text:
January 4, 2010 Kirkuk, Iraq
Published on Friday, September 14, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times
Poll: Civilian Death Toll in Iraq May Top 1 Million
A British survey offers the highest estimate to date.
by Tina Susman
The figure from ORB, a British polling agency that has conducted several surveys in Iraq, followed statements this week from the U.S. military defending itself against accusations it was trying to play down Iraqi deaths to make its strategy appear successful. The [US occupation] military has said civilian deaths from sectarian violence have fallen more than 55% since [US] President Bush sent an additional 28,500 troops to Iraq this year, but it does not provide specific numbers. According to the ORB poll, a survey of 1,461 adults suggested that the total number slain during more than four years of war was more than 1.2 million. ORB said it drew its conclusion from responses to the question about those living under one roof: "How many members of your household, if any, have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq since 2003?" Based on Iraq's estimated number of households 4,050,597 it said the 1.2 million figure was reasonable. There was no way to verify the number, because the [US installed] government does not provide a full count of civilian deaths. Neither does the U.S. military.
Both, however, say that independent organizations greatly exaggerate estimates of civilian casualties. ORB said its poll had a margin of error of 2.4%. According to its findings, nearly one in two households in Baghdad had lost at least one member to war-related violence, and 22% of households nationwide had suffered at least one death. It said 48% of the victims were shot to death and 20% died as a result of car bombs, with other explosions and military bombardments blamed for most of the other fatalities. The survey was conducted last month. It was the highest estimate given so far of civilian deaths in Iraq. Last year, a study in the medical journal Lancet put the number at 654,965, which Iraq's government has dismissed as "ridiculous." In its latest salvo at Iran, the U.S. military accused the Islamic Republic of providing the 240-millimeter rocket that earlier this week slammed into Camp Victory, the sprawling base that houses the U.S. Army headquarters. The attack on the base near Baghdad's airport injured 11 soldiers and killed one "third-country national." At a news conference, a military spokesman, Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, displayed a chunk of metal that he said had come from the rocket. Asked how he could be sure it was of Iranian origin, Bergner said its color and markings were unique to rockets from Iran. The United States accuses Iran's Shiite leaders of providing weapons, training and other assistance to Shiite militias fighting U.S. forces in Iraq. Iran denies the accusation. Deletions from article by TheWE.cc regarding four Sadr City deaths, due to causation of deaths not known but assumed by L.A. Times, therefore regarded as furthering US military propaganda. [ ] inserted by TheWE.cc Images inserted by TheWE.cc
Iraq: the hidden cost of the war
Andrew StephenPublished 12 March 2007
America won't simply be paying with its dead. The Pentagon is trying to silence economists who predict that several decades of care for the wounded will amount to an unbelievable $2.5 trillion.They roar in every day, usually direct from the Landstuhl US air-force base in the Rhineland: giant C-17 cargo planes capable of lifting and flying the 65-tonne M1 Abrams tank to battlefields anywhere in the world. But Landstuhl is the first staging post for transporting most of the American wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan back to the United States, and these planes act as CCATs ("critical care air transport") with their AETs "aeromedical evacuation teams" of doctors, nurses and medical technicians, whose task is to make sure that gravely wounded US troops arrive alive and fit enough for intensive treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, just six miles up the road from me in Washington.
These days it is de rigueur for all politicians, ranging from President Bush and Ibrahim al-Jaafari (Iraq's previous "prime minister") to junior congressmen, to visit the 113-acre Walter Reed complex to pay tribute to the valour of horribly wounded soldiers. Last Christmas, the centre was so overwhelmed by the 500,000 cards and presents it received for wounded soldiers that it announced it could accept no more. Yet the story of the US wounded reveals yet another deception by the Bush administration, masking monumental miscalculations that will haunt generations to come. Thanks to the work of a Harvard professor and former Clinton administration economist named Linda Bilmes, and some other hard-working academics, we have discovered that the administration has been putting out two entirely separate and conflicting sets of numbers of those wounded in the wars. This might sound like chicanery by George W Bush and his cronies or characteristic incompetence but Bilmes and Professor Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate economist from Columbia University, have established not only that the number wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan is far higher than the Pentagon has been saying, but that looking after them alone could cost present and future US taxpayers a sum they estimate to be $536bn, but which could get considerably bigger still. Just one soldier out of the 1.4 million troops so far deployed who has returned with a debilitating brain injury, for example, may need round-the-clock care for five, six, or even seven decades. In present-day money, according to one study, care for that soldier alone will cost a minimum of $4.3m. Article continued here: Iraq: the hidden cost of the war
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|See below for the brutality that is Iraq today.
A U.S. soldier rests on a wall at dusk in the southern city of Najaf, August 13, 2004.
Photo: REUTERS/Akram Saleh
slide cursor underneath or side of photos
Sunday, April 01, 2007McCain, Obama, and genocide More than a half-million Iraqis have died because of the U.S. invasion in March, 2003; another million or so died in the decade before that thanks the U.S./U.K. ("U.N.") sanctions. And in the light of all that, we can still, in this Alice-through the-looking-glass-world we live in, hear this from John McCain: "Failure is genocide." And when asked by Wolf Blitzer to respond to that statement, here's the stone-racist response from Barack Obama:
BLITZER: What if he's right? What if he's right, and what you're proposing and a lot of Democrats are proposing results in genocide in Iraq? OBAMA: Well, look, what you have right now is chaos in Iraq. After having spent hundreds of billions of dollars, after seeing close to 3,200 lives lost, what you now see is chaos.That's what Barack Obama thinks has been lost in Iraq hundreds of billions of dollars, and 3,200 lives. The actual genocide that's taken place in the last 15 years? Sorry, neither he nor McCain nor Wolf Blitzer even acknowledges that that has taken place. The idea simply does not compute in their "the U.S. is a force for good in the world" brains.
Civilian Death Toll in Iraq May Top 1 Million September 14, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times A British survey offers the highest estimate to date. The figure from ORB, a British polling agency that has conducted several surveys in Iraq, followed statements this week from the U.S. military defending itself against accusations it was trying to play down Iraqi deaths to make its strategy appear successful. Click link below for complete article Estimated between 426,369 to 793,663 killed in Iraq since US Occupation October 11, 2006 Since the 2003 American invasion, the figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month. The second study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health uses samples of casualties from Iraqi households to extimate an overall figure of 601,027 Iraqis dead from violence between March 2003 and July 2006.
The new study is more representative, its researchers said, and the sampling is broader. The study surveyed 1,849 Iraqi families in 47 different neighborhoods across Iraq with the selection of geographical areas in 18 regions across Iraq baseded on population size, not on the level of violence. In the last week of September, the government barred the central morgue in Baghdad and the Health Ministry the two main sources of information for civilian deaths from releasing figures to the news media. In October a note was issued from the government instructing officials not to release death totals to the UN. The study uses a method similar to that employed in estimates of casualty figures in other conflict areas like Darfur and Congo. It sought to measure the number of deaths that occurred as a result of the war. The figure is not exhaustive. A police official at Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad who spoke on the condition of anonymity said he had seen nationwide counts provided to the hospital that indicated as many as 200 people a day were dying. "We found deaths all over the country," Gilbert Burnham, the principle author of the study said. Baghdad was an area of medium violence in the country, he said. The provinces of Diyala and Salahuddin, north of Baghdad, and Anbar to the west, all had higher death rates than the capital.
|Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"Click here to listen or Watch segment.
War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"
HELEN THOMAS: Dispatches from Iraq said that yesterday we killed 70 people in Iraq, near Ramadi, including 18 children. I want to know what the President thinks of that. MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all, I think you need to talk to the military, because the military HELEN THOMAS: No, I'm talking here. MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, and as I'm responding to you, the military has said otherwise at this point. Now, the military has review mechanisms in place and when there are questions raised, they look into those matters, and so that's something that, obviously, they will look into. But, beyond that, you'd have to talk to the military about where that stands. Now HELEN THOMAS: Eighteen children MR. McCLELLAN: In terms of our United States military, our military goes out of the way not to target HELEN THOMAS: Why were 18 children killed? MR. McCLELLAN: Our military goes out of the way not to target innocent civilians. HELEN THOMAS: I'm not saying they were targeted MR. McCLELLAN: Our military goes out of the way to target the enemy, and to HELEN THOMAS: Why did they say 18 children?
George Orwell 1984 White House Press October 19th 2005
|New World Order Statistics of Human Misery of Soldiers and Military that fight for the 'Order'
('The West' and their lackey's Warfare) Excluding Somalia and various other engagements
|icasualties.org Of the 3,417 coalition deaths in Afghanistan: One Albania 40 Australia One Belgium 158 Canada Five Czech 43 Denmark Nine Estonia Two Finland 86 France 27 Georgia 54 Germany Seven Hungary 48 Italy Two Jordan Three Latvia One Lithuania 10 Unidentified as to country NATO 25 Netherlands 11 New Zealand 10 Norway 38 Poland Two Portugal 21 Romania Three Slovakia One South Korea 34 Spain Five Sweden 14 Turkey 447 UK 2,309 US
|To January 22, 2014 These figures are 'Battle deaths' and do not include deaths that take place as early as two or three weeks outside the Afghanistan war zones when seriously injured troops are shipped to their home country, or in the situation with the US military to some hospital on a military base in another country. These figures do not include suicide of soldiers who have returned home, or the killing and injuring of loved ones and others outside the family, by soldiers with mental impairment who have returned home. At least 17,674 US personnel have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon between November 2001 and September 2012.
