U.S. Assassinates Two Shiite Clerics Organizing Nonviolent Resistance

[whosinpower]

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/05/1357225

Snip from transcript:

AARON GLANTZ: The main goal of the meeting, according to representatives of the human rights organization, was how to confront the American occupation without resorting to violence. It was a regular topic of discussion at this organization, which was well known to American officials. A few months before, hawkish Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz had visited the organization to praise its efforts. But there seems to be a different relationship now. The group’s Hashim al-Safi was proud to have a photograph showing him and Wolfowitz shaking hands, but he has a different feeling today.

HASHIM AL-SAFI: We were peaceful. We just had pens and paper, but they came with a whole bunch of arms.

AARON GLANTZ: Hashim says fifteen American soldiers ordered everyone down on the ground and ran to the podium to arrest the speaker, Said Adnan Nonabi, head of Muqtada al-Sadr's office in Hillah. They placed a black hood over his head and then, Hashim says, the American soldiers turned their attention to the two sheiks in a nearby hallway.

HASHIM AL-SAFI: They shot them where they were standing, and you can see the blood on the doors. They shot them from just one or two meters away.

AARON GLANTZ: The bullets that killed the two sheiks were the only shots fired in the human rights office. The only bullet holes in the hall are amidst a blood-spattered wall where the two sheiks were shot. Fragments of the two sheiks’ brains can still be seen on the floor, corroborating claims they were shot in the head. Meantime the head of the local office of Muqtada al-Sadr, Adnan Nonabi, has disappeared into U.S. custody. Troops at the local military base, which is maintained by Poland, told Democracy Now! they didn't know anything about the raid. The headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad explained it will take them ten days to tell us where he's been taken. Adnan’s sister-in-law Um Ali says prison is nothing new for her Adnan Nonabi, who was jailed for a year by Saddam Hussein for giving a critical sermon in Friday prayers.


Anyone else hear about this on the mainstream media? Is this story real?????????????????? :-(

[tkulesa]

1. I expect that we are doing this kind of sh*t.

Hell, our government would still be assassinating non-violent activists here too if they could get away with it. The US has a long continuous history of using brutal force against non-violent activists. I wouldn't expect our military be be any different. I'd expect them to be worse. And of course they are.

[htuttle]

2. Haven't heard it on the mainstream media yet,

but if it's on Democracy Now, I'd about guarantee that it's factually correct. The facts being, of course, that Hashim Al-Safi says he was an eyewitness to this happening.

Here's confirmation of the raid from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/03/iraq.najaf/
(May 3)

The overnight mortar attacks followed the weekend killing of an al-Sadr deputy, along with four others, during a coalition raid on the cleric's offices in the central Iraqi town of Hillah.

Adnan al-Anbaky -- al-Sadr's top deputy in Hillah -- and four other associates died in the raid, according to Sayid Hussam al-Hassani, the head of the cleric's Najaf press office.

Al-Hassani said the Hillah offices housed a human rights organization run by al-Sadr.

[MadHound]

3. And sad to say, you probably won't either, at least not in the near future

If it spreads around the internet enough, maybe, for then it can't be ignored. But for right now, it is going to slip right under the radar along with the many other abuses going on.

Sad, just sad, and probably coming to a country near you.

[papau]

4. RE-Spin - and 2 bodyguards were killed,, Nonabi arrested & released

"Dozens of followers of Muqtada al-Sadr sing songs of martyrdom as they carry the coffins of their two slain comrades. These two coffins bear the bodies of senior sheiks -they killed two sheiks and arrested two other important community leaders. Fifteen American soldiers ordered everyone down on the ground and ran to the podium to arrest the speaker, Said Adnan Nonabi, head of Muqtada al-Sadr's office in Hillah. They placed a black hood over his head and then, Hashim says, the American soldiers turned their attention to the two sheiks in a nearby hallway."

[Az_lefty]

5. Probably won't hear this on mainstream media

unless it comes out in some investigation. BTW, Democracy Now! is my favorite show on Free Speech TV.