Antiwar.com Blog

I was watching TV the other night and saw a new episode of the Verizon Wireless commercial, you know the one I mean, a guy with a cell phone at his ear repeatedly asks “Can you hear me now?” as he moves from spot to spot in the swamp, or desert, or city. And now, or plastic tent, which is where the new one takes place. It features veteran Palestinian detainee Abed al-Ahmar. What’s that, you haven’t seen it yet? Well then, click here.

In a late-breaking development, Israel has demanded that Verizon pull the al-Ahmar ad because it “aids, abets, glorifies and/or trivializes terrorism.”

Action Item

As Uri Avnery mentions, the settlers “have at their disposal almost unlimited amounts of money, provided by American Jewish millionaires and Christian fundamentalists.” One of the millionaires is Irving Moskowitz, whose casino license application is pending before California’s Gambling Control Commission. An effort is under way to stopmoskowitz.

Al Sadr is wounded or maybe he isn’t. The US has stopped attacking the Mahdi Army and is reportedly engaged in truce talks. This has the warfloggers hopping mad, and if you read their comments you’ll see that the neocons, Likudniks and Arab-haters are fragmenting from the Republican types who are defending Bush from accusations of appeasement and failing to smite the enemy with an iron fist, to hell with the consequences. Sadr has set some conditions to the truce, which triggered new howls of horror from the bomb junkies.

So, why did the US back off? If you remember, yesterday the military spokesman started emphasizing that the Marines (aka infidels) weren’t going into the Imam Ali shrine, oh no. The Iraqis were going to do it. What Iraqi would be insane enough to do this, you ask? Well, none of them, apparently. Not even the Kurds. It’s my opinion that once the peshmerga realized they were getting the shrine attack dumped exclusively on them, they backed off, for very good reasons, not least of which is that they were outnumbered.

Mahdi Army guerillas in Basra abducted a British journalist but turned him loose on Sadr’s orders.

I’ll update this posting with interesting developments through the day, as I did yesterday.

UPDATE: Thousands descend on Najaf after Sadr urges Shiite militia to fight on

Thousands of Iraqis descended on Najaf after Moqtada Sadr urged his Shiite militia to fight on, while US and Iraqi forces closed in on his stronghold and a British journalist was abducted in the south.

Around 2,000 demonstrators marched under the blazing sun from Najaf’s twin city of Kufa after Friday prayers, straight through the US and Iraqi lines to the revered Imam Ali mausoleum.

Showered with sweets and water, they embraced members of Sadr’s Mehdi Army who have battled US-led forces for nine days in this beseiged pilgrimage city and shouted their support for the cleric and his fighters.

“All of us are soldiers of Moqtada Sadr. With our blood and our soul, we serve you Ali” chanted demonstrators, none of them carrying weapons.

Militiamen refused 5,000 dinar notes being handed out by one man, waving him off. “We are mujahedeen,” or holy fighters, they said, as he desperately tried to shove the money in their pockets.

In Baghdad, a Sadr spokesman urged thousands more to march the 160 kilometres (100 miles) to Najaf, as another 1,000 began a similar walk from the holy city of Karbala.

“As we gather here, outside the headquarters of the agent of the occupation who have brought nothing but death and destruction to this country, we order you to march to Najaf on foot,” Sayed Hazem al-Araji told worshippers gathered outside the Green Zone, which houses the US embassy and some government offices.

In Karbala, Sadr representative Sheikh Abdulrazaq al-Nadawi told the faithful: “We’re going to Najaf to break the seige on our brothers”.

Mass protests were also held in Tallafar in the north and Kut al-Hayy in the south to denounce the caretaker government, while in Basra another Sadr aide pressed Iraqi police and national guardsmen to join the Mehdi Army.

In the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah, 1,500 people called for holy war.

I included an article about this convergence of Shi`a on Najaf yesterday from a rather dubious source, but it seems to have been confirmed by this AFP article.

UPDATE: In Kut:

Seven Iraqis were killed and 34 wounded as US forces attacked suspected Shiite militia positions in the southern city of Kut, a hospital official said Friday, as the governor warned of air strikes if fresh violence broke out.

A woman was among six people killed and 20 wounded when US shells hit the Izzat district on the Tigris River, said the chief of Kut’s general hospital.

