By Ali Al Sarraf
Albasrah.net
Another year is passing by ! Another Hajj and a martyr knocking on the door!
Woe them of this date, of this History and woe them of its realities and truths!
A great hero is still standing behind alive, a greatest hero of modern times ! A man the world has never seen before, a hero with such heroism, resolve, and ready for sacrifice.. He himself, went willingly to its shores, and gave proof with his soul proper, to al those who asked for proofs.
Saddam Hussein !
Here he is !
He is still petrifying those who murdered him with their shaky hands.. Those who are still looking even today for excuses for murdering him..
They pretty know that they committed a crime.. But the crime is not by itself, the problem which gives them sleepless nights, for they commit every day every kind of crimes on this earth..They know too, that this crime was one of the biggest crimes in History.. But they are such debased and immoral thugs that they are unable to distinguish in between one crime and another.. Only they understand that this crime is hunting them, realising seriously that they tried to murder a man, and discovered later, that this man in fact can't die.
They used every single pretext to denigrate Saddam Hussein. They used every kind of accusation to run him down. and they were dead right for doing so.. For they were searching for excuses for a crime not against a patriot leader or against a president of a State, but against the History itself.
And this will hunt them for ever and ever.
This is a Man-History who can't be wiped out !
If it was possible for Gilgamesh to be wiped out, we would have "excused" them as far as Saddam Hussein is concerned. But for their bad luck no one was able to wipe out neither Gilgames, Hammurabi, Nabuchodonosor or any one who made glories in the last seven thousands years of Iraq glorious past.
Saddam Hussein was born for a people which gives birth to legends and heroes. And every one of them is a legendary hero .
And come on let's bet ! Indeed ! Behind every child, every toddler, every young man and woman from the young of this Iraq, its men, its persevering and resisting women, there is a legend.. In every one there is something of Gilgames and something of Saddam Hussein.
This is the undeniable true blend of Iraq. It is a blend of legendary heroes that you can track in a multitude of legends which speak about perseverance, combat, heroism and intrepidity engraved and written every single day by the Iraqi combatants against the Occupiers.
This is the Iraqi blend ! No blend in history is greater nor more immortal.. This is the blend of heroes, who every one of them, is seven thousands years old. And these are the bombs, the IEDs and explosives which are ruining the Occupation's tanks, its militias and its gangs.
The Iraqi resisters appear from behind every stone, from above and from underneath the soil of Iraq. Not because they are defending a homeland like any other homeland, but because there is a History which incites them to do so.
And this is Iraq !
They came in with their tanks, they bombed with their war jets, they looted whatever they could and they pillaged and destroyed whatever fell under their hands. But they were incapable and unable to bomb History.. They were impotent to loot what this History means for the Iraqis ! Even if they would have slaughtered ten million Iraqis over the one million and a half they already murdered, Iraq shall come back to be born from its History.. Gilgamesh shall come back and Hammurabi and Nabuchodonosor and .. Saddam Hussein shall appear from behind every stone, from above the earth and from underneath.. once to re invent the writing and its alphabet, to establish the first urban centers and a state based on law, or to explore and invent sciences and be abundant with literature.. It is for this very reason that Iraq was the first place on earth where God chose to proof that He exists.... Iraq shall return again to wipe out illiteracy, nationalise the oil and give free education for all, to distribute the lands to farmers, and to issue a law of civil equality for every one.. to change Iraq into an industrial base proud with scientists and sciences.. to make out of its wars a stadium competition for sacrifices for the honor of Iraq, for its pride, and for its dignity.
Yes ! They murdered Iraq, but they were unable to murder Gilgamesh which lives in every Iraqi soul.. And there he is, living.. He ridiculized them (see the proof in front of the gallows), the rope was too long. He cheeted them with his death.. and he is still living.
This is their greatest disaster. They murdered a man, and discovered that this man couldn't be possibly murdered. They realized also that using a handful of thugs and gangsters, the likes you can find almost every where, and failed to comprehend the matter, the fabric, the metal, the Iraqi History and the Iraqis were made of.
Saddam Hussein is you ! Yes you! If you were proud and honourable !
Saddam Hussein is you ! Yes you ! If you were a patriot and if you considered yourself and your life, nothing for your homeland !
Saddam Hussein is you ! Yes you ! If you were a man of an immense generosity, righteousness, and bounty.
Saddam Hussein is you ! Yes you indeed ! If you were harsh on the stooges and on the debased collaborators.
Another year passes by. God preserves us from what is coming and woe them from our ire !
We shall appear from the abyss of the earth to attack them, and shall appear from behind every stone.. For Saddam Hussein the Glorious has given birth to 25 million glorious sons born from proud and dignified mothers.
These are the men who make History! These are the women of this History.. fathers .. mothers.. These people have changed even clay into a legend and it became books, documented History, epics, encyclopedias for sciences and literature and a climbing ladder towards God.
If you are an enemy, say whatever you like. Get down your mask ! Leak down what you contain !
For we have two Iraqs. You may be able to destroy one, but you shall never escape the other true Iraq. You shall never escape the roots of its date palm trees, its dates. You shall never escape its Gilgamesh, its Saddam Hussein, nor any toddler whose parents were murdered by the occupiers, and whose school was destroyed and who was starved, prevented from food and shelter by the invaders,
Saddam Hussein was a maker of events and writer and a maker of History.
He succeeded and he sometimes he failed. But he casted Iraq into a mould of creation and production.. He wanted through this endeavour to make out of Iraq a great country.
Gilgamesh didn't succeed, Saddam neither.. This is our destiny. But if these seven thousands years mean something, they mean a History of many attempts.. through which Iraqis held the sceptres of many great empires. They made what no nation did in the very beginning of History.. Even though being a victim of many evil forces and debased mad dogs, Iraqis went on trying and repeating their attempts.. and establishing a glory from earlier glories' roots.
Iraqis tired are never. Iraqis never knew what the word desperation means all along their thousands and thousands years.. of History.
This is the History where our destiny is written. We shall build and we shall return to build..
These are the Iraqis and this is their vocation !
They succeed and they fail ! They fail and succeed, and on their search for immortality they make out of creativity a values something no one can equal, for the Lord blows His spirit in their images and they become stronger than they were.
Yes! A civilisation of clay, say some historians ! Not a civilisation of stones. But if you only looked at the creation from the angle of the re creation, you would understand where lays the unbelievable mystery and vocation of this civilisation of clay.
All these are attempts.. The civilisation of stones is static ! It is only one, single attempt.
Sure! The vocation of the Iraqis is a harsh destiny. But we Iraqis are like that. We build and re build
It is a harsh destiny, but this is Iraq,
Our first Gilgames never died, and neither died the last one.
And he will continue to be born from that same clay to make beyond glory a greater glory.
This what Saddam the Glorious wished and had in mind !
The turning points, the ordeals told by this History are not just details. Every single phase was a part of this tempestuous destiny which made the past and the present of Iraq.
Crowned with achievements, bathed in wonders, but filled with tragic facts too.
There is no travail, no battle front, no attempts which are not cruel.. They are an impulsion for greater glory, pride and dignity.
The glorious women of today's Iraq are bringing up heroes and shall give birth to heroes too... And there shall be in amongst them another Gilgamesh, who will suckle the milk of heroism, courage, and resolve against debased stooges, despicable and abject collaborators.
Our written destiny.. is to always try and never stop trying.. until seizing the plant of eternity.
Every human deserves to live in happiness and prosperity.. But this plant is the lot and the right of Iraqis only.. For there, on this blessed land, on the soil of Iraq God gave humanity the first proof of His existence.
God never spoke to a people before He did with us. He told Noah : build the arch and Noah did !
Thus redeemed were the Iraqis for thousands of years .
Noah tried and we are trying .
On the soil of Iraq there is a plethora of proofs of what Saddam Hussein the Glorious undertook or attempted to achieve.
If God wanted to die.. this day there will be no Iraq.. For Iraq is His first birth place. Some thought that Iraq is dead.. But Iraq didn't.. for Iraq is born from its History.. He will return to be born again.
This is our fate, our vocation! This our destiny !
Woe us from this History..
And also woe them ! Here we are ready for it, and we stand at the level of the confrontation.. Woe them from our wrath..
Translated by Abu Assur
Almoharer
Sunday, December 27, 2009
The Iraqi resistance uses a Russian software programme to intercept U.S. drone feeds
Russian software programme to intercept U.S. drone feeds
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Iraqi resistance has acquired a Russian software programme, available for $25.99 on the internet, through which they can intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones [1].
This situation once again illustrates that it is possible to counter sophisticated U.S. military technologies with asymmetrical means, comments the WSJ.
The U.S. military discovered the leak when they arrested a Shiite militant whose laptop contained the U.S. drone video feeds. A software programme, SkyGrabber, from Russian company SkySoftware had been used to intercept the feeds.
Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who oversees the Air Force’s unmanned aviation programe, acknowledged the problem and promised to solve it by upgrading the encryption system.
Meanwhile, SkyGrabber developer Andrei Solonikov told the newspaper that the software had been designed for civilian, and not military, use. He said he was unaware of how it was being exploited by the Iraqi resistance. With SkyGrabber, any internet user with a satellite dish can intercept civilian communications satellite contents (music, videos, etc.), hack them and dowload them on his PC.
This situation gave rise to a discussion among Joint Chiefs of Staff about the danger that Russia and China could also intercept and manipulate the drone feeds. As it turns out, not only the drone feeds are not secured, but neither is the live video footage transmitted by helicopters and planes, even in a combat situation. In conclusion, it is possible to intercept all the contents (telephone lines, internet, etc.) transiting through civilian communications satellites without resorting to sophisticated NSA technology.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Iraqi resistance has acquired a Russian software programme, available for $25.99 on the internet, through which they can intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones [1].
This situation once again illustrates that it is possible to counter sophisticated U.S. military technologies with asymmetrical means, comments the WSJ.
The U.S. military discovered the leak when they arrested a Shiite militant whose laptop contained the U.S. drone video feeds. A software programme, SkyGrabber, from Russian company SkySoftware had been used to intercept the feeds.
Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who oversees the Air Force’s unmanned aviation programe, acknowledged the problem and promised to solve it by upgrading the encryption system.
Meanwhile, SkyGrabber developer Andrei Solonikov told the newspaper that the software had been designed for civilian, and not military, use. He said he was unaware of how it was being exploited by the Iraqi resistance. With SkyGrabber, any internet user with a satellite dish can intercept civilian communications satellite contents (music, videos, etc.), hack them and dowload them on his PC.
This situation gave rise to a discussion among Joint Chiefs of Staff about the danger that Russia and China could also intercept and manipulate the drone feeds. As it turns out, not only the drone feeds are not secured, but neither is the live video footage transmitted by helicopters and planes, even in a combat situation. In conclusion, it is possible to intercept all the contents (telephone lines, internet, etc.) transiting through civilian communications satellites without resorting to sophisticated NSA technology.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Photo of Dying Marine Draws Fire from Pentagon
Sanitizing War and Occupation
Photo of Dying Marine Draws Fire from Pentagon
By Matthew Shaer
Click on the link to read the story
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23430.htm
Photo of Dying Marine Draws Fire from Pentagon
By Matthew Shaer
Click on the link to read the story
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23430.htm
Thursday, August 20, 2009
America's Most Wanted The Top 50 US War Criminals
By David Swanson
August 19, 2009 "After Downing Street" -- Compiled below, in hopes that it may be of some assistance to Eric Holder, John Conyers, Patrick Leahy, active citizens, foreign courts, the International Criminal Court, law firms preparing civil suits, and local or state prosecutors with decency and nerve is a list of 50 top living U.S. war criminals. These are men and women who helped to launch wars of aggression or who have been complicit in lesser war crimes. These are not the lowest-ranking employees or troops who managed to stray from official criminal policies. These are the makers of those policies.
The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have seen the United States target civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, use antipersonnel weapons including cluster bombs in densely settled urban areas, use white phosphorous as a weapon, use depleted uranium weapons, employ a new version of napalm found in Mark 77 firebombs, engage in collective punishment of Iraqi civilian populations -- including by blocking roads, cutting electricity and water, destroying fuel stations, planting bombs in farm fields, demolishing houses, and plowing down orchards -- detain people without charge or legal process without the rights of prisoners of war, imprison children, torture, and murder.
The list below does not include those responsible for war crimes prior to 2001. Nor does it include those currently in power who are making themselves complicit by failing to prosecute or cease commission of these crimes. The list could be greatly expanded. It could also be narrowed. I would argue, however, that it presents a more reasonable starting place than Holder's reported proposal to investigate only CIA employees who failed to comply with criminal torture policies, of whom there are no doubt more than 50.
Because each of the people on this list should be nonviolently protested everywhere they go (more on that below), I have organized them by location. Please post updates on where they are as comments at http://afterdowningstreet.org/warcriminals
CALIFORNIA
1. John Yoo: Professor of Law at Boalt Hall School of Law in Berkeley, California, with house at 1241 Grizzly Peak Blvd., Berkeley, (but a lawyer with the Pennsylvania bar from which he should be disbarred and would be if enough people demanded it ) counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, wrote this memo promoting presidential power to launch aggressive war, and claimed the power to decree that the federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming, and stalking do not apply to the military in the conduct of the war, and to announce a new definition of torture limiting it to acts causing intense pain or suffering equivalent to pain associated with serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in loss of significant body functions will likely result. Yoo claimed in 2005 that a president has the right to enhance an interrogation by crushing the testicles of someone's child . Yoo has been confronted in his classroom: video , and defended by the Washington Post , and again confronted in the classroom .
Additional collaborators:
2. Robert J. Delahunty , Yoo colleague, NY Bar, 1983
3. Patrick F. Philbin , OLC Yoo colleague, Deputy , D.C., MA
4. Jay Bybee: federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, headquartered in San Francisco, California (but Bybee based in Las Vegas), counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, including by helping Yoo draft the memo linked above. He signed not only torture memos but also a memo purporting to legalize illegal and unconstitutional wars. BYBEE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED . He works, among other places, at the James R. Browning Courthouse, 95 7th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, -- This is a giant marble building in the center of the city represented in Congress by the Speaker of the House.
5. William J. "Jim" Haynes, II: was General Counsel to the Department of War ("Defense"). He is now Chief Corporate Counsel at the Chevron Corporate Office in San Ramon, California. He counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, including by drafting memos for Yoo. Works at Chevron Headquarters, 6001 Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon, CA 94583. Member of bar in GA, NC, DC.
More collaborators:
6. Major General (Ret.) Michael E. Dunlavey , (now Judge, Erie County Court, Common Pleas, Erie, PA
7. Diane Beaver , top military lawyer at Gitmo
8. Jack Landman Goldsmith, III , [the illegal transfer memo in March 2004], DoD General Counsel's Office at Pentagon
9. Ms. Eliana Davidson , International Law Division, Office of the General Counsel, Office of the Secretary of "Defense"
10. Colin Powell: strategic limited partner with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, appears as a speaker in a series of motivational events called Get Motivated, board member of Revolution Health and of the Council on Foreign Relations, took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people, lied to the United Nations about the grounds for war in a failed attempt to legalize a war of aggression, and was in fact a leading liar in making the false case for an illegal war of aggression.
Remember: Not every man in a dark suit is a war criminal. Check for blood under their fingernails to confirm identification.
NEW YORK
11. Henry Kissinger: lives in Kent, Connecticut, and works at Kissinger Associates, 350 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y., had a resume envied by other war criminals long before he advised George W. Bush to commit war crimes. Here's a partial list of his crimes.
12. Nicholas E. Calio: Citigroup's Executive Vice-President for Global Government Affairs served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies.
13. Michael Mukasey: works in New York, N.Y. Some of his crimes are detailed at DisbarTortureLawyers.com .
TEXAS
14. George W. Bush: lives at 10141 Daria Place, Dallas, Texas . His crimes are described at http://afterdowningstreet.org/bush and at War Criminals Watch and at The 13 people who made torture possible .
15. Karen Hughes: lives in Austin, Texas, served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies.
16. Paul Bremmer lives in Chester, Vermont, and also works in Austin, Texas. His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
Yes, a woman can be a war criminal. What? Did you think any of the men above ever risked personally breaking a fingernail?
WASHINGTON, D.C.
17. Dick Cheney: The former vice president lives nextdoor to CIA headquarters at 1126 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, Va . His crimes are documented at http://impeachcheney.org and at The 13 people who made torture possible and at War Criminals Watch .
18. John Rizzo: The General Counsel for the CIA (then and now) works nextdoor to Dick Cheney's house at the headquarters of the CIA in McLean, Va. His crimes are described in The 13 people who made torture possible .
More collaborators:
19. Robert Eatinger , CIA lawyer
20. Steven Hermes , CIA's National Clandestine Service (NCS)
21. Paul Kelbaugh , Deputy Legal Counsel, CTC, CIA
22. Steven Bradbury: also of McLean, Va., is described along with his crimes at SourceWatch , DisbarTortureLawyers.com , and The 13 people who made torture possible .
23. David Addington: was chief of staff to Dick Cheney in Washington, D.C., counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, including by helping Yoo draft the memo linked above, and drafted signing statements for Bush declaring the right to violate laws redundantly banning war crimes including torture and the construction of permanent bases in Iraq and efforts to control Iraq's oil. Lives at 103 W Maple Street, Alexandria, VA 22301-2605 -- This is a few blocks from the King Street Metro Stop.
24. Condoleezza Rice: served as Secretary of State in Washington, D.C., and can be found frequenting shoe stores, served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies, took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people, lied about mushroom clouds , and was in fact a leading liar in making the false case for an illegal war of aggression.
