News of the Day for Sunday, May 15, 2011
Reported Security Incidents
Posted on IRAQ TODAY
Baghdad
Three members of one family killed in an armed home invasion. No indication of motive as of now.
Four people are injured by an explosion near the National Theater in Karrada.
VoI reports four separate Katyusha rocket attacks:
* Six people are injured when a rocket falls on a garage in al-Tayaran square.
* Three are injured by a rocket that falls on the highway in Jadririya.
* Four are injured by a rocket that falls near a mosque and a filling station.
* A fourth rocket falls harmlessly into the Tigris.
However, Reuters reports that one person was killed and nine injured when nine rockets fell in the Green Zone. (That's a pretty big event for VoI to miss!)
Xinhua reports on three separate attacks on police by gunmen equipped silenced weapons.
* Gunmen injured a traffic officer in al-Shaab. He returned fire and killed one of the attackers.
* Lieutenant Colonel Mahmoud Nawaf from the Interior Ministry was injured in an attack on his car in Abu Dsheir.
* A intelligence officer was injured in al-Nisour square.
Mosul
Two people are killed and three injured in what appears to be a neighborhood feud.
An off-duty police man is injured by a roadside bomb in Hammam al-Alil township south of the city.
Tuz Township, south of Kirkuk
Six police are injured by a roadside bomb.
Turkey-Kurdistan border region
Turkish government says soldiers killed 12 PKK members who were entering Turkey. Separately, a Turkish soldier is killed by a land mine. The PKK ended a six-month cease fire in February.
Other News of the Day
For you conspiracy theorists out there (and after all, there really are conspiracies, a helicopter, hired by police, landed at the scene shortly after the body of Dr. David Kelly was found and departed after five minutes. The Daily Mail obtained flight logs but "Significantly, the flight log has been heavily redacted, making it impossible to know who was on board or what its exact purpose was. The flight was not mentioned in oral evidence at the Hutton Inquiry, set up by Tony Blair to investigate Dr Kelly’s death." (For those who do not recall, Dr. Kelly was named as the primary source of a report that the Blair government had lied to the public about Iraqi weapons in making the case for war. He was found dead shortly thereafter, and his death ruled a suicide; but many have doubts. Follow the link for details.)
A navy biomedical investigator believes that inhalation of microscopic dust particles may be responsible for unexplained illnesses of many Iraq veterans. The Defense Department (surprise!) denies there is any problem.
PM Nouri al-Maliki issues a threat to Muqtada al-Sadr should the government decide to extend the U.S. troop presence in Iraq an al-Sadr oppose the decision. Al-Sadr responds with a sermon in which he says ""We appeal to all Iraqi people to expel the U.S. troops from Iraq through demonstrations and marches. We will not accept the occupation's troops staying, not even for one day after the end of this year."
Monday, 16 May 2011
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Kahraman Türkmen Şehidi .. Mustafa KEMAL Yaycılı
Sadun KÖPRÜLÜ
Milli Mücadele yolunda uzun yıllardan beri çalışan, yorulan kan kardeşlerimiz yaşamlarını, kendilerini, ailelerini, çıkarlarını düşünmeden kendilerini bu dava yoluna adayarak şirin canlarını, temiz kanlarını hiçbir karşılık düşünmeden seve, seve vermişlerdir, uzun yıllat milli dava yolunda çalışanları, yorulanları kutsal görevlerini başararak şehit düşenlerimiz, acı, çile, baskı ve hapis yatanları ve ölenlerimizi, yaşayanlarımız hiç birini unutmayacağız onların kutsal varlıklarını değerlendireceğiz.
umudumuz bu yolda kendilerini adayanları sonsuza dek yaşatmalıyız.azda olursa Milli Mücadele yolunda şehitlerimizin, tüm Mücadeleci dava adamları hakkında ön planda onlara önem vermektir.çalışmaları, yorulmaları ile tanınan ve uzun yıllar mücadele eden
Şehidimiz Mustafa Kemal Yaycılı büyük bir mücadeleci Türkmen dava adamıdır, yıllardan beri milli Türkmencilik davasına katılarak uzun yıllardan bu milli şuur yolunda tüm varlığını adayan bir kahraman yiğidimizdir, onun milli davası gökyüzümüzde bir altın ışık olarak, yollarımızı aydınlatacaktır, o bir milli bayrağimiz olarak Türkmenelimizde dalğalanacaktır.
Mustafa Kemal hiçbir zaman ölümü düşünmedi, hiçbir zaman yolundan milli davasından yüce Türkmen milletinden vazgeçmedi, gece gündüz yorgunluk bilmeden çalıştı durdu, ben onu uzun yıllardan beri hapishanede olduğum sıralardan tanımaktayım, Erbil Türkmen şehrinde uzun çalışma mücadelesi ile ilk defa olarak dava arkadaşları ile Türkçe okullar açmıştır, Türk diliyle eğitim başlatmıştır.
