SMH
September 8, 2006 THE future of Iraq as a sovereign nation has been jeopardised with the introduction to parliament of a law that would enable the country to break up into semi-autonomous regions.
A self-ruling Shiite state would emerge in the south, based on the autonomous region that Kurds have established in the north. The Shiite state would not only be able to levy taxes and govern itself but, Shiite politicians say, would have its own armed guards along its borders. Sunnis, most of who bitterly oppose the law, have warned it would mark the first step in the break-up of the country and could lead to the south becoming a satellite of Iran. Comment: Just a few months after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, members of the US government "think tank" the 'Council on Foreign Relations' discussed this very goal:
"The only viable strategy, then, may be to correct (Iraq's) historical defect and move in stages toward a three-state solution: Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and Shiites in the south" -- Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations; from "Three-state Solution" NY Times 11-25-2003 Coincidence? We think not. |
Last Updated Fri, 08 Sep 2006 05:50:10 EDT
CBC News A suicide car bomb near the U.S. embassy in Kabul on Friday left at least 10 people dead, including two American soldiers, the American military said.
The blast, which hit a convoy of U.S. military vehicles, left 17 people wounded. Eight of the dead and 15 of the wounded were Afghan civilians, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Yousef Stanezai. |
Reuters
Fri Sep 8, 2006 BAGHDAD - A policeman and a bystander were killed in Baghdad on Friday when a car bomb blasted the convoy of a local police chief, police and Interior Ministry sources said.
Three other policemen were wounded in the blast in the city center, but Colonel Ali Mohammed, commander for the Karrada district, survived unscathed, they added. Police were targeted by five bombs around the city on Thursday. |
by Dave Clark
AFP September 8, 2006 BAGHDAD - More than 1,500 people were killed in Baghdad last month, down by only 14 percent from July, the health ministry said, despite US claims that a security operation had cut murders by half.
"The Baghdad morgue received 1,584 bodies of people killed in violent attacks," Hakim al-Zamily, director general at the ministry told AFP. The ministry reported 1,850 killings in the war-torn capital in July. The health ministry figures fly in the face of Thursday's statement by the US-led forces chief spokesman Major General William Caldwell that August's "murder rate in Baghdad dropped 52 percent from the daily rate for July." |
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-08 11:55:40
MADRID, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Thursday criticized the United States for using secret prisons in its fight against terrorism.
"The fight against terrorism can only be done through democracy and respect for the law. It is not compatible with the existence of secret prisons," he told reporters after a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. |
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-08 05:04:00
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The commander of U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Thursday confirmed arrival of 14 key terror suspects who had been previously held in secret CIA prisons around the world.
Rear Adm. Harry Harris told U.S. media that he personally signed for custody of the 14 when they arrived from an undisclosed location Monday and the suspects appeared to be in good health. |
www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-07 21:56:11
|
ABC News blog
06/09/2006 We took an interesting phone call today from an official at the Baghdad morgue. We get these calls every day - a daily tally of the violence. But this one was particularly sobering.
It turns out the official toll of violent deaths in August was just revised upwards to 1535 from 550, tripling the total. Now, we're depressingly used to hearing about deaths here, so much so that the numbers can be numbing. But this means that a much-publicized drop-off in violence in August - heralded by both the Iraqi government and the US military as a sign that a new security effort in Baghdad was working -- apparently didn't exist. Operation Together Forward, the main thrust of the new strategy, involves establishing pockets of security in select neighborhoods and then slowly adding more. These latest numbers add substance to fears Together Forward creates a whack-a-mole effect: that is, secure one area and the violence will pop up somewhere else. Violent deaths now appear roughly in line with the earlier trend: 1855 in July and 1595 in June. Officials at the Baghdad morgue have no good explanation for the dramatically revised number. We'll see what the U.S. military has to say. |
Steven Harris
al-Jazeerah
20/07/2006Over the past year and a half, a terrifying new development in Iraq has been the discovery of dozens of bodies dumped in rubbish heaps, rivers or abandoned buildings. In most cases, the victims had suffered torture and mutilation before being killed by a single shot to the head. A recent variation of this theme is simply severed heads. A typical news item which did not cause too many headlines around the world was typical on 6th June 2006 - 9 heads found wrapped in plastic bags and left in fruit boxes by the roadside.These repulsive and revolting images are too much for any news channel to show and the facts of the killing are merely stated, without any analysis of who is behind these killings and why. Anyone with any familiarity with American tactics of counter-insurgency will not be remotely surprised or puzzled by the grisly news coming out of Iraq every day.
Associated Press
September 07, 2006 |
By Scott Mervis
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Thursday, September 07, 2006 By Graham Nash's estimation, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is losing about 1 percent to 2 percent of its audience each night on the Songs of Freedom '06 Tour.
These aren't people who are due back at the retirement home or getting text mail from the baby sitter. They're folks who apparently come to see the legendary hippie quartet on the basis of nice songs like "Teach Your Children" and "Our House," perhaps unaware of the more scathing protest songs like "Ohio" and "Military Madness." This time around, Neil Young has raised the stakes even further. His latest solo record, the hastily recorded "Living With War," is a broadside against the Bush administration with the remarkably unsubtle sing-along "Let's Impeach the President." |
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