Voice from the Commonwealth Commentary, World Views and Occasional Rants from a small 'l' libertarian in Massachussetts
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams
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Praise for Voice
"A smart fellow...I do like, recommend and learn from Barbera's blog." -Roger L. Simon
"Your blog is bullshit"- anonymous angry French reader.
We have not yet found Saddam, but surely we can see him. The ageing tyrant is hunkered down in his bunker. His back aches from an old slipped disk, and it is getting worse without exercise. With American spy planes snooping overhead and bombs falling, he cannot now take his habitual long walks in his walled private estates, or swim in one of his many swimming pools.
He is losing weight, as he always does in times of stress. The lobster and Mateus rosé are no longer flown in twice a week. Nothing flies in but the bombers. He never slept much, but now he hardly sleeps at all. He used to enjoy going out to restaurants in Baghdad (after his bodyguards, the Himaya, have cordoned off the street, inspected the pots and pans for cleanliness and terrorised the staff) but now his only movement is from one bolthole to the next, in a humble unmarked car.
Officials bring him reports of the war, but in truth he does not know what is happening. He used to watch CNN and Sky News, but now he has only his minions for information, and they lie. They always have, for flattering mendacity is the central foundation of his power. This is the Catch-22 of despotism: they tell you what they know you want to hear, and they know you know you are being deceived. Saddam tends to kill those who tell him unpalatable truths. Indeed, he once ordered that condemned men should have their mouths taped closed, to ensure they could not utter words he did not wish to hear from the scaffold.
And so the Great Uncle, The Anointed One, Descendant of the Prophet, lives in a dark bubble, feeding off his own propaganda.
There are traitors out there. Saddam knows this because some perfidious dog informed the Zionist criminals where he was sleeping that night they dropped the first bomb. And there will be more traitors, because there always are. Of course, he could have someone killed. But here, in his bunker, he cannot carry out one of his videotaped purges, or the elaborate public hangings and tongue removals that have worked so well in the past.
Perhaps he watches videos. The Godfather is one favourite (strong man must do ruthless things for the sake of his people); The Day of The Jackal is another (there are clever killers out there: beware). Or does he read? The last time he was incarcerated this way, back in the 1960s when he was jailed after a failed assassination attempt on Iraq’s President, Saddam read Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. On the other hand, A Farewell to Arms might be a more appropriate title.
What we know of Saddam, and his broadcasts since war began, suggest that he is probably busy ruminating on his own greatness, the Father of all Narcissists preparing, again, for the Mother of all Battles. For alongside his paranoia, there is the monstrous vanity and self-obsession that had a 600-page Koran handwritten in his own blood, and made his own face the only acceptable art form. Echoing Hitler’s nihilism in the Berlin bunker, Saddam is probably preparing for his own Twilight of the Gods.
The Mozambican government says commercial farmers who fled from Zimbabwe are contributing immensely to the development of agriculture in that country.
Soares Nhaca, governor of the central province of Manica, was quoted by the Mozambican news agency saying the displaced commercial farmers have helped restore agricultural production.
Peasant farming had become the mainstay of Mozambique's economy, hence current efforts to develop commercial agriculture. "Zimbabwe's loss is Mozambique's gain," Nhaca was quoted as saying by AIM, the Mozambican news agency.
Nhaca was speaking after visiting seven farms run by Zimbabwean commercial farmers, who left the country because of the chaotic land reform.
Several farmers were killed, while thousands of their workers were rendered homeless during Zimbabwe's widely condemned land reform programme. Most of the affected farmers fled to Mozambique, Zambia, England, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Manica province is now home to about 50 farmers, who were allocated land in the districts of Mossurize, Sussundenga, Gondola and Manica where they are producing tea, tobacco and other cash crops.
The chilling archives at this deserted Iraqi military base were stuffed inside burlap sacks marked "rice" - doubtless for quick removal, though many of the bags lay abandoned in haste.
There were instructions for using sodium bicarbonate to scrub lethal toxins off the skin. There were inventories of gas masks. And, perhaps most sobering, there were piles of handwritten evaluations of Iraqi soldiers who had recently completed a "Chemical Alert" course.
"To be praised for rapid reactions in putting on protective suit," an Iraqi major named Mohammed Wahabi Nuradeen wrote effusively of one recruit who graduated from training on April 1, 2002. "No negative marks."
Though Saddam Hussein's regime insists it no longer possesses banned chemical or biological weapons - and though it has branded Washington's war to rid Baghdad of such weaponry a political ruse - the documents found Friday at an abandoned army base in northern Iraq reveal that units of Saddam's army underwent systematic chemical warfare training less than a year ago.
No outlawed chemical or biological agents were discovered in the grubby maze of offices and barracks that make up the Iraqi 8th Infantry Division headquarters some 15 miles north of the strategic oil city of Kirkuk.
But the infrastructure devoted to chemical training was impressive. One spacious building labeled "Department of Chemical Warfare" held a large floor model of the surrounding countryside. And nearby warehouses and offices, most already trashed by Kurdish looters, were littered with scraps of chemical warfare suits, gas masks and decontamination kits.
For all those who mock the administration for the color coded alert system, soley based on the rational that nothing Bush does is right, France has introduced one of their own.
Until now, France had only two grades of alert for its terror warning system, simple and reinforced.
The new alert colors beginning with the least serious are yellow, red, orange and scarlet.
French encyclopedia maker's idea of fair and balanced. Equal ink for Holocaust revisionists.
Publisher Robert Laffont has 15 days to prove it followed through with an earlier court order, or it faces fines.
In a section on World War II extermination camps, the Quid reference book said the official number of deaths at Auschwitz-Birkenau was 1.2 million. However, it adds that "other figures have circulated," and cites one by a revisionist historian, Robert Faurisson, who claims that 150,000 people died at the camp, of whom 100,000 were Jews.
Quid has been brought to court several times for the affair.
James Brown wants 400 military personnel to make it funky.
Brown, 69, said today he will donate 400 tickets to military personnel stationed in and around Houston to attend his concert Saturday in the nation's fourth-largest city.
"I grew up as a poor boy and was able to rise up and be an entertainer and help others," Brown said through a spokeswoman Friday. "I wanted to do what I could do to help our nation in this time of need."
France is going to start their own version of CNN because they think CNN is pro-war?
This "CNN à la française" was first announced during the election campaign of the French President last year. The government recently made a call to accelerate its creation. The plans for the project should to be submitted before April 22.
French President Jacques Chirac's idea is that "France should be more strongly represented in the battle of images". The news cable television could hit the airwaves as soon as next year.
The television will not be governmental, but will promote the French point of view in international politics and give President Chirac the possibility of international influence. The channel would initially broadcast in Africa, Middle East and Europe and eventually would broadcast in Arabic, English and Spanish.
So, let me get this straight. It wouldn't be "governmental" but will be expected to promote the French government's views? Sounds like the description of Iraqi TV that we are getting from AI.
Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe are urging the nation's soldiers and police to disobey orders to crush any show of dissent against the government.
"The time has now come for the security forces to make that historic choice of either being with the people or against them," the Movement for Democratic Change said in a statement.
The opposition call follows a wave of intense violence against its officials and supporters who took part in a two-day strike against President Robert Mugabe's government last week.
Independent human rights monitors said at least 250 people were treated for injuries from sexual assaults and beatings following a brutal post-strike crackdown against the opposition headed by Morgan Tsvangirai.
These troops have gotten nothing but power and plunder for supporting Mugabe and have been doing so since they were teenagers. The odds of them changing sides now seems pretty slim.
Interesting story of 8 Latvian freighters that were out of the country when it was occupied first by the Red Army and then the Nazis. They continued to help the war effort and by the end of the war all but two had been sunk.
"In their minds, they were fighting the Germans to free their country," said Irina Shneidere, a Latvia University history professor familiar with the ships.
The ships ran a gantlet of German U-boats as they plied the ocean between South America, Europe and North America. Only two survived the war, which left Latvia back again under Soviet rule.
Off the coast of the U.S. state of North Carolina -- later dubbed "torpedo alley" because U-boats sank dozens of merchant ships there -- the first Latvian freighter, the Ciltvaira, was torpedoed on January 18, 1942. Thirty of the 32-man crew survived.
"When it was sunk, it was as if one eighth of what remained of an independent Latvia was gone," said Alex Krasnitsky, the Chas journalist who researched the story with the help of Latvian emigres in the United States.
The Ciltvaira shipwreck near Nags Head, N.C., remains a popular site for scuba divers. On land, a Nags Head street bears the ship's name.
