Video: Fallujah - The Hidden Massacre

Italian TV Report Details Use Of Napalm On Iraqi Civilians

Watch The Video Here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10907.htm

The media are minimising US and British war crimes in Iraq

The reporting of the Iraqi death toll - both in its scale and account of who is doing the killing - is profoundly dishonest

By George Monbiot

We can expect the US and UK governments to seek to minimise the extent of their war crimes. But it's time the media stopped collaborating. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10914.htm

$5,000 for loss of wife and son: how US prices death

By Phil Sands

Hameed Hassan sat in the remains of his car, next to his dead wife, and watched his four-year-old son begin to bleed to death. The family had been on the way to buy clothes in Rawah's small market when the American soldiers opened fire. A helicopter gunship joined in the attack, cutting the car and two of its occupants to pieces.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10916.htm

4 U.S. Soldiers and Lawyer for Saddam Hussein's co-defendant, among 22 killed in continuing violence:

The death toll from a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint south of Baghdad on Monday rose to five, with an interpreter also killed along with four U.S. soldiers, the military said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KHA839640.htm

Troops kill five in Ramadi clashes :

A series of firefights started after members of the Second Marine Division saw rebels on a street trying to plant bombs in a hole used by militants in the past.
http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=4087589&nav=2aKD

Gunmen kill two Iraqi soldiers near Fallujah :

Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi army patrol in a flashpoint town near Fallujah, west of Baghdad,on Tuesday, killing two soldiers and wounding five others
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/...ent_3750779.htm

Al-Qaeda to launch 'offensive' in Iraq to counter US operation on Syrian border :

"Your brothers in the military branch of Al-Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers are launching today 'The Conquest of Vengeance' on behalf of the Sunni community in Al-Qaim," the group said in an online statement which could not be independently verified.
http://tinyurl.com/8uksj

Iraq Qaeda puts Web video of 'downed' US helicopter:

Al Qaeda in Iraq on Tuesday posted an Internet video apparently showing the bodies of two U.S. Marines killed in a military helicopter which the group said it had shot down.
http://tinyurl.com/au9bd

Al Qaim October Massacre: Indiscriminate Killing Zone:

WARNING : This report contains graphic images depicting the reality and horror of war.
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/ArticlesIraq2.htm#AlQaim

Blair blames France for Iraq war in reply to diplomat's claims :

Tony Blair has angrily rejected the charge by Britain's former ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, that he could have used his "swing vote" to stop the US going to war in Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politi...ticle325480.ece

The pygmies in Tony Blair's cabinet :

In the second extract from his memoirs Sir Christopher Meyer, former ambassador to the US, is scathing about some Labour ministers - among them Jack Straw, John Prescott and Geoff Hoon
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/...1636675,00.html

Militias growing in power in Iraq:

The sun had barely risen over a small Sunni village when Shiite militiamen, some wearing black, launched a raid, ostensibly to free hostages. Interior Ministry troops joined the fight. After several hours, more than 20 people were dead.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee...ws/13105414.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5110800333.html

The War in Iraq: What Next for Democratic Opposition?

By Terry M. Neal
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 8, 2005; 7:53 AM

After issuing a string of confusing comments about where he stood on his vote to authorize war in Iraq, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), has finally taken a stand -- albeit a year too late for his political aspirations.

Several other high-profile Democrats, including Sens. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Diane Feinstein (Calif.), Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Christopher Dodd (Conn.) are stepping up as well and expressing regret for voting for the resolution authorizing the war in Iraq.


As a majority of the American public has reached the conclusion that they have been, as Malcolm X might have once put it, "hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, and run amok," some Democratic leaders in Washington are finding it comfortable to publicly renounce their votes in favor of the war resolution.

Yet, despite the latest Washington Post/ABC poll results indicating that 55 percent of Americans believe that the Bush administration "intentionally misled the American public," many Democrats are standing by their yea votes, including most of those mentioned as possible presidential candidates in 2008, including Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), Evan Bayh (Ind.), Joe Biden (Del.) and John Edwards (N.C.).

When asked by an NPR reporter last week if she regretted her vote on Iraq, Clinton, considered by some to be the early favorite for the Democratic nomination responded, "You know, I really can't talk about this on the fly. It's too important."

Bayh found himself on the firing line during a recent visit to New Hampshire. When speaking to a group of about 100 people he was asked if he'd vote to the same way today, given all that is known now. Bayh seemed to walk right up to the fine line without jumping over it.

"It turned out some of the most important information we relied upon at that time just was not accurate," Bayh told the crowd, according to the Indianapolis Star. "There were no weapons of mass destruction. The administration has proven to be terribly incompetent in the way they've carried this out. It turns out Saddam's regime was much more decrepit than we thought. Of course, we'd make different decisions based upon different facts as we know them today."

I checked with his office on Monday for clarification and was told by a press aide that Bayh "believes that he made the right decision based on the facts as they were known at the time."

That answer won't satisfy some in the party's base. At the New Hampshire event, a Democrat named Al Cantor said: "I think he needs to say, 'I blew it. I should've seen through all the lies.' There were millions of people around the world saying there was no case for war...Any presidential candidate for the Democratic Party has got to have a better answer."

Others who are prominent and visible voices in the party have refused to renounce their votes, including Sens. Joseph Lieberman (Conn.) and Chuck Schumer (N.Y.). In fact, just a couple of weeks ago, Schumer blasted the administration's handling of Iraq while simultaneously defending his vote authorizing the war.

Asked by "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert if he regretted his vote, Schumer said: "Well, no, Tim, because my vote was seen and I still see it as a need to say we must fight a strong and active war on terror."

Much of the discussion in Washington is over the devastating impact the war in Iraq is having on the poll numbers of Bush and the GOP. Some predict this issue more than any other will lead to a narrowing or even a loss of the GOP's majority status in next year's midterm elections.

The War in Iraq: What Next for Democratic Opposition?
Yet, the approval rating for Democrats exceeds Bush's by only two percentage points -- meaning essentially that given the margin of error, Democrats are about as popular as the man they love to loathe.

On Iraq in particular, the party can neither paint a united face on the most divisive issue of the day, nor can its leaders explain clearly, succinctly and without parsing why they voted the way they did or where they stand now. The net result is a party full of leaders that look either craven (i.e. criticizing the president while refusing to renounce their votes for war authorization) or opportunistic (renouncing their votes only now that a majority of the public opposes the war.)

Dick Polman, a veteran political reporter for Knight-Ridder News, examined why some Democrats with presidential aspirations are sticking by their votes to authorize war.

"Their reticence might stem in part from awareness of the George Romney rule of politics: Gullibility is not a character asset for a presidential candidate," Polman wrote, relating the sad tale of the late George Romney, who was considered the front-runner in the 1968 GOP presidential race "until he tried to explain, in a radio interview during the summer of 1967, why he had renounced his previous support for the Vietnam war. The Michigan governor complained that, while visiting the hot zone, he had been duped by the brass into backing the war...Romney plummeted in the polls, and his candidacy soon evaporated; voters didn't like the idea of electing someone who admitted he was capable of being fooled. And, as many political observers argue, that's the lesson for Democrats today."

Some election observers in Washington said the same dynamic could play out similarly for Democrats seeking the presidency in 2008.

"If you're running for president, you have to balance the primary electorate, which is going to be much more dovish on the war and wants to make sure each candidate is suitably irate at the administration," said elections analyst Stuart Rothenberg. "If you're thinking about how it looks from the general election, it's problematic, because if you're a Democrat, you want to be hawkish...You have to show strength, consistency and conviction and changing [positions] would be a problem for them."

This line of thinking enrages some on the left, who argue that the party's problem is that it is too beholden to the punditry class and scared to take a stand on an issueeven when the public agrees with them as they do now on Iraq.

"Democrats can only make the case that they are better able to defend this country than Republicans by being against this war," the liberal blogger David Sirota said in response to an e-mail question.

