down with murder inc

Allawi Is A CIA GANGSTER!!!

Bombs planted by Allawis group
"New Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi worked with the CIA as head of an exile group that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990s to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq in its attempts to depose President Saddam Hussein, the newspaper said, citing former intelligence officials.
The bombings, whose effectiveness is disputed, never threatened Saddam's rule, the former intelligence officials said, according to the Times. The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties, the Times said. But whether any civilians were killed could not be confirmed because the United States had no significant intelligence sources inside Iraq then, the Times said, citing a former CIA official. "
rueters

Derailing the process: Who benefits?
Baghdad blast kills Iraq leader

The current head of Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council has been killed in a car bomb blast near the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad. Ezzedine Salim was waiting to enter the compound when the bomb went off at 0530 GMT, killing him and several others. It is not yet clear whether Mr Salim was the target of what US officials say was a suicide attack. Iraq's interim foreign minister has vowed that the political process will not be derailed. "
[snip]
"Several vehicles were destroyed in the blast, which melted the asphalt of the road and sent debris flying over a large area. "There was a huge crowd at the checkpoint," a security guard at a nearby residential compound told Reuters. "There were a lot of cars and people on foot standing there and then this massive explosion. I saw body parts everywhere." - BBC

Allawi the GANGSTER does as he is told...
"We are succeeding in Iraq,"

Allawi tells US Congress

US official confirms Allawi shot six dead
January 19, 2005 A former Jordanian government minister has told The New Yorker that an American official confirmed to him that the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, executed six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station last year.
The claim is in an extensive profile of Dr Allawi written for this week's issue of the magazine by an American journalist, Jon Lee Anderson, the author of The Fall of Baghdad and a regular Baghdad correspondent for The New Yorker.
Writing about his research in Jordan in December, Anderson says: "A well-known former government minister told me that an American official had confirmed that the killings took place, saying to him, 'What a mess we're in - we got rid of one son of a bitch only to get another one'."
The New Yorker also revealed that Anderson was present during an interview conducted by the Herald's chief correspondent, Paul McGeough, in late June, with a man who said he witnessed the executions by Dr Allawi.
Dr Allawi denied the allegations when they were published in the Herald last July.
Anderson writes: "The man ... described how Allawi had been taken to seven suspects, who were made to stand against a wall in a courtyard of the police station, their faces covered. After being told of their alleged crimes by a police official, Allawi had asked for a pistol, and then shot each prisoner in the head. [One of the men survived.] Afterward, the witness said, Allawi had declared to those present, 'This is how we must deal with the terrorists.' The witness said he approved of Allawi's act, adding that, in any case, the terrorists were better off dead, for they had been tortured for days." - source

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told a joint session of the US Congress that elections would be held in Iraq as scheduled in January and that despite a tough struggle "we are succeeding."
"I know that some have speculated even doubted whether this (January election) date can be met," Allawi said. "So let me be absolutely clear. Elections will occur in Iraq on time in January because Iraqis want elections on time."
Speaking in English after receiving a warm, standing ovation, Allawi told the chamber: "We are succeeding in Iraq. It's a tough struggle with setbacks, but we are succeeding.
"My friends, today we are better off. You are better off. And the world is better off without Saddam Hussein," Allawi said. "Your decision to go to war in Iraq was not an easy one but it was the right one."
"We Iraqis know that Americans have made, and continue to make, enormous sacrifices to liberate Iraq, to assure Iraq's freedom," he said. "I have come here to thank you, and to promise you that your sacrifices are not in vain.
"Thank you, America." -Channel News Asia
US 'help' on Allawi speech decried
Friday 01 October 2004, - A leading Democratic senator has expressed profound dismay at the Bush administration's alleged role in writing interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's speech to the US congress last week.
In a letter to President George Bush on Thursday, California Senator Dianne Feinstein said: "I want to express my profound dismay about reports that officials from your administration and your re-election campaign were 'heavily involved' in writing parts of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's speech.
"You may be surprised by this, Mr President, but I viewed Prime Minister Allawi's speech as an independent view on conditions in Iraq," she wrote.
"His speech gave me hope that reconstruction efforts were proceeding in most of the country and that elections could be held on schedule.
"To learn that this was not an independent view, but one that was massaged by your campaign operatives, jaundices the speech and reduces the credibility of his remarks," Feinstein wrote. - Al Jazeera
Agence France Presse via truthout

Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.
They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs.
They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death".
Truthout

An Iraqi man searches through the rubble of a house following a U.S. air strike in the town of Falluja, 33 miles west of Baghdad, July 6, 2004. Iraq's interim prime minister said Iraqi intelligence work led to a 'precision' U.S. air strike on a suspected militant target in the city of Falluja, where the death toll rose to 13. City residents said the victims were Iraqi men, women, and children. (Photo by Akram Saleh/Reuters, 7/6/04).
aljazeerah

Iraqi authorities unveiled sweeping security measures to crush a dogged insurgency as interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi scheduled talks next week with the EU on his country's reconstruction.
The emergency measures, signed into law by Allawi, include powers to impose curfews and arrest suspects, raising concerns in some areas that Baghdad may be flirting dangerously with Iraq's not-too-distant past.
But Allawi's interim government made it clear the law was an essential tool to deal with the deadly 14-month-old insurgency, which is raging on despite the June 28 handover of power to Iraqis by the US-led coalition that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
It also asserted that there were checks on Allawi's powers and the tough measures would not violate human rights.
According to a copy of the text obtained by AFP, the law grants Allawi the right to declare emergency law in "any area of Iraq where people face a threat to the lives of its citizens because of some people's permanent violent campaign to prevent the creation of a government that represents all Iraqis."
The state of emergency cannot extend past 60 days and must be dissolved as soon as the danger has ended, but can be renewed every 30 days.
The law also grants Allawi the right to issue arrest warrants and impose restrictions on the movement of foreigners, and gives the government the right to open mail, eavesdrop on telephone conversations, ban political groups and street protests and cancel meetings.
Limited curfews could also be imposed under certain conditions.
New Straits Times

Airstrikes

Eleven killed in Falluja strike
18th July 2004
Eleven people have died in a US air strike on a house in the flashpoint Iraqi city of Falluja, doctors say.
Hospital sources said women and children were among the dead.
The US military said it had launched an air strike in the south-east of the city - in the so-called Sunni triangle of anti-US resistance.
It was the latest in a spate of such attacks on Falluja which the US says is a safe haven for supporters of al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The US has increased to $25m its reward offer for the capture of the Jordanian-born militant it accuses of masterminding a string of massive suicide bombings in Iraq.
Mr Zarqawi is also said to have been involved in the beheading of two hostages, American Nick Berg and South Korean Kim Sun.BBC

U.S. kills 25 insurgents in Iraqi Sunni Triangle town
Thursday, July 22, 2004
American troops, engaged in a daylong firefight, killed 25 insurgents and captured 25 more in Iraq's so-called Sunni Triangle town of Ramadi, the U.S. military said.
Fourteen U.S. forces -- 13 Marines and a soldier -- were wounded. Ten of the wounded returned to duty, according to a U.S. military statement.
The military said 17 insurgents were wounded. Ramadi is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of Baghdad near Fallujah. The Sunni Triangle has been a hotbed of anti-U.S. insurgents.
A group of about eight or 10 insurgents detonated a small explosive near a U.S. Marine convoy around 3 p.m. Wednesday and then opened fire on the forces with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
The Marines returned fire, which led to the ensuing battle, involving an estimated 75 to 100 "anti-Iraqi forces," according to the U.S. military statement. CNN

"Iraq, the region, the wider world is a
better and safer place without Saddam," Blair to parliament.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair accepted full responsibility for any mistakes in intelligence used to justify the Iraq war, but vehemently insisted the conflict was right anyway.
"Iraq, the region, the wider world is a better and safer place without Saddam," Blair told parliament.
In a barnstorming performance, a defiant Blair welcomed the findings of an official inquiry which slammed as unreliable much of the pre-war intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). - Yahoo Asia
Iraq, we are told by Mr Blair, is safer. It is not. US military reports clearly show much of the violence in Iraq is not revealed to journalists, and thus goes largely unreported. This account of the insurgency across Iraq over three days last week provides astonishing proof that Iraq under its new, American-appointed Prime Minister, has grown more dangerous and violent.
But even this is only a partial record of events. US casualties and dozens of Iraqi civilian deaths each day are not included in the reports. But here are the events, as recorded by the United States military on 20, 22 and 23 July. Few were publicly disclosed. more details

US still in charge
August 5, 2004 - Officially, the U.S. occupation of Iraq ended on June 28, 2004. But in reality, the United States is still in charge: Not only do 138,000 troops remain to control the streets, but the "100 Orders" of L. Paul Bremer III remain to control the economy.
These little noticed orders enacted by Bremer, the now-departed head of the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, go to the heart of Bush administration plans in Iraq. They lock in sweeping advantages to American firms, ensuring long-term U.S. economic advantage while guaranteeing few, if any, benefits to the Iraqi people. - Illegal Orders give the US a Lock on Iraq's Economy Antonia Juhasz
Fairy Tales from a tyrant...
The White House declined comment Wednesday on the tense situation in Iraq between U.S.-Iraqi forces and the Islamist militia of a Shiite cleric. Fighting between forces loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr and the U.S. and Iraqi security forces has stalled a national convention from choosing a legislative body for Iraq's interim government.
"I think it's better to direct those questions to the interim Iraqi government, because it is a sovereign nation now,"
spokesman Scott McClellan said prior to a campaign appearance in Wisconsin by President George W. Bush. - BNN
Iraq Death-Penalty Decision Condemned
Human rights campaigners today condemned a decision by Iraqs interim government to reinstate capital punishment.
The UK branch of Amnesty International described the move as a sad day for Iraqis, insisting that the death penalty is inhumane.
The penalty will apply to those found guilty of murder, endangering national security and distributing drugs.
Capital punishment, widely used under the regime of Saddam Hussein, had been suspended during the US-led occupation.
Announcing the move, minister of state Adnan al-Janabi and human rights minister Bakhtiar Amin said they regretted the need to bring back the death penalty, but argued that it was needed to fight the militants destabilising the country with car bombings, kidnappings, sabotage and other violence.
They said the law would be revoked when security returned to the country. It was not clear how the new death penalty law might effect Saddam Hussein, who is currently awaiting trial on war crimes charges. - John Deane, Chief Political Correspondent, PA News

Airstrikes

Airstrikes
US planes pound Najaf; over 300 dead
Saturday, 07 August , 2004, 01:10
Najaf: More than 300 people are believed to have died in two days of heavy fighting between foreign troops and Shiite Muslim militiamen as US planes pounded the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf.
Najaf's governor Adnan al-Zorfi issued an ultimatum to the militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr to leave the city in 24 hours, branding them criminals.
As dusk fell, explosions echoed throughout the holy city and US military planes were heard overhead.
Four missiles struck the home of Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi without causing casualties, an aide said.
In the worst clashes since a June truce quelled a spring uprising spearheaded by Sadr, the US military said 300 insurgents were killed.
"We estimate we've killed 300 anti-Iraqi forces in the past two days of fighting. We've had a total of three killed, 12 wounded (in the Najaf clashes)," Marine Captain Carrie Batson said.
But a spokesman for Sadr, Sheikh Ahmed al-Shaibani, said only nine militiamen were killed and 20 were wounded. - more
Risky bid to stem Shiite insurgency

Police shooting at journalists
Monday 16 August 2004 - In Najaf journalists were summoned yesterday morning by the city's police chief, Ghalab al-Jazeera. It was said that he wanted to parade some captured members of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army, who have launched their second uprising in four months.
Instead the police chief delivered a blunt warning: journalists had two hours to leave Najaf or face arrest. Mr Jazeera's official explanation for the decision was that police guarding the hotel had found 550 lbof dynamite in a car nearby. That seems unlikely.
The police rarely venture out of their stations and the street outside the hotel is almost always deserted.
Mr Jazeera's expressions of concern were quickly followed by a thinly veiled attack on the foreign press.
"We know you are neutral journalists despite the fact you did not report the bad actions by Sadr's people when they beheaded and burned innocent people and the Iraqi police," he said.
For good measure, Mr Jazeera also threatened to arrest Iraqi drivers and translators working for the press corps if we did not comply. The 30-odd journalists staying at the Sea Hotel decided to stay in Najaf.
Shortly after the deadline expired, the first bullets struck the building. But the sniper was almost certainly an Iraqi policeman, given that the Mahdi army fighters were more than two miles away.
Then armed police raided the hotel and tried to arrest the journalists, before imposing a new two-hour deadline to leave the city. - Via truthout

