UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 16 Nov 2008

UrukNet - Daily Information from Occupied Iraq - newsletter 16 Nov 2008

Urgent Invitation to Ban Ki Mon: A Visit Gaza
Gamal N. El Khoudary, Chairman of Popular Committee Against Siege PCAS
Dear highly respected Ban Ki Mon, we would like to pass our greetings and regards from the Gaza Strip. We would like to invite you urgently to pay a visit for the Gaza strip. People are slowly dying as UNRWA halted its services and a total power blackout imposed by Israel. Your expected visit to Gaza would show your interest in saving people lives. Power, food, medicine, treatment and all aspects of life vanished from the Gaza strip. The 7 crossings are totally closed with no glimpse of hope to re-open them again. Israel went on more deep flagrant violations of all human laws as she blocked the UNRWA aids into Gaza...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48815
No Title.
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
There is no Title to this post. I will let you make your own. I am in a very strange kind of mood. I am listening to Tracy Chapman. I like that singer a lot. There is something very genuine about her. I guess she represents 1% of the American population. A 1% hope. If I were a gambler, I would say that the odds are not in my favor. Not with a 1% for sure. I still can't shake off that strange feeling off my shoulders...It must have been that interview with that young Afghani girl, who found her foot in tiny pieces whilst she was with other women in a garden, celebrating something. She said " I saw my foot lying next to me in pieces. My cousin was also laying dead right next to me...They (the Americans) saw that we were only a group of women, and they attacked us nonetheless. The Americans are animals"....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48818
The occupation cannot stay
Serene Assir in Madrid interviewed Mohamed Al-Faidhi, spokesman of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, on the future of the Iraqi resistance and the inevitability of US withdrawal
Serene Assir
...What is known from a reading of history is that resistance undergoes three phases. The first phase is a phase of reaction. This was perhaps the most difficult phase because the occupation tried to cover up the existence of any kind of resistance, to the extent that it would persecute journalists who would indicate the existence of such a resistance. In this phase, we were the main proclaimer of the resistance, who said that there was a resistance, and provided proof of it. There is a second phase to resistance, and that is the process of different activities becoming clear under titles and slogans, core or otherwise. This is the phase that the resistance is currently living...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48813
Under siege: 70% of Gaza blacked out; Israel turns away convoy carrying medicine
Ma'an news
Seventy percent of the Gaza Strip is blacked out on Sunday night after Israel blocked deliveries fuel for Gaza’s power plant for the fifth consecutive day, a high-ranking Palestinian energy official said. Kan’an Ubeid, the deputy chief of the Palestinian Energy Authority, said in a press conference in Gaza that in addition to the shutdown of the diesel-fueled power plant, the electric network bringing in power from Israel collapsed due to increased pressure on the system...


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Iraqi Cabinet Okays US Pact
Antiwar.com
The Iraqi cabinet has approved the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States, in a vote that was surprisingly one-sided. 27 of 28 cabinet members voted in favor of the agreement, and the deal will now be sent to parliament for consideration. The vote became much easier after Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani indicated he would not object to the deal so long as parliament supported it. The current, and evidently final draft of the SOFA came only after the Iraqi government requested over 100 amendments to the previous "final" draft. The US withheld its response until after its own elections, and accepted most, but not all, of the changes...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48810
Pakistan The Next US Target
Pakistan Daily
Bill Kristol, a Fox Television commentator and arch American neoconservative revealed recently what many had long suspected was US thinking about the current international situation. Kristol recounts that in a 90-minute, mostly off-the-record meeting with a small group of journalists in early July, President Bush "conveyed the following impression, that he thought the next president's biggest challenge would not be Iraq, which he thinks he'll leave in pretty good shape, and would not be Afghanistan, which is manageable by itself… It’s Pakistan." We have "a sort of friendly government that sort of cooperates and sort of doesn’t. It's really a complicated and difficult situation." Right on cue, presidential candidate Barack Obama took the baton from Bush in his speech on July 15, in which he argued that more focus and resource were required on both Afghanistan and Pakistan...


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The Unfolding Nightmarish Script...
Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues
Obama the Booma wins the elections, and the first thing he does, apart from having J.Biden and M.Albright, the Iraqi baby killer on board, he makes inflammatory speeches about fighting terrorism in Afghanistan where the Talibans are winning. And who is he going to ask for help in his fight against "terrorists" in Afghanistan? Iran of course. If Obama calls on Iran to help him win the war in Afghanistan, do you think that has no price tag attached ? Don't you think that perhaps Obama's "gift" to Iran is part of that comprehensive deal that I referred to above ? And what is that comprehensive deal, apart from the Iranian nuclear dossier ? Southern Iraq. Yes Southern Iraq. Re-read that article. The argument for a independent state of Basra, read Southern Iraq, is "more political stability." That was/is Biden's argument. But I thought we had stability in Iraq with Maliki and the surge no ? So what are they telling us now - that if this does not go through, there will be more carnage, of Sunnis in particular ? Like what ? Have the ARAB Sunni population dwindle down from 55% to less than 20% to 0% ? ...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48802
Israel out to bring Gaza to its knees
JONATHAN COOK
The latest tightening of Israel’s chokehold on Gaza – ending all supplies into the Strip for more than a week – has produced immediate and shocking consequences for Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants. The refusal to allow in fuel has forced the shutting down of Gaza’s only power station, creating a blackout that pushed Palestinians bearing candles on to the streets in protest last week. A water and sanitation crisis are expected to follow. And on Thursday, the United Nations announced it had run out of the food essentials it supplies to 750,000 desperately needy Gazans. "This has become a blockade against the United Nations itself," a spokesman said....