“The Americans also hit an Iraqi National Guard post by mistake in the Al-Haidariya neighbourhood, killing one guardsman and wounding 14 others at around 2:00 am (2200 GMT),” he added.

UPDATE: Hilla:

A group of 20 Polish soldiers have been surrounded by several hundred militants loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr at a police station in Hilla, southern Iraq, a Polish military spokesman said on Friday.

“Our soldiers were helping the Iraqi police, when their post was surrounded. Negotiations with the militant forces are under way, but there is no shooting going on,” Polish General Staff spokesman Colonel Zdzislaw Gnatowski said.

UPDATE: US bombs Fallujah again

US planes have bombed several targets in the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah for the second day, killing four Iraqis, including two children.

Fallujah Hospital director Rafeh Iyad says another four people, including one child, have been wounded.
[…]
Several people had also killed and injured in US raids on the city on Thursday.

From the elipse: The US military says it has no information on the attacks on the city, which is west of Baghdad. How is that possible? A mystery bombing, I guess.

UPDATE: Sadr tells “interim government” to resign:

The spokesman quoted Sadr as telling supporters at Imam Ali Mosque: “I advise the dictatorial, agent government to resign … the whole Iraqi people demands the resignation of the government … they replaced Saddam with a government worse than him.”

“I will not leave this holy city,” the spokesman quoted Sadr as telling supporters who chanted “No, no to America.” “We will remain here defending the holy shrines till victory or martyrdom.”

Doesn’t sound like the truce is coming along very well.

Forget the angle everyone else is taking. Who is Golan Cipel?

This chapter covers the end of the Clinton administration to the transition into the Bush administration. Clearly, the 9/11 plot was in full force, many of the hijackers already in the US learning to fly or preparing their missions. The commission continues to reiterate Richard Clarke’s enthusiasm for attacking al’Qaeda as soon as possible. Such demands fell on deaf ears in both administrations. However, the report claims that the Clinton administration did its best:

“President Clinton was deeply concerned about Bin Ladin. He and his national security advisor, Samuel ‘Sandy’ Berger, ensured they had a special daily pipeline of reports feeding them the latest updates on Bin Ladin’s reported location. In public, President Clinton spoke repeatedly about the threat of terrorism, referring to terrorist training camps but saying little about Bin Ladin and nothing about al Qaeda. He explained to us that this was deliberate—intended to avoid enhancing Bin Ladin’s stature by giving him unnecessary publicity.” (page 191)

Around late 1999, Jordanian and American officials each captured al’Qaeda suspects. The arrests in Jordan helped to thwart a large millennium attack, while the arrest of a man on the Canadian border – with a trunk full of explosives – was a lucky catch (“It appears that the heightened sense of alert at the national level played no role in [the] arrest.” (page 196)). Unfortunately, these arrests did nothing to excite either administration into facing al’Qaeda head-on. Nonetheless, Richard Clarke’s staff warned after the events in Jordan that “[f]oreign terrorist sleeper cells are present in the US and attacks in the US are likely.” (page 196) Later, Clarke concluded:

” . . .U.S. disruption efforts thus far had ‘not put too much of a dent’ in Bin Ladin’s network. If the United States wanted to ‘roll back’ the threat, disruption would have to proceed at ‘a markedly different tempo.'” (page 199)

The next attempts to disrupt al’Qaeda were diplomatic. The President and a few cabinet members repeatedly visited Pakistan in 2000 with the hope of convincing its government to lessen its support of the Taliban. Pakistan’s repeated pronouncements of help never went into action, for as Madeleine Albright pointed out, the US had “few carrots to offer.” (page 200).

The government also focused on terrorist financing…sort of:

“Treasury regulators, as well as U.S. financial institutions, were generally focused on finding and deterring or disrupting the vast flows of U.S. currency generated by drug trafficking and high-level international fraud.” (page 201).

During these years, the CIA gradually received more funds for counter-terrorism operations. Unfortunately, symptomatic of any large bureaucracy, the OMB reported that “CIA spending on counterterrorism from its baseline budget had shown almost no increase.” (page 201) Continue reading “Notes on Chapter 6 of the 9/11 Report”

The same day Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry argued for the need to import prescription drugs, the acting FDA commissioner (appointed by the Bush administration, who is against importation) vaguely warned that imported prescription drugs are a terror threat:

“Cues from chatter” gathered around the world are raising concerns that terrorists might try to attack the domestic food and drug supply, particularly illegally imported prescription drugs, acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester M. Crawford says.

