IRAQ CASUALTY REPORT AND LIST OF VIOLENCE ACROSS IRAQ

While the mainstream media now focuses on who will be the running mate for Barack Obama and John McCain, there is still a war going on in Iraq and we have the latest information on casualties and violence across Iraq.

War News for Thursday, June 05, 2008

CASUALTY REPORT FROM IRAQ
http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/
Click on "BLUE" for more information.

David Woodard walked on crutches Tuesday for the first time in more than a month. A quarter-sized piece of shrapnel struck Woodard in the shin, destroying a 3- to 4-inch section of his right leg April 28 when a roadside bomb blast penetrated his Humvee in Baghdad. He and three other soldiers, along with an interpreter, were traveling to a main security checkpoint to relieve a platoon patrolling there. The other passengers were unhurt. “It [the bomb] went off on my side of the truck,” said Woodard, who led a platoon of 40 men in a section of Baghdad bordering Sauder City. Woodard was a member of Chaos Company, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. Woodard since has undergone 11 to 12 surgeries – he’s lost count – and is recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He speaks matter-of-factly about his sacrifice.

The International Herald Tribune reports that he died in a land mine explosion.MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Coalition force Soldier from small arms fire south of Baghdad on Wednesday, June 4th. No other details were released.

Xinhuanet is reporting the deaths of two U.S. coalition soldiers in a helicopter crash near Kandahar, Afghanistan on Thursday, June 5th. No other details were released.

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November. The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law.....Mideast weather roundup:

Reported Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: Around 9am, a roadside bomb targeted an army patrol at Rashid camp street (east Baghdad).One soldier was killed .

#2: Around 1pm, a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol in Jihad neighborhood near Mohammad Rasool Allah mosque. No casualties reported.

#3: Police found two dead bodies in Baghdad today: 1 was found in Tobchi neighborhood (northwest Baghdad)in Karkh bank while 1 was found in Fudhailiyah neighborhood(east Baghdad)in Risafa bank.

Diyala Prv:#1: Georgia's Defense Ministry says a soldier has died in a land mine explosion in Iraq. The ministry says the incident occurred Wednesday as 22-year-old Sgt. Irakly Kordzaya was on patrol with his unit in the province of Diyala, north of Baghdad. It was unclear whether he stepped on the mine or if it was remotely detonated.

#2: Three civilians were wounded on Thursday in an improvised explosive device blast targeting a civilian car in south of Baaquba, a police source said. "An improvised explosive device, planted on the road in al-Nahr al-Kabier village in Bahraz district, south of Baaquba, went off this morning, injuring three civilians," the source, who asked to be unnamed, Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.

#3: Three civilians were injured on Thursday by mortar shells in northeast of Baaquba, a police source said. "Five mortar shells hit al-Khadraa neighborhood in Jalawlaa, Khaniqeen district, northeast of Baaquba, wounding three civilians," Lieutenant Nehad Ali told Aswat al-Iraq

Voices of Iraq.Baquba:#1: A Suspected al-Qaeda gunmen was killed on Thursday by unknown armed in the city of Baaquba, said a police source.

Shirqat:#1: Iraqi army and U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrols backed by U.S. military killed seven militants, including two foreign fighters, in clashes in Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, said Captain Khalid al-Sahan, leader of the Shirqat neighbourhood patrols.Kirkuk:#1: A roadside bomb exploded near Sumer hotel downtown Kirkuk city. Seven people were injured.

Kurdistan:#1: A Turkish TV station is quoting a senior military commander as saying that Turkey and Iran have carried out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. CNN-Turk television reports that Gen. Ilker Basbug has confirmed for the first time that the two countries share intelligence against the rebels. He said the two countries plan to launch more coordinated operations against the rebel group in the future.

Al Anbar Prv:Fallujah:#1: Iraqi security forces killed a gunman and arrested two others in an operation against al Qaeda hideouts in north Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police Captain Ahmed Jasim said.

BUSH KNEW IRAQI CLAIMS WEREN'T TRUE: SENATE REVEALS

Senate committee: Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true

Nancy A. Youssef and Mark Seibel McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: June 05, 2008 02:17:52 PM

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/244/story/39963.html


WASHINGTON— A long-awaited Senate Select Intelligence Committee report made public Thursday concludes that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made public statements to promote an invasion of Iraq that they knew at the time were not supported by available intelligence.

A companion report found that a special office set up by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld undertook "sensitive intelligence activities" that were inappropriate "without the knowledge of the Intelligence Community or the State Department."

“Before taking the country to war, this administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” said committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV, D- W. Va.

It's long been known that the administration's claims in the runup to the Iraq war, from Saddam Hussein's alleged ties to al Qaida to whether Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program, were incorrect, and White House spokeswoman Dana Perino suggested the problems were faulty intelligence.

"We had the intelligence that we had fully vetted, but it was wrong," she said. "We certainly regret that and we've taken measures to fix it."

But the Senate report, the first official examination of whether the president and vice president knew that their claims were incorrect at the time that they made them, reached a different conclusion.

“There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate," Rockefeller said in a statement.
But Rockefeller called the administration’s statements delibrate, writing: "There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate."
The report was approved with on a 10-5 vote. Three Republican members of the committee, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Christopher Bond of Missouri and Richard Burr of North Carolina, denounced the report as "inconclusive, misleading and incomplete." Two Republicans, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia Snow of Maine, voted with the Democrats.
The report examined five speeches by Bush, Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell between August 2002 and February 2003 and dissected key statements. It also looked at statements by other administration leaders during that time. The report found that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and CIA Director George Tenet often made declarative statements about the reasons to go to war even though the intelligence community was largely split on key issues.
In some cases, the administration made statements that were not backed up at all, the report found.
"Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information," the report concluded.
Among the reports conclusions:
Claims by President Bush that Iraq and al Qaida had a partnership "were not substantiated by the intelligence."
The president and vice president misrepresented what was known about Iraq’s chemical weapons capabiliies.
Rumsfeld misrepresented what the intelligence community knew when he said Iraq's weapons productions facilities were buried deeply underground.
Cheney's claim that the intelligence community had confirmed that lead Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta had met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 was not true.
The report did not examine statements by senators, who often echoed the administration's statements because committee staffers said the administration's statements had a greater impact. Instead, committee staffers said that the Senate had learned from its mistakes and now has special groups dedicated to specific controversial topics such as Iran and China.
The Senate now is "wary of wholesale acceptance" of the intelligence community and of statements made by intelligence officials, said a committee staffer who asked to remain unnamed so that he could speak more freely.

