Assessing the disaster: experts mourn the Lion of Nimrud, looted as troops stood by Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent The Guardian April 30, 2003 The first authoritative list of the treasures that were stolen or destroyed in the chaos that followed the fall of Baghdad emerged yesterday, as experts from the world's great museums poured scorn on the Americans for the catastrophe. Fear reigns, as one detested militia replaces another By Phil Reeves in Baqubah Independent, UK 17 April 2003 Many people in Iraq complain that George Bush has so far utterly failed to live up to his promises of real "liberation", but the people of Baqubah have better reason than most. >>> For the people on the streets, this is not liberation but a new colonial oppression By Robert Fisk Independent, UK 17 April 2003 America's war of 'liberation' may be over. But Iraq's war of liberation from the Americans is just about to begin. >>> Embedded Photographer: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" by MICHEL GUERRIN for Le Monde April 16, 2003 Translated for Counter Punch by NORMAN MADARASZ Laurent Van der Stockt, a photographer working for the Gamma agency and under contract for the New York Times Magazine, followed the advance of the 3/4 Marines (3rd battalion, 4th regiment) for three weeks, up to the taking of Baghdad on April 9. >>> Baghdad museum's greatest treasures 'stolen to order' By Louise Jury, Arts Correspondent 2003 Independent, UK 16 April 2003
Three of the most important antiquities in the history of civilisation were apparently "stolen to order" from the National Museum in Baghdad in the looting that greeted the toppling of Saddam Hussein. >>> American soldiers fire on political rally, killing at least 10 civilians By Patrick Cockburn in northern Iraq Independent, UK 16 April 2003
American soldiers killed at least 10 Iraqis and wounded dozens of others yesterday when they reportedly fired on a political rally in Mosul. "There are perhaps 100 wounded and 10 or 12 dead," said Ayad al-Ramadhani, director of the Republican Hospital in Mosul. >>> "The Iraq war's trashiest piece of propaganda" Tuesday, April 15, 2003 By John Chuckman YellowTimes.org Columnist (Canada) (YellowTimes.org) – There are scores of candidates for the distinction of trashiest war propaganda in a mainstream publication, and readers outside Canada may not recognize my nominee's name, but I am confident readers will recognize the merit of Margaret Wente's column in the Toronto Globe and Mail, April 10. >>> Library books, letters and priceless documents are set ablaze in final chapter of the sacking of Baghdad Robert Fisk Independent, UK 15 April 2003 So yesterday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then the arsonists. It was the final chapter in the sacking of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. >>> Iraq Diaries: Other Hearts Kathy Kelly, Iraq Peace Team electronicIraq.net 15 April 2003 Nurses are digging graves in front of the Al Mansour Hospital. Baghdad University is a smoking ruin. Other disasters loom, as the Red Cross warns that Baghdad's medical system is in complete collapse, and the millions of Iraqis dependent on the old Oil-for-Food program wait for rations that are no longer being delivered. >>> Hulagu II, the return of barbarians to Baghdad by Anna Ghonim ZNet April 14, 2003 "You ask me about the sack of Baghdad ... It was so horrible there are no words to describe it. I wish I had died earlier and not seen how the butchers destroyed these treasures of knowledge and learning. I thought I knew the world, but this holocaust is so strange and pointless, that I'm struck dumb. The revolutions of time and its decisions have defeated reason and knowledge." --A Persian traveler's letter, 1258 a.d. (after the Mongol sack of Baghdad) >>> "Our heritage is finished" by Tom Engelhardt a project of the Nation Institute April 13, 2003 Even before the war began, the Bush administration swore to protect Iraq's "patrimony" for the Iraqi people. It turns out that the administration's definition of "patrimony" was exceedingly narrow, however. >>> Iraq Liberated Of Culture, History YellowTimes.org Sunday, April 13, 2003 TORONTO (NFTF.org) -- While U.S. forces were securing the oil ministry in