By Marjorie Cohn
t r u t h o u t | Report

Monday 30 January 2006

In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior US military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.

Zarqawi's Forces Kill U.S.-Allied Iraqis And Impose Strict Law, Witnesses Say

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 6, 2005; A20

BAGHDAD, Sept. 5 -- Fighters loyal to militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi asserted control over the key Iraqi border town of Qaim on Monday, killing U.S. collaborators and enforcing strict Islamic law, according to tribal members, officials, residents and others in the town and nearby villages.

Residents said the foreign-led fighters controlled by Zarqawi, a Jordanian, apparently had been exerting authority in the town, within two miles of the Syrian border, since at least the start of the weekend. A sign posted at an entrance to the town declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Qaim."

by Black Commentator; Black Commentator; April 16, 2005

The debate on the draft, to the extent it exists, focuses too heavily on the U.S. military crisis in Iraq and far too little on American domestic arrangements that enabled the Bush Pirates to launch their War Against All, in which Iraq was supposed to be only the first, triumphal episode. Although it is unquestionably true that Iraqi resistance has strained U.S. forces to the breaking point – compelling the Bush men to torture their own soldiers with extended tours of duty and to prepare a selective draft of citizens possessing special skills – it does not follow that a draft will rescue the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld Grand Plan. Quite the opposite: a universal military and national service draft such as proposed by Harlem’s Charles Rangel and a small group of other congressmen would utterly wreck the social compact that makes endless war politically possible, by forcing Americans to ponder the consequences of U.S. foreign policy to their own families and friends for the first time in 32 years.

When a state is determined to pursue war, and all forms of indirect symbolic protest actions have failed to sway politicians to halt their imperialist aggression, the only remaining option is direct action by the working class. One option is a general strike by workers that can effect the production and transpiration of military capital, that is the materials essential for the war machine. The other is to deprive the military of the labor it needs to fight the war. The slogan from the Vietnam War protests deliberately speaks to this, "What if they had a war, and no one came?" The U.S. military is overwhelmingly recruited from the working class, and convincing our class as a whole to refuse to work for this blood money may be our best chance for both ending the war in Iraq and limiting the imperialist ambitions of the U.S. for future decades.

By Robert Fisk in Baghdad - 29 July 2004

http://www.k1m.com/antiwarblog/archives/000113.html 

Iraq, we are told by Mr Blair, is safer. It is not. US military reports clearly show much of the violence in Iraq is not revealed to journalists, and thus goes largely unreported. This account of the insurgency across Iraq over three days last week provides astonishing proof that Iraq under its new, American-appointed Prime Minister, has grown more dangerous and violent.

read Tarek's blog at www.tarek.2y.net/iraq

The News From Planet Falluja

by CHRISTIAN PARENTI

[posted online on July 5, 2004]

Tariq is an upper-middle-class Canadian medical student of Palestinian origin. He is a Muslim, fluent in Arabic and English, very smart, very young, brave and a bit naïve. He is an obsessive computer geek with a tendency toward pedantry on matters technological. Over the past two years he has spent several months in Palestine doing solidarity work.

Resistance attacks continue despite handover

by Al Jazeera

Tuesday 29 June 2004 6:23 GMT

Three US marines have been killed in a roadside bomb blast in Baghdad in the first reported fatal attack on US occupation forces in Iraq since the formal handover of authority to an interim government.

ZNet | Iraq

Control of Security Forces

by Dahr Jamail; The NewStandard; June 14, 2004

Baghdad , Jun 14 - Even as authorities for the US-run occupation cede a greater share of security responsibilities to Iraqi forces, spokespeople for the Iraqi police and paramilitaries in many areas of the war-torn country say they lack the legitimacy and tools necessary to carry out their duties. With the transfer of official sovereignty to a US-sanctioned governing body just over two weeks away, officials with both the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and the Iraqi Police complain they are understaffed, under-equipped and undermined by the US.

The “Iraqi Resistance” and Worker-communists

from www.wpiraq.org

May 18,2004

“The situation in Nasiriyiah today May 18th is
relatively calm. The Mahdi Army fled the fight against

By Aladdin Saad

TAJI, Iraq (Reuters) - Guerrillas detonated a car bomb outside an Iraqi security force base just north of Baghdad Sunday, killing nine people and wounding dozens in the latest attack on Iraqis cooperating with occupying troops.

The latest from Juan Cole. juancole.com

Sistani Meets Muqtada; Ceasefire Taking Hold

Fighting continued Saturday in East Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed two US soldiers and wounded two others. Mahdi Army militiamen attacked a police station and the police were supported by US troops in returning fire. They killed at least one militiaman.

Two Killed in Attack on Convoy in Baghdad
Sunday May 30, 2004 7:01 PM
By MARIAM FAM
Associated Press Writer

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers clashed with Shiite gunmen in this holy city on Sunday, further eroding an agreement to end the bloody standoff with followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Gunmen, meanwhile, attacked a convoy of sport utility vehicles in Baghdad, killing at least two people, witnesses said.

April-May GI Iraq Death Toll Tops 200
Sunday May 30, 2004 5:31 PM
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - American troops in Iraq died in May at a rate of more than two per day, pushing the combined death count for April and May beyond 200, according to Pentagon figures.

www.albasrah.net

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Sunday, 16 May 2004 and Monday, 17 May 2004. Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice.

