Do the U.S. and Iraqi government care about Iraqi children?
Fatih Abdulsalam, Azzaman
Who would believe the U.S. and the Iraqi government’s claims that they care about the well being of Iraqi children? Concern over the fate of Iraqi children is perhaps the biggest lie the U.S. has tried to spread after the notorious fallacy of weapons of mass destruction… Let us examine what has happened to Iraqi children since the 2003 U.S. invasion. The children of internally displaced Iraqis, estimated at about two million people, have no access to any of the basic public amenities like education and health. The children of the nearly four million others who have fled the upsurge in violence find it extremely hard to make ends meet in neighboring countries. They may be a bit better off than many of their counterparts still remaining at home – but thanks go to the governments of the host countries. If Iraqi children are not refugees or internally displaced they are mainly orphans or have fathers and occasionally mothers behind bars. There are nearly 100,000 Iraqis languishing in U.S. and Iraqi jails without trial. Surveys show that most of their children are dropouts, either begging on the streets or working in extremely tough child labor conditions. What will happen to millions of Iraqi children in such conditions?..

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“ The Wretched of the Earth “
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues – Reflections in a sealed bottle…
What a wonderful title, a classic from F.Fanon. I do not wish to get into a critique of the book right now, but the overall idea is still very valid and applicable today. I read that the Pentagon makes it a compulsory reading in order to understand Iraq better… But you see, I read Fanon from a different angle, from the other side of the fence. As a matter of fact, this title has been on my mind for the past days, popping in and out and sometimes nudging me with urgency…

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The Past Destroyed: Five Years Later
Tom Engelhardt & Chalmers Johnson

…President Bush’s supporters have talked endlessly about his global war on terrorism as a “clash of civilizations.” But the civilization we are in the process of destroying in Iraq is part of our own heritage. It is also part of the world’s patrimony. Before our invasion of Afghanistan, we condemned the Taliban for their dynamiting of the monumental third century A.D. Buddhist statues at Bamiyan in March, 2001. Those were two gigantic statues of remarkable historical value and the barbarism involved in their destruction blazed in headlines and horrified commentaries in our country. Today, our own government is guilty of far greater crimes when it comes to the destruction of a whole universe of antiquity, and few here, when they consider Iraqi attitudes toward the American occupation, even take that into consideration…

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In remote Afghanistan…
And red-neck France suddenly discovers it’s stuck in a war
Fausto GIUDICE, Translated by Scott Campbell
This past August 20th, in the middle of vacation season, while the good people of France meandered worry-free between replete beaches and TV screens to follow the heroic deeds of the athletes in Beijing, making it possible to forget the stress of the impending return to the routine of “working more and earning less”, the news exploded like a thunderclap in a serene sky: ten young and brave French soldiers just died in remote Afghanistan, in an ambush by the horrible Taliban 50 kilometers from Kabul, which elevated to twenty-two the number of dead French soldiers since 2002, a trifling amount in relation to the 100 British who have lost their lives, and even more so when compared to the thousands of murdered Afghans. And when I say Afghans, I am referring to armed men, unarmed men, women, children, and the elderly. And, unexpectedly, the good people of France discovered that their army was involved in the war in Afghanistan. Six years had to pass before the French realized that they were physically engaged in a war… During the six years that have passed since the beginning of the conflict, French public opinion hasn’t cared at all about this war that officially is not one. Neither the bland left nor the extreme left have organized a single demonstration. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Silence on the radio and complete consensus.It hasn’t been different in Spain nor in Italy where the institutional left rem! oved the ir troops from Iraq to become more involved in Afghanistan. There was more agitation in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and in Canada, although without much of an impact on events: “Here I am and here I’ll stay”, is the slogan of the coalition forces, christened with the acronym ISAF. In fact, the allies of the US, the invader, were assigned the job of logistical and civil support, in service to “the boys”, who are the ones supposedly doing the dirty work, that is to say, the war crimes and the bombings of the civilian populations with depleted uranium…

