By Layla Anwar An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle...
http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/
I really, really, had no inclination to write anything tonight.
Iraq leaves me drained, tired, exhausted, and most of the time depressed...
I thought to myself, I will just read a few articles and head to bed. Fight the insomnia and head to a bed. Not my bed, but a bed nonetheless...
I have a ritual. I check my mail, publish comments on my blog, respond, then surf the sites...
On three occasions I checked uruknet.info. for any "fresh" news, that might have escaped my attention and on these three occasions, I saw the picture of Ali Hassan al Majeed staring back at me.
I thought to myself, maybe Uruknet.website has made it a point to "fix" the picture of Ali Hassan Al-Majeed, a cousin of the late Saddam Hussein.
But that was not the case. It was just a "coincidence."
I intuitively understood that Hassan Ali Al-Majeed was either being executed, about to be executed or already dead.
I checked newswires but could not find anything except an article on al-Jazeerah stating that Al Hassan Al Majeed is to be executed soon, in the coming days...
Why do I have a feeling it's already a done job? Maybe it is those eyes staring at me...
The puppet government waited for after the Eid period...so as not to "fumble" it like they did the first, second, third and fourth time...
Another Iraqi hanged. Another true Iraq hanged. And not one word...
They called him "chemical" Ali.
Should I call you "criminal" Americans, or "depleted uranium" Americans and Brits ? Or maybe I should call you "torturer, driller" Iranians, or maybe "cluster, phosphorus bombs" Israelis...
The one with no sin should cast the first stone...
Come forward if you can, if you dare.
That includes you too, so called "Iraqis."
Show me your innocent hands. Show me the hands who were not dipped in ink. Not tainted in any blood and above all show me your pockets...
As for the Kurds, honestly, do you still believe you have any credibility?
I for one, have not ceased denouncing you. Honestly now, does your fat buffoon, everyone's pimp and agent, Talabani, or his wife Horo, or Zebbari, the university drop-out and relative of the kurdish ruling clan, or the drug dealer Barazani hold any credibility? Did they ever have any credibility ?
I am fortunate to be old enough and to know your histories, your resumés, one by one...And I smile because I know what a corrupt lot, what a murderous lot you are.
I know how you sold your asses not only to Israel, Iran and America, but how you sell your asses to each other...in the name of "Kurdistan."
As for the sectarian Shi'as. I roll on the floor laughing...
Every single Iraqi knows the Al-Hakeem family, the al-Sadr family, whence they came from, how they amassed money, how they killed, murdered, raped...WE all know you.
We know your hatred for Iraq and Iraqis. We know your hatred for Arabs. We know your hatred for Sunnis and Arab Shia's alike. We know you inside out...
Is there anything new you want to teach me, you motherfuckers ?
So you gang up on "chemical" Ali ? Ha! Your hands are dripping with blood you motherfuckers. With blood of innocents...And now you talk of Justice?
So what was the exact number? 100'000, 180'000, 2 million, 5'000 or 500 ?
Make up your fucking minds, because all I see are different quotes and different figures...
But you can't make up your minds, you want the plot to thicken don't you?
Got news for you, it is transparent. Your plot is transparent, lucid, limpid...
You sold us in the process of selling yourselves.
You turned us into prostitutes, beggars, scavengers...and you still latch onto our bodies, grabbing the last morsels of what is left of us...grabbing it, and sinking your ugly yellowed vampire teeth along with your ugly beards, into our flesh...
And those of us who are already dead, you sucked them dry, sucking every single drop from them, and left them lying for the dogs to eat their remains...
As for you, International Community of my Ass, Human Rights organizations of my Butt, Consciousness raising groups of my Bottom, Anti-War movements of my Farts...
Where are you?
Where were you?
And you bloggers, the "sophisticated" ones, with the right jargon, with the right terminology, with the right sentences... Where the fuck are you?
And you alternative websites, how come this silence?
Did you finish snoring? Did you finish mind fucking one another? Or are you waiting for the final revelation to descend upon you? Or maybe waiting to check...your final bank account balance?
O' "bearers" of human rights and justice, how come this silence ?
What happened to your torchs ? Did they suddenly die out and you are too busy fumbling in the dark ? Groping each other in one final outcry of an orgasm ?
And you wankers, called Iraqi bloggers and other Arab shits.
Are you good at anything - except gossip and slandering ? And checking your site meters to see how many hits you reached today ? Displaying your international flags like some medals...
Or writing your boring, tedious activities of the day pretending you are so o' revolutionary ?
Wankers is what you are. Masturbators is what you are.
The eternal narcissistic masturbators in front of your cyber mirrors, hoping to get some interview somewhere from some white fat old ass...and make a name in the process.
Sheep. The Sheep of Silence, the Sheep of Cowardice, the Sheep of Hypocrisy, the Sheep of Complicity, the Sheep of Ass Leasing...and Ass Licking.
No wonder you are silent...the silence of sheeps grazing...munching away, on dried up, rotten, decayed, putrid, foul smelling pastures of dead bodies...
Pastures made of us.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
“Come and see our overflowing morgues"
"Come and see the rubble of your surgical air-strikes”
By Mike Whitney
“Everyday, under the pretext of either Al Qaeda, insurgents, militants, or whatever imaginary name you coined, you have not ceased, not even for one day, slaughtering our innocents.
For 4 years, you have not ceased for one single day. Not during holiday periods, not during religious celebrations, not even during the day your so called God was born...if you have a God that is.” Layla Anwar “A Perfect Baby Formula” An Arab Woman Blues
10/24/07 "ICH" -- -- Retired Lt. Gen Ricardo Sanchez set off a firestorm recently when he described the occupation of Iraq as “a nightmare with no end in sight”. He added that US civilian leadership was “incompetent” and “corrupt” and that the best the US could hope for, given the present circumstances, would be to “stave off defeat.”
Naturally, Sanchez’s remarks were applauded by liberals and progressives who oppose the war, but their enthusiasm is unfounded. Sanchez is neither against the war nor for withdrawal. He simply doesn’t like losing---and the United States is losing.
It is foolish to look for support where there is none. Sanchez is just an embittered old soldier whose dream of pacifying the fiercely independent Iraqi people has fallen on hard times. He even admitted as much when he said:
“After more than four years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism.”
He’s right. There is no plan and the occupation has been a complete flop. But, it’s the “incompetence” that bothers Sanchez, not the decimation of a country that posed no threat to US national security. This is hardly a “principled stand”. But then why would we expect principles from a man who oversaw the activities at Abu Ghraib. A new book, “Administration of Torture”, by two American Civil Liberties Union attorneys, proves that military interrogators “abused, tortured or killed” scores of prisoners rounded up since 9-11. According to the report:
“The documents show that prisoner abuse like that found at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was hardly the isolated incident that the Bush administration or US military claimed it was. By the time the prisoner abuse story broke in mid-2004 story the Army knew of at least 62 other allegations of abuse at different prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, the authors report.”
