Iraq’s Operation Phoenix

Kurt Nimmo

Infowars August 31, 2008 “More than 3,500 insurgents have been ‘taken off the streets of Baghdad’ by the elite British force in a series of audacious ‘Black Ops’ over the past two years,” reports Sean Rayment for the London Telegraph. “It is understood that while the majority of the terrorists were captured, several hundred, who were mainly members of the organization known as ‘al-Qa’eda in Iraq’ have been killed by the SAS.” Recall the Washington Post, the CIA’s favorite newspaper, admitting that the putative leader of “al-Qaeda in Iraq,” the criminal retard Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was little more than a Pentagon PSYOP. The assassination program in Iraq is a collaborative effort between the British SAS and the American Delta Force. It is called “Task Force Black.” General Petraeus was so impressed with the assassination effort he remarked: “They have exceptional initiative, exceptional skill, exceptional courage and, I think, exceptional savvy. I can’t say enough about how impressive they are in thinking on their feet.” Let’s rewind. Recall the Washington Post, the CIA’s favorite newspaper, admitting that the putative leader of “al-Qaeda in Iraq,” the criminal retard Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was little more than a Pentagon PSYOP. “The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks,” wrote Thomas E. Ricks in a front page story for the newspaper on April 10, 2006. “For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi’s role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the ‘U.S. Home Audience’ as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.” As Michel Chossudovsky notes, much of this fairy tale propaganda is delivered to the corporate media by “top feeders” at the Pentagon. “Disinformation and war propaganda are an integral part of military planning. What the Washington Post fails to mention, however, is its own role in sustaining the Zarqawi legend, along with network TV, most of the printed press, and of course CNN and Fox News, not to mention a significant portion of the alternative media,” writes Chossudovsky. As we know, the Washington Post was long ago compromised by the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird, so this role is now reflexive. US military-intelligence has created it own terrorist organizations. In turn, it has developed a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism program “to go after” these terrorist organizations. To reach its foreign policy objectives, the images of terrorism in the Iraqi war theater must remain vivid in the minds of the citizens, who are constantly reminded of the terrorist threat. The Iraqi resistance movement is described as terrorists led by Zarqawi. In other words, “al-Qaeda in Iraq” is a fabrication designed to discredit the Iraqi resistance. Two SAS operatives captured in Iraq after attempting to stage a false flag terrorist attack. Sean Rayment and the London Telegraph would have us believe the British SAS is only killing “al-Qaeda in Iraq” members. In fact, it appears they are targeting the leadership of the Iraqi resistance while capturing and imprisoning street level “terrorists,” that is to say fighters resisting occupation. The SAS is a natural for this sort of work. It was formed during WW11 by David Stirling with the intention to operate behind enemy lines and to perform acts of sabotage and assassination. The SAS also worked against indigenous groups under the rubric of “counter insurgency” in Malaya, Oman, Borneo, and elsewhere. “By 1969, the SAS had been sent to Northern Ireland to perform covert operations against the IRA — which included assassination,” writes David Guyatt. “Perhaps the best known incident that involved the SAS in a ‘wet operation’ was the assassination of an IRA unit in Gibraltar.” In fact, British intelligence created much of the terrorism attributed to the IRA. Kevin Fulton (a pseudonym), the British agent who was assigned to infiltrate the IRA, writes in his book, Unsung Hero, that the he met FBI and MI5 agents and was given money to buy an infra-red device to be used to set off IRA bombs. “In New York he attended a meeting with FBI agents and British intelligence officers. There he agreed to expose IRA operatives in America to the FBI. However, the same terrorists, who were arrested months later, were first allowed to procure and send the infrared technology to the IRA. Fulton claims this technology was used in the Troubles and forms the basis for insurgent bombs in Iraq,” Enda Leahy wrote for the Sunday Times on March 19, 2006. For more on the dirty tricks of British intelligence and the SAS in particular, see my British “Pseudo-Gang” Terrorists Exposed in Basra, Global Research, September 24, 2005. As for British involvement in creating terrorism in Iraq, recall the two SAS agents captured by the Iraqis attempting to stage terror attacks. “Iraqi security officials on [September 19, 2005] variously accused the two Britons they detained of shooting at Iraqi forces or trying to plant explosives,” the Washington Post reported. As I wrote at the time (see link above), “the next time you read or hear about crazed ‘al-Qaeda in Iraq’ terrorists blowing up children or desperate job applicants, keep in mind, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, the perpetrators may very well be British SAS goons who cut their teeth killing Irish citizens.” The CIA ran likewise operations in Vietnam. As former CIA employee Ralph McGehee notes, the “U.S. and Saigon intel services maintained an active list of VC cadre marked for assassination” in the late 1960s. Dubbed Operation Phoenix, the assassination program “called for ‘neutralizing’ 1800 [alleged Viet Cong] a month.” Approximately one third of the Viet Cong targeted for arrest were summarily killed by so-called “security committees” in provincial interrogation centers outside of judicial control and funded by the CIA. More than 40,000 Vietnamese were killed under Operation Phoenix at an estimated cost of nearly $2 billion (see Ralph McGehee, CIA and Operation Phoenix in Vietnam). The collaborative effort between the British SAS and America’s Delta Force is obviously designed to take out the leadership of the Iraqi resistance, led by a disparate and not necessarily connected combination of former Ba’athists, nationalists, Sunni and Shi’a militias. It is intended to decimate the leadership — referred to as “al-Qaeda in Iraq” terrorists in the corporate media — as the United States prepares to downsize its presence in Iraq and shift emphasis under a new administration to Afghanistan.