BUSH WANTS 50 PERMANENT BASES IN IRAQ AND CONTROL OF IRAQI AIRSPACE

Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control

Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors

By Patrick CockburnThursday, 5 June 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/revealed-secret-plan-to-keep-iraq-under-us-control-840512.html

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

Click on link to read complete story.

RUMORS OF WAR: IS BUSH GEARING UP FOR WAR WITH IRAN?

Rumors of War: Is Bush Gearing Up to Attack Iran?

By Conn Hallinan, PortsidePosted on June 5, 2008, Printed on June 5, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/87079/

The May 8 letter from U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to George W. Bush received virtually no media coverage, in spite of the fact that it warned the president that an attack on Iran without Congressional approval would be grounds for impeachment. Rumor has it several senators have been briefed about the possibility of war with Iran.

Something is afoot.

Just what is not clear, but over the past several months, several moves by the White House strongly suggest that the Bush administration will attack Iran sometime in the near future. According to the Asia Times, "a former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community" said an air attack will target the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force garrisons. Not even the White House is bonkers enough to put troops on the ground amid 65 million Iranians.

There is a certain disconnect to all this, particularly given December's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluding that Iran had abandoned its program to build a nuclear weapon. The NIE is the consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence services. At the time, the report seemed to shelve any possibility of war with Iran.

However, shortly after the intelligence estimate on Iran was released, the old "into Iraq gang" went to work undermining it.

According to Newsweek, during his Middle East tour in January, Bush "all but disowned the document" to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. A "senior administration official" told the magazine, "He [Bush] told the Israelis that he can't control what the intelligence community says but that [the NIE's] conclusions don't reflect his own views."

Neither do they reflect the views of Vice President Dick Cheney or Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In an interview with ABC during his recent 10-day visit to the region, Cheney downplayed the NIE: "We don't know whether or not they've [the Iranians have] restarted." Cheney also said Iran was seeking to build missiles capable of reaching the United States sometime in the next decade.

Click on link above for complete story

HOW THE MEDIA ABANDONED IRAQ

This blogger has been saying for months how the media has abandoned coverage of the Iraq war. We watched as the cable news stations went from one tabloid-type story to another in an effort to report on "anything" other than Iraq.

As the primaries started to heat up, we could see the cable news media switching from tabloid news to round-the-clock coverage of the primaries with "talking heads" talking and talking and talking and never really saying anything of importance.

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars were shoved not only off the front pages but off the news sections of every major newspaper in the United States.

As for FOX NEWS, CNN and MSNBC, the three cable "news" stations "spiked" any story having to do with Iraq even though we have 160,000 troops in Iraq and 30,000 in Afghanistan.

The Iraq and Afghanistan wars were put on the back burner and still remain there as I write this.

We have held to a theory for a long, long time that the reason the wars no longer get coverage is because there is no vested interest in the wars by a vast majority of the public. How many people actually have a loved one serving in the military? Very, very few.

And to add to the burying of Iraq and Afghanistan war news, you have a media made up of young reporters and editors who NEVER served in the military and have very little interest in anything to do with the United States military---even the military that are caught in two wars.

Now there is a story that has come out which backs up everything I have been saying about how the media has abandoned the wars. Below you can read most of it and for the full account click on the link I provide.

Commentary by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE.

How the Media Abandoned Iraq

By Sherry Ricchiardi, American Journalism ReviewPosted on June 4, 2008, Printed on June 5, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/86930/

Armando Acuna, public editor of the Sacramento Bee, turned a Sunday column into a public flogging for both his editors and the nation's news media. They had allowed the third-longest war in American history to slip off the radar screen, and he had the numbers to prove it.

The public also got a scolding for its meager interest in a controversial conflict that is costing taxpayers about $12.5 billion a month, or nearly $5,000 a second, according to some calculations. In his March 30 commentary, Acuna noted: "There's enough shame … for everyone to share."

He had watched stories about Iraq move from 1A to the inside pages of his newspaper, if they ran at all. He understood the editors' frustration over how to handle the mind-numbing cycles of violence and complex issues surrounding Operation Iraqi Freedom. "People feel powerless about this war," he said in an interview in April.

Acuna knew the Sacramento Bee was not alone.

For long stretches over the past 12 months, Iraq virtually disappeared from the front pages of the nation's newspapers and from the nightly network newscasts. The American press and the American people had lost interest in the war.

The decline in coverage of Iraq has been staggering.

During the first 10 weeks of 2007, Iraq accounted for 23 percent of the newshole fornetwork TV news. In 2008, it plummeted to 3 percent during that period. On cable networks it fell from 24 percent to 1 percent, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The numbers also were dismal for the country's dailies. By Acuna's count, during the first three months of this year, front-page stories about Iraq in the Bee were down 70 percent from the same time last year. Articles about Iraq once topped the list for reader feedback. By mid-2007, "Their interest just dropped off; it was noticeable to me," says the public editor.

A daily tracking of 65 newspapers by the Associated Press confirms a dip in page-one play throughout the country. In September 2007, the AP found 457 Iraq-related stories (154 by the AP) on front pages, many related to a progress report delivered to Congress by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Over the succeeding months, that number fell to as low as 49.

A spike in March 2008 was largely due to a rash of stories keyed to the conflict's fifth anniversary, according to AP Senior Managing Editor Mike Silverman.

During the early stages of shock and awe, Americans were glued to the news as Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad and sweat-soaked Marines bivouacked in his luxurious palaces.

