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May, 2004
Iraq Rapidly
Disintegrating
By Dahr Jamail
Iraq has been shattered. And now, today, over a
year since the horrible regime of Saddam Hussein was overthrown, what
is left of the country seems to be unraveling more and more with each
passing day
On Their Way
To Abu Ghraib
By Mike Ferner
As the U.S. now releases hundreds of men from Abu
Ghraib prison, another question, why were so many Iraqis locked
up there in the first place? Visit the village of Abu Siffa 30
miles north of Baghdad, and find out how 83 men were taken on the night
of December 16, 2003 and locked up in Abu Ghraib
Colonial Violence
Against Women In Iraq
By Ghali Hassan
Western Women's movements stood silent when tortures
and rapes of Iraqi women detainees came to light. Western "feminists"
are ready to attack with ferocity Moslem "fundamentalists"
and community leaders, but they failed to lift a finger when innocent
Iraqi women and girls are detained, tortured and raped by sick colonial
soldiers
29 May, 2004
How To Silence
An Awkward Newspaper
By John Pilger
The editor of the Daily Mirror, Britain's most
famous mass-circulation newspaper, was sacked because he ran the only
English-language popular paper to expose the "war on terror"
as a fraud and the invasion of Iraq as a crime
Catch-22 Revisited
By David Leigh
The world has focused on US soldiers' abuse of
Iraqi prisoners. But the leaked inquiry reveals incompetence worthy
of Joseph Heller's novel
Daily Life In
Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
It's been interesting watching the new influx of
retail goods: Pepsi, 7-up, and Coke are all here in force. Snickers,
Toblerone, and other western products as well....What other "progress"
can I report?
28 May, 2004
Slaughter In
The Streets
By Dahr Jamail
Driving anywhere in Baghdad on any given day, the
black funeral announcements of untimely deaths are hanging from buildings,
homes, and fences everywhere
27 May, 2004
In Solidarity
With The Iraqi People
By Ghali Hassan
The invasion and occupation of Iraq is a form of
globalisation by armed conquest. This armed conquest is the relic of
colonialism and we should not allow it to succeed
Mehdi Army Grows
By Dahr Jamail
The fighter is married and has six children, but
said he will be honored to become a martyr. "God will save my children
if I die because the Mehdi is the army of the people," he stated.
"This is an intifada of the people"
25 May, 2004
Face To Face
With Injustice
By Dahr Jamail
I think of how beneath the fury of the fighting
of Fallujah in April, lies a bottomless ocean of sadness. Under the
bloodshed and fighting that rages in the South even now, there is unfathomable
grief
24 May, 2004
Bringing Electricity
To Their Asses
By Dahr Jamail
In the dark humor that has become so popular in
Baghdad these days, one recently released detainee said, The Americans
brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my house!
The Marine's
Tale: 'We Killed
30 Civilians In Six Weeks'
By Natasha Saulnier
"In a month and a half my platoon and I killed
more than 30 civilians," Mr Massey said. He saw bodies being desecrated
and robbed, and wounded civilians being dumped by the roadside without
medical treatment. After he told his commanding officer that he felt
"we were committing genocide", he was called a "wimp"
Death Of A
Professor
By Luke Harding
Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly, a distinguished chemistry
professor, mysteriously die in Iraq prison. An independent Iraqi autopsy
reveal that Dr Izmerly had died because of a "sudden hit to the
back of his head"
23 May, 2004
Berg beheading:
Some Questions Raised
By Ritt Goldstein
A leading surgical authority and a noted forensic
death expert raises serious questions about the authenticity of the
Berg beheading video. They suggest the video might have been staged
Iraq's Seething
With Rage
By Dahr Jamail
As if the unremitting stream of horrendous photographs
documenting the widespread torturing of Iraqis within Abu Ghraib prison
(among other detention facilities throughout Iraq) are not enough, the
recent wedding party massacre has brought the fury to an entirely new
level
22 May, 2004
More Horrific
Pictures, Stories From Abu Ghraib
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington, Justin Huggler
and Leonard Doyle
The abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison continued
yesterday with the publication of fresh pictures and sworn statements
that detailed a teenage boy being raped, prisoners being ridden like
animals and other Iraqis being forced to eat pork and drink alcohol
in contravention of their religion
A Uterus Is
No Substitute For A Conscience
By Barbara Ehrenreich
The Abu Ghraib did something else to me, as a feminist:
They broke my heart. I had no illusions about the U.S. mission in Iraq
-- whatever exactly it is -- but it turns out that I did have some illusions
about women
21 May, 2004
The Horrific
Details Of The Wedding Party Massacre
By Rory McCarthy
"I fell into the mud and an American soldier
came and kicked me. I pretended to be dead so he wouldn't kill me. My
youngest child was alive next to me."