Floridans protest Iran war buildup

Floridans protest Iran war buildup
Mon, 01 Sep 2008 12:39:19 GMT

Hundreds of Florida residents have taken to the streets to protest against the prospect of a United States military strike on Iran.

Up to 500 people from across the state marched from Front Street Park to Melbourne City Hall, chanting ‘Peace, Now’, Florida Today reported on Sunday.

The rally, called Florida’s First Mass March to Stop War on Iran, was similar to a Saturday protest led by Brevard Patriots for Peace.

The protests come amid a wave of demonstrations across the states as concern grows about a war with the Middle Eastern nation.

“We were misled into one war and we don’t want it to happen again… Sitting at home and complaining doesn’t do anything,” said Ray Myers, a demonstrator.

Co-organizer of the event, Jeff Nall also said, ‘This just shows we will not tolerate another war… This shows people are committed to peace and justice.’

Meanwhile, World War II veteran Bud Holle, of Riverview held up a sign that read ‘Honor the Warrior, Not the War’.

Britain planned Collusion with Nazis to Rule the World

Released through the Official Secrets Act after 60 years, the Plan that Britain would Hatch with Germany to Rule the World.
The attempt to discredit this as the work of an amateur and maverick WILL NOT WASH.

by setfree69

in fact I have always contended that Edward VIII was forced to resign as King of the UK, for his close ties with the Nazis and personal friendship with Hitler, of course it was easy to blame his choice of Wife!

Churchill and Hitler were alike in MANY ways however painful that might be to hear, and it needed someone like Churchill to defeat Hitler. Churchill advocated the forced sterilisation of people deemed as disabled or retarded, and another interesting point was that people often ask why did Hitler never use Gas on London? because oddly enough he hated the use in warfare and Churchill had threatened to respond in like if he did.

Wether this is actually true I do not know but have found no hard evidence either way.

One last point they say that the Victors are the ones who write the History and the nanquished are demonised, one of Churchill quotes is “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. “

McCain: Iraq is a Peaceful, Stable Country

China, Iraq reach $3 billion oil service deal

SORRY CHENEY, YOU LOSE!

China, Iraq reach $3 billion oil service deal

By Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press

SHANGHAI, China — China and Iraq have signed a $3 billion deal revising an earlier agreement for China’s biggest oil company to help develop the Ahdab oil field, an official at the Iraq’s Oil Ministry said today.

The deal, restoring a project canceled after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was signed last night by Chinese officials and Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani.

“The initial agreement has been signed, and we are waiting to see the approval of both governments,” said Sarhad Fatah, a spokesman at the Iraqi Embassy in Beijing.

Fatah would not disclose the value of the deal, but an official at the Oil Ministry in Baghdad confirmed it would be worth $3 billion. He requested anonymity because the agreement hasn’t been approved by the cabinet yet.

Major oil companies have been reluctant to commit to deals in Iraq because Baghdad has yet to enact a law to govern the oil industry.

The government of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein signed a deal in 1997 with China’s oil company, government-owned China National Petroleum Corp. It was to take effect once U.N. sanctions on Iraq’s oil industry were lifted.

