ABC News: U.S. GIs Step Up Pressure on Najaf Rebels

[nolabels]

U.S. GIs Step Up Pressure on Najaf Rebels
U.S. Tanks, Snipers Put More Pressure on Militants Holed Up in Najaf's Imam Ali Shrine

The Associated Press


NAJAF, Iraq Aug. 24, 2004 — U.S. infantrymen engaged in fierce battles with cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militants Monday and U.S. tanks moved closer to the revered Imam Ali Shrine as the American military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to leave the holy site and end their uprising.

On Tuesday, a car bomb exploded in the Iraqi capital, killing at least two people and wounding two others, hospital officials and police said.

The blast occurred in Kadisea, a residential neighborhood in southern Baghdad, where black plumes of smoke rose into the sky from a charred vehicle.

Late Monday, U.S. warplanes bombed the area of the Old City, and fires lit up the night sky, witnesses said. Ahmed al-Shaibany, an aide to al-Sadr, said shrapnel from the attack hit the shrine's golden dome, one of its minarets and the compound's outer wall.
(snip)
http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040824_24.html

Google has over over 2000 links to this part this part of story but is not to be found on the beta version of their news portal. Corporations want to hide this story I would bet.

[still_one]

1. I saw a rumor that muqtada al-sadr left Najaf days ago

[nolabels]

5. He is not been home for quite a while

Would also be willing to bet he also left the area also (He is probably getting info from outside sources) I see most of the armed people running around there as thugs. I am no fan of any of it.


U.S. forces raid house of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr

By TODD PITMAN
Associated Press Writer

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. forces stormed a Najaf house belonging to a radical Shiite cleric, who has led a deadly uprising against coalition and Iraqi troops for more than a week, as American and Iraqi soldiers launched a major assault Thursday on his militiamen. Explosions and gunfire echoed near the revered Imam Ali shrine and its vast cemetery.

Residents saw U.S. forces break into Muqtada al-Sadr's house without meeting any resistance. Al-Sadr, who has vowed to fight "until the last drop of my blood has been spilled," was not there at the time.

It was not immediately known where he went, but residents reported clashes between Iraqi police and members of his Mahdi Army militia near the house Wednesday, which may have prompted most residents to leave the area.

Also, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi called on Shiite militants to put down their weapons and leave the shrine, where they have sought refuge.

"These places have never been exposed to such violations in the past," he said, adding that many innocent people have been killed.
(snip)
http://billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2004/08/12/build/world/25-iraq.inc


The Tasteful War And Other Media Lies
by Deck Deckert

April 28, 2003


(snip)
The media is smug and self congratulatory about its coverage of the Gulf War 2, The Sequel, brimming with self confidence that it did a superb job.

It did, of course -- for the smirking pretender to the throne in the White House, for the Pentagon, for the bomb makers feeding at the inexhaustible war trough.

It gave them and us a sanitized war, a pretty war. The corporate media asked no awkward questions, hid the sights and sounds of dissent before and during after the rape of Iraq, resolutely refused to show the reality of war.

The media gave us a bloodless war. It deliberately chose to hide the carnage. There were no pictures of exploded babies, armless children, dismembered adults, rotting bodies of soldiers and civilians alike. It was just a matter of taste, the happy talk warriors in TV studios assured us. They were offering us a tasteful war.

There was no visible dissent to this glorious war, not if you got your information from the mainstream media. The millions who protested in the U.S. and across the world were either ignored, or treated as simpletons who just didn't understand the valid reasons for the war -- Iraq's dissing UN resolutions, its link to terrorism and 911, or those mysteriously missing weapons of mass destruction, or what was it? Oh, yeah, liberation.
(snip)
http://www.swans.com/library/art9/rdeck036.html

[Cocoa]

2. they got 'em on the run!

smokin' 'em out!

[IndianaGreen]

8. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

We are going to be in Iraq into the next decade unless someone turns off this war!

[Jacobin]

26. Latest estimate on time to quash insurgency is ten years.

120 months. Not 121 months. 120 months.

Methinks they continue to extend the time to "quash the insurgency" as if they expect people to think that it will actually end.

Okay, only 9 years 11 months. We're almost there.....


:eyes:

[markses]

3. The rebels that surrendered last wekk, right?

:eyes:

[daleo]

4. Allawi said only Iraqi troops would assault the shrine

What the heck are U.S. troops doing there? And tanks? This must be a mistake. I am sure Allawi will get to the bottom of this.

