THE HANDSTAND

APRIL 2003

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you got it made. - Groucho Marx

The handstand diary
It is enough lying for a man to speak of everything that he hears. Koran.
APRIL 18TH
http://electroniciraq.net/news/iraqdiaries.shtml

what is most important..."
Bettejo Passalaqua, Baghdad, Iraq (15 April 2003)
"I spent the morning with a wonderful Iraqi family whom I have come to know ... We talked a lot about the changes taking place right now. [Waleed] said he knows that Bush just wants the oil of Iraq. As far he is concerned, Bush can have it. He said what is important is not wealth nor material things, but the love in our hearts for our family and friends." Bettejo Passalaqua writes from Baghdad.

Other Hearts
Kathy Kelly, Iraq Peace Team (15 April 2003)

Two musicians, Majid Al-Ghazali and Hisham Sharaf, came to our Hotel four days ago, hoping to call relatives outside Iraq on a satellite phone. Hisham's home was badly damaged during the war. 'One month ago, I was the director of the Baghdad Symphony Orchestra,' Hisham said with an ironic smile." "Now, what am I?" Kathy Kelly writes about the tragedies behind the headlines.

APRIL 17th
Special Report on the Occasion of Palestinian Prisoners Day
As we mark Palestinian Prisoners Day this Thursday, 17 April, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are being subjected to harsh and repressive conditions within central prisons, detention centers and military camps run by both the Israeli Prisons Authority and the Israeli military, while Palestinians outside prisons continue to suffer from repeated violations of their basic human rights by Israeli occupying forces.  Over the years, the Palestinian prisoners movement has achieved much in its struggle to ensure minimum standards of detention, many times at the cost of their lives. However, these accomplishments have all but disappeared since the beginning of the current Intifada in September 2000, as conditions of detention have reached unparalleled levels of deterioration, as prisoners are forced to live in inhuman conditions, are offered inadequate food, prevented from having family visits, prevented from recreational activities and subject to severe restrictions on leaving their cells for fresh air, insufficient medical attention, amongst many other problems.  

Since the beginning of the current Intifada in September 2000 until 8 April 2003, over 28,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. There are currently 5123 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, in addition to 66 female detainees.  Arrest campaigns conducted by Israel have, in particular during this past year, targeted Palestinian political leaders and leaders within the community, effectively imprisoning leaders of Palestinian society and negatively effecting the development of the community.  

During the Israeli invasion and reoccupation of the majority of cities in the West Bank in April 2002, many Palestinians were subjected to acts of terror during the process of arrest by Israeli occupying forces, including physical and psychological threats, attempted murder, and injuries as a result of indiscriminate attacks. Numerous injured Palestinians were arrested without any medical attention given to them while detained.  Families of those who were arrested were subjected to similar attacks, including the destruction of personal property and, in some cases, destroying the house itself, threatening the lives of children and women by taking them hostage and placing them in rooms within their house for extended periods of time, often not allowing families to obtain food or water and preventing them from using the toilet.

Addameer, similar to many local Palestinian institutions and NGOs during this time, has tried to offer support and services to Palestinian prisoners despite the difficult circumstances it finds itself in, ensuring contact between prisoners and lawyers and the outside world, continuing visits to prisons, detention centers and military detention camps and attempting to minimize the double isolation imposed on Palestinian prisoners during this past year as a result of prevention of family visits and the difficulties faced by lawyers in reaching prisons and gaining access to detainees. (Details from this report will be put online May Issue the Handstand.)
********
Sent: 17 April 2003 09:59
To: bboard@nmrc.ie
Subject:
EXCERPTS of e-mail exchange between a scientist and an American Journal
editor

> > Dr. Daniel Amit
> > Univ. di Roma, La Sapienza
> > Ple Aldo Moro 2
> > 00185 Roma, ITALY
> > Electronic URL-Download
> >> > Dear Dr. Amit:
> > We would appreciate your review of this manuscript (un-named), which has been
> > submitted to Physical Review E. This message is the COMPLETE REFERRAL.
> > No hardcopy will be sent unless requested.
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------
> > From: "Daniel Amit" <daniel.amit@roma1.infn.it>
> > To: "Physical Review E" <pre@ridge.aps.org>
> > Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 6:11 PM
> >
> > Subject: Re: Review_request AMIT
> >
> >    I will not at this point correspond with any american institution.
> > Some of us have lived through 1939.
> >
> >    Daniel Amit
> >
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
> > From: "martin blume " <blume@aps.org>
> > To: <daniel.amit@roma1.infn.it>; <damita@green.fiz.huji.ac.il>
> > Subject: your email to the American Physical Society
> >
> > Date: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 10:31 PM
> >
> > Dear Dr. Amit,
> >
> > We have received your email with your decision not to review a paper for
> > us in light of American actions in the middle east. We recognize that
> > reviewing manuscripts is a voluntary activity, one that you perform as a
> > service to the physics community, and we thank you for your efforts.
> >
> > Given the voluntary nature of your participation we of course respect
> > your decision to cease, and have made an indication in our database so
> > that no further papers will be sent to you for review until you inform
> > us otherwise.
> >
> > We ask, however, that you consider the following in hopes that in the
> > not too distant future you will decide to review for us again .
> >
> > We regard science as an international enterprise and we do our best to
> > put aside political disagreements in the interest of furthering the
> > pursuit of scientific matters. We have never used other than scientific
> > criteria in judging the acceptability of a paper for publication,
> > without regard to the country of origin of the author.
> >
> > We have done this even in cases where some of us have disagreed strongly
> > with the policies of that country, and we will continue this practice.
> > We believe it is essential that all parties involved make every effort
> > to separate social and political differences from their participation in
> > scientific research and publication. The pursuit of scientific knowledge
> > needs to transcend such issues. >
> >
>> Sincerely,
> >
> > ; Martin Blume
> >
> > Editor-in-Chief
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > From: "Daniel Amit" <daniel.amit@roma1.infn.it>
> > To: "martin blume" <blume@aps.org>
> > Date: Wednesday, April 09, 2003
> >
> > Dr Blume, Editor in Chief
> > American Physical Society
> >
> > Dear Dr Blume
> >
> > Thank you for you letter of April 8. I would have liked to be able to
> > share the honorable sentiments you express in your letter as well as
> > your optimism in the future role of science and the scientific
> > community. To be frank, and with much sadness and pain,  after 40 years
> > of activity and collaboration, I find very little reason for such
> > optimism.
> >
> > What we are watching today, I believe, is a culmination of 10-15 years
> > of mounting barbarism of the American culture the world over, crowned by
> > the achievements of science and technology as a major weapon of mass
> > destruction. We are witnessing man hunt and wanton killing of the type
> > and scale not seen since the raids on American Indian populations, by a
> > superior technological power of inferior culture and values. We s ee no
> > corrective force to restore the insanity, the self-righteousness and the
> > lack of respect for human life (civilian and military) of another race.
> >
> > Science cannot stay neutral, especially after it has been so cynically
> > used in the hands of the inspectors to disarm a country and prepare it
> > for decimation by laser guided cluster bombs. No,  science of the
> > American variety has no recourse. I, personally, cannot see myself
> > anymore sharing a common human community with American science.
> > Unfortunately, I also belong to a culture of a similar spiritual
> > deviation (Israel), and which seems to be equally incorrigible.
> >
> > In desperation I cannot but turn my attention to other tragic periods in
> > which major societies, some with claims to fundamental contributions to
> > culture and science, have deviated s o far as to be relegated to
> > ostracism and quarantine. At this point I think American society should
> > be considered in this category. I have no illusions of power, as to the
> > scope and prospect of my attitude.
> >
> > But, the minor role of my act and statement is a simple way of
> > affirming that in the face of a growing enormity which I consider
> > intolerable, I will exercise my own tiny act of disobedience to be able
> > to look straight into the eyes of my grandchildren and my students and
> > say that I did know.
> >
> > With regard
> >
> > Daniel Amit
> >
> > PS I intend to distribute our exchange as much as possible. I  authorize
> > and pray that you do the same.

******
From: "Israel Shamir" <shamir@home.se>
Subject: destruction in Baghdad: a response 
  From Erfan, San Francisco
  Dear Israel:

  I have been enjoying your essays in the past year.  You are definitely  providing an alternative media that is lacking in the US.  People like Amy  Goodman, Robert Fisk, and Arundhati Roi are also helping bring these  perspective to the public.

  I am very troubled by the developments in Baghdad since the Occupation a  week ago.  In particular the methodical way the museum and library were  looted and burned with advance warning and no American militaryprotection.

  What I want to know is if there were any Israeli elements involved in these  sabotage acts.  The reason why I ask is that this museum and the library  contained documents from the Ottomon empire that explain the process by  which the Arabs handed over their lands to the British in exchange for  political power in the region.  They also included the letters written  between the Arabs and the British on the creation of Israel.

  I thought who might benefit most from the removal of these documents but the
  Israeli government that is trying so hard to erase the history of the  Palestinians.  Furthermore, by pushing Iraq further down the path to  oblivion, the Israeli government can wield more hegemonistic control over  the area.  As you can see, their doves are already barking at Syria while  the massacre continues in Iraq.

  I am interested in hearing your perspective on the looting and the  possibility of an Israeli connection. One hint is that some of the artifacts  stolen are alleged to be for sale on E-Bay!
  Regards,  Erfan
The following article April 15th below was sent by Mr. Shamir re.perspectives.

APRIL 15TH

"US Forces Encourage Looting"

By Ole Rothenborg

Translated article from Sweden's largest circulation daily, Dagens Nyheter, Saturday April 11, 2003

Malmoe. Khaled Bayomi looks a bit surprised when he looks at the American officer on TV regretting that they don't have any resources to stop the looting in Baghdad.He says:- I happened to be there just as the US forces told people to commence looting. Khaled Bayomi departed from Malmoe to Baghdad, as a human shield, and arrived on the same day the fighting begun. About this he can tell us plenty and for a long time, but the most interesting part of his story is his witness-account about the great surge of looting now taking place.

