Reporter's Diary: The Battle of Fallujah

In the article below, Knight Ridder reporter Tom Lasseter documents the U.S. attack on fallujah over several days.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2467

American journalists have demonstrated that they are not journalists at all, but an essential component of the military apparatus. They have merged seamlessly with their army units, presenting a story-line that is consistent with the objectives of the American occupation.

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney11292004.html


From Information Clearing House

by Marjorie Cohn

TruthOut

11/29/04

Free fire zones, and indiscriminate killing of civilians, which constitute willful killing, are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The U.S. War Crimes Act considers grave breaches of Geneva to be war crimes, which can result in the death penalty for those convicted. Criminal liability for war crimes extends beyond the perpetrator. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, higher-ups can be just as liable if they knew or should have known their underlings were committing war crimes, but they failed to stop or prevent it. Commanders have a responsibility to make sure civilians are not indiscriminately hurt and that prisoners are not summarily executed. The rules of engagement are set at the top. The Marines are being told they can fire at anything that moves. Before entering Fallujah, the Marines had been pumped up by tough talking superiors...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/113004A.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Ivan Eland

Independent Institute

11/29/04

The U.S. military 'victory' in Falluja is unlikely to change the dismal course of the guerilla war in Iraq. Military history has repeatedly shown why the cliché 'winning the battle and losing the war' has crept into popular culture. Moreover, winning back Falluja the way the U.S. did is likely to be a sure prescription for military defeat in the wider Iraq war...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1428


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Aid finally reaches Fallujah civilians : A spokesman said that the organisation fears that more than 6,000 people may have died in the U.S. Offensive and that thousands of families are in bad need of assistance.

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=5853
http://snipurl.com/axh5


From Information Clearing House

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1359871,00.html


Informant: Friends

Relief agencies which finally reached Falluja found a city in ruins and its remaining civilian population beleaguered and hungry.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/55321BD7-F45A-41AB-987B-7DA96B9D7D3A.htm
http://snipurl.com/ax0g


From Information Clearing House

A November 14 Reuters reporter wrote that residents told him that "U.S. bombardments hit a clinic inside the Sunni Muslim city, killing doctors, nurses and patients." The U.S. military denied the reports. Such stories did not make headlines. Civilian casualties in aggressive U.S. wars don’t sell media space.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2456

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Bombing The Sick And Dying

by MILES SCHUMAN

While the North American news media have focused on the military triumph of US Marines in Falluja, little attention has been paid to reports that US armed forces killed scores of patients in an attack on a Falluja health center and have deprived civilians of medical care, food and water.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7369.htm

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This is our Guernica

Ruined, cordoned Falluja is emerging as the decade's monument to brutality

Jonathan Steele and Dahr Jamail

Refugees told one of us that civilians carrying white flags were gunned down by American soldiers. Corpses were tied to US tanks and paraded around like trophies.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8673.htm

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Brutal Reality of War: Dead-Check in Falluja
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/415479/

Bring Them Home Before They Kill Again - The Horrors of Fallujah
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/405678/

Iraq: Urgent action needed to prevent war crimes
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/412999/

A Time To Break the Democrats’ Silence on Falluja and the Escalation of the War in Iraq
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/409068/

PDA Statement on Iraq
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/408709/

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