"War Crimes Suit Filed Against Rumsfeld in Germany

World Can't Wait | Drive Out the Bush Regime - War Crimes Suit Filed Against Rumsfeld in Germany:

GOD BLESS GERMANY!

By Joshua Daniel Hershfield 11/14/06

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An international grouping of lawyers has filed a 220-page lawsuit, calling on German prosecutors to investigate Donald Rumsfeld for sanctioning torture. The complaint asks Germany's federal prosecutor Monika Harms to open an investigation and criminal prosecution that will examine the responsibility of high ranking US officials in the authorization of war crimes in the context of the so-called "War on Terror." The suit is being brought on behalf of 11 detainees from Abu Ghraib and 1 detainee from Guantanamo Bay. The detainees, under the control of the US military, suffered electric shock, severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation, and sexual abuse. As Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld has presided over these crimes and many more: The massacre of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians at Haditha by US Marines on Nov. 19, 2005 The brutal military assault on Fallujah Torture at Abu Ghraib German law allows the pursuit of war crimes cases regardless of where in the world they occur. Wolfgang Kaleck, the German lawyer representing the detainees, expressed confidence and determination in a press conference in Berlin. "If we fail here, we will try in France, or in Spain," he said. "We want to show that there will be no safe haven anywhere in the world for him." Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and former CIA director George Tenet are charged in the complaint as well. The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights and the US-based Center for Constitutional rights are also involved in the suit. The president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, said in an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, "What is critical to us is, first of all, is to really bring public attention to this matter, to say that these people have engaged in a torture program and that there be some accountability for it. Whether we ever put Donald Rumsfeld in jail or not, I cannot say, but hopefully, hopefully, this case and other kinds of investigations will expose, stop, and hold accountable these officials." People can go to the Center for Constitutional Rights website and send a letter to the German prosecutor, urging her to open a prosecution in these cases. The Center's website is ccr-ny.org

U.S. Military Adopts Desperate Tactics

*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
http://DahrJamailIraq.com

*FALLUJAH, Oct 31 (IPS) - Increased violence is being countered by harsh
new measures across the Sunni-dominated al-Anabar province west of
Baghdad, residents say.*

"Thousands have been killed here by the Multi-National Forces (MNF) and
Iraqi allies, and the situation is getting worse every day," a member of
the Fallujah city council speaking on condition of anonymity told IPS.
"We have no role to play because the Americans always prefer violent
solutions that have led from one disaster to another."

The violence appears to be affecting the civilian population far more
than it is stifling the resistance. The suffering of people in Fallujah
increases by the day, and the number of resistance snipers appears to be
increasing in response to the U.S. use of snipers against civilians.

"In fact it is many more snipers now, considering the number of
incidents that have taken place," Sebri Ahmed from the local police told
IPS. "Our men are terrified, and the majority of them have quit after
serious threats of getting killed, like our three main leaders."

General Hudhairi Abbas, former deputy police chief of Fallujah was
killed two months ago. Colonel Ahmed Dirii was killed soon after, and
last week the police leader of al-Anbar, General Shaaban al-Janabi, was
assassinated in front of his family house in Fallujah.

There are now no police patrols on the streets of Fallujah, and the only
policemen around remain inside their main station.

"How come those three Fallujan born officers were killed while the
Fallujah police leader General Salah Aati was hiding behind concrete
barriers," a police officer said. Aati lives in the green zone of
Baghdad, a highly barricaded government area.

Meanwhile, attacks against occupation forces have increased in frequency
and severity. On Eid recently, four U.S. Humvees in a convoy were
destroyed by roadside bombs.

The military responded by closing all the checkpoints in the city.
Thousands had to spend the night, the first of the holidays, outside of
the city. The main roads inside the city were also closed.

"Four firemen were killed by the U.S. army because they were late to get
to the four burning hummers," a young man who witnessed the attack told
IPS. "They were not killed by mistake, they were killed in front of many
people."

The U.S. military has admitted that it killed three firemen by mistake
because they were suspected to be militants.

Hundreds of residents later attended the burial of the firemen together
with five other men killed by occupation forces the same day.

"The Americans brought five dead civilians whom they shot in the city
streets in revenge for their casualties," a man at the former football
field now called Martyrs Graveyard told IPS. "We are going to need
another graveyard, this one is going to be full soon." All semblance of
normal living in the province is disappearing. Saif al-Juboori, a
student at the University of al-Anbar in Ramadi says this will be a
wasted year for thousands of students.

"The whole university is now under siege, and there is a checkpoint at
the main gate," Juboori told IPS. "The students or teachers who approach
must lift their shirts from 50 metres away and listen to nasty comments
of arrogant soldiers who give body checks before admitting people in.
Most will no longer accept such humiliation, and so there will be no
college this year."

Ramadi has been facing electricity and water cuts for about two weeks
now. Most residents believe this is punishment for the popular support
for Iraqi resistance.

"We would rather starve to death than accept this occupation and its
Iranian allies," a 20-year-old student told IPS. "We will not let the
blood of our brother martyrs go unpunished."

Despite the punishing tactics of the occupation forces, people appear
unwilling to cooperate with local officials or the U.S. military against
local fighters.

"Iraqis believe firmly that U.S. ambassador (Zalmay) Khalilzad is the
actual ruler of the occupied country despite the repeated comedy of
transfers of sovereignty to Iyad Allawi, Ibrahim al-Jaafari and now
Noori al-Maliki's governments," a senior leader of the Arab National
Movement in Iraq, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS.

"Yet, that does not mean that the U.S. embassy has real control, as long
as there are resistance fighters who are firmly holding the Iraqi
streets in Sunni areas, and militias with their death squads controlling
the rest of the country as well as the huge oil market." Resistance
fighters recently came out to show their strength in Ramadi, the capital
city of al-Anbar province. Dozens of cars loaded with armed men went
around the city.

Immediately after that, power and water supply were cut, and raids
carried out in civilian areas. Several were killed by U.S. snipers,
residents said.

The police did nothing, they have a hard time protecting themselves.
Gunmen have attacked Iraqi police stations in Samarra, Beji and Mosul.

"We are back to point zero," a senior officer in the Ministry of
Interior told IPS. "Our forces are either loyal to militias and
political parties or too powerless to do their duties."

"Every one who fights the American occupation has our full support,"
Yassin Hussein, a 30-year-old teacher in Ramadi told IPS. "They lied to
us all the time, and it is time for them to admit their terrible failure
and leave. Let them go rebuild New Orleans."

Hussein said resistance fighters are the only force able to keep local
peace and keep criminal gangs in check. "The Americans are too busy
trying to take care of their own security to care about Iraqis."

Bush Says He Can Edit Security Reports

Bush Says He Can Edit Security Reports

October 5, 2006, ABC News/Associate Press

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2532403

President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the Homeland Security Department's reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists.

In the law Bush signed Wednesday, Congress stated no one but the privacy officer could alter, delay or prohibit the mandatory annual report on Homeland Security department activities that affect privacy, including complaints. But Bush, in a signing statement attached to the agency's 2007 spending bill, said he will interpret that section "in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch."

The American Bar Association and members of Congress have said Bush uses signing statements excessively as a way to expand his power. Bush's signing statement Wednesday challenges several other provisions in the Homeland Security spending bill.

Bush, for example, said he'd disregard a requirement that the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency must have at least five years experience and "demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security."

WE CAN NOT AFFORD ANOTHER TWO YEARS.

US Marine reports widespread prisoner abuse at Guantánamo

A US Marine Corps sergeant has given a sworn affidavit reporting widespread abuse at the US prison camp in Guantánamo Bay. The affidavit comes only a week after the US Congress passed legislation sanctioning indefinite detention, abusive treatment and denial of due process and habeas corpus rights for prisoners held at the facility and at other US prisons around the world.

According to the sergeant, a female paralegal working on a criminal case involving one of the prisoners, guards at the prison bragged to her about beating up detainees. “From the whole conversation,” she reported, “I understood that striking detainees was common practice.” The sergeant reported speaking to a group of guards at a bar on the military base, several of whom reported punching prisoners and engaging in other forms of abuse.

