Iraq (1 Viewer)

[Latex lizzie]

Chatelain was referring to a 1993 incident in which several dozen American prom chaperones were sent to Somalia along with U.N. peacekeeping troops. All were shot by factional guerrillas within hours of their arrival.


heeheehecough.

 

[Latex lizzie]

Cancel the debt..

http://www.jubileeiraq.org/blog/

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/718AE278-58EE-431F-8045-5A3F505021B8.htm

nice article on the possible outcome long term in fallujah.

 

[Latex lizzie]

meanwhile in baghdad and kirkuk..daily life goes on..

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9149036A-1F32-44E6-A969-47C64FA901B2.htm

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A800AA57-C2A4-47FB-9BB5-6D6E1B9C3C22.htm

update.

Asma Khamis al-Muhannadi, an assistant doctor who witnessed the US and Iraqi National Guards raid into Falluja hospital told Aljazeera that the medical staff received threats from the Iraqi health minister who said if anyone disclosed information about the raid, they would be arrested or dismissed from their jobs.

"We were tied up and beaten despite being unarmed and having only our medical instruments," al-Muhannadi said.



"The hospital was targeted by bombs and rockets. I was with a woman in labour. The umbilical cord had not yet been cut. At that time, a US solider shouted at one of the national guards to arrest me and tie my hands while I was helping the mother to deliver. I will never forget this incidence in my life," the assistant doctor said.



"I am from Falluja and I work there. They claimed I was a fighter and stole our money and mobile phones," she said.

 

[Latex lizzie]

Mosul next...

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13249417,00.html

 

[Latex lizzie]

..continuing cost...a legacy of hate and deprevation has been sown here. I often wondered what was going on in the minds of people around the world when vietnam was happening. Now I know.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/110BB55F-6635-4F73-A470-FE1DF9D8ED41.htm

 

[Latex lizzie]

Mosul next...

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13249417,00.html

....

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EEF568E1-99F8-4A15-B20C-8F233FB94DA7.htm

 

[Latex lizzie]

bit of backtracking..

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9460A4FC-FB5F-4203-8E53-FDEBE97B6014.htm

does anyone even read this stuff anymore or am I wasting everyones time?

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9460A4FC-FB5F-4203-8E53-FDEBE97B6014.htm

bit of backtracking and "worstcase scenario" going on..

 

[abbe]

does anyone even read this stuff anymore or am I wasting everyones time? [/QUOTE]

I read it!

(course if no-one read it you wouldn't be wasting anyone's time but your own - even that, probably not as I imagine it's sort of cathartic)

 

[Latex lizzie]

..thanks..

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7A06B27D-719C-45EE-9FD9-C17043C0AD38.htm

..now the war is "unwinable". the same quote got trotted out in vietnam just as the us pulled out. also 100 dollars compensation for the residents of fallujah upon their return..return to what?sickening really.

 

[Latex lizzie]

..assorted..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A809-2004Nov20.html?sub=AR

http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-11/10/article05.shtml
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/12/1533/3578
(chemical weapon use by the US.)


Falluja women, children in mass grave
by
Sunday 21 November 2004 8:48 AM GMT

Many corpses remain unburied, Falluja residents say

Residents of a village neighbouring Falluja have told Aljazeera that they helped bury the bodies of 73 women and children who were burnt to death by a US bombing attack.


"We buried them here, but we could not identify them because they were charred by the use of napalm bombs used by the Americans," said one resident of Saqlawiya in footage aired on Aljazeera on Sunday.

There have been no reports of the US military using napalm in Falluja and no independent verification of the claims.

The resident told Aljazeera all the bodies were buried in a single grave.

Late last week, US troops in Falluja called on some residents who had fled the fighting to return and help bury the dead.

However, according to other residents who managed to flee the fighting after US forces entered the city, hundreds more bodies still lay in the streets and were being fed on by packs of wild dogs.

Danger zone

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Falluja remained too dangerous to secure proper retrieval and burial of corpses.


The ICRC and other relief groups
are unable to enter the city



"We could not enter Falluja city so far due to the security measures and the continuing battles," Muain Qasis, ICRC spokesman in Jordan, told Aljazeera.

When asked about the security measures, Qasis said: "In order to carry out an independent and acceptable humanitarian action, we must have guarantees ensuring the safety of the humanitarian staff.



"The humanitarian situation in Falluja city is very difficult.



"The city is still suffering shortage of public services. There is no water or electricity. There is no way to offer medical treatment for the injured families still surrounded inside the city," he added.



Detained civilians released

In related news, the US military in Falluja announced that it had released 400 of the 1450 men it had detained in the war-ravaged city.

"More than 400 detainees have since been released after being deemed non-combatants," the military said, adding that 100 more were due to be released on Sunday.


Aljazeera + Agencies
By

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/24EBE5BB-CA3F-462B-8279-546BC1D9B7E6.htm

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3519CAA9-46D7-473E-BA2E-CA49785E5D41.htm

not a dickie bird about this anyplace else.. seems like the western media is loosing whatever interest it feigned having in this first place...

 

[Latex lizzie]

Latest from the pentagon re troop losses.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/66A82950-2E99-439A-AD90-8DBFD862F715.htm

 

[broken arm]

The Iraqi people shouldn't pay Saddam's bills

Iraqi National Assembly rejects Paris Club
This morning Saad Salih Jabr, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee of the Interim Iraqi National Assembly announced a resolution by the Assembly declaring that:

(1) The debt is almost entirely odious.
(2) The Paris Club has no right to make decisions and impose IMF conditions on Iraq.
(3) Iraq should repudiate the debt but offer creditors the opportunity of a fair legal arbitration to prove if their loans to Saddam were actually beneficial to the Iraqi people.