Uzun yıllar Milli Türkmen partisinde çalışarak, parti başkan olmuştur.
Erbil Türkmen şehrinde ilk önce Doğuş okulunu sonradan Türkçe okulların açmasında büyük katkısı olmuştur, bunun yanında İlk defa olarak Türkmeneli gazetesi ve Doğuş gazetesini yayınlamıştır.
Ana muhalefetin Amerika, İngiltere, Irak’ta tüm toplantılarına katılarak Türkmen milletinin haklarının verilmesini istemiştir, şehidimiz Yaycılı birçok siyası seminer düzenlemiştir, Türkmen sorumuna yakından bir çözüm bulmaya yıllarını vermiştir.
Şehit Mustafa Kemal Saddam rejimi düştükten sonra hiç beklemeden hızla dava arkadaşları Necmettin Kasap, Sabah Aziz, Adnan Gıdan, Abbas Kasap, Abbas Dakuklu, Behaddin Türkmen ve birçoğuyla Kerkük’e dönmeye karar vermiştir, Kerkük’te her bir yanda dava arkadaşlarıyla Irak Türkmen Cephesi ve Türkmen milli bayrağını her bir yere asmışlardır, Kerkük meclisinde Türkmenlere hak kazandırmak için durmadan yorularak çabalar göstermiştir.
Türkmen milleti uğrunda çalışmalar karşı taraf düşmanlarda rahatsız olmuşlardır, artık onu nasıl ortadan kaldıracaklar planlar başlatmışlardı, bir iki defa ölümden şehidimiz kurtararak, ama düşman hiçbir zaman uyuyamadı onu bir gün önce ortalıktan kaldırmasalar başlarının belası olacağını düşünerek, namertçesine planlar çizmeye başladılarr, ve kahraman yiğidimizi Dava arkadaşı şehit Fazıl Namık ile birlikte şehit ettiler.
Ama bunu iyice düşmanlar bilmediler ki, bu büyük millet her zaman gözünü açınca binlerce Necdet Koçaklar, Albay Abdullahlar, Rıza Demirciler, Adıl Şerifler, Mehmet Korkmazlar, Rüştü, Salıhıler, Celil, Kemal Terziler, Mustafa Kemalleri ve başkalarını yitirmiştir ve yetirmektedir.
Şehidimiz Mustafa Kemal Yaycılı 1955 yılında dünyaya Kerkük Yaycı köyünde göz açmıştır, ilkokulu, ortaokulu merkeziye okulunda, liseyi Kerkük’te okumuştur şehidimiz lise döneminde arkadaşları ile birlikte politika alanına atılarak, yoğun olarak çalışmaya başlamışlardır.
Eski Saddam rejimine karşı birçok siyası eylemlerde önde olarak, milliyetçi Türkmen davasıyla ilgilenerek, korku bilmeden yardım göstermiştir.
Mustafa Kemal , Eğitimini Türkiye’de sürdürmeye hızla yaklaşarak, Milli mücadeleyi tüm varlığıyla başlatarak Saddam rejimi tarafından defalarca tehdit baskıya maruz kalmıştır.
Mustafa Kemal, 1975 yılında Üniversiteyi Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi İnşaat Fakültesinden mezun olarak İstanbul İktisadi Ticari ilimler Akademisi İşletme Fakültesinden lisansüstü eğitim almıştı.
Mustafa Kemal 1987 – 1991 yıllar arası Irak Türkmen Kültür ve Yardımlaşma derneğinde görev almıştır 1991 -1996 yılları Kuzey Irak’ta Irak Milli Türkmen Partisinde çeşitli görevlerde bulunmuştur. Yaycılı 1995 yılında ilk defa kurulan Irak Türkmen Cephesi yönetim kurulu üyesi olmuştur.
18 – 20 Ağustos 1966 da Irak Milli Türkmen partisi Erbil’de yapılan ikinci genel
kurultayında Parti Genel Başkanı seçilmiştir.
1997 Ekimde düzenlenen ilk Türkmen Kurultayında vekâleten başkanlığı yürütmüştür, ayrıca Londra’da Irak Türkmen Cephesi temsilciliğini yapmıştır.
Mustafa Kemal 2002 Aralık ayında Londra’da düzenlenen Iraklı muhalefetin toplantısına Türkmen delegeleri arasında yer almıştır.
2002 Ocak ayında Kuzey Irak’ta yapılan Irak Türkmen Cephesinin üçüncü genel kurulunda ise partinin onursal başkanı olmuştur.
Mustafa Kemal canını kanını bu milli Türkçülük davasına vererek, milletimizin milli haklarını yıllar boyunca korumakla Saddam rejimi düştükten hemen sonra durmadan beklemeden tüm dava kan kardeşlerini toplayarak, milli Türkmen haklarını savunmak üzere Kerkük Türkmen şehrine girmiştir her bir yere milli Türkmen bayrağını Irak Türkmen Cephesinin bayrağını asarak Türkmenlerin haklarını elde etmek için tüm yorgunluk çalışmalara katılmıştır.
