25 from his
family!??? The Americans are dropping cluster bombs and new mortars,
which jump 3-4 metres. They are bombing from the air. There are people
lying dead in the streets. They said there?d be a ceasefire and then
they flew in, I saw them, and they began to bomb. They are fighting
back and they are fighting well in Falluga. But we are expecting the
big attack in 24-48 hours. It will be the main attack. They will be
taking the town street by street and searching and attacking. They did
this already in a village near-by, I forget the name, but they will be
doing this in Falluja. Please get help, get people to protest, get
them to go to the Embassies, get them out, get them to do something.
There is a massacre. And we need foreigners, the foreigners can do
something. We are having a protest, Jo (Jo Wilding
www.wildfirejo.org.uk) and the others from her group are coming to the
American checkpoint tomorrow. We haven?t slept in 3 or 4 days. We need
attention. I have photos, film, we?ve given it to Al jazeera, Al
Arabiya but get it out too. Do everything you can. We are going back
in tomorrow.

Leigh Gordon: It?s kicking off. Come by all means but me and (..)
probably won?t be around. I mean they?re going to crazy. (?) is saying
for foreigners to come but its not safe. Sheikh ?. from Falluga said
he couldn?t guarantee my safety. I mean its going to go crazy, I think
foreigners will start getting killed soon ? I mean people are going to
start getting desperate, when they?ve seen their mother father, house,
cat, dog, everything bombed they?re going to start to attack. They
(Americans) have said this operations only going to last 5 days? it?s
drawing to an end. They need to free up troops on other fronts
breaking out all over the country. They?re going to go in for the
kill. There?s no way of guaranteeing anybody?s safety. I think you can
be useful but its not like you can just not tell your mum and think
you?ll be back in a week. We?re probably going to get killed tomorrow.
Come, but we might not be here.



Palestine

2 years ago right now, the Jenin camp Massacre was tearing into its
7th day, the 1km square tight-knit Palestinian refugee camp was
suffering an Israeli military invasion which would see 79 killed (in
the last count after bodies had been recovered form the rubble),
including a head paramedic doctor and people who slowly bled to death
from superficial injuries because all medical services were barred
from entering for the duration of the attack (14 days). Over 800 homes
destroyed, most in the Hawasheen neighbourhood which suffered a
4-day-long continuous bulldozer offensive, crushing residents
including young children to death. Hundreds were injured in the attack
which involved also involved apache helicopter gunships, hundreds of
Merkava tanks, Armoured Personnel Carriers and hundreds of troops. 23
were killed (official Israeli figure but the actual toll is estimated
at much higher. An entire road route from Jenin into ?48 (Israel) was
sealed off as a closed military zone and witnesses barred whilst the
dead and injured from the Israeli side were being transported out).

All Palestinian emergency services, The UN, The Red Cross, foreign aid
workers, and human rights observers were banned from entering Jenin
camp. The massacre gouged on as the worlds media attention was fixated
on Aarafat besieged in his compound. Jenin suffered in silence.
Falluga, a city with a population 18 times the size of Jenin Camp
(Jenin camp?s population was approx. 14,000, Falluga?s is 232,000), is
now undergoing a parallel trauma, but with a larger, more powerful,
better armed enemy, which has carpet bombed, recently and historically
when the war-heat has forced land-troops to retreat. This is another
Jenin. This is another massacre. We have to do what we can in
solidarity with the dying and the bereaved and those still struggling,
defending, fighting back. Resistance is dignity, is the honour of
fighting back. Iraq is on fire. The Iraqi intifada is raging. We
cannot be silent. Stop the massacre in Falluga. Remember the massacre
in Jenin. Never Again.

What to Do

This is an appeal to the anti-war movement, to the peace movement,
eco-action movement, animal rights movement, anti-fascists, everybody
active, everybody who can respond, can call a demo, can organise a
protest, an office occupation, an embassy storming, a road blockade,
mass civil disobedience, industrial shut-down, work-place occupation,
solidarity work stoppage, blockade the US Embassy, Fairford Military
Base action campaign ? what?s taking off at Fairford? Are B52s being
deployed? Shannon Peace Camp protestors ? are there new movements at
Shannon? We need to address this, we need to resist this. We become
the solidarity resistance in Iraq by taking action in our
neighbourhoods and in our cities. Print up a leaflet. Paint up a
banner. Take to the streets. Only a small group can make a change.
Show people in Iraq that we are standing by them. 700 more British
troops have been flown in to quell the uprising in the South. No
Pasaran. Take to the embassies, the bases,  the US interests, the
streets.

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/ukaddres.html - addresses of US Embassies
in London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff

http://cndyorks.gn.apc.org/caab/ - Campaign for the Accountability of
American Bases ? this site has a list of the locations of all the main
US air bases used in the UK

http://www.caat.org.uk/links/companies.php - full list of arms
companies. BAE Systems, and Lockheed Martin have been principal
supplies of weapons of mass destruction for the war on Iraq

http://www.caat.org.uk/support/confronting-companies.php - tips on
confronting arms companies by Campaign Against the Arms Trade

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage - Keep up to date with Al
Jazeera

Sample Leaflet Text

As you read this, a massacre is taking place in Falluja, Iraq. Falluja
is a town which has been resisting the occupation of Iraq since June.
US troops have been forced to the border of the town since then. It
has fought hardest and most uncompromisingly and has regularly
pummelled by F16 fighter jets and apache helicopter gunships since
then, with
civilians being slaughtered on a regular basis.

Well over 470 people have now been slaughtered by US troops in
Falluja, this week. 1700 have been injured. The deathtoll is expected
to rise due to the siege nature of the military cordon around the
town. ambulances are being fired upon and followed by sniper sights if
they attempt to enter the town. Eyewitnesses have reported seeing
bodies lying dead in the streets. Hospitals have been attacked.
Medical supplies and bed shortages are at crisis levels. Residents are
calling it a massacre. People from all over are attempting, some
succeeding, to get into Falluja to help evacuate the injured by car.
People are donating food, medical supplies and water to those fleeing.
All of Iraq is watching and
sympathising with Falluja say people on the ground there.

