Falluja report

Iraq was on the brink of an all-out assault on rebel-held Fallujah yesterday as deadly clashes erupted between US troops and insurgents in the neighbouring city of Ramadi.

...Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has pledged to restore order in the country ahead of national elections promised by January and is ready to use force, if necessary, with the support of US-led forces.

"We have entered the final phase to solve the Fallujah problem," Allawi told a news conference in Baghdad.

"If we cannot solve it peacefully, I have no choice but to take military action. I will do so with a heavy heart."

Times of Oman article

For gods' sake, how can people continue to report in such a manner without calling the insanity what it is and the lies and misdirections what they are. Peaceful attempts to solve the "problem"? Prime Minister Allawi "is ready to use force, if necessary"? What the fuck do they think has been happening?

The coming atrocity in the city of Fallujah, in which British troops, against the wishes of the British people, are to be accessories, is a case in point. For American politicians and journalists "there are a few honourable exceptions" the US marines are preparing for another of their "battles." Their last attack on Fallujah, in April, provides a preview. Forty-ton battle tanks and helicopter gunships were used against slums. Aircraft dropped 500lb bombs: marine snipers killed old people, women and children; ambulances were shot at. The marines closed the only hospital in a city of 300,000 for more than two weeks, so they could use it as a military position. When it was estimated they had slaughtered 600 people, there was no denial. This was more than all the victims of the suicide bombs the previous year.

John Pilger article at Lew Rockwell

The prime minister laid out three conditions that would spare Fallujah and other rebel cities military action. These include the exit of foreign fighters and insurgents, the handover of heavy- and medium-sized weapons and allowing the government to begin the process of reconstruction in these cities.

"The people of Fallujah can hand over the foreign fighters and insurgents, kick them out or allow Iraqi forces to go in and do the job," said Allawi in a grave tone. "The Iraqi government is still holding the olive branch ... but there will be no dialogue with Zarqawi, (Osama) Bin Laden and former regime loyalists."

Times of Oman article

The "people" can simply "hand over" the bad guys or be creamed. It's their choice. And we're giving them every opportunity. Please pause for a mere second to think about that. It shouldn't take more than a second.

And how did bin Laden get into this mix? Oh, gee, do you think that tape of his just happened to be released at this particular moment? Do you think Allawi isn't working this game with bin Laden and Bush?

Since the 9/11 attacks bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, have released more than two dozen audio and videotapes, an astounding average of one tape every six weeks. Tracing back the chain of custody of these tapes is the one guaranteed method of finding the location of al Qaeda's leaders. However, despite the fact that most of these tapes have been released to the al Jazeera television network, US intelligence services are seemingly incapable of tracing the custody of the tapes; an abject failure of intelligence-gathering.

Peter Bergen article

If you are absolutely counting on bin Laden to be your partner in pursuing global domination and perpetual war, then you really don't want to find his location, do you? Abject failure of nothing. It's come out that U.S. forces were told to let terrorists who bombed a hotel in Riyadh* escape. It's come out that U.S. forces were withdrawn from Tora Bora when bin Laden was supposedly surrounded. It's come out that U.S. forces were, no less than three times, blocked from capturing Zarqawi, and reported unabashedly that the reason was because he was needed out there on the loose to increase support for BushCo's war on terror. How much else do we need to know to realize that bin Laden is George's greatest ally? George knows it. Or at least George's handlers know it. As Jesus' General says, bin Laden's proved that he's earning "every rocket-launcher he's been paid."

In the latest slaughter, Iraqi police found the head and decapitated body of a 24-year-old Japanese backpacker in a notorious area of Baghdad on Saturday evening - one week after Shosei Koda was paraded on Arabic television by a Zarqawi group.

Times of Oman article

Ah yes, a decapitation is a "slaughter", but what we have been raining on the heads of Fallujans is....what?

*I may have that location wrong. I'm still looking.

Update 11/14: Okay, if not for the recent news article about the Japanese man who went into a lion's cage to convert the beast to Christianity, I would say this story about "backpacker" Koda is unbelievable:

The man has been identified as Shosei Koda, 24, from Fukuoka Prefecture. Mr Koda left Japan on a backpacking holiday in January and it appears that he entered Iraq from Jordan by bus to do some sightseeing.

  BBC article

A sightseeing tour to Iraq in the middle of a war? Kind of suspcious on the order of the Nick Berg funny business.

Mr Koda's father told broadcaster NHK his son had left Japan in January and started a working holiday in New Zealand in July.

The 24-year-old, thought to have been working at a hotel in Jordan, had not told his family he planned to go to Iraq.

A documentary filmmaker, Hiroshi Shinomiya, told NHK that he had met him at a hotel in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on 19 October.

Mr Koda had told him he planned to take a public bus the next day to Iraq "simply because he wanted to see it" and said he would be "just fine" when Mr Shinomiya tried to dissuade him.

Well, if Berg and Koda really were simply "tourists", and there's at least strong evidence that Koda was, here's a little tip for any of you would-be tourists out there....Iraq is not a safe place to go sightseeing right now.

*Update on the Riyadh question: It was the Oasis Compound attack in Khobar. The Scotsman has it here. The incident in Riyadh was the site of what the BBC called an "overhasty clean-up".