[Centraal] Irak na de oorlog - deel 32.

quote:

 
U.S. calls for respecting Iraq's sovereignty

The United States on Tuesday urged Iraq's neighbors to respect Iraq's sovereignty as Turkey deployed thousands of troops along its border with northern Iraq.

"We would call upon all of Iraq's neighbors to respect Iraq's sovereignty," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a briefing.

Iraq's neighbors should work with the Iraqi government "on any issues that they may have regarding borders and that anything that is done in a transparent manner and through mutual agreement," the spokesman added.

The U.S. appeal came after Turkish General Staff said on Tuesday that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has massed troops on its borders with Iraq to prevent infiltration of members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

In order to prevent PKK infiltration, the TSK has reinforced its troops in border regions within the context of its security operations and those reinforcements were necessary and normal activities, the Turkish General Staff said.

The United States has urged Turkey to refrain from unilateral actions and called for cooperation to fight against the PKK.

bron
 

quote:

 
Turkey: Iraq Should Not Allow PKK Terrorism

Osman TUZLA, ANKARA (JTW) - Turkey declares that it will make military operations inside Iraq when it is 'necessary'. Turkish military sources also argued that there are PKK camps in Iraq and Turkey has all the rights to remove all these terrorist bases.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul also said that "Iraq should not be a base for the terrorists. No one should allow the terrorists".

Turkish and Iranin forces have been making military operations aganist the PKK terrorist camps in the region. It is argued that Barzani in particular allows the PKK militants to use Iraq as a base to attack Turkish targets.

Turkish Weekly
 

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 mei 2006 16:03 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Waarom Arabieren paranoïde zouden zijn en alles maar wijten aan Amerikanen en zionisten? Een zeer goede vraag.

quote:

John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY.

quote:

According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium". Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers".

There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 mei 2006 18:21 schreef francorex het volgende:
Video: Rumsfeld Forced to Swallow His Own Lies

Ray McGovern, a retired CIA analyst with 27 years of experience ask Rumsfeld, "I would like to ask you to be up front with the American people, why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary, that has caused these kinds of casualties? why?"
05/04/06

Secretary Rumsfeld Remarks on ABC "This Week with George Stephanopoulos"

CLICK PLAY TO VIEW

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 mei 2006 19:34 schreef NorthernStar het volgende:

[..]

Hier is McGovern in een reactie op CNN

CIA vet Ray McGovern confronts Rumsfeld

Net zolang doorgaan tot Bush, Cheney, Rummy of de rest van de PNAC buddy's nergens meer kunnen verschijnen.

quote:

Tom Petty - I Won't Back Down Lyrics


http://jcsm.org/50PC/IWontBackDown.mp3
(hopelijk werkt de link)

Well I won't back down, no I won't back down
you could stand me up at the gates of hell
but I won't back down

Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around
and I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
gonna stand my ground and I won't back down

Chorus
Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
hey I will stand my ground
and I won't back down

Well I know what's right, I got just one life
in a world that keeps on pushin' me around
but I'll stand my ground and I won't back down

Hey baby there ain't no easy way out
hey I will stand my ground
and I won't back down
No, I won't back down

quote:

Op dinsdag 2 mei 2006 16:40 schreef sp3c het volgende:


er wordt veel te veel aandacht gegeven aan die speech, er is niemand die op dat moment verwachtte dat het op dat moment of zelfs drie jaar later afgelopen zou zijn, dit blijven suggereren is een beetje flauw

quote:

EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq’s unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country’s top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty.

Nobody but her killers knew just how much she had suffered until a film showing her death on February 22 at the hands of two musclebound men in military uniforms emerged last week. Her family’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the reality.

Bahjat was abducted after making three live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day its golden-domed Shi’ite mosque was blown up, allegedly by Sunni terrorists.

Roadblocks prevented her from entering the city and her anxiety was obvious to everyone who saw her final report. Night was falling and tensions were high.

Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.

We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.

Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.

By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.

It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear.

Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.

A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.

Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.

Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.

Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.

The voice of one of the Arab world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.

As a friend of Bahjat who had worked with her on a variety of tough assignments, I found it hard enough to bear the news of her murder. When I saw it replayed, it was as if part of me had died with her. How much more gruelling it must have been for a close family friend who watched the film this weekend and cried when he heard her voice.

The friend, who cannot be identified, knew nothing of her beheading but had been guarding other horrifying details of Bahjat’s ordeal. She had nine drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left, he said. The drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye. One can only hope that these mutilations were made after her death.

There is a wider significance to the appalling footage and the accompanying details. The film appears to show for the first time an Iraqi death squad in action.

The death squads have proliferated in recent months, spreading terror on both sides of the sectarian divide. The clothes worn by Bahjat’s killers are bound to be scrutinised for clues to their identity.

Bahjat, with her professionalism and impartiality as a half-Shi’ite, half-Sunni, would have been the first to warn against any hasty conclusions, however. The uniforms seem to be those of the Iraqi National Guard but that does not mean she was murdered by guardsmen. The fatigues could have been stolen for disguise.

A source linked to the Sunni insurgency who supplied the film to The Sunday Times in London claimed it had come from a mobile phone found on the body of a Shi’ite Badr Brigade member killed during fighting in Baghdad.