25. Donald Rumsfeld: lives in Washington, D.C., and at former slave-beating plantation "Mount Misery" on Maryland's Eastern Shore near St. Michael's and a home belonging to Dick Cheney, as well as at an estate outside Taos, New Mexico. He took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people, and was in fact a leading liar in making the false case for an illegal war of aggression, and pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century .
26. George Tenet: Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people, oversaw the Central Intelligence Agency as it engaged in illegal renditions, detentions, torture, murder, and coverups of crimes, as well as helping to build a false case for an illegal war of aggression.
27. John Ashcroft: has his own lobbying company through which to profit from his government connections: The Ashcroft Group, LLC, 1399 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 950, Washington, DC 20005, Phone: 202.942.0202, Fax: 202.942.0216, info@ashcroftgroupllc.com took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people.
28. Alberto Gonzales: has hired a criminal-defense lawyer George Terwilliger, partner at White & Case, to defend him, while others have created a trust fund to help pay for his legal expenses, meanwhile Gonzales has been unable to find work as a lawyer himself, so his income comes from speaking engagements, then White House counsel, wrote a memo on January 25, 2002. It explained that under the 1996 War Crimes Act, U.S. officials might be prosecuted for violating the Geneva Conventions for actions in Afghanistan (and future parts of the "war on terror"), with penalties up to and including death. He suggested that Bush declare that the Taliban and Al Qaeda weren't covered by Geneva, to be on the safe side. Bush did so. Gonzo now has a job at Texas Tech , but not teaching law. Help this effort to boot him! Remember that we drove him out of office by almost impeaching him .
29. Paul Wolfowitz: lives in Chevey Chase, Maryland, and is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., advocated illegal war of aggression, and pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century .
30. Doug Feith: serves on the faculty of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as a Professor and Distinguished Practitioner in National Security Policy, manufactured, cherry picked, and distorted information , and pressured others to do the same, to help build a false case for an illegal war of aggression, and advocated early and openly for an illegal war of aggression against a "non-al qaeda target." Also works at Hudson Institute, 1015 15th Street, N.W., 6th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, three blocks from the White House.
31. Elliot Abrams: served as Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy in Washington, D.C., and wherever he can do the most damage around the world, was a well-established war criminal even before he pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century , helped to build a false case for attacking Iraq, and supported a failed coup attempt in Venezuela.
32. Karl Rove: owns million dollar houses in Washington, D.C., and Florida, and works for Fox News, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal when not testifying to congressional committees or federal prosecutors about his numerous unindicted non-war crimes. He served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies, and took part in exposing an undercover agent as retribution for exposing one of WHIG's lies.
(According to Star80 at DemocraticUnderground, Rove "can be found stuffing his fat pasty little face with crab meat at Cafe 30A in Santa Rosa Beach FL: http://www.cafethirtya.com - 3899 East County Highway 30A Santa Rosa Beach FL 32459.")
( Citizens arrest of Rove attempted in Iowa , and in California , and in New York .)
33. I. Lewis Libby: lives in McLean, Virginia, and has been disbarred in Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies, took part in exposing an undercover agent as retribution for exposing one of WHIG's lies, has already been convicted of obstruction of justice for interfering with investigation, and pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century .
34. Mary Matalin: married to James Carville, both of them addicted to Washington, D.C., served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies.
35. Stephen Hadley: served as National Security Advisor to the President in Washington, D.C., served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies, and took part in exposing an undercover agent as retribution for exposing one of WHIG's lies.
36. James R. Wilkinson: worked for Bush as Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications in Washington, D.C., served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies.
37. John Bolton: lives in Bethesda, Maryland, is a member of a Lutheran Church, works for the law firm Kirkland and Ellis LLP, 655 Fifteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005-5793, T: +1 202-879-5000, F: +1 202-879-5200, is associated with the American Enterprise Institute, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Institute of East-West Dynamics, National Rifle Association, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the Council for National Policy, helped to launch an illegal war of aggression by disseminating false claims through the State Department while he was under-secretary of state for arms control, and pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century .
38. Michael Chertoff: works in Washington, D.C. Some of his crimes are detailed at DisbarTortureLawyers.com .
39. Timothy Flanigan: works in Washington, D.C. Some of his crimes are detailed at DisbarTortureLawyers.com .
40. Alice Fisher: works in Washington, D.C. Some of her crimes are detailed at DisbarTortureLawyers.com .
41. John Bellinger works in Washington, D.C. His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
42. John Negroponte works in Washington, D.C. His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
43. Jonathan Fredman was a top torture lawyer under John Rizzo at the CIA: details .
44. Scott Muller was general counsel at the CIA: details .
45. Kyle D. "Dusty" Foggo was instrumental in setting up illegal secret prisons.
NEBRASKA:
46. Andrew Card works in Omaha, NE. His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
AFGHANISTAN:
47. Stanley McChrystal has been promoted as reward for his war crimes .
UNKNOWN LOCATION:
48. James Mitchell:
>From The 13 people who made torture possible :
Even while Addington, Gonzales and the lawyers were beginning to build the legal framework for torture, a couple of military psychologists were laying out the techniques the military would use. James Mitchell, a retired military psychologist, had been a leading expert in the military's SERE program. In December 2001, with his partner, Bruce Jessen , Mitchell reverse-engineered SERE techniques to be used to interrogate detainees. Then, in the spring of 2002, before OLC gave official legal approval to torture, Mitchell oversaw Abu Zubaydah's interrogation. An FBI agent on the scene describes Mitchell overseeing the use of "borderline torture." And after OLC approved waterboarding, Mitchell oversaw its use in ways that exceeded the guidelines in the OLC memo. Under Mitchell's guidance, interrogators used the waterboard with "far greater frequency than initially indicated" -- a total of 183 times in a month for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 83 times in a month for Abu Zubaydah.
More on Mitchell and Jessen .
49. Tommy Franks: His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
50. Michael Hayden: His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
***
No Justice, No Peace
Judge's comment on Rove's citizen arrest in Iowa: "It's about time."
We encourage you to nonviolently protest these people and insist that they be given what so many of them have denied others: a fair trial. We encourage you to attempt to make citizen's arrests, after consulting lawyers and learning how to avoid any unnecessary criminal risk to yourselves. It is possible to confront a war criminal at a public event and announce a "citizen's arrest!" without actually touching (or handcuffing) the criminal.
You may want to avoid announcing that you're coming , because the war criminal may choose to escape .
Your team should include one or more people who can produce an excellent video and be extremely fast in editing and posting it online. Your team should ideally include a lawyer. And, of course, people who can read the charges and question the suspect. Everyone on your team should be able to keep a secret while you're planning your arrest or protest.
Read the war criminal their rights, rights they have denied others:
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you."
Read the war criminal the charges against them.
Ask the war criminal if they would like to say anything.
Once you have good video footage, your top priority becomes immediately getting it edited (if necessary) and online.
If possible, turn the war criminal over to the police.
Pass out flyers to passersby.
Send statement to the media and/or have the media present.
Consult a lawyer to avoid unnecessary risks of violating laws while enforcing the law. According to Wikipedia , "A citizen's arrest is an arrest made by a person who is not a sworn law enforcement official. In common law jurisdictions, the practice dates back to medieval England and the English common law, when sheriffs encouraged ordinary citizens to help apprehend law breakers. Despite the title, the arresting person does not usually have to be a citizen of the country where he is acting, as they are usually designated as any person with arrest powers.... Each state with the exception of North Carolina permits citizen arrests if the commission of felony is witnessed by the arresting citizen... The application of state laws varies widely with respect to ... felonies not witnessed by the arresting party. American citizens do not carry the authority or enjoy the legal protections of police, and are held to the principle of strict liability before the courts of civil- and criminal law including but not limited to any infringement of another's rights. Though North Carolina General Statutes have no provision for citizen's arrests, detention by private persons is permitted and apply to both civilians and police officers outside their jurisdiction. Detention, being different from an arrest in the fact that a detainee may not be transported without consent, is permitted where probable cause exists that one has committed a felony, breach of peace, physical injury to another person, or theft or destruction of property ... A person who makes a citizen's arrest could risk exposing himself to possible lawsuits or criminal charges (such as charges of impersonating police, false imprisonment, kidnapping, or wrongful arrest) if the wrong person is apprehended or a suspect's civil rights are violated." In the case of the war criminals we propose detaining, they are most if not all public figures and we have all witnessed their felonies, as detailed above.
Be prepared to post your video online in multiple places: Youtube, Google, and After Downing Street.
Known upcoming public appearances of war criminals who should be protested and citizen arrested: List . Map . See also: War Criminals Watch .
For more on holding the biggest criminals accountable, see http://prosecutebushcheney.org
See also: "Crimes and Misdemeanors: Slate's interactive guide: Who in the Bush administration broke the law, and who could be prosecuted?" by Emily Bazelon, Kara Hadge, Dahlia Lithwick, and Chris Wilson. This guide includes some of those complicit in crimes other than war crimes, such as DOJ hirings and firings, destruction of CIA tapes, and illegal spying. (Of course, Karl Rove shows up in every part of every list.)
David Swanson is the author of the new book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press. You can pre-order it and find out when tour will be in your town: http://davidswanson.org/book
August 19, 2009 "After Downing Street" -- Compiled below, in hopes that it may be of some assistance to Eric Holder, John Conyers, Patrick Leahy, active citizens, foreign courts, the International Criminal Court, law firms preparing civil suits, and local or state prosecutors with decency and nerve is a list of 50 top living U.S. war criminals. These are men and women who helped to launch wars of aggression or who have been complicit in lesser war crimes. These are not the lowest-ranking employees or troops who managed to stray from official criminal policies. These are the makers of those policies.
The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have seen the United States target civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, use antipersonnel weapons including cluster bombs in densely settled urban areas, use white phosphorous as a weapon, use depleted uranium weapons, employ a new version of napalm found in Mark 77 firebombs, engage in collective punishment of Iraqi civilian populations -- including by blocking roads, cutting electricity and water, destroying fuel stations, planting bombs in farm fields, demolishing houses, and plowing down orchards -- detain people without charge or legal process without the rights of prisoners of war, imprison children, torture, and murder.
The list below does not include those responsible for war crimes prior to 2001. Nor does it include those currently in power who are making themselves complicit by failing to prosecute or cease commission of these crimes. The list could be greatly expanded. It could also be narrowed. I would argue, however, that it presents a more reasonable starting place than Holder's reported proposal to investigate only CIA employees who failed to comply with criminal torture policies, of whom there are no doubt more than 50.
Because each of the people on this list should be nonviolently protested everywhere they go (more on that below), I have organized them by location. Please post updates on where they are as comments at http://afterdowningstreet.org/warcriminals
CALIFORNIA
1. John Yoo: Professor of Law at Boalt Hall School of Law in Berkeley, California, with house at 1241 Grizzly Peak Blvd., Berkeley, (but a lawyer with the Pennsylvania bar from which he should be disbarred and would be if enough people demanded it ) counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, wrote this memo promoting presidential power to launch aggressive war, and claimed the power to decree that the federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming, and stalking do not apply to the military in the conduct of the war, and to announce a new definition of torture limiting it to acts causing intense pain or suffering equivalent to pain associated with serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in loss of significant body functions will likely result. Yoo claimed in 2005 that a president has the right to enhance an interrogation by crushing the testicles of someone's child . Yoo has been confronted in his classroom: video , and defended by the Washington Post , and again confronted in the classroom .
Additional collaborators:
2. Robert J. Delahunty , Yoo colleague, NY Bar, 1983
3. Patrick F. Philbin , OLC Yoo colleague, Deputy , D.C., MA
4. Jay Bybee: federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, headquartered in San Francisco, California (but Bybee based in Las Vegas), counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, including by helping Yoo draft the memo linked above. He signed not only torture memos but also a memo purporting to legalize illegal and unconstitutional wars. BYBEE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED . He works, among other places, at the James R. Browning Courthouse, 95 7th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, -- This is a giant marble building in the center of the city represented in Congress by the Speaker of the House.
5. William J. "Jim" Haynes, II: was General Counsel to the Department of War ("Defense"). He is now Chief Corporate Counsel at the Chevron Corporate Office in San Ramon, California. He counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, including by drafting memos for Yoo. Works at Chevron Headquarters, 6001 Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon, CA 94583. Member of bar in GA, NC, DC.
More collaborators:
6. Major General (Ret.) Michael E. Dunlavey , (now Judge, Erie County Court, Common Pleas, Erie, PA
7. Diane Beaver , top military lawyer at Gitmo
8. Jack Landman Goldsmith, III , [the illegal transfer memo in March 2004], DoD General Counsel's Office at Pentagon
9. Ms. Eliana Davidson , International Law Division, Office of the General Counsel, Office of the Secretary of "Defense"
10. Colin Powell: strategic limited partner with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, appears as a speaker in a series of motivational events called Get Motivated, board member of Revolution Health and of the Council on Foreign Relations, took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people, lied to the United Nations about the grounds for war in a failed attempt to legalize a war of aggression, and was in fact a leading liar in making the false case for an illegal war of aggression.
Remember: Not every man in a dark suit is a war criminal. Check for blood under their fingernails to confirm identification.
NEW YORK
11. Henry Kissinger: lives in Kent, Connecticut, and works at Kissinger Associates, 350 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y., had a resume envied by other war criminals long before he advised George W. Bush to commit war crimes. Here's a partial list of his crimes.
12. Nicholas E. Calio: Citigroup's Executive Vice-President for Global Government Affairs served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies.
13. Michael Mukasey: works in New York, N.Y. Some of his crimes are detailed at DisbarTortureLawyers.com .
TEXAS
14. George W. Bush: lives at 10141 Daria Place, Dallas, Texas . His crimes are described at http://afterdowningstreet.org/bush and at War Criminals Watch and at The 13 people who made torture possible .
15. Karen Hughes: lives in Austin, Texas, served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies.
16. Paul Bremmer lives in Chester, Vermont, and also works in Austin, Texas. His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
Yes, a woman can be a war criminal. What? Did you think any of the men above ever risked personally breaking a fingernail?
WASHINGTON, D.C.
17. Dick Cheney: The former vice president lives nextdoor to CIA headquarters at 1126 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, Va . His crimes are documented at http://impeachcheney.org and at The 13 people who made torture possible and at War Criminals Watch .
18. John Rizzo: The General Counsel for the CIA (then and now) works nextdoor to Dick Cheney's house at the headquarters of the CIA in McLean, Va. His crimes are described in The 13 people who made torture possible .
More collaborators:
19. Robert Eatinger , CIA lawyer
20. Steven Hermes , CIA's National Clandestine Service (NCS)
21. Paul Kelbaugh , Deputy Legal Counsel, CTC, CIA
22. Steven Bradbury: also of McLean, Va., is described along with his crimes at SourceWatch , DisbarTortureLawyers.com , and The 13 people who made torture possible .
23. David Addington: was chief of staff to Dick Cheney in Washington, D.C., counseled the White House on how to get away with war crimes, including by helping Yoo draft the memo linked above, and drafted signing statements for Bush declaring the right to violate laws redundantly banning war crimes including torture and the construction of permanent bases in Iraq and efforts to control Iraq's oil. Lives at 103 W Maple Street, Alexandria, VA 22301-2605 -- This is a few blocks from the King Street Metro Stop.
24. Condoleezza Rice: served as Secretary of State in Washington, D.C., and can be found frequenting shoe stores, served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies, took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people, lied about mushroom clouds , and was in fact a leading liar in making the false case for an illegal war of aggression.
25. Donald Rumsfeld: lives in Washington, D.C., and at former slave-beating plantation "Mount Misery" on Maryland's Eastern Shore near St. Michael's and a home belonging to Dick Cheney, as well as at an estate outside Taos, New Mexico. He took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people, and was in fact a leading liar in making the false case for an illegal war of aggression, and pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century .
26. George Tenet: Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people, oversaw the Central Intelligence Agency as it engaged in illegal renditions, detentions, torture, murder, and coverups of crimes, as well as helping to build a false case for an illegal war of aggression.
27. John Ashcroft: has his own lobbying company through which to profit from his government connections: The Ashcroft Group, LLC, 1399 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 950, Washington, DC 20005, Phone: 202.942.0202, Fax: 202.942.0216, info@ashcroftgroupllc.com took part in White House meetings personally overseeing and approving torture by authorizing the use of specific torture techniques including waterboarding on specific people.
28. Alberto Gonzales: has hired a criminal-defense lawyer George Terwilliger, partner at White & Case, to defend him, while others have created a trust fund to help pay for his legal expenses, meanwhile Gonzales has been unable to find work as a lawyer himself, so his income comes from speaking engagements, then White House counsel, wrote a memo on January 25, 2002. It explained that under the 1996 War Crimes Act, U.S. officials might be prosecuted for violating the Geneva Conventions for actions in Afghanistan (and future parts of the "war on terror"), with penalties up to and including death. He suggested that Bush declare that the Taliban and Al Qaeda weren't covered by Geneva, to be on the safe side. Bush did so. Gonzo now has a job at Texas Tech , but not teaching law. Help this effort to boot him! Remember that we drove him out of office by almost impeaching him .
29. Paul Wolfowitz: lives in Chevey Chase, Maryland, and is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., advocated illegal war of aggression, and pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century .
30. Doug Feith: serves on the faculty of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as a Professor and Distinguished Practitioner in National Security Policy, manufactured, cherry picked, and distorted information , and pressured others to do the same, to help build a false case for an illegal war of aggression, and advocated early and openly for an illegal war of aggression against a "non-al qaeda target." Also works at Hudson Institute, 1015 15th Street, N.W., 6th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, three blocks from the White House.
