Iraq Jails…Injustice, Torture, Bribes
Afif Sarhan, IOL Correspondent
When police arrested Ahmed Qasim, the Iraqi man never thought he would end up in a tiny, dirty, smelly, crowded cell for almost a year without seeing his day in court. “I never saw a court to judge me,” Qasim, whose name has been changed for security reasons, told IslamOnline.net. “I stayed for more than nine month in prison accused of something I didn’t do.” The 39-year-old, who was recently released from jail, remembers the first time he tried to ask for a chance to defend himself. “When I was taken for interrogation in a senior officer’s room, I didn’t have a chance to refute the accusations. Each time I opened my mouth to say anything, I was beaten.”…Qasim says that after a while, he learnt to be grateful for his tiny cell that could have been replaced with a much worse alternative. “Everyday I could hear someone screaming of pain. There were torture sections,” he explains. “We just discovered how terrible it was when one man who was in our cell was taken to this torture section and when returned couldn’t speak for more than a week because of the pain.” Omar Lattif, another recently released prisoner, was not as lucky as Qasim. Two years behind bars without the chance to see his family even for once left him scared for life. “I was beaten and given electric shocks,” he describes his torture sessions….

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The Iraqi Rabita -League reveals crimes committed by the American occupation forces in conjunction with the Iraqi forces in Mosul
Iraqirabita
Warning – VERY GRAPHIC IMAGES.
In another round of American crimes against the people of Iraq, the information about to be provided , will show the extent of the American lawless hysteria and its total disregard for human lives. And will also show the criminal complicity of those who took the Americans as military and political allies and as friends and who provide to them their services — all conducted in the Green Zone. On the eve of Wenesday 11.7.2007, heavy fighting broke out in the Sheikh Fathi center in the Zanjilia district from unknown armed men. American helicopter planes rushed and some of these unknown armed men fired at the planes. The americans responded by using forbidden weapons and bombed the house of a Taha Al-Janbil, a Judge. All those who were in the house were immediately killed. We met the Judge Taha…

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Iraqi Children in Algeria and Israel
Good Samaritan
Wafaa’ Al-Natheema
…Yet when Googling “Iraqi Children in Israel,” one finds sixty articles dating back to March 2007, being covered by major media outlets such as the Boston Herald, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and ABC News as well as on the website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs plus two video clips on Google and Youtube. The mountainous propaganda about Israel’s Good Samaritan is evident not only in the number of news reports written and the writing style, but also in the extensive details they provided….Israelis’ Good Samaritan has an additional agenda, which is Israel’s interest in breaking the political barrier with Iraqis; the most ardent resistors to Israel in the region. How political and propaganda-geared is this undertaking? The Haaretz correspondent, Yoav Stern, reports on October 27, 07 that Iraqi and Palestinian Children (from Gaza) were being brought to Tel Aviv for heart surgery, yet at the same time Israel has been directly terrorizing and killing Palestinians in Gaza as well as participating in the killing of Iraqi scientists while training Kurdish guerillas to kill other Iraqis mostly Arabs! Double standards and patronage…

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Guilty even if proven Innocent.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
Some of you who have been following my blog regularly now (thank you) know of Kamel’s story my relative who has been detained by the Americans on false “insurgency/terrorist” charges. He was then transferred from a U.S prison to another Iraqi prison controlled by the racist sectarian Shias. In this last prison, the Shia prison guards asked for extortion money in exchange for his release, since there was no trial and no real charges. The money was gathered and given as asked. They double crossed us and Kamel was not released. Kamel is a frail over 60 years old man. In prison his health deteriorated greatly and visits were hardly allowed. He also contracted scabies. Yesterday, we were informed that he has been transferred to an American prison again. And we were also told that he was found not guilty – again, and that there are absolutely no charges against him – again, that he is innocent and that he will be released “some day”- again. As I said before, no trial was conducted in the first place. What do they mean will be released some day ? The man is very ill. They said he needed some paperwork done. What paperwork ? The man is innocent and they said so themselves. “So when will he be released”, we asked , “we don’t know” they said “paperwork.” Omar, (another relative) on the other hand has been finally found. I have also written about Omar. He was found in yet another prison in the South. He was shipped from a Baghdad US prison to a Basra (Shia controlled prison) about 2 years! ago. Om ar has been illegally detained for over 2 years and was underage at the time of his arrest. Again no charges, no trial…

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IRAQ: The system and not individuals are to blame
Fatih Abdulsalam, Azzaman
From time to time, the government issues orders sacking hundreds and sometimes thousands of individuals from the newly formed army and security forces. Nonetheless, stories of torture and horrendous human rights violations continue in the ‘new Iraq.’ I quite understand that no system is to blame for the wrong behavior of one individual. But when government police officers pull out the finger nails of a prisoner, wrap them in a green piece of cloth and send them to his family, every Iraqi still languishing in the nearly imploded country will have good reason to worry. The incident as we know happened in a government police station and the victim had committed no crime at all. His only crime was his name which indicated affiliation to a specific sect…

