YouTube - How Bush Defeated Gore--The Real Story
25.2.07
Iran 'Fooling' U.S. Military
They may be fooling the military, but I caught on in the fall of 2006.
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story from website
NAJAF, Feb 12 (IPS) - New evidence is emerging on the ground of an Iranian hand in growing violence within Iraq.
As the United States heads for a confrontation with Iran over allegations of Iranian involvement in bombings, the massacre in Najaf last month indicates that Iran could be working also through the Iraqi government, local leaders in Najaf say.
The slaughter of 263 people in Najaf by Iraqi and U.S. forces Jan. 29 provoked outrage and vows of revenge among residents in and around the sacred Shia city in the south. The killings have deepened a split among Shias.
Iran is predominantly Shia, one of the two main groupings within Islam along with the Sunnis. Iraq has for the first time a Shia-dominated government, comprising groups that have been openly supportive of Iran.
The people killed were mostly Shias from the Hawatim tribe that opposes the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq as well as the Dawa Party. These two pro-Iranian groups control the local government in Najaf and the government in Baghdad.
The Najaf attack has provoked strong reactions among members of the Hawatim tribe and among other Shia groups who are not loyal to Iran - and who became the target in those killings.
An attack on a local tribal leader led to an assault on members of the tribe by U.S., British and Iraqi forces. The tribe was described by government officials as a "messianic cult."
Abid Ali who witnessed the Najaf fighting told IPS that a procession of roughly 200 pilgrims from the Hawatim tribe had arrived in the Zarqa area near Najaf to celebrate the Ashura festival. Following a confrontation over the procession, Iraqi army soldiers at a checkpoint shot dead Hajj Sa'ad Sa'ad Nayif al-Hatemi, chief of the tribe, as he and his wife sat in their car.
Members of the tribe then attacked the checkpoint to avenge the death of their chief.
"It was after this that the Iraqi army called in the Americans, and the planes began bombing civilians," Ali said. "It was a massacre. Now I believe the internal Shia fighting has entered a very dangerous phase."
Ali added that most people in the area believe the U.S. military was told by Iraqi security forces loyal to the pro-Iranian government in Baghdad that "terrorists" or the "messianic cult" was attacking Najaf. They say the misinformation was intended to mislead occupation forces into attacking the tribe.
Many Shias in the southern parts of the country and in Baghdad now say they had been fooled earlier by U.S. promises to help them, but that the Najaf massacre has dramatically changed their views.
Significantly, the Association of Muslim Scholars, a group of Sunni Muslims headed by Dr. Harith al-Dhari, issued a statement condemning the Iraqi-U.S. military attack in Najaf against the Hawatim tribe. The statement, which seeks to bridge a Shia-Sunni divide, denounced the killing of dozens of women and children and added, "It was an act of vengeance and political termination."
"They (the United States) were misled, and their last move in Najaf shows how the smart Iranians are leading the Americans deeper into Iraqi sands," Jaafar al-Jawadi, a political analyst from Baghdad told IPS.
"I really admire the way Iranians are dealing with the situation in a professional way while the Americans are walking with their eyes closed. They are losing the last Iraqi fort they were hiding behind, and that was the peaceful way Arab Shias were dealing with occupation."
Jawadi who is also a former Shia politician says he once believed in U.S. promises of liberation for Iraqis, particularly the Shia population. Like many other Iraqis, he now believes that the United States has been used by the pro-Iranian government in Baghdad to carry out attacks against Shia tribes in southern Iraq who have recently become more and more anti-occupation.
"I do not really understand what those Americans are doing because now they are just like an elephant in a china shop, and everything they do is terribly wrong as if they are committing suicide," Talib Ahmad, a lawyer and human rights activist in Najaf told IPS.
"Iran is benefiting from that for sure. Americans are simply fighting for Iran who appears to be the winner in Iraq after all."
Many Iraqis are amazed at the unlimited support the U.S. administration has been presenting to what many now call an Iranian-Iraqi government. The new U.S. condemnation of Iran could be a first sign that the United States is getting wise to the fact that it is being fooled by Iran.
The U.S. administration is, however, pointing the finger at Iran, and not at the government in Baghdad that it props up.
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story from website
NAJAF, Feb 12 (IPS) - New evidence is emerging on the ground of an Iranian hand in growing violence within Iraq.
As the United States heads for a confrontation with Iran over allegations of Iranian involvement in bombings, the massacre in Najaf last month indicates that Iran could be working also through the Iraqi government, local leaders in Najaf say.
The slaughter of 263 people in Najaf by Iraqi and U.S. forces Jan. 29 provoked outrage and vows of revenge among residents in and around the sacred Shia city in the south. The killings have deepened a split among Shias.
Iran is predominantly Shia, one of the two main groupings within Islam along with the Sunnis. Iraq has for the first time a Shia-dominated government, comprising groups that have been openly supportive of Iran.
The people killed were mostly Shias from the Hawatim tribe that opposes the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq as well as the Dawa Party. These two pro-Iranian groups control the local government in Najaf and the government in Baghdad.
The Najaf attack has provoked strong reactions among members of the Hawatim tribe and among other Shia groups who are not loyal to Iran - and who became the target in those killings.
An attack on a local tribal leader led to an assault on members of the tribe by U.S., British and Iraqi forces. The tribe was described by government officials as a "messianic cult."
Abid Ali who witnessed the Najaf fighting told IPS that a procession of roughly 200 pilgrims from the Hawatim tribe had arrived in the Zarqa area near Najaf to celebrate the Ashura festival. Following a confrontation over the procession, Iraqi army soldiers at a checkpoint shot dead Hajj Sa'ad Sa'ad Nayif al-Hatemi, chief of the tribe, as he and his wife sat in their car.
Members of the tribe then attacked the checkpoint to avenge the death of their chief.
"It was after this that the Iraqi army called in the Americans, and the planes began bombing civilians," Ali said. "It was a massacre. Now I believe the internal Shia fighting has entered a very dangerous phase."
Ali added that most people in the area believe the U.S. military was told by Iraqi security forces loyal to the pro-Iranian government in Baghdad that "terrorists" or the "messianic cult" was attacking Najaf. They say the misinformation was intended to mislead occupation forces into attacking the tribe.
Many Shias in the southern parts of the country and in Baghdad now say they had been fooled earlier by U.S. promises to help them, but that the Najaf massacre has dramatically changed their views.
Significantly, the Association of Muslim Scholars, a group of Sunni Muslims headed by Dr. Harith al-Dhari, issued a statement condemning the Iraqi-U.S. military attack in Najaf against the Hawatim tribe. The statement, which seeks to bridge a Shia-Sunni divide, denounced the killing of dozens of women and children and added, "It was an act of vengeance and political termination."
"They (the United States) were misled, and their last move in Najaf shows how the smart Iranians are leading the Americans deeper into Iraqi sands," Jaafar al-Jawadi, a political analyst from Baghdad told IPS.
"I really admire the way Iranians are dealing with the situation in a professional way while the Americans are walking with their eyes closed. They are losing the last Iraqi fort they were hiding behind, and that was the peaceful way Arab Shias were dealing with occupation."
Jawadi who is also a former Shia politician says he once believed in U.S. promises of liberation for Iraqis, particularly the Shia population. Like many other Iraqis, he now believes that the United States has been used by the pro-Iranian government in Baghdad to carry out attacks against Shia tribes in southern Iraq who have recently become more and more anti-occupation.
"I do not really understand what those Americans are doing because now they are just like an elephant in a china shop, and everything they do is terribly wrong as if they are committing suicide," Talib Ahmad, a lawyer and human rights activist in Najaf told IPS.
"Iran is benefiting from that for sure. Americans are simply fighting for Iran who appears to be the winner in Iraq after all."
Many Iraqis are amazed at the unlimited support the U.S. administration has been presenting to what many now call an Iranian-Iraqi government. The new U.S. condemnation of Iran could be a first sign that the United States is getting wise to the fact that it is being fooled by Iran.
The U.S. administration is, however, pointing the finger at Iran, and not at the government in Baghdad that it props up.
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)
24.2.07
Deaths as Holy city in Iraq bombed
| |||||||||||||||
Another U.S. Military Assault on Media
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story at website
BAGHDAD, Feb 23 (IPS) - Iraqi journalists are outraged over yet another U.S. military raid on the media.
U.S. soldiers raided and ransacked the offices of the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists (ISJ) in central Baghdad Tuesday this week. Ten armed guards were arrested, and 10 computers and 15 small electricity generators kept for donation to families of killed journalists were seized.