The paralegal’s name was blacked out of copies of the affidavit provided to the press on Friday by lawyers for the Guantánamo prisoners. Her report was also submitted to the Department of Defense.

One guard, identified as Bo, reported “taking a detainee by the head and hitting the detainee’s head into the cell door,” she wrote. Bo told her that the other guards at the prison knew of the action, but that he was not reprimanded or punished in any way. She wrote that “about 5 others” also said that they hit detainees, and that the whole group laughed as the stories were being recounted.

Other forms of abuse are also commonplace at the prison, she wrote. Reuters reported, “A guard named Steven said that even when the conduct of detainees was good, guards would take away personal items.” The paralegal reported that this was done “to anger the detainees so [the guards] can punish them when they object or complain.”

The guards clearly felt they had free rein to abuse prisoners, since they so freely boasted of their actions. Evidently they also believed there would be no consequences to admitting the abuse because they were in the Navy and the sergeant was a Marine.

This is just the latest indication of widespread torture at Guantánamo. Wells Dixon, a lawyer representing several prisoners at Guantánamo, told Reuters, “The fact that members of the US Navy can sit around at a bar and laugh about beating detainees for no reason is outrageous. We’re one step away from Abu Ghraib or possibly worse.”

The methods of torture that became infamous after the release of photographs from Abu Ghraib originated in Guantánamo, with the approval and encouragement of top officials in the military and the Bush administration: enforced nakedness, sexual humiliation, the use of dogs, prolonged isolation, shackling, sensory deprivation and overload, stress positions, and a host of other techniques that constitute torture.

Direct physical abuse as reported by the paralegal is only one aspect, and indeed not the most tormenting, of the torture inflicted upon these prisoners over the course of five years. The method reported by one of the guards—taking away privileges without any rationale—is one in a series of techniques that have been used to make prisoners feel that they have no control over their surroundings and are completely at the mercy of their guards and interrogators.

All of this has been sanctioned by the Bush administration. The statement by Navy Commander Robert Duran that an investigation will be carried out and that “abuse or harassment of detainees in any form is not condoned or tolerated” lacks any credibility.

As early as December 2001, administration lawyers were drafting memoranda to justify the repudiation of the Geneva Conventions in relation to the Guantánamo prisoners and others captured in the “war on terror.” The lawyers argued that the prisoners should have no right to challenge their detention or treatment in US courts. They constructed obtuse linguistic arguments to define “torture” in a way that excluded most torture techniques. They further asserted that the president, as commander-in-chief, had the right to order torture, and that any legal restraints on this power could be unconstitutional.

The aim was to establish the foundation for the repudiation of international law and the US Constitution and give the president unlimited powers to arrest and detain anyone indefinitely, torture him, and deny him any legal rights. The widespread abuse of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay is only one of the consequences of these steps.

This legal justification for presidential powers of a dictatorial character and the network of provisions that, taken together, constitute the legal framework for a police state were sanctioned by the US Congress ten days ago in the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

The law was passed without any genuine public discussion or any serious congressional hearings. The Democratic Party made a decision not to block the bill, which they could have done by means of a Senate filibuster. The legislation passed the House of Representatives with the support of 34 Democrats, who joined 219 Republicans in a lopsided vote of 253-168. The Senate adopted the bill the next day by an even wider 65-34 margin, with 12 Democrats joining a near-unanimous Republican bloc.

The law alters the War Crimes Act to define war crimes in a manner that excludes all but the harshest interrogation techniques. All of the methods used at Guantánamo, including direct physical abuse, are not included in the law’s definition of war crimes. For example, only “serious physical pain and suffering” will now be a war crime under US law, and this specifically does not include cuts, bruises or physical pain that is not “extreme” and does not lead to significant impairment or long-term injury. Punching, and the banging of heads into cell walls, will therefore not be a crime.

The president is given wide latitude to determine precisely what methods are allowed. The legislation also permits the use of testimony obtained through torture in the drumhead military commissions that it codifies.

Perhaps most significantly, the bill explicitly denies “unlawful enemy combatants,” including prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, access to US courts. Prisoners will be unable to go into US court to file writs of habeas corpus and challenge their “detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of confinement.” The law also states that the Geneva Conventions, which the US is systematically violating in its treatment of prisoners, will not be viewed as a source of individual rights in any US court.

Democratic Party leaders have said nothing about the most recent revelations of abuse at Guantánamo, nor has the affidavit from the US Marine received significant attention from the media.

See Also:
Human rights groups condemn US law on military commissions
[3 October 2006]
US Congress legalizes torture and indefinite detention
[29 September 2006]
Senate-White House compromise sanctions CIA torture of detainees
[23 September 2006]

An Unknown City Erupts

*Inter Press Service*
Ali Al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail

*BAQUBA, Oct 9 (IPS) - The little known city of Baquba is emerging as
one of the hotbeds of resistance in Iraq, with clashes breaking out
every day.*

The violence in this city 50km northeast of Baghdad is also now
spreading elsewhere around Diyala province.

"The new waves of terror are now forming a variety that we predicted
long ago," a political leader in the city told IPS. "The Iraqi people
have complained to everyone, but naturally no one will do anything about
it. We know who is in charge and who is responsible and eventually who
is to be dammed. It is the government of the United States of America."

The local leader, speaking from his home in Baquba, said the situation
in the area was becoming dire in the face of the recent violence.

"The worst is the direct participation of the national security forces
in criminal acts, and the U.S. Army's sudden disappearance from the
scene as soon as those murderers show up," he said. Many have been
killed, and hundreds arrested in the province, he said.

The al-Tawafuq Sunni party has demanded a full investigation into the
violence in Baquba, and immediate release of the detained civilians. "We
are sure the arrests were made under sectarian flags and those detainees
are innocent farmers captured in their own plantations," the group said
in a statement.

An Iraqi army colonel told reporters in Diyala last week that that U.S.
troops had arrested 10 Iraqi soldiers suspected of sectarian killings.
There was no official U.S. comment.

Iraqi MP Muhammad al-Dayni appeared on al-Jazeera television to say that
Brigadier al-Kaabi, leader of the fifth division in charge of Diyala
province security, had led the arrest of 400 civilians. Hundreds of
houses had been looted, he said. Al-Dayni accused the parties in power
of supporting such acts, referring to the Shia parties in parliament.

The fighting has intensified now, but Baquba has long been a city of
fierce resistance to the occupation. Resistance groups have often
frustrated the efforts of the Multi-National Forces (MNF) and Iraqi
security forces to bring the city under their control.

Residents of Baquba told IPS that an Iraqi police brigadier-general had
used loudspeakers to announce dire warnings to residents.

"We were used to hearing our own government calling us terrorists,
Saddamists and Zarqawis before, but this man added new words to the
vocabulary like bastards and expressions of that sort," Abu Omar, a law
student at Diyala University told IPS. "Yet we were not surprised
because we know he was just repeating what his green zone masters have
always said."

Mazin al-Zaidy, a resident of Baquba, told IPS that the situation in
Diyala province could be the worst in Iraq because people of many
ethnicities live in the area. "The MNF and militias concentrate on
clearing it of the Arab Sunnis prior to any federalism plan."

Al-Zaidy said "there are Kurds, Shias and Sunnis who share the province,
and that has to be altered for the benefit of the first two groups."
Al-Zaidy was referring to the towns Mendily, Jalowlaa and surrounding
areas that are marked Kurdish on the Kurdistan map.

The influence of each group changes often. "Each day I wake up I don't
know who is in control of my city," said a religious sheikh in Baquba
who asked to be referred to as Sheikh Ahmed. "One day it is the
Americans, the next day a militia, the next day a resistance group."

Diyala province gets little media attention "because of the journalists'
fear of going in," said al-Zaidy.

The new violence has ripped apart old traditions, he said. "The people
of the province do not understand how these powers could turn it into a
sectarian city from a wonderful 1,400 years of community peace and
intermarriages."

