Six years after the intense fighting began in the Iraqi town of Fallujah between US forces and Sunni insurgents, there is a disturbingly large number of cases of birth defects in the town.
Fallujah is less than 40 miles (65km) from Baghdad, but it can still be dangerous to get to.
As a result, there has been no authoritative medical investigation, certainly by any Western team, into the allegations that the weapons used by the Americans are still causing serious problems.
The Iraqi government line is that there are only one or two extra cases of birth defects per year in Fallujah, compared with the national average.
‘Daily cases’
But in the impressive new Fallujah General Hospital, built with American aid, we found a paediatric specialist, Dr Samira al-Ani, who told us that she saw two or three new cases every day.
On the same day that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown — whose war polices have killed thousands — insisted that the illegal Iraq war was the “right” thing to do, Lance Corporal Joe Glenton was sentenced to nine months imprisonment for refusing to return to Afghanistan to fight a war he believed to be unjustified and a sensless loss of life for Afghans and Iraqis alike.
Stop the War Coalition (UK), which has been active in his defence, has not given up the campaign for his freedom.
U.S. Tightens Missile Shield Encirclement Of China And Russia
by Rick Rozoff, Global Research, March 4, 2010
So far this year the United States has succeeded in inflaming tensions with China and indefinitely holding up a new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia through its relentless pursuit of global interceptor missile deployments.
On January 29 the White House confirmed the completion of a nearly $6.5 billion weapons transfer to Taiwan which includes 200 advanced Patriot anti-ballistic missiles. Earlier in the same month it was reported that Washington is also to provide Taiwan with eight frigates which Taipei intends to equip with the Aegis Combat System that includes the capacity for ship-based Standard Missile-3 interceptors.
The Aegis sea-based component of the expanding U.S. interceptor missile system already includes Japan, South Korea and Australia, and with Taiwan added China would be justified in being apprehensive.
On February 28 the U.S. House and Senate foreign affairs committees permitted the “sale to Taiwan of missiles, helicopters and ships valued at about $6.4 billion” despite weeks of protests from China. “The U.S. Defense Department wants to sell Taiwan the most advanced Patriot anti-missile system….The system, valued at $2.8 billion, would add to Taiwan’s network of 22 missile sites around the country….” [1]
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang recently stated “The responsibility for the current difficulties in China-U.S. relations [belongs] completely to the U.S. side” for failing to recognize and respect China’s “core interests.” [2]
If the proposed placement of U.S. missile shield components in Poland, the Czech Republic, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Alaska and elsewhere were explained by alleged missile threats emanating from Iran and North Korea, the transfer of U.S. Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles to Taiwan – and, as was revealed in January, 35 miles from Russian territory in Poland – represents the crossing of a new threshold. The Patriots in Taiwan and Poland and the land- and sea-based missiles that will follow them are intended not against putative “rogue states” but against two major nuclear powers, China and Russia.
Interview with Jeff Halper, Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and author of Obstacles to Peace: A Re-framing of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and An Israeli In Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel.
Protesters against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the West Bank barrier wall take a more theatrical approach in Bil’in. On February 12, 5 Israeli, Palestinian and international demonstrators dressed as James Cameron-style Avatars marched towards the barrier, which has absorbed approximately 60% of this Palestinian village’s farmland, and were, per usual, met with tear gas and sound bombs. Though sporting blue painted bodies, pointy ears and long tails didn’t seem to faze the Israeli Defense Force, the tactics generated more media attention than usual for this weekly action.
An international campaign is underway to bring to trial former U.S. president George W. Bush and some of his senior officials.
On January 19, 2010, Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. filed a complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales for crimes against humanity – the criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 people.
Extraordinary rendition is the CIA program of kidnapping, interrogation and torture of alleged terrorists in secret prisons. Compared to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that resulted in slaughter on a massive scale, these offences might seem mild in comparison. However, because these crimes were carried out in several countries that were signatories to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, there are strong legal grounds for the ICC to prosecute Bush and his cronies.
Professor Boyle’s complaint has given rise to a campaign called “Bush to the Hague,” the objective of which is to mobilize international support for bringing Bush and his cronies to justice.
Peace Alliance Winnipeg endorses this campaign and urges its members and friends to lend their support.
What can you do to help?
Contact the Hague to insist they proceed an investigation of war-crimes committed by the accused in the acts called “Extraordinary Rendition” as quickly as possible.
Contact Bush to the Hague if you would like your group listed as endorsing Prof. Boyle’s filing. (You can also join them on Facebook.)
US and Iraqi troops have been accused of killing several civilians during a military operation in Iraq’s Maysan province, on the border with Iran.
The troops say they were raiding Iranian-backed fighters and weapons smugglers when they came under attack. A gunfight ensued in which lives were lost.
But Iraqis are angry and they are calling on the central government to punish those responsible for the civilian deaths.
Law Suit against 4 US Presidents & 4 UK Prime Ministers for War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity & Genocide in Iraq
Statement on Closure of Legal Case for Iraq in Spain by BRussells Tribunal, Global Research, Feb. 10, 2010
Law Suit in Spanish Court directed against George H. W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack H. Obama, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Anthony Blair and Gordon Brown
MADRID/CAIRO: Public inquiries on the decision to wage war on Iraq that are silent about the crimes committed, the victims involved, and provide for no sanction, whatever their outcome, are not enough. Illegal acts should entail consequences: the dead and the harmed deserve justice.
On 6 October 2009, working with and on behalf of Iraqi plaintiffs, we filed a case before Spanish law against four US presidents and four UK prime ministers for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Iraq. The case presented spanned 19 years, including not only the wholesale destruction of Iraq witnessed from 2003, but also the sanctions period during which 1.5 million excess Iraqi deaths were recorded.
Plan to oust Saddam drawn up two years before the invasion
Secret document signalled support for Iraqi dissidents and promised aid, oil and trade deals in return for regime change
By Michael Savage, Political Correspondent, The Independent, Feb. 1, 2010
A secret plan to foster an internal coup against Saddam Hussein was drawn up by the Government two years before the invasion of Iraq, The Independent can reveal.
Whitehall officials drafted the “contract with the Iraqi people” as a way of signalling to dissenters in Iraq that an overthrow of Saddam would be supported by Britain. It promised aid, oil contracts, debt cancellations and trade deals once the dictator had been removed. Tony Blair’s team saw it as a way of creating regime change in Iraq even before the 9/11 attack on New York.
Six years after the intense fighting began in the Iraqi town of Fallujah between US forces and Sunni insurgents, there is a disturbingly large number of cases of birth defects in the town.
