2 US Troops Killed, 21 Wounded; 37 Iraqis Killed in Baghdad Clashes;

According to BBC television, AFP is reporting that Mahdi Army militiamen killed 2 US troops in northern Baghdad on Wednesday morning. US Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates admitted on Tuesday that the reduction in US troop casualties in recent months had ended in the past few weeks, because of the fighting in Sadr City in the capital. Over 40 US troops have been killed in April. Gates also brandished a second aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf at Iran, which the US accuses of supplying the Mahdi Army with arms that are used against US troops. Recent US press reporting in the New York Times and elsewhere has raised questions about the allegation. Sadr spokesman Salah al-Obeidi (al-Ubaydi) in Najaf bitterly attacked Iran, accusing it of seeking to share with the US in influence over Iraq. He pointed to the Iranian's regime's failure to condemn the long-term mutual security agreement being crafted by the Bush administration and the al-Maliki government. Al-Obeidi's angry denunciation suggests that Iran is backing PM Nuri al-Maliki and his current chief ally, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim against the Sadr Movement of Muqtada al-Sadr.

The sandstorm continued in Baghdad on Tuesday, and so did the fierce fighting between the US military and the Shiite Mahdi Army (paramilitary of the Sadr Movement), leaving 37 dead and 6 US soldiers wounded. The dead were said to include 9 civilians, including 3 women and a child. The sandstorm was an essential context for the fighting, since it prevented the US from deploying helicopter gunships and so left a ground patrol vulnerable to militia attack. The Mahdi Army was apparently attempting to prevent further US wall-building in the Shiite slum. Snipers also shot at US troops from rooftops. It is hard to believe that such complex assaults (involving a combination of ambush, small arms, and roadside bombs) are still going on after 5 years of US military occupation of the capital. AFP reports:

'Several rockets or mortar rounds . . . struck the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified government compound, as militants took advantage of the absence of US air cover during the storm, witnesses said. In one of the most intense firefights in weeks, the American soldiers killed 28 militants in Sadr City, stronghold of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the military said. Four US soldiers were also wounded in the fighting that began at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT). The fighting erupted when a US patrol was targeted with small-arms fire that wounded one soldier, Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover told AFP. As the soldier was being evacuated, a US vehicle was struck by two roadside bombs, small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The "complex" attack damaged the vehicle and wounded three other soldiers, Stover said, adding that another US vehicle was later damaged by a third roadside bomb. The US military said its soldiers defended themselves and "killed 28 militants in a four-hour" battle. Residents said US forces also launched two air strikes in the area which heavily damaged four houses. Pictures taken by an AFP photographer showed a number of bodies buried under the debris of the four houses. But Stover denied that aircraft had been used. The sandstorm had largely grounded US helicopters. Instead he said US troops used heavy rockets against the militants.'

It is now being revealed that on Monday, "Shi'ite militants hit a U.S. military station in southern Sadr City with explosive canisters, badly damaging a tactical operations center and injuring 15 troops."

Up in the oil city of Kirkuk, the focus of competition between Kurdish Peshmerga on the one hand and Arab and Turkmen guerrillas on the other, "around the oil city of Kirkuk four people were killed and 15 wounded in two bomb attacks."

McClatchy reports political violence in Iraq on Tuesday:

' Baghdad

Gunmen killed the director of the projects in the ministry of labour and social affairs Dheya al Jodi while he was leaving his house in Atifiyah neighborhood in north Baghdad around 7:00 a.m.

Around 1:00 p.m. two mortar shells hit al Jaish club building (the Army Club) in Karrada neighborhood in downtown Baghdad. No casualties reported. Another mortar shell slammed into the area near the neurosurgery hospital in Bab al Sharj neighborhood in downtown Baghdad at the same time. No casualties reported.

Two civilians were injured when a mortar shell hit al Muheet Street in Kadhemiyah neighborhood north Baghdad around 2,45 p.m.

Three civilians were injured when a mortar shell slammed into a house in Karrad Maryam neighborhood in downtown Baghdad around 3:00 p.m.

Two civilians were killed and five others were wounded when a Katyosha rocket hit New Baghdad neighborhood in east Baghdad around 3:15 p.m.

Diyala

A female suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest detonated herself among members of Sahwa (awakening council members) in Abo Saida village north of Baquba city around 7:50 a.m. one sahwa member was killed and five others were wounded

Three members of the Iraqi army were injured when a roadside bomb targeted their vehicle in Baladroz district east of Baquba city around 10:30 a.m.

Three civilians were killed in three attacks by insurgents in three different neighborhoods in Jalawla town northeast of Baquba city around 11:15 a.m.

The director of Sadiyah town Samir al Sadi was injured in an IED explosion that targeted his convoy while he was leaving the building of the directorate in downtown Sadiyah town around 12:20 p.m. one of the guards were killed and two other civilians were injured.

The supporting office of Qazanya district tribes east of Baquba found six unidentified bodies in a deserted house in one of the villages of Qazanya.

Nineveh

A suicide truck bomb tried to attack one of the centers of the Iraqi army in Nahrawan neighborhood in west Mosul city around 7:00 a.m. the soldiers launched an RBG7 shell and exploded the truck before it could reach the center. The driver of the truck was killed and an Iraqi soldier was injured.

An Iraqi soldier was killed and five others were injured when a suicide car bomb attacked their check point in al Yarmouk neighborhood in west Mosul on Tuesday afternoon. '

For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Mortar, Rocket attacks in Baghdad; in aftermath of Militia Campaign

Baghdad has been roiled for the past three days with major fighting between Iraqi government/ US forces and the Mahdi Army militia in east and north Baghdad, leaving 45 militiamen dead and an unstated number of Iraqi troops. At one point on Sunday, the a Mahdi Army company nearly took a government checkpoint in the northeast, and the US had to bring in a tank to save the Iraqi army unit.

Guerrillas launched numerous mortar and katyusha rocket attacks on Monday. Reuters reports: "A mortar round landed behind the Rashid Hotel in the Green Zone government compound, wounding five people including a child, police said . . . Five people were wounded in a mortar attack in Abu Nawas street in central Baghdad . . . Three mortar bombs landed on a police station in Jazair district, eastern Baghdad, wounding three policemen . . . A mortar blast wounded one person in the Mansour district, western Baghdad . . ."

On Monday,

Two mass graves have been found in Iraq in the past two days, each with about 50 bodies in them. Sunni Arab guerrilla groups made "collaborators" or rivals disappear this way as an object lesson.

The alleged flow of arms from Iran to south Iraq has not in fact increased in recent months (and my own suspicion is that US authorities mistake some black market arms selling for Iranian-government supplied weaponry). So why does the Bush administration and Pentagon stridency about Iran go up an down without reference to any facts on the ground? Seems to me that they deploy charges against Iran in an Orwellian way, as a tool of diplomatic pressure, when it suits them.

McClatchy profiles Brg. Gen. Qassem Suleimani of the Quds Force within the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. It is a good story, but it reflects the breathlessness of Green Zone conspiracy theories. For instance, some American alleged to the reporters that Suleimani engineered the victory of the Shiite religious parties in January 2005 over Iyad Allawi. Allawi had been appointed by the US, was an ex-Baathist, and a known CIA asset. He was defeated by a coalition list of Shiite parties that had struggled against Saddam Hussein and were endorsed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Attributing their defeat of Allawi to the Quds Force is just silly. Likewise, the allegations of extensive Iranian spying on Iraq or of bringing in "Hizbullah" from Lebanon (for which there is no good evidence) are unproved and the premise is unnecessary. If the Badr Corps was until recently part of the Iranian military, as the authors concede, then you don't need to posit a lot of phantom Iranian agents who are providing intelligence on Iraq to Tehran. Badr, Ahmad Chalabi, and other supposed US assets are double agents, guys. If Iraq were crawling with Iranian agents, the US would have more Iranians in custody than it does (last I knew, it was like 5 diplomats).

AFP draws aside the curtain on the micro-economy of the struggle between the Islamic State of Iraq of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and local clans in Iskandariya south of Baghdad, which centered on the region's fish farms. The article also gives evidence that al-Baghdadi, who the US military maintains is a fictive personality created by foreign fighters to give themselves Iraqi legitimacy, is a real Iraqi person with a history in the Iskandariya area. The US is mostly fighting Iraqis in Iraq, but is reluctant to have this fact become known.

A lot of money was wasted on phantom reconstruction projects in Iraq left incomplete because of poor contractor performance. In other words, US tax payers made an involuntary contribution to Friends of George, which would be a good way of summing up the Iraq occupation in general.

The US Pentagon is suspending a campaign to influence the retired military talking heads who come on television in the US, after the NYT blew the whistle on it. Reuters notes: "Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, also said some of the analysts appeared to be working for defense contractors, raising a potential conflict of interest." You always suspected these things about corporate media coverage of Iraq, but seeing it in cold black and white is bracing. I have more than once been put opposite some sunshine peddler on radio or television and wondered whether the person was on the take.

McClatchy reports political violence in Iraq on Monday:

' Baghdad

- Around 11 pm Sunday, 4 mortar shells hit the Green Zone (IZ) in central Baghdad. No casualties reported.

- Around midnight, 3 mortars hit the intelligence headquarters in Baladiyat neighborhood (east Baghdad). No casualties reported.

- Around 3 am, three mortar shells hit Mamil neighborhood. Five people were injured in that incident.

- Around 8 am, a mortar hit the Green Zone (IZ) in central Baghdad. No casualties reported.

- Around 10 am, a mortar hit the area beyond the Sa'aa restaurant at Mansour neighborhood (west Baghdad). Two civilians were injured in that incident.

- Around 1 pm, 3 mortar shells hit Al-Jazaer police station in Sadr city. Three policemen were injured with some damage to the building.

- Around 1:30pm, An American warplane targeted a Hino truck which was carrying Katyusha missiles at Al-Qanat street (east Baghdad). Two people were injured in that incident.