It was a huge story when President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, and declared major combat operations were over.

By March 2008, a striking reversal had taken place. Only 28 percent of Americans knew that 4,000 military personnel had been killed in the conflict, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Eight months earlier, 54 percent could cite the correct casualty rate.

TV news was a vivid indicator of the declining interest. The three broadcast networks' nightly newscasts devoted more than 4,100 minutes to Iraq in 2003 and 3,000 in 2004. That leveled off to 2,000 annually. By late 2007, it was half that, according to Andrew Tyndall, who monitors the nightly news (tyndallreport.com).

"In broadcast, there's a sense that the appetite for Iraq coverage has grown thin. The big issue is how many people stick with it. It is not less of a story," said Jeffrey Fager, executive producer of "60 Minutes," during the Reva and David Logan Symposium on Investigative Reporting in late April at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. The number of Iraq-related stories aired on "60 Minutes" has been consistent over the past two years. The total from April 2007 through March 2008 was 15, one fewer than during the same period the year before.

Despite the pile of evidence of waning coverage, news managers interviewed for this story consistently maintained there was no conscious decision to back off. "I wasn't hearing that in our newsroom," says Margaret Sullivan, editor of the Buffalo News. Yet numbers show that attention to the war plummeted at the Buffalo paper as it did at other news outlets.

Why the dramatic drop-off? Gatekeepers offer a variety of reasons, from the enormous danger for journalists on the ground in Iraq (see "Obstructed View," April/May 2007) to plunging newsroom budgets and shrinking news space. Competing megastories on the home front like the presidential primaries and the sagging economy figure into the equation. So does the exorbitant cost of keeping correspondents in Baghdad.

No one questioned the importance of a grueling war gone sour or the looming consequences for the United States and the Middle East. Instead, newsroom managers talked about the realities of life in a rapidly changing media market, including smaller newsholes and, for many, a laser-beam focus on local issues and events.

Click on this link http://www.alternet.org/story/86930/ to read the full story on how the media abandoned coverage of the war.

LATEST U.S. CASUALTY REPORT FROM IRAQ

The mainstream media has forgotten these KIA and wounded soliders, but we refuse to follow in lockstep with the mainstream media.

Casualty Reports: Click on BLUE for more details

http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of three Multi-National Division – North Soldiers from small-arms fire in Hawija Iraq on Wednesday, June 4th. No other details were released.June 2 airpower summary:

lance corporal Gabriel Morse and the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines arrived in Iraq for their tour of duty in July 2006 and were based in Saqlawiyah, near Fallujah. Morse, himself, was struck by shrapnel from hand grenades on the back of his body from the waist down to his shin. He was first evacuated to a hospital near Baghdad, then to a hospital on a U.S. base in Germany. Morse has had to undergo multiple surgeries to repair the shrapnel wounds, including a half-dollar size, six-inch deep hole in his backside, he said. In addition, he also had to have exploratory operations to determine if any of his internal organs had been affected.None were, but he did have to have a loop colostomy for six months, Morse said. But Morse is still on what is called a medical hold and even though he has recovered from his physical injuries, he is being treated for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Sgt. Marcus Kuboy was hurt when his Humvee was bombed in Fallujah. He suffered significant back and leg injuries.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HIRES CONTRACTORS TO OVERSEE CONTRACTORS LIKE KBR IN IRAQ

The Department of Defense (DOD) now employs contractors to keep contractors in check in Iraq, under a new framework for war industry management solidified last month.

DOD Contracts Out Contractor OversightWednesday 04 June 2008by: Maya Schenwar, t r u t h o u t Report
http://www.truthout.org/article/dod-contracts-out-contractor-oversight

In April, the Pentagon split its largest military contract in Iraq - formerly belonging to the Houston-based corporation KBR, Inc. - among companies Fluor and DynCorp, in addition to KBR.A fourth company, the British-American service provider Serco, is responsible for managing and overseeing the other three, according to its contract, signed last year and now in effect.

Based on the contract, Serco's duties include planning activities, managerial work, performance reviews, training and budget recommendations. According to an Army Sustainment Command news release last year, Serco is responsible for "analyzing performance contractors' costs," "working with the Army to measure contractor performance" and "recommending process improvements." The company also serves as a liaison between the other three contractors, and between the contractors and the government.

The Serco deal marks a new level of Defense Department privatization, according to Dina Rasor, the chief investigator of the Follow the Money Project, who founded the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight (POGO).

"It's gotten to the point where we're actually outsourcing the oversight," Rasor told Truthout.
Serco plays a direct role in oversight activities previously reserved for government officials, according to Rasor. When government auditors and investigators request material from contractors in Iraq, Serco now acts as their intermediary, summarizing and interpreting the documents.

Click on link above to read full story.

CNN REPORTS: THREE U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ: SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 15 IN BAGHDAD: 12 BODIES FOUND IN MASS GRAVE IN BAGHDAD

Suicide bomber kills 15 in Iraq
Story Highlights
NEW: Bomb explodes near home of police official; children among those killed
NEW: 10 to 12 bodies found in mass grave in Baghdad, U.S. military says
Three U.S. soldiers killed in small-arms attack in Sunni town near Kirkuk
Their deaths bring U.S. toll to 4,090 since war began; six deaths so far in June

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/04/iraq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) Three U.S. soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a small-arms fire attack in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.The incident occurred in Hawija, a predominantly Sunni Arab town near Kirkuk. The soldiers were part of Multi-National Division-North.

The number of U.S. service members killed in the Iraq war is 4,090, including eight civilian employees of the Defense Department. The number killed in June now stands at six.

A suicide truck bomb targeting a senior police officer in Baghdad on Wednesday killed 15 people and wounded at least 65 others.

An Interior Ministry official said the bomb targeted the home of Brig. Nazem Tayeh, who works for the ministry and is head of police rescue units.
When the bomb exploded, Tayeh was not at his home in the predominantly Shiite northeastern neighborhood of Shaab.