[jdj]

6. Late Monday, U.S. warplanes bombed the area of the Old City

must have been some heart-winning warplanes with mind-winning bombs on them.

[babylon_system]

7. We had to destroy the city to save it

In February 1999, Saddam Hussein's regime murdered Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, Moqtada's father, and two of Moqtada's brothers in Najaf. Muqtada's father-in-law was also killed by Saddam in 1980. Despite this history, Moqtada has called the policies of the Allawi government "worse than Saddam Hussein's". Now the US puppet Allawi "government" is bent on killing Moqtada, the third most popular figure in Iraq according to US-sponsored poll conducted in June, and wiping out thousands of his followers.

The US government seeks to prevent Iranian influence and an Iranian inspired Shi'a government from establishing itself in Iraq. They are using Allawi like they used Saddam, as the new US front man behind which they can conduct the same horrific repressive massacres used by Saddam Hussein to counter Iranian influence and crush Shi'a self-determination.

[maxsolomon]

9. al sadr is considered a murderer, too

remember the imam stabbed to death at the najaf shrine shortly after our glorious victory? al khooei or something? who engineered that? widely believed to be al sadr.

plus the nutcase is selling a(nother) millenarian fantasy; the mahdi, the islamic messiah, is about to return to earth, and the US invaded to stop him. that's why its the mahdi army.

i think our war is stupid beyond belief, but let's not romanticize al sadr's rebellion, ok? he sucks as bad as an iranian mullah or jerry falwell.

[nolabels]

10. I would be thinking the same thing also

There will probably no real victors in this invasion / war / insurgency / etc. Only thing there will be is probably lots more people getting killed and all being brought to us by Corporate America or other multinationals based in the US. They, the multinationals, will never own up to it now, it's much too dirty for them. They will now want government (the peoples collective) to fix it for them, however it's gets done, while they continue with their Blackwaters, Pinkerton's and Haliburtons to stick it to us (collectively).

Basically they did the much of same through all the wars of the last century, but we never got to hear that part of the story either.

When will people ever realize what the heck is going on :shrug:

[IndianaGreen]

12. Bullshit charges filed by a judge who used to work for Saddam

How gullible are Americans that they still believe the lies we are told by the US Government. When was the last time our government told the truth about anything?

Are you even aware that Paul Bremer hired back goons from Saddam's intelligence service and secret police to put down the insurgency last year?

Doesn't anyone have long term memory anymore????????

[Aidoneus]

14. on the first point

Majid al-Khoei is one of the reasons that US/UK invaders are in Iraq, and at the time of his death he was speaking with Saddam's man in charge of the Imam Ali Masjid; protecting this criminal was apparently a factor, though more than a year later the facts of the matter are clouded and uncertain. His son Haider is even more in the lap of the enemy. That said, even the Khoei family--who otherwise hate Sayyid Muqtada as-Sadr(H.A.)--do not hold Sayyid Muqtada(HA) responsible for the act. The "warrant" for his arrest is a trumped up matter between the occupyers and the Baathist judge who acted at their behest. Nobody who knows the facts of the matter should take it seriously.

I am not in the mood right now to take on the rest, though I would dispute your misguided views.

[coalition_unwilling]

15. "he sucks as bad as an iranian mullah"

Excuse me, are you saying that iranian mullahs suck?

I'm sure the British used similar language to describe George Washington . . . that he sucked as bad as French Marquises, i.e., Lafayette.

[nolabels]

17. I don't know who wants to kill who but I do know who sent who to .....

take over somebody else's country and who they think should sacrifice for it. Picking the most radical groups of people is a way of polarizing people so you can pick the fight (in that barrel full of fish they have chosen). I would think it was never intended to be a fair challenge for this so called coalition of the willing, but then again I would say they miscalculated and bit off more than they could chew.

We have seen enough lies and distortions over the last couple of years here at DU to believe nothing they do or say should ever be believed

[paulk]

18. what language would you use to describe

the Ayatollah Khomeini?

You won't find many who will equate him with George Washington.

[coalition_unwilling]

19. Oh really?

Have you run that by any non-SAVAK Iranians?

[paulk]

21. so they exchanged the devil they knew

for one they didn't; who immediately started up his own secret police.

