It was the first time the three Bahrainis have spoken publicly about their incarceration since they arrived back in Bahrain on November 5.

http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?sub=1617


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The U.S. Army needed them, and it invoked the once rare policy it calls "stop loss," though others call it a "backdoor draft."

http://tinyurl.com/aa3qk


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

British-trained police operating in Basra have tortured at least two civilians to death with electric drills, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11084.htm

Peter Beaumont, reports on a brutal campaign of political 'disappearances'.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11085.htm

Col Collins' tactics mirror the United States army "shake and bake" technique which involves forcing troops out of cover with white phosphorus and then killing them with artillery rounds.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11086.htm

http://www.ifcongress.org/English/News/oct/us-visit.htm

We, the undersigned, hereby announce the formation of the Iraq Freedom Congress.

IFC is a broad organisation committed to establishing a free, secular and non-ethnic government in Iraq – a government based on direct sovereignty of people of Iraq, and committed to guarantying their right to freely and consciously determine the system of governance in Iraq.

IFC is independent, democratic, non-religious and non-ethnic.

IFC has been formed to encounter the civil abyss in Iraq. Presently, the fabric of the civil society in Iraq has been torn apart under the US occupation and the domination of the Islamic, tribal and political gangsters. People of Iraq have been caught between the two poles of world terrorism of our time- the US state terrorism and the political Islam – forcing their mental and physical well-being to the verge of destruction.

IFC strives to establish the sovereignty of people of Iraq. The only way out of this abyss is to mobilise people to take the country, to whatever extent possible, out of the sphere of control of both the US occupiers and the Islamic currents, and establish their sovereignty.

IFC mobilises and organises people within its local and district organisations to establish the control and sovereignty of the people at every level and to any extent possible. IFC safeguards this sovereignty against any aggression. The sovereignty of the people in this context is the implementation of the demands stated in the manifesto of IFC as legislations.

Individuals as well as organisations (including political parties, trade unions, people's councils, associations and institutions) who share the aims and objectives of IFC may join IFC, as stated in the IFC's constitution, provided their programmes and policies do not breach that of IFC.

IFC's operations and organisation are not restricted to Iraq. IFC endeavours to gain the support of all free-minded individuals, progressive organisations and institutions worldwide, whom share its aims.

IFC calls on all humanitarians to join its ranks.


18 March 2005.

Signatories:

Ali Abas (Secretary of the Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions of Basra), Professor Amer Fayad (Political Science University of Baghdad), Amjad Ghafoor (Secretary of the Congress for the Referendum for the Independence of Kurdistan), Arman Farakish (Chair of Iranian Civil Rights Committee), Asai Kenji (Chair of International Solidarity Committee of Movement for Democratic Socialism – Japan), Aso Jabbar (Representative Abroad of Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions of Iraq),Falah Alwan (Secretary of the Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions of Iraq), Faris Mahmood (Politburo Member of Worker-communist Party of Iraq), Fateh Sheikh (Chair of Worker-communist Party of Iran – Hekmatist Politburo), Hosein Haref (Secretary of Visual Artists Centre of Iraq),Houzan Mahmoud (Women's Movement Activist – Iraq)Javad Aslani (Iranian Civil Rights activist), Kazem Aniran (Chair of the Democratic Al-Ahwar of Iraq), Koorosh Modarresi (Leader of Worker-communist Party of Iran – Hekmatist), Mazloom Abas (Communist Activist), Professor Meqdam Abdul Jabbar (University of Basra), Moayed Ahmad (Politburo Member of Worker-communist Party of Iraq), Mohamad Hassan Saleh (Chair of Organization for Social Equality – Iraq) Nadia Mahmood (Founder and Co-ordinator of Middle East Centre for Women's Rights) Professor Namir Al-Khayat (University of Basra), Nasrin Jalali (Iranian Civil Right activist), Osama Ghaem (Literary Critique) Qasem Hadi (General Secretary of Union of Unemployed in Iraq), Rebwar Ahmad (Leader of Worker-communist Party of Iraq) Professor Riad Al-Asadi (Political Science Basra University) Salam Mansoor (Playwright and Artist), Sami Hassan (Deputy Secretary of Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions of Basra), Samir Adel (Chair of the Executive Office of Worker-communist Party of Iraq) Sato Kazuyoshi (President of Movement for Democratic Socialism – Japan), Shamal Ali (Politburo Member of Worker-communist Party of Iraq) Yanar Mohammad (Chair of Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq) Yasn Taha Yasen (Chair of Education Now Centre in Iraq) Dr Yusam Shakir


Informant: Michael Pugliese


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


From ufpj-news

Faced with US torture, killing and collective punishment of civilians, support for the Iraqi resistance is growing

By Haifa Zangana

The photograph of an elderly Iraqi carrying the burned body of a child at Falluja, widely shown during the chemical weapons controversy of recent days, is almost a copy of an earlier one that Iraqis remember - from Halabja in March 1988. Both children were victims of chemical weapons: the first killed by a dictator who had no respect for democracy and human rights, the second by US troops, assisted by the British, carrying the colourful banner of those principles while sprinkling Iraqis with white phosphorus and depleted uranium.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11073.htm

by Robert Dreyfuss, TomPaine.com

The revelation of Iranian-backed, government-run torture centers and death squads makes it clear that we replaced Saddam with something equally evil.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051118/our_monsters_in_iraq.php

Everyone knows someone to whom this has happened.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11049.htm