One of Tayeh's nephews was killed, and three children and two women injured were Tayeh's family members. Civilian bystanders, including a woman and a child, were also among the people killed. Eight buildings collapsed in the blast, and police pulled people from the rubble.

Also in Shaab, a mortar round killed two people and wounded five others. Among the injured were a woman and a child, the ministry said.

Iraqi National Police and U.S. soldiers found human remains in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
A site was found with 10 to 12 bodies in a "water-filled well-like grave." The remains appear to have been buried for about two years.

CBS NEWS REPORTS: IRAQ SECURITY PACT PITS U.S. AGAINST IRAN

Iraq Security Pact Pits U.S. Against Iran

BAGHDAD, June 3, 2008
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/03/iraq/main4150401.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_4150401

(AP) A proposed U.S.-Iraq security agreement is shaping up as a major political battle between America and Iran, as the debate over the future of troops here intensifies ahead of the fall U.S. presidential election.

The agreement, which both sides hope to finish in midsummer, is likely to be among the issues discussed this weekend when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is due to visit Iran - his second trip there in a year. Ahead of the visit, his party sought to calm worries by insisting that the deal would not allow foreign troops to use Iraq as a ground to invade another country - a clear reference to Iranian fears of a U.S. attack.

For their part, congressional Democrats have urged the Bush administration not to bypass Congress, which they believe should approve any deal. They fear a long-term security deal with Iraq - if it committed the U.S. to protecting Iraq - could make it difficult for the next president to withdraw U.S. forces. But the toughest words have come from Iraqi politicians, especially those loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric whose militiamen fought U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad until a May truce ended seven weeks of fighting.

A lawmaker from al-Maliki's party told reporters Tuesday that the Iraqis and the Americans are far apart on the security agreement. He said negotiations "are at a standstill, and the Iraqi side is studying its options." "The Americans have some demands that the Iraqi government regards as infringing on its sovereignty," lawmaker Haidar al-Abadi said. "This is the main dispute, and if the dispute is not settled, I frankly tell you there will not be an agreement." U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo described talks over the pact as "active" and said Tuesday that "texts are very much in flux." The deal would establish a long-term security relationship between Iraq and the United States, and a parallel agreement providing a legal basis to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

Click on link to CBS story for full account.

ALIVE IN BAGHDAD REPORTS: 5 MILLION IRAQI COLLEGE STUDENTS AFFECTED BY THE WAR

Baghdad, Iraq - Some of the people among Iraqi society most affected by the war are the students; there are about five million students all over Iraq.

http://aliveinbaghdad.org/

These students are facing a great danger because they go out in the streets regularly, heading to their schools, colleges, or universities. The girls are facing the risk of being kidnapped or attacked if they don’t wear a veil or scarf, the boys facing the risk of being kidnapped by the militias controlling the area around their school.

Unfortunately many accidents happened between the years of 2004 and 2007, such as the blast that took place in the Mustansariya University and killed 22 student and left more than 40 wounded, or the blast that took place at Al-Nahrein University and killed 15 and left about 50 wounded.

The other problems facing the students is transportation. For some students living in areas like Abu Ghraib or Ghazaliya, it’s too difficult for them to get to Baghdad University or any other university in the middle of Baghdad, because sometimes the roads are blocked due to the constant problems happening in those neighborhoods, such as car bomb attacks or battles occurring between insurgents and the US military.

When an attack happens, normally the US military or the Iraqi forces block the road or the neighborhood after a car bomb attack or a battle as a security and safety measure. In this situation, the students have to wait until the road is open again in order to continue on theri way to school. It became normal for a student to miss the first and the second class of the day due to the difficulties of the transportation and the road blocks.

Some students fled Iraq after they received death threats or were kidnapped by one of the militias. Some of them were lucky and have been able to continue their studies in Jordan or Syria.

The majority were not because most of them could not afford it or lost their high school or college certificates. Some projects such as the Iraqi Student Project are helping Iraqi students to get full scholarships in the US in order to continue their studies in the United States.

The security condition now in Baghdad appears to be much better than before. The Sahwa forces have helped with restoring security in some neighborhoods in and around Baghdad, and that helped the students improve the chance to go on with their studies.

However there are still a large number of students whom cannot reach their school, due to where they live in Baghdad or what school they are attending now. For example the schools in Sadr City are still controlled by the fear of being attacked or the risk of explosions and ongoing operations there.

Overall, the situation appears to be improving, and as this school year ends many are hopeful that the autumn will bring a more stable and comfortable learning environment.

NBC REPORTS: SOLDIERS: LONG TOURS CREATE "LOTS OF STRESS"

By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington
http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Three soldiers receiving Purple Hearts today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center spoke about the strains on soldiers in Iraq that contributed to a record number of suicides last year in the Army.

The Army reported last Thursday there were 115 suicides in 2007, the highest number since it began keeping records of suicides in 1980.

So far this year, there have been 38 confirmed suicides.

"There's a lot of strain because probably a lot of people are ready to come home," said Staff Sgt. Bennie Lamb, 40, of Macon, Ga., who was on his third tour in Iraq when he was wounded March 14 by a suicide bomber.

NAMES, HOMETOWNS OF LATEST U.S. IRAQ CASUALTIES

The war in Iraq is still going on even though you would never know it from watching TV or reading the newspapers, and young Americans are still dying every single day in Iraq.

Latest Coalition Fatalities
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/ Click on "BLUE" for more infor

06/03/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Spc. Christopher D. McCarthy, of Virginia Beach, Va., died 1 June 2008 at Forward Operating Base Ramadi, Iraq. His death is under investigation. He was assigned to the U.S. Joint Forces Command, Joint Reserve Unit, Norfolk, Va.

06/03/08 MNF: MND-B Soldier dies of non-battle related cause
A Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier died from a non-battle related cause at approximately 8 a.m. June 3. The Soldier's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

06/03/08 DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Spc. Justin R. Mixon, 22, of Bogalusa, La., died June 1 in Baghdad Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.

