niqash Ahmad Salama wed 06 apr 11
Recently terrorist organizations in Mosul have been acting more like European criminal mafias, going into business for themselves and extorting money from everyone, from government departments to vegetable sellers. His children are safe and Ahmad al-Taei praises God "a thousand times" for that.
The Mosul businessman sacrificed most of his wealth to save both children after they were kidnapped by an armed group. The grateful father preferred not to disclose the exact amount he paid to have his two sons released. He will only say that it was in the tens of thousands of US dollars. “Many rich people in Mosul have been blackmailed by terrorist organizations in different ways,” al-Taei said, “as they attempt to collect money following the loss of external sources of support.”
There is no doubt that over the past two years, local contractors – everyone from the owners of construction companies to plumbing services - in Mosul have become a major source of income for Iraqi terrorist organizations. Nobody wants to talk about it openly – in fact, most of those interviewed for this story only spoke to NIQASH on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals from terrorist groups.
But according to one local analyst, the groups are evolving from religious crusaders into criminal mafias and even emulating the contracting businesses themselves. The people of Mosul, capital of the northern Iraqi province of Ninawa with close to two million inhabitants, can all remember the day that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an umbrella organization that includes al-Qaeda and other militant groups, announced that it had taken control of the city’s institutions. The only exception was the Provincial Council building, which was protected by US forces.
It was Nov 11, 2005 and members of the ISI managed to dispel local police and armed forces after destroying police stations and the homes of police officers. They also terrorized the city, targeting minorities and imposing strict religious rules on its citizens. As one local contractor told NIQASH: “Since 2005, the ISI al-Qaeda organization has allowed us to work.
But only on the condition that they get a percentage of each project’s budget.” Another local contractor estimates that, “at the time, the percentage being paid to the [ISI] members was 10 percent on each project.” In May 2008 a military campaign, Operation Umm al-Rabiain (the name, mother of two springs, is the city of Mosul’s nickname) was launched by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The campaign’s aim was to push al-Qaeda back out of the city and it had a significant impact on the overt presence of terrorist groups in the city.
But, as a contractor explained, the groups simply went underground and this meant that pressure on locals was applied in different ways. “Instead of targeting homes and businesses with explosive devices, al-Qaeda started kidnapping and assassinating,” the contractor said. According to a number of businessmen that NIQASH has spoken to in the area, the percentage of each budget that al-Qaeda now claims from each project has fallen to around 6 percent.
The decline in al-Qaeda’s income can be partially attributed to the increase in the presence of security services. But it is also because many contractors cannot afford to pay such high percentages. As one told NIQASH, “many contractors are more reluctant to work because of the losses they are incurring.” It’s impossible to hide your budgets, he explained. “Because they [the ISI] now have a strong presence in government departments and armed groups know about every aspect of projects that have been tendered out.
So it becomes difficult not to pay them their share.” One engineer who supervises a number of projects, who has been kidnapped by ISI members in the past, explained that a company he works for “often uses poor construction materials to compensate for any losses incurred when they are eventually obliged to pay these organizations. If they didn’t do this,” he said, “the company wouldn’t be able to finish the project.”
Along similar lines, the University of Mosul, one of the largest educational institutions in the Middle East, has also inadvertently become a major source of funding for al-Qaeda. According to a professor there, who also requested anonymity, this is due to the number of large construction projects at the university over the last three years from which the terrorist groups make money in two ways.
“Members of al-Qaeda receive money from the projects that are being implemented inside the university,” the professor said. “The organization has its own construction companies. It participates in the reconstruction efforts under different names.”
The mafia-like extortion does not end there either. According to a number of state employees interviewed by NIQASH, most of the provincial government departments in Ninawa are also victims of some kind of extortion or blackmail, particularly those departments involved in oil, electricity, trade, housing and reconstruction as well as factories, social welfare and educational networks. Off the record, officials are well aware of the issue, saying they realise that money allocated for public services ends up in the pockets of armed groups.
Judge Abdul-Raheem al-Uqaili, the head of the Public Integrity Commission in Iraq, an independent body with offices around Iraq that investigates corruption within the Iraqi government, agreed that: “Corruption is one of the very important sources of financing for terrorist acts.” According to a police source in Ninawa, who also spoke to NIQASH on condition of anonymity: "The terrorist groups that take extortion money are the so-called Islamic State of Iraq. [This organization] gets the lion's share, more than 90 percent.
The rest of the money is distributed among other organizations such as Ansar al-Islam.” The latter, which is another group with a more radical interpretation of Islam, also collects money from the owners of local generators and pharmacies, the source noted, adding that, “this group recently asked some pharmacists to pay the ransom amount for six months in advance.”
The gathering of funds goes all the way from top to bottom: Abdallah Ghadeer, owner of a business trading in fruit and vegetables tells a similar story. “The ISI takes between US$100 and US$200 for every big truck of fruit and vegetables that comes in from Syria, Turkey or Iran,” Ghadeer said. “The importers pay these amounts to protect themselves against al-Qaeda, which threatens revenge if they don’t pay.”
The “tax” that terrorist groups levy on businesses in Mosul is common knowledge among locals – even though most won’t talk about it openly for fear of reprisals. The Mosul authorities don’t like to talk about it much either. Colonel Khalid Abdul Sattar, a spokesperson for the local security forces at the Ninawa Operations Command, preferred not to give a statement to NIQASH on this subject. He did not explain why.
Other local government officials that NIQASH approached reacted similarly. The one recent exception to this occurred a few months ago, when local security forces arrested a number of “enforcers”, individuals that specialize in the collection of ransoms or taxes from gas station owners as well as a group of civilians and government officials who were also involved. Only Abdul-Rahim al-Shammari, head of the Security and Defence Committee at the Ninawa provincial council was explicit about the existence and scale of extortion in the area.
He admitted that: “this phenomenon has become widespread and we have received numerous complaints from citizens who have been blackmailed by terrorists.” Part of the reason for the widespread nature of the extortion practices is the security forces’ lack of intelligence on the subject, Al-Shammari said. As extortion by terrorist groups becomes more prevalent, political analyst Majdi al-Abdali, believes that locals are becoming more acquiescent. “There is a growing tendency among members of society to accept the culture of paying money in order to avoid [violent] acts and killing and in order to maintain certain positions or jobs,” Al-Abdali said.
According to him, this sort of extortion is now routine for a large number of wealthier people. And he describes members of the groups responsible for the extortion as “ghosts” in the society. “They have false names and they constantly change their identity cards or use forged ones,” al-Abdali explained. In fact, al-Abdali continued, "these groups have no specific political ambition. From Jihadi movements, they have become criminal mafias, committing murder and theft to make money.
This rings especially true once you become aware that most of those who have joined these organizations are unemployed or ex-offenders." Meanwhile another provincial official, who, once again, preferred not to be named, has a further theory. He believes that one of the reasons for the decline in violence in Mosul is the direct involvement of the ISI and al-Qaeda in construction and trade in the area.
He pointed out that "through holding companies which are actually owned by terrorist organizations, al-Qaeda is now taking direct part in reconstruction projects that yield mouth-wateringly, high profits. They are busy making profits and they are only pressuring those who do not pay and punishing them.”
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Mosul. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Mosul. Afficher tous les articles
jeudi 7 avril 2011
jeudi 30 octobre 2008
Iraqi PM confirms Kurds behind Mosul Attacks; 2nd Army Unit Ordered Out
GMT 10-30-2008 9:45:47Assyrian International News Agency
(AINA) -- Iraq's mainly Kurdish second army unit has been ordered out of Mosul and to Anbar for training after accusations were made that some of its members carried out the violence against the Assyrians of Mosul in the past four weeks (AINA 10-22-2008, 10-16-2008). The violence against the Christian Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) of Mosul has claimed 14 lives and caused 15,000 Assyrians to flee the city, mostly to the Nineveh Plain, east of Mosul.
Iraqi PM Confirms Kurdish Involvement
Five days ago, Iraqi Parliament member Osama Al Najifi said to the Iraq News Agency on Saturday that Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki has confirmed that Kurdish political parties are carrying out the violence against Mosul's Assyrian community. "The prime minister showed me a document which he said proves the involvement of Kurdish militias in threats and killings against the Christian Assyrians in Mosul," stated Al Najifi, and said the prime minister told him "Your accusations against the Kurds have proven true." He notified the Iraqi News Agency that the committee charged with investigating the attacks on Assyrians in Mosul has clear proof of Kurdish involvement.
A source who was present at the meeting between Maliki and Al Najifi, and who has seen the documents, has confirmed to AINA that the documents show Kurdish involvement in the campaign against the Assyrians of Mosul. The documents show Kurdish Peshmerga forces were perpetrating the attacks on Assyrians.
Reports from Baghdad also say the Peshmerga in the Iraqi army are refusing to take orders from Iraqi central command and are taking orders only from Kurdish officials.
(AINA) -- Iraq's mainly Kurdish second army unit has been ordered out of Mosul and to Anbar for training after accusations were made that some of its members carried out the violence against the Assyrians of Mosul in the past four weeks (AINA 10-22-2008, 10-16-2008). The violence against the Christian Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) of Mosul has claimed 14 lives and caused 15,000 Assyrians to flee the city, mostly to the Nineveh Plain, east of Mosul.
Iraqi PM Confirms Kurdish Involvement
Five days ago, Iraqi Parliament member Osama Al Najifi said to the Iraq News Agency on Saturday that Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki has confirmed that Kurdish political parties are carrying out the violence against Mosul's Assyrian community. "The prime minister showed me a document which he said proves the involvement of Kurdish militias in threats and killings against the Christian Assyrians in Mosul," stated Al Najifi, and said the prime minister told him "Your accusations against the Kurds have proven true." He notified the Iraqi News Agency that the committee charged with investigating the attacks on Assyrians in Mosul has clear proof of Kurdish involvement.
A source who was present at the meeting between Maliki and Al Najifi, and who has seen the documents, has confirmed to AINA that the documents show Kurdish involvement in the campaign against the Assyrians of Mosul. The documents show Kurdish Peshmerga forces were perpetrating the attacks on Assyrians.
Reports from Baghdad also say the Peshmerga in the Iraqi army are refusing to take orders from Iraqi central command and are taking orders only from Kurdish officials.
dimanche 12 octobre 2008
Kurdish militias behind the massacres of the Christians in Mosul
Oct 12, 2008
http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/10/12/kurdish-militias-behind-the-massacres-of-the-christians-in-mosul/
Few minutes ago, Aljazeera quoted a statement by the so called “Al-Qaeda” denies any involvement in the bloody campaign against the Christians in Mosul saying:
Al-Qaeda has evidence that the Kurdish militia’s involvement in displacing and killing campaign of the Christians in order to control certain parts of the province.
You can see Iraqi newspaper Azzaman’s confirmation in its headline today “Militias gunmen of powerful government parties roam the streets of Mosul chanting threat slogans“.
Iraqi MP Al-Najafi from the “Iraqi List” confirms this information saying:
Kurdish Peshmerga militias are behind the forced displacement of Christians in the Mosul. The military forces in Mosul are infiltrated by the Kurdish militia using military vehicles to threat the Christians.
Kirkuk’s Archbishop Louis Sako warned last Thursday of campaigns against Christians in Iraq saying:
Brutal political goals (…) to emigrate, or force us to cooperate with parties that we do not want their agendas.
http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/10/12/kurdish-militias-behind-the-massacres-of-the-christians-in-mosul/
http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/10/12/kurdish-militias-behind-the-massacres-of-the-christians-in-mosul/
Few minutes ago, Aljazeera quoted a statement by the so called “Al-Qaeda” denies any involvement in the bloody campaign against the Christians in Mosul saying:
Al-Qaeda has evidence that the Kurdish militia’s involvement in displacing and killing campaign of the Christians in order to control certain parts of the province.
You can see Iraqi newspaper Azzaman’s confirmation in its headline today “Militias gunmen of powerful government parties roam the streets of Mosul chanting threat slogans“.
Iraqi MP Al-Najafi from the “Iraqi List” confirms this information saying:
Kurdish Peshmerga militias are behind the forced displacement of Christians in the Mosul. The military forces in Mosul are infiltrated by the Kurdish militia using military vehicles to threat the Christians.
Kirkuk’s Archbishop Louis Sako warned last Thursday of campaigns against Christians in Iraq saying:
Brutal political goals (…) to emigrate, or force us to cooperate with parties that we do not want their agendas.
http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/10/12/kurdish-militias-behind-the-massacres-of-the-christians-in-mosul/
mardi 3 juin 2008
Mass grave in Mosul/Ninewa in the areas vacated by the Peshmerga
Fatihoun News Agency
June 1, 2008
Joint Iraqi forces found a mass grave in Mosul in areas taken over by them soon after the withdrawal of the Peshmerga (The Kurdish Militia) from these areas.
Tens of bodies were reported by our correspondence to have been found at the headquarters of the Peshmerga in Al-Tanak district of Mosul situated near the Electricity Department.
Mosul people rushed to the mass grave seeking help from the Iraqi forces finding the bodies of missing sons and families.
http://www.almosul.org/000_Mosul_Observer.htm
Source from Fatihoun News Agency, Mosul, Iraq
June 1, 2008
Joint Iraqi forces found a mass grave in Mosul in areas taken over by them soon after the withdrawal of the Peshmerga (The Kurdish Militia) from these areas.
Tens of bodies were reported by our correspondence to have been found at the headquarters of the Peshmerga in Al-Tanak district of Mosul situated near the Electricity Department.
Mosul people rushed to the mass grave seeking help from the Iraqi forces finding the bodies of missing sons and families.
http://www.almosul.org/000_Mosul_Observer.htm
Source from Fatihoun News Agency, Mosul, Iraq
مقبرة جماعية للمختطفين في مقر انسحبت منه البيشمركة بالموصلالمصدر : الموصل (فاتحون) -خاص:عثرت القوات المشاركة في عمليات نينوى على مقبرة جماعية للمغدورين في مقر اخلته قوات البيشمركة قبل ساعات في الموصل . وقال مراسل (فاتحون) ان عشرات الجثث وجدت مدفونة في مقر البيشمركة قرب دائرة الكهرباء في حي التنك . وهرع اهالي المدينة من ذوي المفقودين الى المكان يطلبون من القوات الحكومية مساعدتهم للتعرف على اولادهم المختطفين والذين وجد بعضهم في مقر البيشمركة
mardi 4 mars 2008
Mosul's Turkmen, Arab, Kurdish Representatives Agree On Strengthening City's Institutions
04 March 2008
Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish representatives from Iraq's Mosul gathered in an Istanbul meeting on Sunday where they agreed on strengthening the city's institutions in a bid to find a genuine settlement and boost cooperation between the city's residents.
Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish representatives from Iraq's Mosul gathered in an Istanbul meeting on Sunday where they agreed on strengthening the city's institutions in a bid to find a genuine settlement and boost cooperation between the city's residents.
Representatives of the three communities, the three founding groups as defined by a 1932 declaration of the Kingdom of Iraq, agreed on devising means and ideas to contribute to the efforts to find immediate and permanent solutions to the existing problems such as the displacement of certain groups in Kirkuk, and to maintain stability in the region.
TurkishPress.com
Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish representatives from Iraq's Mosul gathered in an Istanbul meeting on Sunday where they agreed on strengthening the city's institutions in a bid to find a genuine settlement and boost cooperation between the city's residents.
Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish representatives from Iraq's Mosul gathered in an Istanbul meeting on Sunday where they agreed on strengthening the city's institutions in a bid to find a genuine settlement and boost cooperation between the city's residents.
Representatives of the three communities, the three founding groups as defined by a 1932 declaration of the Kingdom of Iraq, agreed on devising means and ideas to contribute to the efforts to find immediate and permanent solutions to the existing problems such as the displacement of certain groups in Kirkuk, and to maintain stability in the region.
TurkishPress.com
mercredi 13 février 2008
“Pacifying” Mosul, by Felicity Arbuthnot
12th February 2008
"When I hear anyone talk of Culture, I reach for my revolver.”
Hermann Goering (1893-1946.)
In the Orwellian world of the United States military, when a killing spree in Mesapotamia is embarked upon, it is called an “Iraq Pacification Operation'”. There have been hundreds of these (I abandoned counting at three hundred and eighty, with numerous more to go.)
Each 'pacification' has a name which brings a glimpse into a very strange mindset: “Operation Devil Thrust”, “Operation Terminator”, “Operation Scorpion Sting”, “Operation Sidewinder”, “Operation Roaring Tiger”, “Operation All American Tiger”, “Operation Panther Squeeze”, “Operation Warhorse Whirlwind”, “Operation Resolute Sword”, “Operation Wolverine Feast”, “Operation Arrowhead Ripper”, “Operations 'Geronimo Strike', 'Rat Trap' and 'Grizzly Forced Entry'”. And from a porn show near you: Operations “Squeeze Play”, “Triple Play”, “Therapist” and “Tombstone Thrust”. ( http://www.globalsecurity.org/ )
Seemingly there are even “insurgent” cows, if “Operation Cowpens” lived up to its name. Al Cow-aeda, maybe?
Perhaps the oddest is: '”Operation Suicide Kings”. Suicide bombers of course, were unheard of in Iraq until the invasion. The title is no doubt a coincidence in macho “bring 'em on”, bragging.
None however are titles which conjure up the joyously liberated, revelling gratefully, savouring their freedom and democracy.
Having “pacified” Iraqis in to the grave, from Abu Ghraib to Falluja, from Ramadi to Tel Afar, with numerous other murderous stop offs across the land of Abraham, the crusading Christian soldiers are moving onwards to "cleanse" Mosul. That it was the puppet “Prime Minister”, Nuri Al Maliki who used the expression is as inconsequential as he is - his orders come from the pacifiers and their masters in Washington.
In words and deeds, happenings in Iraq are chillingly redolent of Nazi Germany.
Neighbourhoods walled in and “cleansed” of Sunnis, others of Shias, Christians and Iraq's richness of minorities ... people who have lived together and inter-married since time immemorial.
The distinctions were imposed with the incoming tanks and troops - divide and rule writ large.
In Falluja, Goebbel's ghost walks tall. The residents even have their own identifying arm patch to prove it. And it has certainly been cleansed, in uncountable thousands - exactly how many unknown, since in the words of General Tommy Franks it is not “productive” to count Iraqi deaths.
So how is Mosul to be purified? The most ethnically diverse city in Iraq, consisting of Arabs, Syriacs, Kurds, Armenians, Turcomans, Jews, Christians, Yazedi's, Muslims and a trading centre since the sixth century BC. Who will draw the short straw? Their slaughter justified in a search, of course, for “Al Qaeda” with the innocents “a mistake”, “regrettable” or “collateral damage”.
Americas military planners have become the modern day equivalent of the child who repeatedly cried “wolf', they continually justif massacre by crying “Al Qaeda. In 1935, Major General Smedley Butler, referred to the '”racketeering” of the “military gang”. He described his military career as a: “... muscle man for big business, Wall Street and the bankers”. In Mosul's case, surrounded by and floating on oil, the “muscle” is for Chevron, Shell, Exxon Mobile...
The pastoral Yazedis have already been subject to a cleansing last August, blamed of course on suicide bombers from “Al Qaeda”, who presumably, thoughtfully, left identification amongst their and others body parts - similar to the two “Down's syndrome” women, who detonated bombs in two pet markets two weeks ago.
The first great epic fable, Gilgamesh was fashioned and honed in Iraq. It is being bloodily rivalled since 2003.
Perhaps, even more sinisterly, the world will not hear about the “pacification” of Mosul. Just as internet cables were severed between the Middle East and Europe, seemingly in four places, during the time of the great escape from besieged Gaza - a modern day flight in to Egypt - twenty five communication towers have been destroyed in Mosul and the environs, in an “ongoing” sabotage of some sophistication. (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=40975 )
The British sought to pacify Mosul in 1920. The people were less than grateful, killing six officers in ten days and later Colonel Gerald Leachman, an officer celebrated for his “travels and feats in eastern deserts”. Leachman, at a loss to understand why Iraqis did not want to be occupied, stated that the only way to deal with them was “wholesale slaughter”. He was, unsurprisingly, shot in the back by his Arab host, which led the British to talk of “Arab treachery”.
Some sanity came from newspaper letter columns, encapsulated by one to The Times: “How much longer are valuable lives going to be sacrificed, in the vain endeavour, to impose upon the Arab population, an elaborate and expensive administration, which they never asked for and do not want?” Within months, however, five hundred British were dead and fifteen hundred injured.
This was the region where Winston Churchill did not “understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour if using poison gas against uncivilised tribes”, he said of peoples who brought the world astronomy, in a region where Saints walked and Nineveh's ancient wonders still stand.
Churchill railed against the “prejudices of those who do not think clearly”, regarding the use of poisons as a “scientific expedient”. It was an excellent strategy, in spite of it causing blindness or permanent eye damage: “… kill children and sickly persons especially as the people against whom we intend to use it have no medical knowledge with which to supply antidotes”.
The all is an uncanny mirror of current plans and foolishness. The British also drew up a list of weapons: “Phosphorous bombs, war rockets, metal crow’sfeet for maiming livestock (an early "Operation Cowpens"?) man killing shrapnel, liquid fire and delay action bombs ... “If the people whose right was to be there did not behave”, remarked a Wing Commander Gale: “... we will spank their bottoms. This was done with bombs and guns.” More kinky language. How little has changed - and there are still those alive in the region who remember this previous barbarity. Western invaders are unwelcome and unforgiven. Like America's Nuri Al Maliki : “The king is widely regarded as a British puppet”, commented General Haldane.*
Phosphorous and “unusual” and illegal weapons are still being used, with depleted uranium in bombs and bullets leaving its radioactive legacy for four and a half billion years. Troops also breathing its gene altering and cancer causing properties and taking it home in dust, on clothes and in kit bags, to affect their families, children - and babies not yet conceived.
Before the onslaught on Mosul begins, will soldiers walk as the apricot sun sinks beyond the Tigris and the great black curtain of keening birds, their cries rising heavenwards, yet hanging in the air, dance and swirl past to their secret places of the night?
Will they watch the fishermen, in their tiny corraks, emerge silently from between the reeds, their reflections plumbing the translucent, golden and tangerine streaked Tigris?
Will they reflect that it is the cradle of civilisation they are destroying?
Will they stop for a moment, to reflect on what actor David Garrick (1717-1779) referred to as: “That blessed word: Mesapotamia, which ... has the power to make men both laugh and cry”?
Will they walk in wonder by Nineveh's winged bulls, these soldiers of God, in the land of so much of His Bible?
If they did, they surely would walk away, heads hung and turn to another career path.
Will they ever encounter the true spirit of Iraq, in those they denigrate as “sand niggers”, “hajjis”, “ragheads”, or as one British soldier wrote: “I hate f ....g Arabs.”
Their spirit enveloped me in Mosul, after I became dangerously ill. I recovered and noticed there was a distance, almost an embarrassment, from those I knew. Suddenly a dear friend apologised to me: “Madam Felicity, you who love our country, you who care for what is happening to us; we are so sorry. Iraq has made you ill.” They were ashamed not to have prevented a recalcitrant Iraq “making me ill”.
