I agree with MMA, Mobb those last pics are too graphic please remove them mate. ....................................................................................... Claim: CIA behind Iraqi prisoner abuse Sunday 02 May 2004, 8:59 Makka Time, 5:59 GMT US intelligence is accused of ordering torture of detainees Related: Outrage at US abuse of Iraqi prisoners Prisoner abuse pictures enrage Arabs Tools: Email Article Print Article Send Your Feedback A US army reserve general, whose soldiers were photographed abusing Iraqi prisoners, has said the prison cellblock involved was under the tight control of military intelligence, which may have encouraged the abuse. Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski told The New York Times in a telephone interview that the special high-security cellblock at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad had been under the direct control of army intelligence officers, not the reservists under her command. Her comments follow a report in The New Yorker magazine, which indicated that abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib may have been ordered by US military intelligence to extract information from the captives. Seymour Hersh, investigative reporter for The New Yorker, said that Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, one of six US military policemen accused of humiliating Iraqi prisoners, wrote home in January that he had "questioned some of the things" he saw inside the prison, but that "the answer I got was: 'This is how military intelligence wants it done'." Karpinski was formally admonished in January and "quietly suspended" from commanding the 800th Military Police Brigade while under investigation. Shifting blame The Times quotes Karpinski as saying she believed military commanders were trying to shift the blame exclusively to her and other reservists and away from intelligence officers still at work in Iraq. Karpinski says intelligence officers are still at work in Iraq "We're disposable," she is quoted as saying. "Why would they want the active-duty people to take the blame? They want to put this on the MPs and hope that this thing goes away. Well, it's not going to go away." Karpinski said the special cellblock, known as 1A, was one of about two dozen cellblocks in the large prison complex and was essentially off limits to soldiers who were not part of the interrogations, including virtually all of the military police under her command, the paper said. Round the clock She said she was not defending the actions of the reservists who took part in the brutality, who were part of her command. But she added she was also alarmed that little attention has been paid to the army military intelligence unit that controlled Cellblock 1A, where her soldiers guarded the Iraqi detainees between interrogations, The Times said. She said military intelligence officers were in and out of the cellblock "24 hours a day," often to escort prisoners to and from an interrogation centre away from the prison cells. "They were in there at two in the morning, they were there at four in the afternoon," General Karpinski is quoted as saying. "This was no nine-to-five job." Karpinski also said that CIA employees often participated in the interrogations at the prison complex, according to the report.

Those Brits with their softly softly approach to winning hears and minds http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/mirror/may2004/1/2/0009DF21-4C67-1093-953F80BFB6FA0000.jpg [ May 02, 2004, 10:19 AM: Message edited by: J11 ]

The master mind Rumsfeld visiting the prison and next to him the lady General who ran the complex.

http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture11.jpg http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture12.jpg http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture13.jpg http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture9.jpg http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture8.jpg [ May 02, 2004, 10:17 AM: Message edited by: J11 ]

http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture5.jpg http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture7.jpg http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture10.jpg [ May 02, 2004, 10:16 AM: Message edited by: J11 ]

More disturbing pictures, Muslims must wake up and take responsability to fight the devil Americans and Zionist http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture3.jpg http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture2.jpg http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/torture4.jpg [ May 02, 2004, 10:15 AM: Message edited by: J11 ]

Bashi, thanks that was interesting cheers

Financial Times (FT) is authoratitive in business The Independent with Robert fisk is the best for current events specialy news regarding Iraq, though I hate the ignorant gay & proud Johan Hari. I stay clear of the Telegraph, The Times and the useless Evening Standard. Picking up The Guardian depends on the story but it lost some of its prestige as a leftist journal. Cant stand the tabloads specialy the SUN even though I have built up some respect for the Mirror since its anti war stance. As for TV, its Al Jazeera and Al Arabia and I like the Al Jazeera English website. or just check headlines on www.news.google.com Somali news always from the internet, Allpuntland, Dayniile, Hatuuf but take these with a pinch of salt.

