*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

FedEx Corp., the world's largest overnight shippingcompany, has started delivering packages in Iraq, providing service in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra.
The service began Aug. 4 through FedEx Express, the air-cargo delivery unit of FedEx of Memphis, Tenn., said Kristin Krause, a company spokeswoman.

"Iraq has the potential to be one of the fastest growing economies," Hamdi Osman, FedEx regional vice president, said in a statement. FedEx Express said it would be the first to offer door-to-door pickup and delivery service in Iraq.

Falcon Express Inc., a closely held contractor that delivers FedEx's packages in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria and Yemen, was hired for the Iraq service, the company said. Workers will wear FedEx uniforms, Krause said.

With the inclusion of Iraq, FedEx makes deliveries in 215 countries. FedEx rose 70 cents to $65.90 at 12:51 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange trading.

 

[extra dry]

A bit off subject here, but to get an idea of what the press report and what happens on the ground in most if not all wars read "Going to the wars" by Max Hastings. Good slice of history and gov. involvment at all levels in the war machine.

 

[Louloubelle]

A Briton has been arrested after a suspected plot to supply a lethal surface-to-air missile to terrorists.

It is thought the target may have been a commercial aircraft or the US President's personal aircraft.

Western intelligence officials have confirmed to the BBC it was a multinational sting operation, involving agents from the US, Russia and Britain.

It resulted in the arrest of a British arms dealer at Newark in New Jersey on Tuesday.

Officials say he successfully imported a Russian Igla missile into the US and believed he was selling it to an Muslim extremist.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3146025.stm

 

[bigfish]

US Troops in Iraq to Serve 1 Year:

"It's a one-year rotation," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told The Associated Press in an interview. "Every soldier has been told that they'll be deployed for a year.

full: http://tinyurl.com/jt5u

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U.S. soldier killed in roadside bomb attack:

2 others wounded in strike on convoy west of Baghdad; Oil pipeline fire rages north of capital.

full: http://tinyurl.com/js70

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What's going on in Iraq? Unfiltered News From The Iraqi Frontlines:

Hear from American Friends Service Committee's Iraq Reps Mary Trotochaud and Rick McDowell. "It was never a war, It's a slaughter"

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4430.htm

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Taxpayer Tab For Iraq Invasion May Be $600 Billion:

President Bush and other administration officials have refused to provide projections, saying too much is unpredictable. That has angered lawmakers of both parties, who are writing the budget for the coming election year even as federal deficits approach $500 billion.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A47537-2003Aug12?language=printer

 

[someoneelse]

Powell promises Iraq evidence......!

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said investigators were uncovering evidence that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and it would be released to convince a sceptical world.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/14/1060588505681.html


i stand by to be convinced!

 

[Abu Arak]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1018436,00.html

US soldiers shot into a crowd of thousands of demonstrators in a Shia district of Baghdad yesterday, killing a civilian and wounding four others after a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at them, the US military said.

 

[bigfish]

President Bush plans to sidestep Congress and appoint Daniel Pipes

full: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3265810

For more on Americas leading Islamophobe, click here

===

The New “Islamophobia”

We are well and truly living the new Islamophobia. On both sides of the Atlantic, demagogic voices, terrifying of violence scourge Islam, the so-called Islamic civilization, and Muslims. These voices dangerously recall anti-Semitic lampoons of late 19th Century or even Mussolini and Hitler’s racist discourses.

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4432.htm

 

[john x]

Originally posted by extra dry
"Going to the wars" by Max Hastings.

Max Hastings, the first man in Port Stanley!

john x

 

[bigfish]

The Most Egregious War Crime:

According to an August 2002 report by the UN Sub Commission, the laws which are violated by the use of DU weapons include: the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907.

full: http://liberty.hypermart.net/Newsletter/3/2_The_Most_Egregious_War_Crime.htm

 

[whiterose]

Sabateurs blow up Iraq pipeline
Aug. 16, 2003 | TIKRIT, Iraq -- Saboteurs blew up a major pipeline and stopped all oil flow from Iraq to Turkey, just three days after the pipeline between the two countries was reopened, officials said Saturday.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2003/08/16/pipeline/index.html

 

[bigfish]

Democracy In Iraq might be impossible, US was told:

US intelligence officials cautioned the National Security Council before the Iraq war that the American plan to build democracy was so audacious that, in the words of one CIA report in March, it could ultimately prove "impossible."

full: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/08/14/democracy_might_be_impossible_us_was_told

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Iraqis Offer Tips Over U.S. Blackout:

Iraqis who have suffered for months with little electricity gloated Friday over a blackout in the northeastern United States and southern Canada and offered some tips to help Americans beat the heat.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62540-2003Aug15?language=printer

 

[bigfish]

No Al-Qaeda Link Seen In Jordanian Embassy Bombing:

The bombing of the Jordanian Embassy does not appear to have been the work of outside terrorist groups, according to the top U.S. adviser to Iraq. .

full: http://tinyurl.com/k5c1

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What Threat? What Evidence? What Strategy?

