[A-List] Occupied Iraq: 'Black Hole Sucking Up Middle East, The World'

[Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>]

1) French Foreign Minister: Iraq Is 'Black Hole
Sucking Up Middle East And, Beyond That, The World'
2) US Military Assault On Karbala Threatens Shiism's
Holiest Shrines
3) Two US Troops Killed, Insurgents Storm Najaf Police
Station
4) Iraqi Prisoners Spurn Rumsfeld's Publicity Stunt
5) With 71% Of Populace Opposed To Iraq Deployment,
Portugal To Reassess Military Mission
6) Spanish Parliament Approves Iraq Troop Withdrawal
7) 'Horror And Shock': Italian Opposition Parties
Prepare Demand For Iraq Troop Recall
8) More Bulgarian Troops Opt Out Of Iraq Deployment
9) Ukraine: Communist Parliamentarians To Filibuster
Until Troops Are Brought Back From Iraq
10) Commentary: Thousands Of Filipinos Must Be
Returned From Iraq Amid 'General Uprising, Turkey
Shoot'




1)
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1526575,00.html


News 24 (South Africa)
May 13, 2004


Iraq like a 'black hole'


-"We must get out of this black hole that is sucking
up the Middle East and, beyond that, the world."


Paris - Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, in an
interview published on Thursday, compared Iraq to a
"black hole that is sucking up" the world and said
France would at no time send in troops.

Barnier, who travels to the United Nations on Friday
for talks on Iraq, expressed alarm about "the spiral
of horror" that is gaining ground and the loss of
human dignity as violence progresses.

In an interview with the daily Le Monde, he made a
"call to reason and conscience". He also stressed that
Iraqis must be given authentic sovereignty after the
transition of power June 30 from American to Iraqi
hands.

"We must get out of this black hole that is sucking up
the Middle East and, beyond that, the world" Barnier
was quoted as saying.

"What shocks me is the spiral of horror, the blood,
the inhumanity that we see now on all fronts, in
Fallujah like in Gaza or through the terrible images
of the assassination of this unfortunate American
hostage.

"All of this gives the impression of a total loss of
bearings" he added.

"What is in question on all sides is this fundamental
value at the heart of all religions, all
civilizations: human dignity".

Barnier said that it is "out of the question" that
France send troops to Iraq.

"There will be no French soldiers in Iraq, not now and
not later".

Pushing for Iraq conference

France, which opposed the US-led campaign that toppled
Saddam Hussein, has refused to participate in the
multinational force responsible for security in Iraq
since the official end of the war.

The Security Council is struggling to come up with a
resolution to endorse the June 30 transition of power
to Iraqi hands.

Paris is pushing for an Iraqi conference, with the
support of the United Nations and countries in the
region, to help create the caretaker government. The
convening of a conference should be contained in any
UN resolution on the power transfer, though it would
probably require persuading the Americans to go along,
Barnier said.

Limited sovereignty will be restored to Iraqis on June
30, with a transitional government in power until a
general election is held by the end of January 2005.
France has insisted on a new leadership that puts
genuine power into the hands of Iraqis, not Americans.


"The real question is whether they (the United States)
are ready to accept responsibility for the
deteriorating situation by accepting authentic Iraqi
sovereignty" Barnier said. "The time has come for a
bold initiative in order to get out of this Iraqi
tragedy".

The government elected in 2005 should have the power
to decide whether the multinational force stays or
goes, Barnier said.

The interim government should have a say in security
in addition to authority over Iraqi forces and be
consulted on actions taken by coalition forces, he
added.

Edited by Anthea Jonathan
------------------------------------------------------
2)
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,250806,00.html

Associated Press
May 13, 2004

Fighting threatens shrines


KARBALA (Iraq) - American forces battled Iraqi militia
yesterday near one of the most sacred of Shi'ite
sites. Fighters loyal to radical cleric Moqtada
Al-Sadr pulled back and regrouped in alleyways north
of Imam Hussein shrine, while United States troops
were positioned west and south of the site.

Fighting also raged near the city's Imam Abbas shrine
with American forces concerned that damage to the two
shrines could enrage Iraq's majority Shi'ite
population as the US tries to stabilise Iraq ahead of
a transition to sovereignty on June 30.