31. Elliot Abrams: served as Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy in Washington, D.C., and wherever he can do the most damage around the world, was a well-established war criminal even before he pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century , helped to build a false case for attacking Iraq, and supported a failed coup attempt in Venezuela.
32. Karl Rove: owns million dollar houses in Washington, D.C., and Florida, and works for Fox News, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal when not testifying to congressional committees or federal prosecutors about his numerous unindicted non-war crimes. He served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies, and took part in exposing an undercover agent as retribution for exposing one of WHIG's lies.
(According to Star80 at DemocraticUnderground, Rove "can be found stuffing his fat pasty little face with crab meat at Cafe 30A in Santa Rosa Beach FL: http://www.cafethirtya.com - 3899 East County Highway 30A Santa Rosa Beach FL 32459.")
( Citizens arrest of Rove attempted in Iowa , and in California , and in New York .)
33. I. Lewis Libby: lives in McLean, Virginia, and has been disbarred in Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies, took part in exposing an undercover agent as retribution for exposing one of WHIG's lies, has already been convicted of obstruction of justice for interfering with investigation, and pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century .
34. Mary Matalin: married to James Carville, both of them addicted to Washington, D.C., served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies.
35. Stephen Hadley: served as National Security Advisor to the President in Washington, D.C., served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies, and took part in exposing an undercover agent as retribution for exposing one of WHIG's lies.
36. James R. Wilkinson: worked for Bush as Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications in Washington, D.C., served as a member of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which planned the marketing of an illegal war of aggression on the basis of lies.
37. John Bolton: lives in Bethesda, Maryland, is a member of a Lutheran Church, works for the law firm Kirkland and Ellis LLP, 655 Fifteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005-5793, T: +1 202-879-5000, F: +1 202-879-5200, is associated with the American Enterprise Institute, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Institute of East-West Dynamics, National Rifle Association, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the Council for National Policy, helped to launch an illegal war of aggression by disseminating false claims through the State Department while he was under-secretary of state for arms control, and pushed for wars of aggression for years as a participant in the Project for a New American Century .
38. Michael Chertoff: works in Washington, D.C. Some of his crimes are detailed at DisbarTortureLawyers.com .
39. Timothy Flanigan: works in Washington, D.C. Some of his crimes are detailed at DisbarTortureLawyers.com .
40. Alice Fisher: works in Washington, D.C. Some of her crimes are detailed at DisbarTortureLawyers.com .
41. John Bellinger works in Washington, D.C. His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
42. John Negroponte works in Washington, D.C. His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
43. Jonathan Fredman was a top torture lawyer under John Rizzo at the CIA: details .
44. Scott Muller was general counsel at the CIA: details .
45. Kyle D. "Dusty" Foggo was instrumental in setting up illegal secret prisons.
NEBRASKA:
46. Andrew Card works in Omaha, NE. His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
AFGHANISTAN:
47. Stanley McChrystal has been promoted as reward for his war crimes .
UNKNOWN LOCATION:
48. James Mitchell:
>From The 13 people who made torture possible :
Even while Addington, Gonzales and the lawyers were beginning to build the legal framework for torture, a couple of military psychologists were laying out the techniques the military would use. James Mitchell, a retired military psychologist, had been a leading expert in the military's SERE program. In December 2001, with his partner, Bruce Jessen , Mitchell reverse-engineered SERE techniques to be used to interrogate detainees. Then, in the spring of 2002, before OLC gave official legal approval to torture, Mitchell oversaw Abu Zubaydah's interrogation. An FBI agent on the scene describes Mitchell overseeing the use of "borderline torture." And after OLC approved waterboarding, Mitchell oversaw its use in ways that exceeded the guidelines in the OLC memo. Under Mitchell's guidance, interrogators used the waterboard with "far greater frequency than initially indicated" -- a total of 183 times in a month for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 83 times in a month for Abu Zubaydah.
More on Mitchell and Jessen .
49. Tommy Franks: His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
50. Michael Hayden: His crimes are listed at War Criminals Watch .
***
No Justice, No Peace
Judge's comment on Rove's citizen arrest in Iowa: "It's about time."
We encourage you to nonviolently protest these people and insist that they be given what so many of them have denied others: a fair trial. We encourage you to attempt to make citizen's arrests, after consulting lawyers and learning how to avoid any unnecessary criminal risk to yourselves. It is possible to confront a war criminal at a public event and announce a "citizen's arrest!" without actually touching (or handcuffing) the criminal.
You may want to avoid announcing that you're coming , because the war criminal may choose to escape .
Your team should include one or more people who can produce an excellent video and be extremely fast in editing and posting it online. Your team should ideally include a lawyer. And, of course, people who can read the charges and question the suspect. Everyone on your team should be able to keep a secret while you're planning your arrest or protest.
Read the war criminal their rights, rights they have denied others:
"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you."
Read the war criminal the charges against them.
Ask the war criminal if they would like to say anything.
Once you have good video footage, your top priority becomes immediately getting it edited (if necessary) and online.
If possible, turn the war criminal over to the police.
Pass out flyers to passersby.
Send statement to the media and/or have the media present.
Consult a lawyer to avoid unnecessary risks of violating laws while enforcing the law. According to Wikipedia , "A citizen's arrest is an arrest made by a person who is not a sworn law enforcement official. In common law jurisdictions, the practice dates back to medieval England and the English common law, when sheriffs encouraged ordinary citizens to help apprehend law breakers. Despite the title, the arresting person does not usually have to be a citizen of the country where he is acting, as they are usually designated as any person with arrest powers.... Each state with the exception of North Carolina permits citizen arrests if the commission of felony is witnessed by the arresting citizen... The application of state laws varies widely with respect to ... felonies not witnessed by the arresting party. American citizens do not carry the authority or enjoy the legal protections of police, and are held to the principle of strict liability before the courts of civil- and criminal law including but not limited to any infringement of another's rights. Though North Carolina General Statutes have no provision for citizen's arrests, detention by private persons is permitted and apply to both civilians and police officers outside their jurisdiction. Detention, being different from an arrest in the fact that a detainee may not be transported without consent, is permitted where probable cause exists that one has committed a felony, breach of peace, physical injury to another person, or theft or destruction of property ... A person who makes a citizen's arrest could risk exposing himself to possible lawsuits or criminal charges (such as charges of impersonating police, false imprisonment, kidnapping, or wrongful arrest) if the wrong person is apprehended or a suspect's civil rights are violated." In the case of the war criminals we propose detaining, they are most if not all public figures and we have all witnessed their felonies, as detailed above.
Be prepared to post your video online in multiple places: Youtube, Google, and After Downing Street.
Known upcoming public appearances of war criminals who should be protested and citizen arrested: List . Map . See also: War Criminals Watch .
For more on holding the biggest criminals accountable, see http://prosecutebushcheney.org
See also: "Crimes and Misdemeanors: Slate's interactive guide: Who in the Bush administration broke the law, and who could be prosecuted?" by Emily Bazelon, Kara Hadge, Dahlia Lithwick, and Chris Wilson. This guide includes some of those complicit in crimes other than war crimes, such as DOJ hirings and firings, destruction of CIA tapes, and illegal spying. (Of course, Karl Rove shows up in every part of every list.)
David Swanson is the author of the new book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press. You can pre-order it and find out when tour will be in your town: http://davidswanson.org/book
Thursday, July 09, 2009
So This Is What Victory Looks Like?
So This Is What Victory Looks Like?
By Scott Ritter
July 08, 2009 "Truthdig" -- JULY 07, 2009 --- Fireworks lit up the Baghdad sky on the evening of June 30th, signaling the advent of “National Sovereignty Day.” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared the new holiday to commemorate the withdrawal of American combat troops from the Iraqi capital and all other major urban centers, although thousands of “advisers” would remain in the cities, embedded with Iraqi forces. The celebration transpired inside a city that has been radically transformed over the past six years. Even with American combat forces ostensibly withdrawn, Baghdad remains one of the most militarized urban areas in the world. It wasn’t always so. When I was in Baghdad during the 1990s, I was struck by the lack of an overt military presence for a nation purported to be governed by one of the world’s worst militaristic dictatorships.
Of course, in the city areas housing Saddam Hussein, his family and inner circle, and the seat of government, one would see green-clad soldiers of the Special Republican Guard standing watch over the gates controlling access into and out of these islands of power and privilege. But in the rest of the city—the vast majority of the city—there was no military presence. Traffic police stood on little islands in the middle of busy intersections, keeping the bustle of a modern city moving along at a brisk pace. There were soldiers in uniform around, but they carried no weapons, being on leave from their duties in Iraq’s conscript military. Just like their fellow servicemen in other cities around the world, they would enjoy a day or two walking the streets and markets of Baghdad, taking in the sights and sounds, grabbing a glass of tea, a quick meal and the sight of pretty girls neatly attired in Western-style dress.
Let there be no doubt, Iraq was a police state, and the streets of the city were also filled with agents and informers of the regime, quick to detect any hint of rebellion or insurrection. Telephone calls were listened in on and conversations illicitly recorded in the hope of finding evidence of dissent. And when dissent was found, the forces of repression would mobilize quickly to crush it—secret police and paramilitary forces for small incidents, and the battalions of Special Republican Guard for larger threats. But Baghdad, like Mosul and other major cities, was also a place where someone—whether resident, visitor or even U.N. weapons inspector—could leave his or her home or workplace in the evening and travel freely without fear of endless roadblocks, checkpoints, car bombs and firefights.
One could take in a street market in what was then known as Saddam City (today we call it Sadr City), the Shiite-dominated neighborhood in the northeast corner of Baghdad. Or grab a kebab in Karrada, a Sunni-dominated neighborhood in the center of town. Or visit the shopping districts of Monsouriyah, or tour the gold-domed mosques in Khadamiyah (Shiite) or across the Tigris River in Adamiyah (Sunni). The quality of the Baghdad-Iraq experience fluctuated given the state of the economy (U.N. sanctions crippled Iraq from 1991 until 1996, when the controversial oil-for-food program breathed new life into what had become a stagnant existence). But whether the shelves in a given shop were full or empty, one thing remained constant—Baghdad and the other major cities of Iraq functioned in a manner more in keeping with the open societies of Europe, and less like the municipality under siege that exists today.
Baghdad survives now as a city defined not by its thousands of years of history, but rather segregation brought on by policies of deliberate ethnic cleansing. The city is now a checkerboard of neighborhoods walled off from one another by giant concrete-block dividers installed by American troops in an effort to keep Iraqis from killing one another, a phenomenon born from ethnic and religious differences which have violently come to a head in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. Once we get beyond the pageantry and spectacle of the deception that is taking place in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities “formerly” occupied by U.S. troops, the pretense of progress is difficult to sustain.
Iraqi soldiers, primarily Shiite troops loyal to the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister al-Maliki, are everywhere. They man checkpoints and mini-garrisons throughout the city and constantly patrol streets and neighborhoods which function less as communities and more like tiny feudal fiefdoms. Militias, like street gangs in Western ghettos, lurk inside every walled-off zone, sometimes working with the Iraqi military, sometimes working against it. To attempt to move from zone to zone today is an exercise in futility and frustration, as well as a flagrant temptation of fate. Sunni and Shiite, Arabs and Kurds, Christians and Muslims—all used to be able to mingle freely in the streets of Baghdad. Today these diverse elements are segregated from one another, their daily existence dictated by a kill-or-be-killed mentality that manifests itself in violence and a growing diaspora of Iraqi refugees no longer able to sustain life in a city they once called home.
Many in the West continue to delude themselves into seeing progress—and therefore “victory”—when in fact the situation in Iraq has only regressed. It is in vogue for Western journalists, pundits and government officials to compare and contrast conditions in Baghdad today with those that existed in 2007, when the U.S. began its “surge” of military forces into the urban areas of Iraq in an effort to quell violence that had reached epidemic proportions. There is no debate over the fact that the level of violence in Baghdad and elsewhere throughout Iraq has dropped dramatically since the surge was instituted. But the cost paid by Iraqi society, shredded by ethnic cleansing and segregation, raises the question of whether or not the alleged “cure” is any better than the “disease” it purports to address. One thing is certain: Iraq remains a very sick patient. The U.S., in designing a surge that addressed only the most visible symptoms of the problems which ravage Iraq in the post-Saddam era, has created a false sense of accomplishment when in fact the underlying conditions that caused the violence prior to the surge still exist. It’s like a cancer temporarily stunned into remission by a drug that weakened the body and now is being withdrawn without actually curing anything. The Shiite-Sunni schism has only worsened, and there is increasing risk that the Arab-Kurd disagreement over oil rights will escalate from a war of words into something more violent.
The absolute failure of the surge is even more evident when one considers conditions inside Iraq before the U.S. invasion in 2003. There is simply no serious benchmark by which one can make a viable argument for improvement. Even the Bush administration stopped the pretense that we had brought democracy to the country. Stability is now the term of choice, and when one compares the situation in Iraq circa February 2003 to today, the facts scream out loud and clear that Iraq is far more unstable in its present condition than when governed by Saddam Hussein.
Take oil, the commodity that was going to pay for the invasion and guarantee the political and economic future of Iraq. Not only is the Iraqi government divided on how to move forward with a new legal framework designed to encourage foreign investment in Iraq’s oil sector, but the billions of dollars already spent on Iraq’s oil industry since the U.S. invasion have actually produced less oil per day than when Saddam was in power—and one must keep in mind that Saddam’s Iraq suffered under crushing economic sanctions.
The number of Iraqi refugees has more than quadrupled since the invasion. Some 500,000 Iraqis had fled the abuses of the Saddam regime, while today more than 2 million Iraqis have been compelled to leave the country as a direct result of the U.S.-led invasion and subsequent occupation. Another 2 million have been forced from their homes and are internally displaced.
Unemployment is rampant. Iraq’s health care system is in tatters, as is its education system. But apparently these figures are meaningless in the face of the one major statistic the Twitter-crazed Western media seems to have fallen in love with: There are nearly 18 million cell phones in use in Iraq today, up from a mere 80,000 when Saddam Hussein governed. The fact that most of these phones operate with intermittent or nonexistent service is irrelevant. Iraq has cell phone coverage. God Bless America.
It is wishful thinking to believe that the Iraqi military and paramilitary forces under the government of Prime Minister al-Maliki will be able to hold the ruins of Iraqi society together without major U.S. intervention. The sad reality is not only that Baghdad is a far more militarized city today than at any time under Saddam Hussein, but the United States has assumed the role of Saddam’s Special Republican Guard. American soldiers are now an iron fist lurking on the edges of the city, waiting to be called in to crush any sign of rebellion or insurrection. That our role has so readily transformed from liberator to occupier should come as a surprise to no one.
In 1999 I warned Americans that a war between Iraq and the United States would appear on the surface to be deceptively easy. I predicted that a force of no more than 250,000 troops (we actually did it with less—about 200,000 troops deployed either in Iraq or in theater) would require less than a month (the U.S.-led attack began on March 19, and Baghdad was occupied on April 9), and would result in relatively few casualties (139 American military personnel died in action from March 20 through May 1, 2003). The easy part, I noted, would be getting rid of Saddam Hussein. The hard part would be securing victory in the aftermath of Saddam’s demise. And this task, I warned, would be made even harder, indeed virtually impossible, by the fact that the U.S.-led invasion would lack any justification under international law, especially if a case for war were to be cobbled together using U.N. weapons inspections and Iraqi WMD as an excuse. The U.S. did invade, and the rest is history.
The incompetence, corruption and futility of the U.S. occupation of Iraq are matters of record. America has failed in Iraq, a fact many Americans recognized when they voted for change in 2008 by electing Barack Obama over John McCain. And yet today these same Americans appear to be as self-deceiving as those who supported George W. Bush’s attempts to spin the tragedy of the American experience in Iraq as something noble and worthy of support. To date, the war in Iraq has cost more than 4,300 American service members their lives. Tens of thousands more have been physically wounded or permanently scarred by the psychological horror of participating in the Iraqi conflict. We’ve stopped seriously trying to count the number of Iraqi dead, with estimates ranging from 100,000 to more than a million.
Even before the U.S. “withdrawal” from Baghdad, acts of violence in that city and elsewhere were on the rise. There is little doubt that the many Iraqi enemies of the government of al-Maliki will soon try to flex their muscle. Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence is all but assured. Some Iraqi military units will, at least initially, perform well; others will not. Neighborhoods once secured by U.S. occupiers will fall out of the control of central Iraqi authority. The more the Iraqi military tries to suppress this dissent, the more the dissent will grow. Though major U.S. combat forces are currently out of Baghdad, there is little doubt that there will soon be a call for their return, in force, either to respond to an ambush of a U.S. convoy supplying the American Embassy enclave in central Baghdad or to bail out the Iraqi military when it fumbles its effort to suppress the opponents of the government.
Iraq, for President Obama and his military leaders, is a lose-lose situation. There is no path toward military victory there today. With American forces out of the major urban areas of Iraq, the next step for Obama is to complete the planned withdrawal on schedule, with most U.S. forces leaving Iraq in 2010. This will be impossible to accomplish if America finds itself sucked back into the urban centers of the country to maintain the false perception of stability created through the surge.
The biggest challenge in Iraq facing the Obama administration is not to fall victim to the need to be seen as victorious. Victory today can be measured only in terms of mitigating the consequences of failure. There will be no “Battleship Missouri moment,” with the forces of a defeated Iraqi insurgency lined up to formally surrender. Instead, America will have to deal with the reality that, no matter how we spin facts, President Bush’s ill-advised Iraqi adventure has ended in defeat. Whether this defeat is memorialized with imagery reminiscent of the U.S. retreat from Saigon, with helicopters pulling the last occupiers from the roofs of the American Embassy in Baghdad (unlikely), or repeats the pathos of the Russian retreat from Afghanistan, with a convoy of American troops crossing over into Kuwait in orderly fashion (more likely), there is no victory to be had in the classic sense.