"We couldn't fight back this time, but probably our next ship will be armed, and then we can do something about it when the devils attack," the Ciltvaira's radio operator, Rudolph Musts, was quoted as saying in a 1942 story in The News and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina.
While the Latvian freighters had no significant weaponry, some went down with a fight anyway.
Off the coast of Barbados on February 27, 1942, the Everasma rammed and sank a surfacing German U-boat. But a few hours later, having suffered collision damage herself, the freighter proved an easy target for an Italian submarine. It torpedoed the Everasma, then finished her off with its deck guns.
Most Latvian sailors who survived the war received U.S. citizenship and never returned home. None are believed to be alive today.
Sir, Thirty years ago last month, I sneaked into the Kurdish region of Iraq from Turkey to report (for the BBC World Service) on the hill farmers there who expected Saddam Hussein to launch his first war on them.
A year later, Saddam, the Vice-President of Iraq, had wiped out all the villages in which I had stayed, to the extent that I was never again able to trace any of the people whose valour had made a great impression on me.
Despite the atrocities that Saddam inflicted on the Kurds in the next six years until he became President of Iraq in 1979, no one thought that he would become any larger than the average Middle Eastern dictator. We certainly did not expect him to become the vilest mass-murderer in the history of the region since Tamerlane in the 14th century. But we should have known better. He told his first biographer:
I want every Iraqi to think of Nebuchadnezzar every day . . . we could go to Israel once more and bring all the Jews back here in Babylon with their hands tied beyond their backs.
The 35-year Baathist nightmare of Iraq is thankfully coming to an end but with weapons of mass killing being available to any psychopath with sufficient money and determination, should we not pay more attention to local bullies before they become major tyrants? At the very least, we could deny them aid and association early in their careers.
In two mass ceremonies in Los Angeles today, some 75-hundred immigrants became U-S citizens, as their new country fights in Iraq.
Nearly two dozen of those who took the oath are already in the U-S military. One Marine is from France. He says people there and in America should stop bashing each other and remember they have a long history of working together.
One Iraqi man wondered why it took the U-S so long to go after Saddam Hussein. Another new citizen, from Iran, said the government there is just as bad, and that both countries' rulers are a threat to "the whole world."
An Egyptian man said war is terrible, but if the U-S has to be at war in Iraq to keep this country safe, then so be it.
An account of the exodus from Basra. And again we see brave coalition troops, British this time, putting themselves in the line of fire to defend Iraqi civilians.
A thousand people, maybe more, ran for their lives. A young woman fell, hit by shrapnel as a pick-up truck broke cover and charged forward, the machine-gun mounted on its roof spewing bullets at the crowd.
On the British side, a tank lurched forward, the gunner training his sights on the truck a few hundred yards ahead. One shot and the truck was blown apart, the three people in it killed in an instant.
Around the British positions, mortar shells were falling, the Black Watch firing back.
The crowd had made it safely across the bridge, hands raised as they ran towards the troops, ducking for cover as the British guns moved round to cover their escape.
They began moving along the road in the direction of Az Zubayr. They may take shelter there or camp out in the countryside around.
A young woman, badly hurt, was plucked to safety by a British vehicle and driven back across the lines. Others were also injured and medics rushed to tend their wounds.
Then came the clatter of rotor blades and two Lynx helicopters appeared, hovering over to the right, just visible between the concrete pillars holding up the bridge. They hung in the air for what seemed an age before releasing their missiles, guiding them into the target on the other side of the canal, then tilting and peeling away.
In the turret of his Warrior armoured vehicle, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Riddell-Webster, the commanding officer of the Black Watch, raced back to the British positions on the west side of the bridge. Its radio crackling with reports from his unit, the Warrior rattled to a halt.
The crowd had appeared at about 8am, he said, clearly desperate to flee the city. British tanks had held them at the far bank before the decision was taken to let them cross.
"We gave permission for them to come through, but there was no firing then," he said. "The people were overjoyed when we let them through, they were blowing kisses and waving their hands in thanks. As they came across the bridge, the Iraqis opened up with 50mm mortar fire. The intent was clearly to stop their own people moving across.
"Then a pick-up with a machine-gun mounted on the back came down the road and opened fire on our troops and the civilians. The machine gun was firing into the crowd. One of our tanks fired back and destroyed it, and the three people inside it. Any time we moved between our vehicles, more fire came in, hitting the vehicles.
"One of our lads had a bullet rip through his smock, which was a bit close. They wanted to get out and away. Most are heading for Az Zubayr and the farms around there, but they are not really aware of what is going on in the town so many of them will camp out in the fields.
"They want to get away but when they came across the bridge, they had their hands up. They were scared of us as well. They don’t know what is going on, but they are more scared of the Baath Party."
On the far side of the bridge were 200 or more civilians who could not get shelter on either side of the road, terrified of moving in case they came under fire. Behind them, huge plumes of black smoke drifted eastwards from the fire pits filled with oil lit by the Iraqi defenders. Across a flat landscape, there was a smell of burning oil in the air.
Inside the British compound, Warrior armoured vehicles kept their guns trained on the opposite bank, but the Iraqi guns had fallen silent. Lines started to move back across the bridge again in both directions, people coming back from Az Zubayr passing those determined to get out of Basra at the centre of the span where a British Warrior stood guard.
A Challenger tank rumbled past, heading over towards Basra and covering the Iraqi positions with its weapons.
At a meeting with Iraqi exiles Wolfowitz takes the lob from the media andsent it out of the park.
Regarding a reporter's question as to whether U.S. and coalition military planners overestimated the resolve of Saddam's forces to resist, Wolfowitz replied, "I think we probably did overestimate the willingness of this regime to commit war crimes."
There are a lot of good stories of Iraqis and the horrors of Saddam over there, too.
Mr Beevor, author of the definitive and much-lauded account of the siege, Stalingrad, said yesterday: "Saddam is obsessed by Stalin ... He would love to see Baghdad as a Stalingrad on the Tigris."
But to Mr Beevor, the chances of history repeating itself are slim. "Saddam is imitating Stalin ... but it does not appear the battle for Baghdad will follow the patterns of Stalingrad. There may be a brief siege, but it won't be a battle lasting five months. And there is no chance of the Republican Guard encircling the attackers in the way the Red Army encircled the Germans."
But the similarities are mounting. At Stalingrad, the Red Army turned fire on their own, killing an entire division to make their comrades fight. Saddam Hussein's militias are widely reported to have fired on their own people in Basra and are known to have, at the very least, intimidated conscripted soldiers to fight.
But Mr Beevor does not believe the comparisons go much further. "The Iraqi Army is most definitely not the Red Army. The regular Iraqi Army and the Republican Guards' training is ultra-conventional. All they can do is defend fixed positions."
He also points out that:
it would be "idiotic" to predict how long the conflict would last. "There are many dangers ahead," he said.
This has to be stopped before we will see any real celebrations by the people of Iraq.
Civilians who greet US and British troops are being executed on President Saddam Hussein's orders, according to a former chief scientist of the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Hussein Shahristani.
The most recent outrage was carried out in the small town of Khidr, between Nasiriyah and Samawa, where some families were accused of cheering the US soldiers who drove through their locality, Dr Shahristani who is now chairman of the Iraq Refugee Aid Council, told rediff.com
Their executions started as soon as the US soldiers left, the scientist, who is now based in Kuwait, said.
"These [coalition] troops pass through local towns and villages and do not stop for long enough to clean up Saddam's terror apparatus.
"When they depart, the civilian families are left to the mercy of Ba'ath party officials and the thugs in charge of Saddam's fidayeen militia.
"Those Iraqis who refuse to serve on the frontline are also being shot," he said.
Dr Shahristani said he had been informed of the killing of a tribal leader, Rahim Karim, who was late by five minutes for a meeting with Saddam's cousin and local governor, Aly Hasan Al Majeed.
- A week into the Iraq war, one photograph has become indelible: a young, grimy soldier in full battle gear, a look of deep concern on his face, carrying a wounded Iraqi child to safety.
The photograph has been on newspaper front pages around the world and broadcast on American television networks.
The soldier in the picture, Pfc. Joseph P. Dwyer, 26, is still in the field, about 80 miles outside Baghdad with the 3rd Infantry Division. Until Thursday, he hadn't a clue that he was famous. His reaction when he found out?
He laughed.
"Really, I was just one of a group of guys. I wasn't standing out more than anyone else," he told the Army Times in a telephone interview.
Dwyer's parents live in Wagram, N.C., where they moved after his father retired as a New York transit policeman. Dwyer grew up in Mt. Sinai on New York's Long Island. His three older brothers are New York City policeman.
Dwyer was sure he had lost a brother in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade towers. "I thought he was gone."
