Large Explosions Rock Fallujah in Iraq

[peterh]

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/world/8985130.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Large explosions rocked Fallujah late Tuesday in the same area as a U.S. airstrike last weekend, witnesses said. The Americans said the weekend attack was against a safehouse of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's movement.
Ambulances raced to the area after the 10:30 p.m. blasts. Wounded and dead were being evacuated, said Col. Mekky Zeidan.
The attack came only days after a strike Saturday that leveled a building U.S. officials said was a suspected safehouse for al-Zarqawi's network.



U.S. confirms strike on Dow Jones….

*DJ US Confirms Strike On 'Zarqawi Network' Safehouse Tue

(MORE) Dow Jones Newswires
06-22-04 1542ET(AP-DJ-06-22-04 1942GMT)

[Don_G]

1. Why Don't The Newspapers

Keep this on the front page?

All we have to do is fill in the time, the city and the numbers of dead and wounded.

[Speck Tater]

2. "A suspected safehouse"

Since when does being a suspect warrant the death penalty?

[tom_paine]

13. Since the Old American Republic Died 12/12/2004

In 20 years or less, Caligula and Nero Bush (whoeevr they turn out to be), will be doing that to US.

Believe it.

[Robbien]

3. Dropping bombs on a city one is occupying is a war crime

How many war crimes does this make that we have committed now? A dozen or so?

[tom_paine]

14. Hundreds. Undoubtedly.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. DUPE

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. Headline: US forces shadow boxing their way to victory

The reality of it is that 19 guys armed only with box cutters has turn this "Great Nation" into a quivering bowl of shit ready to strike out at evil doer shadows, when ever and where ever.

[quagmire_iraq]

6. Airstrike Targets Fallujah Terror Hideout

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=3&u=/ap/20040622/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_explosions

Airstrike Targets Fallujah Terror Hideout

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The United States launched an airstrike Tuesday in Fallujah on a safehouse used by followers of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — the second strike against the terror network in three days, the U.S. military said.

U.S. officials offered no casualty figures, but Al-Jazeera television reported that three people were killed and six were wounded. Residents of Fallujah contacted by telephone said the strike hit a parking lot.


The Saturday attack leveled a building U.S. officials said was a suspected al-Zarqawi safehouse. Fallujah officials claimed the house was owned by an Iraqi family and that no foreign terrorists were there.

[quagmire_iraq]

7. Iraqi Militants Reportedly Behead Korean

Can you say revenge?

Except Zarqawi is Jordanian and not Iraqi.. He couldn't give a Shiite about Iraq...

[Aidoneus]

8. of course they go with the military's line

despite their being proved to be murderous liars on multiple occasions.. 4 deaths have been confirmed by local doctors.

[quagmire_iraq]

9. The Secrets of Occupation: Scott Taylor on Iraq

Scott Taylor: My major impression was the sheer inhumanity and disregard for life displayed by the occupation forces towards ordinary Iraqis.

Since the Abu Ghraib scandal, more stories are starting to come out. One particularly telling one was recounted to me by a native Turkman, whose nephew was brutally gunned down by US forces a few months ago. The family’s ongoing saga dealing with the US government over this tragedy speaks volumes about the regard the coalition has for Iraqis today.

Even Fatal Mistakes…

CD: So, what was the story?

ST: A mysterious explosion on the evening of Kirkuk, back on February 2, triggered an American response- but unfortunately on an innocent civilian. There was almost no one on the streets after the blast, but since an American ambush patrol spotted a “suspicious” vehicle driving near the blast site, they tracked the car with their night vision goggles, waited until the driver was in range, and then riddled the car with fifty-three bullets.

The driver, 21-year-old Sinan Ibrahim Ismail, was hit 13 times. Eyewitnesses reported that he was visibly moving inside his car for several minutes after the attack, but that they were prevented from aiding him by the Americans.

CD: Didn’t the soldiers have some reason, some intelligence, to have targeted this car?

ST: Actually, it seems they didn’t. “When I asked them why this happened, an American told me that 'this was a terrorist,’” Iraqi doctor Ali Terzi told me. “But when I saw the car I told them they were wrong…this was my cousin.”

Indeed, Iraqi police who arrived at the scene quickly confirmed that Sinan was the wrong guy. He had just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The young man was in fact a nursing student at the local college. In a tragic irony, he had actually worked part-time for the previous six months at the U.S. airbase in Kirkuk.

http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=11405

[quagmire_iraq]

10. (Un)Covering Torture. We have done our best; now we need your help by NewS

http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=579



On May 4, we published a story about Sadiq Zoman, an Iraqi who US troops abducted from his home in Kirkuk and, one month later, dropped off at a Tikrit hospital in a "persistent vegetative state," his body exhibiting telltale signs of torture. We told the story of Mr. Zoman’s family -- nine daughters and a wife who have sold every last possession to pay for his care as he lies unresponsive and helpless. They are desperate for answers and accountability from the foreign forces occupying their country, and who, from all evidence, deprived them of a husband and father as they knew him.

