US may 'fabricate' WMD evidence in Iraq: Russia
Press Trust of India
Moscow, March 26
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_221875,0005.htm
Russia on Wednesday expressed concern that Washington could fabricate evidence of Iraq allegedly hiding its weapons of mass destruction in an effort to justify the US-led attack on Baghdad.
Speaking before the Federation Council (Russian Upper House) on Wednesday Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov cautioned Washington and London that Moscow is not going to trust their claims of finding evidence of WMD in Iraq.
"Even if the American-British forces report that they have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the final assessment of their origin can be given only by international inspectors," Ivanov said.
"No other assessments (WMD evidence) can lead to a final conclusion, this is the understanding within the framework of the UN Security Council," Ivanov said.
Earlier, similar apprehensions were voiced by the former deputy chief of the Russian Defence Staff Gen (retd) Valery Manilov and Iraqi ambassador in Moscow Abbas Khalaf in the wake of US Gen Tommy Franks and US ambassador Alexander Vershbow's statements that the US would produce the evidence of Iraqi WMD.
When asked by NTV channel on Tuesday that coalition troops are inside Iraq for the fifth day and have not found any Iraqi WMD, the US ambassador Vershbow said they will soon find this evidence.
Iraqi Ambassador to Russia in an interview to the same channel, did not rule out the use of chemical or other weapons of mass destruction by the US-led coalition forces to later pin the blame on Baghdad.
The War on Protesters: San Francisco's Berserk Cops
ANN HARRISON
Counterpunch
March 29, 2003
http://www.counterpunch.org/harrison03292003.html
One week after anti-war demonstrators brought San Francisco's business
district to a standstill, the city's police force has been accused of
attempting to repress dissent with widespread brutality, intimidation, and
illegal mass arrests.
While San Francisco has become an epicenter of U.S. protests against the war
in Iraq, it is now embroiled in a debate over police response to the
demonstrations which have resulted in over 2,300 arrests since March 19.
Anti-war groups say the police overreacted costing the city millions in
overtime pay.
Rachel Lavina, Program Coordinator for the Ella Baker Human Rights Center,
says the center's Police Watch project has received over 80 calls from
people recounting vivid stories of police misconduct during protests. Lavina
said callers have provided accounts of police tearing protesters' shoulder
rotator cuffs, abusing elderly protesters, roughly separating children from
their parents, using overhead strikes with batons, and sweeping areas
without giving dispersal orders.
Ross Levy, a San Francisco architect, said he and his young son were caught
up in the protests on March 20 after stepping off a streetcar on Market
Street. According to Levy, a news photographer who was about to get
arrested, threw Levy a bag of undeveloped film prompting police to forcibly
pull his son Emett from his shoulders, knock Levy to the ground, and step on
his head. Levy suffered a head wound, and the entire incident was captured
by tv cameras and broadcast.
Protester Melissa Berridge, who found herself caught up in a mass arrest on
Franklin and McAllister streets on March 21, said she was struck across the
chest with a nightstick and had her ankles stepped on by police. She said an
officer told her that the group was being arrested ''to make us think twice
about joining any more protests.''
''What we saw was violation of police general orders regarding crowd
control, violation of the Constitutional right to peaceful assembly and free
speech, and use of excessive force to curb public dissent in San
Francisco,'' said Ishmael Tarikh, director of Bay Area Police Watch. ''We do
anticipate filing suit.''
San Francisco acting Police Chief Alex Fagan said the police department has
acted with restraint in dealing with protesters. Fagan displayed a
collection of pipe wrenches, hammers, rocks, a skillet, and what he said
were other potential weapons seized during police sweeps. But he
acknowledged that only 1% of arrests involved protesters who displayed any
form of violence. "Not only is this city tolerant, but this police
department is tolerant,'' said Fagan who said his officers "took a lot of
abuse'' during the demonstrations. ''I think they handled themselves very
well."
Some city officials are charging that the expense of policing the protests,
staffing jails and 911 centers, paying clean up crews, parking and traffic
costs, will further exacerbate the city's record $347 million deficit. The
city estimated that the the protests were costing its general fund $900,000
a day, half of which were police overtime costs. San Francisco mayor Willie
Brown claimed that the total bill could reach $5 to $10 million, and would
likely result in further layoffs and cuts in city services. He charged that
the demonstrators were ''defecating in their own nest.''
In a week in which 500 city employees received pink slips, Mayor Brown said
health care services may be especially targeted for cuts if protest costs
exacerbate budget shortfalls. But Protester Martha Hawthorne, a nurse at the
Castro Mission Health Center, said a proposed 50 cut in her staff had
already been announced before the protests started. While the clinic was
already falling short of caring for existing health care needs, she fully
supported the protests. ''Our tax dollars are going to kill,'' said
Hawthorne. ''We have to take action against the things our government is
doing half way around the world.''
The dispute over budgets and brutality reached a head at the March 25t
meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors--the equivalent of the
city council. During the meeting, City Supervisor Tony Hall proposed a
resolution urging San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan to fully
prosecute all arrested demonstrators. Hall also asked the DA to investigate
whether protesters could be fined to repay the city's general fund.
''The question has been raised by a number of constituents,'' said Hall.
''If they can receive a $250 parking fine while their car is illegally
parked and blocking a street, why can't these protesters be similarly fined
for doing the exact same thing?''