- Around 2 pm, a motor bicycle bomb targeted Sahwa members (also known as Sons of Iraq). One member was killed and three others were injured.

- Around 2 :15 pm, a roadside bomb targeted a civilian car (Toyota Pick up ) which was carrying technicians employees of the power supply service on the high way of Nahdha neighborhood (north Baghdad).Three of the employees were injured in that incident.

- Around 2:30 pm, a roadside bomb targeted the Sahwa members check point at Adhamiyah neighborhood (north Baghdad) near Qasim Abu Al-Ghas restaurant .Three members were injured in that incident.

- Around 4:30 pm, a Katyusha missile hit Al-Sadeer hotel in Karrada neighborhood (central Baghdad).No casualties or damage recorded as it was in the garden of this hotel.

- Around 5 pm, a mortar shell hit an area behind the Rashid hotel in the green zone (IZ) which is a residential compound .Five people were injured in that incident including a child.

- Around 5 :30 pm, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol in Amil neighborhood (west Baghdad) .No casualties reported on the American side .While we have four civilians injured in that incident including a child and woman.

- Police found 6 dead bodies in Baghdad today: 4 were found in Karkh bank of Baghdad ; 1 in Kadhimiyah, 1 in Hurriyah, 1 in Dora and 1 in Yarmouk. While 2 were found in east Baghdad (Risafa bank); 1 in Ur and 1 in Jisr Diyala.

Diyala

- Around 4:30 pm, gunmen of the Qaeda attacked Al-Bayjat village (south of Baquba ). The residents of the village who join the Sahwas (Sons of Iraq) councils resisted them and killed five gunmen including a leader.

Kirkuk

- Sunday night, gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi army soldier at Tuz Khurmatu (south of Kirkuk).The soldier was killed at once and the gunmen ran away.

Basra

- Before noon, gunmen killed a Sadrist leader at Timimiyah neighborhood downtown Basra. Also his wife was injured as she was with him walking home. '

For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Sadr Rejects al-Maliki's Terms; Green Zone hit by Mortar Barrage; Turkish Military Strikes at PKK

Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday rejected Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's terms for ending his campaign against Sadr's Mahdi Army. Al-Maliki wants the militia to give up heavy weaponry and turn over wanted commanders. Salah al-Ubaydi, a Sadr spokesman, called the demands "illogical."


Some 50 Iraqi political leaders from various parties (including Sunnis) protested on Sunday against the US siege of East Baghdad (Sadr City).

The campaign appears to have been launched in part to protect the Green Zone (site of government offices and the US embassy) from incoming mortar fire. Nevertheless, on Sunday as a sandstorm descended on the capital, the Green Zone faced a barrage of mortar fire:

' Thunderous explosions resounded throughout the evening as rockets or mortar shells slammed into the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad. . .

Sirens wailed in the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government on the west side of the Tigris River. The public address system warned people to "duck and cover" and stay away from windows.

The U.S. Embassy confirmed the area was hit by indirect fire, the military's term for rocket or mortar attacks, but said it had no immediate word on casualties.'

There were also clashes between forces loyal to the al-Maliki government and Mahdi Army militiamen in parts of Baghdad.

On Saturday, mortar fire killed 8 and wounded 42 in the area around the Green Zone.

Turkey launched another major operation in eastern Anatolia near Iraq, deploying 8,000 troops against guerrillas of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). There are fears that the Turkey military will once again invade northern Iraq, where it maintains PKK terrorists hole up.

The USG Open Source Center translates a sermon of Shaykh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbala'i from last Friday. His remarks indicate his discomfort, despite being a supporter of the al-Maliki government, both with the planned Bush-al-Maliki 'agreement' on US-Iraqi relations (which many Iraqis fear will detract from Iraqi sovereignty) and with the al-Maliki- US campaign against Sadr City (which he blames on the lawlessness of the Mahdi Army):

' "Shaykh Abd-al-Mahdi al-Karbala'i, imam and preacher of Friday sermon in Karbala, said that the long-term agreement, which will be signed with the United States, should not conflict with national sovereignty. He urged the officials to take the sensitivity of this issue into consideration."

Al-Karbala'i says: "We hope that the Iraqi officials will be very alert to the sensitivity and seriousness of the unresolved issues in these talks. These issues affect the Iraqi sovereignty in the security, political, and judicial fields. The brothers should pay attention to the sensitivity and seriousness of these unresolved issues, which would perhaps shackle the Iraqi people, the current government, and the coming Iraqi governments in a way that encroaches on the sovereignty of the country and people in these important aspects. Any loss in Iraq's sovereignty should not be accepted, whether in the security, political, or judicial fields."

The report says: "In his Friday sermon, Al-Karbala'i called on the government to take urgent measures to alleviate the suffering of Al-Sadr City's citizens who were harmed by the outlaws' crimes." '

McClatchy reports political violence on Sunday:

' Baghdad

- Two roadside bombs targeted an Iraqi Army foot patrol near Filis restaurant in Mansour, downtown Baghdad killing 1 officer, injuring 4 servicemen and 2 civilians.

- Roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in al-Amin neighbourhood, east Baghdad. No casualties were reported.

- A car bomb driven by a suicide bomber targeted a National Police patrol in Shaab Stadium intersection killing 3, injuring 14 both civilians and police.

- Clashes broke out between security forces and gunmen in Um al-Maalif, Bayaa district, southwest Baghdad late Saturday, and continued through the night. 1 civilian was killed, 15 were injured, 4 of whom were children.

- A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy near the Assyrian Party headquarters in Zayuna, east Baghdad. No casualties were reported.

- Around 4 pm, 3 mortars hit the industrial compound in Amil neighborhood(west Baghdad) .One person was killed and 7 others were injured. Later,Clashes took place in the neighborhood which became in a siege till the time of having this report posted .

- Around 4 pm, 3 mortars hit Baladiyat neighborhood (east Baghdad) targeting Wahran intermediate school .Five people were injured in that incident.

- Around 5 pm, a car bomb targeted an Iraqi patrol at Jamaa neighborhood (west Baghdad) near Mulla Hweesh mosque .One soldier was killed and eight others were injured including 5 civilians .

- Around 4:30 till 6 pm, eight mortars shells and rockets hit the green zone (IZ) downtown Baghdad. No casualties reported.

- Around 5 pm, 6 mortars hit Kadhimiyah neighborhood (north Baghdad)at Al-Muheet street .One person was killed and 6 others were injured.

- Police found 6 dead bodies in Baghdad today: 4 were found in east Baghdad(Risafa bank) ; 3 were in Ameen and 1 was in Mashtal . While 2 were found in west Baghdad (Karkh bank); 1 was in Dora and 1 was Bayaa.

Nineveh

- A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest targeted an Iraqi Police patrol in Qassim al-Khayat Square, downtown Mosul at 8 pm Saturday, killing 6, 4 of them civilians and injuring 5, 3 of them civilians.

- Gunmen killed 1 civilian in al-Maash market, central Mosul at 8 am.

- In the morning, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol at Al-Zihour neighborhood (east Mosul).Two civilians were injured in that incident.

- Before noon, gunmen opened fire one of the houses in Al-Quds neighborhood in downtown Mosul city. Two people were killed in that incident (a woman and a man ).

Diyala

- A roadside bomb targeted one of the headquarters of the Popular Committees at Mualmeen neighborhood in central Baquba. Three people were injured in that incident.

- A mass grave was uncovered in an orchard in al-Gubba area, al-Abbara district, 15 km to the north of Baquba at 2.15 Sunday by Iraqi Army and Sahwa council members. The mass grave contained 50 bodies in an advanced state of decomposition.

Kirkuk

- A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in al-Quds Street, al-Tiseen neighbourhood, south Kirkuk city on Saturday. The explosion injured 3 policemen.

Tikrit

- 1 woman killed,2 men and 2 children injured in an explosion of a car bomb in al-Qadisiyah neighbourhood, northeast Samaraa city, 120 km to the north of Baghdad. The car was parked near some concrete blast walls and was detonated by remote control at 1.30pm.

- Around 9:30 pm, gunmen opened fire on two police officers in downtown Tikrit .Police announced a curfew in the city till a further notice.

Anbar

- At dawn , 9 gunmen attacked Al-Khaldiyah police station(25 km east of Ramadi) with light and mid weapons . One gunman was killed and two others were injured who were captured by police with the rest of the group when police opened fire on them. Also two policemen were injured in that incident. '

For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Moyers and Wright at PBS, Parts 3-4

The other two parts of Bill Moyers' interview with Reverend Wright are below.

Journalism should be about explaining things and setting them in context, not about 'gotcha' moments. As the Web becomes better at video, we bloggers will set up our own networks, and people thirsty for the real back story will come to our sites. (Big Corporate Media knows this, which is why they want to kill the internet by getting rid of Net Neutrality). Moyers is one of the few major interviewers who eschews the gotcha for real news. Our country would be much impoverished without him.

Part 3:



and Part 4:



PBS link here.
For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Karzai Attacked in Kabul

Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped unharmed from a guerrilla assassination attempt on Sunday.

US politicians who keep saying that Afghanistan is the good war would be well advised to consider whether the mission there is actually clear, whether it can be accomplished, and whether it is worth blood and treasure. Afghanistan is an enormous, rugged country riven with tribal and ethnic rivalries, and standing up a strong central state friendly to US and European interests is not going to be easy.



Fred Barnes, who says the war for Iraqi oil is more important than fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, didn't get the memo. He doesn't seem to know about the Central Asia gas fields that actually explain Bushco's interest in Afghanistan. And, he is admitting that the remnants of al-Qaeda over there are not very important.
For "cont'd" postings, click here.

More on Syrian Reactor Bombing; From an Informed Reader

An informed reader writes:

What little information provided in the CIA videotape concerning the destruction of the purported Syrian reactor only provokes more questions.