There is at the time of writing (10/04/04) a 13km column of Falluja
residents fleeing the bomb-smashed town, trapped in the desert and
surrounded by US troops which eye-witnesses report have been firing on
them. Most of the desert marooned refugees are elderly men, women and
children.

For US soldiers stationed near the town, they have been in an
impossible situation and their blood too is being shed for the
market-profit-power chasing interests of the US and UK government and
corporate interests. Recently, the long-time brewing discontent,
frustration, humiliation, and mounting rage against the occupation has
exploded. The occupation is being fought for its very existence, its
racism, its violence.   Its recycling and re-empowerment of a
neo-Baathist ruling elite, its
re-training and re-hiring of over 10,000 Baathist torturers and
intelligence agents, its re-writing of Iraq?s laws through Coalition
Provisional Authority Orders (principally Order 30 on Salaries and
Employment Conditions for Civil Service Employees which sets the
minimum wage for Iraqi Public Sector workers at 69,000 ID ($40 per
month ? less than half the recommended wage of a sweatshop worker in a
free trade zone in neighbouring Iran), plus Order 39 on Foreign
Investment which allows for 100% foreign ownership ? privatisation ?
and slashes the highest rate of income tax from 45% to 15%) has
resulted in insurrection.

The climate in Iraq has moved on from protest to resistance, and now
to insurgency. Demonstrations have been taking place every day all
over the country since the occupation began, with protestors ranging
from students to pensioners, unemployed, women, former soldiers and
children. This new uprising has been labelled a revolt in support of
the anti-Occupation cleric Muqtada al Sadr, but the reality is that it
is widespread,
uncontrollable, inchoate and varied. It is not Islamic, it is not just
nationalist, it is not Baathist. It is a generalised struggle against
the Occupation ? the biggest incitement to violence in the country.

Please stand in solidarity with the people in Iraq during this
upheaval and time of bloodshed. Please join the protest against the
bloody
massacre in Falluja, which will spread if the occupation  armies
continue unchecked and un-challenged.
Stop the ongoing war on Iraq.
Troops out of Iraq.
******************************************

Futher Sources of Information added by Greg:

Irish Indymedia has lots of update reports and comments on the
unfolding situation in it's centre page :http://ww
w.indymedia.ie/index.php

For an insight into how young progressive middle class Iraqis are
feeling right now- have a look at the following blogs;

riverbend {girl blog from Iraq}: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Raed's blog: http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

Jo Wilding from the Cirus to Iraq knows some of the Japanese activists
being held hostage but despite the dangers her group are still planing
to head to Fallujah
See: http://www.wildfirejo.org.uk/feature/display/112/index.php




-


--__--__--

Message: 12
From: "IRC Communications" <communications@DELETETHISirc-online.org>
Organization: Interhemispheric Resource Center
To: "newsclippings@casi.org.uk" <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: FPIF News | Of Testimony & Terrorism
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 15:14:41 -0600


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What=92s New at FPIF
"Working to make the U.S. a more responsible global leader and partner"
http://www.fpif.org/

April 12, 2004
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introducing a new commentary from Foreign Policy In Focus

Of Testimony and Terrorism:
9/11 Commission Testimony Reveals Bush Administration Lacked Focus on
Terrorism
Prior to Attacks
By Melvin A. Goodman

Condoleezza Rice=92s testimony to the 9/11 commission supports Richard
Clarke=92s
charges to the commission that the Bush administration reduced the urgency
of the problem of counter-terrorism--and that the invasion of Iraq marked a
major diversion from the "war against terrorism." Rice has opened a new
line
of questioning for the commissioners with her false claim that the Bush
administration
is responsible for the "greatest reorganization of government" since
President
Harry Truman=92s National Security Act of 1947.

Melvin A. Goodman is senior fellow at the Center for International Policy
and
analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org).

See new FPIF commentary online at:
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0404testimony.html

With printer friendly PDF version at:
http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0404testimony.pdf

For related analysis also see:

The Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy (February 2004)
By Mel Goodman
http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol9/v9n01military.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Distributed by FPIF:"A Think Tank Without Walls," a joint program of
Interhemispheric
Resource Center (IRC) and Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).

For more information, visit www.fpif.org. If you would like to add a name
to
the "What=92s New At FPIF?" list, please email:
communications@irc-online.org,
giving your area of interest.

Also see our Progressive Response newsletter at:
http://www.fpif.org/progresp/index.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interhemispheric Resource Center(IRC)
http://www.irc-online.org/
Siri D. Khalsa
Outreach Coordinator
Email: communications@irc-online.org




--__--__--

Message: 13
From: "Mark Parkinson" <mark44@DELETETHISmyrealbox.com>
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 23:19:41 +0100
Subject: One Year Later - April 9, 2004

Note his observation on how our TV media don't/won't show dying
Iraqis.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Friday, April 09, 2004

One Year Later - April 9, 2004
April 9, 2004

Today, the day the Iraqi Puppets hail "National Day", will mark the
day of the "Falloojeh Massacre"=85 Bremer has called for a truce and
ceasefire in Falloojeh very recently and claimed that the bombing
will stop, but the bombing continues as I write this. Over 300 are
dead in Falloojeh and they have taken to burying the dead in the town
football field because they aren't allowed near the cemetery. The
bodies are decomposing in the heat and the people are struggling to
bury them as quickly as they arrive. The football field that once
supported running, youthful feet and cheering fans has turned into a
mass grave holding men, women and children.

The people in Falloojeh have been trying to get the women and
children out of the town for the last 48 hours but all the roads out
of the city are closed by the Americans and refugees are being shot
at and bombed on a regular basis=85 we're watching the television and
crying. The hospital is overflowing with victims=85 those who have lost
arms and legs=85 those who have lost loved ones. There isn't enough
medicine or bandages=85 what are the Americans doing?! This is
collective punishment =85 is this the solution to the chaos we're
living in? Is this the 'hearts and minds' part of the campaign?