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Debka Makes Us Dumber Again
Information Dissemination
Debka is good at disinformation, but they are getting dumber and dumber by the day. This is classic Debka.DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that a powerful Russian naval contingent, led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov , left Murmansk on the Barents Sea Aug. 18 to dock at the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus Saturday, Aug. 23. It includes the Russian Navy’s biggest missile cruiser Moskva and at least four nuclear missile submarines. That would be amazing! According to Debka, the Admiral Kuznetsov and the rest of its powerful Russian navy contingent is heading to Syria, traveling the 4,903 nautical miles at sea from Murmansk to Tartus in 6 days! Wow! Too bad they failed math, because according to Debka the Russian naval group is going to average 34 knots for every nautical mile. Jeez, and people believe this stuff? When I read something like this, I’ve always wondered if Debka is one of those secret message websites where specific readers have a secret decoder ring that enables them to obtain super secret messages hiding in plain sight, because this is just so stupid in its implication it is hard to believe they could be that dumb…

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IRAQ: U.S.-backed Sunni miltiamen on the run
Ed Parker
…The Iraqi government is lobbying to end the Sons of Iraq as soon as possible. The U.S. military says its goal is for the paramilitaries to be dissolved by June. The Iraqi government wants it done sooner. The Americans have just handed all personnel information on the 99,000 Sons of Iraq fighters to Maliki and are talking about transferring the contracts to the Iraqi government for Baghdad and Baquba within the next two months, said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kulmayer, who is responsible for the program…

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Taliban turns lethal: 101 US deaths in Afghanistan
101 US deaths in Afghanistan as Taliban turns into lethal, sophisticated fighting force
JASON STRAZIUSO, AP
Taliban insurgents once derided as a ragtag rabble unable to match U.S. troops have transformed into a fighting force — one advanced enough to mount massive conventional attacks and claim American lives at a record pace. The U.S. military suffered its 101st death of the year in Afghanistan last week when Sgt. 1st Class David J. Todd Jr., a 36-year-old from Marrero, La., died of gunfire wounds while helping train Afghan police in the northwest. The total number of U.S. dead last year — 111 — was a record itself and is likely to be surpassed…
“The U.S. is now losing the war against the Taliban,” Anthony Cordesman, of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a report Thursday…

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Video: Joe Biden – liar, warmonger, Zionist!
MrBritDestruct
The truth about Obama’s second in command.

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America is not leaving Iraq anytime soon: UAE newspaper
UPI
A major UAE English daily today commented on the US-Iraq security deal, which has been going on for over ten months and which, upon completion, is supposed to ensure the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. The newspaper expressed suspicion about the deal saying it contains a number of loopholes in favour of Washington and its troops. It also expressed scepticism that the US will withdraw its troops from Iraq anytime soon…

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Hamas and Fatah trade accusations following fighting at Al-Azhar University in Gaza
Ma’an News
Hamas and Fatah traded accusations of responsibility on Sunday for factional violence that took place on the campus of Al-Azhar University in Gaza. Fistfights broke out at Al-Azhar following the beginning of a strike by a pro-Fatah teachers union. The union declared the strike in protest of alleged discrimination against Fatah members in hiring practices in the education sector. Fatah said that members of Hamas and its armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, raided the university, attacking students and professors. Hamas said that the university administration and Fatah-affiliated students attacked Hamas-affiliated students with sharp objects…

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Report: British to boost troops in Afghanistan
The Associated Press
Britain will send an additional 4,500 troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, a newspaper reported Sunday. The British military dismissed the report as speculation. The News of The World cited an unidentified military source as saying those troops would be sent to Afghanistan once soldiers began returning from Iraq — where a major reduction of Britain’s presence has been promised for early 2009. Britain’s Ministry of Defense refused to comment on the veracity of the report. “We are not willing to engage in speculation about any future announcements regarding troop numbers and deployments,” it said in a statement…

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AFGHANISTAN: More than 90 killed in coalition strikes: investigation
AFP
An investigation has found that more than 90 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in coalition air strikes days ago, an Afghan government minister told AFP Sunday. President Hamid Karzai ordered the investigation into Friday’s operation in the western province of Herat after Afghan officials said high numbers of civilians were killed but the US-led coalition said only 30 militants died. The toll is one of the highest for civilians since international troops arrived in Afghanistan to topple the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 and comes after a string of such incidents, most of them involving air strikes…

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NATO-chartered helicopter crashes in Afghanistan
Reuters
A NATO-chartered helicopter crashed on Sunday in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Kunar near the border with Pakistan, causing one death, a spokesman for the alliance said. The civilian helicopter crashed soon after taking off from a military base in an area of the rugged province, the spokesman said, ruling out any hostile action. He had no details about the type of the helicopter, number of people on board or identity of the casualties… Kunar is part of the main bastion for Taliban Islamists who lead the insurgency against the Afghan government and foreign troops backing it. A spokesman for the Taliban said the group had shot down the helicopter…