The alleged reactor is described, because of its dimensions and shape, as a duplicate of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon. The reactor at Yongbyon is a rough copy of an old British design. It is graphite-moderated and cooled with gaseous carbon dioxide. Its core is composed of a large number of highly-purified graphite blocks. For example, each of the first two Magnox reactors at Windscale in the UK used 2,000 tons of graphite. Even if this purported Syrian reactor vessel were half the size of one of the original UK reactors, it would require roughly 1,000 tons of graphite. That's 14,400 cubic feet of highly-purified graphite. Would all official entities fail to notice the production and transfer of that amount of highly-refined graphite to Syria?

The voice-over on the CIA videotape asserts that the reactor in Syria was "nearly completed." If the plant were "nearly completed," those graphite blocks would have been substantially in place. Bombing and fire would have spread bits of carbon all over the site, or scattered whole blocks of graphite around the site. The "after" photos didn't seem to indicate that this happened.

If the reactor were substantially complete, neutron-absorbing boron-10 carbide (or possibly cadmium alloy) control rods would have been installed. Had those been burned or exploded in the bombing, those, too, would have left a chemical signature on the hills surrounding the site and in the prevailing winds. As far as I know, this hasn't been discussed.

Then, too, there is the matter of fuel rods. Syria is reported not to have uranium yellowcake stocks in appreciable quantities. (One particularly large phosphorite field, the Charkiet formation, is known to contain uranium, but the phosphate fertilizer plant built to process that ore was done by a Swedish company which would certainly alert the IAEA if there were non-compliant diversion. Moreover, Syria has cooperated with the IAEA in the past to develop its commercial uranium extraction processes, but those have not progressed, according to SIPRI.) There's no evidence presented that Syria has built fuel processing and fuel rod assembly facilities. That would suggest production elsewhere, and such production can be tracked. So, if it was almost complete, where are the fuel rods?

The primary weapons benefit of such a reactor is its ability to be refueled on the fly, so to speak (it's necessary to get the fuel rods out of the reactor before the optimum quantity of plutonium-239 is degraded by neutron capture to less suitable isotopes), so, why does U.S. intelligence say they have "low confidence" that the plutonium that might be produced is for nuclear weapons? It must be that Syria does not have the necessary fuel processing, fuel rod assembly and spent fuel reprocessing plants, and there's no evidence of bomb-manufacturing facilities (all this infrastructure should ideally go forward concurrent with fuel production to produce a bomb in the shortest period of time); does this suggest that the purpose of the facility might not be nuclear in nature, or that it was nuclear, but would have had a non-weapons purpose? If there's no evidence for the existence of the rest of a weapons-making complex, how credible is the claim of "near completion" of a reactor which is well-suited for producing plutonium?

So far, the government's primary evidence seems to be a photo of a North Korean who is reputed to be NK nuclear scientist Chon Chibu, standing next to someone "believed to be his Syrian counterpart" (quote from the London Times). That photo, as well as others, likely was provided by the Mossad, so its provenance is in question. Given that the Israelis bombed the site, one can't evade the reality that they're an interested party in the matter.

What is shocking in this assertion is the lack of physical evidence available for independent inspection, and the apparent complete failure of U.S. authorities to seek international inspection via the IAEA before the Israelis bombed the site in question, despite the fact that the U.S. was apparently aware of Israeli intentions well ahead of time. Syria has been a ratified signatory of the NPT since 1969, making it obligated to accept inspections. If, as the CIA asserts, the Syrian facility has been under construction since 2001, there was more than ample time to inform the IAEA of a signatory's possible failure to abide by the treaty. Repeated unannounced overflights of Syrian territory by Israeli jets in recent years indicates long-term planning of this mission.

Possibilities? The Bush administration might prefer to use this event to imply nuclear weapons production on Iran's part, because it is an ally of Syria, or the claims of North Korean assistance might provide cover for eventually abandoning the six-nation talks involving North Korea and provoking them in some way. Suggestions that the Israelis wanted to use the bombing raid to penetrate and compromise Syria's Russian-built air defenses preparatory to a future attack on Iran are not wholly out of the realm of possibility.

It's possible that the Syrians were building a bomb-fuel reactor with North Korean assistance, and imagined, wrongly, that they could escape detection. Certainly, North Korea's economy is so awful that they would be desperate for revenues. But, there's no physical evidence of such activity which has been independently verified, and the Bush administration's record on this sort of thing is, well, dubious, at best. Nor can one discount Syria's previous cooperation with the IAEA, and the necessary evidence would have come from an IAEA inspection. It's also possible that the Syrians were building something military in nature that they wanted kept secret, and which had nothing to do with a nuclear program, but which alarmed the Israelis, anyway, such as an early warning facility, ground-based laser, something along those lines.

The CIA video depends heavily upon computer models, and those models add substantial pieces of equipment not shown in the photos of the "nearly completed" facility. Remember that Colin Powell depended upon artists' renderings of "mobile bioweapons labs" instead of physical evidence, and that Rumsfeld used cartoonish illustrations to show lavish al-Qaeda complexes, replete with living quarters, office space, truck parking and ventilating systems, like the Islamist equivalent of Cheyenne Mountain, buried inside Tora Bora. Those, too, were never found.

One more final consideration: the Yongbyon reactor, from the descriptions by inspectors in 1994, is a real hunk of junk, by contemporary standards. The inspectors could tell from the condition of the spent fuel rods that there were many operating problems and shutdowns because of problems. Nuclear safety at the site was marginal to non-existent. The bomb test using plutonium from it was very likely a fizzle yield. If the Syrians got a duplicate copy of the Yongbyon reactor, as the CIA claims, they were very likely wasting their money.
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Cole here: See also John W. Farley's piece on this subject in CounterPunch.
For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Reverend Wright on Bill Moyers

Reverend Wright on Bill Moyers:

Part I:



Part II:



Parts III and IV to come.
For "cont'd" postings, click here.

A Million Palestinians Threatened with Starvation by Israel

The Israelis already have the Gaza Strip under military siege, carefully controlling what and who goes in and out of it. They have now cut off most fuel, and the United Nations has been forced to stop distributing food aid.

This Israeli government action is an unvarnished war crime. It is known as collective punishment. There was already hunger and malnutrition among Palestinian children, which will now be worsened.

Hamas told Jimmy Carter it was ready to negotiate.

The Olmert government is not interested in negotiating, apparently, even though nothing the Likud and the Kadima "Likud Light" has done since 2001 has diminished the salience of the Gaza Muslim fundamentalist party, including a concerted campaign of murder, kidnapping, assault and collective punishment. Despite the violent groups on its margins, Hamas itself has at various points indicated a willingness to play ordinary politics, but Olmert will be satisfied with nothing less than destroying it. So far it isn't going well for him.

Cutting off fuel to the Gazans and provoking a cut-off of UN food aid is not only criminal but also stupid. It is difficult to imagine such mean-spirited sanctions against civilians having any policy effect whatsoever, so they are just making Israel look bad.

Israeli ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman called Carter a bigot for his diplomacy.

Gillerman called Hizbullah, an Arab party, "animals" in summer of 2006. Would he like to expand the reference to include other races? How many of us exactly are Untermenschen in his view? For Likudniks to call Jimmy Carter a "bigot" is sort of like the Ku Klux Klan denouncing Nelson Mandela for racial insensitivity.
---

PS A reader wrote in that if it is all right to criticize Zionists without being anti-Semitic it should be all right to criticize Hizbullah without being anti-Arab. But I'm not talking about criticizing Hizbullah, which I have done. I'm talking about dehumanizing them and calling them animals. I think that remark demonstrated a racist mindset on Gillerman's part, of which he should be ashamed. And I don't see why the US should let him into the country to smear our brave, humanitarian ex-presidents as "bigots." Jimmy Carter has built homes for the poor, helped nearly wipe out a deadly parasite in Africa, helped negotiate social peace around the world impartially. Not to mention all the good he did Israel in neutralizing Egypt, its most powerful military rival (and Gillerman and his like repaid him with adventurism in Lebanon and thumbing their nose at American entreaties to make peace with the Palestinians). What good has Gillerman ever done anyone? He isn't good enough to shine Jimmy Carter's shoes.
For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Mullen Rattles Sabres at Iran; Muqtada Reaffirms Truce

Another US soldier was killed on Thursday.

Guerrillas blew up an oil pipeline from a refinery south of Baghdad on Friday. Iraqi oil production has declined somewhat lately, according to this report.

Adm. Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sharpened his rhetoric against Iran on Friday. Mullen appeared earlier to want to put the brakes on the Cheney war machine. Is he weakening?

Muqtada al-Sadr explained in his Friday sermon yesterday that the truce of his Mahdi Army militia with the Iraqi military should be maintained. His recent threat of open warfare, he said, concerned only the US military in Iraq. He called the Iraqi troops "brothers."

Muqtada is offering an olive branch to his former ally turned deadly foe, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki seems in no mood to accept it.

First the Pentagon said that the Iraqi Army needed to be 390,000 strong. Now it says Iraq needs 646,000 troops. A new audit suggests that the Pentagon has substantially over-estimated how many trained Iraqi troops the al-Maliki government has.

Iraqis speak to the US Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:



The US military was criticized by Iraqis for killing innocent persons in a bombing raid on Sadr City.

Reuters reports political violence for Friday:

' * BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said on Friday it had killed 10 fighters in helicopter missile strikes and ground battles in eastern Baghdad overnight.

* BAGHDAD - The U.S. army said on Friday that a U.S. soldier was killed by a road side bomb south of Baghdad on Thursday.

* HILLA - Gunmen shot dead a man near his house overnight in Iskandariya town, 40km (25 miles) south of Baghdad and police said they arrested six people in connection with the attack.

* MOSUL - Gunmen shot dead a fisherman and wounded another while they were fishing overnight on the Tigris river where it runs through northwestern Mosul, 390km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, the Iraqi army said.

