contributions

Iraq Statement
Even after the ’transfer of authority’ the U.S. Government remains in de facto military occupation of Iraq. The idea that the escalation of violence can be put to an end by the ’interim’ government, while 140,000 U.S troops remain in control of major Iraqi cities like Mosul and Baghdad, is far from the reality on the ground.
Overlooked by the U.S. Press is the escalating assassination of Iraqi academics, intellectuals, and lecturers. More than 250 college professors since (…)

by Severin Carrell
As judges consider the Army’s conduct, Severin Carrell examines the accusations, and describes how six people met their deaths
More than a year after the Iraq war was declared over, and 10 months since Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel receptionist, was allegedly kicked and beaten to death by members of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, the first legal challenge to the conduct of British forces in Iraq will be heard in the High Court this week.
The death of Mousa last (…)

The week before the early surprise "transition of power" in Iraq, the New Yorker magazine published a disturbing piece by Seymour Hersh that contained news probably far more dangerous than any coming out of Baghdad. His report, Plan B, revealed how top Israeli officials reached the conclusion by last August that "the Bush Administration would not be able to bring stability or democracy to Iraq." Fearing the consequences, Ariel Sharon’s government began freelancing a new divide-and-conquer (…)

By PATRICK COCKBURN
It is tempting to see the so-called handover of power from the US to the Iraqi interim government on 28 June as a fake. The few attending the ceremony at which sovereignty was legally transferred had to pass through four American checkpoints. Iyad Allawi, the new prime minister, worked for years for MI6 and the CIA. He is kept in power by 138,000 US troops. The ministers in the new government live isolated from the rest of Baghdad in palatial villas inside a secure (…)

By Vladimir Radyuhin
The United States suffers far heavier casualties in Iraq than it officially admits, a Russia military diplomat claimed.
The actual U.S. military losses in Iraq may have reached 2,000 personnel, more than twice the official figure of 900, as Washington badly understates its casualty statistics, a military diplomatic source told the Itar-Tass news agency.
"Official statistics do not include casualties among non-U.S. nationals who sign up to serve in the American (…)

by COLIN FREEMAN IN BAGHDAD
THE first raid by all-Iraqi security forces on suspected terrorist hide-outs in Baghdad descended into chaos when members of the two teams involved turned their guns on each other, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
The captain in charge of a detachment from the newly-formed Iraqi civil defence corps threatened to shoot anti-terrorist squad officers who were using strong-arm tactics against a taxi driver trying to get through a road block.
The anti-terrorist (…)

di ROBERTO ZANINI
Lo sapevamo anche prima, ma vederlo nero su bianco fa un certo effetto. Nel giro di pochi giorni, tre differenti commissioni d’inchiesta dei paesi che hanno fisicamente raso al suolo l’Iraq hanno detto che la guerra è stata fatta per sbaglio. Saddam non aveva le armi letali. I paesi sono Stati uniti, Gran Bretagna e la mai abbastanza citata Australia. I rapporti della commissione bipartisan del Senato americano, della commissione Butler britannica e della commissione (…)

By Craig Whitlock
STOCKHOLM - The airport police officer was about to close his small precinct station for the night, when two men wearing suits walked in. The visitors said the special Swedish security police had just arrested two suspected terrorists — very dangerous men — and needed a place to hold them until a plane could take them away.
The airport policeman recounted in an interview that he agreed to let them borrow his cramped office that night, Dec. 18, 2001, and stepped out of (…)

Rally at Boston Common Parade Grounds 12 Noon Followed by a March on the Democratic National Convention
In a Federal Court ruling on Thursday, the City of Boston was ordered to issue a permit to the Coalition to Protest the DNC for a march on Causeway St., past the Fleet Center, site of the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In the ruling, the Federal Judge Douglas P. Woodlock stated that there was a vital "symbolic importance to marching to the site of the DNC."
"The Coalition has (…)

"This is just the beginning of a week of protests," said Larry Holmes, a spokesman for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, a coalition of activist groups that staged the march.
From Theo Emery in Boston
DELEGATES arriving for America’s Democratic National Convention in Boston were greeted by competing protests against the war in Iraq and abortion today.
About 2000 war protesters gathered on the historic Boston Common, before marching about 800 metres to the FleetCenter, where (…)