That contract, worth $1.2 billion at the time, gave a subsidiary of the Chinese company concessions to develop the field on a production-sharing basis for 22 years.

A CNPC spokesman, Liu Weijiang, said today that he could not provide any information on the new agreement.

If it is approved, the agreement would be the first Saddam-era oil deal to be honored by the new Iraqi government.

A number of companies say they signed deals with Saddam’s regime and demand that those be honored, or the countries involved be given priority on new agreements.

But the Iraqi statement said some technical services contracts with other big petroleum companies might be postponed.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry has consistently denied giving any advantage to companies with which Saddam signed deals, instead insisting that oil and gas fields and exploration blocks would be offered up for bids.

Iraq sits on more than 115 billion barrels of oil, but decades of wars, U.N. sanctions, violence and sabotage have battered its oil industry.

The Ahdab field is located in Shiite-dominated Wasit province, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad. It has been the scene of sporadic attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

As security improves, Iraq is trying to bring in foreign companies to help increase crude output from the current 2.5 million barrels a day to 3 million barrels a day by the end of 2008, and 4.5 million barrels a day by the end of 2013.

Associated Press researcher Bonnie Cao in Beijing and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed to this report.

“Iranian Trump Card. Russia Can Take Control of Persian Gulf”

by Radzhab Safarov

The recognition of South Ossetia’s and Abkhazia’s independence by Russia is a timely step to protect these republics from new Georgian aggression. However, taking into account the United States’ plans to expedite Georgia’s and Ukraine’s accession to the NATO military-political bloc, the situation near the Russian border remains alarming. At the same time Moscow has a lot of possibilities to take balanced counter measures to the United States’ and entire NATO’s unfriendly plans. In particular, Russia can rely on those countries that effectively oppose the United States’ and their satellites’ expansion. Only collective efforts can help to create a situation which would, if not eliminate then at least reduce the risk of the Cold War’s transformation into local and global conflicts.

For instance, Moscow could strengthen its military-technical ties with Syria and launch negotiations on the reestablishment of its military presence in Cuba. However, the most serious step which the United States and especially Israel fear (incidentally, Israel supplied arms to Georgia) is hypothetical revision of Russia’s foreign policy with regard to Iran. A strategic alliance presuming the signing of a new large-scale military political treaty with Iran could change the entire geopolitical picture of the contemporary world.

New allied relations may result in the deployment of at least two military bases in strategic regions of Iran. One military base could be deployed in the north of the country in the Iranian province of Eastern Azerbaijan and the other one in the south, on the Island of Qeshm in the Persian Gulf. Due to the base in Iran’s Eastern Azerbaijan Russia would be able to monitor military activities in the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey and share this information with Iran.

The deployment of a military base on the Island of Qeshm would allow Russia to monitor the United States’ and NATO’s activities in the Persian Gulf zone, Iraq and other Arab states. With the help of special equipment Russia could effectively monitor whois sailing toward this sea bottleneck, from where, and with what cargo on board to enter the World Ocean or to return.

For the first time ever Russia will have a possibility to stop suspicious vessels and ships and inspect their cargo, which the Americans have been cynically doing in that zone for many decades. In exchange for the deployment of its military bases Russia could help the Iranians to deploy modern air defense and missile defense systems along the perimeter of its borders. Tehran, for instance, needs Russia’s modern S-400 SAMs.

The Iranian leadership paid close attention to reports stating that the Georgian Government’s secret resolution gave the United States and Israel a carte blanche to use Georgian territory and local military bases for delivering missile and bomb strikes against Iranian facilities in the event of need. Another neighbor, Turkey, is not only a NATO member, but also a powerful regional opponent and economic rival of Iran. In addition to this, the Republic of Azerbaijan has become the West’s key partner on the issue of transportation of Caspian energy resources to world markets. The Iranians are also concerned at Baku’s plans to give Western (above all American) capital access to the so-called Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, which is fraught with new conflicts, because the legal status of the Caspian Sea has not been defined to date.

Russia and Iran can also accelerate the process of setting up a cartel of leading gas producers, which journalists have already dubbed the “gas OPEC.” Russia and Iran occupy first and second place in the world respectively in terms of natural gas reserves. They jointly possess more than 60 percent of the world’s gas deposits. Therefore, even small coordination in the elaboration of a single pricing policy may force one-half of the world, at least virtually entire Europe, to moderate its ambitions and treat gas exporters in a friendlier manner.