Yaycılı, Türkmenleri her bir yerde savunarak Kerkük Valilik Meclisinden yaşananları protesto etmek için Meclisten çekilmiştir. bunun yanında Araplarda onu desteklemekle, yardımcı olmuşlardır, Protesto sonucu –sözde- Mecliste iki Türkmen’e üyelik verilmiştir.
Kazanmıştır.
Mustafa Kemal, şehit olmadan birkaç ay önce Irak Milli Türkmen Partisi Genel Başkanı seçilmişti.
Şehidimiz Yaycılı, 15 Mayıs 2004 Cumartesi, Saat 11-00 Kerkük’ün Tuzhurmatu kesiminde çapraz ateşle yapılan bir saldırı sonucu, dava arkadaşı Fazıl Namık ile birlikte şehit edilmiştir. Ayrıca dava arkadaşı Necmettin kasap yaralanmıştır.
Şehidimizi hiçbir zaman büyük Türk Milleti unutmayacaktır, yeni kuşaklarımız atılgan erlerimiz hep Türkçülük davasıyla yollarını aydınlatacaklardır.
Onların bu kutsal davaları sonsuza dek sürecektir, yeni ışıkları parlak umutlu günleri doğdurmak için, aydınlatmak için Artık Mustafa Kemal’lerin Türklük Bayrağını Kerkük, Erbil, Altunköprü, Musul, Tuzhurmatu, Mendili, Hanekın, Aziziye, tüm Türkmeneli yerlerinde topraklarında yiğit erlerimiz, gençlerimiz taşımaya devam edeceklerdir.
Saturday, 7 May 2011
Mission Accomplished? Osama May Yet Haunt Obama
Mission Accomplished? Osama May Yet Haunt Obama
by Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, May 7, 2011
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars." Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968.)
In spite of numerous reports (news, websites) that Osama bin Laden died in December 2001, the world has been rocked by his daring nocturnal assassination by a bunch of US., Navy "Seals", in the early hours of May 1st., in a villa in Abottabad, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, in Pakistan.
It had been quite a day for State sponsored terrorism. Only hours earlier, three of Colonel Qadhafi's grandchildren, under twelve and his second youngest son, Saif Al Arab, had been killed by NATO's missiles, "precision targeted" at the twenty nine year old's home, in an apparent attempt to assassinate the Libyan Leader.
President Obama and close advisors, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, it was confirmed (with accompanying photograph) watched on live video as the bin Laden murders took place. "The minutes passed like days", one of those present is quoted as saying. Nothing like a real life, Presidential home entertainment system, to pass the nocturnal hours. Who needs to watch: "The Killer Inside Me", when you can live the dream.
In fact, as is now known, they were fantasizing watching a real life slaughter or few, since the fairy story of the real time viewing, via a camera on one of the killers' helmets, seemingly went blank for the time the time of the murders.(i)
"Once those teams went into the compound I can tell you that there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes where we really didn't know just exactly what was going on. And there were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information. "We had some observation of the approach there, but we did not have direct flow of information as to the actual conduct of the operation itself as they were going through the compound", said CIA Chief Leon Panetta stated.
Perhaps they were watching "The Killer Inside Me", after all. And what of Hilary Clinton's apparently queasy expression, hand over he mouth, in the staged photo-shoot? She was: "... preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs." Of course, in the pristine, air conditioned environs of the White House.
In a late night address, having swopped the grisly visual fallacies and bloodied bedroom,(ii) for a microphone, the President told the nation: "We got him", tastelessly, exactly echoing the words of the cringe making former Iraq "Viceroy", Paul Bremer, regarding Saddam Hussein's capture (13th., December 2003.) The nauseating site of the celebrations, the fireworks, vuvuzelas, flags, the "USA., USA.," chants, the joy at more death and carnage - even a baby's cot destroyed in the ruined home. A twelve year old witnessed a killing, according to Pakistani authoritities. What is it about "Defense Forces" and children? Surely the Nobel Committee must be finally ruing the day?
Gun smoke still obscures the body count in this massacre, was one son killed, or as some reports say, two? Was the dead woman one of bin Laden's wives, or a visitor? Were the two reported dead Pakistanis owners of the compound, or visiting?
Reportedly America's most wanted, had five hundred Euros (about £440) sewn in to his clothes. Logically that seems unlikely, since seemingly he was in night clothes and unlikely to flee in those. And with a number of wives, children and maybe others in the household, it would hardly have got him very far.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the summary execution, rather than the legality of a trial for one accused of wrongdoing was a: "Massive step forward." UN., Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, cited a: "Watershed moment." Rabbi Joel Sisenwine of Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley, Mass., commented: "When we take life, we do it hesitantly, carefully, at times mournfully."
"When we take life ..." What have we become?