This is not the first time U.S. troops have attacked the media in Iraq, but this time the raid was against the very symbol of it. Many Iraqis believe the U.S. soldiers did all they could to deliver the message of their leadership to Iraqi journalists to keep their mouth shut about anything going wrong with the U.S.-led occupation.
"The Americans have delivered so many messages to us, but we simply refused all of them," Youssif al-Tamimi of the ISJ in Baghdad told IPS. "They killed our colleagues, closed so many newspapers, arrested hundreds of us and now they are shooting at our hearts by raiding our headquarters. This is the freedom of speech we received."
Some Iraqi journalists blame the Iraqi government.
"Four years of occupation, and those Americans still commit such foolish mistakes by following the advice of their Iraqi collaborators," Ahmad Hassan, a freelance journalist from Basra visiting Baghdad told IPS. "They (the U.S. military) have not learned yet that Iraqi journalists will raise their voice against such acts and will keep their promise to their people to search for the truth and deliver it to them at any cost."
There is a growing belief in Iraq that U.S. allies in the current Iraqi government are leading the U.S. military to raid places and people who do not follow Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's directions.
"It is our Iraqi colleagues who pushed the Americans to that hole," Fadhil Abbas, an Iraqi television producer told IPS. "Some journalists who failed to fake the truth here are trying hard to silence truth seekers by providing false information to the U.S. military in order to take advantage of their stupidity in handling the whole Iraqi issue."
The incident occurred just two days after the Iraqi Union covering journalists received formal recognition from the government. The new status allowed the Syndicate access to its previously blocked bank account, and it had just purchased new computers and satellite equipment.
"Just at the point when the Syndicate achieves formal recognition for its work as an independent body of professionals, the American military carries out a brutal and unprovoked assault," International Federation of Journalists General Secretary Aidan White said in a statement. "Anyone working for media that does not endorse U.S. policy and actions could now be at risk."
The raid was a "shocking violation of journalists' rights," White said. "In the past three years more than 120 Iraqi journalists, many of them Syndicate members, have been killed, and now their union has been turned over in an unprovoked act of intimidation."
"The Americans and their Iraqi government followers are destroying social activities and civil unions so that no group can oppose their crimes and plans," 55-year-old lawyer Hashim Jawad of the Iraqi Lawyers Union in Baghdad told IPS. "The press is our remaining lung to breathe democracy in this country and now it is being targeted."
The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), an independent humanitarian association based in Geneva which seeks to strengthen legal protection and safety of journalists around the world also strongly condemned the U.S. military raid.
The media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders lists at least 148 journalists and media workers killed in Iraq since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
The group also compiles an annual Press Freedom Index for countries around the world. In 2002, under Saddam Hussein's rule, Iraq ranked 130. In the 2006 index, Iraq fell to position 154.
The same index listed the U.S. at 17 in 2002, a rank that fell to 56 by 2006.
The Brussels Tribunal, a group of "intellectuals, artists and activists who denounce the...war," lists the names, dates and circumstances in which 191 media professionals of Iraqi nationality have been killed.
The PEC and the other watchdogs have requested the Iraqi government to launch an immediate inquiry into the attack.
"I only wish the U.S. administration and our government would stop lying about freedom in Iraq," Mansoor Salim, a retired journalist, told IPS. "How stupid we were to have believed their statements about freedom. I admit that I was one of the fools."
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)
Fallujans Defiant Amidst Chaos
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story on website
FALLUJAH, Feb 22 (IPS) - Resistance attacks against U.S. forces have been continuing in Fallujah despite military onslaughts and strong security measures.
Two U.S. military onslaughts in 2004 left the city in a shambles and displaced an estimated 250,000 of the 350,000 residents of the city.
The military operations, and more that followed have done nothing to reduce resistance in and around Fallujah city in the al-Anbar province to the west of Baghdad.
Last month U.S. forces introduced a new phase of 'security' along with local Iraqi police, and supported by some local Sunni militias.
Resistance groups have taken the fight to the security forces. In one instance resistance fighters in four cars attacked one of the biggest police stations in the city with rocket propelled grenades and machine guns.
Chief of the city council Abbas Ali Hussein was killed by unknown assassins. He was the fourth chief of council killed in the city within 12 months.
"The big failure of the U.S. troops in Fallujah came when they began bringing Sunni secret police into the city," a member of the city council told IPS. "The situation in Ramadi, Hit, Haditha and all over al-Anbar province is now catastrophic."
IPS has reported earlier that the U.S.-led coalition had backed local militias near Fallujah in an effort to combat growing resistance in the area. Many residents in Fallujah believe the U.S. military also continues to support Shia militias.
Amidst the chaos and violence, residents blame occupation forces for their problems.
"Americans are paying our own people to kill each other," a local tribal chief told IPS. "This is very nasty revenge."
The tribal chief said U.S. forces provoked armed resistance in Fallujah early in the occupation when they killed 17 unarmed demonstrators on Apr. 28 and 30.
Khattab, a resident of Fallujah who never believed in violence before, has changed his mind after being detained by U.S. forces and held in Abu Ghraib prison and Camp Bucca near Basra for over a year.
"The Americans are now hiding behind their mercenaries," he told IPS. "I wish I joined those brave men I thought wrong for fighting. U.S. jailers have done me a favour because they have brought me to my senses, and made me believe in the mujahideen (resistance fighters)."
Local police told IPS that an average of five attacks were being carried out every day in Fallujah on U.S. military patrols, and another five against Iraqi security forces.
In recent incidents a U.S. tank was burnt Feb. 17 when gunmen attacked a convoy near the al-Wahda bridge just west of Fallujah, according to an Iraqi police source who spoke with the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition of anonymity. The source added, "the gunmen used RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) in the attack."
On Feb. 20, an Iraqi security patrol was attacked by gunmen and a Humvee vehicle was destroyed in central Fallujah, again by RPGs.
The Multi-National Forces in Iraq regularly announce the killing of U.S. soldiers "while operating in al-Anbar Province." The exact location is usually not specified.
To date, 1,172 coalition soldiers have died in al-Anbar province, according to the website Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. That is more than any other province in the country, including the volatile capital Baghdad. And it is a substantial part of more than 3,100 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.
U.S. forces continue to claim success by way of killing "insurgents". In one instance this was by way of an air attack on suspected safe houses for resistance fighters in Amiriya town near Fallujah. The U.S. forces reported 13 dead in the attack.
Ahmed al-Ami, a doctor at a Fallujah hospital where the dead and wounded from the air strike were taken, told reporters that more than 30 bodies, including those of seven children, were brought in.
In the face of all this, the city remains defiant.
"We cannot let the blood of our sons which Americans spilled in this holy city go in vain," a 35-year-old teacher from Fallujah told IPS. Like most others, he did not want to give his name.
"This time all of us will be the resistance against the Americans because they obviously want to finish us off and pull us up by the roots," he added.
Raids and arrests continue to provoke such anger.
Recently Iraqi police, who many locals believed to be members of a Shia militia, arrested many people including the manager of the local Oil Distribution Directorate and the secretary-general of the al-Raya human rights non-governmental organisation, Khalid Abdullah Hameed.
The oil manager was released after four days while Hameed is still in detention. Several refugees who fled Baghdad have demonstrated against his detention.
"Khalid helped us settle in a building and provided us with everything we needed, but the police took him and two of us, who were released later," a refugee told IPS.
Many in Fallujah refuse to talk, even on condition of anonymity.
"We advise you to leave the city right now because we can never tell when the situation will explode," a resident told the IPS correspondent. "This time it will be serious and those secret policemen do not like media men."
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)
Lack Of Food Supply
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story on website
BAGHDAD, Feb 19 (IPS) - The lack of security in Iraq is leading now to a collapse in food supplies.
"Look at us begging for food despite the fortunes we have," 60-year-old Um Muthanna from Baghdad told IPS. Standing at a vegetable market in central Baghdad where vegetable supplies are not what they used to be, Um Mahmood despaired for Iraq.
"A country with two great rivers should have been the biggest exporter in the world, but now we beg for food from those who participated in killing us." Iraq is rich in oil and agricultural resources.
Local and international aid flooded into Iraq in 2004, the year following the invasion, but much of the supply was blocked off after the kidnapping of many aid activists in the country.
The food the Iraqis did get was often not what they needed, or wanted.
"Iraqis do not feel at ease receiving food aid when they exported food in the past," economist Dr. Jassim al-Rikabi told IPS.
