U.S. Warplanes Bomb Vast Baghdad Slum

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Oct. 05, 2004

U.S. Warplanes Bomb Vast Baghdad Slum

FISNIK ABRASHI
Associated Press


BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. warplanes pounded the vast Baghdad slum of Sadr City overnight after an American patrol came under gunfire, the military said Tuesday. In the Sunni Triangle city of Ramadi, a car bomb explosion was followed by clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents.
(snip)

Vehicle-borne Marines opened fire on three masked men seen planting a roadside explosive, and after killing two and wounding a third, they pursued three others who later managed to escape, said 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert, a spokesman for the Marines.
(snip)

U.S. and Iraqi authorities have indicated that Ramadi, along with the nearby city of Fallujah, may have to be swept clear of rebels in order for January elections to take place everywhere in Iraq.
(snip)

Abu Tar al-Kinani, the spokesman for the insurgents in Sadr City, said the overnight attack was a "liquidation operation" and an effort to keep al-Sadr's movement from taking part in elections slated for January.

Meanwhile, U.S. Marines have distributed $367,300 in condolence and damage repair payments in the holy city of Najaf since three weeks of fighting ended there in late August, the military said in a statement Tuesday.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/9835557.htm
(Free registration required)

[cap]

1. the British did the same thing in 1920...

eom

[ClintonTyree]

2. Kill them. destroy their............

homes and meager possessions and then hand them a check. Wonderful, it's the American way! This will win their hearts and minds. I'm sure a great portion of those checks will be spent on roses to throw at the American's feet.

[kayell]

3. I'm sure that those bombs only killed horrible terrorists and knew to

avoid any innocent men, women and children in the area. Our righteous nation would surely not engage in wholesale slaughter, simply because the people involved are too poor to have any influence or recourse.

[Mokito]

14. You are right. No, no, I just can't start imagining thàt possibility.

[coalition_unwilling]

20. Or the bombs killed 'terrorists' disguised as children <sarcasm>

Can you say "state terrorism"? And it isn't the Iraqi Resistance that's engaging in it.

[kayell]

22. Too true. If there's one thing the BFEE specializes in, it's projection.

The difference between terrorism and a state justified invasion and slaughter seems to be solely the amount of money and sophistication of the killing methods. And of course, the civilian mortality rate - it's much, much higher for the state supported methods.

[teryang]

4. How many families have BENEFITED FROM PAYMENTS?

<The statement did not specify how many families have benefited from the payments.>

In the mighty propaganda machine, it is now a benefit to have your home bombed and family members wounded and killed.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

5. Bush's war on poverty

How long before they try it here?

They would eliminate poverty and get rid of minority voters at the same time.

Efficient, like concentration camps.:crazy:

[OutInTheBack40]

6. Urbane renewal?

Vehicle-borne Marines opened fire on three masked men seen planting a roadside explosive, and after killing two and wounding a third,

Now *that's* the right way to do it.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. It is illegal and immoral for an occupying power

to do this to a civilian population.

This is like bombing Harlem. There is no good reason for attacking the Iraq people in this way. The war is over, Saddam has been removed from power, the US is in 'control'. Yet Bush gets a free pass to continuing committing his crimes against humanity.

[reprobate]

15. I wouldn't be sure about his "free pass".

He has already been convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the international criminal court. At this rate no republican will be able to leave the country for fear of being arrested for war crimes. And that's not a bad thing.

Just think, bush and pinochet, what a pair.

[pinkpops]

8. homocide bombers

call Fox

[radwriter0555]

9. Remind me, who is bush 'freeing them' from????

I so honestly don't GET this....

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

10. We had to destroy the village to save it

This is so similiar to Vietnam.

We're fighting terrorism instead of communism. The only other difference is the geography.

[FormerOstrich]

12. I think this is worse than Vietnam....

because we're not fighting terrorism. We are breeding it. We didn't create new crops of communists with every bomb.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

17. Good point about breeding terrorists

Every kid in the Muslim world big enough to carry a rifle is probably walking towards Iraq as we speak.

[kayell]

16. And the label of terrorist is often just as much a canard as

labeling the Vietnamese in general as communists ever was. Witness also the tieing in of any anti-establishment group in the US as terrorist ("eco-terrorists") or terrorist sympathizers (ACLU). The BFEE knows a good emotionally charged label when they see one.

[coalition_unwilling]

21. U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige referred to the NEA (Teachers Untion)

as 'terrorists'. Did he resign? Was he fired? Oh, wait, this is the nudge, nudge, wink, wink administration. When they're called out on outrageous statements, they say only, "We were joking."