In one of the last patrols conducted by U.S. forces before the formal withdrawal from Baghdad, four American soldiers lost their lives. The patrol itself was wholly symbolic—a show of force and will at a time when every military reason for the patrol had ceased to exist—a tragic yet fitting analogy for the entire U.S. military presence in Iraq. No more American troops need to die, or be physically or psychologically maimed, participating in futile “last patrols” designed to salvage the reputations of politicians. There are those who will argue for sustaining the failed military misadventure in Iraq out of a misplaced sense of national pride and honor. President Obama must confront his own ego and hubris and accept the fact that in order to secure a lasting legacy as a peacemaker he will need to ride out the short-term criticism.
By Scott Ritter
July 08, 2009 "Truthdig" -- JULY 07, 2009 --- Fireworks lit up the Baghdad sky on the evening of June 30th, signaling the advent of “National Sovereignty Day.” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared the new holiday to commemorate the withdrawal of American combat troops from the Iraqi capital and all other major urban centers, although thousands of “advisers” would remain in the cities, embedded with Iraqi forces. The celebration transpired inside a city that has been radically transformed over the past six years. Even with American combat forces ostensibly withdrawn, Baghdad remains one of the most militarized urban areas in the world. It wasn’t always so. When I was in Baghdad during the 1990s, I was struck by the lack of an overt military presence for a nation purported to be governed by one of the world’s worst militaristic dictatorships.
Of course, in the city areas housing Saddam Hussein, his family and inner circle, and the seat of government, one would see green-clad soldiers of the Special Republican Guard standing watch over the gates controlling access into and out of these islands of power and privilege. But in the rest of the city—the vast majority of the city—there was no military presence. Traffic police stood on little islands in the middle of busy intersections, keeping the bustle of a modern city moving along at a brisk pace. There were soldiers in uniform around, but they carried no weapons, being on leave from their duties in Iraq’s conscript military. Just like their fellow servicemen in other cities around the world, they would enjoy a day or two walking the streets and markets of Baghdad, taking in the sights and sounds, grabbing a glass of tea, a quick meal and the sight of pretty girls neatly attired in Western-style dress.
Let there be no doubt, Iraq was a police state, and the streets of the city were also filled with agents and informers of the regime, quick to detect any hint of rebellion or insurrection. Telephone calls were listened in on and conversations illicitly recorded in the hope of finding evidence of dissent. And when dissent was found, the forces of repression would mobilize quickly to crush it—secret police and paramilitary forces for small incidents, and the battalions of Special Republican Guard for larger threats. But Baghdad, like Mosul and other major cities, was also a place where someone—whether resident, visitor or even U.N. weapons inspector—could leave his or her home or workplace in the evening and travel freely without fear of endless roadblocks, checkpoints, car bombs and firefights.
One could take in a street market in what was then known as Saddam City (today we call it Sadr City), the Shiite-dominated neighborhood in the northeast corner of Baghdad. Or grab a kebab in Karrada, a Sunni-dominated neighborhood in the center of town. Or visit the shopping districts of Monsouriyah, or tour the gold-domed mosques in Khadamiyah (Shiite) or across the Tigris River in Adamiyah (Sunni). The quality of the Baghdad-Iraq experience fluctuated given the state of the economy (U.N. sanctions crippled Iraq from 1991 until 1996, when the controversial oil-for-food program breathed new life into what had become a stagnant existence). But whether the shelves in a given shop were full or empty, one thing remained constant—Baghdad and the other major cities of Iraq functioned in a manner more in keeping with the open societies of Europe, and less like the municipality under siege that exists today.
Baghdad survives now as a city defined not by its thousands of years of history, but rather segregation brought on by policies of deliberate ethnic cleansing. The city is now a checkerboard of neighborhoods walled off from one another by giant concrete-block dividers installed by American troops in an effort to keep Iraqis from killing one another, a phenomenon born from ethnic and religious differences which have violently come to a head in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. Once we get beyond the pageantry and spectacle of the deception that is taking place in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities “formerly” occupied by U.S. troops, the pretense of progress is difficult to sustain.
Iraqi soldiers, primarily Shiite troops loyal to the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister al-Maliki, are everywhere. They man checkpoints and mini-garrisons throughout the city and constantly patrol streets and neighborhoods which function less as communities and more like tiny feudal fiefdoms. Militias, like street gangs in Western ghettos, lurk inside every walled-off zone, sometimes working with the Iraqi military, sometimes working against it. To attempt to move from zone to zone today is an exercise in futility and frustration, as well as a flagrant temptation of fate. Sunni and Shiite, Arabs and Kurds, Christians and Muslims—all used to be able to mingle freely in the streets of Baghdad. Today these diverse elements are segregated from one another, their daily existence dictated by a kill-or-be-killed mentality that manifests itself in violence and a growing diaspora of Iraqi refugees no longer able to sustain life in a city they once called home.
Many in the West continue to delude themselves into seeing progress—and therefore “victory”—when in fact the situation in Iraq has only regressed. It is in vogue for Western journalists, pundits and government officials to compare and contrast conditions in Baghdad today with those that existed in 2007, when the U.S. began its “surge” of military forces into the urban areas of Iraq in an effort to quell violence that had reached epidemic proportions. There is no debate over the fact that the level of violence in Baghdad and elsewhere throughout Iraq has dropped dramatically since the surge was instituted. But the cost paid by Iraqi society, shredded by ethnic cleansing and segregation, raises the question of whether or not the alleged “cure” is any better than the “disease” it purports to address. One thing is certain: Iraq remains a very sick patient. The U.S., in designing a surge that addressed only the most visible symptoms of the problems which ravage Iraq in the post-Saddam era, has created a false sense of accomplishment when in fact the underlying conditions that caused the violence prior to the surge still exist. It’s like a cancer temporarily stunned into remission by a drug that weakened the body and now is being withdrawn without actually curing anything. The Shiite-Sunni schism has only worsened, and there is increasing risk that the Arab-Kurd disagreement over oil rights will escalate from a war of words into something more violent.
The absolute failure of the surge is even more evident when one considers conditions inside Iraq before the U.S. invasion in 2003. There is simply no serious benchmark by which one can make a viable argument for improvement. Even the Bush administration stopped the pretense that we had brought democracy to the country. Stability is now the term of choice, and when one compares the situation in Iraq circa February 2003 to today, the facts scream out loud and clear that Iraq is far more unstable in its present condition than when governed by Saddam Hussein.
Take oil, the commodity that was going to pay for the invasion and guarantee the political and economic future of Iraq. Not only is the Iraqi government divided on how to move forward with a new legal framework designed to encourage foreign investment in Iraq’s oil sector, but the billions of dollars already spent on Iraq’s oil industry since the U.S. invasion have actually produced less oil per day than when Saddam was in power—and one must keep in mind that Saddam’s Iraq suffered under crushing economic sanctions.
The number of Iraqi refugees has more than quadrupled since the invasion. Some 500,000 Iraqis had fled the abuses of the Saddam regime, while today more than 2 million Iraqis have been compelled to leave the country as a direct result of the U.S.-led invasion and subsequent occupation. Another 2 million have been forced from their homes and are internally displaced.
Unemployment is rampant. Iraq’s health care system is in tatters, as is its education system. But apparently these figures are meaningless in the face of the one major statistic the Twitter-crazed Western media seems to have fallen in love with: There are nearly 18 million cell phones in use in Iraq today, up from a mere 80,000 when Saddam Hussein governed. The fact that most of these phones operate with intermittent or nonexistent service is irrelevant. Iraq has cell phone coverage. God Bless America.
It is wishful thinking to believe that the Iraqi military and paramilitary forces under the government of Prime Minister al-Maliki will be able to hold the ruins of Iraqi society together without major U.S. intervention. The sad reality is not only that Baghdad is a far more militarized city today than at any time under Saddam Hussein, but the United States has assumed the role of Saddam’s Special Republican Guard. American soldiers are now an iron fist lurking on the edges of the city, waiting to be called in to crush any sign of rebellion or insurrection. That our role has so readily transformed from liberator to occupier should come as a surprise to no one.
In 1999 I warned Americans that a war between Iraq and the United States would appear on the surface to be deceptively easy. I predicted that a force of no more than 250,000 troops (we actually did it with less—about 200,000 troops deployed either in Iraq or in theater) would require less than a month (the U.S.-led attack began on March 19, and Baghdad was occupied on April 9), and would result in relatively few casualties (139 American military personnel died in action from March 20 through May 1, 2003). The easy part, I noted, would be getting rid of Saddam Hussein. The hard part would be securing victory in the aftermath of Saddam’s demise. And this task, I warned, would be made even harder, indeed virtually impossible, by the fact that the U.S.-led invasion would lack any justification under international law, especially if a case for war were to be cobbled together using U.N. weapons inspections and Iraqi WMD as an excuse. The U.S. did invade, and the rest is history.
The incompetence, corruption and futility of the U.S. occupation of Iraq are matters of record. America has failed in Iraq, a fact many Americans recognized when they voted for change in 2008 by electing Barack Obama over John McCain. And yet today these same Americans appear to be as self-deceiving as those who supported George W. Bush’s attempts to spin the tragedy of the American experience in Iraq as something noble and worthy of support. To date, the war in Iraq has cost more than 4,300 American service members their lives. Tens of thousands more have been physically wounded or permanently scarred by the psychological horror of participating in the Iraqi conflict. We’ve stopped seriously trying to count the number of Iraqi dead, with estimates ranging from 100,000 to more than a million.
Even before the U.S. “withdrawal” from Baghdad, acts of violence in that city and elsewhere were on the rise. There is little doubt that the many Iraqi enemies of the government of al-Maliki will soon try to flex their muscle. Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence is all but assured. Some Iraqi military units will, at least initially, perform well; others will not. Neighborhoods once secured by U.S. occupiers will fall out of the control of central Iraqi authority. The more the Iraqi military tries to suppress this dissent, the more the dissent will grow. Though major U.S. combat forces are currently out of Baghdad, there is little doubt that there will soon be a call for their return, in force, either to respond to an ambush of a U.S. convoy supplying the American Embassy enclave in central Baghdad or to bail out the Iraqi military when it fumbles its effort to suppress the opponents of the government.
Iraq, for President Obama and his military leaders, is a lose-lose situation. There is no path toward military victory there today. With American forces out of the major urban areas of Iraq, the next step for Obama is to complete the planned withdrawal on schedule, with most U.S. forces leaving Iraq in 2010. This will be impossible to accomplish if America finds itself sucked back into the urban centers of the country to maintain the false perception of stability created through the surge.
The biggest challenge in Iraq facing the Obama administration is not to fall victim to the need to be seen as victorious. Victory today can be measured only in terms of mitigating the consequences of failure. There will be no “Battleship Missouri moment,” with the forces of a defeated Iraqi insurgency lined up to formally surrender. Instead, America will have to deal with the reality that, no matter how we spin facts, President Bush’s ill-advised Iraqi adventure has ended in defeat. Whether this defeat is memorialized with imagery reminiscent of the U.S. retreat from Saigon, with helicopters pulling the last occupiers from the roofs of the American Embassy in Baghdad (unlikely), or repeats the pathos of the Russian retreat from Afghanistan, with a convoy of American troops crossing over into Kuwait in orderly fashion (more likely), there is no victory to be had in the classic sense.
In one of the last patrols conducted by U.S. forces before the formal withdrawal from Baghdad, four American soldiers lost their lives. The patrol itself was wholly symbolic—a show of force and will at a time when every military reason for the patrol had ceased to exist—a tragic yet fitting analogy for the entire U.S. military presence in Iraq. No more American troops need to die, or be physically or psychologically maimed, participating in futile “last patrols” designed to salvage the reputations of politicians. There are those who will argue for sustaining the failed military misadventure in Iraq out of a misplaced sense of national pride and honor. President Obama must confront his own ego and hubris and accept the fact that in order to secure a lasting legacy as a peacemaker he will need to ride out the short-term criticism.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
An open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama / A golden opportunity to accomplish the mission.
Monday, 04 May 2009
An open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama / A golden opportunity to accomplish the mission.
Praise be to Allah, Peace and prayers upon our Prophet Mohammed and all the prophets, after all:
A group of Americans created a myth named “terror” and have changed and applied its meaning whenever they so desire. They planned their corrupt war on Iraq based on lies and fallacies in order to assert control over the sources of energy and maintain the security of Israel according to the Greater Middle East plan. This has put America in a serious and difficult situation, and the results are:
On Iraq:
Turned a country known for its’ peaceful coexistence between citizens, scientific progress, absence of illiteracy, free health care and free education; to a divided, scary, and backward country. The occupation and sectarian militias killed 4% of the Iraqi people, made 8% of Iraqi women widows, orphaned 16% of Iraqi children, abandoned 15% and detained more than 2%. 40% of the professors left the country, 84% of the universities were looted and the illiteracy rate has reached 30%. About 76% of Iraqis do not have healthy water, 54% of households are living in poverty and unemployment has exceeded 50%. With the current level of government corruption, Iraq is now at the top of the list of most corrupt government administrations in the whole world. The environment was destroyed and Iraq has became a country which depends on imports as it does not produce anything. Drugs are widespread across the streets after Bush's democracy, while prior to the invasion Iraq was a drug free country. The security situation has continually deteriorated, kidnappings and extortion has spread. All of this was aimed at destroying the social relations between Iraq’s ethnic groups and changing its demographics and population ratios. As an example the percentage of Sunni Arabs is at least 42% but centers in America infiltrated by Chalabi and others loyal to Iran passed a lie that the percentage of Sunni Arabs is 20%. So what did they want to do with the rest of the sunni arab ?,The percentage of Sunni Arabs in the state institutions was limited to 6%!
The Bush administration dissolved the army and replaced it with corrupted sectarian troops and security services which do not adhere to the professional nature of their work. They also imposed a distorted constitution to disrupt the country and disperse its people. They dissolved the state’s institutions and established a political process that has produced a sectarian government loyal to Iran, following its orders with some of its leaders having Iranian origins and loyalties. In this dark political environment Maliki combines dictatorship with sectarian intolerance. He publicly claims reconciliation but keeps being an Authoritarian and in the shadows his sectarian militias, some of which he was leading commit the most heinous crimes with the blessing of U.S. troops. He then puts them under government cover to gloss over their past crimes and facilitates them to commit more crimes in a formal capacity. So today the Iranian project is proceeding with Sunni bloodshed, codified within the laws of the State and protected by government troops.
The human rights situation has reached the worst proportions with torture becoming a systematic, normal procedure for the occupation and its government. The horrible prisons both known and unknown are filled with innocent people who were taken in with treachery, which is forbidden in all sects, policies and laws, and some of them have spent years without charge or trial, while others have died or were killed under torture in Iraqi and American prisons such as Abu Ghraib and Jadriya; these are some of the results of the evil occupation.
On America:
The Unipolarity which America worked for decades to achieve has collapsed, and it has lost its position in the world. Its economy has slumped and fallen into the trap of financial crisis; its repercussions that will last for a long time. Some countries revolted against America and it was not able to support its allies. It has wasted huge amounts of taxpayers money which would have been more sensibly spent on scientific programs, human security, world peace and the preservation of the environment. Billions of reconstruction funds were stolen in the largest fraud of the modern era with coordination between the leaders of the Green Zone and the large American companies which specialize in occupying countries, and bringing down regimes; all to keep the wealth flowing into the pockets of those warlords and vampires.
The number of deaths suffered by the occupation troops has exceeded forty thousand and the number of injured has exceeded ninety thousand; and those who survived were not able to survive the wounds of madness, mental disorder and the types of diseases that has result to committing suicide. This outcome was not recorded by the U.S. Army before, It’s really a terrible situation.
Still America’s national security is threatened, the world has more fear and panic, and explosions happen everywhere, increasing day by day. The interests of America made as appeals to states and individuals, have shown America stumbling in its policies, starting from Afghanistan to Darfur, Iran ,Pakistan, Iraq and Palestine. Bushs' allies were defeated in both the House of Representatives and Senate elections and ultimately in the Presidential elections. The attacks of the resistance were the reason behind this as the American people chose to vote and support policies of withdrawal and change.
Master of the White House:
The arrogance and stupidity of the previous administration whose president announced on this day in the first year of occupation that “Mission Accomplished”, gave Iran influence that may enable it to dominate oil resources without the loss of a single dollar or firing a single bullet. It must change, and dealing effectively with the "Iraqi quagmire" should not be done with patchwork and short term solutions, but with changing the American policy in Iraq. The most important solution to the great mistakes committed by the Bush administration is the reversal of the current "ethnic sectarian" political process, and leaving the leadership of the country to its loyal sons, and note that your own advisers and assistants see that the political process in Iraq since April 2003 is completely wrong and can not be repaired or patched up and that the best solution lies in its complete abolition. Worrying from that procedure is untrue, and those who defended their religion, country and the rights of their people are the ones who own the right to decide the fate of their country, not those who shared in the destruction of the country and killing of its people.