- I had visited a few friends that live in a worn-down area just beyond the Haifa Avenue, on the west bank of the Tigris River. It was April 8 and the fighting was so heavy I couldn't make it over to the other side of the river. On the afternoon it became perfectly quiet, and four American tanks pulled up in position on the outskirts of the slum area. From these tanks we heard anxious calls in Arabic, which told the population to come closer. - During the morning everybody that tried to cross the streets had been fired upon. But during this strange silence people eventually became curious. After three-quarters of an hour the first Baghdad citizens dared to come forward. At that moment the US solders shot two Sudanese guards, who were posted in front of a local administrative building, on the other side of the Haifa Avenue. - I was just 300 meters away when the guards where murdered. Then they shot the building entrance to pieces, and their Arabic translators in the tanks told people to run for grabs inside the building. Rumors spread rapidly and the house was cleaned out. Moments later tanks broke down the doors to the Justice Department, residing in the neighboring building, and looting was carried on to there.

- I was standing in a big crowd of civilians that saw all this together with me. They did not take any part in the looting, but were to afraid to take any action against it. Many of them had tears of shame in their eyes. The next morning looting spread to the Museum of Modern Art, which lies another 500 meters to the north. There was also two crowds in place, one that was looting and another one that disgracefully saw it happen. Do you mean to say that it was the US troops that initiated the looting? - Absolutely. The lack of scenes of joy had the US forces in need of images of Iraqi's who,in different ways, demonstrated their disgust with Saddam's regime. 

But people in Baghdad tore down a big statue of Saddam?- They did?! It was a US tank that did this, close to the hotel where all the journalists live. Until noon on the 9th of April, I didn't see a single torn picture of Saddam anywhere. If people had wanted to turn over statues they could have gone for some of the many smaller ones, without the help of an American tank. Had this been a political uproar then people would have turned over statues first and looted afterwards.

Back home in Sweden Khaled Bayomi is PhD student at the University of Lund, where he since ten years teaches and researches about conflicts in the Middle East. He is very well informed about the conflicts, as well as he is on the propaganda war.

..Isn't it good that Saddam is gone?- He is not gone. He has dissolved his army in tiny, tiny groups. This is why there never was any big battle. Saddam dissolved Iraq as a state already in 1992 and have had a parallel tribal structure going, which since then has been altogether decisive for the country. When USA begun the war Saddam completely abandoned the state, and now depends on this tribal structure. This is why he left the big cities without any battle. - Now USA are forced to do everything themselves, because there is no political force from within that would challenge the structure in place. The two challengers who came in from the outside were immediately lynched. Khaled Bayomi refers to what happened to general Nazar al-Khazraji, who escaped from Denmark, and Shia-muslim leader Abdul Majid al- Khoei, who both where chopped to pieces by a raging crowd in Najaf, because they where perceived to be American marionettes. According to Danish newspaper BT, al-Khazraji was picked up by the CIA in Denmark and then brought to Iraq. 

- Now we have an occupying power in place in Iraq, that has not said how long they will stay, not brought forward any time-plan for civilian rule and no date for general elections. Now awaits only a big chaos.
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1435&a=129852&previousRenderType=1

APRIL 14TH
THE BBC OF ENGLAND HAS THIS INFORMATION IN THEIR ENTERTAINMENT SECTION; ATLEAST THE RUSSIAN MAFIA WILL BE LAUGHING.

US 'will repair' Iraqi heritage
The United States has pledged to recover and repair the priceless antiquities looted from Iraq's national museum in the wake of the entry of US troops.

ANOTHER CURIOUS MISTAKE, THIS TIME OF COLIN POWELL'S:
Coalition forces were criticised for not protecting the institution.....and that the US would take a leading role in restoring it.

The world's foremost experts on Iraqi heritage will gather for an emergency meeting on Thursday Mr Powell said the US would secure the museum and would work with organisations like the European Union and the United Nations' cultural arm, Unesco, in restoring it. The US would "recover that which has been taken and also participate in restoring that which has been broken", he said.

Donny George, director of research and discoveries for the state board of antiquities, said: "It was the leading collection of a... continuous history of mankind."And it's gone, and it's lost. If Marines had started before, none of this would have happened. ""It's too late. It's no use. It's no use."

A Western journalist - Robert Fisk of the Independent - reporting from the site of the library told the BBC that the whole building had been gutted, with handwritten documents from as far back as the 16th century - when Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire - strewn on the ground.

A nearby Islamic library has also gone in up in flames, he said, destroying valuable literature including one of the oldest surviving copies of the Koran.

In Baghdad the BBC's Andrew Gilligan says thanks to foot patrols by the US troops some sense of calm and normality is returning to parts of the city, with shops re-opening for business.But our correspondent says that some are concerned about the discipline of some American troops. One doctor told the BBC that they had deliberately fired on his hospital and on an ambulance, even though there were no Iraqi fighters in the vicinity.

U.S. Threatens Iraqi Scientists   http://www.islamonline.net/english/news/2003-04/12/article02.shtml   CAIRO, April 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Appealing to the world community to protect them from the U.S. aggression aimed at obliterating Iraq’s minds, a number of Iraqi scientists and university professors sent an SOS e-mail complaining American occupation forces were threatening their lives.   In their e-mail, a copy of which was sent to IslamOnlin.net Friday, April 11, they said they have dictated their message to a respected Iraqi scientist in the Netherlands over phone, urging him to circulate it to all parties concerned to protect them from the arbitrary inquires and arrests by the U.S. occupation forces.   Iraqi scientists asserted that occupation troops demanded them, particularly physicists, chemists and mathematicians, to hand over all documents and researches in their possession.   The appeal message also said that looting and robberies were being taken place under the watchful eye of the occupation soldiers.   The occupation soldiers, the e-mail added, are transporting mobs to the scientific institutions, such as Mosul University and different educational institutions, to destroy scientific research centers and confiscate all papers and documents to nip in the bud any Iraqi scientific renaissance.   The frantic scientists also underlined that some of them were placed under house arrest and deprived of going to their laboratories and universities.   Some of them were also approached by agents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to entice them away to foreign scientific centers, the message cautioned.   The e-mail also noted that occupation forces had drawn up lists of the names, addresses and researches of the Iraqi scientists to assist them in their harassment tasks in light of the chaos and anarchy that sit in after the toppling of the Iraqi regime on April, 9. 

IRAQ RADIO "OVERHAUL"
www.sundayherald.com/33079

Robert Reilly

Former director of Voice of America, the pro-US radio service, Reilly has been entrusted with overhauling Iraqi radio, television and newspapers. The Bush administration has already given Reilly the green light to operate Radio Free Iraq. This will involve using transmitters that have been sent to the Middle East for the military’s psychological operations.Reilly is closely involved with an American administration plan to establish a media network in the Middle East. A $62m (£40m) satellite TV station is scheduled to begin at the end of the year.

He is a very close friend and business partner of Ahmed Chalabi.

APRIL 12TH
USA TELLS BLAIR WHERE TO TAKE HIS PEACE-KEEPERS: UNITED NATIONS ARE NOT CORPORATE,EFFICIENT, NOR HAVE CLEAN LINES OF AUTHORITY..... Commenting on the unfolding chaos an unnamed Pentagon official told the New York Times that they were seeking something more than the United Nations peace-keeping troops: "We know we want something a little more corporate and more efficient with cleaner lines of authority and responsibility.

That plan appears to be almost ready. Half a world away from the bedlam in Iraq, just outside of Forth Worth, Texas, police recruiters are currently manning the phones for Dyncorp, a multi-billion dollar military Contractor. For Dyncorp the turmoil that is emerging in Iraq could mean a boom in business."When the area is safe, we will go in. Watch CNN. In the meantime fax us a resume if you want a job," Their website explains that recruits will help "establish police stations and monitor activities determining the selection, screening and training processes for police officers, demonstrating police practices and techniques used by democratic societies (!!!)advising local police on criminal investigation methods and monitoring their progress working side-by-side with police officers from around the world reporting humanitarian violation."

Armed DynCorp employees make up the core of the police force in Bosnia. DynCorp troops protect Afghan president Hamid Karzai, while DynCorp planes and pilots fly the defoliation missions over the coca crops in Colombia. US Rep. Janice Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, told Wired magazine that hiring a private company to fly what amounts to combat missions is asking for trouble. DynCorp's employees have a history of behaving like cowboys," Schakowsky noted

Meanwhile, policing post-Saddam Iraq may be more than Dyncorp bargains for. Iraqis say the exercise of bringing in foreign police is fraught with danger."People do not like Saddam, but they do not want a colonizing army," one young man told the Independent of London. "In the area where I live there was an older man, a retired soldier ... When he heard the Americans were coming he went and got his gun. When people asked why, he said it was because he did not want to be invaded."

21.000 lb bomb for Tikrit???
Major-General Gene Renuart, a spokesman at US Central Command in Qatar, said: “Tikrit certainly is one of the key strongholds of the Baath party and it is an area that is important to us.”
General Renuart refused to rule out using the biggest weapon in the American arsenal, the so-called “Mother of all Bombs”, or Moab (massive ordnance air blast bomb). A Pentagon official was quoted on CNN as having confirmed that a Moab had been moved to an undisclosed forward base in the region. The Moab, which detonates 21,000lb of explosives above the ground, is dropped from a slow-moving C130 Hercules aircraft and is guided by the satellite-linked global positioning system.
The Moab, which can create temperatures of up to 538C (1,000F), is also designed to obliterate chemical or biological agents concealed in bunkers.
comment:
teacher,Mary Quijano guest

