Irak 101

Counter Punch bericht: 'Iraq is Disintegrating.

By PATRICK COCKBURN

Khanaqin, North-East Iraq - Across central Iraq, there is an exodus of people fleeing for their lives as sectarian assassins and death squads hunt them down. At ground level, Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale.The state of Iraq now resembles Bosnia at the height of the fighting in the 1990s when each community fled to places where its members were a majority and were able to defend themselves. "Be gone by evening prayers or we will kill you," warned one of four men who called at the house of Leila Mohammed, a pregnant mother of three children in the city of Baquba, in Diyala province north-east of Baghdad. He offered chocolate to one of her children to try to find out the names of the men in the family.Mrs Mohammed is a Kurd and a Shia in Baquba, which has a majority of Sunni Arabs. Her husband, Ahmed, who traded fruit in the local market, said: "They threatened the Kurds and the Shia and told them to get out. Later I went back to try to get our furniture but there was too much shooting and I was trapped in our house. I came away with nothing." He and his wife now live with nine other relatives in a three-room hovel in Khanaqin.The same pattern of intimidation, flight and death is being repeated in mixed provinces all over Iraq. By now Iraqis do not have to be reminded of the consequences of ignoring threats.In Baquba, with a population of 350,000, gunmen last week ordered people off a bus, separated the men from the women and shot dead 11 of them. Not far away police found the mutilated body of a kidnapped six-year-old boy for whom a ransom had already been paid.The sectarian warfare in Baghdad is sparsely reported but the provinces around the capital are now so dangerous for reporters that they seldom, if ever, go there, except as embeds with US troops. Two months ago in Mosul, I met an Iraqi army captain from Diyala who said Sunni and Shia were slaughtering each other in his home province. "Whoever is in a minority runs," he said. "If forces are more equal they fight it out."It was impossible to travel to Baquba, the capital of Diyala, from Baghdad without extreme danger of being killed on the road. But I thought that if I took the road from Kurdistan leading south, kept close to the Iranian border and stayed in Kurdish-controlled territory I could reach Khanaqin, a town of 75,000 people in eastern Diyala. If what the army captain said about the killings and mass flight was true then there were bound to be refugees who had reached there.' Lees verder: http://www.counterpunch.org/ Of: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13139.htm

Het Olierijke Venezuela 2

De Verenigde Staten stelt alles in het werk om de president van het olierijke Venezuela Hugo Chavez uit de weg te ruimen. Tot nu toe is dat mislukt. U kunt in deze documentaire zien waarom het nog niet is gelukt.

'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. By Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain.

Their film records what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'état. It's a unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of the man The Wall Street Journal credits with making Venezuela "Washington's biggest Latin American headache after the old standby, Cuba."Chavez, elected president of Venezuela in 1988, is a colorful folk hero, beloved by his nation's working class and a tough-as-nails, quixotic opponent to the power structure that would see him deposed. Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when he was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides.' Zie: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13119.htm

Robert Fisk 12

Robert Fisk schrijft in de Independent: 'You're talking nonsense, Mr Ambassador.

All the while, new diplomatic archives are opening to reveal the smell of death - Armenian death