Elsewhere, one person was injured when insurgents
fired two mortar rounds in central Baghdad yesterday,
and a rocket which hit part of the city's Dora oil
refinery injured a worker and triggered a fire.
-----------------------------------------------------
3)
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=9978

Middle East Online
May 13, 2004

Two US soldiers killed in Iraq


-The latest deaths brings to 777 the number of US
soldiers killed since the start of the invasion of
Iraq in March 2003.
-Members of Sadr's Mehdi Army blocked off streets
around the headquarters before 10 men broke into the
building, seized 40 assault rifles and ammunition, and
dragged away the deputy police chief....
General Hassan Lilu was led away with a
rocket-propelled grenade launcher to his back and a
gun to his head.


BAGHDAD - A US soldier was killed in Baghdad and a
marine died of wounds sustained in the western
Al-Anbar province, the US-led coalition announced
Thursday.

"One Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed and another
was wounded when an improvised explosive device struck
a convoy Wednesday in Baghdad," the US military said
in a statement.

A separate statement reported that a member of the 1st
Marine Expeditionary Force "died May 12 from wounds
received earlier that day in the Al-Anbar Province
while conducting security and stability operations."

The statement did not say how the US marine was
wounded, saying that "the release of more details
about the incident could place our personnel at
greater risk."

"1 MEF force protection measures preclude the release
of any information that could aid enemy personnel in
assessing the effectiveness or lack thereof with
regard to their tactics, techniques and procedures,"
the statement said.

The latest deaths brings to 777 the number of US
soldiers killed since the start of the invasion of
Iraq in March 2003.

Meanwhile militiamen loyal to Shiite Muslim radical
leader Moqtada Sadr ransacked police headquarters in
the central holy city of Najaf and seized a senior
officer at gunpoint overnight, prompting clashes that
left three Iraqis dead, police and medics said
Thursday.

Members of Sadr's Mehdi Army blocked off streets
around the headquarters before 10 men broke into the
building, seized 40 assault rifles and ammunition, and
dragged away the deputy police chief, officers said on
condition of anonymity.

They said General Hassan Lilu was led away with a
rocket-propelled grenade launcher to his back and a
gun to his head.

The militiamen took him to their stronghold around the
mausoleum of Imam Ali in the city center where he was
beaten up before being released a few hours later.

They also stole three police vehicles in the raid at
about 10:00 pm (1800 GMT) Wednesday as a rapid
reaction team of US tanks and armored vehicles rumbled
into 1920 Revolution Square, less than two kilometers
(one mile) from the mausoleum, Najaf's holiest shrine.

Fierce fighting broke out for about three hours which
left three Iraqis dead and seven wounded, hospital
staff and witnesses said.

"We have three people killed and seven wounded, three
of them seriously," said Hassan Toufaili, a doctor at
the city's Hakim hospital.

"Most of the casualties are civilians."

Among the wounded was a bearded man dressed in black,
a hallmark of Sadr's militiamen. Bloodied young men
were seen being wheeled into the emergency room.

Captain Brandon Anderson, a US military officer,
confirmed the ransacking of police headquarters.

He said it was not yet clear how many people had been
killed.

The remains of one burnt vehicle stood off the square
and cut-off power lines littered the streets.

"I saw militia hiding in the cemetery firing at a US
tank, which then responded by firing at them," said
Muslim Jaber, a 42-year-old Najaf resident.

Overnight, bullets and other projectiles were seen
whizzing over the city's vast cemetery, adjacent to
the square. A building in the area was set alight.
....
On Wednesday, Sadr vowed to carry on fighting the
US-led occupying forces and die a martyr, shortly
after Shiite leaders said they had agreed on a plan to
end the violence that has shaken much of central and
southern Iraq.
------------------------------------------------------
4)
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_1526600,00.html


News 24 (South Africa)
May 13, 2004


Rumsfeld gets frosty reception


-Some of the prisoners gestured a thumbs-down to their
surprise visitor, others held aloft a tattered Iraqi
flag. Most stood in silence with their arms folded as
they were paraded for their US guest.


Abu Ghraib - Iraqi prisoners gave US Defence Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld a frosty reception on Thursday as he
toured the Baghdad jail at the centre of revelations
of abuses by US troops, during a surprise visit to
Iraq.

Hundreds of Iraqi security detainees watched from
behind a concertina-wire perimeter fence as Rumsfeld
toured the facility in a Rhino Runner armoured
vehicle.