"Iraq has been a field of aid NGOs since the U.S. occupation began, and many of those NGOs brought foodstuff that is not what Iraqis were used to, but they had to take it due to the need they were facing."
Barley, wheat, pulses and the famous Iraqi dates are staple diet, and are also exported. Common meals in Iraq include rice, lamb, chicken and locally grown vegetables like cucumbers, onions and tomatoes.
Under the occupation, Iraqis are getting much of their food from companies in Australia and other countries who assisted the United States during the invasion and occupation. This food has often been of low quality.
During July 2006 the Iraqi Ministry of Trade rejected or destroyed thousands of tonnes of contaminated food or food past its expiry date. The food had caused widespread poisoning.
Dr. Rikabi holds both the U.S.-backed Iraqi government and U.S. occupation authorities responsible for the failing food supply. "By the end of 2005 most international NGOs had withdrawn from Iraq on the orders of their governments, who saw the writing on the wall of increasing sectarian violence."
The security situation and lack of petrol mean that local farmers are often unable to get their food to the markets.
Changes in Iraqi import laws introduced by former administrator L. Paul Bremer, dropped tariffs on import of foreign products, making it impossible for Iraqi farmers to compete. Countless Iraqi farms went bankrupt.
But now prices of imported goods have increased dramatically. And so most of the food in Iraqi markets today is imported, and more expensive due to skyrocketing fuel costs and lack of government regulation. Imported foods like chicken, fruits and vegetables now cost more than locally grown foods.
"Local agricultural production is almost nil," Majid al-Dulaymi from the Ministry of Agriculture told IPS. "The limited loans given by the ministry to farmers and planters are misused simply because it is not possible to maintain the agriculture production for reasons well known to everybody here. Now the private sector is importing everything, and the prices are too high to afford."
An official from the Ministry of Trade said his ministry is struggling to provide Iraqis with food rations as before, but the circumstances make it difficult.
"There is the security ordeal that we suffer as well as the problems we had with many companies that supplied us bad quality food," he told IPS.
Australia provided Iraq with wheat last year that when distributed was found to contain steel fragments. An investigation conducted by Iraqi officials has still not held any company accountable.
The majority of Iraqis still remain dependent on the monthly food ration, a programme set up during the economic sanctions period in the 1990s after the first Gulf war. But a growing number of Iraqis no longer receive their monthly ration due to corruption or sectarian favouritism in the distribution channel.
Statistics compiled by the Washington-based Brookings Institute during 2005 showed that nearly 60 percent of the Iraqi population regularly consumes the monthly food rations. And 25 percent, 6.5 million people, are "highly dependent" on rations to meet their nutritional needs.
According to Abdul-Lattif from Iraq's Ministry of Trade, only sugar, rice, flour and cooking oil remain from the original 12 foodstuffs provided by the former government. Other items such as lentils were removed from the list in May 2006 as a result of budget cuts.
"What food ration are you talking about," 35-year-old Um Jamila, a mother of five complained to IPS. "The whole country has been stolen from us. If this goes on another six months, we will be just like any starving country."
A report released Jan. 30 by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) showed that 1.5 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Iraq lack basic necessities such as adequate food, drinking water, sanitation, and health and education facilities.
Entitled 'Iraq Displacement 2006 Year in Review', the report puts food at the top of the list of the most urgent needs for IDPs in Iraq.
"I was so happy when my salary was increased to around 300 dollars, but I now wish for the times when it was 30 dollars as it used to be before this occupation," engineer Kamil Fattah from the Ministry of Industry told IPS. "Inflation in the Iraqi market has made it impossible for us to eat decently while earlier we used to get every basic need for almost free of charge."
The World Food Programme is sending aid to Iraq but its officials say this is running into difficulties.
"The food is either stolen on the way or cannot be inspected on arrival by third party inspectors," a retired staff member of the Food and Agriculture Organisation which runs the World Food Programme told IPS. "Each shipment needs to be checked by a third party inspector, but the company is facing difficulties in conducting such inspections due to the security situation."
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)
20.2.07
The 200 year Conspiracy
 | ||||
A few years ago there was a book released on the market called ‘NONE DARE CALL IT A CONSPIRACY’. This book, like many end time books, was a stepping-stone, a message to an awakening, a ‘pull your head out of the sand’ time. This book contained prophecy and fact but like many other books on this subject, many errors. The time has now come to correct those errors. The revelation I speak and write of now sends out a challenge to Christians, Freemasons and people in every walk of life, to search and find out this truth for themselves. In the previous chapters I gave a brief summary of historical events and what are the true reasons behind these past events. We now have the final events before us, a conspiracy of enormous proportions that only the Almighty God could reveal. Let’s go back to where the pendulum was set in motion, with the founding fathers of the American Revolution and the established seat of the New World Order or ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT to come. IDFTS In the Masonic Lodge the sun, moon and stars are represented, I quote from Albert Pike’s ‘Morals and Dogmas of Freemasonry’, ‘the images of the sun, moon and mercury, are represented in the temple and they are still the three great lights of the Masonic lodge. The human soul is itself a god within the mind, capable through its own power of making itself immortal by the practices of the good’. Or meaning man can attain his own salvation, it goes on to say ‘man descended from the elemental forces who fed on the body of Pantheistic Deity creating the universe. Death is the inseparable antecedent of life. The seed dies in order to produce the plant, hence the significance of the phallus (or penis) or its inoffensive substitute the obelisk rising as an emblem of the resurrection’. All the pagan religions worship the phallus. It was the symbol of the sun, the male life giving generative power of the deity in nature. This agrees with Albert Pike who goes on to say on page 13 ‘the moon was the symbol of the passive capacity of nature to produce the female, of which the life giving power and energy was the male. Therefore the sun and moon, male and female, are the two grand principles in the Masonic Lodge, the sun pours upon the moon his impregnating rays, then both shed their light upon their offspring, the blazing star HORACE (or Horus) and these three form the great equilateral triangle’. The phallic symbol is what they worship. This symbol one day will produce the son (Horus the All Seeing Eye) or Lucifer of the New World Order (incarnation of the man who is the Antichrist). This phallic symbol I will discuss in further detail in later chapters. I will deal now with the Obelisk that concerned the founding fathers, the Washington Monument. This phallic symbol originated with the Continental Congress and the end of the Revolutionary War. I believe Jefferson set the plans in motion just before he left for France in 1784 (this was also the same year Lafayette returned to America) as this year fulfills the two hundred year conspiracy. The Washington Monument is an obelisk with four sides and a tapering tower. It is one of the tallest Masonic structures in the world, as high as a fifty-story building and on top of the structure is an aluminum capstone. During the building stage this massive structure was interrupted quite a few times, but finally it all came together. Let’s think about how important this building was. Set inside the structure is one hundred and ninety carved memorial stones, presented by foreign nations and organizations such as Freemasonry and Odd fellows, states and cities. Also making up this massive symbol are stones taken from Braddock’s defeat in the French and Indian war, from Long Island in the American Revolution and you may wonder why - from Mount Vesuvius in Rome (from the Old Roman Order to the New Roman Order) and the Parthenon (Doric Order from Greece) and finally from Napoleon’s Tomb on St Helena, all taken to the seat of Washington D.C. Napoleon was a high degree Mason and his work is rewarded and recognized. This phallus symbol glorifies Satan’s achievements, his undertakings and his blood sacrifices. A group of private citizens (Freemasons) got together to raise money and complete the structure, but public donations came to a stop. Congress stepped in with monies to complete the monument and work resumed again in 1880. Finally the capstone (or pyramid) was set on top on December 6th 1884. A ceremony of dedication was held on Washington’s Birthday in 1885 and at last the monument was open to the public in 1888 (symbolizing the Pharaoh’s achievements). Above: The Washington Monument - a 550 feet high Egyptian obelisk Now God reveals the mystery of the two hundred years conspiracy. The first hundred years began with the conception of the idea to build the Monument in 1784. Then on the 6th December 1884 the aluminum capstone was set in place completing the first one hundred years of progress in monumental terms; the physical groundwork of Satan was complete. The following century (1884-1984) the spiritual and physical union was complete when the stone capstone was set. If you remember earlier, I told you that Jacob’s Stone would be set in God’s earthly house or throne and spiritually Christ would rule over his people from the physical Throne of David. What all this means is that the Antichrist in flesh and spirit, who was to come, took his seat and became that missing capstone on November 6th 1984 that Freemasonry proclaims. That man was former President of the United States Ronald Wilson Reagan or the man with the number 666 of Revelation 13. This is the Masonic mystery, the false messiah who sits on the Throne of David and in the Church. Ronald Reagan states he is a born again Christian. More startling than that, he claims his lineage is of the Stuart line of kings, which can only mean he is a direct descendant of James II and James the Old Pretender and Bonnie Prince Charles the Young Pretender, the missing link [1]. The parallels of the following dates are remarkable. The work on the structure resumed in 1880 whilst Ronald Reagan became president in 1980 for his first term. His second term was marked by the largest landslide win in American political history. It was a massive vote by the Christian Right who returned him to office in 1984. The aluminum capstone was set in 1884 and in 1885 the dedication ceremony was held and then in 1985 Ronald Reagan’s swearing in ceremony for the second term. Finally the Monument was opened to the public in 1888. The capstone went public at the end of Reagan’s second term in 1988, all around the world the symbol of the triangle (capstone) popped up and now this symbol rules the world. The 1988 exposure brought Masons out of the woodwork everywhere, to glorify their final work, completed after thousands of years. In the next chapter I will reveal the rebuilding of a counterfeit Solomon’s Temple which commenced in 1980 and was finished for opening on the 8th day of the 8th month 1988 (or in Masonic terms ‘the month of