April: A Month of Disaster in Iraq for the Coalition - 01/05/2004 01:00:00 GMT It wasn't supposed to be like this... April has been a month of disaster for the coalition in Iraq. As things continue to get worse drastic improvements are needed in May otherwise the unthinkable may be on the cards...a withdrawal and humiliation like Vietnam. This as Vo Nguyen Giap, the general who masterminded Vietnam's wars of independence against the French and American armies, warned the United States that it faced defeat in Iraq. "Any country that wants to impose its will on another nation will certainly fail and all nations fighting for their own independence will be victorious," Giap told reporters today. Indeed the V word (standing for Vietnam) previously spoken little in Washington is now becoming common talk, but as of yet is being used in denial. Importantly at the start of April some portions of the Iraqi population saw the coalition as occupiers, now large portions of the world see this as a fact beyond doubt. All the good work of the coalition such as the building of schools and hospitals has been totally wiped clean in this month of disaster for "New Iraq". Even its new flag was rejected and burnt in the streets. US Soldiers and Iraqi's Killed 136 US service persons were killed in Iraq in April. This is the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq, even exceeding any total during the actual war this time last year. An added twist this month was the publication of photos showing America's war dead arriving home, much to the Pentagon anger. The Pentagon had banned publicity of the return of bodies from Iraq, but were forced to release images after a freedom-of-information court action. This proved to be a public relations disaster. 1,361 Iraqis were killed in April. The victims — young and old, women and men, insurgents and innocents — have been piling up day by day, making April the deadliest month for Iraqis. Official and complete death counts for Iraqis nationwide are unavailable. But a count by The Associated Press found that around 1,361 Iraqis were killed from April 1 to April 30 — 10 times the figure of at least 136 U.S. troops who died during the same period. "For this to be happening a year after Saddam fell, Iraqis are shocked," said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the U.S.-picked Governing Council. "This shows that the United States cannot rule Iraqi properly. They thought they could do a better job than if they created an Iraqi government right from the start." Torture pictures The world expressed outrage at graphic photographs shown on TV screens Friday across the Middle East of naked Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by smiling U.S. military police. President Bush condemned the mistreatment of prisoners, saying it "does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. I didn't like it one bit." Bathsheba Crocker, an expert on Iraqi reconstruction at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the images are likely to "fuel the feeling of anti-American, anti-occupation sentiment among Iraqis." "It doesn't help a situation in which the United States is already viewed very badly. From a public relations perspective, it is yet another image for Arabs to add to pictures of civilians being killed in Fallujah," she said. As similar images emerge showing British soldiers doing even worse acts (urinating on prisoners), even the celebrated British "hearts and mind" victory in Southern Iraq is dented. Fallujah Retreat and Appeasement After promising to "liberate" Fallujah for the second time in a year, the US failed to do so and as they retreat the Fallujah fighters are viewing this as a military victory against the occupation forces. Indeed the Fallujah retreat will be seen in a similar light to the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, that of the previously unbeatable being defeated. In an apparent move to speed the Fallujah agreement, U.S. authorities Thursday released the imam of the city's main mosque, Sheik Jamal Shaker Nazzal, an outspoken opponent of the U.S. occupation who was arrested in October. A Plea for Help as Discharged General Recalled The occupation forces have recruited a former Bassist party general to take over in Fallujah. General Saleh who served in the Republican Guards in the 1980's will command Iraqi units in Fallujah. This is a slap in the face for CPA Head Paul Bremer, who discharged the entire Iraqi army after the war and now has no choice but to replace US forces with Iraqi forces in Fallujah. The General turned up to work today in his old Iraqi army uniform. This sets a dangerous precedent for the coalition as if/when other cities turn against the occupation they will know if they can beat the siege for long-enough they will soon get their own Iraqi army back into their town. The top U.S. military commander in the Persian Gulf area has urged Muslim nations to send forces. Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. military operations in the Middle East knows this is wishful thinking given the current situation and even a UN resolution would make this highly unlikely in the short-term.

US investigating abuse of Iraqi prisoners By David Usborne in New York 30 April 2004 The United States military has announced that it is pursuing a widening criminal investigation into allegations that its own soldiers committed acts of abuse, humiliation and torture against Iraqi prisoners, as photographs of the purported incidents were aired for the first time on US network television. CBS broadcast pictures said to have been taken last November and December inside the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad where Allied forces were holding hundreds of prisoners captured after the invasion of Iraq. One showed Iraqis naked - except for hoods - stacked into a human pyramid. In March, US officials revealed that six soldiers faced courts martial for possible violations of the rights of Iraqi prisoners they had been guarding. But, at the time, they offered few details. Following the airing of the photographs, they now admit that the affair has become even more far-reaching. In addition to the criminal charges against the six - all military police belonging to the 800th Brigade - investigators have recommended disciplinary action against seven US officers who helped run the prison, including Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the commander of the 800th Brigade. She and seven other officers implicated in the case face being relieved of their commands. The revelations are acutely embarrassing for Washington, which has emphasised repeatedly its record of liberating the Iraqi people from the inhumane repression of Saddam Hussein. The pictures from inside the prison graphically show some of the alleged incidents. One picture depicts an Iraqi soldier standing on a box with wires attached to his hands. He was reportedly left on the box for a long period and told that he faced electrocution if he fell off. Another shows prisoners kneeling on each other, naked except for hoods covering their heads, to form a human pyramid. Another shows naked prisoners being forced to pretend to have sex with one another. Many of the photographs show the American guards smiling and flashing thumbs-up signs. A slur in English is scrawled on one prisoner's skin. The investigation began when a US soldier from the prison reported the abuse and turned over the photographs, which also found their way to CBS. One of the six, Sergeant Chip Frederick, who plans to plead innocent, asserted on CBS that he and his colleagues had had no proper guidance from commanders on how to treat the prisoners. Nor, he said, had they been given access to provisions of the Geneva Convention on the proper treatment of prisoners.

US investigating abuse of Iraqi prisoners By David Usborne in New York 30 April 2004 The United States military has announced that it is pursuing a widening criminal investigation into allegations that its own soldiers committed acts of abuse, humiliation and torture against Iraqi prisoners, as photographs of the purported incidents were aired for the first time on US network television. CBS broadcast pictures said to have been taken last November and December inside the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad where Allied forces were holding hundreds of prisoners captured after the invasion of Iraq. One showed Iraqis naked - except for hoods - stacked into a human pyramid. In March, US officials revealed that six soldiers faced courts martial for possible violations of the rights of Iraqi prisoners they had been guarding. But, at the time, they offered few details. Following the airing of the photographs, they now admit that the affair has become even more far-reaching. In addition to the criminal charges against the six - all military police belonging to the 800th Brigade - investigators have recommended disciplinary action against seven US officers who helped run the prison, including Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the commander of the 800th Brigade. She and seven other officers implicated in the case face being relieved of their commands. The revelations are acutely embarrassing for Washington, which has emphasised repeatedly its record of liberating the Iraqi people from the inhumane repression of Saddam Hussein. The pictures from inside the prison graphically show some of the alleged incidents. One picture depicts an Iraqi soldier standing on a box with wires attached to his hands. He was reportedly left on the box for a long period and told that he faced electrocution if he fell off. Another shows prisoners kneeling on each other, naked except for hoods covering their heads, to form a human pyramid. Another shows naked prisoners being forced to pretend to have sex with one another. Many of the photographs show the American guards smiling and flashing thumbs-up signs. A slur in English is scrawled on one prisoner's skin. The investigation began when a US soldier from the prison reported the abuse and turned over the photographs, which also found their way to CBS. One of the six, Sergeant Chip Frederick, who plans to plead innocent, asserted on CBS that he and his colleagues had had no proper guidance from commanders on how to treat the prisoners. Nor, he said, had they been given access to provisions of the Geneva Convention on the proper treatment of prisoners.