Sanchez was in charge of Abu Ghraib in 2004 and is responsible for what took place there. He is not a man whose moral judgment on the war or anything else should be trusted. His recent comments should be dismissed as an empty tirade designed to distance himself from—what Lt Gen William Odom called—“the greatest strategic disaster in American history”.
Sanchez’s fundamental mistake is his belief that victory is possible in an immoral war. It is not; and the longevity of the occupation only amplifies the magnitude of the crime.
What’s particularly irksome about Sanchez’s remarks is that they perpetuate a myth about what is really taking place in Iraq and why the US effort has failed. It wasn’t Rumsfeld’s blundering that sunk the occupation. Nor was it the lack of soldiers, de’Bathification, lack of body-armour, or the steady rise in sectarian fighting. The US is losing in Iraq because it is locked in battle with a resourceful and tenacious adversary that has canceled out the US military’s technological advantages and superior firepower.
There’s a vast difference between incompetence and getting beaten. And, by every definition of guerilla warfare; the US is getting beaten. Is our opinion of ourselves so exaggerated that we cannot admit the truth?
Let’s stop making excuses. The war was doomed from the get-go; Falluja and Abu Ghraib just “sealed the deal”. After that, the resistance claimed the moral high-ground and won the support of the people. (Isn’t there anyone in the Pentagon who understands counterinsurgency?) A recent article by Ali al-Fadhily summed it up like this:
“The only factor the US did not calculate well was that Iraqis prefer starving to death to living under the dirty flag of occupiers.” (“Assassination of Sheikh Shakes US Claims”, Ali al-Fadhily)
No one wants to live under occupation and all of the surveys conducted since the invasion in 2003 indicate that more than 90% of the Iraqi people want to see the United States withdrawal. Given these results, it is obvious why the resistance has mushroomed. There will always be a growing pool of young nationalists eager to join the fray.
The US cannot prevail in Iraq nor can they impose a “political solution”—which is the other great myth currently in vogue. The only acceptable political solution to occupation is withdrawal---not puppet regimes, not “oil laws” not “benchmarks.” Withdrawal. Period.
But Bush will not withdrawal and apparently no one can force him to do so. So, the killing will continue unabated behind the media’s iron curtain while the overall situation on the ground continues to deteriorate. Eventually, after years of ethnic cleansing, sectarian fighting and stepped-up military operations; the position of the US will become untenable and the troops will come home. But the cost in human terms will be enormous. Already one million Iraqis have been killed in the war and four million others have become refugees. Credit the US media for concealing the real savagery of foreign occupation and its effects on Iraqi society. The country is in ruins.
There are only three problems in Iraq; occupation, occupation and occupation. Other than that, the Iraqi people are quite capable of resolving with their own problems and plotting their own future.
The US controls no ground in Iraq and has no popular base of support. Oil production is down, the Iraqi people are overwhelmingly against partition, and the Al Maliki government’s authority extends no further than the walls of the Green Zone. None of these bode well for the ongoing occupation. In fact, the US is doing everything in its power just to hang-on in Iraq. Baghdad has undergone massive campaign of ethnic cleansing which has transformed a city that was originally 70% Sunni to nearly 70% Shia. As journalist Nir Rosen stated, “The Shias own Iraq now. The Sunnis can never get it back. There’s Americans can do about this.”
“WE HAVE DESTROYED IRAQ AND AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW THAT”
In an interview with “Democracy Now’s” Amy Goodman, Rosen also made this sobering prediction:
“You’ll find a day when there are no Sunnis left in Baghdad. Saudi Arabia and Jordan are of course panicking about this, and they are hoping that the US will in some way arm or support Sunni militias. It’s hard for me to imagine that Sunni nations in the region will stand by and watch Sunnis pushed out of Baghdad. ..So you'll see greater support from Saudi Arabia, from Jordan, perhaps from Yemin, from Egypt, for Sunni militias. Funding, things like that. And the civil war will spread and become a regional one.
There is no solution. We’ve destroyed Iraq and we’ve destroyed the region, and Americans need to know this. …There was no civil war in Iraq until we got there. And there was no civil war in Iraq, until we took certain steps to pit Sunnis against Shias. Now it is just too late. But, we need to know we are responsible for what’s happening in Iraq today. I don't think Americans are aware of this….. This is going to spread and the region won’t recover from this for decades. And Americans are responsible”
Entire cities—Samarra, Tal Afar, Ramadi---have been surrounded with razor-wire so that entry and exit are limited to the heavily-guarded checkpoints. In Falluja--where 65% of the city was flattened in a brutal reprisal for the deaths of 4 mercenaries—all car traffic has been banned, residents must carry US-authorized IDs at all times, and the city cannot be entered without full-body searches and retinal scans. It’s a prison.
All of Iraq is under de-facto martial law consistent with Bush’s promise to “democratize” the Middle East. Another lie. US troops are engaged in a 5-year long low-intensity conflict against a loosely-configured nationalist army skilled at urban warfare. We won’t prevail.
As Rosen says, “Every single American who dies in Iraq, dies for nothing. He didn’t die for freedom; he didn’t die to defend his country. He died to occupy Iraq.”
Rosen’s analysis of the Iraqi nightmare is markedly different from Sanchez’s. He understands that victory was never possible and that the knock-on effects of the invasion-occupation will destabilize the entire region and upset the present balance of world power.
Rosen:
“Iraq has been changed irrevocably. I don’t think Iraq even—you can say it exists anymore….. What you’ll see is basically Mogadishu in Iraq---various warlords controlling small neighborhoods. And those who are by major resources, such as oil installations, obviously will be foreign-sponsored warlords who will be able to cut deals with us or the Chinese. But Iraq is destroyed, and I think we’ll see that this will spread throughout the region.”
While Nir Rosen has provided the most insightful and searing analysis of the Iraq war, Iraqi poet Layla Anwar has given voice to the war’s many victims. Anwar is a prolific blogger and her writings are not for the squeamish. Her web site, “An Arab Woman Blues, Reflections in a sealed Bottle” is frequently attacked. Her candor, cynicism, humor, intelligence and sensitivity makes her the Iraq’s finest blogger as well as an outstanding writer. Her observations give us what the media has taken away---a window into the suffering of average Iraqis who are being crushed by US aggression.
Layla Anwar:
“My father (bless his soul) and my mother kept reminding me. They said:
”Layla, Iraq is the Backbone of the Arab World.”
To be honest, I did not quite understand the full implications of such a statement, then. Today, I do.
Iraq was not only the Cradle of Civilization; it was indeed the Pillar, the Column, The Spinal Vertebrae, the Backbone of the Arab world. Now that it has crumbled, now that it has broken up, the rest will follow...
One by one...the other countries will come tumbling down...one by one, a ripple effect from Baghdad...to the rest of the World.”
