Rock-a-bye Baby…
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
…Imagine you’re an expecting mother in the new Iraq or a father to be. Imagine the anticipation, the preparations, the plans you dream for your child. You dream, there is nothing wrong with dreaming, unless you want to pull these away from us too. So you dream, knowing full well, that a lot of them won’t come true. It’s difficult, all is difficult. All is survival. No more prenatal care no more decent hospitals, no doctors, no nurses, no midwives… But you dream nonetheless. ..And then arrives the day. And you’re either lying in some dirty hospital bed with no sheets, or on the floor in your home with no furniture, and you say to yourself — patience, it’s coming. You keep propping yourself with more positive thoughts, and despite your miserable conditions, you still find the tears of joy flowing on your face, washing away some of your pain. You have managed to give Life in a sea of Death. And then…the reality of the new Iraq hits you, slashes you away, cuts deep inside of you like a sharp knife, another tear in your soul. And you’re told you’ve just given birth to a monster baby. A deformed thing. You can’t tell his eyes from his nose. Or maybe she looks like a fish, with her deformed mouth and her skin scaling away in your arms. Or maybe his head has a thromboblastic tumor the size of a grapefruit. Or maybe, her spinal cord is missing several vertebrae so she falls over like a shrivelled vegetable, like a wilted flower…And you sit and watch him/her, slowly agonize and die, or worse ! still, l iving life lying on his/her back unable to sit, crawl, walk or talk… The birth pangs of the new Iraq — all there, for you to witness. White Phosphorus, Napalm, DU, cluster bombs…a few colors on your criminal artistic palette — the art of murder. The colors of your rainbow…

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Iraqi refugee crisis grows as West turns its back
Kim Sengupta, Indipendent
The plight of Iraqi refugees is now worse than ever, with millions struggling to survive in desperate conditions and with little hope of finding sanctuary. While the crisis continues, the world community, especially Western countries, have not only failed to help but are also erecting fresh obstacles to prevent the dispossessed men, women and children from settling on their shores, says a new report by Amnesty International…The Iraqi diaspora is now one of the largest in modern times, with more than two million people fleeing abroad. But the ferocious strife and the breakdown in law and order have led to another wave of about 2.7 million fleeing their homes but unable to escape the country…

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Video: What you don’t see on CNN: IOF Shoot Live Ammunition on Peaceful Protest
Haitham Sabbah
A young man from Bilin was shot with live rounds during the weekly Bilin Protest. Ibrahim Burnat who was shot in his right thigh was taken directly to Sheik Zaid Hospital in Ramallah and was described by doctors as being in critical condition. Ibrahim posed no threat to Israeli soldiers who shot him with live rounds simply for attempting to scale the Apartheid Wall as a symbolic gesture against the ongoing illegal occupation…

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Iraqi Defense Ministry welcomes Iran-Iraq security agreement
IRNA
Iraqi Defense Ministry welcomes security memorandum of understanding signed by Iran and Iraq during the recent visit of Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to Iran. The Iraqi Defence Ministry spokesman asserted that Iran-Iraq security MoU revolves around mutual cooperation and is not an accord which is binding for both sides…

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British Army accused of human rights abuse in case of Iraqis held without trial for five years
High Court to rule on detention of two men held in what lawyers say is a Guantanamo-style legal black hole
Robert Verkaik, Independent
Britain is accused of holding Iraqi prisoners of war in a legal black hole after it emerged that two men accused of killing British soldiers have been detained without trial for more than five years. The suspects, the last two Iraqis held in British custody, were arrested by UK forces at the end of the war and then moved between three different prison camps in southern Iraq. They claim to have been secretly detained without charge and refused legal representation. In a letter smuggled out of Iraq, the two men call on the British government to release them or give them a fair trial. Faisal Attiyah Nassar al-Saadoon, 56, and Khalaf Hussain Mufdhi, 58, are accused of being involved in the executions of two British soldiers captured during battles with Iraqi military forces in the first three days of the war in March 2003. The men, both members of the Baath party government in Basra, deny any involvement in the fighting and claim they have been trapped in a legal black hole similar to the one created by the US at Guantanamo Bay to deal with so-called battlefield unlawful combatants…

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U.S. troops’ pullout mere elections pledges-Sistani’s representative
Voices of Iraq
A representative of top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani on Friday called Iraqi officials to show patience during the U.S.-Iraq long-term deal negotiations, terming pledges of withdrawing foreign troops from Iraq as transitory and elections-oriented. “The pledges to withdraw from Iraq given by (officials) from occupation forces countries are only for elections sake “, Ahmed al-Safi, a representative of Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, said at Friday prayer speech in Karbala. The cleric noted “the reality of their pledges is that they desire their troops to stay in (Iraq)”…

