contributions

by Doug Lorimer
On November 8, the US military launched its long-anticipated second attempt to recapture the rebel Iraqi city of Fallujah, located 55 kilometres west of Baghdad.
The assault - conducted by some 10,000 US troops and 500 Iraqi troops under their command, using tanks, artillery and attack helicopters - was preceded by weeks of nightly air strikes on residential buildings, restaurants and mosques. The strikes were designed to terrorise the city’s population of 340,000, (…)

The site is down for some "mysterious" reason. Apparently they are getting too close to the truth over there. Is there somewhere DUers can meet in a case like this?

Last week the US launched a major offensive on Fallujah using heavy artillery, bulldozers and tanks. The target was insurgents, but here one family reveals the horror of being caught in the conflict
by Dahr Jamail
She weeps while telling the story. The abaya (tunic) she wears cannot hide the shaking of her body as waves of grief roll through her. “I cannot get the image out of my mind of her foetus being blown out of her body.”
Muna Salim’s sister, Artica, was seven months’ pregnant (…)

Why Did John Kerry Abandon His Crew (US!) in Battle? by Harvey Wasserman In the heat of battle, John Kerry abandoned his crew.
Not in Vietnam. This is not Karl Rovian Swift Boat libel.
No, John Kerry abandoned us here in Ohio and around the country at precisely the moment we needed him most....when the fire was heaviest and we were taking the heaviest casualties....right after Election Day.
This is also not about whether or not the election itself was stolen. Many of us believe it (…)

By Yossi Schwartz
Following the announcement regarding the selection of the new leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Abu Mazen, the government of Israel signalled a possible shift in policy toward the PA. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said yesterday that if the new Palestinian leadership fights against terrorism, Israel would agree to conduct negotiations over a coordinated implementation of the disengagement plan. At the same time Shalom warned the new leadership of the PA that (…)

By Robert Burns WASHINGTON (AP) Only a tiny percentage of the more than 1,000 insurgents detained by U.S. forces in the Iraqi city of Fallujah over the past week are foreigners, a Marine officer said Monday.
Col. Michael Regner, operations chief for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said in a conference call with reporters at the Pentagon that 1,052 people had been detained at last count.
Of that total, he said at least 1,030 were Iraqis, meaning only about 20 were foreigners.
He (…)

Though high-tech body armor saves lives on the battlefield, more and more troops are suffering traumatic head injuries - Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sgt. 1st Class Alec Giess clenched his eyes shut as he struggled to recall how his fellow Oregon National Guardsmen found him after a truck, swerving to avoid a suspected land mine, ejected him onto an Iraqi roadway — then rolled on top of him.
"If my boots weren’t sticking out from under the truck, they probably wouldn’t (…)

By Michael Georgy in Fallujah and Kim Sengupta
After six days of intense combat against the Fallujah insurgents, US warplanes, tanks and mortars have left a shattered landscape of gutted buildings, crushed cars and charred bodies.
A drive through the city revealed a picture of utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles down, power and phone lines hanging slack and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets. The north-west Jolan (…)

Transcript from "The Fifth Estate" Broadcast Wednesday October 29, 2003 http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/
© CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Republished at sanderhicks.com under the provisions of Fair Use.
BILL WHITE
Interviewed by: Bob McKeown
Charles "Bill" White
LET’S GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING WHEN DID YOU FIRST MEET JAMES BATH?
I met him when I graduated from Business School in nineteen seventy-eight. Came down to Houston on an interview.
AND WHAT KIND OF PERSON WAS HE?
I was (…)

Do you support your country even if what it does is evil?
So, what does that make you?
By John Kaminski skylax@comcast.net
It is truly a devil of a choice. Support American soldiers murdering innocent civilians throughout Iraq and win the hollow, uneasy applause of your neighbors? Or do you secretly root for Iraqi civilians turned revolutionaries trying the defend their war-wracked country against the murderous Western invaders ... and risk being arrested for treason? (…)