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Recent
Stories
April
7, 2003
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
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April 9,
2003
Hypocrisy
and Racism of Iraq War
Suicide Bombing Minus the Suicide
By RAY HANANIA
On the day the were reporting yet another "assassination"
attempt against Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein, the one-sided American
news media was soft-balling how three non-embedded journalists
had been killed, too.
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks wasn't as comical
as his counterpart at the Iraqi Ministry of "Information,"
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, in skirting the truth when asked about
the deaths.
A reporter for Al-Jazeera, the news agency
criticized by Americans for alleged "bias," and two
others including one journalist from Reuters, were killed in
two separate incidents by what appeared to be American fire.
American military officials claimed their
forces fired back at "snipers" near the Palestine Hotel
in central Baghdad killing two journalists. They insisted all
day in interviews that American forces have a "right"
to respond when fired upon. But a non-embedded NPR radio reporter
who is staying at the hotel said no such sniper fire could be
heard.
The offices of Al-Jazeera in Baghdad
were hit directly by fire, killing their reporter, Tariq Ayoub.
Major Gen. Stanley McChrystal responded
to inquiries about the deaths by saying, ''We are at war.'' ''Our
forces came under fire, they exercised their inherent right of
self defense.'' Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said, ''Baghdad
is not a safe place â¤| You should not be there.''
Al-Jazeera accused the United States
of intentionally targeting their offices and killing their reporter
because the American military doesn't want the American people
to see the extent of their own crimes in killing Iraqi civilians.
Al-Jazeera is one of the few network news stations broadcasting
images of apparent and alleged American war crimes.
Most American news networks have refrained
from reporting news that is too critical of the war effort, fearing
they will loose ratings or even be shut down by an angry pro-War
American public.
I find it amazing that you use a tank
to respond to a sniper at a building you know houses journalists.
And the excuse that "We are at war" doesn't seem to
hold water when non-Arab civilians are killed, such as in Israel.
I can only imagine what would happen
to any American official who dared respond to news about a killing
of Israeli civilians with the arrogant, insensitive response,
"We are at war." The Israeli-controlled American media
would have their heads and special laws would be passed by the
US Congress to punish the offender.
But that wasn't the worst news that Brooks,
McChrystal and Clarke had to dodge, and I wonder if Brooks will
be taking a cue from al-Sahhaf, whose denials of the obvious
are both excessive in their creativity as they are outrageous
in their ignorance.
While digging through the rubble of the
homes that the American-led forces bombed, the bodies of a child,
a woman and an old man were found.
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
explained that the US had been given information that senior
Iraqi leaders were at the homes in Baghdad. He said a B-1 bomber
flying 20,000 feet in the sky dropped four one ton "bunker
bombs" on the two homes in the upscale Baghdad Mansour neighborhood.
The target, of course, was Saddam Hussein
and his two sons, Uday and Cusay, al certainly deserving of being
charged with criminal behaviour and war crimes. When you kill
a murderer without applying the Rule of International Law, do
you not become a murderer yourself?
But what happens when you also kill innocent
civilians while trying to murder someone in this illegal manner?
Assassination is illegal under normal circumstances and finds
no legitimacy during this conflict which is an illegal and internationally
unsanctioned military assault.
Reports today said that among the rubble
of the building bombed by the B-1 bomber were the three civilians.
The woman's head was blown clean off, something that you definitely
won't see on American-controlled media.
So far, American bombers have flown 30,000
missions over Iraq, not counting helicopters, dropping 20,000
tons of missiles and bombs.
Leadership targets of many kinds, including
government ministries and command and control centers, have been
hit numerous times throughout the campaign, actions denounced
as criminal under international law.
While President Bush is trying to convince
the Arab World that this war is about liberation, most Arabs
see it for what it really is: a grab for economic resources,
an attempt to avenge Bush's father's honor by killing Saddam
Hussein, and suicide bombing minus the suicide.
Ray Hanania
is an award-winning syndicated columnist and Palestinian American
author based in Chicago. His columns are archived at www.hanania.com.
Yesterday's
Features
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
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