The US media has been very careful not to show any pictures of Tikrit or give any data that would "humanize" the city. The picture painted is that of a Republican Guard stronghold of Saddam; thus the American public will have no conscience about sending a MOAB or two in to obliterate everything. I point out to my students that it is a city, with at least 2/3 of the population women, children, and old people: buildings that are shops and schools and markets...and these will all be wiped off the face of the earth by MOAB, not just Saddam and his army. I did not get stats or demographics; that's the point. No one is talking about them. But since 50% of a normal population (average) is female, and 50% of the population in Iraq is known to be under 15, plus a certain percent of any population is over 60, I feel the estimate of 2/3 "non combatants" in Tikrit is a reasonable number. The point is, Tikrit IS a city, not a military base. Cities by their nature have homes and families and schools and businesses, the whole human urban ecosystem. No claim has ever been made it is anything but a city; yet it is presented only in terms of the military "stronghold" of Saddam that might be holed up there. Actually, if you go on the search engine "Google.com" and search Iraq, you can find on the first page the Library of Congress history and fact sheet on Iraq as well as other resources. I'm sure demographics of Tikrit are there.http://www.iraqwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=2697&lang=en

international solidarity movement
Wake Up Israelis by: Ghassan Andoni   March 16, Rachel crushed by the blade of an Israeli army bulldozer Rafah. she was guilty of attempting to protect the home of a Palestinian family. it was proven beyond any doubt that she was seen and recognized as an International peace activist, yet the driver blindly  followed the orders.   April 5, Brian was shoot in the head by an Israeli army tank from 50 meters distance. he was seen and clearly identified as an International peace activist. He was guilty of attempting to protect Palestinian children. The solider blindly followed the orders and fired a round of high speed bullets directly to his head.   April 11, Tom was shoot in the head from the Israeli soldiers tower in Yebna, Rafah from a 100 meters distance. He was guilty of attempting to move two little girls from the army line of fire. the solider blindly followed the orders and Brian is clinically dead.   this is what is how clearly identified International activists are being dealt with from the side of your "Defense Forces" have you ever asked how Palestinian civilians are treated? did you ever think why there is a high toll of Palestinians killed and seriously hurt on daily basis?   In which of the above mentioned cases did any of the International activists presented a threat to the safety of your soldiers? why would your soldiers, sheltered in a well protected tower, target Palestinian children standing at a 100 meters distance?   each and every one of you is still holding the pain deep inside him because the world was silent when you were prosecuted. when you felt defenseless. those ISM activists  decided that it is a crime to stay silent when innocent civilians are being killed and prosecuted. why are you deadly silent? does it really matter on which side of the bullet you stand? the sending or the receiving side!!!!   It is sad to say that the International community is as guilty. when Palestinian civilians were killed and prosecuted they did not care. when Rachel was crushed, they stayed deadly silent, when Brian was shot, they kept silent. now is Tom and we wonder who is next. Now the people who care need protection. it is only you and the International community who can provide it. if you stay silent I think you are as guilty as the ones who followed the orders.   conflicts are fueled by the tendency of the powerful to exploit his power and the anger and frustration of the powerless which turns into violence. ISM activists are attempting to confront the exploitation of power and to bring back hope to the powerless. nothing can be more conducive to the cause of peace than their work. for God sake raise your voice and bring an end to this massacre of our hopes for a peaceful future.

Scenes of chaos and near anarchy prompted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday to demand the United States and Britain to respect their international obligations as occupying forces and maintain order.

 

PILLAGE, AND THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS IGNORED:

 

Even as tape of the pillage in Basra was being beamed around the world, there was Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Blackman of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards cheerfully telling the BBC that "it' s absolutely not my business to get in the way." But of course it is Colonel Blackman's business to "get in the way". Pillage merits a specific prevention clause in the Geneva Conventions, just as it did in the 1907 Hague Convention upon which the Geneva delegates based their "rules of war". "Pillage is prohibited," the 1949 Geneva Conventions say, and Colonel Blackman and Mr Hoon should glance at Crimes of War, published in conjunction with the City University Journalism Department, page 276 is the most dramatic, to understand what this means.

 

When an occupying power takes over another country' s territory, it automatically becomes responsible for the protection of its civilians, their property and institutions. Thus the American troops in Nasiriyah became automatically responsible for the driver who was murdered for his car in the first day of that city's "liberation". The Americans in Baghdad were responsible for the German and Slovak embassies that were looted by hundreds of Iraqis on Thursday, and for the French Cultural Centre, which was attacked, and for the Central Bank of Iraq, which was torched yesterday afternoon.

 

But the British and Americans have simply discarded this notion, based though it is upon conventions and international law. And we journalists have allowed them to do so.........ROBERT FISK

APRIL 11TH
"Civilian casualties cannot be allowed - neither in Afghanistan nor in Iraq
- to become an acceptable feature of war." AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
"It has been the policy in the past of the US that there are no compensation
or reparations for losses due to combat," Lieutenant Colonel Roger King said
at Bagram airbase, 50 kilometres north of Kabul.AFGHANISTAN
The Geneva Conventions have a lot to say about all this. They specifically refer to civilians as protected persons, as persons who must have the protection of a warring power even if they find themselves in the presence of armed antagonists. The same protection was demanded for southern Lebanese civilians when Israel launched its brutal "Grapes of Wrath" operation in 1996. When an Israeli pilot, for example, fired a US-made Hellfire missile into an ambulance, killing three children and two women, the Israelis claimed that a Hezbollah fighter had been in the same vehicle. The statement proved to be totally untrue. But Israel was rightly condemned for killing civilians in the hope of killing an enemy combatant. Now we are doing exactly the same. And Ariel Sharon must be pleased. No more namby-pamby western criticism of Israel after the bunker-busters have been dropped on Mansur...EXCERPT FROM ROBERT FISK'S ARTICLE "COLLAPSE OF MORALITY"
 

..IN BAGHDAD:The singing and dancing in the streets .... I cannot put it in a better way than my husband, as he has said, "the American Army and the Bush administration have used lots of horrible weapons ... but the most lethal weapon of all ...is the savage people, that they have unleashed in the streets of Baghdad, calling them...the people of Iraq!"

Those people that you see on the streets, are the people of "Althowra city" or as they call it sometimes "Saddam's city." Those people do not in any way resemble the people of Iraq. They resemble the community of criminals in Iraq. As you can see, they are not only dancing , but they are also looting, robbing stores, stealing cars, burning places, and trashing the streets!Those people whom you see dancing were the very same people who used to appear on TV, clapping for Saddam like crazy, when everyone else was against him. They are opportunists who have no principles at all. Always with the winner, ... and they sell very cheap.

I don't think that it was a coincidence that the American army has decided to enter Baghdad from this city. Please...you can believe whatever you want, just don't call a bunch of looters and murderers "thepeople of Iraq."

The people of Iraq are not on the streets because they are afraid of those maniacs, who were unleashed into the streets, due to the absence of the authority. Since I was in Iraq, last February, the real people of Iraq were very afraid of what these savages were planning to do, when there was no government control....

APRIL 1OTH
With wide opened eyes
to look at
the life grasp from the bodies

With wide opened eyes
this time
to look at the Tv growing fat
to look at it as the horse

With wide opened eyes
the whores that we are
in front of who discovers
our mean shame
of who loves and can't hate
not so much to kill
when looking at murders killing

With wide opened eyes
in the shame of being here
beside that orphans
whose fathers and mothers
fell from the towers
victims that just now
are allowed to see
other murdered kids
to die like flys
in reason of our own mourning

With wide opened eyes
this time
wide opened eyes
from now
enourmous eyes
that
in the centuries of the centuries
should never close.
Amen.

McBett©2003

APRIL 9TH
YES MR. ESMAELI, IT WAS THE QUESTION OF THE BRIDGES....

By Parviz Esmaeili

The Tehran Times

4-9-3

Note - This is the first story to point in the direction of possible/probable answers to a number of key questions about the US-UK zionist subjugation of Iraq. When the Iraqis failed to blow a single bridge - a classic and mandatory defensive military strategy - suspicions arose immediately. Aside from a handful of oil well-head fires in the South, there was no effort to torch Iraq's oil assets by Saddam. The repeated deployment of the regular Iraqi army and the Guard into exposed areas in the desert - and certain death by total US and UK airpower and carpet bombing - is also equally bizarre in a military sense. What happened to the deadly Russian Kornet wire-guided antitank missiles which surprised the 'Coalition' in the South? And now the 'obliteration' of Saddam and sons can only be 'confirmed' by 'dna' on the word of possibly a single person in a lab somewhere...how potentially convenient. And then there is the remarkably and surprising ease with which Baghdad was taken. There are many things to ponder in the weeks ahead, and high-level collusion is certainly at the top of list. This article begins the search for possible answers. Nothing much is as it seems. -ed     Almost 10 days ago, there was a halt in U.S.-British operations in Iraq. However, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the chief of the U.S. Central Command, General Tommy Franks, in their interviews with the media never elaborated on the issue, but instead tried to mislead world public opinion in order to hide a greater secret decision from them.   Suspicions rose on the same day when U.S. troops, that had been stopped at the Euphrates, immediately were able to advance toward the heart of Baghdad without any significant resistance by Iraqi forces. Nobody asked why Tikrit, that was once called the ideological heart of Saddam's government and the last possible trench of the Iraqi army, was never targeted by U.S. and British bombs and missiles. Or why when the elite Iraqi forces arrived in eastern Iraq from Tikrit, the pace of the invaders advancing toward central Baghdad immediately increased. Also, it has been reported that over the past 24 hours, a plane was authorized to leave Iraq bound for Russia. Who was aboard this plane?   All these ambiguities, the contradictory reports about Saddam's situation, and the fact that the highest-ranking Iraqi officials were all represented by a single individual -- Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhaf -- and the easy fall of Baghdad shows that the center of collusion had been Tikrit, where Saddam, his aides, and lieutenants from the Baath Party had been waiting for al-Sahhaf to join them so that they could receive the required guarantees to leave the country in a secret compromise with coalition forces.   This possibility was confirmed by the Al-Jazeera network, which quoted a Russian intelligence official as saying that the Iraqi forces and the invaders had made a deal. The Russian official told Al-Jazeera that the Iraqi leaders had agreed to show no serious resistance against the U.S.-British troops in return for a guarantee that Saddam and his close relatives could leave Iraq unharmed.   The question now is whether the U.S. would prefer Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to be dead or wants him alive to be tried. There may even be a third alternative that the White House is looking far. It seems that U.S. officials would welcome a solution where Saddam was found, either dead or alive.   First of all, the White House hawks and U.S. President George W. Bush would definitely not be saddened to hear that reports claiming that Saddam was killed, which were highlighted by the U.S. media on Tuesday after a missile attack on an underground restaurant in Baghdad, have been verified.   This is because they do not want the Iraqi people to ever find out about the secrets of the clandestine political cooperation between the U.S. and Iraq. On the other hand, Saddam's death would mean that the weak Iraqi regime has been completely defeated, and this may to some extent satisfy Washington's feeling of militarism.   However, an inactive, defeated, and exiled dictator can definitely be beneficial to the White House, provided that he is under Washington's control. Look at what happened to Mullah Muhammad Omar and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Is there any sign that the U.S. is interested in finding them and wiping them out? One should know that these two, as U.S. henchmen over the past decade, provided enough pretexts for the White House to dominate Afghanistan, even though they are still at large. This automatically justifies the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.   Therefore, Washington benefits from its inability to find the Taleban and Al-Qaeda leaders. The same holds true with Saddam, and the U.S. failure to find Saddam, or Washington's efforts to withhold news of his death, provide the best pretext to stay in Iraq.   Secondly, in the event that Saddam survives the U.S.-British attacks on Iraq, the White House will have to devise new policies and approaches to make the best use of this. There is no doubt that Saddam knows many of the secrets of U.S. strategy in the region over the past three decades. If he were put on trial in an international and open court, he might reveal much evil about the U.S. that would expose the real image of the White House hawks to the world. This is the reason why the Fox news network has taken the lead in reminding the world that an international tribunal would lack the authority to put the Iraqi president on trial, given that neither Iraq nor the U.S. have joined the International Criminal Court. Fox has thus proposed three alternatives to deal with Saddam in case he saves his skin in the U.S.-led attacks: living underground, changing his identity, or travelling to the beautiful beaches of Guantanamo!! Needless to say these alternatives will make Saddam harmless for the White House, even if he is not of any use to the U.S.   These stances clarify the fact that the rumor on the possibility of Saddam seeking political asylum in Syria is only a red herring because any attempt by the Iraqi president to flee the country without coordinating with the U.S. is absolutely impossible. Therefore, if there had been any kind of compromise between the U.S. and Saddam, the Iraqi president would take refuge wherever the White House ordered him to.   Even dictators have to respect a hierarchy. A minor dictator like Saddam is like a puppet that has danced for a lifetime to the tune of a certain major dictator like the U.S. and cannot act on his own. Saddam did whatever the White House wanted him to do for years. Therefore, the simple answer to the question "Where is Saddam?" is nothing but "Wherever the U.S. desires!"   http://www.tehrantimes.com/