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, global Leader of the Anglican Church, took five days to make a strangled comment. Asked by the Daily Telegraph whether he thought the US., has been right to kill bin Laden, he first declined to respond. Finally, he said: “I think the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling, because it doesn’t look as if justice is seen to be done in those circumstances." So much for the sixth Commandment: "Thou shalt not kill."
And what a mental million miles from what he said, as then Archbishop of Wales, when reportedly, he had been just two hundred yards, from when the Twin Towers fell:
"It seemed that morning that the closer you were to facing and accepting death, the harder it was to wish the fear on anyone else... The prospect of death elbows aside thoughts of power and revenge. The unspeakable tragedy of thousands of innocent dead - the tragedy unfolding around us that morning - cannot be made 'better' by more deaths. It may be humanly as unforgivable as it gets; but that is not the same as saying that revenge (as opposed to just punishment) is what is needed."(iii) Blood letting now rules.
"Sometimes you have to strike back", said that man of peace, the Dalai Lama.
US., Attorney General Eric Holder has opined that: the "killing was: "lawful, legitimate and appropriate in every way." Heaven help us.
"It was a firefight going up that compound. By the time they got to the third floor and found bin Laden, I think this was all split-second action on the part of the SEALs," said CIA., Director Panetta in a PBS interview. Another mistruth. It seems there is one certainty. "Bin Laden" (if it were he) was unarmed. Colonel Patrick Lang, of Joint Special Operations Command is quoted as describing the SEALs as: "Sort of like murder incorporated."
"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability." (WhiteHouse.Gov) It seems there were eighty of them.
RIP The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11: Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
Osama bin Laden, as Quaddaffi, has been legally charged with nothing.
The US., President, former Professor of Constitutional Law, elected Head of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, in February 1990, has clearly forgotten much. Including the Sixth Amendment of the US., Constitution itself:
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."
George W. Bush had his: "Wanted Dead or Alive" moments, posters and his ridiculous playing cards with the names of more "Most Wanted" in the sovereign, Iraqi Administration, in an illegal invasion. Barack Obama defined his Wild West stunt, seemingly uninvited on foreign soil, by naming it "Geronimo", thus enraging First Nation Americans in general, and the Apache in particular.
The apparently crass name, may in fact not have been so much of a: "Yes we can", message as a: "To hell with you", one. In 1918, a group of Members of Yale's notorious Skull and Bones society, including George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, are alleged to have stolen Geronimo's skull, other bones and items from his grave at Fort Sill, Ok. In a dispute involving claims, denials and counter claims, which has rumbled on across the decades, in 2009, on the centenary of Geronimo's death, former US., Attorney General Ramsey Clark, filed a law suit on behalf of twenty descendants. It seeks the release, by the Skull and Bones Society, of the remains for proper re-burial, in a lawsuit which named also President Obama, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Army Secretary Pete Green as defendants, as those directly responsible for maintaining the graves of the Indian Prisoner of War Cemetary at Fort Sill. (iv, v.)
Three days after 9/11, having left the cave, or bunker where he had disappeared on the day, George W. Bush stood in the rubble of the World Trade Center, to the same shouts of: "USA., USA., USA.," that manifested for Barack Obama after the events of May 1st. Now Obama too has had his has had his Ground Zero moment, wreath laying, bowed headed, humbug. Another day another photo-op. It worked for Bush, a tragedy became an electoral miracle. Perhaps a sub-judicial murder or few, on the eighth anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" appearance, on the USS Abraham Lincoln, will do it for Obama.
Depends how fast the story continues to unravel. From the photograph of the newly "dead" bin Laden, which had been circulating for some years, to the story of the hermit like existence of a man too scared to use 'phones or computers lest he be located, apparently made the lie by the cache of both the raiders removed from the houses.
I wonder what Major James Abbott who founded Abbottabad in 1853 would have made of it all. He wrote a poetic tribute to its tranquility: "where the tiny cuckoo sang", to the streams, scents, snows, pines, hills and to which he "bade farewell with a heavy heart", after eight years.
The actions of last Sunday, both in Libya and Pakistan, may yet prove to be an illegality too far. Renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, author of: "Human Rights and the War on Terror", has called President Obama's statement about "justice", a perversion of the term. "Justice means taking someone to court, finding them guilty upon evidence and sentencing them," Mr. Robertson told an Australian television network. "This man has been subject to summary execution, and what is now appearing, after a good deal of disinformation from the White House, is (that) it may well have been a cold-blooded assassination." (vi)
That coupled with the apparent furtive disposal of bodies - even death, apparently, cannot save a soul from water boarding - has not alone met with revulsion in the Islamic world, but amongst those concerned with humanity and legality across the globe. Two ghastly, shameful, shoddy - some would argue criminal - acts, in Libya and Pakistan, may yet come return to haunt.
In: "Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence", Matin Luther King, Jr., wrote: "We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate." His words were, surely, never more apt.
Notes
i http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8493391/Osama-bin-Laden-dead-Blackout-during-raid-on-bin-Laden-compound.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4dc2922c6895809f%2C0
ii. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2011/05/02/93790-interior-of-bedroom-in-the-mansion-where-osama-bin-laden.jpg&imgrefurl=http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/140251/20110502/inside-the-mansion-where-osama-bin-laden-was-killed-photos_2.htm&h=411&w=531&sz=38&tbnid=B3HfgCiOm3dqCM:&tbnh=102&tbnw=132&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dimages%2Bof%2Bbin%2Bladen%2Bbedroom%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=images+of+bin+laden+bedroom&hl=en&usg=__foGQK-vYvVh9VTeNJ0KDRELfMW0=&sa=X&ei=OCHATZ7eE46xhAf4742_BQ&ved=0CCkQ9QEwAQ
iii. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jan/20/religion.uk
iv. http://www.pa56.org/skullandbones.htm
v. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/17/geronimos-great-grandson-asks-yale-secret-society-return-ancestors-skull/
vi. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/05/the-goal-was-never-to-capture-bin-laden/238330/
Please also see this remaarkable piece of clairvoyance: A death predicted: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24595
by Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, May 7, 2011
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars." Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968.)
In spite of numerous reports (news, websites) that Osama bin Laden died in December 2001, the world has been rocked by his daring nocturnal assassination by a bunch of US., Navy "Seals", in the early hours of May 1st., in a villa in Abottabad, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, in Pakistan.
It had been quite a day for State sponsored terrorism. Only hours earlier, three of Colonel Qadhafi's grandchildren, under twelve and his second youngest son, Saif Al Arab, had been killed by NATO's missiles, "precision targeted" at the twenty nine year old's home, in an apparent attempt to assassinate the Libyan Leader.
President Obama and close advisors, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, it was confirmed (with accompanying photograph) watched on live video as the bin Laden murders took place. "The minutes passed like days", one of those present is quoted as saying. Nothing like a real life, Presidential home entertainment system, to pass the nocturnal hours. Who needs to watch: "The Killer Inside Me", when you can live the dream.
In fact, as is now known, they were fantasizing watching a real life slaughter or few, since the fairy story of the real time viewing, via a camera on one of the killers' helmets, seemingly went blank for the time the time of the murders.(i)
"Once those teams went into the compound I can tell you that there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes where we really didn't know just exactly what was going on. And there were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information. "We had some observation of the approach there, but we did not have direct flow of information as to the actual conduct of the operation itself as they were going through the compound", said CIA Chief Leon Panetta stated.
Perhaps they were watching "The Killer Inside Me", after all. And what of Hilary Clinton's apparently queasy expression, hand over he mouth, in the staged photo-shoot? She was: "... preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs." Of course, in the pristine, air conditioned environs of the White House.
In a late night address, having swopped the grisly visual fallacies and bloodied bedroom,(ii) for a microphone, the President told the nation: "We got him", tastelessly, exactly echoing the words of the cringe making former Iraq "Viceroy", Paul Bremer, regarding Saddam Hussein's capture (13th., December 2003.) The nauseating site of the celebrations, the fireworks, vuvuzelas, flags, the "USA., USA.," chants, the joy at more death and carnage - even a baby's cot destroyed in the ruined home. A twelve year old witnessed a killing, according to Pakistani authoritities. What is it about "Defense Forces" and children? Surely the Nobel Committee must be finally ruing the day?
Gun smoke still obscures the body count in this massacre, was one son killed, or as some reports say, two? Was the dead woman one of bin Laden's wives, or a visitor? Were the two reported dead Pakistanis owners of the compound, or visiting?
Reportedly America's most wanted, had five hundred Euros (about £440) sewn in to his clothes. Logically that seems unlikely, since seemingly he was in night clothes and unlikely to flee in those. And with a number of wives, children and maybe others in the household, it would hardly have got him very far.
Prime Minister David Cameron said the summary execution, rather than the legality of a trial for one accused of wrongdoing was a: "Massive step forward." UN., Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, cited a: "Watershed moment." Rabbi Joel Sisenwine of Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley, Mass., commented: "When we take life, we do it hesitantly, carefully, at times mournfully."
"When we take life ..." What have we become?
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, global Leader of the Anglican Church, took five days to make a strangled comment. Asked by the Daily Telegraph whether he thought the US., has been right to kill bin Laden, he first declined to respond. Finally, he said: “I think the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling, because it doesn’t look as if justice is seen to be done in those circumstances." So much for the sixth Commandment: "Thou shalt not kill."
And what a mental million miles from what he said, as then Archbishop of Wales, when reportedly, he had been just two hundred yards, from when the Twin Towers fell:
"It seemed that morning that the closer you were to facing and accepting death, the harder it was to wish the fear on anyone else... The prospect of death elbows aside thoughts of power and revenge. The unspeakable tragedy of thousands of innocent dead - the tragedy unfolding around us that morning - cannot be made 'better' by more deaths. It may be humanly as unforgivable as it gets; but that is not the same as saying that revenge (as opposed to just punishment) is what is needed."(iii) Blood letting now rules.