The U.S. military has announced meanwhile that bomb attacks in Baghdad
have hit an all-time high. The number of U.S. soldiers killed is now
approaching the 3,000 mark.

The number of Iraqi casualties runs into hundreds of thousands.

U.S. Resorting to 'Collective Punishment'

U.S. Resorting to 'Collective Punishment'
http://DahrJamailIraq.com

*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

*RAMADI, Sep 18 (IPS) - U.S. forces are taking to collective punishment
of civilians in several cities across the al-Anabar province west of
Baghdad, residents and officials say.*

"Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar province, is still living with the
daily terror of its people getting killed by snipers and its
infrastructure being destroyed," Ahmad, a local doctor who withheld his
last name for security purposes told IPS. "This city has been facing the
worst of the American terror and destruction for more than two years
now, and the world is silent."

Destroying infrastructure and cutting water and electricity "for days
and even weeks is routine reaction to the resistance," he said. "Guys of
the resistance do not need water and electricity, it's the families that
are being harmed, and their lives which are at stake."

Students and professors at the University of al-Anbar told IPS that
their campus is under frequent attack.

"Nearly every week we face raids by the Americans or their Iraqi
colleagues," a professor speaking on condition of anonymity told IPS.
Students said that U.S. troops occupied their school last week..

"We've been under great pressure from the Americans since the very first
days of their occupation of Iraq," a student told IPS.

Such raids are being reported all over Ramadi. "The infrastructure
destruction is huge around the governorate building in downtown Ramadi,"
said a 24-year-old student who gave his name as Ali al-Ani. "And they
are destroying the market too."

IPS reported Sep. 5 that the U.S. military was bulldozing entire blocks
of buildings near the governorate to dampen resistance attacks on
government offices.

Such U.S. action seems most severe in al-Anabar province, where
resistance is strongest, and which has seen the highest U.S. casualties.

The city of Hit 80km west of Ramadi was surrounded by U.S. troops for
several days earlier this week. Several civilians were killed and at
least five were detained by U.S. forces. Checkpoints are in place at
each entrance to the city after the U.S. military lifted the cordon
around it. This has stifled movement and damaged local businesses.

"There was an attack on a U.S. convoy, and three vehicles were
destroyed," a local tribal chief who gave his name as Nawaf told IPS.
"It wasn't the civilians who did it, but they are the ones punished.
These Americans have the bad habit of cutting all of the essential
services after every attack. They said they came to liberate us, but
look at the slow death they are giving us every day."

In Haditha, a city of 75,000 on the banks of the Euphrates River in
western al-Anbar, collective punishment is ongoing, residents say. This
was the site of the massacre of 24 civilians by U.S. marines in November
2005.

"The Americans continue to raid our houses and threaten us with more
violence," a local tribal leader who gave his name as Abu Juma'a told
IPS. "But if they think they will make us kneel by these criminal acts,
they are wrong. If they increase the pressure, the resistance will
increase the reaction. We see this pattern repeated so often now."

Abu Juma'a added: "I pray that the Americans return to their senses
before they lose everything in the Iraqi fire."

In Fallujah, local police say residents have turned against them due to
the collective punishment tactics used by U.S. forces.

"The Americans started pushing us to fight the resistance despite our
contracts that clearly assigned us the duties of civil protection
against normal crimes such as theft and tribal quarrels," a police
lieutenant told IPS. "Now 90 percent of the force has decided to quit
rather than kill our brothers or get killed by them for the wishes of
the Americans."

At least one U.S. vehicle is reported destroyed every day on average in
the face of mounting U.S. raids and a daily curfew. The scene is one of
destruction of the city, not rebuilding.

"Infrastructure rebuilding is just a joke that nobody laughs at," Fayiq
al-Dilaimy, an engineer in Fallujah told IPS. He was on the rebuilding
committee set up after the November 2004 U.S.-led operation which
destroyed approximately 75 percent of the city..

"People of this city could rebuild their city in six months if given a
real chance. Now look at it and how sorrowful it looks under the boots
of the 'liberators'."

Many of the smaller towns have been badly hit. "Khaldiyah (near
Fallujah) and the area around it have faced the worst collective
punishments for over two years now," said a government official in
Ramadi. "But of course most cities in al-Anbar are being constantly
punished by the Americans."

Samarra and Dhululiyah towns, both north of Baghdad, have also been
facing collective punishment from the U.S. military, according to residents.

"Curfews and concrete walls are permanent in both cities, which makes
life impossible," Ali al-Bazi, a lawyer who lives in Dhululiyah and
works in Samarra told IPS. "There are so many killings by American
snipers. So many families have lost loved ones trying to visit relatives
or even just stepping outside of their house."

While Baghdad is not in al-Anbar province, occupation forces have used
similar tactics there. In January 2005 IPS reported that the military
used bulldozers to level palm groves, cut electricity, destroy a fuel
station and block access roads in response to attacks from resistance
fighters.

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad did not comment on specific cases,
but told IPS that the U.S. military "does its best to protect civilians
from the terrorists."

Officer Called Haditha Routine

Officer Called Haditha Routine

Marine Said Deaths Didn't Merit Inquiry BU*SH*IT

By Thomas E. Ricks

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 19, 2006; Page A01

The Marine officer who commanded the battalion involved in the Haditha killings last November did not consider the deaths of 24 Iraqis, many of them women and children, unusual and did not initiate an inquiry, according to a sworn statement he gave to military investigators in March.

"I thought it was very sad, very unfortunate, but at the time, I did not suspect any wrongdoing from my Marines," Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marines, said in the statement.

News From Iraq Pentagon Cites Spike In Violence in Iraq Orphans in Iraq's Storm Blasts Kill at Least 72 in Baghdad In Iraq, Singing for a Chance at Hope and Glory Bush Takes His Case to Veterans More News FULL REPORT: America at War Special Report Washington Post stories and multimedia reports about Iraq, Afghanistan, the War on Terror and more. • Faces of the Fallen • Veterans: In Their Own Words • Afghan Reconstruction » FULL COVERAGE

Continued 2

Hezbollah An Emerging Political Force; "Open War" in the Middle East

*Inter Press Service*
http://DahrJamailIraq.com
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail

*LATAKIA, Syria, Jul 18 (IPS) - Hezbollah, a group often misunderstood
by Westerners, is a militant but also a political group.*

The Arabic name means 'Party of God'. Led by the charismatic Sheikh
Hassan Nasrallah, the Lebanese Islamist Shia group was set up in 1982 to
resist Israeli occupation of Lebanon during the brutal civil war. The
group declared a political existence in 1985..

Hezbollah achieved their goal when Israeli troops withdrew from southern
Lebanon on May 25, 2000. The Israeli withdrawal followed sustained
Hezbollah attacks on its troops.

The political platform of Hezbollah calls for the destruction of Israel,
but the group has successfully transformed itself from a radical
extremist group into an effective political force which holds 18 percent
of the seats in the Lebanese Parliament.

The United States, Britain, Israel and other Western countries consider
Hezbollah a terrorist organisation that they say has received weapons
and also financial and political support from Iran and Syria. Both these
countries deny supplying arms to Hezbollah.

But both countries openly support the group politically. Iranian leaders
have produced angry rhetoric in support of Hezbollah. In Syria massive
demonstrations were held in Damascus, Latakia and several other cites.
Demonstrations in support of Hezbollah were also held in cities across
many Arab countries.

Throughout most of the Arab and Muslim world, Hezbollah is highly
regarded as a legitimate resistance movement. The group follows a
distinctly Shia Islamist ideology developed by the leader of the Islamic
Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In Lebanon the group had first hoped to transform the whole country into
a fundamentalist Shia state. But it has now abandoned that objective for
a more inclusive platform.

About 60 percent of the 3.8 million population of Lebanon is Muslim,
most of them Shia. This is where Hezbollah draws its support. The rest
of the population is almost all Christian. A 15-year civil war between
Muslim and Christian groups ended in 1991.