Bul’), which is Satan’s spiritual temple and once again this temple was glorified all over the world in 1988 among the nations. The first half of the seven years, was also complete from the 6th November 1984 when Ronald Reagan took his seat, to the first attack of America in the Persian Gulf [2], which was exactly twelve hundred and sixty days to the 18th to the 20th April 1988 as the prophecy stated. Now the prophecy states there is a break or gap of two, or two and a half years of peace and safety all around the world, a delusion. If you have been observing, you will have noticed that in 1988 there was an official ceasefire announced in the Iran-Iraq War, which is significant as the final count down for the last days began with the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. These two powers are involved in the Great War in the Middle East. These nations are antichrist but are not the beast nation led by the Antichrist, as they are not the seed of Joseph, the Antichrist must come out of and be of the House of David (Judah). Daniel 11 covers the lead up to the end time vision; America becomes the saviour of World War II and then becomes strong with a small number of people, the Jews. He helps establish the Zionist State of Israel for his purpose of gaining a stronghold in the Middle East, where he must make a final stand in Jerusalem. He will put the Jews down and take Jerusalem from them. He will make Jerusalem a city of the world, where as now it is the Jew’s sovereign city for the first time in two thousand years (since 1967 Arab-Israeli War). In World War II America put down three kings, Germany, Japan and Italy, otherwise known as the Axis Powers. In Daniel 7:24, after this Great War America rises as the world’s greatest power. It was President Harry Truman the thirty-third degree Mason, who made King George VI sign the Dissolution of the British Empire in 1946, as Great Britain (indebted to America) was virtually broke at the end of World War II. It was a nation living on foreign borrowing at an immense scale. President Truman canceled Lend Lease on August 17, 1945. Lend Lease was a program enacted by the US Congress on March 11, 1941, allowing President Franklin D. Roosevelt to transfer resources and loans to Great Britain. America was now completely out of isolationism and on his way to being a global power as his Great Seal states THE NEW WORLD ORDER OF THE AGES, or NEW WORLD ORDER (NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM) and EPLURIBUS UNUN (Out of many ONE), meaning out of many nations one world government and ANNUIT COEPTIS (he, Lucifer has favoured our undertaking), the All Seeing Eye. In Daniel 8:9: ‘And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land’. In these verses the little horn, which is America (the beast), grows and grows until he has conquered from south and east and the holy land of Israel. America is the only nation to have done this since World War II. The American dollar has ruled the world, rebuilding Japan, Germany and other nations. Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Bank of America and other American banks have been the major lenders to the world, especially involving massive loans to third world countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Israel, Egypt and dozens more, knowing that it would be impossible for them to repay even the interest on such loans. America has deliberately become the debtor nation to collapse the whole world monetary system. The first warning was sounded with the global share market crash of 1987, which triggered another mini-crash on the 13th October 1989. This has finally set off a global recession, floundering world economies, thousands of bankruptcies, bank collapses (well over one thousand in America within the last couple of years), a complete breakdown of trade between the nations and the collapse of rural industry throughout the world. The World Order plan is to firstly collapse the rural farms (no food), then the cities’ infrastructure, causing total chaos and massive unemployment. On top of this, which we have been continually witnessing, massive natural disasters, with huge damage bills, famine, floods, pestilence and earthquakes as prophesied by the Lord. At the Yalta Conference in February 1943, the American Illuminist Franklin Roosevelt, a high thirty third-degree Mason (remembering the 33° Supreme Council of the world is Washington 286), made the decision with Stalin to divide Europe into East and West. This would work as a test case for a totalitarian world order in future. You see it was the American Republican Masons that once again set up and financed the Bolsheviks to destroy the Russian Czar Nicholas II and the Throne - a carbon copy once again of the American and French Revolutions. American Illuminist Masons created Communism. The same pattern of freethinking writers emerged in the form of Lenin and Marxism ideology (Republican Masons). Under a new name called Communism, Stalin’s Russia was built on American money and equipment. So if Communism was so evil, why did America build Communism? Good question!! Since 1917 the Illuminist Industrialist Arnold Hammer was going back and forth organizing and building Russia. This man was so important that even the Pope rolled out the red carpet for him in 1988. Henry Ford arranged production lines, trucks and parts. Military factories and hardware were set up whilst the capital kept coming from America. So who was the big boogey man? Then across to Japan, where American money and services built Japan before World War II and then again for restructuring after the war. Then John J McCloy, also an important Illuminist Mason who was President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1947-1949 and the United States High Commissioner for Germany, helped restructure Germany from an occupied territory to a sovereign state. Then in 1955 he was Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, his career not ending there. He was also advisor to President Kennedy on disarmament from 1961-1963 and then served as a special consultant for NATO. What an Illuminist! The list goes on. During the Cuban Missile Crisis he went to Russia to patch up the problem and set up the E.E.C and many world programs, he hand picked Henry Kissinger and finally was adviser to most Presidents for 45 years. With an exhausting list like this, he must have been a super being. I think he died in 1989 or 1990 being about 90 years old. Men like this made the little horn grow and grow, they divided the lands for gain and those who serve him well, he rewards and those who do not, he cuts off (Daniel). As I have said before, the devil’s kingdom is divided and in the end they will all turn on one another (no honour amongst thieves). The Cold War was a load of rubbish or facade, with capital and armament pouring into Russia to build up the Super Power even more. The World Bank is always at the doorstep, knocking at the door and asking do you need more capital? (not forgetting that basically America is the World Bank). The United States is also the cornerstone and founder of the United Nations. So he undoubtedly fulfills the bible prophecy of the beast the whole world wonders after (Revelation). ‘Whose look is more stout, than his fellows’ Daniel 7:20 (and he also has a great boastful mouth and he is arrogant). The Vietnam War was America’s folly where he received the wound of the sword and couldn’t lay it to rest for fifteen years. It was President Ronald Reagan in 1984 that finally laid the wound of the sword to rest (the humiliation of Vietnam that worried the beast). America held a national day of mourning and finally buried the Unknown Soldier, fulfilling prophecy and shutting the door on Vietnam. It was Ronald Reagan in 1980 that announced to the whole world that he would once again make America a great military nation (the worship of the God of forces, armament, war and weaponry –Daniel 11), which George Bush put in motion in the Gulf War 1991. Ronald Reagan on numerous occasions stated he would lead the world to Armageddon. Ronald and Nancy Reagan both followed the occult and consulted a top psychic and clairvoyant since the sixties. While he was Governor of California in 1976 there was a so-called Christian meeting at his home, in attendance that night was Jerry Falwell, a leading pre-millennialist, George Ortis, Pat Boone, Oral Roberts and others. It was reported in news articles at that time that while they were praying in a circle, a voice seemed to fall on Ronald Reagan, which said this is my son whom I will lead to the White House. In 1984 the National Prayer Breakfast or the Masonic Prayer Gathering, brought together over two hundred official dignitaries from all over the world. Warwick Fairfax and Alan Bond (Australian entrepreneurs) were official invited guests. President Reagan was actually exalted and placed above God and Christ. Blasphemy in the opening prayer, he was put above the Holy Trinity, the papers remarked how this was a first for American history. Australian newspapers also wrote a full-page article on this in 1984. He fulfilled many prophecies and events in his eight years in the White House. I told people six months before that he would have intelligence with Iran behind the back door, which he did (The Iran Contra Scandal). Again, I prophesied 18 months before (Daniel 11) he would send American warships to the Persian Gulf, a prophecy he fulfilled on the 18th April 1988 to the day. He also caused an offence to the Jews by visiting the SS War Graves in Germany at Bittburg and laid a wreath. He was the first American President to be made an honorary knight by the Queen of England. I believe only two or three Americans were ever to receive this honour. In an article in a leading Washington paper, dated 1988, Ronald Reagan gave himself rave reviews, by observing his seventh anniversary in the White House and proclaiming his great success on foreign and domestic policy. He said he needed one more year for Americans and for all mankind, to bring them to their feet for the closing act. This man is not finished yet. He is sitting patiently in a house in Beverly Hills that he rents from 18 close associate friends and his house number is 666 St Cloud Drive. Nancy and Ronald asked the Council of the area if they could change the house number as they said 666 is the biblical number for the devil. The Council came back to them and said an 8 could go over the last number 6, but officially on the record the county number could not be changed so it officially remains 666. Some coincidence that Our Lord comes on a cloud and the false Antichrist lives on Cloud Drive. I believe from war in the Middle East, which will gradually unfold, he will be given a great position over the New World Order for the final slaughter of the saints, the Mark and the final Battle of Armageddon. There is only one other man on earth as a candidate for the Antichrist title and that is George Bush [3]. He has always run with Ronald Reagan since 1980 when he became his Vice President for two terms. He also is a 33° Mason. His former positions and titles are well known as a CIA Director etc. When he was elected President on the 8th November 1988, it was announced on TV and Radio, that this man is also a descendant of the House of David or Judah, out of England. His ancestor, wait for it, was Bloody Queen Mary who burnt Protestants at the stake, he came from the Tudor line (Red Rose) and is 13th cousin to the Queen twice removed. They also stated on TV and radio that twelve American Presidents were related, including Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Richard Nixon, Abraham Lincoln, Gerald Ford and others that I did not write down at the time, I think included in that was George Washington, talk about the 13th Tribe – who runs the oval office? [4] The Lord Jesus Christ had a forerunner and that was John the Baptist, making a straight path for the Lord, but John stated the one to come would be mightier than he. Satan always does a copy act, which one is the forerunner?