Some of the prisoners gestured a thumbs-down to their
surprise visitor, others held aloft a tattered Iraqi
flag. Most stood in silence with their arms folded as
they were paraded for their US guest.

Rumsfeld had told reporters he wanted to hear from
those involved in the day-to-day work of detainee
operations.

"We care about the detainees being treated right. We
care about soldiers behaving right. We care about
command systems working" he told journalists
travelling with him from Washington.

Edited by Anthea Jonathan
------------------------------------------------------
5)
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040513172939.85p8iuo1.html

Agence France-Presse
May 13, 2004

Portugal to reassess Iraq mission after June transfer
date


- Nearly three out of four Portuguese, or 71 percent,
want the national guards to be withdrawn, a poll
published last month found.


LISBON - Portugal will reevaluate the continuation of
its national guard contingent in Iraq after the
planned June 30 handover of sovereignty to Iraqis,
Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said
Thursday.
"What we plan to do in June, when a new government
takes over in Iraq, is reevaluate the situation," he
told reporters when asked about the mission.

"We want to get to know the way of thinking of the new
Iraqi authorities, but that obviously can only be done
after that government exists, not before."

On Tuesday Interior Minister Antonio Figueiredo Lopes
said Portugal would keep its national guard mission in
Iraq for another six months.

Lisbon dispatched 128 national guards, a militarized
police force, to Iraq on November 12 to serve as part
of a multinational force providing security in the
southern city of Nasiriyah under British command.

Durao Barroso has been under growing pressure at home
to withdraw the guards from Iraq since Spain's new
government announced in March it would withdraw its
troops from the war-ravaged country.

Nearly three out of four Portuguese, or 71 percent,
want the national guards to be withdrawn, a poll
published last month found.
------------------------------------------------------
6)
http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040513124711.08xnoel2.html

Agence France-Presse
May 13, 2004

Spanish parliament approves withdrawal of troops from
Iraq


MADRID - Parliament voted Thursday by 186 in favour to
141 against the withdrawal last month of the 1,430
Spanish troops from the US-led occupation force in
Iraq on the orders of Socialist Prime Minister Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The last Spanish combat troops left Iraq on April 28
and Defence Minister Jose Bono said this week that
those in charge of shipping out military materiel
might leave sooner than May 27, the scheduled date for
handing over their base to the US army.

The conservative Popular Party, whose former leader
Jose Maria Aznar sent the troops to Iraq last year
when he was prime minister, was the only parliamentary
group to vote against their withdrawal.

Opposition spokesman for international affairs Gustavo
de Aristegui complained that Zapatero had not allowed
time for a possible replacement of the US-led force by
a United Nations contingent.

Zapatero told parliament on Wednesday that he was
"increasingly satisfied" with his decision with "every
passing day" in Iraq.
------------------------------------------------------
7)
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200405131944-1245-RT1-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia
May 13, 2004


IRAQ: LEFT WING JOINT TICKET TO ASK FOR WITHDRAWAL


-[T]he joint ticket will present a motion for the
withdrawal of the Italian troops. In today's
statement, the ticket expresses "horror and shock,
faced with the serious abuses and tortures in the
Iraqi jails and detention camps by occupation forces,"
saying that these facts "are a terrible shame on the
West and the Untied States," and moreover betray "the
traditions of Italian democracy...."


Rome - The final document put together at the end of
the national committee of the left wing joint ticket
places conditions to avoid the request of the
withdrawal of the Italian contingent from Iraq.
"Conditions that with all probability will not be
discussed by PM Silvio Berlusconi in his meeting with
George Bush." Therefore, on May 20, during the
Parliamentary debate, the joint ticket will present a
motion for the withdrawal of the Italian troops. In
today's statement, the ticket expresses "horror and
shock, faced with the serious abuses and tortures in
the Iraqi jails and detention camps by occupation
forces," saying that these facts "are a terrible shame
on the West and the Untied States," and moreover
betray "the traditions of Italian democracy,
irreversibly hit the credibility that started the war
in Iraq, and weaken the fight against terrorism, which
remains a priority, and the alliance with moderate
Arab nations against terrorism." The statement defines
it "indispensable" that those responsible for torture
undergo "rigorous justice," and it is believed "a duty
that Italy ask the United States a change in the
defence administration (in substance the resignation
of Donald Rumsfeld), as political leader of the armed
forces present in Iraq." The statement also reasserted
the need for "the UN to take the lead in the Iraqi
transition, without waiting for June 30, but starting
the procedures for installing a new government in
Baghdad in the next few days, according to the Brahimi
plan, and to substitute as soon as possible the
occupation troops with a multinational force of
stability that acts under a UN mandate and responds to
the UN Secretary General." These are the "promises,
deadlines, and concrete acts" that Berlusconi must
receive from Bush in his next trip in the United
States. If this does not happen, the joint ticket
"believes that military presence in Iraq does not have
any acceptable significance," and therefore,
parliamentary groups of the party "will propose, in
the parliament debate of May 20, the withdrawal of the
Italian troops present in Iraq."
------------------------------------------------------
8)
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=34636