Welsh Campaigner, Helen Williams, took part in a 7 vehicle aid convoy, which delivered medical aid into Nagaf.
On the way there the lead vehicle was blown up and severely damaged; on their return the lead car was destroyed - people are missing.
The Mahdi Army welcomed them, while the US army refused and opposed them. A detailed account of events within Nagaf and Kufa: Indymedia

info
Is this an Intelligence operation?
Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, travelled to Britain, where he is expected to receive treatment for a heart condition, a spokesman said. Al-Sistani arrived Friday afternoon at Heathrow Airport, west of London, Jaffar Bassam, a spokesman for the Imam Ali foundation, al-Sistani's liaison office in London, said.- CNews
Peace deal or lambs to slaughter?
Fri, Aug. 27, 2004 - Iraq's most influential Shia leader, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, suggested the deal, which was welcomed by the interim government as a "great victory".
Members of Mr Sadr's Mehdi Army are set to disarm and leave the holy Imam Ali shrine by 1000 (0600 GMT) on Friday.
The pact came hours after scores died in attacks near Najaf, in the bloodiest day of the three-week stand-off.
Mr Sadr and his supporters have been challenging the rule of the interim Iraqi government and fighting US-led forces in the city.
But just hours after Ayatollah Sistani - Iraq's most revered Shia cleric - arrived in Najaf, a spokesman for the ayatollah announced the agreement. - BBC
Oil Slides, Najaf Peace Deal Struck

destroy the donkey...[psyops story]
Fri, Aug. 27, 2004 - The staff had a broad assortment of weapons available at the other end of their radio handsets: the Marines' 155mm howitzers just behind the headquarters, Apache helicopter gunships on alert or swooping over the battlefield, a fighter-bomber on station at 10,000 feet.
At one point this week, soldiers from a 1st Cavalry Division battalion led by M-1A/1 Abrams tanks and heavily armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles watched in bemused wonder as their opponent sent a donkey with a rocket-propelled grenade strapped to its side onto the field of battle. The remote triggering device was a string running toward the building corner from which the animal had emerged.
``We actually had reports of `Engage and destroy the donkey,' '' said Maj. Tim Karcher of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. The animal appears to have died as another enemy casualty.
The 7th Cavalry, led by Gen. George Custer at Little Big Horn, has fared considerably better in An-Najaf. Since arriving from north of Baghdad and setting up a cordon around a large section of the city south of the shrine, the unit's 2nd Battalion has fought almost non-stop for two weeks without losing a single soldier.
``It's the best feeling in the world,'' said Karcher of the armor, technology and munitions that safeguard the U.S. force.
``We've been given the best tools in the world for waging war.'' - Mercury News
Iraqi forces tighten grip on Najaf shrine

Al Arabiya television said on Thursday Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had begun peace negotiations with rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose fighters have refused to lay down their weapons and leave Najaf's sacred Imam Ali mosque.
The bloodshed in Najaf and nearby Kufa came as Sistani's efforts to try to persuade the Mehdi Army militia to leave Iraq's holiest Shi'ite shrine appeared to be gaining momentum. Sistani has unveiled a plan to end the rebellion.
At least 15 Sistani supporters were shot dead in Najaf and 65 wounded when gunmen opened fire at police who were trying to control a crowd, prompting police to shoot back, witnesses said.
"Suddenly armed men joined our group and fired at the police. The police started firing everywhere," witness Hazim Kareem told Reuters at Najaf's hospital, where bodies dripping with blood were piled on stretchers.
A hospital worker added: "Go look at the morgue, it's full." - Swiss info

The real Najaf?
...there is a great deal of misinformation and distorted facts about the exact situation in An-Najaf.
He was keen on refuting claims that Imam Ali shrine was used as launching pad for mortar attacks by Shiite fighters.
"There are no weapons in the Shrine. It is a place of refuge, not a military encampment," he said, extending a heartfelt thank-you to the Shiite people there for their "kindness and hospitality".
"The [Imam Ali] mosque is not used as a place where fighters are launching mortar attacks. I would have been able to see and hear any activity along those lines, and I was free to go where I liked. Mahdi Army officials are in the Shrine, but they are unarmed, like everyone else inside," he stressed.
"I was there and never feared for my safety. It is vital that the war in Najaf end immediately, and that US attacks on the area near the Shrine cease." - Islam Online

Click here for info

Hit by US, Najaf Battle Goes On

Journalists rounded up at gunpoint
Iraqi policemen rounded up dozens of journalists at gunpoint in a Najaf hotel and took them to police headquarters before later releasing them, an AFP correspondent said.
Firing their guns in the air, the dozen odd policemen, some masked, stormed into the rooms of journalists in the Najaf Sea hotel and forced them into vans and a truck.
An AFP correspondent, who was also forced into a van, said the police pushed and pulled many reporters at gunpoint.
After a two-minute drive from the hotel, where journalists from across the world are based while covering the battle between Shiite militiamen and US-led Iraqi forces in the holy city, the reporters were taken to the office of the police chief.
"You people are not under arrest," Najaf police chief Ghaleb al-Jezari told them.
"You are brought here because I want to tell you that you never publish the truth. I speak the truth, but you never broadcast what we are."
The reporters, packed into the office, with some sitting on the floor in front of the police chief, protested at their detention.
"You have kidnapped us at gunpoint," said one reporter. - Yahoo News
Combat operations suspended around Imam Ali Mosque
[but Falluja is still being bombed from the air]

Italian Aid workers kidnapped
Italy's government has held an emergency meeting in Rome to discuss a response to the kidnapping of two Italian women working for an aid organisation in Iraq. Two Iraqi aid workers were also seized. Witnesses said about 20 men armed with assault rifles stormed the Baghdad office in broad daylight. Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 100 foreigners since the US-led invasion in 2003. - DW

Update: Group claims the deaths of Italian hostages in Iraq
An Islamist group claimed yesterday to have killed two Italian women taken hostage in Iraq, as a separate militant group released a video apparently showing the beheading of a captive American man.
Meanwhile a Briton, kidnapped with the American and another American, pleaded for his life yesterday hours after a captured Canadian woman was released in the Iraqi desert.
The Islamist group, calling itself the Jihad Organization, said it killed Simona Pari and Simona Torretta in a statement posted on a website not often used by Iraqi militants. The claim could not be immediately verified. The group said the women had been slain because Italy had not obeyed its call to withdraw its forces from Iraq.
A group with a similar name, the Islamic Jihad Organization, said on Sept. 12 it would kill the hostages in 24 hours if Italian troops did not leave Iraq. - Toronto star via BNN
NOT confirmed...
Italian embassy officials in Baghdad could not confirm today the authenticity of a statement on a website claiming that two Italian aid workers kidnapped two weeks ago had been killed.
"We are evaluating the new statement. At the moment, we cannot say whether it is true or false," an official told AFP condition of anonymity.
A group calling itself the "Jihad Organisation" said today in a statement on the Internet that it had "slaughtered" the two hostages.
The statement was posted on a website seldom used to make such claims.
Italian news agency ANSA said Italian intelligence services believed the Internet site which posted the execution claim was not very reliable.
An Islamist group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organisation in Iraq had demanded that staunch US ally Italy withdraw its 3,000 troops stationed in Iraq, or the two Italians would be killed.
Simon Pari and Simona Torretta were snatched from their office in a quiet neighbourhood of Baghdad on September 7. - The Age

Why Pick
on these
volunteers?
Italy denies paying ransom for freed hostages
One of the two freed Italian aid workers said Wednesday that their abductors in Iraq taught them about Islam and reassured them they wouldn't die. While the women rested with their families after a joyous reunion, questions were raised whether a $1 million US ransom was paid.
Simona Torretta spoke briefly to a mob of reporters outside the front door of the apartment building where her family lives on the outskirts of Rome before dawn, a few hours after being questioned by Italian investigators.
Torretta and Simona Pari, who was also freed in Baghdad on Tuesday after three weeks in captivity, had flown to Rome late Tuesday night. Two Iraqis abducted with them on Sept. 7 were also freed Tuesday.
Asked if she feared she would die during her captivity, Torretta first said "Yes.'' Then she added that their abductors "reassured us. They understood the work we did'' for a volunteer group in Iraq. - source

Iraqis Not Behind Italian Hostages Kidnap: Guardian
A leading British daily Thursday, September 16, cast heavy doubts on the identity of kidnappers that snatched two Italian aid workers in Baghdad days ago, citing clear differences in the style of carrying out the operation.
The Guardian said the kidnapping of Simona Torretta and Simona Pari has the mark of an undercover foreign operation in a bid to discredit the unabated Iraqi resistance against US occupation forces.
To prove such a foreign mark, the paper cited differences between the usual abduction operations by local Iraqi groups and the unusual, rather daring, snatching of Torretta and Pari in the war-torn country.
The Simonas were hunted down from their home by bare-faced and clear-shaven kidnappers, some of whom wore business suits, in a clear contrast with abduction operations conducted by Iraqi resistance men who used to hide their identities and cover their faces in scarves, the British daily said.
It further said the abduction of the two Italians was carried out by 20 armed men in broad daylight as if they were unconcerned about being caught, contrary to the usual kidnappings in Iraq which are usually carried out by three or four fighters. -
Islam online

Who seized Simona Torretta?
Nothing about this kidnapping fits the pattern of other abductions. Most are opportunistic attacks on treacherous stretches of road. Torretta and her colleagues were coldly hunted down in their home. And while mujahideen in Iraq scrupulously hide their identities, making sure to wrap their faces in scarves, these kidnappers were bare-faced and clean-shaven, some in business suits. One assailant was addressed by the others as "sir".
Kidnap victims have overwhelmingly been men, yet three of these four are women. Witnesses say the gunmen questioned staff in the building until the Simonas were identified by name, and that Mahnouz Bassam, an Iraqi woman, was dragged screaming by her headscarf, a shocking religious transgression for an attack supposedly carried out in the name of Islam.
Most extraordinary was the size of the operation: rather than the usual three or four fighters, 20 armed men pulled up to the house in broad daylight, seemingly unconcerned about being caught. Only blocks from the heavily patrolled Green Zone, the whole operation went off with no interference from Iraqi police or US military - although Newsweek reported that "about 15 minutes afterwards, an American Humvee convoy passed hardly a block away".
And then there were the weapons. The attackers were armed with AK-47s, shotguns, pistols with silencers and stun guns - hardly the mujahideen's standard-issue rusty Kalashnikovs. Strangest of all is this detail: witnesses said that several attackers wore Iraqi National Guard uniforms and identified themselves as working for Ayad Allawi, the interim prime minister.
[snip]
Western journalists are loath to talk about spies for fear of being labelled conspiracy theorists. But spies and covert operations are not a conspiracy in Iraq; they are a daily reality. According to CIA deputy director James L Pavitt, "Baghdad is home to the largest CIA station since the Vietnam war", with 500 to 600 agents on the ground. Allawi himself is a lifelong spook who has worked with MI6, the CIA and the mukhabarat, specialising in removing enemies of the regime. - Naomi Klein and Jeremy Scahill

Ransoms paid...BIG MONEY changes hands...

Italy admits paying $1,000,000 ransom for freed hostages
The Italian government did pay a ransom to secure the release of two female hostages held in Iraq for three weeks, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Parliament told a French radio station on Wednesday.
The lives of the women was the most important thing, Gustavo Selva told RTL radio. In principle, one must not give in to ransom payments. But this time, I think we had to give in.
Asked about the denial by Italian leaders that a 1 million dollar ransom had been paid for the release of relief workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, Selva said, This is an official denial which is the governments obligation, to give the impression that it did not give in to a ransom demand. - source
Company pays $500,000 ransom for hostages
A Kuwaiti transport company said it had paid a ransom of more than $500 000 (about R3-million) to an Iraqi militant group for the release of seven drivers freed on Wednesday after 43 days in captivity.
The three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian landed at Kuwait airport, where they were met by diplomats and officials from the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company (KGL).
A group calling itself the Black Banners Division of the Islamic Secret Army had kidnapped the men in July and demanded that KGL end its work in Iraq.
"We paid half a million dollars in order to release the hostages and in the past we have paid other sums," KGL chairperson Saeed Dashti said, referring to protracted talks with the kidnappers. - source

The Hostages in Iraq:
There seems to be 2 specific outcomes of the kidnappings taking place in Iraq of Mercenaries, Reconstruction workers, Press workers, Journalists, humanitarian and Aid workers,
1: demands for country specific troop pullout or prisoner release, resulting in either Pullout after big protests via the public in the country affected / or Beheadings
2: with demands for money, resulting in Payoff and release
where is the money going?
surely one million bucks a pop is not hard to trace?
would you trust any country who is occupying your country, not to track the money?
Just how are the authorities transferring the money?
by CASH?
or by WIRE?
Is it really that easy to run around Iraq with a million bucks?
I wonder where one would bank such a large amount?
Is the paying of ransoms actually masking a PAYOFF- money transfers being made to a secret section of the Allawi / CIA / ex-Saddam secret forces?
Are they charged with the purpose of deliberatly destablizing and confusing the actual Insurgency?
Or...is it plain old dirty money...from CIA drug fronts and weapons sales, being laundered right in front of the worlds eyes?

