THE ALAMO of OLD - FALLUJAH and SADR CITY and GAZA of TODAY
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Mid-East Realities - www.MiddleEast.Org - 202 362-5266
11 April 2004
News, Views, & Analysis Governments, Lobbies, & the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know
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THE ALAMO of OLD


FALLUJAH and SADR CITY and GAZA of TODAY


"They came to overthrow Saddam," said Samir Abed Wahid.  "Why are they fighting his victims?"  Wahid, a 32-year-old notary public, is the son of a Sunni father and a Shiite mother.  He said he was frustrated by the bloodshed in Fallujah; he was angry at the crackdown on Sadr. He was outraged at perceived injustice, but helpless to do anything about it.  "We have no choice," he said. "We're too weak. We have to listen. No, we have to obey. We're too weak to only listen."

MER - Mid-East Realities - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 4/11/2004: 

Even as Americans get ready to revisit THE ALAMO at their local movie theatres they have little ability it seems to understand the connections in history.  For just as they still remember the 'heroic' but suicidal stand at The Alamo of their own history they do not seem able to collectively appreciate at all that others today are fanatically fighting for their own country.  But this time the armies of 'ruthless' General Santa Ana are uniformed with the American flag of red, white, and blue and commanded by a former Texas Governor.    Like the Alamo of old, the cities of Iraq and occupied Palestine may fall to the superior forces attacking them.  But the memories of what is happening today will live on for a long time to come with future ramifications.  After all "Remember the Alamo!" still reverberates passionately in the American psyche.

American newspapers are not very good at making the historical connections, nor do they dare very often deal with many unmentionables of American political life.  But even so occassionally there is a solid and thoughtful reportorial article from abroad as in this case from Anthony Shadid, an Arab American, writing from Iraq for The Washington Post.  And every once and a while a thoughtfully honest piece appears on some Op Ed page
as in this case in the Los Angeles Times.

And at the end eyewitness independent reports from super committed foreign nationals who are on scene in Fallujah and other Iraqi cities.   Make sure to read.

Seething City Filled With Dread

By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, April 10, 2004; Page A01

BAGHDAD, April 9 -- The family of Firas Ismail stood anxiously around the corner from Firdaus Square, a site made historic by the televised images of Saddam Hussein's bronze statue crashing to the ground a year ago Friday. Almost in unison, family members flailed their arms as Firas approached. Then they shouted in desperation. "Get back!" they yelled. "Get back!"

Firas was trying to cross a street along the square to come home. But on this day, the anniversary of Hussein's fall, no one was allowed close. New rolls of razor-sharp wire, glinting in the sun, encircled the tattered park -- a precaution against attacks at nearby hotels or to prevent potentially embarrassing protests. Tanks stood vigilant with names like "Beastly Boy" and "Bloodlust" scrawled across their barrels. U.S. soldiers had orders to shoot anyone with a weapon, and they fired in the air to warn Firas.

"It's like we're in a military base," said his 62-year-old father. "Look here," the father grumbled, pointing down the street to towering concrete barriers. "Look there," he said, gesturing down another street where knots of edgy soldiers stood guard. A friend, Raad Fouad, looked on. "We live in a city of ghosts," he said. He paused, then repeated the phrase. "A city of ghosts."

The toppling of Hussein's statue was a rare, indelible moment, the lasting image of the American entry into one of the Arab world's great capitals. It was a war tidily won, with the government disappearing in just hours. On the anniversary, in a city still at war, the scene was no less stark. Along a deserted street, toward an abandoned square, residents of this weary city bemoaned the promises broken, describing anger at their fate and dread over what lies ahead. Firdaus Square was again at center stage Friday -- in a city returned to the precipice.

"The people were oppressed for 35 years and now this?" asked the father. "It's gone from worse to even worse."

A year ago, Saadoun Street was a tableau -- in images at least -- like liberated Paris. Crowds, curious and jubilant, poured into the street to watch a line of tanks and armor parade toward Hussein's statue in Firdaus Square.

