Panic about Afghanistan
Moon of Alabama
Panic seems to set in over the situation in Afghanistan (…) The possible decisions are anyway quite limited. There are three possible outcomes in Afghanistan. 1. The foreign troops retreat under fire. 2. The foreign troops negotiate a ceasefire with the major Taliban groups and retreat in orderly fashion. 3. An increase in force to train the Afghan army, hand the problem to them, retreat in orderly fashion while they cover your ass and then watch the Afghan army fail from the outside…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48415

The New Technology of Repression
Robert Parry
In its final months, the Bush administration is pressing ahead with a new generation of spy technology designed to strengthen the U.S. military’s ability to detect and eliminate suspected insurgents in Iraq and elsewhere based on computer analyses of their movements and activities. The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has begun granting contracts to software firms to create algorithms that can be applied to the real-time video feeds from drone aircraft so the data can be sorted and stored on a wide range of human activities, from digging a ditch to climbing into a car to kissing someone…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48432

Solidarity with the besieged Christians of Iraq
Adib Kawar, Palestine Think Tank
.. A group of Iraqi leaders and activists in Lebanon, representing various Iraqi political parties and movements representing all of its religious sects met at the Lebanese Union of the Press house responding to a call from the “The Iraqi National Accord Movement”. The meeting was attended by Lebanese personalities. The attendants made a point of the importance of the unity of the different components of the Iraqi society and the Iraqi homeland… Former Iraqi Minister, Adnan Ajanaby, accused the occupation of introducing sectarian partaking and deepening the fragmentation in its social and political fabric. He added, “those who accepted this sectarian fragmentation should be held responsible for what we ended with, and we are not Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Kurds, we are steadfast Iraqis and shall return to raise Iraq’s name and unity high and undivided.”.. The Reverend Father Suheil Fasha said, “Iraq was known for its unity, it can never be partitioned and fragmented. Christians in Iraq were there since the first century AD.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48429

McCain, Obama Advisers Get Secret Afghan Briefing
Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com
The New York Times is reporting that the Bush Administration held a secret meeting two weeks ago to brief advisers from the campaigns of both Republican Presidential nominee John McCain and his Democratic Party counterpart Barack Obama on the ever-deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Though the details of the meeting were not classified, the participants agreed not to discuss to content of the briefings or the discussions publicly. But whatever the details of the meeting, the overall tone could hardly be anything but pessimistic…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48430

Israel’s underlying societal rift was exposed in Acre
GHASSAN KHATIB
The recent clashes in Acre between Israeli Jews and those of Palestinian origin brought to the surface a very thorny issue, the uncomfortable coexistence in Israeli society between the Palestinian minority and Jewish majority. The Palestinian minority in Israel constitutes roughly one-fifth of the population and represents the indigenous people that Israel did not kick out of Palestine in 1948, when 800,000 were forced to seek refuge in neighboring Arab states…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48428

The Torturer’s Tale
Jolyon Jenkins
…His superiors at the detention facility where he worked in Mosul gave him a list of authorised interrogation tactics – some might say, torture tactics. “It listed things like the use of dogs, dietary manipulation, using sleep deprivation, stress positions and ‘environmental manipulation’,” said Lagouranis. “We took that to mean that we could induce hypothermia, we could keep them in a hot shipping container, in the sun, for days at a time, we can use loud music and strobe lights and things like that. And it was also an open-ended document. It said explicitly that the interrogator needed the freedom to be creative. It said these are only suggestions of what you can do. So basically there were no limits.” …

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48427

Maguire: UN is responsible for every death resulting from the siege on Gaza
Palestinian Information Center
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who arrived in Gaza on SS Dignity a couple of days ago, held the United Nations responsible for deaths resulting from the siege on Gaza which has been in place for almost two years. At the same time, the peace activist praised the steadfastness of the Palestinians in Gaza and predicted a bright future for the Gaza Strip despite the siege. In an interview with Quds Press, Maguire called on the world to pay more attention to what is happening in Gaza and to come and see what is happening. At the same time, she called on the Israeli government to immediately end the siege and re-open the border crossings to enable the Palestinians to live in security and freedom like the rest of the people around the world…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48426