"The real pro-national security case against the GOP is the one that says wars are sometimes necessary despite their national security risks but that the Bush administration deliberately misled America about the Iraq War's necessity, and thus unnecessarily weakened America's national security. Democrats can make this case without appearing politically opportunistic by stating the honest truth: that after 9/11 Congress and the American people believed the White House's dire warnings about Iraq, and deferred to the president at a time of national crisis."

Sirota may be right--to a point. Democrats have to find a way to differentiate from the president and the GOP by making clear that they never would have gone to war in Iraq, and by reflecting the anger that much of the public has about the false claims the administration made on the march to war. Trying to have it both ways by criticizing the president on Iraq while standing by the vote might be a safe strategy, but it's hardly a bold one.

Without a clear, concise plan for extricating the country from the mess in Iraq, and a strong, big picture foreign policy vision and homeland security vision, all the outrage won't mean a thing politically. Voters want real solutions and vision, not just criticism.

180 Detained In US-Iraqi Sweep Near Syrian Border
http://www.spacewar.com/news/iraq-05zzzzzn.html

Baghdad (AFP) Nov 08, 2005 - At least 180 suspected terrorists were arrested Tuesday during a sweep against insurgents in the far western Iraqi town of Husayba, near the border with Syria, the US military said.

Iraqi president asks for Italian troops through 2006
http://www.spacewar.com/2005/051108185944.abtcuu5c.html

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7961The Return of Chalabi
Some Democrats are outraged, but both parties sired this scamster "liberator"
by Justin Raimondo
As blowback from the lies that duped us into war plunges Washington into a maelstrom of investigations and counter-investigations, Ahmed Chalabi adds insult to injury by making a return trip to the Imperial City. He's staying at the ritzy-glitzy Ritz-Carlton, where he's staked out a whole bloc of rooms at (U.S.) taxpayers' expense, and is slated to meet with Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Treasury Secretary John Snow, and the Chalabi fan club over at the American Enterprise Institute.

Gee, that's funny: I could've sworn Chalabi was under investigation for turning over highly sensitive U.S. intelligence to the Iranians, and had his Iraqi home and headquarters raided by American and Iraqi troops last year. Not to mention the fabrications he retailed to New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who reported them as fact and plastered them all over the front page of the "newspaper of record."

A lot of people are mad about this: John Conyers, for one, and the congressman has a whole list of people who have questions similar to his own. Senator Richard Durbin has some, too, as Arianna Huffington helpfully informs us: Durbin is outraged that Chalabi is back in town, and he wants to know what Ms. Rice and other administration officials are doing meeting with a man who may very well have endangered American troops in Iraq. Says Durbin:

"So don't be surprised if you watch the Chalabi motorcade speed up when they pass the Department of Justice. I guess they're concerned whether an FBI agent will come out and pursue this so-called active investigation."

If I were Chalabi, I wouldn't worry too much. According to the Wall Street Journal, the "investigation" into his two-timing shenanigans with Tehran is stalled to the point of being cryogenically frozen, with little hope of revival – and that's because there are just too many people in both parties who have befriended this scamster over the years.

If Durbin is trying to stick Chalabi on the Republicans, then perhaps he doesn't remember his own vote in favor of the Iraq Liberation Act, passed with the total support of the Clinton administration in 1998. Although Chalabi was somewhat halfheartedly backed by Bush I, this act of Congress officially put Chalabi and the INC on the U.S. dole and funneled more than $100 million into his coffers until he was cut off in 2004. It was during the first years of the Clinton administration, when the CIA was under the thumb of über-neocon James R. Woolsey, that Chalabi's group really came into its own as a Washington-based lobbyist.

The Iraqi National Congress (INC) originated as a project of the Rendon Group – a public relations firm founded by former Democratic National Committee executive John Rendon – which signed a contract with the CIA to build up the Iraqi opposition. This was under George Herbert Walker Bush, who never had any intention of toppling Saddam, but once Clinton got into office the money – and congressional support, including from liberals like Durbin – began to roll in, and the INC set up a formidable lobbying organization. As Jane Mayer relates in an excellent New Yorker piece:

"In 1994 and 1995, Robert Baer, the former CIA officer, met Chalabi several times in Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, an autonomous area protected from Saddam by the United States. Chalabi had established an outpost in Kurdistan. 'He was like the American Ambassador to Iraq,' Baer recalled. 'He could get to the White House and the CIA. He would move around Iraq with five or six Land Cruisers.'"

We didn't hear from Dick Durbin back then. It was okay with him that the U.S. was openly proclaiming its alleged right to engage in a policy of "regime change" in Iraq – and throughout the world, including the Balkans. (Although, to his credit, he did try to limit the Kosovo war by trying to ban the introduction of ground troops.) As Baer puts it:

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars were flowing each month 'to this shadowy operator – in cars, salaries – and it was just a Potemkin village. He was reporting no intel; it was total trash. The INC's intelligence was so bad, we weren't even sending it in."

Chalabi's agenda was to convince the United States that Iraq under Saddam was "a leaking warehouse of gas, and all we had to do was light a match." And the Democrats were eager to start the conflagration, including longtime Chalabi booster Peter W. Galbraith, former ambassador to Croatia and one of the main architects of the "humanitarian" intervention in Kosovo that put in power the "Kosovo Liberation Army" – a gang of scamsters, gangsters, and thugs in every way similar to the INC. Says Galbraith:

"Chalabi is one of the smartest people I know. He figured out in the eighties that the road to Baghdad ran through Washington. He cultivated whom he needed to know. If he didn't get what he wanted from State, he went to Capitol Hill. It's a sign of being effective. It's not his fault that his strategy succeeded. It's not his fault that the Bush administration believed everything he said. Should they have? Of course not. They should have looked critically. He's not a liar; he believed the information he was purveying, and part of it was valuable. But his goal was to get the U.S. to invade Iraq."

It wasn't just the Bush administration that helped build Chalabi's empire-in-exile, funded it, succored it, and helped install it in Baghdad. The Democrats continued the policy of supporting the "democratic" Iraqi opposition, signing the Iraq Liberation Act into law on Halloween 1998 – a portent of things to come. Upon passage of the bill, Chalabi issued a statement, which said in part:

"Today, October 31, 1998 is a great day for the Iraqi people. Today President Clinton signed into law the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. The American people have given their support for the end of dictatorship and for democracy in Iraq. The INC welcomes this courageous and historic action by President Clinton and thanks him for it. I will begin immediate consultations with leaders in the INC and others to work for a united response on how best to take advantage of the provisions of the Iraq Liberation Act. We will present a united front to maximize the chances of success. We look to President Clinton to support and work with a united INC to achieve our common goals."

In short: thanks for the dough, Bill – and I know there's more where that came from.

The Great Pants-Dropper, for his part, was unequivocal in his support for a change of regime in Iraq, and asked Americans to "just consider the facts":

"We have to defend our future from these predators of the 21st century. They will be all the more lethal if we allow them to build arsenals of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them."

Yes, but who was going to defend America from the predator Chalabi?

Clinton's former CIA director, R. James Woolsey, took up the cause of Chalabi some years later, serving as a pro bono lawyer for INC members – including Aras Habib Karim, Chalabi's intelligence chief and known to be on the Iranian payroll for years. These INC members were in trouble with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was trying to deport them as likely Iranian agents. According to Woolsey, however,

"Aras was known to have seriously irritated a senior CIA official who resented Aras' and Chalabi's disinclination to follow orders. It was indeed possible, Woolsey speculated, that Ali had simply been the victim of a private CIA 'jihad' against his cousin and ended up spending three years in jail."

Yeah, sure: poor victimized Chalabi, who stopped off in Tehran before arriving in Washington. He doesn't even bother to hide his real allegiances anymore. As Steve Clemons reports:

"Woolsey's client Ahmed Chalabi secured Woolsey's services in 1998 clearing from an INS detention center in Guam six Iraqi National Congress associates of Chalabi that the INS (and CIA) believed to be threats to American interests. As it turned out, the INS and CIA were right as one of the detainees, Aras Habib Karim, became Chalabi's Chief of Intelligence and was a sieve of sensitive and classified American information to Iran, now under investigation by the FBI. "

The neocon-INC propaganda machine enlisted politicians in both parties in an effort to free these "political prisoners," who were supposedly victims of CIA "persecution," including Congressman David Bonior (D-Mich.), Senators Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.), Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) gave a leftish tinge to the campaign to "free the Guam Six" (as they were known).