[babylon_system]

23. They should have just accepted torture from SAVAK

Then the US would not have encouraged Saddam to wage war on their Islamic theocracy killing 1 million Iranians, they would be allowed to export their persian carpets and pistachios to the US market, and the US and Israel would not be threatening to bomb their nuclear power facilities today.

Imagine. If the Iranian masses had just chosen more wisely in 1979, they could be a happy US client state today.

[paulk]

27. Iraq's ties at the beginning of the Iraq/Iran war (1980)

were far closer to the Soviet Union than the USA. To say the US had a role in starting the conflict is revisionist history. Iraq offered an end to hostilities in 1982 - The Iranian's refused, hoping to topple the Iraqi regime. Perhaps Iran holds some responsibility for the next six years of slaughter?

As for the rest, your post hoc argument, while humorous, is really just that.

[babylon_system]

30. Did I write that the USA started the Iran-Iraq war? No

I wrote that the USA encouraged Iraq to wage war on Iran. This is not "revisionist history" (whatever that is supposed to imply). It has now been well documented. The US encouraged both sides to slaughter one another and provided funding, weapons and intelligence to ensure that the war would continue. The current US predicament in Iraq can be traced directly to the failure of the Machiavellian oil policies employed three decades ago.


http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/united_states_iran_iraq_war1.php
The United States did not have diplomatic relations with either belligerent in 1980 and announced its neutrality in the conflict. One typically humanitarian State Department official explained in 1983: "we don't give a damn as long as the Iran-Iraq carnage does not affect our allies in the region or alter the balance of power."<29> In fact, however, the United States was not indifferent to the war, but saw a number of positive opportunities opened up by its prolongation.

The need for arms and money would make Baghdad more dependent on the conservative Gulf states and Egypt, thereby moderating Iraq's policies and helping to repair ties between Cairo and the other Arab states. The war would make Iran -- whose weapons had all been U.S.-supplied in the past -- desperate to obtain U.S. equipment and spare parts. The exigencies of war might make both nations more willing to restore their relations with Washington. Alternatively, the dislocations of war might give the U.S. greater ability to carry out covert operations in Iran or Iraq. And turmoil in the Gulf might make other states in the area more susceptible to U.S. pressure for military cooperation.

When the war first broke out, the Soviet Union turned back its arms ships en route to Iraq, and for the next year and a half, while Iraq was on the offensive, Moscow did not provide weapons to Baghdad.<30> In March 1981, the Iraqi Communist Party, repressed by Saddam Hussein, beamed broadcasts from the Soviet Union calling for an end to the war and the withdrawal of Iraqi troops.<31> That same month U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he saw the possibility of improved ties with Baghdad and approvingly noted that Iraq was concerned by "the behavior of Soviet imperialism in the Middle Eastern area." The U.S. then approved the sale to Iraq of five Boeing jetliners, and sent a deputy assistant secretary of state to Baghdad for talks.<32> The U.S. removed Iraq from its notoriously selective list of nations supporting international terrorism<33> (despite the fact that terrorist Abu Nidal was based in the country)<34> and Washington extended a $400 million credit guarantee for U.S. exports to Iraq.<35> In November 1984, the U.S. and Iraq restored diplomatic relations, which had been ruptured in 1967.<36>

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=2292

In fact, "American intelligence agencies provided Iran and Iraq with deliberately distorted or inaccurate intelligence data in recent years," the Times reported (1/12/87). The motive, captured in the Times headline: "Keeping Either Side From Winning." Or, as Henry Kissinger coldly put it, "too bad they can't both lose."

In his book Veil - The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987, Woodward sums up the results of this U.S. double-dealing: "Doling out tactical data to both sides put the agency in the position of engineering a stalemate. This was no mere abstraction. The war was a bloody one....almost a million had been killed, wounded or captured on both sides. This was not a game in an operations center. It was slaughter." (p. 507)

[paulk]

38. the word "encourage" would certainly imply the starting of something

why would you "encourage" someone to wage war when they are already waging war? The word "continue" would perhaps have served to avoid any misunderstanding.

You seem to be blaming the US for the slaughter of the Iran/Iraq war.
Yes, the United States is responsible for every bad thing that happens in the world. They forced Iran and Iraq to continue their pointless slaughter. Those nasty Americans.