Prominent Jewish Congressman Rahm Emanuel Floated as Obama Chief of Staff
Fox.news
As Barack Obama continues to absorb accusations that he is not committed to maintaining America’s staunch support for Israel, knowledgeable Democrats have leaked word that he is considering a well-known, pro-Israeli Jewish congressman to be his chief of staff if elected. The Associated Press reported Thursday night that Obama’s campaign has approached Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel about the job…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48433

Israel tries to block Gaza health conference
IRIN News
Some 100 academics and mental health workers were denied entry to the Gaza Strip to attend an international medical conference, but the conference took place anyway — by video link, with one group gathering in Gaza City and another in Ramallah. The conference, organized by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) on 27-28 October, focused on the mental health impact of the Israeli blockade of the enclave since June 2007 when Hamas took over. However, for many this “virtual” method proved less productive, as the foreign experts and local health workers were generally unable to conduct sustained discussions and take advantage of each other’s knowledge and proficiency…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48425

Millions of Afghans Face Starvation
IslamOnline.net
With a combination of a summer drought, poor irrigation and rising global food prices, a famine is unveiling in Afghanistan with third of Afghans are suffering chronic food insecurity, a British think-tank warned on Friday, October 31. “An estimated 8.4 million Afghans, perhaps a third of the nation, are now suffering from ‘chronic and transitory food insecurity’,” Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) analyst Paul Smyth said in a press briefing on its website…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48424

Baghdad: Market in ruins after bulldozers move in
Usama Redha
The day started like every other in Hurriya, a working-class district in Baghdad. By 7 a.m., vendors had begun opening the stalls that line the sidewalks and offer makeup, books, toys, phones and just about anything else to shoppers browsing one of the neighborhood’s informal outdoor markets. But at about 2 p.m., bulldozers guarded by Iraqi security forces showed up. Some witnesses said U.S. troops also were present. The heavy machines moved quickly to destroy the illegal marketplace, which had grown to cover a large section of sidewalk and is similar to scores of others across the capital. The vendors manning the illegal stalls are not uneducated. Most of those in Hurriya have university degrees or at least high school diplomas, but they have been unable to find decent jobs because of the effect of the war on Iraq’s economy…”How should I support my family now? Shall I steal?” lamented Alaa, 36, whose stall was crushed…

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Maliki: Don’t call it a ‘security pact’; it’s ‘an agreement to withdraw’ U.S. troops
Think Progress
Today, the AP is reporting that according to a close aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi government “wants to eliminate any chance U.S. forces will stay” in Iraq “after 2011 under a proposed security pact.” But also yesterday, al-Maliki took issue with calling the agreement a “security pact”: Al-Maliki, meanwhile, met with a leading Shiite politician late Thursday to discuss the deal. Government television quoted the prime minister as describing the agreement as a framework for the pullout of U.S. forces and the regulation of “their activities within the rest of the time they’re here.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48422

Happy Halloween
Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat’s Blog
How would you explain to an Afghani child that Obama is the lesser of two evils when he’s going to escalate the massive crimes against humanity the US and the NATO have already been committing in that country for the past seven years? “We’re confronting an urgent crisis in Afghanistan… It’s time to heed the call… for more troops. That’s why I’d send at least two or three additional brigades to Afghanistan… The terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 are still at large and plotting” The American people, brainwashed by the media and most of the American left, are sending a liar and his gang of war criminals into the White House, once again. But this time they are all happy and smiling; a big difference, for the years to come. The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, the Economist… they all helped selling the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq and more recently the notorious bailout (read: extortion). Now they all are selling you the brand new product: Obama, the change we can believe in…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48401