GENERAL BUFORD BLOUNT AND THE PALESTINE HOTEL MURDERS
EXCERPT FROM AN ARTICLE BY ROBERT FISK

The Americans responded with what all the evidence proves to be a straightforward lie. General Buford Blount of the US 3rd Infantry Division - whose tanks were on the bridge - announced that his vehicles had come under rocket and rifle fire from snipers in the Palestine Hotel, that his tank had fired a single round at the hotel and that the gunfire had then ceased. The general's statement, however, was untrue.

 

I was driving on a road between the tanks and the hotel at the moment the shell was fired - and heard no shooting. The French videotape of the attack runs for more than four minutes and records absolute silence before the tank's armament is fired. And there were no snipers in the building. Indeed, the dozens of journalists and crews living there - myself included - have watched like hawks to make sure that no armed men should ever use the hotel as an assault point.

 

This is, one should add, the same General Blount who boasted just over a month ago that his crews would be using depleted uranium munitions - the kind many believe to be responsible for an explosion of cancers after the 1991 Gulf War - in their tanks. For General Blount to suggest, as he clearly does, that the Reuters camera crew was in some way involved in shooting at Americans merely turns a meretricious statement into a libellous one.

 

Again, we should remember that three dead and five wounded journalists do not constitute a massacre - let alone the equivalence of the hundreds of civilians being maimed by the invasion force. And it is a truth that needs to be remembered that the Iraqi regime has killed a few journalists of its own over the years, with tens of thousands of its own people. But something very dangerous appeared to be getting loose yesterday. General Blount's explanation was the kind employed by the Israelis after they have killed the innocent. Is there therefore some message that we reporters are supposed to learn from all this? Is there some element in the American military that has come to hate the press and wants to take out journalists based in Baghdad, to hurt those whom our Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has maliciously claimed to be working "behind enemy lines". Could it be that this claim - that international correspondents are in effect collaborating with Mr Blunkett's enemy (most Britons having never supported this war in the first place) - is turning into some kind of a death sentence?

APRIL 8TH
ISM Media Coordinator Beit Sahour Occupied Palestine Web:  www.palsolidarity.org

  The Battle of Tel Zorab
Yesterday in Rafah 11 ISM activists (from England, Scotland, the US and Italy) engaged in a major confrontation with the Occupying Israeli Army operating in the south of the Gaza Strip.
At 5 pm the activists were having a meeting at the ISM Rafah headquarters when they received word that armoured bulldozers were demolishing Palestinian homes in the Tel Zorab area.  Immediately, they broke up the meeting before scrambling to gather their equipment (fluorescent clothing, megaphones and banners) before piling into a large taxi.
When they arrived at Tel Zorab they found a large group of Palestinians who were peering around the corners of buildings to watch the bulldozers at work and carefully avoiding exposing themselves to fire from the tank that accompanied the bulldozers or the military towers from which snipers dominate Rafah's border areas.  Unfurling their banners the group approached the area of the where the bulldozers were operating to the cheers of the Palestinians.
Leaving their Palestinian supporters behind, the activists found two bulldozers working together to tear down a Palestinian home.  The bulldozers were accompanied by a tank, which, upon seeing the activists, immediately began firing its machine gun into the air and at the rubble of a building that had already been destroyed. 
Leaving a couple of activists behind to film and monitor the situation, the remainder advanced cautiously as the tank continued to  fire into the air and at nearby buildings so that on a few occasions
the activists were showered with shrapnel.  Undaunted, the activists continued their advanced upon the war machines until they came close enough for the tank's crew to hurl sound grenades at them.

At this point the activists called the ISM Media Office who began to alert their consulates of their situation.  During the course of the confrontation the British Consulate was called twice and responded by alerting the Israelis of that there were British nationals in the area and later, when the situation escalated, by demanding that their status as unarmed peace activists be respected.  The Italian
Consulate was closed and the Media Office was unable to contact any duty officers.  The Duty Officer at the US Consulate was hostile but told the Media Coordinator that he would phone the US activists at Tel Zorab.  When the conflict escalated and the US activists told me that they had not been contacted I phoned the Consular Agent in Haifa who informed me that, if they were being shot at by Israelis, then it was the Israelis with whom they had an issue and that I should phone them.  I told him that they had asked me to pass on a request that he  phone them and it was his job to protect US nationals.  The latter point did not seem to have occurred to him before but he still insisted that he was under no obligation to phone them but did agree to talk to them if they phone him.  When I relayed this information to the American activists they contacted him only to be told that he would do nothing to help them and would not even inform the Israeli military of their presence in this area.  The reason he gave for his refusal was that the activists had forfeited their rights as US citizens to consular protection by ignoring US State Department travel advice against going to the Occupied Territories.
When the activists began to block one of the bulldozers in its demolition work, the driver got out the vehicle and told them to "leave the area since this was his land, not theirs and they had no business being there." They replied that this was not his land and that they were civilians in a civilian area and it was he, as a soldier, who had no business being there.  The driver then got back in his vehicle and attempted to resume his work but was blocked by four activists who stood in his path.
A battle of nerves then took place as the bulldozer drove very close to the activists who stood their ground until he withdrew.  This happened several times until the driver gave up and pulled back so that the tank could fire its machine gun over their heads before one of its crew opened a hatch and threw a tear gas canister.  Unfortunately (for the tank crew) he had misjudged the wind direction so that the gas blew back into their tank.
Meanwhile, the bulldozer had approached the house it was trying to destroy from another direction but was blocked by four other activists who stood in its path, with their backs towards the partially destroyed house.
The British Consulate then informed the activists that they had received word from the Israelis that they intended to arrest the activists.  Shortly thereafter an Armoured Personnel Carrier arrived on the scene and the activists positioned themselves so that they could easily withdraw towards the Palestinian areas.  (Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip are generally terrified of the Palestinian resistance fighters and almost never venture out of there armoured vehicles.  There are many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have lived all their lives under occupation and with tanks roaming their streets but have never seen an Israeli soldier.)
After the tank had created a smokescreen several soldiers in full combat gear rushed out of the APC and towards the activists who quickly withdrew so that the soldiers ran back into the APC without
capturing any of them.
At this point an enormous explosion occurred as a rocket was fired from the Zorab tower into an abandoned Palestinian home.
The APC then began firing its machine gun at the feet of the activists as another bulldozer tried to resume its work before being blocked by a group of activists.  Once again the bulldozer driver approached within inches of the activists before stopping.  The bulldozer driver then began blowing his horn in a musical manner and then wrote down his phone number and held it to the windscreen while
pointing at one of the female activists.
Shortly thereafter, the soldiers in the APC rushed out to arrest the activists but failed again as the activists withdrew towards the Palestinians.  When the soldiers withdrew to the APC the activists
resumed their positions.

At one point one of the tank's crew climbed out of the top of the tank and tried to tackle one of the Italian activists but only succeeded in partially pulling off his trousers before he escaped.  As the soldier fled back into tank, its machine gun fired into the windows of some Palestinian houses to cover him.  (At no point were there any members of the Palestinian resistance in the area.)
At about 7 pm it began to get dark and the armoured vehicles began to withdraw.  They were "covered" in their retreat by another rocket fired from Zorab tower which hit a nearby house and showered the activists with rocks.
The activists then left the area to by welcomed by the Palestinian spectators who cheered them and shook their hands.

This was the first action the Rafah ISM team has undertaken to
prevent home demolitions since the murder of their comrade Rachel
Corrie in a similar incident three weeks before.