The Shia movement in Iraq led by Muqtada al-Sadr is following in the
footsteps of Hezbollah. It has won broad support in Iraq from millions
of impoverished Shias there for similar reasons.

Hezbollah won the support of Shia Muslims by providing social services,
healthcare and welfare when the Lebanese government failed. Hezbollah
runs hospitals, news services and educational facilities for its
followers in Lebanon. It is behind a large number of economic and
infrastructure projects in the country.

The recent Israeli strikes in Lebanon destroyed the Hezbollah al-Manar
Television station. But the group continues to broadcast messages from
Nasrallah by other means.

Hezbollah has refused to integrate its forces into the Lebanese army
despite political pressure. It considers itself a legitimate resistance
movement in Lebanon that is also important to the entire Middle East region.

Hezbollah has long accused Israel of holding many of its members in
jail, some for more than 20 years, and continues to demand their
release. Hezbollah says it will continue to fight unless its prisoners
are also released.

Hezbollah became the most powerful military force in Lebanon after Syria
withdrew its troops last year. It now has a seat in the Lebanese cabinet.

During the civil war, which brought Lebanon to its knees, Hezbollah
became infamous for its suicide bombings and kidnapping of Western
hostages, primarily journalists.

The biggest Hezbollah suicide attack was the bombing of the barracks of
U.S. marines in Beirut in 1983. The attack killed 241 marines and led
then president Ronald Reagan to withdraw all U.S. troops from the country.

The group is also widely believed to have carried out an attack on the
U.S. embassy, killing 63 people, and on the headquarters of the French
multinational forces, killing 58 French troops.

Hezbollah's political rise came substantially after the assassination of
former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Harriri in February 2005. In May of
that year Hezbollah won its biggest election victory.

Hezbollah was invited to join the government in July last year in hope
that the move would bring national unity to Lebanon as the country
struggled for stability and peace.

The current fighting between Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Israel has
left more than 200 Lebanese dead, along with several Israelis. Both
Hezbollah and the government of Israel have declared open war with one
another. International intervention has been lacklustre to say the
least, and the crisis looks set to deepen.

As through its chequered history, Hezbollah is again winning praise and
support from the Arab and Muslim world, while it is accused of terrorism
by the West. Hezbollah is about the most prominent division points at
present between the two worlds.

By Dahr Jamail
http://DahrJamailIraq.com
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.

Tuesday 18 July 2006

"In my judgment, the best way to stop the violence is to understand why
the violence occurred in the first place." That one sentence (a
surprisingly rare example of a complete sentence spoken by Cheney
spokesman George W. Bush), taken on its own, would fully explain why the
Middle East is now on the brink of regional war. But of course, Bush
always finds a way to engage in Orwellian newspeak. At a news conference
with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, he managed to rewrite
history in the very next sentence by blaming Hezbollah for instigating
the violence by launching rocket attacks into Israel and capturing
Israeli soldiers. But then, George most likely has no idea where Gaza
is, let alone what has been occurring there for decades.

As puppet Bush goes on saying things like "Every nation has a right to
defend itself," referring to his favorite ally, Israel, his use of the
word "every" would of course exclude Lebanon, since their army is using
anti-aircraft guns against Israeli warplanes. And let us not forget the
Iraqi resistance - as it may never cross his feeble mind that they are
defending Iraq from the American invaders.

Most Arab leaders are refusing to back Hezbollah, although US-influenced
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II issued
the usual statements demanding "an immediate halt on attacking civilians
and vital infrastructure," saying that such attacks breach the
international humanitarian conventions. As if Israel will listen. As if
the US listens to any calls from countries demanding similar actions by
the occupation forces and Western contracting companies who are busily
raping and pillaging Iraq. As if any country in war ever abides by the
Geneva Conventions nowadays. And without a functional UN to actually
take a stand for human rights or real justice, why should they?

The typical response among the people here in the Middle East is to
scoff at their leadership - who continue to cower and bow to US interests.

Friday at the Lebanese/Syrian border, I spoke with a 50-year-old Kuwaiti
man, Emad, as he fled Beirut with his family. "It's very bad there, as
the Israelis are attacking civilians, bombing police and petrol stations
and even the fuel storage depots," he told me, "In fact, they have even
bombed the airport once again. I saw F-16's bombing and there is smoke
everywhere. This is a big disaster for the Lebanese."

When I asked him what he thought it would take to end the fighting, he
promptly replied, "It looks like the Arab governments are not moving
their asses, so I am leaving."

Yet as consistently as the Arab governments fail to get busy "moving
their asses" toward something resembling a solution to this crisis, just
as consistently are the people repressed by those same governments
raising their voices.

On Friday, tens of thousands of Arab protestors hit the streets,
condemning the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and their actions in the Gaza
Strip. 5,000 angry protesters gathered at a mosque in Cairo carrying
banners that read, "Hey Arab leaders, you should be united." In Amman,
over 2,000 demonstrators gathered at a mosque after Friday prayers,
shouting "Zionists get out, get out!" and "Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan
are one people!"

Thousands marched in Gaza, waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, thousands of angry Iraqis marched, praising
Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, while denouncing Israel and
the US for the attacks. Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr hinted that he may
be prepared to put his Mehdi Army militia into action against the
Americans due to the Israeli actions in Lebanon and Gaza.

In an earlier piece titled "An Alliance of Violence
," I detailed
how violence perpetrated on the people of Palestine by the Israeli
military has immediate ramifications in Iraq. The same is now brewing
yet again.

In Kuwait, protesters rallied in front of the parliament building,
shouting "Death to Israel!" and "Death to America!" Meanwhile, a Kuwaiti
lawmaker named Musallam al-Barrak lashed out at his and other Arab
governments when he stated, "Arab countries can do nothing but condemn."

There is a frightening undercurrent of rage among the people in the
Middle East toward their governments: The Arab world is on fire over the
injustice meted out against the Palestinian people, as well as to the
Lebanese. The Israeli people are deeply angered at their government for
failing to provide security (of course our corporate media would never
report on the fact that hundreds of thousands of Israelis oppose their
government's actions in Gaza and beyond) - instead, preferring peaceful
resolutions rather than brutal, unjust, failed occupation and ongoing
acts of aggression.

Predictably, the impotent UN Security Council goes about its
machinations of futility, holding emergency meetings while hoping for
resolutions - which rarely, if ever, change anything on the ground to
stop the needless massacre of civilians on both sides of the conflict.
Ah, the UN - where the US is responsible for eight out of the last nine
vetoes, seven of which had to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
So why pin any hope on the UN, when the US has already vetoed a
resolution demanding that Israel stop its military offensive in the Gaza
Strip?

Meanwhile, the bloodletting continues as the situation escalates and
spins further into chaos while threatening to spread deeper into the region.

Israel, the only nuclear power in the region, hopes to completely
annihilate Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. They have now insured total,
unending war by demanding Hezbollah to completely disarm, leave southern
Lebanon and hand over the Israeli soldiers, demands which Hezbollah will
surely brush aside.

Let us not forget that both Israel and the US announced in January that
the Palestinian people would be punished for voting the wrong way by
electing Hamas to power. That unjust act, which began the chain of
events leading to our current crisis, may well be marked as the match
that lit this hellish bonfire. Because it certainly seems, judging from
their actions in Gaza and now in southern Lebanon, that the aim of the
Israeli government is to wipe out the Palestinian people, in addition to
Hamas and Hezbollah.

So we naturally have open war in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. Israel
declared it by their act of bombing and invading Lebanon, then bombing
Nasrallah's Beirut offices. Nasrallah, unhurt by the attack, promptly
appeared on television announcing "open war" against Israel.

On Hezbollah's TV channel in Beirut, he said, "You wanted an open war
and we are ready for an open war." He announced, "Look at the warship
that has attacked Beirut [referring to an Israeli warship off the coast
that was lobbing shells into Lebanon] while it burns and sinks before
your very eyes."

