World-News

James Glanz, The New York Times, writes: "Fresh accounts of the Blackwater shooting last month, given by three rooftop witnesses and by American soldiers who arrived shortly after the gunfire ended, cast new doubt Friday on statements by Blackwater guards that they were responding to armed insurgents when Iraqi investigators say 17 Iraqis were killed at a Baghdad intersection."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101307B.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Glanz

David S. Cloud reports in Saturday's edition of The New York Times that a former top commander of American forces in Iraq: "In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort there called the Bush administration's handling of the war 'incompetent' and said the result was 'a nightmare with no end in sight.'"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101307Z.shtml

--------

General condemns Iraq 'nightmare'

In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former commander of American forces there called the Bush Administration's handling of the war "incompetent" and said the result is "a nightmare with no end in sight".

http://snipurl.com/1s4sx



U.S. leadership dooms Iraq strategy: ex-commander

Without mentioning President George W. Bush by name, he called the president's troop-escalation "surge" strategy a "desperate attempt by an administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N13287983.htm


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sanchez
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

The United Nations mission in Iraq urged U.S. forces on Friday to pursue a "vigorous" probe into an air strike that killed 15 women and children and said its findings must be made public so that lessons can be learned.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12332485.htm



Iraq: At least 17 killed as U.S. occupation grinds on

Iraqi security forces found the bodies of five people across Baghdad.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KHA243001.htm



US air strikes kill 19 "insurgents", 15 women and children

U.S. forces killed 19 insurgents and 15 women and children in air strikes north of Iraq's capital.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11445828.htm



U.N. documented more than 100 civilians allegedly killed by U.S.-led forces

"The killings are still taking place, the torture is still being reported, the due process issues are still unresolved," said Ivana Vuco, a U.N. human rights officer in Baghdad.

http://snipurl.com/1s3ps


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture

The American Conservative
by Philip Weiss

10/08/07

Late this summer, just as American political armies were squaring off over the next, and likely last, act of President Bush’s Iraq War policy, a new pro-war group called Freedom’s Watch announced a $15-million ad buy over several months in key states. The first ads featured soldiers who had been maimed in Iraq but stood by the cause of a global war on terror. Political observers said they were targeted at the districts of Republican congressmen who were going wobbly on the war. The rollout was not auspicious. Ari Fleischer, a board member of Freedom’s Watch and the former White House spokesman, stumbled on MSNBC’s ‘Hardball’ when Mike Barnicle screened one of the ads and asked, ‘What’s that soldier’s name?’ ‘I don’t have that soldier’s name in front of me,’ Fleischer said. (His name is John Kriesel, and he lost both legs in Fallujah last year). The fact that Fleischer and another member of the group’s board had worked in the Bush White House seemed to support the view that that the group was an administration front...

http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_10_08/article1.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ari+Fleischer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=war+policy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Philip+Weiss

Biloxi Sun Herald

10/11/07

A U.S. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital Thursday — one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months. The military said it was targeting senior leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq. American forces have applied fierce and determined pressure on militants, especially al-Qaida in Iraq, since the full contingent of additional U.S. troops arrived June 15...

http://www.sunherald.com/311/story/161957.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civilian+death+toll
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

The champions of democracy often share an overly romantic view of how quickly it can flower in hostile soil.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21251538/site/newsweek/



Only now, the full horror of Burmese junta's repression of monks emerges

Harrowing accounts smuggled out of Burma reveal how a systematic campaign of physical punishment and psychological terror is being waged by the Burmese security forces as they take revenge on those suspected of involvement in last month's pro-democracy uprising.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3047606.ece


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Burma

The Centre for Constitutional Rights, a legal advocacy group, said it filed the suit charging that Blackwater and its affiliates violated U.S. law in committing "extrajudicial killings and war crimes."

http://snipurl.com/1s2cq


From Information Clearing House

--------

Blackwater USA Sued for Firing on Iraqi Civilians
http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1011-02.htm

--------

Blackwater Faces War Crimes Inquiry

Anne Penketh, reporting for The Independent, writes, "The American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets by its security guards in Baghdad."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101207C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater

Three Christian sisters, beating their mother's coffin in grief, wailed and hugged each other at her funeral in Baghdad yesterday as their rapidly shrinking religious community vented anger at the foreign security guards who killed her.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2633610.ece


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mercenaries

Seumas Milne, writing for the Guardian, says, "In spite of the impact of the surge and US-armed Sunni groups, resistance is bound to continue until the occupiers leave."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101107E.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Seumas+Milne

BBC reporter Magdi Abdelhadi writes: "The huge displacement of people inside Iraq appears to be contributing to the further fragmentation of the country. The scale of the overall displacement is unprecedented in the modern history of the Middle East. There are now an estimated four million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes, and the numbers continue to rise, according to the UN refugee agency."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101107B.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+displaced