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BBC Uncovers Lost Iraq Billions
A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.
Jane Corbin, BBC
For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC’s Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources. A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations. The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies. While George Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted. To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq…

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The Jewish Experience
Gilad Atzmon, Palestine Think Tank
…Zionism invented the Jewish nation and set its national home, Israel, into a devastating conflict that is now taking a global shape and has become a serious global threat. Yet, for the Israelis, those who happen to be in the eye of the storm, ‘Zionism’ means very little. Israelis join the IDF not because they are Zionists but because they are Jews (as opposed to the Muslims around them). This crucial realisation may convey a new meaning for the notion of the ‘wandering Jew’. The dialectic that is set between the Diaspora and Eretz Yisrael leads towards a counter flow of migration, aspiration and yearning….

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PROTECTING THE INTERESTS OF THE ‘HOLOCAU$T BU$INE$$’
Desertpeace
Officials of the Israeli Holocaust Museum (Yad Vashem) were in an uproar a few weeks ago at the announcement that a monument was to be erected in Berlin memorialising the homosexuals that were slaughtered by the nazi regime. The very thought of such a memorial might take away from the earnings of certain people who have perpetuated the myth that it was only Jews that suffered during that period….

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U.S. says open to more talks with Iran on Iraq
Adrian Croft, Reuters
The United States is open to holding more talks with Iran about Iraq’s security, but it must first be confident that the talks are likely to make progress, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday. At the same time, David Satterfield, the U.S. State Department’s coordinator on Iraq, stepped up a war of words with Tehran over the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, saying “other states” must respect Iraqi sovereignty and not seek to turn Iraq into a battleground for their disputes with the United States. U.S. and Iranian officials met three times last year to seek common ground on stabilising Iraq in discussions arranged by Baghdad, but the talks have since stalled…

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Agreement with Iraq requires no Senate approval
Voices of Iraq
David Satterfield, U.S. State Department’s Coordinator for Iraq, on Tuesday said that the bipartisan long-term agreement between Iraq and the U.S., currently being debated, will be executive, legal, and international between two sides. He added that the treaty will embrace no items that require Senate approval.
“The bipartisan long-term agreement between Iraq and the U.S. will be executive, legal, and international between two sides, and during the negotiations with the Iraqi government’s negotiators, the U.S. government stresses that Iraq is a state that has sovereignty, and a partner in the negotiations that rely on the Iraqi national decision,” Satterfield said in a press conference in Baghdad.
“The agreement will embrace no items that require Senate approval, as it is not the first treaty that the U.S. holds with a state that has sovereignty,” he added…

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Head of Saddam Hussein’s clan killed north of Baghdad
Xinhua
The leader of Saddam Hussein’s clan was killed in a bomb explosion on Tuesday in the city of Tikrit, capital of Salahudin province, a provincial police source said. Ali al-Nidah, head of the al-Beijat Sunni Arab clan, also known as al-Bu Nasir, which encompassed the toppled Saddam Hussein, was killed by a bomb planted in his car while travelling near a bridge just south of Tikrit heading to the village of Awja, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity…

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Wilful killing of baby by Israeli army in Gaza house raid
Defence for Children International
On 4 March 2008, Israeli tanks under aerial helicopter coverage besieged the home of Youssef S., a wanted Palestinian combatant, near Khan Younis in southern Gaza1. For several hours, Israeli soldiers directed gunfire towards the house and its occupants, including 15 children, and subjected them to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. During the raid, Israeli soldiers fired upon unarmed civilians, including children, as they followed orders to exit the house. This unlawful act claimed the life of 20-day-old Amira, who was shot in the head while in her mother’s arms. DCI/PS strongly condemns the wilful killing of civilians, which constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law…Following the raid, the surviving members of Youssef’s family moved into the nearby home of a relative since their house suffered damage from the heavy gunfire. DCI/PS later learned that several days after the raid, Israeli forces demolished the nearby home of another one of Youssef’s relatives. Youssef’s family has since returned to their home although exterior damage remains….