Jewish Terrorist attacks Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Kawther Salam, Palestine Think Tank
In the night of Wednesday, October 29, an extremist orthodox Jew – chosen by God, invaded the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the old city of Jerusalem. The Jewish terrorist tried to harm three monks who were worshiping God in the church. The monks saw the terrorist Jew and escaped from his attack, but then the terrorist left the Church and went on to vandalize several Palestinian shops nearby the Church. He broke many wooden crosses before the Palestinians shop owners called the Israeli Police…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48407

Saddam Hussein’s body was stabbed in the back, says guard
Deborah Haynes, Times
The body of Saddam Hussein was stabbed six times after he was executed, according to the head guard at the former president’s tomb north of Baghdad, who was one of the people that helped bury the corpse. Talal Misrab, 45, is the chief guard at Saddam’s tomb, housed in a large hall in al-Awja, a small village north of Baghdad, where the fallen dictator spent much of his childhood. In an interview with The Times, he claimed: “There were six stab wounds on his body.” Mr Misrab alleged that four of the wounds were on the former president’s front and two on his back. He also said there was an injury to his face. Another tribesman said he had been told by Sheikh Ali al-Neda, the former head of Saddam’s tribe, who has since also died, that the body had stab wounds…

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Flood ordeal for Palestinians stuck on Iraq-Syria border
Sybella Wilkes, UNHCR
The UN refugee agency has rushed assistance to hundreds of Palestinian refugees stuck in camps on the Iraq-Syria border after heavy rain and flooding caused chaos and misery. Rainstorms on Tuesday night left tents inundated with water and sewage, possessions soaked and electricity supplies cut at Al Tanf, a settlement housing almost 800 people in the narrow no man’s land between Iraq and Syria. The small mosque was damaged by fire, but there were no human casualties “This is the closest to hell I can imagine,” said Mutassem Hayatla, a UNHCR field officer who stayed in the camp during the downpour. “With no electricity, the camp was full of the sound of crying, terrified children. We did our best, but it was a blessing when the night was over.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48421

Chalabi A ‘Key Figure’ In Iranian Efforts To Scuttle U.S.-Iraq Security Agreement
Think Progress
The United States and Iraq are currently engaged in “tense” negotiations regarding the future of the U.S. military presence in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. Just yesterday, the Iraqi Cabinet proposed changes that the U.S. has yet to approve. But now, CQ’s Jeff Stein reports that according to NBC investigative reporter Aram Roston, former Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi — the White House’s favorite Iraqi in the run-up to the Iraq war — has been helping the Iranians stand in the way of the agreement…

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Bush and McCain’s favorite Iraqi supporting Iran
done that
The man who fed George Bush, John McCain and their ilk the faulty intelligence that they were way too anxious to use in our bogus and needless invasion of Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, is now supporting Iran and their Shiite allies in Iraq against us. McCain, who called Chalabi a ‘patriot’ has once again proven he is not qualified on the only issue that he’s suppose to be strong at; national security…

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Barzani Raises Prospect of Hosting US Troops in Kurdistan if Iraq Deal Fails
Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com
Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, visiting Washington DC as part of a delegation aiming to rescue the faltering Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the United States and Iraq, has dropped something of a bombshell as the Washington Times reports that he told them he would be happy to host the US forces if the Iraqi government refuses to do so. President Barzani told the Washington Post that he is “doubtful” the SOFA will pass, echoing the sentiments of most Iraqi officials and the large portion of US officials, though the White House remains optimistic on the deal…

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Fallujah’s Sewer to Nowhere
Susan Lenfestey
…The Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent federal office led by Stewart W. Bowen (who has consistently released damning reports on the lost billions and failed projects in Iraq that go virtually unnoticed by most Americans), reports that a sewage treatment plant being constructed in Fallujah with American dollars and know-how is three times over budget, three years behind schedule, and may never be used…