What About
The Women Prisoners?
By Luke Harding
A note slipped out from inside the jail written
by a woman prisoner claimed that US guards had been raping women detainees
and several of the women were pregnant, the women were forced to strip
naked in front of men. The secret inquiry launched by the US military
in January has confirmed that the letter was entirely and devastatingly
accurate
20 May, 2004
Wedding Party
Massacre
By Rory McCarthy
Iraqi officials last night said an American helicopter
fired on a wedding party in western Iraq killing more than 40 people,
including many children
Thumbs Up America-
More Photos Surface
By ABC News
More Photos Surface of soldiers giving thumbs up
sign by body of dead Iraqi prisoner
19 May, 2004
Ramadi- A Delicate
Lid
By Dahr Jamail
The city of Ramadi, about 120km west of Baghdad,
appears to be much more stable than nearby Falluja, where the U.S. military
currently wont enter the city after the failed siege of April.But
one must not forget that calm is a relative term in occupied Iraq
17 May, 2004
How A Secret
Pentagon Program
Came To Abu Ghraib
By Seymour M. Hersh
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was
not the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but a decision,
approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Why Dont They
Count The Dead?
By Kim Sengupta and Marie Woolf
Since the start of the invasion, 566 members of
the American military and 211 US civilians have died. The British figures
are 59 and 8. But the Americans and the British do not bother to keep
count of the people they have "liberated" and then killed
Press Freedom
In Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
With a wave of adrenaline I yelled, I am
press! I just want to get a comment from someone! Two soldiers
gestured their heads no with their heads while another waved
me away, all the while the soldier kept his gun trained on me
Examinations,
Fainting Children
Girl Blog From Iraq
The end-of-the-year examinations have started in
most of the schools. It's already unbearably hot and dusty and the heat
gets worse as summer progresses. Last year children were fainting in
the summer heat in schools with no electricity. We're hoping to avoid
that this year
Who Commands
The Private Soldiers?
By David Leigh
Allegations of abuse have raised wider questions
about the role - and accountability - of civilian contractors in Iraq
15 May, 2004
1600 Abuse Pictures
Shown In Secret
By Associated Press
The unreleased pictures of prisoner abuse in Iraq
include images of corpses, military dogs snarling at cowering prisoners,
women commanded to expose their breasts and sex acts, including forced
homosexual sex
Who Cares If Iraqi
Prisoners Die - US Soldier's Diary
By Mark Sage
An American soldier's video diary shows her saying
coldly about two Iraqi prisoners who died in custody: "Who cares?
That's two less for me to worry about."
13 May, 2004
'They Abused
Me And Stole My Dignity'
By Rory McCarthy
Saddam Salah al-Rawi, 29, who was held for four
months at the Abu Ghraib jail describes how he spent 18 days naked alone
in a cell, often with his hands and feet bound together, and was frequently
beaten, urinated on and occasionally photographed hooded and naked by
American troops
The story
of Nick Berg - A Tale That Haunts America
By Andrew Buncombe
One senses that Nick Berg's murder has shocked
America in a way perhaps more powerful even than the 700 US soldiers
who have been killed in Iraq
Do You Know
Why They Hate USA?