Why would 'Islamic terrorists pick on Nepalese Municipal workers?
Twelve Nepalese hostages have been killed by their captors in Iraq. A Nepalese diplomat confirmed the deaths hours after images were put on a website, apparently showing one man being beheaded and 11 being shot dead.
[snip]
Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat said the killings came as a shock because "there were no demands or deadlines." He said he had stressed that Nepal was not part of the US-led coalition in Iraq. "I repeatedly conveyed the message that these people have nothing to do with the Americans," he said. The Kathmandu government accused recruitment agencies of putting impoverished Nepalese workers at risk in Iraq. BBC

To create ethnic tension?
Thousands of demonstrators ransacked a mosque and clashed with police in the [Nepal] capital Wednesday to protest the killing of 12 Nepalese hostages by Iraqi militants.
Hours after the rioting broke out, the government imposed a curfew in Kathmandu. "We want revenge," protesters shouted as they stormed the Jama mosque - the only Muslim house of worship in the capital. They broke windows and set fire to carpets, furniture and parts of the building, which was empty at the time. Police fired tear gas in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse the mob. - CNews

Airstrikes

US missile attack kills 13 civilians in Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad - 13 September 2004
"I am a journalist. I'm dying, I'm dying," screamed Mazen al-Tumeizi, a correspondent for the Arabic television channel al-Arabiya, after shrapnel from a rocket fired by an American helicopter interrupted his live broadcast and slammed into his back.
Twelve others were killed and 61 wounded by rockets from two US helicopters on Haifa Street in central Baghdad. They had fired into a crowd milling around a burning Bradley fighting vehicle that had been hit by a rocket or bomb hours before.
It comes on one of Iraq's bloodiest days for weeks in which at least 110 people died in clashes around the country. The Health Ministry said the worst casualties were in Baghdad and in Tal Afar near the Syrian border, where 51 people died.
"The helicopter fired on the Bradley to destroy it after it had been hit earlier and it was on fire," said Major Phil Smith of the 1st Cavalry Division. "It was for the safety of the people around it." - Independent
Air strikes hit Falluja
...at least 16 people have been killed and 12 injured in attacks by US warplanes and artillery on the town of Fallujah. That is according to hospital officials.
Witnesses said the bombing targeted the city's al-Shurta neighbourhood. The US military said its jets had attacked a site where several members of a group loyal to Jordanian-born terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were allegedly meeting. - DW Welt - Via BNN
NOTE: CNN TV reported that the attack was made by F-15 jets and that Civilians [women & Children] were killed. Eyewitnesses reported that an Ambulance was also targetted as it tried to assist in dealing with the carnage.

Airstrikes

US troops bomb Samarra: Old woman among 3 killed
Sep 23, 2004, 12:27
US troops sealed off the city of Samarra and called in air strikes Thursday, local officials charged, imperilling a fragile truce between rebels and the Americans.
"The Americans have struck on Wednesday night and Thursday morning Al-Qadassiyah neighborhood with Apache helicopters. Three people were killed, including one old woman. Those three bodies were brought out from the wreckage," said police chief Colonel Mohammed Fadel.
Twenty-one cars were burnt or damaged in the strikes, he added.
US forces had sealed off the city, including the crucial bridge over the Tigris, which is a main entrance into the city. - source
U.S. Airstrikes Said to Kill at Least 44 in Iraq
Sept. 17 Iraqi health officials said American airstrikes that demolished homes late today in a village south of the volatile city of Falluja killed at least 44 people and wounded 27, including women and children.
Witnesses said the strikes began at around 10 p.m. at Zobaa, a village about 18 miles south of Falluja, and lasted for three hours. The bombardment destroyed almost a dozen homes, they said, and left scores of people buried beneath piles of rubble. Rescue efforts continued throughout the day.
The American military said its planes were aiming at insurgent strongholds, and that it might have killed as many as 60 fighters.
- NYT

U.S. Forces Bomb Rebels in Iraq; Jordan King Has Doubts
Sep 28, 2004 - U.S. warplanes bombed a suspected insurgent hideout in rebel-held Falluja on Tuesday and U.S. tanks and aircraft bombarded areas of northeastern Baghdad, stepping up military operations against guerrillas.
Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the insurgency is worsening in Iraq, threatening plans to hold elections in January next year. On Tuesday, Washington's strongest ally in the Middle East, King Abdullah of Jordan, went further.
The monarch said it was too dangerous to hold elections in Iraq and said if the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government pushed ahead with them, extremists could well be the biggest winners.
"It seems impossible to me to organize indisputable elections in the chaos we see today," he told French daily Le Figaro before meeting French President Jacques Chirac in Paris. - source

Airstrikes
US Strikes Target Sadr City: 35 Killed, 65 Hurt In Iraq Violence
Sept. 27 2004 - As US forces carried out overnight air attacks in Baghdad's Sadr City suburb killing two and injuring dozens others, at least 35 persons were killed and 65 wounded in Iraqi violence during the past 24 hours, according to reports here on Monday.
According to doctors in Sadr, a stronghold for supporters of radical Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr, who recently called on followers to observe a ceasefire, two people were killed and more than 40 wounded.
However, there has been no comment from the US military. - source

DUBAI : Footage of the execution of an American hostage in Iraq was posted on an Islamist website in the name of the Unity and Holy War group of suspected Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
The grisly videotape showed five masked gunmen behead Eugene "Jack" Armstrong before placing his severed head on his back. The executioner read out a long statement immediately before the killing, threatening to take the life of another hostage in 24 hours if London and Washington continued to ignore demands for the release of Iraqi women prisoners in coalition custody.
A statement in the name of loyalists of Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted man, had set an original 48 hour deadline Saturday.
British engineer Kenneth Bigley and fellow American Jack Hensley were abducted along with Armstrong from their smart Baghdad home on Thursday. All three worked for a contracting firm -- Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services - Liberty unites forum
American beheaded; another threatened
The video of the beheading of the man believed to be Armstrong surfaced soon after the expiration of a 48-hour deadline set earlier by al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group for the beheading of the three civil engineers. The men Armstrong, American Jack Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley were abducted Thursday from their home in a wealthy Baghdad neighborhood.
A militant whose voice resembled al-Zarqawi, who has been linked to al-Qaida, read a statement in the video saying the next hostage would be killed in 24 hours unless all Muslim women prisoners are released from U.S. military jails.
Armstrong grew up in Hillsdale, Mich. His work in construction took him around the world; he lived in Thailand with his wife before going to Iraq.
The other American hostage, Jack Hensley, 48, made his home in Marietta, Ga., with his wife Patty and their 13-year-old daughter. Kidnapped with the Americans was Briton Kenneth Bigley, 62. All three worked for Gulf Services Co. of the United Arab Emirates.
More than 100 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, and at least 26 of them have been executed. At least five other Westerners are currently being held. - News Leader

'Impossible choice' over hostages
The Tawhid and Jihad group believed to be holding Mr Bigley, 62, has already executed one captive and threatens to kill a second if its demands for Iraqi women prisoners' release are not met.
Mr Bigley's brother Paul, 54, has berated the government for not doing enough in an interview with the Middle East news network Al Jazeera's website.
Mr Bigley claimed he and his family had been "instructed" by the Foreign Office to keep silent about the capture.
He accused Mr Blair of "only going through the diplomatic instruction book" in his efforts to free his brother.
The Prime Minister is believed to have spoken to the family to explain there are "limitations" to what the government can do. - BBC

Beheading puts heat on Bush
as UN, Kerry attack

No negotiations with hostages?
Flashback 20th July 2004: Philippines' Iraq hostage freed [after negotiations]
Philippine truck driver Angelo de la Cruz has been freed from captivity in Iraq after Manila complied with a demand to withdraw troops from Iraq.
Militants took Mr de la Cruz captive on 7 July, and threatened to behead him unless their demand was met.
President Gloria Arroyo has risked her strong ties with Washington by withdrawing the tiny Philippine contingent a month early.
Her decision has drawn sharp criticism from the US and its allies.
Mr de la Cruz was handed to the Philippine embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, after being dropped off outside the United Arab Emirates mission in the Iraqi capital.
"I am fine and relaxed. I am extremely happy and I can't say anything more than this," Mr de la Cruz told French news agency AFP.
Mr de la Cruz was held by a group which called itself Islamic Army, Khaled bin al-Waleed corps.
A purported statement from a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a militant with suspected ties to al-Qaeda, has disowned a threat against Japan that was posted in Mr Zarqawi's name on a website earlier on Tuesday. - BBC

Brother: Bigley to be spared by kidnappers
THE brother of hostage Kenneth Bigley today claimed to have received written confirmation that the Briton will be spared.
Paul Bigley said a translation of a message released in the Middle East had been passed to him and offered the family new hope that the 62-year-old will be released alive.
The news came as Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed the Government is attempting to make contact with the terror group.
"There has been a communiqu�released from the Arab world which I have a copy of and have circulated to the best people I know," Mr Bigley told the ITV News Channel.
"It is so intricately put together that I am 90 per cent sure that the contents are true.
"The contents are a lot of political details but the bottom line is Ken will be spared. There is also a warning that Britain will have to pay attention in the future."
The communiqu�reads: "To emphasise the humiliation of the British Government and its army, Tawhid wal Jihad has decided to spare Bigley, his family and the British people giving him his life and sparing him the punishment that he deserved for helping criminals who have killed Iraqi people in numbers that cannot be counted.
"Let his liberation be a clear message to the British people and also an appeal for them to realise the incapacity of their government and its crime in not freeing Iraqi prisoners in exchange for the life of their son."
[snip]
The militants claiming responsibility for Mr Bigleys abduction have demanded the release of female Iraqi prisoners at American-controlled prisons - a move US officials have ruled out. Members of a British Muslim delegation that visited Iraq to work for Mr Bigleys release said yesterday they believed he was alive. - Scotsman

...and now it gets really weird!