Novinite (Bulgaria)
May 13, 2004

15 Dropouts of Bulgaria's Next Iraq Unit


A total of fifteen Bulgarian soldiers from the
country's third Iraq unit, scheduled to leave in
August, have stated their will to quit.

The news was broken by Bulgarian Darik radio. A total
of 450 military men are already part of Bulgaria's
next peacekeeping unit for Iraq.

The same problem bothered the country's Defense
Ministry in December. Soldiers from Bulgaria's second
unit decided to quit following the December 27 attack
that claimed the life of five Bulgarians in Iraq.
Those were Bulgaria's first casualties in Iraq.

After Senior Sergeant Dimitar Dimitrov was killed in
an ambush in Karbala in April many soldiers from the
second battalion that is already in Iraq filed reports
to return to Bulgaria. Last week, however, Bulgaria's
Army Chief Gen. Nikola Kolev explained that the
soldiers that decide to quit their mission in Iraq
should be punished.
------------------------------------------------------
9)
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=809736&PageNum=0

Itar-Tass (Russia)
May 13, 2004

Ukrainian Communists seeking pullout of peacekeepers
from Iraq


-There are more than 1,600 Ukrainian peacekeepers in
Iraq. Six of them have died.


KIEV - Leader of the Ukrainian Communists in
parliament Pyotr Simonenko said they would block
lawmakers' work until the legislators considered the
issue of pulling out Ukrainian troops from Iraq.

"We'll continuously demand that the issue be urgently
considered," Simonenko told reporters on Thursday.

He emphasized that the matter concerned the lives of
the Ukrainian citizens in Iraq, not a trivial blocking
of the parliament's work but

"Our peacekeepers should be promptly brought home," he
underlined, reiterating that the Communists had been
opposed to this mission from the beginning.

The Ukrainian servicemen went there not to defend the
Ukrainian people, but to side with the aggressors,"
Simonenko stated.

"The society is against the ignominious sending of
servicemen to Iraq," he added.

The morning session of the Ukrainian parliament closed
as the Communists blocked the rostrum, demanding that
the issue be put on the agenda.

There are more than 1,600 Ukrainian peacekeepers in
Iraq. Six of them have died.
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?oid=50930&Section=Opinion

ABS CBN News [Philippines]
May 14, 2004


Pull out the OFWs in Iraq now


-The Filipinos in US military camps in Iraq are about
as secure as fish in the proverbial barrel.
-What the United States, the United Kingdom and the
rest of the Coalition of the Willing confront in Iraq
is a general uprising, where the prime targets are the
forces and installations of, as most Iraqis see it,
the invaders of their homeland.
-[T]he safety of cooks and laundrymen from the
Philippines is likely to be a low priority among US
military officials who now find their hands full
trying to keep their own troops from getting killed or
wounded....
-[T]he government is under obligation to take the
Filipinos in Iraq out of harm?s way. It was, after
all, responsible for putting them right in the middle
of the human equivalent of a turkey shoot....


Just days ago officials of the Arroyo administration
were saying that the Filipinos in Iraq were relatively
safe because most of them were located inside US
military camps. It now turns out those camps are the
least safe places in that war-torn country. The
Filipinos in US military camps in Iraq are about as
secure as fish in the proverbial barrel.

The two Filipinos reported killed Wednesday became
vulnerable to attack precisely because they were
inside Camp Anaconda. Their deaths brought to three
the number of Filipino fatalities in Iraq. The first
was a truck driver who was ambushed as he was
delivering supplies to American forces.