The ship was heavily damaged and four of its 80 soldiers on board went
missing after being attacked by an explosive drone launched by
Hezbollah, the first time such a weapon has been seen from their arsenal.

"Now in the middle of the sea, facing Beirut, the Israeli warship that
has attacked the infrastructure, people's homes and civilians - look at
it burning," Nasrallah mocked, in his address that aired late Friday night.

In footage aired by the same channel, dozens of Lebanese danced in the
streets of Beirut to celebrate the announcement of the attack on the
Israeli ship. This, of course, contradicts Israel's goal in pressuring
Lebanon: Israel hoped that by punishing the Lebanese they would force
the country to pressure Hezbollah. Despite the propaganda of the dancing
Lebanese aired by Hezbollah TV, reaction thus far is mixed in besieged
Lebanon.

Deepening the crisis, Nasrallah threatened to attack deeper inside
Israel, "beyond Haifa."

And Saturday the bloodshed continued as the Israeli Air Force bombed
bridges, fuel storage tanks, petrol stations in southern and eastern
Lebanon. At least four people were killed in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and
more bridges south of Beirut were destroyed.

The same day, at least 15 Lebanese villagers, including women and
children, were killed by an Israeli air strike on their vehicles as they
fled their village of Marwahin in southern Lebanon after being ordered
to evacuate by the Israelis.

Leaflets dropped by Israeli aircraft over Beirut warned the Lebanese not
to back Nasrallah. Yet, giving further evidence to the Lebanese army's
outwardly opposing the Israelis, after the leaflets were dropped they
were promptly collected and taken away by Lebanese security forces.

Underscoring this, Saadeddine Rafik Hariri, majority leader in the
Lebanese Parliament and the son of the assassinated former prime
minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, told reporters in Kuwait on Saturday:
"The Lebanese people must remain united. We must not allow Israel to
divide us. The enemy is Israel."

Here in Damascas we're on pins and needles. The mood is one of both high
anxiety and seething anger at the Israelis' war against both Lebanon and
Hezbollah. Like anywhere else, nobody here supports collective
punishment or attacks against sovereign countries.

As Israeli jets pound the mountains in Lebanon near the Syrian border,
striking radio and satellite antennas, the concern that Syria will be
drawn into the conflict grows daily.

The day before, Reuters reported that the ruling Ba'ath party in
Damascas announced that they and the "Syrian people"... "are ready to
extend full support to the Lebanese people and their heroic resistance
to remain steadfast and confront the barbaric Israeli aggression and its
crimes."

The war is even widening in Lebanon, as Israeli warplanes, also on
Saturday, bombed an area in Tripoli, their most northern strike thus
far. After Israel placed an embargo on Lebanon and shut down their main
seaport in Beirut, 95% of the trade was rerouted through the port at
Tripoli. Today, three bombs were dropped by Israeli war planes on that
port. Other Lebanese ports now shut down include Jounieh, Amshit and
Hamat, as the Lebanese economy has ground to a nearly complete standstill.

At least 79 civilians have been killed and over 250 wounded since Israel
began its attack against Lebanon on Wednesday.

Civilians dying aren't only in Lebanon. Over a dozen rockets were fired
by Hezbollah into several towns in northern Israel, in addition to over
90 fired into a total of 15 towns in Israel thus far, killing at least
four and wounding scores.

Thus, both Hezbollah and the Israeli government have their "open war."
As usual, while the politicians and the UN wring their hands and twiddle
their thumbs, those bearing the brunt are the civilians on both sides,
whether they live in Israel, Lebanon or Palestine.

"This is going to be a big war."; Lebanese Tremors Rock Syria

(c)2006 Dahr Jamail
http://DahrJamailIraq.com
Jeff Pflueger's Photography Media
http://jeffpflueger.com

 "This is going to be a big war."


You can always spot them a mile away-he was white, middle-aged,
overweight, hair cut close to hide the pattern baldness, red face,
wearing a Harley Davidson motorcycle t-shirt and shorts. All of the
aforementioned is acceptable in the Middle East, of course, minus the
shorts. Aside from a few places like Beirut, wearing shorts in the
Middle East isn't exactly being respectful of the native culture.

But when you are a mercenary, I suppose that's damned low on your
priority list.

Then there was the other one-I noticed him in Chicago before we board
our Royal Jordanian flight to Amman. A 30-something white man, eyes wide
open, looking over his shoulder constantly, chewing gum so hard his jaw
muscles protruded. Blue-flames tattooed on his right arm above the
wrist-running up under his sleeve I don't know how far up his arm. His
tan combat boots and tan backpack kind of gave him away too, despite his
wearing civilian clothing.

During my flight I sat near a kind Palestinian man from the West Bank.
The older gentleman works in Dallas, and is retiring from his
electronics store which he is happy to tell me is being passed along to
his kids. His wife remains in the West Bank, so that's why he's moving
back home. I asked him what it's like to go home.

"I spend the night in Amman then the next day it takes sometimes the
full day to cross the bridge and get through the checkpoints. We have
the Jordanian border, the Israeli checkpoint, and another to get into
the West Bank," he says, "Each time they take all our things out, search
them and us, then if we're lucky we're waved through."

I ask him how he deals with it, personally, without losing his mind.
"Oh, all I can do is laugh, because if I lose my temper, if anyone loses
their temper, the soldiers [occupation soldiers] just go away for 3-4
hours until they feel like returning. So we all just stay calm and
behave gently and with dignity. They have all the power. We have none.
So what else can we do?"

Behaving like a typical Arab, he invites me to his home anytime I'm in
the area.

Landing in the heat of Amman, I left the plane and walk past a Jordanian
man holding a small piece of paper up which read, "Blackwater." Of
course it's for one (or both) of the men I described above…and soon I
see him greeting the man who prefers to wear shorts in the Middle East.

Not too much has changed in the airport in Amman, aside from the new
Starbucks. Of course, the Cinnabon had already been here for at least a
couple of years.

Meanwhile, plenty has changed in the region since I was here one year
ago. Wednesday, after having two of their soldiers captured by Hezbollah
fighters, the government of Israel has sent ground troops, backed by
aircraft and artillery, into Southern Lebanon. It's the first ground
operation by the Israelis in Lebanon since they withdrew from occupying
Lebanon in 2000. Just what the Middle East needs-another country to be
occupied; the move is akin to dumping jet fuel on a raging fire.

The prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, referring to how his country
would respond to having two of their soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah,
told a joint news conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi, "The Lebanese government is responsible. Lebanon will
pay the price."

Adhering to his favorite policy of collective punishment, Olmert, added,
"…those responsible for the attack will pay a high and painful price."
So attack a country because a rebel group in south Lebanon captured two
soldiers. And so the madness continues, as an Israeli air strike on a
house in Gaza on what they claimed was targeting a "Hamas top militant
leader" killed nine Palestinians, including seven children from one family.

Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara stated recently that Israel's
occupation of Arab land lays at the root of the new crisis that found
Israeli troops entering Lebanon. Let's have some more jet fuel. Looks
like I've picked an interesting time to visit Syria.

Meanwhile, Baghdad burns as over 100 people have been killed in
sectarian violence since Sunday.

A short flight has me landing in Damascas, then racing through the
streets as warm air flows through the open taxi windows. The pale green
lights mark the tops of minarets around the city, the rest of the lights
twinkling in the background as we found our way to my hotel.

After checking in, I dropped my bag and began to walk out for some food,
only to find Abu Talat at the front desk. A long bear hug and the
typical cheek kissing of Arab men, and we meet again after over one year
since we last were together. I'd given him the name of my hotel, but was
suspect as to whether he would have a successful trip out of Baghdad,
with the extremes of violence over the last three days there. He tends
to not go far from home when that occurs, but alas, he decided to go
after obtaining a promise from his son not to leave his home under any
circumstances.

Also typical of Arab men, we walk down the sidewalk holding hands, en
route to a café, talking a mile a minute. He tells me how horrible it is
in Baghdad. He lists his family members and relatives, one by one, who
have left already for good. "Those who can afford to fly are purchasing
one way tickets Dahr," he says, "For they have no intention of coming
back. Aside from my own children and wife, I am the only one of my
relatives left in Iraq."