Dutch spooks 'raid Paul Bigley's home'
2 October 2004 - AMSTERDAM The Dutch secret service AIVD has refused to comment on claims its agents raided the Amsterdam home of Briton Paul Bigley, whose brother Ken is being held hostage in Iraq.
Paul Bigley is said to be furious that the Dutch authorities have treated him like a criminal simply because he was working to free his brother who is under threat of death.
He told Sky News that AIVD officers accompanied by British officials carried out the raid on Thursday. Earlier the UK's Daily Telegraph reported that Paul Bigley's computer was searched and material downloaded from the hard disk was sent to London for "analysis".
Paul Bigley says he was interrogated about his alleged contacts with terror group Tawhid and Jihad, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which is holding his brother. The latest video from the group shows Ken Bigley chained in a cage.
Paul Bigley has been severely critical of the British government's handling of the kidnap crisis and he has been working to establish his own contacts in the Middle East. He has denied he has made contact with Tawhid and Jihad, but says he has had indirect contacts via the Arab news broadcaster al-Jazeera. He claims the "nonsense" raid by the AIVD had set his campaign to free his brother back by 48 hours. - Expatica

LONDON (Reuters) - The brother of Kenneth Bigley, held hostage in Iraq, says intelligence officers raided his Dutch home, copied data from his computer and forced him to make a five-page statement about his activities.
Paul Bigley, brother of hostage Kenneth, said the raid happened two days ago and had made him feel like a criminal and had wasted time in the race to save his brother's life.
"I've lost 48 hours of my quest to get Ken free because of all this nonsense," Paul Bigley told Sky Television News by telephone from the Netherlands. "It was incredible."
"I understand that people have to check things out ... but there are ways of doing these things."
Bigley said Dutch and British officers took part in the raid on his home in the Netherlands, where he runs his own business.
"(They copied) my whole computer, which of course they are welcome to copy," he said, adding that there was nothing suspicious on it.
Asked about a newspaper report which said the officers forced him to make a five-page statement detailing his recent activities, he said: "That's true".
"It's a very poor show ... I felt diabolical," he said. - Reuters

Raid denied...
Paul Bigley, brother of hostage Kenneth Bigley, said the raid happened two days ago but a spokeswoman for the London Foreign Office said neither British nor Dutch officials had carried out such a raid.
"There was no raid," she said. "No British officials of any kind have raided Paul Bigley's home." - reuters
Video a PSYOP? By whom?
The raid came amid claims that the British hostage was free to roam his kidnappers' home in Iraq and was "caged" only for terrorist videos.
In Fallujah, Mohammed Kasim, an Iraqi-born gunman with a British passport, said the latest video of Mr Bigley showing him shackled in a cage had been staged to "terrify" the British public. There was no way of verifying the claim, particularly in a country awash with rumour and conspiracy theories. - Telegraph

More on this strange situation: That dossier, The Hutton enquiry Dr Kelly and what did he REALLY know

Brother may 'buy' Bigley
October 04, 2004 - THE brother of Iraq hostage Ken Bigley was yesterday investigating whether it might be possible to buy his sibling's life.
Paul Bigley was looking into reports in a Kuwaiti newspaper that a Iraqi militant group had intervened to help negotiate the 62-year-old engineer's release.
He said he had heard the reports which suggested that "a different gang will want to sell him back to us".
He is now checking their authenticity with his business contacts in the Middle East.
"If this is the case we will have to buy him back, it is as simple as that," he said.
But he stressed it was far too early to know whether the option to buy his brother's freedom was a possibility. - The Australian
Gaddafi's son trying to help free Bigley
Tue 5 October, 2004 - The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi says his charity foundation is using its contacts in Iraq to help free British hostage Kenneth Bigley, who has been held by Iraqi militants for nearly three weeks.
"The (Bigley) family called two days ago," Saif Gaddafi said at a news conference at the opening of an exhibition. "We have good contacts in Iraq and ... we are talking to them. Today and tomorrow are crucial for him." - reuters
Hostage handed over to new group? Why?
Bigley 'with moderate group that released Italian pair'
THE British hostage Ken Bigley has been transferred to a more moderate terrorist group which last week released two Italian prisoners, according to reports in Kuwait.
There were suggestions that the new captors, a Sunni Muslim group who were reportedly paid a ransom of about 650,000 to release aid workers Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, would now demand a large sum to free the 62-year-old engineer.
Newspaper reports in Kuwait claimed the fundamentalist Tawhid and Jihad group, which snatched Mr Bigley in Baghdad nearly three weeks ago, was considering selling him to another militant group. And the hostages brother, Paul Bigley, said he had contacted "high-level" people in Kuwait who had told him that it appeared the transfer had already been made.
Two Indonesian women taken hostage were released yesterday, but a video showing executions of two others, an Iraqi-Italian and a Turkish man was also sent to the media. - The scotsman
So..Zarqarwi, the infamous 'terrorist' doesn't want to gain anything from this huge kidnapping?
Or is it simply a case of the CIA needing this front for yet another operation later...

Spun one way in the UK
Straw Again Rules Out Bigley Kidnap Negotiations
The British government is ready to listen Ken Bigleys kidnappers but will not enter into negotiations with them for the hostages release, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in Baghdad today.
We cannot enter into negotiations but if hostage takers have a message, we will listen to it carefully, Mr Straw said in Baghdad following a meeting with Iraqs deputy prime minister for national security, Barham Saleh. - Scotsman
Spun another in the U.S.
Straw: U.K. will listen to kidnappers
10/6/2004 - The British government is ready to listen to the kidnappers of Kenneth Bigley but will not enter into negotiations with them for the hostage's release, Britain's foreign secretary said Wednesday.
"We cannot enter into negotiations, but if hostage takers have a message, we will listen to it carefully," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters in Baghdad after meeting with Iraq's deputy prime minister for national security, Barham Saleh. - USA today

Paul Bigley joins anti-war rally
The brother of British hostage Ken Bigley is to address a Stop The War rally in Liverpool. Paul Bigley, whose brother is held in Iraq, will speak by phone link to Friday's rally at Liverpool University.
Other speakers include Azmat Begg, whose son Moazzam, 36, is a detainee at the US base in Guantanamo Bay. - BBC
Hostage Bigley reported killed
The Foreign Office is checking unconfirmed reports on an Arab TV station that British hostage Kenneth Bigley has been killed by Iraqi militants.
Abu Dhabi Television said it was told by "informed" sources in Iraq. - BBC

Libya blames Britain for hostage killing
Sunday 10th October, 2004 - A powerful Libyan charity organization that mediated for the release of a British hostage Saturday blamed the British government for his slaying in Iraq.
The International Gadhafi Charity Organization issued a statement saying the beheading of Kenneth Bigley by his captors in Iraq occurred because the British government asked the organization to halt its mediation efforts to secure his release.
The charity said its mediation efforts were showing positive signs on the horizon, but London asked it to suspend its efforts because it was working through other mediators.
The group, headed by Libyan leader Moammar Ghadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam, said the British government's request came 48 hours before the hostage was killed.
The statement said Saif al-Islam had telephoned Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and proposed releasing some of the female Iraqi prisoners in return for Bigley's freedom to absolve the government of embarrassment of direct negotiations with the kidnappers.
The organization said it proposed transporting the female Iraqi prisoners to Libya if their remaining in Iraq would embarrass the government in Baghdad.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had publicly appealed for the release of Bigley. Big News Network.com

Bigley: Blair has blood on his hands
Sunday 10 October 2004 - Paul Bigley accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair of having blood on his hands hours after news emerged that his younger brother Ken Bigley had been killed by his captors in Iraq.
"Please, please stop the war and prevent other lives being lost. It is illegal, it has to stop. Blair has blood on his hands," Bigley's elder brother Paul said in a statement to anti-Iraq war activists.
Bigley described Ken as his "best pal" and paid tribute to his bravery and courage.
But he said he would never watch the video of his beheading.
"I won't watch that video. Never," he told the Times. "He's gone now and we grieve and we will cry when we bury him." - Al jazeera
Bigley captors bribed, says report
October 11, 2004 - A BRITISH hostage beheaded in Iraq after three weeks in captivity briefly fled his kidnappers by car after British intelligence helped bribe two of the captors, a newspaper reported today.
Kenneth Bigley was recaptured minutes after making an ill-fated escape attempt on Wednesday and was executed the next day, according to an account The Sunday Times said was from a Saudi man described by resistance fighters as the only person who could speak for the Tawhid and Jihad group, which claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
The purported spokesman said that two of Mr Bigley's captors accepted a large sum of money to help him flee and that the money came from a Syrian and an Iraqi who had infiltrated the kidnappers on behalf of British intelligence, The Sunday Times reported. - News.com.AU

U.S. tried to rescue beheaded hostages
13th October, 2004 U.S. forces tried unsuccessfully twice to rescue an Englishman and two U.S. citizens being held hostage, CNN reported Tuesday.
Both efforts were guided by intelligence and led U.S. forces to separate sites in Baghdad, officials said. Although both sites were deserted, there was evidence that people had been there.
Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley of the United States, along with Briton Ken Bigley, were kidnapped Sept. 16 from their home in Baghdad.
The first rescue attempt occurred while all three men were still alive. The subsequent attempt came after Armstrong was killed Sept. 20.
"A lot of people had a lot of sleepless nights trying to find them," a military official told CNN.
It was not clear whether the hostages were moved, or whether the intelligence was faulty and the hostages were never at the suspected Baghdad sites, CNN said. - BNN

Allawi Puppet leader, [gangster]
US 'help' on Allawi speech decried
Friday 01 October 2004, - A leading Democratic senator has expressed profound dismay at the Bush administration's alleged role in writing interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's speech to the US congress last week.
In a letter to President George Bush on Thursday, California Senator Dianne Feinstein said: "I want to express my profound dismay about reports that officials from your administration and your re-election campaign were 'heavily involved' in writing parts of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's speech.
"You may be surprised by this, Mr President, but I viewed Prime Minister Allawi's speech as an independent view on conditions in Iraq," she wrote.
"His speech gave me hope that reconstruction efforts were proceeding in most of the country and that elections could be held on schedule.
"To learn that this was not an independent view, but one that was massaged by your campaign operatives, jaundices the speech and reduces the credibility of his remarks," Feinstein wrote. - Al Jazeera
Agence France Presse via truthout
U.S. Effort Aims to Improve Opinions About Iraq Conflict
Thursday, September 30, 2004 - The Bush administration, battling negative perceptions of the Iraq war, is sending Iraqi Americans to deliver what the Pentagon calls "good news" about Iraq to U.S. military bases, and has curtailed distribution of reports showing increasing violence in that country.
The unusual public-relations effort by the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency for International Development comes as details have emerged showing the U.S. government and a representative of President Bush's reelection campaign had been heavily involved in drafting the speech given to Congress last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Combined, they indicate that the federal government is working assiduously to improve Americans' opinions about the Iraq conflict -- a key element of Bush's reelection message.
[snip]
But administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the prime minister was coached and aided by the U.S. government, its allies and friends of the administration. Among them was Dan Senor, former spokesman for the CPA who has more recently represented the Bush campaign in media appearances. Senor, who has denied writing the speech, sent Allawi recommended phrases. He also helped Allawi rehearse in New York last week, officials said. Senor declined to comment.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and British Foreign Service officials also helped Allawi with the text and delivery of his remarks, said administration officials who were involved. The State Department and officials elsewhere in the government took the lead in booking Allawi's interviews. Administration officials said that the Iraqi Embassy in Washington consists of just a few officials and has only a dial-up Internet connection, so was incapable of preparing for the high-profile tour. - washington post

Airstrikes
US warplanes pound Iraqi rebel enclave after Samarra offensive
The outskirts of Fallujah were smouldering again after US warplanes bombed a building where the military said between 10 and 15 insurgents suspected of links with Iraq's most wanted man Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi had been shifting weapons.
"A large number of enemy fighters are presumed killed," the army said, without giving an exact toll.
The latest onslaught followed two earlier missions around the Sunni Arab enclave west of Baghdad again targeting suspected Zarqawi hideouts.
In the latest attack, the US military insisted that special measures were taken to ensure no civilians were caught up in the blasts but it was impossible immediately to verify the casualty situation on the ground.
Several women and children were among those killed and wounded in an earlier strike Friday, according to hospital officials.
Meanwhile in Samarra, a key bastion in the Sunni insurgent belt north of the Iraqi capital, hospital officials were still attending the dead after a massive US-Iraqi offensive on Friday and into Saturday that killed at least 125 people.
Corpses in black bags at the city's general hospital were being carried out for burial.
"We cleaned up the city from all the bad guys and terrorists," Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib told reporters on Saturday. - Channel News Asia

The Pentagon said [...] it was investigating cockpit video footage that shows American pilots attacking and killing a group of apparently unarmed Iraqi civilians.
The 30-second clip shows the pilot targeting the group of people in a street in the city of Fallujah and asking his mission controllers whether he should "take them out". He is told to do so and, shortly afterwards, the footage shows a huge explosion where the people were. A second voice can be heard on the clip saying: "Oh, dude." - Independent UK

Samarra - world city photos

Waving white flags, Iraqis have fled Samarra on river boats as US forces claimed victory over insurgents in an offensive aimed at taking control of rebel-held cities.
Iraq's US-backed interim government is hoping American and Iraqi forces will crush a bloody insurgency and take back all of the country before the scheduled January elections.
But Sunday's operation in Samarra, north of Baghdad, brought condemnation from residents about the cost in lives and suffering, and guerrillas in the fiercest rebel-held city of Fallujah are expected to put up a tougher fight.
The US strategy of "precision strikes" also came in for criticism from Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar, who described the air assaults as collective punishment.
In 36 hours of fighting in the city, the US military said it killed 125 guerrillas and captured 88. About 3 000 US troops and 2 000 Iraqi soldiers had stormed Samarra on Friday.
Aid organisations said they were concerned about a lack of water and electricity and the fate of hundreds of families forced to flee.
One man, who said he escaped the city yesterday, reported that civilians had been killed. He said he had seen dogs picking at corpses in the street. "I swear I saw dogs eating the body of a woman," he said.
Residents said bodies were left in the streets, untended due to the fear of snipers.
Families tried to bury their dead on Sunday but the road to the cemetery was blocked off by US troops, witnesses said. - IOL

Seymour Hersh

HERSH: I got a call last week from a soldier -- it's different now, a lot of communication, 800 numbers. He's an American officer and he was in a unit halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border. It's a place where we claim we've done great work at cleaning out the insurgency. He was a platoon commander. First lieutenant, ROTC guy. It was a call about this. He had been bivouacing outside of town with his platoon. It was near, it was an agricultural area, and there was a granary around. And the guys that owned the granary, the Iraqis that owned the granary... It was an area that the insurgency had some control, but it was very quiet, it was not Fallujah. It was a town that was off the mainstream. Not much violence there. And his guys, the guys that owned the granary, had hired, my guess is from his language, I wasn't explicit -- we're talking not more than three dozen, thirty or so guards. Any kind of work people were dying to do. So Iraqis were guarding the granary. His troops were bivouaced, they were stationed there, they got to know everybody...