The Assembly greeted the resolution with a standing ovation and agreed to the establishment of a Debt Committee to move the process forward. The meeting was broadcast live on Al Irakia and Al Sharkia TV. Here is the resolution in Arabic and English. Media contact Shakir Issa on +964 7901 783025 or Justin Alexander on +44 7813 137171 for more information.

Saddam's Debts Must All be Cancelled - FT today

Sir, It is hypocritical for the UK government to welcome simultaneously both a date for Iraqi elections and partial debt relief for Iraq that is tied to an International Monetary Fund structural adjustment programme.

The IMF has long used such programmes to sideline or undermine parliaments in order to impose its extreme - and often devastating - free-market agenda on developing countries. Now from the very first day that the new Iraqi parliament sits it will find virtually every important economic decision predetermined by the coterie of rich countries that runs the IMF.

For example, the IMF - whose board is chaired by Gordon Brown - has already said a new government must undertake tax reform, financial sector reform and restructuring of state-owned enterprises, not introduce new trade restrictions, and only "provide the minimum adequate level of social support". Yet as Dr Saleh Yasir, an Iraqi economist, warned over a year ago: "An IMF structural adjustment programme would create more social tension and cause a social explosion which might destroy the transition to democracy."

If Tony Blair really wants meaningful democracy in Iraq he must call for the unconditional cancellation of all Saddam Hussein's odious debts. He must also ensure that Iraq's parliament has the right to be fully involved in developing all relevant IMF and World Bank measures, and hold the final power of ratification.

Ensuring the primacy of the sovereign national parliament in this way will improve implementation of measures to reduce poverty, enhance good governance and foster democracy.

Peter Hardstaff, Head of Policy, World Development Movement

grubby fingers

Ending debt default good for foreign companies

The Economist Intelligent Unit today spells out the importance of Iraq beginning to service debts for corporate investment: "For companies doing business with Iraq the prospect of a resolution to the debt question is encouraging. As long as Iraq remains technically in default on its external debts it is difficult for companies to raise loan finance for business in Iraq. This is not relevant for the main reconstruction projects, which are financed by grants or by past and current Iraqi oil revenue. However, it is a factor for companies looking to invest in new projects, for example in the oil sector."

Paris Club should serve Russian oil interests

ITAR-TASS news agency reports that Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters at the State Duma that the Paris Club deal won’t be in vain and will yield results for Russia: "We are interested in seeing that the restructuring of the debt serve our interests in the region, including as concerns renewal of contracts with Russian enterprises for developing [oil] deposits. We work in the interests of the Russian business, which, I hope, will get contracts in Iraq when its solvency is restored." He said Russia only agreed to the 80% figure at the last moment of the negotiations.

At the Russia-EU summit Valdimir Putin said: "Within the framework of the Paris Club, we have taken the unprecedented step of writing off Iraqi debts to us. Provisionally, when joining the Paris Club, we took upon ourselves the obligation to write off 65% of a country like Iraq, plus new agreements. Altogether, Russia will write off over 90 per cent of (Iraq's) debts." He is refering to the Paris Club's only (implicit) acceptance of the odious debt doctrine, whereby all Soviet-era debts are written down by 65% prior to, and in addition to, any Paris Club reduction. This unusual measure, agreed when Russia joined the Paris Club in 1997, is really a recognition that most of the Soviet debts were Cold War financing of dictatorships. However the Paris Club has never recognised that much of the debts claimed by its 18 western members also come from politically motivated and odious Cold War loans, including those to Saddam.

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/55321BD7-F45A-41AB-987B-7DA96B9D7D3A.htm

..early report of the aftermath in fallujah. 2000 people dead(no idea how many civilians) as tommy franks said "we dont do body counts"..but 109 marines dead. 150 families left from a population of 300,000. Most stuctures are destroyed. No water, electricity, food or medical aid available. Nice job guys.

 

[broken arm]

2000 people dead(no idea how many civilians) as tommy franks said "we dont do body counts"..but 109 marines dead. 150 families left from a population of 300,000. Most stuctures are destroyed. No water, electricity, food or medical aid available. Nice job guys.

Aid is finally flowing into Falluja, following the heavy US-led offensive that began nearly three weeks ago to wrest the city from rebel control. The Iraqi Red Crescent told the BBC it was delivering aid on a daily basis.

But a spokesman says it is feared more than 6,000 people could have died in the assault and thousands of families are in critical need of assistance...................................................


He described how one man in his mid-50s had approached them after staying in his house for the past month - apparently living on water and sugar.

In comments reported by the UN information network Irin, spokesman Muhammad al-Nuri said the Red Crescent believed more than 6,000 people may have died in the fight for Falluja.

He said it was difficult to move around the city due to the number of dead bodies.

"Bodies can be seen everywhere and people were crying when receiving the food parcels. It is very sad, it is a human disaster," Mr Nuri reportedly said.


No outbreaks of disease have been reported but the destruction is widespread, with at least a third of houses needing rebuilding, reports say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4047469.stm

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/49577761-BD04-458F-8BC6-F28BD7212426.htm

More Bodies on the streets of mosul.

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B1658380-1AB3-42A4-A62B-446FDC8A76E4.htm

THe elections are still going ahead eh? unbelieveable. THe populace even if they want to vote, would be like lambs to the slaughter. I wouldn't be arsed going anywhere near a polling station in january if I was in Iraq.