What the United States, the United Kingdom and the
rest of the Coalition of the Willing confront in Iraq
is a general uprising, where the prime targets are the
forces and installations of, as most Iraqis see it,
the invaders of their homeland. The Americans and the
British, in particular, are taking a severe beating
whether or not their political leaders in Washington
and London care to admit it. When Filipinos are
located close to the US and UK military, they are in
the gravest danger.

This paper had warned not too long ago that Filipinos
were bound to get sucked into the fighting whether
they are members of the country?s humanitarian
contingent or workers of contractors servicing the
requirements of the allied military forces in Iraq. We
are sad that this prediction has come to pass, but we
are also angry that the Philippine government -- whose
Chief Executive was too busy campaigning for a fresh
electoral mandate -- chose to ignore the many warnings
about the perils our compatriots face in Iraq.

Camp Anaconda, where 1,300 Filipinos (returning OFWs
insist there are actually 4,000 Filipinos in Anaconda
and nearby US outfits) were last reported to be
working for a British contractor that provides
commissary and laundry services to US troops, was
visited three times before Wednesday?s tragedy. And
after each of those visits, officials of the so-called
Team Iraq declared the camp to be safe because it had
underground bunkers where the camp?s soldiers and
other personnel could run for cover in case of an
attack. None of those officials obviously considered
that the Filipinos work aboveground and that Iraqi
militants do not announce their plans to launch
rocket-propelled grenades beforehand.

In Manila, President Arroyo, smart enough to preempt
the usual critics of her pro-US policy in Iraq,
quickly demanded ?the best protection? for the
Filipinos hours after Wednesday?s attack. But the
safety of cooks and laundrymen from the Philippines is
likely to be a low priority among US military
officials who now find their hands full trying to keep
their own troops from getting killed or wounded -- and
US civilians from being abducted and decapitated by
Iraqi militants.

And since the Philippines is part of the willing
coalition, too, it should not discount the possibility
of one of its citizens suffering the same fate as the
hapless Nick Berg. The invasion of their country has
driven not a few Iraqis to resort to extreme, even
barbarous, measures to express their resistance. And
in this cauldron of an entire nation?s outrage boiling
over, we fear that more Filipinos are bound to get
burned.

Just as disturbing are reports that many of the
Filipinos hired on six-month contracts by US and
British private contractors do not have insurance
coverage and do not get hazard pay. Six hundred
dollars a month may seem like a fortune for Filipinos,
but it is a measly sum when compared to the hazards
and very real possibility of death they have to face
-- especially when it?s all they?re getting. According
to one returning OFW, ?the typical Filipino worker
will always be willing to risk his life for his
family, but not when he knows his family won?t be
getting anything by way of additional benefits when he
dies; it just isn?t worth it. More, it?s even stupid
to stay.?

We don?t know if repatriation or, at the very least,
withdrawal to more secure locations in the Middle
East, as Team Iraq proposes, will prevent any more
Filipinos from getting killed in Iraq. Because it has
taken so long to make a decision, the Philippine
government could actually be exposing our countrymen
to even greater peril by moving them en masse out of
US Army camps. The Iraqi employees of US troops whom
our OFWs have befriended (indeed, Pinoys have a talent
for making friends everywhere, especially among poor
Iraqi blokes desperate for jobs like them, and who
have now become, like them, cannon fodder in the
deadly war between the GIs and the Iraqi rebels) have
been warning our compatriots of talk in the grapevine
about attacks being stepped up before next month?s
Iraq elections; and lately, of land mines being
planted around US bases. But it seems both US and
Filipino officials have chosen to ignore such
important intelligence on the ground - at the great
peril of hapless young GIs and the Third World workers
who service their needs.

Still, the government is under obligation to take the
Filipinos in Iraq out of harm?s way. It was, after
all, responsible for putting them right in the middle
of the human equivalent of a turkey shoot.

By the way, at the very least, the government should
help these workers by shouldering the $500 ?penalty?
each that their foreign employers are demanding for
cutting short their contracts. At $500 per head,
that?s $650,000 for 1,300 OFWs, or roughly P36
million. Jesus, that?s just a tiny fraction of what
this administration splurged in the just-finished
campaign. Tapos na ang gimikan, alalahanin niyo naman
ang mga bagong bayani.








	
		
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