Afghanistan : Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time

 

By CRAIG MURRAY – More by this author »

Last updated at 20:45pm on 21st July 2007

This week the 64th British soldier to die in Afghanistan, Corporal Mike Gilyeat, was buried. All the right things were said about this brave soldier, just as, on current trends, they will be said about one or more of his colleagues who follow him next week.

The alarming escalation of the casualty rate among British soldiers in Afghanistan – up to ten per cent – led to discussion this week on whether it could be fairly compared to casualty rates in the Second World War.

Killing fields: Farmers in Afghanistan gather an opium crop which will be made into heroin

But the key question is this: what are our servicemen dying for? There are glib answers to that: bringing democracy and development to Afghanistan, supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai in its attempt to establish order in the country, fighting the Taliban and preventing the further spread of radical Islam into Pakistan.

But do these answers stand up to close analysis?

There has been too easy an acceptance of the lazy notion that the war in Afghanistan is the ‘good’ war, while the war in Iraq is the ‘bad’ war, the blunder. The origins of this view are not irrational. There was a logic to attacking Afghanistan after 9/11.

Afghanistan was indeed the headquarters of Osama Bin Laden and his organisation, who had been installed and financed there by the CIA to fight the Soviets from 1979 until 1989. By comparison, the attack on Iraq – which was an enemy of Al Qaeda and no threat to us – was plainly irrational in terms of the official justification.

So the attack on Afghanistan has enjoyed a much greater sense of public legitimacy. But the operation to remove Bin Laden was one thing. Six years of occupation are clearly another.

Head of the Afghan armed forces: General Abdul Rashid Dostrum

Few seem to turn a hair at the officially expressed view that our occupation of Iraq may last for decades.

Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell has declared, fatuously, that the Afghan war is ‘winnable’.

Afghanistan was not militarily winnable by the British Empire at the height of its supremacy. It was not winnable by Darius or Alexander, by Shah, Tsar or Great Moghul. It could not be subdued by 240,000 Soviet troops. But what, precisely, are we trying to win?

In six years, the occupation has wrought one massive transformation in Afghanistan, a development so huge that it has increased Afghan GDP by 66 per cent and constitutes 40 per cent of the entire economy. That is a startling achievement, by any standards. Yet we are not trumpeting it. Why not?

The answer is this. The achievement is the highest harvests of opium the world has ever seen.

The Taliban had reduced the opium crop to precisely nil. I would not advocate their methods for doing this, which involved lopping bits, often vital bits, off people. The Taliban were a bunch of mad and deeply unpleasant religious fanatics. But one of the things they were vehemently against was opium.

That is an inconvenient truth that our spin has managed to obscure. Nobody has denied the sincerity of the Taliban’s crazy religious zeal, and they were as unlikely to sell you heroin as a bottle of Johnnie Walker.

They stamped out the opium trade, and impoverished and drove out the drug warlords whose warring and rapacity had ruined what was left of the country after the Soviet war.

That is about the only good thing you can say about the Taliban; there are plenty of very bad things to say about them. But their suppression of the opium trade and the drug barons is undeniable fact.

Now we are occupying the country, that has changed. According to the United Nations, 2006 was the biggest opium harvest in history, smashing the previous record by 60 per cent. This year will be even bigger.

Our economic achievement in Afghanistan goes well beyond the simple production of raw opium. In fact Afghanistan no longer exports much raw opium at all. It has succeeded in what our international aid efforts urge every developing country to do. Afghanistan has gone into manufacturing and ‘value-added’ operations.

It now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with Nato troops.

How can this have happened, and on this scale? The answer is simple. The four largest players in the heroin business are all senior members of the Afghan government – the government that our soldiers are fighting and dying to protect.

When we attacked Afghanistan, America bombed from the air while the CIA paid, armed and equipped the dispirited warlord drug barons – especially those grouped in the Northern Alliance – to do the ground occupation. We bombed the Taliban and their allies into submission, while the warlords moved in to claim the spoils. Then we made them ministers.

President Karzai is a good man. He has never had an opponent killed, which may not sound like much but is highly unusual in this region and possibly unique in an Afghan leader. But nobody really believes he is running the country. He asked America to stop its recent bombing campaign in the south because it was leading to an increase in support for the Taliban. The United States simply ignored him. Above all, he has no control at all over the warlords among his ministers and governors, each of whom runs his own kingdom and whose primary concern is self-enrichment through heroin.

My knowledge of all this comes from my time as British Ambassador in neighbouring Uzbekistan from 2002 until 2004. I stood at the Friendship Bridge at Termez in 2003 and watched the Jeeps with blacked-out windows bringing the heroin through from Afghanistan, en route to Europe.

I watched the tankers of chemicals roaring into Afghanistan.

Yet I could not persuade my country to do anything about it. Alexander Litvinenko – the former agent of the KGB, now the FSB, who died in London last November after being poisoned with polonium 210 – had suffered the same frustration over the same topic.

There are a number of theories as to why Litvinenko had to flee Russia. The most popular blames his support for the theory that FSB agents planted bombs in Russian apartment blocks to stir up anti-Chechen feeling.

But the truth is that his discoveries about the heroin trade were what put his life in danger. Litvinenko was working for the KGB in St Petersburg in 2001 and 2002. He became concerned at the vast amounts of heroin coming from Afghanistan, in particular from the fiefdom of the (now) Head of the Afghan armed forces, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, in north and east Afghanistan.

Dostum is an Uzbek, and the heroin passes over the Friendship Bridge from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, where it is taken over by President Islam Karimov’s people. It is then shipped up the railway line, in bales of cotton, to St Petersburg and Riga.

The heroin Jeeps run from General Dostum to President Karimov. The UK, United States and Germany have all invested large sums in donating the most sophisticated detection and screening equipment to the Uzbek customs centre at Termez to stop the heroin coming through.

But the convoys of Jeeps running between Dostum and Karimov are simply waved around the side of the facility.

Litvinenko uncovered the St Petersburg end and was stunned by the involvement of the city authorities, local police and security services at the most senior levels. He reported in detail to President Vladimir Putin. Putin is, of course, from St Petersburg, and the people Litvinenko named were among Putin’s closest political allies. That is why Litvinenko, having miscalculated badly, had to flee Russia.

I had as little luck as Litvinenko in trying to get official action against this heroin trade. At the St Petersburg end he found those involved had the top protection. In Afghanistan, General Dostum is vital to Karzai’s coalition, and to the West’s pretence of a stable, democratic government.

Opium is produced all over Afghanistan, but especially in the north and north-east – Dostum’s territory. Again, our Government’s spin doctors have tried hard to obscure this fact and make out that the bulk of the heroin is produced in the tiny areas of the south under Taliban control. But these are the most desolate, infertile rocky areas. It is a physical impossibility to produce the bulk of the vast opium harvest there.

That General Dostum is head of the Afghan armed forces and Deputy Minister of Defence is in itself a symbol of the bankruptcy of our policy. Dostum is known for tying opponents to tank tracks and running them over. He crammed prisoners into metal containers in the searing sun, causing scores to die of heat and thirst.

Since we brought ‘democracy’ to Afghanistan, Dostum ordered an MP who annoyed him to be pinned down while he attacked him. The sad thing is that Dostum is probably not the worst of those comprising the Karzai government, or the biggest drug smuggler among them.

Our Afghan policy is still victim to Tony Blair’s simplistic world view and his childish division of all conflicts into ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’. The truth is that there are seldom any good guys among those vying for power in a country such as Afghanistan. To characterise the Karzai government as good guys is sheer nonsense.

Why then do we continue to send our soldiers to die in Afghanistan? Our presence in Afghanistan and Iraq is the greatest recruiting sergeant for Islamic militants. As the great diplomat, soldier and adventurer Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Alexander Burnes pointed out before his death in the First Afghan War in 1841, there is no point in a military campaign in Afghanistan as every time you beat them, you just swell their numbers. Our only real achievement to date is falling street prices for heroin in London.

Remember this article next time you hear a politician calling for more troops to go into Afghanistan. And when you hear of another brave British life wasted there, remember you can add to the casualty figures all the young lives ruined, made miserable or ended by heroin in the UK.

They, too, are casualties of our Afghan policy.

source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=469983&in_page_id=1770

1. Afghanistan now nearly ‘a narcotics state’
More than three years after a pro-U.S. government was installed, Afghanistan has been unable to contain opium poppy production and is “on the verge of becoming a narcotics state,” according to a presidential report. The report said the area in Afghanistan devoted to poppy cultivation last year set a new record of 206,700 hectares, more than triple the figure for 2003. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, opium production was nearly halted. So, how come the Taliban is terrorist, then!!! Now there is a bumper crop. Look for the quiz on Afghanistan further down.
http://www.infowars.net/Pages/Mar05/050305Afghanistan.html

2. The Truth About The USA, Drugs and Afghanistan
“Before 1980, Afghanistan produced 0% of the world’s opium. But then the CIA moved in, and by 1986 they were producing 40% of the world’s heroin supply. By 1999, they were churning out 3,200 TONS of heroin a year ­ nearly 80% of the total market supply. But then something unexpected happened. The Taliban rose to power, and by 2000 they had destroyed nearly all of the opium fields. Production dropped from 3,000+ tons to only 185 tons, a 94% reduction!”
http://www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=13577&TagID=1

3. Who benefits from the Afghan Opium Trade?
The United Nations has announced that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has soared and is expected to increase by 59% in 2006. The production of opium is estimated to have increased by 49% in relation to 2005. The Western media in chorus blame the Taliban and the warlords. The Bush administration is said to be committed to curbing the Afghan drug trade: “The US is the main backer of a huge drive to rid Afghanistan of opium… “
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060921&articleId=3294

4. UN Report Says Afghan Government Protect Drug Traffickers
KABUL (AP)–Afghanistan’s criminal underworld has compromised key government officials who protect drug traffickers, allowing a record opium trade that won’t be stamped out for a generation to flourish, an ominous new U.N. report released Tuesday said.
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20061128\ACQDJON200611281353DOWJONESDJONLINE000662.htm&selected=9999&selecteddisplaysymbol=9999&StoryTargetFrame=_top&mkt=WORLD&chk=unchecked〈=&link=&headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na

5. Afghanistan’s opium crop at an all-time high
The question is why. Under Taliban rule, which began in the late 1990s, Afghanistan just about kicked the growing habit by 2001. After five years the Taliban is slipping back in, but poppy production has grown by leaps and bounds. According to the Washington Post, “Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin, broke all records in 2006, reaching a historic high despite ongoing U.S.-sponsored eradication efforts, the Bush administration reported yesterday.
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1511.shtml

6. Drug mafia, CIA blamed for sacking of Afghan governor
KABUL: In a country flooded with narcotics traffickers and corrupt government officials, one of Afghanistan’s few remaining ‘clean’ governors, Mohammed Daud, has been removed from his position, and many are blaming the drug mafia and the CIA for his abrupt dismissal.
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?165264

