U.S. Body Bags Reached a Tragic Milestone of 1,000
Memory Refresh: President Bush stood on the US aircraft carrier a year ago and said: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! So the President had won the war.
More sons and daughters of Americans are dying..and still dying.... in a war launched by President Bush that Saddam Hussein had WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.
... Americans will vote for the next President . ..and hopefully, the next President will lead Americans to another war that will not be based on a lie or on a foreign policy that serves the interest of another sovereign nation, instead of its own.
September 8th 2004 "... the AIPAC affair could deliver a knockout punch to one of Washington's most powerful, and feared, lobbying groups. Not only that, it could also destroy the neoconservative wing of the Republican foreign policy establishment by demonstrating, in a court of law, the key link between neoconservatism and espionage.
And ask why is it that Israel is given the sort of leeway that no country can afford to give another – without necessarily answering your own question. Be polite, but, by all means, feel free to point out that if the "A" in AIPAC stood for Arab, one wonders if members of Congress would be so." Read here for
..Attempts to minimize the damage, mostly conducted in the pages of the Jerusalem Post and the New York Times have so far downplayed the significance of the documents allegedly given to AIPAC officials by Pentagon analyst Lawrence A. Franklin, and then passed on to Israel.
We can stop the cover-up, but only if we act now. Get on the horn and call your congressional representatives: your two Senators as well as the member of the House from your congressional district.
Let it not be said that, when it came time to speak up, and defend the country from treason only traitors could find words to defend their co-conspirators. Call, write, and make your voice heard. And be polite.
Simply ask WHY the investigation seems to have been hampered, not helped, by the intervention of John Ashcroft.
more
Read here full article by JAMES HALL , Foreign Editor of "The Scotsman"
THE United States death toll in Iraq passed the 1,000 mark yesterday, nearly 18 months after American-led forces invaded the country to topple the government of former president Saddam Hussein.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the latest Pentagon figures showed that 997 US soldiers and three civilian employees of the defence department had been killed in Iraq.
A defence official confirmed the milestone toll.
The rising death toll includes more than a dozen US soldiers killed in fighting and attacks by insurgents since Friday. Nearly 7,000 US soldiers have also been wounded since the invasion.
With George Bush, the president, under sharp criticism from Democrats - including the presidential candidate John Kerry - for invading Iraq without support from major allies, the milestone is expected to play a major role in debate ahead of the election in November.
Donald Rumsfeld sought to play down the impact of the symbolic figure, telling reporters at the Pentagon that the "civilised world" had long passed the 1,000th death at the hands of terrorists.
He cited the 3,000 deaths during the attacks on 11 September, 2001, and the hundreds who died in the school siege in southern Russia.
But Mr Kerry called US military deaths in the Iraq conflict passing 1,000 a "tragic milestone".
At the Pentagon, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, blamed the increase in US combat deaths on an insurgency that "is becoming more sophisticated in its efforts to destabilise the country".
"Make no mistake, we will continue to pursue those who seek to disrupt progress in Iraq," Gen Myers said.
US soldiers were again engaged in pitch battles yesterday.
In the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, US troops battled Shiite militiamen loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Thirty-seven people were killed, including two US soldiers, and more than 200 civilians were injured. Five other Americans also died in separate incidents, mostly in the Baghdad area.
A Sadr spokesman in Baghdad, Sheikh Raed al-Kadhimi, blamed "intrusive" US patrolling for provoking the fighting.
"Our fighters have no choice but to return fire and to face the US forces and helicopters pounding our houses," Sheikh Kadhimi said in a statement.
West of the capital, US warplanes flew low over the Sunni insurgent-controlled city of Fallujah, launching retaliatory strikes on suspected militant strongholds after American officials said marines came under attack.
Tanks and artillery also fired into the city and its outskirts, where seven marines died in a car bombing on Monday.
In Baghdad, the hostage crisis entered a new phase when armed men in olive green uniforms stormed the office of an Italian aid group and seized two Italian women and two Iraqis, one male, one female.
It was only the second known kidnapping of foreign women since a wave of hostage-takings began earlier this year.
About 15 men drove up to the house used by the aid organisation A Bridge to Baghdad, witnesses said.
The men claimed to work for the office of the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi.
Two of them pushed their way into the office, put guns to the heads of the aid group’s guards and grabbed the four workers, Jean-Dominique Bunel of the NGO co-ordination committee in Iraq, said.
The Iraqi woman resisted, but they dragged her by her head-scarf, threw her into a car and sped away, witnesses said.
"They have been taken hostage," Mr Bunel said. "We have contacted religious authorities and we have informed their families. We are working for their release."
The two Italian women were named as Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29. They had been working on water and school projects. The two Iraqis were identified as Raad Ali Aziz and Mahnaz Bassam. Ms Torretta, who is the head of the organisation’s Iraqi operation, has been in the country since before the war started. Ms Pari arrived in Iraq in June 2003, to work on a school project in the capital.
Mr Bunel said he knew of no plans by other private aid organisations to evacuate the country because of the kidnapping. A car bombing last year at the offices of the international Red Cross prompted many aid groups to flee the country.
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