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14 Sept
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News, Views, &
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Upcoming from MIDDLEEAST.ORG:
The Hidden History of CIA Torture: America’s Road to Abu Ghraib
EYEWITNESS TO SLAUGHTER IN BAGHDAD
"He pointed at the picture of the guy with V-neck
T-shirt. It was him (the Arabiya journalist).
He was dead.
All the people I had shared my shelter with were dead."
Baghdad, Sunday (12 Sept)
MER -
Mid-East Realities - MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 14 Sept:
The
American-installed CIA regime is failing in Iraq -- the country is
exploding and the long-promised 'elections' will not be controllable as
planned and thus may not even be held causing an even further
escallation of the rebellion.
And the Washington regime would be panicking but for the
overriding fact that in the polls the Bush/Cheney/neocon/evangelical
alliance is amazingly heading for victory in early November.
Throughout occupied Iraq the Americans are using their vastly superior
computer-age technology and firepower; the largest CIA base in the
world since Vietnam; and billions of dollars for bribes, spies, and
'intelligence'; to quite literally bomb and tank all who oppose into
oblivion or submission.
On Sunday as the details of this murderous U.S. attack on a
Baghdad crowd were first being reported, MER asked an officer on
Commanding U.S. General Abizaid's staff how could the U.S. be using
attack helicopters to fire on crowds in Baghdad and still think Iraqis
wouldn't hate the Americans. He suggested it must have been to protect
troops still in the damaged vehicle. A few hours later when told that
was not the case, that the troops had already been rescued, he
suggested maybe there was a need to destroy the vehicle for
'intelligence' reasons. When told the vehicle was already destroyed
and on fire he could only shrug... How telling...
This unusually gripping first-hand report from the exploding streets of Baghdad:
'He's just sleeping, I kept telling myself'
On
Sunday, 13 Iraqis were killed and dozens injured in
Baghdad when US
helicopters fired on a crowd of
unarmed civilians. G2 columnist Ghaith
Abdul-Ahad,
who was injured in the attack, describes the scene
of
carnage - and reveals just how lucky he was to walk away.
Dead
and injured Iraqi civilians on Haifa Street, Baghdad, after
a US helicopter attack.
Photo: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty
Images
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09/14/04 "The Guardian"
-- It started with a phone call early on Sunday morning: "Big pile of
smoke over Haifa Street." Still half asleep I put on my jeans, cursing
those insurgents who do their stuff in the early morning. What if I
just go back to bed, I thought - by the time I will be there it will be
over. In the car park it struck me that I didn't have my flak jacket in
the car, but figured it was most probably just an IED (improvised
explosive device) under a Humvee and I would be back soon.
On the
way to Haifa Street I was half praying that everything would be over or
that the Americans would seal off the area. I haven't recovered from
Najaf yet.
Haifa Street was built by Saddam in the early 80s, part of a scheme
that was supposed to give Baghdad a modern look. A long, wide boulevard
with huge Soviet high-rise buildings on both sides, it acts like a
curtain, screening off the network of impoverished alleyways that are
inhabited by Baghdad's poorest and toughest people, many of whom are
from the heart of the Sunni triangle.
When I arrived there I saw hundreds of kids and young men heading
towards the smoke. "Run fast, it's been burning for a long time!"
someone shouted as I grabbed my cameras and started to run.
When I was 50m away I heard a couple of explosions and another cloud of
dust rose across the street from where the first column of smoke was
still climbing. People started running towards me in waves. A man
wearing an orange overall was sweeping the street while others were
running. A couple of helicopters in the sky overhead turned away. I
jumped into a yard in front of a shop that was set slightly back from
the street, 10 of us with our heads behind the yard wall. "It's a sound
bomb," said a man who had his face close to mine.
A few seconds later, I heard people screaming and shouting - something
must have happened - and I headed towards the sounds, still crouching
behind a wall. Two newswire photographers were running in the opposite
direction and we exchanged eye contact.
About 20m ahead of me, I could see the American Bradley armoured
vehicle, a huge monster with fire rising from within. It stood alone,
its doors open, burning. I stopped, took a couple of photos and crossed
the street towards a bunch of people. Some were lying in the street,
others stood around them. The helicopters were still buzzing, but
further off now.
I felt uneasy and exposed in the middle of the street, but lots of
civilians were around me. A dozen men formed a circle around five
injured people, all of whom were screaming and wailing. One guy looked
at one of the injured men and beat his head and chest: "Is that you, my
brother? Is that you?" He didn't try to reach for him, he just stood
there looking at the bloodied face of his brother.