7. Heroin is “Good for Your Health”: Occupation Forces (US) support Afghan Narcotics Trade Multibillion dollar earnings for organized crime and Western financial Institutions.
The occupation forces in Afghanistan are supporting the drug trade, which brings between 120 and 194 billion dollars of revenues to organized crime, intelligence agencies and Western financial institutions.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20070604&articleId=5514

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Jewish Slaughter Christians in 641 AD Jerusalem

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Jewish Slaughter Christians in 641 AD Jerusalem

As the Agents of the Persians

A History of Palestine from 135 AD to Modern Times, p.81,

Oxford University Press, New York, 1909

According to A History of Palestine from 135 A.D. to Modern Times, by James Parkes (Oxford University Press, New York, 1909), Persians in 614 A.D. invaded Palestine, a part of the Christian Roman Empire of the East, and took Jerusalem. Here is Mr. Parkes’s account: There is no doubt that the . . . Jews aided the Persians with all the men they could muster, and that the help they gave was considerable. Once Jerusalem was in Persian hands a terrible massacre of Christians took place, and the Jews are accused of having taken the lead in this massacre (op. cit., p. 81).

source:
http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-genocide-jerusalemchristians641ad.html

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The Jewish View of a Kingdom–Racist : Tyranny, Racism, Genocide, Apartheid

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

 

The Jewish View of a Kingdom–Racist

Tyranny, Racism, Genocide, Apartheid

The truth of how Jews view the entire inhabited world will be made manifest in this post. Below is a House Concurrent Resolution in which Jewish Charles Schumer wants the United States Congress to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of a Jewish kingdom. This document does not exclude gentiles per se but notice that it only addresses worldwide Jewry.

“There are no English, French, German or American Jews, but only Jews living in England, France, Germany or America.” Chaim Weizmann, Zionist Leader, on August 29, 1897, at the First Zionist Congress at Basle, Switzerland.

(There will be those that complain that this bill is from the 104th Congress BUT that was when the “3000th Anniversay” took place. This is evidence of the power of AIPAC, The Jewish Lobby, on American Congress!)

FILE hc36.ih
104th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 36

Concerning the 3000th anniversary of King David’s establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish kingdom.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 9, 1995

Mr. Schumer submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Concerning the 3000th anniversary of King David’s establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish kingdom. Whereas 1996 is the trimillennial anniversary of King David’s conquest of the city of Jerusalem and establishment of the city as the capital of the Jewish kingdom; Whereas since this time Jerusalem has been the spiritual, cultural, and historic focal point of Jewish devotion; Whereas during this anniversary world jewry will celebrate, commemorate, and sponsor educational activities about the holy city in Jerusalem; Whereas Jerusalem has been the capital of the State of Israel since Israel’s independence was declared in 1948; Whereas from 1948 to 1967 Jerusalem was a divided city and Israeli citizens of all faiths as well as Jewish citizens of all states were denied access to holy sites in their historical and religious capital; Whereas in 1967 Jerusalem was reunited during the conflict known as the Six Day War; Whereas in 1990 the United States Senate and House of Representatives overwhelmingly adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 and House Concurrent Resolution 290 declaring that Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, `must remain an undivided city’; Whereas in 1996 the Jerusalem 3000 celebrations begin as negotiations on the future status of Jerusalem, as called for in the Declaration of Principles signed by the Palestinians and Israelis on September 13, 1993, also begin; and Whereas Jerusalem is and will remain the eternal capital of the State of Israel: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Congress–

(1) congratulates the residents of Jerusalem and the people of Israel on the 3000th anniversary of King David’s conquest of Jerusalem and its subsequent establishment as the capital of the Jewish kingdom;

(2) strongly believes that Jerusalem must remain an undivided city and the eternal capital of the State of Israel; and

(3) calls upon the President and the Secretary of State to issue an unequivocal statement in support of paragraphs (1) and (2).

Gentiles do not have any stand in the racist Jewish Kingdom

The Jews do not recognize the New Covenant nor do they acknowledge its presenter, Jesus Christ. The Jews still adhere to the Old Covenant as presented by Moses. Jews still view themselves as the “chosen people” and they still view the Gentiles as lessers. To appreciate the Jewish view and how they view the current physical and Earthly Jerusalem let’s consider the following:

Acts 10: 28
(The Apostle Peter said) “You must know that it is not proper for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or to have dealings with him. But God has made it clear to me that no one shall call any man unclean or impure.”)

Deuteronomy 6: 10,11
“When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, with house full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore you eat your fill….

Isaiah 60: 9-12, 16 Isaiah 61:5,6,9 Isaiah 62:1
All the vessels of the sea are assembled, with the ships of Tarshish in the lead, to bring your children from afar (Diaspora?) with their silver and gold, in the name of the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you. Foreigners (Gentiles) shall rebuild your walls, and their kings shall be your attendants: Though I struck you in my wrath, yet in my good will I have shown you mercy. Your gates shall stand open constantly; day and night they shall not be closed but shall admit to you the wealth of the nations, and their kings, in the vanguard. For the people or kingdom shall perish that does not serve you; those nations shall be utterly destroyed. You shall suck the milk of nations, and be nursed at royal breasts… Strangers shall stand ready to pasture your flocks, foreigners shall be your farmers and vinedressers. You, yourselves, shall be named the priests of the LORD, ministers of our God you shall be called. You shall eat the wealth of the nations and boast of riches from them. All who see them shall acknowledge them as a race the LORD has blessed. For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet….”

[Our modern 20th century Jews still believe the Old Covenant promises made to them. You only need to look at how they "seized" Palestine in 1948. The Jews now live in houses which they did not build, they've occupied cities which they did not build and they eat the fruits of other's labor, as if all of it is owed to them! This belief would also explain the Jewish leaning towards communism which holds the same desires for its ruling elite.]

On Jewish Racism as described in the Bible:

Acts 10: 28
Apostle Peter said: “You well know how unlawful it is for a Jew to join himself to or approach a man of another race..”

John 4: 9
Look at what the Samaritan woman told Jesus at the well: “..the Samaritan woman said to him [Jesus]:’How is it that you, despite being a Jew, ask me for a drink, when I am a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”

Ezra 9: 1,2
For further reading go to Ezra 9: 1,2 and see how the Jews drove away their foreign wives!

Ezra 10: 10
You must also see Ezra 10: 10 to see the final casting off of non-Jewish wives.

Nehemiah 7: 61,64
One other example of Jews’ desire for racial purity is Nehemiah 7: 61,64 : “.. they were not able to tell the house of their fathers and their origin, whether they were of Israel.. These were the ones that looked for their genealogy publicly, and it was not found so that they were barred as polluted from the priesthood.” [Does this not sound like the Jews are into racial purity themselves?!]

To achieve this Jew World Order the Jews have to remove “their sub humans” from their “Holy City” and this is how they seek to make Jeruslaem Arab free.

source:
http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-genocide-palestinian.html

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A Brutal Routine : Jewish Palestinian Genocide

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

A Brutal Routine

WASHINGTON POST

Friday, January 3, 2003; Page A18

THERE HAS BEEN a lull recently in Palestinian attacks against Israelis; a shooting attack that killed four in a West Bank settlement last week was the first major incident in a month. But almost every day, Palestinian civilians, including many children, are being killed by the Israeli army and police. An 18-year-old high school student named Amran Abu Hamediye was found beaten to death in the West Bank town of Hebron on Monday; family and neighbors say he had been detained by Israeli forces a few minutes before. On Sunday, an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed by troops in the town of Tulkarm. The day before, a 9-year-old girl was killed as she played outside her home in the Gaza Strip. At least four other Palestinian children under the age of 16 were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza during the past month. In one case, an 11-year-old girl was shot in the chest and killed as she leaned out her bedroom window to watch the funeral of a teenage boy who had been gunned down the previous day.

Israeli explanations of this grinding carnage long ago acquired a routine quality. Youngsters are often accused of having thrown stones at troops; in other cases, soldiers are said to have been responding to sniper fire in the vicinity. Investigations are invariably said to be underway — but rarely are results reported. According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, only one Israeli soldier has been convicted of brutality since the latest Palestinian uprising began 15 months ago. During that time, some 2,000 Palestinians have been killed, compared with 700 Israelis.

Israeli officials point out that their forces, unlike the Palestinian suicide bombers, do not deliberately set out to kill children and other civilians. That is mostly true; but reports of calculated brutality by soldiers have been growing ever since the army reoccupied the West Bank six months ago. In Hebron, where Palestinian terrorists ambushed and killed a dozen Israeli soldiers and security guards on Nov. 15, Israeli paramilitary forces have reportedly been operating something they call “the lottery,” in which they detain Palestinians and order them to choose from pieces of paper labeled with punishments such as “broken leg” and “smashed head.” The practice was reported by an Israeli newspaper on Dec. 22, more than a week before Amran Abu Hamediye was beaten to death. But Israeli authorities as yet have taken no action in response to the reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the reoccupation of Palestinian towns and territory, and the destruction of most of the security infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority, after Israeli forces failed to stop waves of suicide bombers from assaulting Israel. Now running for reelection, Mr. Sharon is claiming success: Suicide bombings are less frequent, and beleaguered Palestinian militants are discussing the possibility of declaring an end to attacks inside Israel. Mr. Sharon recently promised that his tactics would lead to “victory” over the Palestinians. But he and his army cannot give Israelis real security in this way, only a relative respite — and at a high cost in Palestinian lives.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

source:
http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-genocide-palestinian.html

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Isn’t it true that Palestine was empty and inhabited by nomadic people?

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Isn’t it true that Palestine was empty and inhabited by nomadic people?

Posted on AUGUST-2-2001

From the early stages of Zionism to the present, Zionists have propagated the myth that Palestinians did not settle Palestine until it was later developed by the Israelis. To facilitate such disinformation, the Zionists adopted the following slogan to entice European Jewry to emigrate to Palestine:

“A land with no people is for a people with no land”.

Had the Zionist leadership admitted the existence of an indigenous people, then they would have been obliged to explain how they intended to displace them. To disprove this baseless myth, let’s quote Ben-Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister) who stated as early as 1918 that “Palestine is not an empty country”. According to Shabtai Teveth (one of Ben-Gurion’s official biographers), Ben-Gurion stated in an article published in 1918 that:

“Palestine is not an empty country . . . on no account must we injure the rights of the inhabitants.”