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48817
Barack Obama brings hope of Iran talks, says Shimon Peres
Richard Beeston, TimesOnLine
Israel believes that there is a chance for dialogue with Iran if Barack Obama succeeds in uniting the international community behind a common policy. Shimon Peres, the Israeli President who arrives in London tonight Monday, said that his country’s most implacable foe could be brought to the negotiating table depending on a new political climate and economic factors, in particular a falling oil price...

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Olmert The Liar
Moon of Alabama
Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused the Islamist Hamas movement on Sunday of "shattering" the Gaza truce after two rockets hit Israel, prompting an air strike which killed four Palestinian militants. ... "The responsibility for the shattering of the calm and the creation of a situation of prolonged and repeated violence in the south of the country is entirely on Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza," Olmert told ministers. Israel accuses Hamas of 'shattering' Gaza truce The truce was broken by Israel twelve days ago. As the Guardian reported on November 5....

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* * * NOT SATIRE * * *
Maliki nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
AKI-Adnkrons
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been nominated for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, according to the news agency Voices of Iraq. The Iraqi government reportedly nominated al-Maliki for his role in maintaining peace and security in war-ravaged Iraq....


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Shame and Disgust
Robert Thompson, Axis of Logic
... We are horrified that our elected representatives should ignore all rights to Freedom, Equality or Brotherly Love for such defenceless people as ordinary Palestinians, ordinary Lebanese, ordinary Iraqis and ordinary Afghans. We are shocked that our same representatives should fail to boycott the Zionist 'state of Israel' in ther hope of obliging it to comply with so many ignored United Nations Resolutions, and to condemn its cruelty towards those whom it has killed, maimed and/or dispossessed in pursuance of its fundamental policy of ethnic cleansing. All these terrible failings cause us to feel shame....

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Knesset MP calls for making lives of Gaza people insufferable
Palestinian Information Center
Gideon Ezra, a member of the Knesset for Kadima and a former minister of internal security, called on the Israeli government to tighten the noose on the Gaza Strip's people and make their lives intolerable. "We must use the means available to make the lives of Gaza residents difficult as long as the lives of the inhabitants of villages and cities surrounding the Strip are unbearable because of the repeated Palestinian rocket attacks," Ezra told the Hebrew radio. The Israeli official called on his government to enforce its decision to fortify the buildings in the Israeli settlements around Gaza, noting that this decision does not include all settlements....


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Israel denies access of 15 trucks to Gaza, loaded with medicines
Rami Almeghari - IMEMC
Chief of emergency and ambulance department at the Hamas-run health ministry, announced on Sunday that the Israeli occupation authorities denied today access to Gaza of 15 trucks, loaded with medicine. Abu Hasanin said that the Israeli authorities, at the Karni crossing, to the east of Gaza city, prevented the entry of the said shipment, in a time the Strip lacks more than 300 medicines...

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Israeli Soldiers kidnap children in east Jerusalem
Saed Bannoura - IMEMC
Palestinian sources reported on Sunday that Israeli soldiers and policemen kidnapped 10 Palestinian children in Al Bustan neighborhood, near the Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, and took them to an unknown destination. The sources added that the ages of the detained children are no more than 13, and that they were abducted for allegedly obstructing the work of municipality workers who were preparing for demolishing more Palestinian homes in the neighborhood...

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George W Bush could pardon spies involved in torture
Tim Shipman in Washington
Senior intelligence officers are lobbying the outgoing president to look after the men and women who could face charges for following his orders in the war on terrorism. Many fear that Barack Obama, who has pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and put an end to the policy of extraordinary rendition, could launch a legal witch hunt against those who oversaw the policies after he is sworn in on Jan 20....

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SAME SHIT DIFFERENT CENTURIES (Part Five)
Malcom Lagauche
...This is the fifth of five parts of "Eulogy on King Philip. For more than a year, the Wampanoag won battle-after-battle against the pilgrims. But, disease and lack of food helped destroy what the pilgrims couldn’t: the Wampanoag tribe. Even in this, the methods used were almost identical to those employed by the U.S. today in showing victory. Metacomet’s wife and son were captured and sold into slavery. Once the U.S. occupied Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s wife and daughters quickly left the country before they were captured. Today, they live in exile and are on Interpol’s list of wanted terrorists...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48801
Shiite Bloc Fails to Go to Meeting on Iraq-U.S. Pact
KATHERINE ZOEPF and ATHEER KAKAN, AP
Iraq’s political leaders held a high-level meeting on Saturday to gauge support for a security agreement that will determine the future role and presence of American forces in Iraq before crucial votes in the cabinet and Parliament. But the most powerful Shiite bloc in Parliament, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, did not attend, and the meeting ended without any clear public resolution. The agreement, which Iraq and the United States have been negotiating for months, faces a vote by the cabinet, which is expected on Sunday, and then a vote in Parliament, which has not set a date for it. The agreement will replace the United Nations mandate authorizing American military operations in Iraq, which expires on Dec. 31....

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"When the Liaison Israeli Military & PA Security Sevices Accelerate - the Enemy Will Not Be Scrutinized"
Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice
On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the Israeli government, regarding its legal responsibility to deliver urgent and steady supply of sufficient fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza Strip.The Israelis have blocked fuel delivery and turned away trucks with food distributed by UNRWA. Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that he is deeply concerned about the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the risk of a possible humanitarian disaster...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48798
Video: The Suffering of Iraqi Christians
Shababek


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IOF raid kills four NSB fighters
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
An Israeli reconnaissance plane fired at least one missile at a group of fighters of the Nasser Salahuddin Brigades, the armed wing of the popular resistance committees, east of Gaza on Sunday killing all four of them, medical sources reported. They told the PIC that the four bodies were burnt and torn apart after the missile directly targeted them. The sources pointed out that a number of other casualties in the same aerial bombing were carried to the Shifa hospital...

Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=48809


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