The US should be locking these radicals into democracy, not blasting them out of it Any moment the Shia turn against the occupation, the clichés about Vietnam become true Interesting article by the ignorant Mr Johann Hari an openly proud homosexual who supported the war on the people of Iraq and now wants to furhter divide Sunni/Kurd/Shait in order to prove his point that this aggression against a soverign peple was just. 30 April 2004 Saddam Hussein could only ever have been dealt with by force. There was no way he was going to give up or moderate his tyrannical power except at the barrel of a gun. The Saddamist-Sunni insurgents - who are systematically targeting Shia civilians - can similarly only be dealt with by force. There is no way their agenda of restoring Sunni supremacy over the Shia majority can be haggled over by the coalition authorities. .............................................................................. Note tis only an extract, purchase the paper or borrow it from someone.

US forces 'withdraw' from embattled Falluja Friday 30 April 2004, 14:14 Makka Time, 11:14 GMT Marines' withdrawal to make way for political settlement Hundreds of people in Falluja have taken to the streets to welcome a former officer of the Iraqi army who has taken control of the city, following a pullout by US occupation forces. People waving Iraqi flags and Iraqi security forces cheered the former officer of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard Jasim Muhammad Salih, wearing his old army uniform, when he entered the town centre and gave a speech on Friday The former officer said he was forming a military unit to restore calm to the bloodied Iraqi city of Falluja after an agreement with US occupation forces. Salih, who a relative said had been chief of staff of a Republican Guard brigade, said the force would help Iraqi security forces bring order to the town, so US forces would not be needed. He did not say who would make up the unit. "We have now begun forming a new emergency military force to help the forces of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps and the Iraqi police in completing the mission of imposing security and stability in Falluja without the need for the American army, which the people of Falluja reject," Salih said. Withdrawal Falluja civilians were badly hit by the fighting Earlier US Marines withdrew from the southeastern part of Falluja which they had occupied for the last three weeks while Iraqi police were deployed in some areas inside the city. The 1st Battalion, 5th Marines Regiment withdrew from frontline bases in the abandoned factories and garages of Falluja's southern industrial zone, witnesses said. Occupation troops also moved out of areas in the western part of the city. The city has been the scene of the most violent clashes during April with scores of US soldiers and hundreds of Iraqi civilians and fighters killed. Settlement The withdrawal follows a push for a political settlement in the city and troops on Friday were seen taking down barbed wire and defences while tanks left the area. US troops have been frustrated in their attempts to overcome a highly motivated and increasingly resourceful resistance force. "We have now begun forming a new emergency military force..." Jasim Muhammad Salih, former Iraqi army officer The withdrawal came after Lieutenant General James Conway, who commands the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, held closed-door talks with a group of Iraqis. A much-abused ceasefire in Falluja was announced earlier this month, but occupation forces pounded parts of the city from the air on Thursday even as talks proceeded. US military officials have said their negotiations with leaders in Falluja would lead to the deployment of more Iraqi forces in the city. But they have denied the troop withdrawal spelt an end to the siege of Falluja, which began after four US contractors working for the occupation forces were killed and two were then publicly mutilated. Explosion Elsewhere on Friday, a US soldier was wounded when an explosive device detonated on the highway east of the town of Heet, reported Aljazeera's correspondent in Ramadi quoting eyewitnesses. "The explosion damaged a US military truck and American forces were immediately at the scene," witnesses told our correspondent. The ambush followed an attack late on Thursday in which the representative of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) in the municipality council in Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, was seriously wounded by unidentified armed men.