Ben-Gurion often returned to this point, emphasizing that Palestinian Arabs had “the full right” to an independent economic, cultural, and communal life, but not political. (Shabtai Teveth, p. 37-38)

To destroy this baseless myth, click here to view a page that was scanned from a book which was conceived and edited by Ben-Gurion himself, stating that Jews made up 12% of the total Palestinian population as of 1914. It’s not only that the majority of the Jews in Palestine were not Zionists (by Ben-Gurion’s own admission), but they were also not even citizens of the country since many had recently fled anti-Semitic Tsarist Russia.

As the Ottoman census records show Palestine was widely inhabited in the late 19th and early 20th century, especially in the rural areas where agriculture was the main profession. According to Justine McCarthy (p. 26), an authority on the Ottoman Turks, Palestine’s population in the early 19th century was 350,000, and in 1914 Palestine had a population of 657,000 Muslim Arabs, 81,000 Christian Arabs, and 59,000 Jews (including many European Jews from the first and second Aliyah).

So the Jewish population in Palestine as of 1914 were under 8% of the total population, which was much smaller than the Palestinian Christian Arab population. It should be noted that our source, Justine McCarthy was quoted by many Israeli Jewish scholars like Benny Morris and Tom Segev. In that regard, it’s worth quoting one of the most ardent Zionists, Israel Zangwill, who stated as early as 1905, that Palestine was twice as thickly populated as the United States. He stated:

“Palestine proper has already its inhabitants. The pashalik of Jerusalem is already twice as thickly populated as the United States, having fifty-two souls to the square mile, and not 25% of them Jews ….. [We] must be prepared either to drive out by the sword the [Arab] tribes in possession as our forefathers did or to grapple with the problem of a large alien population, mostly Mohammedan and accustomed for centuries to despise us.” (Righteous Victims, p. 140 & Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 7-10)

In other words, Palestinians were recognized by the Zionist leadership as “humans” who populated Palestine, however, that was not good enough of a reason to “grant” them the same political rights as Jews, who mostly lived outside of Palestine. Consequently, this ideology was the prelude to the wholesale DISPOSSESSION and ETHNIC CLEANSING of the Palestinian people during the 1948 war.

Soon after the first Zionist Congress in Basel (Switzerland) in 1897, a Zionist delegation was sent to Palestine for a fact finding mission, and to explore the viability of settling Palestine with persecuted European Jews. The delegation replied back from Palestine with a cable that stated:

“The bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man.” (Iron Wall, p. 3)

Despite that many Zionists were aware of this happy marriage as early as 1897, they have deliberately chosen to terminate this relationship since they think that Jewish rights are more important than Palestinian rights. The forcible divorce of Palestine from its indigenous people was eloquently articulated by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the Israeli political Right, in 1926 who explained that:

” … the tragedy lies in the fact the there is a collision here between two truths …. but our justice is greater. The Arab is culturally backward, but his instinctive patriotism is just as pure and noble as our own; it cannot be bought, it can only be curbed … force majeure.” (Righteous Victims, p. 108)

The questions which beg to be asked are these:

• Do two wrongs make a right?
• Is it just to solve an injustice by perpetrating another injustice?
• If at one point, Palestinian injustice becomes greater than Jewish injustice, does that justify perpetrating war crimes to solve their injustice?

What makes many Zionists dangerous over time is that they start believing their own propaganda. For example, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister between 1996-1998, proposed lately that Israel should never relinquish control over the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip since he claims that the local population are the descendents of non-indigenous Palestinians. He also alleged that these people came to look for employment that was generated by the influx of new European Jewish capital. Yehoshua Porat, a Hebrew University professor, refuted the late Prime Minister in an article published in Ha’aretz Daily, click here to read his rebuttal. It’s worth noting that Professor Porat worked for the campaign to elect Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996, so it might not be a good idea to call him Netanyahu hater. Moreover, it should be noted that all Zionist investments in Palestine required employing Jewish labor as decreed by the Jewish National Fund’s racist bylaws (United Nations: The origins of the Palestine problem). In other words, the primary beneficiary of Zionist investment were Jewish immigrants, and not the Palestinian native population.

It’s really amusing that while nearly all Israelis and Zionists believe that Hawaii, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Tahiti, and Iraq were all populated by indigenous people prior to WW I, however, they find it extremely difficult to imagine that the “Promised Land” (one of the most strategic areas in the world) had any indigenous people whatsoever. It’s as if the “Promised Land” had been waiting for over 2,000 years for Israelis and Zionists to settle it and make it bloom, click here to read our response to this argument.

Finally, it’s not only that Palestine enjoyed a strategic commercial location (being the land bridge between Asia and Africa), its lands were also fertile and planted with all sorts of trees a long time before the Zionists came to its shorelines. So to claim that Palestine had no people until the Zionists came to settle it, is an absurd claim. Sadly, many Israelis and Zionists hate the idea of an indigenous Palestinian people to the point that they’ve created a fictitious world based on illusion. In that respect, the Palestinian people have a simple message: Over 8.5 million Palestinians are not going away. The sooner the Israelis and Zionists understand this simple message, the faster they will wake up from their delusional coma.

source:
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Palestine-Remembered/Story414.html

Related Links

• Quoting Mark Twain out of context on Palestine
• British Mandate: Arab and Jewish immigration to Palestine from 1920-1945
• Palestine’s population during the Ottoman and the British Mandate period By Justine McCarthy
• Zionist FAQ: Isn’t true that Palestine was a destitute place until Israelis made its desert bloom?
• Zionist Quotes: Do Palestinians Exist, or Don’t They? That’s The Question?
• Listen to an interview with the former Israeli Foreign Minister (Shlomo Ben-Ami) admitting that is a concocted myth that Palestine was empty until Jewish development of the country (starting from minute 12:00).

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Open Letter to Oprah

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Open Letter to Oprah

Ali Baghdadi

Published Date: 03/06/2007 – 04:47 AM

Dear Oprah,

I am so glad that you will be visiting my country, Palestine. I wish if I could be there to greet you. Certainly, despite the genocide and ethnic cleansing they face every hour of the day, my people will be there. They will be happy to see you and will receive you with open arms.

Unfortunately, I cannot be there! My family tree and my roots in Palestine go back to time immemorial, long before Islam, Christianity and Judaism came into being. Last July, I was given entry to my homeland only as a tourist, with an American passport and a Japanese camera. Though I am 70 years old, I had to stand at the Israeli immigration window at Sheikh Hussein entry point on the Jordan River for over seven hours before I was allowed in to visit my home and family. Months earlier, Canadian Jews were processed and given Israeli citizenship to my land while they were 35,000 feet high over the Atlantic.

Arabs, throughout history, are known to be hospitable to their guests. You will be no exception. For many centuries, Jews escaped the discrimination and death they were subjected to in Europe, and found safety and refuge among us. Muslims believe in Christianity and Judaism. The Quran states there is no distinction between Muhammad, Jesus and Moses. Therefore, according to our Islamic teachings, all are prophets of God and all must be honored and respected.

You must know that Zionist Jews from all over the world, particularly Europe, came to my Palestine, not as guests, but as settlers and occupiers in the early part of the 20^th century. The natives were referred to as “snakes” from which the land must be cleansed. In 1948 they occupied 72% of my land and emptied out over 500 Arab (Christian and Muslim) towns and villages. In 1967 they occupied the remaining 28%. Six million of us have been living in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon for the last fifty nine years, even though the United Nations ordered the Israeli government to allow us to return (1948 UN resolution 194).

Our Palestine is so beautiful. You will enjoy it. It is a museum. So many civilizations have mixed and melted there. Throughout history, invaders came and finally left. We remained. We survived. As we offered the Crusaders who occupied our holy lands for two hundred years, Jews can stay and share our land, if they wish to live in a free and democratic Palestine that respects the rights of all, regardless of their religion, race, or ethnicity. Those who refuse and insist to live in an apartheid state will inevitably pack up and return to their native lands.

Please, visit Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, and Nazareth within the so-called Green Line. Take pleasure in the aroma of our orange orchards on the Mediterranean coast. Drive to the top of the Mount of al-Carmel and enjoy its beauty and the splendid view.

Elie Wiesel, your host, will take you to the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem to show you the crimes committed by the Germans against the Jews. Undoubtedly, when the visit is completed, he will attempt to usher you away; but if you look down across the valley you can see the site of the massacre of the village of Deir Yassin. Hundreds of armless and helpless Arab men, women, and children were shot to death, by the Irgun, Wiesel’s associates and friends, in April 1948. The remaining women survivals were paraded in trucks through the streets of Jerusalem. I can never forget this scene, just can’t. My family, among the thousands of Palestinians, had to flee. “NEVER AGAIN” are two hollow words. They don’t apply to non-Jews.

Oprah, I beg you not to forget visiting Gaza and the West Bank where over three million of us still live. All attempts made to force them leave and run for their lives have failed. Take pictures of the 700 kilometer apartheid wall and reflect on the political messages of the graffiti it displays. I was struck by one of these messages at the entry to Bethlehem. “Thou not steal.” Confiscation of our lands, however, continues until this day.

Experience some of the military check points where our people have to stand in line for hours before they are allowed to cross. Witness the harassment and degradation my people are subjected to. A 20 minute journey from a village to another takes 7 hours. Many pregnant Arab women have lost their babies while waiting for clearance on their way to hospitals. There are over 550 of these checkpoints that divide our land into ghettos in the West Bank alone. Though the water we get does not meet our basic needs, notice the swimming pools Israelis enjoy in settlements built on our stolen lands.

Of course, the highlight of your trip will be the performance of pilgrimage in Jerusalem, the city of Jesus. It is also the city of my birth. The school I attended is the site of the palace where he received his death sentence. My home is only a couple of blocks away from the Via Dolorosa, the path he took to his crucifixion. Walk through the narrow and curved alleys where he walked. I did that without interruption for 23 years. Those days are gone.

Oprah, stand on top of the Mount of Olives, as I often did, and experience the glory and majesty of Jerusalem, its al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, the Holy Sepulcher, and other houses of worship. Observe the magnificence of the ancient wall built by Muslims to defend and protect these priceless treasures. Hear al-azan, the Muslim call for prayer, as it joins in unison with bells coming from Christian churches. What an eternal symphony!

Please proceed to the village of Bethany, three miles to the east. Go down the steps of the cave that leads to the tomb of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. The small dark room on top of the cave was the shelter my mother, my three younger sisters, and I took after we escaped the carpet bombing of the old city of Jerusalem in 1948. My Muslim cousin is the custodian of the holy cave, a great honor that his family inherited from a generation to a generation. His father, an illiterate, was able to recite to Christian worshipers the story of Lazarus, in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Greek, and other foreign languages.

Don’t miss the opportunity to drive five miles south to Bethlehem. Feel the ecstasy of entering the most dramatic cave in which the Virgin Mary delivered her beautiful Palestinian baby. During the Second Intifadah, the uprising against Israeli occupation, Muslim and Christian activists, chased by the Israeli death squads, were given refuge in the church.