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Will Baghdad Pay For The Sons Of Iraq?
Musings On Iraq
Tomorrow, November 1, is an important litmus test for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It is the day that the government is suppose to start paying the 54,000 Sons of Iraq (SOI) in the Baghdad area. On September 8, Maliki officially declared that the government would take responsibility for the Baghdad SOI and integrate them. The government promised that those that were literate, had an education, passed a medical test, and had no criminal record could join the security forces. The rest are suppose to get government jobs. At the same time, the government said that the U.S.’s numbers on the SOI were too high, and they demanded an audit to confirm their identities before they would pay them. An Iraqi Army general also said that the process was meant to ferret out any insurgents from infiltrating the security forces. Charges that the SOI are full of unrepentant militants has been a common one from the government. Comments such as these, plus the government’s crackdown on the SOI in Diyala and other areas, has caused widespread fear and apprehensions amongst the SOI. Many are afraid that Baghdad will arrest them, and disband the rest…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48417

An appeal to the Christians of the world on behalf of the Christians of Iraq
ICIN -IRAQI CHRISTIANS IN NEED
During the past few days, many Christians have been killed in Mosul, just because they are Christians. Several thousands have fled their houses and took refuge in Churches in the city and nearby mountains. ICIN has taken the decision to make a substantial donation, from its reserve plus what is received from the “Crisis in Mosul Fund”, directly to those in Mosul who are taking care of the displaced. We urge you to help through ICIN, or any of the organisations concerned with providing aid to those displaced…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48414

The Bush-Obama-McCain Administration
Morton Skorodin, M.D.*, Axis of Logic
The period we’re living in now is the Bush-Obama-McCain Administration. Bush obligingly initiated Obama’s bombing campaign on Pakistan. The three of them colluded on the recent wealth transfer (about $840 billion) from the American people to Wall St. The 24 hr/7 days/wk media Wurlitzer distracts us from looking at these white elephants too closely. The circus is so loud and visually entraining that it hides the deeper structure of society. The U.S. is a military dictatorship with scientific public relations. Part of this scientific PR is the careful cultivation of and trumpeting of America’s democratic trappings. The important thing to remember is that McCain and Obama were carefully vetted by the moneyed rulers and this is not particularly a secret. It’s called “campaign contributions”. After that, we the people get to choose from two approved candidates…

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Ethnic cleansing of Christians in Mosul
Friendship Across Frontiers
…Your feeble report on the plight of the ethnic cleansing of Christians in Mosul is not only 5 years too late but lacking in clarity and objectivity. This process has been ongoing since 2003 in Basrah and Baghdad while the MNF allowed the Badr Brigade and Sadar militia to conduct their atrocities with impunity as long as they do not point their guns towards the occupier. Equally the Warlords Talibani and Barazani were allowed by the MNF to extend their land grabs in order to extend their de facto separate northern enclave at the expense of non-Kurds inhabitants of the region particularly in Kirkuk and Mosul. Surely your reporter could not expect to conduct these interviews with the fleeing Christian families in the presence of his security, which undoubtedly was drawn from the Warlords clan…

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A Hopeless Case.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
…I am in some neighboring “Arab” country. We were gathered in some “happening” place. The atmosphere looked cordial. Here comes the blue eyed thing. He is from Israel. He introduced himself and kissed my hand. What the fuck for? I don’t need anyone from there kissing my hand. I let him do it, let him savor even for a few moments — a true Semite. He is from the West, originally. I say originally because most of these people have invented their origins… He lives in Israel — horror of horrors.He went into that familiar litany of peace and tolerance. I recalled to him that Abraham was from Kufa, the land of Ur and that he, on the other hand, was from some Western God forsaken place. He had no business being here, there. He tried explaining to me in the all too familiar neurosis that has characterized his “ people” that he had God given rights to this land. I, keeping my gracious demeanor and yes I am very capable of it when necessary providing it fulfills my objectives, reminded him that his roots were somewhere else…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48409