From: mitchelcohen@mindspring.com
I sent this message to the list of all City Council members
Dear City Council Representative,
This morning I was a "media person" for the protest against the Carlyle Group -- the multi-billion dollar corporation headed by former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, and board members George H.W. Bush, James Baker and other power-packed war profiteers.I was appalled at the aggressive tactics of the NYPD, and I am writing to request three things:
1) That you immediately call 1 Police Plaza and let them know that you want all the arrestees released immediately;
2) That you again hold hearings on the ongoing pattern of police harassment of antiwar activists  in this case, many who were intentionally standing across the street and away from the site of the planned civil disobedience to avoid confusion and arrest.
3) That police commissioner Ray Kelly be subpoenaed to testify at the hearings.
Please note that some of those who were manhandled and arrested for WATCHING the protest from across the street are in their late 70s and already have severe health issues; others who were on their way to work; and still others who were doing media interviews at the time they were arrested!
On behalf of the NY State Greens/Green Party of NY, and on behalf of our members (and everyone else) who was victimized by the police this morning, I urge you to take action to preserve civil liberties in our City, and make absolutely clear that abuse by police will not be tolerated.
Thank you,
Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party of NY


At the A7 demonstration against War Profiteers' The Carlyle Group on 56thSt. near Fifth Avenue this morning(7th April), NYC police arrested a large swathe of people -- including people legally demonstrating on the sidewalk across the street from the action!
Police fired "marble-size" sting balls made of rubber to try to disperse protesters at the port of Oakland, California. An estimated 600 demonstrators were attempting to block two gates to American President Lines, a shipping company the protesters claimed was profiting from the war in Iraq. In New York, authorities arrested 100 antiwar protesters who blocked the entrance to an investment house with holdings in the defense industry.

APRIL 7TH

BASTARD KILLERS AND MURDERERS
The loud voice comes here too...
I come with a love, mine alone,
But now it can be yours.
No wind or light
Confers such blight
As love does
This burntout love of mine
Cool only in the eyes
Eyes that reck the blight
Of this love...
Nowhere the sign
Nowhere divine
For now man and woman
Stand each alone
No wind or light
Confers such blight
As love does
After this sick battle
Of tin men at war
I stood screaming
As love does
Screaming I wrestle with the dead
To search each bloody hand
For youth. Come,
Come here to me, man
And tell me if this blight
Of time and execution
Shot your seed upon this earth
Where blood feeds upon stone.
Fuck this dead man
I drag aside
He's looking in my eyes
As he gives me one love
And no wind or light
Confers such blight
As this my love encrusted
Encrusted on a stone
Where metal erased his name.
Oblivion will not come
To that red signature
Of one whose love was bought
Of one whose love was sold
Love wasted
Of such tender words
And of such strong paces
And through this world I now and all,
All who hear me out, will carry
Carry this love alone
As the last reason for living.

jocelyn braddell©

http://www.iraqwar.ru/article_image.php?id=1975
Luis Castro and Victor Silva, both reporters working for RTP Portuguese television, were held for four days, had their equipment, vehicle and video tapes confiscated, and were then escorted out of Iraq by the 101st Airborne Division. Despite possessing the proper "Unilateral Journalist" accreditation issued by the Coalition Forces Central Command, both journalists were detained. Their ordeal at the hands of the Americans is in stark contrast to that received by Newsday journalists in Baghdad, who yesterday in Jordan described as "humane" their treatment at the hands of their Iraqi interrogators despite suffering various indignities. "I have covered 10 wars in the past six years - in Angola, Afghanistan, Zaire, and East Timor. I have been arrested three times in Africa, but have never been subjected to such treatment or been physically beaten before," Castro said in an exclusive interview with Arab News.
Castro and Silva entered Iraq 10 days ago. They had been to Umm Qasr and Basra and were traveling to Najaf when they were stopped by the military police.
According to Castro, their accredited identification was checked and they were given the all clear to proceed. "Suddenly, for no reason, the situation changed," Castro told Arab News. "We were ordered down on the ground by the soldiers. They stepped on our hands and backs and handcuffed us.
"We were put in our own car. The soldiers used our satellite phones to call their families at home. I begged them to allow me to use my own phone to call my family, but they refused. When I protested, they pushed me to the ground and kicked me in the ribs and legs." "I believe the reason we were detained was because we are not embedded with the US forces," he continued. "Embedded journalists are always escorted by military minders. What they write is controlled and, through them, the military feeds its own version of the facts to the world. When independent journalists such as us come around, we pose a threat because they cannot control what we write." After being held for four days, they were transported to the 101st Airborne Division to be escorted out of Iraq. Castro told Arab News: "A lieutenant in charge of the military police told me, 'My men are like dogs, they are trained only to attack, please try to understand'."
.

april 6th

U.S. FORCES BLOW UP IRAQI PIPELINE AND RAILROAD LINK TO SYRIA

U.S. special operations forces are said to have blown up an Iraqi pipeline that delivered more than 200,000 barrels of oil a day to Syria.

The Kuwaiti Al Rai Al Aam daily reported on Wednesday that U.S. forces sabotaged the Iraqi oil pipeline to Syria last week in an operation in northwestern Iraq. The newspaper quoted U.S. sources as saying the forces also blew up a railroad link between Iraq and Syria.

Until the start of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, Syria obtained 250,000 barrels of oil per day through two pipelines that stemmed from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. One pipeline reached the Syrian port of Banyas for export. The other provided oil directly to the Syrian national energy grid.

The U.S. sources said the destruction of the main pipeline came amid a warning by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for a halt to Syrian military supplies to the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The newspaper reported that on Monday the pumping station on the Iraqi side of the pipeline had broken down.   Abu Dhabi - MENL - 2 April


Wall Construction Blocked by Peace Camp
Sunday, April 06, 2003 12:47 PM

At twelve noon yesterday activists from Israeli and International peace groups united with the Palestinians of the town of Mas’ha to block the construction of an Israeli wall through the town’s farmlands. The Israeli government justifies the building of the wall as a means of securing its people from the threat of Palestinian terrorism.  If this were the case the logical place to erect it would be along the Green Line separating Israel from the Occupied West Bank.  Instead the wall is being built well inside the West Bank in what is clearly an attempt to grab as much Palestinian land as possible for Jewish settlements.

“Walls are not the way to bring peace,” said Jonathan Pollack, an Israeli activist.  “In this camp we will show that Israelis, Palestinians and people from many countries can live and work together when we work for justice.”The Palestinians, Israelis and international activists marched peacefully through the village of Mas’ha to its surrounding fields, where they erected tents to block the construction of the wall.  Were the wall to proceed as planned, it would cut off Mas’ha’s access to 97% of its farmland, greenhouses and olive groves, which provide the livelihood of its 2,000 inhabitants.

Mas’ha lies seven kilometers to the east of the Green Line separating Israel from the Occupied West Bank.The Peace Camp is being supported by the following organizations:

The Municipality of Bidya;The Mas’ha Village Council;The Land Defence Committee;The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee;The International Women’s Protection Service (IWPS);The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and The Alternative Information Centre.

The first phase of the wall’s construction took 50% of the farmland and 30% of the water supply from Qalqilya and its surrounding villages.  The next phase of its construction, if it is allowed to proceed, is anticipated to alienate 4.500 acres of land from the villages of Sannirya, Azun Atme, Beit Amin, Mas’ha and Bidya alone.


april 5th
AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT ACTIVIST SHOT

Today at about 6.30 pm, Brian Avery, 24, of New Mexico was shot in the face by a burst of machine gun fire from an Israeli Armoured Personnel Carrier. The circumstances surrounding his injury are as follows
Today the Israeli army of occupation operating in the Jenin area imposed its second day of curfew on the people of the city. Groups of young men and boys continued their resistance to the curfew by venturing out onto the streets to throw stones at tanks and other military vehicles.
At about 6.30 pm, Brian and another ISM activist were at the ISM’s Jenin headquarters when they heard the sound of gunfire coming from the centre of the city, about two blocks away. They left the apartment to investigate and had traveled about a hundred metres when they arrived at a major crossroad and saw two armoured personnel carriers advancing towards them at low speed. There were no Palestinians on the streets in the area, armed or otherwise.
At the sight of the armoured vehicles both activists stood still and raised their hands above their heads

When the first armoured personnel carrier was 50 metres from them it fired a burst of machine gun fire (an estimated 15 rounds) at the ground in front of them so that they were sprayed by a shower of broken bullets and stones. Tobias, Brian’s companion, leapt aside. He had fled about three steps when he looked back to see Brian lying face down on the road in a pool of blood.
Tobias and Brian were then joined by four other ISM activists who had arrived at the scene of the shooting by a different route. All six of them rushed to help him as the two armoured vehicles rolled past without stopping. He was conscious but when he raised himself from the ground they saw that his left cheek has been almost totally shot off.

The activists then performed first aid on him and phoned for an ambulance which took him to the Martyr Doctor Khalil Suleiman Hospital in Jenin where he was treated for shrapnel wounds to his face including bone fractures below the eyes, lacerations of the tongue and lacerations of his left cheek.  A specialist was called in to examine his injuries and recommended that he be transferred immediately to a hospital in Afula in Israel but his departure was delayed because the Israeli military refused to grant his ambulance safe passage for more than an hour.

From Afula Brian was transported to a hospital in Haifa by helicopter.Under the Israeli Army’s own rules of engagement soldiers are not permitted to fire warning shots with mounted weapons. They may fire warning shots with light hand held weapons and must aim away from the people they are warning.

When he was shot Brian was wearing a fluorescent red vest with a reflective white cross on its back and front.

..INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT REPORT ; M.sHAIK

Latin-American reports from end March:

Mounting Uproar in Latin America
Over U.S. Aggression in Iraq

Mexican Senators Planning a Massive Protest in Mexico City

by
Hector Carreon
La Voz de Aztlan

- March 29, 2003 - (ACN) Huge anti-war demonstrations in Latin America have, as in the Middle East, forced the US State Department to close many of its embassies and consulates for fear of attacks from increasingly angrier masses of protestors. The US Embassy in Costa Rica, the Embassy as well as a Consulate in Ecuador, the Embassy in Bogota, Columbia and the Embassy in Santiago, Chile have closed for fear of being attacked. More embassies and consulates may close as huge demonstrations are being planned in Havana, Cuba and Mexico City.

On Thursday, over 25, 000 Mexicans protested in Puebla and vandalized the McDonald's, Domino's Pizza, and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants located in the city's historic Zocalo and which are considered "US symbols". Among the demonstrators were large contingents of students and faculty from the Benemerita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) as well as political and religious leaders and members of the PRI, PAN and PRD political parties. In a speech at the Zocalo, Professor of Economics at the BUAP, Jaime Ornelas Delgado, read a letter to be sent to the UN Security Council urging it to put an immediate stop to the military aggression initiated by Washington and London against the sovereign nation of Iraq. The letter also urged the international community to organize all efforts possible to bring much needed humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq. The president of BUAP, Enrique Guerrero, spoke about the recent discourse at the university by the renown Mexican author Carlos Fuentes in which he said, "There are never winners in wars, we all equally lose; in times of war we all lose our universal and individual rights."