The first decade of this century witnessed a huge reversal in the values of humanity and exposed the falsehood of what the Americans themselves call for in their literature and speeches. America acquired the hatred of the nations of the eastern and the western world, and what the CIA gained from illegal and secret operations like kidnapping civilians, torturing detainees, spying on people, involvement in scandals contrary to law and morality, and drug trafficking in cooperation with the gangs that produce them, has caused a revival in the cultivation of cannabis to increase seven folds in Afghanistan during the U.S. occupation. All the aforementioned problems show the great corruption in the most important system you have, where the officials took advantage from their position in (countering terrorism) and (reconstruction) and other cases, overlooked American laws and human morality, and smeared their institutions through the spilling of blood, and the commitment of sins and crimes. Although a positive step along this route was gained from the recent announcement of abolishing torture in interrogations, changing the name of "fighting terrorism" and seeking to close down Guantanamo Bay prison; we hope that this will begin a change for truth and substance and not just in name and form only.
There should be as a follow-up the files of CIA ,torture ,the abuses of human rights and the stolen funds; all of which should affect the U.S. and Iraqis officials alike, and what the Minister of Justice recently announced is a step in the right direction.
We believe that the justice of Almighty Allah is going to pursue the criminals and they will not escape from the punishment in this life nor in the hereafter. We believe that the more injustices you have, the greatest of Almighty Allah's wrath and wrath of his worshipers. Also we believe that the end of the powerful nations comes when they reach the peak of injustice and tyranny. Do you like that Muslims face you with this? Where Almighty Allah is their helper especially in these times where the nation prepared for Jihad and to fight the assassins, and when the righteous and the servants of Allah are obedient; the heroes who experienced terrible warfare took over the leadership of Jihad and they are on the rise, whom the messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) promised them that they will still have the victory till the Day of Resurrection. In the nation there are those righteous ones whom Allah listens to their prayers, and doesn’t ignore their requests and shows anger for their anger and is pleased with their satisfaction, so can you feel secure that those oppressed gain retaliation from the God of all creatures who help the oppressed and accept his prayer and promise to gain him the victory no matter how long it takes? However, if we see goodness from the American people we will treat them well, otherwise who have been oppressed Allah will make him victorious.
Master of the White House:
Islam, our religion, gives everyone their rights, forbids all kinds of injustice, ensures justice for all human beings and aims to disseminate good virtues and ethics ,and the achievement of human security and peace for all people. This same religion necessitated us to resist the occupation by all legitimate and possible means and tofaceany attempt to eliminate our presence, deform our identity, rob our wealth or waste our rights. So we defend our religion and country by doing our legitimate duty and exercising our legal rights, and we consider this a great and noble honor. We all reject the designation of the resistance fighters as terrorists, because the terrorist is the one who occupied the country and destroyed it, and it is enough to the resistance its trust in God, its absolute belief in the justice of its cause; and its people and nation recognition of its right.The source of power of the nations is that it is right and the intention to live in freedom and dignity. The country that does not have freedom is not considered a country, regardless of the case. We recognize that no nation was able to rise but only after struggling through the fire of pain, and having patience during the misfortunes, difficulties, murder and hunger, costs much less than accepting the humiliation and submission. So if you want peace then end the occupation and return to the people their rights and sovereignty so that the dialogue will be a method to reach an understanding, not the injustice and aggression. What we are concerned about in the decision of withdrawing the American troops is that this withdrawal is real and confirmed, and that there are no exceptions or additions that cause it to be unreal ,continuation of occupying Iraq and avoidance of responsibility in repairing destruction and leaving without securing compensation for those who suffered by the occupation and its effects will only increase the hatred of America. This hatred will continue with the generations, and the facts of history confirm the end of occupation and the defeat of the occupier, however long it takes.The Iraqi resistance can change the situation whenever it wants,it saved a lot of power to the days of the withdrawal, when your troops will be in the most vulnerable situation unless reaching an agreement with the resistance regarding this.
The apology to the Iraqi people, recognition of their right of resistance and handing over the country to its people is the least of your duties towards Iraq. The international community will waste much time and cause a lot of bloodshed by relying on the warlords and traders of corruption before it finds itself at a fait accompli. Dealing with the resistance as a liberation force is the most efficient way to build a fair political system away from the culture of sectarianism and elimination.
Master of the White House:
The Islamic nation possesses more than 60% of the worlds energy source. It has great potential and elements of strength qualifying it to be a key partner in shaping the worlds image, forming its future and making good relationships with other world countries in accordance with the mutual interests between them in order to achieve human security and we will not adopt an unequal policy.So we call upon you and the American people (if there is a just stance for the good of mankind) to return a just balance to the international relations.and to make a new plan for America in order to protect its vital legitimate interests in our Arab and Islamic world. This policy should rely on mutual interests, respecting others, returning the rights to their owners, and removing the injustice formed as a result of the wrong policies at all levels.And to look with eyes of justice to our peoples' legitimate hopes and interests, and do not abuse the interests of our nation and to deal with the true power that was created by the current circumstances. The time of the pawns that you used to move in order to insure your interests has passed, and a new power has emerged that has attracted the Arab and Islamic streets around it to move it in accordance with its goals and strategies so that it can end the crisis and build a better prosperous society.
We are a nation that loves goodness for everyone, one of the best orders of Allah is giving advices to his creatures. Allah has sent the prophets and messengers and there is no greater advice than the advice between the slave and his Lord. The slave must meet Allah and Allah must judge his slave as the Almighty says: (Then shall we question those to whom our message was sent and those by whom we sent it). As for this world its matter is muddy, the biggest one in it is small, the goal of its matter is wealth and leadership,the one who seeks leadership aims to become like pharaoh who Allah drowned in the sea to take revenge on him. The one who seeks wealth aims to be like Qarun whom Allah opened up the ground under him where he will stay until the day of judgment as a punishment for the harm he caused to prophet Moses (peace be upon him).And these are the commandments of the Christ and the prophets before and after him (peace be upon them), all ordered to worship Allah, the pursuit of the hereafter and to be reluctant to go after this worldly life. When the matters of this world used to be ignoble, the greatest thing the leader can offere to his people is knowledge, religion, and observing the things that make them closer to Allah and the conversation in other matters was built around certain manners. The wise ones have asserted that recognizing the greatness of the Islam and that the world has not come across a religion better than it and the evidences require that it must be followed. You know that the religion of Allah is not based on one’s feelings or the parents' traditions, however the wise one looks at what the prophets brought and worships Allah with the correct belief and good work. If the anyone cannot show all of what is inside him to everyone, then he must benefit from it as much as he can. By achieving the worship of Allah, respecting the prophets, spreading of justice, correcting the wrongs, staying away from oppression and crimes will be the biggest guarantee in achieving American national security and the security of the world. The Almighty says: ("It is those who believe and confuse not their beliefs with wrong - that are (truly) in security, for they are on (right) guidance.")
Master of the White House:
Your humanitarian and ethical responsibilities necessitate you to stand with the oppressed nations as we watch with observing eyes at your statements and decisions like your speech in the Turkish parliament. We see that you are at the beginning of the wayso do not give up on your promises to the Americans and other peoples. Allah says: (Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it! * And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it.) You have asked Turkey to make peace with its history for an incident that has not been proven. We ask America to make peace with the present which has filled the earth with injustice. My purpose is to address you in what is best to help you look at the knowledge, follow what is right and do what is needed to be done. If you have who you can trust in his judgement and faith then research with him the sources of knowledge and the truths about religion and do not be like the imitators who do not hear or comprehend. You should ask Allah for help and ask him for guidance and say: Oh Allah show me what is right and help me follow it, show me what is wrong and help me to avoid it and say: Oh Allah the lord of Gabriel, Michael, Israfeel, creator of the heavens and earth, Knower of what is senn and unseen, you judge between your slaves about their decisions, guide me to the truth, by your will you guide who you wish to the right path. Only two things will help you in this world and the hereafter: one of them is for you in particular, which is your knowledge in science and religion, to discover what is right and remove the doubts and worshiping Allah as he ordered for this is better for you than the wealth of this world and it is what Allah sent all his prophets for. The second is for you, your people and for the Muslims- removing the oppression, ending the occupation, accepting responsibility of paying compensations, releasing the prisoners and being good to them. All the prophets have ordered for general mercy and a lot of goodness (for they were sent only as mercy to mankind). You know that the Muslims are the best able to reward the good and bad actions than anyone else, whoever they fight woe be unto him. The president must be knowledgeable and knows the famous epics in old and recent history, still a small number of Muslims can defeat many more, so how is it now when Allah the Almighty has blessed the Muslims with many armies, strong leaders, high morals and their willingness to do what makes them closer to Allah the almighty. their belief that Jihad is the best act of worship ,and their certainty of what the prophet has promised with victory and reward. In this nation the love to sacrifice is not understandable,and there is more to be said,but that is enough for the message.
Allah is responsible for helping those who do good things and makes it easy to say and do what is good for people and make their ending a good one,Praise be to Allah,prayers be upon his prophets espiceally Mohamed,and peace be upon all the prophets.
The Emir of The Islamic army in Iraq
1st of March 2009.
An open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama / A golden opportunity to accomplish the mission.
Praise be to Allah, Peace and prayers upon our Prophet Mohammed and all the prophets, after all:
A group of Americans created a myth named “terror” and have changed and applied its meaning whenever they so desire. They planned their corrupt war on Iraq based on lies and fallacies in order to assert control over the sources of energy and maintain the security of Israel according to the Greater Middle East plan. This has put America in a serious and difficult situation, and the results are:
On Iraq:
Turned a country known for its’ peaceful coexistence between citizens, scientific progress, absence of illiteracy, free health care and free education; to a divided, scary, and backward country. The occupation and sectarian militias killed 4% of the Iraqi people, made 8% of Iraqi women widows, orphaned 16% of Iraqi children, abandoned 15% and detained more than 2%. 40% of the professors left the country, 84% of the universities were looted and the illiteracy rate has reached 30%. About 76% of Iraqis do not have healthy water, 54% of households are living in poverty and unemployment has exceeded 50%. With the current level of government corruption, Iraq is now at the top of the list of most corrupt government administrations in the whole world. The environment was destroyed and Iraq has became a country which depends on imports as it does not produce anything. Drugs are widespread across the streets after Bush's democracy, while prior to the invasion Iraq was a drug free country. The security situation has continually deteriorated, kidnappings and extortion has spread. All of this was aimed at destroying the social relations between Iraq’s ethnic groups and changing its demographics and population ratios. As an example the percentage of Sunni Arabs is at least 42% but centers in America infiltrated by Chalabi and others loyal to Iran passed a lie that the percentage of Sunni Arabs is 20%. So what did they want to do with the rest of the sunni arab ?,The percentage of Sunni Arabs in the state institutions was limited to 6%!
The Bush administration dissolved the army and replaced it with corrupted sectarian troops and security services which do not adhere to the professional nature of their work. They also imposed a distorted constitution to disrupt the country and disperse its people. They dissolved the state’s institutions and established a political process that has produced a sectarian government loyal to Iran, following its orders with some of its leaders having Iranian origins and loyalties. In this dark political environment Maliki combines dictatorship with sectarian intolerance. He publicly claims reconciliation but keeps being an Authoritarian and in the shadows his sectarian militias, some of which he was leading commit the most heinous crimes with the blessing of U.S. troops. He then puts them under government cover to gloss over their past crimes and facilitates them to commit more crimes in a formal capacity. So today the Iranian project is proceeding with Sunni bloodshed, codified within the laws of the State and protected by government troops.
The human rights situation has reached the worst proportions with torture becoming a systematic, normal procedure for the occupation and its government. The horrible prisons both known and unknown are filled with innocent people who were taken in with treachery, which is forbidden in all sects, policies and laws, and some of them have spent years without charge or trial, while others have died or were killed under torture in Iraqi and American prisons such as Abu Ghraib and Jadriya; these are some of the results of the evil occupation.
On America:
The Unipolarity which America worked for decades to achieve has collapsed, and it has lost its position in the world. Its economy has slumped and fallen into the trap of financial crisis; its repercussions that will last for a long time. Some countries revolted against America and it was not able to support its allies. It has wasted huge amounts of taxpayers money which would have been more sensibly spent on scientific programs, human security, world peace and the preservation of the environment. Billions of reconstruction funds were stolen in the largest fraud of the modern era with coordination between the leaders of the Green Zone and the large American companies which specialize in occupying countries, and bringing down regimes; all to keep the wealth flowing into the pockets of those warlords and vampires.
The number of deaths suffered by the occupation troops has exceeded forty thousand and the number of injured has exceeded ninety thousand; and those who survived were not able to survive the wounds of madness, mental disorder and the types of diseases that has result to committing suicide. This outcome was not recorded by the U.S. Army before, It’s really a terrible situation.
Still America’s national security is threatened, the world has more fear and panic, and explosions happen everywhere, increasing day by day. The interests of America made as appeals to states and individuals, have shown America stumbling in its policies, starting from Afghanistan to Darfur, Iran ,Pakistan, Iraq and Palestine. Bushs' allies were defeated in both the House of Representatives and Senate elections and ultimately in the Presidential elections. The attacks of the resistance were the reason behind this as the American people chose to vote and support policies of withdrawal and change.
Master of the White House:
The arrogance and stupidity of the previous administration whose president announced on this day in the first year of occupation that “Mission Accomplished”, gave Iran influence that may enable it to dominate oil resources without the loss of a single dollar or firing a single bullet. It must change, and dealing effectively with the "Iraqi quagmire" should not be done with patchwork and short term solutions, but with changing the American policy in Iraq. The most important solution to the great mistakes committed by the Bush administration is the reversal of the current "ethnic sectarian" political process, and leaving the leadership of the country to its loyal sons, and note that your own advisers and assistants see that the political process in Iraq since April 2003 is completely wrong and can not be repaired or patched up and that the best solution lies in its complete abolition. Worrying from that procedure is untrue, and those who defended their religion, country and the rights of their people are the ones who own the right to decide the fate of their country, not those who shared in the destruction of the country and killing of its people.
The first decade of this century witnessed a huge reversal in the values of humanity and exposed the falsehood of what the Americans themselves call for in their literature and speeches. America acquired the hatred of the nations of the eastern and the western world, and what the CIA gained from illegal and secret operations like kidnapping civilians, torturing detainees, spying on people, involvement in scandals contrary to law and morality, and drug trafficking in cooperation with the gangs that produce them, has caused a revival in the cultivation of cannabis to increase seven folds in Afghanistan during the U.S. occupation. All the aforementioned problems show the great corruption in the most important system you have, where the officials took advantage from their position in (countering terrorism) and (reconstruction) and other cases, overlooked American laws and human morality, and smeared their institutions through the spilling of blood, and the commitment of sins and crimes. Although a positive step along this route was gained from the recent announcement of abolishing torture in interrogations, changing the name of "fighting terrorism" and seeking to close down Guantanamo Bay prison; we hope that this will begin a change for truth and substance and not just in name and form only.
There should be as a follow-up the files of CIA ,torture ,the abuses of human rights and the stolen funds; all of which should affect the U.S. and Iraqis officials alike, and what the Minister of Justice recently announced is a step in the right direction.
We believe that the justice of Almighty Allah is going to pursue the criminals and they will not escape from the punishment in this life nor in the hereafter. We believe that the more injustices you have, the greatest of Almighty Allah's wrath and wrath of his worshipers. Also we believe that the end of the powerful nations comes when they reach the peak of injustice and tyranny. Do you like that Muslims face you with this? Where Almighty Allah is their helper especially in these times where the nation prepared for Jihad and to fight the assassins, and when the righteous and the servants of Allah are obedient; the heroes who experienced terrible warfare took over the leadership of Jihad and they are on the rise, whom the messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) promised them that they will still have the victory till the Day of Resurrection. In the nation there are those righteous ones whom Allah listens to their prayers, and doesn’t ignore their requests and shows anger for their anger and is pleased with their satisfaction, so can you feel secure that those oppressed gain retaliation from the God of all creatures who help the oppressed and accept his prayer and promise to gain him the victory no matter how long it takes? However, if we see goodness from the American people we will treat them well, otherwise who have been oppressed Allah will make him victorious.
Master of the White House:
Islam, our religion, gives everyone their rights, forbids all kinds of injustice, ensures justice for all human beings and aims to disseminate good virtues and ethics ,and the achievement of human security and peace for all people. This same religion necessitated us to resist the occupation by all legitimate and possible means and tofaceany attempt to eliminate our presence, deform our identity, rob our wealth or waste our rights. So we defend our religion and country by doing our legitimate duty and exercising our legal rights, and we consider this a great and noble honor. We all reject the designation of the resistance fighters as terrorists, because the terrorist is the one who occupied the country and destroyed it, and it is enough to the resistance its trust in God, its absolute belief in the justice of its cause; and its people and nation recognition of its right.The source of power of the nations is that it is right and the intention to live in freedom and dignity. The country that does not have freedom is not considered a country, regardless of the case. We recognize that no nation was able to rise but only after struggling through the fire of pain, and having patience during the misfortunes, difficulties, murder and hunger, costs much less than accepting the humiliation and submission. So if you want peace then end the occupation and return to the people their rights and sovereignty so that the dialogue will be a method to reach an understanding, not the injustice and aggression. What we are concerned about in the decision of withdrawing the American troops is that this withdrawal is real and confirmed, and that there are no exceptions or additions that cause it to be unreal ,continuation of occupying Iraq and avoidance of responsibility in repairing destruction and leaving without securing compensation for those who suffered by the occupation and its effects will only increase the hatred of America. This hatred will continue with the generations, and the facts of history confirm the end of occupation and the defeat of the occupier, however long it takes.The Iraqi resistance can change the situation whenever it wants,it saved a lot of power to the days of the withdrawal, when your troops will be in the most vulnerable situation unless reaching an agreement with the resistance regarding this.
The apology to the Iraqi people, recognition of their right of resistance and handing over the country to its people is the least of your duties towards Iraq. The international community will waste much time and cause a lot of bloodshed by relying on the warlords and traders of corruption before it finds itself at a fait accompli. Dealing with the resistance as a liberation force is the most efficient way to build a fair political system away from the culture of sectarianism and elimination.