Above from the left: U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton & George W. Bush – all share the same lineage. Do you remember in 1988 when the model of the Sphinx of Egypt was carried all around the world? As I said before, this was the year Satan was glorified and Freemasonry went public as their leader now sat on the Throne of David to rule the world. Now the Sphinx, the lion that couches, was built in Egypt by the high priests of Freemasonry. I believe the face of the Sphinx was Joseph who was made Administrator over Egypt at that time. Now as I previously stated Freemasonry passed into the seed of Joseph and at the end of the world, Satan’s seed line would follow through, Manasseh took the Throne and rule from Ephraim. Reading from Genesis 49 records the blessings given out to the twelve tribes of Israel: ‘Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be’ Genesis 49:8-10. The lion of the tribe of Judah, our Lord Jesus Christ, the lion in Egypt to come the Antichrist, therefore his face will be like Joseph’s, as the eldest son Manasseh looked like his father, so Ronald or George has the face of the Sphinx. The Jews cannot be fooled, as they know the Messiah must come from the root of Jesse (Joseph and Jacob), tribe of Judah. It is interesting also to note the opera performed around the world in 1988 with the Sphinx and Pyramids of Egypt called ‘Aida’ or in Arabic meaning ‘he is coming back or who is come’. The TV and media, shops, travel brochures etc have had a world wide mass advertising of the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Egypt over the last few years. News articles on the Sphinx say there is only one like it but the Sphinx continues to crumble apart (that is because the real man is here and the stone one is not needed anymore [5]). The priests knew how long it would last. The articles go on to say that after a year of scientific debate the archaeologists cannot figure out how to keep the Sphinx from falling apart. It has been almost six months since workmen made emergency repairs and replaced a stone that fell last February from the crouching lion’s right shoulder. No one knows when the Sphinx lost his nose or beard; he has survived for four thousand six hundred years. The archaeologist official Sayed Tawfik of Egypt said the ancient stone masons knew the Sphinx would not survive as long as the Pyramids of Gisa. A tumbling rock in 1982 cost the antiquities chairman his job and stopped all existing restoration works on the Sphinx. The Director Zahi Hawass stated, for the Sphinx time was passing. He is like a suffering old man who needs an operation -but what kind? When the rock fell it was a kind of a red flag Hawass said (The coming and appearance of the Antichrist the stone). Since 1980 God has confirmed by events, witnesses, TV, radio and papers and books around the world of his prophecies written in his Holy Word. If you are watching and observing as the Lord commanded you, then you will not be caught in a trap, as every day prophecy is being fulfilled. Above: The Sphinx of Egypt with a lion’s body and human head, it represents Ra-Horakhty – a form of the powerful sun god and is the incarnation of royal power. The face of the Sphinx is the ruler from the tribe of Judah, the face of the Antichrist who will rule the nations. FOOTNOTES: [1] Former President Ronald Reagan also claimed to be a descendant from the Tara Kings of Ireland. The Tara Celtic lineage was from the daughters of Zedekiah and Zarah – the evil King of Judah who was removed from the Throne (Jeremiah 40-43). [2] President Ronald Reagan (father of Star Wars Program) ordered first US warships to the Persian Gulf April 1988. President George Bush instigated the second US deployment to the Persian Gulf (Gulf War 1991) and President George W. Bush (son of Star Wars) instigated the third attack in the Persian Gulf (Iraq War 2003). See Hosea 3:4. [3] II Thessalonians 2:3 ‘Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come (Second Coming), except there come a falling away first (Great Apostasy of the Church), and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition’ (the final Antichrist). [4] President George W. Bush has the same lineage as his father whilst former President Bill Clinton shares the same ancestry as Ronald Reagan and the Bush family. [5] Although it seems the Masonic Priesthood has restored the Sphinx as a monument to the Antichrist now that he has finally come. In an article entitled ‘Sphinx finds its feet again’ 26 May 1998, the Sphinx is ‘smiling again’ after a 10 year, $4 million renovation, ‘The Sphinx is smiling again because he is a healthy man’ chief government archaeologist Zahi Hawass said. Means the final rule of the Antichrist as lawgiver (a copy of Jesus Christ) over the nations has come. | ||||
 |
9.2.07
Deck Chairs on the Titanic?
by Karen Kwiatkowski
Recently, the phrase "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" has been used to describe the American Congress and its "activity" on the questions of Iraq, and by extension, on the question of our imperial presidency.
The Sunday Washington Post features an article on those who warned in 2002 that this all-Bush, all-the-time – yet strangely Clintonesque – adventure in war for democracy, and invasion for humanitarianism would fail miserably. In the article, retired U.S. Generals Bill Odom and Tony Zinni are asked about how they feel knowing they were correct about Iraq, and that no one in Congress, in the administration, or in America listened to them. Now they are asked for their advice on what to do. They give it clearly, and in some detail. They say bring the troops home!
One wonders why this article is delegated to the Style section. We should not. Rearrangement of deck chairs on a sinking ship makes for damn fine news reporting. Particularly when the ship is filled with colorful images of the rich and powerful and the impoverished, desperate, and hopeless – all joined in the same disaster, and most but not all destined for a horrible death.
Incidentally – those saving themselves are highlighted in the front page of the same paper. Seems as if two million Iraqis have fled their country since 2003. These survivors and their families had the intelligence, education, capital, international connections and risk-tolerance that made them the backbone of the Iraqi entrepreneurial class.
These were the guys and gals in that formerly secular country of Iraq that we were going to "let" rebuild a Saddam-free Iraq.
Two million survivors – many without a home at all and facing life at least as difficult as that left to the remaining twenty some million Iraqis who couldn't leave, are already dead or injured, locked up, or just can't leave yet.
Imagine if you will, our own country suffering a three-year emigration of 26 million of our best-educated, most-skilled and wealthiest Americans – with all of their know-how, their money and economic skills, and their networks. Twenty-six million. This is the number of veterans who had their personal information placed at risk with last years' VA computer mishap. This is more than the number of Americans who have diabetes. Not impressed yet? It is more than the 20 million aliens said to be living and working illegally in this country. That upsets some people. OK, it is more than three times the number of cats and dogs we euthanize each year. Heartbreaking, isn't it?
The administration often invokes our own American efforts to become a Republic when it tries to explain Iraq. Yet in the late 1700s, we had the best and brightest on our side, and in our cities, and in our countryside. Not only were they not leaving, they were leading.