* MOSUL - A roadside bomb wounded a civilian in Tal Afar, 420 km ( 260 miles) north of Baghdad, the Iraqi army said.

* BASRA - Gunmen shot dead a news broadcaster working for al-Nakheel TV and Radio station run by a Shi'ite faction in the Qurna area, 80km northern Basra, the station's director Adnan al-Yasiri said.

* HILLA - US and Iraqi forces conducted a joint operation and arrested six people on Thursday in the Mahwaeel area, 75km (45 miles) south of Baghdad, arresting two suspects after gunmen shot and wounded an Iraqi policeman, police said.

* FALLUJA - A bomb implanted beneath a Friday prayers preacher's seat exploded in al-Raqeeb mosque in al-Julan area, northwestern Falluja, 50km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, wounding 4 people including two policemen, police said.

* ISKANDARIYA - Gunmen killed two people in al-Qariya al- Asriya in Iskandariya town, 40km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

* YUSUFIYA - A roadside bomb killed a civilian and wounded another in Yusufiya town, 15km (9 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said on Friday it killed two gunmen and detained 18 suspects during operations targeting al-Qaeda in central Iraq on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb exploded in Adhamiya neighbourhood, northern Baghdad, on Thursday night, wounding three people, police said.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi police found three bodies on Thursday overnight in different areas of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - Iraqi police found two bodies in Mosul, one of them was beheaded, on Thursday, police said.

MOSUL - Gunmen shot dead a policeman in western Mosul, police said. '

McClatchy has late news from Thursday evening:

' Baghdad

- Thursday night, The American planes bombed the Husseiniya neighborhood (north Baghdad) .Two people were killed and 8 others were injured.

- The American army bombed Sadr city around 11 pm and 1 am .Iraqi army said 11 people were killed and 32 others were injured.

- Around 4pm, five gunmen riding a Kia mini bus opened fire on an Iraqi check point when they tried to stop them. Three Iraqi soldiers were injured .Then, the Iraqi army killed those gunmen when the soldiers in the check point opened fire on them .The gunmen’s car exploded at once as it was carrying roadside bombs and rockets .

- Police found two dead bodies in west Baghdad (Karkh bank): 1 in Saidiyah and 1 in Bayaa.

Diyala

- Around 9:30 pm, gunmen attacked an Iraqi army patrol at Al-Wajihiyah (20 km east of Baquba).One officer was killed and three soldiers were injured in that incident.

Kirkuk

- Thursday night, Iraqi army soldiers wounded a gunman who was planting a roadside bomb at Safra village of Riadh (west of Kirkuk).Then, the Iraq squad defused the bomb and the gunman ran away .

- Thursday , a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol at Al-Utheim (south Kirkuk).One officer was killed in that incident .Another roadside bomb targeted another patrol in the same area with no casualties recorded.

- Thursday, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol at Hajaj neighborhood in Kirkuk city. One policeman was injured with a civilian who was at the site of the incident.

Salahuddin

- Around noon, an officer was killed by a bomb planted in his car while he was about to start the car’s engine inside the police Academy in Tikrit.

- In the afternoon, American planes bombed a site at Jalam (25 km north east of Samarra ) killing four gunmen of Qaeda members including a Saudi Arabian leader in that location, police said .

Anbar

- Around 11:30 am, a bomb planted under a chair in Al-Raqeeb mosque at Al-Jewlan neighborhood in downtown Falluja .The target was the orator Khalid Himoud who replaced the former orator who was killed 9 months ago. The orator survived ,but one person was killed with four others injured. '

For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Syria Reactor Story a Diversion; But From What?

The US and Israel accused Syria on Thursday of building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korean help. There was a lot of innuendo in the press that the reactor was intended for nuclear weapons production. But AFP notes:

' They said US intelligence had "high confidence" that the structure bombed by the Israelis was a nuclear reactor, "medium confidence" that the North Koreans were involved in building it, and "low confidence" that plutonium from it was for nuclear weapons.

Because other elements of a weapons program, such as a plutonium reprocessing plant, had not been detected, US intelligence was less certain that the plutonium was for nuclear weapons, they said.'

We would have to know exactly what kind of reactor it was to know if it was suitable to help in a weapons program. As the Bush administration admits, there isn't any evidence of that.

Moreover, I'm not really very impressed that they only have medium confidence that North Korea was involved.

Even the high confidence that the building was a reactor cannot be just accepted without question. They had high confidence that Saddam had a nuclear weapons program in the early zeros, which was not true. We should be skeptical about these sorts of stories until we see the proof.

I have been disappointed that more nuclear engineers in the US do not express themselves publicly on what is likely and unlikely. This story seems to me fishy. Syria is a poor state. Where would it have gotten the money for a reactor? Why exactly are there doubts that North Korea was involved? How much of the intelligence is from US sources and how much from Israeli? The latter are highly politicized. The head of Mossad in 2002 expressed confidence that Saddam was close to getting nukes.

Moreover, while I am against proliferation of nuclear weapons, the idea that the Israelis can just bomb anyone's innocent research or civilian power reactor any time they like for no good reason is scary. The Israelis rejected the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and broke with international consensus to acquire by hook and crook British, French and US nuclear secrets and built dozens, perhaps hundreds of nuclear bombs, provoking the nuclear weapons race in the region.

The real question is the timing of the announcement, since the bombing happened a long time ago. It is suspicious to me that the announcement was made just after a spy for Israel was arrested in the US who had stolen US nuclear secrets. Is it diversionary?

Syria expert Josh Landis discusses a different theory of diversion, having to do with revelations that Syria and Israel are closer to an agreement on the future of the Golan Heights.

I'd add that former president Jimmy Carter's recent trip to meet with Hamas leaders has put pressure on Israel to come back in a serious way to the negotiating table. Also Hamas's own apparent change in stance on diplomacy, as Helena Cobban discusses.

Bush's own remarks Thursday that he is seeking a viable Palestine that does not look like Swiss cheese revealed some of what the administration must have been pressing the Israelis on in recent months in preparation for Bush's trip in May.

So the timing of the Syria reactor announcement does seem suspicious in Middle East terms. If the US doesn't in fact think there is any evidence that the reactor had weapons implications, then it is really a non story, and releasing it can only be for hoopla reasons.

Here is Aljazeera's report on the issue, which contains yet another diversionary theory, that the revelations are aimed at pressuring North Korea:


For "cont'd" postings, click here.

5 US Troops Killed; Turkey Bombs N. Iraq; Iran Backs al-Maliki against Mahdi Army

Five US troops were killed in Iraq on Tuesday.

Turkey bombed northern Iraq again on Wednesday, claiming to hit at guerrillas of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) "attempting to infiltrate Turkey from the Khakurk region of northern Iraq."

Iran's foreign minister, Manuchehr Mottaki, strongly backed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's attack on the Mahdi Army militia on Wednesday. He said, “Weapons should be only in the hands of the Iraqi army.” The Iraqi army appears increasingly to be dominated by cadres of the Badr Corps paramilitary of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. The Badr Corps was trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and it and ISCI are key Iranian clients in Iraq. What Mottaki said therefore makes complete sense. What doesn't make sense is the Bush administration's long-term effort to misrepresent the nativist Sadr Movement and its Mahdi Army, based in Iraq's festering slums, as Iran-backed.

It is precisely the closeness of the al-Maliki government and its primary current pillar, ISCI, to Iran that has made Sunni Arab countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia skittish about allowing it into the Arab League system as a full diplomatic partner. The Sunni Arab states largely do not have embassies in Baghdad, and Iraqi Shiites accuse them or their populations of surreptitiously helping Iraqi Sunni Arab guerrillas.

The LAT says former sympathizers are turning on al-Qaeda because of its emphasis on suicide bombings and nihilistic tactics. Fawaz Gerges has argued that such disillusionment broke out with 9/11.

McClatchy on Gen. Petraeus's promotion to Centcom commander.

Russian t.v. argues that Petraeus has proved his mettle as a diplomat, a key criterion for his new job, and predicts he may be the next Secretary of Defense.



McClatchy reports political violence in Iraq for the midweek:

' Baghdad

- Tuesday night, clashes took place in Husseiniya neighborhood (north Baghdad) between the Mahdi army and the American forces. Four people were killed and eight others were injured.

- Around 8am, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Al-Butil at Zafaraniyah neighborhood (east Baghdad).Two civilians were injured with no information on the American’s side.

- Around 2 pm, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol on the high way of Mikanik in Dora (south Baghdad). No casualties reported.

- Around noon, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol at Nafaq Al-Shurta neighborhood (west Baghdad) .Six people were injured including two policemen.

- Around 2 pm, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol at Qahtan intersection near Yarmouk neighborhood (west Baghdad).Three civilians were injured in that incident.

- Around 7 pm, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Karrada neighborhood .Five people were injured in that incident.

- Police found 4 dead bodies in Baghdad neighborhoods today: 2 were found in Saidiyah in west south Baghdad (Karkh bank).While 2 were found in east Baghdad(Risafa bank); 1 in Ur and 1 in Ubaidi .

Salahuddin

- Tuesday night, American troops raided Baaja , Jamila and Huriya villages on the western side of Shurqat (300 km north of Baghdad) .The troops killed ( Rabia Abood Mohammad ) and arrested 25 persons with 6300 American dollars and 500 000 Iraqi dinars confiscated from Abdul Razaq Khalaf Hassan’s house.

- In the morning, An American squad raided Albu Marouf village at Al-Jazira area (25 km south west Tikrit) .One person was killed and seven others were arrested by the American squad who are from one family .Also six cars were damaged in that incident. We have no confirmation of that incident from the MNF-I at the time of this report.

- In the morning, gunmen injured the teacher Jalal Khorsheed in Hawija Bahriyah in Dhulwiya (south of Tikrit and 80 km north of Baghdad).

