The US doesn’t want intruders in Iraq
Geert Van Moorter 20/03/2005
Iraq US War Crimes
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Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who had been kidnapped in Iraq, was shot at by US soldiers on March 4, right after her release. In a reaction, Sgrena said that her kidnappers had warned her that “the Americans could intervene, for they don’t want you to return”. According to her husband, the attack was premeditated, because she knew too much.
That reminds me of the shooting of the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, killing two journalists. I was working in Iraq for Medical Aid for the Third World then. At the moment of the shooting, I was helping out with a rescue operation just two floors beneath. The US army gave as an excuse that they had been fired at from the hotel. But nobody in or around the hotel had heard any shot. Later, a US soldier proudly explained to me how, from inside his tank, he could clearly see a person’s head from 2000 meters away. So, the soldier in the US army tank that fired at the Palestine Hotel could clearly distinguish the journalists and their cameras. But a secret US army report wouldn’t find any fault committed by US troops.
That very same day, the Baghdad offices of Al Jazeera were attacked from the sky. A journalist was killed in this incident. Paul Pascual of Reuters confirmed to me that the US troops knew very well in which building Al Jazeera was housed. He himself had, upon the request of Al Jazeera, transmitted the GPS coordinates of the office to the Pentagon, so that it would not be targeted.
In March 2004, two journalists from another Arab station, Al Arabiya, were shot in the head while driving away from a US checkpoint, after having identified themselves. In August 2004, the US-installed Iraqi government closed down the Al Jazeera offices for one month, after US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had accused the station of anti-Americanism.
In January 2005, Eason Jordan, the CNN Information Director, told the World Economic Forum in Davos that several journalists in Iraq had been targeted by the US armed forces. After which the man resigned, under pressure. He claimed to have been misunderstood.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) accuses the US of wanting to control and intimidate the media in Iraq. According to the IFJ, so far there has not been any serious explanation or investigation into the death of thirteen journalists – almost all of them not ‘embedded’ – who were killed in Iraq by US soldiers.
Can all these be ascribed to ‘errors’ or ‘coincidence’?
What does the US have to hide?
The US forces in Iraq are confronted with growing resistance. A resistance they try to crush with a dirty war, ‘cleansing’ entire towns and villages of ‘terrorists’. I have seen the cruel results of this ‘cleansing’, in the hospitals of Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah: lots of civilians killed or wounded, victims of (cluster) bombs or shot during house searches, at checkpoints or simply in the streets.
I experienced myself how the US army is in itself a factor of insecurity. US soldiers shoot with impunity at anything they deem suspicious. They even fire at ambulances. When I questioned a soldier about that, he told me: “Those ambulances could have been full of explosives.” Never mind that the Geneva Conventions prohibit such acts. For hasn’t Bush himself shown the way, with his pre-emptive strike on Iraq?
In August 2003 I asked an American MP what he would do if he would see suspicious people running away. “I finish them”, was his prompt reaction. He told me that he wouldn’t even have to make a report when a US soldier shoots an Iraqi. And if ever a report would have to be made, “then we can adjust the story in the sense that the guy was threatening us, or had been firing while running away”.
In November last year we all saw on TV how a US marine finished off a wounded Iraqi in a mosque. The marine felt completely innocent, as such behavior is not at all unusual in occupied Iraq. But because the images went around the world, he had to answer before a (military) judge. Who acquitted him last February.
At least 100,000 Iraqi’s have died in this war
Many more Iraqi civilians die in actions by the US and British forces than in suicide attacks. To be clear, nobody can approve of attacks against innocent civilians, nor those of the US armed forces, nor those of certain groups in Iraq that don’t have anything to do with the legitimate resistance against the occupation.
According to the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, as of October last year at least 100,000 Iraqi’s had died because of the war. Half of them died of a violent cause. 84% of them could be traced to the US and British forces (as against 4% to the resistance). The US is trying to hide this dirty war, as was the case with the siege of Fallujah, when US forces occupied the hospital in order to prevent the stories of the doctors and the images of the victims to reach the outside world. With as result that it are almost exclusively the suicide attacks that get media coverage.
Complete chaos reigns in Iraq. With Iraqi colleagues I did research into Iraq’s health situation. Two years after the fall of Baghdad, the situation remains dramatic. Nobody is safe. The purchasing power, the nutritional status and the living conditions have all seriously deteriorated. More than half of the population has no job, hence no income. Prices of food and transportation have more than doubled. There are major problems with electricity, potable water, sewerage and garbage. As a result, child mortality has increased, while the medical infrastructure has not yet improved.
The occupying forces appear to be mainly concerned with their own interests and their own security. Any support for the occupation – including by means of training Iraqi military, police and justice personnel, as other NATO members are about to provide – will only strengthen the US grip on Iraq. A large part of the country’s wealth – mainly oil – risks to flow to the transnational corporations from the West. This will not help the Iraqi population, while the chaos in the country risks to be prolonged.
