Iraq (2 Viewers)

[Latex lizzie]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1165825,00.html

It just goes to show..nobody is safe there..

 

[steve albino]

Top Ten War Profiteers of 2004
Fri, 31 Dec 2004 06:54:47 -0800
By Center for Corporate Responsibility

You know it's bad when Halliburton is #7

Introduction

At the beginning of the Iraq war, Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), proclaimed that the reconstruction of Iraq would look like a modern-day Marshall Plan. But a year and a half later, a combination of bureaucratic ineptitude, corporate corruption and the growing Iraqi resistance threaten to undermine the Bush administration’s grand designs.

In mid-July, U.S. officials admitted that fewer than 140 of the 2,300 reconstruction projects funded by the U.S. were underway. Although AID says “dirt has been turned” on 1,167 projects including schools and hospitals, with at least 70 new ones staring each week, it’s unlikely that the big picture has changed much. The kidnapping and execution of contract personnel and the ongoing sabotage of key projects—power plants, electricity lines and oil pipelines—has slowed work in many areas of the country to a crawl, jacking up the cost of security, insurance and other ancillary expenditures, which in most cases amount to half of the contractors’ budgets.

By August, Ambassador John Negroponte had to announce that more than $3 billion of $18 billion in U.S. aid earmarked by Congress for engineering and reconstruction work would be used for security and counterinsurgency operations.

The announcement was tacit recognition that a kind of vicious cycle is at work. The aggravation caused by the lack of electricity and other basic services is certain to be blamed on the CPA and the contractors, which could result in further support for the resistance. Exactly how much the resistance has gained from the festering resentments caused by the stalled reconstruction process is difficult to say. But an increase in attacks on construction sites – more than one a day according to the Army – indicates that they are a clear target of the resistance.

In late December, Contrack International, the lead partner on a $320 million transportation systems contract, announced that it was withdrawing from Iraq because of “prohibitive” security costs.

By the fall, news that just 7 percent of the $18 billion originally allocated for reconstruction set off fireworks in Congress. Senator Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, blasted the Bush administration as “incompetent” for failing to devote adequate on-the-ground personnel to contract administration, management, and oversight.

much, much more here:
http://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/article.php?id=1029

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9E814D3C-5241-473C-80EC-2A64AA29E56D.htm


dropping bombs on the wrong house. Good one. You'd think that something like dropping a bomb would be checked and double checked. 14 innnocent dead. also 2 Iraqi police shot dead "by mistake".

 

[Latex lizzie]

..british soldier accused of torture, trial in Germany.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80390C6C-D555-454A-8C1A-32772C360D12.htm

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9A9E25C9-D187-43D4-87E2-E4FBEAE38032.htm

U.S has no timetable for troop withdrawl. Now theres a surprise.

 

[Latex lizzie]

In better news..there seems to be some people being released from cuba,

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1166719,00.html

having said that there is talk of possible torture..we'll find out what they have to say in three weeks or so...apparently the UK anti terror police will want to talk to these guys when they get back...given that the uk is now detaining people without trial as well this could be a short spell of freedom...

 

[Latex lizzie]

in related news:http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60026-2005Jan8?language=printer
(see also: http://talk.guardian.co.uk/[email protected]@.77479dcc)
U.S. Considers Elite Hit-Squads for Iraq -Report



Reuters
Saturday, January 8, 2005; 10:42 PM



NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Pentagon is debating whether to set up elite hit-squads to target leaders of the Iraq insurgency in a new strategy based on tactics used against leftist guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago, Newsweek magazine reported on Saturday.

One proposal would send U.S. Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads of hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, Newsweek said, citing military insiders familiar with the discussions.

The squads may operate across the border in Syria, Newsweek said on its web site, but added it was unclear whether they would assassinate leaders or be involved in "snatch" operations.

The magazine said the plan is being called "the Salvador option" after strategy instigated during the Reagan administration's battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s.

Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers.

"What everyone agrees is that we can't just go on as we are," one unidentified senior military officer told Newsweek. "We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defense. And we are losing."

Newsweek said Pentagon sources emphasize there has been no decision to launch the special squads. The Defense Department had no comment on the Newsweek article.