Mosul

- Be fore noon, a suicide bomber detonated himself inside an exchange shop .Minutes late, a car bomb exploded at Dawasa neighborhood (downtown Mosul).Two were killed and nine others were injured (including two policemen).

- Around noon, a car bomb targeted a police patrol in Mosul city .Seven people were injured in that incident including four policemen.

- Around noon, noon, a roadside bomb exploded at Al-Rashidiyah downtown Mosul city . Four people were injured in that incident.

- In the afternoon, mortars shell hit Nahrwan neighborhood (west Mosul ). Four people were injured in that incident.

Diyala

- Police and Sahwa members found four remains of dead bodies at Sansal in Muqdadiyah (north east Baquba).

Kirkuk

- Around 3pm, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol at Al-Wasiti neighborhood in Kirkuk city. Two policemen were injured including an officer.

- The social committee in Kirkuk council buried 38 unidentified dead bodies found in different areas in Kirkuk during the last four months ago. '

For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Clinton Fails to Pull out Big Win; Brandishes Nukes at Iran; Israeli Spying on US for Nuclear Secrets

Hillary Clinton's win in Pennsylvania just was not big enough to allow her to hope to win the elected delegate count. She is increasingly using dark and exaggerated rhetoric and 2/3s of Democrats complain that she has gone too negative (less than half say that about Obama). Her exaggerations yesterday extended into the realm of international politics in a most unfortunate way. It seems clear to me that she cannot win the nomination via elected delegates and that she is hoping to win by scaring the super delegates about Obama. This strategy is counterproductive for the Democratic Party and for the country. Clinton needed to win by well into the double digits in Pennsylvania (which is how she began in the polling there months ago) in order to remain credible. 10 points doesn't do it. (One reader pointed out that it seems actually to be 9.2%, not double digits at all). Obama actually won Texas, which will be a headline in June when all the counting is done there (don't ask). It is over. She should stop before more damage is done.

The Israeli spy ring that penetrated the US Pentagon to steal high-tech secrets including nuclear ones was bigger than just Jonathan Pollard. It is an open secret in US security circles that no foreign country spies on the US more intensively than Israel. And, apparently, none has been more successful in actually prying loose top secret documents. Sy Hersh's sources alleged to him that secrets that went to Israel were either in turn picked up by Soviet moles in Israel or were sold on the black market and ended up with the Soviet Union.

The damage that Israeli spying has done to US security is immense, not only because of such leaks but also because of Israeli reverse engineering of US technology and the pirating of it. Further, the nuclearization of the Middle East that the Israelis initiated has the potential to drag us all into Armageddon.

The Israeli Right is always going on about threats to Israel's existence, even though it is the most powerful country in the Middle East. But no one ever brings up its strangulation of the Palestinian nation, its siege of Gaza, its dispossession of the West Bankers. The right makes an imagined future threat the basis for actual victimization of others in the present. America's security is deeply threatened by the ongoing Israeli colonization projects in the Middle East, as should have been clear for some time.

How dangerous the phantasms of the Right really are is underscored by Hillary Clinton's remarks yesterday:

' In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America, Clinton was asked what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons.

She replied: "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them. That's a terrible thing to say but those people who run Iran need to understand that, because that perhaps will deter them from doing something that would be reckless, foolish and tragic." '

Clinton has unfortunately fallen into a typical Washington fear-mongering fantasy. Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. As of last fall, US intelligence determined that it was not trying to get a nuclear weapon. There is no realistic likelihood of Iran having a bomb 'in the next ten years.' Israel on the other hand has hundreds of bombs and has threatened to use them.

(
Paul George points out that in an interview with Keith Olbermann, Clinton actually alleged that if Iran developed nukes it would be the only such state in the Middle East. Actually, Israel was the first and if you count Pakistan as both Middle East and South Asia, it would be the second.)

So the statement seemed incommensurate with the known facts. It was counter-productive because Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei has denounced nuclear weapons. Khamenei says that nuking civilians is contrary to the Islamic law of war, which only allows warriors to kill other warriors:

' "Their other issue is [their assertion] that Iran seeks [a] nuclear bomb. It is an irrelevant and wrong statement, it is a sheer lie. We do not need a nuclear bomb. We do not have any objectives or aspirations for which we will need to use a nuclear bomb. We consider using nuclear weapons against Islamic rules. We have announced this openly. We think imposing the costs of building and maintaining nuclear weapons on our nation is unnecessary. Building such weapons and their maintenance are costly. By no means we deem it right to impose these costs on the people. We do not need those weapons. Unlike the Americans who want to rule the world with force, we do not claim to control the world and therefore do not need a nuclear bomb. Our nuclear bomb and our explosive powers are our faith, our youth and our people who have been present on the most difficult scenes with utmost power and faith and will continue to do so.'

Khamenei's quaint chivalry in this age of total war stands in contrast to Clinton's chilling contemplation of genocide against 70 million Iranians in retaliation for something they would and could have had no part in deciding. Mutual Assured Destruction is a security underpinning of the contemporary nuclearized world, but it is a diplomatic weapon that works best by allusion.

If you were an Iranian and you heard Clinton talking like this, would it make you more or less interested in acquiring your own nuclear weapon? That is, Clinton's rather bloodthirsty pandering to what she thinks the Israel lobbies want to hear is likely actually to produce the opposite of the desired reaction in Iran itself and is most unwise.

Clinton also does not mention that Israel is already protected by MAD because it has several hundred nuclear warheads (see the beginning of this essay). Senator Clinton is by now just flailing around fantasizing about incinerating children in playgrounds in Isfahan.

Mark 8:36 is relevant here, and I commend it to the good senator: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Zogby: Clinton 10 Points ahead in Pennsylvania

Zogby is reporting as follows, that there is a late surge for Clinton in Pennsylvania and that her margin is being given to her by white, ethnic, Catholic men. It also seems clear that as undecided voters (which fell recently from 8% to 6%) and those who wanted "someone else" (fell from 4% to 3%) have made up their minds, they have tended to go for Clinton. Otherwise Obama's percentages have been pretty stable though perhaps falling slightly. Clinton's increases are beyond the margin of error.

'Released: April 22, 2008

Newsmax/Zogby Poll: Clinton Up 10 Points; Beats Margin of Error

UTICA, New York – New York's Hillary Clinton continued to pull away from rival Barack Obama of Illinois as the campaigning in Pennsylvania ended and voters prepared to cast ballots today, the latest Newsmax/Zogby daily telephone tracking poll shows.

She now leads Obama, 51% to 41%, having gained three points over the past 24 hours as Obama lost one point, pushing her beyond the poll's margin of error to create a statistically significant lead for the first time in the Pennsylvania daily tracking poll.

Meanwhile, 6% remained undecided and another 3% said they preferred someone else in the two-day tracking poll. It was conducted April 20-21, 2008, using live operators working out of Zogby's on-site call center in Upstate New York, included 675 likely Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania. It carries a margin of error of +/- 3.8 percentage points.

Pennsylvania


Clinton 4-20/21: 51% . . . 4-19/20: 48% . . .


Obama 4 20/21: 41% . . . 4 19/20: 42% . . .

Pollster John Zogby: "Sounds like a radio station's call letters, but remember WECM – white, ethnic, Catholic, men. That is what put Clinton into her double digit lead here in Pennsylvania..." '

Juan speaking here:

McClatchy points out that a 10-point win just won't do it for Clinton.

It would keep her in the race, though.
For "cont'd" postings, click here.

2 US Troops Killed, Others Wounded; Sadr City Fighting; Bombing, Kidnappings in Baquba

The LAT says that 2 US troops were killed in Salahuddin Province north of Baghdad (a largely Sunni Arab area). Also, a roadside bomb struck a US troop transport in Basra, producing unspecified casualties.

In addition, LAT reports that fighting continued on Monday in Sadr City between its Mahdi Army militiamen and Iraqi government forces backed by US troops. Nine are said dead in the clashes. The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is attempting to reduce the power of the Sadrist political movement, backed by the Mahdi Army, in favor of his new ally, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. Al-Hakim's movement is more middle and upper class and more tied to Iran, while the Sadrists are working class or poor slum dwellers and Iraqi nationalists. In Baquba, a Sunni female suicide bomber targeted US backed Sunni militiamen of the local Awakening council, killing 3.

Kudos to James Glanz and Alissa Rubin of the NYT for getting the story! They point out that the US and Iran are on the same side in southern Iraq, both fearful of the nativist Sadr movement. This correct narrative is completely the opposite of what Americans have been spoon fed on television and by Bush / Pentagon spokesmen. I had pointed out this Bush- Iran convergence last week and also pointed out that US intelligence analysis admits it. The article is the first one I have seen to say that Iran supports al-Hakim's ISCI in its bid to create a Shiite superprovince in Iraq's south. I've never been able to discover what the Iranians feel about this and had wondered if they weren't at least a little bit worried about a soft partition of Iraq because of its implications for Iranian Kurdistan, which might become restive and seek to join Iraqi Kurdistan. But it is plausible that Tehran might risk this scenario in order to gain a permanent regional ally in the form of the Shiite Regional Government in southern Iraq.

The Badr Corps paramilitary says that it is now the Badr Organization and is no longer a militia. The Badr is modeled on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is a sort of National Guard in Iran, so I suppose Badr is saying that its troops now play a similar role in Iraq, functioning as a slightly less formal state security force. But the Badr reporting line goes to MP Hadi al-Amiri and thence to cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, not to the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki. Likewise, the Peshmerga paramilitary of the Kurds has been redefined as a National Guard and accepted as such in the Iraqi Constitution. But the question remains of what these militias would do if their own leadership did come into conflict with the prime minister. They are after all militias. As for Badr's insistence that they haven't run death squads, secret courts, or torture cells, actually they have. They just tend to do these things under the cover of the Ministry of the Interior. As the NYT report said, the US doesn't see Badr as a militia "because they aren't trying to kill us."

