April 2004- End of a terrible month for US occupied Iraq

The Americans have had 135 of their soldiers killed in the Fallujah area. 135!! That's over 4 soldiers killed every day. This is more than the invasion phase of April last year. If anyone doubts that there is a war going on; this is surely conclusive proof.

In the past month, Fallujah fighters have been highly resourcefull despite seeing many of their family members killed and injured in the town. Slowly, they have been sapping US morale, judging from this report from Al-Jazeera.


"The problem is they know everything about us. They hear us coming, they know what vehicles we ride in and calculate how many in each vehicle," said Private First Class Joseph France, 19, of Batesville, Indiana.

"We know nothing about them. We don't know who they are. They know how to surprise us and they are resourceful with their weapons and know how to escape."

Announced today, a 'withdrawal of US Marines from Fallujah. They have appointed General Salih formerly of Saddam's Republican Guard to provide security in the city.

Also, closing this weeks major events, shockwaves throughout the world with graphic photgraphs of Iraqi prisoners being abused and humiliated by US soldiers.

This has been a terrible month for ordinary iraqi civilians who have lost so much (600 dead in Fallujah alone), for the US who have been humbled by a fierce resistance in Fallujah and who have had to finally relinquish control of Fallujah to an ex- Iraq Army General.

It has been month of u-turns for the US occupation. From talk of the US Marines 'taking' Fallujah to withdrawing completely to outlying areas; from de-Baathification to a reversal of that policy.

America's supposed moral high ground has also taken a battering with worldwide publication of photos showing prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib prison.
Baghdadis knew for months that 'bad' things were happening there- ever since the US took over the running of that prison. But now that the photos are out; it is a very huge and embarrassing blow to the US indeed -which they cannot talk out of so easily..

Letter to Prime Minister from fomer senior diplomats

The letter sent by more than 50 former British ambassadors to Tony Blair, urging him either to influence US policy in the Middle East or to stop backing it:


"We the undersigned former British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors and senior international officials, including some who have long experience of the Middle East and others whose experience is elsewhere, have watched with deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States.

Following the press conference in Washington at which you and President Bush restated these policies, we feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in Parliament and will lead to a fundamental reassessment.

The decision by the USA, the EU, Russia and the UN to launch a "Road Map" for the settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict raised hopes that the major powers would at last make a determined and collective effort to resolve a problem which, more than any other, has for decades poisoned relations between the West and the Islamic and Arab worlds.

... But the hopes were ill-founded. Nothing effective has been done either to move the negotiations forward or to curb the violence.

Britain and the other sponsors of the Road Map merely waited on American leadership, but waited in vain.

Worse was to come. After all those wasted months, the international community has now been confronted with the announcement by Ariel Sharon and President Bush of new policies which are one-sided and illegal and which will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood.

Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land and which have been the basis for such successes as those efforts have produced.

This abandonment of principle comes at a time when rightly or wrongly we are portrayed throughout the Arab and Muslim world as partners in an illegal and brutal occupation in Iraq.

The conduct of the war in Iraq has made it clear that there was no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement.

All those with experience of the area predicted that the occupation of Iraq by the Coalition forces would meet serious and stubborn resistance, as has proved to be the case.

To describe the resistance as led by terrorists, fanatics and foreigners is neither convincing nor helpful.

Policy must take account of the nature and history of Iraq, the most complex country in the region.

... The military actions of the Coalition forces must be guided by political objectives and by the requirements of the Iraq theatre itself, not by criteria remote from them.

It is not good enough to say that the use of force is a matter for local commanders.

Heavy weapons unsuited to the task in hand, inflammatory language, the current confrontations in Najaf and Falluja, all these have built up rather than isolated the opposition.

... We share your view that the British government has an interest in working as closely as possible with the United States on both these related issues, and in exerting real influence as a loyal ally.

We believe that the need for such influence is now a matter of the highest urgency.

If that is unacceptable or unwelcome there is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure. "


The signatories are: Brian Barder; Paul Bergne; John Birch; David Blatherwick; Graham Boyce; Julian Bullard; Juliet Campbell; Bryan Cartledge; Terence Clark; David Colvin; Francis Cornish; James Craig; Brian Crowe; Basil Eastwood; Stephen Egerton; William Fullerton; Dick Fyjis-Walker; Marrack Goulding; John Graham; Andrew Green; Vic Henderson; Peter Hinchcliffe; Brian Hitch; Archie Lamb and David Logan.