U.S. & Coalition/Casualties
in Afghanistan occupation
|Of the 4,804 coalition deaths in Iraq: 4,486 have been Americans Two Australia One Azerbaijan Thirteen Bulgaria One Czech Republic Seven Denmark 5 El Salvador Two Estonia One Fiji Five Georgia One Hungary 33 Italy One Kazakhstan Three Latvia Two Netherlands 23 Poland Three Romania Four Slovakia One South Korea 11 Spain Two Thailand Eighteen Ukraine 179 UK
|To January 22, 2014 These figures are 'Battle deaths' and do not include deaths that take place outside Iraq war zones, as early as two or three weeks, after seriously injured troops are shipped to their home country, or in the situation with the US military to some hospital on a military base in another country. other coalition deaths are estimated at up to 10,000 deaths including contract people brought into Iraq by coalition forces. These figures do not include suicide of soldiers who have returned home, or the killing and injuring of loved ones and others outside the family, by soldiers with mental impairment who have returned home. At least 32,223 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon between March 2003 and November 2011.
U.S. & Coalition/Casualties
in Iraq occupation
And during the past few years, more than a million martyrs fell by the bullets of the occupation and the country is now filled with more than 5 million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. Eli Cara and Uriel Zoshe Kelman in court today. We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shiite would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ, may peace be upon him. And despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than 10 years, for more than a decade. The occupation turned our homes into never-ending funeral tents. Until we were invaded by the illusion of liberation that some had.
Shoe Thrower the Story of My Shoe
Mass death returns to Ishaqi
"Generally in wars, total casualties, which include wounded, crippled, and lost, are many times the number killed, often as high as ten times. So while Americans, thirty years later, still weep at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington a monument representing about sixty thousand deaths over ten years of war they have inflicted on Iraq, in just three weeks, that same proportionate loss all of them civilians. With Iraq's population being less than ten percent that of the United States, such losses must be multiplied by ten to get some feel for their impact on the society. Is this how a great power behaves in the early part of the 21st century? Especially a power that enjoys reminding us at every opportunity I suppose because it is so easy for the rest of the world, just watching its actions, to forget that America stands for human rights and democratic principles?"
John Chuckman
Survey claims 37,000 Iraqi civilians killed in first seven months of warBy James Conachy
5 August 2004 An Iraqi political organization, the People's Kifah or Struggle Against Hegemony, told the Arab network Al Jazeera on the weekend that it had documented more than 37,000 civilian deaths in Iraq in the seven months from the start of the US war on March 20,2003, through October 2003. A spokesman for the People's Kifah, Muhammad al-Ubaidi, told Al Jazeera they were "100percent sure" the estimate was correct. The data was gathered during September and October 2003, when the organization undertook a nationwide survey "involving hundreds of Iraqi activists and academics."
Ubaidi stated: "For the collation of our statistics we visited the most remote villages, spoke and coordinated with grave-diggers across Iraq, obtained information from hospitals and spoke to thousands of witnesses who saw incidents in which Iraqi civilians were killed by US fire." Missing ever since The People's Kifah claims it halted the survey under duress, after one of the group's workers, Ramzi Musa Ahmad, was seized by Kurdish militiamen last October and handed over to US troops. He has been missing ever since. According to the statements of the organization, the figure of 37,000 does not include the casualties suffered by Iraqi military and paramilitary forces. The estimates of Iraqi military deaths during the invasion range from approximately 10,000 to as many as 45,000. As the study concluded last October, it also does not include the large numbers of civilian casualties inflicted by the US military in April and May, during its operations to crush the Iraqi uprising in Fallujah and Baghdad and across southern Iraq.
Thus far, only limited details of the survey have been released, and its methodology does not appear to have been subjected to independent scrutiny. It warrants attention, however, because no official survey into the number of civilian casualties has been carried out in Iraq since the occupation began. The US military refuses to make public its own estimate of how many Iraqi civilians it killed during the invasion. Last December, the head of the statistics department of the Iraqi health ministry alleged a study it was conducting was shut down on the orders of the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). At the time, both the CPA and the US-installed Iraqi Governing Council denied any survey was being conducted. Though there are no official figures on casualties, what is known is that the US military unleashed massive firepower during the invasion of Iraq. The ongoing occupation has been marked by the systematic repression of the Iraqi people in an effort to force them to bow down to the neo-colonial US control of the country and its resources. 800 cruise missiles, 8,000 precision-guided bombs, 9,000 "dumb" bombs According to figures released last year by the US military, some 800 cruise missiles, more than 18,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles, and some 9,000 "dumb" bombs were unleashed on Iraq during the invasion.
1,200 cluster bombs At least 1,200 cluster bombs were dropped, each releasing dozens of small grenade-like bomblets. 300,000 rounds depleted uranium A-10 "Warthog" ground-support aircraft fired an estimated 300,000 rounds from their 30 mm cannons many of which are believed to have been manufactured from depleted uranium (DU). Tens of thousands of tank and ground artillery rounds, including DU rounds, and vast numbers of machine-gun and small-arms munitions were also expended. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved 50 air strikes that US military planners had estimated in advance would kill 30 or more civilians. None hit intended targets Fifty strikes were also launched to kill "high-value" Iraqi military and political leaders, mostly in Baghdad, before which no estimate was even made of likely civilian deaths. None of them hit their intended targets, and the few that have been investigated all resulted in civilian losses. The People's Kifah survey claims to have documented 6,103 civilian deaths in Baghdad province from the beginning of the war through October.
Iraq's capital suffered the heaviest aerial bombardment by American and allied aircraft, and large numbers of civilians were killed during the US tank assaults into the city from April 3 to April9. Between May and October2003, Human Rights Watch collected what it called credible reports of 94 civilian deaths in Baghdad at the hands of American troops. These included people gunned down in their cars as they approached checkpoints, shot during raids, or hit by indiscriminate US fire in the street. In the province of Basra, which has been under British control since the end of the war, the survey claims to have documented 6,734 civilian deaths. The city of Basra, Iraq's second largest, was subjected to a fierce bombardment and siege by US and British troops in the first week of the war. Three hospitals in the city recorded 413 deaths during the invasion, but this figure did not include those who did not die in hospital or who were not taken to hospital morgues. In Babil province, of which Hilla is the capital, the survey claims 3,552civilians were killed. During the invasion, an International Red Cross representative, Roland Hugenin, told journalists from Hilla hospital that "there has been an incredible number of casualties with very, very serious wounds in the region of Hilla. We saw that a truck was delivering dozens of totally dismembered dead bodies of women and children." The survey claims 3,581 civilians died in the province of Nasiriya another scene of intense fighting during the invasion. It claims more than 2,000 civilian deaths in other southern provinces such as Misan, Karbala and Wasit; the northern province of Mosul; and the western province of al-Anbar, which includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. No figures were reportedly gathered in the three predominantly Kurdish northern provinces of the country.
The figure of 37,000 deaths is far higher than the estimate of civilian casualties arrived at by relying upon media accounts. As of August 4, the Iraq Body Count web site (www.iraqbodycount.net) had data-base reports that show a minimum of 11,429, and a maximum of 13,398 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since March 20,2003. A disclaimer on the site reads, however: "We are not a news organization ourselves and like everyone else can only base our information on what has been reported so far. What we are attempting to provide is a credible compilation of civilian deaths that have been reported by recognized sources. Our maximum therefore refers to reported deaths which can only be a sample of true deaths unless one assumes that every civilian death has been reported. It is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media. That is the sad nature of war" (emphasis in the original). The true figure of Iraqi civilian casualties is therefore likely to be closer to that arrived at by the People's Kifah survey. The scale of the death and destruction resulting from the US invasion of Iraq underscores the criminality of those responsible for planning and organizing the war, and those advocating the continuation of the occupation.
See Also: US uses cluster bombs to spread death and destruction in Iraq [5 April 2003] US rampage through Baghdad kills thousands [7 April 2003]
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Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"Click here to listen or Watch segment. War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"
We now have a situation in Iraq where there is a full scale insurgency by both the Shiites and the Sunnis against western forces. Once an insurgency of that kind starts in a Muslim country, it is impossible to quench it. Sorry, you guys can we put the book back? Let's start again, we got it wrong at one point. You can't do that. You can't do that. I was discussing with an Iraqi friend three weeks ago in Baghdad what he thought the answer was. He said, "There is no answer. You've got to go. He said, "There is no answer. You've got to go. You've got to go." I wrote at the time that I thought it was a terrible equation in Iraq. It goes like this. The Americans must leave. And the Americans will leave but the Americans can't leave. And that's the equation that turns sand into blood. Once you become an occupying power you take upon the responsibilities for the civilians which we have not done but you also have a responsibility to yourself.
You have to keep justifying You have to keep justifying over and over and over again to your own populations. You were right to do it: ok, there were no weapons of mass destruction but we got rid of Saddam; ok, we haven't gotten the electricity yet but there will be a constitution. Well, we hope. And we did have elections. Remember them in January? And all the time people die in ever greater numbers. Remember that figure for July that's just Baghdad. What does that mean for the whole country? 5,000 dead? In July? What does that mean in the whole of Iraq in a year? You see the problem? We're talking a 50,000, 60,000 dead a year now. The worst figure we've heard is 100,000 since 2003 yet still we don't get statistics. When individual journalists have to go to hospital mortuaries and count the bloated corpses on the floor, you know you've got problems.
22-year-old Olympic football player Ahmed Manajid, asked: "How will [Mr Bush] meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes. I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists?" he asked." Coach Adnan Hamad said he was concerned with what the Bush administration was doing in Iraq: "My problems are not with the American people. They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything," he said. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq."