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Three Qassam fighters killed, 5 civilians wounded in IOF tank shelling
Palestinian Information Center
Three Qassam fighters were killed, Tuesday afternoon, in the Shejaeyyah suburb in east Gaza city, while five civilians were wounded when an IOF tank fired artillery shells at a group of Qassam fighters. Palestinian medical sources confirmed the death of the three fighters and said there were children amongst the wounded, adding that emergency services hurried to the scene and carried the dead and wounded to the Shifa hospital in west Gaza city…

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Israel’s Ambassador to the UK and his deception
Khalid Amayreh, via Desertpeace
Israeli ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor has once again claimed that the United Kingdom is becoming a “hotbed” of anti-Israeli propaganda. In an opinion piece published in Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph, Prosor alleged out that Israel was facing an intensified campaign of delegitimization, demonization and double standards. “Britain has become a hotbed for radical anti-Israeli views and a haven for disingenuous calls for a one-state solution,” he ranted. Ignoring the criminal role Israeli universities and academic institutions are playing in consolidating the Israeli occupation and tormenting Palestinians, Prosor criticized efforts by the British University and College Union to sever links with Israeli universities….

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Washington ordered destruction of Guantánamo interrogation records
Bill Van Auken, WSWS
In another confirmation of the criminal character of Washington’s handling of so-called “enemy combatants,” a “Standard Operating Procedure” manual has come to light that explicitly instructs US interrogators at the American prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to destroy contemporaneous records of their interrogations. The existence of the document was made public by the military defense attorney for Omar Khadr, a Canadian national who has been held for six years since being captured by American forces as a 15-year-old minor in Afghanistan…

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SPEAKING BAN AT BOOKSTORE LIFTED
Desertpeace
This week I posted about an author’s speaking engagement being cancelled at a bookshop…. and a book review about the book in question. Well, either the owner of the bookshop read my blog, or the Washington Post, but as a result she changed her mind and will reschedule Saree Makdisi to speak about his new book Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation. I’d like to believe the former…

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Book Review: Palestine Inside Out – An Everyday Occupation. Saree Makdisi. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2008.
Jim Miles
This has been one of the most difficult books that I have ever read. It removed me from my academic detachment with which I read the majority of books and took me into emotions ranging from frustration, sadness, melancholy through to anger and belligerence. A compelling read, yet at the same time I had to put it down every so many pages in order to contemplate, digest, or simply escape what in sum could be called the constant inhuman brutality of one human against another. It is a brutality that is as much psychological as physical, as much emotional as bodily. While the media presents a relatively constant stream of news violence from Israel-Palestine, with the Israelis purportedly “responding” to Palestinian “terrorists”, the truth of life for the average Palestinian is not just this asymmetrical violence, but the daily violence perpetrated by the occupation, a collective punishment on the Palestinian population that “because the destruction is routine, it generally takes place out of the view of the global media.” It is death, destruction, eviction, genocide by a million cuts, applied over and over and over with full control of the geographical and cultural landscapes under the rule of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF).

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Bush administration says it may not get Iraq deal this year
LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press
The Bush administration is conceding for the first time that the United States may not finish a complex security agreement with Iraq before President Bush leaves office. Faced with stiff Iraqi opposition, it is “very possible” the U.S. may have to extend an existing U.N. mandate, said a senior administration official close to the talks. That would mean major decisions about how U.S. forces operate in Iraq could be left to the next president, including how much authority the U.S. must give Iraqis over military operations and how quickly the handover takes place…

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Wilful killing of baby by Israeli army in Gaza house raid
Defence for Children International
On 4 March 2008, Israeli tanks under aerial helicopter coverage besieged the home of Youssef S., a wanted Palestinian combatant, near Khan Younis in southern Gaza1. For several hours, Israeli soldiers directed gunfire towards the house and its occupants, including 15 children, and subjected them to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. During the raid, Israeli soldiers fired upon unarmed civilians, including children, as they followed orders to exit the house. This unlawful act claimed the life of 20-day-old Amira, who was shot in the head while in her mother’s arms. DCI/PS strongly condemns the wilful killing of civilians, which constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law…Following the raid, the surviving members of Youssef’s family moved into the nearby home of a relative since their house suffered damage from the heavy gunfire. DCI/PS later learned that several days after the raid, Israeli forces demolished the nearby home of another one of Youssef’s relatives. Youssef’s family has since returned to their home although exterior damage remains….

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June 9, 2008: 20 Iraqis Killed, 49 Iraqis Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 20 Iraqis were killed and 49 more were injured during the latest violence. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, a mass grave may have been found in Diyala province, but conflicting reports indicate it may have been the mass burial of unclaimed bodies from the morgue instead. Also, five possibly foreign fighters were killed. Authorities in Qatan found 25 bodies in a mass grave, but a separate report has the bodies being buried after they had gone unidentified for 40 days…

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Potential Future Hyperinflation
Stephen Lendman
Walter “John” Williams thinks out of the box. He makes disquieting reading, but you won’t find him in the mainstream. At least not often. He runs a “Shadow Government Statistics” site with an electronic by-subscription newsletter. Anyone can access some of his data and occasional special reports. They can also assess his reasoning. In his judgment, government data are manipulated, corrupted and unreliable. He’s not alone thinking that…

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