Garrick was right on Mesapotamia's power's over men (and women.)
Mosul is threatened also with the collapse of the great dam to its north. The US Army Corps of Engineers has said it is in danger of a “catastrophic” breach, which is likely to wipe out much of the city and sweep an estimated half million people before it in a flood which could reach Baghdad. It does not take an engineer to figure that the US chosen method of pacification, bombing with up to two thousand pound munitions, would almost certainly create vibrations which would breach the dam.
George Bush's “crusade” would thus end in a flood of biblical proportions, also sweeping away countless of his own troops on the ground - and with it, the last shred of any reputation he has left - and the loyalty of his armed forces.
In this region of Saints, of the Prophet Jonah, perhaps divine intervention will yet prevail. It is sorely needed.
*From Sumer to Saddam, Geoff Simons, Macmillan 1994, still unbeatable, detailed reference, ancient and modern. http://www.amazon.com/Iraq-Sumer-Saddam-Geoff-Simons/dp/1403917701
Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist and activist who has visited the Arab and Muslim world on numerous occasions. She has written and broadcast on Iraq, her coverage of which was nominated for several awards. She was also senior researcher for John Pilger's award-winning documentary, "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq". http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partID=4 and author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of “Baghdad” in the “Great Cities” series, for World Almanac Books (2006.) http://www.amazon.com/Baghdad-Great-Cities-World-Nikki/dp/0836850491/sr=1-5/qid=1171018142/ref=sr_1_5/105-9176229-7042804?ie=UTF8&s=books
Please also see:
No Attack on Mosul! An Emergency Statement of Intellectuals and Activists - 05 February 2008 http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=4372&blz=1
Iraq's Tidal Wave of Misery http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/tomdispatch/2008/02/iraq-tidal-wave-of-misery.html
Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Breed Deadly Disease http://www.motherjones.com/blue_marble_blog/archives/2007/10/5815_iraq_and_afghan.html
New Bacterial Infection Linked to MilitaryReport: Troops Transmitted Mysterious Bacteria That Has Killed 7 And Affected Military And Civilians Alike http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Germs/story?id=4233448&page=1 Depleted Uranium in the Strait of Georgia http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/CurrentArticle.htm
TIMZ - Iraq http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRiy4yfh-IM&eurl=http://www.timzonline.com/vid1.html
"When I hear anyone talk of Culture, I reach for my revolver.”
Hermann Goering (1893-1946.)
In the Orwellian world of the United States military, when a killing spree in Mesapotamia is embarked upon, it is called an “Iraq Pacification Operation'”. There have been hundreds of these (I abandoned counting at three hundred and eighty, with numerous more to go.)
Each 'pacification' has a name which brings a glimpse into a very strange mindset: “Operation Devil Thrust”, “Operation Terminator”, “Operation Scorpion Sting”, “Operation Sidewinder”, “Operation Roaring Tiger”, “Operation All American Tiger”, “Operation Panther Squeeze”, “Operation Warhorse Whirlwind”, “Operation Resolute Sword”, “Operation Wolverine Feast”, “Operation Arrowhead Ripper”, “Operations 'Geronimo Strike', 'Rat Trap' and 'Grizzly Forced Entry'”. And from a porn show near you: Operations “Squeeze Play”, “Triple Play”, “Therapist” and “Tombstone Thrust”. ( http://www.globalsecurity.org/ )
Seemingly there are even “insurgent” cows, if “Operation Cowpens” lived up to its name. Al Cow-aeda, maybe?
Perhaps the oddest is: '”Operation Suicide Kings”. Suicide bombers of course, were unheard of in Iraq until the invasion. The title is no doubt a coincidence in macho “bring 'em on”, bragging.
None however are titles which conjure up the joyously liberated, revelling gratefully, savouring their freedom and democracy.
Having “pacified” Iraqis in to the grave, from Abu Ghraib to Falluja, from Ramadi to Tel Afar, with numerous other murderous stop offs across the land of Abraham, the crusading Christian soldiers are moving onwards to "cleanse" Mosul. That it was the puppet “Prime Minister”, Nuri Al Maliki who used the expression is as inconsequential as he is - his orders come from the pacifiers and their masters in Washington.
In words and deeds, happenings in Iraq are chillingly redolent of Nazi Germany.
Neighbourhoods walled in and “cleansed” of Sunnis, others of Shias, Christians and Iraq's richness of minorities ... people who have lived together and inter-married since time immemorial.
The distinctions were imposed with the incoming tanks and troops - divide and rule writ large.
In Falluja, Goebbel's ghost walks tall. The residents even have their own identifying arm patch to prove it. And it has certainly been cleansed, in uncountable thousands - exactly how many unknown, since in the words of General Tommy Franks it is not “productive” to count Iraqi deaths.
So how is Mosul to be purified? The most ethnically diverse city in Iraq, consisting of Arabs, Syriacs, Kurds, Armenians, Turcomans, Jews, Christians, Yazedi's, Muslims and a trading centre since the sixth century BC. Who will draw the short straw? Their slaughter justified in a search, of course, for “Al Qaeda” with the innocents “a mistake”, “regrettable” or “collateral damage”.
Americas military planners have become the modern day equivalent of the child who repeatedly cried “wolf', they continually justif massacre by crying “Al Qaeda. In 1935, Major General Smedley Butler, referred to the '”racketeering” of the “military gang”. He described his military career as a: “... muscle man for big business, Wall Street and the bankers”. In Mosul's case, surrounded by and floating on oil, the “muscle” is for Chevron, Shell, Exxon Mobile...
The pastoral Yazedis have already been subject to a cleansing last August, blamed of course on suicide bombers from “Al Qaeda”, who presumably, thoughtfully, left identification amongst their and others body parts - similar to the two “Down's syndrome” women, who detonated bombs in two pet markets two weeks ago.
The first great epic fable, Gilgamesh was fashioned and honed in Iraq. It is being bloodily rivalled since 2003.
Perhaps, even more sinisterly, the world will not hear about the “pacification” of Mosul. Just as internet cables were severed between the Middle East and Europe, seemingly in four places, during the time of the great escape from besieged Gaza - a modern day flight in to Egypt - twenty five communication towers have been destroyed in Mosul and the environs, in an “ongoing” sabotage of some sophistication. (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=40975 )
The British sought to pacify Mosul in 1920. The people were less than grateful, killing six officers in ten days and later Colonel Gerald Leachman, an officer celebrated for his “travels and feats in eastern deserts”. Leachman, at a loss to understand why Iraqis did not want to be occupied, stated that the only way to deal with them was “wholesale slaughter”. He was, unsurprisingly, shot in the back by his Arab host, which led the British to talk of “Arab treachery”.
Some sanity came from newspaper letter columns, encapsulated by one to The Times: “How much longer are valuable lives going to be sacrificed, in the vain endeavour, to impose upon the Arab population, an elaborate and expensive administration, which they never asked for and do not want?” Within months, however, five hundred British were dead and fifteen hundred injured.
This was the region where Winston Churchill did not “understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour if using poison gas against uncivilised tribes”, he said of peoples who brought the world astronomy, in a region where Saints walked and Nineveh's ancient wonders still stand.
Churchill railed against the “prejudices of those who do not think clearly”, regarding the use of poisons as a “scientific expedient”. It was an excellent strategy, in spite of it causing blindness or permanent eye damage: “… kill children and sickly persons especially as the people against whom we intend to use it have no medical knowledge with which to supply antidotes”.