One of the most effective ways I found was to follow the bulldozers and construction machinery. I was in Iraq to research the so-called reconstruction.
And what struck me most was the absence of reconstruction machinery, of cranes and bulldozers, in downtown Baghdad. I expected to see reconstruction all over the place. I saw bulldozers in military bases. I saw bulldozers in the Green Zone, where a huge amount of construction was going on, building up Bechtel's headquarters and getting the new U.S. embassy ready. There was also a ton of construction going on at all of the U.S. military bases. But, on the streets of Baghdad, the former ministry buildings are absolutely untouched. They hadn't even cleared away the rubble, let alone started the reconstruction process. The one crane I saw in the streets of Baghdad was hoisting an advertising billboard. One of the surreal things about Baghdad is that the old city lies in ruins, yet there are these shiny new billboards advertising the glories of the global economy.
Saturday, 12 May 2007
Iraq's catalogue of death
By Robert GreenallBBC News
More than 1,700 US and dozens of other coalition troops are known to have died. But the figures for civilian dead had never been more than rough estimates, ranging wildly from 10,000 to 100,000. Figures for the injured and for people killed in what has been described as a surge in criminal activity since the invasion were simply unavailable. A report by the UK-based group Iraq Body Count (IBC), in combination with the Oxford Research Group, says it aims to remove some of the uncertainty by producing the most detailed picture yet of civilian casualties in the two years since the 2003 invasion. The goal of the IBC is to fill the information vacuum, it says, with a comprehensive analysis of over 10,000 press and media reports. It describes the death toll as the "forgotten cost" of the decision to go to war. But some critics have questioned the groups' methods of compiling statistics, and indeed the ability to produce reliable data. The Iraqi government has already responded by describing the report's results as "mistaken". The US and UK governments, meanwhile, have always maintained that chaos in the war-torn country has made it impossible to gain accurate information
'Few excuses' Middle East analyst Toby Dodge told the BBC that reports like this were bound to be sketchy. "It's on the conservative side, if anything it underestimates the casualty figures," he said. The report attempts to show that Western governments are at least partly wrong in their assertion that counting bodies is futile. "Nearly two-and-a-half years on, neither the US or UK have begun to systematically measure the impact of their actions in terms of human lives destroyed," Professor John Sloboda, one of the authors of the report, said. "Our report has shown that what is lacking is not the capacity to do this work but the will. "The internet has proved an essential tool for the research, Professor Sloboda adds. "This is in fact a new type of research on war and its effects, research which would have been impossible to conduct without the World Wide Web and search engines," he said.
'Higher concentration of death' The report A Dossier on Civilian Casualties in Iraq, 2003-2005 provides a grim catalogue of death and injury. A total of 24,865 civilians were reported killed in the first two years of the conflict, beginning with the invasion, almost 20% of them women or children. This means approximately one in every 1,000 Iraqis has been killed since March 2003. The report's assertion that 37% of deaths were caused by the US-led forces may cause dismay among Western governments, especially as only 9% are attributed to insurgents. But even if another 11% attributed to "unknown agents" is included in the second figure, the report says coalition forces are still the main cause of death. The US-led coalition maintains that it has never targeted civilians, while insurgents quite clearly do.Professor Sloboda accepts this argument, but says the dossier's data proves that precision-guided weapons even if targeted elsewhere do far more harm to civilians than hand-held firearms. "Shock and awe invasions using massive air power and overwhelming force caused a far higher concentration of deaths, injuries and child fatalities than even the intense insurgency we are experiencing now," he said. "This is a fact which must be taken on board if hearts and minds are ever to be won back."
Child victims The report builds up a picture of who the victims were where and when they were killed or injured, what weapons were used against them and by whom and where known what their names, professions, genders and ages were. The result suggests that no sector of Iraqi society has escaped violent death. Some conclusions make especially sober reading for instance that children made up almost half the victims of air attacks, but only 6% of those from small-arms fire. Unexploded ordnance such as cluster bombs have proved the most lethal for children, because of their curiosity about foreign objects. The report also details the media which reported the casualties and the sources they used from eyewitnesses to mortuaries all, it says, rigorously checked by the project's 20-odd volunteer staff. Injuries And while the dossier obviously records well-reported deaths like those from suicide attacks or roadside bombs, it also covers a less-known source of violence criminal killings.
Only reports of mortuary records have allowed the IBC to reveal the "extraordinary levels" that this form of violence has reached, it says. Around 14 people died every month in criminal-related violence before the invasion over 372 more have died every month since. The dossier has recorded 42,500 wounded (the actual count, not an estimate), but this is based only on reports of deaths where the numbers of injured could also be determined. It estimates that approximately 12,500 more injuries have gone unrecorded.
Thursday 5th May 2005 In the face of a full-scale civil war in Iraq, says a source close to the U.S. military, Bush intends to go it alone. "Our policy is to make Iraq a colony," he says. "We won't let go." According to U.S. officials, the resistance attacks are being aided by an extensive network of informers.
Insurgents, apparently making use of engineers and former insiders, have been able to hit oil installations and power plants expertly, foiling U.S. efforts to sustain Iraqi oil exports and to provide electricity and water to Iraqi cities. "They have tentacles that reach all through the new government and the new military," Lt. Gen. Walter Buchanan, who commands U.S. air forces in the Persian Gulf, admitted recently. The new government is not only powerless to stop the attacks by insurgents, it is dominated by the same clique of warlords and exiles who lobbied the Pentagon to go to war in the first place, many of whom have close ties to the warring camps that control vast parts of the country. "In the Arab world, Iraq is seen as a zone of chaos in a pre-civil-war situation, held together only by the U.S. occupation," says Chas Freeman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia under Bush's father. A brief survey of the three major forces in Iraq Shiites in the south, Sunnis in the center and Kurds in the north makes clear the sharp divisions that threaten to blow the country apart: The Shiites: The Bush administration's plan for reconstruction envisioned the Shiites the majority population long oppressed by Saddam Hussein as the chief power in a democratic Iraq. The United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite party backed by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, won a majority in the new national assembly. But a militant bloc of fundamentalist Shiites has been using its newfound strength and its street thugs to forcibly impose Islamic law throughout the southern half of Iraq. Militias loyal to rival Shiite factions are blowing up liquor stores and movie theaters, forcing women to wear ultraconservative Islamic dress and assassinating secular officials and other opponents. ...The Mahdi, which battled U.S. forces during two major uprisings last year, is fiercely loyal to the charismatic and fanatical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the scion of a leading fundamentalist Shiite family. Al-Sadr's militia, hammered in last year's clashes, is quickly rebuilding with new recruits armed with machine guns, rocket launchers and rocket-propelled grenades. It now controls a big chunk of Basra, Iraq's only port and second-largest city, along with Kut, Amarah, Nasariyah and the huge eastern district of Baghdad known as Sadr City. In April, al-Sadr organized a rally of 300,000 people to demand that U.S. troops leave Iraq.
The Mahdi Army's main rival for power among the Shiites is the Badr Brigade, which has an estimated 20,000 men under arms. Badr is run by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which was founded by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran and trained by his Revolutionary Guards. SCIRI's leaders still have close ties to Iran, even though many of its officials have been elected to the new Iraqi parliament. The hard-line group is powerful in Iraq's two holy cities, Najaf and Karbala, and controls another chunk of Basra. Other Shiite forces include the Dawa Islamic Party, whose chieftain, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is Iraq's new prime minister. Dawa was an underground terrorist organization in Iraq from the 1960s through the 1980s, and militants linked to the group attacked the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait in 1983. While the State Department says it has no evidence to connect al-Jaafari himself to any terrorist acts, those who study the group suspect that Dawa also gets support from Iran. "They've been spreading money to everyone," says Juan Cole, an expert on Shiism at the University of Michigan. The Sunnis: In central Iraq, millions of formerly dominant Sunnis opted out of the elections for the new government, which they see as being almost entirely in the hands of southern Shiites and northern Kurds. There are now several dozen Sunni organizations fighting the U.S. occupation, broadly divided into two camps: mainstream, secular Arab nationalists who served as military officers and Baath Party leaders under Saddam, and Islamist fundamentalists, including extremists associated with Abu Musab Zarqawi. Most of the attacks on American forces the roadside IEDs, mortar strikes and full-scale assaults have been conducted by the mainstream resistance, who are intent on driving out the U.S. They have brought down helicopters, destroyed at least eighty of the Abrams tanks that are the mainstay of the U.S. occupation, and mounted large-scale actions involving scores of fighters, such as the April attacks on the Abu Ghraib prison and at Al Qaim near the Syrian border. In one recent incident, car bombs exploded simultaneously in front of and behind a U.S. convoy, which then came under intense fire from automatic weapons wielded by snipers inside abandoned buildings along the route. To make matters worse, the Kurds have set their sights on Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic city that sits atop Iraq's vast northern oil fields. Even though the city lies outside of Kurdistan, Talabani calls it "the Jerusalem of Kurdistan," and Barzani says, "We are ready to fight and to sacrifice our souls to preserve its identity." The Kurds are already engaging in some brutal expulsions of Arabs from the city. "They're doing their own ethnic cleansing, and it's dirty stuff," says Judith Yaphe, a former CIA analyst on Iraq. A full-scale Kurdish takeover, however, would be resisted by Arabs and Turks in Kirkuk. ...Even Fallujah, a city of 300,000 that was virtually obliterated in a U.S. blitz last fall, is quietly re-emerging as a center of resistance. Fallujah's mayor, in the circumspect language of one U.S. official, is "doing some things not positive in nature." Meanwhile, the city of Mosul has become the newest hotbed of the insurgency. Last fall, during an attack by insurgents there, thousands of Iraqi police melted away at the first sign of violence. "I went from 2,000 police to 50," a U.S. commander on the scene told reporters.