DA Hallinan responded to this suggestion by dropping or reducing charges
against the 12 demonstrators arrested on felony counts during the protests.
Chief Fagan said he was disappointed by this decision, but Hallinan's move
came as no surprise. The DA is currently prosecuting five San Francisco
police commanders indicted last month for blocking an investigation of a
street fight involving three off duty officers. One of the accused officers
is Fagan's son.
Chris Bowman, who testified during the meeting, said he supported Hall's
call to prosecute protesters. ''My nephew was arrested and if he was
arrested a second time, I'd say throw the book at him,'' said Bowman.
''Sixty percent of voters in the Bay Area says the protests are
counterproductive.''
Supervisor Hall proposed a second resolution directing the city attorney to
explore legal remedies to recover costs from protest organizers. The
resolution also urges city departments to itemize their expenses associated
with the protests. 'The question we should all be concerned about is how
much is all of this going to cost the city, and who is supposed to pay?''
asked Hall, citing Hallinan's assertion that nobody is above the law. ''It
appears to be the law abiding tax payer who may be the real victims of these
protests.''
''The protesters don't assign police details, yet we are being made the
scapegoats for the expense,'' countered Lindasusan Ulrich who testified at
the supervisor's meeting. ''I saw one officer shove a man on a bicycle
several times, even as he was trying to comply with the officer's orders. We
witnessed another officer throwing down an old man with a cane, who had to
be taken off in an ambulance. Another policeman, who like his colleagues,
was in full riot gear and had a billy club out, repeated to one protester
who was asking to leave, 'Anyone close enough to be threatening will be
hit.' These are my tax dollars at work?''
Some protest organizers, including the group International A.N.S.W.E.R.,
says the city of San Francisco should send the bill for police overtime
directly to the White House. Group spokesperson LeiLani Dowell, said the
strain on the city budget paled in comparison to the cost of each $1.5
million dollar cruise missile, or the $75 billion that Bush had requested
from Congress to fight the war. ''We will continue to protest,'' she said.
Other protesters pointed to several examples of what they said was the over
deployment of idle police. Tarikh noted that he looked out of his office
window on Mint Street March 24, and observed police officers eating snacks
and playing football. A photo of the football game made the front page of
the San Francisco Chronicle the next day.
A Change In Police Tactics
Tarikh suggests that police misconduct was an overreaction to the first day
of protest, Thursday, March 20, when thousands of demonstrators blocked
traffic in downtown San Franciscoand were initially met by only a handful of
police officers. By early evening, groups of police and highway patrol
officers had descended on street protesters and made over 1,400 arrests.
The tenor of police response changed significantly on Friday, March 21 when
officers began to conduct sweeping arrests of groups of people engaged in
lawful sidewalk protests. On Friday afternoon, shoppers and tourists were
arrested during a police sweep at the Galleria shopping complex, including
an outraged pianist from New York who was a performing a concert that
evening. Encountering seated protesters at the intersection of Spenser and
Market Streets, police tied rags around protester's necks to jerk them to
their feet.
Early Friday evening, police surrounded two separate groups of several
hundred protesters on Franklin and Hayes Street. Marchers on Hayes Street
found trucks parked on the sidewalk, and demonstrators streamed around them
obeying the order to remain on the sidewalks. Police blocked the end of the
street, surrounded protesters, and began making arrests.
On Franklin Street, police followed a similar tactic witnessed by this
reporter. Obeying police orders to remain on the sidewalk, the group was
surrounded by officers who threw some protesters to the ground and beat
them. Those arrested were handcuffed, photographed at the scene, and
transported to a waterfront pier which the police had rented as a detention
center. ''We were informed that we were under arrest on charges of failure
to disperse and blocking the streets, but these charges were more than
mistaken: they were the exact opposite of the truth,'' said Ulrich who was
arrested in the incident. ''Six hours after being surrounded, arrested,
transported, processed, and cited for infractions that we did not commit, we
were finally able to head home.''
As the Franklin Street protesters were being loaded into buses, the
president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Matt Gonzalez, stood
alone in front of City Hall watching a group of bicyclists who had managed
to flee the arrest. ''Go do this on federal property, go do this to a town
that refused to pass an anti-war resolution, go protest in front of
Congressional reps that refused to take a stand on this,'' said Gonzalez
gloomily as workers erected police barricades in preparation for Saturday's
anti-war rally. ''They are costing us, the city, the people who are against
the war. When we get into budget hearings, the city could be out $2 million
dollars for this. I could do a lot of good with $2 million dollars.''
''We are not going to sit at home in front of the TV and watch them drop
bombs, we won't be passive,'' replied a protester named James Q. who had
halted his bike to talk with Gonzalez. ''Everyone needs to do what their
conscience tells them to do.''
The anti-war rally in front of San Francisco City Hall the next day, March
22, drew 75,000 demonstrators. After the rally, hundreds of protesters
converged on Market Street, the city's wide central boulevard which has been
a flash point for demonstrations. At 5 pm, an NBC news van was surrounded by
a crowd shouting, ''tell the truth!'' By 5:45 platoons of riot police were
marching down Market Street facing off against hundred of protesters who
intermittently occupied the roadway. At 6th and Market, police confiscated a
bicycle-drawn sound system at a sidewalk dance party encircled over 100
protesters, many of whom were arrested. ''We were on the sidewalk dancing
and they rushed towards us and hit us with batons,'' said Murphy McMahon.