The all is an uncanny mirror of current plans and foolishness. The British also drew up a list of weapons: “Phosphorous bombs, war rockets, metal crow’sfeet for maiming livestock (an early "Operation Cowpens"?) man killing shrapnel, liquid fire and delay action bombs ... “If the people whose right was to be there did not behave”, remarked a Wing Commander Gale: “... we will spank their bottoms. This was done with bombs and guns.” More kinky language. How little has changed - and there are still those alive in the region who remember this previous barbarity. Western invaders are unwelcome and unforgiven. Like America's Nuri Al Maliki : “The king is widely regarded as a British puppet”, commented General Haldane.*
Phosphorous and “unusual” and illegal weapons are still being used, with depleted uranium in bombs and bullets leaving its radioactive legacy for four and a half billion years. Troops also breathing its gene altering and cancer causing properties and taking it home in dust, on clothes and in kit bags, to affect their families, children - and babies not yet conceived.
Before the onslaught on Mosul begins, will soldiers walk as the apricot sun sinks beyond the Tigris and the great black curtain of keening birds, their cries rising heavenwards, yet hanging in the air, dance and swirl past to their secret places of the night?
Will they watch the fishermen, in their tiny corraks, emerge silently from between the reeds, their reflections plumbing the translucent, golden and tangerine streaked Tigris?
Will they reflect that it is the cradle of civilisation they are destroying?
Will they stop for a moment, to reflect on what actor David Garrick (1717-1779) referred to as: “That blessed word: Mesapotamia, which ... has the power to make men both laugh and cry”?
Will they walk in wonder by Nineveh's winged bulls, these soldiers of God, in the land of so much of His Bible?
If they did, they surely would walk away, heads hung and turn to another career path.
Will they ever encounter the true spirit of Iraq, in those they denigrate as “sand niggers”, “hajjis”, “ragheads”, or as one British soldier wrote: “I hate f ....g Arabs.”
Their spirit enveloped me in Mosul, after I became dangerously ill. I recovered and noticed there was a distance, almost an embarrassment, from those I knew. Suddenly a dear friend apologised to me: “Madam Felicity, you who love our country, you who care for what is happening to us; we are so sorry. Iraq has made you ill.” They were ashamed not to have prevented a recalcitrant Iraq “making me ill”.
Garrick was right on Mesapotamia's power's over men (and women.)
Mosul is threatened also with the collapse of the great dam to its north. The US Army Corps of Engineers has said it is in danger of a “catastrophic” breach, which is likely to wipe out much of the city and sweep an estimated half million people before it in a flood which could reach Baghdad. It does not take an engineer to figure that the US chosen method of pacification, bombing with up to two thousand pound munitions, would almost certainly create vibrations which would breach the dam.
George Bush's “crusade” would thus end in a flood of biblical proportions, also sweeping away countless of his own troops on the ground - and with it, the last shred of any reputation he has left - and the loyalty of his armed forces.
In this region of Saints, of the Prophet Jonah, perhaps divine intervention will yet prevail. It is sorely needed.
*From Sumer to Saddam, Geoff Simons, Macmillan 1994, still unbeatable, detailed reference, ancient and modern. http://www.amazon.com/Iraq-Sumer-Saddam-Geoff-Simons/dp/1403917701
Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist and activist who has visited the Arab and Muslim world on numerous occasions. She has written and broadcast on Iraq, her coverage of which was nominated for several awards. She was also senior researcher for John Pilger's award-winning documentary, "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq". http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partID=4 and author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of “Baghdad” in the “Great Cities” series, for World Almanac Books (2006.) http://www.amazon.com/Baghdad-Great-Cities-World-Nikki/dp/0836850491/sr=1-5/qid=1171018142/ref=sr_1_5/105-9176229-7042804?ie=UTF8&s=books
Please also see:
No Attack on Mosul! An Emergency Statement of Intellectuals and Activists - 05 February 2008 http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=4372&blz=1
Iraq's Tidal Wave of Misery http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/tomdispatch/2008/02/iraq-tidal-wave-of-misery.html
Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Breed Deadly Disease http://www.motherjones.com/blue_marble_blog/archives/2007/10/5815_iraq_and_afghan.html
New Bacterial Infection Linked to MilitaryReport: Troops Transmitted Mysterious Bacteria That Has Killed 7 And Affected Military And Civilians Alike http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Germs/story?id=4233448&page=1 Depleted Uranium in the Strait of Georgia http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/CurrentArticle.htm
TIMZ - Iraq http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRiy4yfh-IM&eurl=http://www.timzonline.com/vid1.html
samedi 9 février 2008
Emergency Statement, Hana Al Bayaty
Iraqi International Initiative on refugees http://3iii.org/
Emergency statement : No attack on Mosul
Dear endorsers,
Pasted underneath is a statement, published by the BRussells Tribunal that we have written and circulated in front of the repeated threats made by both the US occupation and its installed government of their planned imminent attack against the 3rd largest Iraqi town of Mosul. Such an attack – if carried out – will surely cause massive human displacement.
The northern part of Iraq stretching from Syria to the region of Kirkuk has been under repeated attack for the past 5 years. Crossing through this area are either existing or future planned routes to export Iraqi oil.
The occupation and its allies are trying to change the demographic make up of the entire region and within cities, by carrying campaigns of ethnic cleansing, in order to achieve control over both this region's resources and these strategic routes, and make the planned division of Iraq possible. It forced Iraqi people to flee either through massive indiscriminate military campaigns, the use of sectarian militias affiliated to the government, or of unidentified groups working as death squads or carrying terrorist attacks on civilian populations.
These repeated assaults have already caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Iraqi Christians around Mosul have been forced to flee in their majority, the Iraqi Turkmen in the town of Tal Afar were besieged for weeks in 2004, while the latest attack in Sinjar targeted the Iraqi Yazidis. Many assassinations and attacks in Kirkuk and its region were carried to force the Turkmen and Arab civilians to leave their homes.
This pre-announced attack on Mosul targets the Iraqi Arab Sunni community. It is already causing the displacement of many who started to flee to Syria.
We again want to insist, that the proposal you have endorsed, asking the UNSC to pass a resolution requiring the Iraqi state allocates proportional part of Iraqi oil revenues to displaced Iraqi citizens, is the only solution to defend the rights of the displaced, and to render obsolete the tactic of ethnic cleansing used by the occupation and its installed government to achieve control over Iraqi oil resources, which is causing the displacement of millions.
We hope we can, together, continue to promote this proposal.
Please protest against the attack of Mosul, feel free to endorse, circulate and publish this statement through your own networks as widely as possible.
salam,
Hana Al Bayaty - coordinator
The Iraqi International Initiative on refugees
arabic version of the statement:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Mosul050208.htm#Arabic
english version of the statement:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Mosul050208.htm
Emergency statement : No attack on Mosul
Dear endorsers,
Pasted underneath is a statement, published by the BRussells Tribunal that we have written and circulated in front of the repeated threats made by both the US occupation and its installed government of their planned imminent attack against the 3rd largest Iraqi town of Mosul. Such an attack – if carried out – will surely cause massive human displacement.
The northern part of Iraq stretching from Syria to the region of Kirkuk has been under repeated attack for the past 5 years. Crossing through this area are either existing or future planned routes to export Iraqi oil.
The occupation and its allies are trying to change the demographic make up of the entire region and within cities, by carrying campaigns of ethnic cleansing, in order to achieve control over both this region's resources and these strategic routes, and make the planned division of Iraq possible. It forced Iraqi people to flee either through massive indiscriminate military campaigns, the use of sectarian militias affiliated to the government, or of unidentified groups working as death squads or carrying terrorist attacks on civilian populations.
These repeated assaults have already caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Iraqi Christians around Mosul have been forced to flee in their majority, the Iraqi Turkmen in the town of Tal Afar were besieged for weeks in 2004, while the latest attack in Sinjar targeted the Iraqi Yazidis. Many assassinations and attacks in Kirkuk and its region were carried to force the Turkmen and Arab civilians to leave their homes.