Falluja fighters hit US morale Friday 30 April 2004, 13:17 Makka Time, 10:17 GMT The fighters have mastered the art of attacking occupation Related: US pounds city amid pullout talks Renewed fighting shakes embattled Falluja Falluja truce has 'weakened resistance' Tools: Email Article Print Article Send Your Feedback Under cover of darkness, US Marine snipers hunting the fighters of Falluja have spent a long night on Iraq's desert sand, emerging with little but frustration. "We were on some very exposed ground and we didn't get anyone," said an exhausted Lance Corporal Migel Nunez, 22, of Elgin, Texas. It was their tenth ambush mission in Iraq, none of which killed or captured a fighter near the city, site of a weeks-long standoff with resistance fighters who the US occupation forces say include Saddam Hussein loyalists and foreign Muslim fighters. For weeks US Marines operating near the city have been searching houses, hunting suspected fighters and setting up ambush positions deep in enemy territory. Few results But the operations have yielded few tangible results and despite their high-tech weapons and draconian discipline, US Marines are struggling against resourceful resistance fighters with no clear leadership, structure or supply lines. "It is just impossible to tell them apart. They can't aim very well and they don't have lots of weapons but they are resourceful and smart. They are geting better" Peter Johnson, Lance Corporal Marines say the fighters have mastered the art of attacking them and then melting away in villages where it is impossible to distinguish between fighters and civilians. "They fire their AK-47s from their homes, walk out the back door and then actually walk up and shake hands with American soldiers when the fighting is over," said Lance Corporal Peter Johnson, 20, of Wheaton, Illinois. "It is just impossible to tell them apart. They can't aim very well and they don't have lots of weapons but they are resourceful and smart. They are getting better." Signs of activity That reality is especially troubling for Marines who had hoped to launch an offensive in besieged Falluja but have instead been searching for resistance fighters in nearby villages along roads infested with bombs. So far they have seen signs of activity only in hamlets where assault rifles are hidden in wheat fields, while they listen to air strikes and explosions around Falluja in the distance. Some Marines have begun questioning their own tactics Some Marines have begun questioning their own tactics. Many complain they alert their enemies long before they enter villages by travelling in noisy armoured vehicles. But commanders say moving in small groups is far too risky in a land where everyone from farmers to soda shop owners could be guerrilla supporters or fighters. Overnight on Thursday, the sniper unit attached to Golf Company returned to a village they left just hours earlier, hoping to ambush fighters who might have returned. As soon as their noisy armoured vehicle approached, every household in one hamlet turned off its lights and then switched them on again when they left, an apparent signal to fighters. 'They know everything' "The problem is they know everything about us. They hear us coming, they know what vehicles we ride in and calculate how many in each vehicle," said Private First Class Joseph France, 19, of Batesville, Indiana. "They hear us coming, they know what vehicles we ride in and calculate how many in each vehicle" Joseph France, Private First Class "We know nothing about them. We don't know who they are. They know how to surprise us and they are resourceful with their weapons and know how to escape." Marines recalled how one resistance unit put ice in a mortar tube and then pumped the mortar down it. The ice melted and the round was fired after they made their getaway. The eagerness to kill fighters showed in a recent skirmish when Marines entering a village spotted three men running as they approached. They pursued and fired on the men, killing one, wounding and capturing another. Marines said the men fired on them. A senior officer said they had no weapons, but that with shots coming in the men were legitimate targets because they ran.

Greed of the educated or fortunate few, lack of vision of the leaders who ran the cuntry since independence. Ignorance of the masses.

She is a crazy woman who is being used as a tool to destroy the Muslim faith. She is a failure and will fail insha Allah.

Al-Sadr's army beats back occupation assault Friday 23 April 2004, 17:01 Makka Time, 14:01 GMT Occupation warned against entering Shia holy cities Occupation forces have clashed with fighters loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala as the Shia leader warned of martyrdom attacks against US-led troops. One soldier in the 9000-strong force under Polish command in central Iraq was killed in the fighting, according to Aljazeera's correspondent in the city. Explosions were heard over different parts of the city as the rival forces traded fire for half an hour. Witnesses and hospital staff said five civilians - four Iraqis and one Iranian - and five members of al-Sadr's Mahdi army were wounded in the clashes. Vehicle damaged An AFP correspondent who witnessed the gunbattle saw four wounded civilians and the charred remains of a four-wheel-drive vehicle of the occupation troops. East European troops are stationed in the Shia holy city of Karbala After the firing which erupted before Friday's prayers, the Mahdi army fighters said they had beaten back an assault by occupation forces. The occupation in a statement said at about 12:10 (0810 GMT), a convoy was attacked near the city hall. "The patrol returned fire," it said. The statement said reinforcements from the division's 1st Brigade Combat Team were sent to secure the city hall and surrounding areas. The 1st BCT is made up of Polish, Bulgarian, Lithuanian and Latvian troops. City hall is located near the office of an al-Sadr religious foundation and the al-Mukhayyam mosque controlled by his loyalists. US-led occupation forces have threatened to retake Karbala, located 110 km south of Baghdad, from al-Sadr loyalists who seized the city early this month. An uneasy standoff had been in effect over the past few days, with Iraqi police hunkered down around official buildings and patrolling only near holy sites while al-Sadr's Mahdi militia was deployed near the cleric's local headquarters. Al-Sadr threat Meanwhile, Al-Sadr said there would be martyrdom attacks if the occupation troops penetrated any of the Shia holy cities. "We have enough weapons and a large number of followers" Muqtada al-Sadr, Shia cleric "If we are forced to defend our cities, we will resort to martyrdom operations and we will be human time bombs which would explode in their faces," he said in his weekly sermon at Kufa, on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf, 160 km south of Baghdad on Friday. "We have enough weapons and a large number of followers, and there are many believers who are ready to conduct martyrdom operations," he said. "Until now we had refused to do this," he said, adding: "But if we are forced to do it, we will." Al-Sadr also urged Najaf residents to create committees to run their city. "It is up to you to build your Islamic capital," he said. "We should be united for one ultimate goal, to liberate our country and remove the filth from Iraq." The congregation chanted "Long live Sadr" and denounced not only the occupation forces but the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, saying "America and the Council are infidels". Occupation forces are attempting to capture al-Sadr allegedly in connection with the assassination of a rival Shia cleric. US Falluja threat The commander of the US forces besieging the restive town of Falluja said insurgents have only days left to turn in their weapons according to an agreement reached with local leaders. The return of families who escaped fighting in the town has been suspended following clashes yesterday that left 36 Iraqis dead. Armoured US reinforcements have been seen arriving in the vicinity of Falluja.