"We're bringing freedom for everyone," an Iraqi exile shouted from a microphone. "We're making a free Iraq."

"We were so happy with the fall of Saddam," Ismail recalled Friday, standing with his neighbors in the sun-drenched street and offering a guest a cigarette and glass of cold water. "We were all happy but we hoped it wouldn't become an occupation."

Even then, there were hints of ambivalence. Some threw candy, cigarettes and flowers at the soldiers, who were atop vehicles flying the U.S. flag. Others asked the Americans to take down the flag -- their request inaudible over the roar of tank engines. Some snapped up packets of food thrown by soldiers. Others looked away in disgust, their pride wounded.

Fouad, a burly man with a walrus mustache who has lived in the neighborhood for 34 years, reflected on that day. He had stayed indoors then, the memories of war still fresh. The threat of more war still keeps him inside.

"You come home from work, you open the door and you lock it," he said. "It's like we're in a prison now."

Fouad, a Christian, stood with Ismail, a Shiite Muslim.

"Anything can happen now," Fouad said.

"We've seen everything," Ismail added, "and this is the worst moment."

As they spoke, a Humvee drove down the street, its microphone blaring a message: "If we see anyone carrying a weapon, we'll fire on him. Please stay away from this area. Thank you."

The message was repeated throughout the day, at one point intersecting with the soft strains of Koranic recitation. At other times, the speakers switched to sounds more alien in Baghdad -- "Heart of Glass" by Blondie and "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash. An occasional burst of gunfire broke the square's silence. In late afternoon, the thunder of a mortar round rolled over the street.

"This pressure," Fouad said. "What does this pressure give birth to? It creates hatred. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow."

Pulling down Hussein's statue was no easy task. Hundreds had swarmed inside the colonnaded park, where columns bore the initials "S.H." on their cupolas. They tried to bring down the statue with a rope, rocks and a sledgehammer. They never could. Finally, a Marine tank recovery vehicle plowed through the circle, crushing steps and a flower bed. A chain was tethered around the statue's neck, then to the vehicle. An effort that began in early afternoon ended at dusk, and the head was carted down the street.

Iraqis have often remarked that they wish they could have overthrown Hussein themselves. The thought comes up in conversations about Hussein's legacy -- relentless repression, mass killings and, as a final insult, that he brought an occupation."They got rid of Saddam for us. None of us could have done it," Ismail said. "But they should have provided us with something better. Instead we got something worse." Fouad nodded. It was a question of respect, he said."The example is in front of you," he said. "Someone enters the street and they shoot him. Is that respect?"

There was often a debate in the weeks after Hussein's fall -- was it an occupation or liberation? Few debate that anymore. The sermons across Iraq on Friday were fierce, the messages bleak. In the southern town of Kufa, a statement by Moqtada Sadr, the young cleric whose militia has unleashed an uprising this week across southern Iraq, called on U.S. forces to withdraw and said they faced a revolution. At the Um Maarik Mosque in Baghdad, a leading Sunni cleric echoed the protests now heard in conversations across the country.

"Where is the democracy we were promised, the prosperous state that we were going to have?" he said to thousands of worshipers. "We have occupation, unemployment, bloodshed, hunger and so on."

Across town, in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya, a poster was hung up on walls. "Long live the resistance," it said. It praised the Shiites for fighting troops in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City and Sunnis battling the U.S. military in Fallujah. "There is no Sunni or Shiite, only Islamic unity," it read. "Long live the Iraq of the mujaheddin," a religiously resonant word for blessed fighters.

In recent days, many Iraqis have noted the irony that the first, tentative signs of unity in a country deeply riven by sect and ethnicity have come in the face of the U.S. military forces that ended Hussein's apparatus of repression.

"By any means, we have to get rid of them," said Ahmed Mohammed, a 21-year-old Sunni Muslim sitting along Saadoun Street, swaths of the thoroughfare lined with concrete barriers, its curbs crushed by tank treads. "They lied, they lied to Iraqis. They have done nothing. We didn't take a step forward. We've taken a step backward."