An appeal to the Christians of the world on behalf of the Christians of Iraq
ICIN -IRAQI CHRISTIANS IN NEED
During the past few days, many Christians have been killed in Mosul, just because they are Christians. Several thousands have fled their houses and took refuge in Churches in the city and nearby mountains. ICIN has taken the decision to make a substantial donation, from its reserve plus what is received from the “Crisis in Mosul Fund”, directly to those in Mosul who are taking care of the displaced. We urge you to help through ICIN, or any of the organisations concerned with providing aid to those displaced…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48413

Lebanon: 12 IAF war jets violated our airspace
The Associated Press
Lebanon said 12 Israel Air Force warplanes violated its airspace on Friday by flying reconnaissance missions over the country’s North and South. The Lebanese army said in a statement carried by Lebanon’s official news agency that six IAF jets flew over the border village of Alma al-Shaab and other southern towns and villages for about 30 minutes Friday. The statement said six other IAF warplanes flew over the Mediterranean off the coastal city of Batroun and over other northern towns for about an hour…

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The End of Prosperity
The Worst Is Yet to Come
Stephen Lendman
From too much of a good thing. From the 1980s and 1990s excesses. From the longest ever US bull market. Heavily manipulated to keep it levitating. From August 1982 to January 2000. An illusory reprieve from October 2002 to October 2007. Fluctuations aside, all lost in the past 12 months. The wages of sin are now due, and payment is being painfully extracted. From all nations globally. Affecting ordinary people the most who had nothing to do with creating booms and busts. They got little on the upside but are paying dearly for the down. Even “free-market” champions are unnerved. Arthur Laffer for one in his October 27 Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined: “The Age of Prosperity Is Over.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48403

Iraqi cabinet stalls on US security agreement
James Cogan, WSWS
Progress toward the signing of a bilateral US-Iraqi security agreement sanctioning a continued American military presence in Iraq has stalled again. On Tuesday, the Iraqi cabinet of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki officially rejected the pact which had been formulated through months of tortured negotiations between American and Iraqi officials. By all accounts, the parties that were the most insistent that the agreement be modified were the Shiite fundamentalist organisations, Maliki’s Da’wa Party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), that dominate the government and have been crucial supporters of the US occupation…

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Jewish settlers wound three journalists and a number of residents
Palestinian Information Center
Three Journalists and a number of local residents of the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil were wounded on Friday as a result of an assault by extremists Jewish settlers. Local sources said that masked Jewish settlers attacked three journalists who were covering the assaults on the family of Khalifa Da’na in their house which is adjacent to the Kharsina settlement to the north east of al-Khalil. The journalists sustained wounds and bruises…

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27 Killed in US Drone Strikes in North Waziristan
Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com
A US drone fired missiles into a home in the town of Mir Wali in Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency today, killing 27 people according to government officials. The target appears to be a “mid level al-Qaeda leader” known as Abu Akash al-Iraqi. One Pakistani intelligence official said that he was believed to have been killed in the strike, though other officials cited local intelligence reports saying he was likely not one of the dead…

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Taliban’s New Super-Bombs Threaten U.S. Troops, Even in Pricey MRAPs
Anna Mulrine
Throughout Afghanistan, roadside bombs are increasing not only in number but also in size, with devastating consequences for U.S. troops and beleaguered Afghan truck drivers alike. Culverts that run under the road to help drain and irrigate surrounding fields in the rural country now regularly conceal these powerful improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, with increasingly large charges. Roadside bombs that once weighed 10 to 20 pounds have morphed into multigallon drums packed with 200 to 500 pounds of explosives, which insurgents roll into culverts with wheelbarrows. The enhanced bombs have in some cases proved effective in destroying the U.S. military’s expensive new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles—the product of a multibillion dollar investment by the Pentagon that features a V-shaped hull to absorb and disperse the impact of roadside bombs…

