US occupation becomes disaster in
deadliest month since fall of Baghdad
Compiled by Bud Howell
Apr. 15 (AGR) -- Recent fighting in Iraq has killed more than
80 US-led coalition troops and nearly 1,000 Iraqis, amounting to the
deadliest two weeks since the US declared war on Iraq last year. Despite
US claims Apr. 11 that a truce had been reached, US Marines launched
a major stike Apr. 14 on Fallujah; US warplanes and helicopters, firing
heavy machine guns, rockets, and cannons, hammered civilian resisters
and armed Iraqi freedom fighters.
Massacred civilians labeled ‘insurgents’
Information based on statements from Iraqi hospital officials, US
military sources, Iraqi police, and other witnesses indicates there
was never a cease-fire or truce in Falluja as reported on Apr. 11
by US officials. Witnesses say city residents, including women and
children, were shot by military snipers.
Witnesses say city ambulances were fired upon by US forces. Hundreds
of civilians -- many identified as senior citizens, women, and children
-- were found lying in the city’s streets.
Meanwhile, US spokesman Dan Senor repeated the Bush administration’s
claim that foreign insurgents are responsible for the upsurge in violence
and organized opposition to the US-led occupation in Iraq. “The
problem here is with foreign fighters [and] international terrorists,”
Senor maintained.
Senor’s comments run parallel to a trend in US interpretations
of recent events in the country -- that many Iraqi civilians have
been posthumously identified by US officials as insurgent rebels.
Despite an Apr. 12 assertion from US Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmett that
there is no authoritative figure on the number Iraqi civilian deaths,
various accounts of recent fighting reveal that more than 600 Iraqis
were killed by US forces in the besieged city of Fallujah. Various
US officials said those killed were mostly insurgents who had been
picked off with precision by US marines. But according to the head
of the city’s hospital, most of those individuals were citizens.
The director of the city’s general hospital, Rafie al-Issawi,
said Apr. 11 the vast majority of an estimated 600 dead in Fallujah
were women, children, and the elderly. The figure was gathered from
four clinics around the city and from Falluja general hospital, which
have all been taking in bodies. Bodies were also being buried in nearby
athletic fields and in people’s homes.
But when asked about the victims numbers, US marine Lieutenant Colonel
Brennan Byrne said: “What I think you will find is 95 percent
of those were military age males that were killed in the fighting.
The marines are trained to be precise in their firepower ... The fact
that there are 600 goes back to the fact that the marines are very
good at what they do.”
US action in Fallujah under investigation
Citing human rights abuses, the killing of women and children, and
concerns about excessive use of force, a leading human rights organization
asked Apr. 13 for an immediate investigation into the US military’s
offensive in Falluja earlier this month. Fallujah residents who fled
the fighting described the city’s streets as being littered with
bodies, including those of women and children Iraqi politicians have
accused US forces of ensuing collective punishment on the city’s
residents following the public slaying on Mar. 31 of four American
security contractors. The US military has rejected allegations that
its soldiers fired indiscriminately or used excessive force.
“There is enough from the footage we’ve seen…and from
consistent reports we are getting about women, children, and unarmed
civilians being killed,” said Hania Mufti, a senior researcher
for Human Rights Watch, the New York-based group calling for the investigation.
“We would call on the US military to be as cooperative as possible
with our investigation,” she said.
“I could see many bodies in the streets. Hundreds were lying
in the street. Relatives were too scared to get them,” said Samir
Rabee, who escaped with relatives and eight other families in the
back of a refrigeration truck.
US-trained Iraqi army refuses to ‘fight Iraqis’
An entire battalion of the Iraqi Armed Forces, consisting of Iraqi
soldiers recruited by the US to go to Fallujah to assist marines battling
for control of the city, has collectively refused to fight against
fellow Iraqi citizens. The incident marked the first time US commanders
had sought to involve the postwar Iraqi army in major combat operations.
The new Iraqi Army soldiers refused to fight on Apr. 12, according
to US Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton who is overseeing the training of
newly recruited Iraqi security personnel. Eaton, former chief of infantry
training for the US Army, said members of the battalion insisted during
the ensuing discussions that, “We did not sign up to fight Iraqis.”