A convoy carrying food, medication, blood and doctors left for
Falloojeh yesterday, hoping to get in and help the people in there.
Some people from our neighborhood were gathering bags of flour and
rice to take into the town. E. and I rummaged the house from top to
bottom and came up with a big sack of flour, a couple of smaller bags
of rice, a few kilos of assorted dry lentil, chickpeas, etc. We were
really hoping the trucks could get through to help out in the city.
Unfortunately, I just spoke with an Iraqi doctor who told me that the
whole convoy was denied entry... it seems that now they are trying to
get the women and children out or at least the very sick and wounded.

The south isn't much better=85 the casualties are rising and there's
looting and chaos. There's an almost palpable anger in Baghdad. The
faces are grim and sad all at once and there's a feeling of
helplessness that can't be described in words. It's like being held
under water and struggling for the unattainable surface- seeing all
this destruction and devastation.

Firdaws Square, the place where the statue was brought down, is off-
limits because the Americans fear angry mobs and demonstrations=85 but
it doesn't matter because people are sticking to their homes. The
kids haven't been to school for several days now and even the
universities are empty. The situation in Baghdad feels very unstable
and the men in the neighborhood are talking of a neighborhood watch
again- just like the early days of occupation.

Where are the useless Governing Council? Why isn't anyone condemning
the killings in the south and in Falloojeh?! Why aren't they sitting
down that fool Bremer and telling him that this is wrong, wrong,
wrong, wrong??? If one of them were half a man or even half a human,
they would threaten to resign their posts if there isn't an immediate
ceasefire=85 the people are enraged. This latest situation proves that
they aren't Iraqi- they aren't here for the welfare of the Iraqi
people.

The American and European news stations don't show the dying Iraqis=85
they don't show the women and children bandaged and bleeding- the
mother looking for some sign of her son in the middle of a puddle of
blood and dismembered arms and legs=85 they don't show you the
hospitals overflowing with the dead and dying because they don't want
to hurt American feelings=85 but people *should* see it. You should see
the price of your war and occupation- it's unfair that the Americans
are fighting a war thousands of kilometers from home. They get their
dead in neat, tidy caskets draped with a flag and we have to gather
and scrape our dead off of the floors and hope the American shrapnel
and bullets left enough to make a definite identification=85

One year later, and Bush has achieved what he wanted- this day will
go down in history and in the memory of all Iraqis as one of the
bloodiest days ever...

- posted by river @ 4:32 PM
Mark Parkinson
Bodmin
Cornwall




--__--__--

Message: 14
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 18:28:59 EDT
Subject: Report frpm Fallujah
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk, efreepalestine@yahoogroups.com,
        pacusa@yahoogroups.com


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]



Rahul Mahajan,
Empire Notes (http://www.empirenotes.org) Report from Fallujah -- Destroying
a Town in Order to Save it Fallujah, Iraq -- Fallujah is a bit like southern
California. On the edge of Iraq's western desert, it is extremely arid but has
been rendered into an agricultural area by extensive irrigation. Surrounded by
dirt-poor villages, Fallujah is perhaps marginally better off. Much of the
population is farmers. The town itself has wide streets and squat, sand-colored
buildings. We were in Fallujah during the "ceasefire." This is what we saw and
heard. When the assault on Fallujah started, the power plant was bom! bed.
Electricity is provided by generators and usually reserved for places with
important functions. There are four hospitals currently running in Fallujah. This
includes the one where we were, which was actually just a minor emergency
clinic; another one of them is a car repair garage. Things were very frantic at the
hopsital where we were, so we couldn't get too much translation. We depended
for much of our information on Makki
al-Nazzal, a lifelong Fallujah resident who works for the humanitarian NGO
Intersos, and had been pressed into service as the manager of the clinic, since
all doctors were busy, working around the clock with minimal sleep. A gentle,
urbane man who spoke fluent English, Al-Nazzal was beside himself with fury at
the Americans' actions (when I asked him if it was all right to use his full
name, he said, "It's ok. It's all ok now. Let the bastards do what they
want.") With the "ceasefire," large-scale b! ombing was rare.
With a halt in major bombing, the Americans were attacking with heavy
artillery but primarily with snipers. Al-Nazzal told us about ambulances being hit by
snipers, women and children being shot. Describing the horror that the siege
of Fallujah had become, he said, "I have been a fool for 47 years. I used to
believe in European and American civilization." I had heard these claims at
third-hand before coming into Fallujah, but was skeptical. It's very difficult to
find the real story here. But this I saw for myself. An ambulance with two
neat, precise bullet-holes in the windshield on the driver's side, pointing down
at an angle that indicated they would have hit the driver's chest (the
snipers were on rooftops, and are trained to aim for the chest). Another ambulance
again with a single, neat bullet-hole in the windshield. There's no way this
was due to panicked spraying of fire. These were deliberate s! hots designed to
kill the drivers. The ambulances go around with red, blue, or green lights
flashing and sirens blaring; in the pitch-dark of blacked-out city streets there
is no way they can be missed or mistaken for something else). An ambulance
that some of our compatriots were going around in, trading on their whiteness to
get the snipers to let them through to pick up the wounded was also shot at
while we were there. During the course of the roughly four hours we were at that
small clinic, we saw perhaps a dozen wounded brought in. Among them was a
young woman, 18 years old, shot in the head. She was seizing and foaming at the
mouth when they brought her in; doctors did not expect her to survive the
night.
Another likely terminal case was a young boy with massive internal bleeding.
I also saw a man with extensive burns on his upper body and shredded thighs,
with wounds that could have been from a cluster bomb; th! ere was no way to
verify in the madhouse scene of wailing relatives, shouts of "Allahu Akbar" (God
is great), and anger at the Americans. Among the more laughable assertions of
the Bush administration is that the mujaheddin are a small group of isolated
"extremists" repudiated by the majority of Fallujah's population. Nothing could
be further from the truth. Of course, the mujaheddin don't include women or
very young children (we
saw an 11-year-old boy with a Kalashnikov), old men, and are not necessarily
even a majority of fighting-age men. But they are of the community and fully
supported by it. Many of the wounded were brought in by the muj and they stood
around openly conversing with doctors and others.
They conferred together about logistical questions; not once did I see the
muj threatening people with their ubiquitous Kalashnikovs. One of the mujaheddin
was wearing an Iraqi police flak jacket; on questioning others wh! o knew
him, we learned that he was in fact a member of the Iraqi police. One of our
translators, Rana al-Aiouby told me, "these are simple people." Without wanting to
go along with the patronizing air of the remark, there is a strong element of
truth to it. These are agricultural tribesmen with very strong religious
beliefs. They are insular and don't easily trust
strangers. We were safe because of the friends we had with us and because we
came to help them. They are not so far different from the Pashtun of
Afghanistan -- good friends and terrible enemies. The mujaheddin are of the people in
the same way that the stone-throwing shabab in the first Palestinian intifada
were  and the term, which means "youth," is used for them as well. I spoke to a
young man, Ali, who was among the wounded we transported to Baghdad. He said
he was not a muj but, when asked his opinion of them, he smiled and stuck his
thumb up. Any young ! man who is not one of the muj today may the next day
wind his aqal around his face and pick up a Kalashnikov. After this, many will.
Al-Nazzal told me that the people of Fallujah refused to resist the Americans
just because Saddam told them to; indeed, the fighting for Fallujah last year
was not particularly fierce. He said, "If Saddam said work, we would want to
take off three days. But the Americans had to cast us as Saddam supporters. When
he was captured, they said the resistance would die down, but even as it has
increased, they still call us that." Nothing could have been easier than
gaining the good-will of the people of Fallujah had the Americans not been so
brutal in their dealings. Tribal peoples like these have been the most easily duped
by imperialists for centuries now. But now a tipping point has been reached.
To Americans,
"Fallujah" may still mean four mercenaries killed, with their corpses then
mutilated! and abused; to Iraqis, "Fallujah" means the savage collective
punishment for that attack, in which over 600 Iraqis have been killed, with an
estimated 200 women and over 100 children (women do not fight among the
muj, so all of these are noncombatants, as are many of the men killed). A
Special Forces colonel in the Vietnam War said of the town, Ben Tre, "We had to
destroy the town in order to save it, encapsulating the entire war in a single
statement. The same is true in Iraq today -- Fallujah cannot be "saved" from
its mujaheddin unless it is destroyed. Rahul Mahajan is publisher of the weblog
"Empire Notes" --
http://www.empirenotes.org. He was in Fallujah recently and is currently
writing and blogging from Baghdad. His most recent book is "Full Spectrum
Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond." He can be reached at rahul@empirenotes.org