The large majority of the Iraqi’s want the occupation forces to leave. The sooner the occupation ends, the bigger the chances are for genuine progress for the Iraqi people.
http://www.anti-imperialism.net/lai/texte.php?langue=3§ion=BDBG&id=23636
Geert Van Moorter 20/03/2005
Iraq US War Crimes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who had been kidnapped in Iraq, was shot at by US soldiers on March 4, right after her release. In a reaction, Sgrena said that her kidnappers had warned her that “the Americans could intervene, for they don’t want you to return”. According to her husband, the attack was premeditated, because she knew too much.
That reminds me of the shooting of the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, killing two journalists. I was working in Iraq for Medical Aid for the Third World then. At the moment of the shooting, I was helping out with a rescue operation just two floors beneath. The US army gave as an excuse that they had been fired at from the hotel. But nobody in or around the hotel had heard any shot. Later, a US soldier proudly explained to me how, from inside his tank, he could clearly see a person’s head from 2000 meters away. So, the soldier in the US army tank that fired at the Palestine Hotel could clearly distinguish the journalists and their cameras. But a secret US army report wouldn’t find any fault committed by US troops.
That very same day, the Baghdad offices of Al Jazeera were attacked from the sky. A journalist was killed in this incident. Paul Pascual of Reuters confirmed to me that the US troops knew very well in which building Al Jazeera was housed. He himself had, upon the request of Al Jazeera, transmitted the GPS coordinates of the office to the Pentagon, so that it would not be targeted.
In March 2004, two journalists from another Arab station, Al Arabiya, were shot in the head while driving away from a US checkpoint, after having identified themselves. In August 2004, the US-installed Iraqi government closed down the Al Jazeera offices for one month, after US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had accused the station of anti-Americanism.
In January 2005, Eason Jordan, the CNN Information Director, told the World Economic Forum in Davos that several journalists in Iraq had been targeted by the US armed forces. After which the man resigned, under pressure. He claimed to have been misunderstood.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) accuses the US of wanting to control and intimidate the media in Iraq. According to the IFJ, so far there has not been any serious explanation or investigation into the death of thirteen journalists – almost all of them not ‘embedded’ – who were killed in Iraq by US soldiers.
Can all these be ascribed to ‘errors’ or ‘coincidence’?
What does the US have to hide?
The US forces in Iraq are confronted with growing resistance. A resistance they try to crush with a dirty war, ‘cleansing’ entire towns and villages of ‘terrorists’. I have seen the cruel results of this ‘cleansing’, in the hospitals of Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah: lots of civilians killed or wounded, victims of (cluster) bombs or shot during house searches, at checkpoints or simply in the streets.
I experienced myself how the US army is in itself a factor of insecurity. US soldiers shoot with impunity at anything they deem suspicious. They even fire at ambulances. When I questioned a soldier about that, he told me: “Those ambulances could have been full of explosives.” Never mind that the Geneva Conventions prohibit such acts. For hasn’t Bush himself shown the way, with his pre-emptive strike on Iraq?
In August 2003 I asked an American MP what he would do if he would see suspicious people running away. “I finish them”, was his prompt reaction. He told me that he wouldn’t even have to make a report when a US soldier shoots an Iraqi. And if ever a report would have to be made, “then we can adjust the story in the sense that the guy was threatening us, or had been firing while running away”.
In November last year we all saw on TV how a US marine finished off a wounded Iraqi in a mosque. The marine felt completely innocent, as such behavior is not at all unusual in occupied Iraq. But because the images went around the world, he had to answer before a (military) judge. Who acquitted him last February.
At least 100,000 Iraqi’s have died in this war
Many more Iraqi civilians die in actions by the US and British forces than in suicide attacks. To be clear, nobody can approve of attacks against innocent civilians, nor those of the US armed forces, nor those of certain groups in Iraq that don’t have anything to do with the legitimate resistance against the occupation.
According to the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, as of October last year at least 100,000 Iraqi’s had died because of the war. Half of them died of a violent cause. 84% of them could be traced to the US and British forces (as against 4% to the resistance). The US is trying to hide this dirty war, as was the case with the siege of Fallujah, when US forces occupied the hospital in order to prevent the stories of the doctors and the images of the victims to reach the outside world. With as result that it are almost exclusively the suicide attacks that get media coverage.
Complete chaos reigns in Iraq. With Iraqi colleagues I did research into Iraq’s health situation. Two years after the fall of Baghdad, the situation remains dramatic. Nobody is safe. The purchasing power, the nutritional status and the living conditions have all seriously deteriorated. More than half of the population has no job, hence no income. Prices of food and transportation have more than doubled. There are major problems with electricity, potable water, sewerage and garbage. As a result, child mortality has increased, while the medical infrastructure has not yet improved.
The occupying forces appear to be mainly concerned with their own interests and their own security. Any support for the occupation – including by means of training Iraqi military, police and justice personnel, as other NATO members are about to provide – will only strengthen the US grip on Iraq. A large part of the country’s wealth – mainly oil – risks to flow to the transnational corporations from the West. This will not help the Iraqi population, while the chaos in the country risks to be prolonged.
The large majority of the Iraqi’s want the occupation forces to leave. The sooner the occupation ends, the bigger the chances are for genuine progress for the Iraqi people.
http://www.anti-imperialism.net/lai/texte.php?langue=3§ion=BDBG&id=23636
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