A letter from the Turkish Ambassador to the Court of Saint James arrived for me a few days ago, one of those missives that send a shudder through the human soul. "You allege that an 'Armenian genocide' took place in Eastern Anatolia in 1915," His Excellency Mr Akin Alptuna told me. "I believe you have some misconceptions about those events ..." Oh indeedy doody, I have. I am under the totally mistaken conception that one and a half million Armenians were cruelly and deliberately done to death by their Turkish Ottoman masters in 1915, that the men were shot and knifed while their womenfolk were raped and eviscerated and cremated and starved on death marches and their children butchered. I have met a few of the survivors - liars to a man and woman, if the Turkish ambassador to Britain is to be believed - and I have seen the photographs taken of the victims by a brave German photographer called Armen Wegner whose pictures must now, I suppose, be consigned to the waste bins. So must the archives of all those diplomats who courageously catalogued the mass murders inflicted upon Turkey's Christian population on the orders of the gang of nationalists who ran the Ottoman government in 1915. What would have been our reaction if the ambassador of Germany had written a note to the same effect? "You allege that a 'Jewish genocide' took place in Eastern Europe between 1939 and 1945 ... I believe you have some misconceptions about those events..." Of course, the moment such a letter became public, the ambassador of Germany would be condemned by the Foreign Office, our man in Berlin would - even the pusillanimous Blair might rise to the occasion - be withdrawn for consultations and the European Union would debate whether sanctions should be placed upon Germany. But Mr Alptuna need have no such worries. His country is not a member of the European Union - it merely wishes to be - and it was Mr Blair's craven administration that for many months tried to prevent Armenian participation in Britain's Holocaust Day. Amid this chicanery, there are a few shining bright lights and I should say at once that Mr Alp-tuna's letter is a grotesque rep-resentation of the views of a growing number of Turkish citizens, a few of whom I have the honour to know, who are convinced that the story of the great evil visited upon the Armenians must be told in their country. So why, oh why, I ask myself, are Mr Alptuna and his colleagues in Paris and Beirut and other cities still peddling this nonsense? In Lebanon, for example, the Turkish embassy has sent a "communiquZ" to the local French-language L'OrientLeJour newspaper, referring to the "soi-disant (so-called) Armenian genocide" and asking why the modern state of Armenia will not respond to the Turkish call for a joint historical study to "examine the events" of 1915. In fact, the Armenian president, Robert Kotcharian, will not respond to such an invitation for the same reason that the world's Jewish community would not respond to the call for a similar examination of the Jewish Holocaust from the Iranian president - because an unprecedented international crime was committed, the mere questioning of which would be an insult to the millions of victims who perished. But the Turkish appeals are artfully concocted. In Beirut, they recall the Allied catastrophe at Gallipoli in 1915 when British, French, Australian and New Zealand troops suffered massive casualties at the hands of the Turkish army. In all - including Turkish soldiers - up to a quarter of a million men perished in the Dardanelles. The Turkish embassy in Beirut rightly states that the belligerent nations of Gallipoli have transformed these hostilities into gestures of reconciliation, friendship and mutual respect. A good try. But the bloodbath of Gallipoli did not involve the planned murder of hundreds of thousands of British, French, Australian, New Zealand - and Turkish - women and children.' Lees verder:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13121.htm Voor meer informatie over de Armeense genocide zie: http://www.armenian-genocide.org/photo-wegner/gutter.htm

Amerikaanse Laserwapens

De Italiaanse televisie heeft een reportage uitgezonden over de mogelijke inzet van laserwapens in Irak. Volgens Irakese chirurgen stierven sommige Irakezen op een mysterieuze wijze, zonder kogelwonden of granaatscherven. Intussen weigert het Pentagon informatie hierover te verschaffen. Wel hebben deAmerikaanse legerleiding en minister van defensie Rumsfeld desgevraagd verklaard dat deze wapens in experimentele fase verkeren.

'Star Wars In Iraq. Is The U.S. using new experimental "Tactical High Energy Laser" weapons in Iraq? “Star Wars in Iraq” is a new investigative report by Maurizio Torrealta and Sigfrido Ranucci. RAI 24 News - Run Time 25 Minutes.
According to official Pentagon sources, military vehicles equipped with this laser device have been used in Afghanistan to explode mines. According to two reliable military information sites – Defense Tech and Defence Industry Daily - at least three such vehicles are being used in Iraq as well and some people report having seen them.' Zie:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13129.htm