Anwar’s prediction is similar to Rosen’s. The destruction of Baghdad is just the beginning of a great unwinding that will topple Capitals across the Middle East creating an entirely new and unforeseeable world order. How stupid and vain our leaders are.
Anwar’s prose is frequently a mix of compassion and rage. No one is spared—particularly not Americans. She puts a face on the millions of people who’ve been either killed or displaced by the fighting:
“Come and see our overflowing morgues and find our little ones for us...
You may find them in this corner or the other, a little hand poking out, pointing out at you...
Come and search for them in the rubble of your "surgical" air raids, you may find a little leg or a little head...pleading for your attention.
Come and see them amassed in the garbage dumps, scavenging morsels of food...
Well over half of our little ones are under-nourished or dying from disease. Cholera, dysentery, infections of all sorts....
Under-nourished does not mean on a diet like your fat little kids….. It means starved.
Come and see, come....” (“Flying Kites” Layla Anwar)
Sanchez should accept Anwar’s invitation and visit the “overflowing morgues” that he helped to create. At least then we might be able to take his ranting more seriously.
By Mike Whitney
“Everyday, under the pretext of either Al Qaeda, insurgents, militants, or whatever imaginary name you coined, you have not ceased, not even for one day, slaughtering our innocents.
For 4 years, you have not ceased for one single day. Not during holiday periods, not during religious celebrations, not even during the day your so called God was born...if you have a God that is.” Layla Anwar “A Perfect Baby Formula” An Arab Woman Blues
10/24/07 "ICH" -- -- Retired Lt. Gen Ricardo Sanchez set off a firestorm recently when he described the occupation of Iraq as “a nightmare with no end in sight”. He added that US civilian leadership was “incompetent” and “corrupt” and that the best the US could hope for, given the present circumstances, would be to “stave off defeat.”
Naturally, Sanchez’s remarks were applauded by liberals and progressives who oppose the war, but their enthusiasm is unfounded. Sanchez is neither against the war nor for withdrawal. He simply doesn’t like losing---and the United States is losing.
It is foolish to look for support where there is none. Sanchez is just an embittered old soldier whose dream of pacifying the fiercely independent Iraqi people has fallen on hard times. He even admitted as much when he said:
“After more than four years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism.”
He’s right. There is no plan and the occupation has been a complete flop. But, it’s the “incompetence” that bothers Sanchez, not the decimation of a country that posed no threat to US national security. This is hardly a “principled stand”. But then why would we expect principles from a man who oversaw the activities at Abu Ghraib. A new book, “Administration of Torture”, by two American Civil Liberties Union attorneys, proves that military interrogators “abused, tortured or killed” scores of prisoners rounded up since 9-11. According to the report:
“The documents show that prisoner abuse like that found at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was hardly the isolated incident that the Bush administration or US military claimed it was. By the time the prisoner abuse story broke in mid-2004 story the Army knew of at least 62 other allegations of abuse at different prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, the authors report.”
Sanchez was in charge of Abu Ghraib in 2004 and is responsible for what took place there. He is not a man whose moral judgment on the war or anything else should be trusted. His recent comments should be dismissed as an empty tirade designed to distance himself from—what Lt Gen William Odom called—“the greatest strategic disaster in American history”.
Sanchez’s fundamental mistake is his belief that victory is possible in an immoral war. It is not; and the longevity of the occupation only amplifies the magnitude of the crime.
What’s particularly irksome about Sanchez’s remarks is that they perpetuate a myth about what is really taking place in Iraq and why the US effort has failed. It wasn’t Rumsfeld’s blundering that sunk the occupation. Nor was it the lack of soldiers, de’Bathification, lack of body-armour, or the steady rise in sectarian fighting. The US is losing in Iraq because it is locked in battle with a resourceful and tenacious adversary that has canceled out the US military’s technological advantages and superior firepower.
There’s a vast difference between incompetence and getting beaten. And, by every definition of guerilla warfare; the US is getting beaten. Is our opinion of ourselves so exaggerated that we cannot admit the truth?
Let’s stop making excuses. The war was doomed from the get-go; Falluja and Abu Ghraib just “sealed the deal”. After that, the resistance claimed the moral high-ground and won the support of the people. (Isn’t there anyone in the Pentagon who understands counterinsurgency?) A recent article by Ali al-Fadhily summed it up like this:
“The only factor the US did not calculate well was that Iraqis prefer starving to death to living under the dirty flag of occupiers.” (“Assassination of Sheikh Shakes US Claims”, Ali al-Fadhily)
No one wants to live under occupation and all of the surveys conducted since the invasion in 2003 indicate that more than 90% of the Iraqi people want to see the United States withdrawal. Given these results, it is obvious why the resistance has mushroomed. There will always be a growing pool of young nationalists eager to join the fray.
The US cannot prevail in Iraq nor can they impose a “political solution”—which is the other great myth currently in vogue. The only acceptable political solution to occupation is withdrawal---not puppet regimes, not “oil laws” not “benchmarks.” Withdrawal. Period.
But Bush will not withdrawal and apparently no one can force him to do so. So, the killing will continue unabated behind the media’s iron curtain while the overall situation on the ground continues to deteriorate. Eventually, after years of ethnic cleansing, sectarian fighting and stepped-up military operations; the position of the US will become untenable and the troops will come home. But the cost in human terms will be enormous. Already one million Iraqis have been killed in the war and four million others have become refugees. Credit the US media for concealing the real savagery of foreign occupation and its effects on Iraqi society. The country is in ruins.
There are only three problems in Iraq; occupation, occupation and occupation. Other than that, the Iraqi people are quite capable of resolving with their own problems and plotting their own future.
The US controls no ground in Iraq and has no popular base of support. Oil production is down, the Iraqi people are overwhelmingly against partition, and the Al Maliki government’s authority extends no further than the walls of the Green Zone. None of these bode well for the ongoing occupation. In fact, the US is doing everything in its power just to hang-on in Iraq. Baghdad has undergone massive campaign of ethnic cleansing which has transformed a city that was originally 70% Sunni to nearly 70% Shia. As journalist Nir Rosen stated, “The Shias own Iraq now. The Sunnis can never get it back. There’s Americans can do about this.”
“WE HAVE DESTROYED IRAQ AND AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW THAT”
In an interview with “Democracy Now’s” Amy Goodman, Rosen also made this sobering prediction:
“You’ll find a day when there are no Sunnis left in Baghdad. Saudi Arabia and Jordan are of course panicking about this, and they are hoping that the US will in some way arm or support Sunni militias. It’s hard for me to imagine that Sunni nations in the region will stand by and watch Sunnis pushed out of Baghdad. ..So you'll see greater support from Saudi Arabia, from Jordan, perhaps from Yemin, from Egypt, for Sunni militias. Funding, things like that. And the civil war will spread and become a regional one.