Amid concern over a bold and growing insurgency, the Pentagon is sending retired Gen. Gary Luck to Iraq next week to review overall military operations.


© 2005 Reuters

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1387460,00.html

this is the best article I have read on the aftermath of the attack on fallujah I have read. Very sad.

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8364D125-8FA9-4868-9235-95C7395F1465.htm

this could be the biggest lie ever told to the voting public of democratic countries. Why Blair and Bush weren't ousted for this will be the question people ask in fifty years time. Thanks if there are any of us left of course.

 

[aoboa]

Finally:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4169107.stm

 

[Latex lizzie]

no let up in pre election violence...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/27B252CA-3E4C-4D20-8F2B-26016E644115.htm

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/93E17D58-785D-4940-A456-F9B49EEA87E2.htm

charged with murder. Slap on the wrist on three years in a military"soft prison" where everyone treats you like a hero. Justice seen to be done.

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13284758,00.html

british version of the same movie.

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80CC0A22-B084-4B05-A34F-1628DC9ACE72.htm

kennedy claims this is bush's "vietnam".

 

[Latex lizzie]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D2E1EC49-0576-420B-97AB-1409BB15D81C.htm


"elections" the most possible outcome of this is civil war.....

 

[pete]

http://www.sky.com/skynews/picture_gallery/picture_gallery/0,,30000-1167675,00.html


"simulated". right. got to love that "simulated" motion blur.

 

[P. Littbarski]

man...the picture on the front of the Irish times today is horrific. i was almost in tears. that poor little girl...no child anywhere should have to suffer what she is going through. it's just wrong. seeing something like this makes me loose faith in people...they should publish this on the front pages of the american papers, to make the supporters of this farce of an occupation realise the effects of 'collateral damage' or whatever the hell it's called these days.

fucking guns, fucking war, fucking politics, fucking liberty and freedom and justice for all my arse.

 

[Latex lizzie]

man...the picture on the front of the Irish times today is horrific. i was almost in tears. that poor little girl...no child anywhere should have to suffer what she is going through. it's just wrong. seeing something like this makes me loose faith in people...they should publish this on the front pages of the american papers, to make the supporters of this farce of an occupation realise the effects of 'collateral damage' or whatever the hell it's called these days.

fucking guns, fucking war, fucking politics, fucking liberty and freedom and justice for all my arse.

http://www.ireland.com/

Is one of the worst pictures I've seen. And I've seen a few. Right up there with John Simpsons' documentry.

 

[pete]

Troops kill Iraqi couple in front of children


An Iraqi man and his wife have been shot dead in front of their five children by US soldiers who fired on the car in which the family was travelling.
The children survived but emerged from the car spattered with blood, screaming and traumatised. The soldiers tended to them and brought them to hospital.
The incident happened in Tal Afar, near Mosul, in northern Iraq, late on Tuesday.
According to the US military, soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division out of Fort Lewis, Washington, fired on the car when it failed to stop and came towards soldiers, despite warning shots, during a dusk patrol.
The US forces' press service said the military extended its condolences for the incident, but added that "the military must take appropriate action against possible threats" because of the prevalence of car bombs.
The incident was witnessed by Chris Hondros, a photographer, who recorded it in a series of dramatic pictures. They show how troops shot dead the driver and one passenger - husband and wife, apparently, but unnamed in the photograph captions.
The five children in the rear of the car survived, with only one being slightly injured by a bullet. The military said it was investigating what happened.
Yesterday, the country saw one of its worst days of violence as four suicide car bombings in Baghdad killed 28 people less than two weeks before elections.
The al Qaeda-linked insurgent group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it had carried out three of the bombings.
The group is believed by the Iraqi interim government and US and British forces to be the main instigator of insurgency in Iraq. - (Agencies)

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2005/0120/2484297022HM1PIC.html

 

[Latex lizzie]

..it's one of a sequence of pictures in the hardcopy of the times.

$40 million dollars for a ball.
wonder how much is ear marked for the kids in the picture?

Imagine if this shit happened in upstate NY? there would be a fucking record put out for the survivors!

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPRRRRRRRRIIICCCCCCCCCCCKS.