You may go and see the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized, only a thirty minute drive. Beware; don’t plunge into the dirty and polluted waters. The river is almost dry. Its waters were diverted by the Israelis. Five miles west, near Jericho, you will pass by the Mount of Temptation where Jesus fasted for forty days. I can no longer walk up the steep mountain and pay respect to the Greek monks who chose to dedicate their lives to their Lord at their ancient and lonely monastery at the summit.

I do know that Mr. Mandela, who is probably the most respected man on Earth today, is your friend and hero. He is also mine. I met him in Chicago; and I had the honor of visiting him at his home in South Africa, years back. You are also a friend and a great admirer of Cape Town Archbishop Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize dignitary, a man who has stood against injustice and racism almost his entire life. Both men describe Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, the natives of the land, as worse than apartheid. Recently, Israel prevented Bishop Tutu from coming to Gaza to investigate and report Israel’s war crimes to the United Nations.

I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs.

Arabs have always supported the dismantling of this racist government. In 1962, African-Arab Sudan granted Mandela a passport to travel with to gain international support in his struggle to free his people. Libya, among other Arab states, provided Mandela and other African liberation movements, political as well as material support. As a result, Libya was designated by the White House as a terrorist rogue state. What a great honor!

A few days ago, Amnesty International’s annual report was released. The report slams Israel’s conduct in the occupied territories. It documents some of the “serious human rights abuses” Israel commits daily. It also spoke of the “war crimes” that Israel had committed in Lebanon.

Arnold Toynbee, the world renowned historian, stated that what the Zionist Jews did to the Palestinians is worse than what the Nazis did to the Jews, because, as he stated, Jews should have learned from their tragic experience.

Dear Oprah, I do understand the enormous pressure you are subjected to. But I am encouraged by your speech to HowardUniversity graduates. “My integrity is not for sale.… Do not be a slave to any form of selling out”, you remarked.

When you return, may God of the Universe grant you the courage to tell the world of what you actually witnessed. Judging from the terrible attacks and insults former President Jimmy Carter has recently experienced for his book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, I do not claim that the task is easy. However, it would be an unforgivable crime for those who have suffered from slavery and are still suffering from discrimination, to ignore the suffering of others.

With Peace and Love,

Ali Baghdadi

( arabjournl@aol.com )

(An Arab-American activist, writer, columnist; worked with several African-American groups on civil and human rights issues since the mid sixties; acted as a Middle East advisor to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad the founder of the Nation of Islam, as well as Minister Louis Farrakhan; visited more than 80 countries throughout the world and met with many of their leaders, including Mandela, Castro, Saddam Hussein, Hafez Assad, Qathafi, Abdallah ibn Abdel-Aziz, Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Khamenei, among many others.)

source:
http://ptimes.org/main/default.aspx?xyz=BOgLkxlDHteZpYqykRlUuI1kx%2fVDUOFodvhCGa2wlBmTRz5RcS2pVr4E7LZAI43NmzNLZk3KPva%2fdNKJ16Cz0gyqQ%2f%2fqb6qs8BF9GnBcYbVQIqGylCGYUIIyIjHRJpIXSlAUyWGziPI%3d

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Condoleezza Rice the Traitor : Ex-AIPAC staffers say Condi leaked them classified info

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Condoleezza Rice the Traitor

Ex-AIPAC staffers say Condi leaked them classified info

by ron kampeas – jta

Friday April 28, 2006

alexandria, va. | Two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee say Condoleezza Rice was their informant on sensitive national security matters.

The claim, laid out in a courtroom Friday, April 21, intensified the drama surrounding a trial that could further roil a Washington political establishment already consumed by cases involving “official” and “unofficial” leaks.

The trial date, originally scheduled to begin April 25, has now been set for Aug. 7, even as the judge in the case continues to suggest the case might not go to trial at all.

In last week’s pretrial hearing, lawyers for Steve Rosen, AIPAC’s former foreign policy director, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst, persuaded federal Judge T.S. Ellis III to allow a subpoena for the secretary of state and three other current and former Middle East policy officials.

Rosen and Weissman were indicted last August on charges that they relayed classified information to fellow AIPAC staffers, journalists and diplomats at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

The judge continued to express grave doubts about the government’s case, sympathizing with defense claims that it could impinge on free speech rights, and that it lacked precedent.

When Kevin DiGregory, the lead prosecutor, pointed out that the First Amendment had never been cited in a similar case, Ellis chided him, saying: “Well, no case has been like this one.”

Setting out a pretrial schedule, Ellis pointedly would not count out a dismissal before the start of the trial and several times qualified prospective dates, saying “if there is going to be a trial.”

Rosen’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said Rice had not merely been Rosen’s interlocutor, but had leaked information identical to and at times more sensitive than examples cited in the indictment.

In addition, Lowell said, the information Rice provided was more “volatile” than the information described in the indictment. Lowell would not elaborate on what information he was referring to.

Lowell asked for an additional meeting with the judge ­ with no prosecutors present ­ to further describe the testimony he anticipated from Rice and others. Ellis said he looked forward to “a lot of juicy information.”

Ellis had to rule on the request because the subpoenas fell under special rules of the district court in Alexandria, Va., that require subpoenas for Cabinet members, ambassadors and generals to be approved by the presiding judge.

Lowell said that another six subpoenas had already been sent to prospective witnesses.

Rice’s testimony is not yet guaranteed. The State Department must clear subpoenas to its staff, and witnesses have a right to ask subpoenas to be squashed. But Lowell made it clear he would not let the government off the hook, likening this case to the recent controversy over leaks on the Iraq war President Bush has defended as “authorized” and those he has attacked as illegal.

Also at the hearing, called on a few days’ notice, the judge sided with the defense’s claim that the case is unprecedented.

Government lawyers have striven to show that prosecution under a 1917 statute that criminalizes the receipt of classified information is not unprecedented. Lowell said the government had failed to show true precedent and had instead “cut and pasted” elements of four or five unrelated cases to establish precedent.

Ellis agreed, calling Lowell’s arguments “substantial.”

It was not all good news for the defense. Lowell wanted Ellis to order depositions from three Israeli diplomats who allegedly received information from Rosen and Weissman. The defense has been unable to persuade the diplomats to voluntarily comply.

Ellis refused, saying he did not see the point because his orders carried no weight in Israel, where the diplomats now reside.

Lowell acknowledged as much, but apparently hoped a formal order from the judge would embarrass the Israelis into volunteering; ever since the Jonathan Pollard spy case in the late 1980s, Israeli officials want to be seen as cooperative with American legal cases.

source:
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/29053/edition_id/550/format/html/displaystory.html

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

US Humanity Crime and brutality : The Black Sites – A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program.

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

US Humanity Crime and brutality

The Black Sites – A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program

by Jane Mayer August 13, 2007

In the war on terror, one historian says, the C.I.A. “didn’t just bring back the old psychological techniques­they perfected them.”

In March, Mariane Pearl, the widow of the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, received a phone call from Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General. At the time, Gonzales’s role in the controversial dismissal of eight United States Attorneys had just been exposed, and the story was becoming a scandal in Washington. Gonzales informed Pearl that the Justice Department was about to announce some good news: a terrorist in U.S. custody­Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Al Qaeda leader who was the primary architect of the September 11th attacks­had confessed to killing her husband. (Pearl was abducted and beheaded five and a half years ago in Pakistan, by unidentified Islamic militants.) The Administration planned to release a transcript in which Mohammed boasted, “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head.”

Pearl was taken aback. In 2003, she had received a call from Condoleezza Rice, who was then President Bush’s national-security adviser, informing her of the same news. But Rice’s revelation had been secret. Gonzales’s announcement seemed like a publicity stunt. Pearl asked him if he had proof that Mohammed’s confession was truthful; Gonzales claimed to have corroborating evidence but wouldn’t share it. “It’s not enough for officials to call me and say they believe it,” Pearl said. “You need evidence.” (Gonzales did not respond to requests for comment.)

The circumstances surrounding the confession of Mohammed, whom law-enforcement officials refer to as K.S.M., were perplexing. He had no lawyer. After his capture in Pakistan, in March of 2003, the Central Intelligence Agency had detained him in undisclosed locations for more than two years; last fall, he was transferred to military custody in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. There were no named witnesses to his initial confession, and no solid information about what form of interrogation might have prodded him to talk, although reports had been published, in the Times and elsewhere, suggesting that C.I.A. officers had tortured him. At a hearing held at Guantánamo, Mohammed said that his testimony was freely given, but he also indicated that he had been abused by the C.I.A. (The Pentagon had classified as “top secret” a statement he had written detailing the alleged mistreatment.) And although Mohammed said that there were photographs confirming his guilt, U.S. authorities had found none. Instead, they had a copy of the video that had been released on the Internet, which showed the killer’s arms but offered no other clues to his identity.

Further confusing matters, a Pakistani named Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh had already been convicted of the abduction and murder, in 2002. A British-educated terrorist who had a history of staging kidnappings, he had been sentenced to death in Pakistan for the crime. But the Pakistani government, not known for its leniency, had stayed his execution. Indeed, hearings on the matter had been delayed a remarkable number of times­at least thirty­possibly because of his reported ties to the Pakistani intelligence service, which may have helped free him after he was imprisoned for terrorist activities in India. Mohammed’s confession would delay the execution further, since, under Pakistani law, any new evidence is grounds for appeal.

A surprising number of people close to the case are dubious of Mohammed’s confession. A longtime friend of Pearl’s, the former Journal reporter Asra Nomani, said, “The release of the confession came right in the midst of the U.S. Attorney scandal. There was a drumbeat for Gonzales’s resignation. It seemed like a calculated strategy to change the subject. Why now? They’d had the confession for years.” Mariane and Daniel Pearl were staying in Nomani’s Karachi house at the time of his murder, and Nomani has followed the case meticulously; this fall, she plans to teach a course on the topic at Georgetown University. She said, “I don’t think this confession resolves the case. You can’t have justice from one person’s confession, especially under such unusual circumstances. To me, it’s not convincing.” She added, “I called all the investigators. They weren’t just skeptical­they didn’t believe it.”

Special Agent Randall Bennett, the head of security for the U.S. consulate in Karachi when Pearl was killed­and whose lead role investigating the murder was featured in the recent film “A Mighty Heart”­said that he has interviewed all the convicted accomplices who are now in custody in Pakistan, and that none of them named Mohammed as playing a role. “K.S.M.’s name never came up,” he said. Robert Baer, a former C.I.A. officer, said, “My old colleagues say with one-hundred-per-cent certainty that it was not K.S.M. who killed Pearl.” A government official involved in the case said, “The fear is that K.S.M. is covering up for others, and that these people will be released.” And Judea Pearl, Daniel’s father, said, “Something is fishy. There are a lot of unanswered questions. K.S.M. can say he killed Jesus­he has nothing to lose.”