This pre-announced attack on Mosul targets the Iraqi Arab Sunni community. It is already causing the displacement of many who started to flee to Syria.
We again want to insist, that the proposal you have endorsed, asking the UNSC to pass a resolution requiring the Iraqi state allocates proportional part of Iraqi oil revenues to displaced Iraqi citizens, is the only solution to defend the rights of the displaced, and to render obsolete the tactic of ethnic cleansing used by the occupation and its installed government to achieve control over Iraqi oil resources, which is causing the displacement of millions.
We hope we can, together, continue to promote this proposal.
Please protest against the attack of Mosul, feel free to endorse, circulate and publish this statement through your own networks as widely as possible.
salam,
Hana Al Bayaty - coordinator
The Iraqi International Initiative on refugees
arabic version of the statement:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Mosul050208.htm#Arabic
english version of the statement:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Mosul050208.htm
لا للعدوان على الموصل
لا للعدوان على الموصل
يحتاج فشل بوش في العراق الى "نجاح" جديد. وفي حين يعلن الاحتلال الامريكي المنقوع بالدم في العراق، نصرا بعد آخر منذ مايقرب من خمس سنوات، فإنه يقيم مذبحة بعد اخرى لشعب العراق.الان يعلن الاحتلال عن نجاح "حاسم"
./...
Please sign,publish and diffuse this appeal.
Albayaty Abdul Ilah
To read the apeeal on the net
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Mosul050208.htm
To add your name and title
jeudi 7 février 2008
An International Emergency Statement of Intellectuals and Activists
No attack on Mosul!
An International Emergency Statement of Intellectuals and Activists *
http://brusselstribunal.org/
05 February 2008.
Bush’s failure in Iraq requires a new “success”. While the blood-soaked US occupation in Iraq declares one victory after another since nearly five years, it stages massacre after massacre of the people of Iraq.
Now the occupation declares a new “decisive” success is imminent, this time against the population of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. Its pretext is always the same: to eradicate “Al-Qaeda”, while Al-Qaeda from its mouth means Sunnis, Baathists, Arabs and all patriotic Iraqis.
Although the occupation has on many occasions declared its victory, the fact that it needs to attack yet again an entire city and its population proves that it couldn’t and cannot eradicate the legal resistance of the Iraqi people. The only thing decisive is that the occupation by its tactics announces its defeat.
The occupation has escalated its air bombing campaigns by 400 per cent [1] in the past year and openly promises more indiscriminate attacks on populated urban areas. It uses disproportionate force indiscriminately against civilian populations in a pattern of actions that constitutes genocide under international law.
The imminent attack on Mosul — another urbicide following the ones of holy Najaf, martyred Fallujah, Al-Qaim, Tel Afar, Haditha, and whole neighbourhoods of Baghdad, among others — will only result, as with its precedents, in horrific killings, destruction and mass population displacement, thereby changing the historical, sociological and demographic makeup of the city.
This imminent attack is a pre-announced genocide. It is blood, death and destruction for oil. As the spreading of the resistance to Southern and Northern provinces proves, this new attack is in vain. The Iraqi people rejects — and will always reject — the criminal US occupation.
This imminent attack should raise condemnation, disgust and protest from peace loving people and human rights defenders worldwide. Five years of destruction and death should have taught the Bush administration that its litany of killing serves no purpose and leads only to moral suicide for the United States.
Humanity is in distress in Iraq. Our role and duty is to save it.
Act to stop the massacre in Mosul!
5 February 2008
An International Emergency Statement of Intellectuals and Activists *
http://brusselstribunal.org/
05 February 2008.
Bush’s failure in Iraq requires a new “success”. While the blood-soaked US occupation in Iraq declares one victory after another since nearly five years, it stages massacre after massacre of the people of Iraq.
Now the occupation declares a new “decisive” success is imminent, this time against the population of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. Its pretext is always the same: to eradicate “Al-Qaeda”, while Al-Qaeda from its mouth means Sunnis, Baathists, Arabs and all patriotic Iraqis.
Although the occupation has on many occasions declared its victory, the fact that it needs to attack yet again an entire city and its population proves that it couldn’t and cannot eradicate the legal resistance of the Iraqi people. The only thing decisive is that the occupation by its tactics announces its defeat.
The occupation has escalated its air bombing campaigns by 400 per cent [1] in the past year and openly promises more indiscriminate attacks on populated urban areas. It uses disproportionate force indiscriminately against civilian populations in a pattern of actions that constitutes genocide under international law.
The imminent attack on Mosul — another urbicide following the ones of holy Najaf, martyred Fallujah, Al-Qaim, Tel Afar, Haditha, and whole neighbourhoods of Baghdad, among others — will only result, as with its precedents, in horrific killings, destruction and mass population displacement, thereby changing the historical, sociological and demographic makeup of the city.
This imminent attack is a pre-announced genocide. It is blood, death and destruction for oil. As the spreading of the resistance to Southern and Northern provinces proves, this new attack is in vain. The Iraqi people rejects — and will always reject — the criminal US occupation.
This imminent attack should raise condemnation, disgust and protest from peace loving people and human rights defenders worldwide. Five years of destruction and death should have taught the Bush administration that its litany of killing serves no purpose and leads only to moral suicide for the United States.
Humanity is in distress in Iraq. Our role and duty is to save it.
Act to stop the massacre in Mosul!
5 February 2008
First signatories:
Abdul Ilah Albayaty, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee – Iraq / France.
Hana Al Bayaty, coordinator, Iraqi International Initiative on refugees – Iraq / Egypt.
Margarita Papandreou, Former First Lady of Greece, Peace activist and honorary president of Center for Research and Action on Peace - Greece.
Dr. Saadallah Al-Fathi, former head of the Energy Studies Department at OPEC - Iraq.
Buthaina Alnasiri, Iraqi writer and activist.
Prof. Em. François Houtart, Director of the Tricontinental Center - Cetri, co-founder of the World Social Forum.
Sr. Anne Montgomery RSCJ, Christan Peacemaker Teams - USA
Sara Flounders, Co-Director, International Action Center.
Dr. James E. Jennings, PhD, President Conscience International – USA.
David Swanson, Co-Founder AfterDowningStreet coalition - USA.
Dr. Gerri Haynes, past president, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Kirkland, Washington.
Dr. Hassan Aydinli, President, Committee for the Defence of the Iraqi Turkmens’ Rights.
Muhamad Tareq Al-Deraji, Director of Monitoring net of human rights in Iraq - Executive Director of Studies Center of human rights and Democracy in Fallujah.
Riad El-Taher, Chair of FAF Organisation - UK.
Hans-Peter Richter, chair, German Peace Council.Socorro Gomes, president, Cebrapaz - Centre Bresilien de Solidaritré avec les peuples et de lutte pour la Paix.
Niloufer Bhagwat, Vice President of Indian Lawyers Association - Mumbai / India.
Dr. Curtis F.J. Doebbler, International Human Rights Lawyer - USA.
Karen Parker, Attorney, Association of Humanitarian Lawyers - USA.
Jennifer Van Bergen, journalist, author writing about civil liberties, human rights and international law - USA.
Jan Fermon, Lawyer of Court case against General Tommy Franks in Brussels, Progress Lawyers Network - Belgium.
Prof. Em. Peter d'Errico, Legal Studies Department, University of Massachusetts / Amherst - USA
Prof. Kazashi Nobuo, Faculty of Letters, Kobe University, NO DU Hiroshima Project - Japan.
Jan-Erik Lundström, photographic historian and director of the BildMuseet in Umea, Sweden
Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa, founder of Centre for Research on Globalisation - Canada
Salah Al Mukhtar, former Iraqi ambassador to Vietnam and India.
Naji Haraj, former Iraqi diplomat.
Carlos Varea, Coordinator of CEOSI - Spanish Campaign against Occupation and for the Sovereignty of Iraq – Spain.