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Anti-US demonstrations in Afghanistan
euronews
Angry protests have broken out in Afghanistan following the deaths of scores of civilians in an air attack by US-led coalition forces on Friday. The father of some victims said the coalition forces should come and see that all those killed were children and not Taliban. Hundreds of angry villagers have reportedly attacked Afghan soldiers with stones who were bringing aid to the families of those killed in the attack…

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Leftists discuss forming Front to shift Palestine to three-party system
Ma’an News
The leftist parties met in Gaza as an initiative of the “Honor Charter” committee to strengthen Palestinian democracy, and move it away from a polarized system. The group of leftist parties called Saturday’s meeting the second of the “Honor Charter,” group, although only the three leftist parties were represented. The first meeting of the committee was on 19 August, where leaders from Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and the three leftist factions, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Palestinian Peoples’ Party (PPP) met at DFLP headquarters in Gaza…

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Israel: Free Gaza ships “one time” event; Gaza port remains closed
Ma’an News
Israel’s last minute decision to allow the Free Gaza boats to enter Gaza waters was a “one time” event, based on evidence that the ships were “purely humanitarian” and carried no weapons, according to the Israeli press. The Jerusalem post reported that officials at the “highest level” said that the landing of the Free Gaza boats did not “constitute a decision by the government to allow sea access to the blockaded Palestinian territory.” Other media sources in Israel have reported that the decision was made based on a desire to avoid “a public relations disaster,” since one of the boats was filled with media crews from around the world…

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Activist decides to give up his US nationality and get Palestinian nationality
Palestinian Information Center (PIC)
One of the activists who participated in the sea trip to break the siege said he would renounce his US citizenship for a Palestinian one, while other activists expressed their great joy for arriving in the Gaza Strip after spending two days at sea. “We did not believe our eyes as we saw the Palestinian coast yesterday. This is a step on the path of humanity and on the path of the Palestinian people’s hope of breaking the siege,” Rita Perrin, one of the anti-siege voyage organizers, stated in a press conference held Sunday morning by the popular committee against the siege…

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ON MONDAY MORNING, HUMAN RIGHTS WORKERS GO TO SEA TO FISH
FreeGaza.org
Two days after the SS FREE GAZA and the SS LIBERTY arrived to a jubilant welcome in Gaza, 20 to 25 of the human rights watchers will go to sea with the fishermen in a show of support for their struggle to keep their industry productive. According to a recent article in The Guardian, “in the 1990s, the Gazan fishing industry produced an annual income of around £5m. That had halved by 2007 and is still shrinking fast. Under the Oslo accords, which in 1993 were supposed to herald the coming of an independent Palestinian state, Gazan fishermen were to be allowed 20 nautical miles out to sea, where they could catch sardine as they migrated from the Nile delta up towards Turkey during the spring.But Israeli naval ships in recent years have imposed their own, much-reduced limits, sometimes fewer than 6 miles out.” The group will leave in the very early morning and go to sea at least 7 to 8 miles off the Gaza coast. They will be on board two to three of the small fishing boats lining the shores of the Gaza port, making sure they and their international flags are prominent…

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16500 prisoner in Boca
Roads to Iraq
Iraqi prisoners in Boca kept from 6 months to 1 year maximum, 86% Sunnis and the rest are Shiites, that makes the total 16500 prisoners. This is what the American commander told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. Families of the inmates told the newspaper that their loved ones kept in Boca for 4-3 years without any charges or accusations…

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Israel police raid Islamic Movement
Aljazeera.net
Israeli security forces have raided the offices of the Islamic Movement and al-Aqsa institution in the northern Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm, accusing them of supporting the Palestinian Hamas movement. Dozens of police officers and agents from the Shin Bet intelligence agency took part in the raid early on Sunday. Documents, computers, and a safe with hundreds of thousands of dollars were confiscated in the operation which was ordered by the defence ministry, a police official said…

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August 24, 2008: 49 Iraqis Killed, 90 Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
At least 49 Iraqis were killed or found dead and another 90 were wounded in the latest attacks. A security operation is Diyala province continues to be the source of controversy as troops seemingly spend more time harassing people instead of rounding up criminals. No Coalition deaths were reported… At least 25 people were killed and 29 more were wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a group of people celebrating the release of detainee from Camp Bucca. The incident happened on the outskirts of Baghdad near Abu Ghraib. The wounded were taken to a Fallujah hospital…

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