But when he talked to him the night of Sept. 11 and learned his brother was safe, "I knew I had to do something."
Two days later, Dwyer enlisted in the Army to become a medic.
"It was just what I could do at the time," he said.
And it gets better. In the midst of a firefight when our troops saw a father carrying his wounded child American troops jumped into the open to help him. This is the army that everyone tries to castigate as babykiller and war criminals. Without a second thought they did what they knew was right and put themselves in danger doing it.
"It came over that there was a family that had some injuries," Dwyer told the Army Times. "We went on down there. It was kind of hectic at first. We didn't know what was going on. Who was friendly and who wasn't.
"We didn't want to get too close to the village knowing that there could be possible enemy there," he went on. "We saw him with the child. He came running out to where we had the hospital set up."
And then he and some other soldiers, weapons at the ready, bolted from cover to help. Dwyer reached the father and grabbed his son, cradling the young boy in a protective embrace as he raced back to safer ground.
And how typically American. Compare his attitude to what you see in the street protests.
Dwyer's mom, Maureen, said her son's reaction to his sudden fame wasn't positive.
She said he told her during a telephone conversation after the photograph was published that he "was not a hero. He said everybody else over there is doing the same thing and he really feels bad" because he was singled out.
Bushnell Corp. of Overland Park has filled several donation requests for wrap-around sunglasses from U.S. troops and has donated a $40,000 shipment to the American Red Cross for sand-blasted soldiers in Iraq.
D'oh.
The sunglasses are made in Italy, France and other countries, Olinger said.
Jane's has a report on Russian and Belarusian military equipment getting to Iraq.
Intelligence sources have revealed to JID how Russia and Belarus continue to support Iraq. Western intelligence agencies have long possessed evidence that Belarus has become a conduit for Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian military equipment destined for Iraq.
In January 2003, Lebanese intelligence officers were tipped off by their Western counterparts that a large consignment of innocently labelled cargo in Beirut airport, which had arrived from Belarus, in fact contained military equipment. The 12 tons of equipment discovered included 600 helmets, army uniforms, 240 wireless communication sets for tank crews and other military items.
Investigations revealed that the military equipment was destined for Iraq and was being shipped via Syrian middlemen. Belarusian officials denied that the material had originated in their country but accepted that Belarus, just like Syria, could be a transit country for them.
However, Western intelligence services first received reports about Belarusian arms exports to Iraq in February 2002. The US administration publicly disclosed intelligence, which indicated that Belarus was breaching arms sanctions to Iraq - including the supply of S-300 missiles - and threatened sanctions against Minsk. JID has recently received further intelligence reports, which reveal the extent of Iraqi-Belarusian military co-operation.
Twenty Iraqi air defence officers have been undergoing a two-year training course on the S-300 missile at the Belarusian Military Academy. Belarus has also assisted Iraq in rebuilding and modernising its air defence capability by supplying it with SA-3 anti-aircraft missile components and technical support.
On 3 February 2003, the new Iraqi ambassador to Belarus, Salman Zeidan, presented his credentials in Minsk. The timing was, Lukashenka admitted, not coincidental but a sign of Belarusian diplomatic support to Iraq in its struggle against the USA.
Earlier this month a sizeable Iraqi delegation headed by Baghdad Mayor Adnan Abed Hamed visited Belarus on the invitation of the Minsk city council. Such a visit would have been unthinkable without Lukashenka's personal approval. More significantly, Saddam's elder son, Uday, secretly visited Belarus before the current conflict, intelligence sources have reported to JID.
Furthe proof that our forces fight by the rules. Just in case you have trouble deciding which government's spokespeople are more trustworthy.
Armed with $10,000 (7,000 pounds) in hard cash and a booklet of U.S. government IOUs, the 535th Engineers Company headed off to acquire a couple of basic items -- clay and rock.
They need the materials to help build a desert airstrip capable of handling large C-130 transport aircraft, planes the army will use to bring food, parts and ammunition to forward units on the long southwestern Iraq front.
Fortunately for the 535th, there's a lot of rock and clay in this part of southern Iraq. The problem is finding who owns it and then getting them to sell it.
Under the rules of war, public or government property can be seized and used by the acquiring force during a conflict. But if the property is private, the U.S. army is obliged to try to track down the owner and offer recompense in return.
That was lucky for Hussan, who owns a rock quarry close to where the airstrip is being built and whose grey, clay-brick home was the first stop on the shopping trip.
Unused to visitors, Hussan's pack of dogs was alarmed to see three camouflaged U.S. army Humvees loaded with soldiers pulling up to their owner's crumbling house.
As Hussan peered from his front step at the approaching vehicles, the 535th's only Arabic speaker leapt out and went to introduce himself.
"Can we have some of your rock?" asked Sergeant Dan Osborne.
"Sure, take all you want," was Hussan's reply.
"Well, we want to compensate you for what we take," said Osborne.
"Oh no, you don't need to do that," replied the Iraqi, perhaps unsettled by the presence of seven well-armed Americans.
The rock was taken and no money changed hands. But later in the day the commander of the 535th and his Arabic-speaking sergeant came back to make sure Hussan was reimbursed.
According to army rules, commanders can spend up to $2,500 a time on any item, and usually $10,000 in serial-numbered $50 notes travels with a unit in case of emergency purchases.
Hussan was offered a few hundred dollars. He took the money warily, although he could barely control the smile on his face. The sum represented more than 100 times an average Iraqi's monthly wage.
Next up was clay. All around Najaf are pits filled with the damp, honey-coloured stone, but since U.S. forces moved in, the many small factories in the area where clay bricks are fired appear to have been abandoned.
When it is not known if a piece of property is private or government-owned, and there is no one on hand to deal with, the army generally takes what it needs and leaves an IOU note.
Each commander has a receipt book entitled "Property Control Record Book", with an explanation: "For use in documenting the seizure of property acquired by military necessity".
Inside, receipts are written in English and Arabic. The preamble says: "This is a receipt for your property that has been used or taken by the Armed Forces of the United States of America. The unit commander determined that this property was essential to ensure the success of the mission...".
The receipt can be used to make claims for reimbursement against the U.S. government.
The Foreign Ministry on Friday identified the two Kenyan truck drivers who were captured by Iraqi forces while bringing humanitarian aid to Iraq and said efforts were being made to secure their release.
David Mukuria and Jacob Kamau Maina were working for a Saudi-owned, Kuwait-based company contracted by the British government when they were captured, said a ministry official, who did not want to be further identified. The official declined to identify the company and gave no other details.
Heh. The New York Times is claiming that the war is having an effect on advertising revenue. Maybe if they didn't dedicate the front page to convincing Americans that we are losing the war, the advertisers might be a bit more optimistic.
The Saudi Ambassador to the Ivory Coast, the place where France is carrying out their unilateral non-UN sanctioned unwanted military occupation, has been found murdered.
mambers of the Tohono O'odham gathered fora special ceremony to honor and pray for their members who are serving in the military, as well as all members of the Armeed Forces.
“It's a nice day to offer prayer for our soldiers and our military personnel so I welcome you here.” More than a dozen pictures line this table. They are the faces of the Tohono O'Odham tribal members fighting in the war with Iraq and these are their loved ones. Hope Ramon sings the National Anthem in O'Odham. It's her way of recognizing the men and women serving not only the Tohono O'Odham tribe, but the entire nation. Royetta Thomas' 22 year old son is one of those men. He left for Kuwait in January and she eagerly awaits his return. In the meantime, Tohono O’Odham tribal members say they will wear these pins with pride. It's not only a way for them to support other tribal members fighting in the war with Iraq but to support all of our troops overseas.
Royetta Thomas, Mother of Deployed Marine: “We're all in this together. They're not alone crying at home wondering what is going to happen to your loved one. I wanted them to understand we are all in this as one.”
In the first days after coalition forces rolled through this dusty mud-walled town just south of Basra, Saddam Hussein had plenty of friends. Young men waved posters with his face for the cameras. Small boys yelled "Saddam! Saddam!" The few that criticized the regime did so in nervous whispers.
Less than a week later, after a coalition raid netted the top Baath Party official in town for questioning and tanks took out some of the young men firing rocket-propelled grenades from the roadside, Saddam's public popularity is nose-diving.
"All Iraqis want to be rid of this regime. We just can't say that," said Jasser, a stout and serious older man in a blue robe who showed up at a coalition medical center Thursday looking for antacid tablets for his wife.
"Resistance is dangerous," he said. "When troops first came in they didn't demolish the party apparatus here, and that created problems. But now we feel more secure."