Vanunu taunts Israel ahead of his release By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem 20 April 2004 An Israeli who revealed that his country was developing nuclear weapons has repeated his demand that they should be destroyed, just as he is due to be released from jail. Mordechai Vanunu startled the world with claims in 1986 that the Israelis' Dimona nuclear power plant, where he worked, has churned out hundreds of warheads. Five days before The Sunday Times published his claims Mr Vanunu was captured by Israeli secret agents. Subsequently found guilty of espionage, his case became a cause célèbre for anti-nuclear campaigners. More than 100 well wishers, including Bruce Kent, the vice-president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the actress Susannah York, and the Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Colin Breed, will be on hand to greet him when he leaves jail tomorrow. In a taped interview broadcast in Israel last night he repeated his claim that the Dimona should be destroyed and compared it to the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq that Israel bombed in 1981. The tape of the interview with two intelligence agents, in which Mr Vanunu denies he betrayed his country, or that he has fresh secrets to reveal, was recorded several weeks ago and leaked by an Israeli official to a television network apparently in the hope of increasing his unpopularity among Israelis. Attempts were made by Mr Vanunu's lawyers to stop the broadcast on the grounds that it was an unethical use of an intelligence interrogation. According to transcripts published in two Israeli newspapers yesterday Mr Vanunu said in the interview that the United States and Europe know everything they need to know about Israel's nuclear program. Mr Vannu said: "As for myself, I just want to repeat the things I already said and that were published." The transcripts quote Mr Vanunu as suggesting that the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet will have difficulty monitoring him and that he will have a computer once he is out of jail. Mr Vanunu said he hoped the debate over Israel's nuclear program - the existence of which has never been officially admitted by Israel - would be revived, and that he was disappointed that Israel hadn't come under greater pressure to dismantle Dimona. "I want them to take the reactor, more than that, I want them to destroy the reactor, as they destroyed the reactor in Iraq," he added. After his release, Mr Vanunu will be prevented from travelling abroad for a year and, for at least six months, he will not be allowed to contact foreigners, enter foreign embassies or approach border crossings. He has been ordered not to discuss his work at the nuclear reactor or the circumstances of his capture. Mr Vanunu plans to appeal to the Supreme Court if the restrictions are not rescinded. The journalist Uri Dan, a long time associate of Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister, supported the restrictions on Mr Vanunu and said he should be "treated as a traitor. He is a traitor". Accusing Mr Vanunu of having acted out of "greed", Mr Dan said: "Only in our generous, human rights loving country is a zero like this a hero in the eyes of some politicians, manipulators and journalists."

Honduran troops will also quit Iraq Tuesday 20 April 2004, 15:08 Makka Time, 12:08 GMT Honduras sent its troops as peacekeepers In a blow to President George Bush and his occupation partners in Iraq, Honduras followed Spain on Monday in announcing it will pull its troops out of the country. President Ricardo Maduro, a close ally of the United States, said he had already told "coalition countries" that Honduras' 370 soldiers in Iraq would soon quit the country. He said in a television and radio address the withdrawal would be carried out "in the shortest possible time and under safe conditions for our troops". Honduras said earlier on Monday it was considering the withdrawal due to spiraling violence and pressure created by Spain's decision to pull its forces out. Spain is commanding troops in Iraq from other Spanish-speaking nations in the occupation alliance - Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. Honduran soldiers were sent to Iraq last summer as peacekeepers only, and have been clearing mines and providing medical care in central Iraq. They had previously been set to leave when their mandate expires in July. Troops' safety El Salvador will keep its troops in Iraq until start of August Many Hondurans have questioned why their troops should remain in Iraq now that Spain was withdrawing and congressional leaders had voiced concern for the troops' safety. El Salvador said it will keep its 300 soldiers in Iraq until the start of August, the end of its scheduled stay. "We are going to fulfill the pledge we have made," presidential spokesman Carlos Flores said. He did not say what would happen beyond early August. El Salvador's conservative president-elect Tony Saca takes office on 1 June. In Washington, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Monday each country in the US-led occupation would make "individual decisions" whether to stay in Iraq as conditions there change. Boucher said he believed there was no change in the status of troops from Nicaragua, another US ally in Central America which has sent troops to Iraq. Nicaraguan troops came home earlier this year as part of a normal rotation but a new contingent has not been sent to Iraq because the government says it is short of cash. Spanish withdrawal Meanwhile, the process of withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq has begun and will be completed in less than six weeks, Spain's new government said on Monday. Zapatero announced Spain's troop withdrawal on Sunday Defence Minister Jose Bono said he would not give dates for the troop pullout for security reasons. But when asked at a news conference about a reported estimate of the time needed for withdrawal, Bono said: "Whoever said six to eight weeks was being imprudent because it will be less." A military plane left on Monday with troops and equipment to help carry out the withdrawal, Bono said. Originally that flight was to have been for a routine troop rotation. State television said 194 soldiers were on board. 'Shortest time' Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, sworn in as Spain's prime minister on Saturday, announced on Sunday he had given orders for Spain's 1,400 troops in Iraq "to come home in the shortest possible time and the greatest possible safety". Zapatero said he was making good on a longstanding campaign promise to bring home the troops unless the United Nations took charge there politically and militarily by 30 June. He said he took his decision so soon because consultations with UN and world leaders showed there was no way a UN mandate meeting Spain's conditions was possible. Zapatero ousted a strongly pro-American party in elections held three days after the 11 March train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people. Bush expressed regret on Monday to Zapatero over the decision. So peopele what do you think?

Well done all round, its a wonderful moment. Masha Allah.