Along the street were the tokens of Iraq's freedom. A Shiite banner hung near the gas station. Drifting from a speaker inside were the chants of mourning to mark a Shiite holiday. Advertisements for once-banned satellite phones lined the streets. In the square itself, Hussein's initials had been erased from the cupolas, and a green Shiite flag fluttered overhead from an unfinished modernist statue. Soldiers found a ladder Friday and took down a picture of Sadr, their new foe, pasted to its side.

Mohammed, though, was bleak. His brother, Amer, was killed three weeks ago in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad. Mohammed, sitting idly, had no work. And in the days ahead, he said, there would be "war in the streets."

"They came to overthrow Saddam," said Samir Abed Wahid, standing nearby. "Why are they fighting his victims?"

Wahid, a 32-year-old notary public, is the son of a Sunni father and a Shiite mother. He said he was frustrated by the bloodshed in Fallujah; he was angry at the crackdown on Sadr. He was outraged at perceived injustice, but helpless to do anything about it.

"We have no choice," he said. "We're too weak. We have to listen. No, we have to obey. We're too weak to only listen."

No matter, he said.

"We have to fight the United States. Now this war is not against Saddam. It's against the religion of the people. I'm ready to fight with my family -- in Karbala, in Fallujah. I don't care anymore."





Fury Ignites Solidarity in Iraq

By Naomi Klein

Los Angeles Times - April 9, 2004
BAGHDAD - April 9, 2003, was the day this city fell to
U.S. forces. One year later, it is rising up against
them.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld claims that the
resistance is just a few "thugs, gangs and terrorists."
This is dangerous, wishful thinking. The war against the
occupation is now being fought out in the open, by
regular people defending their homes - an Iraqi
intifada.

"They stole our playground," an 8-year-old boy in Sadr
City told me this week, pointing at six tanks parked in
a soccer field next to a rusty jungle gym. The field is
a precious bit of green in an area of Baghdad that is
otherwise a swamp of raw sewage and uncollected garbage.

Sadr City has seen little of Iraq's multibillion-dollar
"reconstruction," which is partly why Muqtader Sadr and
his Al Mahdi army have so much support here. Before U.S.
occupation chief L. Paul Bremer III provoked Sadr into
an armed conflict by shutting down his newspaper and
arresting and killing his deputies, the Al Mahdi army
was not fighting coalition forces; it was doing their
job for them.

After all, in the year it has controlled Baghdad, the
Coalition Provisional Authority still hasn't managed to
get the traffic lights working or to provide the most
basic security for civilians. So in Sadr City, Sadr's
so-called "outlaw militia" can be seen engaged in such
subversive activities as directing traffic and guarding
factories. It was Bremer who created Iraq's security
vacuum; Sadr simply filled it.

But as the June 30 "handover" to Iraqi control
approaches, Bremer now sees Sadr and the Al Mahdi as a
threat that must be eliminated - at any cost to the the
communities that have grown to depend on them. Which is
why stolen playgrounds were only the start of what I saw
in Sadr City this week. At Al Thawra Hospital, I met
Raad Daier, an ambulance driver with a bullet in his
abdomen, one of 12 shots he says were fired at his
ambulance from a U.S. Humvee. At the time of the attack,
according to hospital officials, he was carrying six
people injured by U.S. forces, including a pregnant
woman who had been shot in the stomach and lost her
baby.

I saw charred cars, which dozens of eyewitnesses said
had been hit by U.S. missiles, and I confirmed with
hospitals that their drivers had been burned alive. I
also visited Block 37 of the Chuadir District, a row of
houses where every door was riddled with holes.
Residents said U.S. tanks drove down their street firing
into homes. Five people were killed, including Murtada
Muhammad, age 4.