While moving toward allied relations, Russia can develop cooperation with Iran in virtually all areas, including nuclear power engineering. Russia can earn tens of billions of dollars on the construction of nuclear power plants in Iran alone. Tehran can receive not only economic, but also political support from Russia in the development of its own atomic energy sector.

In addition to this,in view of the imminent breakup of the CIS from which Georgia already pulled out, Russia could accelerate the process of accepting Iran as an equal member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). By accepting Iran, one of the key countries of the Islamic world, the organization could change fundamentally both in terms of its potential and in terms of its regional role. Meanwhile, as an SCO member Iran will find itself under the collective umbrella of this organization, including under the protection of such nuclear states as Russia and China. This will lay foundations for a powerful Russia-Iran-China axis,which the United States and its allies fear so much.

Twilight Zone / Caught on camera

Twilight Zone / Caught on camera

By Gideon Levy

This is Israeli justice in a nutshell: Lt. Col. Omri Burberg, the battalion commander suspected of giving an utterly illegal order to shoot a bound Palestinian, is wandering free and being considered for a senior training post in the Israel Defense Forces. Meanwhile, Jamal Amira, the father of Salam, the amateur camera operator who filmed the shooting, spent 26 days in an Israeli jail, until a military judge was so kind as to release him on bail last week.

“Although the claim that the IDF sought revenge is weak,” wrote Lt. Col. Yoram Haniel, the military judge, “one cannot overlook the fact that out of all the protestors, only the complainant was arrested.”

Indeed, it can’t be overlooked. Jamal Amira was arrested just after after B’Tselem released the video, filmed by his daughter, of the horrible shooting of the bound Palestinian man. He says that when the Border Police officers arrested him, they called out to one another, “We caught Salam’s father.” Amira, 53, a father of nine, has many Israeli friends, including a senior IDF reserves officer. Amir was thrown into Ofer Prison in what can only be interpreted as an act of revenge by those who presented themselves as “friends of Omri.”

In Na’alin, the village presently embroiled in a resolute and brave civil struggle over the remainder of its land, on which Israel seeks to build the separation fence, celebrated Amira’s release this week. But Amira went straight from the prison to the graves of two men from the village who died in the fight for their land: Ahmed Moussa, 11, and Yussef Amira, 22. Only later was he available to join the party and fete dozens of visitors, among them his Israeli friends from nearby Moshav Shilat.

Over the weekend, the villagers of Na’alin once again rushed one of their friends to the Ramallah hospital: Hitham Alian, 21, was shot in the head on the way to visit his grandfather. The image of his bleeding head adorns almost every mobile phone in Na’alin.

“This is a closed military zone,” barked the Border Police thugs who welcomed us at the checkpoint closing off Na’alin, barring our entrance to the village. A few minutes later, the officers disappeared and the closed military zone suddenly turned into an open civilian zone, if just for a moment. A scratchy loudspeaker called the children of the village to a back-to-school party, and the gravel road to the ancient olive grove – the one Israel plans to expropriate and uproot – was carpeted with stones, a reminder of the daily struggle here. Israel is building the fence to the east of the Green Line, with the sole purpose of expanding the borders of Kiryat Sefer and Hashmonaim, the two large settlements already constructed on land stolen from Bil’in and Na’alin. How do the ultra-Orthodox residents of Kiryat Sefer and the people looking for “high quality of life” in Hashmonaim feel, knowing the land underneath their houses was robbed from others? It probably doesn’t keep them up at night, but when they stand in front of the spectacular valley of olives, and they see how the fence route tears Na’alin’s farmers from their groves, the heart cannot help but notice. Roughly 57,000 dunam (about 13,500 acres) before 1948 turned into 33,000 dunam before 1967, and now the 5,000 residents of the village are about to be left with only 7,000 dunam. The fence will rip away from them an additional 2,500 dunam.

“All we can do now is stare at the ceiling,” says Jamal Amira, who stands to lose 138 dunam to the glory of the separation fence and Hashmonaim.

“I’m sure there will be farmers who will have heart attacks when olive picking season arrives and they can’t get to their trees,” says his son Mohammed, who terms what is happening the “new occupation of Na’alin” and the separation fence “the theft fence.”

