News and Stories From Around The Globe - March 2003

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Sunday 30th March, 2003

US Marines turn fire on civilians at the bridge of death
Mark Franchetti, Nasiriya - The Times - March 30, 2003
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-628258,00.html

THE light was a strange yellowy grey and the wind was coming up, the beginnings of a sandstorm. The silence felt almost eerie after a night of shooting so intense it hurt the eardrums and shattered the nerves. My footsteps felt heavy on the hot, dusty asphalt as I walked slowly towards the bridge at Nasiriya. A horrific scene lay ahead.

Some 15 vehicles, including a minivan and a couple of trucks, blocked the road. They were riddled with bullet holes. Some had caught fire and turned into piles of black twisted metal. Others were still burning. Amid the wreckage I counted 12 dead civilians, lying in the road or in nearby ditches. All had been trying to leave this southern town overnight, probably for fear of being killed by US helicopter attacks and heavy artillery.

Their mistake had been to flee over a bridge that is crucial to the coalition's supply lines and to run into a group of shell-shocked young American marines with orders to shoot anything that moved. One man's body was still in flames. It gave out a hissing sound. Tucked away in his breast pocket, thick wads of banknotes were turning to ashes. His savings, perhaps.

Down the road, a little girl, no older than five and dressed in a pretty orange and gold dress, lay dead in a ditch next to the body of a man who may have been her father. Half his head was missing. Read on

Thursday 27th March, 2003

Because Al-Jazeera attempts to tell the shocking truth about war some of those in the "land of the free" have decided they shouldn't have a voice. Crackers based in the U.S. continue to undermine the Al-Jazeera website. Has North America finally become Nazi Germany?

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel - Samuel Johnson

Al-Jazeera tells the truth about war - The Guardian
"My station is a threat to American media control - and they know it"

Wednsday 26th March, 2003

Al-Jazeera, an Arab news outlet famous for its independence and willingness to reflect reality, has launched an English-language website - but heavy traffic and a denial-of-service attack launched from the U.S. have made it difficult to reach so far. And in "the land of the free" Al Jazeera has had its credentials revoked by the New York Stock Exchange

This useful website provides an English translation of material posted to iraqwar.ru, a website established by Russian journalists and military analysts to provide information based on Russian intelligence reports.

The truth about Churchill, Bush's idol - oh he gassed the Kurds too?

Whose 'truth' is being reported? - by Mohammed el-Nawawy, Tuesday 8th April, 2003

Graves - by Robert Fisk, Tuesday 1st April, 2003
Many of our imperial forces won't be coming home.

Mike Moore's Oscar acceptance speech - Tuesday 25th March, 2003

"I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to — they're here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction. We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fictition of duct tape or fictition of orange alerts we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much." You can also listen to a very moving talk Mike has with the press after the awards.

CNN and Rumsfeld Strike Again - Sunday 23rd March, 2003

There they go again telling everyone that we've been deployed by the Iraqis and that we've been deployed to military targets. Once again you can go to our locations page to find out where we have voluntarily deployed ourselves. And once again you can read our earlier response to misreporting. Great to hear they've seen the "Human Shields" signs we painted too. Transcript:

BLITZER: We're getting reports now from some of our embedded journalists on the front lines suggesting that the Iraqis are placing so-called human shields at various military and other strategic targets as U.S. and coalition forces move up towards Baghdad. If that's the case, will that deter you from going after those targets?

RUMSFELD: I do not have information to that effect, although we've seen photographs indicating that the Iraqis have written on the tops of some buildings that there are human shields there. That also is a violation of international law. The Iraqis have a practice of violating international law and ignoring international conventions and treaties.

Has Rummy turned a new leaf?

Isn't Donald Rumsfeld such a nice guy, looking out for his troops that have been taken prisoner and all. Appearing on CBS television last night, Rumsfeld was shown footage of US soldiers (i.e. war criminals, or "unlawful combatants" as Rumsfeld might say) who had been taken prisoner by the Iraqi army.

"That's a violation of the Geneva Convention, those pictures you showed," he said of the international law on treatment of prisoners of war, which he said prohibits the photographing or interrogation by media of those captured in battle.

To tell you the truth we are in shock and awe that anyone in the Bush administration has even read the Geneva Convention.

Apart from the obvious fact that Rumsfeld and Co. are pursuing an illegal war in Iraq it seems to have slipped Rummy’s mind that Afghani PoWs have been tortured and paraded around by US troops in hoods and chains at “Camp X-Ray,” Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Of course it also seems to have slipped Rummy's mind that pictures of Iraqi PoWs have featured prominently on US television and in newspapers over the past few days. Maybe Rummy isn't looking out for his troops after all. Maybe he just doesn't want the realities of war to be shown in the media. No new leaf. Looks like Rummy's the same deluded hypocritical war criminal he always was.

Tuesday 18th March, 2003

Cook's resignation speech

Watch with Realplayer:
pnm://rm.bbc.net.uk/news/olmedia/cta/events03/ukpol/hoc/cook17mar.rm

February 14th, 2003

Section-by-Section Analysis of Justice Department