A man sat alone covered with blood and looked around, amazed at the
scene. His T-shirt was torn and blood ran from his back. Two men were
dragging away an unconscious boy who had lost the lower half of one
leg. A pool of blood and a creamy liquid formed beneath the stump on
the pavement. His other leg was badly gashed.
I had been standing there taking pictures for two or three minutes when
we heard the helicopters coming back. Everyone started running, and I
didn't look back to see what was happening to the injured men. We were
all rushing towards the same place: a fence, a block of buildings and a
prefab concrete cube used as a cigarette stall.
I had just reached the corner of the cube when I heard two explosions,
I felt hot air blast my face and something burning on my head. I
crawled to the cube and hid behind it. Six of us were squeezed into a
space less than two metres wide. Blood started dripping on my camera
but all that I could think about was how to keep the lens clean. A man
in his 40s next to me was crying. He wasn't injured, he was just
crying. I was so scared I just wanted to squeeze myself against the
wall. The helicopters wheeled overhead, and I realised that they were
firing directly at us. I wanted to be invisible, I wanted to hide under
the others.
As the helicopters moved a little further off, two of the men ran away
to a nearby building. I stayed where I was with a young man, maybe in
his early 20s, who was wearing a pair of leather boots and a tracksuit.
He was sitting on the ground, his legs stretched in front of him but
with his knee joint bent outwards unnaturally. Blood ran on to the dirt
beneath him as he peered round the corner. I started taking pictures of
him. He looked at me and turned his head back towards the street as if
he was looking for something. His eyes were wide open and kept looking.
There in the street, the injured were all left alone: a young man with
blood all over his face sat in the middle of the cloud of dust, then
fell on to his face.
Behind the cube, the other two men knew each other.
"How are you?" asked the man closer to me. He was lying against the
cube's wall and trying to pull out his cellphone.
"I am not good," said the other, a young man in a blue T-shirt, resting
against a fence. He was holding his arm, a chunk of which was missing,
exposing the bone.
"Bring a car and come here please, we are injured," his friend was saying into his cellphone.
The man with his knee twisted out, meanwhile, was making only a faint
sound. I was so scared I didn't want to touch him. I kept telling
myself he was OK, he wasn't screaming.
I decided to help the guy with the phone who was screaming. I ripped
his T-shirt off and told him to squeeze it against the gash on his
head. But I was scared; I wanted to do something, but I couldn't. I
tried to remember the first-aid training I had had in the past, but all
I was doing was taking pictures.
I turned back to the man with the twisted knee. His head was on the
curb now, his eyes were open but he just kept making the faint sound. I
started talking to him, saying, "Don't worry, you'll be OK, you'll be
fine." From behind him I looked at the middle of the street, where five
injured men were still lying. Three of them were piled almost on top of
each other; a boy wearing a white dishdasha lay a few metres away.
One of the three men piled together raised his head and looked around
the empty streets with a look of astonishment on his face. He then
looked at the boy in front of him, turned to the back and looked at the
horizon again. Then he slowly started moving his head to the ground,
rested his head on his arms and stretched his hands towards something
that he could see. It was the guy who had been beating his chest
earlier, trying to help his brother. He wanted help but no one helped.
He was just there dying in front of me. Time didn't exist. The streets
were empty and silent and the men lay there dying together. He slid
down to the ground, and after five minutes was flat on the street.
I moved, crouching, towards where they were. They were like sleeping
men with their arms wrapped around each other in the middle of the
empty street. I went to photograph the boy with the dishdasha. He's
just sleeping, I kept telling myself. I didn't want to wake him. The
boy with the amputated leg was there too, left there by the people who
were pulling him earlier. The vehicle was still burning.
More kids ventured into the street, looking with curiosity at the dead
and injured. Then someone shouted "Helicopters!" and we ran. I turned
and saw two small helicopters, black and evil. Frightened, I ran back
to my shelter where I heard two more big explosions. At the end of the
street the man in the orange overall was still sweeping the street.
The man with the bent knee was unconscious now, his face flat on the
curb. Some kids came and said, "He is dead." I screamed at them. "Don't
say that! He is still alive! Don't scare him." I asked him if he was
OK, but he didn't reply.
We left the kids behind the bent-knee guy, the cellphone guy and the
blue V-neck T-shirt guy; they were all unconscious now. We left them to
die there alone. I didn't even try to move any with me. I just ran
selfishly away. I reached a building entrance when someone grabbed my
arm and took me inside. "There's an injured man. Take pictures - show
the world the American democracy," he said. A man was lying in the
corridor in total darkness as someone bandaged him.
Some others told me there was another journalist in the building. They
took me to a stairwell leading to the basement, where a Reuters
cameraman, a cheerful chubby guy, was lying holding his camera next to
his head. He wasn't screaming but he had a look of pain in his eyes.
I tried to remember his name to call his office, but I couldn't. He was
a friend, we had worked together for months. I have seen him in every
press conference, but I couldn't remember his name.
In time, an ambulance came. I ran to the street as others emerged from
their hiding places, all trying to carry injured civilians to the
ambulance.
"No, this one is dead," said the driver. "Get someone else."
The ambulance drove away and we all scattered, thinking to ourselves:
the Americans won't fire at an ambulance but they will at us. This
scene was repeated a couple of times: each time we heard an ambulance
we would emerge into the streets, running for cover again as it left.
Yesterday, sitting in the office, another photographer who was looking
at my pictures exclaimed: "So the Arabiya journalist was alive when you
were taking pictures!"
"I didn't see the Arabiya journalist."
He pointed at the picture of the guy with V-neck T-shirt. It was him.
He was dead. All the people I had shared my shelter with were dead.
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September 2004
Iran and Syria now Targeted
(September 30, 2004)
Now the Americans and Israelis have Iran and Syria in their sights.
MER Warned About Jewish Neocons and Israeli Lobby Years Ago
(September 30, 2004)
Think back now to the days before the Bush/Cheney regime took power in Washington, before the term 'neocon' and the policy of 'pre-emption' were in wide use, and to before 9/11 was even imagined by all but a very few. MER was already long ago raising the warning flags, explaining what was really happening in Washington as well as in the Middle East, previewing what has since come to be; all while so many others were proclaiming the 'peace process is irreversible' and Yasser Arafat was the most frequent foreign guest at the American White House!
MER Articles - Sept 1998
(September 30, 2004)
Intifada II Enters Year Five
(September 28, 2004)
The figures for the Intifada are brutal. Adjusted for the size of the U.S. population, that is if the Israeli occupation were taking place in the U.S., over 300,000 Americans would have been killed in just the past 4 years alone, well over a million seriously injured, many millions imprisoned and tortured, plus considerable land confiscated, homes destroyed, and occupying Jewish 'settlers' taking over.
MER Articles - September 1997
(September 28, 2004)
These MER Articles were published in September 1997. The perspective they offer on events since is crucial.
Maps tell the Real Story 'on the ground' where it counts
(September 26, 2004)
The Israelis now control all Palestinian areas through hundreds of military Checkpoints, No-go zones, By-pass 'Jews only' Roads, Settlements, Outposts, and in recent years Fences, Walls, and Electronic Monitoring systems throughout the West Bank similar to what was done in the past to Gaza. In addition all Palestinians must even receive Israeli military permission to travel from one city and village. The situation is today far worse than Apartheid was in South Africa. As a result, no real, contiguous, and even minimally sovereign Palestinian State is possible any longer in the area that was Palestine in 1947.
Anglican group calls for Israel sanctions
(September 24, 2004)
A few months ago the American Presbyterians officially took the first major Church steps to sanction Israel, recalling how South Africa was treated in the days of Apartheid not that long ago. Now an influential Anglican group is pushing for a combination of boycott and divestment from Israel when their senior Church leaders next meet.
USA at MOMENT of NATIONAL CRISIS
(September 24, 2004)
"Over the last three years, practicing a philosophy of deliberate deception, fear-mongering and abuse of authority, the Bush administration has done more to undermine the republic of Lincoln and Jefferson than the cells of al-Qaida. It has willfully ignored our fundamental laws and squandered the nation's wealth in bloody, open-ended pursuits.... We have arrived
at a moment of national crisis."
Sy Hersh - Readers' Comments
(September 23, 2004)
Important articles and exclusive insights like this would not be easily available, or oftentimes available at all, but for MER. These Readers' Comments this week concern the recent MER article about Washington journalist Seymour Hersh and his recent interviews and talks about his new book Chain of Command:
ARAB AMERICANS - REALITIES NOT DECEPTIONS
(September 22, 2004)
The real message to the tough-minded politicos in Washington is this: There's nothing to worry about from Arab Americans...working overtime they can only mobilize quite few in numbers...they are not even protesting against the upcoming agreement itself likely to be soon signed across the street...they know nothing about the power of civil disobedience...they have no powerful or even significant allies...their leadership is naive and oftentimes foolish...and the Arab organizations we work with can be counted on to keep them under control come what may.
IRAN - The U.S. and Israel Prepare to Attack
(September 22, 2004)
The new massive arms sale of 'bunker busting' bombs to Israel has two major purposes at this point in addition to furthering the Bush/Cheney election campaign -- to prepare for real war with Iran sooner rather than later, while at the same time attempting to further intimidate one more time those in Tehran to 'comply, resistance is futile'.
About MER - Please Read and Contribute Today
(September 21, 2004)
Reorganizing and overcoming all the obstacles has come at a considerable price in time, effort, and funds. We have to appeal now for your substantial financial support; for a truly independent and hard-hitting organization must have truly independent funding or it cannot continue and have impact. Please contribute today to make MER possible and of growing impact. Thank you!
Sy Hersh - Israeli Disinformation and Cover-Up?
(September 21, 2004)
In fact, the more one thinks about this, the more one reaches the possible conclusion that while Hersh is on target (though incomplete) when it comes to the torture scandal, when it comes to the geostrategic, especially when it comes to matters relating to Israel, Hersh may well be being used for disinformation and continually engages in a kind of self-censorship and cover-up.
Journalists and Professors With Chilling Warnings
(September 20, 2004)
"Every generation has its test of principle in which people of good faith can no longer remain silent in the face of authoritarian ambition. If we cannot join together to fight the abomination of American camps, we have already lost what we are defending."
The 'Fucking' Crazy and Stupid Washington Neocons
(September 19, 2004)
Of course they only talk this way when they've really had it and when they think the befuddled largely ignorant general public won't hear. But the reality is these two top American Generals who have been saluting to power their whole lives, and who themselves are very much a part of the terrible corrupted system, are known to feel the senior neocons empowered by Bush and Cheney are out of control and sometimes a little fucking out of their minds!
Feith of Israel
(September 18, 2004)
MER 'Washington Scene'EXCLUSIVE:
Click to Listen to Douglas Feith at an Israeli lobby White House rally while Bill Clinton was still President, Feith was not yet back in government, and more than a year before 9/11 was to happen. For some time in Washington Feith has been a prominent member of the extended Israeli-Jewish lobby speaking at times as harshly and unrelentingly as any Israeli propagandist. Persons in the media should contact MER for more extensive information and additional audio and video clips of Feith - 202 362-5266 and press@MiddleEast.Org
Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism
(September 17, 2004)
But, when writing about the situation in Washington and the linkages between persons and groups that brought about the Iraqi invasion/occupation, Sperry makes significant contributions in his book Crude Policies that need to be understood.
Washington's Pathetic Arabist Hustlers - National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations
(September 16, 2004)
But the most tragic reality of all is that in the process of what they have done for themselves this pathetically incestuous Washington cabal of 'Arabists' has squandered crucial decades, all together more than a hundred million dollars, and even now with the Middle East on fire and Washington gripped by policy warfare very very few even want to bother to come and get their free lunch with them.
Iraqi Debacle, Iraqi Disaster
(September 16, 2004)
Most senior US military officers now believe
the war on Iraq has turned into a disaster
on an unprecedented scale
EYEWITNESS TO SLAUGHTER IN BAGHDAD
(September 15, 2004)
On Sunday as the details of this murderous U.S. attack on a Baghdad crowd were first being reported, MER asked an officer on Commanding U.S. General Abizaid's staff how could the U.S. be using attack helicopters to fire on crowds in Baghdad and still think Iraqis wouldn't hate the Americans. He suggested it must have been to protect troops still in the damaged vehicle. A few hours later when told that was not the case, that the troops had already been rescued, he suggested maybe there was a need to destroy the vehicle for 'intelligence' reasons. When told the vehicle was already destroyed and on fire he could only shrug... How telling... This unusually gripping first-hand report from the exploding streets of Baghdad:
Bin Laden More Popular Than Bush in Egypt
(September 14, 2004)
With Iraq exploding, the Americans attacking street crowds in Baghdad with bombs and missiles, and the U.S. military already stretched to the breaking point both in terms of manpower and credibility, Washington's propaganda machine is in overdrive both at home and abroad. Even so, even in long-time American ally Egypt, Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda are considerably more popular than George W. Bush and the U.S.
Iraq Exploding in Rebellion and Death
(September 12, 2004)
At least 37 people were killed in Baghdad alone. Many of them died when a U.S. helicopter fired on a disabled U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle as Iraqis swarmed around it, cheering, throwing stones and waving the black and yellow sunburst banner of Iraq's most-feared terror organization.
'Fucking Crazies' Powell Explodes - Withdraw from Iraq Financial Times Editorializes
(September 12, 2004)
The U.S. policy in the Middle East is already a disaster of historical proportions. In a new book being published in a few days no less an authority than U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell himself is quoted describing the top neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq.
9/11 - 'War of the Worlds'
(September 11, 2004)
Immediately when 9/11 occurred the publisher of MER was asked to quickly write about it's meaning and ramifications for the about-to-be-published October issue of a European Edition of Playboy Magazine.
9/11 began a long time ago and for very real reasons
(September 11, 2004)
Those who were reading MER six years ago were giving a prescient foretaste of what has since come, and why. This MER article was originally published on 25 August 1998. Read it now keeping in mind that what has been happening since was being caused and was foreseeable then; just as what is being done now is creating the still bleaker future now ahead if today's course in Washington is not significantly altered...and soon.
Chechnya - Crucible for Hatred and Terrorism
(September 10, 2004)
It is a genocidal war Vladimir Putin is personally responsible for more than any other. But then neither the U.S. nor the European powers nor the U.N. for that matter have had the vision, the determination, and the courage to step in. And thus the fingers of responsibility and blame should be pointing in many simultaneous directions at this time.
Israeli Spying in USA Fox Series Spiked and Covered-Up
(September 10, 2004)
AIPAC and Israel's many official and unofficial lobbyists are now mounting a major campaign to bring the FBI investigation to an end with only minor charges involving 'mishandling' of classified documents. The pressures on everyone in Washington are no doubt intense; especially in this election year. And so what happened in November 2002 should be especially instructive; and in view of the most recent charges and investigations should be resurrected:
Chechnya - Crucible for Hatred and Terrorism
(September 8, 2004)
This look back on the terribly brutal Russian war in Chechnya to prevent Chechnyan independence must be understood to be the crucible in which the horrifying events of recent days were brewed. It is a genocidal war Vladimir Putin is personally responsible for more than any other; but then neither the U.S. nor the European powers nor the U.N. for that matter have had the vision, the determination, and the courage to step in. And thus the fingers of responsibility and blame should be pointing in many simultaneous directions.
Aljazeera Caves Again
(September 8, 2004)
Coerced self-censorship and forcing the media to constantly be wary of offending the powers that be is a long-time hallmark not only in the Middle East, Russia, and China, but also in the West and the United States. The techniques and methods are different, especially when it comes to the American scene, but in many cases the results are similar.
Chechnya, Palestine, Iraq, Kashmir - Occupations All
(September 7, 2004)
Brutal occupations all -- Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir. All examples of when overwhelming military force is used by a major power to put down popular resistance to historical subjugation and injustice.
IsraelGate +
(September 6, 2004)
Major efforts are now underway in Washington to head off, cover up, derail, what we earlier today for the first time called ISRAELGATE.
IsraelGate is potentially the most significant scandal to rock relations between the U.S. and Israel ever -- since the Lavon Affair and 1956 war when President Eisenhower faced down the Israelis, then 1967 with the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, and then the Pollard spy affair nearly twenty years ago now.
But now the stakes are much much higher than ever for the following three reasons:
ISRAELGATE!
(September 5, 2004)
Now that the new Israeli spy scandal has broken into public view, the top-level connections between the Jewish neocons at the Pentagon and the National Security Council -- among them Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, and Elliott Abrams -- the following and associated stories first published earlier this year deserve much more than a second look. They should in fact be the basis for a full-fledged journalistic investigation into what could yet be called ISRAELGATE.
Israel, Neocons, Lobby, and Spying
(September 4, 2004)
For there are those in Washington and in the media who know very well that it was the Israelis and the Jewish neocons, working in tandem, who worked relentlessly to push the U.S. into the invasion and occupation of Iraq. And there are those who are well aware that the Israelis and the Jewish neocons are now working in tandem to push and cajole the U.S. to take on Iran, Syria, and all who stand in the way of their plans for the U.S. and Israel in partnership to control the Middle East strategically, politically, and economically.
Revered Muslim Cleric Calls On Muslims To Fight The U.S.Occupier
(September 3, 2004)
"Al-Qaradawi was one of 93 prominent Muslim figures
who in August called on Muslims around the world to
support resistance against US forces in Iraq and its
apppointed interim Iraqi government."
Bush Speaks, Eocons (Christian Evangelicals + Jewish Neocons) Rule
(September 2, 2004)
As George W. Bush prepares to outline his 'vision' and 'agenda' to the American nation tonight from besieged New York City he today published the following appeal to American Jews in The Forward newspaper. Ironically, in the same issue of The Forward, the latest Israeli and Jewish Lobby spy scandal gets much play including the additional article below:
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