He noted that Iraqi troops have “fought very, very bravely”
against Iran and he believed the problem involved the fact that the
unit was trained by US advisers who emphasized that their job would
be to defend Iraq against outside forces.
US forces surround Iraq’s holiest city
“I fear only God. I am ready to sacrifice my blood for this country.
But I call on the Iraqi people not to let my killing put an end to
their rejection of the [US] occupation,” radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr recently told a Lebanese television station. The religious
leader remained shielded in his office Apr. 13, as a multidivisional
US military convoy surrounded Iraq’s most sacred city of Najaf.
The US-led coalition has targeted al-Sadr for his role in the recent
uprising across southern Iraq.
Meanwhile, desperate Iraqi politicians and ayatollahs tried to negotiate
a solution to avert a US attack in Najaf, which they say would outrage
the nation’s Shi’ite majority and could turn what has allegedly
been a limited revolt by a single militia into an outright Shi’ite
rebellion.
Al-Sadr vowed to continue what he called “a popular revolution”
to end the US occupation of Iraq, as US commanders vowed to have him
killed or captured. The fighting against al-Sadr’s militia is
one of two fronts for the US military in Iraq so far this month. Americans
have also been battling Sunni insurgents in the central city of Fallujah,
as well as increased resistance in Baghdad and elsewhere.
US troops on Suicide Watch
There is an alarmingly high rate of military suicides among US troops
in Iraq. Twenty-four Americans — 20 army personnel, two Marines
and two sailors — are known to have taken their own lives there
in the past year. This calculation does not include the deaths of
newly States-sided troops, which the Pentagon discludes from official
tallies. There have been seven such suicides, including those of two
soldiers who killed themselves while patients at Walter Reed Army
Hospital. That equals a suicide rate of 17.3 per 100,000, a figure
far in excess of last year’s overall US military rate of 12.8.
Despite the figures, the Pentagon’s psychiatric department denies
there’s a problem.
Already, one in every 10 soldiers evacuated out of Iraq for medical
care is suffering from mental-health problems. Outraged veterans groups
say the military is totally unprepared for the onslaught of post-traumatic
stress disorders coming in the months ahead as more troops return
home. But the Defense Department’s psychiatric team has concluded
there is “no crisis” in Iraq; that many suicides could be
explained by the soldiers’ personal circumstances — each
had financial, domestic or legal problems. Also argued by US officials
is the fact that a soldier usually has 24-hour access to a loaded
weapon.
Pentagon shuns mental health of soldiers
But even after death, the way in which suicidal soldiers have lost
their lives has been described in questionable terms by Pentagon reports.
Such is the case of US Army Specialist Joseph Suell who took his own
life last year in Iraq. The US government concluded that Suell’s
death was the result of a “non-hostile, self-inflicted drug overdose.”
The growing problem of suicide amongst Americans stationed in Iraq
and Afghanistan led the Pentagon to conduct a special assessment of
soldiers’ mental health. Of 756 soldiers interviewed, investigators
reported that 72 per cent said their units suffered from low morale.
Nearly 75 per cent said they had little faith in their immediate superiors;
that officers “showed little concern for their well-being.”
Though mental-health counseling was available, most said there is
a stigma attached to asking for help. There is even proof that a soldier’s
admission of anxiety, depression, and other problems is punishable
by military law. Last October, US Army Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany faced
a court-martial for “cowardice” following his mentioning
to a superior officer his struggling mental state. The charge has
since been dropped to “dereliction of duty,” but Pogany
still faces a military trial.
Critics of the Pentagon’s stance towards mental illness contend
that pre-existing psychological problems can be worsened by the very
nature of combat, especially in a war like Iraq. Steve Robinson, executive
director of the National Gulf War Resource Center in Washington, said
the problem is not being addressed.
“Things can be done to keep a soldier functional,” he explains.
“If I’d been Pogany’s superior, I’d have put my
arms around him and said, “It’s okay to have fear.’”
Soldiers receive few details of return home
Analysts say the situation in Iraq is exacerbated by a Pentagon policy
that doesn’t offer much stress training to support troops who
don’t serve in combat roles. For every regular soldier in Iraq,
there are 13 support troops who drive trucks, transport supplies or,
as in Pogany’s case, act as interpreters.
The element of uncertainty is a wildcard for soldiers currently stationed
in Iraq. On top of an unpredictable civilian backlash or guerrilla
warfare, troops often don’t know when their tour of duty will
end. In Iraq, the service policy keeps changing: 25,000 troops who
thought they were coming home have just been redeployed. Seth Pollack,
executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, says “The military
hasn’t created a coherent policy for troop rotation because it
is responding to the unrealistic politics of the administration.”
Another damaging variable may be the use in Iraq of the anti-malaria
drug, Lariam, despite a Federal Drug Administration warning that it
can cause depression, aggression and suicidal thoughts. In February,
the defense department flatly denied the drug is to blame, but it
has since agreed to study a possible link to the suicides and mental
health problems in Iraq.
Bush ready to send more troops to Iraq
In an Apr. 13 press conference, Bush told reporters in Washington
he would send as many more troops as his generals want to bring security
to Iraq. He also restated his commitment to transferring sovereignty
of the country to Iraqis on June 30 and likened the violence in Iraq
to the terror attacks on Madrid trains and in an Indonesian night
club.
Sources: Associated Press, Guardian (UK),
New Standard, New York Times, Reuters, Toronto Star, Washington Post
India wins WTO battle
By Stefania Bianchi
Brussels, Apr 8 (IPS) — India’s victory over the
EU at the World Trade Organization Wednesday is being claimed to
be a triumph for all developing countries.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) rejected an appeal by the European
Union (EU) to maintain a set of tariff preferences that the EU claimed
would reduce production and trafficking of illegal drugs. The WTO
held that the EU scheme violates global free trade rules.
The world body said that the trade scheme unfairly discriminated
against India by granting Pakistan special trade privileges.
The EU’s ‘drug arrangements’ scheme has offered preferential
treatment to countries combating illicit drugs. The ‘arrangements’
give tariff preferences to these countries for a range of agricultural
and industrial products.
The scheme was offered to 11 Latin American countries (Bolivia,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua,
Honduras, Panama, Peru and Venezuela) and Pakistan.
The EU believes the highest production of narcotics such as opium
takes place in these countries. These drugs are sold illegally on
European streets.
The EU says its system of preferences helped these countries focus
on legal crops, and helped their economies grow.
India complained to the WTO that inclusion of Pakistan in the scheme
has cost Indian producers some $250 million in textile exports because
they face higher tariffs than export of similar goods from Pakistan.
The trade row began in March 2002 when India claimed that the EU’s
generalized system of preferences (GSPs) distorted trade. India
argued that the selection process was arbitrary because countries
such as Burma, Thailand and other big drug producers had been excluded.
A report by the WTO this week declared that the EU’s GSP drug
regime was not based on “objective and transparent criteria
for the selection of the beneficiary countries.”
The report added that WTO rules on the granting of trade preferences
required equal treatment for countries with the same “development,
financial and trade needs.”
The WTO ruled that the EU could choose countries that would be given
trade preference, but said this must be done on “objective
and transparent criteria.”
The ruling means that the EU will now have to abolish or change
the program governing low import tariffs from Pakistan.
The EU admitted in a statement that the EU “arrangements”
had been found to be unfair.
“The EU failed to demonstrate that its ‘drug arrangements’
are based on objective and transparent criteria that would allow
all developing countries similarly situated to qualify for preferences,”
it said.
But EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy tried to play down the ruling.
He said developing countries would benefit from the WTO’s decision.
“Today’s decision makes it clear that we can continue
to give trade preferences to developing countries according to their
particular situation and needs, provided this is done in an objective,
non-discriminatory and transparent manner,” he said in statement.
“This is certainly good news for many developing countries
whose preferential access to the EU was being put at risk by India’s
WTO challenge,” he added.
Lamy’s spokeswoman Arancha Gonzalez said the EU would work
out how to apply the ruling.
India said that it had scored a “significant gain” at
the WTO, adding that the findings were also a “timely reminder
that trade policy instruments cannot be used to serve political
objectives.”
A release by the Indian Department of Commerce says India did not
dispute the EU’s right to give financial assistance to “individual
developing countries fighting against the drug menace.” It
said the Indian case was that this “could not be done at the
expense of other developing countries facing different but equally
pressing needs.”
India strongly supports the need to resolve special problems of
developing countries, the release said. “In India’s view,
the principal way of addressing such problems is by according primacy
to the development dimension in the ongoing Doha work program, which
otherwise appears to have been given short shrift.”
‘The 'Timoney-three’ go
free
Compiled by David Pike
Apr. 7 (AGR)— On Apr. 6, 2004 Philadelphia Common
Pleas Judge William Mazzola acquitted Darby Landy, Eric Steinberg,
and Camilo Viveiros, Jr. of all charges in the last felony case
remaining from Philadelphia’s 2000 Republican National Convention.
The “Timoney-3” were accused of having assaulted Philadelphia’s
former Police Commissioner John Timoney with a bicycle on Aug.
1, 2000. The protest that day was dedicated to issues of police
brutality and inequities in the justice system.
Landy, Steinberg, and Viveiros were arrested after officers on
bikes, including then-Police Commissioner Timoney, rushed a group
of marchers leaving the permitted rally against the death penalty.
A scuffle ensued and police officers were assaulted. Two Philadelphia
officers testified on Monday, Apr. 5, that they saw Viveiros throw
the bicycle at Timoney and Officer Raymond Felder. This testimony,
however, was marred by inconsistencies. On Apr. 6, the testimony
of Timoney, now Miami’s police chief, added more contradictions.
In a surprising twist, Timoney failed to identify the person who
threw the bicycle. Four years ago in a sworn statement, Timoney
said the person who threw the bike was Camilo Viveiros, although
he also said then that he never saw his face.
“I never saw him,” Timoney said after the trial, but
added, “there is no doubt in my mind he threw the bike at
me.”
Amateur video footage of the arrests and testimony from Viveiros
and co-defendant Steinberg then directly contradicted parts of
police testimony. Darby Landy did not take the stand.
Viveiros, Steinberg, and Landy are the last of 420 people arrested
during the 2000 Republican convention to go to trial. No defendants
have received jail time; all felony and 96 percent of all criminal
cases have been won by defendants, according to R2K Legal Collective
spokesman Kris Hermes. The low conviction rates, he said, demonstrate
that police used their powers to disrupt protests, not arrest
lawbreakers. This claim is reinforced by the ACLU’s 2000
statement that the convention’s protests saw what may have
been the largest single occurrence of civil rights violations
since the Vietnam War.
In announcing his verdict, Judge Mazzola stated, “I have
no doubt Officer Felder was injured. I have no doubt Commissioner
Timoney was knocked down. The only thing I have doubt about is
the persons who did this, so I acquit them.”
“I feel great,” Viveiros reacted after the verdict.
“This was a victory not only for me individually but for
social justice movements that utilize the street to struggle for
justice.” He added, ”I feel like the victory today was
dependent on the solidarity of people who were out on the streets
videotaping police interactions.”
Speaking of his experience immediately after the trial Steinberg
said, “It definitely gives me a better perspective on what
it means to be a protester in the US.”
Timoney said that although the defendants were acquitted, he believes
they got off easily. “Just because you’re found not
guilty doesn’t mean you’re innocent,” he claimed.
“I think the judge wanted this to go away.”
“Timoney can say whatever he wants, but the truth is coming
out,” exclaimed Viveiros. The results, he explains, are proof
of the power of community organizing, of solidarity among activists
in different struggles, and a clear condemnation of overzealous
arrest tactics and warning for police at this summer’s RNC:
“This sends a message to the police in New York [City] that
they can’t get away with criminalizing dissent. We will overcome
any strong arm tactics and build our movement for justice in the
process.”
Sources: AP, Boston Phoenix, Philly
IMC, Miami Herald, The Nation
US nuclear industry powers back into life
25 years after the Three Mile Island accident,
reactor builders are active again
By David Teather
New York, New York, Apr. 13 — Twenty-five years after
the United States suffered its worst nuclear accident, the moribund
atomic energy industry has begun to show signs of life.
A consortium of seven of the biggest companies in the business,
including a division of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), now says
it intends to apply for the first license to build a commercial
nuclear plant in the US since the near disaster at Three Mile
Island.
The consortium has not yet said where it intends to construct
the plant, only that it will spend millions of dollars on developing
the plans, at the invitation of the government.
A series of mechanical malfunctions and human errors led to a
partial core meltdown at the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania
on March 28 1979, causing it to spew plumes of radioactive gas
into the atmosphere. For five days there were fears of catastrophe.
The accident and the anxiety it caused, plus the soaring costs
of tighter safety regulations and the availability of cheap, clean
natural gas were enough to halt the industry in its tracks. The
final orders for new nuclear-fired plants were placed in December
of that year.
Government officials say there was no effect on the health of
local people from the Three Mile accident. The courts agreed:
a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of 2,000 people was dismissed
in 1996.
But doubts remain. Recent data from the Radiation and Public Health
Project, a non-profit organization, suggests otherwise. The group
claims infant mortality in the local area increased by 47 percent
in the two years after the accident. It also says that, 25 years
on, cancer-related deaths among children under 10 are 30 percent
higher than the national average.
Still, broader sentiment appears to have changed as America’s
thirst for energy continues to increase. A number of factors are
working in the nuclear industry’s favor. Power blackouts
such as the one that blanketed the north-eastern US last summer,
concerns about greenhouse gases from coal-fired plants and the
shortage of natural gas that is pushing prices higher have combined
to rehabilitate nuclear power. The costs of operating nuclear
power plants have fallen.
According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
the industry’s future will depend upon its ability to argue
that nuclear power, which produces no greenhouse emissions, is
necessary to fight global warming.
There are 103 commercial reactors still operating in the US, generating
about 20percent of the nation’s electricity. The US accounts
for almost a quarter of the 435 nuclear power reactors in the
world. The fleet of reactors in the US is ageing, however, and
many are now applying for licenses to extend their lives. By the
end of this year, a third of the existing plants, built to last
for 40 years, will have applied for licenses to continue operating
for another 20.
The consortium put together to apply for the new plant is made
up of Exelon Nuclear, the largest operator in the US, with 17
reactors; Entergy Nuclear, the second largest US operator; Constellation
Energy; the Southern Company, and EDF International North America,
a unit of Electricité de France. General Electric and Westinghouse
Electric, a unit of BNFL, are the associated manufacturers.
So far, all they have committed to is spending tens of millions
of dollars of their own money as well as cash from the government
to design a plant. They hope to submit an application by 2008
and have a decision from the nuclear regulatory commission by
2010.
The licensing system was streamlined in 1992 to allow new plants
to be built more quickly, but it has yet to be tested.
A number of utilities have applied for “early site permits,”
part of the department of energy’s program to breathe new
life into the industry. Applicant companies have 20 years to decide
whether they want to build.
The Bush administration’s stalled energy bill provides incentives
for nuclear power and seeks the extension of liability against
lawsuits in case of accidents.
The industry cites statistics that it claims shows reactors are
safer than they have ever been. The number of “scrams”
- emergency shutdowns - has fallen from 1.6 for each plant annually
in 1990 to 0.4 in 2002.
But there have been worrying incidents. The Davis Beese plant
in Ohio run by FirstEnergy has been closed since early 2002 after
it was discovered that an accumulation of acid had almost eaten
through the six-inch steel reactor vessel.
Two other obstacles loom large. The first is what to do with nuclear
waste. The second is what would happen if plants were targeted
by terrorists.
The government is developing a plan to bury nuclear waste at Yucca
mountain in Nevada, 90 miles north-west of Las Vegas, but faces
opposition from nearby residents. The concerns don’t stop
there. Moving waste across the country on trains is a security
and health risk.
And New York residents note that one of the planes that crashed
into the World Trade Center in 2001 flew directly over the Indian
Point plant on the Hudson river, 35 miles from midtown Manhattan.
Source: Guardian (UK)
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