Are we now more secure for having invaded Iraq? Absolutely not! Iraq posed no real threat to the security of the United States.

full: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-12forum12aug12,1,5447618.story?coll=sfla-news-opinion

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Calendar of US Military Dead during Iraqi War
Includes the names of the dead and how they were killed.

full: http://cryptome.org/mil-dead-iqw.htm

 

[whiterose]

Six killed in mortar attack on Baghdad prison

Six Iraqis have been killed and 59 injured in a mortar attack on Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, the U.S. military says.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=359101&section=news

 

[someoneelse]

US tank kills Reuters cameraman

The US military acknowledged today its troops had "engaged" a Reuters cameraman, saying they had thought his camera was a rocket propelled grenade launcher.

"Army soldiers engaged an individual they thought was aiming an RPG at them. It turned out to be a Reuters cameraman," Navy Captain Frank Thorp, a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/18/1061059745612.html

 

[whiterose]

CHRONOLOGY-Journalist casualties in Iraq

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=359716&section=news

 

[bigfish]

Jordan: MPs Seek Extradition of Ahmad Chalabi:

Jordanian deputies will lobby the government to extradite Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, convicted in Jordan of embezzling millions from a bank in the late 1980s, a leading parliamentarian said on Sunday.

full: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17557784.htm

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Danish Soldier Killed, Two U.S. Soldiers Wounded:

The soldier, the first Danish casualty in Iraq, was killed when his patrol was shot at. Two Iraqis died in the exchange of fire. Denmark has 420 soldiers stationed in southern Iraq.

full: http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/08/17082003100425.asp

 

[bigfish]

Iraqi Clerics Unite In Rare Alliance Against US:

U.S. Fears Shiite, Sunni Cooperation Will Bolster Resistance.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4453-2003Aug16.html

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Shi'ites Plan Militia to Protect Holy Sites From GIs

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/16/i...Q.html?ex=1062047730&ei=1&en=a05cd33e5481a207

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The Americans look ugly not only to Iraqis:

Saddam is being replaced by the American soldier, who is viewed by a large segment of the population as being to blame for the evolving chaos. While Iraqi citizens pay the price for this renewed tragedy, America's Middle East strategy now faces its greatest test.

full: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/...2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

 

[Gumbert]

The authorities have refrained from seeking Chalabi's extradition for fear of wider legal and political ramifications.

Bushes vagina feltchin'.... Democracyfucker'

"We are asking for our embezzled funds and conviction of those who have hurt our economy. We are defending our economy and country and our right to funds that Chalabi squandered either by taking it for himself or his partners," Kharabsheh said. Twenty-one politicians have signed the petition so far, enough to call the special parliamentary session, he added.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17557784.htm

We are being anally fucked and not enjoying the exp

Well, they do say that the political leads to the personal

 

[consumer135]

more insanity

Zsa Zsa Saddam" is one of a series spoof images of the ousted Iraqi dictator that are due to be posted on walls and billboards around his former stronghold of Tikrit by troops of the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion 22nd Armored Regiment.
The idea is to boost the morale of U.S. soldiers, ridicule the deposed leader and help identify those who are still loyal to Saddam. "The bad guys are going to be upset," Lt. Col. Steve Russell told Reuters. "Which will just make it easier for us to know who they are.".....As well as a curvaceous Zsa Zsa Saddam -- after movie legend Zsa Zsa Gabor -- there is a buxom Rita Hayworth Saddam, a hip-swiveling Elvis Saddam and even a leather-and-spangle-clad Billy Idol Saddam.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/08/18/sprj.irq.saddam.pictures/index.html

 

[bigfish]

Bush grants permanent legal immunity to US corporations looting Iraqi oil

An extraordinary Presidential Executive Order, signed into law by President Bush on May 22 but kept out of the pages of the US media, further underscores the real motivations behind the illegal US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Ostensibly drawn up in order to protect Iraq’s oil wealth, Executive Order (EO) 13303, “Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq Has an Interest”, provides unlimited authority for US corporations to loot Iraqi oil and grants them permanent immunity from any legal actions over the consequences...

The EO means that American oil companies operating in Iraq are now completely immune from legal accountability. If they carry out environmental destruction, oil spills or labour rights violations, no one affected will have any legal recourse. In addition, the EO eliminates the potential for any future Iraqi government to sue US oil companies for compensation and damages. The GAP report describes it as “a licence for corporations to loot Iraq and its citizens”.

The EO exempts US oil companies operating in Iraq not only from international law, but from American civil and criminal liability as well. It renders any commercial activity within the US involving Iraqi oil exempt from judicial accountability. Devine notes that this legal exemption covers everything from laws concerning workplace safety, minimum wage requirements, environmental protection and consumer fraud.