Burtinle.com is a website that is Anti Abdullahi at the least and their report is the same as the one on All Puntland.com with regards the meeting that took place in London. Col.Cabdullaahi Yusuf oo isku daweynaya London Burtinle-Online, Muqdisho Talaado, April 20 2004 Madaxweynaha maamulka goboleedka Puntland Col. C/laahi Yuusuf Axmed ayaa gaaray magaalada London ee dalka Ingiriiska si uu baaritaan caafimaad isugu sameeyo. Cabdullaahi Yusuf ayaa intii uusan gelin cusbitaal uu isku daweynayo ayaa la kulmay taageerayaashiisa ku nool magaalada London. Kulankaas oo ka dhacay Hotelka Hilton International ee magaalada London ayaa qaatay saacado badan, waxaana ka qeyb galay in ka badan 150 qofood oo u badan taageerayaasha korneylka. C/laahi Yuusuf waxa uu dadkaa uu la kulmay warbixin ka siiyay xaalada guud ee dalka Soomaaliya gaar ahaan dhinacyada nabadgalyada, dhaqaale iyo siyaasadba, wuxuuna si gaar ah ugu dheeraaday xaalada abaaraha ee ka jira Soomaaliya gaar ahaan Puntland. Sidoo kale Col. C/laahi Yuusuf waxa uu xubnaha uu la kulmay uga warbixiyay xaalada shirka dib u heshiisiinta Soomaaliyeed ee muddada dheer ka socda dalka Kenya, wuxuuna si qoto dheer uga waramay marxaladihii kala gedisnaa ee uu shirku soo maray, caqabadahii shirka ka hor yimid ee qaarna laga soo gudbay qaarna ay hadda taagan yihiin iyo meesha uu shirku hadda marayo, wuxuuna u sheegay in uu filayo in la xaliyo caqabadaha ku hor gudban shirka Kenya, wuxuuna ugu baaqay kooxaha Soomaalida ee shirka ka maqan in ay dib ugu soo laabtaan si uu shirku horey ugu sii socdo, maadaama ay dhiman yihiin buu yiri wejiga saddexaad ee gebagebada ah. C/qaadir Maxamed Caddow (Kaarlo) Burtinle-Online, Muqdisho

Quotes by Hamas Leader Dr Abdel Aziz Rantisi Associated Press Recent quotes from Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who was assassinated Saturday by Israel. "We knew that Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and Muslims. America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon. ... The war of God continues against them, and I can see the victory coming up from the land of Palestine by the hand of Hamas." - Last month, after the United States vetoed an United Nations Security Council resoultion condemning Israel for assassinating Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. "We will be unified in the trenches of resistance. We will not surrender, we will never surrender to Israeli terror." - Last month, after being selected Hamas leader in Gaza after Yassin was killed. "Yassin is a man in a nation, and a nation in a man. And the retaliation of this nation will be of the size of this man. ... You will see deeds not words." - Last month, after Yassin's assassination. "We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer Apache." - Last month, after Yassin's assassination _ "This operation, whoever is behind it, is a natural reaction for the bloody aggression against our people." - Last September, after deadly suicide bombings at a bus stop crowded with Israeli soldiers near Rishon Letzion and five hours later at a Jerusalem nightspot. "They think that targeting leaders will stop Jihad (holy war). They are mistaken. ... All of us in Hamas from top to bottom are looking to become like Abu Shanab." - Last August, after Israel killed Yassin aide Ismail Abu Shanab. "The word cease-fire is not in our dictionary. ... Resistance will continue until we uproot them from our homeland." - Last June, as Egypt tried to work out a truce. "The Zionists will pay an expensive price for all of their crimes." - Last June, from his hospital bed after a deadly bus bombing in Jerusalem that followed Israel's attempt to kill him.

Rantissi said in a BBC interview not long before his death that if he had the choice between dying because of a heart attack or an Apache helicopter he would choose the latter. In exuberant homage to this preference for martyrdom over natural death an unknown graffiti artist had early yesterday covered a wall close to Mr Rantissi's home with his own epitaph in Arabic for the Hamas leader: "You got what you wanted, Abu Mohammed [father of Mohammed] You win." SOURCE THE INDEPENDENT.CO.UK

Profile: Dr Abd Al-Aziz al-Rantisi Saturday 17 April 2004, 22:04 Makka Time, 19:04 GMT Al-Rantisi's support for armed resistance cost him his life A spokesman for Hamas in Gaza, Dr Abd Al-Aziz al-Rantisi was one of the most forceful proponents for the right of Palestinians to resist occupation. He described himself as one of the seven founders of Hamas and was considered by many as second only in importance to the group's crippled spiritual leader, Shaikh Ahmad Yasin. Yasin was assassinated in a similar missile attack by Israel in March. A paediatrician by training, Dr al-Rantisi was a popular figure in Gaza and defended any and all means that would force Israeli troops and illegal settlers to leave Palestine. Background A committed Islamist, al-Rantisi rose to prominence with Hamas during the first Palestinian Intifada in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was arrested by Israel several times, spending as much as two and a half years in prison on one occasion. In late 1992, the doctor was among more than 400 Palestinians deported to Lebanon. He became a spokesman for the deportees in his camp, Marj al-Zahur. After his return to Gaza, he proved no more popular with Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority than he had been with the Israeli government. PA arrest Palestinian officials arrested him in 1998 after he demanded that a number of senior PA figures should resign. Damascus-based Khalid Mishaal now most senior Hamas figure [ The Palestinian High Court of Justice ordered his release two months after he was arrested. He remained a regular critic of the PA, condemning it for its apparent willingness to compromise with Israel as part of the road map peace plan. Al-Rantisi criticised Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas for participating in a conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George Bush in Jordan in June 2003. Previous escape In 2003, al-Rantisi survived an Israeli assassination attempt. Suffering leg, arm and chest wounds, the spokesman escaped a US-made Apache helicopter gunship attack. The helicopter fired seven missiles on his car, and killed two passersby - a mother and her five-year-old daughter. His death leaves Khalid Mishaal - Hamas' politburo chief living in exile – as the most senior and best-known representative for the Islamist resistance movement.