They were a couple weeks together, they knew each other. So orders came down from the generals in Baghdad, we want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And as he told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, stop. And he said they just shot them one by one. He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts. And he's hysterical. He's totally hysterical. And he went to the captain. He was a lieutenant, he went to the company captain. And the company captain said, "No, you don't understand. That's a kill. We got thirty-six insurgents." You read those stories where the Americans, we take a city, we had a combat, a hundred and fifteen insurgents are killed. You read those stories. It's shades of Vietnam again, folks, body counts... You know what I told him? I said, fella, I said: you've complained to the captain. He knows you think they committed murder. Your troops know their fellow soldiers committed murder. Shut up. Just shut up. Get through your tour and just shut up. You're going to get a bullet in the back. You don't need that. And that's where we are with this war. - source

Airstrikes!
U.S. airstrikes target cities harboring insurgents

US airstrikes leave 11 dead in Iraq
FALLUJAH, Oct 12 2004: US planes hammered guerilla positions in of Fallujah and Ramadi on Tuesday, killing 11 people, as the disarming of Shia militiamen gathered pace in Baghdad despite US warnings of internal rifts.
As the US military went on the offensive in the Sunni heartland of Iraq, an Al Qaeda-linked group, Ansar al Sunna, posted a video on the Internet showing the beheading of an Iraqi man it accused of spying for US forces. But 10 former Turkish hostages arrived in Baghdad after being released by their kidnappers, despite their employer defying their demands and vowing his construction firm would stay in Iraq.
In Fallujah, US warplanes struck the epicentre of the resistance three times during the day and raided at least seven mosques in Ramadi, arresting a religious figure. The marines dropped a 250-kilo bomb on guerillas on the eastern fringes of the city after a firefight, a military spokesman said.
A first raid targeted Al Haj Hussein restaurant in central Fallujah, famous across central Iraq for its kebabs. Four people were killed and six wounded, including restaurant staff, hospital sources said.
The US military said it was a known meeting place for Iraq's most wanted militant Abu Mussab al Zarqawi's radical Unity and Holy War group. Four hours later, US aircraft returned to strike the battle-scarred city, destroying a suspected Zarqawi hideaway.
In the Al Anbar province, US marines and Iraqi forces carried out pre-dawn raids on at least seven mosques, sparking shootouts in which two Iraqis were killed. -AFP- Dawn

"I have confidence in the ability of the Saudi Arabians to continue to provide a secure flow of oil product," - Colin Powell

The war & the US election spin

Iraq's Allawi Issues Ultimatum to Falluja
Wed Oct 13, 2004 - Iraq's interim prime minister warned the rebel-held city of Falluja on Wednesday it must hand over foreign militants or face a major operation to root them out.
Iyad Allawi's comments set a tough condition for negotiators seeking to defuse a months-long standoff between U.S. forces and their Sunni Muslim foes in Iraq's most rebellious city.
Repeated U.S. air strikes have targeted buildings the military say are used by America's top enemy in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who has claimed some of the country's bloodiest suicide bombings and hostage beheadings.
"If Zarqawi and his group are not handed over to us, we are ready for major operations in Falluja," Allawi told Iraq's interim national council. "I hope they (people in Falluja) will respond. If they don't, we will have to use force." source
Allawi scuttles planned Fallujah attack
Thursday 14th October, 2004 - The Iraqi government has scuttled a planned U.S. offensive in Fallujah, according to a senior U.S. official in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, under pressure from his Sunni colleagues in his interim government, denied the United States permission to launch an attack on the Sunni rebel stronghold that was scheduled for mid-October, the official told UPI.
Allawi got cold feet, or rather, he received extraordinary pressure from his Sunni (president, Ghazi al-Yawar) and other Sunnis in the (interim Iraqi government) to let negotiations go on, the official said.
The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that the White House has decreed that no major ground battles be fought until after the Nov. 2 U.S. election, to avoid negative political repercussions a bloody battle may entail. - BNN

Zarqawi aide 'dies in air strike'
A close associate of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in a US air strike on the Iraqi city of Falluja, the US military has said.
Planes attacked what was believed to be safe house used by Zarqawi in a "precision strike" at 0300 (midnight GMT) on Tuesday, the statement said.
However, Falluja hospitals said they received no casualties and local people said the bombed house was unoccupied. - BBC
Marines poised to attack Fallujah
Marines appeared yesterday to be moving closer to a decisive battle in the Sunni Triangle area west of Baghdad, where insurgents are using violence and intimidation to extend their influence out from the city of Fallujah.
"We are gearing up to do a major operation, and when we are told to go, we will go," said Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is responsible for security in the area.
"When we go ... we're going to go in there and whack them."
In one sign of preparations for battle, Marines at an outpost near Fallujah are no longer getting hot meals three times a day; instead, to conserve food, they get packaged rations for lunch, a Marine spokesman said. - BNN

Airstrikes during 'preparation'???!!!

A US warplane bombed a suspected weapons site in the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah, west of the Iraqi capital, on Friday afternoon, a spokesman said.
We destroyed the site and there was a large secondary explosion, said Major Francis Piccoli, adding that this indicated there had been munitions in the area.
Hospital sources said three people died in the attack and three were wounded. The assault came as British troops began arriving at a new base southwest of Baghdad, where they are filling in for US forces being sent to fight insurgents.
The contingent of around 850 soldiers from the Black Watch regiment and support personnel began the move from their previous base in Iraqs relatively calm south.
At the same time, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has agreed to send a delegation of councilors from the interim parliament to Fallujah to try to find a peaceful solution to the standoff, said council member Ahmad al-Barrak.
But Allawi said this would be the last attempt at mediation before a possible military assault against the Sunni Muslim bastion, he said.
Some 1,000 US and Iraqi troops have encircled the city for more than two weeks, and are prepared for action if ordered. We have been gearing up for a major operation since April, said Piccoli. Unable to fight US-led forces in the open, militants have turned to using foreign hostages as weapons to try to crack Iraqs military coalition. - Pakistan Times

Bullet ridden governers car...

US troops prepare to 'mop up', on election day...

Baghdad's deputy governor assassinated
6.27PM, Mon Nov 1 2004 - Gunmen have assassinated the deputy governor of Baghdad and wounded four of his bodyguards.
Iraqi police have said the drive-by shooting that killed Hatem Karim occurred in the southern Dora district of the Iraqi capital.
The killing is the latest in a series of attacks targeting officials linked to Iraq's US-backed interim government.
Meanwhile, gunmen kidnapped an American, a Nepali and two Arabs from their Baghdad office, police said.
"They stormed the villa with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades," said a policeman. "They had no chance."
Iraq's Interior Ministry said a guard at the Saudi Arabian company where the foreigners worked was killed in the attack.
The murder of Mr Karim comes a day after a day after Iraq's US-backed interim prime minister spoke of an imminent military assault on rebels in the western city of Fallujah. - UK ITV NEWS

Airstrikes!!!
30/10/2004
Marines have been hitting Fallujah with frequent airstrikes, targeting buildings believed used by al-Zarqawis followers. Marines have also launched probing attacks into Fallujahs outskirts to test insurgent defences, Marine Col. Mike Shupp said.
A US warplane fired at a house in the eastern Askari district of Fallujah last night. Firefighter Salam Hameed said five bodies were pulled from under the rubble. Another four people were injured.
Yesterday, a Sunni cleric in Baghdad, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, warned the Americans and Iraqis against launching a full-scale attack on Fallujah. If they do, he said Sunni clerics in the capital will issue a fatwa, or a binding religious decree, ordering Muslims to launch street protests and a campaign of civil disobedience. - Irish Times

2/11/2004 - U.S. ELECTION DAY
Hundreds of people fled the Iraqi rebel-held Fallujah after a heavy night of US air strikes, while an Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters was killed during clashes in the nearby hotspot of Ramadi.
"There are a bunch of cars leaving the city right now, about 400 cars backed up," said US marine gunnery sergeant Brett Turck. "I don't know if it is a mass exodus or regular traffic flows."
The movement came after the US military unleashed an air raid on the flashpoint city west of Baghdad in what has become a near daily bombardment.
"A US air force plane engaged a pre-planned target using precision ordnance, which destroyed a known enemy cache site on the southeast side of the city," it said in a statement.
A marine official said the mission lasted for about two hours. - Channel News Asia via BNN

U.S. Seals Off Iraq's Falluja, Air Raids Kill Three
The U.S. military blocked roads round Iraq's rebel-held city of Falluja on Friday after mounting air strikes overnight that local hospital sources said killed three people. The military said its warplanes struck early on Friday in the latest of five strikes on rebel targets in Falluja within seven hours.
Residents said troops had sealed off all roads in and out of the Sunni Muslim city of 300,000 people as U.S. marines prepared a major offensive designed to crush the rebels before nationwide elections in January.
The hospital sources said four people were also wounded in the air strikes. Residents said five houses were destroyed.
The U.S. military said its air strikes had hit an arms cache, a rebel command post and other targets. - Reuters
Pentagon suppresses details of civilian casualties, says expert
The Pentagon is collecting figures on local casualties in Iraq, contrary to its public claims, but the results are classified, according to one of the authors of an independent study which reported last week that the war has killed at least 100,000 Iraqis.
"Despite the claim of the head of US Central Command at the time, General Tommy Franks, that 'We don't do body counts', the US military does collect casualty figures in Iraq," said Professor Richard Garfield, an expert on the effects of conflict on civilians. "But since 1991, when Colin Powell was head of the joint chiefs of staff, the figures have been kept secret."
Professor Garfield, who lectures at Columbia University in New York and the London School of Hygiene and Public Health, believes the Pentagon's stance has confused its response to the latest study. "The military is saying: 'We don't believe it, but because we don't collect figures, we can't comment," he said.
"Mr Powell decided to keep the figures secret because of the controversy over body counts in Vietnam, but I think democracies need this information." - Khilafah

US / UK in PUPPET says sorry to EU CHARADE
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi sought to calm European anger on Friday over his description of states that opposed the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein as "spectators."
But several EU leaders said his comment, on a visit to Rome on Thursday, were unhelpful ahead of a first meeting at which the 25-nation bloc is due to offer him a modest aid package as it seeks a fresh start after bitter divisions over Iraq.
"What I said is that history is history, past is past. We need to start operations, to start a new chapter and look to the future. We definitely want to forge a positive alliance with Europe," Allawi told reporters after a breakfast meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Brussels.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, one of the European critics of the war, told reporters: "I don't like the expression 'spectator states' at all. I don't understand it, and if I do understand it right, I don't like it at all."
[snip]
"It's absolutely crucial for the security of our own country that that (elections) happens,"
"These people that are trying to create circumstances of chaos and instability in Iraq are doing so because of their fear of the democratic process." - Tony Blair
as an example of a democratic process: see here reuters

meanwhile 'the corporation divide' the spoils

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi (L) shakes hands with British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) after talks in Brussels November 5, 2004 ahead of the second day of a EU summit. EU leaders will present a reconstruction aid package to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, as the bloc seeks a fresh start with U.S. President George W. Bush after bitter internal divisions over Iraq. Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters

With US forces massing outside Fallujah, 35 marines swayed to Christian rock music and asked Jesus Christ to protect them in what could be the biggest battle since American troops invaded Iraq last year.
Men with buzzcuts and clad in their camouflage waved their hands in the air, M-16 assault rifles beside them, and chanted heavy metal-flavoured lyrics in praise of Christ late on Friday in a yellow-brick chapel.
They counted among thousands of troops surrounding the city of Fallujah, seeking solace as they awaited Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's decision on whether or not to invade Fallujah.
"You are the sovereign. You're name is holy. You are the pure spotless lamb," a female voice cried out on the loudspeakers as the marines clapped their hands and closed their eyes, reflecting on what lay ahead for them. - Marines turn to God

"You are the sovereign. You're name is holy.

