Death toll mounts in Iraq as war support erodes

Compiled by Willy Rosencrans

Sept. 22 (AGR) — Daily attacks in Iraq against US troops and Iraq’s police and national guard have left craters in the streets. From Sept. 13 through Sept. 19, 300 people were killed. Four videotaped beheadings have surfaced. Torture has been alleged at a US-run prison in Mosul. And Iraq’s dismal prospects, foretold in intelligence reports, have prompted widespread censure of the war effort.

Saboteurs blew up a junction where multiple oil pipelines cross the Tigris River near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, on Sept. 14, setting off a chain reaction in power generation systems that left the entire country without power.

Firefighters struggled to put out the blaze after the attack. Burning oil cascaded down the hillside into the river.

“Beiji is the chokepoint,” said US Lt. Col. Lee Morrison. “It’s so easy to hit... They already know it’s a critical point because they’ve blown it up before.” The attack last month on the valves had already disrupted the main 40-inch pipeline carrying Iraqi oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Bloody clashes continue unabated

US forces and Iraqi national guard and police forces sustained daily attacks across the country all week. In response, the US raked resistance stronghold Fallujah with gunship fire and renewed its offensive against Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and forces loyal to him.

On Sept. 16 three bombs in Baghdad targeted a US convoy; in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi National Guard building came under mortar attack; in Baquba, US soldiers were wounded when a military vehicle was destroyed in front of an army headquarters building; and 13 people were killed and 17 wounded in Ramadi when insurgents fought marine units.

That night, up to 56 civilians were killed and 40 wounded in US air strikes near Falluja. The US claims that it is targeting the “safe-houses” of Jordanian guerrilla leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and/or his supporters. Iraqi medical sources and independent journalists in Falluja say that most of those wheeled into local hospitals were civilians, including women and children.

Air strikes over Fallujah have been repeated several times throughout the week.

A suicide car bomb attack at the Iraqi national guard headquarters in Kirkuk killed 23 people on Sept. 18. The victims were in line to apply for jobs. Two US soldiers were killed and eight injured when their military convoy was hit by a car bomb on the main road to Baghdad airport. They had been traveling to the scene of an earlier car-bombing in which three soldiers were hurt.

On Sept. 21 a police vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Baquba, north of Baghdad. Nine civilian vehicles were also wrecked in the blast on the highway leading to the airport.

That same day US warplanes launched missiles “to destroy roadside bombs and mines strewn across the streets” of the east Baghdad slum of Sadr City, the site of fierce clashes recently between US troops and fighters loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Also on that day US forces and Iraqi police raided al-Sadr’s office in Najaf, arresting several aides and confiscating thousands of weapons. The raid took place next to the Imam Ali Mosque, the Shi’ite shrine that was the site of a three-week standoff between US troops and al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army in August.

The night before Sept. 22 the US launched a fresh offensive on Sadr City that killed 13 people; 149 were wounded. The attack was described by an official from al-Sadr’s office as the “most devastating” offensive there since Saddam’s fall.

Over the past eight months, US troops have been driven out of Fallujah and then Ramadi, cities to the west of Baghdad; Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, is the latest Iraqi city the US has been forced from. Samarra is controlled by about 500 fighters from three well-known Sunni Muslim rebel groups.

Since the failed offensive by US marines to take Fallujah in April, much of the rest of the surrounding area has slipped from US control. Insurgents roam freely in the provincial capital, Ramadi, and the US appears to have abandoned a permanent presence inside the city.

US commanders now acknowledge that their previous estimate of the number of full-time Iraqi resistance fighters — 5,000 — was much too low. On Sept. 5 a US military spokesperson said that there were “up to 12,000 full-time insurgents, a number that swells when part-timers are active.”

This figure does not include the 3,000 regular soldiers in the Fallujah Protective Army — the rebel force commanded by former Iraqi Army officers that US marine commanders formally handed over control of Fallujah to on May 1.