There is no solution. We’ve destroyed Iraq and we’ve destroyed the region, and Americans need to know this. …There was no civil war in Iraq until we got there. And there was no civil war in Iraq, until we took certain steps to pit Sunnis against Shias. Now it is just too late. But, we need to know we are responsible for what’s happening in Iraq today. I don't think Americans are aware of this….. This is going to spread and the region won’t recover from this for decades. And Americans are responsible”
Entire cities—Samarra, Tal Afar, Ramadi---have been surrounded with razor-wire so that entry and exit are limited to the heavily-guarded checkpoints. In Falluja--where 65% of the city was flattened in a brutal reprisal for the deaths of 4 mercenaries—all car traffic has been banned, residents must carry US-authorized IDs at all times, and the city cannot be entered without full-body searches and retinal scans. It’s a prison.
All of Iraq is under de-facto martial law consistent with Bush’s promise to “democratize” the Middle East. Another lie. US troops are engaged in a 5-year long low-intensity conflict against a loosely-configured nationalist army skilled at urban warfare. We won’t prevail.
As Rosen says, “Every single American who dies in Iraq, dies for nothing. He didn’t die for freedom; he didn’t die to defend his country. He died to occupy Iraq.”
Rosen’s analysis of the Iraqi nightmare is markedly different from Sanchez’s. He understands that victory was never possible and that the knock-on effects of the invasion-occupation will destabilize the entire region and upset the present balance of world power.
Rosen:
“Iraq has been changed irrevocably. I don’t think Iraq even—you can say it exists anymore….. What you’ll see is basically Mogadishu in Iraq---various warlords controlling small neighborhoods. And those who are by major resources, such as oil installations, obviously will be foreign-sponsored warlords who will be able to cut deals with us or the Chinese. But Iraq is destroyed, and I think we’ll see that this will spread throughout the region.”
While Nir Rosen has provided the most insightful and searing analysis of the Iraq war, Iraqi poet Layla Anwar has given voice to the war’s many victims. Anwar is a prolific blogger and her writings are not for the squeamish. Her web site, “An Arab Woman Blues, Reflections in a sealed Bottle” is frequently attacked. Her candor, cynicism, humor, intelligence and sensitivity makes her the Iraq’s finest blogger as well as an outstanding writer. Her observations give us what the media has taken away---a window into the suffering of average Iraqis who are being crushed by US aggression.
Layla Anwar:
“My father (bless his soul) and my mother kept reminding me. They said:
”Layla, Iraq is the Backbone of the Arab World.”
To be honest, I did not quite understand the full implications of such a statement, then. Today, I do.
Iraq was not only the Cradle of Civilization; it was indeed the Pillar, the Column, The Spinal Vertebrae, the Backbone of the Arab world. Now that it has crumbled, now that it has broken up, the rest will follow...
One by one...the other countries will come tumbling down...one by one, a ripple effect from Baghdad...to the rest of the World.”
Anwar’s prediction is similar to Rosen’s. The destruction of Baghdad is just the beginning of a great unwinding that will topple Capitals across the Middle East creating an entirely new and unforeseeable world order. How stupid and vain our leaders are.
Anwar’s prose is frequently a mix of compassion and rage. No one is spared—particularly not Americans. She puts a face on the millions of people who’ve been either killed or displaced by the fighting:
“Come and see our overflowing morgues and find our little ones for us...
You may find them in this corner or the other, a little hand poking out, pointing out at you...
Come and search for them in the rubble of your "surgical" air raids, you may find a little leg or a little head...pleading for your attention.
Come and see them amassed in the garbage dumps, scavenging morsels of food...
Well over half of our little ones are under-nourished or dying from disease. Cholera, dysentery, infections of all sorts....
Under-nourished does not mean on a diet like your fat little kids….. It means starved.
Come and see, come....” (“Flying Kites” Layla Anwar)
Sanchez should accept Anwar’s invitation and visit the “overflowing morgues” that he helped to create. At least then we might be able to take his ranting more seriously.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
REAGAN DIARIES on George Bush
Quote of the Day: Ronald Reagan on George W. Bush from the just published REAGAN DIARIES. The entry is dated May 17, 1986 .
"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his never-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida . The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work."
"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his never-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida . The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work."
Ecuador wants military base in Miami
By Phil Stewart
NAPLES (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast.
Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.
"We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.
"If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States."
The U.S. embassy to Ecuador says on its Web site that anti-narcotics flights from Manta gathered information behind more than 60 percent of illegal drug seizures on the high seas of the Eastern Pacific last year.
It offers a fact-sheet on the base at: http://ecuador.usembassy.gov/topics_of_interest/manta-fol.html
Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dimwit".
But Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told Reuters he believed relations with the United States were "excellent" despite the base closing.
He rejected the idea that the episode reflected on U.S. ties at all.
"This is the only North American military base in South America," he said.
"So, then the other South American countries don't have good relations with the United States because they don't have military bases? That doesn't make any sense."
© Reuters2007All rights reserved.
NAPLES (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast.
Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.
"We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.
"If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States."
The U.S. embassy to Ecuador says on its Web site that anti-narcotics flights from Manta gathered information behind more than 60 percent of illegal drug seizures on the high seas of the Eastern Pacific last year.
It offers a fact-sheet on the base at: http://ecuador.usembassy.gov/topics_of_interest/manta-fol.html
Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dimwit".
But Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told Reuters he believed relations with the United States were "excellent" despite the base closing.
He rejected the idea that the episode reflected on U.S. ties at all.
"This is the only North American military base in South America," he said.
"So, then the other South American countries don't have good relations with the United States because they don't have military bases? That doesn't make any sense."
© Reuters2007All rights reserved.
The Bush Stamp
The Postal Service created a stamp with a picture of President Bush.
The stamp was not sticking to envelopes. This enraged the President, who demanded a full investigation.
After a month of testing, a special Presidential commission presented the following findings:
1) The stamp is in perfect order.
2) There is nothing wrong with the applied adhesive.
3) People are spitting on the wrong side
The Coded Message
After numerous rounds of "We don't even know if Osama is still alive," Osama himself decided to send George W. Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let the President know he was still in the game.
Bush opened the letter and it appeared to contain a single line of coded message:
370HSSV-0773H
Bush was baffled, so he e-mailed it to Condi Rice. Condi and her aides had no clue either, so they sent it to the FBI.
No one could solve it at the FBI so it went to the CIA, then to the NSA.
With no clue as to its meaning they eventually asked Britain's MI-6 for help.
Within a minute MI-6 cabled the White House with this reply "Tell the President he's holding the message upside down."
The stamp was not sticking to envelopes. This enraged the President, who demanded a full investigation.
After a month of testing, a special Presidential commission presented the following findings:
1) The stamp is in perfect order.
2) There is nothing wrong with the applied adhesive.
3) People are spitting on the wrong side
The Coded Message
After numerous rounds of "We don't even know if Osama is still alive," Osama himself decided to send George W. Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let the President know he was still in the game.