''This one guy was clobbered by four or five police officers, and people in
the crowd started throwing bottles. We asked, 'am I under arrest?,' but they
wouldn't answer us.''
At about 6:15 Saturday a swarm of bikers passed through the intersection of
6th and Market. Twenty riders were knocked off their moving bikes and
tackled by police, who arrested them and tossed the bikes into a pile. By 7
pm, total anarchy had broken out. Trashcans burned along Market Street, and
police were beating protesters at 5th and Market with batons. Onlookers,
including non-protesters, shouted at police to stop. ''This is the city I
almost died for? This is the country I almost died for? This is the martial
law I almost died for?'' asked Dennis Kyne, a gulf war veteran who was
observing the arrests. ''I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed. Fuck this war.''
The city was quiet on Sunday, March 23. But by 7:30 on the morning of March
24, Father Louie Vitale was back on Market Street leading a solemn
procession of protesters carrying child-sized white coffins. Protesting
students at San Francisco State walked out of classes and occupied the
ground floor of the campus administration building. Arrests resumed when a
group of protesters locked themselves together in front of the Transamerica
Building which houses the offices of defense contractor, the Carlyle Group.
''Carlyle gets rich! Our sons and daughters die,'' chanted the crowd.
Arrests also took place at the San Francisco Federal Building, but the mood
on March 24 was subdued. Behind a police line at the Transamerica Building,
a group called The Underground Yoga Parlor for Self-Awareness and Social
Justice sang and practiced yoga postures as police looked on. ''We are
practicing yoga as a form of resistance to the military industrial media
complex that is undermining life as we know it,'' said Bhakti, a
spokesperson from the group. ''We want to invite America back into its body
so its heart can discern its interconnectedness with the rest of the
universe.''
At the Board of Supervisors meeting on March 25, scores of people arrested
during the protests lined up to testify about their experiences. The
testimony was accompanied by the strains of the Star Spangled Banner played
for a domestic partnership ceremony taking place downstairs. When Hall
suggested that the organizers be made to pay expenses for the protests,
those testifying responded with calls of, ''shame!''
''I saw people pinned behind barricades, cops were lunging into the crowd
with their nightsticks striking people, and picking up people's bicycles and
throwing them down,'' said Kevin Gardner who was in the crowd surrounded and
detained by police on Hayes Street.
Karen Heisler said she was arrested while marching on the sidewalk on
Franklin Street. ''I witnessed no demonstration of civil disobedience, no
violence, no provocation that could have explained the police decision to
stop the marchers and block us in,'' said Heisler who said she never heard
an order to disperse. ''There was no effort on the part of police to arrest
for cause, to identify individual unlawful action, such as being in the
street, that would support the charges that were ultimately assigned.''
Carla West, who was arrested with 150 other people at the offices of the
Bechtel Corporation on March 21, said she too obeyed an order to stay on the
sidewalk but was surrounded by police. ''I told them that if you would let
us go, we would walk down the sidewalk, but still they arrested us,'' said
West who said police still have her wallet, cell phone, planner and address
book.
Jed Holtzman, who was arrested on Hayes Street, noted that the police gave
no order to disperse and swept up legal observers and tourists arrested
walking back to their hotel. ''Our troops are supposedly fighting and dying
for the preservation and dissemination of these treasured freedoms, and for
what?'' asked Holtzman. ''For mere protesting to become functionally
illegal? This blind and unlawful 'sweeping' of the streets of protesters
opens the city up to very expensive and deserved lawsuits.''
Chief Fagan asserts that his officers did follow police guidelines during
the arrests, and used appropriate force to contain a relatively small number
of demonstrators who did not follow police orders. ''We should look at the
real costs, not the inflicted costs,'' said Board of Supervisors President
Matt Gonzalez who listened attentively to the testimony at City Hall. ''My
own experience tells me that in many respects, we had an exaggerated
response, and that has unfortunately inflated costs.''
Riva Enteen, program director of the Bay Area Chapter of the National
Lawyer's Guild, said there was abundant evidence that the police department
did not follow its own crowd control measures, created after the city was
successfully sued in 1991. Enteen supported the assertion that the police
had failed to give protesters and bystanders the required warnings to
disperse, nor permitted them to exit the scene of demonstrations to avoid
being arrested.
Tarikh, of Police Watch, points out that demonstrators cannot be charged
with failing to disperse unless an order is given. The ACLU has also
complained to police that innocent bystanders were caught up in the sweeps
''That is what is going to really cost the city,'' said Enteen. ''This is
going to lead to lawsuits, and it will have a bigger and bigger impact on
the budget if they don't follow the law.''
''Let me be completely clear,'' said Lindasusan Ulrich, who was arrested on
Franklin Street. ''There was no order to disperse, we were on the sidewalk,
as directed by police; and neither I, nor anyone around me saw or heard
activity that was illegal, much less dangerous. We were corralled like
cattle for exercising our Constitutional freedoms of speech and assembly.''
According to Enteen, protesters can sue the city for false arrest and force
them to pay up to $5,000 per litigant. The second option is a class action
lawsuit, which she said is now being considered. Both the Lawyers Guild and
Police Watch say they are collecting testimony and video evidence in
preparation for legal action.
Enteen said police also violated their own policy by holding protesters on a
continuing offense if they are rearrested within 72 hours. Peter Birch said
he was held for almost 24 hours as a repeat offender despite the fact that
he was not cited during his first arrest on March 20. After his second
arrest on Hayes Street, Birch said he was separated from the group at held
in a detention cell at the county jail. ''At no point did anyone tell me
what I was charged with,'' said Birch who said he appeared in court March
24. he said the judge could not find his paperwork and the case was
discharged.
Heisler said she was informed by her citing officer on Franklin Street that
if she was rearrested within 72 hours, she too would be booked at the county
jail. ''I was arrested for the first time in my life, under false pretenses
and was intimidated regarding my right to exercise freedom of speech,'' said
Heisler.
Supervisor Gonzalez, who listened attentively to the public testimony, said
he was particularly concerned about the mass arrest on Franklin Street. He
proposed a hearing to examine the police response. ''I want the police
department to explain what their protocols are in dealing with the actions
in the last few days,'' said Gonzalez.
''Please do everything in your power to rein in the out-of-control SFPD,''
Holzman asked the supervisors. ''Particularly the Special Operations and
Security Bureau who, though created to protect us from terrorist attack,
have in a very short time been turned against political activists on the
streets of our fair city.''
It's still to be seen how vigorously protesters are prosecuted, if they are
prosecuted at all. ''If the District Attorney does not intend to pursue any
of these cases, should the police department set new guidelines for
arrests?'' asked Supervisor Hall. ''After all, what is the point for the
police to exert all this effort, and spend all this overtime, if nothing is
going to happen once they do their job?''
At a press conference March 25, a coalition of anti-war groups announced
that they will focus on political outreach to encourage residents of the
city to support protesters. Organizers said demonstrations will continue,
but would now target defense contractors, oil companies and other firms
which stand to profit from the war. More protests took place March 26
outside CNN's San Francisco headquarters demanding an end to sanitized news
coverage. One of the protest organizers, Direct Action to Stop the War, has
called for a national day of civil disobedience on April 7. ''I don't think
that they are sending a message about the war by shutting down traffic,''
said Chief Fagan who said the police would continue to arrest protesters if
necessary.
Tanya Mayo, spokesperson for the anti-war group Not In Our Name, said the
San Francisco protests must continue, because they have shown the world that
not everyone in the U.S. supports the war. ''This is something to be proud
of,'' said Mayo. ''We have made a powerful statement that this war is not
waged in our name and we must stop it.''
Ann Harrison is a freelance journalist in the Bay Area. She can be reached
at: ah@well.com
Military families unite in protest
NANCY CACIOPPO
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: March 29, 2003)
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/032903/b0129warfamsagainst.html
SUFFERN -- Shirley Young's 20-year-old son, Jesse, is serving with the U.S.
Army at Fort Lewis in Washington state, far from the Persian Gulf.
Her son's safe distance doesn't prevent her from objecting to the U.S. war
against Iraq.
Young is the regional representative for Military Families Speak Out, a
national organization of people who have family members in the military but
who are against the war.
The group, which claims about 300 families coast-to-coast, offers mutual
support, shares information via e-mail and says it provides an important
voice that's not often heard.
Young, who has participated in teach-ins and antiwar protests from
Washington, D.C., to the gates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,
knows she is in the minority as a member of a military family.
Still, Young feels compelled to express her concerns publicly.
There was no formal congressional declaration of war against Iraq Ñ "which
is unconstitutional," she said Ñ and "a pre-emptive strike is against
international law."
She said it was hypocritical to go after Saddam Hussein, a dictator "we
trained and armed with chemical weapons in the past."
"The president does not have the right to kill just to change the government
of a rogue nation," Young said.
"Our tax dollars are going to fight the war, and we're not getting more jobs
and schools. We could feed everyone in Iraq for $74 billion, and they would
love us, not hate us."
Young said she considered herself a patriot and was proud that her son
joined the military. But, she said, she doesn't want him to become the
"hated aggressor."
Young recalled a recent demonstration outside West Point and a sign carried
by a counterdemonstrator that read: "What about 9/11 and the people who
died?"
"Is it 'getting even' for 9/11 if you kill the same number or nine times the
number of people who died?" Young asked. "We teach our kids not to fight and
hit each other. This war is only going to cause more terrorism in the
world."
Boston residents Charley Richardson, the group's co-founder, and his wife,
Nancy Lessin, have a 25-year-old son in the Marine Corps in the Persian
Gulf. Richardson said Military Families Speak Out was started in November
when several military families found they had common ground in their
opposition to war.
"We were both in the antiwar movement during Vietnam," Richardson said of he
and his wife. "I'm not a pacifist. But we have members who are pacifists, as
well as people from long military traditions who say this war is wrong."
Richardson said he thought the war might be waged in large part because of
oil, and he is certain it's also about power politics.
"Iraq is a key to the region," he said. "And the idea of taking it over as a
power base has been around for a long time. But I would argue this war
violates the Constitution, the U.N. charter and other rules of international
behavior."
Although he thinks the war is unjust, Richardson said he supported the
troops and wanted to bring them home safely.
"I support the warrior Ñ not the war," he said. "This is not about worrying
about my son or getting him out of harm's way. It's about getting 250,000
other troops, Iraqi civilians and the world out of harm's way."
Members of the organization have felt a lot of pressure to be silent, he
said, "as though speaking out against the war is somehow unpatriotic."
"We feel it's the most supportive, patriotic thing we can do for our troops
and our country Ñ to stop the war from continuing," he said. "War is ruining
international relations, creating enemies all over the world and undermining
democracy in the United States. This war is setting a trend for U.S. foreign
policy and a precedent for military intervention."
Richardson said he was afraid the United States would become the world's
vigilante.
"My father said war is never a good thing, although sometimes it's
necessary," he said. "But this is not one of those times."
For more information about Military Families Speak Out, visit www.MFSO.org,
e-mail mfso@mfso.org or call 617-522-9323.
Gruesome toll grows as army grinds to a halt
Paul McGeough
The Sun-Herald
March 30 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/29/1048653903996.html
Lucky... Saja Jaafar, 3, lies in a Baghdad hospital after surviving the
bombing of the al-Naser market in the Shuwaila district. Photo: AFP
Silver stars and red tracer fire lit the sky as the Al Shualla people washed
their dead - as many as 58 of them were slaughtered when a bomb exploded in
their little marketplace.
Some carried blanket-draped coffins through darkened alleyways, others
strapped them to the roofs of battered cars.
But from all houses the same teary cries drifted into the chilly night:
"There is no god but God."
As each family group left the
mosque, the men faced Mecca in prayer and the lights of passing cars etched
the outline of their women, standing in tight knots off to the side.
Iraqi officials insist this bomb, the second in 48 hours to hit a civilian
market, was dropped by a US or British jet. The Americans are investigating;
they say they don't know.
But the suffering and the grief radiating from a small crater in this
impoverished Shi'ite neighbourhood in Baghdad will make it harder for
ordinary Iraqis to see the US-led invasion force as an army of liberation,
rather than one of conquest.
At the Al-Noor Hospital, 500metres from the marketplace in north-west
Baghdad, tearful men held each other in their arms as distraught women
yelled the names of the dead.
A man, sobbing with grief, called over and over: "That man! That man!"
Relatives said he was referring to President George Bush, who, in
Washington, appeared to be warning of more setbacks before victory in
saying: "We are now fighting the most desperate units of the dictator's
army. The fierce fighting under way will demand further courage and further
sacrifice, yet we know the outcome of this battle."
In the face of stiff resistance and severe front-line problems - security
and logistic - US commanders have now decided on a pause of up to six days
in their advance on Baghdad.
The Al Shualla carnage came on a day in which the US seemed to put aside its
undertaking not to damage Iraq's infrastructure: waves of strikes, including
the first confirmed use of 4700-pound (2100 kilogram) bunker-buster bombs,
destroyed much of Baghdad's telephone system.
In Al Shualla, at 6.30pm, people were busy in the market. Ghannun Hussein
was waiting for his 59-year-old father with the vegetables for their evening
meal when he heard the whoosh of a missile.
Standing by his father's hospital bed later, he said: "I heard the
explosion. I ran. All the people were on the ground; people's arms and legs
were cut off, there was too much blood."
Najin Abdula, who works at the hospital, raced to the scene: "There was the
body of a man with no head. I stopped cars in the traffic to get them to
bring the injured to the hospital."
Then he opened the door of a morgue refrigerator for The Sun-Herald. Inside
were five bodies. One young man had half his head blown away; the nose of
another was gone and his flesh and clothing were torn.
As family members and hospital staff, many in tears, worked feverishly,
survivors who could talk spoke of their split-second encounter with war.
Khalid Jabar Hussein, 49, with shrapnel in his arm, wrist and leg, said:
"First I heard an aircraft and then the missile coming at us and I don't
know anything after that. I fell down."
Sajaja Jaafur, one of five in her family who were injured, lay in her bed,
crying with pain as she tried to turn to face her mother.Her lovely olive
skin was torn, there was a tube in her nose and a blood-stained dressing
around her abdomen.
Samaan Kadhim, 52, sedated with a bad gash on his back, said: "This was a
civilian area, there were no soldiers. It was just a market."
In the midst of all this, Dr Ahmed Sufian lashed out: "Our floors are
covered with blood of our people, the walls are splashed with blood. Why,
why, why? Why all this blood? I'm a doctor, but I can't understand such
things. They say [they] come to free us? Is this freedom?"
There was no overt support for Saddam Hussein, but all blamed the US for the
bombing. There was no hostility towards western reporters invited by
families to witness their grief.
"America did this to us," said 50-year-old Kadhim Ali. "Why does it hate the
Iraqi people?"
US assassins 'kill Iraqi chiefs' in Baghdad
IAN JOHNSTON
ijohnston@scotlandonsunday.com
Sun 30 Mar 2003
http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=375832003
AMERICAN special forces have assassinated several senior Iraqi officials in
a series of bomb and sniper attacks in Baghdad and other cities, it was
revealed yesterday.
American government sources say that in the past week of covert operations
"more than a handful" of Republican Guard commanders and BaÕath Party
officials have been killed.
The ultimate aim of the undercover squads, according to sources, is to kill
Saddam HusseinÕs closest associates and even the Iraqi president himself.
A source said at least some of the explosions seen and heard in Baghdad were
not the result of air strikes, but bombs planted by special forces.
The operations suggest US efforts to destroy the Iraqi governmentÕs
leadership are far more extensive than previously known.
CIA officials declined to comment, but Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke
said: "As we have said before, we have special forces in the north, west and
south of the country."
The undercover teams carry sophisticated weapons and communications
equipment capable of receiving real-time targeting intelligence to guide
them to the locations of sought-after individuals and also of transmitting
information about targets with similar speed.
The agents are believed to be getting help from small numbers of trusted
Iraqi exiles, who have slipped back into Baghdad, and opponents of the
regime in the city.
Former SAS commander Clive Fairweather, who helped plan the Iranian Embassy
siege in 1980, said special forces operating in hostile cities would need to
have help from Iraqis to stay alive.
He said it would be extremely difficult for Westerners to move around trying
to pretend to be locals. A car would probably be used to get from place to
place, as this would provide cover and make it less likely anyone would try
to speak to the agents.
"You could not really pretend to be an Arab for very long. And just imagine
trying to hide in the shed behind someoneÕs house. In the end, someone is
going to come to the shed.
"You would need support, but it might not be much."
He said special forcesÕ biggest problem, apart from not getting caught,
would be getting enough sleep because of the amount of work they would have
to do providing targets for warplanes.
"Their main task at the moment will be communications to aircraft, and
aircraft will be queuing up like cabs on a rank to use them," Fairweather
said.
"TheyÕve got a whole lot of potential tasks: number one is the removal of
Saddam Hussein, which comes down to shaping plans and eating away at the
people in his infrastructure.
"But whatever they do, they are waiting on someone to betray Saddam. You can
do what you like, but unless you know where heÕs going to be in six or eight
hours, you donÕt have time to plan something. You need to know a future
event."
The covert teams are just one part of the so-called invisible war being
waged in Iraq by the CIA and the PentagonÕs special operations divisions.
Special forces are also involved in organising tribal groups to fight the
Iraqi government from the north.
They are also searching for weapons of mass destruction that would help
swing the tide of world opinion behind the war.
American government officials made no request for details of the operations
to be withheld from publication in the US, as they have sometimes done in
other cases involving on-going covert operations.
Law experts in the US have argued that assassinating enemy soldiers or
civilians who engage in military activity is legitimate during war.
America has a policy going back more than 20 years which bans political
killings, but the Bush administration has concluded that it does not prevent
the president from lawfully singling out a terrorist for death by covert
action.
The CIA in particular has been given the go-ahead to undertake much more
risky and sensitive operations to kill enemies in the war against terror
following the September 11 atrocities.
In November, Hellfire missiles launched from a CIA drone killed six
suspected al-Qaeda operatives as they drove through the desert in Yemen. One
of them, Ahmed Hijazi, was a naturalised American citizen. The main target
of the strike was Abu Ali al-Harithi, who was suspected of masterminding the
attack on the destroyer USS Cole in October 2000.
Iraq said on Friday that it had captured at least three Iraqis who it said
had been spying for coalition forces.
The men told state television they were paid by the CIA to identify targets
for US planes and missiles and scout locations where raids had already
occurred.
Meanwhile, GermanyÕs foreign intelligence agency said yesterday it had been
unable to find any evidence that Saddam uses a series of doubles.
The Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) analysed photographs and recordings
of the Iraqi leader in an attempt to find out if it was the same person.
Michaela Heber, a spokeswoman for the FIS, said: "We donÕt have any evidence
for it."
Italy: A Week of STOP THAT TRAIN
http://www.globalradio.it/articles.php?lng=en&pg=326
Over the course of the last week, a national mobilization against american military trains traveling through italy has taken place. The week started last Friday, Febuary 21 when a small group of protesters took to the station of Monselice to stop an american military train transporting war goods from base Ederle in Vicenza to Camp Derby in Pisa.
The "train of the death" as it was called, was forced to stop its journey in front of the station of Monselice. Blocked by protestors and bonfires for over two hours, it finally resumed its journey - but in the opposite direction, returning through Padova and Vicenza, from where is had first departed. Hundreds of people in a dissobedient action succeeded in bloccading the train loaded with war materials. But it did not stop there: The next day another train was scedualed leave from the american base Ederle.
Protesters soon learned that there were a total of 24 trains schedualed to make the journey in the coming days. On saterday, the 22nd, nearly spontanious protests fermented all throughout italy. All along the proposed routes, in nearly every station, bloccades were set up, walls were painted, banners were hung and flags from a wide range of groups were seen: In fact, trainstopping soon became a national focusing point for the anti“war population. Pacifists, ecologists, communists, socialists, dissobedienti, even parlamentary delegates began attending trainstopping actions throughout italy. Groups of trainwatchers also formed, sending realtime reports to Global Radio which conducted and informed all those involved from the broadcasting station in Padova.
Along with a flux in the number of protesers, an wave of police repression came down along all the railways and on several occations protesters were beaten and drug from the paths of these death trains.
