Category: World News & Politics

Not to be outdone by their fellow US partners in liberation, it seems UK soldiers are trying to be even worse to Iraqis.

British military officials confirmed Friday that they are investigating new allegations that their soldiers abused a prisoner in Iraq.

Photographs in the Daily Mirror show an Iraqi being battered with rifle butts, threatened with execution, and urinated on by British troops.

The Mirror told how the man was later driven away from the Army camp, still hooded, and thrown off the back of a moving wagon.

“We are not helping ourselves out there. We are never going to get them on our side. We are fighting a losing war,” one of the soldiers told the paper.

[Via Je Blog, Antiwar, CNN]

CBS TV says it has “dozens” of pictures showing a wide range of maltreatment.
Taken by US troops, many of the pictures show American troops watching in apparent approval. CBS says the pictures it obtained show a wide range of abuses, including:

– Prisoners with wires attached to their genitals
– A dog attacking a prisoner
– Prisoners being forced to simulate having sex with each other
– A detainee with an abusive word written on his body.
– An Iraqi standing on a box with wires attached to his hands and told he would be electrocuted if he stepped down.

The Sgt Frederick said he and his fellow reservists had never been told how to deal with prisoners, or what lines should not be crossed. He said he never saw a copy of the Geneva Conventions.

So he thought as a “civilized” US soldier that they could use cruelty, maltreatment, assault and indecent acts against prisoners.

[Via CNN, The Age, Je Blog]

[More: CAIR, American Values]

This simply echos my thoughts in my previous post.
When is anyone going to deal with these Anti-Islamic and Anti-Arab sentiments and remarks?

One thing’s for sure; If they were Anti-semitic ones, this guy would have been wiped off the face of the earth.

[Via: Je Blog]

Fifty-five nations at an international conference have pledged to suppress rising anti-Semitism. (CNN)

I wonder when anyone is going to fight anti-Islamic and anti-Arab sentiments and movements?

Will they ever?

In the darkness of a cinema, a woman’s voice: “Hey! Take your hands off! Not you! YOU!”

This old joke illustrates the American policy regarding nuclear armaments in the Middle East. “Hey, you there, Iraq and Iran and Libya, stop it! Not YOU, Israel!”

The danger of nuclear arms was the main pretext for the invasion of Iraq. Iran is threatened in order to compel it to stop its nuclear efforts. Libya has surrendered and is dismantling its nuclear installations.
So what about Israel?

It has become clear that the Americans are full partners in the creation of Israel’s “nuclear option”.

[More: Vanunu: The Terrible Secret]

People in black trench coats might soon be chasing blogs as US intelligence agencies start to monitor them.

Some blogs are whimsical and deal with “soft” subjects. Others, though, are cutting edge in delivering information and opinion.

As a result, some analysts say U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials might be starting to track blogs for important bits of information. This interest is a sign of how far Web media such as blogs have come in reshaping the data-collection habits of intelligence professionals and others, even with the knowledge that the accuracy of what’s reported in some blogs is questionable.

Still, a panel of folks who work in the U.S. intelligence field – some of them spies or former spies – discussed this month at a conference in Washington the idea of tracking blogs.

Hmmm…
Whatever…

[More: Yahoo! News]
[Via: eclecticism]

Powell has taken the time and effort to explain the definitions of Iraq’s sovereignty.

Simply, any new Iraqi government due to take power on 1 July will have to surrender many of its powers to occupation forces.

“I hope they will understand … some of its [Iraq’s] sovereignty will have to be given back”

Colin Powell, US secretary of state

See? It’s simple.

The US hands over sovereignty to Iraqis on July 1st, hands are shaken, other hands are clapped, pictures are taken, champagne is poured, then the Iraqis give back the sovereignty and what’s left of their dignity to the US, and everybody goes home happy.

[Source: Al Jazeera]

Jordanian authorities said yesterday that they have broken up an alleged al Qaeda plot that would have unleashed a deadly cloud of chemicals in the heart of Jordan’s capital, Amman.

The plot would have been more deadly than anything al Qaeda has done before, including the September 11 attacks, according to the Jordanian government.

Among the alleged targets were the U.S. Embassy, the Jordanian prime minister’s office and the headquarters of Jordanian intelligence.

The plot was within days of being carried out when security forces broke it up April 20.

Confessions by the planners of the attack were aired on Jordanian TV last night.

Jordanian officials said that if this attack took place it would have been the biggest attack and caused most casualties with as much as 80,000 people dying.

Knowing Jordan and especially Amman very well after living there for 6 years, I agree that an attack on the mentioned targets would take a lot of innocent human lives with it because all the targets are near residential and shopping areas.

This is really disturbing and frightening. And when you actually get to see these people talking so calmly about it on TV, confessing to what they were about to do, explaining it and giving their reasons, it really sends shivers down your spine.

Iraq’s U.S.-picked leaders approved a new flag for the country…

The new flag includes two blue horizontal stripes signifying the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates. A yellow stripe between the two blue ones symbolizes the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Above the three stripes is a white background with a blue crescent, an Islamic symbol.

But the overhaul of a national symbol raised some complaints — particularly since it came from U.S.-appointed leaders. U.S. administrators previously tried to alter the Saddam-era flag by dropping the words “Allahu akbar” — “God is great” — but Iraqis refused to abide by the change.

The new design not only abandons the symbols of Saddam’s regime. It also avoids the colors used in other Arab flags: green and black for Islam and red for Arab nationalism. The change recalls the U.S. agenda of creating a “New Iraq” that is exceptional in the Arab world.

In Arabic nations, the colors of flags have widely recognized meanings.
Green, white and black denote Islam ? harkening back to the battle banners of the medieval Islamic dynasties of the Fatimids, Ummayads and Abbasids. Green is said to have been the prophet Muhammad’s favorite color;

The only country in the Middle East with blue stripes in its flag is Israel, which has a Star of David on a field of white between horizontal blue bands.

This really sucks!
I’m totally with the Iraqi people who are asking that the flag not be changed until an elected government takes over.
Who are these people to change the flag?
They have no right to!
What they’re doing is disgraceful.
Why don’t they just change the name of the country to Israel 2 while they’re at it!

[More: Yahoo! News]
[Via: Je Blog]