The Chalabi-Aras-Iranian connection was confirmed by the Jordanians last year, which, in tandem with the discovery that Chalabi had passed highly compartmentalized secret information to the Iranians, was a pivotal factor in turning Washington – temporarily – against its former protégé.

Pardon my political incorrectness, but I just can't take Senator Durbin's outrage all that seriously. Both parties collaborated in the rise of the scamster Chalabi and in the fateful invasion that catapulted him to the top of the new Iraqi government. If the Democrats are really going to launch the much-vaunted "phase two" of the SSCI investigation into how officials "misused" intelligence and perhaps even fabricated the rationale for war with Iraq, they are in large part promising to investigate themselves and their own collusion with the Republicans, not only more recently but as far back as the Clinton years.

That's one promise I don't expect they'll keep.

The Democrats are getting way up there on their high horse, righteously demanding explanations for the transparent lies that were somehow so convincing at the time that most of them were "duped" into voting for war. I don't buy it for a minute. The Iraq Liberation Act passed the Senate unanimously. And here's how Salon.com, the virtual playhouse of the Clintonian democracy, describes the process that led to its passage:

"For Ahmed Chalabi, the neoconservatives' support was the key to getting Washington on his side. And Chalabi's leadership, in turn, was key to the neocons' support for the INC. Perle and Feith, along with future Bush administration officials Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld, signed the February 1998 'open letter' to President Clinton, in which they listed nine policy steps that were in the 'vital national interest' of the United States. The first of these was 'Recognize a provisional government of Iraq based on the principles and leaders of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) that is representative of all the peoples of Iraq.' In October 1998, under intense lobbying pressure from the neocons, Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, the 'Iraqi Liberation Act,' which provided money and U.S. legitimacy for Chalabi's INC, along with six other exile groups. "

Oh, I see: Clinton and his party "were under intense lobbying pressure from the neocons," were they? It's as if the neoconservatives were akin to NARAL, the labor unions, or some other traditionally Democratic constituency. And we wonder how and why we went to war.

Both wings of the War Party – the Republicans and the Democrats – lied us into war, and if the latter are now claiming they were "duped," well, it didn't take much, did it? Let Congress investigate not only the machinations of the neocons but also congressional complicity in giving this administration – and previous ones – a blank check when it comes to foreign policy.

I am willing to concede that it's possible some Democrats have learned their lesson and won't easily support another crusade abroad – even if it's launched by a Democratic White House. But I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Put not your trust in politicians, lest you be sorely – grievously – disappointed.

By all means let the Senate Intelligence Committee launch "phase two" of its long-promised probe of U.S. intelligence-gathering during the run-up to war with Iraq. But pinning all our hopes on a congressional investigation is unwise for several reasons, not the least of which is that politicians can hardly be trusted with investigating… themselves. We are asking politicians to do the work of journalists – and that just isn't going to fly.

http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml.../ixnewstop.html
Sadr emerging as Iraq's political kingmaker
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
(Filed: 09/11/2005)

Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers are blamed for the recent killings of British troops in Basra, has emerged as the political kingmaker expected to shape the country's government for the next four years after the election on Dec 15.

In recent days a procession of Iraq's most powerful political leaders has paid homage to the 31-year-old cleric.


Followers of the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr at Friday prayers. He has more than three million supporters

A year ago the US military wanted him captured dead or alive after a series of uprisings in the south. Iraqis widely consider the present government, a coalition of religious Shia groups led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a failure because of its inability to improve the security situation or guarantee a steady supply of electricity or fresh water.

Sadr, who has more than three million supporters, is likely to hold the balance of power in the new parliament.

He boycotted the January election but has announced that his supporters would contest next month's election.

At the weekend Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is the dominant partner in the present government, visited Sadr's headquarters in Kufa to try to broker a deal.

Even Sunni politicians have begun negotiations with him, based on their shared anti-Americanism and demand for the withdrawal of all coalition troops.

Hussan Bazzaz, of the Centre for Culture and Opinion, in Baghdad, said that by sending conflicting signals Sadr was managing to enter politics while maintaining the image of an outsider on which his popularity largely lies.

"Moqtada is moving in a couple of different directions," he said.

"The last election only mattered for a couple of months. This time it determines power for four years. He is wise to become involved."

It seems certain that, under whatever deal he cuts, a number of his followers will receive important cabinet posts.

The Americans are insisting that they will work with any legally elected leader in Iraq.

But the question as to how Sadr, whose rhetoric is vehemently anti-Western and who saw hundreds of his supporters killed in last summer's gun battles, would manage to work with them remains uncertain.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-11-08-voa58.cfm



UN Extends Coalition Mandate in Iraq
By Peter Heinlein
United Nations
08 November 2005



The U.N. Security Council has unanimously agreed to extend the mandate of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq through the end of 2006. The one-year extension was approved early to avoid any conflict with Iraq's December 15 elections.


UN Security Council
The resolution gives the U.S.-led multi-national force legal authority to remain in Iraq for a one-year period beginning next January 1.

Co-sponsors the United States, Britain, Japan, Denmark, and Romania asked for approval nearly two months before the current mandate expires at the end of this year. Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emir Jones-Parry says early adoption removes what could have been an issue in Iraq's national elections.

"All the time, the military deployment would have been uncertain," he said. "The one thing you need is political and military certainty. The political certainty has been afforded by a government that says we want you to continue. The military certainty is, but now the continued deployment and the rotation of troops, all that can take place in a perfectly normal way. And that is why we have done it now."

Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie thanked the Security Council for its prompt action. Afterward, he told reporters the unanimous decision would help to avoid a failure that he said would be too awful to contemplate, and would be a threat both to regional and international peace.

"The Iraqi government wanted continuation of the multinational force in order to complete political transition, and this it will do," he said. "We will do that through elections. The political process is moving forward. We will succeed and defeat terrorists in Iraq and build a new country."


John Bolton
After the unanimous vote, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton expressed satisfaction that Iraqis were continuing to demonstrate what he called 'the courage we have seen throughout the transition process'. He called the vote a significant signal of the international commitment to Iraq's democratic transition, but appealed for more help from Iraq's Arab neighbors.

"We urge the international community, especially the Arab world, to come forward and support Iraqi people," he said. "That support comes in many forms - participation in the coalition, contributions to Iraq's humanitarian and reconstruction activities, increased diplomatic engagement, and compliance with relevant resolution. Support is critical at this time."

The resolution calls for a Security Council review of the multi-national force mandate after six months. Diplomats say that review was part of compromise language asked for by France and Russia, which had originally favored extending the mandate by only six months.

The multi-national force is made up of around 160,000 U.S. troops, and some 22,000 troops from 26 other members of the coalition.