Baghdad, looters freed 50,000 pieces of gold, silver, and bronze antiquities dating back 7,000 years. >>> Books in flames by Tom Engelhardt a project of the Nation Institute April 12, 2003 In the 13th century, the Arab world had what was undoubtedly the greatest system of public libraries on earth, most open to rich and poor alike. "When the geographer Yakur al-Himawi visited the …city of Merv in 1228," Fred Lerner tells us in his book The Story of Libraries, "he found there ten libraries open to the public. >>> Looting creating chaos in Iraq Report by YellowTimes.org April 12, 2003 TORONTO (NFTF.org) -- Iraqi sources in Baghdad have sent a general call to Iraqis living in Jordan not to heed what they call "western-controlled media." The sources have claimed that many of the looters who were caught by armed citizens of Baghdad spoke Arabic in a dialect not common in Baghdad or the outlying towns. >>> "Operation Iraqi Chaos" By Firas Al-Atraqchi YellowTimes.org Columnist (Canada) Saturday, April 12, 2003 (YellowTimes.org) – For two days running, mainstream media has bombarded the viewing public with the same images of Saddam Hussein's toppling statue, filmed from numerous angles. >>> A city in flames. A nation in chaos By Andrew Buncombe in Baghdad and John Lichfield The Independent, UK 12 April 2003 Baghdad: Regime buildings are set ablaze; fears mount as looters run amok. Mosul: City captured by Kurdish forces; banks and shops ransacked by mob. Kirkuk: Marines take control of oilfields; anarchy as Kurdish troops begin pull-out Basra: Looters shot dead by British forces. >>> US says flag incident was a 'coincidence' By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad Independent, UK 11 April 2003 It was, by any measure, an astonishing coincidence. As the biggest statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad was pulled down "spontaneously" in front of the world's media, the Stars and Stripes which flew on the Pentagon on 11 September was at hand to be draped over its face. >>> Final proof that war is about the failure of the human spirit By Robert Fisk The Independent, UK 10 April 2003 It was a scene from the Crimean War; a hospital of screaming wounded and floors running with blood. I stepped in the stuff; it stuck to my shoes, to the clothes of all the doctors in the packed emergency room, it swamped the passageways and the blankets and sheets. >>> Experts: US "Discovery" Of Nuclear Materials Already Known Dow Jones 04-10-03 VIENNA (AP)--U.S. troops who suggested they uncovered evidence of an active nuclear weapons program in Iraq unwittingly may have stumbled across known stocks of low-grade uranium and illegally broken U.N. seals, officials said Thursday. >>> Iraqis have paid the blood price for a fraudulent war The crudely colonial nature of this enterprise can no longer be disguised Seumas Milne The Guardian April 10, 2003 On the streets of Baghdad yesterday, it was Kabul, November 2001, all over again. Then, enthusiasts for the war on terror were in triumphalist mood, as the Taliban regime was overthrown. The critics had been confounded, they insisted, kites were flying, music was playing again and women were throwing off their burkas. >>> Is there some element in the US military that wants to take out journalists? Robert Fisk Independent, UK 09 April 2003
First the Americans killed the correspondent of al-Jazeera yesterday and wounded his cameraman. Then, within four hours, they attacked the Reuters television bureau in Baghdad, killing one of its cameramen and a cameraman for Spain's Tele 5 channel and wounding four other members of the Reuters staff. >>> One boy's war... bathed in blood of his family By James Meek in Iraq The Observer Sunday April 6, 2003 His father. His mother. Two sisters. A brother. And an uncle. All dead. That was the price of war for 15-year-old Omar when the vehicle he was riding in failed to stop at a US checkpoint five miles from Baghdad. Even the Marines were weeping in sympathy. >>> British use of cluster bombs condemned Weapons make battlefield safer, Hoon says Richard Norton-Taylor and Owen Bowcott The Guardian Friday April 4, 2003 British and American forces were accused yesterday of breaking international rules of war after admitting that they were using cluster