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The Faces of Collateral Damage - Baghdad, March 2003

 

News and Stories From Around The Globe - April 2003

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Wednesday 30th April, 2003

U.S. Troops Fire on Iraqi Protesters Again;
2 Reported Dead United States soldiers opened fire here today on marchers protesting a clash late Monday night in which 15 anti-American demonstrators were reported killed by American troops. The city's mayor and hospital officials said two protesters were killed in today's incident and 14 were wounded.

US forces arrest Baghdad's 'mayor'
U.S. forces have arrested an Iraqi exile who had proclaimed himself Baghdad's mayor, saying he was exerting authority he did not have. Sounds like someone we know in the White House.

We are not with you and we don't believe you
The message from Moscow --Poodle Tony Blair's first public attempt to heal the diplomatic wounds of the Iraq war suffered a humiliating rebuff yesterday when Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, refused to lift UN sanctions and mocked the possibility that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq.

Straw: Iraq May Not Have WMDs
Mixed message paves way for search failure --There may be NO weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw admitted yesterday. He told the Commons that war was declared because the regime had ONCE been in possession of them.

Matters of Emphasis --by Paul Krugman "...in September Mr. Bush cited an International Atomic Energy Agency report that he said showed that Saddam was only months from having nuclear weapons. 'I don't know what more evidence we need,' he said. In fact, the report said no such thing — and for a few hours the lead story on MSNBC's Web site bore the headline 'White House: Bush Misstated Report on Iraq.' Then the story vanished — not just from the top of the page, but from the site."

Bush Regime throws its toys out of the cot at Belgium
The Bush dictatorship has reacted angrily to suggestions that General Tommy Franks, the commander of the US-led war in Iraq, might be charged with war crimes. A senior regime official warned that even the issuing of indictments would result in what he called " diplomatic consequences " for Belgium .

Tuesday 29th April, 2003

Iraqis Organize to Oppose U.S. Military Occupation

U.S. Iraq Policy for Dummies

Oh boy, wouldn't be great to have your "democracy" run by these criminals:

Rummy's North Korea Connection
What did Donald Rumsfeld know about ABB's deal to build nuclear reactors there? And why won't he talk about it?

Lunch with the Chairman
Why was Richard Perle meeting with Adnan Khashoggi?

Friday 25th April, 2003

Journalism? by John Pilger
On 8 April, newspapers around the world carried a despatch from a Reuters correspondent, "embedded" with the US army, about the murder of a ten-year-old Iraqi boy. An American private had "unloaded machine-gun fire and the boy . . . fell dead on a garbage-strewn stretch of wasteland". The tone of the report was highly sympathetic to the soldier, "a softly spoken 21-year-old" who, "although he has no regrets about opening fire, it is clear he would rather it was not a child he killed".

Short-sighted U.S. Foreign Policy Spells Trouble Ahead
Recommended reading.

Keep out of town hall, Kut tells US troops

Whoops, oh they're not allowed self-determination after all

Dunno why they don't just invade? Oh, that's right, because they actually pose a threat, as opposed to the defenseless Iraq (or was that the "imminent threat" Iraq?).

The war at home
"It's time to defend our liberties before Patriot Act II makes protest a crime."

Will pre-emptive war, such as in Iraq, make the United States safer in the long term?
The United States is more at risk as a result of President George W. Bush's new policy of pre-emptive attack. Consider just a few reasons for the decline in America's safety

Dixie sluts fight on with naked defiance

Afghan security deteriorates as Taliban regroup

Thursday 24th April, 2003

The Anti-war Movement Was Right

The Unthinkable Is Becoming Normal

The Pentagon's favourite potential puppet leader Ahmed Chalabi - who hasn't lived in Iraq for 30 years and has already been convicted of massive financial corruption in Jordan and Lebanon is facing a new bank scandal in Switzerland. At least he's in good company with Richard Perle.

Pilgrims threaten jihad against American forces

No prizes for guessing why Bush bars UN weapons teams from Iraq

U.S. Comes Up Empty in Iraq Weapons Hunt
American forces are changing their search strategy after coming up empty at most of the top suspected weapons sites in Iraq, officials said Wednesday.

Russian official predicts 'catastrophic' events in US-North Korean nuclear standoff

North Korea issues war warning to US

U.S. back in nuclear bomb-making business

Information Clearing House is the latest dissenting website to be cracked by "freedom loving" North Americans.

Tuesday 22nd April, 2003

The Hypocrisy Of The 9/11 Commission 
The Commission is restricted to $3 million for their investigations. By comparison, the government spent over $47 million by March of 1999 investigating Clinton's Whitewater and Monica Lewinski dealings

This is what our political representatives have to deal with when they follow democratic principles in a world dominated by so-called leaders, who hate democracy.

Surprise surprise, the U.S. regime thinks it should choose the police, the prosecutor, and the judge regarding alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Monday 21st April, 2003

The Unthinkable Is Becoming Normal

Sunday 20th April, 2003

We've had many North Americans writing to us exclaiming that the U.S. wouldn't maintain military bases in Iraq:
Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq - The New York Times

We doubt it will be long before we are posting links regarding the installation of a U.S. puppet government and reports of U.S. companies taking over Iraqi oil wells; two other things vehemently denied by the North Americans who write to us.

Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil

Amnesty International - "US more keen on oil than Iraqi people"

Wednesday 16th April, 2003

Americans wanted to see their troops greeted as liberators, so that's what they saw on TV

US bars access to oil ministry, power plan

Saturday 19th April, 2003

America Liberates Iraqi Oil

Friday 18th April, 2003

Human Shield, Uzma Bashir - a lady with real attitude

Tens of Thousands of Baghdad Protesters Demand That U.S. Get Out of Iraq

Iraq's war of liberation from the Americans is about to begin

Thursday 17th April, 2003

For the people on the streets, this is not liberation but a new colonial oppression

Postwar Objectives In Iraq

Wednesday 16th April, 2003

U.S. protects oil and intelligence ministries but allows rest to be destroyed

So who really did save Private Jessica?

American soldiers fire on political rally, killing at least 10 civilians

Urgent appeal from Western Doctors in Baghdad

Tuesday 15th April, 2003

In bombed neighborhoods, everyone 'wants to kill Americans'

‘No to Saddam, No to US’

How many Americans have forgotten that it was a CIA coup that brought Saddam Hussein's Baath party into power in the first place

U.S. Forces deliberately encouraged the Looting

If Syria, Iran have chemical weapons so do Israel… and Egypt

Sunday 13th April, 2003

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Friday 11th April, 2003

US says flag incident was a 'coincidence' - Independent

Crime Against Humanity - John Pilger

Baghdad, Mosul and Basra suffer the joys of liberation
Hospitals, universities, banks and shops are being looted, Geneva Conventions are now conveniently forgotten.

Iraqis Glad Saddam Going, Want US Out

Who's next in this Imperial war? - US-Syria tension levels rise

Vindication - A Statue Falls - David Edwards

Rumsfeld cracks jokes, but Iraqis aren't laughing

The Day After the Statues Fall - Phyllis Bennis

“Down the Memory Hole” With Weapons of Mass Destruction? - Paul Street

Thursday 10th April, 2003

"Regime change" - who's next? - Al-Jazeera

Action, not speculation - Cynthia Peters interviews Noam Chomsky - ZNet

Chemical Hypocrites - George Monbiot

Chemical and Nuclear Weapons Used Against Iraq - Simon Helweg-Larsen

'A picture of killing inflicted on a sprawling city' - Suzanne Goldenberg in Baghdad

Horror, Cruelty And Misery - The Real Meaning Of "Liberation" - Media Lens

The CIA Is Back On Campus - David N. Gibbs

Eliminating Truth: The Development Of War Propaganda, by David Miller
The attack on Iraq looks set to be the most censored conflict of modern times.

Wednesday 9th April, 2003

The Outline Of the Beast - Arundhati Roy

Saddam Hussein is a killer, and in the past, the U.S. and the UK governments have supported many of his worst excesses.

The U.S. and UK have bombed Iraq’s infrastructure, fired depleted uranium into Iraq’s farmlands, blocked vaccines and hospital equipment, contributing to hundreds of thousands of deaths of children under five. Denis Halliday, the former UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, has called the sanctions a form of genocide.

If you lifted the sanctions, Iraqi society might have gained the strength to overthrow their dictator (just like the people of Indonesia, Serbia, Romania overthrew theirs).

And if it’s repression, sectarianism and human rights abuses we’re concerned about, let’s also turn our attention to Colombia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Central Asian Republics, Israel, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Burma and, of course, America...Shall we pre-empt Saddam and bomb them all? Then he won’t have anyone left to kill.

The greatest threat to the world today is not Saddam Hussein, it’s George Bush (joined at the hip to his new foreign secretary, Tony Blair). Read more.

Who Hates America?

Amid Jubilation A Child Lies In Agony

Iraqi People Facing Humanitarian Crisis

U.S. Bombing Kills 11 Afghan Civilians

Does The US Military Want To Kill Journalists

Tuesday 8th April, 2003

How does it feel to kill a child soldier? "I think they thought we wouldn't shoot kids. But we showed them we don't care. We are going to do what we have to do to stay alive and keep ourselves safe."

Iraq is a trial run - in an interview by Frontline, Ramachandran and Chomsky discuss the real motives behind the invasion of Iraq and the progress of Imperial forces.

It Seemed As If Baghdad Would Fall Within Hours by Robert Fisk
How does it feel to be a citizen of the most hypocritical colonising culture the world has ever seen?

Latest WMD "smoking gun" turns out to be pesticide

"Freedom lovers" target the press

Those "defenders of freedom" in charge of the Pentagon at the moment have succeeded in killing a journalist working for the Al-Jazeera television network in Baghdad today. The U.S. bombed the Sheraton hotel where Al-Jazeera's reporters were staying in Basra last Tuesday but were unable to kill anyone. This time a U.S. warplane bombed their office in Baghdad with predictable results.Later in the morning the Palestine Hotel, home to the international press corps, was also struck. Read more or here.

The channel also charged that US forces fired on one of its vehicles near Baghdad yesterday. Read more.

Further to that the U.S. based company providing web server services to Al-Jazeera has cancelled its contract with no explanation, while the U.S. based company Yahoo is refusing to run advertising from Al-Jazeera due to "war-related sensitivity." Read more.

Sunday 6th April, 2003

Dear America: A Letter to My Country - S. Brian Willson

Tuesday 1st April, 2003

Peter Arnett, the former NBC correspondent who was fired for being a journalist, wrote his first column for his new employer today.

Last months links