Macedonia referendum watch

Voters in Macedonia are supposed to decide today whether to accept the re-districting law designed to give ethnic Albanians more power and influence in the government. Unlike the elections in the U.S., this referendum actually can make a difference. If Macedonians reject the government (i.e. Imperial) proposal, they may well derail the Ohrid Agreement and its slow murder of that country. Also, EU and NATO may then refuse to admit Macedonia – which actually isn’t a bad thing.Western press reports from the area are woefully inaccurate, as usual, but Chris Deliso of Balkanalysis (and often a contributor to Antiwar.com), has put together a list of nine chief misconceptions that ought to set things straight fairly well.
There is tremendous pressure to disrupt the referendum… Continue reading “Macedonia referendum watch”

Re: Fallujah attack plans stolen?

This sounds like disinformation to me. Even if it were true, why would the US Military tell CNN all about it?

NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) — A company commander of the Iraqi security forces who received a full briefing on the expected Falluja assault is missing from a military base where U.S. and Iraqi troops are preparing for the possible operation.

The captain, a Kurd with no known ties to the Sunni city of Falluja, is thought to have taken notes from the battle briefing late Thursday. U.S. Marines and his fellow Iraqi officers found no sign of him Friday morning, except for his uniform and a weapon on his cot.

Marines are concerned that the information he knows could be passed along to insurgents. U.S. military sources believe insurgents have friends in the military and government.

The captain commands a company of about 160 men. He is among 10,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces expected to take part in the operation.

Marines say the captain’s disappearance won’t alter the tactics or timing of the Falluja operation.

Coalition officials hope the missing captain, who was not named, has merely headed home.

Oh, someone stole our battle plans, but we aren’t changing them! Did you get that, CNN?


As numerous emails have pointed out, this CNN article has been pulled and is not to be found in Google cache, even. However, intrepid AntiWar blogger Carol Watson has tracked it down in the Australian Outback. OK, it’s ABC NewsOnline.

Iraqi officer deserts with Fallujah battle plans

Mujahideen invite the press to Fallujah

Fallujah insurgents besieged by US and Iraqi troops have invited journalists to “embed” with them to report their side of the war.

“All media will be allowed into Fallujah to witness the crusade against Islam and see the real face of America. US media will not be excluded,” said a statement by the Fallujah Mujahideen Shura (council), composed of insurgent leaders, tribal chiefs and Sunni Muslim clerics.

“We will protect and transport them to the location of the events. There will be a special building for the journalists.”

Every journalist who has ever written the line “precision strike on a Zarqawi safe house” should be sent into Fallujah to take the mujahideen up on this offer.

Fallujah attack plans stolen?

Buried down toward the bottom of this news roundup of the current situation in Iraq is this tiny but devastating blurb:

An Iraqi company commander who had received a full battle briefing on the expected Falluja assault has deserted a military base where U.S. and Iraqi troops are preparing. Officials discovered the commander, a Kurdish captain, was missing on Friday. Marine officials believe the man took notes from the battle briefing Thursday and and are worried he may pass the information to insurgents.

Sunday: It has come to my attention that CNN has pulled all reference to this story, including removing that tiny but devasting blurb. However, the Australian media has not, and here is the complete article:
Iraqi officer deserts with Fallujah plans

Fallujah and the coming cataclysm

Fallujah_terrorist

There will be international condemnation, as there was the first time; but our government won’t listen to it; aside from the resistance, all the people of Fallujah will be able to depend on to try to avert or mitigate the horror will be us, the antiwar movement.

We have a responsibility, that we didn’t meet in April and we didn’t meet in August when Najaf was similarly attacked; will we meet it this time?

Rahul Mahajan

Fallujah and the coming cataclysm.

Spiraling into Iraq

From Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches, Spiraling into Occupied Iraq

Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles are perched along the road, with their weapons aimed directly at us and other cars as we pass…this is occupied Iraq. We drive perilously close to a huge Bradley with its growling treads and I point to it thinking Abu Talat may not see how close he is. He laughs and says, “This is our daily life…you know this. How do you think Americans would like to have tanks on their streets aiming guns at them? For us, this is normal.”