Also: Christopher Long; Ivor Lucas; Ian McCluney; Maureen MacGlashan; Philip McLean; Christopher MacRae; Oliver Miles; Martin Morland; Keith Morris; Richard Muir; Alan Munro; Stephen Nash; Robin O'Neill; Andrew Palmer; Bill Quantrill; David Ratford; Tom Richardson; Andrew Stuart; David Tatham; Crispin Tickell; Derek Tonkin; Charles Treadwell; Hugh Tunnell; Jeremy Varcoe; Hooky Walker; Michael Weir and Alan White.

Generals question US policy

Anothey bloody week with car bombs in Basra which killed many people including schoolchildren and a suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia, aimed at a security building.

Just in from the BBC:
Two US generals in Iraq have criticised the policy of excluding senior Baath Party members - including Iraqi army officers - from jobs in the post-war administration.

Maj Gen John Batiste - commander of the US First Infantry Division - told the New York Times newspaper that it would be a good thing to harness their energies.

The US commander in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Brig Gen Carter F Ham, said the de-Baathification policy has left many Sunni Muslims feeling disenfranchised, which has clearly had a destabilising effect.


This is what we said all along. And in a way the Americans have really shot themselves in the foot in post-war Iraq. The very people that were needed to stabilise the country, technocrats, civil servants, administrators, army soldiers, were all summarily sacked in the opening days of US rule. The US foolishly thought that they were destroying Baathist influence.

What they have in fact done is disenfranchised an important sector of society, the sunnis and therefore made normalisation so much more harder.

In addition, an indeginous army and security force would have been so much more effective at suppressing criminal activities due to their local knowledge and network of informants.

This was a key mistake made by the US and they are now paying for it, because step by step, the actions of America are creating a new breed of resistance against the occupation.

Battles rage across Iraq. US seeks ceasefire in Fallujah.

Hundreds of civilians are reported to have been killed in Falluja, and women and children have been trying to leave the city after six days of violence.

The US Marines know very well that if they enter Fallujah now- as it is - their safety is not guaranteed. Urban warfare dimishes their technological superiority

Attacks against the US military during the last 12 months were largely localised in the Sunni heartland. So far the resistance had been confined to squads of ex-military/ex-baath fighters and most recently militia members in the Shia south. The American nightmare must now surely be the possible linking up of these 2 separate fronts into a national resistance movement. Such a campaign would then have a popular broad base of support amongst Sunni and Shia alike- which would have national co-ordination.

This scenario is possible and if it does form, then the US military will find it even harder to suppress the will of the people.

AT THE END OF THE DAY THE AMERICANS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS MUST UNDERSTAND- YOU CAN'T RULE A COUNTRY FROM A TANK. THEY NEED GRASS ROOT SUPPORT. WITH EVERY CIVILIAN THEY KILL - THEY ARE LOSING THE VERY LITTLE SUPPORT THEY DID HAVE.

The war in Iraq has been a disaster from day 1. The US themselves guaranteed the disaster by disbanding the Iraq Army -which would have been very useful now.

The last 7 days have significantly damaged the US occupation for 4 reasons:
1. The ferocity of the resistance and willingness to defend their towns
2. The kidnapping of foreigners (e.g. Adding political pressure to the Japanese Govt. and thereby the 'coalition')
3. The drawing in of coalition troops into a 'real' combat role.(Ukrainians were forced to withdraw under fire in the town of Kut).
4. Huge civilian fatalaties (450 in Fallujah alone in a few days.)


There are increasing signs of unease among some of the US' military allies in Iraq as the upsurge of fighting draws them into combat.
Ukrainian troops pulled out of the town of Kut south-east of Baghdad on Wednesday after coming under attack by militia supporting the Shia cleric, Moqtada Sadr.

But public opposition to the policy is increasing.

The US assembled a coalition of nearly 40 countries on the ground in Iraq. Many countries sent small numbers of troops to please Washington, to show solidarity or for other political reasons.

They did not expect to be involved in serious fighting, and often sold their engagement to a dubious public with the argument that it was a form of humanitarian aid or reconstruction.