06/02/08 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Cpl. Christian S. Cotner, 20, of Waterbury, Conn., died May 30 from a non-hostile incident in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Wing Support Squadron 172, Marine Wing Support Group 17, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing...

06/02/08 MNF: MNF-W Soldier dies in non-combat related incident
A Multi-National Force - West Soldier died as the result of a non-combat related incident June 1. The Soldier’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

WASHINGTON POST: IRAQ LIKELY TO MISS DEADLINE FOR PACT WITH U.S.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A July target for negotiating an agreement on future relations between Iraq and the United States is likely to be missed, an Iraqi government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Iraq says likely to miss deadline for U.S. pact
ReutersTuesday, June 3, 2008; 1:51 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/AR2008060301638.html

U.S. and Iraqi officials began talks in March on twin agreements on the status of U.S. military forces in Iraq after 2008 and a strategic framework agreement that defines long-term bilateral ties.

Washington has said it aims to wrap up the talks by July, but Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that was unlikely to happen.

"I don't think that we can meet this date. There is a difference in viewpoints between Iraq and the U.S. I don't think that time is enough to end this gap and to reach a joint understanding ... Therefore, we are not committed to July as a deadline," he told al-Arabiya television.

He also said Iraq was looking into possible alternatives if it could not reach agreement with the United States on their long-term relations, but he gave no details.

The talks have angered many Iraqis who suspect the United States, which led the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has around 155,000 troops in the country, of wanting to keep a permanent presence there.

Click on link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/AR2008060301638.html to read complete story.

VIDEO: "FOX AND FRIENDS" ACCUSE NBC/MSNBC OF BIAS

This video is a little like the kettle calling the pot black. No pun intended. But if anyone has shown they are a biased network it is FOX NEWS. What do they think Brit Hume and his nightly panel are when it comes to the news? They are ALL extreme right wingers. Then there is Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Neil Cavuto plus a host of so-called "correspondents" and so-called "reporters" at FOX NEWS who every single day show their right wing bias and bash the Democrats, and especially Barack Obama. Sean Hannity, IMO, is by far the worst. He never stops bashing Obama and keeps running over and over the Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger videos plus making accusations which cannot be supported by fact.

Take a look for yourself what the "crew" at "Fox and Friends" had to say in this video:
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2008/06/03/fox-accuses-msnbc-of-media-bias/

VIDEO: FIVE MILLION ORPHANS IN IRAQ. (THIS VIDEO WILL BREAK YOUR HEART)

Alive in Baghad, one of the best news services in Iraq, reports there are now five million Iraqi orphans as the result of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. This video shows one of the orphanages that is in good shape, but most of the orphanages in Iraq are a disgrace.

See Video here: http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1478

SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 9 IN MOSUL: FEARS RISE SUNNI INSURGENTS ARE REGROUPING

Suicide car bomber kills 9 in northern Iraqi city

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 2, 4:14 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq;_ylt=AmqAadGJ3H6oraaF2Vb5mOVX6GMA

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber targeted the provincial police headquarters in Mosul on Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, police said.

The attack underscored fears that Sunni insurgents are regrouping despite a U.S.-Iraqi offensive in the northern city.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but suicide operations are commonly associated with al-Qaida in Iraq — the main target of U.S.-Iraqi military operations to clear the city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Salim Shakir said he was walking toward his house in the area when he was hit with shrapnel in the stomach and legs.

"We are shocked because we thought that the violent days had ended," the 47-year-old taxi driver said from his hospital bed. "This explosion shows that the insurgents are still active, and much is needed to stop them."

VIDEO: CLUSTER BOMBS: HELL FROM ABOVE

The Real News Network's Pepe Escobar reports 111 countries have banned cluster bombs, but the United States, Israel, China, Russia, Pakistan and India have not banned them.

This video http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1594&updaterx=2008-06-02+11%3A55%3A33
shows the devastation a cluster bomb can do and why many of them never explode and are left in areas where children playing can stumble across them and set them off.

DAHR JAMAIL REPORTS ABOUT A GROUP OF IRAQ VETERANS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA CHOSE TO IGNORE

As we have been doing for months, we keep bringing to the readers of my blog stories about Iraq war veterans that NEVER make it to the mainstream press anymore.

Dahr Jamail, the award-winning reporter and author of "Beyond the Green Zone," reports on a group of Iraq war veterans and what took place in Seattle over the Memorial Day weekend.

It is worth reading not only because the story is steeped in facts, but it clearly points out how the mainstream media has decided anything to do with Iraq is not worthy of their time or effort anymore.

We still have 160,000 troops in Iraq, but you would never know by watching the news, especially FOX NEWS, or reading your local newspaper.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

"Enough Is Enough, It's Time to Get Out"

Inter Press ServiceBy Dahr Jamail

Click here to read story at original source with photo.

SEATTLE, Jun 2 (IPS) - Dozens of veterans from the U.S. occupation of Iraq converged in this west coast city over the weekend to share stories of atrocities being committed daily in Iraq, in a continuation of the "Winter Soldier" hearings held in Silver Spring, Maryland in March.

At the Seattle Town Hall, some 800 people gathered to hear the testimonies of veterans from Iraq. The event was sponsored by the Northwest Regional Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), and endorsed by dozens of local and regional anti-war groups like Veterans for Peace and Students for a Democratic Society.

"I watched Iraqi Police bring in someone to interrogate," Seth Manzel, a vehicle commander and machine gunner in the U.S. Army, told the audience. "There were four men on the prisoner...one was pummeling his kidneys with his fists, another was inserting a bottle up his rectum. It looked like a frat house gang-rape."

Manzel joined the army after 9/11 for economic reasons -- he'd just been laid off, and his wife had just had a baby. Manzel told another story of military medics he was with in Tal Afar who refused to treat an elderly man in their detention centre. Manzel described the old man as being jaundiced and lying on the ground, writhing in pain.

"The medics said the old man was just being lazy and they were not authorised to treat detainees," Manzel said.