Mariane Pearl, who is relying on the Bush Administration to bring justice in her husband’s case, spoke carefully about the investigation. “You need a procedure that will get the truth,” she said. “An intelligence agency is not supposed to be above the law.”

Mohammed’s interrogation was part of a secret C.I.A. program, initiated after September 11th, in which terrorist suspects such as Mohammed were detained in “black sites”­secret prisons outside the United States­and subjected to unusually harsh treatment. The program was effectively suspended last fall, when President Bush announced that he was emptying the C.I.A.’s prisons and transferring the detainees to military custody in Guantánamo. This move followed a Supreme Court ruling, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which found that all detainees­including those held by the C.I.A.­had to be treated in a manner consistent with the Geneva Conventions. These treaties, adopted in 1949, bar cruel treatment, degradation, and torture. In late July, the White House issued an executive order promising that the C.I.A. would adjust its methods in order to meet the Geneva standards. At the same time, Bush’s order pointedly did not disavow the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” that would likely be found illegal if used by officials inside the United States. The executive order means that the agency can once again hold foreign terror suspects indefinitely, and without charges, in black sites, without notifying their families or local authorities, or offering access to legal counsel.

source:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mayer

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

The Hiroshima Cover-Up : America The Biggest Terrorist

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

The Hiroshima Cover-Up

by Amy Goodman and David Goodman

Published on Friday, August 5, 2005 by the Baltimore Sun

A story that the U.S. government hoped would never see the light of day finally has been published, 60 years after it was spiked by military censors. The discovery of reporter George Weller’s firsthand account of conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki sheds light on one of the great journalistic betrayals of the last century: the cover-up of the effects of the atomic bombing on Japan.

On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima; three days later, Nagasaki was hit. Gen. Douglas MacArthur promptly declared southern Japan off-limits, barring the news media. More than 200,000 people died in the atomic bombings of the cities, but no Western journalist witnessed the aftermath and told the story. Instead, the world’s media obediently crowded onto the battleship USS Missouri off the coast of Japan to cover the Japanese surrender.

A month after the bombings, two reporters defied General MacArthur and struck out on their own. Mr. Weller, of the Chicago Daily News, took row boats and trains to reach devastated Nagasaki. Independent journalist Wilfred Burchett rode a train for 30 hours and walked into the charred remains of Hiroshima.

Both men encountered nightmare worlds. Mr. Burchett sat down on a chunk of rubble with his Baby Hermes typewriter. His dispatch began: “In Hiroshima, 30 days after the first atomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the world, people are still dying, mysteriously and horribly – people who were uninjured in the cataclysm from an unknown something which I can only describe as the atomic plague.”

He continued, tapping out the words that still haunt to this day: “Hiroshima does not look like a bombed city. It looks as if a monster steamroller has passed over it and squashed it out of existence. I write these facts as dispassionately as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the world.”

Mr. Burchett’s article, headlined “The Atomic Plague,” was published Sept. 5, 1945, in the London Daily Express. The story caused a worldwide sensation and was a public relations fiasco for the U.S. military. The official U.S. narrative of the atomic bombings downplayed civilian casualties and categorically dismissed as “Japanese propaganda” reports of the deadly lingering effects of radiation.

So when Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter George Weller’s 25,000-word story on the horror that he encountered in Nagasaki was submitted to military censors, General MacArthur ordered the story killed, and the manuscript was never returned. As Mr. Weller later summarized his experience with General MacArthur’s censors, “They won.”

Recently, Mr. Weller’s son, Anthony, discovered a carbon copy of the suppressed dispatches among his father’s papers (George Weller died in 2002). Unable to find an interested American publisher, Anthony Weller sold the account to Mainichi Shimbun, a big Japanese newspaper. Now, on the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings, Mr. Weller’s account can finally be read.

“In swaybacked or flattened skeletons of the Mitsubishi arms plants is revealed what the atomic bomb can do to steel and stone, but what the riven atom can do against human flesh and bone lies hidden in two hospitals of downtown Nagasaki,” wrote Mr. Weller. A month after the bombs fell, he observed, “The atomic bomb’s peculiar ‘disease,’ uncured because it is untreated and untreated because it is not diagnosed, is still snatching away lives here.”

After killing Mr. Weller’s reports, U.S. authorities tried to counter Mr. Burchett’s articles by attacking the messenger. General MacArthur ordered Mr. Burchett expelled from Japan (the order was later rescinded), his camera mysteriously vanished while he was in a Tokyo hospital and U.S. officials accused him of being influenced by Japanese propaganda.

Then the U.S. military unleashed a secret propaganda weapon: It deployed its own Times man. It turns out that William L. Laurence, the science reporter for The New York Times, was also on the payroll of the War Department.

For four months, while still reporting for the Times, Mr. Laurence had been writing press releases for the military explaining the atomic weapons program; he also wrote statements for President Harry Truman and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. He was rewarded by being given a seat on the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, an experience that he described in the Times with religious awe.

Three days after publication of Mr. Burchett’s shocking dispatch, Mr. Laurence had a front-page story in the Times disputing the notion that radiation sickness was killing people. His news story included this remarkable commentary: “The Japanese are still continuing their propaganda aimed at creating the impression that we won the war unfairly, and thus attempting to create sympathy for themselves and milder terms. … Thus, at the beginning, the Japanese described ‘symptoms’ that did not ring true.”

Mr. Laurence won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the atomic bomb, and his faithful parroting of the government line was crucial in launching a half-century of silence about the deadly lingering effects of the bomb. It is time for the Pulitzer board to strip Hiroshima’s apologist and his newspaper of this undeserved prize.

Sixty years late, Mr. Weller’s censored account stands as a searing indictment not only of the inhumanity of the atomic bomb but also of the danger of journalists embedding with the government to deceive the world.

source:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0805-20.htm

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

The Pentagon’s latest Big Lie

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

The Pentagon’s latest Big Lie

Mike Whitney

August 7, 2007

The quality of Pentagon-propaganda is really deteriorating.

The War Dept.’s latest fraud appeared in this week’s newspapers under the ominous-sounding headline:

“US Kills Mastermind of Iraq Shrine bombs”

The article is similar to hundreds of other stories we’ve seen in the passed few years boasting of the murder of an “alleged” terrorist kingpin whose evil deeds have prevented democracy from flourishing in Iraq.

Oh, please.

CNN: “Coalition troops killed the al Qaeda terrorist who masterminded the February 2006 attack on Samarra’s al-Askariya mosque and set off continuing violence and reprisal killings between Sunnis and Shiites, the U.S. military said Sunday.” Snip “Haitham Sabah al-Baderi, the al Qaeda emir of greater Samarra, was killed Thursday east of Samarra, said Rear Adm. Mark Fox during a news conference”. snip “Eliminating al-Baderi is another step in breaking the cycle of violence instigated by the attack on the holy shrine in Samarra,” Fox said. “We will continue to hunt down the brutal terrorists who are intent on creating a Taliban-like state in Iraq.” (CNN)

In truth, CNN has no idea who al-Baderi really was or whether he belonged to Al Qaida or not. They just jot down whatever the Pentagon spokesman tells them and then pass it off later as news. It’s the same with the rest of the media. They don’t care. They build their stories on statements from government officials and don’t bother looking for evidence. All they know is that al-Baderi is another unlucky victim in Bush’s war on terror who has been subsumed into the Pentagon’s propaganda war against the American people. That’s it.

So why bother publishing a crazy story like this? It doesn’t change public opinion on the war or convince people that al Qaida is the main enemy in Iraq. So what good is it? It’s just an attempt to show progress in a losing cause by holding up another enemy scalp.

But, that’s not public relations— it’s barbarism. Don’t the Pentagon big-wigs know that? They think the American people relish the idea of assassinating enemy “suspects” without any proof of wrongdoing or judicial oversight. But they’re wrong. People were sickened by it. Can’t they see that?

What is gained by fabricating another goofy story before the dust has even settled on the Tillman fiasco? Why not let the public fully-digest the last “Big Lie” before moving on to the next one?

Remember Tillman—the outspoken NFL star who figured out the war was a fake and started blasting the Bush administration’s lies?

Well, he took three bullets to the head—”gangland style”—in what the Pentagon dubbed “friendly fire”.

What a joke. Is the Pentagon trying to destroy what little credibility it has left?

Apparently.

THIS WEEK’S BIG LIE

I’ve done a lot of research on both bombings of the Golden Dome Mosque and I can tell you that THE MILITARY HAS NEVER CONDUCTED AN INVESTIGATION OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. Never. That means the CNN headline is just more empty blather. The few eyewitness accounts that appeared in Iraqi blogs and web sites strongly suggest that US Intelligence agencies and Iraqi troops from the Interior Ministry may have been involved. The theories connecting Al Qaida to the incident are pure speculation with no factual basis.

And yet, here’s what Bush said in a speech just days after the first bombing:

“Al Qaida terrorists and Sunni insurgents… blew up one of the holiest shrines in Shia Islam­the Golden Mosque of Samarra­in a calculated effort to provoke Iraq’s Shia population to retaliate. Their strategy worked. Radical Shia elements; some supported by Iran, formed death squads. And the result was a vicious cycle of sectarian violence that continues today.”

How does Bush know who it was? He never ordered an investigation and he doesn’t have a crystal ball. If there’s proof—show us! Otherwise we should assume that he is just trying to blame someone else for turning Iraq into a charnel house.
Those aren’t Al Qaida’s B-1 Bombers dropping cluster bombs and Daisy Cutters on Iraqi cities. And, that isn’t al-Baderi kicking down doors and dragging off civilians to be tortured in some god-forsaken hell-hole. Those are Bush’s planes and Bush’s troops! He’s the one who’s responsible.

Here’s an excerpt from an article I wrote just a few months ago after the last bombing in Samarra:

“Less than 4 hours after the explosion, the Bush public relations team cobbled together a statement that the bombing was the work of Sunni extremists or al Qaida terrorists. But, they’ve never produced a scintilla of evidence to support their claims. It may be that the administration simply saw the bombing as an opportunity to twist the facts to suit their own purposes.

After all, the incident has been a propaganda-bonanza for the Bush team. They’ve used it to support their theory that Iraq is “the central battle in the war on terror” and that “we must fight them there if we don’t want to fight them over here”. It’s been used as one of the main justifications for the occupation; implying that the US military is needed as a referee to keep the warring factions from killing each other. It’s all just nonsense that’s designed to advance the administration’s political agenda.

If there had been an investigation, it would have shown whether or not the perpetrators were experts by the placement of the explosives. They might have found bomb-residue which could have determined the composition of the material used. Forensics experts could have easily ascertained whether the explosives came from Iraqi munitions-dumps (as suggested) or from outside the country (like the USA, perhaps?)