Reality 2, Bush 0 John Kerry
Our brave armed forces deserve a clear and concrete plan in Iraq. Support our call to withdraw 20,000 troops over the holidays.
Dear Friends,

We can't depend on George W. Bush finally seeing the light. And we surely can't rely on Dick Cheney finally telling the truth. We can't even count on Karl Rove seeing big Democratic victories in the 2005 elections as a sign that Americans want a clear strategy in Iraq, not just more slash and burn Republican staged events that aim to mislead.
We've got to count on intense grassroots pressure forcing Republicans in the House and Senate to force this White House to face reality.
That pressure ratcheted up yesterday when Republican candidates who aligned themselves with Bush fell to defeat in Virginia and New Jersey. Bush's last-minute personal campaigning in Virginia sealed the Republican candidate's defeat.
The bottom line: It's becoming harder and harder for the Republican Party to defend Bush's failures.
And no Bush failure is doing more damage than the President's stubborn clinging to self defeating "stay as long as it takes" rhetoric in Iraq.
That's why, in just a few days' time, nearly 200,000 people have signed on to support our demand that the President present a clear and concrete plan for Iraq. We're starting with a call for the withdrawal of 20,000 American troops over the holidays, linked to the successful completion of December elections in Iraq -- sending a signal to Iraqis that Iraq belongs to them. And we're pressing the Bush Administration to get it right with a new strategy that will bring the vast majority of our combat troops home by the end of 2006.
If you haven't signed yet, it's critical that you do so now:
Withdraw 20,000 troops over the holidays
Our goal is to collect 400,000 signatures before Thanksgiving. That's 20,000 Americans stepping forward each day for 20 consecutive days in support of our "20,000 troops home over the holidays" drive.
It's the vitally important first step in our call for a concrete plan that will produce genuine progress in Iraq and bring home the vast majority of our brave fighting men and women by the end of next year.
We can no longer let Republican politicians get away with providing political cover for George W. Bush's multiple failures on Iraq. We can't let them explain away policies that keep failing . . . scandals that keep deepening . . . principles that keep getting trampled on . . . and the urgent needs of America's families that keep getting ignored.
Your signature right now can really help.
Withdraw 20,000 troops over the holidays
Tomorrow I will be speaking out again and offering a resolution on the floor of the Senate to commit to the needed steps this White House refuses to take -- a plan for Iraq.
In less than a week, we'll be launching the next critical step in our "20,000 troops home over the holidays" campaign. We'll be placing impossible-to-ignore billboards in the home districts of Republican leaders across the country.
The message on the billboards will be "Withdraw 20,000 troops over the holidays."
The message behind the billboards will be even clearer: "In 2006, no Republican candidate will get away with putting his or her loyalty to George W. Bush ahead of what's right for our troops and our country."
Republicans have let the Bush Administration make one mind-boggling mistake after another in Iraq with hardly a word of protest.
As investigations and indictments mount, they pretend they can't see the corruption. As the bullying tactics of the extreme right wing dictate the Republican agenda, they pretend they can't see the danger.
And, as a White House hamstrung by a dizzying array of failed policies, botched decisions, and corrupt practices reels out of control, they pretend they can't see their own responsibility to act.
If they're not willing to lead, they need to get out of the way. We've got to get them out of the way so that we can roll up our sleeves and move America forward again. That's what the most critical legislative and electoral contests of the next twelve months are going to be all about. We're going to get "do nothing to offend the President" Republicans out of the way, so that we can move America in the right direction again.
Let's push hard -- and let's promise each other to not stop pushing until we have put our America back on track.
Sincerely,

John Kerry

P.S. Friday, President Bush will deliver another defense of his irresponsible "stay as long as it takes" approach to Iraq. But, more and more Americans are rallying to our call for forward movement in Iraq and the withdrawal of the vast majority of our troops by the end of next year.

Video: Fallujah - The Hidden Massacre


Italian TV Report Details Use Of Napalm On Iraqi Civilians

Watch The Video Here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10907.htm

U.S. Soldier Among 16 Killed In Continuing Violence:

Seven Iraqi policemen were killed and nine wounded, three of them civilians, when a car driven by a suicide attacker exploded in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, targeting an Iraqi police patrol, medical and army sources said.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10923.htm

Gunmen kill Sudanese diplomat in Baghdad :

Unknown gunmen shot dead a Sudanese diplomat in western Baghdad on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry source said.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10924.htm

Sadr emerging as Iraq's political kingmaker:

In recent days a procession of Iraq's most powerful political leaders has paid homage to the 31-year-old cleric.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10938.htm

Poll: U.S. and Britain Lied to Justify Iraq War, Say Americans :

43 per cent of respondents believe both administrations lied to provide a reason for invading Iraq.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10922.htm

Neglecting Intelligence, Ignoring Warnings:

A chronology of how the Bush Administration repeatedly and deliberately refused to listen to intelligence agencies that said its case for war was weak
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10934.htm

The Case Against This Monstrous War:

Like many Americans, I’ve grown sad and frustrated at the triumph of neoconservative foreign policy. It was sold to Americans not merely on the basis of lies, but also by means of bumper-sticker slogans trotted out – by a White House that cynically exploited ordinary people’s patriotic inclinations in order to prosecute a war whose aims remain obscure to this day.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10933.htm

US criticised for use of phosphorous in Fallujah raids :

A leading campaign group has demanded an urgent inquiry into a report that US troops indiscriminately used a controversial incendiary weapon during the battle for Fallujah.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10925.htm

Fallujah - the hidden massacre Photo gallery

- Warning - Images depict the reality and horror of war.
http://www.uruknet.com/?s1=55&p=17582&s2=09


“Falluja-The day After”: “

Falluja-The day After” shows the total devastation of the Iraqi town, the corpses of the victims, the mass graves, the exhumation of many corpses by local rescue teams in order to try to recognize some of the victims. The last corpse shown in this video belongs to a 14 year old girl.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9010.htm

Saddam's lawyers boycott trial :

Lawyers for Saddam Hussein and his aides severed all contact with the court trying the former Iraqi president on Wednesday after the second murder of a member of the defense team since the trial began last month.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10921.htm

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-11-09-voa51.cfm

Chalabi Denies Passing Faulty Pre-War Information on Iraq
By David Gollust
Washington
09 November 2005

Ahmad Chalabi
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Wednesday with Iraq's controversial Deputy Prime Minister . Mr. Chalabi is denying charges he provided U.S. officials with faulty information about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programs.

Mr. Chalabi is meeting senior Bush administration officials amid a background of controversy in Washington over his role prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Democratic lawmakers say they would like Mr. Chalabi to answer charges that, as an Iraqi exile figure prior to the war, he provided U.S. officials with inflated or outright false information about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs that prompted the decision to invade.

In a talk with reporters after the half-hour meeting with Secretary Rice, Mr. Chalabi flatly denied he was responsible for providing false intelligence, while brushing aside another question about his pre-war role, saying the focus should be on the situation in Iraq now.

"It's always more important to look to the future than to the past. I would say to you that Iraq is a country of 27 million people, in the middle of difficult times. We have overthrown a dictatorship after 35 years. The country is in a dire situation. We need to improve the quality of life of the Iraqi people and establish Iraq in the community of nations, and this is our main focus in Iraq at this time," he said.

Secretary Rice did not appear with Mr. Chalabi after the meeting, nor was there a photo session at the start of their talks, which is routine for such an occasion.

But Mr. Chalabi insisted that he is getting a warm reception from administration officials, and said his meeting with Ms. Rice focused on the Iraqi political process, Iraq's relations with Syria and Iran, and ways to protect the country's energy infrastructure.

The deputy prime minister, who was accused last year of passing U.S. intelligence information to Iran, visited Tehran and met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before traveling to Washington.

The Iraqi Shiite politician said he spoke to the Iranians about their interference in Iraqi domestic politics. In his comments to reporters here, Mr. Chalabi said Iraq needs to have transparent relations with both its neighbors, based on non-interference in each others' affairs:

"We are neighbors. We need to have good relations with our neighbors in a transparent way, and we need to have respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other. And we need to also not intervene in the internal affairs of each other. I think this is also a position that the United States understands," he said.

Mr. Chalabi said efforts must be made to get Syria to stop supporting what he termed terrorist incursions into Iraq. He said this must by done by engaging the Syrians in dialogue, but only after authorities in Damascus are seen to be taking steps to halt the infiltrations.

Mr. Chalabi, who is on an eight-day U.S. visit, is to meet Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld next Monday and also have talks with other members of the Bush cabinet.

Bombing at Crowded Baghdad Restaurant Kills at Least 30

By Bassam Sebti and John Ward Anderson

BAGHDAD, Nov. 10 -- A suicide bomber entered a crowded Baghdad restaurant during the breakfast rush Thursday morning and detonated himself in a fiery blast, killing at least 30 people and wounding about two dozen others, witnesses and police said.