The fighting is everywhere, he tells me. Now that the U.S.
military/Rumsfeld (who was just in Baghdad) and Khalilzad have declared
war on the Shia Mehdi Army, accusing them of terrorism, all bets are
off. Of course, the timing of this with Israelis attacks against
Hezbollah couldn't be more perfect. Coincidence?

"The fighting is everywhere, and there is no way the Americans can
control it now," Abu Talat adds, "The Shia are fighting each other for
control of Basra, while also fighting the Sunni."

"It is civil war now in Iraq, no doubt," he continues, "But no matter
who you ask, no one will admit it. Because people are too afraid to
admit this. People prefer to deny it."

Even back at our hotel, there are at least two other Iraqis, who have
come here for surgery, since all of the senior doctors have long since
left Baghdad to save their own lives.

The next day, Thursday, we awoke with our eyes glued to al-Jazeera on
the television. Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut's Rafiq al-Hariri
airport. At least two air strikes were reported while Lebanese
anti-aircraft guns fired feebly at the jets, according to witnesses.
Israeli jets also bombed bridges linking south Lebanon to the rest of
the country, and 22 civilians were killed last night by Israeli attacks
in southern Lebanon.

In response to the bombings, Hezbollah claims to have fired 60 rockets
into northern Israel.

The Israeli justification for bombing the airport in Beirut and pushing
into southern Lebanon is that two of their soldiers were captured. In
classic newspeak, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said of the
incident, "It is an act of war by the state of Lebanon," conveniently
omitting the bombings in the occupied territories, including civilians
on a beach, by Israeli forces over the last weeks.

"This is going to be a big war," Abu Talat tells me while we watch
plumes of smoke billowing from locations within Lebanon, "This is even
more important for us to cover than Iraq, and you know how much I love
Iraq."


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 21:40:59 +0300
From: iraq_dispatches@dahrjamailiraq.com
Subject: Iraq Dispatches: Lebanese Tremors Rock Syria



     Lebanese Tremors Rock Syria

*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail

*DAMASCUS, Jul 13 (IPS) - Syrians are outraged over Israeli air strikes
in Lebanon that have killed 53 civilians and closed down Beirut's
international airport.*

Early Thursday morning Israeli air strikes targeted the new Rafiq
al-Hariri international airport. Israeli naval vessels entered Lebanon's
territorial waters and blocked access to ports while its forces launched
an offensive in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah is a militant group that has long engaged in armed conflict
with Israel. It is believed to be strongest in the south of Lebanon, in
the areas bordering Israel.

The Israeli offensive was launched in response to the killing of eight
Israeli soldiers in clashes with Hezbollah fighters Wednesday near the
border 15km from the Mediterranean. Two Israeli soldiers were taken
hostage. An Israeli soldier had earlier been captured in Gaza.

In an escalation of the conflict, an Israeli woman was killed after
Hezbollah fighters fired rockets across the border into the Israeli town
Nahariya. An Israeli air base was hit by rockets, along with other towns
in the area. Several Israeli civilians have been wounded.

The Israeli military entered Lebanon for the first time since
withdrawing six years ago.

"I doubt you will find one Syrian who will not denounce what Israel is
doing in Gaza, the West Bank and now in Lebanon," independent publicity
consultant Ibrahim Yakhour told IPS. "Syrians believe that what the
Palestinians suffer is what the Syrians suffer."

Yakhour, a 60-year-old retired journalist said political parties in
Syria have been calling for a peaceful political process in the Middle
East for the past 30 years. "But when people are humiliated, attacked
and killed, radical reactions commence which are deleterious to the
political process."

People in Damascus also fear that a regional war may spread to Syria.
"The entire region is now involved," said Emad Huria, a 45-year-old
literary critic. "All Arabs should raise their voices against the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon."

Maher Skandyran, a 37-year-old worker at a watch store in downtown
Damascus said Israeli double standards are making people furious.

"I feel angry. Ninety-five percent of the Palestinian prisoners held by
Israel are innocent civilians, including women and children. Nobody says
a word about this. But when three Israeli armed soldiers are detained,
this is such a big crime, and everyone is outraged. Is this justice?"

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Israeli soldiers had
been seized to push Israel to release prisoners.

Israel reacted with unexpected aggression. An Israeli military spokesman
told reporters, "Since this morning Israeli naval vessels have enforced
a full naval closure on Lebanon, because Lebanon's ports are used to
transfer both terrorists and weapons to the terror organisations
operating in Lebanon."

Another official said that the attacks had been launched to pressure the
Lebanese government to deal with Hezbollah.

Hezbollah's al-Manar television station in Beirut was bombed. Israel
also bombed several bridges that link southern Lebanon with the rest of
the country.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the action was in response to
"an act of war by the state of Lebanon." His cabinet promised a response
with "appropriate severity."

But the root of the Lebanese problem could lie in the occupation of
Palestinian areas.

"Everything which is happening illustrates the main problem, which is
the Israelis invading and occupying Palestine and taking the land,"
55-year-old local merchant Faez Ashoor told IPS. "When that situation
ends, we will have peace.."

Some of the Syrian anger is directed inevitably at the United States.

"I feel upset because our neighbours like Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine
are being attacked," said Hamad al-Khatib, 26-year-old owner of a mobile
phone store in central Damascus. "Israel doesn't care about
international law. We thought America was peaceful, but we see them
support Israel, which is killing women and children. What are we to
think of America now?"

Syrians are also now worried about themselves, he said. "This Israeli
attack makes all of us feel insecure now. We are all very anxious."

"This is a big disaster for the Lebanese."

"This is a big disaster for the Lebanese."
http://DahrJamailIraq.com

Once again the U.S. government has refused to condemn the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon as the bombs fall on Beirut, killing scores of
civilians.

In a moment of levity while driving to the border, Abu Talat turned to
me and said, "You know what I miss?" I replied, "What do you miss sir?"
He smiled and said, "Iraqi chai!" He then turns to our driver and asked
him if he'd ever had Iraqi chai, then went on to brag about how tasty it
is. "It is the greatest of chais," he said proudly when looking back to
me once again.

When we arrived at the Lebanese border this morning we found thousands
of people

streaming across in cars with their luggage lashed on top, and many on
foot pulling wheeled suitcases.

Little Bush, the ever obedient spokesman for Bush, announced that he
thinks Syria should be punished for their role in supporting Hezbollah,
so the mood in Damascas is one of anxious waiting to see what comes
next. The how and when of the punishment is what is on our minds.

So the latest Israeli onslaught of Lebanon is in full swing, and with
the Israelis need for the water of southern Lebanon, perhaps this
occupation of Lebanon may last longer than the last one of 22 years. If
indeed Syria gave the green light for Hezbollah to cross the UN line in
southern Lebanon and launch their attack on Israeli soldiers where they
detained two soldiers and killed another eight, they have effectively
handed the Israeli war planners an excuse for all out war against
Lebanon. In addition, the Hezbollah attack, if indeed supported by
Syria, would give the U.S. the ability to give a green light to Israel
to attack Syria. We wait, watch, and hope that the bombs don't begin to
fall on Damascas.

A reported 15,000 people crossed the Lebanese border into Syria on
Thursday, seeking refuge from widespread bombings in Beirut, carried out
by Israeli F-16 warplanes. Today, the situation continued, with reports
of bombed petrol stations, police stations, and a hospital.

Interviewing people at the border who had fled the bombs in Beirut, I
felt like I was back in Iraq by what people were telling me.

"I was in an area south of Beirut which was bombed heavily by the
Israelis," 55 year-old electrician Ali Suleiman

told me, "There were so many refugees in shelters nearby us, which was
also nearby an old hospital which the Israelis bombed last night. It was
terrifying at night when they attacked our area, and the Israelis
thought the hospital was an ammunition dump for Hezbollah, so they
bombed the hospital. Both Syrian and Lebanese people are leaving now.
There is no more food, not even bread. There was no more electricity or
water in our area. If this situation continues, it will be a giant
catastrophe."