De Volkskrant 7

Ik begin me langzamerhand af te vragen of de Volkskrantredactie wel beseft wat ze schrijft. Boven een artikel over de poging van de Bush bende om de vrijheid van berichtgeving van de media aan banden te leggen, staat: 'Republikeinen wassen media in de VS de oren.' Het gaat hier om nieuwe wetgeving diehet verbiedt dat de media - naar alle waarschijnlijkheid- illegale activiteiten van de Amerikaanse regering aan de kaak stelt. Waarom heeft dat met 'oren wassen' te maken? De dikke Van Dale omschrijft 'iemand de oren wassen' als volgt: 'hem geducht de waarheid zeggen.' Die uitdrukking gaat dus uit van het feit dat iemand de waarheid aan zijn zijde heeft en terecht die waarheid eens duidelijk laat horen aan de domoor die die waarheid heeft genegeerd. Maar over welke waarheid heeft de Volkskrant het? Hier is geen sprake van iemand de waarheid vertellen, maar om machtsmisbruik in een land dat zich afficheert als democratisch. Het gaat hier om een wetsontwerp waartegen door progressief Amerika fel wordt geprotesteerd. Waar het ongeveer om gaat kunt u in dit bericht van neoconservatief Amerika lezen:

'Stop the Leaks.
Every passing week, it becomes more apparent that disgruntled leftists in the intelligence community and antiwar crusaders in the mainstream media, annealed in their disdain for the Bush administration, are undermining our ability to win the War on Terror. Their latest body blow to the war effort is the exposure, principally by the New York Times, of the Treasury Department’s top-secret program to monitor terror funding.
President Bush, who said on Monday morning that the exposure “does great harm to the United States of America,” must demand that the New York Times pay a price for its costly, arrogant defiance. The administration should withdraw the newspaper’s White House press credentials because this privilege has been so egregiously abused, and an aggressive investigation should be undertaken to identify and prosecute, at a minimum, the government officials who have leaked national-defense information. The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) was initiated soon after the 9/11 attacks. It ingeniously focuses on the hub of interlocking systems that facilitate global money transfers. The steward of that hub, centered in Brussels, is the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or “SWIFT.” SWIFT is an organization of the world’s financial giants, including the national banks of Belgium, England, and Japan, the European Central Bank, and the U.S. Federal Reserve. SWIFT, however, is not a bank. It’s a clearinghouse that manages message traffic pursuant to international transfers of funds.Intelligence about those communications implicates no legally recognized privacy interests. To begin with, they are predominantly foreign, and international. To the extent the U.S. Constitution might be thought to apply, the Supreme Court held nearly 30 years ago that records in the hands of third parties — including financial records maintained by banks — are not private, and thus not protected by the Fourth Amendment. Moreover, to the extent Congress later supplemented privacy protections by statute, those laws regulated disclosures by financial institutions. SWIFT is not a financial institution.' Lees verder:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDVhYWQzMmQ3YWRlNzFkYjRmZmY4ZTQzZmUwZjJhZjI=

Het Neoliberale Geloof 8

Toen ik drie jaar geleden met mijn gezin dwars door de VS reed, ontmoette ik in de staat South Dakota in een klein stadje een jongeman uit India, die overdag als ober in een restaurant werkte. Zodra hij klaar was, werd hij afgewisseld door een Indiase vriend, in wiens bed hij dan kon slapen. Beide Indiers verdienden een dollar per uur, en hadden een arbeidscontract van drie jaar gekregen, daarna moesten ze weer terug naar India. De Amerikaanse regering wil niet dat ze in aanmerking komen voor een verblijfsvergunning. Doordat derde wereldbewoners bereid zijn om voor een dollar per uur te werken en in een bouwval te overnachten, zijn ze concurrenten geworden van Amerikaanse arbeiders, die van dit hongerloon niet kunnen rondkomen. Sterker nog: veel ongeschoolde Amerikanen zijn zo hun werk kwijtgeraakt en een extra voordeel voor de werkgevers is dat de macht van de vakbonden is gebroken. Het is 1 van de vele facetten van de globalisering. Tegenwoordig horen we ook steeds vaker de Nederlandse werkgevers pleiten voor een zogeheten green card, zodat ze Polen tegen minimumlonen kunnen laten werken en ze geen duurdere Nederlandse werknemers hoeven in te huren. Bovendien betalen ze voor de Polen ook geen premies.