By Roshnisen Gupta
An open letter to the president of the United States
of America
12 May, 2004
American Beheaded
On Live Video In Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe and Justin Huggler
A group linked to al-Qa'ida released a video showing
five of its members beheading an American businessman in Iraq, in what
it said was revenge for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail by
US troops. The man's body was found dumped in Baghdad
British Army 'Killing
Civilians'
By Sanjay Suri
The British army has been killing civilians in
areas of southern Iraq that it controls, says a report by Amnesty International
Accounts Of
Atrocities Emerge
From The Rubble Of Falluja
By Dahr Jamail
Along with the daily publication of photos documenting
the atrocities occuring in Abu Ghraib, stories like these underscore
what most people in Iraq now believe -- that the liberators have become
no more than brutal imperialist occupiers of their country
Across America,
War Means Jobs
By Jonathan Weisman
From the manufacturers of armoured vehicles to
apparel manufactures are doing great business. But it wasn't President
Bush's tax cuts, Federal Reserve interest rate policies or even a general
economic turnaround that did the trick. It was war
11 May, 2004
Fallujah Celebrates
As Marines Leave
By Dahr Jamail
After the Marines left, thousands upon thousands
of residents of the defiant city, joined by mujahideen fighters and
US-trained Iraqi police and soldiers, poured into the streets to celebrate
what Fallujans saw as their "victory" over US forces in the
battle for their city
10 May, 2004
Bush's Rape And
Torture Rooms
By Seymour M. Hersh
More revalations on the Abu Ghraib torture chambers
and pictures published on the New Yorker Mag
Imposing A Flag
With Tanks And Guns
By Dahr Jamail
"I have yet to see the new flag
anywhere, aside from seeing it burned in Fallujah. Anywhere it is flown,
it is promptly torn down. Nobody would dare hang one in their car"
Support The Iraqi
ResistanceMovement!
By James Petras
Since the resistance began a year ago
not
a single US intellectual, of the dozens of progressive, critical thinkers
("Not in My Name") has dared to declare their solidarity with
the anti-colonial struggle. "But", they protest, "we
oppose the war" while they scramble to endorse candidate Kerry
who does support the war and even calls for 40,000 more troops to pour
missiles into crowded neighborhoods
A Baghdad Love
Story
By Toufic Haddad
Taking pictures of themselves smiling at hooded
Iraqi prisoners' genitalia, arranging them in naked pyramids, or putting
dog leashes around their necks.... This is the story of Lynndie England
and Spc. Charles Graner.The occupation of Iraq's first love story
09 May, 2004
More Horrific
Pictures To Follow
By Andrew Buncombe
The Bush administration is bracing itself for the
release of new pictures and video footage from Abu Ghraib which show
US soldiers having sex with an Iraqi woman prisoner, troops almost beating
a prisoner to death, and the rape of young boys by Iraqi guards at the
jail
The Pornography
Of Pain
By Joanna Bourke
The pictures of American soldiers humiliating Iraqi
detainees are reminiscent of sadomasochistic porn
Savages Of The
21st Century
By Robert Fisk
The American torturers in Iraq are creatures of
our century. For if you are taught to despise your enemy as inhuman,
you will - if you get the chance - cease to be a human yourself
Just Go...
By An Unknown Iraqi Girl
I sometimes get emails asking me to propose solutions
or make suggestions. Fine. Today's lesson: don't rape, don't torture,
don't kill and get out while you can
08 May, 2004
Fresh Graves
Of Falluja
By Dahr Jamail
Rows and rows of fresh graves fill the football
stadium in Falluja. Many of them are smaller than others. My translator
Nermim reads the gravestones to me: This one is a little girl.
We take another step. And this one is her sister. Next to them
is their mother.
The Immoral war
By Robert Fisk
The Abu Ghraib pictures have the status of those
most damaging snapshots of the Vietnam war: the police chief in Saigon
executing his Vietcong prisoner, the naked girl burnt by napalm, the
pile of bodies at My Lai. For Arabs, read Deir Yassin and the corpses
piled in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Chatila in 1982
Nothing New,
It's Racism
By John Pilger
In boasting openly about killing "rats in
their nest," US marine snipers, who in Falluja shot dead women,
children and the elderly, just as German snipers shot dead Jews in the
Warsaw Ghetto, were reflecting the racism of their leaders
07 May, 2004
The couple
At The Centre Of A Scandal
That Horrified The World
By Andrew Buncombe
A journey into the backyard of the couple Lynndie
England and Charles Graner who gained notoriety by the torture pictures
of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
Hellish Scenes
From A Suicide Bomb Explosion
By Dahr Jamail
"A leg was found 200 meters from the blast
site. Broken glass covers the grass near the line of blasted cars.Ambulance
sirens blared, soldiers yelled at people who got too close, and the
overall feeling of doom and sadness pervaded the hellish scene."