[babylon_system]

39. Did you read the article at the link I posted?

It describes in some detail the US attempts to deplete both sides in order to extend US control over the reegion's energy supplies. "Too bad both sides can't lose" as Kissinger said. And that is precisely what the US accomplished. Well, the nasty Americans paid for it in the end. Look at them now, terrorism, war, runaway deficits, $50 per barrel oil, no respect in the world community; a crumbling empire.

[paulk]

40. I read it - it's the usual fringe left anti-American drivel

The USA is responsible for everything bad that happens in the world, etc. A pretty narrow ideological view, really. I give it no more credibility than I do the Rush Limbaughs and Ann Coulters of the world.

[babylon_system]

41. Good thing some people know it all from birth

No need to address facts that way.

[maxsolomon]

24. why yes, i am saying that iranian mullahs suck

any fundamentalist montheist fanatic sucks IMHO. and i think there are millions of young iranians who agree.

IF al sadr is a millenarian, or using the mahdi belief to predict, in essence, the second coming, then he truly sucks. i don't think the mahdi is about to return. ever. just like jesus won't be returning & the rapture isn't going to happen.

the info on al khooei, thanks, i didn't know that. you have to pay very close attention to remember the players on this field. i have to remember that the NYT is a propaganda arm, too.

[paulk]

28. if you want several other views of Majid al-Khoei

you should run a google search on him.

[babylon_system]

33. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World

in action.

Perhaps there is a mirror image discussion on some Arabic/Farsi discussion boards bewteen those who believe faithless secular capitalists "suck" while others encourage cultural sensitivity and appreciation for the value of Western ways.

[babylon_system]

20. Many Iraqis follow Moqtada al-Sadr and that is their right

Freedom of religion, remember? American imperialists impose their worldview on the Iraqi people calling Moqtada al-Sadr a thug, a murderer and a nutcase. These efforts to vilify Iraqi nationalists should be familiar. Now that they have outlived their usefulness, the US puppet regime is now charging even Ahmad Chalabi and his brother Salem with assorted crimes, including murder.

I am not one of Moqtada's followers but I am curious as to how you think I romanticized the uprising against US occupation. Iraqis SHOULD have a right to choose their own leaders. The US has absolutely no business dictating Iraq's political order. The Allawi government was installed by a handpicked US council and has no real legitimacy other than as the puppet regime of the US occupation. Therefore, allegations that the murder of Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei was engineered by al-Sadr (charges lodged 1 year after the murder, in response to the Mahdi army uprising) are clearly political in nature.

The US military flew al-Khoei to Najaf in an effort to install a US-allied Shi'a leader to succeed Grand Ayatollah Sistani but al-Khoei had no local following. His efforts were resisted by followers of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and al-Khoei was stabbed while fumbling for his CIA satellite phone during a riot outside the Imam Ali mosque in April 2003. Why wasn't al-Hakim charged with the murder? Probably because his followers did not rise up against the US occupation.

The opinion that al-Sadr is a "nutcase" milleniarian who "sucks" as bad as an Iranian mullah or Jerry Falwell does not show respect to the rights of Iraq's Shi'a to freely pursue their faith. Should Americans determine who is an acceptable and appropriate religious leader for the Iraqi people? That approach reminds me of Ann Coulter's famous dictum, now coming to fruition, that "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war."

[nolabels]

25. But the slight difference

The difference being the mostly a fundamentalist would see fit and have a need to kill you for not espousing and practicing the dictates of 'their' beliefs. First they go after the ones that have least defense for themselves(sort of what you see in the US), then they go after others. Just like any other power hungry group of fools

This very interesting article, that various posters have been passing around, says a lot if you have been keeping up on PNAC

The Despoiling of America
How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State
by Katherine Yurica
http://www.yuricareport.com/

On Edit: oh yea, thanks for the information on your post, that is also very interesting if it is true


https://www.moveonpac.org/stickers/

[babylon_system]

31. Bush sees fit and needs to kill those who oppose US occupation of Iraq

Isn't that a kind of capitalist fundamentalism to which Iraqis are expected to bow down?
Freedom of religion isn't contingent on Americans defining which religions are acceptable and which are too "fundamentalist". It should be up to Iraqis to decide their leadership.

[nolabels]

35. Oh I agree, I was just lamenting on the kind that is popping up in the US

This more just Iraq and the US though. It's about who holds sway in the world. More than just religion (which is kind of a backdrop for many of them). Most people as far I have seen are very tolerant of others religion. It's just these few that have used it because it was the only thing left or it is the most handy thing to use. That is how that has become the problem as far as I can see.