Bush opened the letter and it appeared to contain a single line of coded message:
370HSSV-0773H
Bush was baffled, so he e-mailed it to Condi Rice. Condi and her aides had no clue either, so they sent it to the FBI.
No one could solve it at the FBI so it went to the CIA, then to the NSA.
With no clue as to its meaning they eventually asked Britain's MI-6 for help.
Within a minute MI-6 cabled the White House with this reply "Tell the President he's holding the message upside down."
Monday, October 22, 2007
It's The Resistance, Stupid
By Pepe Escobar
10/20/07 "Asia Times" -- -- The ultimate nightmare for White House/Pentagon designs on Middle East energy resources is not Iran after all: it's a unified Iraqi resistance, comprising not only Sunnis but also Shi'ites.
"It's the resistance, stupid" - along with "it's the oil, stupid". The intimate connection means there's no way for Washington to control Iraq's oil without protecting it with a string of sprawling military "super-bases".
The ultimate, unspoken taboo of the Iraq tragedy is that the US will never leave Iraq, unless, of course, it is kicked out. And that's exactly what the makings of a unified Sunni-Shi'ite resistance is set to accomplish.
Papa's got a brand new bag At this critical juncture, it's as if the overwhelming majority of Sunnis and Shi'ites are uttering a collective cry of "we're mad as hell, and we won't take it anymore". The US Senate "suggests" that the solution is to break up the country. Blackwater and assorted mercenaries kill Iraqi civilians with impunity. Iraqi oil is being privatized via shady deals - like Hunt Oil with the Kurdistan regional government; Ray Hunt is a close pal of George W Bush.
Political deals in the Green Zone are just a detail in the big picture. On the surface the new configuration spells that the US-supported Shi'ite/Kurdish coalition in power is now challenged by an Iraqi nationalist bloc. This new bloc groups the Sadrists, the (Shi'ite) Fadhila party, all Sunni parties, the partisans of former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, and the partisans of former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. This bloc might even summon enough votes to dethrone the current, wobbly Maliki government.
But what's more important is that a true Iraqi national pact is in the making - coordinated by VicePresident Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, and blessed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani himself. The key points of this pact are, no more sectarianism (thus undermining US strategy of divide and rule); no foreign interference (thus no following of US, Iran, or Saudi agendas); no support for al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers; and the right to armed resistance against the occupation.
Last Friday Grand Ayatollah Sistani finally confronted the occupation in no uncertain terms. Via Abdul Mahdi al-Karbala'i, his representative in the holy city of Karbala, Sistani called for the Iraqi parliament to rein in Blackwater et al, and most of all the "occupation forces". He has never spoken out in such blunt language before.
For his part Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), one of the two key, US-supported Shi'ite parties in government, is back in Baghdad after four months of chemotherapy in Tehran. But it's his son, the affable Ammar al-Hakim - who was the acting SIIC leader while his father was away - who's been stealing the limelight, promising that the party will do everything in its power to prevent those US super-bases being set up in Iraq. Up to now SIIC's official position has been to support the US military presence.
Ammar al-Hakim even went to Ramadi on Sunday to talk to Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha, brother of the late Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the former leader of the tribal coalition Anbar Awakening Council who was killed by a bomb last month. It was the first time since the invasion and occupation that a SIIC leader went to hardcore Sunni Anbar province. Ammar al-Hakim glowingly described the dead sheikh as "a national hero".
Most interesting is that Ammar al-Hakim was flanked by none other than feared Hadi al-Amri, the leader of the Badr Brigades - the SIIC militia trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, that in fact comprises the bulk of death squads involved in the avalanche of sectarian killings.
Ammar al-Hakim may now be against permanent US bases and in favor of Sunni-Shi'ite union. But although he now says he is against federalism, he's actually in favor of "self-governing regions". That makes him for many Iraqis a partisan of "soft partition" –- just like US congressmen. He qualifies the central government in Baghdad as "tyrannical".
For their part the Sunni Arab sheikhs in Anbar are totally against what would be a Western Iraq provincial government - possibly encompassing three, majority-Sunni provinces, Anbar, Salahuddin and Nineveh.
If on one Shi'ite side we have Ammar al-Hakim from SIIC, on the other side - literally - we have Muqtada al-Sadr. The same day Ammar al-Hakim was courting the tribal sheikhs, pan-Islamic Muqtada was saying he was against any soft partition or provincial governments. That's exactly what the sheikhs like to hear.
So now, in theory, everyone in the Shi'ite galaxy seems to want (more or less) the same thing. Tehran worked very hard to forge the recent peace pact between the al-Hakim family and the Sadrists. SIIC and Sistani are now explicitly saying that a unified Iraq must rein in the Pentagon and throw out the occupation - that's what Muqtada had been saying all along. Tehran and Tehran-supported SIIC must obviously have seen which way the Shi'ite street wind was blowing, so now we have a new, anti-sectarian, anti-occupation SIIC.
But it will require concentric halos of forgiveness for Sunnis to forget that the Badr Brigades have been responsible for a great deal of the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad, have cynically collaborated in synch with both the US and Iran, and have been focused on building a virtually independent "Shi'iteistan" in southern Iraq.
'We want you out'
Away from the Anbar sheikhs, the Sunni front is also moving fast. Last week six key, non-Salafi jihadist resistance groups, on a video on al-Jazeera, officially announced their union under the "Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance". They are the Islamic Army in Iraq, the al-Mujahideen Army, Ansar al-Sunna, al-Fatiheen Army, the Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance (JAMI), and Iraqi Hamas.
The whole process has been on the move since early summer. The council has a 14-point program. The key point is of course guerrilla warfare as the means to throw the occupiers out. A very important point - deriding the usual Pentagon rhetoric - is that the council is fiercely against al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers. The council also rejects all laws and the constitution passed under the occupation; calls for an interim government; defends Iraq's territorial integrity and rejects sectarianism.
It has been the Sunni Arab guerrillas that have virtually defeated the US in Iraq. And what's even more remarkable is that, unlike Vietnam, this has not been a unified resistance of Sunnis and Shi'ites.
A very important issue concerns a group that decided not to be part of the council: the 1920 Revolution Brigades. The brigades are basically Iraqi nationalist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist. They totally reject any sort of collaboration with the US.
But they may join the council in the near future. In a statement released in early September, the brigades stressed what an overwhelming majority of Sunnis agree on: "The democrats have a chance to end this conflict in a face-saving solution for the US, by first declaring that they recognize the factions of the Iraqi resistance as the representatives of the Iraqi people and the Iraqi Republic. After which a negotiating team would be arranged to negotiate your troop withdrawal, compensation for Iraq, and matters of future interest. It is only through the Iraqi resistance that a solution may be born."
Or else, it's "variable, adaptable and reversible asymmetric warfare that will set the standard for years and years to come".
And there's still more - the coordinated, "new Ba'ath" front: 22 resistance groups, under the command of former Saddam star Izaat al-Douri, already seriously talking with the Iyad Allawi bloc - thus part of the nationalist front - and dictating their conditions, which include a resistance ceasefire in exchange for a precise US timetable for withdrawal.
