Occupation Watch Bulletin
By Assaf Kfoury
December 6, 2004
THE FALLUJA COVER-UP
Who will hold the Bush administration accountable for its crimes in Iraq? Certainly not the US corporate press. It is not "all the news that's fit to print". Whatever appears in print is sanitized to numb readers about the horrors of the war in conformity with the official party line (from Washington, DC). To get the plain truth we have to rely on independent journalists and alternative news sources outside the mainstream.
Take the use of napalm bombs by US troops. We are yet to see or hear any mention of it in the mainstream media in the US. The use of naplam and other chemical weapons was reported in the Arabic press and also by
freelance journalist Dahr Jamail:
'Unusual Weapons' Used in Fallujah
by Dahr Jamail
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8030There was a brief mention in the London Sunday Mirror this past week:
Fallujah Napalmed
by Paul Gilfeather
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8159In fact, napalm bombs have been used since the beginning of the invasion in March 2003, and Fallujans are only the most recent victims:
US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq
by Andrew Buncombe
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8160A 1980 UN convention banned the use against civilian targets of napalm, a terrifying mixture of jet fuel and polystyrene that sticks to skin as it burns. As Andrew Buncombe noted, "Most of the world understands that napalm and incendiaries are a horrible, horrible weapon." Nevertheless, the US did not sign the UN convention and continues to make use of the weapon in its imperial wars. Yesterday in Vietnam, today in Iraq.
Photographs of dead and mutilated Fallujans have been shown, not by the daily press, but by anonymous bloggers on the Internet:
Iraq in Pictures
http://www.fallujahinpictures.com/The photographs show an ugly reality contradicting the official propaganda about the "liberation" of Falluja. In response, the US military makes its public affairs officers in Baghdad produce a 59-page Microsoft PowerPoint presentation titled, "Telling the Fallujah Story to the World," glorifying the prowess of US soldiers and their respect for Iraqi civilians and property -- naked spin and deceit, even for an otherwise tame Washington Post reporter:
Images of Fighting in Fallujah Compel at Different Levels
by Thomas E. Ricks
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8149A more truthful account is provided by Nermeen al-Mufti, former co-director of the Occupation Watch Center in Baghdad, who accompanied a relief convoy to the ravaged city. She reported the utter devastation and found the silence of the dead. "The whole city is calm. So calm, it is disturbing. Falluja today is a city of ... unspeakable pain:"
In the Rubble of Falluja
by Nermeen Al-Mufti
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8133More than 200,000 Iraqis fled their homes in Falluja before the US-led assault. They are now living as refugees in deteriorating conditions in villages around Falluja and in Baghdad:
U.N fears for refugees who fled attack on Falluja
by Rory McCarthy
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8120Fallujans face the bleak choice of living in tents through the winter months or returning to a city in ruins. According to plans drawn up by the US military, their city would look more like a police state or a huge detention camp than anything like the democracy they were promised. Fallujans will be allowed to return only if they submit to DNA tests and retina scans. They will have to wear badges displaying their home addresses at all times. They will not be permitted to drive cars:
Returning Fallujans will face clampdown
by Anne Barnard
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8148Falluja is but one place in Iraq. Civil strife, chaos and wholesale destruction continue unabated throughout the rest of the country. This past week there were bloody clashes, this time between Iraqi militias, with American troops and tanks complacently standing by, within earshot:
Day's violence showcase for ethnic tensions
by Anthony Shadid and Karl Vick
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8153Fear of ethnic conflict charges Mosul unrest
by Thanassis Cambanis
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8071So is torture by US troops persisting. We first heard about torture at Abu Ghraib because a few soldiers disobeyed orders and let the news out. (Of course, Iraqis had known about it from the beginning.) Other cases of torture have since been revealed, always inadvertently, and also too fast for the military to squelch the information. This past week it was photographs of Navy Seals torturing Iraqi prisoners, made public by an Associated Press reporter:
Navy probes apparent Iraqi prisoner photos
by Seth Hettena
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=8144The photographs were promptly removed from public view, but not fast enough for an independent anti-war blogger to collect a few of them:
US Navy Seals Torturing Iraqis
http://ancapistan.typepad.com/photos/navy_...iraq/index.htmlINSIDE IRAQ: REPORTS FROM INDEPENDENT IRAQI JOURNALISTS
In our previous weekly bulletin, we announced a new section on the Occupation Watch website. Working with a few Iraqi journalists, OW has arranged to provide views of the occupation through articles giving voice to those Iraqis who are frequently not heard. To view the most recent postings from our Iraqi correspondents, please visit:
http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=30READ DAHR JAMAIL'S DISPATCHES FROM IRAQ:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/