--__--__--

Message: 15
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 11:23:28 +0100 (BST)
From: "R.A. Laurence" <ral45@DELETETHIShermes.cam.ac.uk>
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
Subject: First-hand account of massacre in Fallujah


April 13, 2004
Falluja
by Jo Wilding of Voices in the Wilderness

I'm sorry it's so long, but please, please read and forward widely. The
truth of what's happening in Falluja has to get out.

Hamoudie, my thoughts are with you.

April 11th Falluja

Trucks, oil tankers, tanks are burning on the highway east to Falluja. A
stream of boys and men goes to and from a lorry that's not burnt, stripping
it bare. We turn onto the back roads through Abu Ghraib, Nuha and Ahrar
singing in Arabic, past the vehicles full of people and a few possessions,
heading the other way, past the improvised refreshment posts along the way
where boys throw food through the windows into the bus for us and for the
people inside still inside Falluja.

The bus is following a car with the nephew of a local sheikh and a guide who
has contacts with the Mujahedin and has cleared this with them. The reason
I'm on the bus is that a journalist I knew turned up at my door at about 11
at night telling me things were desperate in Falluja, he'd been bringing out
children with their limbs blown off, the US soldiers were going around
telling people to leave by dusk or be killed, but then when people fled with
whatever they could carry, they were being stopped at the US military
checkpoint on the edge of town and not let out, trapped, watching the sun go
down.

He said aid vehicles and the media were being turned away. He said there was
some medical aid that needed to go in and there was a better chance of it
getting there with foreigners, westerners, to get through the american
checkpoints. The rest of the way was secured with the armed groups who
control the roads we'd travel on. We'd take in the medical supplies, see
what else we could do to help and then use the bus to bring out people who
needed to leave.

I'll spare you the whole decision making process, all the questions we all
asked ourselves and each other, and you can spare me the accusations of
madness, but what it came down to was this: if I don't do it, who will?
Either way, we arrive in one piece.

We pile the stuff in the corridor and the boxes are torn open straightaway,
the blankets most welcomed. It's not a hospital at all but a clinic, a
private doctor's surgery treating people free since air strikes destroyed
the town's main hospital. Another has been improvised in a car garage.
There's no anaesthetic. The blood bags are in a drinks fridge and the
doctors warm them up under the hot tap in an unhygienic toilet.

Screaming women come in, praying, slapping their chests and faces. Ummi, my
mother, one cries. I hold her until Maki, a consultant and acting director
of the clinic, brings me to the bed where a child of about ten is lying with
a bullet wound to the head. A smaller child is being treated for a similar
injury in the next bed. A US sniper hit them and their grandmother as they
left their home to flee Falluja.

The lights go out, the fan stops and in the sudden quiet someone holds up
the flame of a cigarette lighter for the doctor to carry on operating by.
The electricity to the town has been cut off for days and when the generator
runs out of petrol they just have to manage till it comes back on. Dave
quickly donates his torch. The children are not going to live.

"Come," says Maki and ushers me alone into a room where an old woman has
just had an abdominal bullet wound stitched up. Another in her leg is being
dressed, the bed under her foot soaked with blood, a white flag still
clutched in her hand and the same story: I was leaving my home to go to
Baghdad when I was hit by a US sniper. Some of the town is held by US
marines, other parts by the local fighters. Their homes are in the US
controlled area and they are adamant that the snipers were US marines.