And Thursday, I saw something that I feared more than
any of this: a copy of the Koran with a bullet hole
through it. It was lying in the ruins of what was Sadr's
headquarters in Sadr City. A few hours earlier,
witnesses said, U.S. tanks broke down the walls of the
center after two guided missiles pierced its roof. The
worst damage, however, was done by hand. Clerics at the
Sadr office said soldiers entered the building and
shredded photographs of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the
top Shiite cleric in Iraq. When I arrived at the
destroyed center, the floor was covered with torn
religious texts, including copies of the Koran that had
been ripped and shot through with bullets. And it did
not escape the notice of the Shiites here that hours
earlier, U.S. soldiers had bombed a Sunni mosque in
Fallouja.

For months, the White House has been making ominous
predictions of a civil war breaking out between the
majority Shiites, who believe it's their turn to rule
Iraq, and the minority Sunnis, who want to hold onto the
privileges they amassed under Saddam Hussein. But this
week, the opposite appeared to have taken place. Both
Sunnis and Shiites have seen their homes attacked and
their religious sites desecrated. Up against a shared
enemy, they are beginning to bury ancient rivalries and
join forces against the occupation. Instead of a civil
war, they are on the verge of building a common front.
You could see it at the mosques in Sadr City on
Thursday: Thousands of Shiites lined up to donate blood
destined for Sunnis hurt in the attacks in Fallouja. "We
should thank Paul Bremer," Salih Ali told me. "He has
finally united Iraq. Against him."

Naomi Klein is author of "Fences and Windows:
Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate" (Picador, 2002).



Iraq Solidarity Action - Resist the Massacre in Falluga

Urgent information and appeal from Ewa Jasiewicz, who worked with Voices
in the Wilderness and Occupation Watch in Iraq, lived there for 8 months
(Basra and Baghdad) and in Palestine, mainly Jenin camp for 6 months,
speaks Arabic, and who got back from Iraq 2 months ago. She is in regular
contact with her friends in Basra and Baghdad.

I just spoke to friends in Baghdad - Paola Gaspiroli, Italian, from
Occupation watch and Bridges to Baghdad, Journalist Leigh Gordon,
England, (NUJ, Tribune, Mail on Sunday) and a Palestinian friend with
family in Falluja and friends in the Iraqi Islamic Party. Both he and
Leigh have been ferrying out the injured from Falluja to Baghdad for the
past three days. Ambulances have been barred from entry into the
blood-drenched city.

Here is their news, which they told me over the telephone tonight (Friday)

Paola:

There has been a massacre in Falluga. Falluga is under siege. 470 people
have been killed, and 1700 injured. There has been no ceasefire. They
(Americans) told people to leave, said they have 8 hours to leave and
people began to leave but they're trapped in the Desert. The Americans
have been bombing with B52s (Confirmed also by Leigh in an email three
days ago). Bridges to Baghdad are pulling out. We have flights booked out
of Amman. Tomorow a team will go to Sadr City to deliver medicines. 50
people have been killed there. ?? (Forgotten name) the 'elastic' shiekh
in Sadr City (I've met him, young, brilliant guy, describes himself as
'elastic' because he is so flexible when it comes to his interpretations
of Islam and moral conduct definitions etc, he's pretty liberal) he has
told me I should leave. He says that even he can't control his people.
Foreigners are going to be targeted. 6 new foreigners have been taken
hostage. Four of them are Italian security firm employees - they were
kidnapped from their car, which was found to be full of weapons, and
there were black uniforms. Baghdad was quiet today except for Abu Ghraib
(West Baghdad, where a vast prison is located and is bursting at the
seams with 12,000 prisoners) an American convoy was attacked there and 9
soldiers were injured and 27 were kidnapped. That's right 27. None of the
newswires are reporting it though. And I heard this from (*name best not
to supply without permission). Its really really bad. They (Americans)
have been firing on Ambulances, snipers are following the ambulances,
they cannot get in.

Falluga, there are people in the Desert, they've left Falluga but they're
not being allowed into Baghdad, they're trapped in the Dessert, they're
like refugees, its terrible but the people, Iraqi people are giving all
they can; they're bringing supplies, everybody is giving all their help
and support to Falluga.