Also overridden are the normal accountability requirements relating to US corporations in receipt of government contracts. US administrative law enforces a raft of conditions for the awarding and administration of US government contracts in areas such as competitive bidding, labour conditions and open accounting standards. None of these will now be enforceable for contracts involving Iraqi oil, giving the Bush administration a free hand in its relations with companies such as Halliburton and Bechtel. As Devine noted, “the EO is a blank check for pork barrel spending”.

source

 

[bigfish]

Huge Bomb Blast Hits Baghdad UN HQ, 20 Killed

full:http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0cv=CA01

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Chief UN Envoy in Baghdad Dead, U.N. Announces

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14859-2003Aug19.html?referrer=emailarticle

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Official had said his job was to protect Iraqis' interests:

In his last interview published before his death, Vieira de Mello sympathized with Iraqi resentment at having foreign troops on their soil. . . . ``It is traumatic. It must be one of the most humiliating periods in their history. Who would like to see their country occupied?

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4486.htm

 

[bigfish]

Rumsfeld 'led Bush to war'

A FORMER US diplomat who resigned over the Iraq war has described US President George W. Bush as a "very weak" man led by the hand into battle by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Brady Kiesling, who was political counsellor at the US embassy in Athens at the time of his resignation in February, said in an open letter published by Greek daily To Vima that Rumsfeld exploited the war to increase his own power.

Kiesling – whose warning that US aims in Iraq were "incompatible with American values" struck a chord with the predominantly anti-war Greeks – described Bush as "a politician who badly wants to appear strong but in reality is very weak".

full: http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6987491%5E1702,00.html

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

http://truthout.org/docs_03/030103A.shtml

The guy resigned in February, before the war even started. He had worked in Athens. How the hell would he know about what was going on in the briefing rooms of the White House?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Since his resignation, Mr, Kiesling has been cleaning up on the lecture circuit.

"John Brady Kiesling at UC Berkeley this Thursday, March 20
John Brady Kiesling, the American foreign service officer who resigned in protest over Bush's unilateral preventative war policy, will be giving a talk, Preserving America's Moral Capital, this Thursday, March 20, 2003, at 7:30 pm at the Sibley Auditorium at the (heavy irony) Bechtel Engineering Center on the UC Berkeley campus."

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Anti-Iraq war guy gives the Go Code to troops in Afghanistan

http://www.irna.ir/en/head/030819145215.ehe.shtml

 

[Backatcha Bandit]

Top Blair Aide Reveals Debate Over Iraq Threat

Monday, August 18, 2003; 12:20 PM

By Dominic Evans

LONDON (Reuters) - The dossier on which British Prime Minister Tony Blair justified war against Iraq contained no proof of any threat from Baghdad, according to an e-mail from a top Blair aide released on Monday.

The e-mail is the first public sign of debate within Blair's inner circle about the strength of intelligence used to justify a war that most Britons opposed.

"The document does nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent threat from (Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein)," Blair's chief of staff and long-time confidant Jonathan Powell wrote to a senior intelligence official.

 

[bigfish]

Iraq's Governing Council received warning of truck bombing a week ago:

"The intelligence specifically said that a large-scale act would take place ... against a soft target, such as Iraqi political parties or other parties including the UN,"

full: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...820/wl_afp/iraq_un_blast_chalabi_030820160231

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UN Staff in Iraq to Be Evacuated, UN Sources Say:

United Nations staff in Iraq are to be evacuated to Jordan following a truck bomb attack on their Baghdad headquarters that killed at least 17 people, U.N. sources in Baghdad said on Wednesday.

full: http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3305660&fromEmail=true

 

[bigfish]

World Bank, IMF Pull Staff Out of Iraq:

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund informed the U.S. Treasury Department that they were pulling their staff out of Iraq on Wednesday

full: http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030820/API/308200862

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US soldier killed in Iraq

full: http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-20-120443.asp?reg=MIDEAST

 

[bigfish]

How America Created a Terrorist Haven:

Yesterday's bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad was the latest evidence that America has taken a country that was not a terrorist threat and turned it into one.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/20/opinion/20STER.html

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Robert Fisk: UN Attack Underlines America's Crumbling Authority:

Paul Bremer, the US pro-consul, was meant to be an "anti-terrorism" expert. Yet since he arrived in Iraq, he has seen more "terrorism" than he can have dreamt of in his worst nightmares - and has been able to do nothing about it.

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4492.htm

 

[bigfish]

Why the UN Is a Target:

On 14 August the Council gave its approval to the recently formed Iraqi Governing Council and it also approved the establishment of a United National Assistance Mission in Iraq (Unami)

full: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3164675.stm

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Bombers Used 'Enormous Amount of Explosives'

full: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=435422