Snipers are causing not just carnage but also the paralysis of the ambulance
and evacuation services. The biggest hospital after the main one was bombed
is in US territory and cut off from the clinic by snipers. The ambulance has
been repaired four times after bullet damage. Bodies are lying in the
streets because no one can go to collect them without being shot.

Some said we were mad to come to Iraq; quite a few said we were completely
insane to come to Falluja and now there are people telling me that getting
in the back of the pick up to go past the snipers and get sick and injured
people is the craziest thing they've ever seen. I know, though, that if we
don't, no one will.

He's holding a white flag with a red crescent on; I don't know his name. The
men we pass wave us on when the driver explains where we're going. The
silence is ferocious in the no man's land between the pick up at the edge of
the Mujahedin territory, which has just gone from our sight around the last
corner and the marines' line beyond the next wall; no birds, no music, no
indication that anyone is still living until a gate opens opposite and a
woman comes out, points.

We edge along to the hole in the wall where we can see the car, spent mortar
shells around it. The feet are visible, crossed, in the gutter. I think he's
dead already. The snipers are visible too, two of them on the corner of the
building. As yet I think they can't see us so we need to let them know we're
there.

"Hello," I bellow at the top of my voice. "Can you hear me?" They must.
They're about 30 metres from us, maybe less, and it's so still you could
hear the flies buzzing at fifty paces. I repeat myself a few times, still
without reply, so decide to explain myself a bit more.

"We are a medical team. We want to remove this wounded man. Is it OK for us
to come out and get him? Can you give us a signal that it's OK?"

I'm sure they can hear me but they're still not responding. Maybe they
didn't understand it all, so I say the same again. Dave yells too in his US
accent. I yell again. Finally I think I hear a shout back. Not sure, I call
again.

"Hello."

"Yeah."

"Can we come out and get him?"

"Yeah,"

Slowly, our hands up, we go out. The black cloud that rises to greet us
carries with it a hot, sour smell. Solidified, his legs are heavy. I leave
them to Rana and Dave, our guide lifting under his hips. The Kalashnikov is
attached by sticky blood to is hair and hand and we don't want it with us so
I put my foot on it as I pick up his shoulders and his blood falls out
through the hole in his back. We heave him into the pick up as best we can
and try to outrun the flies.

I suppose he was wearing flip flops because he's barefoot now, no more than
20 years old, in imitation Nike pants and a blue and black striped football
shirt with a big 28 on the back. As the orderlies form the clinic pull the
young fighter off the pick up, yellow fluid pours from his mouth and they
flip him over, face up, the way into the clinic clearing in front of them,
straight up the ramp into the makeshift morgue.

We wash the blood off our hands and get in the ambulance. There are people
trapped in the other hospital who need to go to Baghdad. Siren screaming,
lights flashing, we huddle on the floor of the ambulance, passports and ID
cards held out the windows. We pack it with people, one with his chest taped
together and a drip, one on a stretcher, legs jerking violently so I have to
hold them down as we wheel him out, lifting him over steps.

The hospital is better able to treat them than the clinic but hasn't got
enough of anything to sort them out properly and the only way to get them to
Baghdad on our bus, which means they have to go to the clinic. We're crammed
on the floor of the ambulance in case it's shot at. Nisareen, a woman doctor
about my age, can't stop a few tears once we're out.

The doctor rushes out to meet me: "Can you go to fetch a lady, she is
pregnant and she is delivering the baby too soon?"

Azzam is driving, Ahmed in the middle directing him and me by the window,
the visible foreigner, the passport. Something scatters across my hand,
simultaneous with the crashing of a bullet through the ambulance, some
plastic part dislodged, flying through the window.

We stop, turn off the siren, keep the blue light flashing, wait, eyes on the
silhouettes of men in US marine uniforms on the corners of the buildings.
Several shots come. We duck, get as low as possible and I can see tiny red
lights whipping past the window, past my head. Some, it's hard to tell, are
hitting the ambulance I start singing. What else do you do when someone's
shooting at you? A tyre bursts with an enormous noise and a jerk of the
vehicle.

I'm outraged. We're trying to get to a woman who's giving birth without any
medical attention, without electricity, in a city under siege, in a clearly
marked ambulance, and you're shooting at us. How dare you?

How dare you?

Azzam grabs the gear stick and gets the ambulance into reverse, another tyre
bursting as we go over the ridge in the centre of the road , the sots still
coming as we flee around the corner. I carry on singing. The wheels are
scraping, burst rubber burning on the road.

The men run for a stretcher as we arrive and I shake my head. They spot the
new bullet holes and run to see if we're OK. Is there any other way to get
to her, I want to know. La, maaku tarieq. There is no other way. They say we
did the right thing. They say they've fixed the ambulance four times already
and they'll fix it again but the radiator's gone and the wheels are buckled
and se's still at home in the dark giving birth alone. I let her down.

We can't go out again. For one thing there's no ambulance and besides it's
dark now and that means our foreign faces can't protect the people who go
out with us or the people we pick up. Maki is the acting director of the
place. He says he hated Saddam but now he hates the Americans more.

We take off the blue gowns as the sky starts exploding somewhere beyond the
building opposite. Minutes later a car roars up to the clinic. I can hear
him screaming before I can see that there's no skin left on his body. He's
burnt from head to foot. For sure there's nothing they can do. He'll die of
dehydration within a few days.

Another man is pulled from the car onto a stretcher. Cluster bombs, they
say, although it's not clear whether they mean one or both of them. We set
off walking to Mr Yasser's house, waiting at each corner for someone to
check the street before we cross. A ball of fire falls from a plane, splits
into smaller balls of bright white lights. I think they're cluster bombs,
because cluster bombs are in the front of my mind, but they vanish, just
magnesium flares, incredibly bright but short-lived, giving a flash picture
of the town from above.