Those assumptions have been blown away by the armed uprising by supporters of Mr Sadr.

The US forces in Iraq are already overstretched
Coalition soldiers have been involved in fighting in several Shia cities in the south: The Ukrainians who retreated from Kut; the Bulgarians and Poles in Karbala; the Spaniards in Najaf; the Italians in Nasiriya.

Elsewhere, 500 Japanese non-combat troops and a similar number of South Koreans have suspended activities outside their military camps.

The only new announcement of formal withdrawal came from Kazakhstan, which said its tiny deployment would end next month.

Even in countries where the government has restated its determination to stay in Iraq, political and public opinion is divided and vulnerable. Opposition in Italy, Poland and Australia is becoming more vocal.

In most cases, the withdrawal of allied troops would not be militarily significant. Apart from the UK, only a few countries have contingents of more than 1,000 -notably Italy, Poland, Ukraine and Spain.

The new Socialist government in Madrid has said it will pull its forces out unless the United Nations takes charge in Iraq by the end of June.

These kinds of numbers may not matter in absolute terms, but they would cause problems because the US military is overstretched.

However, the political impact of troop withdrawals would be more significant.

It would tend to confirm that the occupation was essentially an American-British affair; it would increase the demand for a much greater UN role; and it would influence US and British public opinion, inflicting political damage on US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Iraqi Shia militia challenge US authority. Gunships firing on Baghdad targets.

US helicopter gunships targeted militia members loyal to Mr Sadr in the mainly Shia district of al-Shuala in Baghdad.

Coalition officials told a news conference in Baghdad that the warrant for Mr Sadr's arrest had been drawn up by an Iraqi judge and would be executed "without advance warning".


If the situation wasn't so serious and grave- it would be quite laughable: seeing the US in such an embarrassing predicament. They have already lost hundreds of soldiers and marines in the Sunni Triangle over the last 11 months in an ongoing struggle with the defiant resistance in that region.

Now the last thing the Americans needed was an opening of a second front in central and southern Iraq!! Clashes have occured in Sadr City, Najf, Kufa and Basra with this private Shia militia and their followers.

But to compound a bad situation even more, the Americans have no interest in pacifying them by negotiations and compromise. No! They have deployed Apache gunships, tanks and fired in residential areas and killed scores of civilians as well. What's more they have issued an arrest warrant on this Mr Sadr for a crime which supposedly took place last year!

The Americans have placed themselves head to head with Mr. Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.

Paul Bremer says that Mr. Sadr is now 'outside the law'. And was America inside the law when they decided to invade Iraq on dodgy intel?

Did we ever see Saddam's Iraqi Army helicopter gunships putting down Shia uprising in the capital city? Never !! It never happened before!

Many of Iraq's Shia welcomed last year's invasion but now their tolerance of the occupation is wearing thin. Is this the beginning of the end of America's adventure?

US contractors killed in Fallujah horror

Any decent person who heard what happened in Fallujah were disgusted. I feel very sorry and sad for the victims families.

But let's make 3 things clear:

1. The guys killed were private "security contractors" working for the US military.

Let's recognise that these guys were not private individuals and civilians just minding their own business or giving out sweeties to children! Oh no- They and their employers were some of the financial beneficaries of this inhumane war.

Their employer- Blackwater Consulting- takes it's core personnel from the US Special Ops community. These guys who died were very likely to be highly trained killer/operators providing guard services to the US military. (i.e. mercenaries, the US Govt. being one of their clients). There deployment in Iraq allows the US Govt. to reallocate their own soldiers elsewhere.

The contractors were in the line of fire and they knew it, they were armed in a theatre of war. YES- THEY WERE COMBATANTS IN A CONFLICT ZONE.

There - I've said it. Something which the media cannot say and have not said.

But let's state very clearly that obviously this does not excuse the horrific abuse of their dead bodies. It was WRONG and saddening that the crowds could not act in a civilised manner with a civilised mentality.

It is likely the the resistance fighters executed the 'hit' on the convoy and then escaped to fight another day.

What then happened is obvious- the crowds began the hideous mutilation of the dead bodies. Something which disgusted everyone.

2. And when it comes to "THEY WERE GUARDING FOOD CONVOYS" - the US are somehow giving the impression of a moral authority. No- don't get too moral. The food only needed guarding due to the collapse in security, law and order in Iraq. AND there were no reports of a grain truck in the convoy that was attacked!!!


