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Latest Articles: War, War, War
Jolie In Iraq For UN Refugee Mission
Post Date: 2008-02-07 11:10:24 by robin
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Read More: Angelina Iraq, Angelina Jolie, Angelina Jolie Iraq, Angelina Jolie UN, Breaking Entertainment News Email PrintComments BAGHDAD — Angelina Jolie brought her star power to Baghdad Thursday on a mission as a U.N. goodwill ambassador to highlight the plight of Iraqi refugees. The actress said there needs to be a more coherent plan as the more than 2 million internally displaced Iraqis begin to trickle back to their homes amid a recent lull in violence that had threatened to spark a civil war in the country. "There's lots of goodwill and lots of discussion, but there seems to be just a lot of talk at the moment," Jolie said in ...
Powell's UN Fiasco: Fresh and Festering
Post Date: 2008-02-07 05:42:55 by Ada
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Yesterday was a difficult day for Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. It was hard to celebrate the fifth anniversary of our first corporate memorandum, a same-day critique of Colin Powell's Feb. 5, 2002 UN address, when we could not escape the reality that this speech greased the skids for death and destruction in Iraq and brought unprecedented shame on our country. We found no solace in the realization that those who saw our analysis should have seen disaster coming. A handful of former CIA intelligence officers joined me in forming the VIPS movement in Jan. 2002, after we concluded that our profession had been corrupted to "justify" what was, pure and simple, a ...
Top Military Officer Says U.S. Forces 'Significantly Stressed'
Post Date: 2008-02-06 11:18:59 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON -- The military's top uniformed officer says U.S. forces are "significantly stressed" by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan while simultaneously trying to stem the tide of violent extremism elsewhere. "The pace of ongoing operations has prevented our forces from fully training for the full spectrum of operations and impacts our ability to be ready to counter future threats," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in testimony prepared for delivery today. Mullen's stern warnings are likely to become welcome political fodder for anti-war Democrats, who want legislation requiring that troops spend more time at home between combat ...
Fallujah Park Created in Girl's Memory
Post Date: 2008-02-06 08:44:19 by historian1944
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Fallujah Park Created in Girl's Memory Stars and Stripes | By Geoff Ziezulewicz | February 06, 2008 FALLUJAH, Iraq — It was Ayah’s first day of school. Her father put the 7-year-old on the bus for her first day in the Iraqi school system, thinking it safer than having her walk the Fallujah streets. The men of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines had been on the ground for just a few weeks as of Oct. 26, the day Ayah’s school bus passed a Company L convoy. A Humvee gunner repeatedly motioned for the bus driver to stop, according to company commander Capt. Steve Eastin. The driver did not stop, and the gunner fired a warning shot into the ground in front of Ayah’s ...
U.S. raid on home leaves civilians dead
Post Date: 2008-02-06 03:22:16 by Ferret Mike
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HAMEED RASHEED / Associated Press Men pray during the funeral of an Iraqi couple and their son killed when the U.S. military stormed their house, official said. Military says troops came under attack and a family was caught in the crossfire. A relative disputes that account. BAGHDAD -- Three Iraqi civilians were killed and a child was critically injured when U.S. soldiers stormed a small home north of Baghdad, the military said Tuesday. The soldiers were pursuing members of a suicide bombing network just outside Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit when they entered the home late Monday and came under fire, according to the American military statement. The three civilians -- farmer ...
The CIA operation that should have prevented the Iraq war
Post Date: 2008-02-05 14:19:50 by robin
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When Saad Tawfiq watched Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations on February 5 2003 he shed bitter tears as he realised he had risked his life and those of his loved ones for nothing. As one of Saddam Hussein's most gifted engineers, Tawfiq knew that the Iraqi dictator had shut down his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes in 1995 -- and he had told his handlers in US intelligence just that. And yet here was the then US secretary of state -- Tawfiq's television was able to received international news through a link pirated from Saddam's spies next door -- waving a vial of white powder and telling the UN Security Council a story about Iraqi germ ...