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Maliki raises possibility that Iraq might ask U.S. to leave
Leila Fadel and Mike Tharp | McClatchy Newspaper
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki raised the possibility that his country won’t sign a status of forces agreement with the United States and will ask U.S. troops to go home when their U.N. mandate to be in Iraq expires at the end of the year. Maliki made the comment after weeks of complaints from Shiite Muslim lawmakers that U.S. proposals that would govern a continued troop presence in Iraq would infringe on Iraq’s sovereignty…

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Bush Shows Optimism on Iraq Deal
STEVEN LEE MYERS
President Bush expressed confidence on Saturday that the United States and Iraq would agree on a new security arrangement this year, even though his strongest ally in Iraq, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, declared the negotiations at an impasse the previous day. Speaking here during a European trip that has been dominated by discussions of Iran, not Iraq, Mr. Bush sought to play down remarks by Mr. Maliki suggesting that the United States was making unacceptable demands on Iraq’s sovereignty…

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Reconciliation committee recommends technocratic government to end internal paralysis
Ma’an news
The National Reconciliation Committee on Saturday called for a comprehensive national initiative to bridge the rift between the rival Palestinian factions based on President Abbas’ call for dialogue and the Yemeni initiative, and stated that the first item on the agenda should be forming a government of technocrats. The committee has been working behind the scenes for several months to help resolve the disputes between the Hamas and Fatah parties, and includes professionals, academics, and civil society leaders based in Gaza. On Saturday the committee held its first public meeting at the Al-Andalus Hotel in Gaza to present its vision for achieving reconciliation and ending the internal paralysis…

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Karim Makdisi discusses the Doha Agreement and Lebanon’s economic crisis
Stefan Christoff, Electronic Lebanon

In May of this year, tension between the US-backed March 14 governing coalition and the Hizballah-led March 8 opposition culminated in armed clashes in Beirut and elsewhere around Lebanon. Soon after, the feuding sides were invited to Doha, Qatar where a deal was struck that began the process of forming a new government and selecting a new president for the country. But after Doha, many are skeptical that the agreement is a long-term solution for the country, especially given the current state of the Lebanese economy. Neo-liberal economic policies adopted by successive political parties since Lebanon’s 15-year civil war came to an end in 1990 have left the country in economic ruins. All of the main political parties neglect the growing poverty rates, crumbling economy and staggering emigration in Lebanon today…

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Afghanistan: Many ‘Important’ Taliban Among Hundreds Of Prison Escapees
RadioFreeEurope
Hundreds of prisoners have escaped from a jail in southern Afghanistan, including many “important” Taliban militants, after their accomplices blasted open the prison gate in an overnight attack in Kandahar. A state of emergency has been declared in the province, and police and troops are on the streets with all residents ordered to stay in their homes….Karzai suggested that the breakout is a major security breach that will be of great concern to the Afghan central government and security forces. “People in Kandahar are used to this type of things, but it’s a big blow to the security forces,” Karzai said. “It was a huge success for the Taliban.” Kandahar Province is one of the key battlegrounds in the Taliban’s insurgency against President Hamid Karzai as well as Afghan and foreign troops. In May, hundreds of inmates at Kandahar jail ended a weeklong hunger strike after a parliamentary delegation promised to address their demands. They were demanding fair trials and complained of torture by prison authorities…

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Khalilzad for President? (No, Not Here!)
Robert Dreyfuss
Wake me up if this is a nightmare, but suddenly the idea that Zalmay Khalilzad might try to become president of Afghanistan is being taken seriously indeed. That a fierce American neocon might actually try to install himself as the elected leader of a country occupied by American troops might be laughable—but no…..That Zal-Khal might run for president in Afghanistan has been rumored around for a while, and the people I’ve talked to don’t know what to make of it. But in today’s Washington Post, in Al Kamen’s “In the Loop” column, it’s treated, well, seriously…If you’ve lost track of Zal-Khal’s career, he was George W. Bush’s inept envoy to the Iraqi opposition groups before the war in 2003, during which time be worked closely with Ahmed Chalabi, Kurdish separatists, and Shiite religious extremists to create the mess that became Iraq’s governing council. His work done, he bumbled off to Afghanistan where he made a mess of that country as the first U.S. ambassador to the post-Taliban regime. Having succeeded in that task, he was promoted to the post of U.S. ambassador to Iraq, where he forced through the divisive and flawed Iraqi constitution that, to this day, guarantees political chaos in that country…