As far as all the key Sunni and Shi'ite factions in Iraq are concerned, they all agree on the basics. Iraq won't be occupied. Iraq won't hold permanent US military bases. Iraq won't give up its oil wealth. And Iraq won't be a toothless pro-Israel puppet regime.
As far as a concerted Iraqi resistance is concerned, the only way is up. What a historic irony that would be - before the Bush administration is finally tempted to attack Iran, it may have to face a true benchmark imposed on it in Iraq.
Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online
10/20/07 "Asia Times" -- -- The ultimate nightmare for White House/Pentagon designs on Middle East energy resources is not Iran after all: it's a unified Iraqi resistance, comprising not only Sunnis but also Shi'ites.
"It's the resistance, stupid" - along with "it's the oil, stupid". The intimate connection means there's no way for Washington to control Iraq's oil without protecting it with a string of sprawling military "super-bases".
The ultimate, unspoken taboo of the Iraq tragedy is that the US will never leave Iraq, unless, of course, it is kicked out. And that's exactly what the makings of a unified Sunni-Shi'ite resistance is set to accomplish.
Papa's got a brand new bag At this critical juncture, it's as if the overwhelming majority of Sunnis and Shi'ites are uttering a collective cry of "we're mad as hell, and we won't take it anymore". The US Senate "suggests" that the solution is to break up the country. Blackwater and assorted mercenaries kill Iraqi civilians with impunity. Iraqi oil is being privatized via shady deals - like Hunt Oil with the Kurdistan regional government; Ray Hunt is a close pal of George W Bush.
Political deals in the Green Zone are just a detail in the big picture. On the surface the new configuration spells that the US-supported Shi'ite/Kurdish coalition in power is now challenged by an Iraqi nationalist bloc. This new bloc groups the Sadrists, the (Shi'ite) Fadhila party, all Sunni parties, the partisans of former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, and the partisans of former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. This bloc might even summon enough votes to dethrone the current, wobbly Maliki government.
But what's more important is that a true Iraqi national pact is in the making - coordinated by VicePresident Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, and blessed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani himself. The key points of this pact are, no more sectarianism (thus undermining US strategy of divide and rule); no foreign interference (thus no following of US, Iran, or Saudi agendas); no support for al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers; and the right to armed resistance against the occupation.
Last Friday Grand Ayatollah Sistani finally confronted the occupation in no uncertain terms. Via Abdul Mahdi al-Karbala'i, his representative in the holy city of Karbala, Sistani called for the Iraqi parliament to rein in Blackwater et al, and most of all the "occupation forces". He has never spoken out in such blunt language before.
For his part Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), one of the two key, US-supported Shi'ite parties in government, is back in Baghdad after four months of chemotherapy in Tehran. But it's his son, the affable Ammar al-Hakim - who was the acting SIIC leader while his father was away - who's been stealing the limelight, promising that the party will do everything in its power to prevent those US super-bases being set up in Iraq. Up to now SIIC's official position has been to support the US military presence.
Ammar al-Hakim even went to Ramadi on Sunday to talk to Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha, brother of the late Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the former leader of the tribal coalition Anbar Awakening Council who was killed by a bomb last month. It was the first time since the invasion and occupation that a SIIC leader went to hardcore Sunni Anbar province. Ammar al-Hakim glowingly described the dead sheikh as "a national hero".
Most interesting is that Ammar al-Hakim was flanked by none other than feared Hadi al-Amri, the leader of the Badr Brigades - the SIIC militia trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, that in fact comprises the bulk of death squads involved in the avalanche of sectarian killings.
Ammar al-Hakim may now be against permanent US bases and in favor of Sunni-Shi'ite union. But although he now says he is against federalism, he's actually in favor of "self-governing regions". That makes him for many Iraqis a partisan of "soft partition" –- just like US congressmen. He qualifies the central government in Baghdad as "tyrannical".
For their part the Sunni Arab sheikhs in Anbar are totally against what would be a Western Iraq provincial government - possibly encompassing three, majority-Sunni provinces, Anbar, Salahuddin and Nineveh.
If on one Shi'ite side we have Ammar al-Hakim from SIIC, on the other side - literally - we have Muqtada al-Sadr. The same day Ammar al-Hakim was courting the tribal sheikhs, pan-Islamic Muqtada was saying he was against any soft partition or provincial governments. That's exactly what the sheikhs like to hear.
So now, in theory, everyone in the Shi'ite galaxy seems to want (more or less) the same thing. Tehran worked very hard to forge the recent peace pact between the al-Hakim family and the Sadrists. SIIC and Sistani are now explicitly saying that a unified Iraq must rein in the Pentagon and throw out the occupation - that's what Muqtada had been saying all along. Tehran and Tehran-supported SIIC must obviously have seen which way the Shi'ite street wind was blowing, so now we have a new, anti-sectarian, anti-occupation SIIC.
But it will require concentric halos of forgiveness for Sunnis to forget that the Badr Brigades have been responsible for a great deal of the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad, have cynically collaborated in synch with both the US and Iran, and have been focused on building a virtually independent "Shi'iteistan" in southern Iraq.
'We want you out'
Away from the Anbar sheikhs, the Sunni front is also moving fast. Last week six key, non-Salafi jihadist resistance groups, on a video on al-Jazeera, officially announced their union under the "Political Council of the Iraqi Resistance". They are the Islamic Army in Iraq, the al-Mujahideen Army, Ansar al-Sunna, al-Fatiheen Army, the Islamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance (JAMI), and Iraqi Hamas.
The whole process has been on the move since early summer. The council has a 14-point program. The key point is of course guerrilla warfare as the means to throw the occupiers out. A very important point - deriding the usual Pentagon rhetoric - is that the council is fiercely against al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers. The council also rejects all laws and the constitution passed under the occupation; calls for an interim government; defends Iraq's territorial integrity and rejects sectarianism.
It has been the Sunni Arab guerrillas that have virtually defeated the US in Iraq. And what's even more remarkable is that, unlike Vietnam, this has not been a unified resistance of Sunnis and Shi'ites.
A very important issue concerns a group that decided not to be part of the council: the 1920 Revolution Brigades. The brigades are basically Iraqi nationalist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist. They totally reject any sort of collaboration with the US.
But they may join the council in the near future. In a statement released in early September, the brigades stressed what an overwhelming majority of Sunnis agree on: "The democrats have a chance to end this conflict in a face-saving solution for the US, by first declaring that they recognize the factions of the Iraqi resistance as the representatives of the Iraqi people and the Iraqi Republic. After which a negotiating team would be arranged to negotiate your troop withdrawal, compensation for Iraq, and matters of future interest. It is only through the Iraqi resistance that a solution may be born."
Or else, it's "variable, adaptable and reversible asymmetric warfare that will set the standard for years and years to come".