On the same day, in Mexico City, in what is only a precursor to a bigger demonstration in the near future, about 5,000 students and faculty from the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and workers from the university's STUNAM union demonstrated in front of the US Embassy. With loud shouts in chorus of ''todos somos Irak'' (we are all Iraq), protestors burned a US flag and effigies of Bush and Blair. The protestors at one point broke down the embassy's fence and threw bottles at the building before being stopped by the police. The action was in conjunction with a student, faculty and staff strike that shut down the UNAM for the day.

Meanwhile, La Jornada of Mexico City is reporting that Mexican Senators, Congresspersons and party leaders of the PAN and the PRD are planning the largest demonstration yet against the war that will "fill the streets" of the Mexican capital and send a strong message to Bush to "remove his armies from Iraq." Senator of the PAN party, Javier Corral Jurado said, "It is time for us to lay our party differences aside in order to organize a powerful coalition so that Mexican society at large can adequately expressed its revulsion at the inhumane invasion of Iraq." Senators of the PRD party, Leticia Burgos and Armando Chavarría agreed that a massive mobilization is needed in order to help "stop the daily murders of men, women and children in Iraq by anglosaxon troops."

Major demonstrations in other Latin American countries included one in Santiago, Chile in which protestors took over an Esso gasoline station and demanded that it be boycotted. In Bogota, Colombia thousands of youths demonstrated against their president, Alvaro Uribe, and his support of Bush's war against Iraq. In Santiago, Chile, anti-war activists attempted to blow up a branch of the Bank of Boston, mailed supposedly contaminated envelopes to the US Embassy and burned a McDonald's restaurant. In Lima, Peru, protestors marched to the US Embassy and held a candlelight vigil for the children of Iraq who are suffering horrors under daily bombardment by the US/GB Axis. Today, in Cuba, more than 10,000 Cubans denounced the aggression maintained for more than one week by the US and UK governments against Iraq and called on nations and multinational organizations to rescue world peace.

Mexican author Carlos Fuentes said, "There are never winners in wars, we all equally lose." The Iraqi people are losing generations of their young people to death and destruction . . . Americans, however, are losing the respect of the entire world for generations to come.

An explanation of the meaning"pre-emptive"Attack by noam chomsky has been added beneath "Letter to
the Taoiseach" April 3rd below

Professor Illan Pappe writes:

Received from Hilmi,from Haifa University,
From: <pappe@poli.haifa.ac.il>
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 5:02 PM
Subject: Re: Tul Karem: This is the message I have sent tonight to the Alef, the Israelli Academic left network:
> I hope many of you have noticed what is going on in Tul Karem as it is difficult to follow news that does not refer to the American butchery in Iraq, but under the guise of a "search operation" the Israeli army was drilling the transfer (this time only for three days) of 1000 Palestinians. They were ordered not to come back until the end of military operation. In most cases they will come to destroyed houses hardly worthy of reinhabiting. In the early 1950s, the same method was used to oust Palestinians from dozens of villages who were then erased from upon the earth.
> Under the cover of the Iraqi war it seems that the Israeli government is stepping up its preparations for major operations against the population in the occupied territories. It is worth while to repeat Gush Shalom's alert to anyone who knows of mobilization and recruitment of logistics and soldeiers for deportations and expulsion operations.
> So with all due respect to the tragic story of the chronicles of the Jenin Jenin film in Arte, we should be aware that the war in Iraq inspires the occupation army to probe the possiblities of ethnic cleansing after the starvation of the West Bank that has been already going on for two weeks.
> In the eternal Israeli search of how far can we go without repeating the Holocaust and yet destroying the Palestinians - new fields of activity have been discovered and more are to be crossed in the coming months.
> Do not say you did not know and do suggest to us - as quickly as you can before it is too late - what else, apart from boycott and outside pressure, can stop this evil state of ours from committing its daily crimes against humanity.
>  This mail sent through IMP Webmail of Haifa University
>  http://webmail.haifa.ac.il

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <pappe@poli.haifa.ac.il>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 5:02 PM
> Subject: Re: Tul Karem
LETTER RE. TUL KAREM,NIGHT4TH-5TH APRIL
Dear All,
This evening I spoke to ISM people in Tul Karem.  The incursion has not entirely ended.  Residents were advised that the curfew would be lifted during the day, until 4:00 PM.  By 6:00 PM no further announcement had been made, but my correspondent assumed that the curfew was in force. 
An unoccupied house bordering on Tul Karem, in Danabe, was demolished at 3:15 PM.  Unoccupied houses are not vacant because their residents went to a summer camp or to vacation abroad.  The reason for leaving is normally harrasment, or at least a feeling that the area is no longer safe. 
The men of the camp began to trickle back in, by foot, with no aid from the IOF that had deported them from the camp.  The exact number and ages are difficult to ascertain.  Perhaps this is why the English article on Tul Karem states that 1000 men between the ages of  15-40 were put on trucks and transported out of the camp, whereas the Hebrew edition reports that 2000 men between the ages of 15-45 were taken out.  Other persons say that the age range was 15-50.  But the exact age and number deported are not so important as is the act itself, reminiscent of what occurred to Palestinians in 1948 and why there have since been refugees.   
In any event, even though the incursion in Tul Karem has more or less ended for now, people are certain that the IOF will be back for another visit, and then another, and so on.  Besides, as Ha’aretz below reveals, the IOF departure from one area normally means that an "operation" (as the IOF terms it) has begun in another Palestinian center.  Dorothy

..LETTER TO GEORGE W. BUSH RE. THE U.S.INSTITUTE OF PEACE

Sent: Friday, April 04, 2003 11:33 AM
To: president@whitehouse.gov

Dear Mr. President,
It was with shock and dismay that I learned today that Daniel Pipes has been nominated to the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace.  This is a truly baffling nomination that many patriotic Americans see as a grave mistake that should be immediately rectified.  Mr. Pipes' is well known for his aggressive campaign to discredit and defame well-respected academics and other people of conscience who exercise their First Amendment rights in expressing disagreement with his views, and for his racial stereotyping, ethnic slurs and advocacy of hard-line policies and tactics in the Middle East that deny its inhabitants their God-given rights to freedom and democracy and deeply alienate the rest of the world, U.S. allies included.  Mr. Pipes is a very dangerous and polarizing ideologue whose influence in the U.S. Institute of Peace and, more broadly, on U.S. foreign policy, would threaten to deepen and widen the growing gap between Americans and the rest of the world - and the world's 1.2 billion Muslims in particular.  For these reasons, Mr. Pipes is an exquisitely poor choice for the Board of Directors of any governmental organization and indeed in such a capacity would pose profound risks to our national interest.  I strongly urge the retraction of Mr. Pipes' nomination, and the selection of a viable, balanced, respected nominee to the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace - an organization that has no place
for preaching hate, fear, and ethnic exclusion.
Sincerely,
George Arida,3000 Edenberry Street,Madison, WI

april 4th

The Israeli connection, Garner to invite Israel's former defence minister
London |By Mustapha Karkouti Gulf News | 04-04-2003

One of many overseas friends whom the retired American General Jay Garner plans to invite to post-war Iraq is the former Israeli defence minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.

Well-informer European sources have told Gulf News that Gen Garner, named by the United States Administration as 'Iraq's ruler' once Baghdad falls, has been lately soliciting views of many friends abroad and the Middle East, including Ben-Eliezer and other Israeli defence officials.

Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, known also by his Arabic name Fuad before he immigrated from Iraq to Israel late in 1940s, and the General have known each other for many years as a result of Garner's close defence and political links with Israel.

Garner who is currently in Kuwait waiting for the final assault on Baghdad before moving to the Iraqi capital, was involved in the deployment of Patriot missiles in Israel during 1991 Gulf War. He was also commander of the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defence Command from 1994 to 1996.

He is closely linked to the group of hawks led by U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (who gave him his latest job), his deputy Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney, who are as keen to bypass the UN in the aftermath of war as they were before it. In October 2000, Garner put his name in a statement that said that "Israel had exercised remarkable restraint in the face of lethal violence orchestrated by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority."

letter from a friend
It is Mobil (which trades as Esso on this part of the world) that should be boycotted (have you heard of the Stop Esso Campaign?)  ExxonMobil is the largest of all and it is also the oil company that substantially bankrolled Bush's election campaign.  Why does Greenpeace advocate a boycott?  Because they are now the only oil company that denies the phenomenon of global warming and they employ a small army of academic hacks to undermine the argument - none of them have the relevant qualifications, i.e. environmental science etc.  ExxonMobil was behind Bush's trashing of the Kyoto
agreement so they are the oil company to target. 

Martin van Creveld's advice to the US marines on what lessons to draw from Israel's bloody urban battle in Jenin was precise: Forget the helicopters, invest in armoured bulldozers.

 

For months now, the Pentagon has been taking notes from the Israelis in preparation for what looks increasingly likely to be an arduous house by house, street by street, fight for Baghdad. Pentagon strategists have pored over videos of the Israeli military's assault on Jenin a year ago, when 150 lightly armed but determined Palestinians kept the army at bay for 11 days and killed 23 soldiers.

 

US officers watched Israeli tank raids into West Bank cities in February, and American soldiers have learned in the Israeli desert how to blow their way from house to house to avoid booby traps and street fighting. The Israeli insights build on years of exchanges of military technology and intelligence between the deeply intertwined armies. Among other things, the US is using Israeli-manufactured drones to scout across Iraqi lines.www.rense.com

 

April 3rd
..CANADA TOMORROW - MESSAGE FROM rezeq farraj just in:
"Making War for Peace"???
Soldiarity March with Palestine & Iraq Friday April 4th at 4pm
Corner of Bishop & de Maisonneuve,(metro Guy Concordia)
:
On Friday, the 4th of April there will be a demonstration against the ongoing wars in Iraq and Palestine. SPHR Montreal branches would like to invite you to assemble at 4pm on the corner of Bishop & de Maisonneuve to show solidarity with the people of Palestine and Iraq, as they endure unjust and aggressive assaults upon their lives, land, dignity, and rights. We also march to celebrate global resistance to the policies of American and Israeli imperialism which is inspired in part by the ongoing Palestinian resistance to American-supported Israeli occupation and apartheid.
We would like to have a strong show of support at this march to underline the unbreakable connection between what is happening in Iraq and what is happening in Palestine. We gather:

1) to call for an end to the illegal and imperialistic wars being waged against both Palestine and Iraq and an immediate end to the Israeli and American occupations of both Palestine and Iraq.