Facing Iraq duty, two U.S. G.I.'s head north to seek asylum Soldiers Choose Canada by Alisa Solomon April 6th, 2004 11:00 AM Iraq and a hard place: Soldiers Hinzman (left) and Hughey (photo: Andre Souroujon) TORONTO—Army private Brandon Hughey got in his silver Mustang around midnight on March 2, rolled past the gates at Fort Hood in Texas, and headed northeast. All he had to guide him was a deepening dread and principled objection to the war in Iraq and a promise of help from a complete stranger he'd found on the Internet. His unit was deploying to the Middle East the next morning and, as Hughey, 18, wrote in a February 29 e-mail to the stranger, an anti-war activist, "I do not want to be a pawn in the government's war for oil, and have told my superiors that I want out of the military. They are not willing to chapter me out and tell me that I have no choice but to pack my bags and get ready to go to Iraq. This has led me to feel hopeless and I have thought about suicide several times." His heart pounding to the hip-hop beat on his radio, Hughey drove for 17 hours straight, keeping an anxious eye on the speedometer, panicked that he might get pulled over. The activist met him on March 4 in southern Indiana, stashed the Mustang (with Hughey's dog tags in the trunk) in Indianapolis, and took the wheel behind his own car for a 500-mile trip to the bridge at Niagara Falls. He gave Hughey a New York Knicks cap to pull on over his crew cut so the guards at the Canadian border would believe they were on their way to see a Toronto Raptors game. Hughey did watch New York shut down Toronto in a fourth-quarter comeback that night—but on TV from St. Catharines, Ontario, where a Quaker couple has taken him in. He is the second American soldier who opposes the war to have applied for refugee status in Canada. As the occupation in Iraq drags on, morale among soldiers plummets, and talk of a post-election draft heats up, their cases will determine whether Canada will once again welcome young Americans resisting a questionable war. The first was Jeremy Hinzman, a private first class with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne, who arrived in Toronto on January 3 with his wife, Nga Nguyen, and their 21-month-old son, Liam. In contrast to Hughey, Hinzman engaged a lengthy process of pleading from within his unit for non-combat duty as a conscientious objector (C.O.). After his request was denied, Hinzman faced orders for Iraq. He and his wife crammed what they could into their Chevy Prizm and headed north, with their son, from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Hinzman, 25, understood what he was risking: if he wins his case, never being able to visit the U.S. again; if he loses, being deported, going directly to jail with a harsh sentence. Desertion during wartime is a capital offense; though the last execution for a runaway soldier was in 1945, Hinzman worries that the penalty could be revived. "The Bush administration has done so many unprecedented things," he notes. Nonetheless, seeking sanctuary in Canada looked better than any alternative. Hinzman reasons, "I thought of refusing orders and turning myself in [as Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia did last month]. But because of how they had handled my C.O. application, I wasn't sure I would get a fair shake. Anyway, I don't feel I should be incarcerated for following my conscience." To win refugee status, Hinzman and Hughey will have to demonstrate that they are fleeing a well-founded fear of persecution in the U.S.—an extremely tough claim. What's more, notes a former member of Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board, refugee law specifies that "prosecution is not persecution": Punishment for breaking a law is not grounds for asylum unless the law itself—China's one-child policy, for instance—is deemed a form of persecution. That is the kind of argument Hinzman and Hughey's attorney, Jeffry House, will make before Canada's immigration board about eight weeks from now. Essentially, House will be putting the war itself on trial by contending that the U.S. wants to send these young men to jail—or worse—for choosing to comply with international law. "Rather than do something unthinkable or horrible as soldiers," House says, "they came to Canada. That's a huge step." House knows the feeling. As a college student in Madison, Wisconsin, in the late '60s, he concluded that the Vietnam War was wrong and that he would not participate. The day he got his draft notice, he went to Canada. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canada has a long tradition of providing safe haven for dissenting Americans: Loyalists during the War of Independence, refugees from the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, so-called "skedaddlers" deserting from Civil War battalions, and, most famously, some 60,000 men and women resisting the Vietnam War. Unless there's a draft, no one expects a flood at the northern border nowadays. But the trickle could certainly swell. According to a U.S. Army survey released last week, 72 percent of soldiers report that morale in their unit is low or very low. Meanwhile, the suicide rate among service members is at an all-time high. From April through December last year, 23 killed themselves while on duty in Iraq or Kuwait; at least seven more did so after their return home. Thousands are seeking less dire means of escape. Calls to G.I. Rights Hotline, which answers questions from recruits trying to leave the armed forces, shot up to 28,822 in 2003, from 17,267 in 2001. Meanwhile, though the Pentagon will not confirm figures, military attorneys, activists, and the European press have estimated that 600 to 1,700 soldiers have fled to avoid service in Iraq. Most are likely living underground in the U.S.—going AWOL, even for long periods, is a far less serious offense than actually applying for refugee status in another country—which clearly demonstrates the intent to desert. Nonetheless, the peacenik grapevine in Canada began buzzing on Wednesday with news that a female deserter is on her way. Canada itself has resisted the war in Iraq. Backed by overwhelming public sentiment, its government officially refused to join the "coalition forces." But much has changed in the 35 years since a draft dodger or G.I. could simply present himself at Canada's border and sign up for landed-immigrant status. "In the '60s, we didn't have a refugee determination system," explains the former Immigration and Refugee Board member, Audrey Macklin, a professor of law at the University of Toronto. "The war resisters who came were not required to jump through any hoops. Now we have a rigorous one-by-one approach and more complex and narrow regimes for permitting entry." Besides, notes law professor John Hagan, who himself went to Alberta to beat the draft and recently wrote Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada, "The door didn't really open until 1969, and that was in the context of very high levels of casualties—far, far higher than are involved in the current situation. The pressure was immense and took a long time. Neither of those variables is operating now." Even in the Vietnam War era, U.S. policies and public sympathies judged those who had enlisted and then abandoned their posts more harshly than those evading the draft. Indeed, a blanket pardon President Jimmy Carter granted the day he took office in 1977 applied only to draft dodgers, not to deserters. Hinzman and Hughey hear the same criticism today. "My grandpa was against the war and can't stand Bush," Hinzman says, "but he has firm notions of duty. I think it might be a little humiliating for him to see my name in the media." Still, as House puts it, "No one has to give up basic moral principle because he signed a contract. Even the U.S. military recognizes that people can become conscientious objectors after enlisting." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brandon Hughey was 17 when an army recruiter called him at his home in dry, hot, and heavily Republican San Angelo, Texas, to invite him to join up. "I wanted to go to college, and they offered me a $5,000 signing bonus," he recalls with a smile that pulls dimples into his boyish cheeks. "That really caught my attention." Hughey's dad, a computer programmer, had to sign the enlistment papers for his underage son. Then, last summer, shortly after his high school graduation, the teenager left west Texas for Fort Knox, Kentucky. Hughey trained in bayonets, rifles, and hand grenades, and he learned to drive a tank. At the same time, figuring he should know what he was going to war for, he started to give himself an education in affairs of state. "It wasn't until I joined the military that I began to form political views," he says. On the base, Fox News blared everywhere, but Hughey began reading AP and MSNBC stories online. "When I learned that Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction, I began to doubt things," he says. He brought questions to his officers, but they told him it wasn't his job to do the thinking. He didn't even know that applying for C.O. status was an option. His first one-month leave came, and Hughey had earned enough cash to finance the Mustang. By the time Hughey reported to Fort Hood in mid December, he had read what international law has to say about wars of aggression and sensed he had made a terrible mistake. As the days ticked by, he dutifully carried out his orders—spraying insecticide on uniforms, packing gear to be shipped to Baghdad—but at night he surfed the Net, feeling increasingly frantic to get out of serving in a war he couldn't believe in. Hughey didn't feel he could turn to his pro-war family. (In fact, he hasn't called them from Canada.) Then he found the stranger: One evening he stumbled on an article that quoted one Carl Rising-Moore calling for a new underground railroad and saying it would be better for suicidal soldiers to desert, as George W. Bush had done, than to take their own lives. He dashed off an e-mail with the subject line "Please help a desperate serviceman." Carl Rising-Moore, 58, who describes himself as having been "a brainwashed young man" who enlisted during Vietnam and has been a peace activist ever since, says he couldn't help responding to Hughey's plea—even though it's a felony to assist a deserter. With only hours to go before Hughey was to report for baggage drop-off, Rising-Moore made arrangements with the Quakers. When Rose Marie Cipryk and Don Alexander agreed to receive Hughey in their St. Catharines home, it was déjà vu all over again: They had sheltered resisters in the late '60s. "Simplicity is a value for Quakers," says Alexander, "so there's a debate raging in the community over whether the Internet is good or bad. I think it's obvious which side wins in this instance." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeremy Hinzman also figured that the army was his most direct route to college. "I guess I made a Faustian bargain," he says, characteristically flashing both a literary reference and a wry smile. He enlisted on January 17, 2001, shortly after his marriage—and many months before Bush decreed a policy of preemptive war. Hinzman excelled at the drills and enjoyed the camaraderie, but, he says, "I started to question things as it became clear that basic training is all about breaking down the human inhibition against killing." In rifle training, he says, "You start out with targets that are black circles. Then the circles grow shoulders and then the shoulders turn into torsos. Pretty soon they're human beings." The chanting was worse. One day, during bayonet training, when the instructor would holler, "What makes the grass grow?" Hinzman caught himself joining in the response: "Blood, blood, blood." Aghast, Hinzman asked himself, "What am I doing?" He was a novice practitioner of Zen, and when he got to Fort Bragg in July 2001, the closest thing he could find "that wasn't too New Age-y" was the Quaker House in Fayetteville. He and Nguyen started attending in January 2002, and felt at home with its philosophy of nonviolence. Over time, Hinzman began preparing an eloquent application for C.O. status. "Although I still have a great desire to eliminate injustice," he wrote, "I have come to the realization that killing will do nothing but perpetuate it. Thus, I cannot in good conscience continue to serve as a combatant in the Army." He submitted it that August. At the end of October, the army claimed it had never received his application. (It suddenly turned up in the army's files almost a year later.) He submitted it again, just as his unit was being deployed to Afghanistan. While the application was pending, he slogged through eight months of KP duty in Afghanistan—in punishing 14-hour shifts, seven days a week. In a hasty hearing in Kandahar last April, his request was turned down because Hinzman admitted he would fight in self-defense. That month, his unit returned to Fort Bragg, and on December 20, the orders came for Iraq. He knew he would not be accommodated with non-combat duty again, so in January he and his family fled to Toronto, where they were sheltered by Quakers and then moved into an apartment. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While it will be months before their refugee claims are decided—possibly years if there are appeals—Hughey and Hinzman have already been embraced by Canada's anti-war movement. On March 20, they were featured guests at Toronto's "The World Still Says No to War" rally, which brought out some 7,000 students, trade unionists, religious peaceniks, and lefty sectarians despite a relentless cold, thin rain. Hinzman addressed the crowd. Though he had never given a speech at a demonstration before, he was a high school debater in his hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota, and for as long as he can remember, he has been an avid reader—later, he comments that the rally reminded him of Elias Canetti's Crowds and Power—so he knows how to turn an oratorical phrase. He told the demonstrators, "I could not simply claim that I was merely a victim of the times or that I was just following orders. Had I taken part in the occupation of Iraq, I would have been making myself complicit in a criminal enterprise." Hughey stood quietly next to him, soaking up everything but the downpour. "I had no idea so many people think this way," he said later. "It's good not to feel so alone."