Iraqis "like to be on the right side, and finding out which is the right side is the hardest thing for them," said British Maj. Andy "Jock" Docherty, an Arabic-language translator working with troops of the Black Watch Regiment trying to pacify Az-Zubayr.
But military and humanitarian successes are slowly winning over southern Iraqis. Several key members of the ruling Baath Party have been found hanged in the region in recent days, Docherty said, and coalition forces hope successes in the south may fuel uprisings to the north.
"If we can crack a few nuts in Basra and Al Nasiriya, I think Baghdad could fall overnight with the right moves," Docherty predicted. If Iraqis are convinced the coalition is winning, they will attack the ruling party and "do the cleanup we can't and find the people we can't find."
On Monday, British military officials in Az-Zubayr got word that a leading Baath Party official was organizing the resistance. Early Tuesday they went to get him.
At dawn they rammed tanks through the high wall surrounding the man's two-story house. As soldiers kicked open the front door, shots came from the building and a heavy firefight broke out. When it was over, 20 Iraqi fighters were dead or wounded, and the ruling-party leader was led away for interrogation.
"He was certainly surprised," said Maj. Dougie Hay, a Black Watch commander who led the raid. "It was a demonstration we could mount successful operations in the area and show them they are dealing with a highly capable force."
Coalition forces followed up with an assault on Iraqi soldiers holding a large military camp west of town. Under heavy fire, the remnants of the resistance fled or were killed, leaving behind hastily vacated buildings strewn with gas masks, military briefing books, boxes of grenades and lines of anti-aircraft guns hidden in hallways.
Since then, British troops passing through the town's narrow streets have come under limited fire and have in turn taken out men launching rocket-propelled grenades. Little by little, Az-Zubayr is coming under control.
That slowly building dominance, day by day, is changing the reception for coalition troops.
"It's obvious people have been intimidated by the militias," Hay said. Now "most of the locals have been very pleased to see us."
That was evident Thursday as British and U.S. soldiers held the town's first large-scale aid distribution outside the seized Iraqi military base. An attempt to hand out food Wednesday was aborted when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the base. But on Thursday women in black robes with blue crosses tattooed on their faces and clamoring young men and dusty children jostled to get their share of a container-load of bottled drinking water and food.
"We are afraid of Saddam's fighters. Things are better since you got here," Talia Sharfa, one black-robed woman in the crowd, told soldiers as she clutched her toddler daughter, Sara.
U.S. forces "should bomb (the ruling party) wherever they are. Baghdad is the most important. When it's done everything will change," said Jasser, who agreed to an interview only out of the sight of others awaiting aid.
He asked the question everyone in southern Iraq asks: "Will the Iraqi regime remain or not?"
"If this coalition does not remove the regime, half of us will die," he said. "We will be killed just for talking to you. Saddam's eyes are all over here."
He pointed toward an area he said remained a Baath Party stronghold in town.
"The Iraqi regime kills civilians for going against it. If they even think you're against the regime they kill you," he said.
This is why we need to take over the television signals coming out of Baghdad. Images of Coalition troops advancing and happy Iraqis getting food water and medical attention and talking about their new freedom will encourage others to organize against local Ba'athist party members and give up their positions and caches to incoming Coalition troops.
Detailed description of the tank battel between Iraqi T-55's and British Challengers.
The Iraqi column, which had moved south out of Basra, had already been pounded by air bombardment and artillery. Remnants were trying to disperse across open countryside. When the approaching armour had been spotted and identified, the Dragoon Guards, who had been travelling from west to east, split into two groups of seven tanks each as they closed in on the enemy.
One group came across a troop of Iraqi T55s in the process of being deserted as their occupants realised they were being overwhelmed by air and ground assaults. The other tempted the enemy into a “kill box” in a classic hunter-killer battlefield technique.
They lured the Iraqi squadron into believing they were being attacked only by a light infantry unit of commandos. But when the old Russian-built tanks made themselves visible in a wooded area, the Challengers moved in from the flank and began picking them off one by one at a range of about 1,500 metres.
“This was shock action. It was 14 against 14, and the score was 14-nil,” a military spokesman at UK National Contingent headquarters in Qatar said after the brief encounter, which is now regarded as one of the most decisive actions by ground forces in the war so far. “It was nothing less than a suicide mission by the Iraqis; it had no military logic,” the spokesman said.
There is no doubt that the land attack will involve a lot of battles, and one cannot rule out losses being sustained. And I am probably not far from the truth – if a little premature – in saying that the ability of the regime to fight a long campaign is open to doubt. But one should add a caveat here: if one does not pay attention carefully, then complications might arise. Before concentrating on these, let me say, without hesitation, that if the relationship between the regime and the people was healthy, and the people and the armed forces believed they were fighting a just battle, then the US would have to pay a high price. I would even go so far as to say that if the relationship between the regime and the Ba'th party was healthy in matters of organization and principle, then the US forces would be encountering greater difficulties.
However, relations between the regime and the people are based not only on mutual distrust, but also on mutual enmity. Monopoly of power has emptied the Ba'th party of its contents and turned its members into robots. The regime has also failed to take into account the fact that the decision to expand the size of the army has created a double-edged sword. When the regime is in full control, then these forces represent an element of strength. But if the winds of change blow, then the army could turn against the regime and create the opportunity for a military coup – or when the fighting starts, there could be many desertions.
The Iraqi regime has not overlooked the fact that there is a great disparity between the two sides in technology and weaponry, with the enemy technologically superior and set to launch an electronic war against Iraq. Hence the regime has worked hard on its military industrialization program with the aim of throwing a spanner into the technology. It was especially encouraged in this effort by the success in shooting down a US drone. It is also a fact that the regime has gained a lot of experience from previous wars on how to out-maneuver the enemy and prolong the conflict. Moreover, the regime is not hiding the fact that its tactic in the conflict will be to adopt urban warfare, because street fighting would prove costly to the enemy and expose its military hardware to danger.
However, the calculations and preparations of the Iraqi regime will not be enough. For in truth, the armed forces are tired of war. They know that it is an unbalanced conflict, and they are not motivated to fight because they know that they are not defending a nation, but rather a regime that, in the past, has sent them blundering into adventures and losing battles.
The US will use all the resources at its disposal to make this a short war. It is keen to undertake the mission quickly and with as few losses as possible. It also has to take into account the fact that the longer the war lasts, the more reaction there will be to it – especially given the splits in the international community. This would be the case all the more if there was large-scale destruction and loss of life as the war went on. It would also mean an increase in the cost of post-war reconstruction. A prolonged campaign, too, would open the possibility of a security vacuum, increasing the chances of chaos or anarchy in the country.
Will the US’s bet on a short war come good? The evidence points to the fact that it will. But if some of the variables are neglected, then there could be some surprises in store. For example, if the Americans do not put over the right message to the supporters of the regime – and there are millions of them. The same would be true if they sent a confused message to the Arabs who fear they are being deliberately marginalized. There are also loud voices around the world opposed to the US that might find an echo in Iraq.
The US also needs to take into account the fact that the Islamic authorities in al-Azhar, Makka and al-Najaf have issued fatwas calling for jihad against the war. While one can discount the Najaf fatwa, issued under conditions of oppression, one can not do the same to the other two. Nevertheless, the fact is that the Islamic wave in the region has touched the Iraqi shore less than it has others, because the totalitarian regime has weakened the patriotism of its people.
British soldiers have been scavenging the debris of war for Iraqi army boots because the British army variety are disintegrating in the hot desert sun.
Guardsman Lee Williams, 18, of the Desert Rats' Royal Scots Dragoon Guards battle group, found a new pair of boots in an abandoned barracks which he said were "lighter and more comfortable" than the British footwear.
He added he had been forced to swap his footwear because no replacements were available for his own disintegrating boots.
JAW-jaw may indeed be preferable to war-war but the former can never – and should never – preclude the latter. Not when talking circumnavigates the issues to hand to the extent that a homicidal despot who commands the world's fourth largest war machine can rearm in open defiance of what can very loosely be described as the international community's "will". Not when a protracted epidemic of diplomatic logorrhoea on the legalities of any military action against a dictator who is a serial violator of international law are rightly viewed in Baghdad as signs of weakness and division and are exploited accordingly. Not when the entrenched see-hear-and-speak-no-evil stance of the United Nations makes a mockery of that international body and exposes its authority, deterrents and moral sway to be ineffective at best, wholly compromised – or wholly illusory – at worst.
Ever since the UN was abruptly woken from its 12-year reverie on Iraq six months ago and bluntly reminded by the US and Britain that Saddam Hussein remained in breach of its disarmament resolutions the world has gone through a period that might best be termed a phoney peace.