Jan Critchfield worked as an army journalist while attached to the 1st Cavalry in Baghdad during 2004. "I was with a unit that shot at a man and wife near a checkpoint," Critchfield said, "She had been shot through her shinbone, and that was the first story I covered in Iraq."

Critchfield told the audience that his unspoken job in Iraq was to "counter the liberal media bias" about the occupation.

"Our target audience was in the U.S., and the emphasis was reporting on humanitarian aid missions the military conducted," Critchfield said. "I don't know how many stories I reported on chicken drops (distributing frozen chickens in a community). I don't know what else you can call that, other than propaganda. I would find the highest ranking person I could get, and quote them verbatim without fact checking anything they said."

Other veterans told of lax rules of engagement that led to the slaughter of innocent civilians in Iraq.
"We were told we'd be deploying to Iraq and that we needed to get ready to have little kids and women shoot at us," Sergio Kochergin, a former Marine who served two deployments in Iraq, told the audience. "It was an attempt to portray Iraqis as animals. We were supposed to do humanitarian work, but all we did was harass people, drive like crazy on the streets, pretending it was our city and we could do whatever we wanted to do."

As the other veterans on the panel nodded in agreement, Kochergin continued, "We were constantly told everybody there wants to kill you, everybody wants to get you. In the military, we had racism within every rank and it was ridiculous. It seemed like a joke, but that joke turned into destroying peoples' lives in Iraq."

"I was in Husaiba with a sniper platoon right on the Syrian border and we would basically go out on the town and search for people to shoot," Kochergin said. "The rules of engagement (ROE) got more lenient the longer we were there. So if anyone had a bag and a shovel, we were to shoot them. We were allowed to take our shots at anything that looked suspicious. And at that point in time, everything looked suspicious."

Kochergin added, "Later on, we had no ROE at all. If you see something that doesn't seem right, take them out." He concluded by saying, "Enough is enough, it's time to get out of there."
Doug Connor was a first lieutenant in the army and worked as a surgical nurse in Iraq. While there he worked as part of a combat support unit, and said most of the patients he treated were Iraqi civilians.

"There were so many people that needed treatment we couldn't take all of them," he said. "When a bombing happened and 45 patients were brought to us, it was always Americans treated first, then Kurds, then the Arabs."

Connor added quietly, "It got to the point where we started calling the Iraqi patients 'range balls' because, just like on the driving range (in golf), you don't care about losing them."

Channan Suarez Diaz was a navy hospital corpsman who returned from Iraq with a purple heart, among other medals. He served in Ramadi from September 2004 to February 2005 with a weapons company. He is now the Seattle Chapter president of IVAW.

"Our commanding officer wanted us to go through a route that another platoon did and was completely wiped out in an ambush," Diaz explained. "We refused. They canceled that mission and we didn't go. I don't think these are isolated incidents. I think this is happening every day in Iraq. The military doesn't want you to know about this, because it's kind of like lighting a fire in a prairie."

The first Winter Soldier event was organised in 1971 by Vietnam Veterans Against the War in response to a growing list of human rights violations occurring in Vietnam.>From Mar. 13-16, 2008, IVAW held a national conference titled "Winter Solider: Iraq and Afghanistan" outside Washington, DC. The four-day event brought together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

IRAQ DEATH TOLL 'ABOVE HIGHEST ESTIMATES' NEW STUDY REVEALS

IRAQ: Death Toll 'Above Highest Estimates'

By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42618

BAQUBA, Jun 2 (IPS) - The real number of the dead is far higher than even the highest declared in death tolls, many Iraqis say.

A study by doctors from the Johns Hopkins School of Health in conjunction with Iraqi doctors from al-Mustanceriya University in Baghdad, published in the British medical journal The Lancet in October 2006, estimated the number of excess deaths as a result of the occupation at above 655,000.

Just Foreign Policy, an independent organisation "dedicated to reforming U.S. foreign policy" offered an updated total of 1,213,716 at the time of this writing. On Sep. 14, 2007, Opinion Research Business (ORB), an independent polling agency located in London, produced a figure of 1,220,580 deaths as a result of the invasion.

These estimates are above any official figures from Iraq, but they do consider the reported official figures. Iraqis believe that the authorities are hiding these figures. "The U.S. military benefits from hiding the real totals," said a political analyst who declined to give his name because of the atmosphere of fear within Iraq. "And the Iraqi government is a puppet of the Americans, so their figures are ridiculously low as well." The report published in The Lancet did not take into account many circumstances of death, say residents in Baquba, capital of Diyala province 40km north of capital Baghdad. "All people know that a large number of bodies are dropped into the Diyala river," said a local resident. "I was kidnapped and taken to a village called Huwaider, which is completely Shia and located on the Diyala River. Sunnis there are killed and dropped in the river by militiamen, but I was freed by the U.S Army.

"People in all the villages on the river have gotten used to seeing bodies floating in the river," he added. "I lived in Gatoon district, the volatile stronghold of the militants in Baquba," Yasir al-Azawi, a 37-year-old truck driver told IPS. "Everyday I saw vehicles dropping bodies in the river. Everyone in my district knows this truth; that the river contained an extraordinary number of bodies to the extent that living in that place became impossible. We left our home and moved to live in the north of Iraq." An officer at the directorate-general of police for Diyala province said the number of dead is impossible to calculate exactly. "When the new security plan began in Diyala, some of the arrested militants confessed that they were burying bodies," the officer said. "Some of them led us to the places where they buried the bodies. We found hundreds by digging in the areas that are a stronghold of the militants, and sometimes in the gardens of the houses they were living in, or in a place nearby."

An eyewitness at the Baquba morgue spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity. "I was looking for my relative who was kidnapped and then killed, and I saw an ambulance moving the dead who were killed by militants," he said, "I asked the driver about these bodies. He said that the Iraqi army found them in houses and in holes dug within the houses. I also saw a skeleton among the bodies."