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The Mystery of the Free Gaza Movement
Anis Hamadeh
For the second time now the Free Gaza Movement successfully challenged the siege of Gaza. A year ago, Israel officially declared the Gaza Strip to be an “enemy entity” with enemy people in it. The mantra of the evil terrorists and of Israel’s “fears” has appeased the mainstream public to conclusions like: both parties must compromise. As if there were two parties. There is one of the most lethal and active armies in the world on the one hand and a native population without an army on the other. And the army/state has often found reasons for the collective punishment of the local population, especially since Plan Dalet in 1948 when Palestinians were forced out of their country to make way for new immigrants…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48398

Panic about Afghanistan
Moon of Alabama
Panic seems to set in over the situation in Afghanistan (…) The possible decisions are anyway quite limited. There are three possible outcomes in Afghanistan. 1. The foreign troops retreat under fire. 2. The foreign troops negotiate a ceasefire with the major Taliban groups and retreat in orderly fashion. 3. An increase in force to train the Afghan army, hand the problem to them, retreat in orderly fashion while they cover your ass and then watch the Afghan army fail from the outside…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48415

The New Technology of Repression
Robert Parry
In its final months, the Bush administration is pressing ahead with a new generation of spy technology designed to strengthen the U.S. military’s ability to detect and eliminate suspected insurgents in Iraq and elsewhere based on computer analyses of their movements and activities. The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has begun granting contracts to software firms to create algorithms that can be applied to the real-time video feeds from drone aircraft so the data can be sorted and stored on a wide range of human activities, from digging a ditch to climbing into a car to kissing someone…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48432

Solidarity with the besieged Christians of Iraq
Adib Kawar, Palestine Think Tank
.. A group of Iraqi leaders and activists in Lebanon, representing various Iraqi political parties and movements representing all of its religious sects met at the Lebanese Union of the Press house responding to a call from the “The Iraqi National Accord Movement”. The meeting was attended by Lebanese personalities. The attendants made a point of the importance of the unity of the different components of the Iraqi society and the Iraqi homeland… Former Iraqi Minister, Adnan Ajanaby, accused the occupation of introducing sectarian partaking and deepening the fragmentation in its social and political fabric. He added, “those who accepted this sectarian fragmentation should be held responsible for what we ended with, and we are not Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and Kurds, we are steadfast Iraqis and shall return to raise Iraq’s name and unity high and undivided.”.. The Reverend Father Suheil Fasha said, “Iraq was known for its unity, it can never be partitioned and fragmented. Christians in Iraq were there since the first century AD.”…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48429

McCain, Obama Advisers Get Secret Afghan Briefing
Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com
The New York Times is reporting that the Bush Administration held a secret meeting two weeks ago to brief advisers from the campaigns of both Republican Presidential nominee John McCain and his Democratic Party counterpart Barack Obama on the ever-deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Though the details of the meeting were not classified, the participants agreed not to discuss to content of the briefings or the discussions publicly. But whatever the details of the meeting, the overall tone could hardly be anything but pessimistic…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48430

Israel’s underlying societal rift was exposed in Acre
GHASSAN KHATIB
The recent clashes in Acre between Israeli Jews and those of Palestinian origin brought to the surface a very thorny issue, the uncomfortable coexistence in Israeli society between the Palestinian minority and Jewish majority. The Palestinian minority in Israel constitutes roughly one-fifth of the population and represents the indigenous people that Israel did not kick out of Palestine in 1948, when 800,000 were forced to seek refuge in neighboring Arab states…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48428

The Torturer’s Tale
Jolyon Jenkins
…His superiors at the detention facility where he worked in Mosul gave him a list of authorised interrogation tactics – some might say, torture tactics. “It listed things like the use of dogs, dietary manipulation, using sleep deprivation, stress positions and ‘environmental manipulation’,” said Lagouranis. “We took that to mean that we could induce hypothermia, we could keep them in a hot shipping container, in the sun, for days at a time, we can use loud music and strobe lights and things like that. And it was also an open-ended document. It said explicitly that the interrogator needed the freedom to be creative. It said these are only suggestions of what you can do. So basically there were no limits.” …