Yasser asks us all to introduce ourselves. I tell him I'm training to be a
lawyer. One of the other men asks whether I know about international law.
They want to know about the law on war crimes, what a war crime is. I tell
them I know some of the Geneva Conventions, that I'll bring some information
next time I come and we can get someone to explain it in Arabic.

We bring up the matter of Nayoko. This group of fighters has nothing to do
with the ones who are holding the Japanese hostages, but while they're
thanking us for what we did this evening, we talk about the things Nayoko
did for the street kids, how much they loved her. They can't promise
anything but that they'll try and find out where she is and try to persuade
the group to let her and the others go. I don't suppose it will make any
difference. They're busy fighting a war in Falluja. They're unconnected with
the other group. But it can't hurt to try.

The planes are above us all night so that as I doze I forget I'm not on a
long distance flight, the constant bass note of an unmanned reconnaissance
drone overlaid with the frantic thrash of jets and the dull beat of
helicopters and interrupted by the explosions.

In the morning I make balloon dogs, giraffes and elephants for the little
one, Abdullah, Aboudi, who's clearly distressed by the noise of the aircraft
and explosions. I blow bubbles which he follows with his eyes. Finally,
finally, I score a smile. The twins, thirteen years old, laugh too, one of
them an ambulance driver, both said to be handy with a Kalashnikov.

The doctors look haggard in the morning. None has slept more than a couple
of hours a night for a week. One as had only eight hours of sleep in the
last seven days, missing the funerals of his brother and aunt because he was
needed at the hospital.

"The dead we cannot help," Jassim said. "I must worry about the injured."

We go again, Dave, Rana and me, this time in a pick up. There are some sick
people close to the marines' line who need evacuating. No one dares come out
of their house because the marines are on top of the buildings shooting at
anything that moves. Saad fetches us a white flag and tells us not to worry,
he's checked and secured the road, no Mujahedin will fire at us, that peace
is upon us, this eleven year old child, his face covered with a keffiyeh,
but for is bright brown eyes, his AK47 almost as tall as he is.

We shout again to the soldiers, hold up the flag with a red crescent sprayed
onto it. Two come down from the building, cover this side and Rana mutters,
"Allahu akbar. Please nobody take a shot at them."

We jump down and tell them we need to get some sick people from the houses
and they want Rana to go and bring out the family from the house whose roof
they're on. Thirteen women and children are still inside, in one room,
without food and water for the last 24 hours.

"We're going to be going through soon clearing the houses," the senior one
says.

"What does that mean, clearing the houses?"

"Going into every one searching for weapons." He's checking his watch, can't
tell me what will start when, of course, but there's going to be air strikes
in support. "If you're going to do tis you gotta do it soon."

First we go down the street we were sent to. There's a man, face down, in a
white dishdasha, a small round red stain on his back. We run to him. Again
the flies ave got there first. Dave is at his shoulders, I'm by his knees
and as we reach to roll him onto the stretcher Dave's hand goes through his
chest, through the cavity left by the bullet that entered so neatly through
his back and blew his heart out.

There's no weapon in his hand. Only when we arrive, his sons come out,
crying, shouting. He was unarmed, they scream. He was unarmed. He just went
out the gate and they shot him. None of them have dared come out since. No
one had dared come to get his body, horrified, terrified, forced to violate
the traditions of treating the body immediately. They couldn't have known we
were coming so it's inconceivable that anyone came out and retrieved a
weapon but left the body.

He was unarmed, 55 years old, shot in the back.

We cover his face, carry him to the pick up. There's nothing to cover his
body with. The sick woman is helped out of the house, the little girls
around her hugging cloth bags to their bodies, whispering, "Baba. Baba."
Daddy. Shaking, they let us go first, hands up, around the corner, then we
usher them to the cab of the pick up, shielding their heads so they can't
see him, the cuddly fat man stiff in the back.

The people seem to pour out of the houses now in the hope we can escort them
safely out of the line of fire, kids, women, men, anxiously asking us
whether they can all go, or only the women and children. We go to ask. The
young marine tells us that men of fighting age can't leave. What's fighting
age, I want to know. He contemplates. Anything under forty five. No lower
limit.

It appals me that all those men would be trapped in a city which is about to
be destroyed. Not all of them are fighters, not all are armed. It's going to
happen out of the view of the world, out of sight of the media, because most
of the media in Falluja is embedded with the marines or turned away at the
outskirts. Before we can pass the message on, two explosions scatter the
crowd in the side street back into their houses.

Rana's with the marines evacuating the family from the house they're
occupying. The pick up isn't back yet. The families are hiding behind their
walls. We wait, because there's nothing else we can do. We wait in no man's
land. The marines, at least, are watching us through binoculars; maybe the
local fighters are too.

I've got a disappearing hanky in my pocket so while I'm sitting like a
lemon, nowhere to go, gunfire and explosions aplenty all around, I make the
hanky disappear, reappear, disappear. It's always best, I think, to seem
completely unthreatening and completely unconcerned, so no one worries about
you enough to shoot. We can't wait too long though. Rana's been gone ages.
We have to go and get her to hurry. There's a young man in the group. She's
talked them into letting him leave too.

A man wants to use his police car to carry some of the people, a couple of
elderly ones who can't walk far, the smallest children. It's missing a door.
Who knows if he was really a police car or the car was reappropriated and
just ended up there? It didn't matter if it got more people out faster. They
creep from their houses, huddle by the wall, follow us out, their hands up
too, and walk up the street clutching babies, bags, each other.

The pick up gets back and we shovel as many onto it as we can as an
ambulance arrives from somewhere. A young man waves from the doorway of
what's left of a house, his upper body bare, a blood soaked bandage around
his arm, probably a fighter but it makes no difference once someone is
wounded and unarmed. Getting the dead isn't essential. Like the doctor said,
the dead don't need help, but if it's easy enough then we will. Since we're
already OK with the soldiers and the ambulance is here, we run down to fetch
them in. It's important in Islam to bury the body straightaway.