I want to stay but I have to go, if I want to come back and be useful,
you know I think its best to leave, Bridges to Baghdad has decided this.
It's getting really dangerous for Italians. We feel like we're being
targeted now. (Italy has a 2500+ force including Carabinieri occupying
Nassiriyah which has been subject to a number of resistance attacks
including the devastating attack on the Police station which claimed the
lives of 4 soldiers, one civilian, one documentary film maker, 12
Carabinieri police and 8 Iraqis).

(.) and Leigh have been great. They've been driving into Falluga and
bringing out people, going back and forth. They know what's going on,
really they have been great. They want more people to help them but we
couldn't from here. It's getting much much worse.
--------

My friend who's been in Falluga today and for the past few days:

We've been seeing it with our own eyes. People were told to leave Falluga
and now there are thousands trapped in the Desert. There is a 13 km long
convoy of people trying to reach Baghdad. The Americans are firing bombs,
everything, everything they have on them. They are firing on Families!
They are all children, old men and women in the dessert. Other Iraqi
people are trying to help them. In Falluga they (Americans) have been
bombing hospitals. Children are being evacuated to Baghdad. There is a
child now, a baby, he had 25 members of his family killed, he's in the
hospital and someone needs to be with him, why isn't anyone there to stay
with him, he just lost 25 from his family!??? The Americans are dropping
cluster bombs and new mortars, which jump 3-4 metres. They are bombing
from the air. There are people lying dead in the streets. They said
there'd be a ceasefire and then they flew in, I saw them, and they began
to bomb. They are fighting back and they are fighting well in Falluga.
But we are expecting the big attack in 24-48 hours. It will be the main
attack. They will be taking the town street by street and searching and
attacking. They did this already in a village near-by, I forget the name,
but they will be doing this in Falluja. Please get help, get people to
protest, get them to go to the Embassies, get them out, get them to do
something. There is a massacre. And we need foreigners, the foreigners
can do something. We are having a protest, Jo (Jo Wilding
www.wildfirejo.org.uk) and the others from her group are coming to the
American checkpoint tomorrow. We haven't slept in 3 or 4 days. We need
attention. I have photos, film, we've given it to Al jazeera, Al Arabiya
but get it out too. Do everything you can. We are going back in tomorrow.
------

Leigh Gordon:   It's kicking off. Come by all means but me and (..)
probably won't be around. I mean they're going to crazy. (.) is saying
for foreigners to come but its not safe. Sheikh .. from Falluga said he
couldn't guarantee my safety. I mean its going to go crazy, I think
foreigners will start getting killed soon - I mean people are going to
start getting desperate, when they've seen their mother father, house,
cat, dog, everything bombed they're going to start to attack. They
(Americans) have said this operations only going to last 5 days' it's
drawing to an end. They need to free up troops on other fronts breaking
out all over the country. They're going to go in for the kill. There's no
way of guaranteeing anybody's safety. I think you can be useful but its
not like you can just not tell your mum and think you'll be back in a
week. We're probably going to get killed tomorrow. Come, but we might not
be here.

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April 2004


Magazine



Einstein in 1948
(April 26, 2004)
Einstein speaking up in 1948 way before his time and not on relativity!

BUSH and BREMER of ARABIA - Lawrence of Arabia Redux
(April 25, 2004)
Today's "roaring anger at the American arrogance and ignorance" can now be heard far and wide, including on 9/11. And what has "led to the current nightmare" has not as yet consumed itself and now heralds a darker future still to come.

