"What is happening in Haqlaniyam, Browana and Haditha is a disaster. Bodies are in the streets or buried under the rubble for days, but US forces do not allow people to move and claim the bodies. This totally ran counter to basic human rights," 33 year- old Flah Ahmed told Xinhua.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200508/12/eng20050812_201914.html


From Information Clearing House

Terror and Democracy

By Tariq Ali

In the face of terror attacks Anglo-Saxon politicians mouth the same rhetoric. One sentence in particular--shrouded in layers of untruth--is constantly repeated: 'We shall not permit these attacks to change our way of life.' It is a multi-purpose mantra. The first aim is to convince the public that the terrorists are crazed Muslims who are bombing modernity/democracy/freedom/ 'our values', etc.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9748.htm

Jim Talib, a US soldier who took part in the attack on Falluja, describes his experience: "On one of my trips to drop off a detainee at the jail, the senior interrogator told us not to bring them in any more. ‘Just shoot them,’ he said. I was stunned, I couldn’t believe he ­actually said it.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9741.htm

WHEN British troops eventually pull out from southern Iraq, they will leave behind the Islamic Republic of Basra: a mini-state which is more solidly Islamicist than any other part of the country. After a controversial war and two years of painful nation-building, that is an ugly result.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1730200,00.html



From Information Clearing House

The Guardian
by Saad al-Fagih

08/11/05

No one will be more pleased than Osama bin Laden with the new measures announced by Tony Blair. He will be even more pleased should the prime minister succeed in turning his plans into legislation. There are two reasons for Bin Laden's satisfaction at what doubtless looks to him like a historic victory. First, he will believe he has succeeded in forcing Britain to abandon a number of hard-earned achievements in the fields of justice and liberty -- achievements that took centuries of struggle and evolution to accomplish. Bin Laden will rejoice because he has forced society into forsaking these values. This, he believes, will leave the west open to eventual defeat at the hands of Muslims...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1546605,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The Guardian
by Saad al-Fagih

08/11/05

No one will be more pleased than Osama bin Laden with the new measures announced by Tony Blair. He will be even more pleased should the prime minister succeed in turning his plans into legislation. There are two reasons for Bin Laden's satisfaction at what doubtless looks to him like a historic victory. First, he will believe he has succeeded in forcing Britain to abandon a number of hard-earned achievements in the fields of justice and liberty -- achievements that took centuries of struggle and evolution to accomplish. Bin Laden will rejoice because he has forced society into forsaking these values. This, he believes, will leave the west open to eventual defeat at the hands of Muslims...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1546605,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Editor & Publisher
by Will Bunch
08/10/05

'I just want to get it done, come home, and continue my life.' Those were just about the last words that Gennaro Pellegrini, Jr. -- a 31-year-old Philly cop and up-and-coming boxer -- said to me last November. In less than 48 hours, Pellegrini was to step onto an airplane bound for Iraq, along with the rest of his Pennsylvania National Guard unit from Northeast Philadelphia. For anyone who's worried about the return of a military draft, Pellegrini was living proof that we already have one. He desperately did not want to serve in the Persian Gulf. He was just two weeks away from finishing up his six-year stint in the Guard when he was told that his tour of duty was being extended and that he would serve in Iraq for at least a year, maybe longer ... in the end, Pellegrini's stay in Iraq lasted little more than eight months. His parents have just been notified that he was killed on Tuesday by a roadside bomb...

http://tinyurl.com/7dt2v


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The gates of hell are now wide open – thanks to U.S. invasion – and their fires have enveloped almost everything in our country. There is no electricity, no water, no fuel, no food rations, no security, no sewage …

http://snipurl.com/guuu


From Information Clearing House

Outside the shelter of the Green Zone, home to the American and Iraqi political leadership, lawlessness has overtaken the capital.

http://snipurl.com/guut


From Information Clearing House

Independent [UK]

08/11/05

Britain's most eminent judges have warned politicians that they will fight any move to undermine their independence, after being accused of thwarting moves to fight terrorism. In a stark warning, the country's senior legal figures warned of a backlash from the courts -- and declared that diluting the powers of the judiciary will undermine the basis of democracy. Their uncompromising stance comes after a series of clashes with the Government and opposition MPs. Yesterday, Michael Howard, the Tory leader, accused judges of 'aggressive judicial activism' and of blocking the will of MPs over the fight against terrorism. Tony Blair recently warned judges he will renounce part of the European Convention on Human Rights and have 'a lot of battles' with courts if they block the deportation of extremists...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article305157.ece


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp