Insurgentjg

In the war trodden zones opium is the only choice farmers has to turn to earn their living. Cultivation of opium poppy is the only choice Iraqi farmers are left with as they can no longer earn a living by growing traditional crops.  In Diyala province of Iraq, Afghani poppy farmers have been helping farmers to plant and grow poppy. North east of Iraq has been famous for its fertile land and orchards of  pomegranates. According to a local source in the town of Buhriz, poppy is been grown between the orange trees. So that the plantation is not visible to the authorities.  Iraqi news agency al-Malaf reported that opium is been heavily harvested in the areas around towns of Khalis, Sa’adiya, Dain’ya and south of Baladruz. Opium growth is a rather new phenomenon; farming is being funded by the group of drug smugglers who were supplying opium to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf from Afghanistan. Opium is being heavily grown in the Dyala, North east of Iraq.  Part of the country where al-Qaeda is still holding its position strongly resisting the Iraqi government and US army. This is the region which is also deeply divided between Sunni, Shia and Kurd. All the war and unrest in the country does not allow authorities to focus their attention towards drug dealing and growing. According to a local agricultural engineer Al-Azawi; local farmers do not have any support from the government which makes it even harder for them to compete with the cheap imported fruits and vegetables and in such a scenario growing opium seems to be a viable solution.It also reported by the local agencies that many of the opium farms are being cultivated under the supervision of Al Qa’ida, who confiscated thier land from the rightful owners. Opium farms are heavily guarded so no one can get inside, most farms are located in the Diyala which is still smaller than that in southern Iraqi states of Amara and Majar al- Kabir. Opium form Diyala is transported to Ramadi in Western Iraq. Cont..

The article “Horror at Guantanamo” written by Andy Worthington who is the author of The Guantánamo Files, the first book to tell the stories of all the detainees in America’s illegal prison, is about a Libyan detainee Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi who is infected with AIDS. Mr. al-Ghizzawi already had tuberculosis and hepatitis B which he contracted while imprisoned at Guantanamo.

He wasn’t given any proper medication at the prison and the Chief Medical Doctor at Guantanamo claimed that Mr. al-Ghizzawi  “does not want to be treated for his life threatening illness{es}”, although Mr. al-Ghizzawi denied this claim.

Candace Gorman, lawyer for Mr. al-Ghizzawi approached the Department of Justice attorney to look into the matter who stated “We are not privy to the particulars of what your client may have been told by his doctor, if anything, but Guantanamo provides high-quality medical care to all detainees.”

Mr. al-Ghizzawi health deteriorated at the prison over the years. He was devoid of proper medical care and later was shifted to Camp 6 with severe conditions that is mental and physical isolation and “blunt and barbaric conditions”.

The irony of the situation lies in the fact that Mr. al-Ghizzawi ended up in the prison without being involved in any crime as he was innocent.

A former meteorologist Mr. al-Ghizzawi was living peacefully with his family in Afghanistan. In 2001 as the news that US authorities are paying handsome bounties to the suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban members spread some armed men came to his house and captured him who sold him to the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and he was further sold to the US military.

Mr. al-Ghizzawi was alleged of meeting al-Qaeda members in Pakistan, additional allegations included that he stayed in LIFG house in Jalalabad and was a security leader for Osama bin Laden during a trip to a guest house in Jalalabad.

Though Mr. al-Ghizzawi countered all allegations he was finally proved guilty an “enemy combatant” by the military tribunal whose legitimacy and authenticity is criticized by former officers who served on them.

After reading this article by Andy Worthington we wonder whether Mr. al-Ghizzawi is dead or alive. This is not a single incident there are many in that illegal prison known as Guantanamo suffering at the hands of powerful.

The Human Rights Watch brought forward the case of Omar Khadr, now 21, and a detainee at Guantanamo Bay since he was 15 years old who was appeared before the usual tribunal. This shows the lack of juvenile justice. “Human Rights Watch notes the United States’ failure to incorporate juvenile detention and juvenile justice in military commission proceedings standards, and urges the US to not compound these violations by prosecuting Khadr before a military tribunal that is not equipped to meet these standards as well as other fair trial requirements, and in a manner inconsistent with its legal obligations to assist in rehabilitating former child soldiers within its jurisdiction. Accordingly, if the United States is not prepared to prosecute Khadr in a judicial system that incorporates fundamental standards of juvenile justice and other fair trial rights, it should promptly release Khadr and repatriate him to Canada for appropriate rehabilitation.”

The appeals put forward by the Human Rights organizations are put down every time by US and the number of detainees is still living prolonged solitary confinements and torture.

It’s high time that these methods of countering terrorism should be changed as it will only deteriorate the situation. As Martin Luther King said “Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice.”

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This article is a rephrased version of the artcle bt Andy Warhington, “Horrors of Guantonamo”, retrieved from www.counterpunch.com. And is based on the group discussion lead by Anum Gill. 

Hoshyar Zebari in a statement said that US military forces will not stay in Iraq as long as some American politicians are demanding. A statement by the republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, caused anger amongst Iraqis. In an interview to The Independent in Baghdad, when asked that if the American army would be in Iraq in 10 years, he said: “Really, I wouldn’t say so.”
A year ago Mr. Zeberi was more confident about that Al-Qaeda has been crushed, if not completely but it is been network been shattered badly.  He says that it is important for Shia-kkurdish government to absorb into its security forces 70,000strong Sunni awakening movement which is fighting Al-Qaeda. He says that it is essential to involve Sunni Awakening movement as it is relatively new and immature political party which makes it more vulnerable to be manipulated by Al-Qaeda, He also added that not all the Sunni political leaders represent the Iraqi Sunni community.
Mr. Zebari started his career as a spokesman and foreign representative of the Kurdish government Party , those were the years of resistance against Saddam Hussein, He is one of the successful ministers in Iraq, Ever since his first appointment in 2004,he initiated goodwill with US and Iran. He has been surviving and dodged several assassination attempts by the insurgents.
Mr. Zebari is optimistic about the future peace in the country, but so far the socio political conditions of a country are not favourable for any peaceful developments. Iraq remains a violent country, recently a suicide bomber killed Brigadier General Salih Mohammad Hassan, who was chief of police of Mosul, largest city in the Northern Iraq. Brigadier Salih was inspecting the ruin s of buildings in which 20 people were killed, just a day before his assassination, in a bomb explosion. 
The Iraqi nation along with its political leaders are looking forward to sign a bilateral treaty with US which will determine that who would rule the nation. This bilateral treaty aims at settling issues such as Iraqi sovereignty, command and control of Iraqi security forces, and the immunity of foreign troops and private security companies. The Iraqi intelligence service, at present controlled and financed by the CIA, will be brought under Iraqi government control.

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1 Patrick Cockburn,  US Troops Will Be In Iraq for 10 More Years,www.counterpunch.com 

Josh Karpoff has analysed the soldier’s point of view about the current war. In his report, he has spoken about the issues related to America’s war in Iraq and people’s protest against it. The antiwar movement meeting opened the issue that the Pentagon has hidden the actual number of soldiers dying in the war. Many activities agreed with this “crazy theory” but this failed to make sense to Karpoff. The assumption was made on the basis that considering the previous wars, in the Americas history. Had a higher number of dead soldiers like in Vietnam, so should this war. Now in this war 75% of the troops are command personnel and changes in the war tactics have lowered the risk of danger as well. Moreover, due to the technological advancement the troops have modern armour, better medical facilities and few actual conventional combats which have resulted in lower death rate. There have been more injuries but lesser deaths. However, Karpoff has not diminished the value of deaths of these soldiers but in fact has stressed upon the significance of losing even a single life to this unworthy cause. Although majority of American’s are against these wars, there is a lack of proper strategies in the antiwar movement crucial for the success of the movement and end of the war. Karpoff maintains that there is critical need to find practical solutions rather than to question the lack of reaction ion the people.

Freedom of speech – is a civil liberty. It is one of the basic rights in democracy. The basic rights are the common threads of a democracy. Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent human right to voice ones opinion publicly without censorship or punishment.

Terrorism – in the modern sense, is violence, the treat of violence, or other harmful acts committed for political or ideological goals. Acts which are intended to create fear (terror) are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians).Counter – terrorism or counterterrorism refers to the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that government, militaries. Police departments and other groups adopt in order to prevent or mitigate specific terrorist acts.Counterterrorism is not specific to any one field or organisation; rather, it involves entities from all levels from society. For instance, businesses have security plans and sometimes share commercials data with the government.The article by Joanne Miller is in fact an effort to regain the freedom of expression which many of us lost after 9/11. War on terror has directly affected the freedom to express, write, creativity and speech. Anything written about the terrorism is considered to be taken as an action on. “Attempts at the justification or glorification of terrorist acts that may incite further terrorist acts”UUN Security Council 2005 The above statement tells about the incitement. However, even indirect incitement is considered and goes against the counterterrorism laws. Anything that encourages terrorism is a crime. Whether it’s done directly or indirectly.There is no need for the message to directly encourage terrorism, and rather than having to be “likely” to result in criminal action, its enough that the message may “cause a danger” of such action. - Joanne Mariner.The problem arises because of the board language used while making a counterterrorism law. Rules are expansive. The objectivity is lost. And the punishment is given judgmentally. The government “over reacts” to the situation. And exploits the freedom of expression which indeed, is the cover stone and benchmarks of the modern European civilization. Their over reaction on the war of terror has escalated over a number of countries. A person carrying a map of a country may be accused of being a terrorist if he/she dose not have a solid point to prove him innocent. A person visiting an AL Qaeda website, or collecting information about it may be accused guilty. A young woman is now known as “lyrical terrorist” because of her poems that are written on terrorism. Isn’t this all just over rated? Over dramatized? Judgmental? What does ne have to say about Guantanamo bay? Innocent souls were being tortured as they were just considered as terrorist without any proof.

We do not totally blame the government. They have to take actions before the terrorist attacks actually take place. But there are these expansive rules that we blame at. By making such laws, government are doing more harm then good. Freedom of expression has to grain back. Freedom of speech is not something that can be easily controlled or stopped. It is everyone’s prior right to have the liberty to express them.

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This article is rephrased version of Joanne Mariner’s article, “How anti-terror laws threaten free speech”

In this article Ray McGovern has openly criticized the policies of American government regarding invasion in Iraq. He has described the after maths of war and the condition of the people who suffer in it.In the beginning he says the truth has finally been revealed, George.W.Bush has admitted that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was aimed simply to have control over Iraq’s oil resources which is contrary to his previous justifications of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and links with AL Qaeda.In the eyes of America oil and military bases are well worth the indignity of troops casualties. It’s a truth acknowledged by majority of them that a few soldiers killed every week is a very minor price to pay for oil the need. He says that it is easier for them to parrot the administrations dishonesty than to confront the reality that they are bringing death and destruction not only in Iraq but to their own fellow citizens as well.The war not only affects common people but also veterans as soldiers are retarded physically and mentally. Veteran’s administration documents show that nearly 264,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have been treated to VA hospitals also including 100,000 mentally disturbed. The expenditure on such treatments is estimated to $700 billion for the next 40 years.The iniquities of war have been widened the inequalities in the society. According to Manuel Garcia, JR,” War is a Racket”.“War is just a racket”. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small group inside know what it is about. it is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.I believe in adequate at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and soldiers follow the flag.There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defence of our homes and the other is Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that military gang is blind too. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “big boss” super-nationalistic-capitalism.”Writer has also described the whole process of surgery and his medical treatment which underwent on the New Year’s Eve. The only one question was grabbing his mind was “why he was privileged to have an access to the best in medical treatment, when many other veterans were deprived of such medical assistance. No one can feel others misery unless he feels and experiences it in the same or different manner.He had himself in his knapsack the health insurance card, with its help he was able to get sophisticated, million dollar technology treatment. The writer has in a very sarcastic way criticised war against terror in which many bitter experiences have been related with the conditions of Prisoners of Guantanamo.

• Condition in stress test which was done to induce stress before surgery has been related to the circumstances of the prisoners in Guantanamo, whether they would survive deliberately induced stress which they encounter.
• Experience on narrow gurney for 20 minutes with two technicians and nurses for look after, whereas the strapped-in-prisoners of Guantanamo neither able to move nor can protest with apathetic physicians and consultants who their best to inflict injury rather than to alleviate pain.
• Two dozens Guantanamo detainees who tried to starve themselves to death for this was their only hope for release. According to many military official detainees this act is taken as “an act of asymmetrical warfare against us”.
• The writer wonders how would Graffy, deputy assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy, comment on suicides of 6,256 veterans who took their lives after waiting a long time medical treatment.

Talking about the reason of his disease he says that he cannot blame his disease on someone’s negligence or the consequences of highly toxic weapons but thousand s of Iraqis and those troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan can. Most of the U.S serviceman and woman blame their cancer due to the infect from reduced quality uranium us in large guns and other poisoned chemicals in populated areas of Iraq that lead to cancer. Thousands of U.S troops in Iraq are likely to have been exposed to DU to some degree, absorbing it either by inhaling contaminated dust or ingesting it from contaminated water, food and soil. Initial estimates are that between 100 and 200 tones of DU munitions were used in Iraq and that at least 17 incidents took place during the combat phase that would most likely have resulted in U.S and British personnel being exposed to high concentrations of DU particles.

Conclusion:

War against any country whether Iraq or Afghanistan has far reaching effects on not on the country involved itself (America) but rest of the world is not safe from its horrible consequences. Iraq war proved to be a trillion dollar war of America, their treasury has bankrupted, economy is shambling and infrastructure has crumbled. The only things on an upward swing are the profits of oil companies…and suicides in their military!!

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This article is been rephrased from the article by ray Mcgovern, “The iniquities and inequalities of war”

Nothing seems capable of halting the American juggernaut. Now in March 250,000 US soldiers, along with a few British units, are gathered in the Gulf ready for the assault on Baghdad. Soon after 11 September 2001 the Bush administration decided that one component of their strategy would be to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Men as high-placed as Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld or Paul Wolfowitz had long advocated such action, but George W Bush’s questionable election made it difficult to realise that objective. With 11 September it became feasible. From then on Washington’s ruling view of the world was stark: “Anyone who is not with us is with the terrorists” Bush proclaimed. The September 2002 document entitled The National Security Strategy of the United States, which for the first time included the notion of preventive war, confirmed the new orientation of the hyperpower, which was convinced that its own interests were henceforth synonymous with justice.

This strategy was not a response to 11 September. It was formulated in a document dating from September 2000, signed by influential members of the current administration before they took office, which claimed that terrorism had replaced Nazism and communism as the new enemy of the United States. But terrorism is not an ideology, nor is it a strategic threat, since it does not originate from any state. It is a useful bogeyman, adaptable to many situations and used to discredit one’s enemies. Especially when it can be associated, in a triangle of evil, with weapons of mass destruction and so-called “rogue states”

President Bush has warned that the “war on terrorism” will be a long one. It began with the Afghan campaign and the overthrow of the Taliban. It continued with the outlawing of hundreds of organizations and individuals, on criteria that are vague at best, corresponding more to American fantasies than to any serious definition of the terrorist phenomenon - if such a definition were possible. This war has also helped a number of governments to justify their own repressive policies: Russia in Chechnya, Israel in Palestine, India in Kashmir, etc. In the countries of the North, an offensive is mounting against an “enemy within”, often identified with Muslim immigrants, or radical protestors

The United States decided on its attack on Saddam Hussein’ regime in order to destroy the weapons of mass destruction held by Iraq. And yet, on this question, no evidence has been offered, and certainly no proof that Iraq is such a threat to world peace and security that war is unavoidable. Washington’s duplicity is obvious when we compare the US attitude towards North Korea. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a very real problem, but it requires a multilateral solution, through the enforcement of existing treaties and stricter rules, especially on exports of sensitive material. The United States, France, Great Britain and Germany have much to answer for regarding Saddam’s armaments programme in the 1980s.

The first victim of the war will be the Iraqi people, already suffering from a bloodthirsty dictatorship and criminal sanctions. Responsible for two wars - against Iran, then against Kuwait - the Baghdad regime has been subject to strict controls since 1991. The United Nations inspectors were able greatly to reduce its capacity to inflict harm, but this was accompanied by an embargo of unprecedented severity. United Nations experts predict that another war inflicted on a country whose population has reached the limits of its endurance will bring about hundreds of thousands of deaths. And the vision of a pacified and democratic Iraq arising from the ruins of Saddam’s dictatorship is a pipedream - or rather a piece of propaganda - without any relation to reality.

There are questions, too, about the broader consequences of a new war on the situation in the Middle East, especially the confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians.

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This focus feature is been retrieved from www.mondiplo.com/focus/iraq/r1461. It is prepared by Alain Gresh, Maria Ierardi, Olivier Pironet and Philippe Rivière.

The war on aggression has not only violated multiple resolutions and human rights conventions but has exposed next generations of civilian population of Iraq and Afghanistan to the disastrous affects of depleted Uranium and cluster bombs. Future generations of Iraq and Afghanistan now need to not only contemplate the tragic loss of life suffered in the intense US bombing campaign, but also to deal with higher cancer rates, birth deformities, genetic mutations, contaminated water sources and lost limbs for decades to come.
“Shock & Awe Strategy” of using such deadly weapons was devised by the pentagon’s well known and pro Israeli Harlan Ullman, who heads the navy extended planning. One of his student who was Secretary of State Colin Powell, highly praise Ullman saying that “he raised my vision several times”. “Shock & Awe strategy” for winning the battle field was devised long before the September 11 incident. It was 1996, under Clinton’s era when a Pentagon run National Defense University came up with the concept of “rapid dominance” battle plan. Later it was dubbed in to the shock & awe strategy which seeks to quickly overwhelm the enemy psychologically through the use of military brutal force and to extend the impacts it seeks to scare the enemy’s general population. In Ullman’s words, “strategy would have a simultaneous effect, rather like the nuclear weapons at Hiroshima, not taking days but minutes.”
Since September 11, US have legitimized the use of weapons in its arsenal and has opened the door for genocidal acts through a so called “war against terror”. In 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued a Pentagon’s nuclear posture review which states that; nuclear weapons could be used in the event of surprising military developments. In addition, the White House has significantly lowered the nuclear threshold by removing nuclear weapons from their long established special category and lumping them with all other military options – such as special forces, covert operations, cyber warfare, “strategic deception,” psychological warfare and air power.  In short US has institutionalized the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction for their own good.
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  1- Henry Michaels, “US Plans ‘Shock and Awe’ Blitzkrieg in Iraq,” World Socialist Website January 30th, 2003,  as mentioned by Kareem. M. Kamel in his article “A New Haulocost”
  2- Robert James Parsons, “America’s Big Dirty Secret,” Le Monde Diplomatique March 2002

By-product of the process through which Uranium is converted to use as a nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons is Depleted Uranium. Though it is less radioactive then uranium, DU still has a half a life in the billions of years, as it carries 60 % of the radioactivity of ordinary uranium. DU became the first choice amongst all the weapons for Pentagon & US military, as it has the special ability to penetrate deep into several meters of rock or concrete in seconds. Furthermore, when a DU-tipped weapon (usually in the form of a bunker-buster bomb or an anti-tank shell) reaches its target, it is detonated, producing an explosive and incendiary effect.  Burnt DU forms a black radioactive dust which when inhaled causes diseases like cancer and genetic mutation among the victims and their offspring.

Depelted Uranium is a cheaper material to use as compared to metal, Tungsten. In effect, countries using DU are trading off lower costs for higher risks i.e. health hazards and US is on of the largest producer and user of weapons of mass destruction while hunting the targets set by Pentagon. In war on terror, US and British troops have deliberately used DU shells. They breeched UN resolution that classifies the munitions as illegal weapon of mass destruction. According to the report by UN sub commission report laws which were breeched by the use of DU shells include: Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Charter of United Nations, the Genocide Convention, the Convention against Torture, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980. Apart from these, the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 also forbid use of poison or poisoned weapons.
During the Gulf war, the US – led allied forces fired more that 944, 000 DU rounds and nearly 2, 700 tons of DU- tipped bombs. According to UK Atomic energy Authority Report estimates that around 500,000 Iraqis would die before the end of the century due to radioactive debris left in the dessert. Birth deformities are found in the children of Allied veterans and among Iraqi children. It is believed that only one in fifty million children born may be anopthalmic but in one of the hospitals in Iraq has eight cases of children born without eyes in just two years. Pentagon admits that approximately 320 metric tons of DU debris is lying in the dessert but some Russian experts say that more accurate figures for the debris is 1,000 metric tons.
Since the US led war and later the UN lead sanction  in 1990, more than 1.2 million Iraqis have died. According to UNICEF report on Mortality rates amongs children during 1979 – 1999 increased 47 deaths per 1000 live births for the period 1984 – 1989, to 108 deaths per 1000 live births for the period 1994- 1999. Whereas mortality rate of children under five during the same time periods, has increased from 56 deaths per 1000 live births to 131 per 1000 live births. 
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1999, approximately 700 – 800 metric tons of DU weapons used in and around the city of Basra would kill half a million people. In the recent war , led by US and UK, forces has used much greater volume of DU. The DU ammunition was mainly used against Iraqi tanks in the desert near Basra.  Much larger quantity (approximately 2,000 tons) was used in the immediate vicinity of Baghdad, which is classified as the major residential area with five million people residing in the heart of the city. According to the estimations death toll will exceed one million over the next few years. Moreover the DU related deformities among the newly born and number cancer cases has increased since the first war, the numbers will rise even higher because of the recent War on terror. Cont…

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  Christian Scherrer, “DU and the Liberation of Iraq,” Znet  April 13th, 2003 Also view, http://www.unicef.org/reseval/pdfs/irqscont.pdf, as quoted by Kareem M Kamel

Nations who value democracy for the peaceful world and development of people will not opt to maintain a military occupation against the will of the occupied nation. According to a fundamental moral saying about occupation is that a military occupation of one nation by another can only be justified if the occupied population supports it. Yet all the mainstream media and commentators of the war of aggression seem to neglect what Iraqi population thinks about the US-led occupation of their country. Even when Iraqi opinion is published or makes the way in news is not given much heed. On the other hand US politicians and analysts keep emphasizing on how Iraqi people need the US in their country and that how we will leave when then they ask us to!