2) to condemn the American and Israeli government policies of "Making War for Peace" - policies that have driven the "war on terrorism" which is war without rules waged against anyone, anywhere, whenever the U.S., Israel, and their allies feel like it.

3) to call for an end to the criminalization of immigrants, refugees, and indigenous peoples (including those in Canada), many of whom have been displaced by these wars and others like the ongoing war on Afghanistan and in the Phillipines; similarly, a call for an end to the criminalization Palestinian solidarity activists, anti-war activists, and other progressive social justice activists.

4) to condemn the mainstream media for its complicity in the mass murder of innocent people in both Palestine and Iraq due to its blatant disregard for the truth surrounding the illegality of these wars and occupations, and its failure to present the humanity and reality of victims of war and occupation.

To send this message out loud and clear and to a wide audience, a street theatre production entitled "Making War for Peace" will travel with the march on its route. Presentations of this auditory and visual representation of war will be made in front of the Israeli consulate on Peel and Rene Levesque to represent the war waged by Israel on the Palestinian people; in front of the American consulate on St. Alexandre and St. Catherine to represent the war waged by America on the Iraqi people; and outside the offices of the Gazette newspaper of the corner of St. Antoine and Bleury to represent both the Palestinians and the Iraqis whose destruction is abetted by the media's failure to report critically and honestly about the illegality and inhumanity of the wars being waged against them by Israel and America. We will then continue on to Complexe Guy Favreau in candlelight procession in memorium of the victims of these, and other agressions.


We encourage those who wish to participate in the street theatre presentation
planned for the march to come to a meeting on Thursday April 4th in the lobby
of the Concordia Hall building on 1455 de Maisonneuve at 8pm. See the rest of you on Friday April 4th at 4pm on the corner of Bishop and de Maisonneuve.

In solidarity,

The SPHR branches of Montreal

IN WHICH right they are killing ??!! look i think all know the right it is: bush right, why ?? why we are shoting our mouth why? we can talk we can speack ; why we are silant?? we have talk...this is our children, they are in our world, they feel like us, they need helping, and all what they need to stop the war and they saying we lost our dreams. But we have the right to talk we have the right to live !! they are talking with the world but i think the world so sleeping in this time. Where are we... where i dont know, where ??? i think they are not human who see like this, pictures, and he or she stay looking. We have to stop the war; it is produse the damage thing; it take the dearest thing; it killing the human right. We all need to live like other children, we have look to our future, we have talk. What we have we haven't the right to sell our right to live, and the due is to the oil and i am poor... but if bush looking to the mony i can give him all my mony in any way.. but i wa,nt from him to stop killing and the due to it is protect the iraq from the criminals !!! i know thats not rite, but i want to talk; we need helping and no one want to help us. i am tamer; i am saying about the children in iraq; i am saying stop the war if you are from the human group. Help us, we are feeling like your children becouse we have heart and we have our passion... so help us, and as you see i said: help us much, becouse we are needed help so help us

Tamer, Deheishe Refugee Camp

Letter to the taoiseach
..Dear Taoiseach - is it really necessary to create an utterly false event of "riot policing" to get it over to your European government and International allies that we have "thugs" out on the street protesting against the use of Shannon for military transport and re-fuelling??.... To allow Joe Higgins, TD, DailEiranne, be treated like a thug and everyone else, including one of my daughters, be thrown about the street for a totally imaginary event :- that is, that you and others would be leaving after your Parliamentary Debate on the meaning of "pre-" as "a priority" and "emptive" as a participle of "empty". It was a ludicrous and further example of the list of hypocritical data that pleases, for instance, dangerous pathological friends of yours,such as George Bush and that race of paedophiles over the nearest water.You have performed for a period of time that has enabled Charlie Haughey cover his debts for his loathing of Ireland and all things Irish, and now, not even caring to consolidate the respect you OTHERWISE gained youare trampling your history into the pavement with the people. I have sent you many letters on the serious crimes being perpetrated in Palestine, and perhaps you have tried to ameliorate some matters in your office in Ramallah - ?? I shall maybe never find out. But I certainly intend to carry on protesting, seeking out facts and worthwhile opinions and disseminating them anyway I can. Perhaps you can encourage your arrogant and ambitious Minister of Foreign Affairs to make some attempts to pass over the scorn in which Ireland is internationally held, to find the correct consensus to enable justice and peace be brought to the Middle East with whom we have extraordinarily ancient ties, of trade and probably other liasons! With sombre regards, jocelyn braddell. April3rd.2003 Editor www.thehandstand.org  
..noam chomsky explains why Ahern can use this word; Iraq Is A Trial Run
By Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky , University Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founder of the modern science of linguistics and political activist, is a powerhouse of anti-imperialist activism in the United States today. On March 21, a crowded and typical - and uniquely Chomskyan - day of political protest and scientific academic research,he spoke from his office for half an hour to V. K. Ramachandran on the current attack on Iraq.

V. K. Ramachandran : Does the present aggression on Iraq represent a continuation of United States' international policy in recent years or aqualitatively new stage in that policy?

Noam Chomsky : It represents a significantly new phase. It is not without precedent, but significantly new nevertheless.This should be seen as a trial run. Iraq is seen as an extremely easy and totally defenceless target. It is assumed, probably correctly, that the society will collapse, that the soldiers will go in and that the U.S. will be in control, and will establish the regime of its choice and military bases. They will then go on to the harder cases that will follow. The next case could be the Andean region, it could be Iran, it
could be others.
The trial run is to try and establish what the U.S. calls a "new norm in international relations. The new norm is "preventive war." Notice that new norms are established only by the United States. So, for example, when India invaded East Pakistan to terminate horrendous massacres, it did not establish a new norm of humanitarian intervention, because India is the wrong country, and besides, the U.S. was strenuously opposed to that action.This is not pre-emptive war; there is a crucial difference. Pre-emptive war has a meaning, it means that, for example, if planes are flying across the Atlantic to bomb the United States, the United States is permitted to shoot them down even before they bomb and may be permitted to attack the air bases from which they came. Pre-emptive war is a response to ongoing or imminent attack.The doctrine of preventive war is totally different; it holds that the United States - alone, since nobody else has this right - has the right to attack any country that it claims to be a potential challenge to it. So if the United States claims, on whatever grounds, that someone may sometime threaten it, then it can attack them.

The doctrine of preventive war was announced explicitly in the National Security Strategy last September. It sent shudders around the world, including through the U.S. establishment, where, I might say, opposition to the war is unusually high. The Security Strategy said, in effect, that the U.S. will rule the world by force, which is the dimension - the only dimension - in which it is supreme. Furthermore, it will do so for the indefinite future, because if any potential challenge arises to U.S. domination, the U.S. will destroy it before it becomes a challenge.

This is the first exercise of that doctrine. If it succeeds on these terms, as it presumably will, because the target is so defenceless, then international lawyers and Western intellectuals and others will begin to talk about a new norm in international affairs. It is important to establish such a norm if you expect to rule the world by force for the
foreseeable future.

just come through:

Russian Debrief

April 2, 2003, 1335hrs MSK (GMT +4 DST), Moscow - Exceptionally difficult and unstable situation has developed on the US-Iraqi front by the morning of April 1. The coalition troops are persistently trying to take control of the strategic "triangle" Karabela - Al-Khindiya - Al-Iskanderiya. At the same time the coalition units are continuing their advance toward Al-Kut and An-nu-Manyah, but so far the US forces were unable to take any of these towns. To move forward the US units are forced to leave behind large numbers of troops needed to blockade the towns remaining under Iraqi control. The An-Najaf and An-Nasiriya garrisons are still involved in active combat deep behind the coalition forward lines.

The coalition command had to deploy two brigades from the 101st Airborne Division to blockade and to storm An-Najaf and An-Nasiriya. These two brigades will replace elements of the US 1st Marine Division (the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit under the command of Col. John Waldhauser) that has been fighting in this area for the past six days. These "heavy" attack brigades are currently being deployed to the area of intense fighting near Al-Hillah.

Rough estimates show that the territory "captured" by the coalition forces still contains at least 30,000 Iraqi regular troops and militia engaged in active combat. Military experts are already warning the US command about the danger of underestimating the enemy: doing so may seriously complicate the situation of the attacking forces and foil the coalition's very optimistic plans.

On the other hand, the Iraqi command is being forced to withdraw its troops under the protection of towns. Iraqis are also forced to minimize all active combat operations outside the city limits as the desert terrain maximizes the enemy's advantage in aviation and its technological superiority in reconnaissance and targeting systems. This robs the Iraqis of their mobility and forces them to resort to "fortress-like" type of warfare, which, clearly, is significantly reducing their combat effectiveness.

Near Karabela the command of the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division has completely abandoned its plans to storm the town. After blocking Karabela on three sides the 3rd Infantry Division directed its main thrust toward the towns of Al-Musaib and Al-Khindiya. Heavy combat is continuing in this area for the second day. The US is continuously escalating the intensity of its attacks and is using nearly all artillery and tank units available to the strike group's command. Nevertheless, the coalition forces are still unable to penetrate the Iraqi defenses. The commander of the 3rd Infantry Division Major General Buford Blount is reporting fierce Iraqi resistance. According to the General, elements of the 2nd Iraqi Republican Guard "Medina" Division that are defending these positions maintain high combat potential and are repelling all attempts to break through their lines. During the past day and today's early morning the [coalition] field commanders have reported the loss of up to 5 tanks, 7-10 APCs and IFVs and no less than 9 killed. At least one helicopter was hit and made an emergency landing. Two more helicopters reported taking serious damage and their situation so far is unknown. Iraqi losses [near Karabela], based on the US reports from the battlefield, include at least 300 killed and up to 30 destroyed tanks and APCs. In the morning the coalition forces have ceased the attack and now the Iraqi positions are being engaged by aviation. The next [coalition] attack is anticipated during the night.