Het Amerikaanse tijdschrift Mother Jones bericht: 'New Assault on Workers' Rights
Commentary: A ruling by Bush's NLRB could weaken labor protections for hundreds of thousands of workers.
By Stewart Acuff and Sheldon Friedman
Just when the last thing America's workers need is another economic kick in the groin, the Bush labor board is poised to deliver what could be its lowest and most devastating blow yet. The Bush National Labor Relations Board is easily the most anti-worker labor board in history and has lost few opportunities to turn back the clock on workers' rights*but even against this sorry backdrop, the scope of what they now are contemplating is breathtaking.
In a series of pending cases known as Kentucky River, the National Labor Relations Board could strip what remains of federal labor law protections from hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of workers whose jobs include even minor, incidental or occasional supervisory duties. The pending cases involve charge nurses in a hospital and a nursing home and lead workers in a manufacturing plant, but these workers, though they constitute a large group, could be just the tip of the iceberg.
The consequences of bad labor board rulings in these cases will reverberate far and wide, potentially stripping coverage in every nook and cranny of the workforce and creating innumerable new opportunities for mischief by employers and their hired gun consultants bent on denying workers' their fundamental human right to form a union. Long established unions and collective bargaining relationships will also unravel, as employers emboldened by the Bush labor board's rulings assert that they no longer have a duty under federal labor law to recognize or bargain with their employees' unions. It will be back to the law of the jungle in industries like health care, where disruptions from labor disputes became so severe in the early 1970s that Congress passed special legislation to bring employees of private non-profit hospitals under federal labor law coverage.' Lees verder: http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2006/06/workers_rights.html

De Israelische Terreur 62

De Palestinian Centre for Human Rights bericht: 'NOTABLE ISRAELI VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRIOR TO THE GAZA INVASION.

· Israeli mock air raids over Gaza were carried out to terrorize the population, firing missiles at uninhabited areas, including a playground, and flying low over densely populated civilian areas. (1-7 June)
· Israeli gunboats shot at Gaza's coast and wounded 2 Palestinian children playing on the beach (1 June)
· Israeli border positions fired artillery shells at Jabalya town, injuring two Palestinian children inside their homes, and at Um al-Nasser village, injuring a 48-year-old Palestinian man (3 June)
· An Israeli missile attack on a car carrying Palestinian militants kills two civilians (5 June)
· Israel fired artillery shells at 3 Palestinian attempting to enter Israel through the fence, killing two and injuring the third. Shrapnel killed a member of the Palestinian police and wounded another, together with 4 civilians, including a 5-year-old and 17-year-old children, and a 50-year-old man (7 June).
· Israel's shelled people enjoying their weekend on Gaza's beach, killing 8 Palestinian civilians including 7 members of the same family, and injuring a further 32 civilians including 13 children (9 June)
· Three Palestinian civilians were killed when Israel fired a missile at a car near Jabalya (9 June)
· An Israeli missile attack on a van driven by Palestinian militants on a busy Gazan highway killed eleven Palestinians including 2 children and 2 paramedics, and injured 30 Palestinians including a number of children (13 June)
· Israel opened fire at a funeral procession east of Jabalya, wounding three 15-year-old children following the procession (13 June)
· An Israeli missile attack on Palestinian militants missed its target and instead killed 3 children and wounded 13 civilians, including 7 children, aged 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 11, and 16 (20 June)
· An Israeli missile attack that missed its target hit a family home and killed a Palestinian brother and his pregnant sister. The missile injured 11 others, including 7 children aged 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 14, and 14. Four civilians, including a 10-year-old child, were injured near the home. (21 June)Source: PCHR' Zie: http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/442.shtml