Besides common sense tell you that it impossible to change anybodies beliefs with force.

The biggest clash of cultures comes about by colonialism, which seems to me is as probably old as any religion or history. Colonialism also seems to be the NeoCon doctrine

[babylon_system]

36. Neo-conservatives are really just neo-colonialists

Tired old ideology with a new name, agreed.

[paulk]

29. There are as many different accounts of the murder of Majid al-Khoei

as there were people present in the shrine. I have read it was Saddam loyalists, Badr brigade militia, even Mehdi Army members. Who knows? Your interpretation is as good as any other, and is just as likely to be correct (or not) as any other.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Majid al-Khoei a cleric? Is it possible in the Shi'ite faith for a cleric to supplant the Grand Ayatollah?

[babylon_system]

32. An ayatollah is also a cleric

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/religion-shia2.htm

There are generally six ranks among Shi'ite clerics. The highest, grand ayatollah means "great sign of God". In the past, there were usually no more than five grand ayatollahs in the Shi'ite Islamic world. Today however it is suspected that there are at least seven and possibly more. Under grand ayatollah is ayatollah ("sign of God"). Below ayatollah is the rank of hojat al Islam, which is Arabic for "authority on Islam". Next is mubellegh al risala or "carrier of the message". While mujtahid often refers to clerics in general, it is also a specific rank, which denotes one has graduated from a religious seminary. At the bottom of the ladder are religious students, talib ilm. Besides the obvious factors such as graduation to be promoted to mujtahid, promotion in the ranks is a rather subjective matter. Two important factors behind promotion are the size and quality of one's student following and authorship of scholarly works on Islam.

[Aidoneus]

37. welcome, babylon_system

Your knowledge and understanding is a welcomed addition.

There are at least 8 Grand Ayat.'s alive now--5 based in Najaf (or 4--techically Haeri is in Qom), Sayyid Fadlallah in Lebanon, and at least 2 in Iran (up to ten claimed by some counts).

[saigon68]

11. Halliburton will make money off this !

Count on it.

[nolabels]

13. Halliburton's daddy is still the secret dick

They just don't talk about it

Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War
Cheney's Former Company Profits from Supporting Troops
by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch
March 20th, 2003
(snip)
Wartime Profiteering

Meanwhile Dick Cheney's 2001 financial disclosure statement, states that the Halliburton is paying him a "deferred compensation" of up to $1million a year following his resignation as chief executive in 2000. At the time Cheney opted not to receive his severance package in a lump sum, but instead to have it paid to him over five years, possibly for tax reasons.

The company would not say how much the payments are. The obligatory disclosure statement filled by all top government officials says only that they are in the range of $100,000 and $1million. Nor is it clear how they are calculated.

Critics say that the apparent conflict of interest is deplorable. "The Bush-Cheney team have turned the United States into a family business," says Harvey Wasserman, author of The Last Energy War (Seven Stories Press, 2000). "That's why we haven't seen Cheney - he's cutting deals with his old buddies who gave him a multimillion-dollar golden handshake. Have they no grace, no shame, no common sense? Why don't they just have Enron run America? Or have Zapata Petroleum (George W. Bush's failed oil-exploration venture) build a pipeline across Afghanistan?"

Army officials disagree. Major Bill Bigelow, public relations officer for the US Army in Western Europe, says: "If you're going to ask a specific question - like, do you think it's right that contractors profit in wartime - I would think that they might be better at a higher level, to people who set the policy. We don't set the policy, we work within the framework that's been established."
(snip)
http://corpwatch.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=6008

Smedley Butler on Interventionism
-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.

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 inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense 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 the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
(snip)
http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm

[leftchick]

16. Well this is just plain wrong... My TV told me....

It is Iraqi "troops" that are doing this mission. CNN did this oh so very convincing segnment that stated this whole Najaf take down is an Iraqi operation with the US taking their orders from Allawi! The propaganda is complete.... :puke:

[ibeplato]

22. Bush to slash final combat training for Marines in half

This ought to be interesting news to the Marines fighting in Najaf, those that are coming behind them won't be as well trained.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf? /base/news-17/1093325900144970.xml

(I can't post this as a breaking news article as I'm a newbie, but feel free to take it and run with it)

[babylon_system]

34. They will get on-the-job training

The money saved on training will help pay their funeral expenses.