bombs against targets in Iraq. >>> BOMBS FALL ON BABYLON Anton Antonowicz And Mike Moore Report From Inside Babylon General Hospital The MIrror, UK April 3, 2003 THEY lie in packed wards, eight to each airless room. Many are crying. Others softly moaning. Some stare, as if lifeless. >>> Bombs Do Not Discriminate By Kathy Kelly AlterNet April 2, 2003 Cathy Breen and I visited Amal at the home of her friends, having heard that her home had been further destroyed by ongoing bombing. Amal took us to her house, which faces the river, graced by a garden where flowers are blooming. >>> The proof: marketplace deaths were caused by a US missile By Cahal Milmo The Independent, UK 02 April 2003 An American missile, identified from the remains of its serial number, was pinpointed yesterday as the cause of the explosion at a Baghdad market on Friday night that killed at least 62 Iraqis. >>> The Cheney connection Daily Times, Pakistan
Not only did Halliburton not seem
to mind that its CEO was moonlighting as a headhunter, it gave Cheney a
$1.5 million bonus. But that was cookie jar money compared with what Cheney
pocketed when Bush made him his running mate. Cheney then sold his stock
options and pocketed another $22 million and change. >>>
Playboy deploys Playmates to boost morale The Sydney Morning Herald. April 2 2003 United States girlie magazine Playboy is joining the US-led war in Iraq by deploying its Playmate centrefolds to boost battlefield morale - but troops shouldn't expect to see nude bunnies any time soon. >>> Robert Fisk: Iraq is littered with graves of Britons killed in another colonial war The Independent, UK 01 April 2003 At dusk yesterday the ground around the Baghdad North Gate War Cemetery shook with the vibration of the bombs. The oil-grey sky was peppered with anti-aircraft fire. >>> Troops kill women and children at checkpoint LORNA MARTIN and MICHAEL SETTLE The Herald.co.uk Apr 01 03 US troops shot dead seven women and children last night when their van failed to stop at a military checkpoint. >>> U.S. 'cowboy' struck our troops, U.K. soldier says
One Lance Corporal dead: 'He had absolutely no regard for human life,'
injured men say CanWest News Service Tuesday April 1 2003 LONDON - The sight of the U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft should have been a relief to the British soldiers sitting nervously in their two Scimitar light tanks last Friday, watching as Iraqi villagers approached waving white flags. >>> Sergeant's suicidal act of war has struck fear into Allied hearts Robert Fisk The Independent (UK) 31 March 2003 Sergeant Ali Jaffar Moussa Hamadi al-Nomani was the first Iraqi combatant known to stage a suicide attack. Not even during the uprising against British rule did an Iraqi kill himself to destroy his enemies. >>> A quiet Baghdad night of occasional air raid sirens and mysterious explosions By Robert Fisk The Independent Digital (UK) Ltd 31 March 2003 On the roof of the al-Jazeera office in Baghdad, you could hear the missile coming. It swooped down out of the clouds of smoke south of the Tigris, hissed past the office and disappeared over the old Ahrar bridge. "Was that what I think it was?" the anchorman asked me down the line from Doha. >>> Iraq Diaries Enduring Storm Revisited Kathy Kelly, Iraq Peace Team electronicIraq.net 31 March 2003 Cathy Breen and I visited Amal at the home of her friends, having heard that her home had been further destroyed by ongoing bombing. She then took us to her house which faces the river, graced by a garden where flowers are blossoming. >>> Uranium Warheads May Leave Both Sides a Legacy of Death for Decades by Susanna Hecht Los Angeles Times March 30, 2003 Although the potential human cost of the war with Iraq is obvious, not many people are aware of a hidden risk that may haunt us for years. >>> I'LL SHOOT YANKS TO SAVE IRAQ Stephen Martin in Baghdad The Sunday Mirror, UK Mar 30 2003 Now all that is left in the Baghdad sitting room is a sagging armchair - and an automatic rifle resting on enough ammunition to kill a hundred men. >>> Child victims of market bomb horror By Stephen Martin in Baghdad Sunday Mirror, UK Mar 30 200 HE went to the market to buy bread and tea for his mother after praying at the Mosque. >>> Expelled Peaceteam