Marion Küpker, International Coordinator against nuclear-and uranium weapons for GAAA and DFG-VK, Germany.
Dr. Ian Douglas, editor and correspondent for the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly and visiting professor in the Department of Political Science at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine.
Dr. Imad Khadduri, former nuclear scientist - Iraq.
Felicity Arbuthnot, Journalist - UK.
Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee, Coordinator SOS Iraq.
John Catalinotto, International Action Center - USA.
Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, M.D., Anti-war activist, speaker, Global Exchange - Iraq / USA.
Merry Fitzgerald, Committee for the Defence of the Iraqi Turkmens’ Rights.
Nermeen Al-Mufti, member of the BRussells Tribunal Advisory Committee - Journalist.
Michael Parenti, Author and scholar – USA.
Prof. Em. Edward S. Herman, writer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Prof. Stephen Soldz, Director, Center for Research, Evaluation, and Program Development Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice - USA.
Prof. Em. Gideon Polya, retired senior biochemist, author: biochemical scientific publications and global avoidable mortality – Australia.
Prof. David Miller, Professor of Sociology at Strathclyde University, co-founder of Spinwatch – UK.
Prof. Paola Manduca, Geneticist, University of Genoa, Newweapons working group - Italy.
Prof. Glen D. Lawrence, Long Island University, USA.
Prof. Dr. Jean Bricmont, scientist, specialist in theoretical physics, U.C. Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.
Prof. Stephen Eric Bronner, Professor of political science, Rutgers University - USA.
Prof. Jim Harding, Past Director, School of Human Justice, University of Regina - Canada.
Dr. Thomas M. Fasy, MD PhD, Clinical Associate Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine – USA.
Dr. Pol De Vos, Public Health Researcher, chair, Stop USA – Peace movement, Belgium.
Anne Burns, U.S. Academics For Peace / Conscience International - USA.
David Peterson, writer and researcher, Chicago, USA.
Eman Ahmed Khammas, Former co-director of Occupation Watch - Journalist - translator - Iraq.
Comaguer, Anti-war Committee Marseille - France.
Sigyn Meder, Iraq Solidarity Association in Stockholm - Sweden.
Joachim Guilliard, Journalist, Anti-war movement - Germany.
Sarah Meyer, Independent researcher living in Sussex – UK.
Cynthia Banas, Iraq Peace Team member, 2002-2003 - USA.
José Reinaldo Carvalho, Cebrapaz, Brazil.
Ludo De Brabander, chair, Vrede – Peace Movement, Belgium.
Hans Lammerant, chair, Vredesactie - Peace movement, Belgium.
Paul Rafferty, chair, UNObserver.
Frank Vercruyssen, Actor, TG Stan - Belgium.
Luc Pien, filmmaker - Belgium.
April Hurley, MD - USA.
John LaForge, Nukewatch - USA.
Karen Hoover, USA.
Frans Dumortier / Charles Ducal, Poet - Belgium.
David Hungerford, Iraq support activist - USA.
Suror Merza
Zuhair Alkadiri
Othman Al-Rawi
[1] http://www.dedefensa.org/article.php?art_id=4589 - http://www.slate.com/id/2176464/ - http://www.slate.com/id/2176619/ - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011604148.html
lundi 4 février 2008
URGENT APPEAL - ACTION FOR MOSUL
BRussells Tribunal
No attack on Mosul!
Bush’s failure in Iraq requires a new “success”. While the blood-soaked US occupation in Iraq declares one victory after another since nearly five years, it stages massacre after massacre of the people of Iraq.
Now the occupation declares a new “decisive” success is imminent, this time against the population of Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq. Its pretext is always the same: to eradicate “Al-Qaeda”, while from its mouth “Al-Qaeda” means Sunnis, Baathists and Arabs.
Although the occupation has on many occasions declared its victory, the fact that it needs to attack yet again an entire city and its population proves that it couldn’t and cannot eradicate the legal resistance of the Iraqi people. The only thing decisive is that the occupation by its tactics announces its defeat.
The imminent attack on Mosul — another urbicide following the ones of holy Najaf, martyred Fallujah, Al-Qaim, Tel Afar, Haditha, and whole neighbourhoods of Baghdad, among others — will only result, as with its precedents, in horrific killings, destruction and mass population displacement, thereby changing the historical, sociological and demographic makeup of the city.
This imminent attack on Mosul is a pre-announced genocide. It is blood, death and destruction for oil. As the spreading of the resistance to Southern and Northern provinces proves, this new attack is in vain. The Iraqi people rejects — and will always reject — the criminal US occupation.
The occupation has escalated its air bombing campaigns by 200 per cent in the past year and openly promises more indiscriminate attacks on populated urban areas. It uses disproportionate force indiscriminately against civilian populations in a pattern of actions that constitutes genocide under international law.
This should raise condemnation, disgust and protest from peace loving people and human rights defenders worldwide. Five years of destruction and death should have taught the Bush administration that its litany of killing serves no purpose and leads only to moral suicide for the United States.
Humanity is in distress in Iraq. Our role and duty is to save it.
Act to stop the massacre in Mosul!
4 February 2008
BRussells Tribunal
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/
No attack on Mosul!
Bush’s failure in Iraq requires a new “success”. While the blood-soaked US occupation in Iraq declares one victory after another since nearly five years, it stages massacre after massacre of the people of Iraq.
Now the occupation declares a new “decisive” success is imminent, this time against the population of Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq. Its pretext is always the same: to eradicate “Al-Qaeda”, while from its mouth “Al-Qaeda” means Sunnis, Baathists and Arabs.
Although the occupation has on many occasions declared its victory, the fact that it needs to attack yet again an entire city and its population proves that it couldn’t and cannot eradicate the legal resistance of the Iraqi people. The only thing decisive is that the occupation by its tactics announces its defeat.
The imminent attack on Mosul — another urbicide following the ones of holy Najaf, martyred Fallujah, Al-Qaim, Tel Afar, Haditha, and whole neighbourhoods of Baghdad, among others — will only result, as with its precedents, in horrific killings, destruction and mass population displacement, thereby changing the historical, sociological and demographic makeup of the city.
This imminent attack on Mosul is a pre-announced genocide. It is blood, death and destruction for oil. As the spreading of the resistance to Southern and Northern provinces proves, this new attack is in vain. The Iraqi people rejects — and will always reject — the criminal US occupation.
The occupation has escalated its air bombing campaigns by 200 per cent in the past year and openly promises more indiscriminate attacks on populated urban areas. It uses disproportionate force indiscriminately against civilian populations in a pattern of actions that constitutes genocide under international law.
This should raise condemnation, disgust and protest from peace loving people and human rights defenders worldwide. Five years of destruction and death should have taught the Bush administration that its litany of killing serves no purpose and leads only to moral suicide for the United States.
Humanity is in distress in Iraq. Our role and duty is to save it.
Act to stop the massacre in Mosul!
4 February 2008
BRussells Tribunal
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/
An Urgent Call To Save MOSUL
Action 4 Mosul Group
We wish to draw the attention of all the world to the deteriorating situation in Mosul and the considerable threats the City facing.
We call upon all those with conscious all over the world to this ongoing onslaught on the City , its people and the grave facing this ancient city.
There is an apparent indifference to the plight of the people of Mosul.
We need your support to form an action group to raise the profile of the city and the crisis it is facing.
Please pass this information and our contact details to your friends and colleagues. We need enthusiastic dynamic volunteers to lead this Action Group. We are looking particularly for people with media, journalists and lobbying experience but all help is sought urgently.
Please let me know if you wish to help in coordinating the Action for Mosul in your area/country.
Dr Ismail Jalili, UK
Action for Mosul
action(AT)mosul.org
(please replace (AT) with @
http://www.almosul.org/
We wish to draw the attention of all the world to the deteriorating situation in Mosul and the considerable threats the City facing.