Saddam, after all, represents the sort of longstanding, well-nigh intractable problem that is not going to be solved by throwing more diplomatic resolutions at him – especially if there is a manifest lack of resolve on the part of the international community to enforce them.
While the US, UK and other allies patiently allowed the torturous diplomatic process to run its entirely predictable course nothing was achieved – nothing, that is, for the well-being of the international community.
The incessant jaw-jawing, however, provided Saddam with yet another UN-mandated postponement to his day of reckoning. It allowed the dictator in Baghdad more time to tighten his stranglehold on his martyred and plundered country, executing potential successors and sabotaging the post-liberation infrastructure; more time to place rush-orders for genocidal weaponry to his death factories and put his country on a war footing; more time to top up his network of foreign bank accounts with the blood money of those countries which have put profit ahead of principles and circumvented UN economic containment policies on Iraq.
Officials at the Department of National Defence confirmed Wednesday that Canadian troops are helping in the war on Iraq.
The officials said Canadians are aboard American AWACS radar planes flying missions over Iraq. AWACS planes are used for surveillance, and command and control operations.
About 31 Canadian soldiers are serving in exchange assignments with U.S. and British forces.
As well, The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that six members of the Armed Forces are serving in logistical or support positions with combat troops on the ground.
Heh. Someone should tell the Screen Actors Guild that Greek film makers are carrying out a McCarthyite campaign against them.
Greek filmmakers, including award-winning director Theo Angelopoulos, are calling for a boycott of American movies to protest the war in Iraq.
"I support the boycott of American films as an indication of protest against the American attack against Iraq," the union quoted Angelopoulos as saying.
Think someone should tell them that there are more people in Hollywood who oppose the war than there are in Greece?
New Zealand North Shore MP and professor of international law talks about the legality of this war.
There are three reasons why war against Iraq is legal and just. The first and most important is self-defence. The second is the enforcement of UN resolutions requiring Iraq to disarm. The third is a developing doctrine of international law known as "humanitarian intervention."
Australia, the UK and the US derive their moral authority from the rule of law. Military force has to be justified on the basis that it is both moral and just.
The use of force as an instrument of realpolitik will quickly undermine the moral authority of Western nations. Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction and its proven propensity to use them means it has to be disarmed. This now has to be done by force, especially by the US, which is also at greatest threat of direct attack. That is why it is both legal and just.
A democratic Iraq could hasten liberalization in Persian Gulf states such as Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
Reform of the Palestinian Authority - finally under way - can only be strengthened by the demise of the suicide bombers' paymaster in Baghdad. Change in Iraq and elsewhere will increase Israel's security, indispensable to achieving an enduring peace with the Palestinians.
To confront the hatred that has devastated Arab progress and threatened the United States, we should aspire to be respected by Arab peoples and, in the case of tyrants and terrorists who threaten us, feared.
Iraqis' controlling their own destiny will demonstrate that our real allies in the Middle East are people who yearn for freedom - not autocratic governments that sell us cheap oil.
Americans fight and die in Iraq today not for empire, not for oil, not for a religion, not to shock and awe the world with our astonishing power. They fight for love - for love of freedom, our own and all humanity's.
When the guns are silent, their political leaders must take every care to advance the aspirations that have given their sacrifice its nobility, and our country its real glory.
Not like you need it but, further evidence to show just what we are fighting.
A feared Iraqi militia that has been enforcing discipline among regular Iraqi army troops has executed 62 officers since the U.S.-led war on Iraq erupted, an Iraqi opposition Shiite group said Wednesday.
"Execution squads of (the militia) Fedayeen Saddam, special security agents and military intelligence, are spread in all (Iraqi) provinces, cities and villages and behind the troops and militias," the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press.
One of the few reports I've seen talking about operations in Western Iraq.
About 30 miles from this desert outpost, more than 12,000 U.S.-led troops have swooped into western Iraq, fending off enemy resistance while combing the barren terrain for signs of Iraqi missiles and chemical weapons.
The Pentagon gives scant details of the missions. There are no journalists embedded to report on troop activities. In the scattered villages, Iraqis report hearing U.S. bombing and exchanges of gunfire but know little more. Motorists have seen missiles and rockets fly across the treacherous highway to Baghdad.
"It's like the Wild West out there," a U.S. military official said.
For covert reasons, and to protect Jordanian interests, Americans and their allies are reluctant to divulge military activities in the desert, including the takeover of two vital Iraqi airfields.
What is known of the U.S. invasion last week and subsequent firefights comes from Western military analysts and diplomats, Jordanian sources, and British and Australian forces aiding American efforts.
The Iraq war and the divisions it has bared among European governments should lead Europeans to abandon the U.S.-led NATO alliance if they want to have a meaningful say in world affairs, European Commission President Romano Prodi said Wednesday.
He praised Germany, France and Belgium for starting "a timely and good" debate on a European defense undertaking outside of NATO to ease Europe's reliance on America for its security.
Prodi urged other E.U. nations to join them.
"It is evident the Iraq crisis has brought us to a new crossroads" in trans- Atlantic relations, he said. "We must choose a different path."
A quick look at the resources allocated by these countries for defence should make it easy for any other European nation to have second thoughts about trusting these nations to form an international defence coalition. However if these three nations wish to go off on their own, they are free to do so.
"The satellites will be sent into orbit on Friday. Their primary aim will be to spy on North Korean missile sites and nuclear facilities. Pyongyang is furious, and is warning of grave consequences if Japan proceeds with the launch. 'Japan will not have its security guaranteed but face self-destruction,' the Korean central news agency warned in a statement.
A good move by the Afghan government in getting things going in the right direction.
In a bid to provide better accountability to donors, Afghanistan's fledgling government has trained 20 new finance officers who will be deployed across the country to ensure revenues are collected transparently, officials said Wednesday.
"With more accurate information being reported from the field by all of the financial officers we see graduating today, the government will ... be better able to implement a fair and equitably distributed budget," Finn said.
"And it will be better able to report to the Afghan people and the world on the results of their efforts."
The new generation of finance officers will be able to send computerized reports back to the capital enabling the government to keep better track of revenues, said Pamir, a Finance Ministry official who, like many Afghans, uses one name.
He came down the hillside in the rain Tuesday night, picking his way past the land mines and the trip wires, slipping here and there in the mud, hoping not to be discovered by any of his fellow Iraqi soldiers.
He knew what awaited him if he were found out: 10 other would-be defectors had been executed in front of his unit the previous day.
The Iraqi defector, a 31-year-old watermelon farmer who joined Saddam Hussein's infantry three years ago, could not take it any longer: living in muddy trenches, the starvation rations, the monthly pay of $4, the plummeting morale and now, the terrifying bombs and missiles from coalition aircraft.
The illiterate, reed-thin private in the 108th Infantry Brigade turned himself over to Kurdish guerrilla fighters at this bleak outpost on the northern border between Iraq and the Kurd-held region that lies beyond Saddam's control. He gave his name, but it has been withheld for fear of jeopardizing his wife and child in Iraq. Still shaking with fear and anxiety, he was interviewed just an hour after his capture.
"We've been in the trenches for weeks and weeks, and we've had no leave to see our families," he said, his hands trembling as he accepted a glass of sweet tea from his captors. "All the soldiers complain, but only among ourselves. We are starving. We're being tortured."
But the defector did not think the Iraqi troops would put up much of a fight if attacked. Most would like to "escape," as he called it, but they were constantly watched by special units called "execution battalions" that are empowered to shoot defectors on the spot.
"This man Saddam is nothing, no good," the man said, then stopped short. He whispered to a Kurdish guerrilla fighter that he was afraid that Saddam would somehow learn of his comment and have him killed.
Kurdish intelligence officials said some of the claims the man made probably were exaggerations. For example, he claimed that his unit had taken delivery in the last few days of "chemical-weapon warheads" that are meant to be fired from mortars. But he couldn't describe the warheads, how they worked or what they might contain.
The Iraqi infantrymen have been prohibited from having radios, and the defector had no idea how the war was proceeding. His wife is living in Basra with their 5-year-old daughter, Dumoo. Her name in Arabic means "tears."
More Iraqi exileshelping in the effort to end Saddam's rule.
Half a world away from the bombs in Baghdad and the desert firefights, the Naamas are waging their own campaign from the family's dining room in Chula Vista.
Abbas, Sabria and Esra Naama are Shiite Muslims who fled Iraq a decade ago and have since offered to help the U.S. government with information that could benefit American troops and defeat Saddam Hussein.
They urge their fellow Iraqis to do the same.