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48427

Maguire: UN is responsible for every death resulting from the siege on Gaza
Palestinian Information Center
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who arrived in Gaza on SS Dignity a couple of days ago, held the United Nations responsible for deaths resulting from the siege on Gaza which has been in place for almost two years. At the same time, the peace activist praised the steadfastness of the Palestinians in Gaza and predicted a bright future for the Gaza Strip despite the siege. In an interview with Quds Press, Maguire called on the world to pay more attention to what is happening in Gaza and to come and see what is happening. At the same time, she called on the Israeli government to immediately end the siege and re-open the border crossings to enable the Palestinians to live in security and freedom like the rest of the people around the world…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48426

Prominent Jewish Congressman Rahm Emanuel Floated as Obama Chief of Staff
Fox.news
As Barack Obama continues to absorb accusations that he is not committed to maintaining America’s staunch support for Israel, knowledgeable Democrats have leaked word that he is considering a well-known, pro-Israeli Jewish congressman to be his chief of staff if elected. The Associated Press reported Thursday night that Obama’s campaign has approached Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel about the job…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48433

Israel tries to block Gaza health conference
IRIN News
Some 100 academics and mental health workers were denied entry to the Gaza Strip to attend an international medical conference, but the conference took place anyway — by video link, with one group gathering in Gaza City and another in Ramallah. The conference, organized by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) on 27-28 October, focused on the mental health impact of the Israeli blockade of the enclave since June 2007 when Hamas took over. However, for many this “virtual” method proved less productive, as the foreign experts and local health workers were generally unable to conduct sustained discussions and take advantage of each other’s knowledge and proficiency…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48425

Millions of Afghans Face Starvation
IslamOnline.net
With a combination of a summer drought, poor irrigation and rising global food prices, a famine is unveiling in Afghanistan with third of Afghans are suffering chronic food insecurity, a British think-tank warned on Friday, October 31. “An estimated 8.4 million Afghans, perhaps a third of the nation, are now suffering from ‘chronic and transitory food insecurity’,” Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) analyst Paul Smyth said in a press briefing on its website…

Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.de/?p=48424

Baghdad: Market in ruins after bulldozers move in
Usama Redha
The day started like every other in Hurriya, a working-class district in Baghdad. By 7 a.m., vendors had begun opening the stalls that line the sidewalks and offer makeup, books, toys, phones and just about anything else to shoppers browsing one of the neighborhood’s informal outdoor markets. But at about 2 p.m., bulldozers guarded by Iraqi security forces showed up. Some witnesses said U.S. troops also were present. The heavy machines moved quickly to destroy the illegal marketplace, which had grown to cover a large section of sidewalk and is similar to scores of others across the capital. The vendors manning the illegal stalls are not uneducated. Most of those in Hurriya have university degrees or at least high school diplomas, but they have been unable to find decent jobs because of the effect of the war on Iraq’s economy…”How should I support my family now? Shall I steal?” lamented Alaa, 36, whose stall was crushed…

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Maliki: Don’t call it a ‘security pact’; it’s ‘an agreement to withdraw’ U.S. troops
Think Progress
Today, the AP is reporting that according to a close aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi government “wants to eliminate any chance U.S. forces will stay” in Iraq “after 2011 under a proposed security pact.” But also yesterday, al-Maliki took issue with calling the agreement a “security pact”: Al-Maliki, meanwhile, met with a leading Shiite politician late Thursday to discuss the deal. Government television quoted the prime minister as describing the agreement as a framework for the pullout of U.S. forces and the regulation of “their activities within the rest of the time they’re here.”…

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