The same tactics I've seen used by the U.S. in Fallujah, Al-Qa'im and
other cities in Iraq.

I was told a similar story by a 22 year-old Lebanese student, Nebham
Razaq Hamed, who was in southern Beirut. "The bombing at night was
continuous and has continued today, they are using warplanes and
sometimes artillery. Everybody is in a panic because of the haphazard
bombing which is killing so many civilians now. The Israelis are
terrorizing the people intentionally by not discriminating between
fighters and civilians."

As the level of fighting deepens, one can only hope that other forms of
terrorism don't beset the people of Lebanon, particularly the women. In
Ruth Rosen's "The Hidden War on Women in Iraq," an incredible piece
posted on TomDispatch
 recently, the
disastrous situation for women caught up in the chaos of war is outlined
well. This must read paints the tragic picture of what we can only hope
will not descend on the women of Beirut as the Israeli siege of that
city grinds on.

A man from Saudi Arabia on a bus

with his family said, "Are the Israelis not occupying enough Arab land
already?"

It is only 127 kilometers from Beirut to Damascas, so the attacks were
very fresh on the minds of the people I spoke with-many of them

with shaky hands.

Others told me that the Bekaa Valley of central Lebanon, located on a
high plateau situated between the Mt. Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain
ranges, is being bombed, including the ancient city of Baalbek. The
city, which began at the end of the third millennium BC, was originally
Phoenician, is located near two rivers and shortly after a Roman colony
was founded there by Julius Caesar in 47 BC, construction on the massive
temple complex began in earnest. Whether the temples are being bombed is
doubtful, but the nearby city of Baalbek, where Hezbollah controls the
area, has been bombed according to two people I interviewed.

"It's very bad there, as the Israelis are attacking civilians, bombing
police and petrol stations, and even the fuel storage depots," said a 50
year-old Kuwait man who was fleeing Beirut, "In fact, they have even
bombed the airport once again. I saw F-16's bombing and there is smoke
everywhere. This is a big disaster for the Lebanese."

When asked what he thought it would take to end the fighting, he
promptly replied, "It looks like the Arab governments are not moving
their asses, so I am leaving."

Fleeing Lebanese Speak of Indiscriminate Bombing

Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
*
ADDABBAOUSIYEH (northern Lebanese border), Jul 16 (IPS) - People fleeing
the bombing of Lebanon say the Israelis are targeting civilian
neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure, and not just Hezbollah centres.*

The bombing has killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians so far.

Several border points between Syria and Lebanon are being deluged with
refugees. Lebanon has a long border with Syria towards its south, east
and north. The refugees include both Lebanese and tourists.

"Everything is being bombed," a teacher from the United States who was
on vacation in Beirut told IPS. "It's terror. We've literally been
terrorised."

Twenty-five-year-old social studies teacher Abdul Rahman was living with
his family in downtown Beirut near the United Nations building before
they all decided to flee.

"We have not slept for three days because we were living in terror and
never knew when the Israelis would bomb us since they were hitting
everything," he told IPS.

"If they want to hit Hezbollah, let them hit Hezbollah, but not the
civilians. But civilians are all that they are hitting."

His mother feared for her 96-year-old father who they had to leave
behind. "We cannot move him because he is too frail," she said. "And now
all we can do is worry, since the Israelis are taking it out on the
innocent people."

On Sunday, the Israeli army also re-entered the Palestinian-ruled Gaza
Strip. According to reports from Gaza, three members of Hamas were
killed after Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered Beit Hanun town early
morning.

Gunfire and shelling by the Israelis is also reported to have killed a
75-year-old woman and wounded 10 others, along with a baby.

Israel launched several air strikes in Gaza as well. An Israeli army
spokeswoman claimed they destroyed a Hamas operations room in the
Jabaliya refugee camp.

Israel's stated goal in Gaza is to free a soldier captured by Hamas. So
far Israeli actions there have left one Israeli soldier dead, along with
82 Palestinians.

Hamas is demanding the release of prisoners from Israeli jails in
exchange for the Israeli soldier.

Israel is now embroiled in fighting on two fronts. The impact of the
fighting with Lebanon is being felt widely in Syria.

Abud Aziz, a 31-year-old Lebanese pastry chef from Beirut crossed the
border into Syria carrying his suitcase and looking for food and water.
There had been no water or electricity in Beirut since Saturday, he said.

"Yesterday I saw two hospitals bombed," he told IPS. "Nobody who remains
in Beirut can be safe. No way."

A 25-year-old construction worker named Hamed also said he saw warplanes
bomb a hospital in Beirut.

"I saw them bomb a hospital yesterday," he told IPS. "I left just hours
ago. They are bombing everything -- houses, casinos, fuel stations and
so many bridges."

Meanwhile, on Sunday Hezbollah fired more than 20 rockets into the city
of Haifa, Israel's third largest city, killing eight and wounding at
least a dozen.

The Hezbollah clearly have the means to strike back at Israel. They are
a well-armed and well-organised political and military group of Shia
Muslims in Lebanon. Sustained military attacks by the Hezbollah forced
Israel to vacate southern Lebanon in May 2000.

But the Hezbollah are not supported by all Lebanese. About 60 percent of
the 3.8 million population of Lebanon is Muslim, most of them Shia. This
is where Hezbollah draws its support.

The rest of the population is almost all Christian. A 15-year civil war
between Muslim and Christian groups ended in 1991. The Hezbollah are
believed to draw more support from outside the country than from many
within.

In the wake of Hezbollah strikes into Israel, Israeli authorities have
declared a 48-hour period of martial law over the northern part of the
country. Hezbollah groups have fired more than 400 rockets into Israel,
killing at least 16 civilians in the last five days.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Lebanon of "far-reaching"
consequences after the rocket attacks. The Israeli army said that it had
warned all civilians to leave southern Lebanon.

Many of those who have left report panic conditions in Lebanon. "The
Israelis bombed a bridge to the airport near us and killed many people,"
26-year-old Hasna told IPS. "When other people went on the bridge to
help the wounded, the planes bombed it again."

Ambulances are usually not available because of the danger, she said.
"We were the last people to leave our area. The road there was nearly
empty."

Alham Aras, a Danish woman who was vacationing in Tripoli in Lebanon,
drove up to the border with her six children Sunday. She said she had
left on instructions from her embassy.

"The warplanes bombed the Palestinian camps in Tripoli," she said, "They
are attacking up and down the coast, and the port in Tripoli was also
attacked."

Her 14-year-old daughter Barihan al-Jassim said, "Somebody should stop
this madness. How is it possible for a country to be bombed like this
and nobody stops them from doing it?"

Pentagon Resists Ban on "Degrading Treatment"

Pentagon Resists Ban on "Degrading Treatment"

NEW YORK - As new reports detail further abuse by the U.S. military of its prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a behind-the-scenes battle is being fought between the U.S. departments of state and defence about whether a key section of the Geneva Conventions should be included in new rules governing Army interrogation techniques. (I still carry my card, it doesn't expire until 2009... probably so I can inform people what it was intended for and how the US government has violated that treaty too- WHO is EVIL?)

The Pentagon is pushing to omit from new detainee policies a central principle of the Geneva Conventions that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment". Critics say such a step that would mark a further shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

...it is time for the administration to ask itself whether the humiliation, brutalization, and torture of Muslim detainees around the world is making us safer from terrorism, or is in fact fanning the flames of resentment and making it easier for the jihadists to find recruits for their evil cause. I believe the latter of the 2 would be more accurate-kmw

Reed Brody, special council, Human Rights Watch

The State Department is opposing the decision to exclude Geneva Conventions protections and has been pushing for the Pentagon and White House to reconsider.

Meanwhile, in the face of growing criticism over U.S. treatment of detainees, Pentagon officials have decided to make public all of the military's interrogation techniques. Military leaders had previously argued that making all of the interrogation tactics public would allow enemy combatants to train and prepare for specific techniques.