Master of the White House:
The Islamic nation possesses more than 60% of the worlds energy source. It has great potential and elements of strength qualifying it to be a key partner in shaping the worlds image, forming its future and making good relationships with other world countries in accordance with the mutual interests between them in order to achieve human security and we will not adopt an unequal policy.So we call upon you and the American people (if there is a just stance for the good of mankind) to return a just balance to the international relations.and to make a new plan for America in order to protect its vital legitimate interests in our Arab and Islamic world. This policy should rely on mutual interests, respecting others, returning the rights to their owners, and removing the injustice formed as a result of the wrong policies at all levels.And to look with eyes of justice to our peoples' legitimate hopes and interests, and do not abuse the interests of our nation and to deal with the true power that was created by the current circumstances. The time of the pawns that you used to move in order to insure your interests has passed, and a new power has emerged that has attracted the Arab and Islamic streets around it to move it in accordance with its goals and strategies so that it can end the crisis and build a better prosperous society.
We are a nation that loves goodness for everyone, one of the best orders of Allah is giving advices to his creatures. Allah has sent the prophets and messengers and there is no greater advice than the advice between the slave and his Lord. The slave must meet Allah and Allah must judge his slave as the Almighty says: (Then shall we question those to whom our message was sent and those by whom we sent it). As for this world its matter is muddy, the biggest one in it is small, the goal of its matter is wealth and leadership,the one who seeks leadership aims to become like pharaoh who Allah drowned in the sea to take revenge on him. The one who seeks wealth aims to be like Qarun whom Allah opened up the ground under him where he will stay until the day of judgment as a punishment for the harm he caused to prophet Moses (peace be upon him).And these are the commandments of the Christ and the prophets before and after him (peace be upon them), all ordered to worship Allah, the pursuit of the hereafter and to be reluctant to go after this worldly life. When the matters of this world used to be ignoble, the greatest thing the leader can offere to his people is knowledge, religion, and observing the things that make them closer to Allah and the conversation in other matters was built around certain manners. The wise ones have asserted that recognizing the greatness of the Islam and that the world has not come across a religion better than it and the evidences require that it must be followed. You know that the religion of Allah is not based on one’s feelings or the parents' traditions, however the wise one looks at what the prophets brought and worships Allah with the correct belief and good work. If the anyone cannot show all of what is inside him to everyone, then he must benefit from it as much as he can. By achieving the worship of Allah, respecting the prophets, spreading of justice, correcting the wrongs, staying away from oppression and crimes will be the biggest guarantee in achieving American national security and the security of the world. The Almighty says: ("It is those who believe and confuse not their beliefs with wrong - that are (truly) in security, for they are on (right) guidance.")
Master of the White House:
Your humanitarian and ethical responsibilities necessitate you to stand with the oppressed nations as we watch with observing eyes at your statements and decisions like your speech in the Turkish parliament. We see that you are at the beginning of the wayso do not give up on your promises to the Americans and other peoples. Allah says: (Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it! * And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it.) You have asked Turkey to make peace with its history for an incident that has not been proven. We ask America to make peace with the present which has filled the earth with injustice. My purpose is to address you in what is best to help you look at the knowledge, follow what is right and do what is needed to be done. If you have who you can trust in his judgement and faith then research with him the sources of knowledge and the truths about religion and do not be like the imitators who do not hear or comprehend. You should ask Allah for help and ask him for guidance and say: Oh Allah show me what is right and help me follow it, show me what is wrong and help me to avoid it and say: Oh Allah the lord of Gabriel, Michael, Israfeel, creator of the heavens and earth, Knower of what is senn and unseen, you judge between your slaves about their decisions, guide me to the truth, by your will you guide who you wish to the right path. Only two things will help you in this world and the hereafter: one of them is for you in particular, which is your knowledge in science and religion, to discover what is right and remove the doubts and worshiping Allah as he ordered for this is better for you than the wealth of this world and it is what Allah sent all his prophets for. The second is for you, your people and for the Muslims- removing the oppression, ending the occupation, accepting responsibility of paying compensations, releasing the prisoners and being good to them. All the prophets have ordered for general mercy and a lot of goodness (for they were sent only as mercy to mankind). You know that the Muslims are the best able to reward the good and bad actions than anyone else, whoever they fight woe be unto him. The president must be knowledgeable and knows the famous epics in old and recent history, still a small number of Muslims can defeat many more, so how is it now when Allah the Almighty has blessed the Muslims with many armies, strong leaders, high morals and their willingness to do what makes them closer to Allah the almighty. their belief that Jihad is the best act of worship ,and their certainty of what the prophet has promised with victory and reward. In this nation the love to sacrifice is not understandable,and there is more to be said,but that is enough for the message.
Allah is responsible for helping those who do good things and makes it easy to say and do what is good for people and make their ending a good one,Praise be to Allah,prayers be upon his prophets espiceally Mohamed,and peace be upon all the prophets.
The Emir of The Islamic army in Iraq
1st of March 2009.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Torture? It probably killed more Americans than 9/11
A US major reveals the inside story of military interrogation in Iraq.
By Patrick Cockburn, winner of the 2009 Orwell Prize for journalism
April 26, 2009 "The Independent" -- The use of torture by the US has proved so counter-productive that it may have led to the death of as many US soldiers as civilians killed in 9/11, says the leader of a crack US interrogation team in Iraq.
"The reason why foreign fighters joined al-Qa'ida in Iraq was overwhelmingly because of abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and not Islamic ideology," says Major Matthew Alexander, who personally conducted 300 interrogations of prisoners in Iraq. It was the team led by Major Alexander [a named assumed for security reasons] that obtained the information that led to the US military being able to locate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa'ida in Iraq. Zarqawi was then killed by bombs dropped by two US aircraft on the farm where he was hiding outside Baghdad on 7 June 2006. Major Alexander said that he learnt where Zarqawi was during a six-hour interrogation of a prisoner with whom he established relations of trust.
Major Alexander's attitude to torture by the US is a combination of moral outrage and professional contempt. "It plays into the hands of al-Qa'ida in Iraq because it shows us up as hypocrites when we talk about human rights," he says. An eloquent and highly intelligent man with experience as a criminal investigator within the US military, he says that torture is ineffective, as well as counter-productive. "People will only tell you the minimum to make the pain stop," he says. "They might tell you the location of a house used by insurgents but not that it is booby-trapped."
In his compelling book How to Break a Terrorist, Major Alexander explains that prisoners subjected to abuse usually clam up, say nothing, or provide misleading information. In an interview he was particularly dismissive of the "ticking bomb" argument often used in the justification of torture. This supposes that there is a bomb timed to explode on a bus or in the street which will kill many civilians. The authorities hold a prisoner who knows where the bomb is. Should they not torture him to find out in time where the bomb is before it explodes?
Major Alexander says he faced the "ticking time bomb" every day in Iraq because "we held people who knew about future suicide bombings". Leaving aside the moral arguments, he says torture simply does not work. "It hardens their resolve. They shut up." He points out that the FBI uses normal methods of interrogation to build up trust even when they are investigating a kidnapping and time is of the essence. He would do the same, he says, "even if my mother was on a bus" with a hypothetical ticking bomb on board. It is quite untrue to imagine that torture is the fastest way of obtaining information, he says.
A career officer, Major Alexander spent 14 years in the US air force, beginning by flying helicopters for special operations. He saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, was an air force counter-intelligence agent and criminal interrogator, and was stationed in Saudi Arabia, with an anti-terrorist role, during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Some years later, the US army was short of interrogators. He wanted to help shape developments in Iraq and volunteered.
Arriving in Iraq in early 2006 he found that the team he was working with were mostly dedicated, but young, men between 18 and 24. "Many of them had never been out of the States before," he recalls. "When they sat down to interrogate somebody it was often the first time they had met a Muslim." In addition to these inexperienced officers, Major Alexander says there was "an old guard" of interrogators using the methods employed at Guantanamo. He could not say exactly what they had been doing for legal reasons, though in the rest of the interview he left little doubt that prisoners were being tortured and abused. The "old guard's" methods, he says, were based on instilling "fear and control" in a prisoner.
He refused to take part in torture and abuse, and forbade the team he commanded to use such methods. Instead, he says, he used normal US police interrogation techniques which are "based on relationship building and a degree of deception". He adds that the deception was often of a simple kind such as saying untruthfully that another prisoner has already told all.
Before he started interrogating insurgent prisoners in Iraq, he had been told that they were highly ideological and committed to establishing an Islamic caliphate in Iraq, Major Alexander says. In the course of the hundreds of interrogations carried out by himself, as well as more than 1,000 that he supervised, he found that the motives of both foreign fighters joining al-Qa'ida in Iraq and Iraqi-born members were very different from the official stereotype.
In the case of foreign fighters – recruited mostly from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and North Africa – the reason cited by the great majority for coming to Iraq was what they had heard of the torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. These abuses, not fundamentalist Islam, had provoked so many of the foreign fighters volunteering to become suicide bombers.
For Iraqi Sunni Arabs joining al-Qa'ida, the abuses played a role, but more often the reason for their recruitment was political rather than religious. They had taken up arms because the Shia Arabs were taking power; de-Baathification marginalised the Sunni and took away their jobs; they feared an Iranian takeover. Above all, al-Qa'ida was able to provide money and arms to the insurgents. Once, Major Alexander recalls, the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, came to visit the prison where he was working. Asking about what motivated the suspected al-Qa'ida prisoners, he was at first given the official story that they were Islamic Jihadi full of religious zeal. Major Alexander intervened to say that this really was not true and there was a much more complicated series of motivations at work. General Casey did not respond.
The objective of Major Alexander's team was to find Zarqawi, the Jordanian born leader of al-Qa'ida who built it into a fearsome organisation. Attempts by US military intelligence to locate him had failed despite three years of trying. Major Alexander was finally able to persuade one of Zarqawi's associates to give away his location because the associate had come to reject his methods, such as the mass slaughter of civilians.
What the major discovered was that many of the Sunni fighters were members of, or allied to, al-Qa'ida through necessity. They did not share its extreme, puritanical Sunni beliefs or hatred of the Shia majority. He says that General Casey had ignored his findings but he was pleased when General David Petraeus became commander in Iraq and began to take account of the real motives of the Sunni fighters. "He peeled back those Sunnis from al-Qa'ida," he says.
In the aftermath of his experience in Iraq, which he left at the end of 2006, Major Alexander came to believe that the battle against the US using torture was more important than the war in Iraq. He sees President Obama's declaration against torture as "a historic victory", though he is concerned about loopholes remaining and the lack of accountability of senior officers. Reflecting on his own interrogations, he says he always monitored his actions by asking himself, "If the enemy was doing this to one of my troops, would I consider it torture?" His overall message is that the American people do not have to make a choice between torture and terror.
By Patrick Cockburn, winner of the 2009 Orwell Prize for journalism
April 26, 2009 "The Independent" -- The use of torture by the US has proved so counter-productive that it may have led to the death of as many US soldiers as civilians killed in 9/11, says the leader of a crack US interrogation team in Iraq.
"The reason why foreign fighters joined al-Qa'ida in Iraq was overwhelmingly because of abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and not Islamic ideology," says Major Matthew Alexander, who personally conducted 300 interrogations of prisoners in Iraq. It was the team led by Major Alexander [a named assumed for security reasons] that obtained the information that led to the US military being able to locate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa'ida in Iraq. Zarqawi was then killed by bombs dropped by two US aircraft on the farm where he was hiding outside Baghdad on 7 June 2006. Major Alexander said that he learnt where Zarqawi was during a six-hour interrogation of a prisoner with whom he established relations of trust.
Major Alexander's attitude to torture by the US is a combination of moral outrage and professional contempt. "It plays into the hands of al-Qa'ida in Iraq because it shows us up as hypocrites when we talk about human rights," he says. An eloquent and highly intelligent man with experience as a criminal investigator within the US military, he says that torture is ineffective, as well as counter-productive. "People will only tell you the minimum to make the pain stop," he says. "They might tell you the location of a house used by insurgents but not that it is booby-trapped."
In his compelling book How to Break a Terrorist, Major Alexander explains that prisoners subjected to abuse usually clam up, say nothing, or provide misleading information. In an interview he was particularly dismissive of the "ticking bomb" argument often used in the justification of torture. This supposes that there is a bomb timed to explode on a bus or in the street which will kill many civilians. The authorities hold a prisoner who knows where the bomb is. Should they not torture him to find out in time where the bomb is before it explodes?
Major Alexander says he faced the "ticking time bomb" every day in Iraq because "we held people who knew about future suicide bombings". Leaving aside the moral arguments, he says torture simply does not work. "It hardens their resolve. They shut up." He points out that the FBI uses normal methods of interrogation to build up trust even when they are investigating a kidnapping and time is of the essence. He would do the same, he says, "even if my mother was on a bus" with a hypothetical ticking bomb on board. It is quite untrue to imagine that torture is the fastest way of obtaining information, he says.
A career officer, Major Alexander spent 14 years in the US air force, beginning by flying helicopters for special operations. He saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, was an air force counter-intelligence agent and criminal interrogator, and was stationed in Saudi Arabia, with an anti-terrorist role, during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Some years later, the US army was short of interrogators. He wanted to help shape developments in Iraq and volunteered.
Arriving in Iraq in early 2006 he found that the team he was working with were mostly dedicated, but young, men between 18 and 24. "Many of them had never been out of the States before," he recalls. "When they sat down to interrogate somebody it was often the first time they had met a Muslim." In addition to these inexperienced officers, Major Alexander says there was "an old guard" of interrogators using the methods employed at Guantanamo. He could not say exactly what they had been doing for legal reasons, though in the rest of the interview he left little doubt that prisoners were being tortured and abused. The "old guard's" methods, he says, were based on instilling "fear and control" in a prisoner.
He refused to take part in torture and abuse, and forbade the team he commanded to use such methods. Instead, he says, he used normal US police interrogation techniques which are "based on relationship building and a degree of deception". He adds that the deception was often of a simple kind such as saying untruthfully that another prisoner has already told all.
Before he started interrogating insurgent prisoners in Iraq, he had been told that they were highly ideological and committed to establishing an Islamic caliphate in Iraq, Major Alexander says. In the course of the hundreds of interrogations carried out by himself, as well as more than 1,000 that he supervised, he found that the motives of both foreign fighters joining al-Qa'ida in Iraq and Iraqi-born members were very different from the official stereotype.
In the case of foreign fighters – recruited mostly from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and North Africa – the reason cited by the great majority for coming to Iraq was what they had heard of the torture in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. These abuses, not fundamentalist Islam, had provoked so many of the foreign fighters volunteering to become suicide bombers.
For Iraqi Sunni Arabs joining al-Qa'ida, the abuses played a role, but more often the reason for their recruitment was political rather than religious. They had taken up arms because the Shia Arabs were taking power; de-Baathification marginalised the Sunni and took away their jobs; they feared an Iranian takeover. Above all, al-Qa'ida was able to provide money and arms to the insurgents. Once, Major Alexander recalls, the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, came to visit the prison where he was working. Asking about what motivated the suspected al-Qa'ida prisoners, he was at first given the official story that they were Islamic Jihadi full of religious zeal. Major Alexander intervened to say that this really was not true and there was a much more complicated series of motivations at work. General Casey did not respond.
The objective of Major Alexander's team was to find Zarqawi, the Jordanian born leader of al-Qa'ida who built it into a fearsome organisation. Attempts by US military intelligence to locate him had failed despite three years of trying. Major Alexander was finally able to persuade one of Zarqawi's associates to give away his location because the associate had come to reject his methods, such as the mass slaughter of civilians.
What the major discovered was that many of the Sunni fighters were members of, or allied to, al-Qa'ida through necessity. They did not share its extreme, puritanical Sunni beliefs or hatred of the Shia majority. He says that General Casey had ignored his findings but he was pleased when General David Petraeus became commander in Iraq and began to take account of the real motives of the Sunni fighters. "He peeled back those Sunnis from al-Qa'ida," he says.
In the aftermath of his experience in Iraq, which he left at the end of 2006, Major Alexander came to believe that the battle against the US using torture was more important than the war in Iraq. He sees President Obama's declaration against torture as "a historic victory", though he is concerned about loopholes remaining and the lack of accountability of senior officers. Reflecting on his own interrogations, he says he always monitored his actions by asking himself, "If the enemy was doing this to one of my troops, would I consider it torture?" His overall message is that the American people do not have to make a choice between torture and terror.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The sources of Arabs’ Shame
The sources of Arabs’ Shame
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia
By Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar
January 15, 2009 "Tehran Times" Jan 12, 09 - Israel is continuing its bombing of workshops, administrative buildings, roads, bridges, fuel depots, prisons, schools and mosques; killing and injuring large number of civilians in one of the world’s most impoverished and densely populated areas of the world.
The Israelis are following their old method of destroying everything that makes a society a society, the infrastructure. The collective punishment of the Palestinians for what Hamas or Islamic Jihad is supposed to be doing or has done, reminds one of the collective punishments that Nazis meted out in the occupied areas in Eastern Europe during the WWII.
International Red Cross just issued a statement condemning Israel for its brutality against civilians. There are several things that seem to have shocked the Red Cross. In one episode after several days of heavy pressure from the Red Cross, several ambulances were allowed to enter a neighborhood to evacuate the injured civilians. In one house they found 12 bodies all civilians and mostly women and children. They also found four very young children still alive next to their dead mothers, too weak to stand. They have been holed-up in the same house for close to 4 days.
Apparently the whole neighborhood was full of dead and injured civilians with Israeli forces only 80 meters away. According to the Red Cross the Israeli forces knew of the situation and not only didn’t do anything to help the civilians, but also were stopping Red Cross from providing assistance. Representative of the Norwegian Red Cross’ People’s Action calls this a war crime.
But this is only the tip of the ice berg. The Israeli forces have begun to use civilians as human shields. According to Amnesty International Israeli forces occupy civilian houses and keep the civilians as hostages on the first floor, while they position their soldiers on the second floor; ensuring that any fire on the house (especially with anti-tank or RPG missiles) kills the civilians as well.
In yet another report, the United Nations condemned Israel for targeting civilians. The head of the UN agency in Gaza running the school that was attacked by Israel forces categorically rejected the claim by Israel that Hamas fighters were in or even near the school. Israel bombed the UN run school, killing 43 children and injuring 100.
Israel also targets ambulances and humanitarian relief convoys in Gaza. According to UN, at least one Palestinian was killed when UN relief convoy came under fire from Israeli forces. “The attack took place as the lorries traveled to the Erez crossing to pick up supplies that were to have been allowed in during a three-hour ceasefire.”
The atrocities committed by Israel is a genocide of a conquered people. Gaza is a concentration camp and no amount of PR can reduce the magnitude of this horrible crime against humanity and decency.
But Israel is Israel. She has shown that cruelty is in her nature. Here I am talking about the successive Israeli governments and not Israeli people in general. I am sure there are many in Israel that if became aware of what really is happening would not approve of it. This of course excludes the settlers and the Zionist movement. These groups like the South African white supremacists consider others to be inferior to them; or that they have the God given right to do as they please.
But states seldom are representative of their people. It is the elite and / or the governing class that makes the decisions. The state of Israel is determined to never allow the Palestinians to have a viable state. The maximum that they are willing to allow is some form of Bantustan (South African) or North American reservation (for Native Americans). With carte blanche from U.S. and most of the European powers, Israel has been implementing this policy. Setting-up such a system takes many years. People’s spirit has to be crushed through collective punishment, economic strangulation and above all excessive and continuing violence. This has to continue for many years so the people lose hope of ever achieving anything more than what is on offer.
This of course cannot be done without the approval of other countries. Israel has the approval of the world’s most powerful nation, the United States. In addition, because of her U.S. connections, she has managed to get a nod and a wink from the Europeans as well. So with this carte blanche in hand she has set forth to change the “reality” on the ground in her favor.
By systematically settling extremists in the middle of populated Palestinian areas, she has made the creation of a viable Palestinian state almost impossible. A simple look at the map of the Palestinian territories resembles a Swiss cheese, with pockets of densely populated Palestinian areas surrounded by settlements and their protective military garrisons.
The violence both official (state sponsored) and unofficial (settlers) has been incessant. Couple this violence with economic strangulation and you will see the reasons behind the Palestinians’ anger and frustration. Any resistance is automatically branded as an act of terrorism and punished with even more violence, with U.S. and Europeans cheering the Israelis on the side lines.
If you recall when Georgia invaded the Russian protected enclave of Abkhazia, and met Russian counter attack, the whole Western world with U.S. at its head condemned Russia. Pushing for UN action and even sending warships with “humanitarian” supplies. Russians did not commit one thousandth of the Israeli atrocities and we had the Georgian president and other politician talking day and night about the horrible things the Russians were doing.
Yet today we have U.S. and European governments sitting silently watching this genocide taking place without doing anything. U.S. even vetoes resolutions condemning Israeli actions, forgetting that no peace is ever made possible by killing so many innocent women and children.
But whenever a power tries to relocate a group of people by force, the Newton’s Third Law of Motion comes into effect. Newton's Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if you try to imprison a person that person will try to break out. If you try to subjugate a people they will resist. This is the underlying causes of most liberation movements. The same applies to the Palestinians. They are resisting. We can agree or disagree with their methods, but theirs is a reaction to actions taken against them; we call this self-defense.
Israel is trying to push Palestinians into submission and in the process forcing many to leave the occupied territories. They are trying to show the Palestinians that they are alone and resistance in the face of an overwhelming force is suicide. Israel has tried this tactics before and has failed. The children that had to stay with their dead mothers for four days will not forget. The starved people of Gaza are not going to forget this barbarity; and neither shall the people of honor and conscious, regardless of their nationality, Israelis included.
But as for one of those who have followed the Israel’s actions for the past 30 years, I can say that I didn’t expect anything different from Israel. The lies and deceits are all too familiar to fall for again. The current Israeli action in Gaza was not a reaction to the recent event, but planned a year ago. Just read the New York Times article in which among others they interview a senior Israeli military officer.
Israel is now trying to portray herself as a nation that is defending itself, while the truth is that Israel is a cruel occupying power trying to force a people out of their land. And this is being done with the help of some Arab nations; the very same nations that constantly talk about Arab and Muslim solidarity. These nations are: Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
------ The Arab collaborators ---------
The often asked question, when it comes to the Palestinians, is about the role of Arab countries in the Palestinian struggle for freedom. The people not familiar with the political landscape of the area often see the Middle East as two camps, Arab countries on one side and Israel on the other. The reality is totally different. Israel has seldom been alone. Beside its usual American, French, British and other staunch allies, she has had the hidden backing of several Arab countries.
For close to 30 years now, many Arab countries have been collaborating with Israel; some like Egypt (gained independence: 1922) and Jordan (gained independence: 1946) openly while others like Saudi Arabia (founded: 1932), UAE (founded: 1972) and Kuwait (founded: 1961) from behind the scenes.
The reasons for this collaboration vary from country to country but they all have one thing in common: the rulers of these countries are all dictators and need foreign protection from their own people. Some such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and UAE were put in power by the British. The founder of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz bin Saud (the kingdom is name after him) was put in power by the British. The same goes for the others, except Egypt which experienced a coup by the army officers in 1952 resulting in the ousting of the monarchy and the accompanying British influence.
But the Western influence returned with Anwar Sadat. All these countries are dictatorships and all are under pressure from their people. What they cannot accept is any democratically elected form of government in their mist. They fear that if an Arab government becomes democratic they may have to become one themselves, hence losing power.
One of the things that they love about Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is that he won the election not by popular vote but by popular method of rigging the election; something that these Arab leaders understand and respect.
In contrast Hamas really represented the aspiration of the people. Soon, Mahmood Abbas term as president is over and he had to stand for re-election something that he would surely lose. In contrast Hamas really won the municipal elections in 2005 and the Parliamentary election in 2006. The elections were supervised by international observers, many from Europe, and U.S.
Palestinians were fed-up with the corrupt regime of Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah. They wanted to clean house. But as soon as Hamas took over, the U.S. and the Europeans put an embargo on Hamas. Israel closed the borders and refused to let anything into Gaza. Egypt also did the same.
What is not mentioned much in the media is that this was done with the complete approval of the Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. After all, Egypt could have opened its border for transfer of food and fuel.
Muslim Brotherhood has a branch or related organization in Jordan as well. Egypt and Jordan are worried that should Hamas survive and show its resistance, their people may get the idea that they can also resist the tyrannical rule of these despots. One must not forget that Muslim Brotherhood represents the only serious challenge to the Mubarak’s rule in Egypt.
---- Egypt -------
The 81 year old Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has been “president” since 1981 (28 years). He has won every election with a comfortable majority. He is much loved by his secret services. Prior to every election he arrests and imprisons all the opposition, ensuring a “clean” election.
Torture is so widely used and accepted in Egypt that U.S. out sources torturing of some its prisoners to Egypt. This alone should tell you volumes about the nature of Mubarak’s rule. He is now trying hard to crown his playboy son as his successor. But the Americans are not so sure if the son is capable of keeping the 80 million Egyptians in line and is therefore looking for alternative candidates.
The head of the feared main secret service is one of the prime candidates along with some of the top generals. Challenging him is the Muslim Brotherhood organization, enjoying grass root support from all sections of the Egyptian society including lawyers, doctors, judges and student associations. ?????????? Not surprisingly, U.S. and Israel call Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.????????????
By all accounts, the Muslim Brotherhood be it in Jordan, Egypt or the occupied territories such as Gaza runs a clean operation, running many charity organizations and providing services to the poor and the needy. As such wherever they are, they pose a threat to the corrupt regimes, since they provide an alternative to the people of that area.
----- Jordan------
King Abdullah II of Jordan, born of a British mother, educated in the West, including the Jesuit Center of Georgetown University, was brought to power by the CIA. His Uncle was a long time crown prince, yet after his father died in a U.S. hospital, Madeline Albright, Clinton’s Secretary of Estate flew to Jordan to inform the Jordanians that the King on his death bed had changed his will and named his son Abdullah as his successor. The new king Abdullah II married the Princeton graduate Lisa Halaby, the daughter of the former head of Pan American Airlines. She is now called Queen Noor; Noor meaning Light in Arabic.
The majority of this Kingdom of 5 million people are Palestinians who are not very friendly to this King. In 1967 there was a Palestinian uprising (led by PLO) against King Hussein (ruled: 1952-1999, the father of the current king), which resulted in heavy casualties among Palestinians.
In addition, the Kingdom is currently full of Iraqi refugees who resent the King’s help to the Americans in invasion of their country. On top of all this, we have the Muslim Brotherhood which tries hard to abolish the monarchy. King Abdullah relies heavily on the U.S. support and backing for staying in power. King Abdullah also sees a natural ally in Israel, a country that can come to its aid in case of another uprising.
---Saudi Arabia (House of Saud)------
I don’t have to tell you much about Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom is run by the 84 year old, ailing Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. His personal wealth is estimated at $21 billion USD. He rules a clan of 8000 princes who in turn rule the country. Saudi Arabia is the centre of corruption in the Arab world. The Saudi rulers corrupt everything with their money. Lacking the necessary mental power or physical courage, they try to stay in power by subterfuge, lies, and deception.
They fund the real extremists on the one hand while portraying themselves as the protectors of the Western interest on the other. They preach intolerance and xenophobia to their people decrying the Western decadence, while spending a lot of time enjoying the life in the West. They pay the West for protection against their own people and they pay the extremists to do their fighting elsewhere. Saudi rulers are indeed the worst of them all.
House of Saud is also the financier of the so called “Arab Moderates” and extremism that they cause. House of Saud financed the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. They later financed the Taliban. They also paid the Saddam Hussein to fight Iran. Then they paid the Americans and Egyptians to fight Saddam Hussein. They are the financiers of death and misery. They finance anything, anywhere, as long as this reduces the threat to their illegitimate rule.
They are currently financing the civil war in Somalia, bandits in Baluchistan and God knows what else. They are detested by their own people and neighbors yet loved by Bush, Cheney and the oil companies. As long as they provide the money and oil the U.S. is willing to tolerate them. And guess what? Muslim Brotherhood hates the House of Saud too. This makes them a threat and hence has to be dealt with.
---- The Collaboration -------
As can be seen each country has a good reason to eliminate Hamas, but each is restrained by its population. Israel has no such a restrain imposed on it. She not only can wage a terrible war, but also get assistance from Arab countries. Indeed it is the second time (the first was the Lebanon invasion of 2006) that Israel is getting open and solid support from these Arab countries. The invasion of Gaza was discussed in Egypt before its implementation. Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are Israel’s active partners.
Egypt is actively involved in stopping all aids from getting to Palestinians in Gaza save a token few trucks. These few trucks are allowed to go through so they can be filmed and shown to Egyptian people. All demonstrations are banned and all Egyptian volunteers for Gaza are either arrested or sent back.
There are hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the Muslim world that are willing to go to the aid of the Palestinians, but the Egyptian authorities don’t allow them passage. Egyptians even stop medical aid from passing through their territories.
This is part of a report from Associated Press:
“RAFAH, Egypt: Frustration is mounting at Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, where many local and foreign doctors are stuck after Egyptian authorities denied them entry into the coastal area now under an Israeli ground invasion.
Anesthesiologist Dimitrios Mognie from Greece idles his time at a cafe near the border, drinking tea and chatting with other doctors, aid workers and curious Egyptians.
""This is a shame,"" said Mognie, who decided to use his vacation time to try help Gazans. He thought entering through Egypt, which has a narrow border with the Hamas-ruled strip, was his best bet.
""That in 2009 they have people in need of help from a doctor and we can go to help and they won't let us. This is crazy,"" he added.”
In addition there are many Iranian cargo planes full of food and medicine which have been sitting on the tarmacs in Egypt for days waiting for permission to deliver their cargo. Egyptians even denied the medical aid sent by the son of the Libyan President Qaddafi to land in Egypt.
One thing is clear: these three countries do not want the Israelis to fail in their mission of totally destroying Gaza. Hosni Mubarak said so himself. The daily Haaretz reported that Hosni Mubarak had told European ministers on a peace mission that Hamas must not be allowed to win the ongoing war in Gaza.
As Egypt physically aids the Israeli military by denying food, fuel and medicine to the civilians, The House of Saud helps Israel by giving her time and diplomatic cover. When Israel started its invasion there was an immediate call for an Arab summit. Saudi Arabia and Jordan (along with Egypt of course) delayed the summit.
The Saudis along with the UAE said that they had another meeting to attend to and therefore Palestinian issue had to wait. After a few days when the summit was eventually held, they issued the same old statements. Yet this time same as the Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 2006, they blamed the victims.
In a statement Saudi Arabia blamed Hamas for Israel's continuing offensive in the Gaza Strip. Saudi Arabia, after blaming Hamas, declared that it will not even consider an oil embargo on Israel’s supporters. She then again blamed Hamas.
By this time, the three Arab countries along with Kuwait and UAE began singing the old song: international community is not doing anything about the catastrophe that is taking place in Gaza. It seems that these Arab tyrants have no shame at all. This reminds me of a quote from Marquis De Sade (1740-1814): “One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush.”
These Arab leaders (many are indeed too old to blush) are complicit in the murder of so many civilians, especially young children. According to Agence France-Presse, quoting the medics on the ground, fully one third of all people killed have been children. How can these Arab leaders justify this to their people?
The answer is that they cannot. Israel knows this and for the second time can show the Arab street that their leaders are nothing but a bunch of old hypocrites. These Arab leaders are now exposed and can do nothing but to cooperate fully with Israel and U.S. What stand between them and their people’s rage is their army and secret services; which in turn are supported by U.S.
Israel has cleverly exposed these leaders for what they are: collaborators of the worst kind. These Arab leaders have brought an unimaginable shame to their people. To quote Lucien Bouchard: “I have never known a more vulgar expression of betrayal and deceit. Our hope is now with the people of these countries to clean this stain from their honor.”
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia
By Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar
January 15, 2009 "Tehran Times" Jan 12, 09 - Israel is continuing its bombing of workshops, administrative buildings, roads, bridges, fuel depots, prisons, schools and mosques; killing and injuring large number of civilians in one of the world’s most impoverished and densely populated areas of the world.
The Israelis are following their old method of destroying everything that makes a society a society, the infrastructure. The collective punishment of the Palestinians for what Hamas or Islamic Jihad is supposed to be doing or has done, reminds one of the collective punishments that Nazis meted out in the occupied areas in Eastern Europe during the WWII.
International Red Cross just issued a statement condemning Israel for its brutality against civilians. There are several things that seem to have shocked the Red Cross. In one episode after several days of heavy pressure from the Red Cross, several ambulances were allowed to enter a neighborhood to evacuate the injured civilians. In one house they found 12 bodies all civilians and mostly women and children. They also found four very young children still alive next to their dead mothers, too weak to stand. They have been holed-up in the same house for close to 4 days.
Apparently the whole neighborhood was full of dead and injured civilians with Israeli forces only 80 meters away. According to the Red Cross the Israeli forces knew of the situation and not only didn’t do anything to help the civilians, but also were stopping Red Cross from providing assistance. Representative of the Norwegian Red Cross’ People’s Action calls this a war crime.
But this is only the tip of the ice berg. The Israeli forces have begun to use civilians as human shields. According to Amnesty International Israeli forces occupy civilian houses and keep the civilians as hostages on the first floor, while they position their soldiers on the second floor; ensuring that any fire on the house (especially with anti-tank or RPG missiles) kills the civilians as well.
In yet another report, the United Nations condemned Israel for targeting civilians. The head of the UN agency in Gaza running the school that was attacked by Israel forces categorically rejected the claim by Israel that Hamas fighters were in or even near the school. Israel bombed the UN run school, killing 43 children and injuring 100.
Israel also targets ambulances and humanitarian relief convoys in Gaza. According to UN, at least one Palestinian was killed when UN relief convoy came under fire from Israeli forces. “The attack took place as the lorries traveled to the Erez crossing to pick up supplies that were to have been allowed in during a three-hour ceasefire.”
The atrocities committed by Israel is a genocide of a conquered people. Gaza is a concentration camp and no amount of PR can reduce the magnitude of this horrible crime against humanity and decency.
But Israel is Israel. She has shown that cruelty is in her nature. Here I am talking about the successive Israeli governments and not Israeli people in general. I am sure there are many in Israel that if became aware of what really is happening would not approve of it. This of course excludes the settlers and the Zionist movement. These groups like the South African white supremacists consider others to be inferior to them; or that they have the God given right to do as they please.
But states seldom are representative of their people. It is the elite and / or the governing class that makes the decisions. The state of Israel is determined to never allow the Palestinians to have a viable state. The maximum that they are willing to allow is some form of Bantustan (South African) or North American reservation (for Native Americans). With carte blanche from U.S. and most of the European powers, Israel has been implementing this policy. Setting-up such a system takes many years. People’s spirit has to be crushed through collective punishment, economic strangulation and above all excessive and continuing violence. This has to continue for many years so the people lose hope of ever achieving anything more than what is on offer.