Hostage-taking hits 135

Two US contractors, Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong (now dead), and a British engineer, Kenneth Bigley, were kidnapped in Baghdad on Sept. 16. All three were working for Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services Co., a construction firm based in the United Arab Emirates.

The Tawhid and Jihad group, led by al-Zarqawi, threatened to behead them and demanded the release of Iraqi women from Abu Ghraib and Umm Qasr prisons. The US military says no women are currently held at either facility, though it says it is holding two female “security prisoners” elsewhere -- two scientists, alleged to have been involved in a “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD) program.

In a note smuggled out of the jail last December, one woman prisoner, Noor, said several women were pregnant after being raped by US guards. Women released from Abu Ghraib have disappeared; Iraqi human rights groups believe their families may have murdered them because of the stigma of suspected US sexual abuse.

Armstrong’s body was found Sept. 20 a few blocks from where he lived in Baghdad; a videotape of the beheading has been posted to the web. Hensley’s death was confirmed on Sept. 22.

On Sept. 19 the decapitated bodies of three Kurdish hostages were found on a road near the northern city of Mosul; they were alleged members of the peshmerga militia of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. A videotape of the beheadings surfaced on the web that day.

The Ansar al-Sunna Army, a Sunni rebel group, said it was targeting Iraqi Kurdish parties because they have “sworn allegiance to the Crusaders and fought and are still fighting Islam and its people.”

About 135 foreigners have now been kidnapped in Iraq and at least 26 of them have been executed. (See also “Who seized Simona Torretta?,” page 10.)

“The disco:” more torture in Iraq

Three Iraqis said they were hooded, stripped naked, beaten and doused with cold water by US soldiers at lengthy torture sessions in Mosul in a place called “the disco” because of loud Western music constantly blasted at detainees, suggesting abuse had spread far beyond Abu Ghraib.

The British lawyer who released two of the men’s statements, Paul Shiner, is leading a case on behalf of Iraqis who say they were mistreated by British forces in Basra.

In the statements provided by Shiner, Haitham Saeed al-Mallah, an engineer, said he was left standing for hours, handcuffed and hooded, then kicked and beaten to unconsciousness.

He said he was then abused with other detainees, forced to carry out exhausting exercises and beaten or doused with cold water whenever they fell to the floor. They were not permitted to use the toilet and allowed only two hours sleep. He says he saw a 14-year-old Iraqi boy bleeding from the anus.

The other alleged Mosul victim, Yasir Rubaii Saeed al-Qutaji, was described as an Iraqi lawyer investigating reports of abuse at “the disco” when he was arrested.

After a day and a night forced into stress positions and doused with cold water, he was taken to a regular prison. Staff and interrogators there treated him properly at night, but allowed the same “disco team” to abuse him by day. He was threatened with sexual assault on his final day. He claims that other prisoners were treated even worse. “Some were burnt with fire, others [had] bandaged broken arms.”

“The only reason he was detained was that he was working on documenting these cases of torture, at this prison, and the Americans then went and detained him,” Shiner said.

Al-Qutaji, who was detained in March, says he and other Iraqi lawyers have been unable to stop abuses because US forces have been given immunity from prosecution. He says Paul Bremer, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, dismissed 120 of Iraq’s senior judges, 45 of them in Mosul, on the grounds that they were supporters of Saddam’s regime.

Support for “illegal” war effort waning; no WMDs

A draft of the Iraq Survey Group’s final report on the WMD charge began circulating in Washington earlier this month; the group found no evidence of WMDs or of efforts to restart Iraq’s nuclear weapons program. The finding suggests that diplomacy and containment were working prior to the invasion.

The US’s various failures are arousing criticism at home and abroad.

Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN, declared explicitly for the first time on Sept. 15 that the war on Iraq “was illegal.” And two senior Republican senators, Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), rebuked the Bush administration over its handling of Iraq, saying its proposal to divert $3.46 billion in reconstruction funds to mostly beef up security showed that US policy is in disarray.

The bloodshed has exposed as “nonsense” assurances that “blithely optimistic” administration officials gave before last year’s invasion, said Lugar. (See also “US military officers,” page 3.)