You are the pure spotless lamb,"

Iraqi Interim Government Declares Martial Law
before Operation Phantom Fury...

Newly-built hospital destroyed

06/11/2004 20:05 - (SA) Fallujah - A newly-built hospital, which was about to be inaugurated, was destroyed on Saturday morning in the flashpoint Iraqi city of Fallujah by two missiles, its director said.
The Nazzal general hospital had been built with funds from Saudi donors who belonged to an Islamic-Saudi relief agency, Doctor Ali Hayad told AFP.
The building had been ready for two weeks, fully furnished with vital medical equipment and medicine. It also housed an analytical laboratory.
Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim bastion 50km west of Baghdad, has come under an increasing storm of US aerial bombardments in recent weeks as US troops turn up the heat of insurgents who are believed to be holed up inside. News 24
The assault on Fallujah has started. It is being sold as liberation of the people of Fallujah; it is being sold as a necessary step to implementing "democracy" in Iraq. These are lies.
I was in Fallujah during the siege in April, and I want to paint for you a word picture of what such an assault means.
Fallujah is dry and hot; like Southern California, it has been made an agricultural area only by virtue of extensive irrigation. It has been known for years as a particularly devout city; people call it the City of a Thousand Mosques. In the mid-90's, when Saddam wanted his name to be added to the call to prayer, the imams of Fallujah refused.
U.S. forces bombed the power plant at the beginning of the assault; for the next several weeks, Fallujah was a blacked-out town, with light provided by generators only in critical places like mosques and clinics. The town was placed under siege; the ban on bringing in food, medicine, and other basic items was broken only when Iraqis en masse challenged the roadblocks. The atmosphere was one of pervasive fear, from bombing and the threat of more bombing. Noncombatants and families with sick people, the elderly, and children were leaving in droves. After initial instances in which people were prevented from leaving, U.S. forces began allowing everyone to leave except for what they called "military age males," men usually between 15 and 60. Keeping noncombatants from leaving a place under bombardment is a violation of the laws of war. Of course, if you assume that every military age male is an enemy, there can be no better sign that you are in the wrong country, and that, in fact, your war is on the people, not on their oppressors,, not a war of liberation. - Counterpunch - RAHUL MAHAJAN
- Civilian death toll to rise in Fallujah

Once again the mainstream media tries to rope us into cheering for the American troops and pretends that the damage that the massive army attacks make are purely technical whereas the attacks of the resistance are bloody and deadly. Just looking at the following two articles on bbc made me want to vomit. It is truly disgusting. - Jupiter - Indymedia

"for the highly-professional marines, Falluja is also a return to the simplicity of combat after the complexities of peacekeeping and an enemy that never shows itself.
"The marines that I have had wounded over the past five months have been attacked by a faceless enemy," said Colonel Brandl.
"But the enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He lives in Falluja. And we're going to destroy him." BBC - Fixing the problem of Fallujah
'Body parts everywhere' in Fallujah

Dresden II-Bush takes on Falluja

Satan lives in Fallujah: Lt Col Drivelling-Ejit
BBC is Legitimising Mass Slaughter of Fallujah
Illusionary demons blamed for US led Attack on Iraq, Falluja

US GIs push into rebel haven of Fallujah

Chemical Weapons?
US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Husseins alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988.
The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally-banned chemical weapons, resistance sources told Al-Quds Press Wednesday, November 10. - Islam online
"Multinational forces are moving in the city. They took the train station (in the north-east) and the engagement continues," said US marine spokesperson lieutenant Lyle Gilbert, describing the operation dubbed "Operation Dawn".
"As for casualties on the insurgents' side I can tell you that they are dying. A lot of them are dying and this is a good thing," he said.
In a two-pronged assault, thousands of US troops, followed by crack Iraqi soldiers, poured into the north-western Jolan neighbourhood and the Askari district in the north-east, where they took control of the city's station overnight.
No resistance
The troops "faced resistance at the beginning but there is almost no resistance now," a high-ranking US officer said.
Bullets ripped through dusty palm groves that lined a network of deserted streets in the Jolan district, where US marines pushed forwards in armoured vehicles and on foot, an AFP reporter said.
More like a ghost town than the festering hub of rebel insurgency described by US and Iraqi officials, every one house in about 10 had been flattened by the bombardments that have shaken the city on a near-nightly basis for weeks in the build-up to the long-awaited offensive, the reporter said. - News 24 [S.A]

"My concern now is only one not to allow any enemy to escape. As we tighten the noose around him, he will move to escape to fight another day. I do not want these guys to get out of here. I want them killed or captured as they flee," - Col. Michael Formica, comdr. 1st Cavalry Brigade, - ABC

U.S. forces began allowing everyone to leave, except for what they called "military age males," men usually between 15 and 60. Keeping noncombatants from leaving a place under bombardment is a violation of the laws of war. - Brisbane Indymedia

An unnamed military official in Washington told the New York Times: The important idea to consider is that this is not an operation against Zarqawi and his network. It is just one of the many steps that need to be taken in order to defeat a complex and diverse insurgency, in which the Zarqawi network is but one element. US generals and officials are now stating it is likely Zarqawi and the foreign terrorists have left Fallujahwithout providing any evidence to refute the claims of the Fallujah resistance leaders that they were never in the city in the first place. -

The US media, which dutifully reported every airstrike on Fallujah over the past five months as a precision strike on Zarqawi safehouses, has barely commented on the shifting rationale for the attack on the city. It can be predicted with virtual certainty, however, that it will prominently report US military claims that Zarqawi has surfaced in Ramadi, Samarra, Baquaba or whichever is the next Iraqi city slated for destruction.
US assault leaves Fallujah in ruins and unknown numbers dead - WSWS

Pics courtesy of xinhua.net

As 'Operation Phantom Fury' continues - CIA PUPPET has relatives kidnapped!
Three family members of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi were kidnapped, BBC news channel reported on Wednesday. According to the report, the family members, including a cousin of Allawi, the cousin's wife and his daughter-in-law, were kidnapped on Tuesday evening from their house in Baghdad.
Three cars with at least six men inside pulled up to the house in Baghdad's southern district of Al-Kadisiya, from where they took Ghazi Allawi and his two family members, an official source was quoted as saying. - Xinhua China

A militant group kidnapping three family members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi threatened on Wednesday to kill them if Allawi doesn't order a withdrawal from the besieged Fallujah.
In a statement, the group known to be Ansar al-Jihad (Partisans of Holy War) claimed responsibility for the abduction and threatened to behead the three if Allawi fails to meet its demands in 48 hours.
"We demand the agent government liberate all the prisoners in Iraq, women and men, and lift the siege over Fallujah and stop the military action against the city," said the previously unknown group. Xinhua China
Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in 90's Attacks

Were the Iraqi Prime Ministers relatives un-guarded?
Or Is this an exercise to garner sympathy for the PUPPET leader?
Has Allawi got cold feet over the war-crimes
being committed in Fallujah?
Are The CIA sticking a gun to his head?
Are the CIA responsible for other kidnappings?

More Psyops awareness -
Just as in the movie Saving Private Ryan, U.S. forces in the "assault" on Fallujah have a mission focussed on a single man: the elusive Musab al-Zarqawi. They seek him here. They seek him there. They seek him everywhere. - Break 4 News

Disaster or WARCRIME?
Falluja a 'Big Disaster,' Aid Needed - Red Crescent
Aid agencies called on U.S. forces and the Iraqi government to allow them to deliver food, medicine and water to Falluja on Friday and said four days of intense fighting had turned the city into a "big disaster."
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which receives support from foreign agencies including the Red Cross and UNICEF, said it had asked U.S. forces and Iraq's interim government to let them deliver relief goods to Falluja and establish medics there.
But it said it had received no reply.
"We call on the Iraqi government and U.S. forces to allow us to do our humanitarian duty to the innocent people," said Firdoos al-Ubadi, Red Crescent spokeswoman.
"This is their responsibility," she said, adding that judging by reports received from refugees and pictures broadcast on television, Falluja was a "big disaster." - Reuters
On Radio 4's Today (6 November), a BBC reporter in Baghdad referred to the coming attack on the city of Fallujah as "dangerous" and "very dangerous" for the Americans. When asked about civilians, he said, reassuringly, that the US marines were "going about with a Tannoy" telling people to get out. He omitted to say that tens of thousands of people would be left in the city. He mentioned in passing the "most intense bombing" of the city with no suggestion of what that meant for people beneath the bombs.
As for the defenders, those Iraqis who resist in a city that heroically defied Saddam Hussein; they were merely "insurgents holed up in the city", as if they were an alien body, a lesser form of life to be "flushed out" (the Guardian): a suitable quarry for "rat-catchers", which is the term another BBC reporter told us the Black Watch use. According to a senior British officer, the Americans view Iraqis as Untermenschen, a term that Hitler used in Mein Kampf to describe Jews, Romanies and Slavs as sub-humans. This is how the Nazi army laid siege to Russian cities, slaughtering combatants and non-combatants alike.
Normalising colonial crimes like the attack on Fallujah requires such racism, linking our imagination to "the other". The thrust of the reporting is that the "insurgents" are led by sinister foreigners of the kind that behead people: for example, by Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian said to be al-Qaeda's "top operative" in Iraq. This is what the Americans say; it is also Blair's latest lie to parliament. Count the times it is parroted at a camera, at us. No irony is noted that the foreigners in Iraq are overwhelmingly American and, by all indications, loathed. These indications come from apparently credible polling organisations, one of which estimates that of 2,700 attacks every month by the resistance, six can be credited to the infamous al-Zarqawi. - John Pilger

Does this act of barbarity toward a Muslim holy place,
help create more WAR???

"We've got chunks of territory, but these guys [insurgents] are all over the place," Marine Lt. Brandon Turner said Thursday as he stood amid shattered glass and concrete under the green dome of the Khulafah Rashid mosque, his fellow Marines resting on a plush red carpet.
"They just keep coming at us."
"The enemy is right where we want him. He's coming to us," said Lt. Col. Gareth Brandl, commander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, which has experienced perhaps the toughest fight of all the units penetrating the city. "And we're killing him." - LA Times

Water supplies to Tall Afar, Samarra and Fallujah have been cut off during US attacks in the past two months, affecting up to 750,000 civilians.
This appears to form part of a deliberate US policy of denying water to the residents of cities under attack. If so, it has been adopted without a public debate, and without consulting Coalition partners.
It is a serious breach of international humanitarian law, and is deepening Iraqi opposition to the United States, other Coalition members, and the Iraqi interim government. - Report: Denial Of Water To Iraqi Cities

Iraqi Red Crescent aid convoy waiting at the edge of Falluja will not be allowed to enter the city center on Sunday, a U.S. Marine officer said. "They will not be allowed to cross the bridge today," Captain Adam Collier told Reuters at Falluja hospital, where the convoy is waiting to cross the Euphrates river into the main part of the embattled Iraqi city. He cited security reasons. Reuters
Aid convoy barred from 'starving' Falluja
Red Cross: Relief convoy turned back from Fallujah
Al jazeera reports and Pics on the situation in Fallujah

thanks to Cryptome

Experts ponder missing Iraq weapons
October 27, 2004 - REVELATIONS that nearly 400 tonnes of conventional explosives have gone missing in Iraq have experts wondering what other weapons might be in jeopardy of falling into insurgent or terrorist hands.
Even the US State Department concedes it can't provide "100 per cent security for 100 per cent of the sites".
By all accounts, Iraq is studded with weapons depots - many in places where US-led forces are preoccupied with their fiercest fighting.
Troubling questions about what other weapons might be vulnerable to looting have arisen since the UN nuclear agency's warning this week that 342 tonnes of non-nuclear explosives disappeared from the former Al-Qaqaa military installation south of Baghdad.
"You'd think that those sites would be the highest priority for guarding in the immediate aftermath of the invasion," said Shannon Kyle, senior researcher on nuclear arms control and nonproliferation at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden. - The Australian