THE STRATFOR WEEKLY
17 May 2004

Iraq: New Strategies

By George Friedman

Last week, Stratfor published an analysis, "The Edge of the
Razor," that sketched out the problems facing the United States

A Daily Look at U.S. Iraq Military Deaths
Tuesday May 18, 2004 3:46 AM
By The Associated Press

As of Monday, May 17, 783 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq last year, according to the Department of Defense. Of those, 571 died as a result of hostile action and 212 died of non-hostile causes.

1. Hizb Allah condemns beheading- al jazeera

2. The Merciless Killing of Nicholas Berg-by Marwa Elnaggar from Islam Online posted at www.globalresearch.ca

1. Hizb Allah condemns beheading

THE STRATFOR WEEKLY
11 May 2004

The Edge of the Razor

Summary

The strategy of the United States in its war with radical Islam is in a state of crisis. The global strategic framework is in much better shape than the tactical situation in the Iraq theater of operations -- but this is of only limited comfort to Washington because massive tactical failure in Iraq could lead to strategic collapse. The situation is balanced on the razor's edge. The United States could recover from its tactical failures, or suffer a massive defeat if it fails to do so. One thing is certain: The United States cannot remain balanced on the razor's edge indefinitely.

American beheaded in revenge for torture

Brian Whitaker, Luke Harding in Baghdad and Associated Press in Cairo
Wednesday May 12, 2004

The Guardian
A US hostage in Iraq was pictured being beheaded by Islamic militants in a video released yesterday that said that the grisly act was revenge for the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US troops.

Five men wearing headscarves and black masks were pictured standing behind a bound man in a Guantánamo Bay-style orange jumpsuit, who identified himself briefly before one of his captors put a large knife to his neck. A scream was heard, followed by shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" - "God is greatest" - as the head was held out to the camera.

Three U.S. Soldiers Killed in Two Attacks
Reports of Fighting Between U.S. Troops and Shiite Militia in Najaf

NAJAF, Iraq, May 6 -- Insurgents attacked U.S. troops Thursday in the Shiite Muslim holy cities of Najaf and Karbala after American armored units in both cities moved to assert authority by seizing key buildings.

3 articles:

1. U.S. Hostage Freed; 11 GIs Killed
May 2, 2004

...In other developments in Iraq:

Eleven soldiers were killed in separate attacks, raising the U.S. death toll to 151 since a wave of violence began on April 1. Six American service members killed in mortar attack in Anbar province, which includes such flashpoint cities as Fallujah and Ramadi in the Sunni Triangle. One U.S. soldier was killed Sunday and 10 were wounded in a bomb and small arms attack on a coalition base near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, the U.S. military said. Overnight, Shiite militiamen killed two soldiers in an attack on a U.S. convoy near the southern city of Amarah, 180 miles south of Baghdad. An attack in northwest Baghdad killed two other soldiers and wounded two Iraqi security officers and another American, the military said...

2 U.S. Sailors, 1 Soldier Killed in Iraq
Saturday May 1, 2004 12:01
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. soldier was killed in a roadside bombing and two U.S. sailors died while conducting operations in Iraq's central Anbar province, the U.S. military said Saturday.

Car bomb kills 8 US soldiers

Associated Press
Thursday April 29, 2004

Eight US soldiers were killed and four others injured when a car bomb exploded south of Baghdad today, the US military said.

U.S. Toll in Iraq Hits 115 for Month

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday by insurgents in Baghdad, bringing the American combat death toll for April to 115 — the same number of U.S. combatants killed in the two-month invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) a year ago.

The Lasting Wounds of War
Roadside Bombs Have Devastated Troops and Doctors Who Treat Them

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 27, 2004; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- The soldiers were lifted into the helicopters under a moonless sky, their bandaged heads grossly swollen by trauma, their forms silhouetted by the glow from the row of medical monitors laid out across their bodies, from ankle to neck.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One U.S. soldier was killed in clashes with guerrillas in the Iraqi flashpoint town of Falluja and two were killed when a building they were searching exploded in Baghdad Monday, a U.S. military spokesman said.

2 Articles

1. Baghdad bomb targets US occupation convoy - Al Jazeera

A powerful bomb has exploded in Baghdad's northern neighbourhood of Waziriya, destroying four US military vehicles.

No occupation forces spokesman was prepared to comment on casualties after the Monday morning attack, but as many as 12 marines may be dead.

Another U-S servicemember dies from suicide attack on oil terminal

April 25, 2004 8:36 AM

The Associated Press

Baghdad, Iraq-AP -- A third American has died as a result of a suicide attack on Iraqi oil facilities.

Roadside Bomb Kills U.S. Soldier in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb exploded by a U.S. patrol in Baghdad on Sunday, killing a U.S. soldier and sparking a gunbattle in the vicinity of Iraqi children, the military said.

Suicide boat bombers attack Iraqi oil facilities in Persian Gulf, killing two sailors

By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press, 4/24/2004 20:55

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Suicide attackers detonated explosive-laden boats near oil facilities in the Persian Gulf on Saturday, killing two U.S. Navy sailors in a new tactic against Iraq's vital oil industry. Elsewhere, violence across Iraq killed at least 33 Iraqis and four American soldiers.