"Sometimes you have to strike back", said that man of peace, the Dalai Lama.
US., Attorney General Eric Holder has opined that: the "killing was: "lawful, legitimate and appropriate in every way." Heaven help us.
"It was a firefight going up that compound. By the time they got to the third floor and found bin Laden, I think this was all split-second action on the part of the SEALs," said CIA., Director Panetta in a PBS interview. Another mistruth. It seems there is one certainty. "Bin Laden" (if it were he) was unarmed. Colonel Patrick Lang, of Joint Special Operations Command is quoted as describing the SEALs as: "Sort of like murder incorporated."
"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability." (WhiteHouse.Gov) It seems there were eighty of them.
RIP The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11: Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
Osama bin Laden, as Quaddaffi, has been legally charged with nothing.
The US., President, former Professor of Constitutional Law, elected Head of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, in February 1990, has clearly forgotten much. Including the Sixth Amendment of the US., Constitution itself:
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."
George W. Bush had his: "Wanted Dead or Alive" moments, posters and his ridiculous playing cards with the names of more "Most Wanted" in the sovereign, Iraqi Administration, in an illegal invasion. Barack Obama defined his Wild West stunt, seemingly uninvited on foreign soil, by naming it "Geronimo", thus enraging First Nation Americans in general, and the Apache in particular.
The apparently crass name, may in fact not have been so much of a: "Yes we can", message as a: "To hell with you", one. In 1918, a group of Members of Yale's notorious Skull and Bones society, including George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, are alleged to have stolen Geronimo's skull, other bones and items from his grave at Fort Sill, Ok. In a dispute involving claims, denials and counter claims, which has rumbled on across the decades, in 2009, on the centenary of Geronimo's death, former US., Attorney General Ramsey Clark, filed a law suit on behalf of twenty descendants. It seeks the release, by the Skull and Bones Society, of the remains for proper re-burial, in a lawsuit which named also President Obama, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Army Secretary Pete Green as defendants, as those directly responsible for maintaining the graves of the Indian Prisoner of War Cemetary at Fort Sill. (iv, v.)
Three days after 9/11, having left the cave, or bunker where he had disappeared on the day, George W. Bush stood in the rubble of the World Trade Center, to the same shouts of: "USA., USA., USA.," that manifested for Barack Obama after the events of May 1st. Now Obama too has had his has had his Ground Zero moment, wreath laying, bowed headed, humbug. Another day another photo-op. It worked for Bush, a tragedy became an electoral miracle. Perhaps a sub-judicial murder or few, on the eighth anniversary of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" appearance, on the USS Abraham Lincoln, will do it for Obama.
Depends how fast the story continues to unravel. From the photograph of the newly "dead" bin Laden, which had been circulating for some years, to the story of the hermit like existence of a man too scared to use 'phones or computers lest he be located, apparently made the lie by the cache of both the raiders removed from the houses.
I wonder what Major James Abbott who founded Abbottabad in 1853 would have made of it all. He wrote a poetic tribute to its tranquility: "where the tiny cuckoo sang", to the streams, scents, snows, pines, hills and to which he "bade farewell with a heavy heart", after eight years.
The actions of last Sunday, both in Libya and Pakistan, may yet prove to be an illegality too far. Renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, author of: "Human Rights and the War on Terror", has called President Obama's statement about "justice", a perversion of the term. "Justice means taking someone to court, finding them guilty upon evidence and sentencing them," Mr. Robertson told an Australian television network. "This man has been subject to summary execution, and what is now appearing, after a good deal of disinformation from the White House, is (that) it may well have been a cold-blooded assassination." (vi)
That coupled with the apparent furtive disposal of bodies - even death, apparently, cannot save a soul from water boarding - has not alone met with revulsion in the Islamic world, but amongst those concerned with humanity and legality across the globe. Two ghastly, shameful, shoddy - some would argue criminal - acts, in Libya and Pakistan, may yet come return to haunt.
In: "Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence", Matin Luther King, Jr., wrote: "We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate." His words were, surely, never more apt.
Notes
i http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8493391/Osama-bin-Laden-dead-Blackout-during-raid-on-bin-Laden-compound.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4dc2922c6895809f%2C0
ii. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2011/05/02/93790-interior-of-bedroom-in-the-mansion-where-osama-bin-laden.jpg&imgrefurl=http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/140251/20110502/inside-the-mansion-where-osama-bin-laden-was-killed-photos_2.htm&h=411&w=531&sz=38&tbnid=B3HfgCiOm3dqCM:&tbnh=102&tbnw=132&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dimages%2Bof%2Bbin%2Bladen%2Bbedroom%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=images+of+bin+laden+bedroom&hl=en&usg=__foGQK-vYvVh9VTeNJ0KDRELfMW0=&sa=X&ei=OCHATZ7eE46xhAf4742_BQ&ved=0CCkQ9QEwAQ
iii. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jan/20/religion.uk
iv. http://www.pa56.org/skullandbones.htm
v. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/17/geronimos-great-grandson-asks-yale-secret-society-return-ancestors-skull/
vi. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/05/the-goal-was-never-to-capture-bin-laden/238330/
Please also see this remaarkable piece of clairvoyance: A death predicted: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24595
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Too Many Zeroes: Iraq Plans to Change Currency
niqash Mayada Daood
The Iraqi government plans to take three zeroes off the national currency. It should make transactions easier and enhance the exchange rate. But local economists are not sure the country is ready.
