AP REPORTS: BBC OFFICE HIT IN ATTACK ON IRAQ GREEN ZONE

BAGHDAD - Shiite militants launched rockets toward the fortified Green Zone on Friday, taking advantage of a sandstorm that gave cover from attacks by U.S. aircraft. Some rockets fell short, including one that damaged the British Broadcasting Corp. bureau.

The Associated Press
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24527960/

At least five other rocket explosions were heard. But U.S. authorities did not confirm any strikes inside the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government.

The salvos from Sadr City have come in response to a U.S.-led push into Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the powerful Mahdi Army led by anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. One of the American objectives is to push militants deeper into the district and put their rockets and mortars out of range for the Green Zone.

Click on link to read full story.

EVER WONDER WHAT IT IS LIKE TO OWN A 'BURGER JOINT' IN BAGHDAD?

Baghdad - When Faruk al-Timimi opened his burger joint in 2005, his customers had a view of an intersection dotted with flowers and bustling with fruit stalls, juice vendors, and shoppers strolling lazily from shop to shop.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080509_report_from_baghdad/
Posted on May 9, 2008

Less than a year later, the Iraqi police Wolf Brigade, infamous for carrying out extrajudicial executions targeting Sunnis, set up a checkpoint right outside Sun City Food’s main entrance.

On the other side of the street, Sunni militias loyal to al-Qaeda moved in. The two forces showered each other with submachine gun fire, stray bullets often hit the restaurant’s windows, and dead bodies sometimes lay for hours, even days, on the sidewalk beneath. More than half of the neighborhood’s residents fled the area, and Al-Timimi closed his restaurant.

On February 15, Sun City Food reopened to much fanfare and cheering from the American troops, who have surrounded this religiously mixed neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, Saidiyah, by a 12-foot concrete wall, encouraging residents who had fled the violence to return and businesses that had closed to reopen.

US Army Lieutenant Colonel Johnnie Johnson, who commands a battalion that operates in Saidiyah, describes Sun City Food reopening as one of the major achievements symbolic of the neighborhood’s recovery and reconciliation.

“They have these big, huge hamburgers that are too big for me to eat,” says Johnson, who often visits the restaurant for lunch. “It is a sign that a sense of normalcy was brought back to that area.”

But al-Timimi, who has spent $35,000 to remodel his two-story restaurant and decorated it with plastic flowers, a large fish tank and black and mirrored wall tiles, says that despite the return of relative peace to Saidiyah, business has been much slower than he had expected.
“In 2005, I was selling 500 burgers a day,” al-Timimi said in the spacious basement kitchen, where large plastic containers with spices stood on the counter and the aroma of thyme and allspice filled the air. “Now, on a good day, I sell 120 burgers, but usually, it’s more like 60.” He is busiest on Thursdays and Fridays, when he can make up to $1,000 a day, much of which goes to paying the 17 people he employs and for maintenance.

Since Americans surrounded Saidiyah with the wall, as many as 400 families have returned to the neighborhood, and more than 800 shops have reopened - mostly with $2,400 micro-grants that the US troops distributed. Sun City Food was one of the recipients of the grants.

But, like this burger joint, many businesses are doing far worse than before the violence peaked here last year. Mohammad al-Rubayee, who ran a small car dealership from his house in the south of Saidiyah, returned from a self-imposed exile to a calmer part of Baghdad in March to find his front door destroyed, most of his furniture stolen, and his cars stolen.

“They were displayed on the sidewalk, and now - look,” al-Rubayee gestured to the dusty street, empty except for garbage that residents, in the absence of regular trash pickup, often dump outside their homes. “All gone.”

And in northern Saidiyah, Samira al-Ubaidi complained that the security wall ran right in front of the nursery where her brother, Majid, used to sell flowers that she grows. Now there is no way to get in and out of the nursery, and the al-Ubaidis had to close it. Samira continues to grow roses in hundreds of plastic containers she keeps in the front yard under a green mesh to protect the tender shoots from the blistering sun, but the business is almost non-existent, and Majid had moved to a different part of Baghdad.

“That’s the one downside of the wall,” said Lieutenant Rusty Mason, whose platoon patrolled al-Ubaidi’s part of Saidiyah this week. “Pretty much no other business was really affected by it, but there were some nurseries all along the northern stretch, and they all had to shut down.”
At Sun City Food on Friday afternoon, members of Mason’s platoon were the only customers, and after they had ordered, several waiters in orange shirts stood along the walls, bored. A busboy brought from the kitchen a metal tray with large burger patties that had been made earlier that day, and a cook threw the patties, one by one, onto a scalding stove behind the counter in the dining area. Another cook piled the cooked patties, French fries, scarlet tomato slices and yogurt-based sauce between sliced buns, wrapped them in paper and placed them, carefully, into blue plastic bags with the words “Sun City Food” written in English. Al-Timimi said he hoped that eventually, business would pick up.