Rearranging deck chairs is certainly more entertaining and more fun than the reality of a country we hastily and rudely destroyed, and now won't let recover. It is ugly to think that we remain to pick at the wounds, tearing dead flesh like the oil-hungry vultures we are accused of channeling.
Foreign Policy published a short essay last week, entitled "Insurgencies Rarely Win – And Iraq Won't Be Any Different (Maybe)." Naval War College professor Don Stoker suggests that insurgencies don't win because historically, they can't govern. The article – intended to support the idea that a few more American troops can somehow "win" in Iraq struck me as kind of funny, in a sad, small way. This article was published in defense of the administration's infamous "surge," already begun even as Congress putters over its legality.
The author's description of the reasons for the insurgency's weakness and failure are instructive. He writes, "They lack governmental authority, established training areas, and secure supply lines." Sounds like us, and the Iraqis we've been trying to train to be politicians, policemen and soldiers, rather than the 95% of Iraqis who can't escape our mistakes and want us to simply leave – fast!
Just as useful is the author's praise for the Soviet established puppet government in Afghanistan, circa 1989. Here he writes, "In fact, the regime the Soviets established in Afghanistan was so formidable that it managed to survive for three years after the Red Army left."
Now there's a standard to shoot for, literally. Yeah, Americans, let's do that in Iraq! Er, I mean, keep trying to do that....
Misplaced faith in the power of military might and centralized bureaucracies to "make things right" or "bring freedom," or to foster "democracy" and "economic fulfillment" is a disorder that afflicts many Americans. It is for this reason that we are indeed happy to rearrange deck chairs in our foreign policy, enjoying the entertainment provided by doomed musicians like Stoker. We avoid the gaze and the wisdom of those who understand the design limitations of force, of centralized, authoritarian, and expensive governments –at home, or in foreign countries we covet.
It was blind faith in the Titanic, that massive monument to human engineering and genius, that led to a devaluing and disregard of human intuition and alertness. It was this lack of care and this abundance of arrogance that brought us that disaster of epic and famous proportions.
In slow motion, we watch the same disaster unfold in Iraq. We can't be blamed for thinking about the order and placement of deck chairs – it is apt. And we will only truly understand what we have done wrong after the ship sinks. Contrary to the strange optimism found in some corners, the sinking of the American ship won't take much longer in Iraq.
Official Lies over Najaf Battle Exposed
*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Read story from website
*NAJAF, Iraq, Jan 31 (IPS) - Iraqi government lies over the killing of
hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent
investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq.*
Conflicting reports had arisen earlier on how and why a huge battle
broke out around the small village Zarqa, located just a few kilometres
northeast of the Shia holy city Najaf, which is 90 km south of Baghdad.
One thing certain is that when the smoke cleared, more than 200 people
lay dead after more than half a day of fighting Sunday Jan. 28. A U.S.
helicopter was shot down, killing two soldiers. Twenty-five members of
the Iraqi security force were also killed.
"We were going to conduct the usual ceremonies that we conduct every
year when we were attacked by Iraqi soldiers," Jabbar al-Hatami, a
leader of the al-Hatami Shia Arab tribe told IPS.
"We thought it was one of the usual mistakes of the Iraqi army killing
civilians, so we advanced to explain to the soldiers that they killed
five of us for no reason. But we were surprised by more gunfire from the
soldiers."
The confrontation took place on the Shia holiday of Ashura which
commemorates Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the most
revered of Shia saints. Emotions run high at this time, and
self-flagellation in public is the norm.
Many southern Shia Arabs do not follow Iranian-born cleric Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani. They believe the religious leadership should be kept in the
hands of Arab clerics. Al-Hatami and al-Khazaali are two major tribes
that do not follow Sistani.
Tribal members from both believe the attack was launched by the central
government of Baghdad to stifle growing Shia-Sunni unity in the area.
"Our convoy was close to the al-Hatami convoy on the way to Najaf when
we heard the massive shooting, and so we ran to help them because our
tribe and theirs are bound with a strong alliance," a 45-year-old man
who asked to be referred to as Ahmed told IPS.
Ahmed, a member of the al-Khazali tribe said "our two tribes have a
strong belief that Iranians are provoking sectarian war in Iraq which is
against the belief of all Muslims, and so we announced an alliance with
Sunni brothers against any sectarian violence in the country. That did
not make our Iranian dominated government happy."
The fighting took place on the Diwaniya-Najaf road and spread into
nearby date-palm plantations after pilgrims sought refuge there.
"American helicopters participated in the slaughter," Jassim Abbas, a
farmer from the area told IPS. "They were soon there to kill those
pilgrims without hesitation, but they were never there for helping
Iraqis in anything they need. We just watched them getting killed group
by group while trapped in those plantations."
Much of the killing was done by U.S. and British warplanes, eyewitnesses
said.
Local authorities including the office of Najaf Governor Asaad Abu
Khalil who is a member of the pro-Iranian Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) had claimed before the killings that a group
of primarily foreign Sunni fighters with links to al-Qaeda had planned
to disrupt the Ashura festival by attacking Shia pilgrims and senior
ayatollahs in Najaf. The city is the principal seat of religious
learning for Shias in Iraq.
Officials claimed that Iraqi security forces had obtained intelligence
information from two detained men that had led the Iraqi Scorpion
commando squad to prepare for an attack. The intelligence claimed
obviously had little impact on how events unfolded.
Minister of Interior Jawad al-Bolani announced to reporters at 9 am
Sunday morning that Najaf was being attacked by al-Qaeda. Immediately
following this announcement the Ministry of National Security (MNS)
announced that the dead were members of the Shia splinter extremist
group Jund al-Sama (Army of Heaven) who were out to kill senior
ayatollahs in Najaf, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Iraq's national security advisor Muaffaq al-Rubaii said just 15 minutes
after the MNS announcement that hundreds of Arab fighters had been
killed, and that many had been arrested. Rubaii claimed there were
Saudis, Yemenis, Egyptians and Afghans.
But Governor Khalil's office backed away from its initial claims after
the dead turned out to be local Shia Iraqis. Iraqi security officials
continue to contradict their own statements. Most officials now say that
the dead were Shia extremists supported by foreign powers.
The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has a pattern of
announcing it is fighting terrorists, like its backers in Washington.
Many Iraqis in the south now accuse Baghdad of calling them terrorists
simply because they refuse to collaborate with the Iranian dominated
government.
(Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our
specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq
and has been covering the Middle East for several years.)
Lt. Ehren Watada
I would like to bring your attention to a story I covered last August
about 1st Lt. Ehren Watada. The story covered his decision not to deploy
to Iraq and a speech he gave at the Veteran's for Peace National
Convention in Seattle last August. The full text of his speech can be
read here
In the weeks following that speech, I was contacted by the prosecuting
attorney from his court-martial and informed I was on the witness list.
I took up my own legal counsel, and while I remain on the prosecution̢۪s
witness list, I have not been subpoenaed to testify against him in the
trial, which is set for February 5th.
Watada's case is critical for two main reasons.
If he is convicted for his speech charges, it sends a message to other
war resisters that they will be penalized for their speech more harshly
than even their decision not to deploy to Iraq. In addition, this sends
a chilling message to journalists who wish to cover their story – that
as a journalist you may be used as an arm of the prosecution to testify
against your sources.
This case has the potential to set precedent which would deleteriously
affect both free speech rights of service members of the U.S. military,
as well as journalists̢۪ ability to cover those stories. It is important
to note that the Democratically controlled Congress has chosen NOT to
take a stand on either of these issues, when they could intervene on
both counts.
This, despite public outcry from countless media organizations and
mainstream organizations, like Military Reporters and Editors, who wrote
this statement:
"Army prosecutors have subpoenaed two journalists, Honolulu
Star-Bulletin reporter Gregg Kakesako, and Oakland,Calif., freelancer
Sarah Olson, to testify during a January pre-trial hearing at Fort
Lewis, Wash., in the case of an Army officer who denounced the war and
refused orders to deploy to Iraq."
"Responding to the situation, Military Reporters and Editors President
James W. Crawley said, "Trying to force a reporter to testify at a
court-martial sends the wrong signal to the media and the military."
"Reporters and photographers who cover the military have developed a
level of trust with America's fighting men and women to tell their
stories honestly, fairly and completely. Having military prosecutors
abuse that trust by forcing them to testify about matters that can be
ascertained by other witnesses and evidence, stifles that trust and
relationship between the media and military."