This of course cannot be done without the approval of other countries. Israel has the approval of the world’s most powerful nation, the United States. In addition, because of her U.S. connections, she has managed to get a nod and a wink from the Europeans as well. So with this carte blanche in hand she has set forth to change the “reality” on the ground in her favor.
By systematically settling extremists in the middle of populated Palestinian areas, she has made the creation of a viable Palestinian state almost impossible. A simple look at the map of the Palestinian territories resembles a Swiss cheese, with pockets of densely populated Palestinian areas surrounded by settlements and their protective military garrisons.
The violence both official (state sponsored) and unofficial (settlers) has been incessant. Couple this violence with economic strangulation and you will see the reasons behind the Palestinians’ anger and frustration. Any resistance is automatically branded as an act of terrorism and punished with even more violence, with U.S. and Europeans cheering the Israelis on the side lines.
If you recall when Georgia invaded the Russian protected enclave of Abkhazia, and met Russian counter attack, the whole Western world with U.S. at its head condemned Russia. Pushing for UN action and even sending warships with “humanitarian” supplies. Russians did not commit one thousandth of the Israeli atrocities and we had the Georgian president and other politician talking day and night about the horrible things the Russians were doing.
Yet today we have U.S. and European governments sitting silently watching this genocide taking place without doing anything. U.S. even vetoes resolutions condemning Israeli actions, forgetting that no peace is ever made possible by killing so many innocent women and children.
But whenever a power tries to relocate a group of people by force, the Newton’s Third Law of Motion comes into effect. Newton's Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if you try to imprison a person that person will try to break out. If you try to subjugate a people they will resist. This is the underlying causes of most liberation movements. The same applies to the Palestinians. They are resisting. We can agree or disagree with their methods, but theirs is a reaction to actions taken against them; we call this self-defense.
Israel is trying to push Palestinians into submission and in the process forcing many to leave the occupied territories. They are trying to show the Palestinians that they are alone and resistance in the face of an overwhelming force is suicide. Israel has tried this tactics before and has failed. The children that had to stay with their dead mothers for four days will not forget. The starved people of Gaza are not going to forget this barbarity; and neither shall the people of honor and conscious, regardless of their nationality, Israelis included.
But as for one of those who have followed the Israel’s actions for the past 30 years, I can say that I didn’t expect anything different from Israel. The lies and deceits are all too familiar to fall for again. The current Israeli action in Gaza was not a reaction to the recent event, but planned a year ago. Just read the New York Times article in which among others they interview a senior Israeli military officer.
Israel is now trying to portray herself as a nation that is defending itself, while the truth is that Israel is a cruel occupying power trying to force a people out of their land. And this is being done with the help of some Arab nations; the very same nations that constantly talk about Arab and Muslim solidarity. These nations are: Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
------ The Arab collaborators ---------
The often asked question, when it comes to the Palestinians, is about the role of Arab countries in the Palestinian struggle for freedom. The people not familiar with the political landscape of the area often see the Middle East as two camps, Arab countries on one side and Israel on the other. The reality is totally different. Israel has seldom been alone. Beside its usual American, French, British and other staunch allies, she has had the hidden backing of several Arab countries.
For close to 30 years now, many Arab countries have been collaborating with Israel; some like Egypt (gained independence: 1922) and Jordan (gained independence: 1946) openly while others like Saudi Arabia (founded: 1932), UAE (founded: 1972) and Kuwait (founded: 1961) from behind the scenes.
The reasons for this collaboration vary from country to country but they all have one thing in common: the rulers of these countries are all dictators and need foreign protection from their own people. Some such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and UAE were put in power by the British. The founder of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz bin Saud (the kingdom is name after him) was put in power by the British. The same goes for the others, except Egypt which experienced a coup by the army officers in 1952 resulting in the ousting of the monarchy and the accompanying British influence.
But the Western influence returned with Anwar Sadat. All these countries are dictatorships and all are under pressure from their people. What they cannot accept is any democratically elected form of government in their mist. They fear that if an Arab government becomes democratic they may have to become one themselves, hence losing power.
One of the things that they love about Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is that he won the election not by popular vote but by popular method of rigging the election; something that these Arab leaders understand and respect.
In contrast Hamas really represented the aspiration of the people. Soon, Mahmood Abbas term as president is over and he had to stand for re-election something that he would surely lose. In contrast Hamas really won the municipal elections in 2005 and the Parliamentary election in 2006. The elections were supervised by international observers, many from Europe, and U.S.
Palestinians were fed-up with the corrupt regime of Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah. They wanted to clean house. But as soon as Hamas took over, the U.S. and the Europeans put an embargo on Hamas. Israel closed the borders and refused to let anything into Gaza. Egypt also did the same.
What is not mentioned much in the media is that this was done with the complete approval of the Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. After all, Egypt could have opened its border for transfer of food and fuel.
Muslim Brotherhood has a branch or related organization in Jordan as well. Egypt and Jordan are worried that should Hamas survive and show its resistance, their people may get the idea that they can also resist the tyrannical rule of these despots. One must not forget that Muslim Brotherhood represents the only serious challenge to the Mubarak’s rule in Egypt.
---- Egypt -------
The 81 year old Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has been “president” since 1981 (28 years). He has won every election with a comfortable majority. He is much loved by his secret services. Prior to every election he arrests and imprisons all the opposition, ensuring a “clean” election.
Torture is so widely used and accepted in Egypt that U.S. out sources torturing of some its prisoners to Egypt. This alone should tell you volumes about the nature of Mubarak’s rule. He is now trying hard to crown his playboy son as his successor. But the Americans are not so sure if the son is capable of keeping the 80 million Egyptians in line and is therefore looking for alternative candidates.
The head of the feared main secret service is one of the prime candidates along with some of the top generals. Challenging him is the Muslim Brotherhood organization, enjoying grass root support from all sections of the Egyptian society including lawyers, doctors, judges and student associations. ?????????? Not surprisingly, U.S. and Israel call Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.????????????
By all accounts, the Muslim Brotherhood be it in Jordan, Egypt or the occupied territories such as Gaza runs a clean operation, running many charity organizations and providing services to the poor and the needy. As such wherever they are, they pose a threat to the corrupt regimes, since they provide an alternative to the people of that area.
----- Jordan------
King Abdullah II of Jordan, born of a British mother, educated in the West, including the Jesuit Center of Georgetown University, was brought to power by the CIA. His Uncle was a long time crown prince, yet after his father died in a U.S. hospital, Madeline Albright, Clinton’s Secretary of Estate flew to Jordan to inform the Jordanians that the King on his death bed had changed his will and named his son Abdullah as his successor. The new king Abdullah II married the Princeton graduate Lisa Halaby, the daughter of the former head of Pan American Airlines. She is now called Queen Noor; Noor meaning Light in Arabic.
The majority of this Kingdom of 5 million people are Palestinians who are not very friendly to this King. In 1967 there was a Palestinian uprising (led by PLO) against King Hussein (ruled: 1952-1999, the father of the current king), which resulted in heavy casualties among Palestinians.
In addition, the Kingdom is currently full of Iraqi refugees who resent the King’s help to the Americans in invasion of their country. On top of all this, we have the Muslim Brotherhood which tries hard to abolish the monarchy. King Abdullah relies heavily on the U.S. support and backing for staying in power. King Abdullah also sees a natural ally in Israel, a country that can come to its aid in case of another uprising.
---Saudi Arabia (House of Saud)------
I don’t have to tell you much about Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom is run by the 84 year old, ailing Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. His personal wealth is estimated at $21 billion USD. He rules a clan of 8000 princes who in turn rule the country. Saudi Arabia is the centre of corruption in the Arab world. The Saudi rulers corrupt everything with their money. Lacking the necessary mental power or physical courage, they try to stay in power by subterfuge, lies, and deception.
They fund the real extremists on the one hand while portraying themselves as the protectors of the Western interest on the other. They preach intolerance and xenophobia to their people decrying the Western decadence, while spending a lot of time enjoying the life in the West. They pay the West for protection against their own people and they pay the extremists to do their fighting elsewhere. Saudi rulers are indeed the worst of them all.
House of Saud is also the financier of the so called “Arab Moderates” and extremism that they cause. House of Saud financed the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. They later financed the Taliban. They also paid the Saddam Hussein to fight Iran. Then they paid the Americans and Egyptians to fight Saddam Hussein. They are the financiers of death and misery. They finance anything, anywhere, as long as this reduces the threat to their illegitimate rule.
They are currently financing the civil war in Somalia, bandits in Baluchistan and God knows what else. They are detested by their own people and neighbors yet loved by Bush, Cheney and the oil companies. As long as they provide the money and oil the U.S. is willing to tolerate them. And guess what? Muslim Brotherhood hates the House of Saud too. This makes them a threat and hence has to be dealt with.
---- The Collaboration -------
As can be seen each country has a good reason to eliminate Hamas, but each is restrained by its population. Israel has no such a restrain imposed on it. She not only can wage a terrible war, but also get assistance from Arab countries. Indeed it is the second time (the first was the Lebanon invasion of 2006) that Israel is getting open and solid support from these Arab countries. The invasion of Gaza was discussed in Egypt before its implementation. Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are Israel’s active partners.
Egypt is actively involved in stopping all aids from getting to Palestinians in Gaza save a token few trucks. These few trucks are allowed to go through so they can be filmed and shown to Egyptian people. All demonstrations are banned and all Egyptian volunteers for Gaza are either arrested or sent back.
There are hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the Muslim world that are willing to go to the aid of the Palestinians, but the Egyptian authorities don’t allow them passage. Egyptians even stop medical aid from passing through their territories.
This is part of a report from Associated Press:
“RAFAH, Egypt: Frustration is mounting at Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, where many local and foreign doctors are stuck after Egyptian authorities denied them entry into the coastal area now under an Israeli ground invasion.
Anesthesiologist Dimitrios Mognie from Greece idles his time at a cafe near the border, drinking tea and chatting with other doctors, aid workers and curious Egyptians.
""This is a shame,"" said Mognie, who decided to use his vacation time to try help Gazans. He thought entering through Egypt, which has a narrow border with the Hamas-ruled strip, was his best bet.
""That in 2009 they have people in need of help from a doctor and we can go to help and they won't let us. This is crazy,"" he added.”
In addition there are many Iranian cargo planes full of food and medicine which have been sitting on the tarmacs in Egypt for days waiting for permission to deliver their cargo. Egyptians even denied the medical aid sent by the son of the Libyan President Qaddafi to land in Egypt.
One thing is clear: these three countries do not want the Israelis to fail in their mission of totally destroying Gaza. Hosni Mubarak said so himself. The daily Haaretz reported that Hosni Mubarak had told European ministers on a peace mission that Hamas must not be allowed to win the ongoing war in Gaza.
As Egypt physically aids the Israeli military by denying food, fuel and medicine to the civilians, The House of Saud helps Israel by giving her time and diplomatic cover. When Israel started its invasion there was an immediate call for an Arab summit. Saudi Arabia and Jordan (along with Egypt of course) delayed the summit.
The Saudis along with the UAE said that they had another meeting to attend to and therefore Palestinian issue had to wait. After a few days when the summit was eventually held, they issued the same old statements. Yet this time same as the Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 2006, they blamed the victims.
In a statement Saudi Arabia blamed Hamas for Israel's continuing offensive in the Gaza Strip. Saudi Arabia, after blaming Hamas, declared that it will not even consider an oil embargo on Israel’s supporters. She then again blamed Hamas.
By this time, the three Arab countries along with Kuwait and UAE began singing the old song: international community is not doing anything about the catastrophe that is taking place in Gaza. It seems that these Arab tyrants have no shame at all. This reminds me of a quote from Marquis De Sade (1740-1814): “One is never so dangerous when one has no shame, than when one has grown too old to blush.”
These Arab leaders (many are indeed too old to blush) are complicit in the murder of so many civilians, especially young children. According to Agence France-Presse, quoting the medics on the ground, fully one third of all people killed have been children. How can these Arab leaders justify this to their people?
The answer is that they cannot. Israel knows this and for the second time can show the Arab street that their leaders are nothing but a bunch of old hypocrites. These Arab leaders are now exposed and can do nothing but to cooperate fully with Israel and U.S. What stand between them and their people’s rage is their army and secret services; which in turn are supported by U.S.
Israel has cleverly exposed these leaders for what they are: collaborators of the worst kind. These Arab leaders have brought an unimaginable shame to their people. To quote Lucien Bouchard: “I have never known a more vulgar expression of betrayal and deceit. Our hope is now with the people of these countries to clean this stain from their honor.”
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
A Message from a Gazan to the World
Gaza is Sinking in a River of Blood:
A Message from a Gazan to the World
By Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi
January 12, 2009 "Commondreams" --- I want to write about the suffering of my people and my family in these days of siege against the people of Gaza. 888 people have been killed and more than 3700 injured. The Red Cross has accused the Israeli military of repeatedly refusing to allow ambulances to go to Zeitoun area, so those who are injured become those who die; a premeditated and purposeful violation of human rights.
In my house we can't get basic needs. No food. No bread. No fuel. No future. Yesterday, my father went to the bakery at 5 AM. He waited 5 hours to get one loaf of bread, which is not enough for my family because there are 11 of us. So today it was my turn. I went to all the bakeries -- all were closed.
There is no safe place we can go. We cannot communicate with our relatives and friends -- networks are down as missiles rain on our homes, mosques and even hospitals.
Our life is centered around the burials of those who have died, our martyrs, At night our camp, Jabalya Refugee Camp, is a ghost town, with no sounds other than those of Israeli military aircraft.
There is a horror in every minute and it is clear especially in the lives of children. For example, there were five sisters in one family killed from the Israeli occupation while they stayed in their home. But there are 800,000 other children in Gaza, all afraid, all waiting for someone or something to help them. They are caught in a prison that is becoming a concentration camp. Every day we sleep and open our eyes to the Israeli crimes of killing children and women and destroying civilians' homes. My words are unable to convey my feelings about this life in Gaza.
I have two messages to the world, to those who claim they love peace and seek freedom.
Imagine your life consisting of no electricity, destroyed homes, the sounds and strikes of missiles, day and night, and the only hunger as great as that for food is the hunger for an end to this occupation and siege. Imagine it is not just you but your children and your family who tell you through their eyes and cries: "We are afraid of the missiles." "We cannot sleep." "We may never sleep again." Imagine you are the dam and the river of blood has turned into a flash flood. How long could you stand it?
We wouldn't have to stand it any longer if the world stood with us. If they demanded an end to the siege and the killings and demolition of houses for our children. If they demanded assistance reach the people through rallies and sit-ins.
Finally, I invite you to come to Gaza and see the Holocaust. Because despite the siege, the barriers, the killing of my people and homes, and the total destruction of our lives by the Israeli occupation, they can not and will not kill the will of our people for equality and justice.
Mohammed Al Majdawali is a university student, member of Al-Assria Children's Library, and volunteer with Middle East Children's Alliance. He lives in Jabalya Refugee Camp with his family and aspires to be a professional filmmaker.
To help MECA send more medical aid to Gaza for thousands of sick and injured people living under siege, www.mecaforpeace.org
A Message from a Gazan to the World
By Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi
January 12, 2009 "Commondreams" --- I want to write about the suffering of my people and my family in these days of siege against the people of Gaza. 888 people have been killed and more than 3700 injured. The Red Cross has accused the Israeli military of repeatedly refusing to allow ambulances to go to Zeitoun area, so those who are injured become those who die; a premeditated and purposeful violation of human rights.
In my house we can't get basic needs. No food. No bread. No fuel. No future. Yesterday, my father went to the bakery at 5 AM. He waited 5 hours to get one loaf of bread, which is not enough for my family because there are 11 of us. So today it was my turn. I went to all the bakeries -- all were closed.
There is no safe place we can go. We cannot communicate with our relatives and friends -- networks are down as missiles rain on our homes, mosques and even hospitals.
Our life is centered around the burials of those who have died, our martyrs, At night our camp, Jabalya Refugee Camp, is a ghost town, with no sounds other than those of Israeli military aircraft.
There is a horror in every minute and it is clear especially in the lives of children. For example, there were five sisters in one family killed from the Israeli occupation while they stayed in their home. But there are 800,000 other children in Gaza, all afraid, all waiting for someone or something to help them. They are caught in a prison that is becoming a concentration camp. Every day we sleep and open our eyes to the Israeli crimes of killing children and women and destroying civilians' homes. My words are unable to convey my feelings about this life in Gaza.
I have two messages to the world, to those who claim they love peace and seek freedom.
Imagine your life consisting of no electricity, destroyed homes, the sounds and strikes of missiles, day and night, and the only hunger as great as that for food is the hunger for an end to this occupation and siege. Imagine it is not just you but your children and your family who tell you through their eyes and cries: "We are afraid of the missiles." "We cannot sleep." "We may never sleep again." Imagine you are the dam and the river of blood has turned into a flash flood. How long could you stand it?
We wouldn't have to stand it any longer if the world stood with us. If they demanded an end to the siege and the killings and demolition of houses for our children. If they demanded assistance reach the people through rallies and sit-ins.
Finally, I invite you to come to Gaza and see the Holocaust. Because despite the siege, the barriers, the killing of my people and homes, and the total destruction of our lives by the Israeli occupation, they can not and will not kill the will of our people for equality and justice.
Mohammed Al Majdawali is a university student, member of Al-Assria Children's Library, and volunteer with Middle East Children's Alliance. He lives in Jabalya Refugee Camp with his family and aspires to be a professional filmmaker.
To help MECA send more medical aid to Gaza for thousands of sick and injured people living under siege, www.mecaforpeace.org
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