In a white galabiya and fluent Hebrew, Jamal offers us figs, “my last figs.” The sound of the bulldozers is in the distance, and Amira is barred from approaching his land due to a restraining order. After his arrest 70 of his olive trees were cut down and two wells on his property were destroyed. Mohammed is convinced that this too was in revenge for his sister’s documentation of the shooting, because he was promised the wells wouldn’t be touched.

On Sunday, July 20, Salam filmed the shooting of Ashraf Abu Rahma, who was bound at the time. The video was made public the following day by B’Tselem, which had given Salam the video camera.

“At first we couldn’t believe it,” recalls Mohammed, who was standing next to Salam as she filmed. “We were sure the officer would put Ashram into the jeep. In the evening, when we saw the video, we were happy. We were happy to have released such a thing into the world. We wanted to show the world, and especially the Israeli Defense Ministry, what IDF soldiers are doing to us. Come see the actions of the battalion commander, a lieutenant colonel with two ‘falalels’ [oak-leaf clusters], the commander of Na’alin. First he imposed a total curfew on us, a closure on 5,000 people to guard a couple of tractors, and now this shooting.”

“Omri” had long been vilified in Na’alin, following the five-day curfew on the village and his rude behavior to the residents. “Put that kind of officer in Lebanon, but why in Na’alin?” asks Jamal.

Mohammed says they were afraid, at first, to publicize the video. “We were scared the army would do something to us. The B’Tselem people promised us that nothing bad would happen to us. But our fears came true. There was revenge. After two days, my father was arrested. After three days, I was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet while leaving my house. We don’t have one unbroken window in our house. Sometimes the soldiers ask me, ‘Have you filmed us today?’ That’s how it’s been every day since then.”

Three days after the video was released, on July 23, a women’s demonstration took place in the olive groves, and Jamal joined. The villagers always make sure that one of the owners whose land is about to be taken accompanies every protest. Jamal began arguing with the Border Police officers, one of whom told Jamal the land was not his. Jamal, furious, began devouring clods of earth. His son Ghaleb watched from a distance as officers attacked and kicked his father. The family has a video to prove it. Jamal was put into the jeep. He was handcuffed and blindfolded. He heard the officers say to each other, “We caught Salam’s father, the camerawoman’s father.”

He was driven to Hashmonaim, where he says he was left sitting on the ground for about three hours. He asked for water and was refused. After several hours, officers poured water on his face. “Omri is my friend,” Jamal says one of the officers told him. They eventually brought him to a Border Police base next to Maccabim and left him handcuffed in the jeep for another three or four hours, still with no water. He says many Border Police officers came to see “Salam’s father.” When he asked for water again, he says one of them responded, “Eat your camera.” “I’ll screw you” is another sentence from an officer that Jamal hesitates to quote.

After sunset Jamal was brought to Beit El for questioning. He was charged with assaulting Border Police officers. Eventually he was taken to Ofer Prison. That first night he suffered from pains in his ribs that he attributes to the blows he received during the demonstration. The following morning he was seen by a doctor.

After eight days in jail Jamal was brought to court. He is effusive in his praise for Gaby Lasky, the human rights lawyer brought to defend him, but she was unable to secure his release at the first military court hearing. His remand was extended until the end of proceedings, and Jamal remained in jail for over two weeks before his appeal was heard.

Some of his Israeli friends came the court hearings. He asks for them to be named: Col. (res.) Ami Arazi, Shlomo Rav-On, Rafi Reuveni and Ilan Kuperstein of Shilat. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and MP Mustafa Barghouti visited his home while he was in jail. The family has a photo of Fayyad with Salam, the camera operator and heroine of the family.

The Border Police and the IDF did not issue a response before press time.

Jamal can certainly be considered a “good Arab.” In his first hearing, he told the prosecutor that he has done much for Israel. “Just move the fence to the wadi, and I’ll drink coffee on the fence with any Israeli,” he says repeatedly. His sons all speak Hebrew well. Their home is the first house after the IDF checkpoint at the entrance to Na’alin and they host many Israeli guests there. He fears he will no longer be able to offer them figs and olive oil from his groves. After his release from jail, after a series of delays and humiliations, half the village was waiting for him at the checkpoint.

Jamal’s trial will take place soon. He is charged with disrupting the peace, assaulting a soldier and entering a closed military zone – his private property. Military court judge Lt. Colonel Yoram Haniel wrote, “It is doubtful that the evidence in the case will lead to a conviction.”