"It's because of our troops that we have freedom here," said Esra Naama, 23. "Oil, if that is the reason the United States is there, so be it.
"We would pay any price to be free. People ask, 'Aren't you afraid?' Our people are already dying, already suffering. Who is going to speak for them?"
Esra works through Women for Iraq. Her mother, Sabria Mahdi Naama, also belongs to the national organization.
"We need to share the responsibility to support our troops and also to participate in the great mission of Iraqi freedom," Abbas Naama said.
Meetings are held once, twice, sometimes more, each week. On Sunday, he spoke with an Iraqi from the same city where the American POWs might be imprisoned.
"We try to give them information," Naama said. "We actually contacted the FBI. As part of this society, we do what we can to serve this great country. We are trying to explain all the tricks that Saddam uses."
When they call their family in Iraq, they use a code to speak to them in order to convey information, Abbas Naama said.
"We are very proud of their work," Yousif said. "They have a big following in Iraq and when they say something, they speak for the people in the south of Iraq. They are a very well-respected family."
Abbas and Esra Naama will speak out again today in El Cajon at a news conference with other Iraqis living in San Diego County.
"We all like peace, but Saddam does not understand the language of peace," said Alan Zangana, director of the Kurdish Human Rights Watch. "For years, we tried to deal with him peacefully, but that doesn't work."
Amnesty International is very quick to denounce the bombing of Iraqi TV. Still no word on how they feel about Iraq's treatement of American POW's and Iraqi troops murdering civilians on surrendering Iraqi soldiers.
The organisations say the attack was an attempt at censorship and may have breached the Geneva Conventions.
This may shock AI but, I have a bit of secret info for them. Iraqi TV is an arm of the Ministry of Information. It is an integral part of the Iraqi regime making it a legitimate target.
Saddamites thank Russia for their 'moral support'.
Iraq expresses its enormous gratitude to Russia for its attempts to help the Iraqi people at a difficult time, the Iraqi government has announced. 'Our Russian friends are trying to end this senseless war by raising the matter at the UN Security Council,' said Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed al-Sahhaf.
The Iraqi authorities have once again repeated that Russia has never supplied Iraq with high-precision military equipment. 'This is a lie invented by the US in order to blacken the reputations of Iraq and Russia,' said the minister.
The chief of the Turkish Army says Ankara will send troops into northern Iraq but only if Turkish troops already there are unable to handle a possible influx of refugees or threats to stability.
General Hilmi Ozkok, the chief of staff of the Turkish armed forces, said today in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir that any Turkish deployment will be "coordinated" with the United States. "However, given that our strategic American partner is still fighting in the region, we would coordinate our actions with the United States, and all necessary steps would be taken to prevent misunderstandings," Ozkok said.
Arrogant twit. Joschka Fischer rails against America and demeans our allies while he is at it.
"A world order in which the superpower decides on military strikes only according to its own national interest cannot work."
"I cannot and do not want to imagine that we stand before a whole series of disarmament wars," he said with reference to fears that the US administration would now unilaterally set the world agenda, after failing to secure the UN route for the Iraq conflict.
"In the end the same rules must apply for the big, middle-sized and small countries," he stressed.
No Joschka would rather pretend that people are not dying in these regimes. He would rather his government continues to buy them off and sell them everything they wish while telling America to mind its place. He would rather pretend that pieces of paper like the '93 Framework with North Korea and the inspections in Iraq are working. He would rather pretend that places like Iran are building nuclear power plants for peaceful purposes. He would rather live in a world where terrorists murder and the response is a sad shake of the head and some resolutions and maybe a committee or two to figure out exactly what the terrorists goals and reasons are.
Referring to Spain and the UK, the US' strongest EU allies, the German foreign minister questioned whether they had any real influence in Washington's decision to start a military conflict.
"The important question is whether those countries which are now close allies of the USA have or had any influence at all."
London and Madrid are also likely to be irritated by his comments that by deciding to continue supporting US President George W. Bush, despite the huge anti-war sentiment in their countries, they had caused "major problems that bordered on the destabilisation of democratic systems."
If they did not have any say maybe Joscha should ponder why we continued at the UN even when it was clear we would not get UNSC approval. Maybe he should ask why we were willing to offer a number of concessions as long as the resolution had teeth while France and Germany insisted that the resolution could say anything as long as it did not have teeth, that we should trust in the goodwill of Saddam to come clean.
One of the major reasons for the existing transatlantic differences is the different histories experienced by Americans and Europeans.
"Whoever is familiar with European history knows about the many wars here. In the USA there is nothing to compare with Auschwitz or Stalingrad or the other terrible symbolic locations in our history."
Meanwhile Europe has no Battle of Yorktown, no Antietam, no Pearl Harbor, no Iwo Jima, French and German troops did not storm Normandy instead they stood and fought against those who would free millions and end the genocide being carried out by the enlightened and the historically steeped nuanced Europeans. Nor has Europe had a Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Lincoln.
I may also add that our government has never been gripped by a genocidal madman or ideology bent on domination of the world. Nor did our Revolution against monarchy result in a time known as the great terror.
Instead we have lived peacefully under a Constitution that has given power to the people of our nation for more than 225 years. Even in the face of a bloody Revolution and Civil War despite stepping in to end the suffering of millions in Europe and throughout the world our country has never fallen under the sway of dictators or emperors. The stains of slavery and segregation and the oppression of the Native Americans were all ended by America without the need for our more nuanced betters in Europe. American sins were paid for with American blood. German sins were washed away with American and Jewish blood.
So while Mr Fischer cannot accept a world without an enormous population of useless paper pushing bureaucrats who twiddle their thumbs, pass worried resolutions and look the other way while genocide happens in Africa, Asia and even in such historically deep European places like Bosnia and Kosovo, I cannot imagine, nor will I accept, a world in which such people use their transnational organizations to pare away the rights enumerated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
This is why the humanitarian aid is still slow getting into Southern Iraq.
It is believed Australian Navy clearance divers have uncovered sea mines as they continue their underwater mission in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qsar.
We could rush the ships in and have them hit some of these mines. Then the media would get to 'lament' the further setbacks in the action. Either way they will whine. I would rather our forces are safe.
Tourists hoping to catch the first rays of the Italian summer could find themselves rubbing shoulders with a group of Iraqi sailors sipping espresso at one of the waterfront cafes on Italy's Riviera.
Italy impounded Iraq's two most modern warships, the bulk of its navy, 12 years ago under an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations following the Gulf War.
An Italian firm had just finished building the ships but the embargo came into force before they could be delivered.
The 70-metre missile-and-gun boats have sat rusting at the back of La Spezia harbour ever since but the Iraqi navy sends 12 sailors a year to man the grounded and ammunition-less vessels.
With the crews sea-faring rituals whittled down to hoisting the red, white and black flags the sailors are left with plenty of time to sample Italy's 'dolce vita'.
"The crew are not prisoners. They can go around the town when they want. It's the ships that can't go anywhere," La Spezia spokesman Francesco Pilato told Reuters. "They started the engines once for about 15 minutes about 12 years ago. Until the embargo is lifted they are not leaving."
"They often come and sit here and have an espresso after they've been shopping," Diana Pinto, owner of the Pink Benny cafe near the portside said, serving ice cream to a group of teenagers. "No-one has ever had a problem. They are peaceful."
Last December German arms dealers were trying to sell missile componenets to Iraq.
A spokesman for the prosecutor's office in the western town of Bielefeld said the men had admitted trying to sell the missile parts to Iraq in breach of a United Nations embargo and German export regulations.
The two accused had planned to get some of the components produced in Germany and to deliver them to Iraq, ARD said in a statement.
One of the men had admitted that a blueprint confiscated by police had been the design of a missile guidance system, ARD said, citing Baade.
The case follows the conviction in January of a German businessman who was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for exporting weapons material to Iraq in 1999.
Baath Party members armed mostly with rifles are feared in Umm Qasr, a poor town of crude mud homes and dirt lanes and posters of Saddam, some of which have been torn down.
''They keep telling the population that the Iraqi army will defeat the Americans and that they will come back here and get us if we don't support the Baath Party,'' said one resident who would only give his name as Ali.
''Saddam's people can kill us just like that. And if the Americans don't win they will be back and they will take revenge,'' said an unemployed Iraqi man, who like others said that giving his name could mean death.
I don't blame them. We let them down once and it cost them tens of thousands slaughtered by Saddam. Right now they are just holding their breath. After more than two decades of living in fear of saying the wrong thing they can look on impassively as the Ba'athists are routed but they will not show signs of celebration until they know there will be no vengence by a still sitting Saddamite government.