The explosion occurred at about 9:30 a.m. at the Qadouri Restaurant, a popular Baghdad institution famous for its local cuisine, particularly Baghdadi breakfasts. The restaurant caters to Iraqi workers, particularly police and other security forces, and it was unlikely many foreigners would have been dining there, residents of the area said.

Police and witnesses said the bomber apparently was armed with an explosive vest or belt. News agencies said as many as 35 people were killed in the blast.

"The moment he entered the restaurant, he blew up himself," said Uday Mohammed, 28, a worker at the restaurant who sat at the entrance crying for 12 co-workers he said were killed in the explosion. "Where should we go? Where should we flee? This is hell all over us."

Um Hussein, an elderly woman standing at the gate of her house watching ambulances and police tend to the victims, said when she heard the explosion, she knew the restaurant was the target.

"I immediately knew the restaurant was bombed. I found people screaming, calling for help, blood everywhere, flesh and body parts thrown everywhere," she said wiping her tears.

Neighbors of the restaurant said it had been threatened several times because it was so popular with policemen and army soldiers, who particularly liked the breakfasts it served.

"We expected this disaster. Everyday I told the policemen not to eat among the civilians, but they didn't care and said all Iraq is targeted, not only our restaurant," said Uday, the employee.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

A second suicide bombing was reported shortly before noon Thursday at an army recruiting center north of Tikrit, about 90 miles north of the capital, according to major Abdul Jabbar Hussein, secretary of the Salahudeen Governor. He said it was unclear how many were killed in the blast, which authorities believed was caused by a car bomber, but casualties were apparently heavy.

The restaurant bombing came about 12 hours after three hotels were attacked in Amman, Jordan, Iraq's neighbor to the east, killing at least 57 people. Al Qaeda in Iraq, the radical Islamic group of Jordanian-born Abu Musab Zarqawi, asserted responsibility for the attacks early Thursday in an internet posting on a website frequently used by the group.

The Qadouri Restaurant is located along the banks of the Tigris River, about 500 yards north of the Sheraton and Palestine hotel complex and across the river from the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses the Iraqi government and the headquarters of the U.S. occupation forces.

The hotels compound, where numerous foreign journalists and western contractors reside, was targeted on Oct. 24 by a suicide car bomber and a cement truck packed with explosives. Sixteen people were killed in the attack, which al Qaeda in Iraq also claimed responsibility for.

Iraqi and American troops have been engaged in a week-long offensive against al Qaeda in Iraq and its network of safe houses and smugglers in the area of Husaybah, a border town with Syria about 200 miles west of Baghdad. Al Qaeda recently posted notices on several mosques in and around Husaybah vowing to coordinate revenge for the offensive with members in Baghdad.

Special correspondent Salih Saif contributed to this report.


Would you like to send this article to a friend? Go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/e...er=emailarticle

Iraq: 69 Killed In Continuing Violence:

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in a crowded Baghdad restaurant frequented by the security forces during breakfast, killing 35 people and wounding 25
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10752807.htm

Six dead after car bombs explode near mosque:

Two car bombs exploded this evening near a Shiite Muslim mosque in north-east Baghdad, killing at least six people and injuring 31, police and paramedics at the scene said.
http://tinyurl.com/awucl

5 Killed as explosion rocks recruitment centre in Tikrit :

Five Iraqis were killed and 11 wounded on Thursday when a car bomb exploded outside an Iraqi army recruitment centre in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town, police said.
http://tinyurl.com/dabjk

Five civilians were killed in a U.S. air strike:

Five civilians were killed in a U.S. air strike on a house being used by insurgents on Nov. 7, the military said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MOU954504.htm

One U.S. Soldier Died, Another Wounded in Attack with a Car Bomb North of Baghdad:

One U.S. soldier died and another was injured in an attack with a car bomb in the region of Al Azamiya, located north from capital Baghdad, the Iraqi news agency INA announced
http://tinyurl.com/8hpcb

US denies using 'napalm' on civilians:

THE US military in Iraq denies a report shown on Italian state television saying US forces used incendiary white phosphorus against civilians in an offensive on the Iraqi town of Fallujah last November.
http://tinyurl.com/dkhup

In case you missed it:

U.S. Journalist Reports On Use Of White Phosphorous In Fullajah:

Bogert is a mortar team leader who directed his men to fire round after round of high explosives and white phosphorus charges into the city Friday and Saturday, never knowing what the targets were or what damage the resulting explosions caused.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10941.htm

In case you missed it:

Military Report Confirms White Phosphorous Used In Fullajah:

"WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."
http://sill-www.army.mil/FAMAG/Previous_Ed...5/PAGE24-30.pdf

http://tinyurl.com/amt75

A name that lives in infamy :

The destruction of Falluja was an act of barbarism that ranks alongside My Lai, Guernica and Halabja
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10946.htm

How the U.S. Helped Create Zarqawi and the Terror Financing Network:

Democracy Now! speaks with Italian writer Loretta Napoleoni, author of "Insurgent Iraq: Al Zarqawi and the New Generation."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10954.htm

Chalabi claims he didn't mislead U.S.:

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said that Chalabi's private appearance today on Capitol Hill should instead be public, and that he should be put under oath "to answer questions about his role in providing false intelligence to the United States ... "
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nati..._chalabi10.html

http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-11-11-voa28.cfm

Rice Visits Baghdad, Mosul, in Surprise Iraq Mission
By David Gollust
Baghdad
11 November 2005


U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gestures during a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit to Iraq Friday, with stops in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul. She urged Iraqi politicians, in advance of next month's parliamentary elections, to work for a new government that bridges the country's ethnic and religious divides.

The Bush administration is looking to the December elections to produce a permanent and stable Iraqi government after a series of interim administrations, and one that can bridge the sectarian splits evident in last month's constitutional referendum.

The constitution was approved, propelled by resounding "yes votes" by the country's majority Shiite Muslims and ethnic Kurds.

But Iraqi Sunni arabs, many who feel disenfranchised after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, opposed the document and there were "no votes" in three majority Sunni provinces, including Nineva in the north, which Ms. Rice visited briefly Friday when she stopped in Mosul.

In subsequent talks in Baghdad, with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, and with prominent Sunni leaders, Ms. Rice urged broader participation in the election.

At a joint press appearance with the prime minister, Ms. Rice said the United States supports the political process in Iraq but no particular candidate or party, and she insisted that the soundings she made here left her optimistic about the role to be played by the Sunnis.

"The Sunni participation was indeed encouraging in the referendum, but also the activity that has been going on since then," said Ms. Rice. "I've been meeting with non-governmental organizations that are assisting in the political process and they talk about the very active Sunni participation now to form political groupings, to put forward a list, to educate voters, to encourage voter turnout. And so I think that the remarkable thing is that there is such high activity among the Sunni population."

Mr. Jafari said the relatively large Sunni turnout for the referendum was a very positive sign. He said efforts at dialogue continue inside the current National Assembly, and could also be advanced by a pre-election Iraq reconciliation conference proposed by Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa on a Baghdad visit two weeks ago.

However disputes have erupted over whether figures associated with the Iraqi insurgency should take part in the meeting, and whether Iraq's neighbors including Iran and Syria would be invited.

Mr. Jafari said he could not accept a conference that would be a platform for terrorists or figures from the former Baathist regime. Heard through an interpreter, he also rejected a recent Syrian suggestion that infiltration of insurgent recruits from Syria was partly due to lax border policing by Iraq.

"It is Iraq, and everybody agrees on that, that is the victim of terrorism," said Mr. Jafari. "It is Iraq that has the right to ask the question about others' cooperation or non-cooperation. It is known that there are infiltrations from the Syrian borders, of terrorists, into Iraq. There are also training camps there, and every Iraqi knows that. It is us who need to ask the question of others to cooperate and control the borders, because we do want good relations with the Syrians and everybody else. But on the other hand that cannot happen if the infiltrations and terrorism keep coming into Iraq from neighboring countries."

Secretary Rice called for broader recognition and financial support for Iraq as it moves toward a permanent government and lamented the fact that few Arab countries have set up embassies in Baghdad.