Knight Ridder Hannah Allam, Tom Lasseter and Dogen Hannah Mon, Aug. 16, 2004Sunday's showdown in An-Najaf was troubled even before the fighting resumed. Several officials from the Iraqi defense ministry told Knight Ridder that more than 100 Iraqi national guardsmen and a battalion of Iraqi soldiers chose to quit rather than attack fellow Iraqis in a city that includes some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. An Iraqi army battalion generally consists of 600 to 900 soldiers. Neither U.S. military officials nor Iraqi government officials would confirm the resignations. "We received a report that a whole battalion threw down their rifles," said one high-ranking defense ministry official, who did not want his name published because he is not an official spokesman. "We expected this, and we expect it again and again."
Many journalists had fled the area after Iraqi police evicted them. Sober-faced Iraqi colonels gathered inside the defense ministry command center, their cell phones ringing with continuous updates from the battlefield. American military advisers wandered in and out of the room, located at the end of a marble hallway in the massive, heavily guarded palace that serves as headquarters for U.S.-led forces and American civilian administrators. The Iraqi officers, most of them decorated veterans from the former government, shook their heads at the thought of Iraqis battling Iraqis on sacred soil. Several said they would resign immediately if senior officers ordered them to serve in An-Najaf. They asked to withhold their names for fear of reprimand. An Iraqi military analyst inside the ministry defended the assault, saying that crushing Sadr's militia would finally bring stability to the volatile southern Shiite region and smooth the way to national elections. The analyst, who spoke on background because he was not authorized to give interviews, said force was the last resort because "dialogue and rational policy" had failed with Sadr's men. At an Iraqi national guard base near the border of Sadr City, the vast Baghdad slum that serves as Sadr's support base and recruiting ground, 1st Sgt. Khalid Ali described the death threats he and other Iraqi troops have received from the Mahdi Army. He drew distinctions between fighting fellow Iraqis and fighting militiamen, whom he holds responsible for the deaths of two of his relatives. "There are concerns about what's happening in Najaf because most of the people working here are Shiite and they are concerned about what happens to their sacred sites," Ali said. "We do not fight our brothers, we fight against those people who are sabotaging our country. The Mahdi Army is not Shiite, they are saboteurs." But when Ali was asked about the number of guardsmen who have quit since Sadr's latest uprising, U.S. Army 1st Lt. Vernon Sparkmon cut him off. "Certain things, you can't discuss,'' Sparkmon told Ali. "If somebody asks that question, that's, like, classified stuff." Detroit Free Press Hannah Allam, Tom Lasseter and Dogen Hannah, FREE PRESS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS
Mon, Aug. 16, 2004 Raad Kadhemi, a spokesman for al-Sadr, said, "We salute our brothers who abandoned participating in the fight against the Mahdi's Army," as al-Sadr's militia is known. Several Iraqi colonels inside the Defense Ministry command center, a heavily guarded palace that serves as headquarters for U.S.-led forces, said they would resign immediately if senior officers ordered them to serve in Najaf. "I'm ready to fight for my country's independence and for my country's stability," one lieutenant colonel said. "But I won't fight my own people."
Published on Monday, July 4, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
by Sheldon Drobny Justice O'Connor's decision in Bush v. Gore led to the current Bush administration's execution of war crimes and atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places in the Middle East that are as egregious as those committed by the Third Reich and other evil governments in human history. The lesson is clear. Those people who may be honorable and distinguished in their chosen profession should always make decisions based upon good rather than evil no matter where their nominal allegiances may rest. Justice O'Connor was quoted to have said something to the affect that she abhorred the thought of Bush losing the 2000 election to Gore. She was known to have wanted to retire after the 2000 election for same reason she is now retiring. She wanted to spend more time with her sick husband. Unfortunately, she tarnished her distinguished career with the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore by going along with the partisan majority of the Court to interfere with a democratic election that she and the majority feared would be lost in an honest recount. She dishonored herself and the Supreme Court by succumbing to party allegiances and not The Constitution to which she swore to uphold. And the constitutional argument she and the majority used to justify their decision was the Equal Protection Clause. The Equal Protection Clause was the ultimate basis for the decision, but the majority essentially admitted (what was obvious in any event) that it was not basing its conclusion on any general view of what equal protection requires. The decision in Bush v Gore was not dictated by the law in any senseeither the law found through research, or the law as reflected in the kind of intuitive sense that comes from immersion in the legal culture. The Equal Protection clause is generally used in matters concerning civil rights.
The majority ignored their basic conservative views supporting federalism and states' rights in order to justify their decision. History will haunt these justices down for their utter lack of justice and the hypocrisy associated with this decision. Sheldon Drobny is Co-founder of Air America Radio.
As Thanksgiving 2000 approached, the justices and their clerks planned their vacations and scattered, leaving a skeletal staff generally only one of the three or four clerks assigned to each chamber behind in case the impossible happened There was just no way, Justice Stephen Breyer remarked over the holiday, that the Court would ever get involved How the US Supreme court stopped the ballots in Florida from being counted Bush v. GoreAppointment of U.S. President by the U.S. Supreme Court Hiroshima, Nagasaki Raw political clout exercised by U.S. Supreme Court
Friday, 20 August, 2004
Iraqi footballers' fury at Bush
Iraq's successful Olympic football team has launched an outspoken attack on US President George W Bush. Midfielder Salih Sadir said the team which won its group stage in Greece was angry it had been used in Mr Bush's re-election campaign ads. One accused the US leader of committing "many crimes", and another said he would be fighting US troops if not for Athens. Their comments were made in a US Sports Illustrated magazine interview. Salih Sadir said he was angry at Mr Bush's campaign adverts showing pictures of the Afghan and Iraqi flags with the words: "At this Olympics there will be two more free nations and two fewer terrorist regimes". "Iraq as a team does not want Mr Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," said the Iraqi player.
"He can find another way to advertise himself." He called for US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. "We don't wish for the presence of the Americans in our country. We want them to go away." Another star player, 22-year-old Ahmed Manajid, asked: "How will [Mr Bush] meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes." 'Best people' Mr Manajid, from Falluja a hotbed of armed opposition to the US-led occupation in Iraq said if he was not playing football "for sure" he would be fighting as part of the resistance. "I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists?" he asked. "Everyone [in Falluja] has been labelled a terrorist. These are all lies. Falluja people are some of the best people in Iraq."
The team said they were glad Iraq's former Olympic committee head Uday Hussein Saddam Hussein's notorious son killed by US forces after the invasion was no longer in charge. But coach Adnan Hamad said he was concerned with what the Bush administration was doing in Iraq. "My problems are not with the American people. They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything," he said. "The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the stadium and there are shootings on the road?" Mr Bush's spokesman defended the war on Iraq and the campaign adverts. "The ad simply talks about President Bush's optimism and how democracy has triumphed over terror," he was quoted by the Press Association as saying. "Twenty-five million people in Iraq are free as a result of the actions of the coalition."
Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"Click here to listen or Watch segment. War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"
The total figure of journalists who have died during and after the 2003 invasion up to date is now 68. The most recent being an Iraqi stringer again from The New York Times in Basra who was found dumped in a waste heap, executed with three bullets through the back of his head. I suspect the "Iraqi police" killed him like I suspect the Iraqi police killed the American journalist in Basra. Look, there's no doubt it's becoming the most dangerous story for journalists anywhere ever. ...The American correspondents, some of them are guarded by armed Iraqis. The New York Times has a compound with four watch towers and armed Iraqis with "NYT" New York Times on their black t-shirts. NBC lives in a hotel in the Karada District with iron grills. The A.P. lives in the Palestine Hotel with two armored walls. Very rarely do they ever venture out and never do the American staffers go in the streets. As I say, we still go out with Iraqi friends. We actually go out to lunch in restaurants in Iraq. But I think that's probably because as long as we're with Iraqis and we look at our watch and say, 20 minutes, finish the meal, half an hour, got to be out.
You're ok but it's a calculated risk. As I said, I'm not sure the risks are worth it anymore. Our lives are worth nothing to the insurgents. Our lives appear to be worth virtually nothing to the Americans or the British. I think that when you reach a stage where our lives and our jobs are simply no longer respected, you do have to ask the question, is it worth it anymore. I think it is because I think Iraq is an appalling tragedy. Primarily for Iraqis, of course, who we don't put at the top of our list. We say 1,900 Americans, 93 Brits or whatever it may be. It's the Iraqis doing the suffering and the dying in fast numbers. Many of them because they trusted us and took our schilling and wanted to work for the police or wanted to work for construction companies building landing strips for the Americans or fortresses for the Americans.
www.democracynow.org Amy Goodman Headlines, Mon, Aug. 16, 2004 Harkin Calls for End to 'Backdoor Draft' In Iowa, Democratic Tom Harkin has called on President Bush to end what he calls the "backdoor draft." Harkin's call came after a Des Moines police officer who had already completed his eight year comittment was called up to serve in Iraq under the military's "stop loss" exemption, which can extend duty in wartime.