What Condi's diplomacy with Iraq's neighbors looks like from Moscow:



Al-Hayat reports that US Secretary of State Condi Rice was been unable to get a prior, unambiguous commitment at a preparatory meeting in Manama from the Arab states to forgive Iraqi loans and other obligations incurred under Saddam Hussein, or to open embassies in Baghdad.

Professors and students in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, are requesting protection after a rash of kidnappings targeting them, al-Hayat writes in Arabic. They also want past such kidnappers now in state custody to sentence them quickly, fearful that local tribal sheikhs will intervene to get the miscreants released, resulting in reprisals against the victims.

McClatchy reports political violence in Iraq on Monday:

' Baghdad

- Around 8 am, three IEDs planted in three cars targeted employees of the Cabinet office. The first one was in Dora and the employee was driving his own car the BMW when it exploded and he was injured in that incident .The second one targeted another employee who was injured as he was driving his Hyundai car with another passenger who was sitting by him. The third one targeted a female employee’s car at Alawi neighborhood. She was injured in that incident.

- Around 10 am, two roadside bombs targeted two cars near the red crescent in Mansour neighborhood .No casualties reported.

- Around 11 am, random clashes took place at Rubayee street of Zayuna (east Baghdad). Six people were killed including a woman in that incident.

- Around 3:20 pm, mortars hit the green zone (IZ) in central Baghdad.No casualties reported.

- Around 4 pm, a roadside bomb targeted a KIA mini bus near the oil marketing headquarter at Zayuna neighborhood (east Baghdad). One person was killed and five others were injured in that incident.

- Around 4 pm, a mortar shell hit Mashtal neighborhood (east Baghdad). Two people were injured in that incident.

- Around 4 pm, clashes took place at Mashtal neighborhood (east Baghdad) between the Iraqi army and the Mahdi army . Five people were injured in that clashes.

- Around 6 and 6:30 pm, two Katyusha missiles hit the Supreme council headquarters .No casualties reported.

- Around 6:10 pm, a Katyusha missile hit the Salhiyah compound (central Baghdad).No casualties recorded ,but some cars were damaged in that incident.

- Police found 4 dead bodies in Baghdad today: (3) were found in east Baghdad (Risafa bank); 1 was in Zayuna , 1 was in Husseiniyah and 1 was in Mashtal. While(1) was found in Dora.

Diyala

- Around 1.15 pm, a female suicide bomber detonated herself near one of the popular committees headquarter at Mafraq in Baquba .Three members were killed and 4 others were injured.

Basra

- In the afternoon, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol at Al-Ghuzaza bridge (north Basra), witnesses in Basra said . While the MNF in Iraq gave us this reply “We can confirm there was an IED attack on US troops today in Basra with casualties. No further information is releasable at this time.” '

For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Bush Team Pushed Torture behind Myers' Back

The Guardian, basing itself on a soon-to-be-published book by Philippe Sands (Torture Team) reveals that torture was implemented at Guantanamo Bay in the face of opposition from Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, by White House lawyers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and William Haynes, as well as Jay Bybee and John Yoo, (two assistant attorney generals). (See also Sands' article in Vanity Fair, which points the finger at the very top of the White House.)

Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, is quoted as saying that the perpetrators of torture could well be arrested and tried in other countries as war criminals if they travel abroad. It is an index of the despotism to which the United States has fallen victim that we must hope for other, more civilized countries, to try our war criminals. Why can't public officials be prosecuted for violating the Bill of Rights' guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment? Why can't an International Military Tribunal be set up as at Nuremberg?

So not only did the Bush administration use the Pentagon to snow the American people via retired generals, but one of the things they were concerned to cover up was the major practice of torture at Guantanamo. They took it off the national agenda.

There were lots of innocents swept up by Rumsfeld's vacuum cleaner at Guantanamo. (See this new memoir from Palgrave Macmillan) The Bush administration resists this conclusion and has even said it would not release prisoners found innocent! The Taliban used to sell people to the Americans, and would often finger innocents; it got the Taliban out of trouble and could even be lucrative. A handful of Iraqi Shiites who had escaped to Afghanistan from Saddam, the poor bastards, were then turned over to the Americans as dangerous terrorists by their Sunni enemies. I don't know if they were ever released, even though the US then allied with Iraqi Shiites to overthrow Saddam!

Although there are some terrorists at Guantanamo, torturing them was not only illegal but also a very bad idea. Under torture, Ibn al-Shaykh Libi told the US that Saddam Hussein had training camps in Iraq used to school al-Qaeda in the use of chemical weapons. Dick Cheney and Condi Rice both cited this false confession as a reason to go to war against Iraq.

While UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray discovered the ways in which the US and its satellites were using torture to manufacture stories about al-Qaeda threats that did not exist, as a means of rounding up people and torturing them into admitting they were al-Qaeda, which in turn justified US bases, more billions for the military industrial complex, etc.
For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Rice: Muqtada a Coward; Najaf Tense; Veterans Depressed, Unemployed

Ned Parker, Raheem Salman and Saad Fakhrildeen get the story in Najaf, the Shiite holy city south of Baghdad. The four grand ayatollahs, pillars of middle and upper class Shiite orthodoxy, are fearful of the influence of young Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the millenarian workers and the poor. The authors do not note the irony, but I thought it amusing that both sides were blaming Iran for their troubles, which suggests that the troubles are indigenous. It is an excellent article; I wish it had said more about the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, from which the governor comes, and the Badr Corps, from which the deputy governor comes; both have strong Iran ties and they are the powers that be in Najaf; it is they the Mahdi Army mainly challenges, not just the four grand ayatollahs. Also, they did not say anything about the rumors that the chief grand ayatollah, Ali Sistani, is in bad health.

Rice has her 'bring'em on moment' in Iraq, talking trash to the Mahdi Army and calling Muqtada al-Sadr a 'coward.' Muqtada al-Sadr eluded Saddam Hussein for 4 years after Saddam killed his father and two elder brothers; and in 2004 he twice took on the US military. He may be a lot of things, but he is not a coward. Has Rice ever said anything about Iraq that was true or useful? Even as she was talking up 'improved security' in Baghdad, mortar shells were falling about her in the Green Zone.

Over the weekend there were clashes in Nasiriya between Mahdi Army militiamen and the Iraqi army. Although this official Iraqi government communique suggests that 40 militiamen were killed and 40 captured and does not mention government casualties, I'd take it all with a grain of salt. What is not apparent from the squib is that the Iraqi government is so weak it is having to fight for a toehold in one of its own cities.

Another mass grave found in Iraq. These sites are evidence of militia activity-- the victims were likely either accused of collaboration with the central government or members of the opposite religious sect.

The American Right is always droning on about the need to support our troops (i.e. to support the Right's war). But the rich who send poor young men off to foreign wars of course don't really care about the young men themselves (because they don't care about the poor in general; right wing politicians are elected by the rich, for the rich and of the rich). Cases in point:

Health care eludes Iraq vet.

Veterans having a hard time finding jobs.

A third of a million veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq are depressed, suffering from PTSD (the proportion suffering is about 1 in five).

The way to support our troops is to get them out of a fruitless and unnecessary war, before more thousands are killed and wounded, whether physically or psychologically or socially.

Tom Engelhardt gives 12 reasons to get out of Iraq.

McClatchy reports political violence in Iraq on Sunday:

' Baghdad

Around 11:00 pm on Saturday, a mortar shell hit al Qanat Street in east Baghdad. No casualties reported.

Around 1:30 a.m. four mortar shells hit al Husseiniyah area in north Baghdad. No casualties reported.

Seven civilians were wounded when a Katyosha rocket hit a house in Abo Desheer neighborhood ij south Baghdad around 8:00 a.m.

Clashes broke out between Mahdi army militia and the Iraqi national police in New Baghdad area in east Baghdad around 10:00 a.m. No information about the casualties provided on time of publication.

Clashes broke out between Mahdi army militia and the American forces in Kubra al Ghizlan area in the outskirt of Sadr city in east Baghdad around 11:00 am. No casualties reported on time of publication.

2 civilians were killed and 14 others wounded when two mortar shells hit Kadhemiyah neighborhood north Baghdad around 5:00 p.m.

Five people were wounded including two policemen when a road side bomb exploded targeting the police patrol in New Baghdad neighborhood in east Baghdad around 7:00 p.m.

Two policemen were killed and four others wounded by a bombed placed bicycle in Abo Graib area west of Baghdad around 8:30 p.m.

Police found six unidentified bodies throughout Baghdad (2 bodies in Jisr Diyala, 1 body in Zayuna, 1 body in New Baghdad, 1 body in Bayaa and 1 body in Amil)

Diyala

Gunmen set a fake check point kidnapping three vehicles including a bus carries nine students from the University of Diyala while they were in their way to the university. The incident took place in the area between Muqdadiyah town and Kanan area east of Baquba around 9:00 a.m. The gunmen released the nine students and kept the three drivers.

Around 9:00 a.m. gunmen attacked a car carrying a policeman and his pregnant wife while they were in their way to the hospital. The incident took place in Wajihiyah area east of Baquba. The gunmen killed the policeman and the taxi driver and injured the wife.

The commander of the Diyala operations Major General Abdul Kareem al Ubaidi said that the Iraqi security forces and the Sahwa members found 30 bodies in a mass grave yard in Muqdadiyah town northeast of Baquba. Al Rubaie said that another mass grave yard was found in al Botoma village north of Baquba city confirming that 27 bodies were from the yard moved to the morgue of Diyala hospital.

Kirkuk

Gunmen killed two contractors near al Rashad area west Kirkuk on Sunday morning.

Nineveh

Police found the bodies of two members of the local council of Sinjar town west of Mosul city. The two members of the council were kidnapped on Saturday evening.