In addition, the National Press Club has issued this statement of support:
"The National Press Club today announced its opposition to the U.S.
Army's subpoenas of Oakland, Calif., freelance journalist Sarah Olson
and Honolulu Star Bulletin reporter Gregg Kakesako."
"The subpoenas call for the reporters to testify at the Feb. 5 court
martial of Army Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused to deploy to Iraq and made
several disparaging remarks about the conduct of the war. A petition
calling for the dismissal of the subpoena has been posted on the web."
Supporters of Sarah Olson and myself have set up this website
I urge you today, one week before the court-martial trial of Lt. Watada
begins, to go there and take action by signing the aforementioned
petition
Southern Iraqi Tribes Joining Armed Resistance
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
BAGHDAD - Violence is spreading further across Iraq, as Shi'ite Arab
tribes in the south begin to engage occupation forces in new armed
resistance.
Resistance in the southern parts of Iraq has been escalating over the
last three months, leading to increased casualties among British and
other occupation forces.
In the last seven months, at least 24 British soldiers have been killed
in southern Iraq, with at least as many wounded, according to the
independent website Iraq Coalition Casualties. So far at least 128
British soldiers have died in Iraq, along with 123 of other
nationalities. Most of these have been stationed in southern Iraq.
Casualties earlier were far lower.
Attacks against occupation forces appear to stem from a growing nationalism.
"This is not about vengeance," a former Iraqi army officer from Kut, 200
km south of Baghdad told IPS in Baghdad. "People have lost hope in the
US-led occupation's promises, and they are thinking of saving the
country from Iranian influence which has been supported, or at least
allowed by the Multinational Forces."
British and US military leaders tend not to say who has been targeting
their forces in the south. They simply call the resistance fighters
"terrorists," or they point to the Mahdi Army led by Shi'ite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr as the only source of disturbance in the south.
While members of the Mahdi Army certainly carry out attacks against
occupation forces in southern Iraq, other homegrown resistance seems to
have taken root, fed also by earlier memories.
"People here have always hated the US and British occupation of Iraq,
and remembered their grandfathers who fought the British troops with the
simplest weapons," Jassim al-Assadi, a school headmaster from Kut told
IPS on a recent visit to Baghdad.
Al-Assadi was referring to the Shi'ite resistance that eventually played
a key role in expelling British forces from Iraq during the 1920s and 1930s.
Armed resistance against the occupation in the south was slow to begin
with because religious clerics instructed their followers to give the
occupation time to fulfill promises made by the Bush and Blair
administrations, al-Assadi said.
"But now they do not believe any cleric's promises any more. They have
started fighting, and that is that."
A political analyst in Baghdad, who asked to be referred to as W.
al-Tamimi, told IPS that he believes occupation forces have been working
in tandem with death squads. "We have been observing American and
British occupation forces supporting those death squads all over Iraq,
but we were still hoping for reconciliation."
Al-Tamimi said the sheikh of his tribe, which is both Shi'ite and Sunni,
was "under great pressure by the tribe's young men to let them join the
resistance."
The force of the growing resistance in the south has become more and
more evident. Late last August 1,200 British soldiers known as The
Queen's Royal Hussars abruptly evacuated their three-year-old base after
taking continuous mortar and missile fire from Shi'ite resistance fighters.
The British military announced the move as part of a long-planned
handover of security to the Iraqi government, but it was clear that the
move was abrupt. Iraqi authorities were not notified.
"British forces evacuated the military headquarters without coordination
with the Iraqi forces," Dhaffar Jabbar, spokesman for the local governor
said at the time.
Looters promptly moved into the empty base and removed an estimated half
a million dollars worth of equipment the British left behind in their
hasty retreat.
In another significant event last August, Sheikh Faissal al-Khayoon,
chief of the major Shi'ite Arab tribe Beni Assad, was killed by death
squads with suspected Iranian backing. The killers are believed by men
from the tribe to have been working for the Iraqi Ministry of Interior
in Basra.
Khayoon's tribe members reacted immediately. They took over the streets
and government offices, and set fire to the Iranian consulate in Basra.
The protests continued until clerics and Iraqi government officials
promised them a full investigation.
"It was another lie that some of us believed," a senior Beni Assad
leader told IPS on condition of anonymity. "The Sheikh was killed by
Iranian collaborators and we made a promise to his soul that his
precious life will be avenged."
Beni Tamim is another tribe with both Sunni and Shi'ite members. Members
say their Sheikh, Hamid al-Suhail, was killed Jan. 1 this year by the
Mahdi Army, which they believe has Iranian support. He died in the
northern Baghdad Shi'ite-dominated Shula Quarter.
"He was 70 years old, and brutally killed by Mahdi death squads by
pushing him from a high building," one of the sheikh's nephews told IPS
in Baghdad. "Iran is behind all this and we, Beni Tamim are well
prepared to face their yellow winds that are blowing Iraq apart."
Leaders of the two tribes, among many other tribal chiefs in the south,
are working to achieve unity between Sunni and Shi'ite groups.
The War Becomes More Unholy
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
FALLUJAH – A stepped up military offensive that targets mosques,
religious leaders and Islamic customs is leading many Iraqis to believe
that the US-led invasion really was a "holy war."
Photographs are being circulated of black crosses painted on mosque
walls and on copies of the Quran, and of soldiers dumping their waste
inside mosques. New stories appear frequently of raids on mosques and
brutal treatment of Islamic clerics, leading many Iraqis to ask if the
invasion and occupation was a war against Islam.
Many Iraqis now recall remarks by US President George W. Bush shortly
after the events of Sep. 11, 2001 when he told reporters that "this
crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while."
"Bush's tongue 'slipped' more than once when he spoke of 'fascist
Islamists' and used other similar expressions that touched the very
nerve of Muslims around the world," Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Kubayssi of
the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), a leading Sunni group, told
IPS in Baghdad. "We wish they were just mere slips, but what is going on
repeatedly makes one think of crusades over and over."
Occupation forces claim that mosque raids are being conducted because
holy places are being used by resistance fighters.
A leaflet distributed in Fallujah by US forces late November said
mosques were being used by "insurgents" to conduct attacks against
"Multinational Forces," and that this would lead to "taking proper
procedures against those mosques."
The statement referred to daily sniper attacks against occupation forces
in Fallujah in which many US soldiers have been killed.
Local people refute these claims made by coalition forces.
"Fighters never used mosques for attacking Americans because they
realize the consequences and reactions from the military," a member of
the local municipality council of Fallujah told IPS on condition of
anonymity. "Nonetheless, US soldiers always targeted our mosques and
their minarets."
During Operation Phantom Fury of November 2004, scores of mosques in
Fallujah were damaged or destroyed completely. Fallujah is known as the
city of mosques because it has so many.
Many of these are Sunni mosques. AMS leaders are now enemy number one
for US occupation forces as well as the Shi'ite-dominated government.
Through continuous arrests of its members and the raids against mosques
all over the Sunni areas of the country, including their headquarters on
the outskirts of Baghdad, the AMS has often expressed feelings of
persecution.
On the other hand, the occupation forces have been supportive of clerics
who took part in the political structure that the US coalition created
in Iraq. These include Shi'ite clerics and political leaders like
current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of the Dawa Party. Maliki has
called AMS leader Dr. Harith al-Dhari a "terrorist leader" and a murderer.
Many Sunnis who are more secular also feel persecuted by the occupation.
"I am not a follower of al-Dhari or any other leader," Prof. Malik
al-Rawi of the National Institute for Scientific Research of Baghdad
told IPS. "In fact most Sunnis do not literally follow any leader for
religious reasons. Yet after we found Americans targeting our religious
symbols, we had to stand together around the man who did not sell us to
the occupation."
Dr. Rawi, avowedly a secular Sunni, told IPS that the number of Iraqis
who believe the occupation is waging a "religious war" increased
dramatically after the 2004 attacks on Fallujah.
"Those sieges, along with all the events that followed in Samarra,
al-Qa'im, Haditha and now Siniya have led people to think of the
crusades," he added. "Americans do hate us for some reason and we do not
find any reason but religion."
It is not just Sunni Iraqis who claim that their mosques are not
respected by occupation forces. The mostly Shi'ite city of Najaf was
exposed to massive US military assaults during August 2004. Many attacks
came dangerously close to the sacred Imam Ali shrine, damaging its outer
walls.
Other US raids on Shi'ite mosques in Baghdad have infuriated Iraq's
Shi'ite population.
Some Iraqi analysts say the perceived religious conflict seems to have
expanded as the occupation has progressed.