She is expected to pursue that theme Saturday in Bahrain when she attends the second annual Forum for the Future, aimed at promoting political and economic reform in the Middle East and North Africa, and at the inaugural meeting in Jeddah Sunday of the U.S.-Saudi Arabia strategic dialogue.

Bush Forcefully Attacks Iraq Critics ABC News
President Bush speaks about the war against terror at Tobyhanna Army Depot in Tobyhanna, Pa., Friday, Nov. 11, 2005. In a Veterans Day speech, Bush offered a forceful defense of the war in Iraq, saying it is the central front in the war on terror and that extremists are trying to establish a radical Muslim empire extending from Spain to Indonesia.
Bush Fires Back at Critics of Iraq War Los Angeles Times
Bush says Iraq intel critics irresponsible Reuters AlertNet
Indianapolis Star - BBC News - CBS News - Newsday - all 657 related »

We Start Where The Media Stop
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Home Page - Advertise - DEBKA-Net-Weekly - Customized Service Enlarge




International

US-Iraq War Diary *

Bin Laden Terror

Terrorism

Intelligence









Regional


Israel

Middle East

Americas

Persian Gulf

Asia

China

Europe

Russia











Zarqawi Moves His Headquarters to Baghdad

From DEBKA-Net-Weekly 227

November 9, 2005, 5:12 PM (GMT+02:00)





According to intelligence data reaching the American command, the Jordanian terrorist chief, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, commander of al Qaeda Iraq, has left the Sunni-dominated Anbar province bordering on Syria after two years. In mid-October he is described as driving into Baghdad in mid-October in a convoy of six Iraqi military vehicles stolen from US-Iraqi bases in the north. All the travelers, including the boss, were clad in new uniforms of high Iraqi army officers. They breezed past the roadblocks guarding the town’s entrances without arousing suspicion. Indeed some of the Iraqi security officers manning them saluted the fake officers.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources add: the convoy rolled in to the northeastern, Sunni district known as the Seven Wells, to be greeted by the local commander Emir Abu Yashak and his men. Yashak was given the job of setting up a secret command center and several safe houses for the new arrivals to work out of, as well as escape routes and facilities should the Americans uncover the new hideouts.

It is the first time that US forces and intelligence know for sure where Zarqawi is located. They know he is now in Baghdad.

A week later, the al Qaeda chief, fully aware that the Americans had pinned him down geographically, went into action. Monday, October 24, three truck bombs driven by suicide bombers exploded at two hotels housing foreign journalists and contractors in central Baghdad. At least 20 Iraqi security guards and passers-by were killed. Al Qaeda then returned to its offensive to frighten Arab and Muslim missions into exiting the Iraqi capital, by abducting and executing two Moroccan embassy employees. A Sudanese working at his country’s Baghdad embassy was killed Wednesday, Nov. 9. A day earlier, al Qaeda gunmen targeted a another two members of the Saddam Hussein trial defense team, killing one, wounding another, after murdering the first lawyer last month. A large question mark now hovers over the resumption of the crimes against humanities trial awaiting the deposed dictator and seven senior associations on Nov. 28. The surviving defense counsel want the trial moved abroad.

Zarqawi’ plan of action for his new base was summarized by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s al Qaeda experts:

1. Multi-weapon, multi-casualty, coordinated attacks on Americans and other foreigners working in Baghdad that are hideous enough to shut down and put to flight diplomatic missions and foreign companies, international aid organizations, journalists and the foreign technical teams employed in constructing and operating Iraq’s new infrastructure. 2. Along with large-scale coordinated attacks, al Qaeda will step up the hostage-taking and executions of foreigners.

3. The offensive will aim at crippling Iraq’s government, security and parliamentary administration by pinpoint assassinations of cabinet ministers, lawmakers, civil servants, members of the judiciary, army officers and rank-and-file police and soldiers - plus anyone seen by Zarqawi as a collaborator with the Americans.

4. American locations will be targeted - from US headquarters in the fortified Green Zone seat of Iraqi government, to American army command centers and bases and mobile patrols. The attacks will come from within the city, not its outer fringes.

But Zarqawi’s overriding goal, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s counter-terror sources. It is to cast the Iraq capital into such a state of turmoil and dislocation as to make it impossible to hold parliamentary elections as scheduled on December 15. This would bring to a halt moments before its consummation the entire democratic cycle on which Iraq has been moving forward this past year.

The al Qaeda commander rates this objective so high that he has tied himself down to Baghdad and so restricted his freedom of movement, which was unfettered in the wide open spaces of Anbar province. At the center of the action instead of behind the scenes, he is also more vulnerable to capture or being killed.

But the terrorist chief may not have had too many options, given three new circumstances.

One, the mounting international pressure on Bashar Assad’s regime may remove Syria as his and al Qaeda’s rear base and escape hatch under a revamped regime or even a new ruler. In Anbar near the Syrian border, he would have laid himself open to a collaborative Syrian-American turned against him.

Two, new American military tactics took heavy toll of his forces and forced them into retreat. They have no answer for the updated American military tactic of rolling large forces with massive firepower from one location to the next, after thoroughly purging each one. This tactic is workable in the desert reaches and outlying villages of Anbar, but not in a city with millions of inhabitants like Baghdad. This American tactic may have put Zarqawi and his terrorist legions to flight; but it is not applicable after they are embedded in Baghdad.

Three, this successful US tactic not only uprooted terrorist bases but inflicted heavy losses running to hundreds of fighting men. In Baghdad, Zarqawi believes he commands a fresh pool of fighting men to refill his depleted ranks, namely, the 90,000 Palestinians who are being dispossessed by the Shiite government of Ibrahim Jaafari.

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE .





Back Next To Print Send to Friend Go to top


Related articles:

France’s Ramadan Uprising - a Ticking Bomb for Europe

Al Qaeda`s Afghanistan Jailbreak

Three Continents Tense for al Qaeda Action to Mark 4th Anniversary of 9/11

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Headlines

Some Palestinians have second thoughts about indiscriminate suicide killings after 27 West Bank Palestinians died in al Qaeda’s triple hotel bombings in Amman

Saddam’s former deputy Izzat Ibrahim Duri has died, according to a Baath party statement aired by Al Arabiya TV from Dubai

Two Americans were killed and 4 wounded in al Qaeda’s suicide attacks on three Amman hotels Wednesday

Rice begins her Mid East trip with a surprise visit to Mosul amid heavy security

Amir Peretz’s shock election as Labor leader throws Israeli parties into pre-election frenzy

Lebanon rejected Syrian president Bashar Assad’s charge it had become a center for conspiracies against Syria

Reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza is delayed

DEBKA-Net-Weekly Exclusive: In mid-October, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, chief of al Qaeda in Iraq, has set up new headquarters in Baghdad.

Three petrol bombs tossed into apartment on Pisgat Zeev’s Eli Tabin St in N. Jerusalem Friday night, setting fire to the kitchen

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources after digging deep into the causes of the riots sweeping France were surprised to discover strong outside links


Copyright 2000-2005 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.

U.S. 'Can't Maintain Iraq Troop Levels'
http://www.spacewar.com/news/iraq-05zzzzzq.html

Washington (UPI) Nov 11, 2005 - Unless the Bush administration significantly cuts American troop levels in Iraq next year, the U.S. military's roughly 140,000-strong presence there will become a detriment to America's national security, according to a report released this week.


British Troops Could Leave Iraq In One Year: Talabani Interview
http://www.spacewar.com/news/iraq-05zzzzzp.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1300466_pf.html

washingtonpost.com
Iraq Says Syria Harbors Foreign Killers
Training Camps Cited; Most Suicide Bombers Are Saudis, Top Official Asserts

By John Ward Anderson and Hasan Shammari
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 14, 2005; A15



BAGHDAD, Nov. 13 -- Top Iraqi defense officials on Sunday accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to operate training camps on Syrian soil and sneak into Iraq to commit suicide bombings.

"We do not have the least doubt that nine out of 10 of the suicide bombers who carry out suicide bombing operations among Iraqi citizens . . . are Arabs who have crossed the border with Syria," the Iraqi national security adviser, Mowaffak Rubaie, told journalists in Cairo, the Reuters news service reported.