Even the New York Times picked up on our May 4 article and described the Zoman family’s ordeal in a feature story on torture victims and their relatives.

Still, the United States Army will not answer most of our questions on the matter.

We believe the military owes the American public — and the Zoman family — a clear explanation of how a man who entered their custody in perfect health wound up on the verge of death three weeks later.


When we started The NewStandard we envisioned our readership as active participants in the world around them — engaged with the news, instead of passively consuming it. From your letters and phone calls, we know you are that readership. As we strive to provide you with daily news from a perspective you can relate to, we need your help. Gathering the news need not be reserved for professionals. Sometimes a story can only be acquired through collective action.


We are asking you, and everyone you know, to take a few minutes to help us demand answers from the US military. With your help maybe we can unravel a mystery and help ten impoverished Iraqi women gain some peace of mind.

Two Ways You Can Help

The US Army needs to hear that the American public wants the truth about what happened to Sadiq Zoman. If the military does not already know the real story, it should immediately investigate, and it should cooperate with The NewStandard’s own investigation into the story.

You can help pressure the military. Call the following people and demand answers:

Major Joslyn Aberle, Assistant Public Affairs Officer of the 4th Infantry Division:
254-287-7013

Her boss, Lieutenant Colonel Bill McDonald:
254-287-7011

Colonel Campbell, who signed a paper releasing Sadiq Zoman to the hospital, already in his current, "vegetative" condition:
254-287-7280

[jmcgowanjm]

16. thanx for the article and the link, quagmire_iraq n/t

[Wright Patman]

11. If you believe there is a Satan,

and you have read of all his characteristics ("He comes to kill, steal and destroy" etc.), would you not have to come to the inexorable conclusion that the military men and women of this world, and especially of this nation at this point in history (as we are the aggressors running amok across the planet), are in his Satanic service?

How can anyone with a conscience "just follow orders" like this? I understand it is a "war zone" and all that. But who decided that there had to be a war there? It was the Satanic servicemen's overlord discikple of Satan in D.C.

Is there not a duty to refuse to commit war crimes even if ordered to do so? Have these young people learned nothing from Nuremberg? Or are they so ignorant that they have never heard of World War II and are unclear on the concept when you say "Nuremberg."

[leftchick]

12. US strikes "terrorists"in Falluja...Reality...

US kills many civilians under the pretense of finding mythical
al-qaeda operatives... purely for muriKan mass media consumption... :grr:

[lucky777]

15. Maybe we were shooting at Zarqawi's good leg . . .

After all, he is dead and missing a leg: that leaves one good leg as a target for massive bombardment.

Seriously, when you take out all the weasel words ('suspected' 'alleged' 'reported') you are left with the fact that we are basically bombing without any idea what the fuck we are shooting at. That kills innocent people; that's the definiiton of terrorism.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

17. Thank God Zarqawi didn't hide in New York.

I guess it would depend on the ethnicity of the neighborhood as to the size of the bomb they would send after him.

[leftchick]

18. Hi Billy P!...

long time no see... Strange how the daily events in Iraq have not changed though. It is good to see your posts again my friend.

peace,
LC

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

19. Thanks... I've been lurking a bit.

New job eating up the lion's share of my time.

Ouch, it hurts every time I see that picture.

[quagmire_iraq]

20. You cannot just bomb civilian areas

Thats a war crime. I think it has to do with taking all precautions against inflicting unnecessary harm to civilians. Dropping huge bombs that kill everyone within 100 yards could be considered not giving a shit. To some people....

[Nihil]

21. War crimes are off the menu (if you're American anyway)

Yep, it's a war crime.
So what?

Nobody in the entire world will do ANYTHING about it as it was
committed by a member of the US armed forces under the orders of
US officers carrying out the strategy of the US administration.

This is just the same as all of the other war crimes that have been
committed over recent years: Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc..

I'm not talking about "torture photos" (ooh, torture, ooh, sexual,
ooh, sadistic, ooh ... a few "bad apples" who will be "punished").
I'm talking about the widescale killing and maiming of civilians.
I'm talking about the video game mentality of killing from a distance.
I'm talking about the "not keeping a body count of Iraqis".
I'm talking about the "bomb them just in case" approach to "suspects".

These are war crimes.

If they were committed by a Czech, a Slav, a Bosnian, an Algerian,
an Egyptian, a Korean, ... there would be a big fuss, a diplomatic
flexing of muscles, a public outcry and demand for "justice".

Unfortunately, they were committed by an American.
This makes them non-newsworthy, no votes to be won there, don't even
think about criticising "Our Boys Over There".

The physical act is performed by some GI Joe/Jane or a wannabe Top Gun
flyboy (or even be a part-timer who has got caught up in the mess).
The encouragement, support and absolution is provided by the
"good folks at home".

And still some people don't understand why "Americans" are getting
tarred with the same brush.

It's not a problem of "a few bad apples", it is the simple, sad fact
that there are only a few "good apples" and they are being buried
amongst the rotting detritus of a once-great nation.

Nihil