Salahuddin

Gunmen killed a police officer in front of his house in Soleman Beg town east of Tikrit around 10:00 p.m.'

For "cont'd" postings, click here.

Muqtada threatens Open Warfare; Islamic State in Iraq launches One-Month Campaign; Help! They told me on Television Iraq Was Calm Now

Meanwhile, a lot of open warfare is being threatened in Iraq.

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is said to have threatened open warfare with the al-Maliki government if it does not cleanse "militias" [i.e. the Badr Corps] from its security forces and does not cease attacking Sadrist areas.

The Islamic State in Iraq declared a month-long campaign to kill US troops. April is already a relatively high-casualty month for the US military in Iraq.

Another mass grave found in Iraq, this time near Shiite Diwaniya. But AFP suggests that it was a mafia hit-- they were killed along a smuggling route to Saudi Arabia. Did one smuggling gang horn in on another's territory? Billions of dollars a year of gasoline, kerosene, antiquities, and drugs are being smuggled in Iraq every year, and the money often supports guerrillas. In Colombia they have narco-terrorism. In Iraq, it is hydrocarbon terrorism.

Little Jordan, with 500,000 Iraqi refugees and a population of only 5.2 million, is petrified that Iraq's instability will spill over on it.



Reuters reports political violence in Iraq so far this weekend:

' date item.

* BAGHDAD - Three rockets hit the Sadr hospital in Sadr City late on Saturday, according to Ali Bustan, head of the health directorate in the eastern section of Baghdad. It was unclear if there were any casualties or who fired the rockets. The U.S. military said it was not to blame. Bustan also said the bodies of three women had been brought in along with 40 wounded people following fresh clashes.

* DIWANIYA - 16 decapitated and decomposed bodies were found in the desert near Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, a senior military official in Diwaniya said. The bodies and heads were in separate plastic bags.

* MOSUL - One civilian was killed and 5 others were wounded when an IED exploded in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

* MOSUL - Two bodies were found, one in southeastern Mosul and the other in a town south of the city, a senior military official in Mosul said.

NASSIRIYA - One policeman was killed and three wounded in clashes with gunmen near Nassiriya, 375 km (235 miles) southwest of Baghdad, hospital and police officials said.

MOSUL AND BAJI - U.S. forces detained 22 suspects in the northern cities of Mosul and Baji in security operations targeting al Qaeda militants, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen shot and seriously wounded an interior ministry official in eastern Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - Iraqi army forces arrested 44 al Qaeda militants and confiscated weapons in different areas of eastern Mosul, a spokesman for Mosul operations command said.

BASRA - Government forces said they captured the district of Hayaniya in Basra, long a stronghold of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, achieving an objective that had eluded them during a crackdown last month. Basra is 550 km (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - Twelve people were killed and 71 others wounded on Friday and Saturday in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, police said. Hospitals said the total wounded was more than 130.

MOSUL - A roadside bomb killed two people and wounded 12 others in eastern Mosul, police said.

KIRKUK - A parked car bomb killed one person and wounded three others in southern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

NEAR KIRKUK - A roadside bomb struck a police patrol, killing one policeman and wounding another in the southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. helicopter gunship fired a missile, killing two gunmen in eastern Baghdad on Saturday, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier when it struck his vehicle on Friday just north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in statement.

SALAHUDDIN PROVINCE - A car bomb blast killed one U.S. soldier when he was conducting a patrol on Friday in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb wounded two people on Friday in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - One Iraqi soldier was killed and four others wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in Yarmouk district, in western Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two bodies were found in different districts of Baghdad on Friday, police said.

BAGHDAD - A mortar bomb killed one person on Friday in al-Nidhal street, central Baghdad, police said.

MUSSAYAB - One body was found with gunshot wounds in Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

(compiled by Aws Qusay; editing by Noah Barkin)'

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McCain, the Retired Military "Analysts" and the Myth of al-Qaeda in Iraq

I am quoted in this NYT piece today on John McCain's allegations that the US is fighting "al-Qaeda" in Iraq and that there is a danger of "al-Qaeda" taking over the country if the US leaves.

Those allegations don't make any sense. McCain contradicts himself because he sometimes warns that the Shiites or Iran will take over Iraq. He doesn't seem to realize that the US presided over the ascension to power in Iraq of pro-Iranian Shiite parties like Nuri al-Maliki's Islamic Mission Party and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. So which is it? There is a danger that pro-Iranian Shiites will take over (which is anyway what we have engineered) or that al-Qaeda will? It is not as if they can coexist. Since the Shiites are 60 percent and by now well armed and trained, and since the Sunni Arabs are only 17 percent of the population and since only about 1 percent of them perhaps supports Salafi radicalism--how can the latter hope to take over?

Even if McCain only means, as his campaign manager tried to suggest, that "al-Qaeda" could take over the Sunni Arab areas of Iraq, that doesn't make any sense either (McCain has actually alleged that al-Qaeda would take over the whole country.) The Salafi radicals have lost in al-Anbar Province. Diyala Province, one of the other three predominantly Sunni areas, is ruled by pro-Iranian Shiites. That leaves Salahuddin and Ninevah Provinces. Among the major military forces in Ninevah is the Kurdish Peshmerga, some of them integrated e.g. into the Mosul police force. Hint: The Kurds don't like "al-Qaeda", i.e. Salafi radicalism. Jalal Talabani is a socialist.

So the Shiites and the Kurds among the Iraqis, now more powerful than the Sunni Arabs, would never allow a radical Salafi mini-state in their midst. They would crush them. And substantial segments of the Iraqi Sunni population have already helped crush them.

Moreover, Shiite Iran, secular Turkey, Baathist Syria and monarchical Jordan would never put up with a Salafi radical mini-state on their borders. They would crush it. Jordan's secret police already appear to have played a role in killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who had his own "Monotheism and Holy War" organization that for PR purposes he at one point rechristened "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia" (he actually never got along with Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri).

McCain's whole discourse on Iraq is just a typical rightwing Washington fantasy made up in order to get you to spend $15 billion a month on his friends in the military industrial complex and to get you to allow him to gut the US constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The NYT revealed today that the Pentagon and the Bush administration has been propagandizing retired military "analysts" who appear frequently as talking heads on television, to ensure that the Bush point of view has hegemony on the airwaves. Bill Maher has joked that we have heard from two sets of analysts, the generals and the retired generals. It is these secret networks of corrupt agents of influence that have Orwellized our society in recent years. And it will go on unless the public wakes up and demands a change. If you see a network or cable news segment with *only* Establishment commentators (i.e. two retired generals, or one and someone from the American Enterprise Institute), then get up an email campaign to complain to the anchor. Threaten an advertiser boycott. Our country is in danger from this stuff. McCain gets his ridiculous talking points on Iraq from these corrupt "analysts" and people like them inside the Pentagon.

In fact, it is well known that Defense Intelligence Agency analysts face trouble in writing reports on Iraq because they get stung by the Pentagon's own propaganda machine! The Pentagon hired the Lincoln Group which in turn deployed secret agents for someone like Michael Rubin of AEI to manufacture sermons and other material and attribute them to Iraqis. So then the analysts read Rubin in Arabic translation and report him back to their bosses as Iraqi public opinion! Then Rubin defended this sort of thing to the NYT without revealing his links to Lincoln (just as the retired generals did not tell CNN about their secret links).

The kind of political pressures for conformity and 'good news' analysis of Iraq faced by the analysts is illustrated in Alex Rossmiller's book, Still Broken (note: I make a cameo).

At the moment no guerrilla group in Iraq even calls itself al-Qaeda. Zarqawi's organization appears to have collapsed in Ramadi with his death, which is a part of the story of the rise of pro-American 'awakening councils' there that no one mentions.

Here are the Open Source Center headlines about Sunni guerrilla activities in Iraq. These are found and translated by US intelligence:

' Ansar Al-Islam Claims Attack on Oil Tanker in Iraq

Al-Rashidin Army Claims 16 Apr Attack on US Hummer . . . ["The statement was attributed to Abu-al-Abbas Isa Bakr al-Iraqi, the Media Bureau, the Al-Rashidin Army, the Jihad and Change Front."]

Iraqi Armed Revolution Comments on Government Clashes with Al-Mahdi Army . . . [says "both sides want to seize power"]

Shield of Islam Brigade Claims Attack on Iraqi Forces in Baghdad

1920 Revolution Brigades Claims Attack on US Stryker Vehicle

Sa'd Bin-Abu-Waqqas Brigades Claim 3 Attacks on US, 'Enemy' Forces

Naqshabandi Order Claims 23 Operations Against US Forces 1-15 Mar'

Note that the 1920 Revolution Brigades fights against the Islamic State of Iraq and some of its cells have joined US-backed Awakening Councils. The Naqshbandi Order is a Sufi brotherhood and not radical Salafis at all. Some of these groups are probably fronts for Izzat Ibrahim Duri's neo-Baath. None of these communiques mentions anything about "al-Qaeda" or Usama Bin Laden. Aside from the 'Islamic State in Iraq,' which seems to be a front for a small group of foreign fighters who have some local support in Diyala province, they are just Iraqi Sunnis, folks. A lot of them were in the Baath army six years ago. Opinion polling shows that a majority of Iraqi Sunnis says that a separation of religion and state is desirable, which is what you would expect from a population ruled by the secular Arab nationalist Baath Party for 25 years. The US has 24,000 or so Iraqis in custody but less than 150 foreign fighters. Doesn't that tell you something?

McCain can't come out and say we need to crush the Armed Iraqi Revolution, because that would be an admission that the US has been fighting Iraqis for 5 years and still hasn't defeated them. So he and the Republican strategists and the retired generals and their Pentagon handlers make up this "al-Qaeda" business, as though people in Baquba would be gunning for Americans if Americans hadn't invaded their country and turned it upside down.