For the British, the prospect of direct involvement in such a potentially bloody offensive [in Falluja] has raised legitimate anxiety. For many it has only confirmed their opposition to the Iraq war and the governments participation in the occupation. The scale of public disquiet is such that the government has intimated that the redeployment has a limit of 30 days (to counter any Ramadan spike in Mujaahideen activities). At the same time, the British have tried to insure against any potential backlash from the general public and its own Labour MP's (in the event things go badly wrong) by instructing its agents on the ground inside Iraq to kidnap Margaret Hassan, the Care International charity worker.
The recent communiqu�from the Mujaahideen has exposed the British insurance policy and has denied any JTJ involvement in the kidnapping. The kidnapping and possible beheading of Margaret Hassan, who has selflessly dedicated years of her life to help impoverished Iraqis, will send the message to the British public that the Iraqi resistance is comprised of monsters and serial murderersand there can be no response other than wiping them from the face of the earth-thereby prolonging the redeployment of the British troops in the region near Baghdad.
Hassans kidnapping (and potential execution by her British agent captives) is preparing the way for the massive, unremitting, and terrible mass murder of all who resist the occupation, including women, children, and the the elderly. - Jihad Unspun

"Please don't bring the soldiers to Baghdad," the Associated Press news agency reported her as saying. "Please, on top of that, please release the women prisoners from prisons." - Margeret Hassan

Rebel Militias Deny Holding British Aid Worker Hassan
by James Sturcke
Confusion surrounded the fate of the Iraq aid worker Margaret Hassan last night after main rebel groups denied being involved with her kidnap.
Insurgents in Fallujah condemned the abduction of the charity chief who was snatched by an armed gang in Baghdad six days ago. Despite making a video of the hostage in captivity, the kidnappers have not been pictured or made any claim of responsibility.
The statement by the Fallujah group came a day after the husband of Irish-born Mrs Hassan made an plea for her release on an Arabic TV station.
"This woman works for a humanitarian organization. She should not have been kidnapped," the emir, or commander, of one group of Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah told Reuters reporters.
"She had been living in Iraq for 30 years and she was a humanitarian. The resistance did not kidnap her because this would have left a bad impression of the resistance in the world," he added.
Commanders of five separate guerrilla groups in Fallujah said they were not holding Mrs Hassan and had seen no evidence that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's organization had kidnapped her. - Common Dreams
Margaret Hassan: A personal tale
Aid worker Hassan killed: video

The release of Teresa Borcz Khalifa added to the mystery surrounding the fate of Margaret Hassan, who appears to have been executed by her captors. Yesterday, there was more confusion over whether a body found in Fallujah was hers, and there are still large numbers of people, including Iraqi officials in Baghdad, who cling to the absence of conclusive proof that she has been killed.
There were marked similarities between the cases of Mrs Hassan and Mrs Khalifa. Both were of a similar age, in their 50s, and had lived in Iraq for a long time. Both were married to Iraqis, and had acquired Iraqi citizenship while keeping that of their home countries.
However, the kidnapping of Mrs Hassan, the country director for the charity Care International, caused wide- spread protests, including public demonstrations, unlike Mrs Khalifa's abduction. Even Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose group has beheaded a number of hostages, called for Mrs Hassan to be released.
Confusion was heightened when the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, first told MPs in Canberra that a mutilated body found in Fallujah was that of Margaret Hassan, then retracted his claim. The body was taken to Jordan for forensic tests, but senior diplomats have disclosed that it does not appear to be that of the aid worker. No sooner was that information absorbed, however, than military sources said the body of a second woman, also possibly Western, might have been found in the town by US Marines. - Kim Sengupta and Raymond Whitaker
The pattern has been consistent and obvious. Every news report or scandal that has been detrimental to the Bush/Anglo-American war agenda has been followed, within hours, with shocking executions (real and staged) that are attributed to "terrorist insurgents," despite questionable circumstances, non-verifiable evidence and unreliable sources, such as "unnamed" intelligence and military officials.
The parties responsible for these acts have not and likely will not be identified, thanks in large part to deliberate US/Pentagon blackouts of reporting from war zones, and disinformation-laden and Bush-controlled corporate media.
What is clear, regardless of the identities of the perpetrators, is that the results have exclusively benefited the US/Bush administration war machine, while completely undermining the political and public relations objectives of anti-US/anti-occupation opposition movements and groups. The methods used in the kidnapping and murder of Margaret Hassan, Nick Berg and others neatly fit the profile of classic western intelligence and counterinsurgency operations. - Larry Chin

How many dead?
On October 19, the Times reported: "There are no agreed figures for civilian deaths in Iraq over all since the war began in early 2003, but the best estimates, by private groups and independent news organizations, place the figure in the 10,000 to 15,000 range." It would seem obvious, then, that the bombing of a large civilian population in Iraq in what the Times called "the most intense aerial bombardment in Iraq since major combat ended" (4/30/04) would produce significant civilian casualties.
Since substantial numbers of civilians did in fact die in Fallujah in April, even if the exact number cannot be pinned down, readers might wonder if the Times' policy is that things that cannot be confirmed with numerical precision are essentially "unconfirmed." But this would be a double standard on the part of the Times; in its November 8 report, the paper noted: "The number of insurgents in the city is estimated at 3,000, although some guerrillas, terrorist fighters and their leaders escaped the city before the attack. American military officials estimated that of a usual population of 300,000, 70 percent to 90 percent of civilians had fled."
Surely there is no way to determine exactly how many insurgents are in Fallujah, or how many civilians have fled. To be consistent, shouldn't the Times be reporting that accounts of civilians leaving the city are "unconfirmed"?
In its November 8 report, the Times matter-of-factly noted that U.S forces targeted a Fallujah hospital early in the campaign "because the American military believed that it was the source of rumors about heavy casualties." The Times added: "This time around, the American military intends to fight its own information war, countering or squelching what has been one of the insurgents' most potent weapons."
If part of that "information war" means convincing Americans that civilians are not victims of the Fallujah invasion, the Times has signed up on the side of the Pentagon. - New York Times Rewrites Fallujah History
FALLUJA ARITHMETIC LESSON
Monday Nov 15, 2004
by Prof. Greg Palast
Today's New York Times, page 1:
"American commanders said 38 service members had been killed and 275 wounded in the Falluja assault."
Today's New York Times, page 11:
"The American military hospital here reported that it had treated 419 American soldiers since the siege of Falluja began."
Questions for the class:
1. If 275 soldiers were wounded in Falluja and 419 are treated for wounds, how many were shot on the plane ride to Germany?
2. We're told only 275 soldiers were wounded but 419 treated for wounds; and we're told that 38 soldiers died. So how many will be buried?
3. How long have these Times reporters been embedded with with military? Bonus question: When will they get out of bed with the military?
Today's New York Times, page 1: "The commanders estimated that 1,200 to 1,600 insurgents had been killed."
Today's New York Times, page 11: "Nowhere to be found: the remains of the insurgents that the tanks had been sent in to destroy. ...The absence of insurgent bodies in Falluja has remained an enduring mystery." - Greg Palast

Where next?

US launches major Mosul assault
US troops are attempting to secure police stations seized by insurgents
One military spokesman said more than 1,000 soldiers were to be deployed.
Attacks on the Americans and their Iraqi allies flared in Mosul almost a week ago, when several police stations were seized or destroyed by insurgents.
The US military said on Saturday it had diverted 500 troops to Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, from the major operation to take control of Falluja. - BBC
U.S. Forces Launch Air Strikes on Baqubah

Unarmed & injured executed in Mosque

A series of television pool images shot by NBC shows a U.S. Marine shooting dead a wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a Falluja mosque November 13, 2004. U.S. Marines rallied round the Marine now under investigation for killing the Iraqi during the offensive in Falluja, saying he was probably under combat stress in unpredictable, hair-trigger circumstances. Photo by Reuters TV/Reuters
Defiant Ramadi gets ready for US assault
Hundreds of armed insurgents took up positions Tuesday in the center of Ramadi as U.S. troops were advancing through the nearby guerrilla sanctuary of Fallujah.
Residents contacted by telephone in Ramadi, 110 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, said there was no sign of U.S. troops in the center of the city, which was in the hands of gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles, heavy machine guns and shoulder-fired rockets. - The Hindu
His Red Right Hand By William Rivers Pitt

US Marines gear up to 'cleanse' Mosul

United States-backed Iraqi commandos were poised on Friday to storm rebel strongholds in the northern city of Mosul, as American military commanders said they had "broken the back" of the insurgency with their assault on the former rebel bastion of Fallujah. - IOL via BNN
43 killed in Iraq violence
Forty-Seven Bodies Boycott Iraq Elections
Mosque raided

Iraqi troops backed by U.S. soldiers raided the most revered Sunni Muslim mosque in Baghdad, setting off stun grenades, arresting dozens and leaving at least two people dead, according to witnesses and a hospital official.
The raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque just after Friday prayers was the latest in a series of moves targeting religious clerics who support the insurgency, which continues to churn violently in sections of Iraq dominated by the country's minority Sunni population. - The Sun News

Operation Plymouth Rock -
British Troops Join U.S. Marines in Triangle of Death Offensive
Five thousand US marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched a new offensive in the Triangle of Death south of Baghdad today.
The joint operation kicked off with early morning raids in the town of Jabella in Babil province, netting 32 suspected insurgents, the US military said. Jabella is 50 miles south of Baghdad.- Scotsman
Huge new offensive in Iraq

U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a "fresh campaign" on Tuesday against insurgents 50 miles south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
Iraqi SWAT security teams, backed by elements of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, pushed through Jabella in the Babil province and "captured 32 suspected insurgents, including a number of high-interest individuals, in a series of early-morning raids," the military said in a written statement.
Insurgent attacks increased in northern Babil in a counteroffensive that occurred during the Falluja offensive, according to the statement. U.S., Iraqi forces hit rebels south of Baghdad

" In the distance, you still hear bombs dropped by American jets exploding over the city. But I am no longer there so I cannot tell you which districts they are fighting over now. " - Fadhil Badrani, an Iraqi journalist and resident of Falluja
Eyewitness: Farewell to Falluja [BBC]
'Surgical' U.S. Raids Go on South of Baghdad
Fallujah Breaking News: eyewitness reports
Iraq Dispatches: 'Unusual Weapons' Used in Fallujah

"In Vietnam, the Americans destroyed the village to save it. In Iraq we destroy the city to save it," wrote Simon Jenkins of the British Sunday Times in reference to America's second assault on Fallujah. "The occupying force is entombed in bases it can barely defend or supply. Occasional patrols are target practice for terrorists. Iraq is a desert in which the Americans and British rule nothing but their forts, like the French Foreign Legion in the Sahara." Same story different set, Saigon Baghdad [BNN editorial]

War-crimes

Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches - Pictures of Fallujah

The man who took them was only allowed to take photos and bury bodies in one small area of Fallujah. He was not allowed to visit anywhere else. Keep in mind there are at least 1,925 other bodies that were not allowed to be seen.
Information with some of the photos is from those identified by family members already.
One of the family members who was looking for dead relatives, shared these photos which were taken from that book.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he told of what he saw in his village during the last few weeks.
The Americans shot every boat on the river because people were trying to escape Fallujah by the river. They shot all the sheep, any animal people owned was shot. Helicopters shot all the animals and anything that moved in all the villages surrounding Fallujah during the fighting.
He said that none of the roads into Fallujah, or around Fallujah were passable because anyone on them was shot. I know one family that were all killed. There are no signs on these roads that tell people not to use them-so people dont know they arent supposed to use them. No signs in English or Arabic! - UK Indymedia

US soldiers would kill civilians, says Marine
"We were shooting up people as they got out of their cars trying to put their hands up," said Mr Massey. "I don't know if the Iraqis thought we were celebrating their new democracy. I do know that we killed innocent civilians." Mr Massey said US troops in Iraq were trained to believe that all Iraqis were potential terrorists. As a result, he had watched his colleagues open fire indiscriminately. In one 48-hour period, he estimated his unit killed more than 30 civilians in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad.
"I was never clear on who the enemy was," he explained. "If you have no enemy or you do not know who the enemy is, what are you doing there?"
His claims were made during an immigration hearing in Toronto, Canada, to assess a claim for refugee status made by a former US soldier, Jeremy Hinzman. Mr Hinzman, 26, fled to Canada after refusing to go to Iraq with his colleagues in the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg. - Khilafah