Many believe that the number of the dead is higher than these studies reflect also because the lack of access to areas controlled by militias and other fighters prevents police and army personnel from finding and collecting bodies. "These militia strongholds have prevented access to police for over two years now," Ali Hussein, a local vegetable seller told IPS. "Dozens, and sometimes hundreds were kidnapped everyday and taken to the militants strongholds. People heard nothing about thousands of them. Even today, thousands of families know nothing about their loved ones because they were not found in the morgue."

A policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS that "we were moving the bodies from the main streets of the city through patrols. A body that may have been dropped in the street is a message for people. They dropped it purposely. But these are only a few; the bodies of most we believe were killed, were never found." "The morgue continues to receive bodies brought by the police or the ambulance," said an employee at the Baquba morgue. "We used to receive many daily. The capacity of the morgue was not enough, so they were buried after certain procedures like taking photos or waiting for the families to ask about them and to take them. Sometimes, at times of bombing and disastrous accidents, we were receiving hundreds of bodies." Other officials also offered bleak assessments.

"Hundreds of families come to the provincial office everyday to ask about their loved ones who were kidnapped; they do not know whether they are dead or alive," an employee at the governor's office told IPS. "Often the Iraqi army finds records of the dead from the militants through their confessions.

Every week there are new lists of names of those who were killed by the militants. People come to find out whether their loved ones are dead, in order to stop searching." New burial grounds are found often, and the dead are usually not recorded. Many residents told IPS that farmers commonly find bones in their fields.

(*Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East) (END/2008)

HUFFINGTON POST RELEASES VIDEO OF SOLDIERS DISCUSSING USING "DROP WEAPONS" TO COVER UP KILLING CIVILIANS IN IRAQ

Several soldiers who have returned from combat zones talk with the American News Project about what they say is the widespread practice of using "drop weapons" to cover up the killing of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. We feature five veterans and current members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, plus retired Lieutenant Colonel Gary Solis, a Vietnam War veteran and legal scholar who taught "Law of War" at West Point. Watch the video from ANP below by clicking on this link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1417423198/bctid1584805268 or go to this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/02/soldiers-discuss-using-dr_n_104682.html

SPECIAL WEBCAST TUESDAY, JUNE 3 RE AUTHORS AND THEIR BOOKS ON IRAQ WAR

On Tuesday,June 3,join the Center for Constitutional Rights for an exciting live webcast of the event "True Crimes: The Untold Story Behind the Devastation of Iraq." The event, which will take place at New York City's Town Hall, features bestselling author JEREMY SCAHILL, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer CHRIS HEDGES, journalist LAILA AL-ARIAN, and The New Yorker's SEYMOUR HERSH, as they go behind the headlines to tell the untold story of the occupation of Iraq, the daily plight of Iraqi civilians, and the ongoing role of private mercenaries in America's so-called "war on terror."The webcast will stream live on CCR'swebsite on Tuesday,June 3, 7p.m. EST.

Go herefor moredetails: http://www.ccrjustice.org/

WE HAVE NAMES, HOMETOWNS, CAUSE OF DEATH OF ALL 19 GIS KILLED IN IRAQ IN MAY

This is a complete list of confirmed deaths of US military personnel in Iraq during the month of May. Click on the name in "BLUE" and obtain information on hometown, where the GI died and cause of death.

Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/prdDetails.aspx?hndRef=4-2008


US
Christian Cotner
Al Asad - Al Anbar Province
Non-hostile
25-May-2008
3
US: 3 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Sergeant Frank J. Gasper
Najaf
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Sergeant Blake W. Evans
Al Jazeera Desert - Salah Ad Din
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

US
Sergeant 1st Class Jason F. Dene
Baghdad
Non-hostile - injury
22-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Private 1st Class Kyle Phillip Norris
Iskandariyah (died in Balad) - Babil
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
18-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Private Branden P. Haunert
Tikrit - Salah Ad Din
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
15-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Sergeant John K. Daggett
Halifax, Canada - Baghdad
Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
14-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Sergeant Victor M. Cota
Baghdad (Kadamiyah)
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
11-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Corporal Jessica A. Ellis
Baghdad (northwest of)
Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
10-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Specialist Joseph A. Ford
Al Asad - Anbar
Non-hostile - vehicle accident
09-May-2008
1
US: 1 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Specialist Mary J. Jaenichen
Iskandariyah - Babil
Non-hostile - injury
06-May-2008
2
US: 2 UK: 0 Other: 0



US
Private 1st Class Aaron J. Ward
Anbar Province
Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire

US
Specialist Alex D. Gonzalez
Mosul - Ninewah
Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire, RPG
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
21
US: 19 UK: 0 Other: 2

SHOCKING REPORT: US PAYING ALLIES TO FIGHT THE WAR

NEW DELHI: The tale of massive fraud and embezzlement of millions of dollars by the US military in its operations in Iraq continues.

By Subodh Varma - TNN
http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/us-paying-allies-to-fight-war-in-iraq/3673/

Testifying before the US Congress Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on 22 May, Mary Ugone, deputy inspector general of accounts in the Pentagon said that an audit of $8.2 billion spending related to the Iraq war showed that $7.8 billion had been improperly spent.
Over 180,000 payments, mostly since the war started in 2003, were made by the defense department to contractors for everything from bottled water to vehicles to transportation services.

In her testimony, Ugone also revealed that $135 million were given to forces from three countries UK, South Korea and Poland to facilitate their participation in the war. This is the first time that the US has officially admitted paying its allies in the so-called Coalition of the Willing that invaded Iraq in March 2003.

In his opening statement, Henry Waxman, chairman of the committee, said that wounded soldiers are getting notices from the Pentagon to return signing bonuses with interest since they had not completed the full term. “There is something very wrong when our wounded troops have to fill out forms in triplicate for meal money while billions of dollars in cash are handed out in Iraq with no accountability,” he said.

In an earlier report released in November 2007, the Inspector General had concluded that the Defense Department couldn’t properly account for over $5 billion in taxpayer funds spent in support of the Iraq Security Forces. It said that thousands of weapons, including assault rifles, machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers were unaccounted for, and millions of dollars had been squandered on construction projects that did not exist.

