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  • Take them out, dude: pilots toast hit on Iraqi ’civilians’
    6 October 2004

    By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
    06 October 2004
    The Pentagon said yesterday it was investigating cockpit video footage that shows American pilots attacking and killing a group of apparently unarmed Iraqi civilians.
    The 30-second clip shows the pilot targeting the group of people in a street in the city of Fallujah and asking his mission controllers whether he should "take them out". He is told to do so and, shortly afterwards, the footage shows a huge explosion where the people were. (…)

  • The war’s littlest victim
    6 October 2004

    He was exposed to depleted uranium.His daughter may be paying the price.
    by Juan Gonzalez
    In early September 2003, Army National Guard Spec. Gerard Darren Matthew was sent home from Iraq, stricken by a sudden illness.
    One side of Matthew’s face would swell up each morning. He had constant migraine headaches, blurred vision, blackouts and a burning sensation whenever he urinated.
    The Army transferred him to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for further tests, but doctors (…)

  • The Crisis in Sudan Why Washington Won’t Save Darfur Villagers
    6 October 2004

    By NORM DIXON
    On September 21, Salih Booker, the director of the Africa Studies Program at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations ruling-class think tank, argued in the International Herald Tribune that the US government has failed to convince the UN Security Council to take tough action to end Sudan’s "government-sponsored campaign of genocide" in Darfur because it "cried wolf" over Saddam Hussein’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction in order to justify its illegal (…)

  • Blair accused of union ’stitch-up’ in conference vote on troops pull-out
    6 October 2004

    By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
    Tony Blair was accused of a "stitch-up" yesterday after Labour avoided a damaging defeat on Iraq that would have wrecked its last annual party conference before the general election.
    Ian McCartney, the Labour Party chairman, played a crucial role in the behind-the-scenes arm-twisting to persuade union leaders to switch their votes to support the Prime Minister and defeat a rebel motion calling for a date to be set for the withdrawal of British (…)

  • THE REAL LT. COL. BURKETT IN HIS OWN WORDS TO BBC TELEVISION
    6 October 2004

    by Greg Palast
    Shooting the Messenger Doesn’t Discredit the Message
    When Dan Rather went down for airing a document he couldn’t source, he did the courageous thing: blamed someone else.
    In this case, Rather and CBS loaded their corporate guilt on a guy you’ve probably never heard of before, rancher Bill Burkett of Abilene, a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Texas Air National Guard.
    CBS did a no-no — used a document on air without fully checking out its source. No excuses. (…)

  • Army: Reservists Failed to Report on Time
    6 October 2004

    By Robert Burns
    WASHINGTON - The Army is getting a grudging response - or none at all - from hundreds of former soldiers it ordered back into uniform for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, although none has been declared AWOL.
    Army officials said Friday that 622 people, about one-third of the 1,765 Individual Ready Reserve members who were supposed to report for duty by Sept. 28, failed to show up. Some requested more time. Others wanted to be excused entirely. Some have not responded at all. (…)

  • Four U.S. Soldiers Charged With Murder
    6 October 2004

    By DAN ELLIOTT
    Four soldiers accused of smothering an Iraqi general during an interrogation last fall have been charged with murder, bringing the total number of U.S. troops charged with murder in Iraq to at least 10.
    The soldiers could get life in prison without parole if convicted in the Nov. 26 death of Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, 57, at Qaim, Iraq. The Army said Mowhoush died of asphyxiation from chest compression and from being smothered.
    The handling of Iraqi prisoners by (…)

  • CIA review finds no evidence Saddam had ties to Islamic terrorists
    6 October 2004

    By WARREN P. STROBEL, JONATHAN S. LANDAY and JOHN WALCOTT
    A new CIA assessment undercuts the White House’s claim that Saddam Hussein maintained ties to al-Qaida, saying there’s no conclusive evidence that the regime harbored Osama bin Laden associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
    The CIA review, which U.S. officials said Monday was requested some months ago by Vice President Dick Cheney, is the latest assessment that calls into question one of President Bush’s key justifications for last year’s (…)

  • Rumsfeld questions Saddam-Bin Laden link
    5 October 2004

    US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has cast doubt on whether there was ever a relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
    The alleged link was used as a reason by President Bush for invading Iraq.
    Mr Rumsfeld was asked by a New York audience about connections between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.
    "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two," he said, though he later issued a statement saying he was misunderstood.
    When asked about the (…)

  • Mother of soldier killed in Iraq collapses, dies
    5 October 2004

    ’Her grief was so intense,’ hospital worker says
    A 45-year-old woman collapsed and died days after learning her son had been killed in Iraq, and just hours after seeing his body.
    Results of an autopsy were not immediately released, but friends of Karen Unruh-Wahrer said she couldn’t stop crying over losing her 25-year-old son, Army Spc. Robert Oliver Unruh, who was killed by enemy fire near Baghdad on September 25.
    "Her grief was so intense — it seemed it could have harmed her, could (…)