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venezuelanalysis.com
Venezuela’s Oligarchy Imports Soldiers Because It Cannot Recruit Them At Home
By: Marta Harnecker
If anything has become clear following the discovery of an incursion of a significantly large paramilitary group into the country, it is that the ’anti-Bolivarian and anti-Venezuelan oligarchy and its masters in the north’ have not been able to recruit Venezuelan soldiers for their subversive objectives and ’have been forced to recruit them in another country,’ as (…)

Why the US turned against their former golden boy — He was Preparing a Coup! What He Did as a Catspaw for Tehran: How He Nearly Bankrupted Jordan; the Billions He Stands to Make Out of the New Iraq
By ANDREW COCKBURN
In dawn raids today, American troops surrounded Ahmed Chalabi’s headquarters and home in Baghdad, put a gun to his head, arrested two of his aides, and seized documents. Only five months ago, Chalabi was a guest of honor sitting right behind Laura Bush at the State of the (…)

At first glance they appear to be the archetypal Band Of Brothers of Hollywood myth, brave and honest men united in common purpose.
But a closer look at these American GIs, sweltering in the heat of an unwelcoming Iraq, reveals the glazed eyes and limp expressions of those who have witnessed a war they do not understand and have begun to resent. By their own admission these American soldiers have killed civilians without hesitation, shot wounded fighters and left others to die in agony. (…)

Rohan Pearce
Wondering what’s been happening in Iraq? Here’s US President George Bush’s account: “Coalition forces have encountered serious violence in some areas of Iraq. Our military commanders report that this violence is being instigated by three groups: Some remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime, along with Islamic militants have attacked coalition forces in the city of Fallujah. Terrorists from other countries have infiltrated Iraq to incite and organise attacks. In the south of Iraq, (…)

The Washington Post posted a video
on its website showing soldiers starting to build a human pyramid of naked
detainees. A soldier is seen co-ordinating it, at one point hitting a prisoner
so hard in the face that the man’s legs buckle. US military guards, "appearing
to delight in the abuses", rode Iraqi prisoners like animals and forced them
to scrape their food from toilets, according to testimony reported Friday.
The
video from WaPo, here.
More...if
you (…)

These documents, obtained by The Washington Post, are the offical English translations of previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Some of the names have been withheld from these statements by washingtonpost.com because they are alleged victims of sexual assault. These files are in PDF format.
Some of the descriptions in these statements may be disturbing because of their sexually explicit or graphic nature.
Nori Samir Gunbar AL-YASSERI, Jan. (…)

The Washington Post and ABC, published new photographs of the alleged abuse
and sexual humiliation of Iraq prisoners by U.S. soldiers. The material, including
secret sworn statements from prisoners, came from evidence being assembled
from investigations into possible criminal charges against U.S. soldiers.
Two American soldiers posing with thumbs up near a body packed in ice at Iraq’s
Abu Ghraib prison.
The photographs depict a U.S. soldier apparently preparing to (…)

By Phil Long, Knight Ridder
FORT STEWART, Ga. - In a defeat for opponents of the war in Iraq, a military court-martial jury found Florida National Guard Sgt. Camilo Mejia guilty of desertion Friday and sentenced him to a year’s confinement.
The eight-member jury of seven men and a woman, most of whom had served in Iraq, reached the verdict after just under two hours of deliberations.
Then, after hearing testimony about Mejia’s character Friday afternoon, the same jury gave him the (…)

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/430445.html
By Nir Hasson. Lili Galili, Yuval Yoaz and Tsahar Rotem, Haaretz Correspondents, and Itim
Hundreds of people marched on the Kissufim crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Friday to protest the Israel Defense Forces operation in Rafah, in which 40 Palestinians have been killed as the army works to flush out militants and drug smugglers in the south Gaza refugee camp.
The demonstration was supposed to take place at the Sufa (…)

By Boris Kagarlitsky
ZNet Commentary
With American elections approaching, the whole world is waiting. Americans are voting, but every other country knows that its future in one or another way will depend on the outcome of this vote. Because G.W. Bush isn’t a problem for Americans, it is a disaster for most of the world.
It is commonly held in Europe that the ever-worsening situation in Iraq is undermining George W. Bush’s chances of re-election. Indeed, there’s no denying that each new (…)