While the protesters manage to find a couple of hours to go out in the street and march. Iraqi-Americans are willing to put their lives on the line to make their voices heard.
Haider Al-Jubury fled Iraq more than a decade ago after he was pulled out of high school and forced to train for the Army. Now 29, he has asked the Defense Department for permission to return to his homeland to fight alongside coalition troops trying to oust Saddam Hussein.
"There are American men my age over there fighting. I should be there, I should be the one to liberate my country," Al-Jubury said calmly as he sat with friends at Sinbad's Cafe on a recent night.
"I want to fight side-by-side with the U.S. Army, shoulder to shoulder," he said. "I think it's my job and my duty."
As Al-Jubury spoke, his friends nodded in encouragement.
"So many Iraqis are wanting to serve, to liberate their country," said 40-year-old Basel Taki, of Canton, Ohio. "These people want to fight. They've paid a lot, suffered a lot."
Maha Hussein, president of Iraqi Forum for Democracy, said hundreds of Michigan Iraqi-Americans have volunteered for military service, though she doesn't know how many have been accepted.
Al-Jubury has applied to serve for the Free Iraqi Forces, a group of mostly Iraqi refugees trained to assist military operations, according to the Defense Department. They also are trained in rehabilitation efforts.
A department spokesman refused to discuss details of the Free Iraqi Forces, but the agency has said it would be allowed to train up to 3,000 people in Hungary.
Al-Jubury said he waits every day for the call to serve: "I dream about it, I talk and think about it every minute."
Another American soldier in action represents what America is about. One of the POW's seen in the video shown by al-Jazeera was born in New Zealand.
Sergeant James Riley was one of five prisoners of war paraded on Iraqi television after a US Army supply convoy was ambushed at Nasiriyah.
The grandson of a former US consul to New Zealand, Sergeant Riley left Auckland for the United States at the age of 10.
Sergeant Riley's wife, Jane, learned he was a prisoner of war after a friend saw a photo of him on the internet.
"His tenacity and stubbornness will get him through this," Mrs Riley said.
"For us, it will be our faith and our family that will get us through."
This is something that really getsme going. When I hear the Europeans tell us that they have so much more history than America they totally miss the point. Our nation is based on an idea older than any of their nations and is populated by people from every nation on Earth. The historical roots of our America stretch back to the earliest of times everywhere in the world and our government has been in the hands of the people longer than any other nation on earth. So, please, spare me the attempts at trying to dismiss America's roots.
The number of Australians supporting the US-led war against Iraq outweigh the opponents for the first time after a change in sentiment as the conflict began last week, according to an opinion poll today.
The Newspoll survey of 1200 people in The Australian newspaper found support for military action to disarm Iraqi President Saddam Hussein rose to 50 per cent as war began from 45 per cent, with more backing from women, younger people and opposition Labour supporters.
The number opposing Australia's involvement in the war, with 2000 Australian military personnel now in action in the Gulf, fell to 42 per cent in the March 21-23 survey from 47 per cent in a similar poll conducted on the eve of the conflict.
The turnaround in sentiment is mirrored in polling in Britain where there was a large swing in opinion as the conflict began on March 20, with 54 per cent of Britons now approving of the war.
The Newspoll survey found the change in Australians' sentiment had also boosted the standing of Prime Minister John Howard and his conservative government which has consistently led in the polls since winning a third term in government in 2001.
Sixty per cent of 1150 respondents chose Howard as preferred prime minister, up from 51 per cent in a poll a week earlier, and his coalition government had 45 per cent support compared to Labour's 34 per cent. The next election is due by early 2005.
Support for Labour leader Simon Crean, who is struggling to gain traction with voters, fell again with only 19 per cent of respondents choosing him as preferred leader, down from 22 per cent, and 58 per cent dissatisfied with his performance.
A group of Spaniards will be taking Hugo Chavez to the ICC.
A Spanish judge threw out a terrorism case against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday because he had immunity from Spanish prosecution, but the case was passed on to the International Criminal Court.
A group of Spanish citizens brought the case against Chavez, alleging terrorism and crimes against humanity based on violence during a protest in Venezuela last April, in which three Spaniards were injured and one Spaniard died.
Judge Fernando Andreu Merelles, an investigating magistrate at the High Court, said in an 80-page ruling that Chavez enjoyed the extraterritorial immunity from prosecution that is granted to heads of state, diplomats and other high-ranking officials.
However, the judge said that although the case could not be heard in Spain, it would be passed on to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague under provisions of the Statute of Rome for its consideration.
CAIR official calling on the Muslim community in Florida to help the FBI find Adnan El Shukrijumah.
Parvez Ahmed, the Florida chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and other local Arab-American leaders stood with FBI officials to demonstrate their support of the search for Adnan El Shukrijumah, whose last known address was suburban Broward County.
"This is our country, this is our state, this is our community," Ahmed said. "We join the FBI in calling on the public to come forward and contact the FBI offices if they have any information."
AUSTRALIA'S SAS troops were engaged in "shoot and scoot missions" behind enemy lines and had created havoc for Iraqi troops, army chief Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy said today.
General Leahy said the SAS had destroyed Iraqi military camps and had gained significant intelligence about Iraqi troop movements and intentions.
"The operations they have been conducting have provided invaluable information on enemy movements, on bases and on likely intentions," Lt-General Leahy said.
"Special forces have been active destroying enemy installations either using their own resources, or directing coalition air support for destruction mission.
"Our forces are denying freedom of movement to the Iraqi forces.
"They are generally creating havoc and uncertainty behind lines, and are constantly redeploying in their area of operations.
"You can see the pictures where Iraqi soldiers who have
surrendered with their hands on the head. So, what is wrong with the
Iraqis showing American personnel who were captured by them... they've this much right.
"It's a little bit late for the US to invoke international law
because America has shown that it has total disrespect for
international law," he told newsmen after tabling a motion to condemn
the US-led invasion on Iraq at the parliament here.
When our government, for propaganda purposes, shows executed POW's (2 breaches of the Geneva convention. And if the female soldier was sexually assaulted that would be a third) then Mahathir can open his self-righeous mouth.
Even in this most difficult time the father of Shane Childers, one of the first US soldiers to be killed in action in Iraq, still supports the war effort.
The father of one of the first U.S. soldiers killed in action in Iraq said he supports the U.S. attack.
"I feel this needed to be done," said Joseph Childers.
Second Lt. Therrel Shane Childers, 30, of the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton in California, was killed last Friday in southern Iraq.
Joseph Childers was in the Navy for more than 20 years, including a stint in Vietnam, before retiring and moving to Wyoming with his wife 13 years ago.
The conflict with Iraq had been simmering for too long, the elder Childers said. Too often, dictators such as Saddam Hussein are created and allowed to flourish while others suffer, he said.
"The first thing dictators do is oppress their own people and then they go after others," Childers said.
With the United Nations apparently unwilling to take decisive action, Childers said someone else had to take charge.
Christian leaders have added their voice in support of the Ugandan government’s pro-US stance on Iraq.
Archbishop Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo of the Anglican Church of Uganda and Simeon Kayiwa, leader of the National Fellowship of the Born Again Churches of Uganda, said the attack on Iraq was justified.
“Saddam Hussein has been a dictator for too long, committing atrocities even on his own people,” Nkoyooyo said.
He also said the Government was right to support America. He was hesitant, however, about the way Uganda came out publicly in support of the war, which he said could attract terrorist attacks on Uganda. He was emphatic that the war was not an attack against Islam.
Kayiwa said Saddam was trying to turn the clash into a holy war, using words like “infidel” and “Jihad” and calling on Palestinian support. “He’s making the world fear that this is a Muslim/Christian war”.
Asked whether he thought Bush, being a Christian fundamentalist, saw the war as a clash between Christianity and Islam, he replied, “No. Bush is not fighting as a religious person.”
He disagreed with Nkoyooyo on the issue of Uganda coming out publicly, saying it would be cowardly for the government not be open.
Cool Beans. Wayne Gretzky comes out backing the US.
Wayne Gretzky praised the efforts of U.S. President George W. Bush in the war against Iraq but shied away Monday from criticizing Canada's decision to stay out of the conflict.
"All I can say is the president of the United States is a great leader, I happen to think he's a wonderful man and if he believes what he's doing is right I back him 100 per cent," said Gretzky, in Calgary for a news conference for Ronald McDonald Children's Charities. "If the president decides to go to war he must know more than we know, or we hear about. He must have good reason to go and we have to back that."
"I have a cousin who is in Iraq right now and is in the U.S. Marines. He was there in '91 and he's there now and it's a tough time for his family and it's a tough time for all of us.