The Pentagon's decision came as two previously secret Army investigative reports on prisoner abuse were released to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) under a freedom of information request.

The more than 1,000 pages turned over to the ACLU include one report by Army Brig. Gen. Richard Formica on special operations forces in Iraq and another by Brig. Gen. Charles Jacoby on Afghanistan detainees.

The Formica report reviewed only three allegations of abuse by special operations forces, but found that Iraqi detainees were held for up to seven days at a time with their eyes taped shut in tiny box-like cells so small that they had to sit with their knees to their chests while loud music blared, and detainees were fed only bread and water for up to a week.

One of the detainees said he was kept inside his tiny cell for two days, another for five days, and the third for seven days. The one kept for seven days alleged that "before he was placed in the box his clothes were cut off. He said that while held in the box, his captors duct-taped his mouth and nose, making it hard for him to breathe." He charged that water was thrown on him, that he was beaten, kicked and electrocuted.

Formica concluded that overall conditions "did not comport with the spirit of the principles set forth in the Geneva Conventions", but dismissed allegations that prisoners were physically abused or humiliated. The general recommended no disciplinary action against any U.S. special operations personnel.

Formica faulted "inadequate policy guidance" rather than "personal failure" for the mistreatment, and cited the dangerous environment in which special operations forces carried out their counterinsurgency missions. He said that, from his observations, none of the detainees seemed to be the worse for wear because of the treatment. a**hole. why don't we let you sit like that for a few months

The Jacoby report, carried out in May 2004, examined the treatment of detainees at facilities in Afghanistan. He found "no systematic or widespread mistreatment of detainees", but concluded that the opportunities for mistreatment and the ever-changing battlefield there demanded changes in procedures.

He said that there was "a consistent lack of knowledge" regarding the capture, processing, detention and interrogation of detainees and that policies varied at facilities across the country. Jacoby also concluded that the lack of clear standards created opportunities for abuse and impeded efforts to gain timely intelligence and that interrogation standards were "inconsistent and unevenly applied".

The U.S. military facility at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan has come in for particular criticism for its detention practices, including keeping "ghost" prisoners whose presence is unrecorded, and denying access to prisoners by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Special Rapporteur.

Neither report recommended punishment of any military personnel.

Human rights groups were critical of the reports. Reed Brody, special counsel to Human Rights Watch, told IPS, "At long last, it is time for the administration to ask itself whether the humiliation, brutalisation, and torture of Muslim detainees around the world is making us safer from terrorism, or is in fact fanning the flames of resentment and making it easier for the jihadists to find recruits for their evil cause."

And Amrit Singh, an ACLU attorney, said, "Both the Formica and the Jacoby report demonstrate that the government is really not taking the investigation of detainee abuse seriously."

She called the reports "a whitewash" and questioned why they only focused on a limited number of incidents, adding that there have been numerous documents showing that special operations forces abused detainees, yet Formica only reviewed a few cases.

The reports were released as the military grappled with new allegations of war crimes in Iraq. Two Pennsylvania National Guardsmen were charged with killing an unarmed Iraqi man in Anbar province. Seven Marines and a Navy corpsman were charged in the shooting death of an Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania. And three soldiers and a noncommissioned officer were charged in the deaths of three unarmed Iraqis in military custody in Salahuddin province.

These charges follow allegations that in Haditha, a town in Anbar province, members of a Marine unit killed up to two dozen unarmed Iraqis, including small children, in and outside their homes after a roadside bomb killed one of the troops.

The Bush administration has been criticized internationally, including by U.S. allies, for abusive treatment of terror war detainees.

The military's treatment of detainees has been under increased scrutiny since the Abu Ghraib prisoner scandal in Iraq was revealed two years ago. Photographs made public at that time showed U.S. troops beating, intimidating and sexually abusing prisoners.

Human rights groups have also called for the Bush administration to close the detention centre at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where three detainees recently committed suicide. Over the past weekend, 16 Saudi Arabian detainees were released to the government of their home country, continuing the Bush administration's policy of gradually repatriating prisoners, either to freedom or for further custody by their home governments.

President Bush recently acknowledged that he would like to close the controversial prison at Guantanamo. He said the military is working to ensure that detainees released to their home countries are not subjected to torture in detention. It is believed there are now just under 500 prisoners being held at the facility in Cuba. Only 10 have been formally charged with any crime and none has been tried.

Late last year, the U.S. Congress passed an anti-torture amendment championed by Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who was held and tortured in a North Vietnamese prison for years. McCain, along South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham -- a former military judge -- pressed Congress to establish the Army Field Manual as the standard for treatment of all detainees.

The Bush administration initially opposed the amendment, but the measure passed and became law. However, in signing the law, Bush appended a statement saying, in effect, that he had the authority to override it under a variety of circumstances involving military necessity and national security. Otherwise rendering the law null and void.

In 2002, Bush issued an executive order that suspended parts of the Geneva Conventions for captured al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Bush's order superseded military policy at the time. Since then, U.S. obligations under the Conventions have been the subject of an intense debate that became even more intense following reports of detainee abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Friendly Fire Ambush

Friendly Fire Ambush

by Marjorie Cohn

Sergeant Patrick R. McCaffrey, Sr. and First Lieutenant Andre D. Tyson died on this day two years ago in Balad, Iraq. Back then, military officials reported that enemy insurgents ambushed them. The Army subsequently conducted an investigation and learned the men were targeted and killed by Iraqi troops they were training. Although the Army completed its investigation on September 30, 2005, it failed to clarify the initial notification to the families for nine months. It took a May 22 letter from Senator Barbara Boxer's office to force the Army to finally come clean. A month before he died, Patrick told his father that Iraqi forces they were training had attacked his unit. When he filed a complaint with his chain of command, Patrick "was told to keep his mouth shut," his mother said. After Patrick died, his parents conducted their own investigations. The Army denied requests to see autopsy reports. The McCaffreys persisted. They talked to soldiers in their son’s unit and managed to learn what really happened. Bob McCaffrey was informed by members of his son's company that insurgents were offering Iraqi soldiers about $100 for each American they could kill. "Iraqi troops are turning on their American counterparts," Bob said. "That puts a knock in the spin that the White House is trying to put on this story — how the Iraqis are being well trained and are getting ready to take over." Nadia McCaffrey learned that after her son was shot, a US truck arrived. It picked up Lt. Tyson, who was dead, but did not take her son who was still alive. The truck returned later and took him to the base, where he bled to death. Yesterday, Brig. Gen. Oscar Hilman and three other officers visited Patrick's mother to deliver the official report. "It was overwhelming," Nadia told me. I had to live through the whole thing again." The officers "tried to patronize me as a good Mom," she added. "I said I won't stand for that. I want the truth!" When Nadia talked to Army officers yesterday she asked them, "How could you possibly let this happen"? They sat silent. An Army official cited the "complexity" of the case as an excuse for the delay in telling the families how their sons really died, according to the Los Angeles Times. "They never tell the family the truth," said Ophelia Tyson, grandmother of Andre Tyson. "You know how politics is." "I really want this story to come out; I want people to know what happened to my son," Nadia said. "There is no doubt to me that this is still happening to soldiers today, but our chain of command is awfully reckless; they don't seem to give a damn about what's happening to soldiers." How Unfortunately TRUE The father of two children, Patrick joined the National Guard the day after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was the first combat death in the 58 year history of California's 579 Engineer Battalion, based in Petaluma, Ca. Patrick was listed as "Casualty number 848." That was 1652 deaths ago. "He was killed by the Iraqis that he was training," Nadia said. "People in this country need to know that." "It's god-awful," said Bob, himself an Army veteran. "It underlies the lie of this whole situation in Iraq. It's all to me a pack of lies." Boxer noted, "You have to ask yourself, 'What are we doing there with a blank check and a blind eye, when our soldiers are risking their lives for the Iraqi people and the Iraqis are turning around and killing our soldiers?' We need an exit strategy." Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild.