ISSUE: 93, December 2003

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PALESTINE FACES ROBO-OCCUPATION-- REMOTE-CONTROLLED MACHINE GUNS, CHOPPERS, BULLDOZERS

BOLIVIA: AFTER "BLACK OCTOBER"

MIAMI: FTAA BEACHES, COPS TURN IRAQ TACTICS ON PROTESTERS

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS: MILITARY PSY-OPS TARGET PEACENIKS

CENTRAL AMERICAN DEATH SQUADS BACK?

ARNOLD'S NAZI PROBLEM--AND CALIFORNIA'S

NEW CHARGES IN LYNNE STEWART CASE; JUSTICE DEPARTMENT THREATENS TO SUBPOENA WW3 REPORT

PALESTINIAN DETAINEE FAROUK ABDEL-MUHTI BEATEN IN NEW JERSEY GULAG

SPECIAL END-OF-THE-YEAR MESSAGE TO OUR LOYAL READERS
(YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!)

"I see no other way than to begin now to speak about sharing the land that has thrust us together, and sharing it in a truly democratic way, with equal rights for each citizen. There can be no reconciliation unless both peoples, two communities of suffering, resolve that their existence is a secular fact, and that it has to be dealt with as such."

Edward Said, Palestinian scholar and freedom fighter, 1935-2003

CURRENT HOMELAND SECURITY COLOR ADVISORY CODE: ORANGE

by Bill Weinberg
with David Bloom, Wynde Priddy and Orin Langelle, Special Correspondents
Photos by Maria Anguera de Sojo

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THE IRAQ FRONT
1. Transition to Self-Rule Stalled; Resistance Grows
2. Shiites Grow Restive
3. What Happened in Samarra?
4. CIA: "We Could Lose"
5. Who is Behind Guerilla Attacks?
6. Press Freedom Under Attack
7. U.S. Seeks Occupation Advice from Israel
8. U.S. Troops Bulldoze Farmers' Crops
9. U.S. Generals: Bring Back Saddam's Army
10. Interim Council: Leave Us in Power
11. "Three-State Solution" for Iraq's Future?
12. Iraqi Ex-General Dies in U.S. Custody
13. G.I.s in Trouble After Marrying Iraqi Women
14. G.I. Resistance and Dissent
15. Pentagon Moves to Fill Draft Boards
16. WMD Threat: Still No Evidence
17. Iraqi Communists Reject Both Occupation and Resistance
18. Campaign for Labor Rights in Iraq
19. Private Military Outfits Stake Iraq Claim
20. War Profiteering and Corporate Colonization
21. Occupation Authority: Unaccountable Financial Sinkhole
22. Save The Children UK Silenced on Iraq Criticisms
23. Turkey Prepares to Send in Troops
24. U.S. Troops in Clash With PKK?
25. Terror in Istanbul
26. New NATO Strike Force Holds Turkey Maneuvers
27. U.S. Seeks Chilean Ex-Officers for Iraq
28. Violence at Seoul Protests Against Iraq Mobilization
29. Protesters March in "Fortress London" for Bush Visit
30. He Should Have Listened to His Old Man!

THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. Annan to Israel: Dismantle the Wall
2. Pope Disses Wall
3. Elie Weisel: Wall's Willing Apologist Disses Pope
4. Gen. Clark Loves the Wall
5. U.S. Slaps Israel's Wrist: 289 Mil for Settlements and Fence
6. Remote-Control Machine Guns to be Mounted on Wall
7. Remote-Control Helicopter Stolen
8. Next: Remote-Control Bulldozers
9. UN, NGO's to Israel: Quit Hassling Us or We Leave
10. Red Cross Cuts Aid to Occupied Palestinians
11. UN: Occupation Causing Hunger
12. Israeli Universities Keep Arabs Out
13. Israeli Universities Fight Academic Boycott
14. Sharansky: U.S. Campuses Anti-Israel, but the Pie is Tasty
15. Dersh: No Diff Between Jewish ISMers and Hitler Youth
16. Settlers Launch "Peace Plan"; Likudnik Fears "Apartheid"
17. Reform Judaism Dissents?
18. Hezbollah: Beware the Israeli Left
19. The Geneva Accord: "False Hope"?
20. "Anti"-Occupation Jewish Group in Beantown Confab
21. Program to Attract Settlers to Jordan Valley
22. West Bank Settlers Ward off Attackers with Porcines
23. Gaza: Israelis Destroy U.S.-Built Wells
24. DynCorp Agents Killed in Gaza Strip
25. Short Life Span for Palestinian Collaborators
26. Israeli Chickens in Baghdad Supermarkets
27. Israel World's Third Arms Exporter
28. Intifada Spurs Boom in Israeli and Palestinian Rap

THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. Kabul Protest Turns Violent
2. Ten Killed in Kandahar Army-Police Clash
3. More Tajik-Uzbek Violence in North
4. Two CIA Operatives Killed on Pakistan Border
5. Nomads: Family Wiped Out by U.S. Air Raid
6. Taliban Resistance Continues; NATO Eyes Expanded Role
7. Gitmo to Close? Potential Bad News for Captive Uighurs

THE CAUCASUS FRONT
1. Chechens Behind New Russia Terror Blast?
2. Georgian President Resigns as Protests Rock Capital
3. Azerbaijan, U.S. Discuss Military Cooperation

THE SUBCONTINENT
1. Kashmir: Security Forces Battle Guerrillas in Srinagar
2. Refugees Flee Assam Ethnic Violence

SOUTHEAST ASIA
1. Aceh Activist Imprisoned
2. Vietnam Land Mines Keep Killing

THE AFRICA FRONT
1. Fearful Peace in Congo
2. U.N. Findings on Congo Resource Plunder to Stay Secret
3. Convictions in Rwanda Genocide Trial
4. Liberia's Invisible Nightmare Continues
5. Gas Operations Expand in Nigeria
6. U.N. Vote Removes Sanctions on Libya
7. Qaddafi Re-Makes Himself
8. Chad Gets First Payment for Oil Exports
9. Big Oil Complicit in Sudan Rights Abuses
10. Somalia: Peace Talks Collapse; U.S. Sees Terrorist Haven
11. Zimbabwe Booted from British Commonwealth
12. African Church Leaders Won't Preach Condom Use

THE ANDEAN FRONT
1. Venezuela: Chavez Charges CIA Destabilization Campaign
2. Venezuelan Indians Resist Industrial Encroachment
3. Colombia: Uribe's Government in Crisis?
4. Paras Seek Immunity
5. Para "Demobilization": Real or Farce?
6. Massacre in Tolima
7. Elections Under Seige in Arauca
8. FARC Campaign to Encircle Bogota
9. ELN Boasts of Kidnapping Tourists
10. Fumigation Plane Shot Down
11. Uribe-Allied Cattle Baron Escapes Assassination
12. U.S. to Offer Reward for FARC Leaders
13. Peru: Campesino Protesters Killed in Clash With Police
14. Bolivia: IMF Reviews Aid Following "Black October"
15. Chile Approves FTAA
16. Argentine Military Still Fears Jewish Conspiracies?
17. Kissinger Approved Argentine "Dirty War"

THE MEXICO FRONT
1. Prison for "Dirty War" Architects?
2. Mexico Second Hemispheric Recipient of U.S. Military Aid
3. Digna Ochoa Family Vows to Fight Suicide Verdict
4. Rights Worker Assassinated in Oaxaca
5. Alleged Guerillas Arrested
6. Zapatistas Mark 10-Year Anniversary of Uprising
7. Confused Violence Continues in Chiapas
8. More Chiapas Prison Riots
9. Thousands Protest Free-Market "Reforms" in Mexico City
10. Puebla-Panama Plan Advances; Campesinos Protest
11. U.N. Envoy Fired; Gringo Pressure Seen

CENTRAL AMERICA
1. Guatemala: War Criminal Loses Presidential Bid
2. Ex-Paras Kidnap Journalists in Guatemala
3. Journalist Assassinated in Honduras
4. Honduran Unionist Receives Death Squad Threat
5. Hondurans Protest IMF
6. Hondurans Protest Powell
7. Nicaraguans Protest Powell
8. Nicaraguan Campesinos Block Pan-American Highway
9. CAFTA Negotiator Gets Pied

PLANET WATCH
1. Global Hunger Rising
2. Melting Glaciers Threaten Andes
3. ANWR Narrowly Escapes--Again

WATCHING THE SHADOWS
1. National Commission on 9-11 Caves in to Bush Roadblocks
2. CIA Denies Pre-9-11 Deal with Bin Laden
3. Freed 9-11 Suspect Seeks Damages
4. CIA Death Merchant Gets Conviction Overturned
5. Arrests Made in Neo-Nazi Gas Plot
6. Wall Street to Trade Terror Futures
7. Checks Demanded on Computerized Voting
8. White House Web Site Evades Searches
9. The End of the Internet as We Know It

THE WAR AT HOME
1. New Charges in Lynne Stewart Case;
Justice Department Threatens to Subpoena WW3 Report
2. Palestinian Detainee Farouk Abdel-Muhti Beaten in Jail
3. 2nd Circuit to Rule on "Enemy Combatant" Label
4. 9th Circuit Rules on "Material Support" to Terrorists
5. First of "Lackawanna Six" Gets Ten Years
6. Special Registration to End?
7. FBI Watches Anti-War Protests
8. NYPD Raids Activist Meeting
9. Sicko Psy-Ops: U.S. Hits its Own Citizens with Lee Greenwood
10. California Uber Alles

GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. Palestinian Detainee Wins Release
2. High School Student Wins One for First Amendment

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THE IRAQ FRONT

1. TRANSITION TO SELF-RULE STALLED; RESISTANCE GROWS
In a victory for the White House, on Oct. 16 the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Iraq's future. The resolution creates a US-led multinational force in Iraq and calls on the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council to produce a timeline for drawing up a constitution and holding elections--while giving no date for a transfer of power. Pakistan, considered a prime candidate for sending troops, refused to do so, saying the new multinational force created by the resolution was not distinct enough from occupation troops. (Reuters, Oct. 16) The US-backed plan for Iraq's new legislature to be chosen by regional caucasus rather than direct elections is especially meeting criticism from the majority Shiites. (See related story, below)

The UN oil-for-food program, in place since 1996, is now about to be turned over to the control of the US-led administration in Baghdad under a decision made six months ago. (Al-Jazeera, Nov. 20) Iraq's postwar reconstruction received a modest boost Oct. 24 as governments from Saudi Arabia to Japan pledged $13 billion in new aid on top of more than $20 billion from the US. But the figure fell well short of the $56 billion estimated by the World Bank as needed to rebuild Iraq. (AP, Oct. 24)

Meanwhile, armed resistance to the occupation continues to escalate. On Sept. 18, guerillas ambushed two US military convoys with remote-controlled bombs and opened fire on one of them today, unleashing a three-hour gunbattle in Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad. The US military said two soldiers were wounded. (AP, Sept. 18)

On Sept. 22, a suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint outside UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing himself and an Iraqi policeman who stopped him and wounding 19. (AP, Sept. 22)

On Sept. 25, a planted bomb damaged a hotel housing the offices of NBC News, killing a Somali guard and slightly injuring an NBC sound technician. (AP, Sept. 25)

On Sept. 26, the US activated 10,000 National Guard troops for service in Iraq and put another 5,000 on alert for likely call-up. (Reuters, Sept. 26)

Occupation forces removed the police chief of Beiji from office Oct. 6 after a weekend of fighting and riots between pro-Saddam protesters, Iraqi police and US troops in the oil refining city north of Baghdad. At least one oplice officer was killed in the violence. Occupation authorities said over 320,000 former Iraqi soldiers had received one-time payments of $40 after the army was disbanded but some were refused payment because they could not prove they had been in the military. (AP, Oct. 6)

On Oct. 9, a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle in a police station courtyard in Baghdad, killing himself and nine others. Also that day, gunmen shot dead a Spanish military attache at his home. (AP, Oct. 9)

On Oct. 11, a suicide bombing killed eight near the Baghdad Hotel, home to US and Iraqi officials. (AP, Oct. 12)

Suicide car bombers struck outside the Turkish embassy in Baghdad Oct. 14. Witnesses said the driver and a bystander were killed, and hospitals said at least 13 were wounded. (AP, Oct. 14)

Also Oct. 14, guerillas launched attacks on Iraqi police in the northern city of Mosul, killing one and wounding two others in a drive-by shooting. Meanwhile in the so-called "Sunni Triangle," 100 gathered at Fallujah's main mosque to demand release of a cleric arrested Monday by U.S. troops. Sheik Jamal Shaker Nazzal is an outspoken opponent of the occupation. A spokesperson for the US 4th Infantry Division, Maj. Josslyn Aberle, denied reports that Saddam was believed to be hiding in his hometown of Tikrit, also within the Sunni heartland. (AP, Oct. 14)

On Oct. 20, in Fallujah, one US paratrooper was killed and six wounded in an ambush. Two civilians, including a Syrian truck driver, were also killed. A US military truck was set ablaze outside Fallujah the following day, as US troops were conducting house searches in the area. (AP, Oct. 21)

On Oct. 21, US troops fired in the air to disperse a crowd at the Oil Ministry after a woman objected to a search by a sniffer dog. A Polish military convoy traveling from Baghdad to Camp Babylon near Karbala was also attacked with grenades but no one was injured. (AP, Oct. 21)

On Oct. 26, guerillas fired a barrage of rockets at the heavily-guarded Al Rasheed Hotel, killing a US colonel and wounding 18 others. US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was in the hotel, but was unhurt. (AP, Oct. 26)

On Oct. 27, suicide bombers staged four attacks in Baghdad on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, including outside the offices of the International Red Cross and three police stations, leaving some 35 people dead. (AP, Oct. 27) In Geneva, the International Committee Red Cross said it would reduce the number of international staff in Iraq--currently about 30. (AP, Oct. 29)

On Oct. 29, guerillas destroyed a US tank north of Baghdad, killing two troops. Seven Ukrainian troops were also wounded in an attack that day. (AP, Oct. 29)

On Oct. 31, US troops attempted to clear a road of market stalls in Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, sparking violent protests which escalated to gun battlles. Young Iraqis threw stones at troops and tanks, set tires ablaze, and brandished Saddam portraits, shouting, "Allahu Akbar!" The violence left two Iraqis dead and 17 wounded. Two US troops were also reported wounded. (AP, Oct. 31)

On Nov. 2, guerrillas shot down a US Chinook helicopter near the village of Baisa, south of Falluja, killing at least 15 soldiers and wounding 21 in the deadliest single strike on US-led forces since they invaded to oust Saddam Hussein. That same day in Falluja, residents said a roadside bomb had hit a convoy of US personnel in civilian vehicles. At least one vehicle was ablaze at the scene, where gloating crowds shouted anti-US slogans. TV pictures showed a gleeful youth wearing a US Army helmet. Others danced on wreckage. In Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, residents said a roadside bomb exploded as a US convoy passed, hitting a bus carrying university students and wounding two women. (Reuters, Nov. 2)

On Nov. 5, guerrillas launched two grenade attacks on US convoys in Mosul, killing three Iraqis and wounding at least nine people, including two US troops. (Reuters, Oct. 5)

A Nov. 12 suicide bombing targeted the Italian military police barracks in the south-eastern city of Nasariya, leaving at least 17 Italians and eight Iraqis dead. That night saw US air strikes and armoured assaults on a suspected guerrilla stronghold near Baghdad. (UK Guardian, Nov. 13)

Backed by tanks and mortars, US forces assaulted dozens of suspected guerrilla positions in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in pre-dawn raids Oct. 17, killing six suspected insurgents and capturing others, officials said. One suspected guerilla hideout south of Tikrit was hit with a satellite-guided missile carrying a 500-pound warhead. (AP, Nov. 17)

On Nov. 13, as the US forces pursued "Operation Iron Hammer," launching ground and air attacks on suspected guerilla strongholds around Baghdad, two US troops were killed in an exposion north of the city. (Reuters, Nov. 14)

On Nov. 21, the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in central Baghdad were hit by a volley of five rockets fired from donkey carts, wounding a US civilian. Just before the attack on the hotels, eight rockets hit the nearby Oil Ministry, setting off a fire in the upper floors. (NYT, Nov. 22)

Also Nov. 21, a Hungarian student carrying out humanitarian work in Iraq has been shot dead by US soldiers in an incident at a checkpoint. Troops reportedly opened fire when the student, Peter Varga-Balazs, failed to stop his vehicle. Varga-Balazs was the second Hungarian to die in occupied Iraq. A week earlier, a subcontractor died in a car accident in unknown circumstances. Neither were connected to the group of 300 Hungarian troops stationed in Iraq under Polish command. (AFP, Nov. 21)

On Nov. 22, a civilian aircraft flying out of Baghdad was forced to make an emergency landing with its wing on fire, after apparently being hit by a surface-to-air missile. The cargo Airbus A300, belonging to the courier company DHL, was forced to return to ground just 10 minutes after take-off from Baghdad International Airport. (UK Telegraph, Nov. 23) Occupation authorities subsequently suspended civilian flights into the Baghdad airport. (CNN, Nov. 23)

An explosion at a compound near the northern city of Kirkuk injured four employees Nov. 22, according to Iraqi Northern Oil Co. spokesman Mike McAleer. A preliminary investigation indicated that the blast at the oil company's Baba Cultural Social Club was caused by a bomb, according to McAleer. (CNN, Nov. 23)

Also Nov. 22, in Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb tore a hole in the main police HQ, killing six officers and wounding at least 10 civilians. Minutes later, a second car ploughed into the gate of the police station in the market town of Khan Bani Saad, 12 miles south of Baquba, killing a further six officers and three civilians. Ten others were wounded. (UK Telegraph, Nov. 23)

Three US troops were killed Nov. 23 in two attacks on military convoys in Mosul and Ba'qubah, north of Baghdad. Vehicle accidents also claimed the lives of three other soldiers in the previous two days, and an Iraqi police colonel charged with security at oil installations was shot and killed in northern Iraq. (CNN, Nov. 23) Witnesses said that after the shooting in Mosul the soldiers were stabbed and their throats slit. A crowd looted the civilian car they were driving and tried to set it ablaze. (Reuters, Nov. 23)

Guerillas ambushed a US military convoy east of Qusaybah near Iraq's border with Syria Nov. 28, killing two soldiers and wounding another. A Colombian civilian serving as a security official of the Halliburton subsidiary KBR was shot and killed that day as he drove to a US base north of Baghdad near Balad. (CNN, Nov. 29)

Guerillas armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades ambushed a team of Spanish intelligence officers Nov. 29 as they travelled in two civilian vehicles south from Baghdad to the city of Hillah, killing seven agents. TV footage of the aftermath showed a crowd milling around several bodies near the highway. One youth--apparently aware he was being filmed--kicked his foot in the air over a body. An older youth rested his foot on a corpse, an arm raised in triumph. "We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, oh Saddam,'' some in the group chanted in Arabic, witnesses said. Two Japanese diplomats were shot to death that day when their car was ambushed near Tikrit. (AP, Nov. 29) The move came just as Japan is preparing to send military troops to Iraq in a non-combat role. (AP, Nov. 30) Also that day, two South Koreans, employees of an electric company contracted by the occupation, were killed and two others wounded, one critically, in an attack near Tikrit. (CNN, Nov. 29)

While a group of Sunni clerics issued a joint statement saying that to collaborate with occupation forces is a "betrayal of religion" (AP, Oct. 31), on Nov. 29 a hundreds-strong Alliance of Iraqi Democratic Forces marched in Baghdad with a heavy police escort and two US helicopters overhead to denounce "terrorism" and call upon Iraqis to assist the US forces in putting down the insurgents. (ABC, Nov. 29)

In a story illustrative of the trigger-happy atmosphere that reigns in Iraq, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting noted Nov. 20 that the number of Iraqis who have died as a result of "celebratory" gunfire since the fall of Saddam may soon top those who have died in actual combat. From July through September alone, 2,175 locals died from celebratory gunfire, according to Dr Faiq Amin Bakir, head of the local health authority's forensics department, which determines causes of death.

The web site Iraq Body Count continues to monitor world press reports to arrive at a daily update of the total Iraqi civilian dead. Each incident is listed separately, noting the location, number dead, weaponry used and media source. At press time, the minimum estimate stands at 7,935 and the maximum at 9,766. However, acknowledging that the violence is more chaotic than during the air campaign, the web site has added the following clarification of its work: "In the current occupation phase this database includes all deaths which the Occupying Authority has a binding responsibility to prevent under the Geneva Conventions and Hague Regulations. This includes civilian deaths resulting from the breakdown in law and order, and deaths due to inadequate health care or sanitation."

See also WW3 REPORT #92

Even with this expanded definition, Iraq Body Count's math is conservative--as early as May others were putting the civilian death toll at over 10,000. See WW3 REPORT #87

US President Goerge Bush scored a propaganda coup with his Thanksgiving visit to Iraq. The New York Times Nov. 28 sported a front-page photo of the commander-in-chief in an army jacket, holding a tray piled with a roast turkey and trimmings, surrounded by smiling troops. The lead of the front-page story said Bush flew to Baghdad "to spend Thanksgiving with United States troops and to thank them for standing up against the 'band of thugs and assassins' they are fighting in Iraq." Inside, a sidebard compared the trip to Lincoln's visits to battle-scarred Antietam and Richmond (while acknowledging that Lincoln had faced far greater dangers). Only towards the end of the front-page story, after it had jumped to page 24, do we learn that Bush was only on the ground for two-and-a-half hours, and never left Baghdad International Airport.

As of Nov. 26, 435 US service members had died in Iraq, according to Pentagon figures. (NYT, Nov. 27) The Pentagon says it is planning to maintain 100,000 US troops in Iraq until 2006. (NYT, Nov. 22) [top]

2. SHIITES GROW RESTIVE
Resistance--if more spontaneous than organized--is also spreading to Iraq's Shiites, who initially viewed the fall of Saddam as a liberation. On Oct. 9, suicide car bomber crashed into a police station in Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim enclave, Sadr City, killing eight people, himself and a passenger, and injuring up to 45 others. Later, a rumor spread that US troops were surrounding the nearby office of Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric who opposes the occupation. He was not at the office and his Baghdad representative later said that soldiers looking for weapons had wanted to search the office but left without doing so. Hundreds of al-Sadr supporters, armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, were guarding the office in the afternoon, sealing off streets leading to it and taking positions on rooftops. About 300 armed members of al-Sadr's newly-formed militia, al-Mahdi Army, paraded outside the office in a show of force. Later that night, two US troops and seven Iraqis were wounded in a clash in Sadr City. (AP, Oct. 9, 10)

A joint US-Iraqi patrol enforcing a curfew battled gunmen guarding the headquarters of Grand Ayatollah Mahmoud al-Hassani early Oct. 17 in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, triggering clashes that killed three US troops and 10 Iraqis, including two police officers. (AP, Oct. 17) Karbala also saw clashes Oct. 14 between gunmen of rival Shiite factions, with several reported killed or injured. The violence was said to be part of a power struggle between Muqtada al-Sadr and clerics who take a more moderate stand toward the US occupation. (AP, Oct. 14) On Oct. 21, US-led troops and Iraqi police arrested 32 people in raids in Karbala. (AP, Oct. 21)

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric, issued a fatwa in June calling for general elections to select the drafters of a new constitution and dismissing US plans to appoint the authors as "fundamentally unacceptable." (WP, Nov. 26) Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric who currently serves as head of the Iraq Governiong Council (a rotating position), also opposes the US plan for Iraq's new legislative body to be selected from regional caucasus instead of directly elected. Since the Shiites form a majority in Iraq, direct elections would favor their candidates. (Newsday, Dec. 4)

See also WW3 REPORT #87 [top]

3. WHAT HAPPENED IN SAMARRA?
A Nov. 30 firefight in the Shiite holy city of Samarra reportedly left 46 guerillas dead and 18 wounded after armored convoys delivering new currency to local banks came under attack. Five US troops and a civilian were also reported wounded. Witnesses told BBC a US tank fired indiscriminately during the fighting, killing at least two factory-workers. (BBC, Nov. 30) Local Iraqis (inclduing a hospital doctor) later claimed eight civilians dead in the incident, including an Iranian pilgrim, and denied US accounts of approximately50 enemy dead. A UK Telegraph reporter on the scene a day after the attack saw wrecked cars and bullet-riddled storefronts, but was unable to track down any human remains, leading to the headline "Ferocious Gun Battle the Left No Bodies." (UK Telegraph, Dec. 2) A US soldier later died of wounds apparently sustained in the battle. The town's police chief Col. Ismail Mahmud Muhammad told al-Jazeera TV that about 20 of the injured civilians were wounded while worshipping at a mosque during sunset prayers. He also calimed that the guerillas had withdrawn when the US opened fire on the worshippers. (Al-Jazeera, Dec. 2) The eight dead reportedly included that 73-year-old Iranian pilgrim in Samarra to visit the Imam Hadi shrine, a 10-year-old boy and a female employee at Samarra pharmaceutical plant. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, said "the brutal and arrogant occupiers" had "desecrated" a holy Islamic site. Both the outer perimeter walls of the al-Hadi shrine complex, and the mirrors of the shrine itself were scarred by bullets after the incident, although it was not clear who had fired them. Local witnesses also disputed claims by US military authorities that the attackers had been dressed in the black uniforms of Saddam's fedayeen militia. (Financial Times, Dec. 3)

Smarra's gold-domed sanctuary holds the tomb of two of Shia's 12 imams, the 10th, Ali al-Hadi, and the 11th, Hadi al-Askari. A second shrine in Samarra indicates where the 12th imam, Muhammed al-Mahdi, went into "concealment" or "occultation" according to Shiite tradition. Below the blue-tiled dome there is cellar, said to be the last place the 12th imam dwelled. Samarra was also the seat of the Abbasid caliphate for 56 years after it relocated from Baghdad in the 9th century, and still holds Abbasid-era relics, such as the Great Friday Mosque, with its distinctive spiral minaret. (Encyclopedia of the Orient) [top]

4. CIA: "WE COULD LOSE"
The White House reportedly drew up emergency plans to accelerate the transfer of power in Iraq after being shown a CIA report warning that the guerrilla war is in danger of escalating out of control. The report, an "appraisal of situation" commissioned by CIA director George Tenet, and written by the CIA station chief in Baghdad, found that the insurgency is gaining ground among the population, and already numbers in the tens of thousands--possibly 50,000. One intelligence source in DC who had seen the report told the UK Guardian: "It says we are going to lose the situation unless there is a rapid and dramatic change of course. There are thousands in the resistance--not just a core of Ba'athists. They are in the thousands, and growing every day. Not all those people are actually firing, but providing support, shelter and all that."

The report found that the US-picked Iraqi Governing Council has little support among the population. Although the report was an internal CIA document, it carried an endorsement by Paul Bremer, the civilian head of the US-run occupation of Iraq--which the Guardian saw as "a possible sign that he was seeking to bypass his superiors in the Pentagon and send a message directly to President George Bush on how bad the situation has become." (UK Guardian, Nov. 13) [top]

5. WHO IS BEHIND GUERILLA RESISTANCE?
Observers are divided on to what extent pro-Saddam Baathists are behind the attacks, as opposed to al-Qaeda-type jihadis, and whether the resistance is largely the work of fanatical foreign volunteers as opposed to a popular Iraqi movement.

Said Mohammed al-Kaki, who heads the military wing of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Mosul, the scene of several recent attacks: "Members of the former regime are working with Islamists in Mosul and from elsewhere, including from outside the country, and they are being paid by Saddam [Hussein] and Izzat Ibrahim [al-Duri]." Al-Duri, the occupation's second-most wanted man, was vice president of the Baath Party's Revolutionary Command Council, Iraq's highest governing body, and Saddam's closest confidant. (CSM, Nov. 28)

US military officials say 307 foreign fighters have been arrested and detained by coalition forces in Iraq since the defeat of Saddam. Of these, 140 are Syrians, 70 are Iranians, and the others were from countries including Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Palestine. (UK Telegraph, Nov. 23)

Italian and German police have arrested three North Africans in a dragnet reportedly connected with resistance in Iraq. The arrests followed a confirmation by prosecutors in Milan that they had issued arrest warrants for five suspected al-Qaeda activists, including an Algerian arrested in Germany (Mahjub Abderrazak, known as "the sheikh") and a woman apprehended in Padua. They are apparently wanted on suspicion of recruiting for the Iraqi resistance. An Iraqi and a Tunisian were said to be still at large. (AFP, Nov. 29)

Phil Reeves of the UK Independent illustrates how the US occupation is fueling resistance in a Nov. 23 report from Baghdad:

"No sooner had the Americans last week announced a '70 per cent' drop in attacks in Baghdad as a result of their "Iron Hammer" offensive against several cells than the guerrillas replied with a volley of rockets against prime city-centre targets. The Americans argued that 'Iron Hammer' won support from peaceable Iraqis. But a tragic cameo illustrated how they are at times the recruiting sergeant for their opponents. US soldiers were conducting a house-to-house weapons search in al-Dora in southern Baghdad at 10 AM on Monday. An altercation blew up between an Iraqi carpenter and an American soldier. It ended when the soldier shot the man through the heart from close range. Relatives of the dead man, Ahmed Karim al-Janabi, 36, say that he did nothing to provoke the soldier, although they admit that he was holding a small saw in his hand when he was shot. The Americans maintained that he attacked one of them. The family wanted the US troops to provide a document confirming the incident, so that they could get burial authorisation. A note was duly scrawled out and handed to the imam of the local mosque. It was 18 words long. 'Ahmed Kareem Abid was shot by US forces. The individual attacked a US soldier and was shot and killed. SSG Doe.' That was it. No polite expressions or formalities, so important in the Arab world. The sergeant didn't even have the courtesy to sign his own name. The imam, Sheikh Yassin al-Hambani, was so angry that he tore up the note. 'I told the soldiers: what are you doing? They are driving people to resist. Two young men came to me afterwards saying they wanted to avenge his death by attacking the Americans. It was difficult to dissuade them.'" (UK Indpendent, Nov. 23)

The Independent's Robert Fisk reports on a telling slip by a US officer. Fisk was in the police station in Fallujah when Cpt. Christopher Cirino of the 82nd Airborne said: "The men we are being attacked by are Syrian-trained terrorists and local freedom fighters." Fisk did a double-take when he heard the words "freedom fighters." Characteristically interjecting his own opinion, he wrote: "But that's what Captain Cirino called them--and rightly so... Captain Cirino's problem, of course, is that he knows part of the truth. Ordinary Iraqis--many of them long-term enemies of Saddam Hussein--are attacking the American occupation army 35 times a day in the Baghdad area alone. And Captain Cirino works in Fallujah's local police station, where America's newly hired Iraqi policemen are the brothers and uncles and--no doubt--fathers of some of those now waging guerrilla war against American soldiers in Fallujah. Some of them, I suspect, are indeed themselves the 'terrorists.' So if he calls the bad guys 'terrorists,' the local cops--his first line of defence--would be very angry indeed." (UK Independent, Oct. 26)

[top]

6. PRESS FREEDOM UNDER ATTACK
Al-Arabiya, one of the Middle East's largest TV news networks agreed to cease reports from Iraq after the US-appointed interim government raided its offices, banned its broadcasts and threatened to imprison journalists. The government accused Al-Arabiya of "inciting murder" for broadcasting an audio tape a week earlier of a voice it said was that of Saddam Hussein. "We have issued a warning to Al-Arabiya and we will sue," said Jalal Talabani, president of the Iraqi Governing Council. "Al-Arabiya incites murder because it's calling for killings through the voice of Saddam Hussein... Inciting murder or violence is illegal under the laws of the entire world."

In September, the Governing Council temporarily banned Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera from news conferences, accusing them of being aware of attacks on US troops before they occurred. US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called the two stations "violently anti-coalition" as he announced the planned launch of a US-run satellite channel to compete with the popular news stations.

Al-Arabiya was launched shortly before the invasion of Iraq. The network is a new venture of the Dubai-based Middle East News, which also runs the Middle East Broadcasting Center. It is owned by the brother-in-law of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd. (AP, Nov. 24)

AP reported Nov. 12 that "jumpy US soldiers are becoming more aggressive in their treatment of journalists covering the conflict. Media people have been detained, news equipment has been confiscated and some journalists have suffered verbal and physical abuse while trying to report on events." Dallas Morning News managing editor Stuart Wilk, president of the Associated Press Managing Editors, an association of editors at over 1,700 newspapers in the US and Canada, sent a protest letter to the Pentagon on Wednesday urging officials to "immediately take the steps to end such confrontations. The effect has been to deprive the American public of crucial images from Iraq in newspapers, broadcast stations and online news operations." In October, the Belgium-based International Federation of Journalists, which includes unions representing 500,000 journalists in more than 100 countries, complained of increased harassment of reporters in Iraq, including beatings of some. (AP, Nov. 12)

Reporters are also targted by the guerilla resistance, or criminal elements exploiting the chaos. Gunmen shot and wounded a Portuguese reporter and kidnapped a second in southern Iraq Nov. 14 after attacking a convoy of vehicles. The kidnapped reporter, Carlos Raleiras of private radio station TSF, made a last-minute plea for help on his mobile phone. (Reuters, Nov. 14)

See also WW3 REPORT #s:

88 86 [top]

7. U.S. SEEKS OCCUPATION ADVICE FROM ISRAEL
In the last six months, US Army commanders, Pentagon officials and military trainers have sought council from Israeli intelligence and security officials on everything from how to set up roadblocks to the best way to bomb suspected guerrilla hide-outs in urban areas. "Those who have to deal with like problems tend to share information as best they can," Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, told the LA Times in Washington. Two Israeli officials--one from the Jerusalem police force and one from the Israel Defense Forces--told the LA Times on condition of anonymity that US officials had visited Israel to gain insight into police and military tactics. They also said Israeli officials have visited Washington to discuss the issues. (LAT, Nov. 22)

See also WW3 REPORT #59 [top]

8. U.S. TROOPS BULLDOZE FARMERS' CROPS
US soldiers in bulldozers have uprooted ancient groves of date palms and citrus trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops, the UK Independent reports. Patrcik Cockburn, reporting from Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of Baghdad, found the stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protruding from earth scoured by bulldozers, as local women busily bundled together the branches of uprooted orange and lemon trees, carrying then back to their homes for firewood. Nusayef Jassim, one of 32 farmers who saw their fruit trees destroyed, said: "They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any weapons."

Farmers told Cockburn that 50 families lost their livelihoods. A petition addressed to the coalition forces in Dhuluaya pleading in poor English for compensation, lists 32 farmers. The petition says: "Tens of poor families depend completely on earning their life on these orchards and now they became very poor and have nothing and waiting for hunger and death." (UK Independent, Oct. 12)

The Washington Post also reported Dec. 3 that US forces are using the threat of bulldozing homes against residents who refuse to inform on resistance activities. [top]

9. U.S. GENERALS: BRING BACK SADDAM'S ARMY
Seeking to accelerate Iraq's transition from US control, the occupation authority is rehiring fired Iraqi army personnel--but some military officers say Washington should recall whole units. Visiting Iraq for the second time in three months, US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz stressed the importance of speeding up the formation of a new Iraqi army, police force, border guard and civil defense corps, questioning why the Iraqi civil defense corps is projected to have 22,000 personnel instead of 100,000. He asserted that "there's no prejudice against hiring officers of the former army if they have clean records." (Reuters, Oct. 24) [top]

10. INTERIM COUNCIL: LEAVE US IN POWER
Just days after vowing to dissolve the body when a new provisional Iraqi government is elected in June, leaders of the Iraqi Governing Council were lobbying to remain in power and serve as a second legislative body, perhaps a senate. Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish leader who served as president of the council in November, said in an interview that a majority of the council members "want to keep the Governing Council as it is now." The proponents of keeping the council in some manner include the leaders of its most important factions: the two major Kurdish parties, top Shiite clerics and prominent exile leaders, including Ahmad Chalabi. Chalabi is said to be promoting the idea of turning the Governing Council into a senate, while the new interim government would resemble the United States House of Representatives. Adel Abdel Mahdi, of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main Shiite Muslim political party, is among those designated by the council to negotiate with the occupation authorities. He said in an interview: "We need the Governing Council as a safety valve for the country. One idea we are proposing is for the council to become a council of state, the final judge of conflicts within the government, the guardian of sovereignty." A minority of council members also apparently oppose the idea. "This is from people who have a fear of losing a grip on things," said Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, an important tribal sheik and council member. He added: "They think they are entitled to a role because they believe they overthrew Saddam Hussein. It was the United States that overthrew Saddam while we were eating TV dinners." (NYT, Nov. 25) [top]

11. "THREE-STATE SOLUTION" FOR IRAQ'S FUTURE?
Former New York Times editor and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations Leslie H. Gelb had an op-ed in the Times Nov. 25 in which he called for a "Three-State Solution" for Iraq, declaring that "A unified Iraq is not only ungovernable but also unnatural." The stylized map accompanying the piece illustrated his proposal for a Shiite state in the south, a Sunni state in the center and a Kurdish one in the north. The piece assumes that US fears of an Iraqi break-up sparking a regional war--with Turkey, Syria and Iran seeking to annex territory newly up for grabs--is outdated, and that the greater threat now comes from Baathist and/or jihadi resistance in Iraq's Sunni center, traditionally the seat of power. It also assumes that the question of whether the Kurds and Shiites should have local autonomy within a federal Iraq or actual independence is a question for the US occupiers rather than the Iraqis. Writes Gelb of his break-up proposal: "The general idea is to strengthen the Kurds and Shiites and weaken the Sunnis, then wait and see whether to stop at autonomy or encourage statehood."

Gelb also draws the inevitable analogy with Yugoslavia, arguing that "overwhelming force was the best chance for keeping Yugoslavia whole, and even that failed in the end." Not only is this a vast oversimplification of the politics of federal Yugoslavia (which employed strategies far more sophisticated than mere "overwhelming force"), but Gelb commits howlers that any good editor should have caught. He writes: "When Tito died in 1980, several parts of Yugoslavia quickly declared their independence." Actually, the first secessions were not until 1991--which, given the pace of contemporary world events, is only "quickly" in geological terms. Worse, Gelb's call for "natural states" along ethno-religious lines mirrors the logic of the ethnic cleansers--including the Serb nationalists he ostensibly decries.

Gelb's piece will doubtless provide further grist for the mill of paranoid leftists who have been seeing an imperialist conspiracy to break up Iraq (and eventually other Arab powers) since well before the US invaded. But, for the moment, the US appears to be attempting to shore up a central Iarqi state--and a break-up would be a likely result of a US pull-out. Before they rally around a centralized Iraq, lefties should recall the contemporary Iraqi state's roots in imperialist intrigues of precisely the kind we are now witnessing. Writes Gelb:

"The Ottomans ruled all the peoples of this land as they were: separately. In 1921, Winston Churchill cobbled the three parts together for oil's sake under a monarch backed by the British armed forces. The Baathist Party took over in the 1960s, with Saddam Hussein consolidating its control in 1979, maintaining unity through terror and with occassional American help."

See also WW3 REPORT #63 [top]

12. IRAQI EX-GENERAL DIES IN U.S. CUSTODY
Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush, an Iraqi air defense general captured Oct. 5 in a raid near the Syrian border, was being questioned Nov. 27 while in US custody in Qaim when he lost consciousness after complaining he didn't feel well, the military said in a statement. He was pronounced dead by a US military physician. The cause of death and interrogation techniques are under investigation, but he 82nd Airborne said Mowhoush's head was not hooded during questioning. The statement did not give his age. Mowhoush, a major general in the Republican Guard, was captured in a raid at Qaim. A US military spokesperson said at the time that Mowhoush was believed to have been financing guerilla attacks. (MSNBC, Nov. 27) [top]

13. GIs IN TROUBLE AFTER MARRYING IRAQI WOMEN
Two Florida National Guardsmen who met and married Iraqi women while serving in Baghdad. The soldiers--Sgt. Sean Blackwell, 27, of Pace, FLA, and Cpl. Brett Dagen, 37, of Walnut Hill, FLA--tied the knot in a quick and discreet double-wedding ceremony (in full battle dress and lugging M-16s) in mid-August, defying their commander's orders. The two have been barred from seeing their brides, both English-speaking physicians who have been working with the US forces. They're not even permitted to phone or e-mail them, according to the GIs' mothers. "It's an embarrassment to the Army," said Dagen's mother, Laverne Warren. A week before the double wedding ceremony, both GIs converted to Islam. When news of their marriage plans reached their superiors, the two soldiers were put on limited duty. (NY Post, Oct. 8) [top]

14. G.I. RESISTANCE AND DISSENT
The Pentagon has revealed that at least 28 soldiers who have been stationed in Iraq have not reported back to duty after they were granted a 15-day leave. Meanwhile the commanding general in Iraq said attacks against the U.S. have increased greatly over the past two weeks. During the summer the US faced between 10 and 15 attacks per day. Now the daily total ranges from 20 to 35. (Pacifica's Democracy Now!, Oct. 23)

The Army Reserve's unusual move to send 160 soldiers back to Iraq and Afghanistan 10 months after many returned from a one-year tour of duty has also sparked dissent within the military. Cpt. Steve McAlpin of Rochester, NY, was relieved of his duties as a civil affairs team leader for questioning the fairness and legality of the orders in private discussions with his superiors. (USA Today, Dec. 1) [top]

15. PENTAGON MOVES TO FILL DRAFT BOARDS
A few weeks ago, on an obscure federal Web site devoted to the war on terrorism, the Bush administration quietly began a public campaign to bring the draft boards back to life. "Serve Your Community and the Nation," the announcement urges. "If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2,000 Local and Appeal Boards throughout America would decide which young men...receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service." Local draft board volunteers, meanwhile, report that at training sessions last summer, they were unexpectedly asked to recommend people to fill some of the estimated 16 percent of board seats that are vacant nationwide.

Not since the early Reagan administration in 1981 has the Defense Department made a push to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots. John Winkler, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for reserve affairs, told Salon there is "no contingency plan" to ask Congress to reinstate the draft. But Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY): "The experts are all saying we're going to have to beef up our presence in Iraq. We've failed to convince our allies to send troops, we've extended deployments so morale is sinking, and the president is saying we can't cut and run. So what's left? The draft is a very sensitive subject, but at some point, we're going to need more troops, and at that point the only way to get them will be a return to the draft." (Dave Lindorff for Salon.com, November) [top]

16. WMD THREAT: STILL NO EVIDENCE
David Kay, head of the US-led team searching for evidence of Saddam's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, announced Oct. 2, upon handing in his interim report to Congress, that his probe had found no stocks of such arms. But he said there was "evidence of Saddam's continued ambition to acquire nuclear weapons... The testimony we have obtained from Iraqi scientists and senior government officials should clear up any doubts about whether Saddam still wanted to obtain nuclear weapons." Citing interviews with Iraqi scientists, Kay claimed: "They [said] Saddam Hussein remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons."

One expert close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters on condition of anonymity: "The [Kay] report is filled with the use of the words 'belief' and 'may' and 'could have' and these sorts of things. This is not how the IAEA operates." After returning to Iraq late in 2002 for four months of inspections, the IAEA said it had found no evidence that Saddam had revived his nuclear weapons program, which the IAEA had detected in 1991 and says it had dismantled by 1995. The IAEA source also questioned Kay's reliance on testimony from senior Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission official Dr. Khalid Ibrahim Sa'id, who was killed at a Baghdad roadblock by occupation forces on April 8. In his statement to US lawmakers, Kay said: "Sa'id began several small and relatively unsophisticated research initiatives that could be applied to nuclear weapons development." Calling that limited allegation "pretty pathetic," the anonymous IAEA expert noted that since Sa'id could no longer be questioned, his supposed testimony should be met with skepticism. Kay asked for Washington to provide $600 million for his team's work in Iraq in addition to the $300 million already allocated (Reuters, Oct. 3)

In response to Kay's report, Nihad Mohammed al-Rawi, acting president of Baghdad University, said: "A country was destroyed because of weapons that don't exist!" (AP, Oct. 5)

Meanwhile, other Iraqi scientists came forward to assert that scientists ''lied to Saddam Hussein'' about how well their secret nuclear weapons program was going. Imad Khadduri, who worked for 16 years on the nuclear program, said terrified technicians resorted to ''blatant exaggeration'' before the US attacks eventually shut down the operation for good in 1991. Another leading physicist, Abdel Mehdi Talib of Baghdad University, admitted: ''It was all like building sandcastles.'' Khadduri denied Iraq had ''reconstituted'' weapons development after the 1991 attacks and dismissed claims that it was once six months from making a bomb as a ''mirage." In his book, Iraq's Nuclear Mirage, British-educated Khadduri said: ''Where are the scientific and engineering staff required for such an enormous effort? Where are the buildings and infrastructure?'' He added that the US was ''investigating mirages.'' (Glasgow Daily Record, Dec. 2)

Australian investigative journalist John Pilger also uncovered video footage of US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001, stating that Saddam Hussein had been disarmed and was no threat. "He [Saddam] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors," Powell said in the footage. (Australian Associated Press, Sept. 23)

See also WW3 REPORT #s:

91 85 [top]

17. IRAQI COMMUNISTS REJECT BOTH OCCUPATION AND RESISTANCE
The political bureau of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq issued the following statement on the party's position on the military resistance against the US forces:

After 12 years of the anti-human policy of the economic sanctions and disastrous wars against the people of Iraq, the US government has occupied Iraq and imposed its military authority on Iraqi society. Apart from large numbers of causalities and widespread destruction, the US war and occupation has placed the Iraqi society on the verge of a very grim and dreadful scenario. Lack of security, hunger, deprivation and increasingly oppressive conditions is the situation of millions of people. The most basic rights of the masses are under attack and the society faces a lethal political uncertainty, confusion, and chaos. Facing this situation, millions of people in Iraq are showing growing discontent and protest and demanding that the US and its allied forces leave Iraq. Various political forces are striving to capitalize on this protest to achieve their own political objectives.

On the other hand, the latest war that the US government launched against Iraq has resulted in the overthrow of the Baath regime. This war is still continuing. The resistance by the remnants of the Baath regime, nationalist, and Islamic groups is a part of this war. However, this war and those who are waging it not only have nothing to do with the rights and future of the Iraqi people, but they are completely against the interests of the masses. To achieve their own reactionary objectives, these groups victimize people and sacrifice the basis of life in the society. They attempt to win the support of the people by deception and promoting Arab nationalism and Islamic sentiments among people under the pretext of "fighting the occupiers" and conducting military operations against the occupying forces. In order to put pressure on the US, these groups resort to disrupting and exploding social services and the society's infrastructure. In so doing, they attempt to contain and steer the widespread and justified discontent among people against the US and its allies to achieve their own reactionary objectives.

Because of its bloody oppression, mass killing, and fascist policies against the people in Iraq for over 35 years, the Baath party must be dismantled and must not have any role in the in Iraqi society and the political future of Iraq. The current activities and military operations against the US forces are hopeless reactionary attempts to return to power against the interests of the people. Also, the Islamic groups, under the pretext of organizing a military movement to oust the US forces, are attempting to exploit the peoples' just struggle and demands to impose their own reactionary and oppressive rule. Thus, they too are taking part in deepening the lack of security, reaction, and the grim and dreadful scenario that is unfolding in Iraq.

In this conflict, the remnants of Baath regime and the Islamic groups resort to blowing up civil targets and attacking the sources of people's livelihood. The Worker Communist Party struggles to defeat these reactionary forces and thwart their role. It also strongly condemns attacks on social services and all terrorist actions against people and civil institutions.

The current disastrous situation in Iraq and the current war and conflicts are the direct result of the US war and occupation of Iraq. Therefore, ending this reactionary scenario relies on the withdrawal of the US and its allied troops from Iraq. The Worker Communist Party strongly insists on withdrawal of these forces and building a regime based on the will of the masses. The Worker Communist Party, with all its force, struggles to achieve this demand. It believes that political and mass struggle is the suitable form of struggle during the current situation in Iraq...

The Worker Communist Party struggles to organize the masses and develop their protests in the form of a massive political movement all over Iraq and struggles to oust the US and its allied forces and build the masses' own regime in Iraq. It calls on the masses to organize around this alternative, to strengthen the movement to remove the US forces and build the masses own regime and to eradicate the fascist Baath party and the Islamic groups and marginalize them.

Oct. 15, 2003

Thanks to: News & Letters, 36 S. Wabash, Room 1440. Chicago IL 60603 [top]

18. CAMPAIGN FOR LABOR RIGHTS IN IRAQ
US Labor Against the War (USLAW) has issued a Resolution on Labor Rights in Iraq, which it hopes to have endorsed by union locals and labor councils around the United States. The statement reads:

Whereas: Since George W. Bush declared an end to the war on Iraq in April, 2003, unemployment among Iraqi workers has reached 70%, causing many families to face hunger and dislocation, and

Whereas: Since Bush announced the war's end, the US occupying authority has frozen Iraqi wages for most workers at $60/month, while at the same time eliminating bonuses, profit sharing, and subsidies for food and housing, causing a sharp cut in the income of those Iraqi workers still employed, and

Whereas: $87 billion was appropriated by Congress supposedly for the reconstruction of Iraq, yet not a dime is set to be used for raising Iraqi wages or for unemployment benefits, and these extraordinary expenditures will come at the expense of services and jobs here in the US, and

Whereas: Since April, 2003, Iraqi workers have begun to reorganize their trade union movement, seeking a better standard of living, and to preserve their jobs and workplaces, and

Whereas: The US occupation authority has continued to enforce a 1987 law issued by Saddam Hussein prohibiting unions and collective bargaining in the pub lic sector and state enterprises where most Iraqis work, and

Whereas: The US occupation authority has announced it intends to sell off the factories, refineries, mines and other state enterprises despite the fact that these enterprises belong to the Iraqi people, not to the US, and has issued a new decree, Public Order 39, allowing 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi businesses and the repatriation of profits--in effect making resistance to privatization illegal for Iraqi unions and preventing workers from having any voice in the future of their own jobs, and

Whereas: The privatization of Iraqi workplaces would result in massive layoffs to Iraqi workers at a time when unemployment is already at crisis levels, and

Whereas: Iraqi unions are seeking to organize despite having no resources, while the US occupying authority withholds welfare funds, buildings and other assets previously held by unions controlled by Saddam Hussein's government, and

Whereas: Workers in the United States have experienced an erosion of our own labor rights to organize and collectively bargain in defense of our jobs, rights and working conditions and thus understand what the restriction or loss of these rights means to working people,

Therefore be it resolved: This local union (or other labor body) calls for full trade union rights in Iraq--for immediate nullification of the 1987 Hussein law banning unions in public enterprises and any other restriction on the free exercise of labor rights, and

Be it further resolved: We call on the US occupation authority to immediately implement Conventions 87, 98 and 138 of the International Labor Organization guaranteeing the right to organize and bargain collectively, and prohibiting child labor, and to immediately halt the process of privatizing Iraqi workplaces and selling off the property of the Iraqi people, and

Be it further resolved: We call for an end to the US occupation of Iraq and return of US troops to their homes and families so that Iraq can be governed by its own people,

Be it further resolved: We call for a Congressional investigation of the suppression of trade union rights in Iraq and the privatization of Iraqi workplaces and selling off of the property of the Iraqi people, and

Be it finally resolved: We will encourage donations of material resources--such as computers, telephones, fax machines and office furniture, as well as money--to the Fund to Support Iraqi Labor Rights established by US Labor Against the War.

U.S. Labor Against The War, P.O. Box 153, 1718 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036

See also WW3 REPORT #86 [top]

19. PRIVATE MILITARY OUTFITS STAKE IRAQ CLAIM
Peter W. Singer, a Brookings Institution military analyst, estimates there is one contractor for every 10 foreign soldiers in Iraq--10 times the private involvement in Desert Storm. Worldwide, private military companies earn about $100 billion in yearly government contracts, Singer believes. The US defense budget is about $380 billion this year, excluding emergency spending, and is expected to rise to more than $400 billion. The Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) won a $3 million contract for the cavernous white mess tent on the base of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Baghdad, supplying the Indian and Bangladeshi cooks who feed 4,000 troops daily. Erinys, a security firm full of former South African special forces, will train 6,500 Iraqis to guard oil installations. The San Diego-based Science Applications International trains Iraqi journalists, police and soldiers. Global Risks Strategies, a security firm with about 1,100 workers on the ground--mainly armed former Nepalese and Fijian soldiers--is among security companies that have more personnel in Iraq than some other countries taking part in the occupation. Contractors' deaths aren't counted among the tally of over 350 US soldiers killed in Iraq. No one is sure how many private workers have been killed, or, even how many are toiling in Iraq for the US government. Estimates range from under 10,000 to more than 20,000--which could make private contractors the largest U.S. coalition partner ahead of Britain's 11,000 troops.

Deborah Avant, a political scientist at George Washington University, warns that the connection between companies and politicians in Washington raises the specter of executives lobbying for a hawkish US foreign policy. Iraq contractors DynCorp, Bechtel and Halliburton donated more than $2.2 million--mainly to Republican causes like the 2000 Bush presidential campaign--between 1999 and 2002, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The US hired Halliburton for Iraq without a competitive bid, after the company recommended itself in a study. Halliburton's Iraq oil services contract, worth $1.59 billion so far, will be extended until December or January. (AP, Oct. 29)

See also WW3 REPORT #s:

92 84 [top]

20. WAR PROFITEERING AND CORPORATE COLONIZATION
An October report by the Center for Public Integrity finds that over 70 US companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two years. The Center also found that those companies donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W Bush--a little over $500,000--than to any other politician over the last dozen years. Kellogg, Brown & Root was the top recipient of federal contracts for the two countries, with more than $2.3 billion awarded to the company. Bechtel Group, a major government contractor with similarly high-ranking ties, was second at around $1.03 billion. Nearly 60% percent of the companies had employees or board members who either served in or had close ties to the executive branch for Republican and Democratic administrations, for members of Congress of both parties, or at the highest levels of the military.

Since February 2003, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), the country's largest employee-owned research and engineering company, has been in charge of the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council (IRDC), a Pentagon-sanctioned group of Iraqis that is effectively functioning as the country's temporary government. The senior members of IRDC hold positions at each of 23 Iraqi ministries, where they work closely with US and British officials, including L. Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority. The Council's official task is to rebuild the structures of a government that are expected eventually to be handed over to the new Iraqi authority. Members of the IRDC are officially employed by SAIC, according to the contracts.

SAIC has also been hired to rebuild Iraq's mass media, including television stations, radio stations and newspapers. SAIC, which is not generally known for its media expertise, runs the "Voice of the New Iraq," the radio station established in April 2003 at Umm Qasr with US government funds.

ChevronTexaco joined five other international oil companies selected by the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization to market Iraqi oil. The expected revenue of $300 million from the sale of oil will be controlled by the US government for use in rebuilding Iraq.

JPMorgan, the nation's second-largest bank, has been contracted by the Coalition Provisional Authority to run a consortium of 13 banks from 13 countries that will constitute the Trade Bank of Iraq.

MCI, formerly WorldCom, was hired by the Pentagon to build a wireless phone network for officials and aid workers in the Baghdad area. MCI's reconstruction activities in Iraq were not disclosed in documents the Defense Department provided to the Center under a Freedom of Information Act request. However, an MCI spokesperson said the Pentagon-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) awarded the contract to MCI in late May 2003.

See also WW3 REPORT #79 [top]

21. OCCUPATION AUTHORITY: UNACCOUNTABLE FINANCIAL SINKHOLE
Efforts to establish a civilian government in Iraq were further damaged by reports that the Pentagon is investigating allegations of high-level corruption within the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). The award of lucrative licences to build and operate mobile telephone networks has been dogged by delays and recriminations. A complaint over the handling of the process was filed by Turkcell, an Istanbul-based company which, with two US partners, bid in August for the right to build mobile telephone networks in Iraq. After the mobile network contracts were awarded to three Middle Eastern companies, Turkcell lawyers said that the licensing process had been "erroneous, irrational, arbitrary and capricious." The allegations of foul play were made to the US Congress' General Accounting Office (GAO), which evaluates federal expenditure. The GAO announced last month that it had opened its own review into whether the Bush administration has followed procurement rules. (UK Telegraph, Nov. 23)

In a report issued Oct. 23 entitled, "Iraq: the missing billions," UK-based Christian Aid states that the fate of $4 out of $5 billion transferred to the CPA's Defense Fund for Iraq (DFI) remains unknown, having apparently disappeared into opaque CPA bank accounts. he only funds accounted for appear to be about $1 billion in pre-war funds transferred from the UN Oil for Food Program. (NFTF.org, Nov. 15)

In a Dec. 2 Newsday op-ed, Nomi Prins, author of the forthcoming "Other People's Money: The Corporate Mugging of America," warns of a lack of accountability for the massive sums the US is (allegedly) pouring into Iraq reconstruction. Prins writes that "the latest $87-billion injection that went predominantly into the Iraq black hole puts the total sum of 'liberation and reconstruction' funds at more than a quarter-trillion dollars..." Yet "complete financial statements on Iraq haven't been disclosed... Although the amount of public money circling Iraq is staggering, there is no way to even trace it... What's more, the CPA budget calls for another $39 billion in expenditures over the next three years... Without a paper trail, there's no way of assigning culpability for potential fraud. As it is, up to %11.2 billion in contracts have been awarded under less than competitive circumstances to companies such as Enron and Bechtel." [top]

22. SAVE THE CHILDREN UK SILENCED ON IRAQ CRITICISMS
The British charity Save the Children was ordered by its US wing to end criticism of military action in Iraq, to avoid jeopardising financial support from Washington and corporate donors, a UK Guardian investigation discovered. E-mails reveal how Save the Children UK came under enormous pressure after it accused coalition forces of breaching the Geneva convention by blocking humanitarian aid. Senior figures at Save the Children US, based in Westport, CT, demanded the withdrawal of the criticism and an effective veto on any future statements.

The row erupted in April when the London statement said coalition forces had gone back on an earlier agreement to allow a relief plane, packed with emergency food and medical supplies for 40,000 people, to land in northern Iraq. Rob MacGillivray, the UK wing's emergency program manager, released a statement that the "lack of cooperation from the coalition forces is a breach of the Geneva conventions and its protocols, but more importantly the time now being wasted is costing children their lives." Within hours of the statement appearing, the US wing was demanding its withdrawal. E-mails sent to staff in Britain by Dianne Sherman, associate vice-president for public affairs and communications in Westport, headed "Save/UK criticises US military", expressed dismay and censured the UK operation. Sherman said the Americans were "really astonished at today's release, which went out without our prior knowledge, that attacks the US military." Accounts published by Save the Children US show that "government grants and contracts" generate some 60% of its operating support and revenue. (UK Guardian, Nov. 28) [top]

23. TURKEY PREPARES TO SEND IN TROOPS
By a vote of 358 to 183, Turkey's parliament approved a government motion Oct. 7 permitting the dispatch of "peacekeepers" to Iraq as requested by its NATO ally the US. The vote followed a lengthy debate in closed session. Turkish officials have said up to 10,000 troops could be deployed. But shortly before the vote, in a statement clearly aimed at Turkey, Iraq's Governing Council said it would not accept troops from any neighboring country. Turkey is already believed to have a few thousand troops in northern Iraq to pursue armed rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). (Reuters, Oct. 7)

See also WW3 REPORT #s:

92, 90, 88, 72 [top]

24. U.S. TROOPS IN CLASH WITH PKK?
The BBC reported Nov. 10 that US troops had clashed with PKK guerillas in northern Iraq. The US military only confirmed that fire was exchanged between "unknown forces" and an Iraqi border patrol supported by US forces, but Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that US forces had clashed with the PKK. A spokesman for the US 101st Airborne Division, based in Mosul, said the incident took place near Dahuk, about 10 miles from the Turkish border. One member of the Iraqi border patrol was killed, he said, adding that the "unknown forces" were dispersed with the assistance of Apache attack helicopters and a quick reaction force team. Turkey and the US have agreed an action plan to eradicate the PKK, which is thought to have about 5,000 guerillas in northern Iraq. Ever since the US occupied Iraq, Turkey has been pressing Washington to take action against the PKK. In Turkey's long counter-insurgency campaign against the PKK, over 30,000 have been killed, and more than a million displaced from their homes.

See also WW3 REPORT #s:

92, 88 [top]

25. TERROR IN ISTANBUL
Twin car bombs exploded outside Istanbul synagogues filled with worshippers during Sabbath prayers Nov. 17, killing at least 20 and wounding over 250. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said there were "international connections" to the near-simultaneous attacks--one at the city's largest synagogue, Neve Shalom, as hundreds were gathered for a bar mitzvah. (AP, Nov. 17) The Islamic Great Eastern Raiders-Front (IBDA-C), allegedly backed by Iran, claimed responsibility, but Turkish authorities are said to be skeptical. (AP, Nov. 18) The IBDA-C again claimed credit when twin suicide truck bombs struck Nov. 20, killing 30 and injuring 450 at the British consulate and the high-rise headquarters of the London-based HSBC bank. (AP, Nov. 20; NYT, Nov. 22) Days later, after a series of arrests, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Sener told reporters the bombers "are linked to al-Qaeda." Turkish press accounts said the bombings were a direct order from Ayman al-Zawahiri, believed to be Osama bin Laden's second-in-command. (NYT, Dec. 3)

Authorities said at least two of the men behind the suicide bombings, and several suspects arrested in connection with them, are from the Kurdish town of Ingol in eatsern Turkey, and had lost family members to political violence. One apparent suicide bomber's father was killed there when he was a toddler. (NYT, Nov. 26) [top]

26. NEW NATO STRIKE FORCE HOLDS TURKEY MANEUVERS
NATO has launched a new elite rapid-reaction force, a prototype slated to become a 20,000-troop unit able to deploy on short notice worldwide by 2006. The NATO Response Force's initial core of 9,000 troops, backed by naval and air power, was inaugurated in a ceremony at NATO's Brussles command. Top NATO commander, US Marine Corps Gen. James Jones said: "The creation of the initial NATO response force... s an important sign that the alliance is rapidly changing to meet the new threats of this new century." He added that the force "will give the alliance the military capability to do what it could not do before--insert military forces into a deteriorating situation earlier in a crisis, with more speed, at greater ranges, with more sustainability than ever before." Spain will provide tmost of the troops--2,200--in the initial force, plus ships, planes and helicopters. It is followed by France with 1,700 and Germany at 1,100. The US will contribute 300 troops plus a ship and aircraft. The force will be led by UK Gen. Sir Jack Deverell, commander of NATO's Northern Forces, while a Turkish general will command the ground troops and Spanish admiral will command the naval task force. NATO's Northern Air Command at the Ramstein base in Germany will run the air component. (AP, Oct. 15)

The new unit held its first exercizes starting Nov. 20 at the Aegean Sea city of Doganbey, Turkey, involving air, sea and land forces from 11 nations. Some 1,000 participated in the exercise that included an amphibious landing, helicopter raids and Czech specialist troops who provide defenses against chemical, biological or nuclear attacks. (AP, Nov. 20) [top]

27. U.S. SEEKS CHILEAN EX-OFFICERS FOR IRAQ
The Mexican daily La Jornada reported Nov. 1 that US and British companies are recruiting retired Chilean military officers to work in Iraq guarding installations and training Iraqi police agents. The newspaper cites unnamed Chilean intelligence agencies as saying the companies are working for the CIA, and that the same companies recruited European mercenaries in the '60s, '70s and '80s to fight in Angola and Mozambique.

One of the companies is Red Tactica, headed by Jose Pizarro, who has reportedly served in both the Chilean and US militaries. On Oct. 12 Red Tactica ran advertisements for English-speaking former officers under the age of 45 to work abroad, and has already begun training some 50 recruits. Also involved in Red Tactica is former Chilean commando Christian Gatica, currently director of operations and training in Latin America for Kroll Inc., a multinational security firm formerly linked to CIA operations in Argentina. Pizarro denies that Red Tactica has any connection to the CIA, while Gatica insists that the recruitment activities are "commercial" and "public." Both Pizarro and Gatica have worked for CNN's Spanish-language company giving military analyses of the war in Iraq.

Weekly News Update on the Americas, Nov. 9: [top]

28. VIOLENCE AT SEOUL PROTESTS AGAINST IRAQ MOBILIZATION
Some 1,000 South Korean workers clashed with riot police Oct. 29 at a protest against a government decision to send additional troops to Iraq. Protesters marched in central Seoul after a rally organized by the Korea Federation of Trade Unions, breaking through police blockades wielding wooden sticks and throwing stones, witnesses said. Several people were severely injured after being hit by stones lobbed back by the riot police, organizers said. South Korea already has 700 medical and engineering personnel in Iraq. (Reuters, Oct. 29) [top]

29. PROTESTERS MARCH IN "FORTRESS LONDON" FOR BUSH VISIT
Armed police turned the British capital into "Fortress London" amid official paranoia about an impending terror attack on the eve of President Bush's visit. (Reuters, Nov. 17) But 100,000 protesters marched through London and tore down a mock papier mache statue of Bush upon his arrival Nov. 20, invoking the notorious falling statue of Saddam in Baghdad. (Reuters, Nov. 20) [top]

30. HE SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO HIS OLD MAN!
"Trying to eliminate Saddam...would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible.... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq.... there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."

--George H.W. Bush, A World Transformed [top]

THE PALESTINE FRONT

1. ANNAN TO ISRAEL: DISMANTLE THE WALL
On Nov. 28, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan advised Israel to abandon its project of building a "Separation Wall" in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. "Israel has repeatedly stated that the barrier is a temporary measure. However, the scope of construction and the amount of occupied West Bank land that is either being requisitioned for its route or that will end up between the barrier and the Green Line are of serious concern and have implications for the future." Annan also clearly labeled the wall a barrier to making peace: "In the midst of the road map process, when each party should be making good-faith confidence-building gestures, the barrier's construction in the West Bank cannot, in this regard, be seen as anything but a deeply counterproductive act." (CNN, Nov. 28) (David Bloom) [top]

2. POPE DISSES WALL
Pope John Paul, frequently lauded for his attempts to make amends for the Catholic church's past treatment of Jews, has joined the chorus of critics of Israel's "Separation Wall." The pontiff started by saying: "I also renew my firm condemnation for every terrorist action carried out in these recent times in the Holy Land," but then added: "At the same time, I must note that unfortunately in those places, the dynamism of peace seems to have stopped. The construction of a wall between the Israeli and Palestinian people is seen by many as a new obstacle on the road toward peaceful cohabitation. In reality, the Holy Land doesn't need walls, but bridges." (AP,Nov. 18) (David Bloom) [top]

3. ELIE WEISEL: WALL'S WILLING APOLOGIST DISSES PONTIFF
Nobel peace laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel has taken exception to the pontiff's displeasure with the Wall. Opined Weisel to Italy's Corriere della Sera: "From the spiritual leader of one of the largest and most important religions in the world, I expected something very different, namely a statement condemning terror and the killing of innocents, without mixing in political considerations and, above all, without comparing these things to a work of pure self-defense." (AP, Nov. 18) (David Bloom) [top]

4. GEN. CLARK LOVES THE WALL
Former Gen. Wesley Clark may be the most pro-Israel candidate currently running for president. He supports "targeted killings," and Israel's Oct. 5 bombing of an alleged Syrian base for training Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants. He also supports Israel's construction of its "separation wall" on Palestinian land.

"Currently, Israel is building a security fence--not because it wants to, but because terrorism has forced its hand," the general wrote in a Nov. 10 Ha'aretz op-ed. "The fence is not a barrier to the peace process. No country can negotiate if the other side believes it has no alternatives. The fence will help contain the terrorist onslaught. It will warn other parties in the Middle East that they need to start negotiating--now. But it is not a sustainable substitute for peace. A strong, democratic Israel is the key to the future of the Middle East." (Ha'aretz, Nov. 10) (David Bloom) [top]

5. U.S. SLAPS ISRAEL'S WRIST: 289 MIL FOR SETTLEMENTS AND FENCE
After accumulated threats, the U.S. announced it will deduct $289.5 million from its nine billion dollars of loan guarantees to Israel. Since Israel does not have to account for how it spends any of the aid it receives from the US, the effect is mostly symbolic. "This is only diplomatic finger-wagging," said diplomatic correspondent Udi Segal of Israel's Channel 2. (Straits Times, Nov. 28) (David Bloom) [top]

6. REMOTE-CONTROL MACHINE GUNS TO BE MOUNTED ON THE WALL
According to Haaretz reporter Amira Hass, a Sept. 21 article on the Israeli paper Yediot Ahronoth's Web site, Ynet, states that "the separation fence to be built in the Gilboa region will include remote-control machine guns that will be operated by female soldiers from their command posts and will shoot at those suspected of being terrorists." According to Ynet's reporter, the system is be installed in the coming months in the mountainous Gilboa region, along the path of the "Separation Wall." The army's purpose in installing the system is to compensate for the small amount of troops and the difficulties of moving in the area--"and to shoot at terrorists who try to cross the fence." In a concession to humanitarian considerations, rather than making the guns fire automatically at anything that moves they will be fired "by the female soldier who manages the lookout post and has been trained for this."

Hass adds: "The report did not say how she would be trained to tell whether the figure who appears on her video screen is a terrorist or an innocent man." (Ha'aretz, Sept. 24) There is no explanation why the soldiers used will be female, but perhaps the Israeli army considers it a combat role that would be safe enough for a woman soldier. (Ha'aretz, Sept. 24) (David Bloom) [top]

7. REMOTE-CONTROL HELICOPTER STOLEN
Industrial espionage is believed to be the explanation for the theft of a state-of-the-art remote-control pilotless helicoter under developoment by an Israeli company. The unit was stolen from Steadicopter's Kefar Maccabi plant, after it had finished it's final test flights. The BBC notes that Israel has "long been a world leader in developing pilotless reconnaissance aircraft and its Pioneer drone is currently in service with US forces in Iraq." (BBC, Nov. 12) (David Bloom) [top]

8. NEXT: REMOTE-CONTROL BULLDOZERS
The fearsome armor-plated D-9 Israeli army bulldozer, used to demolish Palestinian buildings and orchards as well as international activists, is being modified to be operated by remote control, a move the army insists will "save lives." An unnamed Israeli officer was quoted by the Israel Technion Institute of Technology, which designed the remote-control version, as saying, "today the bulldozer drivers are exposed to great danger when they knock down buildings that have militants hiding in them." Palestinian spokesmen Saeb Erakat denounced the move. "The whole idea is despicable," said Erekat. "If an unmanned bulldozer is used, human life is in much greater danger." As of the Oct. 31 press time of this BBC report, the robot dozer was to go "into service in the next few weeks. " (BBC, Oct. 31)

According to the Israeli Committee of Housing Demolitions (ICAHD), 8,000 Palestinian houses have been destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces since 1967. (ICHAD:figure as of Spring, 2002)

The D-9 bulldozer is a product of the US-based Catepillar Corporation. (See also: http://www.sustaincampaign.org/cat_actionkit.html) (David Bloom)

See also WW3 REPORT #80

For more on the wall, see WW3 REPORT #s:

90, 75 [top]

9. U.N., NGO'S TO ISRAEL: QUIT HASSLING US OR WE LEAVE
A sharply-worded letter to the Israeli government by the directors of international aid agencies said that Israel's recent "security measures" in the occupied territories are making it too difficult for them to continue to provide humanitarian relief. "Several organizations indicated that they are now are seriously considering whether they should continue to work at all under these circumstances," the directors wrote. Problems aid agencies encounter include the Israeli army firing at their workers on the ground, despite prior coordination. Also cited were increases in the number of villages and towns placed under sudden closure, and the precariousness of work conditions under such closure. (Ha'aretz, Nov. 27) (David Bloom) [top]

10. RED CROSS CUTS AID TO OCCUPIED PALESTINIANS
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) during the month of November has cut off most of its food aid to Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The organization said it felt its aid was facilitating Israel's occupation. "This program was not designed to substitute for the responsibility of the occupying power, which is Israel," says Vincent Bernard, ICRC spokesman in Jerusalem. The ICRC had been feeding Palestinians since mid-2002.

"I know the Israeli government wants an occupation and they don't want to pay for it," says Palestine Authority minister Saeb Erekat. But Erekat believes aid refusal will "destroy the peace process." He added, addressing himself to the ICRC and other organizations: "So please, continue your help to the Palestinian people." (CSMonitor, Nov. 26) (David Bloom) [top]

11. U.N.: OCCUPATION CAUSING HUNGER
Jean Ziegler, special rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN's right-to-food expert, criticized Israeli policies for causing malnutrition among Palestinian children. Ziegler reports that 9% of Palestinian children suffer some form of brain damage as a result of chronic malnutrition. Ziegler said the Palestinians were cut off from thier land by military closure and the "Separation Wall." (UPI, Nov. 12) Ziegler warned of a "humanitarian catastrophe" as a result of "extremely harsh" conditions created by Israeli operations in the territories. Israel accused the Swiss sociologist and former parliamentarian of bias. "This will undoubtedly shade Israel's future decisions with regard to the possibility of engaging in constructive dialogues with other UN special rapporteurs," the Israeli mission said. (Reuters, Nov. 13) (David Bloom) [top]

12. ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES KEEP ARABS OUT
Israeli universities stopped using psychometric aptitude tests in their admissions process this year, but reverted back to the old system when they discovered the main beneficiaries were Palestinian Israeli students. It was thought abandoning the exams would benefit Jewish students from low-income areas, but the result was that Arab admissions increased. Explaining the reversal in policy, a committee of university heads declared Nov. 26 that "admissions policies based on [high school] grades do not make studies more accessible to [Jewish] students from the periphery. The opposite is true." The language used carefully avoided saying specifically "Jews" or "Arabs." The committee added that "since the number of places available in university enrollment has not risen, the acceptance of one population [that is, the Arab students] nudges out another population [Jews]." The minimum age for admission was raised from 18 to 20, which is the age Jewish Israelis leave army service. This puts Palestinian Israelis, who finish high school at 18, and don't do army service, at a disadvantage. (Ha'aretz, Nov. 27) (David Bloom) [top]

13. ISRAELI UNIVERSITIES FIGHT ACADEMIC BOYCOTT
Noting that international isolation of Israeli academics is "steadily worsening," the heads of Israel's universities have formed a panel to fight the boycott. Professor Joshua Jortner of the National Academy of Sciences and Humanities claimed that members of Norway's national academy have advocated treating Israel "like Germany of the 1930s." The international boycott is supported by some left-wing Israeli professors, such as Dr. Ilan Pappe of Haifa University and Professor Tanya Reinhardt of Hebrew University . (Ha'aretz, Nov. 27) (David Bloom) [top]

14. SHARANSKY: U.S. CAMPUSES ANTI-ISRAEL, BUT THE PIE IS TASTY
In his Oct.31 article "Who Lost the Campus," Jonathan Tobin in the Jewish World Review states his alarm over the state of pro-Israel organizing on North American college campuses. Tobin describes Zionist activists in colleges as few in number and under great pressure from Palestinian activist groups. "The bad news is that students who support Israel are still placed in the position of a precarious and unpopular minority as anti-Zionist radicals on faculties and in the student body make it hard to stand up for Jewish rights," wrote Tobin. He recounts how former Soviet refusenik and current Israeli Housing Minister Natan Sharansky found in a recent North American tour of campuses that they had become "enemy territory" for "affiliated Jews," as Tobin puts it. (Jewish World Review, Oct. 31)

"The overall picture is deeply worrying," concludes Sharansky in a Ma'ariv article entitled, "Tour of U.S. Schools Reveals Why Zionism Is Flunking on Campus." Sharansky writes: "On every campus I visited, Jewish students make up between 10% and 20% of the population, but no more than a tenth of them, by my estimate, take part in Jewish or pro-Israel activity. Another tiny but outspoken fraction serves as the spearhead of anti-Israel activity, for there is no better cover for hiding the racist nature of causes like an anti-Israel boycott than a Jewish professor or student eager to prove that he is holier than the pope. And the rest? The rest are simply silent. They are not identified, not active, not risk-takers. Nearly 90% of our students are Jews of silence." (Gamla, October)

One Jewish student who took a risk at Rutgers University was Abe Greenhouse, co-founder of Central New Jersey Jews Against the Occupation (JATO-CNJ) who, following the lead of the Biotic Baking Brigade (http://www.bioticbakingbrigade.org/), threw a kosher cherry pie in Sharansky's face as he extolled Israel's human rights record to a largely sympathetic crowd at Rutgers University on Sept. 25. Greenhouse was then wrestled to the ground by Sharansky's bodyguards, breaking his nose. As he was escorted from the lecture hall by Rutgers police, members of the crowd shouted "Arrest him," "Kill him!" and "You deserve to die!" In an exclusive interview with WW3 REPORT, Greehouse reported that his nose was now "slightly left-of-center."

"My opinion of Sharansky was that at one time he was, indeed, a legitimate hero," Greenhouse told the Forward. "As an Israeli politician, he has sought to thwart the peace process. He was against adopting the road map, which was accepted by Bush, Sharon and Abbas. And I believe that he has, in fact, deliberately provoked the Palestinian population at a crucial time in the negotiation process, approving 800 new settlement units in the West Bank." (The Forward, Sept. 26) (David Bloom) [top]

15. DERSH: NO DIFF BETWEEN JEWISH ISM'ERS AND HITLER YOUTH
Alan Dershowitz, noted auteur of "The Case for Israel" (Wiley, 2003), a book for which he has been accused of plagirism, was quoted in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles that members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) could not legimately be considered human rights activists, claiming they focus solely focus on the rights of Palestinians while they ignore such violations in Tibet and elsewhere. One could argue with Prof. Dershowitz, on the law faculty at Harvard University for many years, that Jewish activists in the ISM have a natural interest in the region, rather than Tibet--precisely because Israel claims to act in the name of all Jews. Referring to the Nazi-allied 1940s Mufti of Jerusalem Husseini Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini, Dershowitz argues, "Why pick the one people whose leaders have been aligned with Nazis and who have used terrorism since 1949?" Dershowitz added: "They are being immoral, they are on the wrong side of morality, and they are supporting a group that has as part of its policy the murder of innocent civilians."

But Dershowitz has still unkinder words for Jewish ISMers, who comprise 25% of the movement by some estimates. "I don't see any difference between naive young Jews who join ISM, and naive young Germans who joined the Nazi youth," he told the Journal. "But ignorance is no excuse. The ISM provides legitimacy to terrorists, and they make it harder for Israel to fight terrorism. There is a word for what they are, and it is not patsies, it is criminals." (Jewish Journal, Oct. 5)

Norman Finklestein has accused Dershowitz of plagirizing passages of a discredited book by Joan Peters in his "Case for Israel." See: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/id141.htm

(David Bloom) [top]

16. SETTLERS LAUNCH "PEACE PLAN"; LIKUDNIK FEARS "APARTHEID"
Not to be outdone by the recent flurry of initiatives to put an and to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel's right-wing settler movement is set to launch its own peace plan. The plan is being drawn up by the Yesha council (Hebrew acronym for "Judea, Samaria and Gaza," the settler name for the occupied territories) and its 15 allies in the 120-member Israeli Knesset, the UK Financial Times reported Nov. 26. The plan looks something like this: no Palestinian state between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea, no Palestinian right of return to what is now Israel, and Jerusalem would forever be the undivided capital of Israel. Palestinians might be given self-rule in cantons with the option of Jordanian citizenship (should Jordan agree.) One idea being floated: Palestinians would be allowed to vote for the Knesset, but under a system that would guarantee a Jewish parliamentary majority, and a Jewish Prime Minister. MK Zehava Gal-on of the left-Zionist Meretz party denounced the plan on Israel Radio: "The idea is delusional, put forth by people who have thier head in the sand and think that it is possible to reach some sort of arrangement with proposals that only countries like South Africa used to think could be implemented. This is an apartheid policy." (FT, Nov. 26)

Left-leaning Israelis like Gal-on are not the only ones concerned with Israel turning into an apartheid state. Vice-Premier Ehud Olmert, a stalwart of the right-wing Likud party and seen as being close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, floated his own idea of giving up on "Greater Israel," and setting unilateral borders. Some have noted that the "Separation Wall" currently being built could serve as the unilaterally-drawn borders of just such a state. Olmert stressed the importance of maintaining an 80-20 ratio of Jews-to-Arabs within any future Israeli state, in order for the world to consider it democratic. Olmert is concerned with the possibility of international dissent. "I shudder to think that liberal Jewish organizations that shouldered the burden of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa will lead the struggle against us," Olmert said, in an interview with Israel's largest circulation newspaper, Yediot Ahronot. (NYT, Dec. 6) (David Bloom) [top]

17. REFORM JUDAISM DISSENTS?
Rabbi Eric Yoffie is the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish denomination in the US with 320,000 households in 900 synagogues across the country. Never a fan of settlements, he has now decided to speak out against them, as an existential threat to the State of Israel. "Continuing to build settlements is to threaten the Jewish character of the state and is to undermine the Zionist dream," Yoffie told Ha'aretz in an interview published Nov. 11. Yoffie is worried that the settlement project will make a two-state solution impossible. "My fear is that very soon, it is going to be too late," he declared, adding: "Israel will need to choose between a democratic state with an Arab majority, or an apartheid state, and this is not what Zionism is about. We didn't dream of Zion for 2,000 years in order to be a minority in somebody else's state." Yoffie called on members of the Reform movement to pressure the US government to pressure Israel to curtail settlements. (Ha'aretz, Nov. 24) (David Bloom)

In a Dec. 6 article, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) asks, was a Reform "Rabbi ditched for Israel stance?" Rabbi Paul Joseph recently said in a Yom Kippur sermon that Israel and the US "have lost their moral compass and slipped back into more primitive modes of acting." Temple Emanuel, a 600-family reform congregation on New York's Long Island, chose not to renew Rabbi Joseph's contract after the sermon, claiming his remarks "divided the congregation." Joseph maintains he was canned because he had attacked "sacred cows." (JTA, Dec. 6)(David Bloom) [top]

18. HEZBOLLAH: BEWARE THE ZIONIST LEFT
"The Israeli left is more dangerous than any other political camp," declared Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammed Hussein Fadlallah, spiritual leader of the Shia Lebanese resistence movement Hezbollah to the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv. Reacting to the new "Geneva Accords" now being negotiated, the Shia cleric told the paper, "This type of agreement tries to get the Palestinians to move towards strategic concessions under the motto of peace. We want the Palestinians to be aware of what is happening around them... While everyone is celebrating, Sharon will complete the partition fence--especially since [Geneva] ignores the 'right of return.'" (ArutzSheva.com, Dec. 6) (David Bloom) [top]

19. THE GENEVA ACCORD: "FALSE HOPE"?
Ali Abunimah, editor and co-founder of the Electronic Intifada web site, had an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune Dec. 3 deflating "the so-called Geneva Accord, a virtual peace agreement negotiated by former Israeli and Palestinian officials." While the world media have lavished much attention on this latest proposal, Abunimad writes that it "offers only false hope. Many Palestinians oppose it because they see it as being fundamentally unfair and unworkable, a rehash of the failed Oslo agreements. The initiative proposes that Israel annex the vast majority of its settlements on Palestinian land, and almost all of Jerusalem. At the same time, Palestinian refugees, forced from their homes since 1947, are expected to give up their right to return. Israel's government and its hard-line supporters reject the deal because they see it as being too generous to Palestinians. In short, this accord looks superficially promising, but close-up it fails to resolve any of the key issues that have torpedoed every earlier peace plan."

Abunimah finds a greater signal of hope from the unlikely world of reality TV:

"Some Israelis and Palestinians acknowledge a need to seek a radically different solution: If dividing the land between two peoples is impossible, then why not give 100 percent of the land to both peoples? In practice this means a single democratic state with a constitution that guarantees the political, cultural and religious rights of Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Christians and Muslims. A common homeland where Jews and Palestinians can flourish instead of fight... Israeli youth this week demonstrated the kind of integration and normality that such a future promises when they voted a 21-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, Firas Khoury, the winner of the Israeli version of the TV show 'American Idol.' A tiny sign of hope, perhaps. But hope, nevertheless." [top]

20. "ANTI"-OCCUPATION JEWISH GROUP IN BEANTOWN CONFAB
Chicago-based Brit Tzedek V'Shalom, or Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, met at a November conference in Boston, attracting 600 to hear speakers including Gen. Amram Mitzna, the dovish Israeli former general and Haifa mayor who lost the last Israeli election to Ariel Sharon by a landslide. Brit Tzedek president, former Meretz MK Marcia Freedman declared before the conferees, "We cannot maintain the occupation and the existence of a Jewish democratic state." (JTA, Nov. 10)

But is Brit Tzedek really against the occupation, or is it just out to consolidate illegal Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories? The organization has been running a much-ballyhooed " Call to Bring the Settlers Home" campaign, "For the Sake of Israel's Security." Brit Tzedek recommends financial assistance to induce settlers to return to Israel.

However, the number of settlers Brit Tzedek lists as living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is 200,000. The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, however, puts the number at 375,000. What explains the discrepancy? Brit Tzedek does not recognize settlements in occupied East Jerusalem in the same category as the rest of the West Bank, instead referring to them as "neighborhoods." "We envision a negotiated settlement that would include in Jewish Jerusalem those Jewish neighborhoods built in East Jerusalem after the 1967 war," declares the organization on its website. (See http://www.btvshalom.org/aboutus/FAQ.html#policies4).

According to international law, all the settlements, including those in East Jerusalem, are illegal, as is the occupation itself. (David Bloom) [top]

21. PROGRAM TO ATTRACT SETTLERS TO JORDAN VALLEY
An Oct. 24 article in the settler newsite Arutz Sheva declares the Israeli government's "ambitious plan to increase the population of the Jordan Valley has gotten off to a sparkling start." On day one of the campaign, 110 couples signed up for the chance to get a $22,500 stipend to move into sparsely-populated and remote Jordan Valley settlements. 3,500 Israeli settlers now live in the area. Not all the applicants will be approved: "They have to be within five years of completing their army or national service," said Jordan Valley Regional Council head David Levy. Arutz Sheva also notes that "Peace Now, predictably, is critical of the campaign, say