By day three, the situation only seemed to be gaining momentum. People began pulling the emergency brakes on trains running along the route in an effort to stop or hinder the shipments, ÒBecause,Ó as one person commented, Òdeath trains must be stopped, as war is a danger to all of us.Ó Likewise, Trainstopping transformed into Planestopping in Pisa, where in the afternoon a group of disobbedienti from Rome, Pisa and Naples occupied in two groups the military airport, intruded on the the path and positions of the planes in such manner to hinder the normal operations of the airport. And if that wasnÕt enough, reports of disobedient occupations of the offices of Trenitalia were reported from Pisa, Torino, Milano, Padova, Palermo, and a handful of other locations.
While the forces of order tried to contain this anti-war outbreak, governemnt representatives defended it, saying, for example Ò"Who is the criminal? People respecting Italian constitution art. 11 or the government allowing those death cargo travelling through Italy on civilian routes protected by the army and police?" refering to artical 11 which states that ÒItaly shall repudiate war as an instrument of offence against the liberty of other peoples and as a means for settling international disputes.Ó Another representative was quoted as saying, "Éthe political parties are on the rail too. All death cargos must be blockled."
Wednesday the 26th undoubtably proved to be the most active day yet for the protesters. The day started off with carabninieri finding pisan activists chained down to railroad tracks in the morning and were forced to hack through the chians with industrial bolt cuttters. With the arrival of several parlmetary members at base Ederle, a civil inspection was organized giving the public thier first bits of non-governmental information about the base activities in years. With this first glimps inside the activities of the american operations in italy, 20 year old public rumers of the storage of nuclear weapons inside the base were finally confirmed. A call for further civil inspections were made throught the country met with government scepticism. Luca Casarini, a prominent activist in the dissobedienti movement commented, ÒWe are for global disarment, and if its worth it for the iraq, it is also worth it for the United States who occupy our territory.Ó Interrupted from the applauses, he continues: ÒÉwe will see when the parlementary delegation leaves to negotiate, if they have the right to enter, we will see if they will say no, and what will the Italian government do when they answer no to the inspection? Will they make trains of arms to bomb the Americans at Ederle or Camp Derby? Because what is good for one should be good for all.Ó
Wednesday evening proved to be no less exciting: At around 9:00 pm, a nearly 3 kilometer long caravan of trucks, tanks and military arms was stalled in route on the italian highway as they were attempting to transport these good for loading at the Verona station. Activists could be heard on Global Radio, live, running and shouting and attempting to bloccad further movements of the auto caravan and at the enterence to the loading port. Flags of peace were drapped over american military trucks and met with bewildered looks from the soldiers. The carabinieri, however, werenÕt so shocked. A first person report breifly desribes the events: "Half hour ago two trucks arrived. We wanted to hinder its entrance to the goods port,and we sat ourselves on the ground offering passive resistance, but they moved us. After we entered, we were about thirty in all, we sat ourselves in the enterence because knew that more trucks would still arrive". The veronan activists were all stopped, detained and loaded into a police van. It seems that also Mario Tosi, regional secretary of Rifondazione Communist party, was also detained.
An all night vigil held on the part of a few trainwatchers and by Global Radio ultimately culminated in an 8:30 am manifestation at the station of Pisa, where a last effort was made to stop the delivery of this arms shipment. Although the activists were ultimately unsuccessful in totally stopping the delivery, further stratagies for putting a stop to italian complicity to war were made.
Thursday civil pressure continued, taking on a distinctly international air. In London, an informative protest at the italian embassy was held, in solidarity with the Trainstopping movement. On the border between germany and northern italy, further obstruction of military transports were made, in some cases completely stopping the flow of traffic.
Back in italy, the union of shipyard workers in Livorno announced that they would refuse to load the warships headed for Turkey with the war train cargo. In Novara, 3000 high school and university students demonstrated against global war. During the demo, two disobedience actions took place, the first one at the armed bank BNL and the second at the railway station. Here the students occupied the clients room to demand explanation on Trenitalia policies.
Now, on the last day of Feburary 2003, actions continue to take place throughout italy. We have just learned that further occupations of military posts hare underway in Napoli Catania and Rome. And with 20 trains of death remaining, this buisness of Trainstopping is far from being over.
Bay Area Marine killed: GRADUATE OF SAN JOSE'S SILVER CREEK HIGH SHOT, WIFE TOLD
By Sandra Gonzales
Mercury News
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/5511875.htm
A 33-year-old Marine, a gulf war veteran who grew up in San Jose, has been killed in the war in Iraq -- the first fatality with Bay Area ties.
Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Menusa, a combat engineer stationed at Camp Pendleton, was shot to death, said his wife, Stacy Menusa. She learned of his death at 10:30 a.m. Friday, but was not told the specific circumstances. He had told her that as second in command of his platoon, his job was to secure oil wells.
``I'm still in shock. It's hard to fathom that he's not coming home,'' said Stacy Menusa, 30, who lived most recently in Tracy with her husband and 3-year-old son, Joshua. She said she was worried more about chemical warfare than gunfire. ``I knew he was in combat. I didn't expect him to be in a situation where somebody was going to shoot at him. It's still surreal.
``He was a brave man. He died honorably for his country and for what he loved.''
The 14-year veteran was born in the Philippines and moved with his mother to San Jose when he was 10. He graduated from Silver Creek High in 1989, then joined the Marines. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton, with responsibilities that included demolition and construction.
