World-News

The government's approval on the security pact between Iraq and the United States is "meaningless", according to a spokesman for Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc said.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103148



Iraqi cleric calls for peaceful mass protest against U.S. occupation

In a letter, al-Sadr called for a pan-Muslim Friday prayer sermon in central Baghdad's Firdous Square next week, instead of separate services in individual mosques.

http://tinyurl.com/5f2v7f



Lawmakers meet with top cleric on U.S.-Iraq pact

Two senior Iraqi lawmakers have been meeting with the country's top Shiite cleric, hoping to win his support for a U.S.-Iraq security pact. - . An aide to al-Sistani has said he would "intervene" in the discussions if the agreement's final draft infringed on sovereignty.

http://www.wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=9355875



Last month, Muqtada said, "If they tell you that the agreement ends the presence of the occupation, let me tell you that the occupier will retain its bases. And whoever tells you that it gives us sovereignty is a liar."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21249.htm

By Pepe Escobar


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=security+pact
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraqi+cleric
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Sadr
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sistani
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pepe+Escobar

The Women's International Perspective
by Jennifer Fenton

11/16/08

Army Sergeant Casey J. Porter has many battles to fight, and unlike the dramatizations of politicians and media commentators, his battles are concrete, real, and hard fought. During his time as an enlisted soldier deployed in Iraq, Casey has undergone an evolutionary process, one that has taken him from warrior to peace activist. His talent and passion for filmmaking have given him the perfect medium for his personal expression. Utilizing his current circumstances and natural talent as a filmmaker to speak out against the war, Casey’s films have turned the heads of people like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and filmmaker Michael Moore...

http://thewip.net/contributors/2008/09/documenting_the_surge_us_soldi.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



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

Rome [GA] News-Tribune

At least one in four U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffers from a multi-symptom illness caused by exposure to toxic chemicals during the conflict, a congressionally mandated report being released Monday found. For much of the past 17 years, government officials have maintained that these veterans — more than 175,000 out of about 697,000 deployed — are merely suffering the effects of wartime stress, even as more have come forward recently with severe ailments. ‘The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that “Gulf War illness” is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time,’ said the report, being released Monday by a panel of scientists and veterans...

http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/news936004.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Link to full Gulf War Illness Report

http://sph.bu.edu/insider/racreport
http://tinyurl.com/6cjkd5

Lots of info being shared on this landmark Gulf War Illness report today. Thanks to all the members of various lists for taking the time to send it forth. Above is a link to the full report---450 pages--wish I had the ink and paper to copy it. This could be a huge resource for those of us doing activism work for the chemically injured. And for those of us who have worked with the Gulf War vets, this just feels so right. I have received so many emails today saying this is what validation feels like! So many have already died, but hopefully this will be of help to many so that the suffering and too-soon deaths can stop. We can only hope that the next steps taken are morally and ethically correct--and that is to stop the poisoning and loss of health and life for the civilian and military populations. We are the tip of the iceberg in the vast degradation of our Earth and her inhabitants by environmental toxicants.

Below is a link to an article from Boston University School of Public Health.
http://sph.bu.edu/


Maggie MacRaven


Informant: Dorothee Krien

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Panel: Gulf War Illness Confirmed

Thomas D. Williams, Truthout: "A federal health panel released conclusions Monday that evidence strongly and consistently indicates hundreds of thousands of US troops in the first Gulf War contracted long-term illnesses from use of pills, given by their own military to protect them from effects of chemical weaponized nerve agents, and from their military's pesticide use during deployment."

http://www.truthout.org/111808A



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gulf+War+illness
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=veterans
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Thomas+D.+Williams

Paul Harris, The Guardian UK: "As the man and woman walked slowly towards the war memorial in Chicago last week, the figure of Barack Obama was instantly recognizable. But as the pair hugged after laying a wreath in the ceremony, it was the young woman who caught the attention of the media and whose photograph flashed around the world.... The woman was Tammy Duckworth, one of the most remarkable figures to emerge from the conflict."

http://www.truthout.org/111608D



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Harris

Leila Fadel, McClatchy Newspapers: "After months of tough negotiations and multiple revisions, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has decided to back the controversial US-Iraq security agreement that calls for the complete withdrawal of American troops by the end of 2011, Iraqi and US officials said Friday."

http://www.truthout.org/111508Z

--------

2011 US Iraq Withdrawal Depends on Conditions on the Ground

By The Telegraph

"And so three years is a long time. Conditions could change in that period of time," said Adml Mullen, adding the United States will continue to talk with Baghdad "as conditions continue to evolve." Asked if the agreement could be changed, he said "that's theoretically possible".

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21260.htm



Will The US Government Accept Responsibility For The Slaughter Of Over 1,000,000 Iraqis?

By Michael Schwartz

Historically, the U.S. government has a poor record of acknowledging its responsibility for death and/or destruction of other peoples, beginning with the genocide against Native Americans (never officially acknowledged), continuing through two hundred years of the slave trade and slavery (there has actually been a limp official apology), and culminating in the ongoing refusal to acknowledge one to three million deaths in Vietnam caused by the U.S. attempt to conquer that country.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21262.htm



America's Moronic Iraqi Policy

By Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21254.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Maliki
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=security+pact
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=police+state
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Schwartz
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Craig+Roberts

Brian Ross and Jason Ryan, ABC News: "A federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating allegations the controversial private security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of dog food, ABCNews.com has learned."

http://www.truthout.org/111408R



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blackwater
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Brian+Ross
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jason+Ryan

All British troops will be out of Iraq by the end of next year, Iraq's national security advisor said Friday, days before Baghdad was expected to vote on a controversial U.S. military pact.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/11/14/60119.html


From Information Clearing House

http://www.meta-info.de/?site=metainfo&lid=32837



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

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said Thursday after a Cabinet meeting that "the presence of the Bulgarian military contingent on a humanitarian mission in Iraq ends on Dec. 31."

http://www.620ktar.com/?nid=46&sid=990060


From Information Clearing House

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/12-8



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ed+Pilkington