"Most of those who blow themselves up in Iraq are Saudi nationals," he added.

Iraqi Defense Minister Sadoun Dulaimi also criticized Syria.

"We have more than 450 detainees who came from different Arab and Muslim countries to train in Syria and enter with their booby-trapped vehicles into Iraq to bring destruction and killings," Dulaimi said after meeting with Jordanian Prime Minister Adnan Badran in Amman, according to the Associated Press.

"Let me tell the Syrians that if the Iraqi volcano explodes, no neighboring capital will be saved," Dulaimi said, warning that the aim of terrorists was "to kill tolerance and destroy coexistence in Arab and Muslim cities."

The charges came as Jordan blamed Iraqi suicide bombers for three blasts at hotels in Amman on Wednesday that killed 57 people. The allegations also echo complaints from U.S. military officials that Syria has done little to patrol its 376-mile border with Iraq.

In Iraq, meanwhile, two Marines were killed Saturday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Amiriyah, about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement Sunday. And a U.S. soldier died Saturday in a "non-hostile" traffic accident near Rawah, in western Iraq, about 50 miles from the Syrian border, the military said in a separate statement.

In Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi forces arrested 371 suspected terrorists on Saturday, including the town's mayor, the deputy chairman of the city council, the deputy chief of the appeals court and several police officers, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Hasan Tamimi, a senior Interior Ministry official, said Sunday.

Local officials expressed outrage at the sweeping arrests, complaining that they were based on unsubstantiated tips. The mayor, Khaid Sanjari, said he was released Sunday without being questioned. Oaf Rahoomi, the deputy provincial governor, called the arrests "random" and charged that the operation had "sectarian goals" aimed at preventing Sunni Arabs from taking part in national elections scheduled for Dec. 15.

Sunni Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of Iraq's population, controlled the country under former president Saddam Hussein. Shiite Muslims, who account for 60 percent of the population, now dominate the country's security forces.

Confusion continued to surround the fate of a former top aide to Hussein, Izzat Ibrahim Douri, the country's most wanted man, after an obscure Arabic-language Web site reported Friday that he had died. Douri, who would be about 63 and reportedly has leukemia, is considered the highest-ranking member of Hussein's inner circle still at large.

Another Web site, the official site of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, reported Sunday that "the holy warrior Izzat Douri" was "fine," calling earlier reports of his death baseless.

"We apologize to our brothers and sisters for publishing a statement announcing the death of brother Izzat Douri, Abu Ahmed, may God extend his life," the brief message stated.

It was not possible to independently confirm the reports. Many reports of Douri's death appear to be based on Internet echoes from the Web site in Britain with Baathist ties that first reported his death on Friday -- interspersed with a variety of stories and pictures of such figures as Paul McCartney, Rosa Parks and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

There have been several reports that Douri might be spreading false rumors about himself, and a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, warned that the reports of Douri's death could be a hoax.

"Coalition officials question the validity of the Baath party claim that Douri has died," the U.S. military said in a statement Sunday night. A reward of up to $10 million would be paid "for information leading to al-Douri's capture or his gravesite," it said.

Shammari reported from Baqubah.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools...ast/4434444.stm
Three killed in Baghdad bombing
A large explosion has killed three people in the centre of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, with a number of casualties reported.
The bomb went off near the gates leading into the high-security Green Zone, where the Iraqi government and US military have their headquarters.

The Associated Press reported that at least one police officer was killed and several were injured in the attack

One report, quoting police, said that Americans had died in the bombing.

The blast sent a plume of black smoke into the sky, which could be seen across the city.

It was followed by small-arms fire. US Apache helicopters took to the skies immediately after the attack.

The cause of the blast was not clear, although one eyewitness said it had been a roadside bomb.

Other reports spoke of a suicide bomber ramming the last vehicle in a three-car convoy.

There are also reports of a roadside bombing in the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, killing about six people.

Air strikes

Meanwhile, the US military said it had killed about 37 insurgents in the latest phase of an operation near the Syrian border.

Operation Steel Curtain has entered a new phase, the military said, with troops battling insurgents in the town of Ubaydi on the Euphrates river.

"Five targets were struck by coalition air strikes resulting in an estimated 37 insurgents killed," a statement said.

"The insurgents were engaging coalition forces with small arms fire at the time of the strikes."

About 2,500 US and Iraqi soldiers have already staged raids in the towns of Husayba and Karabila.

Sunni Arab politicians say US-led military operations meant to uproot insurgents often cause heavy civilian casualties as well.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/midd...ast/4434444.stm

Published: 2005/11/14 10:12:58 GMT

© BBC MMV

Terrorism Trial's Strategies Revealed

By Jerry Markon

As preparations intensify for the upcoming death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, newly unsealed court documents are laying out the arguments prosecutors and defense attorneys plan to make in what is likely to be the only judicial reckoning for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Prosecutors will tell an Alexandria federal court jury that Moussaoui deserves to die because he lied to the FBI when he was arrested a month before the terrorist assaults that killed nearly 3,000 people, the papers indicate. If the French citizen had confessed his knowledge of the hijacking plot, the government is expected to argue, the carnage of Sept. 11 could have been prevented.

To build their case that Moussaoui should die, prosecutors are planning to use admissions he made in April, when he became the first person convicted in a U.S. case stemming from the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When he pleaded guilty, Moussaoui signed a statement of facts admitting that he "lied to federal agents to allow his al Qaeda 'brothers' to go forward with the operation to fly planes into American buildings."

Defense attorneys, while arguing that Moussaoui actually knew very little about Sept. 11, are also preparing to put the government itself on trial.

Both the Bush and Clinton administrations were warned that Osama bin Laden wanted to strike the United States, the attorneys are arguing, but did little to prepare. In fact, they say, the government knew far more about bin Laden's intentions than did Moussaoui -- and also knew enough about Moussaoui to realize that he could pose a threat.

"We need to know, almost frozen in time, what was known by the government before the planes hit the World Trade Center," Moussaoui attorney Edward B. MacMahon Jr. said at a classified hearing whose contents were made public last week. Defense attorneys said that before Sept. 11, former CIA director George J. Tenet was briefed about Moussaoui after Moussaoui was arrested because his behavior at a Minnesota flight school was suspicious. The title of the briefing: "Islamic Extremist or Islamic Fundamentalist Learns to Fly."

Moussaoui, 37, pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiring with al Qaeda and said that bin Laden had personally instructed him to fly an airplane into the White House. But he denied that he was planning to be a Sept. 11 hijacker and said his attack was to come later. A trial, starting Jan. 9 with jury selection, will now convene to determine if he should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.

The trial itself, expected to last several months at a courthouse just miles from the Pentagon, promises to be extraordinary. Scores of reporters will descend on a building already under extremely tight security due to numerous other high-profile cases. Jury selection alone, from a pool filled with government workers, is expected to take almost a month, according to a schedule set by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema -- far longer than most high-profile cases.

During the proceedings, relatives of Sept. 11 victims will have their day in court for the first time since the attacks. An unknown number are expected to testify as part of a massive and unprecedented outreach the government mounted, both to secure relatives' cooperation in court and to help them deal with their loss.

Prosecutors acknowledged in a recent filing that their so-called victim impact evidence will be "emotionally charged." The trial will also be aired on closed-circuit television to Sept. 11 family members at highly secure, remote locations outside Alexandria.

At the defense table, the trial could feature wild unpredictability. Moussaoui, an admitted al Qaeda member, is known for rambling speeches and heated courtroom outbursts. When he pleaded guilty, he called one of his attorneys a "Judas" and screamed: "Lord! God curse America!"

Sources familiar with the case said that Moussaoui has not talked to his attorneys in months. It is unclear how this will affect the defense case or how Brinkema will react to any outbursts. Brinkema initially granted Moussaoui the right to represent himself but revoked it after he scrawled blistering handwritten motions from jail in which he taunted the government and compared the judge to a Nazi SS officer.