The ambulance follows us down. The soldiers start shouting in English at us
for it to stop, pointing guns. It's moving fast. We're all yelling,
signalling for it to stop but it seems to take forever for the driver to
hear and see us. It stops. It stops, before they open fire. We haul them
onto the stretchers and run, shove them in the back. Rana squeezes in the
front with the wounded man and Dave and I crouch in the back beside the
bodies. He says he had allergies as a kid and hasn't got much sense of
smell. I wish, retrospectively, for childhood allergies, and stick my head
out the window.

The bus is going to leave, taking the injured people back to Baghdad, the
man with the burns, one of the women who was shot in the jaw and shoulder by
a sniper, several others. Rana says she's staying to help. Dave and I don't
hesitate: we're staying too. "If I don't do it, who will?" has become an
accidental motto and I'm acutely aware after the last foray how many people,
how many women and children, are still in their houses either because
they've got nowhere to go, because they're scared to go out of the door or
because they've chosen to stay.

To begin with it's agreed, then Azzam says we have to go. He hasn't got
contacts with every armed group, only with some. There are different issues
to square with each one. We need to get these people back to Baghdad as
quickly as we can. If we're kidnapped or killed it will cause even more
problems, so it's better that we just get on the bus and leave and come back
with him as soon as possible.

It hurts to climb onto the bus when the doctor has just asked us to go and
evacuate some more people. I hate the fact that a qualified medic can't
travel in the ambulance but I can, just because I look like the sniper's
sister or one of his mates, but that's the way it is today and the way it
was yesterday and I feel like a traitor for leaving, but I can't see where
I've got a choice. It's a war now and as alien as it is to me to do what I'm
told, for once I've got to.

Jassim is scared. He harangues Mohammed constantly, tries to pull him out of
the driver's seat wile we're moving. The woman with the gunshot wound is on
the back seat, the man with the burns in front of her, being fanned with
cardboard from the empty boxes, his intravenous drips swinging from the rail
along the ceiling of the bus. It's hot. It must be unbearable for him.

Saad comes onto the bus to wish us well for the journey. He shakes Dave's
hand and then mine. I hold his in both of mine and tell him "Dir balak,"
take care, as if I could say anything more stupid to a pre-teen Mujahedin
with an AK47 in his other hand, and our eyes meet and stay fixed, his full
of fire and fear.

Can't I take him away? Can't I take him somewhere he can be a child? Can't I
make him a balloon giraffe and give him some drawing pens and tell him not
to forget to brush his teeth? Can't I find the person who put the rifle in
the hands of that little boy? Can't I tell someone about what that does to a
child? Do I have to leave him here where there are heavily armed men all
around him and lots of them are not on his side, however many sides there
are in all of this? And of course I do. I do have to leave him, like child
soldiers everywhere.

The way back is tense, the bus almost getting stuck in a dip in the sand,
people escaping in anything, even piled on the trailer of a tractor, lines
of cars and pick ups and buses ferrying people to the dubious sanctuary of
Baghdad, lines of men in vehicles queuing to get back into the city having
got their families to safety, either to fight or to help evacuate more
people. The driver, Jassim, the father, ignores Azzam and takes a different
road so that suddenly we're not following the lead car and we're on a road
that's controlled by a different armed group than the ones which know us.

A crowd of men waves guns to stop the bus. Somehow they apparently believe
that there are American soldiers on the bus, as if they wouldn't be in tanks
or helicopters, and there are men getting out of their cars with shouts of
"Sahafa Amreeki," American journalists. The passengers shout out of the
windows, "Ana min Falluja," I am from Falluja. Gunmen run onto the bus and
see that it's true, there are sick and injured and old people, Iraqis, and
then relax, wave us on.

We stop in Abu Ghraib and swap seats, foreigners in the front, Iraqis less
visible, headscarves off so we look more western. The American soldiers are
so happy to see westerners they don't mind too much about the Iraqis with
us, search the men and the bus, leave the women unsearched because there are
no women soldiers to search us. Mohammed keeps asking me if things are going
to be OK.

"Al-melaach wiyana, " I tell him. The angels are with us. He laughs.

And then we're in Baghdad, delivering them to the hospitals, Nuha in tears
as they take the burnt man off groaning and whimpering. She puts her arms
around me and asks me to be her friend. I make her feel less isolated, she
says, less alone.

And the satellite news says the cease-fire is holding and George Bush says
to the troops on Easter Sunday that, "I know what we're doing in Iraq is
right." Shooting unarmed men in the back outside their family home is right.
Shooting grandmothers with white flags is right? Shooting at women and
children who are fleeing their homes is right? Firing at ambulances is
right?

Well George, I know too now. I know what it looks like when you brutalise
people so much that they've nothing left to lose. I know what it looks like
when an operation is being done without anaesthetic because the hospitals
are destroyed or under sniper fire and the city's under siege and aid isn't
getting in properly. I know what it sounds like too. I know what it looks
like when tracer bullets are passing your head, even though you're in an
ambulance. I know what it looks like when a man's chest is no longer inside
him and what it smells like and I know what it looks like when his wife and
children pour out of his house.

It's a crime and it's a disgrace to us all.

Posted April 13, 2004 01:56 AM


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--__--__--

Message: 16
From: CharlieChimp1@DELETETHISaol.com
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 16:09:30 EDT
Subject: Meltdown in Iraq
To: casi-analysis@lists.casi.org.uk, Intelligentminds@yahoogroups.com


[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]




MELTDOWN IN IRAQ

DISASTER LOOMS FOR BUSH

AMERICA'S MOST RESPECTED FOREIGN POLICY ANALYST, OUT2.COM'S ANDY MARTIN, IS
PROVEN 100% CORRECT, "A SAD DAY FOR AMERICA, WITH WORSE TO COME."

(NEW YORK)(April 8, 2004) President Bush has suffered a meltdown in Iraq.
Disaster looms. And Bush may not even be aware of the chaos he faces.