Pictures Of Wounded
Men
Being Shot Censored By TV
By Robert Fisk
As a wounded Iraqi crawls from beneath a burning
truck, an American helicopter pilot tells his commander that one of
three men has survived his night air attack. He received the reply:
"Hit him, hit the truck and him." As the helicopter's gun
camera captures the scene on video, the pilot fires a 30mm gun at the
wounded man, vaporising him in a second
06 May, 2004
A torture Victim
Recalls The Humiliation
By Andrew Buncombe and Justin Huggler
Hayder Sabbar Abd, the man in the hood, who was
stripped, humiliated, beaten and abused by American reservists and interrogators
at Abu Ghraib prison speaks of his humiliation
Ali Baba's Of
Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
Daily life is a struggle for most Iraqis, and
it isn't helped by the brutal occupation or by the corrupt police department
who act like Ali Babas (thieves) of the street
05 May, 2004
The Horror Story
Of Sadiq Zoman
By Dahr Jamail
American soldiers detained Zoman at his residence
in Kirkuk on July 21, 2003 when they raided the Zoman family home.More
than a month later, on August 23, US soldiers dropped Zoman off, already
comatose, at a hospital in Tikrit where he is still lying in coma
Abu Ghuraib
Prisoners Speak of 'Torture'
Ex-detainees say acts of abuse were too immoral
to talk about
Washington
Fields Mercenary Army In Iraq
By Harvey Thompson
According to recent estimates there are around
15,000 private bodyguards and security personnel operating inside Iraq,
of which at least 6,000 are believed to be armedmaking them the
second biggest military presence after the US Army
04 May, 2004
The Psychodynamics
Of Occupation
By Stephen Soldz
What happened at Abu Graib prison is the direct
consequence of the logic of occupation and the planners and organizers
of that occupation bear primary responsibility
03 May, 2004
Subcontracting
The War
By James Conachy
Operating behind a veil of state and corporate
secrecy military work is being subcontracted to private security firms.
It is one of the most outrageous forms of war profiteering taking place
under the auspices of the Bush administration
Indians Back
Home From Iraq After
Ordeal In U.S. Camp
By Ignatius Pereira
After facing great difficulties, four natives of
Velichakala, Kerala state, India, who worked as kitchen assistants at
U.S. military camp in Iraq, escaped from there and reached home today
Torture At Abu
Ghraib
By Seymour M. Hersh
American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up
does the responsibility go?
02 May, 2004
Iraqis Declare
Victory Over U.S. In Falluja
Many returning Falluja residents found their homes
damaged or destroyed, but saw the absence of American soldiers in their
city as a victory over the U.S.-led forces occupying Iraq
1,361 Iraqis
Killed In April
By Lee Keath
A count by The Associated Press found that around
1,361 Iraqis were killed from April 1 to April 30 _ 10 times the figure
of at least 136 U.S. troops who died during the same period
01 May, 2004
Lured By Dollars
Indian Soldiers Are In Iraq
By Siddharth Srivastava
In a very discreet operation, US and British security
sub-contractors are seeking out Indian ex-servicemen known for their
professionalism and discipline for deployment in Iraq
Bush Can't
Count On The Saudis
By Marshall Auerback
The hope that Saudis would try to fine-tune oil
prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move that would
favor Bush's reelection could be very misplaced
Mutiny In Iraq
By Naomi Klein
The last month of inflammatory US aggression in
Iraq has inspired what can only be described as a mutiny: Waves of soldiers,
workers and politicians under the command of the US occupation authority
are suddenly refusing to follow orders and abandoning their posts