Moussaoui has indicated that he wants to testify, sources said, which is his right under the U.S. Constitution. At his plea hearing, he said he would "fight every inch against the death penalty."

Prosecutors and defense attorneys would not comment beyond the court filings.

Moussaoui has been in the Alexandria jail for nearly four years. He was arrested more than three weeks before Sept. 11 and was charged in December 2001 with conspiring with al Qaeda in the Sept. 11 attacks.

A constitutional showdown over access to top al Qaeda detainees delayed the case for more than two years. Moussaoui wanted to interview the captives, saying they could clear him. Brinkema agreed, but the government vehemently resisted on national security grounds.

Eventually, a federal appeals court ruled that Moussaoui could not interview the detainees but could present to the jury portions of statements they made to interrogators.

The two sides are still fighting over the issue. In May, defense attorneys sought access to other detainees, recently unsealed court filings show. Brinkema has yet to rule on the request. And the government urged Brinkema to reconsider her earlier rulings, saying the al Qaeda witnesses are not relevant to the sentencing trial.

Brinkema declined to do so in an order unsealed Thursday, writing that the witnesses' statements "remain extremely material to this case."

It is unclear how the statements will be presented at the trial, but what is clear is that much will turn on whether jurors conclude that Moussaoui lied to federal agents after his arrest. The newly unsealed documents indicate that is the heart of the government's case.

According to a transcript of the Oct. 12 hearing unsealed last week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Brinkema said to prosecutors: "I think your theory of the case now is that his failure to tell the agents what he knew about Sept. 11 resulted in death."

"You are correct, your honor," responded Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert A. Spencer. Later in the hearing, Spencer referred to Moussaoui's admissions in the statement of facts and said: "We know he knew that much and lied, and instead of giving those answers, he gave false answers."

The hearing transcript was released with redactions; much of the material in the case is classified. Attorneys can view classified material only in two locked rooms -- a defense room in the basement of the federal courthouse in Alexandria and a government room within the U.S. attorney's office, located in the same building, sources said.

At the Oct. 12 hearing, defense attorneys outlined their argument that Moussaoui knew very little about Sept. 11 and that his confession wouldn't have stopped the attacks anyway because the government had repeatedly failed to act on warnings about al Qaeda's plans.

"We're trying to pinpoint what information the government had before 9/11 . . . to compare it with what Mr. Moussaoui may or may not have known or what they did even with the information that they had," MacMahon said.

Another recently unsealed defense filing says that President Bill Clinton was warned in 1998 "that bin Laden was preparing to hijack United States aircraft." The same filing cites a controversial August 2001 briefing given to President Bush titled "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S."

The White House declassified that briefing last year after a request from the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. It warned Bush that the FBI had information that terrorists might be preparing for a hijacking in the United States and might be targeting a building in Lower Manhattan.

"Substantial evidence will be presented at trial," Moussaoui's attorneys wrote in their filing, "that the United States government knew more about al Qaeda's plans to attack the United States than did Mr. Moussaoui."


Would you like to send this article to a friend? Go to
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/e...er=emailarticle

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GK15Ak02.html
Al-Qaeda tightens its grip in Iraq
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The death of former Iraqi vice president Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri marks a turning point in the Iraqi resistance. Command of the movement will now almost completely be in the hands of al-Qaeda, which will further cement its moves to fight a global war against America under a unified, open command.

Douri, 63, was one of Saddam Hussein's closest aides and the most senior figure in the former regime still at large - he was number six (king of clubs) in the US's pack of cards denoting its most wanted people. The US had offered a US$10 million reward for information leading to his capture.

He died after a long battle with leukemia, according to a statement from the Ba'ath Party - which the Americans have officially dissolved in Iraq. The statement continued: "After 50 years he spent in the militant struggle and in the resistance, Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri quits his horse going to the mercy of the Almighty God."

Douri was a Sufi Muslim and a practicing sheikh (spiritual guide) of two major Sufi schools, Rafahi and Qadri. As a Ba'athist as well, he was a trusted comrade of Saddam.

Though Saddam disliked such practices. every Monday he would hold a congregation for his disciples at his residence in Tikrit, where they would recite Sufi rituals. At Friday prayers in Baghdad he would eloquently hold court in Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gillani's mosque. Saddam thought that his close comrade from Oaja village near Tikrit was setting the wrong precedents for the secular image of the Ba'ath Party.

However, Douri and his Sufi circle turned out to be a most useful tool when Iraq was invaded by US in 2003.

Douri was the one who established coordination between the Ba'ath Party, the Iraqi Republican Guards and local Islamic groups, not only in Fallujah and Baquba, but also in northern Iraq, especially in Kirkuk.

As many senior people around him were gradually arrested, including Saddam, Douri remained at large, mostly in northern Iraq, including the cities of Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra and Kirkuk. At one time he escaped to Syria, but returned.

One of his sons, Ahmed, became the main financial organizer of the resistance.

For a long time Douri was the acknowledged driver of the resistance, but in the past few months little was heard of him. The speculation in the resistance was that he had either died, or once again gone to Syria. His illness was well known - he traveled with a mobile medical unit that was able to change his blood wherever required.

Douri's absence over the past months coincides with the period in which Islamic groups prevailed over the Iraqi resistance and effectively took control. After Douri, there is no one of his stature or knowledge to lead the remnants of Saddam's era. They have little option but to stick with the command of the Islamic groups.

Al-Qaeda's grand plans
According to people familiar with al-Qaeda who spoke to Asia Times Online, al Qaeda, having acquired absolute control over the Iraqi resistance, aims to march towards its next targets.

These include the establishment of a unified command based in Iraq and Afghanistan; to shed its shadowy image and call for jihad and recruitments throughout the Muslim world; and then wage a global battle against America and its allies in the open, contrary to its present strategy under which al-Qaeda, its leadership and operations are underground.

For more than a year interaction between the Iraqi resistance and the Taliban-led Afghan resistance has been mutually beneficial. Asia Times Online has reported how Taliban commander Mehmood Haq Yar went to Iraq to learn the techniques of urban guerrilla warfare. (See Osama adds weight to Afghan resistance, September 11, 2004). This interaction produced the following immediate benefits:

Iraq has turned into a hub for the anti-US movement, with thousands of jihadis a year pouring in from all over, including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon. A fund-raising campaign to finance the Iraqi resistance is also in full swing in countries such as Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Syria and Egypt.
At present, the Iraqi resistance is feeding the Afghan resistance, but once the Afghan resistance gets up to a certain level, thousands of new pro-Taliban jihadis will be inspired - just as they were for the jihad against the Soviets in the 1980s - to join in the fight. Pakistan and the Central Asian republics are seen as prime recruitment grounds.

Iran and al-Qaeda
Zabul province in southeastern Afghanistan is the hub of the Afghan resistance, and where most of its resources are stored. It also has many heroin-processing laboratories. Though these belong to local warlords, the proceeds are shared with the Afghan resistance, which safeguards transit routes (See Asia Times Online Opium gold unites US friends and foes, September 3).

From Afghanistan, these routes enter Iran, with the drugs either destined for Turkey or Central Asian countries, notably Uzbekistan. (See Asia Times Online Follow the drugs: US shown the way, September 27.)

In Iran, the route passes through Iranian Balochistan, where al-Qaeda operators interact with local Sunni groups which facilitate the drugs going on the next stage of their journey, notably to Chabahar port in Iran.

These routes remain mostly unguarded, despite Iranian authorities being aware of them, according to US-led coalition authorities in Afghanistan, and no action has been taken against the Sunni groups.

In its grand strategy, al-Qaeda sees a similar corridor opening in Iran to act as a link between Iraq and Afghanistan, where it is envisaged the bases for al-Qaeda will be created.

Intelligence analysts suggest that since September 11, 2001 the level of cooperation between Iran and al-Qaeda has increased. However, the anti-Shi'ite stance of the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, remains a major obstacle.

Should this be resolved, and Iran soften its attitude, al-Qaeda will have taken a major step towards launching its global war against America.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.)