HATRED GROWS AGAINST U.S. THROUGHOUT ARAB AND MUSLIM WORLDS
(April 26, 2004)
Earlier this month long-time Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made a visit to the Bush Ranch. A few days later, after Sharon had visited the White House, Mubarak realized he'd been had once again, that he'd been used as a kind of cheap extra in a U.S.-Israeli political drama. Apparently Bush hadn't even told Mubarak of the about to be announced 'historic shift' in U.S. policies he was about to announce with Sharon. Mubarak left the U.S. and within days publicly proclaimed that 'Hatred for the United States had never been greater'. About the same time King Abdullah II canceled his White House visit, his jet flying directly from California back to Jordan pointedly bypassing even a stop in Washington. And these are two of America's closest allies in the Middle East, both kept in power by U.S. money, guns, and the still growing reach of the CIA. The hatreds the U.S. and Israel are creating today will reverberate throughout the Arab and the Muslim worlds for a long time into the future now with potentially cataclysmic results.

Aha...No Real Sovereignty After All
(April 24, 2004)
Aha...so now they even admit in public that all the hoopla about 'return of sovereignty' is hedged with all kinds of buts and ifs and tricky-sticky words that actually result in no such thing after all. Sovereignty by definition is control; and control is precisely what the Americans are intending to keep in their own hands, one way or another, for a very long time to come. In Washington senior political operatives have already uttered, and in public, "ten, to twenty, to thirty years."

Outrageous George and Bandar Bush
(April 23, 2004)
The only thing of late that Outrageous George keeps repeating ad naseum which appears to be definitely true is the new mantra "We are changing history". But opps again... if there were a free and 'democratic' vote of the citizens of our world, or for that matter of the members of the United Nations, is there any doubt of the outcome? Is there any doubt there would be an overwhelming consensus that these history charges of which Outrageous George -- the crusading evangelical Jesus-saved and born-again American President -- speaks are very dangerous, very hated, and very historically damned?

Einstein and other Jews condemn Sharon's Political Movement back in 1948
(April 21, 2004)
One other very important contemporary reality. Many of the 'neo-cons' who are now in the highest positions of the American government are among the supporters of Revisionist Zionism. The number three official at the Pentagon, Douglas Feith, whose role in Iraq is central, as well as the man put in charge of the Middle East at the National Security Council, Elliott Abrams, and many associated with them in the Bush Administration, are at the top of this list. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell has privately referred to Feith's office at the Pentagon as 'The Gestapo':

American Jews Collectively Now More Complicitous With Militant Zionism Than Ever
(April 22, 2004)
One of the most disturbing developments in the United States is how easily the leadership of the once liberal and progressive American Jewish community has been nearly completely co-opted into supporting the terribly militant, racist, and neo-apartheid policies of the 'Jewish State' of Israel. Of course there are many individual Americans who are Jewish who do speak and write in opposition to what the Israelis are doing; and in fact in opposition to what the 'organized' Jewish community is doing. But on the national stage there is no significant independent Jewish organization or spokesperson to turn to. Indeed those few that pretend to be such are actually front-organizations manipulating liberal American Jews in coordination with various political groups in Israel. Over the years the Israeli Labor Party when in opposition has used infiltrated and and funded front groups like 'Peace Now' and 'Tikkun' to support their own policies and to try to get 'liberal 'American Jews to harmlessly channel their money and energy to them. This additional tragic reality has substantially inhibited the growth of any truly independent movement among American Jews to take the one crucial step that the Israelis do fear: A clear call from credible American Jews to end the unprecedented U.S. arming and funding of Israel.

VANUNU RELEASED under Unprecedented Restrictions
(April 21, 2004)
In past years MERTV presented a multi-part series of programs specifically about Mordechai Vanunu and Israel's secret vast nuclear weapons program that Vanunu felt he must expose. Now with Vanunu's release after his kidnapping and imprisonment by Israel for 18 years -- under unprecedented restrictions -- there may be more international focus on how the Israelis came to possess vast stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction which in fact considerably stimulated the regional arms race leading to today's dangerous situation.

BLAIR and BUSH - CREEP and IDIOT and AYATOLLAH
(April 21, 2004)
TONY Blair last night took on the full-time job of cheerleader for George Bush in his bid to be re-elected president of the USA. It was embarrassing. More than that, it should disgust every voter in the United Kingdom where - if Blair has his way - our destiny is tied ineluctably to the murderous bully boys in Washington. At least Dumbo Dubya admitted that he could not remember the whys and wherefores of this great international crisis. He stumbled about like a Cub Scout who has lost his woggle.