Remember: the administration never uses the fear of terror for political ends.

I’ll update this post throughout the day.

The US is bombing Al Sadr’s house and has sealed off the southern entrance to the Imam Ali shrine and blocked all roads leading to the shrine. US tanks occupy downtown Najaf. The deputy governor in Najaf has resigned in protest against the US actions in Najaf.

The town of Kut was bombed for two hours last night. The death toll is at least 75 dead and 148 wounded, many women and children, according to Kut hospital director Khader Fadal Arar.

A British soldier died from a roadside bomb explosion in Basra.

UPDATE: AFP reports:

Iraq’s top Sunni Muslim body on Thursday warned the security forces against supporting the US military in the fight at the holy city of Najaf.

The Association of Muslim Scholars issued a fatwa, or religious edict, forbidding Muslims from offering any support to the forces of “occupation.”

“It is forbidden for any Muslim to cooperate with the occupation forces and killing their own brothers and fellow citizens,” it said.

“Iraqi police and members of civil defence (national guards) should fear God’s punishment and wrath of the people as they battle with the occupation and participate in the shedding of their brothers’ blood.”

Calling the Najaf fight as an act of “genocide” by the US forces, the association said the clashes in the holy city were against both sharia Islamic law and civil laws.

“What is going in Najaf at the hands of American forces is nothing but genocide and criminal acts forbidden by sharia and civil laws as it is affecting everyone who rejects the occupation,” it said.

“It is affecting the holy Muslim values and the shrines. It makes thousands of women and children leave the city.”

UPDATE: This post by As’ad AbuKhalil is a must read for anyone who doesn’t understand the significance of the mistake that the US is currently committed to making in Najaf. The depth of ignorance displayed by the Bushistas is ghastly.

UPDATE: US forces have stormed the home of Moqtada al Sadr. US soldiers are inside his house.

UPDATE: Ominous: Thousands of Shiites Headed For Najaf – Thousands of Shiites have headed from Karbala to Najaf to make a “live shield” and protect Muslim sanctuaries, announced ITAR- TASS. Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr’s supporters from Kut have also headed for Najaf.

UPDATE: Poster grrpy is also posting updates in the comments, so be sure and check them out. He has one from the AFP on an Italian site that he has translated:

Masses of civilians are escaping from the holy city where combatants are in engaged in violent conflict. On this the news is conflicting. According to a correspondent for AFP. In fact, the Shia militia of Moqtada Sadr still controls the heart of the old city of Najaf. According to the correspondent, the militia this afternoon still controlls an area of two kilometers surounding the outskirts of the Shrine of Imam Ali .
Previously, it was claimed that the American Forces controlled the center of the Shia holy city and in particular the access to the Shrine.

See here for the link, and thank you, grrpy, for the updates and translations.

UPDATE: The Christian Science monitor reports:

Meanwhile in the crucial oil-port city of Basra, where 90 percent of the country’s oil flows out to global markets, Sadr’s Mahdi Army controls the center of the city. They took the city after British troops stopped patrolling and retreated into their bases following heavy fighting on Tuesday. The fighting left one British soldier dead and many injured. Since then the Mahdi Army have taken over the streets. The Iraqi police still there are working hand-in-hand with the rebels.

UPDATE: IWPR:

In central Najaf, Sadrist fighters hid in the alleys behind the hotels formerly used by pilgrims. The sky was hidden by a pall of wind-borne dust and smoke from burning buildings.

In the al-Ameer neighbourhood, four uniformed policemen stood with three Mahdi Army fighters beside their car.

Hidden behind a building, they were listening to their radios and informing the militiamen of their fellow officers’ movements.

“I have four cousins in the al-Mahdi army,” one of the officers said.

He went on to explain, “According to the proverb, ‘my brother and I are against my cousin, but my cousin and I are against the foreigner. Thus, I can’t fight against my cousins and stand beside the Americans.”

Soon after, one of the fighters emerged into the street, and shouting “Ali!” he fired his RPG at a concrete barrier erected up the road by the Americans.

Then he ran back into the alley, climbed into the police car, and was driven away.