3. Why are some people and the media not more disgusted by the equally horrendous deaths of over 10,000 Iraqi civilians killed by American bombs and bullets. They did not choose war, but the death and destruction came to them in many painful ways. Isn't it also a gruesome sight to see a person killed from a JDAM bomb launched from a B52? Or a child with arms and legs blown off from a forgotten cluster device?

Face it , the US have opened a can of worms in Iraq. The Sunni Triangle is now a kill zone for the Americans and it is entirely of their doing.

Well done America for another foreign policy success!

America WILL lose this war. Not militarily of course. I mean hearts and minds world-wide. And unless the US realises that fact, they will continue to fight an enemy they can't see clearly and an enemy they can't predict very well.

British muslims arrested in anti-terror swoop

Anti-terrorism officers are continuing to question eight men as they investigate an alleged bomb plot.
The arrests in south-east England came as detectives seized half a ton of fertiliser, of a type used as explosive in the Bali and Istanbul bombings.

Aged from 17 to 32, the men are thought to be UK citizens of Pakistani descent.

This is was the biggest anti-terror operation by UK police in a number of years and hopefully will prove fruitful. It is important that the police and the Government tread the middle ground. i.e. not to be seen to be excessively pandering to muslim sentiment in the one extreme but also not demonising ordinary British muslims.

Muslims just want to be treated like any other British citizen and not any different.

If the operation proves that these guys were planning something on the UK mainland then I find it extremely shocking that British people (muslim or non-muslim) would want to hurt their own country and their own economy with acts of terror.

It is obvious that there is a sense of rage especially amongst younger generations of muslims growing up in the UK. This will just accelerate the growth of surveillance operations within the UK Muslim community.

Arabs in Israel

From an Al-Jazeera report:
In a shocking re-enactment of Nazi Germany practices, Palestinian construction workers were forced to wear distinguishing marks on their hard hats to differentiate them from other nationalities.

Some excerpts:According to reports in the Israeli media, the crosses were being used by snipers posted on the Knesset rooftop to train their sites on the Arab workers and follow them around the building site.

An official said the crosses would be removed once lengthy security checks had been completed on the workers.

"As far as is known, Israel is the only country in the world where McDonald's staff is ordered to talk only one language while on duty.
Many workplaces ban Arabic because they don't like being reminded that their Jewish state is full of Arabs too."

Such discrimination dates back to the earliest days of Zionism, he said, when the movement's leaders argued that Palestine was "a land without people for a people without land".

The first Jewish immigrants began a policy of "Hebrew labour" - only employing other Jews.

A report published in January by the Adva Centre - a Tel Aviv group promoting equality and social justice - showed that the 36 worst employment black spots in Israel are all Arab areas. (By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth).

Spanish ruling party defeated

Spain's ruling Popular Party has suffered an unexpected defeat in the country's general election.

The Socialists defeated the right-wing party and capitalised on the greater turn-out after the terrorist atrocity last week. In the aftermath of the bombing, Aznar's Popular party intended to divert attention away from any talk of international terror and immediately blamed ETA. They knew that 90% of the Spanish people were against the bombing and invasion of Iraq- and so the possibility of a revenge attack by Al-Qaeda would turn the Spanish people against Aznar.

We have to remember that under Prime Minister Aznar, Spain actively promoted the Bush plan to invade Iraq. In addition to the heavy price Spain has paid in this bombing, a few months ago, a number of Spanish intelligence agents and troops in Iraq were ambushed and killed by the Iraqi resistance.

If the train bombings are proven to be an Al-Qaeda affiliated operation, then this must be the first time the network has managed to so heavily influence an election in a western democracy.

This fact is also combined with the fact that Spain may now withdraw it's troops and most definitely weaken the Bush 'coalition'.

Madrid train bombing horror

This was a truly horrific event and a tragedy for Spain. Some guys of Morrocan and Indian descent have so far been arrested in the course of the investigation so far. It remains to be seen if these arrests are linked to the bombing, or not.

If this was the work of Al-Qaeda with the collaboration of some local elements than this is serious news for all of Europe. Intelligence agencies in European capitals must be really re-assessing their security right now.