The American/Israeli Crusade - Passover in the 'new' Iraq
(April 19, 2004)
The Christian Evangelical American President is clearly now on a worldwide rampaging Crusade -- his language, not to mention his deeds, make this central reality of our times more and more evident all the time. The group of thirty or more Jewish Zionist neo-conservatives positioned at the highest levels of the Bush Administration, and who in fact instigated the invasion/occupation of Iraq in coordination with and on behalf of the Israelis, are cleverly manipulated the man of limited faculties in the White House in a variety of ways, including through the hard-line zealot ally who is the Vice-President. Even the Secretary of State has been known to talk about the 'right-wing extremists' in charge at the Pentagon, actually using the word "Gestapo" to make his point! And the new talk-of-the-town book by Bob Woodward now being serialized in the pages of The Washington Post and on talk-shows everywhere makes it more evident than before that if there ever was a 'rogue regime' it is now ensconced in the American capital everywhere using deception, duplicity, and mass propaganda to pursue its destructive course come what what may.

ISRAEL'S Formula for Unending Occupation and War
(April 19, 2004)
Meanwhile Ariel Sharon the Bulldozer and George Bush the Crusader march on.

Bush: A Clear and Present Danger to the World
(April 16, 2004)
"He is the most dangerous man in the world. A warmonger. A crackpot fundamentalist. A fanatic and a fool... His name is George W Bush and his main battle plan is to set the world on fire... In Israel, Bush has blazed a purposeless trail of destruction and multiplied the dangers of terrorism a thousand-fold... Bush has overnight primed the entire region for a new cycle of slaughter by backing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's illegal land-grab of Palestinian territory..." The Daily Mirror in London today

What the Palestinians Could Do
(April 16, 2004)
The beleaguered and essentially surrounded and town imprisoned Palestinian people are today paying the price for decades of political incompetence and corruption, an entire era of miserably inept leadership that never understood the world arena and grossly squandered a huge unprecedented reservoir of international good will, sympathy, and funds made available to the PLO leadership for so long by so many.

The Battle for Najaf and Sadr Awaits
(April 15, 2004)
The Washington bumbling and stumbling we've spoken of seems unending. Hence the evacuations now underway in Iraq of many Russians, Europeans, and other foreign nationals as few believe the U.S. has either much control or much good sense to deal with the predicaments of their own making.

History to the Rescue
(April 15, 2004)
At this time of such utter despair not only because of the policies of the United States and Israel in the Middle East, but because of the crusading-like zeal and arrogance, as well as the increasingly apparent ignorance, of the American President, remembering what others of far greater stature, vision, and courage have said over the years is heartening. Here are of few such historic quotes -- some profound, some courageous, some truth-telling -- all from the "Famous Quotes in History" section of MER.

The U.S. and Israel have set Iraq on Fire
(April 12, 2004)
"Today the hated Redcoats wantonly killing and destroying are the Americans. The ragtag militias fighting the occupiers are Palestinian and Iraqi and Muslim. And the pompous, self-righteous, arrogant types fill U.S. T.V. screens with their cries for more troops and more killing until the natives comply with the Empire's demands. The other evening, on NBC News, the 'consultant' 'explaining' developments in Iraq ended with 'God Bless the American Marine Corps!" MER

U.S. to declare Israel won't have to return to 1949 border
(April 11, 2004)
"Israeli officials believe the section of this letter from Bush referring to final status borders is highly significant. They believe it constitutes U.S. recognition of Israel's future annexation of West Bank settlement blocs and the negation of a right of Palestinian refugee return to Israel."