The incident may well have been a “false flag” operation carried out by US intelligence agencies to provoke sectarian violence and, thus, reduce the number of attacks on American troops. (That is what the vast number of Sunnis and Shiites believe)

In any event, as soon as the mosque was destroyed the media swung into action focusing all of its attention on sectarian violence and the prospect of civil war. The media’s incessant “cheerleading” for civil war was suspicious, to say the least.

In the first 30 hours after the blast, more than 1,500 articles appeared on Google News providing the government version of events without deviation and without any corroborating evidence; just fluff that reiterated the Pentagon’s account verbatim and without challenge.

1500! Now that’s a well-oiled propaganda system!

Most of the articles were “cookie cutter-type” stories which used the same buzzwords and talking points as all the others; no interviews, no facts, no second opinions; simple, straightforward stenography – nothing more.

The story was repeated for weeks on end never veering from the same speculative theory. Clearly, there was a push to convince the American people that this was a significant event that would reshape the whole context of the war in Iraq. In fact, the media blitz that followed was bigger than anything since 9-11; a spectacular display of the media’s power to manipulate public opinion.

There were a few articles that didn’t follow the party-line, but they quickly disappeared into a cyber-”black hole” or were dismissed as conspiracy theories. One report in AFP said that the bombing “was the work of specialists” and the “placing of explosives must have taken at least 12 hours”.

Ah-ha!

The article said: “Construction Minister Mohammed Jaafar said, ‘Holes were dug into the mausoleum’s four main pillars and packed with explosives. Then charges were connected together and linked to another charge placed just under the dome. The wires were then linked to another charge placed just under the dome. The wires were then linked to a detonator which was triggered at a distance.”

Of course, what does that prove? Perhaps, al Qaida has skilled explosives experts? But why not investigate? After all, if this was the “catalyzing event” which thrust the country towards civil war; why not have the FBI come in and take a look-around?

A professional team of investigators could have quickly determined whether highly-trained saboteurs were operating in the area. (which meant that American troops would be at greater risk) Isn’t that worth checking out?

Nope. The Pentagon did nothing. There was no effort at all to find out who might have been involved. It was an open and shut case; wrapped up before the dust had even settled in Samarra.

Very strange.

Apparently, there was at least one witness who was interviewed shortly after the bombing. He said that he heard cars running outside the mosque “the whole night until morning” but, he was warned “to stay in your shop and don’t leave until morning”.

At 6:30 AM the next morning, the vehicles outside the mosque left. 10 minutes later the bombs exploded.

None of the people living in the vicinity of the mosque were ever questioned. Likewise, the Construction Minister Mohammed Jaafar has never resurfaced in the news again. I expect that his comments in the newspaper may have had something to do with his sudden disappearance, but then maybe not. (Bush’s War on Perception; the bombing of the Golden Mosque, Mike Whitney)

Here’s an excerpt from another article titled “Information Warfare, Psy-ops and the Power of Myth”

New Clues in the Bombing

New clues have surfaced in the case of the bombing of the Golden Mosque which suggests that the claims of the Bush administration are false. An article by Marc Santora, (“One Year Later, Golden Mosque still in Ruins”, New York Times) provides eyewitness testimony of what really took place one year ago:

“A caretaker at the shrine described what happened on the day of the attack, insisting on anonymity because he was afraid that talking to an American could get him killed. The general outline of his account was confirmed by American and Iraqi officials.

The night before the explosion, he said, just before the 8 p.m. curfew on Feb. 21, 2006, on the Western calendar, men dressed in commando uniforms like those issued by the Interior Ministry entered the shrine.

The caretaker said he had been beaten, tied up and locked in a room.

Throughout the night, he said, he could hear the sound of drilling as the attackers positioned the explosives, apparently in such a way as to inflict maximum damage on the dome”. (NY Times)

Clearly, if the men were men dressed in “commando uniforms like those issued by the Interior Ministry”, then the logical place to begin an investigation would be the Interior Ministry. But there’s never been an investigation and the caretaker has never been asked to testify about what he saw on the night of the bombing. However, if he is telling the truth, we cannot exclude the possibility that paramilitary contractors (mercenaries) or special-ops (intelligence) agents working out of the Interior Ministry may have destroyed the mosque to create the appearance of a nascent civil war.

Isn’t that what Bush wants—-to divert attention from the occupation and to show that the real conflict is between Shiites and Sunnis?

It’s unlikely that the mosque was destroyed by “Sunni insurgents or Al Qaida” as Bush claims. Samarra is predominantly a Sunni city and the Sunnis have nearly as much respect for the mosque as a cultural icon and sacred shrine as the Shiites.

The Times also adds, “What is clear is that the attack was carefully planned and calculated”.

True again. We can see from the extent of the damage that the job was carried out by demolition experts and not merely “insurgents or terrorists” with explosives. Simple forensic tests and soil samples could easily determine the composition of the explosives and point out the real perpetrators.

The Times even provides a motive for the attack: “Bad people used this incident to divide Iraq on a detestable sectarian basis.”

Bingo! The administration has repeatedly used the incident to highlight divisions, incite hostilities, and prolong the occupation.

The Times also notes the similarities between 9-11 and the bombing of the Golden Mosque: “I can describe what was done as exactly like what happened to the World Trade Center.”(NY Times)

In fact, the bombing of the Golden Mosque is a reenactment of September 11. In both cases an independent investigation was intentionally quashed and carefully-prepared narrative was immediately provided. The administration’s version of events has been critical in creating the rationale for an extended US military occupation of Iraq, but is it true.

Probably not. The so-called “deeply ingrained sectarian animosity between Sunnis and Shiites” has no historical precedent. It is an invention of propagandists in the intelligence services who intend to fragment the Iraqi state so that precious resources can be more easily controlled. “Divide and rule” continues to be the driving force behind America’s aggressive counterinsurgency strategy.

THE SECOND BOMBING OF THE GOLDEN DOME MOSQUE

Here’s excerpt from another article which outlines some of what we know about the second bombing of the Golden Dome Mosque a year later: (The Battle of Gaza )

Graham Bowley (“Minarets on Shiites Shrine in Iraq Destroyed in Attack” NY Times) clarifies some of the important details of what took place at the site of the Mosque just prior to the second bombing. He says:

“Since the attack in 2006, the shrine had been under the protection of local ­ predominantly Sunni ­ guards. But American military and Iraqi security officials had recently become concerned that the local unit had been infiltrated by Al Qaeda forces in Iraq. A move by the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad over the last few days to bring in a new guard unit ­ predominantly Shiite ­ may have been linked to the attack today.”

No reference is made to the sudden and unexplained changing of the guards at the mosque in future accounts in the mainstream press. And, yet, that is the most important point. The minarets were blown up just days after the new guards took charge. They cordoned off the area, placed snipers on the surrounding rooftops, and then blew up the minarets in broad daylight.

The first explosion took place at 9:30 AM. Ten minutes later the second bomb was detonated.

Al Qaeda?

Not likely.

The Golden Dome mosque has been heavily guarded ever since it was blown up in 2006. The four main doors have been bolted shut and not a tile has been moved in over a year. The reason for this is that the Shiites consider it a “crime scene” which they intend to investigate more thoroughly when the violence subsides.

The Shiites never accepted the official US-version of events that “al Qaeda did it”. Many believe that US Special Forces were directly involved and that it was a planned demolition carried out by experts. There is considerable proof to support this theory including eye witness accounts from the scene of the crime as well as holes that were drilled in the floor of the mosque to maximize destruction. This was not a simple al Qaeda-type car-bombing but a technically-demanding demolition operation.

The damning information in the New York Times article has been corroborated in many other publications including an official statement from the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI). According to the AMSI, Prime Minister Nouri al Mailiki replaced the Sunnis who had been guarding the site for over a year with Shiite government forces from the Interior Ministry. Their statement reads:

“Security forces arrived yesterday afternoon from Baghdad Tuesday for the receipt of the task of protecting two tombs instead of the existing force there. Somehow they obtained a scuffle followed by gunfire lasted two hours over control of security forces coming from Baghdad.”

So, the Sunni guards were replaced (after a scuffle) with goons from the Interior Ministry. The next day the minarets blow up.

Coincidence?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki immediately issued statement where he claimed that the al Qaeda was responsible for the attack. At the same time, however, he arrested all 12 of the guards he sent from the Interior Ministry.

Why? Was he afraid they would talk to the media?

The Association of Muslim Scholars said that

“last year’s explosion happened after a severe political crisis between blocs involved in the political process to the occupation. After the elections, the establishment of the government was blocked at that time. It is quite similar to the political crisis faced by the government and parliament today”.

The AMSI is right. The destruction of the Golden Dome Mosque took place soon after the Iraqi parliament rejected the US-plan for dividing Iraq. (“Federalism”) This time, the parliament has voted-down the US-plan to transfer control of Iraq’s vast petroleum reserves to the American oil giants via the “oil laws”.

The AMSI sees the bombing as a desperate attempt by the US occupation to break the logjam in Parliament over the oil laws and to conceal the failures of the “surge” by inciting sectarian violence. The only difference this time is that the Shiite militias have been less responsive to US manipulation. In fact, Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr has tried to stop his Mahdi Army from attacking Sunni areas and he has decried the bombing as another plot by US-Israeli intelligence agents operating in Iraq. He said that the incident reveals “the hidden hand of the occupier.”

He added, “This is what the occupiers brought to Iraq: a disintegration plot and fanning the flames of sectarian violence. Destroying the Askariya shrine goes exactly with the insurgents’ beliefs.”

Among Shiites, there’s nearly unanimous agreement that the US was behind the bombing. Middle East expert Juan Cole reports on his blog-site “Informed Comment, that protests have broken out in India, Pakistan, the Caucasus, Bahrain, Iran and other locations where there are high concentrations of Shiites. The consensus view is that the minarets were blown up as part of a larger US-Israeli strategy for controlling the Middle East.

But why would the Bush administration want to unleash a fresh wave of sectarian violence when they can’t even establish security in Baghdad?

Here’s what the AMSI says:

“Sectarian violence is an effective means to enable the militias to fully impose their control on (Sunni) neighborhoods and cities as it did after the bombings of Samarra….The government is also trying to control the capital of Baghdad; seeking to extend its power over other cities that reject the occupation, especially the cities of Baquba and Samarra”.

This is what is gained by the bombings­further ethnic cleansing of the Sunni neighborhoods and greater control over the public through a campaign of terror. It’s all part of a broader neocon strategy that centers on “creative destruction” rather than the traditional US policy of “regional stability

Final Comment

The bombing of the Golden Dome Mosque is a psychological operation (psy-ops) that evolved from the theories of former Counselor at the State Dept, Philip Zelikow, (Zelikow was also executive director of the 9-11 Commission and author of the National Security Strategy NSS) Zelikow “is an expert in “the creation and maintenance of ‘public myths’ or ‘public presumptions’, which he defines as beliefs thought to be true although not necessarily known to be true with certainty, shared in common with the relevant political community. He has taken a special interest in ‘searing’ or ‘molding’ events that take on ‘transcendent’ importance and, therefore, retain there power even as the experiencing generation passes from the scene”. (“Thinking about Political History” Miller Center report; winter 1999)

“In the Nov-Dec 1998 issue of Foreign Affairs he co-authored an article called ‘Catastrophic Terrorism’ in which he speculated that if the 1993 bombing of the World Trade center had succeeded ‘the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it. Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed event in American history. ‘It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America’s fundamental sense of security, as did the Soviet bomb test in 1949. The US might respond with draconian measures scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects and use of deadly force. More violence could follow, either future terrorist attacks or US counterattacks. Belatedly, Americans would judge their leaders negligent for not addressing terrorism more urgently”. (Wikipedia)

Zelikow’s theories help us understand how “catastrophic events” are being used to shape public consciousness and create a narrative that advances the political objectives of the people in power. The actual facts about the bombing of the shrine are have been suppressed while the prevailing theory­that we are fighting Al Qaida in Iraq­has been meticulously maintained with a solid wall of disinformation. The media has played a central role in this process by disseminating the official storyline from every outlet and newspaper without challenging the basic “uncorroborated” assertions.

All government policy is now legitimized in terms of particular “catastrophic events”. History, legal precedent and even cultural tradition have been brushed aside in an effort to rationalize a new world order in which state repression, autocratic rule and aggressive war are deemed the requisite components of national security. The entire human experiment—dating back tens of thousands of years–is now conveniently divided into two parts: pre-9-11 and post 9-11.

The bombing of the Golden Dome Mosque has been used the same way as 9-11. A “unifying myth” has been build around a “catastrophic event” in a way that serves the overall goals of the political establishment. As we have seen, the facts don’t matter as long as the illusion that we are fighting terrorists is maintained. (According to Anthony H. Cordesman, an Iraqi specialist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, al Qaida’s attacks make up only 15 per cent of the total in Iraq though they launch 80-90 per cent of the suicide bombings”. Patrick Cockburn).In reality, the US is engaged in a brutal colonial war that has destroyed a sovereign nation that posed no threat to American national security. That obvious fact never finds its way into America’s “free press”.

The Bush administration and their enablers in the Pentagon’s “Dept. of Strategic Information” will continue to promote their threadbare narrative of “foreign fighters and terrorists” until the Iraq mission collapses and the troops are withdrawn.

Until then, many more lives will be sacrificed to preserve the myth of a war on terror. Haitham Sabah al-Baderi was one such victim. His assassination has helped to conceal the fact that 700,000 Iraqis have been butchered without cause in their own country by Bush’s army.

source:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m35168&hd=&size=1&l=e

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Iraq: Laying the blame – US War Criminal Wash Their Bloody Hand

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Iraq: Laying the blame

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY, PRAVDA.Ru

August 6, 2007

Under any norms of international law, culpability for crimes committed is a fundamental precept. In the case of Iraq, the worst crimes in the book have been committed – mass murder, war crimes, wanton vandalism, state terrorism, targeting civilian structures with military hardware, rape, child murder, torture and the wholesale destruction of a state in an illegal act of butchery planned by the clique of corporate elitists which gravitates around the White House and which, with Tel Aviv, dictates the foreign policy of the US of A. However, the finger has as yet been pointed at nobody as the international community, gripped by a monumental attack of cowardice, examines its navel.

In 2003, Iraq was a relatively peaceful country, the streets were relatively safe and the Government of President Saddam Hussein distributed resources evenly among the population. The only rupture of the peace was the occasional terrorist attack by NATO aircraft.

Then came Colin Powell’s lies at the UNO building, the magnificent foreign intelligence (a ten-year-old British doctorate thesis copied and pasted from the Internet), the war machine behind and around the Bush regime slipped into gear, the UNO was sidestepped because it would not give its backing to another of Washington’s illegal wars and the invasion was launched.

Just over four years on, what is the state of Iraq today? In June 2007, 1.241 civilians lost their lives in the violence. In July 2007, the figure increased to 1.650, while the US armed forces registered their second lowest casualty rate ever – just 70 troops, but still over two per day, every day, out of a total of over 3.600 troops since the invasion was launched.

In just one day, August 1st, 70 civilians were killed and over 100 wounded in three bomb atacks in Baghdad. Eight million Iraqis are now in urgent need of emergency assistance: 4 million in dire need of food aid and humanitarian assistance, over two million internally displaced persons (IDPs), many with nowhere to go and over two million refugees in Syria and Jordan – according to Oxfam’s recent report “Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq”, the “fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world”.

43% of Iraqis live in “absolute poverty”, woman’s rights have all but disappeared – those who venture out without a veil can be raped or decapitated in broad daylight – only 60% of the citizens needing food assistance have access to it, the unemployment rate is now over 50%, child malnutrition has risen from 19% (during the NATO-led terrorist attacks and the inhumane blockade in the 1990s) to 28%, meaning that around one third of Iraq’s children have insufficient food.

Two million people have no home, no work, no income and over half of the IDPs have sporadic access to nutrition. 70% of Iraqis are without adequate water supplies, 80% are without basic sanitation and 40% of Iraq’s qualified personnel have left the country.

Who is to blame for this catastrophic situation? In any civilised state of law, if someone bursts into another’s home, kills his family, rapes his wife, destroys his property and hands out billionairs rebuilding contracts (without tender) to his friends, due legal process is performed, there is an accusation, a trial and a judgement.

Quite how invisible or absent any culprit is in this case, speaks volumes about the absence of a state of law in the international community at the beginning of the third millennium. The United States of America and its allies which perpetrated this shocking act of state terrorism should be held responsible, their leaders charged with the string of crimes that have been committed and brought to justice.

If not, future generations will look back with incredulity at one of the darkest ages ever for international law and common norms of human decency.

source:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m35152&hd=&size=1&l=e

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

America Racist : At U.S. base, Iraqis must use separate latrine

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

America Racist : At U.S. base, Iraqis must use separate latrine

By Mike Drummond

08/07/07 “McClatchy Newspapers” — – FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq ­ The sign taped to the men’s latrine is just five lines:

“US MILITARY CONTRACTORS CIVILIANS ONLY!!!!!”

It needed only one: “NO IRAQIS.”

Here at this searing, dusty U.S. military base about four miles west of Baqouba, Iraqis ­ including interpreters who walk the same foot patrols and sleep in the same tents as U.S. troops ­ must use segregated bathrooms.

Another sign, in a dining hall, warns Iraqis and “third-country nationals” that they have just one hour for breakfast, lunch or dinner. American troops get three hours. Iraqis say they sometimes wait as long as 45 minutes in hot lines to get inside the chow hall, leaving just 15 minutes to get their food and eat it.

It’s been nearly 60 years since President Harry Truman ended racial segregation in the U.S. military. But at Forward Operating Base Warhorse it’s alive and well, perhaps the only U.S. military facility with such rules, Iraqi interpreters here say.

It’s unclear precisely who ordered the rules. “The rule separating local national latrines from soldiers was enacted about two to three rotations ago,” Maj. Raul Marquez, a spokesman for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas, wrote in an e-mail. That was before his brigade or the 3rd Stryker Combat Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, from Fort Lewis, Wash., the other major combat force here, was based at Warhorse.

There’s also disagreement on the reason.

Marquez cited security. “We are at war, and operational security (OPSEC) and force protection are critical in this environment,” Marquez wrote. “We screen all our local nationals working and living in the FOB, however, you can never know what’s in their mind.”

Other soldiers traced the regulations to what they called cultural differences between the Iraqis and the Americans.

“We’ve had issues with locals,” said Staff Sgt. Oscar Garcia, who mans Warhorse’s administrative hub. “It’s not because we’re segregating.”

Garcia said some Iraqis squatted on the rims of unfamiliar American-style toilets or had used showers as toilets, forcing private contractors who maintain the facilities to clean up after them.

Another soldier at the administrative hub who declined to give his name or rank cited conflicts over hygiene habits. “We can’t accept people washing their feet where I brush my teeth,” he said.

“It’s to keep problems from happening,” said Army Capt. Janet Herrick, a public affairs officer. “It’s a preventive measure . . . so no one gets belittled.”

But the Iraqis who’re paid $80,000 to $120,000 a year for their interpreting services are offended.

“It sucks,” Ahmed Mohammed, 30, said of the latrine policy. He called the signs ­ in English and Arabic ­ “racist.”

He’s worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military since 2004. He’s college educated and well versed in the ways of Western plumbing. He said Warhorse was the only American base where he’d encountered U.S.-only signs on latrines and country-of-origin restrictions on dining hours.

“I live in the same tent with 80 Americans,” he said.

Mohammed works for L-3 Titan Group, a unit of New York-based L-3 Communications. He declined to have his picture taken for publication. He fears for his life. He said his brother was killed last year in Baghdad for working for an American company.

Mohammed has sold his house and has squirreled away enough money to buy visas for his family of four. He said he intended to quit soon and emigrate to Germany. The latrine policy is part of the reason, he said.

L-3 officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“On one hand we’re asking Iraqis to help us,” often at great risk, said Laila al Qatami, spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington. “But at the same time we’re saying, ‘We want to keep you at a distance.’ It’s a mixed message we’re sending.

“I don’t understand having separate bathrooms. It seems to go against everything that the United States stands for.”

source:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/18685.html

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-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

The Massacre by Occupation Forces in Doluia City : US War Crime

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

The Massacre by Occupation Forces in Doluia City

Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)

Tuesday, 07 August 2007

Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) has released a press statement denouncing U.S. ocuupation forces of attacks in Doluia.

APS- NO: 452

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate the Merciful,

Praise be to Allah, peace and prayer to the prophet of Allah, His family and His companions,

The US occupation forces supported by air force has conducted attacks and air raides with heavy weapons and mortars to public sub-districts in Doluia keeping 6 citizens (women and children) dead an 35 people wounded behind, 12 women were among the wounded, the forces also has arrested two persons (father and his son), and caused a lot of damages to two houses, the occupation forces has not permitted to vacate the injuries from the place unless their withdrawal from the region, this event has conducted between one o’clock after midnight and five in early morning of Monday 6th of August 2007.

The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) in Doluia is condemns this shameful massacre and holds the occupation Forces and the current government full responsibilities requiring to leave the country for ever.

source:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m35163&hd=&size=1&l=e

===

-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 6 August 2007

bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

=== News Update ===

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Monday, 6 August 2007

Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice.