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Palestinians barred from Dead Sea beaches to ‘appease Israeli settlers’
Belfast Telegraph
Palestinians are being regularly and illegally barred from reaching Dead Sea beaches in the occupied West Bank, according to a Supreme Court petition filed by Israel’s leading civil rights organisation. The Association of Civil Rights (Acri) in Israel is challenging what it says is the frequently imposed ban by the military on Palestinians seeking to swim or relax at beaches in the northern Dead Sea. The salt-saturated sea is the only open water accessible to Palestinians from the otherwise landlocked West Bank…

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“THEY DON’T WANT US TO STAY ON OUR LAND. BUT WE WON’T LEAVE. WE’LL DIE HERE. IT’S OURS”
Desertpeace
That’s what the Palestinian woman said after being hospitalized for three days because some rotten “Israeli settlers” have beat the hell out of her, leaving her with a shattered cheekbone. Not just that but they beat her husband and her son with baseball bats. What’d that woman do? Utterly nothing!!! And guess what? The Israeli police, though promised to investigate this incident, did nothing…

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Driving on Corn Oil Cancerous Risks for Gaza Taxi Drivers
Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice
Yellow taxi – cabs on Gaza Strip fill up their tanks with corn and soy oil, due to the Israelis blockade the taxi drivers in Gaza Strip, use cooking oil they buy from street vendors.Faced with fuel shortages. the taxi drivers in the Gaza Strip drive their cabs with cooking oil.The gas pumps at the petrol stations are empty since over six weeks, staples of cartons containing soy bean and corn cooking oil, are piled at the taxi station in Gaza City – the cooking oil is mixed with turpentine. The Israelis illegal blockade on Gaza Strip, including the closer of Rafah border terminal on the Palestinian side of Gaza Strip to Egypt, has wrecked the Gaza Strip economy…

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AFGHANISTAN: Over 3.5 million at” high risk” of food insecurity – ministry
IRIN News
High food prices and drought have driven over one million vulnerable people across Afghanistan into “high-risk” food-insecurity in the past five months, increasing the total number of “most vulnerable people” to over 3.5 million, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), told IRIN. A joint vulnerability assessment conducted by UN agencies and Afghan governmental bodies in December 2007 identified 2.55 million Afghans (out of a total population of some 26 million) as being in need of an emergency “safety net” and severely affected by high food prices…

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Dr. Khaled: AMSI is the Forefront of National Forces
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
In his long interview with Heyet Net Dr. Khaled al Muayni says that the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) is the forefront of national forces which reversed the occupation projects from the beginning and the Iraqi resistance halted the strategic objective of the occupation…The United States is now begging for getting out of Iraq…

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What is behind Al-Sadr misinterpreted statement?
Roads to Iraq
Strange is that the media stressed on “fight the U.S. occupation” part of Al-Sadr statement while they dropped out the main reason of the announcement. Reading the Arabic version of Muqtada’s statement [see the translation below], he didn’t said “new armed group to fight US forces”, he used: “a selective group [from within Mahdi Army] to fight the U.S. occupation” and this part was very brief and shadowy, in the rest of the announcement he repeated “neutralize the Mahdi Army masses” many times. Prevents them from carrying arms against Iraqis or even against the occupation, ordering them to carry on the social and cultural work…

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Report: Israel killed 635 Palestinians in Gaza in one year
Palestinian Information Center
he Quds Press news agency revealed in a report issued Saturday that the IOA troops had killed since June 2007 until this current month 635 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip alone while 83 others were killed during the same period in the West Bank. The report illustrates that the IOF troops had killed 235 Palestinian citizens during the period extending from last mid-June until the end of 2007 and 400 others since the beginning of 2008 in Gaza as a result of the Israeli military escalations…

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Iraqi Troops Mass for Assault in South
ANDREW E. KRAMER, NYTimes
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki massed Iraqi troops on Saturday near Amara, a city controlled by forces loyal to the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr.Residents of Amara, which is in a tribal region in the southeastern corner of Iraq, awoke Saturday to helicopters thudding overhead, dropping leaflets that cautioned them to remain indoors and to cooperate with Iraqi soldiers who would be arriving shortly. The city is the capital of Maysan Province, the only province in Iraq where the local government is dominated by loyalists to Mr. Sadr, a Shiite rival to Mr. Maliki…

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Afghan Bomb Kills 4 U.S. Servicemen
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A roadside bomb exploded near a United States military vehicle on Saturday, killing four American servicemen in western Afghanistan in the deadliest attack against United States forces in Afghanistan this year, officials said. The attack came a day after a prison break in Kandahar, in which hundreds of inmates escaped during a Taliban bomb and rocket attack. The police chief of Kandahar Province, Sayed Agha Saqib, said Saturday that 390 Taliban prisoners were among those who fled the prison during the attack…

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