Menusa liked playing games on computers and was an avid scuba diver, said his wife. He reminisced about his time in San Jose: days at the Eastridge Shopping Center and nights at clubs. And he had no fear, she said.
``About a week or so after he told me he was deploying, I had a breakdown,'' she said. ``He kept reassuring me that he was going to be fine. He would tell me, `I'm going to be home with you and Joshua,' and I had to believe that in my heart.''
She last spoke with her husband by phone on Feb. 27, 14 days after his birthday. ``He said he was doing all right, his morale was high. He missed us and couldn't wait to see us. He wasn't down. He kept telling me he was there to do his job.''
Stacy and Joshua were visiting her parents near Santa Maria, in central California, when Marines from Port Hueneme in Ventura County arrived to deliver the news.
``He was a beautiful man. He was almost like my son,'' said his mother-in-law, Rosie Bernardo. ``He had a calm spirit and radiated love. I'm still in shock that with all the troops out there and the casualties so few, he was one of them.''
Joseph Menusa's death was first reported Friday by the Santa Maria Times.
He was in a combat engineer battalion and was sent to Kuwait on Feb. 5, his wife said. This was his second combat tour; he also fought in the gulf war in 1991, helping drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
Stacy Menusa, who met her husband at a Santa Maria party he attended with a fellow Marine in 1992, knew little of his duties in the Persian Gulf War. But she recalled one story: He awoke to a loud sound outside his bunker and grabbed his gun. The noise turned out to be a camel.
As part of his military tour, he was stationed at Twentynine Palms in the Mojave Desert, Hawaii, Okinawa, Japan, and Guant‡namo Bay, Cuba, before moving to Tracy. For the past three years, he was a Marines recruiter in Livermore, Hayward and Fremont.
In November, he and his family went to stay with her parents until he was called to Camp Pendleton in January.
Family and friends gathered at Joseph Menusa's parents' two-story home on a quiet street in Tracy Friday evening. A four-foot flag hung prominently from the garage.
His father, Michael Kenny, answered the door, and said: ``We don't want to talk.''
Menusa is also survived by his mother, Virginia Kenny of Tracy; his brothers, David Menusa of San Diego, and Jeff and Danny Kenny of Tracy.
Stacy Menusa said she expects her son to be her strength to help her carry on. ``He's his daddy's boy.''
Portrait in Courage: Conscientious Objector to Gulf War Turns Self In at San Jose Reserve Unit
Contact: Attorney Stephen Collier 415 771 9850 | Aimee Allison (cell) 925 963 2065 | Ted Lewis (cell) 415-846-2061
Marine Corps Reservist Stephen Funk will publicly declare his conscientious
objection to war, before turning himself over to the U.S. military authorities
on Tuesday morning, April 1, 2003 at 9 am. He will explain his decision to
the media at the 1st Beach Terminal Operations, 4th Landing Support Battalion,
located at 901 E. Mission Street in San Jose. Funk, who grew up in Seattle,
is one of an unknown number of reservists and active duty service members to
declare themselves Conscientious Objectors in current Iraqi conflict and any
other war.
"I refuse to kill," says the twenty-year-old reservist. "It is scary to
confront the military, because the military teaches you to submit to orders
even when you object. I may not be a hero, but I know that it takes courage to
disobey. I know that it demands courage to say "no" in the face of coercion."
Funk enlisted in the Marine Corps in February 2002 and easily made it through
six months of Marine boot camp where he specialized in assisting helicopters
land. But as he trained in the use of weapons and how to kill with a bayonet,
Funk became increasingly uneasy about what his new career really meant.
According to his attorney Stephen Collier, Funk went on Unauthorized Absence
(UA) early this year, but has always intended to turn himself in.
This reservist's refusal to kill and join in the militaristic fervor of a
wartime nation is part of a long and honorable tradition in the United States.
There have always been American conscientious objectors, no matter what the
nature of the conflict. There were an estimated 3,500 in World War I, 37,000
in World War II, 4,300 in the Korean War, over 200,000 in the Vietnam War and
111 in Gulf War I according to Center on Conscience and War in Washington
D.C..
"I cannot in good conscience take part in war. I object to war because I
believe that it is impossible to achieve peace through violence," says Funk,
who added, "I hope that other soldiers will find the courage to follow their
beliefs. I hope other soldiers will listen to the voice of their conscience
and come, in their own ways, to question the "logic" of war. I hope other
soldiers will come to see that they are more than cogs in the machinery of
war, but free individuals with the unconquerable power of free will."
It seems that the reservist may not be alone in his concern. Calls to the
G.I. Rights Hotline, a group that counsels soldiers about their legal rights,
have spiked recently, doubling since 2002. 3,582 calls were recorded in
January and 3,118 in February, 2003. There were 1,585 calls in September of
2002. The number for the G.I. Rights Hotline is (800) 394-9544.
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"The finger pulls the trigger, but the trigger may also be pulling the finger." - Dr. Leonard Berkowitz
LMNOP
LAKE MERRITT NEIGHBORS ORGANIZED FOR PEACE
http://lmno4p.org
Up-to-the-Minute Emergency Responses to War With Iraq throughout the Bay Area:
http://lmno4p.org/calendar.htm
NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
NO DEATHS OVER OIL!
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