[nolabels]

23. Bushco and the NWO wants to do away with Unions

Unions in Iraq

Unions in Iraq
Submitted on 1 March, 2004 - 22:02. Iraq
A new leaflet from the Australian Socialist Alliance gives summary information about trade unions in Iraq. Unlike the Socialist Alliance in England, the Australian Socialist Alliance has agreed to emphasise building solidarity with workers' organisations in Iraq.
Much more detailed information about unions and workers' struggles in Basra can be found in Ewa Jasiewicz's report "The Invisible Fire", which you can download as pdf here.


Trade union activity exploded in Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. Many new unions have been formed but they face big obstacles from the US occupation forces. The US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority(CPA) has kept Saddam Hussein’s anti-union laws.
(SNIP)
5 June – US administrator Paul Bremer issued a notice, Public Incitement to Violence and Disorder, giving the occupying army the right to detain anyone suspected of ``inciting civil disorder, rioting or damage to property’’. The term ``incitement’’ could be interpreted broadly to include strikes or pickets that the CPA deems to be destabilising, especially in the oil industry.

6 June – Bremer issued a notice, Organisation in the Workplace, stating that `` Legislation with regards to organization within the workplace remains unchanged …’’

This order means that the US occupation forces have kept in place Saddam Hussein’s 1987 law banning unions in the public sector. Around 80% of Iraqi workers work in state-owned industry because of the extensive nationalisation of Iraqi industry in the 1970s.
(snip)
http://www.workersliberty.org/node/view/1802

An Open Letter to the Anti-War Movement

With every day that passes, the crisis facing the American people deepens. Resistance to a brutal occupation escalates and spreads across Iraq as both major political parties march in lock-step to intensify this war, increase the numbers of troops, allocate yet further trillions of dollars to permanent war and devastate social services in America.

Last February, the leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union, Local 10 initiated an appeal to the labor movement both organized and unorganized, to the social justice and inter-faith communities and to the mass of our people, to join together in a great mobilization in Washington, D.C.

This call to put forward our own agenda in opposition to military adventurism abroad and class war at home serves notice that we will not be soft-soaped at election time and sold out immediately thereafter.

Today, it is abundantly clear that the corporations and banks that fund, control and drive forward the political process in America have abrogated the political will and aspirations of the great majority of working people. They are conducting an “election” that excludes the deepest aspirations of multi-millions of working families
(snip)
http://www.millionworkermarch.org/article.php?id=85

[jmcgowanjm]

11. Still defiant! Two US helicopters downed by Samarra’ Resistance Monday

Correspondents for Mafkarat al-Islam in Iraq believe that
coming days will witness a qualitative change in the
operations being carried out by the Iraqi Resistance against
the occupation. The correspondents observed Resistance activity in more than 50 regions of the country over the last
week and noted a marked escalation in Resistance
attacks, bringing the total number of operations up to about
87 per day.

Monday October 4:

Iraqi Resistance car bomber strikes CIA headquarters in Baghdad. Twelve CIA agents killed in massive explosion.
The local correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam reported
from Baghdad Monday morning that at 10am local time an
Iraqi Resistance martyrdom fighter attacked one of the
largest headquarters of the US Central Intelligence Agency
(the CIA) in Baghdad. The massive explosion occurred
near Sa‘dun Street, very close to the ar-Rashid Hotel.
After the attack on the CIA headquarters, the US
occupation command closed down all
telephone communications in Iraq - both land lines and
portable telephones, according to Mafkarat al-Islam,
which quoted an informed source working in the field
of telecommunications in the
country.
The source told Mafkarat al-Islam that later in the day,
the
order closing down all telephone communications
was rescinded for the northern regions of the country, but
that
the shut-down was still in force in the southern part of the
country

A detachment of forty Resistance fighters observed a US
column heading out of ad-Dulu‘iyah on its way to Samarra’
to reinforce US troops attacking the Resistance there. At 4pm
the Resistance attacked the column, igniting the battle that
raged until about 7:10pm. Four Resistance fighters were killed
in the combat and 11 American troops perished.

[jmcgowanjm]

13. BTW-The US is desperate to shut the Resistance site down

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1570-2004Oct1.html

I thought they would be.

[bemildred]

19. Interesting, thanks.

I had to use bugmenot, but it was worth it.

Someone ought to explain to these spooks that they are in a
Red Queen situation, an arms race, and that they are going to lose
in any campaign to impose censorship. They have only two choices:
shut down the internet or deal with it the way it is, free flow of
information and all. We've already been through this sort of thing
a number of times, the encryption wars come to mind especially, and
the spooks lost every time where it mattered.

[Polemonium]

18. If you can't get them to vote kill em

unless of coarse you live in Florida, in which case you don't want them to vote, and you can't kill them.

[ilovenicepeople]

24. just wondering?

was it a "vast Baghdad slum" before the bombs were dropped,or did it become one shortly after?