Harkin also lashed out at Vice president Dick Cheney who last week accused Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of lacking the basic understanding of the war on terrorism to protect Americans. Cheney, who was a coward Harkin said "When I hear this coming from Dick Cheney, who was a coward, who would not serve during the Vietnam War, it makes my blood boil. Those of us who served and those of us who went in the military don't like it when someone like a Dick Cheney comes out and he wants to be tough. Yeah, he'll be tough. He'll be tough with somebody else's blood, somebody else's kids. But not when it was his turn to go." This is a report of the speech from www.woi-tv.com: WOI-TV DES MOINS IOWA 5 Eyewitness News. Sen. Harkin Calls On George Bush
Mon, Aug. 16, 2004 U.S. Senator Tom Harkin gathered with Iowa cops and firefighters at the Des Moines police department, to call on President Bush to end the 'back-door-draft'. The 'back-door-draft' allows the Pentagon to call up soldiers who have already completed their service to the country. Des Moines is in the spotlight because the Pentagon invoked a "stop-loss" policy to call up a Des Moines police officer for involuntary service in Iraq even though he had already completed his eight years of National Guard duty. Last week Des Moines Police Chief Bill McCarthy responded by slamming the military, saying the military is lying and manipulating the troops.
Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"Click here to listen or Watch segment. War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"
The war issue is part of this broader phenomenon of the pack mentality. People love to run together in packs. "There is a sort of allergy against straying too far from the pack."
This discussion can be viewed in the archives of www.Democracynow.org Friday, August 13th, 2004 Washington Post Admits It Buried Anti-War Voices Before the Iraq invasion The Washington Post yesterday published a major 3,000 word front-page story examining how the paper downplayed critics of the Iraq war before the U.S. attacked lat year. Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks revealed how in October 2002 editors killed a piece of his titled "Doubts" that outlined how many senior Pentagon officials were reluctant about plans to attack Iraq. Ricks also added "The paper was not front-paging stuff. Administration assertions were on the front page. Things that challenged the administration were on A18 on Sunday or A24 on Monday. There was an attitude among editors: Look, we're going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?"
Ukrainian Defense Minister Evhen Marchuk gestures as he talks to the U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during their meeting in the settlement of Partenit near the Black Sea resort of Yalta, August 13, 2004. Rumsfeld arrived in Ukraine on an official visit to meet top state officials and discuss Ukraine's participation in the force in Iraq and Kosovo as well as prospects for the Ukrainian-U.S. military cooperation, Interfax news agency reported.
Photo: REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"Click here to listen or Watch segment. War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"
Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"Click here to listen or Watch segment. War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"
Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"Click here to listen or Watch segment. War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"
Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"Click here to listen or Watch segment. War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"
U.S. Army troops of the 1st Cavalry Division's 1st Brigade, 112 Cav. from Fort Hood Texas, stop a pick-up truck driven by family members trying to get a critically wounded man to hospital from a neighborhood outside the Baghdad suburb of al Sadr City August 14, 2004. The man died at the scene.
Photo: REUTERS/David P. Gilkey-Detroit Free Press/Knight Ridder-Pool
Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"Click here to listen or Watch segment. War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"
|February 5, 2003, at the U.N.
It says that the tendencies were on display on February 6, the day after Powell delivered a multimedia presentation at the U.N., using satellite images and intercepted phone calls to convince the world that Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, an accompanying front page story by Young and Walter Pinkus examined Powell's unprecedented release of U.S. Intelligence.
Not until the ninth paragraph, did they offer a 'however' clause saying that a number of European officials and
U.S. Terrorism experts believed that Powell's description of an Iraqi link to Al Qaeda, quote, "appeared to have been carefully drawn to imply more than it actually said."
I mean, this is an absolutely key point, and this goes beyond The Washington Post that period in the week leading up to Powell's address and the week afterwards, that two-week period FAIR did a study
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, the media watchgroup, of the four major nightly newscasts, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS's Newshour with Jim Lehrer.
Of these four nightly newscasts there were 390 interviews done around the war.
Only three were with anti-war representatives, out of almost 400 in this critical period in the lead-up to war when people are making up their minds.
Although more than half at that point were opposed.
Your response?
Thursday, 19 August, 2004
Soldier's mum's anger at Prescott
The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq stormed out of a meeting with John Prescott saying he talked "rubbish". Rose Gentle and 14-year-old daughter Maxine had been in Downing Street to hand over a letter to Tony Blair stating concerns about the Iraq war. In the letter, Rose wrote the war was only "over oil and money", and added Mr Blair would never understand the pain of losing a brother at war. Gordon Gentle, 19, was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra on 28 June. On the same day, the US-led administration handed over power to the new Iraqi government. The teenager, from Glasgow, was serving with the 1st Battalion Royal Highland Fusiliers, and had been sent to Iraq only weeks after completing his training. Disgust Mr Prescott apologised that a handwritten letter of condolence from Mr Blair arrived nearly seven weeks after the tragedy. Mrs Gentle is understood to have been furious that the etter took so long to come it arrived just days after her plan to travel from Scotland to Downing Street was made public. Mr Prescott, standing in for Mr Blair while he is on holiday, accepted her letter in person but Mrs Gentle said she had had a "forceful" exchange with the politician. Mrs Gentle said she then walked out in disgust. She said: "He apologised for the lateness of the letter and did not know why I had just received it." Mr Prescott promised to pass on her concerns to the prime minister after Mrs Gentle demanded a meeting with him.
'Error' She added: "I then walked out. He was just talking a lot of rubbish." The delay in the letter of condolence is understood to have come about as the result of an administrative error. In her letter, Maxine accusing Mr Blair of sending young men to take part in a war in order "not to get on the wrong side of George Bush". "My brother died at the age of 19, and what for? A war over oil and money, that's what I think the war is all about," she wrote. She went on to question how people could be sent to war after such a brief training period.
"What I find strange is that in order to be a qualified plumber or electrician you need to train for three or four years, but to be a qualified soldier, and learn to kill someone, you only need to train for six months," she argued. "You would not know how we all feel, because you're at home at night with your wife and son watching them growing up, but we will never know what Gordon could have been like in years to come." Withdrawal call Commenting on the meeting, Downing Street said: "Mr Prescott was in the building working and felt it was appropriate to offer to have a meeting with Mrs Gentle when he heard she was going to deliver the letter written by her daughter. "He accepted that letter and said he would pass it on to the prime minister and he apologised for the delay in the letter from Mr Blair." Mrs Gentle returned the letter and branded it an insult to her son's memory. The prime minister had written: "I was uncertain, having read your comments in the newspapers, whether you would resent my writing to you." He continued by paying tribute to the soldier's "courage, dedication and professionalism" and said he believed the effort in Iraq was "vital". But Mrs Gentle said: "The soldiers should not be there and it is time they brought our boys back home."
|Letter of Maxine Gentle to Tony Blair
My name is Maxine Gentle and I am 14 years old.
Speaking during the service at St James's Church, The Reverend Dr John Mann [the pastor] said: "I want to believe that if there is a God in heaven then there will be justice because I want someone to pay for Gordon's death.
"And only God may judge who is ultimately responsible. "I can only admonish. "I am just a preacher. "If I were to point them out I would say to President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair I have only three words of admonishment. "And I pray that they may someday be inscribed on the tablets of your hearts. "And those three words are 'shame on you'."
|www.democracynow.org AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky quotes Walter Litman saying "It's the press that manufactures consent for war." MICHAEL MASSING: I think the war issue is part of this broader phenomenon that I see of the pack mentality. Journalists love to run together in packs. There is a sort of allergy against being too straying too far from the pack. Not only war, but when there's a consensus and conventional wisdom, as you pointed out, there was hardly a consensus on the war. Within the establishment, there sort of was. The media just they are so spineless that's the word that comes to mind. As I have said in the past, they like to show courage when they know they're going to be applauded for it. But in times when courage really requires standing up and sort of maybe taking some brickback some heat, they hate to do it.
|AMY GOODMAN: I mean, let's just look at the reality on the ground at that time. Because some might say, well, you have hindsight here. No. February 5 is Colin Powell's address. February 15th, the largest mass protest in the history of the world. The numbers vary, 10 million, 20 million, 30 million people around the globe rocked the globe for peace, and yet the response in the U.S. Media were some big pictures, but in terms of what's proportionate to this level of mass protest, that's what they were up against, and yet they were still broadcasting the voices of this minority elite.
|MICHAEL MASSING: Well, not only that, while people were in the streets around the world, as you point out, in the U.N. Community, reports were coming out from Mohammad Elbaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency basically saying, look, our inspectors have gone to over 100 sites. We have not found any evidence of any nuclear program there. These reports were put out. I went back again and looked. They were all these they were pro forma report on the inside pages of these newspapers. Meanwhile, when Colin Powell I did a contrast between Colin Powell's speech and the sort of gushing coverage, and the Elbaradei comments which were basically ignored. They right there in realtime were saying, we cannot find any evidence of this nuclear program that Dick Cheney and these others and Colin Powell with talking about.
Former Iraqi Governing Council member Mohammad Bahr al-Uloum attends a meeting in central Baghdad in this July 13, 2003 file photo. Watching his hometown of Najaf come under U.S. bombing to crush Moqtada al-Sadr and his followers, Uloum has lost faith in U.S. intentions toward Iraq and says millions of moderates like him, who welcomed the invasion last year, now regard Washington as an enemy.