Ugones testimony gave detailed examples of the bizarre manner in which US defense officials doled out huge amounts of money without recording where it was going. In one case a sum of $320 million was paid an Iraqi official for paying salaries with only an incompletely filled voucher signed by one official. Since no details of the spending plan were attached as required by Pentagon rules the auditors have no clue as to where the money went. This payment was made from assets seized from Iraq.

Auditors found that the Pentagon gave away $1.8 billion from seized Iraqi assets. There were 53 vouchers noting these payments but not even one adequately explained where the money went.

In another instance, two vouchers, one for $5 million and the other for $2.7 million showed payments to a vendor for goods and services provided except that there were no details of what goods or services were actually delivered.

Over $2.7 billion was spent on providing equipment and services to the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). The auditors found that $2 billion of this was not properly accounted for.

For example, 31 heavy tracked recovery vehicles costing $10.2 million were given to the ISF, but 18 of them could not be traced because identification numbers were not recorded.

MUST READ: SHOCKING BUSH 'PEP TALK' TO WAR CABINET: "WE ARE GOING TO WIPE THEM OUT"

Shocking Bush 'Pep Talk' to His War Cabinet on Iraq: 'We Are Going to Wipe Them out!'

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.comPosted on June 1, 2008, Printed on June 1, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/86890/

Here's a memory for you. I was probably five or six and sitting with my father in a movie house off New York's Times Square -- one of the slightly seedy theaters of that dawn of the 1950s moment that tended to show double or triple feature B-westerns or war movies. We were catching some old oater which, as I recall, began with a stagecoach careening dramatically down the main street of a cow town.

A wounded man is slumped in the driver's seat, the horses running wild. Suddenly -- perhaps from the town's newspaper office -- a cowboy dressed in white and in a white Stetson rushes out, leaps on the team of horses, stops the stagecoach, and says to the driver: "Sam, Sam, who dun it to ya?" (or the equivalent). At just that moment, the camera catches a man, dressed all in black in a black hat -- and undoubtedly mustachioed -- skulking into the saloon.

My dad promptly turns to me and whispers: "He's the one. He did it."

Believe me, I'm awed. All I can say in wonder and protest is: "Dad, how can you know? How can you know?"

But, of course, he did know and, within a year or two, I certainly had the same simple code of good and evil, hero and villain, under my belt. It wasn't a mistake I was likely to make twice.

Above all, of course, you couldn't mistake the bad guys of those old films. They looked evil. If they were "natives," they also made no bones about what they were going to do to the white hats, or, in the case of Gunga Din (1939), the pith helmets. "Rise, our new-made brothers," the evil "guru" of that film tells his followers. "Rise and kill. Kill, lest you be killed yourselves. Kill for the love of killing. Kill for the love of Kali. Kill! Kill! Kill!"

"Wipe Them Out!"

Kill! Kill! Kill! That was just the sort of thing the native equivalent of the black hat was likely to say. Such villains -- for a modern reprise, see the latest cartoon superhero blockbuster, Iron Man -- were not only fanatical, but usually at the very edge of mad as well. And their language reflected that.

I was brought back with a start to just such evil-doers of my American screen childhood last week by a memoir from a once-upon-a-time insider of the Bush presidency. No, not former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, who swept into the headlines by accusing the President of using "propaganda" and the "complicit enablers" of the media to take the U.S. to war in 2002-2003. I'm thinking of another insider, former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez. He got next to no attention for a presidential outburst he recorded in his memoir, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story, so bloodthirsty and cartoonish that it should have caught the attention of the nation -- and so eerily in character, given the last years of presidential behavior, that you know it has to be on the money.

Let me briefly set the scene, as Sanchez tells it on pages 349-350 of Wiser in Battle. It's April 6, 2004. L. Paul Bremer III, head of the occupation's Coalition Provisional Authority, as well as the President's colonial viceroy in Baghdad, and Gen. Sanchez were in Iraq in video teleconference with the President, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. (Assumedly, the event was recorded and so revisitable by a note-taking Sanchez.) The first full-scale American offensive against the resistant Sunni city of Fallujah was just being launched, while, in Iraq's Shiite south, the U.S. military was preparing for a campaign against cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.

According to Sanchez, Powell was talking tough that day: "We've got to smash somebody's ass quickly," the general reports him saying. "There has to be a total victory somewhere. We must have a brute demonstration of power." (And indeed, by the end of April, parts of Fallujah would be in ruins, as, by August, would expanses of the oldest parts of the holy Shiite city of Najaf. Sadr himself would, however, escape to fight another day; and, in order to declare Powell's "total victory," the U.S. military would have to return to Fallujah that November, after the U.S. presidential election, and reduce three-quarters of it to virtual rubble.) Bush then turned to the subject of al-Sadr: "At the end of this campaign al-Sadr must be gone," he insisted to his top advisors. "At a minimum, he will be arrested. It is essential he be wiped out."

Not long after that, the President "launched" what an evidently bewildered Sanchez politely describes as "a kind of confused pep talk regarding both Fallujah and our upcoming southern campaign [against the Mahdi Army]." Here then is that "pep talk." While you read it, try to imagine anything like it coming out of the mouth of any other American president, or anything not like it coming out of the mouth of any evil enemy leader in the films of the President's -- and my -- childhood:

"'Kick ass!' [Bush] said, echoing Colin Powell's tough talk. 'If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can't send that message. It's an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal.

"There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!'"

Keep in mind that the bloodlusty rhetoric of this "pep talk" wasn't meant to rev up Marines heading into battle. These were the President's well-embunkered top advisors in a strategy session on the eve of major military offensives in Iraq. Evidently, however, the President was intent on imitating George C. Scott playing General George Patton -- or perhaps even inadvertently channeling one of the evil villains of his onscreen childhood.

Click on link http://www.alternet.org/story/86890/
to read the full and fascinating story.