members in car accident near border with Jordan Doug Hostetter, Christian Peacemaker Team Iraq Diaries electroniciraq.net 30 March 2003 Much of the town was destroyed including the children's hospital in which two children were killed in the bombing. >>> Bombs return after more than 50 die in market blast The Indepencdent, UK Agencies 29 March 2003 Allied forces renewed their heavy aerial attacks on Baghdad today as Iraqi officials said the number of people killed in last night's market bombing had risen to more than 50. >>> INTERNATIONALS IN BAGHDAD DESCRIBE RESISTANCE By John Catalinotto International Action Center Mar 28 03 They went to Baghdad as doctors, as links to the anti-war movements in their own countries, as "human shields" defending structures vital to the 5 million humans living in Coalition may use WMD in Iraq Friday, March 28, 2003 CNN U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division soldier seen in file picture during chemical attack training. BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's information minister said Friday that coalition forces -- not Iraqis -- might resort to weapons of mass destruction out of frustration and defeat. >>> Robert Fisk: Raw, devastating realities that expose the truth about Basra The Independent, UK 28 March 2003
Two British soldiers lie dead on a Basra roadway, a small Iraqi girl – victim of an Anglo American air strike – is brought to hospital with her intestines spilling out of her stomach, a terribly wounded woman screams in agony as doctors try to take off her black dress. >>> Robert Fisk: 'It was an outrage, an obscenity' The Independent, UK 27 March 2003
It was an outrage, an obscenity. The severed hand on the metal door, the swamp of blood and mud across the road, the human brains inside a garage, the incinerated, skeletal remains of an Iraqi mother and her three small children in their still-smouldering car. >>> No cakewalk Robert Novak townhall.com March 27, 2003 WASHINGTON -- "There were some who were supportive of going to war with Iraq who described it as a cakewalk," Tim Russert told Donald Rumsfeld on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday. The secretary of Defense seemed surprised. "I never did," he replied. "No one I know in the Pentagon ever did." While Rumsfeld spoke the literal truth, his response was still disingenuous. >>> Human misery and suffering: kindly brought to you by the "democratic governments" of the US, Britain and Australia. Human Shields in Baghdad Report By Uzma Bashir, Baghdad http://www.humanshields.org/ Thursday March 27, 2003 We visited the Yarmouk Hospital this morning. A woman, who had been wounded in the bombing of the Sha'ab district in North Baghdad, was lying in a ward weeping uncontrollably. >>> Hi-tech quagmire Azmi Bishara AL-AHRAM 27 March - 2 April 2003 Issue No. 631 Opinion The war against Iraq was no picnic, and the bombs were not as smart as they were billed to be. Azmi Bishara* says the solidarity with Iraq has paid off >>>Barbaric ambition Noam Chomsky AL-AHRAM WEEKLY 27 March - 2 April 2003 Issue No. 631 Opinion As the missiles started dropping on Iraq, Noam Chomsky wrote down his thoughts >>> A Road Trip in Wartime By DANIEL WOLFF Counter Punch March 28, 2003 [My thirteen year-old son and I drove from New York to Memphis and back during the first week of the war.] Thursday, March 20. We will see almost no TV, get most of our news from local papers in the towns we pass through and from the radio. We can bring in National Public Radio stations almost wherever we go, including the long stretch of Highway 81 that cuts south through Pennsylvania Dutch country. >>>The Days of the Militarists Shock But Not Awe By DAVID KRIEGER Counter Punch March 26, 2003 I write with a heavy heart. Our cause has shifted from trying to prevent a needless war to seeking to end an illegal war. The audacity of the Bush administration takes one’s breath away. >>> Chalabi was one of the most notorious crooks in the history of the Middle East Sunday Business Post Dublin, Ireland 16 February, 2003 Washington has picked its candidate for the future leader of Iraq, should Saddam Hussein be toppled from power, amid criticism from United States senators and senior figures in the State Department. >>> |