Photo: REUTERS/POOL/files
|Iraq Pack Mentality And Death
|AMY GOODMAN: My brother, David Goodman and I, wrote the book, Exception To the Rulers where we are talking about the media criticism, the corporate media will not touch it though it's become a national bestseller, which is remarkable. They won't touch it because we're taking on them. The subtitle is, "Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profit Years And The Media That Love Them." One of the things that we point out is in that press conference where the drumbeat started that was Bush and Blair in September of 2002, this is after Andrew Card was asked why they weren't pushing harder, Bush was on the Crawford ranch on an extended vacation. Why weren't they pushing hard to justify the imminent war, and Andrew Card, the former GM lobbyist, now the Chief of Staff, said, "From a marketing point of view, we don't introduce new products in August." So in September, Bush and Blair at camp David hold the news conference and they announce that Saddam Hussein was going to get nuclear weapons within six months, and according to a report from the I.A.E.A., the International Atomic Energy Agency, all of the media covered this press conference. Very few mentioned The Washington Post buried many paragraphs later that the I.A.E.A. had come out with no such report. George Bush had crowed, "We don't need much more he said, how much more evidence do we need?" Our response was, well, any evidence would have helped. Here you have the I.A.E.A. cited. You think that the reporters would go to the I.A.E.A., and they said there's no such report.
|MICHAEL MASSING: I looked into that when I was doing my research. That Bush statement was based on a New York Times article several days earlier, which itself, the I.A.E.A. flipped out over. I talked to the people in Vienna at the I.A.E.A., and they said, my God, the New York Times ran this article that made it sound like we were finding that Iraq was engaging in all of this new suspicious activity. So, they run this report on page A7. Bush picks it up, and says that the I.A.E.A. has come out with this, and you're right. The people at the I.A.E.A. were tearing their hair out. They said "No one called to us confirm or find out more about this report Bush referred to." So, yes, he just they picked it up, they meekly ran with it, and it's a perfect case of just how the most basic reportorial skepticism was missed in this case.
|Iraq Pack Mentality And Death
|JUAN GONZALEZ: It's fascinating that Leonard Downey, the Executive Editor for the Washington Post puts his own quotes to this story about their failures. He recently published a book of the news about the news, "American Journalism In Peril," where he criticized the continuing lack of serious attention to news and investigative reporting and although he said they always exceptions, and now we find that shortly after publishing that book, he then is guilty of the very same things that he's criticizing the rest of the media for. MICHAEL MASSING: Juan, also, you just came out with this report, "How Long Must We Wait?" with Joe Torres, looking at the representation of minority reporters in this country. I can't help but think that militarism and this exclusion in the media of people of color as reporters, that it also weighs in here, because if you look at the population in this country that was most opposed to war, it was African-Americans. Very few represented in the mainstream media in this country.
JUAN GONZALEZ: ...I think the composition of the National Press Corps covering the Pentagon and covering the White House had been a little different. You might have gotten somewhat different perspective. I know I was fascinated by a t-shirt that was on sale at the Unity Convention by the native American journalists which had a picture of four native Americans on horseback with rifles and the t-shirt says, "Homeland Security, fighting terrorism since 1492." So that I think that a Native American journalist would have some of them might have had a different perspective on how we are practicing the war on terrorism in Iraq.
|AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Michael Massing and we almost have to go, but talking about looking back, you did this big piece in the New York Review of Books, and you really critiqued the New York Times. MICHAEL MASSING: And The Washington Post. AMY GOODMAN: And Judith Miller responded. You talked about Judith Miller's front page drumbeat stories in the Times, that the Times well, some called it a mea culpa on page A10, we call it a kinda culpa, but what has come of that, and what do you think at this point? What difference do you think this critique made? Do you think that box made any difference? MICHAEL MASSING: WThe Times in that box said we realize this we fell down in the run-up to the war, and we are going to show that we are doing better. And the proof will be in what we do. So, since then, what has the Times done? In fact, on The Abu Ghraib scandal, it was late on that by several it just did not pay attention. Then when they realized that they blew it, they threw everything they had into it. It shows what the Times can do when it does when it really sets its mind to it. But again, it was almost like the pack was in action. They had I would say they had for one month on the story on the front page every day. Everything else gets squeezed out, and with all of this events going on in Iraq with the Shiites and the sort of uprising there, I mean, again, the Times is late to that story. The big test for the Times and the Post is going to be do these mea culpas ultimately lead to a change in the reporting. On that, the jury still out. AMY GOODMAN: Michael Massing, thank you very much for being with us. I look forward to reading your [upcoming] book, Now They Tell Us.
You can buy a rocket propelled grenade for $20. All the concessions Sadr made are purely face-saving for the Allawi government and the United States, and the real loss here, I think, is for the occupation.
|ESTIMATED NUCLEAR WARHEADS, STRATEGIC AND TACTICALThe United States has conducted 1,127 nuclear and thermonuclear tests 217 in the atmosphere.
The Soviet Union/ Russia conducted 969 tests 219 in the atmosphere.
France, 210 tests, 50 in the atmosphere.
The United Kingdom, 45 tests 21 in the atmosphere.
China, 45 tests 23 in the atmosphere.
India and Pakistan 13 tests underground.
Israel possible 1 test atmosphere South Africa 1979.
North Korea 1 test underground, October 2006.
"The United states had drawn up a battle plan for the potential use of nuclear weapons in Iraq and the United States has been involved in planning potential nuclear use scenarios for Iran.""The United States is now involved in a massive program to overhaul its nuclear arsenal. In fact they're working to replace every nuclear warhead and all of the existing delivery systems in the arsenal to ensure prompt precision global strike capabilities."
Jackie Cabasso Western States Legal Foundation
|Western Elite militarismWestern Elite Terror StatesWestern Elite War Crimes
'Oh! You don't believe the 9-11 official version,' they say. 'You mean where they want you to accept the buildings were not blown up from below. 'Plane fuel! Substance never burns higher then a gas stove! That it caused the inner core steel to melt! 'Steel melting! 'Concrete vaporizing! ' 'No! I don't believe that conspiracy theory. 'Cheney! Bush! Rudy Giuliani! HA! HA! 'Tower 7 that never had a plane hit just came tumbling down! 'You believe that, eh! 'Ever think it had to be blown up because the plane scheduled to fly into it was off getting shot down. 'Thermite in Tower 7's walls, you see incriminating evidence impossible to get out without people watching! Had to be blown up! 'Next you'll be saying Obama is not a Wall Street Illuminati banker stooge? 'Take your pick: The partner in a comedy team who feeds lines to the other comedians. 'Him who allows himself to be used. 'Oh! I can't really blame you, Television it turns minds to pulp. 'Turn off the television. It's the only way.'
'Turn off the television?''Get rid of it really. I mean what else is there to do!'
'Get rid of the television?''Don't forget all radio garbage is propaganda, even the songs. 'Then those five minute propaganda hits they send you every hour! 'The ones they refer to as News 'Get rid of all the propaganda from your brain, the only way to do it.' 'Stop being hooked on those Hollywood movies even those that make you think they are making you think' 'All paid performers to make your brain dead. 'You turn the brainwashing off, you'll begin to become yourself. 'It really is the only way!'
'Oh!'Kewe TheWE.cc
50 minute discussion on psychotronic mind control with Dr. Nick Begich and Alex Jones
for mp3 right click here
Rapidly growing numbers are convinced that members of the Bush administration were not only grossly negligent in the days and months leading up to 9/11 but active participants in the attacks themselves "Americans think their danger is terrorists. They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that." Paul Craig RobertsWe are change 9/11 lies have sustained the ruling terrorism-threat paradigm The "why" is obvious: To justify an unjust war to serve corporate interests and greed
If we re-investigate in 2008 We'll solve the crime in 2009! Jersey widow, Patty Cassazza, came and gave a great talk in which she spoke of many whistleblowers who came forth to her and the other Jersey widows offering to provide information for the investigation "9/11 Truth is a very important issue with the power to bring lasting change to our country." William Sloane Coffin9.11 Truth New York City Decades long history of political disruption the US has been responsible for 9/11 is part of a long series of criminal, imperialist conquests Another major highlight was surprise appearance of Cynthia McKinney
Why are Architects and Engineers Re-examining the WTC Collapses? The 6 years since 9/11/01 has given us the time and space to emerge from the hypnotic trance of the shocks of these attacks and to rationally evaluate the existing and new evidence that has become available The shock limited our ability to rationally evaluate what really happened. We therefore found ourselves relying solely upon the judgment of outside ' experts 'Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth A solid convincing case which architects & engineers will readily see: that the 3 WTC high-rise buildings were destroyed by both classic and novel forms of controlled demolition These buildings were professionally demolished with explosives
Transcript of interview with Niels Harrit on Danish TV2 News 6th April 2009. Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe Danish TV2 International researchers have found traces of explosives among the World Trade Center rubble.
A new scientific article concludes that impacts from the two hijacked aircraft did not cause the collapses in 2001. We turn our attention to 9/11 the major attack in New York. Apparently the two airplane-impacts did not cause the towers to collapse, according to a newly published scientific article. Researchers found nano-thermite explosive in the rubble, that cannot have come from the planes. They believe several tonnes of explosives were placed in the buildings in advance. Niels Harrit, you and eight other researchers conclude in this article, that it was nano-thermite that caused these buildings to collapse. What is nano-thermite? Niels Harrit We found nano-thermite in the rubble. We are not saying only nano-thermite was used. Thermite itself dates back to 1893. It is a mixture of aluminum and rust-powder, which react to create intense heat. The reaction produces iron, heated to 2500 °C. This can be used to do welding. It can also be used to melt other iron. Nanotechnology makes things smaller. So in nano-thermite, this powder from 1893 is reduced to tiny particles, perfectly mixed. When these react, the intense heat develops much more quickly. Nano-thermite can be mixed with additives to give off intense heat, or serve as a very effective explosive. It contains more energy than dynamite, and can be used as rocket fuel. Danish TV2 I Googled nano-thermite, and not much has been written about it. Is it a widely known scientific substance? Or is it so new that other scientists are hardly aware of it? Niels Harrit It is a collective name for substances with high levels of energy. If civilian researchers (like myself) are not familiar with it, it is probably because they do not do much work with explosives. As for military scientists, you would have to ask them. I do not know how familiar they are with nanotechnology. Danish TV2 So you found this substance in the WTC, why do you think it caused the collapses? Niels Harrit Well, it's an explosive. Why else would it be there? Danish TV2 You believe the intense heat melted the building?s steel support structure, and caused the building to collapse like a house of cards? Niels Harrit I cannot say precisely, as this substance can serve both purposes. It can explode and break things apart, and it can melt things. Both effects were probably used, as I see it. Molten metal pours out of the South Tower several minutes before the collapse. This indicates the whole structure was being weakened in advance. Then the regular explosives come into play. The actual collapse sequence had to be perfectly timed, all the way down. Danish TV2 What quantities are we talking about? Niels Harrit A lot. There were only two planes, but three skyscrapers collapsed. We know roughly how much dust was created. The pictures show huge quantities, everything but the steel was pulverised. And we know roughly how much unreacted thermite we have found.