A stray dog feeds on an Iraqi corpse [right]. US Marines are now hunting down stray animals grown fat on the flesh from corpses according to the Agence France-Presse(AFP).
The AFP wrote, "It was a good day for this self-described goon squad -- a dozen or so black plastic trash bags heavy with dead animals were dumped unceremoniously in the back of a truck". - Free Press International 12.10.2004
BBC: Bodies stored in potato warehouse

and still...after all this: Airstrikes!
American warplanes pounded Fallujah with missiles Sunday as insurgents fought running battles with coalition forces in the volatile western Iraqi city. The U.S. military said two troops died in separate incidents.
Meanwhile, a large swath of Iraq lost electricity Sunday after a fire erupted in a major power plant north of Baghdad. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi called the fire an accident, but accused guerrillas of hurting Iraqis with attacks on infrastructure. The capital went dark at about 4 p.m. and power was still out at 7 p.m. The only lights came from the Green Zone and a few other places that have their own generators. AP
Large Area of Iraq Loses Electricity
Airstrikes!
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) Dec 13, 2004
"Large explosions could be heard and flashes lit the sky Sunday night as jets roared overhead, the correspondent said.
Marines had earlier told AFP that rebels were creeping back into previously cleared city blocks, and the military was in a race to seize weapons caches before they could be used against them.
"They are just like rats, no matter the amount of poison you spread around, they keep on coming back into the house," said one marine." - US warplanes strike Fallujah after eight US marines killed

PSYOPS! Bahgdad to get the Fallujah treatment?
General: Al-Zarqawi likely now in Baghdad
Thursday, December 16, 2004 - BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The most wanted man in Iraq, Islamic militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is "most likely" in Baghdad after losing his sanctuary in the western city of Falluja, but he is having a tougher time planning and launching attacks, a top U.S. general says.
"He can operate pretty safely, we think," said Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, the deputy chief of U.S. forces in the Middle East.
"In some areas of Baghdad, there are those that would hide him and those that would passively allow him to operate. You can find him someplace else tomorrow."
The United States has offered a $25 million reward for al-Zarqawi's death or capture, accusing him of leading a terrorist network inside Iraq. Al-Zarqawi leads the al Qaeda-allied Base of Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and the beheading of numerous international hostages. - CNN via BNN

Bush honors trio for pivotal roles in great events
President George W. Bush honored three former U.S. officials with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. award to civilians, for their contributions to the U.S. military and diplomatic objectives in Afghanistan and Iraq. At a December 14 ceremony at the White House, Bush presented the medals to Ambassador Paul Bremer, who administered the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq, former head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) General Tommy Franks, and former CIA Director George Tenet.
He described all three as "men who have played pivotal roles in great events and whose efforts have made our country more secure and advanced the cause of human liberty."
Bremer, Franks, Tenet Honored by President Bush with Presidential Medal of Freedom
Bush honors trio for pivotal roles in great events

Car-bombs kill 60...
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Car bombs rocked Iraq's two holiest Shiite cities Sunday, killing at least 60 people and wounding more than120, while in downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen carried out a brazen ambush on car, killing three employees of the organisation running next month's elections.
The bombings came just over an hour apart - first a suicide blast that ripped through minibuses at the entrance of the main bus station in the city of Karbala, then a car bomb in a central square of Najaf crowded with people watching a funeral procession attended by the city police chief and provincial governor. - Brunei online

Aistrikes Hit...
Dec. 21 -- US warplanes launched air strikes on insurgent positions in Iraq's western town of Hit, killing six Iraqis and wounding 10 others, medical sources said Tuesday.
The US aircraft conducted the strikes at about 11:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Monday night, leaving six Iraqis dead and 10 others wounded, according to a doctor in Hit General Hospital.
Witnesses said the attack caused damage to several cars, houses and shops.
The US military had no immediate comment on the air strike on Hit, some 150 km north west of Baghdad.
Residents said the air strikes followed several days of heightened tensions in Hit as insurgents stepped up attacks on US forces in the area.
Anbar province, which includes the battlefields cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Hit, has been virtually paralyzed by a running conflict between US forces and insurgents. - (Xinhuanet)

Blairs Callous Photo-op

BAGHDAD, Iraq - British Prime Minister Tony Blair held talks with Iraq's interim leader during a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday [Dec 21st 2004], and described the violence in the run-up Iraqi national elections as a "battle between democracy and terror." - MNSBC via BNN
Mr Blair's helicopter flight into the Iraqi capital's secure Green Zone followed a news blackout requested by Downing Street. - Indepemdent
D-Notice.org
Alleged Pedophiles Helm Blair's War Room
more

Signature row turns up heat on Rumsfeld
David Hackworth, a retired US army colonel turned writer, reported that Mr Rumsfeld had used a mechanical signature writer to sign his name on letters of condolence to relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Although the charge was initially denied by the Pentagon, Mr Rumsfeld issued a statement on Thursday acknowledging the practice and promising to halt it.
"While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter," Mr Rumsfeld said in the statement.
Mr Hackworth also reported allegations by relatives of deceased soldiers that letters they had received from the president had been signed by a machine.
Ted Smith, whose son Eric was one of the first 100 US soldiers to die in Iraq, told Mr Hackworth that the letter he received "from the commander-in-chief was signed with a thick, green marking pen. I thought it was stamped then and do even now. He had time for golf and the ranch but not enough to sign a decent signature with a pen for his beloved hero soldiers".
Rejecting the charges, the White House spokesman Allen Abney told the armed forces newspaper Stars and Stripes that the president did personally sign all condolence letters. source

Bush comes to aid of Rumsfeld after row on signatures
GEORGE Bush defended defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the Iraq war, but admitted the country would face difficulties as its election approached.
At an end-of-the-year news conference, the United States president gave his backing to Mr Rumsfeld, who is coming under increasing pressure from members of his own party to resign from his Pentagon post.
The defence secretary is at the centre of a row over letters of condolence sent to relatives of troops killed in Iraq, after he admitted using a machine to add his signature to the correspondence rather than signing them by hand. Asked about Mr Rumsfeld during yesterday's press conference, Mr Bush gave his unconditional support to the defence secretary, who he said was a decent man beneath a "rough and gruff" exterior. source

SPIN: 'APPEARING ACCOUNTABLE' - Rumsfeld held to account over lack of equipment?
"...an embedded reporter had helped frame a question that a serviceman asked of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week in Kuwait, [snip]
The question to Rumsfeld from Spc. Thomas "Jerry" Wilson, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee complaining that many military vehicles in Iraq are not adequately armored, has touched off a storm of new publicity about the issue.
The question from Wilson appeared to surprise Rumsfeld on Wednesday and prompted cheers among the soldiers listening to him in a hangar.
"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Wilson had said.
Rumsfeld said the Army was prodding manufacturers of vehicle armor to produce it quickly, but added, "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have." - source

Humvee makers dispute Rumsfeld remarks
The manufacturer of Humvees for the U.S. military and the company that adds armor to the utility vehicles are not running near production capacity and are making all that the Pentagon has requested, spokesmen for both companies said.
"If they call and say, 'You know, we really want more,' we'll get it done," said Lee Woodward, a spokesman for AM General, the Indiana company that makes Humvees and the civilian Hummer versions.
At O'Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt, the Ohio firm that turns specially designed Humvees into fully armored vehicles at a cost of about $70,000 each, spokesman Michael Fox said they, too, can provide more if the government wants them.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., said yesterday that the companies could increase production of armored Humvees from 450 a month to 550 by February.
Blaming the shortage on a lack of production capacity, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did Wednesday, is "just not true," said Bayh. He said he had told the Pentagon as early as April that more armored Humvees could be built.
"It's essentially a matter of physics," Rumsfeld told the soldiers in his reply on Wednesday. "It isn't a matter of money. It isn't a matter on the part of the Army of desire. It's a matter of production and capability of doing it." - source

US forces sweep through Mosul
22/12/2004 -The US army swept through the Iraqi city of Mosul today after an insurgent strike on a military base killed 22 people and injured 72 in one of the deadliest attacks on American troops since the war began.
Investigators at the Mosul base have found remnants of a torso and a suicide vest, sources told ABC News, indicating that the attack was a suicide bombing.
The mess tent in Forward Operating Base Marez was the scene of the blast, which sprayed shrapnel as soldiers sat down to lunch yesterday.
A radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said it was a martyrdom operation a reference to a suicide bomber.
Mortar attacks on US bases, particularly on the huge white tents that serve as dining halls, have been frequent in Iraq for more than a year.

Airstrikes!
Mosuls streets were deserted today as hundreds of troops spread out across several neighbourhoods backed up by Bradley fighting vehicles and armoured Humvees.
Helicopter gunships clattered overhead and jets flew high above the city, 225 miles north of Baghdad.
Troops blocked Mosuls five bridges over the Tigris River that link the western and eastern sectors of the city. - source
New offensive launched south of Baghdad
December 30, 2004
The fighting in the area dubbed the "triangle of death" came as an insurgent group which claimed responsibility for the Dec. 21 suicide bombing of a U.S. base near Mosul in which 22 people were killed warned Iraqis not to take part in parliamentary elections scheduled for next month.
[snip]
Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, assistant commander of the 1st Cavalry Division that controls Baghdad, said yesterday that U.S. troops had begun a major anti-insurgency operation south of Baghdad, focused on areas such as around Mahmoudiya, a town about 25 miles south of the capital. - Seattle Times

"WE NEED OUR WAR!" - US Avoided attacking suspected terrorist mastermind
long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself - but never pulled the trigger.
In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.
The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council.
Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didnt do it, said Michael OHanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.
Four months later, intelligence showed Zarqawi was planning to use ricin in terrorist attacks in Europe.
The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it. By then the administration had set its course for war with Iraq.
People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the presidents policy of preemption against terrorists, according to terrorism expert and former National Security Council member Roger Cressey.
In January 2003, the threat turned real. Police in London arrested six terror suspects and discovered a ricin lab connected to the camp in Iraq. - MSNBC
FPI

Psyops - connecting the patsies:
In Iraq, a clear-cut bin Laden-Zarqawi alliance
Audiotape of Al Qaeda leader, released Tuesday, coincided with deadly insurgent attacks.
The connection between Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was cemented with Mr. bin Laden's latest taped statement on Tuesday, in which he praised the Jordanian militant and said anyone who participates in Iraq's Jan. 30 election will be considered an infidel and fair game for attack. When Mr. Zarqawi's terrorist movement emerged in Iraq more than a year ago, intelligence analysts saw it as separate from Al Qaeda, with more ferocious rhetoric than the better-known terror group and a willingness to kill large numbers of Muslim civilians.
But now, the US and its allies face a grave and growing threat: an alliance of mutual interests and convenience between the group that carried out the 9/11 attacks in the United States and the one that has contributed so much to Iraq's chaos. - Christian Science Monitor

Flashback: April 25, 2003 - Reports of Weapons 'Greatly Exaggerated'

UK Ricin scare non-existent
In April 2004 ten Iraqis and North Africans were arrested in the north of England on suspicion of planning to bomb Manchester United's football stadium. The individuals were detained for eight days but no charges were made. It later emerged that the so called terrorists were Manchester United fans and the supposedly incriminating tickets were for a game two years previously.
Similarly in December 2002 nine Algerian men were arrested for supposedly setting up a ricin poison factory. No ricin was ever found and no criminal charges were brought. As with the war in Iraq the evidence is non-existent. socialist review
Kerry says threat of terrorism is exaggerated - Wash Times
Scientists say bioterror threat 'exaggerated'
Tom Inch, who chairs the UK chemical weapons convention advisory committee, told the meeting that if terrorists used a chemical agent in a confined space such as the London Underground, "some people would die but not a huge number high explosives would be far more dangerous." Fear and panic would probably do more harm than a nerve agent or toxin such as ricin.
The problem for terrorists, Dr Inch said, is that even the deadliest chemicals are extremely difficult to distribute in a way that causes mass casulties. unknown news scrapbook

Since the 9/11 attacks hundreds of people have been arrested in the UK under anti-terror laws, but only a handful convicted. - BBC
MI5 chief reveals terror threat
In her lecture hosted by City of London police, she also defended the government over accusations it had tried to manipulate public opinion before the Iraq war by sending in troops to protect Heathrow Airport from a terrorist attack.
She said the accusation the government had sent tanks to Heathrow Airport in February as a cynical ploy was "quite wrong". BBC