“When I saw the Americans in Bradleys and tanks in the neighborhood, and when I heard words of encouragement from Colonel Johnson I felt comfortable enough to reopen,” al-Timimi as the American soldiers prepared to leave. Outside his shop, the dusty intersection was empty except for three US Bradley fighting vehicles parked at the curb.

“As long as the Americans are here, I feel comfortable,” he said.

But if the Americans leave Saidiyah, al-Timimi said, “I’ll close my shop and I’ll leave, too.”

Anna Badkhen, 32, has returned to Iraq for the tenth time since 2003. She has covered the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and Kashmir. Her last trip to Iraq was in 2006. Read more at Anna’s Baghdad journal on The Muckraker.

DEJA VU: NEW YORK TIMES HYPES US PROPAGANDA AND WAR WITH IRAN

Just like they did over five years ago, the New York Times is again promoting going to war, only this time it is with IRAN.

Submitted by John Stauber on Mon, 05/05/2008 - 13:11.Topics: Iran Iraq propaganda terrorism third party technique war/peace

http://www.prwatch.org/node/7294

Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher notes that New York Times military reporter Michael Gordon, "who contributed several false stories about Iraqi WMD in the run-up to the U.S. attack in Iraq," has been writing about Iran's alleged involvement in attacks against U.S. service members in Iraq. Gordon's latest article, "Hezbollah Trains Iraqis in Iran, Officials Say," is "based solely on unnamed sources," notes Mitchell.

An article from McClatchy's Baghdad bureau also contradicts Gordon's New York Times piece. McClatchy reports that the Iraqi government "seemed to distance itself from U.S. accusations towards Iran." Iraqi government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh said the government had formed a committee to find "tangible information" about Iranian activities in Iraq, instead of relying on "information based on speculation." Al-Dabbagh also told Agence France-Press that there is no "hard evidence" of Iranian support of insurgents in Iraq.

Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner has seen this sort of poorly-sourced reporting before in the New York Times as part of the propaganda campaign that led America directly into the disastrous quagmire in Iraq. Gardiner told me:

CASUALTY REPORTS FROM THE WARS WITH DETAILS

The following is a list of Casualty Reports from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Click on each individuals name in "BLUE" to read the full account.

http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

Bryan Currie was seriously wounded in Afghanistan, we was treated in-country and sent back to combat. Five months later, he returned with his unit to the U.S., where he sought help from the Army for PTSD. He was classified as undeployable, but the only help the Army offered was to push pills at him. His chain of command had him re-classified as deployable, and two days before his unit was sent to Iraq, he went AWOL. He talked with Courage to Resist from South Carolina.

Major David Beardi with the 402nd Civil Affairs Army Reserve Unit out of the Town of Tonawanda, Beardi was severely injured 11 months later (oct. 06) by an improvised explosive device, or IED, while stationed at the Forward Operating Base Speicher in Tikrit, 90 miles north of Baghdad. 14 months after being airlifted out of Iraq to an Army hospital in Germany. He spent many months recuperating in Walter Reed Army Medical Center before returning home in September.

Staff Sgt. John Kriesel lost both of his legs during a roadside bombing in Iraq last year.

MSNBC'S RICHARD ENGLE REPORTS CAPTURED AL QAEDA MEMBER WAS NOT THE LEADER.

Fox News has once again got egg all over their face. The right wing mouthpiece for the Bush administration was shouting from the rooftops that the Iraqis had captured the top Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, but MSNBC's Richard Engle reported this morning it was a case of mistaken identity and it was an Al Qaeda member that was captured, but not the top Al Qaeda man in Iraq.

TIME MAGAZINE REPORTS ON BAGHDAD'S COMING REFUGEE CRISIS

U.S.-back Iraqi forces are gearing up for a new push deeper into Sadr City that could worsen fighting and displace hundreds, a government spokesman in Baghdad said. "There will be a big offensive soon," said Iraqi government spokesman Tahseen al-Sheikhly. He did not say when the operation would go forward. In east Baghdad the Iraqi government has readied two stadiums and one former military base to serve as camps for Sadr City residents who may be forced to flee the fighting, al-Sheikhly said. "We don't want any losses in the civilians," said al-Sheikhly.

By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD Fri May 9, 12:15 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080509/wl_time/baghdadscomingrefugeecrisis

More than 1,010 have died in Sadr City since fighting erupted at the end of March, according to Iraqi government figures offered by al-Sheikhly. Another 2,930 have been wounded, he said.

Ongoing fighting continues to worsen the crisis in the vast Shi'ite slum, the Baghdad stronghold of the Shi'ite Mahdi Army militia. Mohammed Kamel Hassan, a volunteer organizer in Sadr City for the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization, said up to 500 families have already been displaced from areas around the fighting in recent days. "We have a big movement," said Hassan, whose organization is working closely with the Iraqi government on new emergency plans. "The situation is very bad."

U.N. estimates say that up to 6,000 people have already fled their homes in Sadr City while another 150,000 remain essentially trapped in areas locked down by military forces. Al-Sheikhly and Hassan said at present no evacuation of any part of Sadr City is underway. But residents in areas of heavy fighting said Iraqi army troops were urging civilians to move to the shelter of nearby stadiums with announcements over loudspeakers.

Continue reading by clicking on link above.

OUR MEDIA HAS BEEN WRONG FOR SO LONG ABOUT IRAQ

So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq, by Greg Mitchell, a collection of essays that date back from the lead-up to the Iraq war, in 2003, through this fall, is a compelling antidote to the cult of misinformation written by the editor of Editor & Publisher, a journal of the newspaper industry, and one of the oldest magazines in the country. The book features a preface by Bruce Springsteen, and foreword by Joseph L. Galloway.

By Jayne Lyn Stahl, AlterNetPosted on May 9, 2008, Printed on May 9, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/84114/

As one who has been on the cutting edge of exposing the Bush administration's pre-emptive war on the media, Mitchell, the author of nine other nonfiction works, is among the first to broach, and critically analyze, the issue of "non-hostile combat deaths," as well as suggest the long term costs of this war not merely to our veterans, but to our national ethos.

We're treated to a first rate account not merely of a media complicit in the debacle that is Iraq, but one equally responsible for our continued presence in the region.

AlterNet recently caught up with Greg Mitchell to talk about his latest book...

Jayne Stahl: You quote one of your reporters writing that the "highest calling of journalism is not reporting. It's finding the story that would help prevent a war." Tell how this relates to your decision to publish an anthology of your essays about the Iraq war now.

Greg Mitchell: This is the first book to look at five full years in the life of the war, from the "run-up" to the "surge" debate last fall. But its aim is to serve as a warning and, in part, a lesson for future journalists. When I was back in j-school, which came just before Woodward and Bernstein emerged, we were taught that the first rule for reporters is to be "skeptical." Not necessarily critical or negative, but skeptical. This rule applies whether you are probing a local school board scandal, or the preparation for an invasion of another country.

Click on link above to read full interview.

NAMES, HOMETOWNS, CAUSE OF DEATH OF 10 GIS IN IRAQ IN MAY

The names, hometowns and cause of death of ten American soliders in Iraq have been released to the media by the Department of Defense.


Date
Total
Name
Place of Death - Province
Cause of Death
06-May-2008
2
US: 2 UK: 0 Other: 0

US
NAME NOT RELEASED YET
Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire

US
NAME NOT RELEASED YET
Ninewah Province
Hostile - hostile fire
02-May-2008
3
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 2



GE
Lieutenant Giorgi Margiev
Diyala Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

GE
Corporal Zura Gvenetadze
Diyala Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Private Corey L. Hicks
Baghdad (eastern part)
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
01-May-2008
5
US: 5 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Lance Corporal Casey L. Casanova
Al Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Corporal Miguel A. Guzman
Al Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Lance Corporal James F. Kimple
Al Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Sergeant Glen E. Martinez
Al Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Specialist Jeffrey F. Nichols
Baghdad (central)
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack (VBIED)
Total
10
US: 8 UK: 0 Other: 2

CNN REPORTS: US MILITARY DOUBT IRAQI CLAIMS OF CAPTURE OF TOP AL QAEDA LEADER

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was captured early Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said.

Abu Ayyub al-Masri was reportedly caught in Mosul. Intelligence officials are skeptical of the news.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/08/iraq.alqaeda/index.html

U.S. military officials were surprised about the report of Abu Ayyub al-Masri's capture -- first reported by Iraqi media and picked up by The Associated Press. And intelligence officials said they were skeptical, even though Iraqi officials said al-Masri was already in U.S. military custody.

Al-Masri ("the Egyptian"), also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, took the reins of the Iraqi al Qaeda offshoot in June 2006 after a U.S. missile strike killed his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Since then, Iraqi officials have reported his death three times, his capture twice and a mortal wounding once. Watch more about al-Masri's role with al Qaeda in Iraq