This is the "loaded gun", material that did not ignite for some reason. We are talking about tonnes. Over 10 tonnes, possibly 100 tonnes. Danish TV2 Ten tonnes, possibly 100 tonnes, in three buildings? And these substances are not normally found in such buildings? Niels Harrit No. These materials are extremely advanced. Danish TV2 How do you place such material in a skyscraper, on all the floors? Niels Harrit How you would get it in? Danish TV2 Yes. Niels Harrit If I had to transport it in those quantities I would use pallets. Get a truck and move it in on pallets. Danish TV2 Why hasn't this been discovered earlier? Niels Harrit By whom? Danish TV2 The caretakers, for example. If you are moving 10 to 100 tonnes of nano-thermite around, and placing it on all the floors. I am just surprised no-one noticed. Niels Harrit As a journalist, you should address that question to the company responsible for security at the WTC. Danish TV2 So you are in no doubt the material was present? Niels Harrit You cannot fudge this kind of science. We have found it. Unreacted thermite. Danish TV2 What responses has your article received around the world? Niels Harrit It is completely new knowledge for me. It was only published last Friday. So it is too early to say. But the article may not be as groundbreaking as you think. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world, have long known that the three buildings were demolished.
This has been crystal clear. Our research is just the last nail in the coffin. This is not the 'smoking gun', it is the 'loaded gun'. Each day, thousands of people realise that the WTC was demolished. That is something unstoppable. Danish TV2 Why has no-one discovered earlier that there was nano-thermite in the buildings? Almost ten years have passed. Niels Harrit You mean in the dust? Danish TV2 Yes. Niels Harrit It was by chance that someone looked at the dust with a microscope. They are tiny red chips. The biggest are 1 mm in size, and can be seen with the naked eye. But you need a microscope to see the vast majority. It was by chance that someone discovered them two years ago. Danish TV2 It has taken 18 months to prepare the scientific article you refer to. Niels Harrit It is a very comprehensive article based on thorough research. Danish TV2 You have been working on this for several years, because it didn't make sense to you. Niels Harrit Yes, over two years actually. It all started when I saw the collapse of Building 7, the third skyscraper. It collapsed seven hours after the twin towers. And there were only two airplanes. When you see a 47-storey building, 186m tall, collapse in 6.5 seconds, and you are a scientist, you think "what?". I had to watch it again… and again. I hit the button 10 times, and my jaw dropped lower and lower. Firstly, I had never heard of that building before. And there was no visible reason why it should collapse in that way, straight down, in 6.5 seconds. I have had no rest since that day. Danish TV2 Ever since 9/11 there has been speculation, and conspiracy theories. What do you say to viewers who hear about your research and say, "we?ve heard it all before, there are lots of conspiracy theories". What would you say to convince them that this is different? Niels Harrit I think there is only one conspiracy theory worth mentioning, the one involving 19 hijackers. I think viewers should ask themselves what evidence they have seen to support the official conspiracy theory. If anyone has seen evidence, I would like to hear about it No-one has been formally charged. No-one is 'wanted'. Our work should lead to demands for a proper criminal investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Because it never happened. We are still waiting for it. We hope our results will be used as technical evidence when that day comes. Danish TV2 Niels Harrit, fascinating, thanks for coming in. Niels Harrit My pleasure
It's common knowledge, he reveals
CIA Mossad behind terror attacks
By the Staff of American Free Press
Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga, who revealed the existence of Operation Gladio, has told Italy's oldest and most widely read newspaper that the 9-11 terrorist attacks were run by the CIA and Mossad, and that this was common knowledge among global intelligence agencies. In what translates awkwardly into English, Cossiga told the newspaper Corriere della Sera:
"All the [intelligence services] of America and Europe… know well that the disastrous attack has been planned and realized from the Mossad, with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part … in Iraq [and] Afghanistan."Cossiga was elected president of the Italian Senate in July 1983 before winning a landslide election to become president of the country in 1985, and he remained until 1992. Cossiga's tendency to be outspoken upset the Italian political establishment, and he was forced to resign after revealing the existence of, and his part in setting up, Operation Gladio. This was a rogue intelligence network under NATO auspices that carried out bombings across Europe in the 1960s, 1970s and '80s. Gladio's specialty was to carry out what they termed 'false flag' operations terror attacks that were blamed on their domestic and geopolitical opposition. In March 2001, Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra stated, in sworn testimony:
"You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force … the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security."Cossiga first expressed his doubts about 9-11 in 2001, and is quoted by 9-11 researcher Webster Tarpley saying:
"The mastermind of the attack must have been a sophisticated mind, provided with ample means not only to recruit fanatic kamikazes, but also highly specialized personnel. I add one thing: it could not be accomplished without infiltrations in the radar and flight security personnel."Coming from a widely respected former head of state, Cossiga's assertion that the 9-11 attacks were an inside job and that this is common knowledge among global intelligence agencies is illuminating. It is one more eye-opening confirmation that has not been mentioned by America's propaganda machine in print or on TV. Nevertheless, because of his experience and status in the world, Cossiga cannot be discounted as a crackpot.
Free to redistribute as long as credit given to American Free Press
|Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
Photo: Bentham-Open.org
Told for the first time the story of Mossad's advance 'knowledge' about the 9-11 attack and how the US Army reported that Mossad "has capability to target US forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act." Suppressed Details Of Criminal Insider Trading Lead Directly Into The Cia's Highest Ranks In the hours following the World Trade Center attack, millions of American Jews were shocked and deeply hurt at accusations spreading around the world like wildfire that Israel had been behind the attack, and had even warned thousands of Jews working in the Twin Towers not to go to work that morning. It is a fair question to ask if Israeli intelligence might have known in advance and, further, if Mossad (the Israeli intelligence agency) might have had a hand in advancing the act to deflect criticism against Israeli actions in Palestine.The secret story of Mossad and the World Trade Center attack The Odigo Warning: Israeli employees get e-mail warnings of 9-11 SEC Secret Probe Of Stock Dealings Before 9/11
Your life, your children's lives
Will you live or die?Decided by small group of elite.Pure evil
It doesn't get any clearer than this
Published on Friday, March 2, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times
US to Develop New Hydrogen Bomb
by Ralph Vartabedian
The Energy Department will announce today a contract to develop the nation's first new hydrogen bomb in two decades, involving a collaboration between three national weapons laboratories, The Times has learned. The new bomb will include design features from all three labs, though Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Bay Area appears to have taken the lead position in the project. The Los Alamos and Sandia labs in New Mexico will also be part of the project.
Why are the West's elites trying to start a nuclear war? Because you pay for it
BBC Thursday, 6 September 2007
UK jets 'chase Russian bombers'
The UK's Royal Air Force has launched fighter jets to intercept eight Russian military planes flying in airspace patrolled by Nato, UK officials say. Four RAF F3 Tornado aircraft were scrambled in response to the Russian action, the UK's defence ministry said. The Russian planes - said to be long-range bombers - had earlier been followed by Norwegian F16 jets. Russia recently revived a Cold War-era practice of flying bombers on long-range patrols. A Norwegian officer, Lt Col John Inge Oegland, told the BBC the Russian Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bombers flew in international airspace from the Barents Sea to the Atlantic, before turning back. Two Norwegian F-16s shadowed them on Thursday morning and another two went up later, he said. There have been several similar incidents in recent months, Lt-Col Oegland added. "Norway is following the increased Russian activity in the far north with interest," he told the BBC News website. He said the Russian flights were not causing alarm in Norway. "Our systems are adequate," he said, when asked whether Norway was bolstering its security in the area.
By all accounts, the unprecedented events of September 11th, 2001 changed the way our country functions, and in turn, the world. It is therefore critical that conscientious Americans, as well as people around the globe, understand these events in detail. Unfortunately the official reports, including The 9/11 Commission Report and the NIST WTC Report, written by those working under the direction of the Bush Administration, have been proven to be elaborate cover-ups.Film: 9/11 Revisited September 11th Revisited is perhaps the most riveting film ever made about the destruction of the World Trade Center. This is a powerful documentary which features eyewitness accounts and archived news footage that was shot on September 11, 2001 but never replayed on television. Featuring interviews with eyewitnesses & firefighters, along with expert analysis by Professor Steven E. Jones, Professor David Ray Griffin, MIT Engineer Jeffrey King, and Professor James H. Fetzer. This film provides stunning evidence that explosives were used in the complete demolition of the WTC Twin Towers and WTC Building 7.
For Film: 9/11 Revisited Click Here Film: 9/11 Press for Truth An excellent documentary about the families of the victims of 9/11 and their fight to uncover and expose the truth about what happened that day.