We call upon all those with conscious all over the world to this ongoing onslaught on the City , its people and the grave facing this ancient city.
There is an apparent indifference to the plight of the people of Mosul.
We need your support to form an action group to raise the profile of the city and the crisis it is facing.
Please pass this information and our contact details to your friends and colleagues. We need enthusiastic dynamic volunteers to lead this Action Group. We are looking particularly for people with media, journalists and lobbying experience but all help is sought urgently.
Please let me know if you wish to help in coordinating the Action for Mosul in your area/country.
Dr Ismail Jalili, UK
Action for Mosul
action(AT)mosul.org
(please replace (AT) with @
http://www.almosul.org/
lundi 28 janvier 2008
More relief aid needed in Mosul after blast
BAGDHAD, 28 January 2008 (IRIN)
- Essential relief items are needed to continue relief operations, and maintain an emergency stock, for affected families in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said on 28 January.
At least 60 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 280 wounded as a result of a massive blast followed by a suicide attack against a senior police official on 23 January in Mosul, the IRCS said. Iraqi officials from the defence and interior ministries put the toll at 36 dead and 170 wounded in the explosion, which occurred when a cache of munitions, stored by insurgents in a house in west Mosul's Zanjili suburb, blew up.
In a report on its website, the IRCS said the most needed relief items were food, kitchen sets, mattresses, blankets, medical supplies, milk for infants, bottled water, suits and vests for disaster management volunteers, and canned food. "The attack led to the destruction of at least 100 houses," the IRCS said, adding that there were probably further dead bodies beneath the rubble. The IRCS said the attack would increase the suffering of Iraqi families already living in a very difficult situation resulting from armed conflicts and frequent disasters.
Preparedness An official at the IRCS's Disaster Management Department in Baghdad said the organisation has three strategic warehouses in central, southern and northern Iraq in order to reach nearby affected areas. "We are prepared for all kinds of crisis and our teams are working very hard to meet the needs of the affected people nationwide," said the official who asked not to be named for security reasons. "We are facing challenges that all Iraqi people face, but things could happen here and there to our teams as they do their work, like attacks and explosions, but in general we feel like we are welcomed and accepted in all areas," the IRCS official said.
Relief activities have been coordinated with the relevant governmental and non-governmental agencies. Tents have been erected for families who lost their houses, and food and medicines distributed.
There was coordination with the Turkish embassy to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid from the Turkish Red Crescent to Iraq in the first 24 hours after the incident, it said. The Turkish donation, IRCS said, included 300 food baskets and medical items and the transfer of seven casualties to hospital in Turkey.
On 27 January Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed al-Qaeda for the explosion and ordered troop reinforcements and tanks to be sent to Mosul for an assault on Al-Qaeda in its urban stronghold.
sm/at/cb
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=76456
- Essential relief items are needed to continue relief operations, and maintain an emergency stock, for affected families in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said on 28 January.
At least 60 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 280 wounded as a result of a massive blast followed by a suicide attack against a senior police official on 23 January in Mosul, the IRCS said. Iraqi officials from the defence and interior ministries put the toll at 36 dead and 170 wounded in the explosion, which occurred when a cache of munitions, stored by insurgents in a house in west Mosul's Zanjili suburb, blew up.
In a report on its website, the IRCS said the most needed relief items were food, kitchen sets, mattresses, blankets, medical supplies, milk for infants, bottled water, suits and vests for disaster management volunteers, and canned food. "The attack led to the destruction of at least 100 houses," the IRCS said, adding that there were probably further dead bodies beneath the rubble. The IRCS said the attack would increase the suffering of Iraqi families already living in a very difficult situation resulting from armed conflicts and frequent disasters.
Preparedness An official at the IRCS's Disaster Management Department in Baghdad said the organisation has three strategic warehouses in central, southern and northern Iraq in order to reach nearby affected areas. "We are prepared for all kinds of crisis and our teams are working very hard to meet the needs of the affected people nationwide," said the official who asked not to be named for security reasons. "We are facing challenges that all Iraqi people face, but things could happen here and there to our teams as they do their work, like attacks and explosions, but in general we feel like we are welcomed and accepted in all areas," the IRCS official said.
Relief activities have been coordinated with the relevant governmental and non-governmental agencies. Tents have been erected for families who lost their houses, and food and medicines distributed.
There was coordination with the Turkish embassy to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid from the Turkish Red Crescent to Iraq in the first 24 hours after the incident, it said. The Turkish donation, IRCS said, included 300 food baskets and medical items and the transfer of seven casualties to hospital in Turkey.
On 27 January Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed al-Qaeda for the explosion and ordered troop reinforcements and tanks to be sent to Mosul for an assault on Al-Qaeda in its urban stronghold.
sm/at/cb
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=76456
Video: The American military did the explosion in Mosul
Posted on : Roads to Iraq
January 27, 2008
As I said before the (un)controlled explosion in Mosul done by the Americans but because it went wrong western media reported that it was a terrorists attack.
Here is a video clip shows eyewitnesses, residents of Zndjeli area tell their story to an Iraqi government official.
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=dZRfZO9oCjk
Translation:
Eyewitness: they took the weapons only [not the explosions] and put it in their vehicles, they timed the explosion and runaway to the nearby streets, my family asked the American:
It will be a big explosion, it is better if we leave our houses.
He answered:
No, it is not a big explosion, just leave the windows open and sit beside the walls, it will be alright.
Later the houses fell on our heads
Posted on: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=40588
Link: http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/01/27/video-shows-that-mosul-explosion-was-done-by-the-american-military/
January 27, 2008
As I said before the (un)controlled explosion in Mosul done by the Americans but because it went wrong western media reported that it was a terrorists attack.
Here is a video clip shows eyewitnesses, residents of Zndjeli area tell their story to an Iraqi government official.
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=dZRfZO9oCjk
Translation:
Eyewitness: they took the weapons only [not the explosions] and put it in their vehicles, they timed the explosion and runaway to the nearby streets, my family asked the American:
It will be a big explosion, it is better if we leave our houses.
He answered:
No, it is not a big explosion, just leave the windows open and sit beside the walls, it will be alright.
Later the houses fell on our heads
Posted on: http://www.uruknet.info/?p=40588
Link: http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/01/27/video-shows-that-mosul-explosion-was-done-by-the-american-military/
vendredi 25 janvier 2008
Mosul Bomb Attack
Photo: A huge crater is seen at the site of Wednesday's bomb attack in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) northwest of Baghdad, January 24, 2008.
REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ) reports:
The attack killed 20 people, wounded 150 and destroyed or badly damaged 35 houses, security officials said. That blast, blamed on al Qaeda, was in an unoccupied building used to store weapons and tonnes of explosives, the U.S. military said.
Ninwa Province.
Al-Mawsil.
Underground Iraqi Army command blames US for deadly bombing of building in al-Mawsil’s az-Zanjili neighborhood on Wednesday, 23 January.
The statement declared that the bombing was a deliberate act carried out by US occupation forces and their Kurdish separatist Peshmergah allies. It indicated that the purpose of the attack was to try to undermine the Arab identity of al-Mawsil and Ninwa Province, in an attempt to tighten the grip of Kurdish separatists on the area.
"This incident was a vicious crime against our patient perseverant people, an act of contempt for the lives and property of the kindly people of al-Mawsil whose cities have been subjected to suspicious plans aimed at wiping out the identity and character of this ancient province.
"The command of the Iraqi Army, which has absolute faith in the people of Ninwa and in the first place in the sons of the authentic Iraqi Army and of the tribes, calls on them all to wreak vengeance for this act on the occupiers and their stooges, uniting their forces to frustrate their suspicious plans and to preserve the identity of the Arab province of Ninwa," the statement, dated 25 January 2008, concluded.
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