Recently the Iraqi government announced that they were close to completing plans for re-denomination. Three zeroes will be removed from Iraq’s currency, the Iraqi dinar or IQD, and old banknotes will gradually be phased out. For example, this would make an IQD 1,000 note into an IQD 1 note. Currently IQD 1,000 is worth around €0.60 and US$0.85.
Logically speaking, re-denomination does not change the value of a currency nor should it cause inflation. It should make currency easier to use and increase its credibility. Re-denomination may also be a matter of political expedience.
For example, when Turkey announced a re-denomination in 2005, the country’s central bank explained that extra zeroes on their banknotes meant “problems in accounting and statistical records, data processing software and payment systems”, adding that the move to cut them was “psychologically and technically essential”.
Re-denomination can usually only be undertaken once inflation is under control and over the last few years, inflation in Iraq has dropped from over 30 percent to single digits. Nonetheless Iraqi opinions about the planned change remain divided.
Qasim Jabbar, an economic researcher, is concerned about the psychological impact the removal of three zeroes will have on locals. Additionally Jabbar does not think the time is right. “We must create a stable environment in political, economic and legal terms, in order to control the conditions during the transition period to a new currency,” he explained. “This is necessary in order to ensure that the transition is not manipulated by government departments and in society in general, where there is rampant corruption.”
Jabbar was also worried about the absence of a central authority that was truly capable of controlling the Iraqi currency market. By rights, re-denomination should not impact the actual value of a currency; it should still buy the same goods as it did before for the same prices. “But a person with IQD 10 million will feel they have lost a fortune when the zeros are removed,” he noted.
Re-denomination is nothing new. “Many countries, such as Turkey and Germany, have also taken this step,” another Iraqi economist Kareem al-Halfi said. “But this doesn’t mean that the Iraqi experience will be like that of those nations. Iraq has serious structural problems and high rates of unemployment. These problems cannot be solved in the short term and we need to create the economic conditions necessary to allow re-denomination.”
According to Mothahhar Mohammed Saleh, an advisor to the Central Bank of Iraq, which was established in 2004 to administer monetary policy in Iraq, the impact of re-denomination could have both positive and negative effects.
Firstly, a reduction in the large amount of currency in circulation – there is an estimated IQD 27 trillion in circulation – could have an inflationary impact on everyday transactions, he said. For example, one previously recorded impact in other countries has included the rounding up (or down) of prices due to re-denomination.
On the other hand, the currency will become far easier to use. “In the wholesale sector, goods are being traded using US dollars,” he said. This process is known as “dollarization” and occurs when a country uses a foreign currency, in parallel to or instead of, its own currency because it is seen as more stable and subject to fiscal discipline.
Anyway, according to Saleh, “this change will not be introduced hastily. It will only be introduced when inflation is under control - and after parliament and the Iraqi cabinet has gone through legislation thoroughly. They will then decide how the [re-denomination] law will be implemented.”
As Saleh said, “the Central Bank is proceeding cautiously in this matter because it realizes re-denomination could cause economic problems if implemented in haste.”
The IQD was first introduced in the early 1930s and was pegged first to the British pound, then the US dollar. After Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, strict economic sanctions saw the value of the IQD drop. By the mid-1990s, IQD 3,000 was worth around one US dollar.
In order to make purchases in Iraq, huge amounts of cash were needed. An IQD 25 note was the highest denomination available so to make life easier, the government introduced an IQD 250 note. After the American-led invasion in 2003, the Iraqi government issued even more notes with higher values. IQD 25,000 notes were now the highest value.
The average person on the Iraqi street said they would be happy to see the IQD stabilize further. But they are also afraid that the lopping off of zeroes will have a negative impact.
Baghdad merchant Abdul Amir trades in food products and when he deals with wholesalers he prefers to use US dollars because then he doesn’t have to carry as much paper around. “Large transactions require millions of Iraqi dinar. If I use foreign currency, I don’t need as much,” he explained. “But when it comes to daily transactions, I don’t mind using the dinar.”
As to his thoughts on the planned re-denomination, Amir had only questions: “Would there be a loss expected? Would the market be controlled to guarantee its stability?” he asked.
Government employee Sabah Daoud raised further questions: “Would the Iraqi dinar rise against the dollar? Would my salary be worth the same, with and without the zeroes?” He wanted to see more research on the impact of such a step on the average Iraqi citizen.