• Resistance blasts US base in al-Fallujah with three mortar shells Monday morning.
• US admits three more of its troops killed in Resistance attacks Saturday, Sunday.
• US forces raid ‘Anbar Mosque in al-A‘zamiyah Sunday evening.
• Unknown armed men gun down Imam of Sunni mosque in Baghdad afternoon Sunday.
• US, puppet forces raid Abu Hanifah Mosque, lock down al-A‘zamiyah district.
• Resistance attack Sunday afternoon wounds puppet policemen.
• Six residents killed in US air-ground assault on village near ad-Dulu‘iyah early Monday.
• Four US troops killed, 12 more wounded in combat in Ba‘qubah Monday.
• Bomb rips through US patrol near al-Miqdadiyah Sunday.
• US announces mass arrests in Samarra’.
• British-occupied facilities bombarded in al-Basrah.

Al-Anbar Province.
Al-Fallujah.

Resistance blasts US base in al-Fallujah with three mortar shells Monday morning.

In a dispatch posted at 2:44pm Baghdad time Monday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that the Iraqi Resistance blasted the US base in al-Fallujah, 60km west of Baghdad, with mortar shells on Monday morning.

The AMSI reported sources in the puppet security forces in al-Fallujah as saying that the American “as-Simark” base took hits from three mortar shells that sent plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. As usual, the Americans made no announcement regarding casualties.

The “as-Simark” base is an American base that also includes the buildings housing the al-Fallujah puppet government building and the headquarters of the al-Fallujah puppet police, as well as other puppet Iraqi government administration buildings.

Unexplained mortar attack wounds resident of al-Fallujah early Monday morning.

In a dispatch posted at 2:42pm Baghdad time Monday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that a mortar shell of unknown origins landed in the ash-Shurtah neighborhood of al-Fallujah, 60km west of Baghdad, at 6am local time Monday morning shortly before sunrise.

The AMSI reported that one local resident who had been sleeping on his roof was wounded in the attack and later hospitalized for treatment.

A source in the al-Fallujah puppet police said that the explosion also blew out glass in windows in nearby houses. The city of al-Fallujah is the targets of unexplained mortar attacks from time to time, AMSI noted.

Baghdad.

US admits three more of its troops killed in Resistance attacks Saturday, Sunday.

In a dispatch posted at 11:17am Baghdad time Monday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that the US military admitted that three more of its troops had been killed in separate Iraqi Resistance attacks.

The AMSI reported the Americans as announcing that an Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded near a US military vehicle on “combat operations” against the Iraqi Resistance near Baghdad on Saturday, 4 August. A soldier wounded in that attack has since died, the Pentagon admitted.

In a separate communiqué the Americans admitted that two more US soldiers had died of wounds they received in combat operations in Baghdad on Sunday, 5 August. In keeping with the American policy of concealing the facts regarding US casualties in Iraq, no further details on the engagements were revealed.

Mysterious bomb kills six in southeastern Baghdad Monday morning.

In a dispatch posted at 2:42pm Baghdad time Monday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that six civilians were killed and 10 more wounded when a bomb exploded in the Jisr Diyala area of southeastern Baghdad on Monday morning. The AMSI reported that the blast also damaged a number of residential houses.

US forces raid ‘Anbar Mosque in al-A‘zamiyah Sunday evening.

In a dispatch posted at 11:05am Baghdad time Monday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that a joint force of US troops accompanied by puppet Iraqi troops raided the ‘Anbar Mosque located between ‘Umar ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Street and 20 Street in al-A‘zamiyah on Sunday evening.

The AMSI reported that the raid was a part of a wave of American attacks on mosques and places of worship known for their opposition to the US occupation and its plans to partition Iraq. Earlier on Sunday, US forces raided the Abu Hanifah Mosque in al-A‘zamiyah (see story below).

Unknown armed men gun down Imam of Sunni mosque in Baghdad afternoon Sunday.

In a dispatch posted at am Baghdad time Monday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that unknown armed men assassinated the Imam of the al-Jabbar Mosque in Baghdad and his son and wounded his daughter in a Sunday attack.

The AMSI reported a source in the puppet police as saying that the armed men attacked Shaykh Abu Maysarah, the Imam of the al-Jabbar Mosque in the al-Khadra’ neighborhood of western Baghdad, opening fire on the Shaykh as he walked with his son and daughter near his home after noon on Sunday. The Shaykh and his son were killed instantly and his daughter suffered severe wounds, for which she has been hospitalized.

US, puppet forces raid Abu Hanifah Mosque, lock down al-A‘zamiyah district.

In a dispatch posted at 10:59am Baghdad time Monday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that a joint force of US and puppet regime troops raided the historic Mosque of Abu Hanifah an-Nu‘man and the College of al-Imam al-A‘zam in Baghdad’s al-A‘zamiyah district on Sunday. Witnesses said that the forces ransacked the mosque and shouted obscenities at the guards, whom they rounded up and arrested.

The AMSI reported witnesses as saying that the joint US-puppet force arrested all the guards in the mosque and college and then sealed off the entire district of al-A‘zamiyah until further notice.

Resistance attack Sunday afternoon wounds puppet policemen.

In a dispatch posted at 11:51am Baghdad time Monday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that Iraqi Resistance fighters attacked a puppet police patrol in the Baghdad district of as-Sayyidiyah in southwestern Baghdad on Sunday afternoon.

The AMSI reported a source as saying that the three puppet policemen were wounded in the attack, which also damaged a number of patrol cars.

Salah ad-Din Province.
Ad-Dulu‘iyah.

Six residents killed in US air-ground assault on village near ad-Dulu‘iyah early Monday.

In a dispatch posted at 2:42pm Baghdad time Monday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that US forces deployed aircraft artillery and ground troops equipped with automatic weapons to attack a popular residential neighborhood in the city of ad-Dulu‘iyah, about 90km north of Baghdad, before dawn Monday.

The AMSI reported that the American attack left six local residents, including women and children, dead and about 30 others wounded – 12 of those women. The Americans also arrested two people, a man and his son, in addition to inflicting heavy damage on two houses.

AMSI reported that US forces did not allow local people to go in to rescue injured victims under the rubble of the houses that were attacked until after the Americans had left the area, where they were from am until 5am Monday morning.

Diyala Province.
Ba‘qubah.

Four US troops killed, 12 more wounded in combat in Ba‘qubah Monday.

In a dispatch posted at 10:37pm Makkah time Monday night, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that US military sources admitted that four of its troops were killed and another 12 of them wounded in battles with the Iraqi Resistance in Ba‘qubah, 65km northeast of Baghdad, on Monday.

Al-Miqdadiyah.

Bomb rips through US patrol near al-Miqdadiyah Sunday.

In a dispatch posted at 11:39am Baghdad time Monday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that an Iraqi Resistance bomb exploded by a patrol on the main road leading to villages north of the city of al-Miqdadiyah, 85km northeast of Baghdad.

The AMSI reported a source in the puppet security forces as saying on Sunday that the bomb destroyed a US Humvee. No information on US losses was available because the Americans responded to the explosion by shooting indiscriminately at nearby yards and around the area and prevented anyone from approaching.

Samarra’.

US announces mass arrests in Samarra’.

In a dispatch posted at 2:42pm Baghdad time Monday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that US occupation troops arrested more than 80 local residents of the city of Samarra’, 120km north of Baghdad in the course of military raids and searches that it began in the city last Tuesday.

The AMSI reported the American occupation forces as announcing that more than 1,000 puppet police and troop, “backed up” by US paratroopers had been making mass arrests of local residents.

Ninwa Province.
Tall ‘Afar.

Truck bomber reportedly kills 28 in blast in residential neighborhood of Tall ‘Afar Monday morning.

In a dispatch posted at 2:42pm Baghdad time Monday afternoon, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that a truck bomber detonated an explosives-laden car in what was reportedly a predominantly Shi‘i neighborhood in the town of Tall ‘Afar, 55km west of al-Mawsil in northern Iraq on Monday, killing 28 people and wounding 50 more. The AMSI reported that eight of the wounded were in serious condition. Following the attack, the puppet police imposed a curfew in the city.

Earlier, in a dispatch posted at 10:04am Makkah time Monday morning, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the attack took place in the Sa‘dah area of Tall ‘Afar, an area, described as a densely-populated residential district.

Al-Mawsil.

Resistance men battle puppet police in al-Mawsil Sunday.

In a dispatch posted at 11:51am Baghdad time Monday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that Iraqi Resistance fighters clashed in a fierce battle with puppet policemen in the an-Nur neighborhood of the northern city of al-Mawsil on Sunday evening.

The AMSI reported a source in the puppet police as saying that the engagement heavily damaged a number of puppet police cars. The source declined to mention any casualties that might have occurred, however.

After the battle, the source said, the puppet police and security forces sealed off the neighborhood.

Al-Basrah Province.
Al-Basrah.

British-occupied facilities bombarded in al-Basrah.

In a dispatch posted at 11:39am Baghdad time Monday morning, the Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported that the British occupation command announced that its bases in al-Basrah had been subjected to “indirect fire” from “unknown sources” in the previous 24 hours.

The AMSI reported a propaganda statement issued by the British military as saying that the British headquarters in the Presidential Palaces and at the al-Basrah International Airport as well as some British camps, including the “Center for Joint Coordination” were subjected to “indirect fire.” As usual, the British statement made no mention of casualties or damage.

http://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?mod=art&lapage=../en_articles_2007/0807/iraqiresistancereport_060807.htm

Sources:

http://www.qudspress.com/look/article.tpl?IdLanguage=17&IdPublication=1&NrArticle=22455&NrIssue=1&NrSection=3

http://www.qudspress.com/look/sarticle.tpl?IdLanguage=17&IdPublication=1&NrArticle=22439&NrIssue=1&NrSection=1

http://www.qudspress.com/look/sarticle.tpl?IdLanguage=17&IdPublication=1&NrArticle=22451&NrIssue=1&NrSection=1

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/06/content_6483291.htm

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/06/content_6482606.htm

http://www.islammemo.cc/article1.aspx?id=48743

http://www.islammemo.cc/article1.aspx?id=48734

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http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=18784&5293e8d0dcf44fa5462d0f65962d0f2c

http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=18780&72a775196da8d1b67617e260e85986a6

http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=18778&b970bf2b555ef3b59b208a1288729431

http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=18777&f4672f20c999b4996732f576c24e0408

http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=18768&374bd1ba5d5a74a73921cf4176ed6595

http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=18767&9557a329700a9d69d565f382c9f4570c

http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=18764&433f6acb36e5c95ab9695c4bf10fd136

http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=18763&60a17202fcb6699d2f9941ab46afdcf7

http://www.iraq-amsi.org/news.php?action=view&id=18761&d1c0b85324c5ba248fe8f95d64a0fed8

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070806/ts_nm/iraq_dc

http://www.freearabvoice.org

http://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?header=res1&mod=gis&rep=rep

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