Heavy fighting is continuing in the town of Al-Hillah. Despite strong aviation and artillery support the US Marine units are still unable to strengthen their positions on the left bank of the Euphrates and to push the Iraqi forces out of the town. During the past 24 hours the US Marines in Al-Hillah lost up to 5 armored vehicles; at least 10 soldiers were killed or wounded. According to the reports by the US commanders, the Iraqi losses during this time amount to at least 100 killed; 10 reinforced strongholds inside the town have been destroyed; there are reports of 80 Iraqis captured during a cleanup operation in the occupied part of the town.

A crisis situation has developed in the area of Al-Divania. Having encountered no initial Iraqi opposition elements of the US Marine 2nd Expeditionary Unit begun advancing toward the town but were met with heavy artillery and mortar fire and were forced to assume defensive positions resorting to close combat. The exchange of fire continued for nearly seven hours resulting in up to 12 destroyed US tanks and APCs and up to 20 killed or wounded Marines. Currently the Iraqi positions are being attacked by artillery and aviation.

Yesterday's attempts by the US troops to storm the part of An-Nasiriya on the left bank [of the Euphrates] yielded no results. After moving behind the Iraqi positions, while simultaneously attacking them from the front, the US troops still were unable to break the Iraqi defenses and by morning were forced to return to the their starting positions. The coalition losses in this engagement, according to reports by [the US] field commanders, were 2 killed and up to 12 wounded; a [US] helicopter took a hit and made an emergency landing in the northern part of An-Nasiriya.

Also no results came from the coalition attempts to capture An-Najaf. All US attacks were repelled. There have been reports of 3 destroyed APCs and at least 5 killed or wounded coalition troops.

Near Basra the British forces are still unable to tighten their blockade of the city. During the night the Iraqis attacked British units near the village of Shujuh and threw the British back 1.5-2 kilometers. According to the Iraqi reports, at least 5 British soldiers were killed in this attack. The British, on the other hand, have reported 2 missing and 4 wounded soldiers. Iraqis have reported that a destroyed British tank and two APCs were left behind on the battlefield.

Tactical attack units from the US 82nd Airborne Division and the 22nd SAS Regiment, earlier deployed to northern Iraq near the town of Al-Buadj, were destroyed and dispersed as the result of a daylong battle with the Iraqi troops. The exact number of [coalition] losses is still being verified. Intercepted radio communications show that the coalition troops are retreating in small groups and have no exact information about their own losses. Currently the remaining units are trying to reach the Kurdish-controlled territory. It is believed that up to 30 [coalition] soldiers were killed or captured by the Iraqis.

Military analysts believe that today and tomorrow will decide the outcome of the attack on Baghdad that begun two days ago. If the coalition forces fail to break the Iraqi defenses, then by the weekend the US will be forced to curtail all attacks and to resort to positional warfare while regrouping forces and integrating them with the fresh divisions arriving from the US and Europe. Such a tactical pause in the war, although not a complete halt in combat operations (the coalition command will continue trying to use localized attacks to improve its positions), may last seven to fourteen days and will lead to a full re-evaluation of all coalition battle plans.

April 2nd

The official coalition losses are, to put it mildly, "falling behind" the actual figures. The 57 dead acknowledged by the coalition command reflect losses as of the morning of March 26. This information was provided to a BBC correspondent by one of the top medical officials at a field hospital in Al Kuwait during a confidential conversation. "We have standing orders to acknowledge only those fatalities that have been delivered to the hospital, identified and prepared to be sent back home. The identification process and the required standard embalming takes some time - occasionally up to several days. But only the command knows how many casualties we sustained today and you will learn about it in about three days" [Reverse-translated from Russian] This conversation was taped by the journalist and sent to the editor via a cellular phone network.

 

Based on the radio intercepts and internal information networks of the US field hospitals as of this morning the coalition losses include no less than 100 killed US servicemen and at least 35 dead British soldiers. Additionally, some 22 American and 11 British soldiers are officially considered to be missing in action and the whereabouts of another 400 servicemen are being established. The number of wounded has exceeded 480 people. (Translated Venik,of Russian Group journalists.Jeff Rense)

By Robert Fisk in Baghdad and Justin Huggler
The Independent - UK
4-2-3

 

At least 11 civilians, nine of them children, were killed in Hilla in central Iraq yesterday, according to reporters in the town who said they appeared to be the victims of bombing.   Reporters from the Reuters news agency said they counted the bodies of 11 civilians and two Iraqi fighters in the Babylon suburb, 50 miles south of Baghdad. Nine of the dead were children, one a baby. Hospital workers said as many as 33 civilians were killed.   Terrifying film of women and children later emerged after Reuters and the Associated Press were permitted by the Iraqi authorities to take their cameras into the town. Their pictures ñ the first by Western news agencies from the Iraqi side of the battlefront ñ showed babies cut in half and children with amputation wounds, apparently caused by American shellfire and cluster bombs.

Thursday's news of an advance by Kurdish peshmerga - or volunteer - fighters on the key oil city of Kirkuk after Iraqi forces withdrew:

An agreement was signed recently between Kurdish opposition leaders and Turkish officials under which Kurdish parties promised not to enter Kirkuk.

Turkey has said repeatedly that could be the trigger for sending its own troops in.

Weeks of intense US-led diplomacy have focused on trying to avoid a confrontation between the Turks and Kurds, its main allies in the region. BBC News

April 1st.

Turkish tanks waiting to enter iraq to prevent kurds controlling oil fields in kirkuk

Israeli Infrastructure Minister Joseph Paritzky wants to reopen the pipeline leading from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to the Israeli port of Haifa after the end of the US-led war in Iraq, the daily Haaretz said Monday.

The newspaper said Paritzky hoped the large Haifa refineries could be directly supplied with Iraqi oil, saving Israel the cost of importing expensive crude from Russia.

He said he was convinced the US administration would favour the idea, Haaretz said.

After Jewish immigrants occupied Arab Palestine and declared the state of Israel on it in 1948, Iraqi oil was diverted from Haifa's refineries to Syria. Israel has never signed a peace accord with either Iraq or Syria.Aljazeerah info.

Peace activists confirm Iraqi hospital bombed
Charles J. Hanley, AP Special Correspondent, Associated Press

30 March 2003

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Bruised and bleeding, in need of medical care, the Americans stranded in Iraq's western desert approached the mud-brick town and found the hospital destroyed by bombs.

"Why? Why?" a doctor demanded of them. "Why did you Americans bomb our children's hospital?" Scores of Iraqi townspeople crowded around.

The American peace activists' account was the first confirmation of a report last week that a hospital in Rutbah was bombed Wednesday, with dead and injured. The travelers said they saw no significant Iraqi military presence near the hospital or elsewhere in Rutbah. The doctor did not discuss casualties, the Americans said.

U.S. Central Command said Sunday it had no knowledge of a hospital bombing in Rutbah. The U.S. military has said it is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties in its campaign to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Three times the group - in a big white GMC Suburban and two yellow taxis - spotted bomb explosions nearby. The last, in early afternoon, occurred near the far-western town of Rutbah. Their Iraqi drivers' nerves were fraying as they sped toward Jordan at 80 mph.

"He kept going faster, faster," Betty Scholten, 69, of Mount Rainier, Md., said of her driver.

Suddenly the lagging taxi, pushing to catch up, blew a tire. It careened, spun out of control and plunged down a ditch, landing on its side. "It was a heavy hit," Claiborne said. All five men inside were hurt. "We pulled each other up through the side doors."

A passing car eventually braked to a halt. The Iraqis inside got out, helped the injured into their vehicle and drove back toward Rutbah and a hospital. Along the way, Claiborne said, he spotted the contrails of a jet streaking toward the car. The Iraqis frantically waved a white sheet out a window, and the plane veered off, he said.

Claiborne said an English-speaking Iraqi doctor took them to a small nearby clinic,
The staff tended to them, stitching up a scalp laceration for group leader Cliff Kindy, 53, of North Manchester, Ind., and doing their best for the worst hurt, Weldon Nisly, 57, of Seattle, who suffered cracked ribs and similar injuries.

The two other carloads, missing the third, eventually doubled back and found the men in Rutbah. All then ventured onward the final 80 miles to the Jordan border, and then Amman, where Nisly was admitted to a hospital early Sunday.

As they left Rutbah, said Wilson-Hartgrove's wife, Leah, 22, the villagers "said to us, 'Please tell them about the hospital.'"

Enraged Baghdad Civilians
Prepare To Defend City
From Stephen Martin in Baghdad
The Sunday Mirror
3-31-3

THE china has been packed away, the walls are bare and the family silver has been spirited away to a safer place.

 

Now all that is left in the Baghdad sitting room is a sagging armchair - and an automatic rifle resting on enough ammunition to kill a hundred men.

 

Ghazwan, 59, is no ardent supporter of Saddam Hussein. He loves English pubs and American diners, often visited the UK and points out he was even educated in the US.

 

He is no friend of the Iraqi regime. He just hates George Bush and Tony Blair more.

 

Ask why, and you get a one-word answer: sanctions.

 

His business closed and his savings were frozen because of the UN trade embargo on Iraq imposed after the 1991 Gulf War. Humiliated, he and his family now rely on money sent from his brother in London.

 

The sanctions were supposed to make Saddam's people rise up against him. But as Ghazwan furiously says: "You stupid fools have done the exact opposite. "You have alienated the people in Iraq who used to be your friends.

 "You impose punitive sanctions on this country which bring us to our knees.

  "And now you want us to roll out the red carpet for you - you must be joking.

 

 

"You say Saddam Hussein has killed many people - I say the UN sanctions have killed our children. Does Saddam Hussein kill children? No."

Bitterly, he adds: "You weren't calling him a ruthless dictator in the Eighties when this place was dripping with money. "Now you say you are bombing us into democracy. Yet since you've unloaded thousands of missiles on us I don't feel more democratic.   "You give me the choice between Saddam Hussein or George Bush. I take Saddam Hussein every time."

 

This is why, when our troops come to liberate him, he will be shooting to kill.

 

His gun may be a museum piece compared to the Allied tanks. But, with his family sent away, this former Iraqi soldier means to fight. And he is not on his own.

http://www.rense.com