Currently the Iraqi government seems set on losing the extra zeroes, those digits that have become such a burden on the dinar. But the road toward this goal is a difficult one. And it is just one stop along an even longer road, the one leading toward prosperity and steady, stable economic growth for Iraq.
The Iraqi government plans to take three zeroes off the national currency. It should make transactions easier and enhance the exchange rate. But local economists are not sure the country is ready.
Recently the Iraqi government announced that they were close to completing plans for re-denomination. Three zeroes will be removed from Iraq’s currency, the Iraqi dinar or IQD, and old banknotes will gradually be phased out. For example, this would make an IQD 1,000 note into an IQD 1 note. Currently IQD 1,000 is worth around €0.60 and US$0.85.
Logically speaking, re-denomination does not change the value of a currency nor should it cause inflation. It should make currency easier to use and increase its credibility. Re-denomination may also be a matter of political expedience.
For example, when Turkey announced a re-denomination in 2005, the country’s central bank explained that extra zeroes on their banknotes meant “problems in accounting and statistical records, data processing software and payment systems”, adding that the move to cut them was “psychologically and technically essential”.
Re-denomination can usually only be undertaken once inflation is under control and over the last few years, inflation in Iraq has dropped from over 30 percent to single digits. Nonetheless Iraqi opinions about the planned change remain divided.
Qasim Jabbar, an economic researcher, is concerned about the psychological impact the removal of three zeroes will have on locals. Additionally Jabbar does not think the time is right. “We must create a stable environment in political, economic and legal terms, in order to control the conditions during the transition period to a new currency,” he explained. “This is necessary in order to ensure that the transition is not manipulated by government departments and in society in general, where there is rampant corruption.”
Jabbar was also worried about the absence of a central authority that was truly capable of controlling the Iraqi currency market. By rights, re-denomination should not impact the actual value of a currency; it should still buy the same goods as it did before for the same prices. “But a person with IQD 10 million will feel they have lost a fortune when the zeros are removed,” he noted.
Re-denomination is nothing new. “Many countries, such as Turkey and Germany, have also taken this step,” another Iraqi economist Kareem al-Halfi said. “But this doesn’t mean that the Iraqi experience will be like that of those nations. Iraq has serious structural problems and high rates of unemployment. These problems cannot be solved in the short term and we need to create the economic conditions necessary to allow re-denomination.”
According to Mothahhar Mohammed Saleh, an advisor to the Central Bank of Iraq, which was established in 2004 to administer monetary policy in Iraq, the impact of re-denomination could have both positive and negative effects.
Firstly, a reduction in the large amount of currency in circulation – there is an estimated IQD 27 trillion in circulation – could have an inflationary impact on everyday transactions, he said. For example, one previously recorded impact in other countries has included the rounding up (or down) of prices due to re-denomination.
On the other hand, the currency will become far easier to use. “In the wholesale sector, goods are being traded using US dollars,” he said. This process is known as “dollarization” and occurs when a country uses a foreign currency, in parallel to or instead of, its own currency because it is seen as more stable and subject to fiscal discipline.
Anyway, according to Saleh, “this change will not be introduced hastily. It will only be introduced when inflation is under control - and after parliament and the Iraqi cabinet has gone through legislation thoroughly. They will then decide how the [re-denomination] law will be implemented.”
As Saleh said, “the Central Bank is proceeding cautiously in this matter because it realizes re-denomination could cause economic problems if implemented in haste.”
The IQD was first introduced in the early 1930s and was pegged first to the British pound, then the US dollar. After Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, strict economic sanctions saw the value of the IQD drop. By the mid-1990s, IQD 3,000 was worth around one US dollar.
In order to make purchases in Iraq, huge amounts of cash were needed. An IQD 25 note was the highest denomination available so to make life easier, the government introduced an IQD 250 note. After the American-led invasion in 2003, the Iraqi government issued even more notes with higher values. IQD 25,000 notes were now the highest value.
The average person on the Iraqi street said they would be happy to see the IQD stabilize further. But they are also afraid that the lopping off of zeroes will have a negative impact.
Baghdad merchant Abdul Amir trades in food products and when he deals with wholesalers he prefers to use US dollars because then he doesn’t have to carry as much paper around. “Large transactions require millions of Iraqi dinar. If I use foreign currency, I don’t need as much,” he explained. “But when it comes to daily transactions, I don’t mind using the dinar.”
As to his thoughts on the planned re-denomination, Amir had only questions: “Would there be a loss expected? Would the market be controlled to guarantee its stability?” he asked.
Government employee Sabah Daoud raised further questions: “Would the Iraqi dinar rise against the dollar? Would my salary be worth the same, with and without the zeroes?” He wanted to see more research on the impact of such a step on the average Iraqi citizen.
Currently the Iraqi government seems set on losing the extra zeroes, those digits that have become such a burden on the dinar. But the road toward this goal is a difficult one. And it is just one stop along an even longer road, the one leading toward prosperity and steady, stable economic growth for Iraq.
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