And there's still more - the coordinated, "new Ba'ath" front: 22 resistance groups, under the command of former Saddam star Izaat al-Douri, already seriously talking with the Iyad Allawi bloc - thus part of the nationalist front - and dictating their conditions, which include a resistance ceasefire in exchange for a precise US timetable for withdrawal.
As far as all the key Sunni and Shi'ite factions in Iraq are concerned, they all agree on the basics. Iraq won't be occupied. Iraq won't hold permanent US military bases. Iraq won't give up its oil wealth. And Iraq won't be a toothless pro-Israel puppet regime.
As far as a concerted Iraqi resistance is concerned, the only way is up. What a historic irony that would be - before the Bush administration is finally tempted to attack Iran, it may have to face a true benchmark imposed on it in Iraq.
Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online
Friday, October 19, 2007
Meeting Resistance
7 Minute Video
This video clip from the upcoming, award winning film from Steve Connors and Molly Bingham, Meeting Resistance, portrays a side of the Iraqi insurgency President Bush doesn't want the world to see.
In “Meeting Resistance” we hear the voices and stories of individuals usually simply referred to – depending on your perspective -- as resistance fighters, insurgents, or terrorists.
Please click on the title to see the Video
This video clip from the upcoming, award winning film from Steve Connors and Molly Bingham, Meeting Resistance, portrays a side of the Iraqi insurgency President Bush doesn't want the world to see.
In “Meeting Resistance” we hear the voices and stories of individuals usually simply referred to – depending on your perspective -- as resistance fighters, insurgents, or terrorists.
Please click on the title to see the Video
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Iraqi Writer Butheina Al-Nasiri on American Killings in Iraq
Buthaina Al-Nasiri is a well-known and prolific Iraqi writer and journalist living in Cairo. In response to my last article (on American killings in Iraq), she offers these thoughts on the wholesale slaughter of Iraqis by American forces, and on the routine and deceptive mis-identification of those killed (males) as "members of Al Qaeda":
You may remember that the Iraqi resistance has been called by the US spinners by different names at different stages of invasion and occupation:
1. First they were "dead enders" and "Saddam's hunchmen," etc. That was before arresting Saddam Hussein.
2. Next they were called insurgents, after the puppet government was installed . Insurgency means revolting against a legal, recognized government.
3. At last they are being called Al Qaeda terrorists. Every anti-occupation group is now referred to as Al Qaeda. Every man killed by the troops is an Al Qaeda leader.
Of course, calling the Iraqi resistance Al Qaeda fits well with the permanent "war on terror". Bush can now have his "legal" justification for the war on Iraq: it is part of his war on terror.
The recent slaughter of innocents is not the first. It has become a pattern.
The US army is becoming more dependant on air strikes--massive airstrikes on civilians--as part of an intimidation campaign.
Last week, they slaughtered from the air a large group of men and children who gathered one Ramadan (the Fasting month in Islam) evening to play a traditional game which needs two groups of men sitting facing each other. A ring is hidden in the hand of a member of one group, the others in the facing group have to guess where the ring is hidden. Usually this game attracts bystanders .
The US Army said, of course, that they had killed Al Qaeda terrorists.
Before that, men , women and children were sleeping on the roof of a house , which is an Iraqi habit in summer. They were airstruck and accused of being Al Qaeda terrorists. Of course, there were other slughters of wedding gatherings, of funeral gatherings. Any gathering is hit from the air.
When women and children are killed, the US army announces that he regrets but it is the fault of the terrorists who hide behind civilians.
____________________
Read more about the Pentagon's Iraq War lies, including the ooriginal article that led to this comment, at journalist Dave Lindorff's website: www.thiscantbehappening.net
You may remember that the Iraqi resistance has been called by the US spinners by different names at different stages of invasion and occupation:
1. First they were "dead enders" and "Saddam's hunchmen," etc. That was before arresting Saddam Hussein.
2. Next they were called insurgents, after the puppet government was installed . Insurgency means revolting against a legal, recognized government.
3. At last they are being called Al Qaeda terrorists. Every anti-occupation group is now referred to as Al Qaeda. Every man killed by the troops is an Al Qaeda leader.
Of course, calling the Iraqi resistance Al Qaeda fits well with the permanent "war on terror". Bush can now have his "legal" justification for the war on Iraq: it is part of his war on terror.
The recent slaughter of innocents is not the first. It has become a pattern.
The US army is becoming more dependant on air strikes--massive airstrikes on civilians--as part of an intimidation campaign.
Last week, they slaughtered from the air a large group of men and children who gathered one Ramadan (the Fasting month in Islam) evening to play a traditional game which needs two groups of men sitting facing each other. A ring is hidden in the hand of a member of one group, the others in the facing group have to guess where the ring is hidden. Usually this game attracts bystanders .
The US Army said, of course, that they had killed Al Qaeda terrorists.
Before that, men , women and children were sleeping on the roof of a house , which is an Iraqi habit in summer. They were airstruck and accused of being Al Qaeda terrorists. Of course, there were other slughters of wedding gatherings, of funeral gatherings. Any gathering is hit from the air.
When women and children are killed, the US army announces that he regrets but it is the fault of the terrorists who hide behind civilians.
____________________
Read more about the Pentagon's Iraq War lies, including the ooriginal article that led to this comment, at journalist Dave Lindorff's website: www.thiscantbehappening.net
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Iraqi Resistance announces Founding of Supreme Command
Iraqi Resistance announces Founding of Supreme Command for the Jihad and Liberation in Baghdad
Translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr
The patriotic Iraqi website albasrah.net reported on Tuesday that 22 Iraqi Resistance fighting groups had convened a Unification Congress in a liberated neighborhood in Baghdad.
The Congress resolved to unite all the Resistance groups that were in attendance at the meeting, which agreed that its aim was the total liberation of the entirety of Iraq, however long that might take. The congress also decided that membership in the unified Resistance front would be open to other armed Resistance groups or fighters wishing to join. The Congress also resolved to create a Supreme Command of the Jihad and Liberation struggle and it elected Iraqi President ‘Izzat Ibrahim ad-Duri the Supreme Commander of the Jihad and Liberation. Also elected at the meeting were a first deputy supreme commander and a deputy for military affairs.
The Supreme Command of the Jihad then convened its own meeting at which a General Staff was created under the command of the Supreme Commander of the Jihad. Lieutenant General ‘Amir Muhammad Amin was named Deputy Supreme Commander for Military affairs. Also created at the meeting were a religious consultation body headed by Shaykh ‘Ali ‘Abdallah al-‘Ubaydi. A national security board was also chosen to be headed by General Khalid Sulayman Khalaf. A board for administrative and financial affairs was created under the command of Lieutenant General Muhammad Salig ‘Alwan and a board for information and mobilization was named under the command of General Salah ad-Din Ahmad. Dr. Kan‘an Amin was named official spokesman for the Jihad and Liberation Command.