"The world must be aware that this US administration is pushing the
situation to the black hole of a new religious conflict by giving the
green light to their soldiers to attack mosques and arrest clerics
whenever they feel like it," Kassim Jabbar, an Iraqi political analyst
from Baghdad University told IPS.
"Even people with the highest education standards are wondering why US
leaders have not restricted attacks upon religious symbols in our country."
Media Under Growing Siege
*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
*BAGHDAD, Jan. 10 (IPS) - The U.S. administration continues to tout Iraq
as a shining example of democracy in the Middle East, but press freedom
in Iraq has plummeted since the beginning of the occupation.*
Repression of free speech in Iraq was extreme already under the regime
of Saddam Hussein. The 2002 press freedom index of the watchdog
Reporters Without Borders ranked Iraq a dismal 130th. The 2006 index
pushes Iraq down to 154th position in a total of 168 listed countries,
though still ahead of Pakistan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, China and Iran.
North Korea is at the bottom of the table.
The index ranks countries by how they treat their media, looking at the
number of journalists who were murdered, threatened, had to flee or were
jailed by the state.
The end of Saddam's dictatorship had for a while brought hope of greater
press freedom. More than 200 new newspapers and a dozen television
channels opened. The hope did not last even weeks.
"We were overwhelmed by the change that accompanied what we thought was
the liberation of our country," journalist Said Ali who had earlier been
arrested many times for criticising Saddam's regime told IPS. "I was
arrested then for criticising low-ranking officials, and that was why I
did not stay in jail long. The change of system in 2003 brought me hope
of a better situation, but it proved false."
First, journalists began to face the danger of getting shot in the
streets by nervous U.S. soldiers. Many journalists were killed in such
firing. Later they began to face exile, arrest and bans on reporting
after they began to expose abuses against Iraqi civilians. Journalists
were targeted also for reporting the growing resistance to the occupation.
Order 65 of the "100 Orders" penned by former U.S. administrator in Iraq
L. Paul Bremer established a communications and media commission. Under
the order passed Mar. 20, 2004 the commission had complete control over
licensing and regulating telecommunications, broadcasting, information
services and all other media establishments.
On Jun. 28, 2004 when the United States supposedly handed power to a
"sovereign" interim government, Bremer simply passed on the authority to
U.S.-installed interim prime minister Ayad Allawi, who had longstanding
ties with the CIA and the British intelligence service MI6. These orders
have since been incorporated into the Iraqi constitution.
Within days of the "handover" of power to the interim Iraqi government,
security forces raided and shut down the Baghdad office of al-Jazeera
Arabic satellite channel.
The network was banned from reporting out of Iraq initially for a month,
but the ban was then extended "indefinitely", and remains in place
today. In November 2004 the Iraqi government announced that any
al-Jazeera journalist found reporting in Iraq would be detained.
Others were picked on too. "My friend Sophie-Anne Lamouf, a French
journalist who was covering Fallujah events from her hotel in Baghdad
was exiled," an Iraqi journalist told IPS. "I could not believe going
back to the dark ages was possible, but it is true."
Other journalists say resistance groups and criminal gangs are the
biggest threat today. Another threat to media workers has been abduction
either for ransom or to draw international attention to the kidnappers'
cause.
"The worst thing that happens to a journalist in Iraq is the fighters'
opinion that some of us are CIA spies," Iraqi journalist Maki al-Nazzal
told IPS. "This would definitely lead to thorough investigations and
sometimes has led to death."
During the siege of Fallujah in April 2004, 12 foreign journalists
reported freely and left safely. But the situation changed soon
afterwards. Under truce negotiations during that siege, U.S. forces
asked leaders of the city to expel al-Jazeera journalists as part of a
cease-fire agreement.
In September this year, the Iraqi government shut down the Baghdad
bureau of al-Jazeera's competitor al-Arabiya. And on Jan. 1 this year,
the Baghdad office of al-Sharqiya satellite channel which broadcasts
from Dubai was ordered closed by the Iraqi government on grounds of
"inciting sectarianism" following the Dec. 30 execution of Saddam
Hussein. A news reader had appeared wearing black mourning clothes.
All non-Iraqi journalists now base themselves in well-protected hotels.
For fear of resistance fighters, criminal gangs, the U.S. military or
death squads, most never leave the hotels. When they do, they go
"embedded" with the U.S. military.
According to the U.S. based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 92
journalists and 37 media support workers have been killed in Iraq since
the occupation began in March 2003. Reporters Without Borders says at
least 94 journalists and 45 media assistants have been killed since then.
Among the dead was IPS journalist Alaa Hassan who was shot and killed by
armed men as he drove to work Jun. 28 this year.
Reporters Without Borders added that Iraq was one of the world's worst
marketplaces for hostages, with at least 38 journalists kidnapped in
three years.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that at least 14
journalists have been killed by the U.S. military. Many Arab media
organisations say that number is far higher.
Death squads are now another growing threat to the media. The
al-Shaabiya satellite channel bureau was attacked by death squads last
year. The company chairman and many members of the staff were killed.
Terrified Soldiers Terrifying People
Terrified Soldiers Terrifying People
*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
*FALLUJAH, Iraq, Jan 8 (IPS) - Ten-year-old Yassir aimed a plastic gun
at a passing U.S. armoured patrol in Fallujah, and shouted "Bang! Bang!"*
Yassir did not know what was coming. "I yelled for everyone to run,
because the Americans were turning back," 12-year-old Ahmed who was with
Yassir told IPS.
The soldiers followed Yassir to his house and smashed almost everything
in it. "They did this after beating Yassir and his uncle hard, and they
spoke the nastiest words," Ahmed said.
It is not just the children, or the people of Fallujah who are frightened.
"Those soldiers are terrified here," Dr. Salim al-Dyni, a
psychotherapist visiting Fallujah told IPS. Dr Dyni said he had seen
professional reports of psychologically disturbed soldiers "while
serving in hot areas, and Fallujah is the hottest and most terrifying
for them."
Dr. Dyni said disturbed soldiers were behind the worst atrocities. "Most
murders committed by U.S. soldiers resulted from the soldiers' fears."
Local Iraqi police estimate that at least five attacks are being carried
out against U.S. troops in Fallujah each day, and about as many against
Iraqi government security forces. The city in the restive al-Anabar
province to the west of Baghdad has been under some form of siege since
April 2004.
That has meant punishment for the people. "American officers asked me a
hundred times how the fighters obtain weapons," a 35-year-old resident
who was detained together with dozens of others during a U.S. military
raid at their houses in the Muallimin Quarter last month told IPS.
"They (American soldiers) called me the worst of names that I could
understand, and many that I could not. I heard younger detainees
screaming under torture repeating 'I do not know, I do not know',
apparently replying to the same question I was asked."
U.S. soldiers have been reacting wildly to attacks on them.
Several areas of Fallujah recently went without electricity for two
weeks after U.S. soldiers attacked the power station following a sniper
attack.
Thubbat, Muhandiseen, Muallimeen, Jughaifi and most western parts of the
city were affected. "They are punishing civilians for their failure to
protect themselves," a resident of Thubbat quarter told IPS. "I defy
them to capture a single sniper who kills their soldiers."
Many of those killed in the ongoing violence are civilians. The biggest
local complaint is that U.S. forces attack civilians at random in
revenge for colleagues killed in attacks by the resistance.
More than 5,000 civilians killed by U.S. soldiers have been buried in
Fallujah cemeteries and mass graves dug on the outskirts of the city,
according to the Study Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, a
non-governmental organisation based in Fallujah.
"At least half the deceased are women, children and elderly people,"
group co-director Mohamad Tareq al-Deraji told IPS.
Overstretched U.S. soldiers appear to be punishing civilians while
suffering from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. IPS reported
Jan. 3 that new guidelines released by the Pentagon last month allow
commanders now to re-deploy soldiers suffering from such disorders.
According to the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes, service
members with "a psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual
symptoms do not impair duty performance" may be considered for duty
downrange. It lists post-traumatic stress disorder as a "treatable" problem.
Steve Robinson, director of Veterans Affairs for Veterans for America
told IPS correspondent Aaron Glantz that "as a layman and a former
soldier I think that's ridiculous."
"If I've got a soldier who's on Ambien to go to sleep and Seroquel and
Qanapin and all kinds of other psychotropic meds, I don't want them to
have a weapon in their hand and to be part of my team because they're a
risk to themselves and to others," he said. "But apparently, the
military has its own view of how well a soldier can function under those
conditions, and is gambling that they can be successful."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)