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned a year before invading Iraq that a stable post-war government would be impossible without keeping large numbers of troops there for “many years.” Britain is to cut its 5,000 troops in Iraq by a third by the end of October.

Senior ministerial advisers wrote in a “Secret UK Eyes Only” options paper that “the greater investment of Western forces, the greater our control over Iraq’s future, but the greater the cost and the longer we would need to stay.” Replacing Saddam with another “Sunni strongman” would allow the allies to withdraw their troops quickly, but “military coup could succeed coup until an autocratic Sunni dictator emerged” who sought WMDs, the paper said.

And a classified National Intelligence estimate prepared for President Bush in late July spelled out a dark assessment of prospects for Iraq, government officials said on Sept. 16.

The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war. The most favorable outcome described is an Iraq whose stability would remain tenuous in political, economic, and security terms.

Source: Agence-France Presse, Aljazeera, Arabicnews.com, Associated Press, BBC, Green Left Weekly, Guardian (UK), Independent (UK), India Daily, MSNBC, New York Times, Observer (UK), Reuters, Telegraph (UK)

Historic victory achieved for farm labor

By Shawn Gaynor

Asheville, North Carolina, Sept. 20 (AGR)– The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) has won union representation and a contract agreement for over 8,000 “guest visa” farm workers in North Carolina. The agreement is the single largest union victory in North Carolina history, and is expected to raise wages for cucumber pickers in the state by 10 percent over the next three years.

The victory comes after a five year boycott campaign against the Mt. Olive Pickle company, an agricultural packager who has vast influence in setting prices for cucumber in North Carolina.

“Workers have never been able to speak for themselves, and the union agreement gives them an opportunity to do that without fear of retaliation,” union President Baldemar Velasquez said.

Under the terms of the untraditional three party agreement Mt. Olive will increase the price it pays farmers for cucumbers with an agreement between FLOC and the North Carolina Growers Association guaranteeing to pass these increase on to farm laborers across the state.

The growers association uses the “guest worker” program (officially know as the H-2A visa program) to supply foreign labor, mostly from Mexico, to about 1,000 farms in the state, including a small number that grow cucumbers for Wayne County-based Mt. Olive Pickle, which says it has the second-biggest-selling brand of pickles in the country.

The union had launched the boycott of Mt. Olive Pickle in 1999, hoping to gain a three way agreement like the one that ended the boycott last week. The union had said Mt. Olive Pickle had a responsibility to improve working conditions on farms, despite the fact that Mt. Olive Pickle does not directly employ the farm labors who grow its pickles because of its vast influence in setting prices. Individual farmers are bound to a regional pricing scheme that say would not allow them to make positive changes on their own and remain competitive.

For its part the Mount Olive Pickle company disagreed with the boycott tactic, saying that the farmers should handle their own labor issues. They were happy though at the result of negotiations between the NCGA and FLOC and entered into a separate agreement with growers to increase prices; make specific increases to cover farm laborers under workman’s compensation; and strengthen the language concerning expectations on the grower to treat workers fairly, particularly concerning visitation rights for workers who live in farm based labor camps for the season.

Though no North Carolina groceries ever pulled Mt. Olive pickles from shelves, many major groups joined the boycott, most recently the National Council of Churches and the United Methodist Church.

“I am one pickle packer who is glad to be out of a pickle today,” said Mt. Olive Pickle President Bill Bryan, a Methodist.

The agreement between FLOC and NCGA includes a non-discrimination clause, a three-step grievance procedure, and camp representatives in labor camps will oversee implementation and protection of workers’ rights.

Many workers had feared a wave of blacklisting associated with the union drive.

“The NCGA has been accused of blacklisting workers for supporting the union and for complaining about workers’ rights and protections,” said a statement release by FLOC. “The agreement between NCGA and FLOC will make the blacklist debate a moot issue through the development of a [seasonal hiring] system of seniority based on number of years worked, growers’ requests, and union membership.”

Though the focus has been on cucumber pickers, the agreement with NCGA covers a broad range of crops throughout the entire state from the late days of February to the harvest of the last Christmas trees in November.

FLOC has won similar three way agreements to improve farm labor conditions in the Midwest. In 1986, they won a victory for the workers on farms that supply the Vlasic Pickle company and the following year won a campaign against Heinz Foods.

FLOC says it will now focus on conditions on farms that are not represented by the NCGA, who are more likely to hire undocumented workers who are easier targets for exploitation.

“This agreement will set an important standard to the rest of the agricultural industry. Everyone else almost exclusively utilizes undocumented workers and the conditions of those workers are tragic and shameful,” stated Velasquez.

“We will continue struggling and give it all we got, because there is still work to do. We will never forget those that started this, those that made it possible, those workers and leaders who were in the front lines of the campaign and the union,” said Jose Hernandez-Coronado. an H-2A farm worker. “Right now we do it for ourselves and for our families in Mexico, but we also sign this contract for the future generations who will come in the coming years. Hasta la Victoria, somos hermanos en la lucha.”

First Amendment broadcast hushed

By Kent Miller

Asheville, North Carolina, Sept. 22 (AGR)— On Wednesday, Sept. 15 a total of six federal agents interrupted transmission of Knoxville First Amendment Radio (KFAR) 90.9FM, a community non-commercial station located in Knoxville, Tennessee.

As Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agents loaded two minivans to the brim with confiscated equipment, three US marshals stood guard “refusing to give names or badge numbers,” said “The Ghost,” a programmer at the station, in an interview with Free Radio Santa Cruz. The agents were also reportedly on the scene inquiring about the individuals whose names were on the utilities for the building. “I was stopped in the middle of the road and asked if I was any of these three people,” said The Ghost.

The three-year-old station has been broadcasting without a license since its inception, transmitting on a frequency that would otherwise go unused. Station associates insist that their First Amendment rights allow them to broadcast on unused frequencies which are publicly owned.

According to a press release sent out by the station, “KFAR is the only community-run station in Knoxville and already its members and supporters are mobilizing to pressure the FCC.”

The building where KFAR’s studio was housed was “a crack house five years ago,” says Debbie Hignz, a neighbor of the station. “It was cleaned up by our community.”

That same community is now in the process of putting together fund-raisers to support the station’s bid to get back on the air as soon as possible.

“We have [written] a resolution in the form of a petition to get our equipment back,” Hignz continued.

Internet broadcasting of the station’s programming resumed within hours of the raid. “The public has a First Amendment right to broadcast on the public airwaves,” said Abigail Singer, a supporter of KFAR and resident of Knoxville.

Adjacent to the studio are the only remaining pieces of equipment left by the agents: a 150 foot tower and an antenna was left by the agents due to “security reasons,” according to The Ghost.

In an affidavit obtained by AGR dated Sept. 3, 2004, which was brought before the US District Court of Eastern Tennessee, the plaintiff is listed as “The United States of America” and the defendant is listed as “Any and all radio station equipment, radio frequency power amplifiers, radio frequency test equipment, antennas, connecting cables and any other equipment associated with or used in connection to the transmission on frequency 90.9 MHZ, located in or around the structure adjacent to the tower on the property with mail box labeled [XXX].”

The affidavit mentions three local Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers on “special assignment.” One of the special agents on assignment, R. Joe Clark, is, according to sources, the director of the Knoxville FBI Field Office. Stated in the documents obtained is a complaint made to the FCC Atlanta office by David Icove, also a special agent with the FBI in Knoxville. No other complaints have been lodged against the station, which broadcasts to over 200,000 people daily.

KFAR could be picked up throughout Knox county and operates under 100 watts. The station boasts a huge membership with over seventy active programmers and DJs. Programming includes Democracy Now! as well as local original programming with anything from radical hip-hop to Christian rock, says The Ghost.

There were no arrests and no fines given but the FCC mentioned to the other media on the scene that they would use “other measures” if KFAR continued to broadcast without an FCC license.