The Supreme Command declared that the Jihad and Liberation command upheld “sacred principles” that could not be violated and stated that no party was authorized to enter into negotiations with the American enemy except on the basis of those principles. The Command stated that the jihad would continue and escalate until the American enemy recognized it and fled from Iraq.
The Command stated that for any negotiations to take place, the Americans must:
Officially recognize the patriotic Resistance and all the patriotic, Arab nationalist, and Islamist Resistance organizations in all their armed and civil organizations as the sole legitimate representative of Iraq and its great people.
Officially announce an unconditional withdrawal from Iraq – whether that be immediate or in short stages.
Halt raids, pursuits, killings, destruction, sabotage, dispossessions, and expulsions and withdraw the occupation troops from all population centers.
Free all prisoners and detainees without exception and compensate them for their losses.
Return to service the Iraqi Army and national security forces, which were declared dissolved by the Americans during their invasion in 2003. They are to be restored in keeping with the rules and traditions that were in force before the American invasion and they must also be compensated for their losses.
Pledge to compensate Iraq for all the material and moral losses and injuries caused the country by the occupation.
Cancel all laws, decrees, and other pieces of legislation issued after the occupation.
Hold direct talks with the Resistance on implementing a program to fulfill the principles adhered to by the Supreme Command if the Americans want to have save face. Otherwise the Americans will simply have to leave in defeat.
In addition the Command said that meetings must be held on the re-establishment of a government, adding that one-man rule was being done away with and replaced with system based on Islamic democratic principles as distinct from the imperialist democracy that is notorious for its practice of self-serving double standards.
The Resistance organizations taking part in the founding congress of the Jihad and Liberation organization are:
The Army of the Men of the Naqshbandiyah Order.
The Army of the Prophet’s Companions.
The Army of the Murabiteen.
The Army of al-Hamzah.
The Army of the Message.
The Army of Ibn al-Walid.
The United Command of the Mujahideen (Iraq).
The Liberation Brigades.
The Army of al-Mustafa.
The Army of the Liberation of Iraq.
Squadrons of the Martyrs.
The Army of the Sabireen.
The Brigades of the Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers.
The army of the Knight for the Liberation of the [Kurdish] Self-Rule Area.
Squadrons of the Jihad in al-Basrah.
Jihadist Squadrons of al-Fallujah.
The Patriotic Popular Front for the Liberation of Iraq.
The Squatrons of the Husayni Revolution of at-Taff.
Squadrons of the Liberation of the South.
Army of Haneen
Squadrons of Diyala for Jihad and Liberation.
The Squadrons of Glory for the Liberation of Iraq.
http://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?mod=art&lapage=../ar_articles_2007/1007/alqyada_021007.htm
Translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr
The patriotic Iraqi website albasrah.net reported on Tuesday that 22 Iraqi Resistance fighting groups had convened a Unification Congress in a liberated neighborhood in Baghdad.
The Congress resolved to unite all the Resistance groups that were in attendance at the meeting, which agreed that its aim was the total liberation of the entirety of Iraq, however long that might take. The congress also decided that membership in the unified Resistance front would be open to other armed Resistance groups or fighters wishing to join. The Congress also resolved to create a Supreme Command of the Jihad and Liberation struggle and it elected Iraqi President ‘Izzat Ibrahim ad-Duri the Supreme Commander of the Jihad and Liberation. Also elected at the meeting were a first deputy supreme commander and a deputy for military affairs.
The Supreme Command of the Jihad then convened its own meeting at which a General Staff was created under the command of the Supreme Commander of the Jihad. Lieutenant General ‘Amir Muhammad Amin was named Deputy Supreme Commander for Military affairs. Also created at the meeting were a religious consultation body headed by Shaykh ‘Ali ‘Abdallah al-‘Ubaydi. A national security board was also chosen to be headed by General Khalid Sulayman Khalaf. A board for administrative and financial affairs was created under the command of Lieutenant General Muhammad Salig ‘Alwan and a board for information and mobilization was named under the command of General Salah ad-Din Ahmad. Dr. Kan‘an Amin was named official spokesman for the Jihad and Liberation Command.
The Supreme Command declared that the Jihad and Liberation command upheld “sacred principles” that could not be violated and stated that no party was authorized to enter into negotiations with the American enemy except on the basis of those principles. The Command stated that the jihad would continue and escalate until the American enemy recognized it and fled from Iraq.
The Command stated that for any negotiations to take place, the Americans must:
Officially recognize the patriotic Resistance and all the patriotic, Arab nationalist, and Islamist Resistance organizations in all their armed and civil organizations as the sole legitimate representative of Iraq and its great people.
Officially announce an unconditional withdrawal from Iraq – whether that be immediate or in short stages.
Halt raids, pursuits, killings, destruction, sabotage, dispossessions, and expulsions and withdraw the occupation troops from all population centers.
Free all prisoners and detainees without exception and compensate them for their losses.
Return to service the Iraqi Army and national security forces, which were declared dissolved by the Americans during their invasion in 2003. They are to be restored in keeping with the rules and traditions that were in force before the American invasion and they must also be compensated for their losses.
Pledge to compensate Iraq for all the material and moral losses and injuries caused the country by the occupation.
Cancel all laws, decrees, and other pieces of legislation issued after the occupation.
Hold direct talks with the Resistance on implementing a program to fulfill the principles adhered to by the Supreme Command if the Americans want to have save face. Otherwise the Americans will simply have to leave in defeat.
In addition the Command said that meetings must be held on the re-establishment of a government, adding that one-man rule was being done away with and replaced with system based on Islamic democratic principles as distinct from the imperialist democracy that is notorious for its practice of self-serving double standards.
The Resistance organizations taking part in the founding congress of the Jihad and Liberation organization are:
The Army of the Men of the Naqshbandiyah Order.
The Army of the Prophet’s Companions.
The Army of the Murabiteen.
The Army of al-Hamzah.
The Army of the Message.
The Army of Ibn al-Walid.
The United Command of the Mujahideen (Iraq).
The Liberation Brigades.
The Army of al-Mustafa.
The Army of the Liberation of Iraq.
Squadrons of the Martyrs.
The Army of the Sabireen.
The Brigades of the Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers.
The army of the Knight for the Liberation of the [Kurdish] Self-Rule Area.
Squadrons of the Jihad in al-Basrah.
Jihadist Squadrons of al-Fallujah.
The Patriotic Popular Front for the Liberation of Iraq.
The Squatrons of the Husayni Revolution of at-Taff.
Squadrons of the Liberation of the South.
Army of Haneen
Squadrons of Diyala for Jihad and Liberation.
The Squadrons of Glory for the Liberation of Iraq.
http://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?mod=art&lapage=../ar_articles_2007/1007/alqyada_021007.htm
Monday, October 01, 2007
A Message From The Iraqi Resistance. Video and Transcript
Click on the title to see the video and transcript
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