But there is no evidence the Iranian-backed Badr militia was responsible. Indeed, there are conflicting indications. The drill is said to be a popular tool of torture with the Badr Brigade. But beheading is a hallmark of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by the Sunni Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

According to a report that was circulating after Bahjat’s murder, she had enraged the Shi’ite militias during her coverage of the bombing of the Samarra shrine by filming the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, ordering police to release two Iranians they had arrested.

There is no confirmation of this and the Badr Brigade, with which she maintained good relations, protected her family after her funeral came under attack in Baghdad from a bomber and then from a gunman. Three people died that day.

Bahjat’s reporting of terrorist attacks and denunciations of violence to a wide audience across the Middle East made her plenty of enemies among both Shi’ite and Sunni gunmen. Death threats from Sunnis drove her away to Qatar for a spell but she believed her place was in Iraq and she returned to frontline reporting despite the risks.

We may never know who killed Bahjat or why. But the manner of her death testifies to the breakdown of law, order and justice that she so bravely highlighted and illustrates the importance of a cause she espoused with passion.

Bahjat advocated the unity of Iraq and saw her golden locket as a symbol of her belief. She put it with her customary on-air eloquence on the last day of her life: “Whether you are a Sunni, a Shi’ite or a Kurd, there is no difference between Iraqis united in fear for this nation.”

quote:

Five British servicemen died yesterday when an Army helicopter crashed in southern Iraq apparently after being hit by an insurgent missile.

The Lynx plunged into a house in a residential area of Basra while on a routine patrol, and the incident brings to 109 the number of servicemen killed in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003.

The crash was followed by riots in which five Iraqis, including two children, were reportedly killed. They are thought to have died when a jeering mob celebrating the deaths of the servicemen clashed with British soldiers trying to secure the crash site.

quote:

Op zondag 7 mei 2006 15:31 schreef Monidique het volgende:

[..]

_{[ bron ]}

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 mei 2006 21:53 schreef francorex het volgende:
Jammer, ik vond geen link met de steviger versie van deze song, de rebel version zeg maar.

quote:

Op zondag 7 mei 2006 14:48 schreef Finder_elf_towns het volgende:

There is a wider significance to the appalling footage and the accompanying details. The film appears to show for the first time an Iraqi death squad in action.

The death squads have proliferated in recent months, spreading terror on both sides of the sectarian divide.

quote:

At least eight employees of al-Arabiya have died in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion, some of them killed by US forces and others by suspected militants.

They are among more than 60 journalists who have fallen in the conflict, making Iraq one of the most deadly and hard-to-cover stories.

BBC

quote:

Op zondag 7 mei 2006 14:48 schreef Finder_elf_towns het volgende:
De dienaren van Allah hebben weer toegeslagen:

Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing
HALA JABER
[..]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2168496,00.html

quote:

Op zondag 7 mei 2006 22:46 schreef NorthernStar het volgende:

Bericht van een jaar geleden. Sinds de invasie en bezetting van Irak rijden er death squads rond die artsen, leraren en docenten, wetenschappers, etc ontvoeren en vermoorden. Waarom?

Wie vermoord de intelectuelen en waarom? Onder wiens bevel staan die 'death squads' en wiens agenda voeren ze uit?

quote:

Op maandag 8 mei 2006 18:09 schreef klez het volgende:

[..]
Overigens is het aantal civiele slachtoffers al 6 maanden scherp aan het dalen, met name nadat de Soennieten hebben ingezien dat geweld niet de oplossing is voor de impasse.

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/press/pr13.php

quote:

Op maandag 8 mei 2006 20:56 schreef Monidique het volgende:

[..]

Nou ja, ze zeggen zelf al dat "[t]he IBC figure for Year 3 includes no deaths from March 2006, excludes the bulk of killings which followed the 22nd February bombing of a major Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, and lacks Baghdad morgue data for January and February this year", wat dus kan betekenen dat "[m]ore Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad during the first three months of this year than at any time since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime — at least 3,800, many of them found hogtied and shot execution-style."

quote:

Op maandag 8 mei 2006 23:03 schreef klez het volgende:

[..]

Dat zou kunnen. Ik hou het voorlopig op de cijfers van de grafiek.

quote:

Amerikaanse militairen dat sneuvelt neemt ook nogal af, zou je denken:

http://icasualties.org/oif/US_chart.aspx

quote:

Op maandag 8 mei 2006 23:52 schreef Monidique het volgende:

[..]

Die dus niet compleet zijn en een verkeerd beeld geven, aldus de makers van die grafiek.
[..]

quote:

Zou je denken, maar er blijkt niet echt een significante daling in het aantal doden per dag te zijn. Wat ik overigens wel verwacht, omdat ze steeds minder in het land zelf zitten en meer op bases.

[[url=http://i2.tinypic.com/xkpy6c_th.gif]afbeelding][/url]

quote:

Op zondag 7 mei 2006 22:46 schreef NorthernStar het volgende:
De vernietiging van Irak is geen conspiracy.

quote:

Op dinsdag 9 mei 2006 10:40 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:

[..]

wat zij willen is evengoed willekeurig natuurlijk, en het is net zo westers, tenminste, als je nationalisme als een westerse uitvinding beschouwt, het Westen is door schade en schande wijs geworden dat nationalisme meer verdriet teweeg brengt dan vreugde,( behalve bij het voetbal natuurlijk ;') ) dus het lijkt mij dat het Westen beter in hun rol van vredesstichter moet blijven daar en geweld niet moet stimuleren in de vorm van toelaten van lasterpraat op de radio etc. zoals in Rwanda tien jaar geleden