Die and Win
Post Date: 2008-02-05 05:40:50 by Ada
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One of the more intriguing questions Clio poses is the degree to which great military victories were the fruit of smart plans as opposed to dumb luck. Did the North Vietnamese expect the Tet Offensive to be a tactical defeat but an operational victory? They now claim they did, but we will not know until their archives are opened. The war in Iraq poses a similar question: to what degree was the Sunni insurgency part of Saddam's plan, as opposed to a reaction generated largely by bad American decisions after his government fell? The Jan. 26, 2008, Washington Post ran an article about Saddam Hussein's main American debriefer, George Piro, which may shed some light on that question. ...
In Berkeley, push to rescind letter to Marines
Post Date: 2008-02-05 04:36:18 by mirage
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(02-04) 18:52 PST Berkeley -- A week after blasting the Marines as "unwelcome intruders" in Berkeley, two City Council members want the city to back off the declaration that ignited the wrath of the nation's right wing and inspired a Republican senator to try to sever Berkeley's federal funding. Council members Betty Olds and Laurie Capitelli on Monday proposed that Berkeley rescind its letter to the U.S. Marine Corps that stated that the downtown Berkeley recruiting center "is not welcome in our city," and publicly declare that Berkeley is against the war but supports the troops. The City Council will vote on Olds' and Capitelli's two proposals at its ...
Crimes Without Punishment
Post Date: 2008-02-04 22:54:43 by kiki
4 Comments
This weekend, thanks to Arianna Huffington, I had the opportunity to attend a screening of No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson's brilliant documentary about the Iraq war, the buildup, the fuck-up and the slide into chaos. See it now at whatever theatre has the guts to show it. Don't wait until it comes to Netflix because this is one film that must be seen in a theatre with a full sized theatre screen, not on a television set, no matter how large the set. This isn't about watching football, it's about watching history, really bad, tragic history. Only in the theatre will you see the true dimensions of the horror and the chaos that Bush brought down on the Iraqi people, and the ...
U.S. Says No One Too Young For Guantanamo Court
Post Date: 2008-02-04 19:07:14 by Brian S
3 Comments
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - A Canadian accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan should not be tried as a war criminal because he was a child soldier for al Qaeda, too young to voluntarily join its forces, his military defense lawyer told a U.S. war court on Monday. Navy Lt. William Kuebler asked a military judge to throw out the charges against Canadian defendant Omar Khadr, who was shot and captured at age 15 in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. "He is a victim of al Qaeda, not a member of al Qaeda," Kuebler said. Khadr is the Toronto-born son of an alleged al Qaeda financier. He is accused of throwing a grenade ...
Leak on Cross-Border Chases From Iraq
Post Date: 2008-02-04 15:27:15 by robin
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WASHINGTON — American military forces in Iraq were authorized to pursue former members of Saddam Hussein’s government and terrorists across Iraq’s borders into Iran and Syria, according to a classified 2005 document that has been made public by an independent Web site. The document, which was disclosed by the organization Wikileaks and which American officials said appeared authentic, outlined the rules of engagement for the American division that was based in Baghdad and central Iraq that year. It also provided instructions for how to deal with the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr: his status as a hostile foe was “suspended,” and he and his key associates ...
Dogs of War: The importance of oversight
Post Date: 2008-02-04 14:04:23 by richard9151
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Link
Feb. 1, 2008 at 5:13 PM
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- If private military and security contractors are motivated by patriotism, as well as by the mighty dollar, they should welcome oversight of the way the government spends taxpayers' money. Besides, if you take the king's shilling, you must take the king's auditor, too.
Contractors frequently say, when asked why they voluntarily choose to work in conflict zones, that they are motivated by feelings of patriotism, just like their counterparts in the regular military. And no doubt, many of them are. After all, many of them spent years in the military. It is hard to do that and not come away with ideas of service and defense of the ...
War in Iraq -- Defeat Without End
Post Date: 2008-02-04 13:59:21 by richard9151
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03/02/08 "ICH" -- - “Many in this chamber understand that America must not fail in Iraq, because you understand that the consequences of failure would be grievous and far-reaching . .” There it is again, that choking lie, so smoothly administered — with just enough fear to help America gag down all that righteousness. President Bush told it again in his final State of the Union address the other night, of course. What choice did he have? The truth, coming from him at this point, would be . . . too weird, too offensive, impossible to comprehend. But the truth is that we’ve already failed in Iraq, and throughout the Middle East and Central Asia — failed ...
Lethal Agreements in Baghdad
Post Date: 2008-02-04 13:47:07 by richard9151
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Sunday, 3 February 2008 Lethal Agreements in Baghdad. Oh, please listen to this puppet with his three day unshaved beard and his silver ring from Qum. Listen to what the puppet has to say about "Al-Qaeda." "It is time to launch a decisive battle against terrorism.The battle that our armed forces will launch will destroy terrorism and the criminal gangs and outlaws in Nineveh." And he adds ""so we can get rid of terrorism and the remnants of the former (Saddam Hussein) regime..." In another statement, the puppet said "I swear on the blood (of the victims), we will achieve all our goals in securing a stable Iraq. We will continue to ... crush the ...
Deep Background: Philip Giraldi on Israeli Bombing Raid on Syria in September
Post Date: 2008-02-04 11:56:36 by aristeides
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Deep Background Israel’s Sept. 6 bombing of a building in Syria continues to be shrouded in secrecy, but both American analysts and United Nations investigators now believe that the entire incident was the result of poor intelligence compiled by the Israelis and accepted by a gullible White House. The follow-up investigation has been hampered by the Bush administration’s absolute refusal to co-operate. The U.S. government presumably knows what occurred and why, but has not been willing to share that information with the intelligence community. The information is reported to be so tightly held within the administration that only a handful of senior officials and congressional ...
Presidential Determination on Nuclear Cooperation Between U.S. and Turkey (SIBEL EDMONDS RELATED)
Post Date: 2008-02-04 10:49:04 by aristeides
3 Comments
Presidential Determination No. 2008-8 of January 22, 2008-- Determination on the Proposed Agreement for Cooperation Between the United States of America and the Republic of Turkey Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy Presidential Determination No. 2008-8 of January 22, 2008 Determination on the Proposed Agreement for Cooperation Between the United States of America and the Republic of Turkey Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy Memorandum for the Secretary of State [and] the Secretary of Energy I have considered the proposed Agreement for Cooperation Between the United States of America and the Republic of Turkey Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, signed at Ankara ...
US accidentally kills 9 Iraqi civilians(oops alert)
Post Date: 2008-02-03 23:47:32 by freepatriot32
5 Comments
BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said Monday that it accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians during an operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq south of Baghdad. The civilians were killed Saturday near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the Iraqi capital, U.S. Navy Lt. Patrick Evans told The Associated Press. Three more civilians were wounded and taken to U.S. military hospitals nearby, he said. The incident and the events surrounding it are under investigation, Evans said. The killings occurred as U.S. forces pursued suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants in the area. Shortly after the incident, American officers met with a Muslim sheik representing citizens in the area, he said. "We offer our ...
Germany rejects US troops appeal
Post Date: 2008-02-02 19:41:41 by robin
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Germany rejects US troops appeal Mr Jung has just visited German troops in Afghanistan Germany has rejected a US appeal to send more troops to Afghanistan, amid signs of strain in the Nato mission. The US defence secretary had used a strongly worded letter to urge larger German deployment to south Afghanistan. But his German counterpart, Franz Josef Jung, bluntly ruled out deploying any German soldiers to the area, which is at the heart of the Taleban insurgency. In his letter, Mr Gates warned that without reinforcements the Nato effort could lose credibility in Afghanistan. He urged Germany to consider a new mandate which could allow thousands more ...
Troop withdrawal could halt
Post Date: 2008-02-02 07:31:21 by angle
2 Comments
Commanders are concerned that premature cutbacks might reverse security improvements WASHINGTON (AP) -- The first hint that President Bush might hit the pause button on troop cuts in Iraq was his offer to Gen. David Petraeus: "If you want to slow her down, fine." That was a little over two weeks ago. Then Bush invoked the top commander's name again, in his State of the Union speech, saying the general worries about troop cuts leading to "disintegration" of Iraq's defenses. It's now clear: The White House is reluctant to continue the cuts beyond July. Conditions in Iraq may yet improve enough this spring to convince Bush, but the situation looks just shaky ...
Deadly Hubris; A million Iraqis dead – for what?
Post Date: 2008-02-01 19:41:48 by Brian S
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The UK's Opinion Research Business has released another statistical study of Iraqi casualties since the launching of the American invasion, one that updates, revises, and essentially confirms their earlier estimate of a million-plus dead. The price of "liberation" is indeed high, but was it worth it? The Iraqis have a simple answer: some 60 percent tell pollsters attacks on US and allied military personnel are justified. So much for being greeted with garlands of flowers and hailed as "liberators." The Americans have a similar, if less emphatic answer: a recent poll asking if the invasion and subsequent occupation "was or was not worth the number of U.S. ...
60 killed as female suicide bombers strike
Post Date: 2008-02-01 08:05:31 by angle
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Two women suicide bombers killed more than 60 people in separate attacks in Baghdad today. The first came at the main pet market in the city centre where at least 46 people died and dozens were wounded in the deadliest bombing to strike the capital since the US "surge" of extra troops flooded into central Iraq last spring. About 20 minutes later, a second woman struck another bird market in a predominantly Shiite area in south-eastern Baghdad. That blast killed as many as 18 people and wounded 25, police said. The attacks shortly before the weekly Islamic call to prayer resounded across the capital were the latest in a series of violent incidents that have been chipping away ...
Army Suicides, Attempts Rise Again Despite Multiple New Efforts Aimed At Stemming Trend
Post Date: 2008-01-31 19:54:04 by Brian S
3 Comments
(01-31) 16:10 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Multiple new efforts aimed at stemming suicides in the Army are falling short of their goal: The service anticipates another jump in the annual number of soldiers who killed themselves or tried to, including in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones. As many as 121 soldiers committed suicide in 2007, an increase of some 20 percent over 2006, according to preliminary figures released Thursday. The number who tried to commit suicide or injured themselves for some other reason jumped six-fold in the last several years — from 350 in 2002 to about 2,100 incidents last year. Officials said an unknown portion of that increase was likely due to use of a ...
Testimony of a US ex-marine
Post Date: 2008-01-31 19:37:52 by richard9151
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31/01/08 "ACN" -- -- "I'm 32 and I am a trained psychopathic murderer. The only things I can do are to sell youths the idea of joining the marines and kill. I am not able to keep a job. For me civilians are despicable people, mentally retarded and weak persons, a flock of sheep. I am their sheepdog. I am a predator. In the army they used to call me Jimmy, the Shark". That was part of the second chapter of the book Jimmy wrote three years ago, with the assistance of journalist Natasha Saulnier, and which was launched at the 2007 Caracas Book Fair. Cowboys of Hell is the most violent testimony that has been written thus far based on the experience of a former member ...
Bush Won't Ban Permanent Bases : Pushes For Iraqi Oil Law
Post Date: 2008-01-31 19:11:09 by richard9151
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SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 29 (IPS) - President George W. Bush signed a 696-billion-dollar Pentagon spending bill immediately before his State of the Union address Monday night, which funds all Defence Department programmes not directly tied to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, expands health care for injured veterans and gives U.S. soldiers a pay raise. The bill is a mixed bag for peace activists, since Bush added a so-called "signing statement" saying he would ignore provisions that ban permanent military bases in Iraq and forbid the use of U.S. troops to exercise United States control of Iraq's oil resources. Congress tucked many contentious policies into the spending bill, ...
US Oil Companies Offered Five Million Dollar Bribes To Iraqi MP's?
Post Date: 2008-01-31 19:08:14 by richard9151
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31/01/08 "Roads to Iraq" --- - An Iraqi MP preferred to remain anonymous told the newspaper that highly confidential negotiations took place by representatives from American oil companies, offering $5 million to each MP who votes in favor of the Oil and Gas law. The amount that could be paid to pass the votes do not exceed $150 million dollars in the case of $5 million to each MP, pointing out that the Oil law requires 138 votes to pass, which the Americans want to guarantee in many ways, including vote-buying, intimidation and threats! Focusing on the heads of parliamentary blocs and influential figures in the parliament to ensure the votes, the Americans guaranteed the Kurdish ...
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