Col. Kenny Hopper has been in the Marines for more than 20 years, said Gretzky.
"I guess we get it more in the United States because actors and singers - they all think they know politics. I'm tired of watching people who are not in politics give their opinions."
"Quite frankly that's what we have governments for and that's why we elect governments."
Eight years ago, Jose Gutierrez risked death for a better life in America. He found foster parents and several new brothers and sisters, went to high school, then joined the Marine Corps.
Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, became an infantry rifleman with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, according to Camp Pendleton officials in early September. This month, he became the first combat casualty of the war in Iraq.
"He was fighting for the port city of Umm al Qasr, which is important to the U.S. so we can bring humanitarian aid into the country," said Marine Capt. James Rich, who has been counseling Gutierrez's foster family since notifying them of his death.
"He was just a really good kid. He was studying hard," his foster brother said. "He had a plan. He joined the Marines to pay back a little of what he'd gotten from the U.S. For him it was a question of honor."
British MP writes in the Guardian about the 'peace' protestors.
They think that doing so is cheap and easy. I think it is despicable. Some of the people who are fighting and may die are people whom I know and love; whom I represent; whose mothers or fathers I represent, and know and love. One man issued a press release asking whether I would send my own small children to fight. The answer is that if my children were older, and in the armed forces, I should feel just like every other parent does at a time like this: terribly worried but immensely proud. The reason I mention it is that it is such a despicable question.
To accuse those of us who voted to commit forces of taking a cowardly option is pathetic. It is far from easy to go and vote in the House of Commons to send at least some British soldiers to their certain death. People I know and love may die. I take that very seriously. I think about it all the time. I feel acutely my part of the responsibility for any and every British soldier who suffers or dies. I voted to send them. I am responsible.
My local office premises, local staff, family, friends and self have all been abused or assaulted by people supposedly lusting for peace. My office in Erdington was attacked on March 20. My caseworker, who works in that office, has been doing the job for 15 years, and is known by all the people who assaulted the office, has a son - and is universally known to do so - in the Irish Guards, who was in Kuwait on March 20, moving, we, presume, into Iraq the next day (his 21st birthday). I can't tell you how unpacifistic it makes me feel when they assault his mother's office the very day he goes into battle. It's disgusting.
But let's be clear that not every protester deserves the same credit. There is a hard core of the same old opportunist, every-issue, easy-option usual suspects. And they deserve nothing but contempt.
Joe Leiberman said that the UN has not earned the right to have a say in post-war Iraq.
The United States shouldn't feel obligated to allow U.N. forces to play a role in stabilizing a postwar Iraq, presidential hopeful Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said in Tucson yesterday.
"The U.N. truly lost its will in refusing to implement or enforce the resolution that it adopted," Lieberman said, referring to the measure that required Iraq to disarm weapons of mass destruction.
"They can help us achieve what we want and share the costs, but I wouldn't feel obligated to bring them in."
The United States' commitment to removing Saddam Hussein and its willingness to risk American lives has earned the United States the right to determine the fate of post-Saddam Iraq, Lieberman said.
That fate, ideally, would be the establishment of a democracy, but Lieberman said it will take time to reach that goal.
"We're not anti-Arab or anti-Muslim, we're just against terrorists and tyrants."
It has been revealed Australian SAS soldiers are taking out ballistic missile sites in the west of Iraq.
Briefing reporters at Coalition Central Command, Australian contingent Commander Brigadier Maurie McNarn identified as a core SAS activity, protecting and disabling Iraqi ballistic missiles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction across its border.
He says the main focus is to ensure Iraqi forces do not get away ballistic missiles into neighbouring states.
In other operations, Brigadier McNarn says Australian FA /18 Hornets have been striking enemy tanks, defensive positions and barracks.
And Australian Navy divers have started sweeping for mines in Iraq's deep-water port of Umm Qasr.
Tanks from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards saw their first action last night in a series of battles with Iraqi resistance on the outskirts of Basra. Their Challenger 2 tanks took out 5 Russian built T55 tanks close to Basra International Airport. In a fierce battle lasting four hours the Scots DG encountered numerous enemy units less than a mile from their position. But the Scots Cavalry escaped unscathed as they eliminated a number of Iraqi units armed with rocket propelled grenades and three armoured personnel carriers as well as the Russian tanks.
THE RAF has released a series of amazing combat pictures taken from nose-cone cameras on Harrier jets which show their devastating strike rate, including a patrol boat parked right next to Saddam Hussein's billion-pound yacht.
Every night Harriers are in the skies over Iraq ready to back up ground forces by striking tanks, Scud launchers, heavy artillery and now even ships which threaten them.
Jockey's plane is seen swooping in from a range of a few miles, locking on to the ship long before it even knew he was there. As he let fly with the Maverick it was picked up by his camera streaking away from his plane and zeroing in on its unsuspecting target, which erupted in flames.
Father-of-two Wilson said, "It was a small boat and it was bloody hard to lock on to but then, whoosh, I locked on and let one go.
"We got a satellite picture of the docks which included Saddam's yacht, which was a definite no-hit because they want to capture it and use it to help rebuild Iraq and it was a non-military target. It was right in the middle of an array of ships we wanted to hit and it was a nightmare.
"My Maverick went for the hot-engine department of the patrol boat and hit the water 20 feet short, but it is designed to act like a skimming stone and like a dam-busting bouncing bomb. It carried on and hit just
above the water line and it exploded right inside the hull. The 50ft patrol boat erupted in a huge flash. I flew over it again and it was as though it had gone straight down and was sitting on the bottom.
"Yesterday I hit a tank. It's been very successful. It's nice seeing these Mavs work because they're good, they're very good, and create precise hits.
"I had a good look at Saddam's yacht and it looks like a billion-pound motor cruiser. It is a colossal gin palace that looks like a small cruise liner and it was parked right in the middle of the harbour in Basra port.
"It's a great feeling that my weapons actually worked and came off the rails. It's a very expensive weapon and in peacetime you don't get to release one very often.
"Now I have a huge feeling of elation at having got a lock-on and a good hit."
al Jazeera is reporting that PUK is in control of most of the land formerly held by Ansar al Islam.
Armed detachments of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the largest parties in Iraqi Kurdistan, is in control of most of the positions that were previously held by the Ansar al-Islam group near the border with Iran.
A correspondent of the Qatari-based satellite television channel Al-Jazeera reported that PUK detachments dealt a massive strike against the Islamists' positions on Sunday.
PUK forces along with those of the US fired missiles on areas
held by the group which killed a dozen militants and civilians.
Meanwhile, Fouad Maasum, a high official of the PUK, admitted on
Monday that the US military has deployed forces in Iraqi Kurdistan,
in the city of Sulaimaniya.
"However, their number is not enough for the opening of a new
front," he pointed out.
The war against Iraq is not religious and Bulgarian Muslims do not support the regime of Saddam Hussein, their leader said Monday.
"What Bulgarian Muslims are concerned about is the fate of the ordinary Iraqis, who are victims of Saddam Hussein's regime," Chief Mufti Selim Mehmed told state radio.
Mehmed said he ordered his clerics to carefully watch unknown visitors of the mosques as a precaution against feared terrorist attacks.
Bulgaria, which takes part in the U.S.-led coalition fighting Iraq, has a 10% Muslim minority of 800,000 _ mainly ethnic Turks.
The fighting at Nasiriya seem to be continuing where at least a dozen US soldiers have been missing after the Iraqi army units laid an ambush. Air support by missile and gun firing Cobra helicopters were repeatedly called in to soften the Iraqi positions. CNN television pictures tend to convey the impression that the fighting is located in the outskirts rather than in the central areas of the city.
This is also what seems to be happening in Basra. But this process should not be given any undue weightage since mopping up operations to make even the outskirts secure would go on and fire-fights in the process should be expected. It would not make sense for the Anglo-American forces to occupy these cities till the end of the war itself when collapse may take place because of the disintegration of the centre of gravity in Baghdad. It is the battle for Baghdad that would remain significant in every possible way.
US Central Command’s Deputy Commander has been reported to say that there has been ‘‘no coherent military move’’ by the Iraqi forces since the war started. This reinforces the assessment that Iraqis are likely to concentrate on guerrilla tactics (like the ambush in Nasiriya) and not defend each and every strong point. But they have deployed regular forces in and around cities even in the south.
These would provide the bases from which guerrilla attacks could be launched. Iraqi artillery has been pounding US positions outside Basra and mortar fire at Nasiriya symbolise this strategy where the US retaliation includes the use of accurate aerial firepower the employment of which has been made completely easy by the total air superiority that Anglo-American forces enjoy in Iraq.
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