Some background: I have been involved in the Middle East for 33 years. When I
became Baghdad Bureau Chief for Out2.com in April 2003, I was the first
Internet newspaper representative to establish a war zone bureau.

In the past year I have written endless columns, and a large amount of news
reporting, on the precarious situation in Iraq. No one wanted to listen. One
cable network contacted me before the war began and said I was under
consideration to join a panel of experts. I guess I was not expert enough. They never
called back.

But even a check of the past 90 days columns at Out2.com shows my analysis
and predictions have proven far more accurate than those of the "bang bang boys"
(retired military experts) hired by all of the networks.

Way back in June 2003 I predicted that Paul Bremer would be hapless and
incompetent. (E-mail reprints available on request). In July 2003 I predicted that
the capture of Saddam could make matters worse, not better, for our armed
forces in Iraq. When Saddam was captured, and Bremer crowed "we got him," I
predicted chaos would ensue. No one was listening.

Unlike many U.S. media, which primarily rely on U.S. military and Washington
briefings, we use international sources in formulating commentary and
analyzing the news.

Today I am stating as a fact that there has been a meltdown in Iraq. If you
pick up any newspaper in the United States, you will not find any suggestion of
a crisis. Only my column at Out2.com is drawing this conclusion. Military
leaders are treating conditions in Iraq as a problem to be solved, not a meltdown
to be dealt with as an emergency.

If President Bush does not immediately exert radical, dramatic leadership,
there will be nothing to "hand over" to Iraqis on June 30th, and he will be
"handing over" the White House next January.

First, the United States has been humiliated in recent days. We don't know
it, and the media are not treating it as a humiliation, but we have been and are
being humiliated. After treating Iraq as a peaceful, sleepy backwater,
sending home many regular troops and stuffing the country with reservists, we now
find ourselves back at war. What "Mission accomplished?" None.

We are in the midst of a "Tet Offensive," and they aren't even aware of the
fact in Washington--yet. What kind of Cool-Aid are they drinking at the
Pentagon and in the White House?

The latest insurgent tactic of taking hostages makes Iraq a center of
worldwide attention. Hostages always do. More humiliation.

Second, we have lost both military and political control of Iraq. Deal with
it. Probably very much by accident. Moqtada Al-Sadar has shown the "emperor has
no clothes." By accident. Al-Sadr has taken control of Kufa, Najaf, Karbala
and Kut. The Shiite heartland is his. Sadr City is ready to explode. And all of
this happened by accident.

Bozo Paul Bremer closed Al-Sadr's newspaper, with nary a thought as to the
consequences of Bremer's hairy chested activism. Al-Sadar had a hissy fit and
reacted. And the whole latticework of the occupation unexpectedly collapsed like
a house of cards.

On March 25th, I held a Washington, DC news conference (see Out2.com) in
which I stated "100,000 Americans [in Iraq] are surrounded by 300 million angry
Arabs." Who would argue with that claim today?

But, let's be practical for a moment: how does the United States "reclaim"
Kufa, Najaf, Karbala and Kut and restore American authority? With U.S. Marines?
Be serious. U.S. Marines cleared the City of Hue, and cleared the Hue Citadel
in 1968 during Tet. It was bloody. You want holy war? You got holy war.

In the middle of all this collapse and chaos, Israeli prime minister Ariel
Sharon in planning to roll into town with a "withdrawal plan" next week that is
an insult to the intelligence and which is sure to further inflame the Middle
East. You want to pour fuel on the fire? Ariel the gas man is on his way.
Hello Ariel? Stay home.

Give the devil his due: although Saddam was pilloried for "harboring
terrorists," his "harboring" was mostly for show, typical Saddam.

Now Hezbollah is in Iraq. Those boys use live ammo. Just ask the Israelis. We
have more than a "mere" meltdown; we may have a "China Syndrome" in progress,
where the entire Middle East could go up in flames. American weakness is
always perceived as Israeli weakness.

And, like sharks drawn to the scent of blood, real life terrorists, not
Saddam's house pets, are on their way to fight in Iraq. Our military leaders have
opened the flood gates to a war in Iraq which could end up costing thousands of
lives, and be the real war that was predicted for 1991 and again for 2003.

And yet, the "military experts" on network television parrot back the cud
being dished out in Baghdad and Washington.

Americans are not going to be happy campers when Iraq's reality intrudes on
their fantasies and media fictions.

What do we do? The antidote necessary to stop the meltdown is painful. Very
painful.

First, the President has to immediately dump his military and political
leadership in Baghdad.

Then he has to do the same thing in the Pentagon, and send the so-called
"neo-cons" packing. The theory that conquering Iraq would intimidate Palestinians
and "pacify" the Middle East was a wild scheme that has backfired.

Bush needs to recognize he is in a battle for his political survival, get on
Air Force One, and come back to Washington, today. He should invite contrarian
participants to a closed White House conference. He needs to listen to his
critics, not his right-wing sycophants.

This is one of the saddest columns I have ever had to write. Innocent men and
women are dying in Iraq, Americans and Iraqis, because of American
incompetence. My criticism of the leaders is not criticism of the men and women doing
the fighting; I stand with them, that they should not die in vain. But most
likely their sacrifices will end up being in vain. This is also a sad day for
America, with worse to come. I may have been vindicated in my analysis and
criticism, but I take no joy in it. Dark days lie ahead.

---
Andy Martin is independent Contrarian Columnist and chief national and
foreign correspondent for Out2.com. He has served as Baghdad Bureau Chief for
Out2.com since April 2003. Since 1971, he has been involved in the Middle East and
is scheduled to return to Baghdad in May. He is one of America's most respected
foreign policy analysts. Media contact: (866) 706-2639; background stories:
Out2.com (see Gov't & politics). Andymartin.com; E-mail: andy@andymartin.com.
Martin is expected to file for the Republican Nomination for U.S. Senator from
Florida, in May. Notwithstanding, Martin expects to be in position in Iraq on
June 30th to cover the transition, if there is one.









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