For Film: 9/11 Press for Truth Click Here Film: 9/11 Mysteries 90 minutes of pure demolition evidence and analysis, laced with staggering witness testimonials. Moving from "the myth" through "the analysis" and into "the players," careful deconstruction of the official story set right alongside clean, clear science. The 9/11 picture is not one of politics or nationalism or loyalty, but one of strict and simple physics. How do you get a 10-second 110-story pancake collapse?
|Every missile has a home(No Mortgages to Worry About)
Image: Natasha Mayers
Monsanto Dow Chemical let off hook by New York Federal Court for Agent Orange toxic herbicide manufacture Ranch Hand a US government operation defoliated 1.2 million acres of land and dispensed 4.8 million gallons of chemicals over Vietnam Nguyen Thi Thuy remembers crawling into tunnels during the day and covering her mouth with a wet rag when the US military sprayed the landscape with defoliantAgent Orange Dioxin Vietnam Cleft palate, Canoe footed, Clawed fingers continue in births I didn't know what it was then, but it was white
As Thanksgiving 2000 approached, the justices and their clerks planned their vacations and scattered, leaving a skeletal staff generally only one of the three or four clerks assigned to each chamber behind in case the impossible happened There was just no way, Justice Stephen Breyer remarked over the holiday, that the Court would ever get involved How the US Supreme court stopped the ballots in Florida from being countedBush v. Gore Appointment of U.S. President by the U.S. Supreme Court Raw political clout exercised by US Supreme Court
Unspeakable grief and horror
...and the circus of deception continues...
Published on Monday, July 4, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
by Sheldon Drobny Justice O'Connor's decision in Bush v. Gore led to the current Bush administration's execution of war crimes and atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places in the Middle East that are as egregious as those committed by the Third Reich and other evil governments in human history.
The lesson is clear. Those people who may be honorable and distinguished in their chosen profession should always make decisions based upon good rather than evil no matter where their nominal allegiances may rest. Justice O'Connor was quoted to have said something to the affect that she abhorred the thought of Bush losing the 2000 election to Gore. She was known to have wanted to retire after the 2000 election for same reason she is now retiring. She wanted to spend more time with her sick husband. Unfortunately, she tarnished her distinguished career with the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore by going along with the partisan majority of the Court to interfere with a democratic election that she and the majority feared would be lost in an honest recount. She dishonored herself and the Supreme Court by succumbing to party allegiances and not The Constitution to which she swore to uphold. And the constitutional argument she and the majority used to justify their decision was the Equal Protection Clause. The Equal Protection Clause was the ultimate basis for the decision, but the majority essentially admitted (what was obvious in any event) that it was not basing its conclusion on any general view of what equal protection requires. The decision in Bush v Gore was not dictated by the law in any senseeither the law found through research, or the law as reflected in the kind of intuitive sense that comes from immersion in the legal culture. The Equal Protection clause is generally used in matters concerning civil rights. The majority ignored their basic conservative views supporting federalism and states' rights in order to justify their decision. History will haunt these justices down for their utter lack of justice and the hypocrisy associated with this decision. Sheldon Drobny is Co-founder of Air America Radio.
As Thanksgiving 2000 approached, the justices and their clerks planned their vacations and scattered, leaving a skeletal staff generally only one of the three or four clerks assigned to each chamber behind in case the impossible happened There was just no way, Justice Stephen Breyer remarked over the holiday, that the Court would ever get involved How the US Supreme court stopped the ballots in Florida from being countedBush v. Gore Appointment of U.S. President by the U.S. Supreme Court Raw political clout exercised by US Supreme Court
Nanci Pelosi U.S. House Democratic leader Congresswoman California, 8th District Speaking at the AIPAC agenda May 26, 2005 There are those who contend that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This is absolute nonsense. In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist. The greatest threat to Israel's right to exist, with the prospect of devastating violence, now comes from Iran. For too long, leaders of both political parties in the United States have not done nearly enough to confront the Russians and the Chinese, who have supplied Iran as it has plowed ahead with its nuclear and missile technology.... In the words of Isaiah, we will make ourselves to Israel 'as hiding places from the winds and shelters from the tempests; as rivers of water in dry places; as shadows of a great rock in a weary land.'
The United States will stand with Israel now and forever. Now and forever.
Palestine children, ten years old, shot in UN school by Israeli troops Bullets fired from US paid for Israel tank Palestinian students peer into the doorway as they look at a large pool of blood on the floor The school has been fired on many times, placing the 1,300 students and their teachers in constant dangerAhmed and Asma, story of two children dying Lest we forget
What the army used here yesterday was not tear gasIsrael, chemical weapons and phosphorous bombs New and unknown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces Undetectable poison-needle gun for 'clean' assassinations
We know what tear gas is, what it feels like
That was something totally different… Israel's soldiers are not going to march into Gaza and truck all the inhabitants away.
The strategy is simply to make the place into a garbage dump picked over by destitute people. The typhoid poisoning of Palestinian wells and water supplies in 1948 The conversion of F-16s into nerve gas 'crop dusters' in 1998
Close cooperation between IIBR and the British-American biological warfare programme
US Congress too stupid or gullible, and have killed many. I would suggest that any member of the US Congress who had voted
for it, should be barred from ever running for
any public office in America ever again!
Elegantly dressed statesmen constructing framework
that would allow them to kill quite a lot of people
Suicide Bombing Blair, Bush
Suicide Bombing is response to foreign occupation
Will stop once troops withdraw
Mental Health disorders effecting returning US troops
US and War Interview with George GallowayMost religious people are on the same side as most progressive people
With Bush's reinauguration, America now has the president it deserves
Bush's reinauguration bash and the six children of Tal Afar
U.S. War Crimes Falluja photos Graphic Images
US used chemical and thermobaric weapons in Fallujah
U.S. Supreme Court appoints a president death and decimation September/October, 2004 Iraq picturesChechnya, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Palestine, Iraq War and Death September 2004 photos Iraq's real WMD crime the effects of depleted uranium World War Two soldiers did not kill Kill ratio Korea, Vietnam. Iraq. Cowardly attacks by air killing men women and children in their homes, often never seeing those they kill as the drones or aircraft fly back to the cowardly bases If they kill only the husband, see how they care for the family they have destroyed Afghanistan Western Terror States: Canada, US, UK, France, Germany, Italy Photos of Afghanistan people being killed and injured by NATO Aid agencies compromised by US actions
More on the building of the wall. US and Israel's use of chemical agents All with U.S. Money:
Israel agents stole identity of New Zealand cerebral palsy victim.
(IsraelNN.com July 15, 2004) The Foreign Ministry will take steps towards restoring relations with New Zealand. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark today announced she was implementing diplomatic sanctions after two Israelis were sentenced on charges of attempting to obtain illegal passports. Despite Israeli refusal to respond to the accusations, the two are labeled in the New Zealand media as Mossad agents acting on behalf of the Israeli intelligence community.
Foreign Ministry officials stated they will do everything possible to renew diplomatic ties, expressing sorrow over the "unfortunate incident". Darfur pictures and arial views of destruction 2003 - 2005 October 2004 photos Suicide now top killer of Israeli soldiers Atrocities files - graphic images 'Suicide bombings,' the angel said, 'and beheadings.'
'And the others that have all the power they fly missiles in the sky.
They don't even look at the people they kill.' The real Ronald Reagan
Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, South Africa Photos September 2004 Follow the torture trail... Photos August 2004 When you talk with God were you also spending your time, money and energy, killing people? Are they now alive or dead? Photos July 2004 US Debt Photos June 2004 Lest we forget Ahmed and Asma, story of two children dying Photos May 2004 American military: Abu Gharib (Ghraib) prison photos, humiliation and torture
London Daily Mirror article: non-sexually explicit pictures Photos April 2004 The celebration of Jerusalem day, the US missiles that rained onto children in Gaza,
and, a gathering of top articles over the past nine months Photos March 2004 The Iraq War - complete listing of articles, includes images Photos February 2004 US missiles US money and Palestine Photos January 2004 Ethnic cleansing in the Beduin desert Photos December 2003 Shirin Ebadi Nobel Peace Prize winner 2003 Photos November 2003 Atrocities graphic images... Photos October 2003 Aljazeerah.info Photos September 2003
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text:
This the fourth consecutive win for the Prelude and the third for the VTEC model, which brings the same finely developed hardware to sports coupes that the Accord brings to family sedans.
The top-of-the-line Prelude is equipped with Honda's 2.2-liter VTEC engine generating a lofty 190 hp—without a turbo. This engine endows the Prelude with excellent performance and very smooth power delivery. The thrust is matched to a well-balanced chassis that stays neutral whether you're accelerating hard out of an apex or swerving sharply to avoid mid-corner boulders.
With a base price of $25,350, the Prelude is not a screaming deal. Its shortcomings include a minuscule back seat and flat-out strange dashboard styling. But we enjoy driving the VTEC too much to leave it off our list.
VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 2+2-passenger, 2-door coupe
ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 16-valve 2.2-liter 4-in-line
Power (SAE net): 190 bhp @ 6800 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 5-speed
Wheelbase: 100.4 in Length: 174.8 in
Curb weight: 2950 lb
EPA city driving: 22 mpg

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Thanks for joining in on the #ESPEchat tonight!
I hope you took a few good ideas away that you can implement in your teaching.
You can download my 30 printable station activity signs at the link below.
Also, I recommend checking out these Dry Erase Slips to make setup/takedown even easier
Have an awesome day.
Have Fun and Teach On!
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