THE ALAMO of OLD - FALLUJAH and SADR CITY and GAZA of TODAY
(April 11, 2004)
Even as Americans get ready to revisit THE ALAMO at their local movie theatres they have little ability it seems to understand the connections in history. For just as they still remember the 'heroic' but suicidal stand at The Alamo of their own history they do not seem able to collectively appreciate at all that others today are fanatically fighting for their own country. But this time the armies of 'ruthless' General Santa Ana are uniformed with the American flag of red, white, and blue and commanded by a former Texas Governor. Like the Alamo of old, the cities of Iraq and occupied Palestine may fall to the superior forces attacking them. But the memories of what is happening today will live on for a long time to come with future ramifications. After all "Remember the Alamo!" still reverberates passionately in the American psyche.

Iraqi Battalion Trained and Paid by U.S. Refuses to Fight in Falluja
(April 11, 2004)
"It was the first time U.S. commanders had sought to involve the postwar Iraqi army in major combat operations, and the battalion's refusal came as large parts of Iraqi security forces have stopped carrying out their duties."

Oil, Power, Israel, and World Domination
(April 10, 2004)
It's the old 'new world order' of George Bush I recast and renamed as the 'war against terrorism' and the promotion of 'freedom and democracy' of George Bush II. This is a very insightful and thoughtful article from Mother Jones Magazine. But it's imcomplete in one key regard by ommitting the very substantial role Israel has played in pushing and nurturing the policies now being pursued as well as in promoting a key group of persons, the "neoconservatives", about half of whom are Jewish and nearly all of whom have a long history of Israeli involvements. More on this from MER in the weeks and months ahead. Meanwhile, check MER much more often now that we've substantially reorganized and improved everything . And please, tell your friends and family about Mid-East Realities - www.MiddleEast.org.

The 9/11 Cover-Up Continues Under Growing Pressure
(April 7, 2004)
There is a long history of using such "Bi-Partisan" Commissions, White House selected, not so much to uncover all the facts and point fingers in the right direction, but rather to cover-up that which the powers that be do not want to be known. This Commission too, which the public has only focused upon in recent days because of the controversy surrounding Condoleeza Rice's testimony and the President flipflop, fits into this pattern. Selected by the White House which resisted long and hard setting it up at all, the Executive Director a long-time friend of non other than Condoleeza Rice as well as Richard Perle and many of the neocons, and agreeing to first submit its report to the White House for 'clearance', this is anything but a truly 'independent' commission.

NO Palestinian State, 'Roadmap' Dead, Iraq Exploding
(April 5, 2004)
While Bush is now being likened to Nixon, and Iraq to Vietnam, in a major speech by Senator Ted Kennedy, all the lies and deceptions about what the U.S. is doing in Iraq, as well as about the 'roadmap' and the 'peace process' in the areas of increasingly brutally occupied Palestine are being rendered more naked for all to see.

Bloody Weekend in Iraq! 60+ killed in 3 days
(April 5, 2004)
Last week Iraqi ruler Paul Bremer ordered the U.S. military storming of a newspaper office and shut it down with a lock marked "USA Made " in the name of "freedom and democracy". For many it was a metaphor for the whole country, in some ways much of the whole region. A few days later he ordered the storming of a home at 3am arresting the top aide to Islamic cleric Muqtada Sadr who could have easily been picked up any time. This weekend major demonstrations broke out in many Iraqi cities and before the weekend ended 24 Iraqis were shot dead, many hundreds injured, and at least eight U.S. troops killed. And this was just in the Shiite areas. With the Sunnis in Fallujah Bremer has order that city surrounding and blockaded; some 5000 troops preparing for a kind of city-invasion with 'overwhelming force' in the days now ahead. Images of the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinians continue multiplying.

White House, NSC, FBI Cover-Up!
(April 3, 2004)
There's already the scent of blood in the political waters here in Washington now. The President and the National Security Adviser are already wounded. The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State are wearing political band-aids.

White House, NSC, FBI Cover-Up!
(April 3, 2004)
There's already the scent of blood in the political waters here in Washington now. The President and the National Security Adviser are already wounded. The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State are wearing political band-aids.

Great Big White House Cover-Up!
(April 2, 2004)
The claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was "an outrageous lie". Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used "state secrets privilege".




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