It is the US military occupation of Iraq that is producing "al-Qaeda" wannabes, and if it is ended the Iraqis and their neighbors will polish those off tout de suite. Keep the military occupation going, as McCain desires, and you are running an incubator for terrorism against the US and its allies that has already produced hits on Madrid and the London Underground.

In other words, elect McCain, my friends, and you are summoning the awful genie of another 9/11. I said it. I mean it. I'm not taking it back. That man's announced policies could well produce a blowback that will lead to the end of democracy in the United States. It is a momentous decision.
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Palestinian Children

Call me suspicious. Bound bodies found floating in a lake just don't seem to me very likely to be the victims of suicide. Riad's friend writes:

' A friend of mine, Austin middle-school teacher and pro-Palestinian activist Riad (also spelled Riadh) Hamad, was found gagged & bound in a lake. His death was declared by the local police to be a "suicide".

The story reeks of being either a hate crime or worse, an assassination by an interested party. Hamad's charity was under attack by various parties which volunteered to find links between his organization and terrorist organizations. FWIW, no such link has led to law suits against him, to the best of my knowledge.

Riad is no longer alive, but questions about his death (suicide?) seem very much alive. At the very least, a fair police investigation would be appropriate. Simply stepping up to people and killing them is not an acceptable way to shut down a charity in the U.S., I'm sure you agree. I believe that media pressure may be the only way to get a true investigation. If someone is killing Palestinian activists in the U.S., that must be stopped - somehow. '

Consider sending a gift to Save the Children and earmarking it for Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza. They told me you can't sponsor an individual Palestinian child, but that they do get relief to them. Some 20% of Palestinian children are being kept in a state of malnutrition by the Israeli occupation authorities.

I wrote about this problem 6 years ago. The situation has deteriorated sharply in the intervening period:

' A U.N. World Food Program initiative called Emergency Food Needs Assessment showed that 51 percent of Palestinians are food insecure in the occupied territory as a whole, with 70 percent food insecure in Gaza.

The main factors affecting Palestinians' access to food, exacerbated by the second intifada, are Israeli imposed restrictions on their internal and external movement. Limited Palestinian control over their natural resources -- in particular water and agricultural land -- is another major factor.

Furthermore, chronic malnutrition and dietary-related diseases are slowly increasing, WHO has reported.

Anemia amongst children age nine to 12 months stands at 69 percent in Gaza and 47 percent in the West Bank, with 33 percent of women of childbearing age affected. The number of cases of stunting, low birth weights and premature deaths is also increasing.

Some 70 percent of Palestinians are estimated by the United Nations Children's Fund to be living below the poverty line. According to UNRWA and the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs, the number of chronic poor has risen sharply. '

Please send those poor kids some money via Save the Children, which is very careful about how it reaches them.

Some 15% of Palestinians are Christian, and the Muslims believe Jesus was sent by God. I seem to remember Jesus saying "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." If you aren't supposed to offend the little ones, I don't think you are supposed to half-starve them either.
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132 Wounded in Sadr City; The $3 Trillion Shopping Spree

The spring dust storms in Baghdad have given cover to renewed guerrilla fighting there. On Thursday Iraqi guerrillas used the cover of the dust storms to bombard the Green Zone with mortar shells. On Friday clashes broke out between Mahdi Army militiamen in Sadr City and Iraqi and US troops at the edges of the vast Shiite slum. Local hospitals reported 132 wounded were brought in, in the aftermath.

The $3 Trillion Shopping Spree:




Learning to stop worrying and love the bomb.

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60 Killed in Diyala Bombing; NDU Study: Iraq War Debacle; Netanyahu: 9/11 benefitted Israel

A suicide bombing at a funeral for pro-American militiamen in a village northeast of Baghdad in Diyala province killed at least 60 persons on Thursday and wounded a similar number. This attack follows a previous bombing in the provincial capital of Baquba that had killed 60. The US-backed 'Awakening Councils' are being fought in Diyala by Sunni guerrillas, some of them calling themselves 'the Islamic State of Iraq.' In Diyala, unlike al-Anbar, one also sees reports that older, less fundamentalist guerrilla groups such as the 1920 Revolution Brigades, the armed wing of the Association of Muslim Scholars, continue to attack US troops. Diyala is a mixed province, and poor Sunni Arab relations with Shiites and Kurds make the Awakening Councils more difficult to implement, especially since the Shiites control many key institutions.

A National Defense University study by a former Pentagon official finds that the Iraq War is a debacle, the outcome of which is in doubt. McClatchy reports of the paper:

' The report said that the United States has suffered serious political costs, with its standing in the world seriously diminished. Moreover, operations in Iraq have diverted "manpower, materiel and the attention of decision-makers" from "all other efforts in the war on terror" and severely strained the U.S. armed forces.

"Compounding all of these problems, our efforts there (in Iraq) were designed to enhance U.S. national security, but they have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East," the report continued. '

The US will free about half of its 23,000 Iraqi prisoners, 2/3s of whom are Sunni Arabs. (By the way, this statistic proves that the US has been fighting ordinary Iraqis in Iraq, not "al-Qaeda." It typically has less than 150 foreign fighters in custody.) This prisoner release was a demand of the Iraqi Accord Front, the Sunni Arab political coalition that withdrew from the al-Maliki government last summer. There are now reports that the IAF will rejoin the al-Maliki government, with six cabinet posts given to its members.

Does this mean that the US has been holding some 12,000 Iraqis who actually aren't dangerous?

Secretary of State Condi Rice wants the Arab states to shield Iraq from Iran's "nefarious influence." Rice seems unaware that she has installed in Baghdad parties like the Islamic Mission Party (al-Da'wa) and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) that are very close to Tehran, and that Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia advised her not invade Iraq because this would happen. And Sunnis, Salafis and Wahhabis would dissuade Iraq's Shiite majority from good relations with their Iranian Shiite neighbors . . . how? Whenever I hear Bush administration officials say something about the Middle East, it is as though I am listening to bad fiction read with a drunken slur. Opinion polling does not find that the Arab publics are afraid of or worried about Iran in any numbers, and in fact Israel's attack on largely defenseless little Lebanon in 2006 made Iran and Hizbullah more popular in the region.

Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail do interviews with Fallujans who maintain that the city is still crippled and was largely destroyed by the US.

Far rightwing Israeli politician Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud party says that 9/11 was good for Israel. Even if it were true, couldn't Netanyahu have the decency not to say it? Netanyahu also made crazy allegations against Iran of preparing for global domination or something. Hmmm. I should have thought people who are the objects of bizarre conspiracy theories themselves would be sensitive about spreading them around about other people. Iran isn't even very powerful in its own neighborhood and has not aggressively invaded another country in its modern history. It isn't colonizing anyone else's land and hasn't dropped bombs on its neighbors. It doesn't have an atomic bomb and there is no evidence it is seeking one. In all these ways, the contrasts favor Iran over the Israeli Right.

Robin Wright at WaPo writes that "Suicide bombers conducted 658 attacks around the world last year, including 542 in US-occupied Afghanistan and Iraq . . ." 542 out of 658 is about 83%, lending further testimony to Chicago Political Scientist Robert Pape's theory that suicide bombings tend to occur in countries under foreign military occupation by an otherwise democratic government. (That is, they are staged for the public in the occupying country to some extent; people tend not to bother to blow themselves up when occupied by a dictatorship.)

I am looking forward to reading Wright's new book, "Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East"

McClatchy reports political violence in Iraq on Thursday:

' Baghdad

A roadside bomb exploded in the industrial street 52, Karrada, downtown Baghdad at 10 am Thursday, injuring 2 civilians.

Gunmen riding a motorbike opened random fire upon the stores in al-Rubaei Street, a shopping centre in east Baghdad at 10.30 am today, injuring 3 civilians.

A roadside bomb targeted a US Military convoy in Abu Disheer, south Baghdad at 11 am Thursday. No comment from the US Military was available at the time of publication.

A roadside bomb targeted a US Military convoy in Bayaa, southwest Baghdad at noon Thursday. No comment from the US Military was available at the time of publication.

A Katyusha rocket fell behind the Mansour Milia Hotel on the river bank in central Baghdad at 4.45 pm today. One civilian was injured.

A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol near the new Diala Bridge in Zafaraniyah, southeast Baghdad at 3 pm Thursday, killing 1 policeman and 1 civilian. The explosion also injured 6 policemen and 4 civilians.

1 Katyusha rocket fell inside the Green Zone at 4 pm today. No casualties were reported.

Doura Local Council Member, Saad al-Nuaimi was assassinated by gunmen at 5 pm today. He was driving his car near the bridge intersection and his son, Saifuddin was with him. Al-Nuaimi was killed outright, but his son, although severely injured, survived.

A roadside bomb targeted a Sahwa checkpoint, the US sponsored militia in Akhtal Street, Adhamiyah, north Baghdad at 5.30 pm Thursday. The explosion killed 5 Sahwa members, 1 civilian and injured 2 children.

4 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad today by Iraqi police. 2 in Shaab, 1 in al-Amin and 1 in Doura.

Diyala

A suicide bomber detonated in the funeral of a tribal sheikh who was a leading member in the local Sahwa Council, a US sponsored militia, in al-Hiwaysat village, al-Athaem area, Thursday. The explosion killed 60 civilians, injured tens.

4 MNFI servicemen and 1 Iraqi Army officer were wounded during a raid conducted by the joint force in Jalowlaa district near the town of Khanaqin, northeast Diyala, said Iraqi Police. A gunman targeted them with a hand grenade from one of the houses in the area being searched, said Iraqi police. No comment from the US Military was available at the time of publication.

Basra

Gunmen driving a modern car opened fire targeting 2 policemen in Jazair neighbourhood, near al-Abayachi Mosque in Basra city centre killing both instantly.

A policeman from the National Police was targeted by gunmen while he was on guard duty on top of a high building in al-Kornish area in the centre of Basra city. He escaped with superficial wounds.'

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