Sinister goings on in Basra,John Pilger reports

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Thursday October 20, 2005 18:29

by Starstruck - Grassroots Dissent/Shell to Sea

British soldiers involved in controversy,not that you'd hear of course..

Here are questions that are not being asked about the latest twist of a cynical war. Were explosives and a remote-control detonator found in the car of the two SAS special forces men "rescued" from prison in Basra on 19 September? If true, what were they planning to do with them? Why did the British military authorities in Iraq put out an unbelievable version of the circumstances that led up to armoured vehicles smashing down the wall of a prison?

SINISTER EVENTS IN A CYNICAL WAR

According to the head of Basra's Governing Council, which has co-operated with the British, five civilians were killed by British soldiers. A judge says nine. How much is an Iraqi life worth? Is there to be no honest accounting in Britain for this sinister event, or do we simply accept Defence Secretary John Reid's customary arrogance? "Iraqi law is very clear,? he said. ?British personnel are immune from Iraqi legal process." He omitted to say that this fake immunity was invented by Iraq?s occupiers.

Watching "embedded" journalists in Iraq and London, attempting to protect the British line was like watching a satire of the whole atrocity in Iraq. First, there was feigned shock that the Iraqi regime's "writ" did not run outside its American fortifications in Baghdad and the "British trained" police in Basra might be "infiltrated". An outraged Jeremy Paxman wanted to know how two of our boys - in fact, highly suspicious foreigners dressed as Arabs and carrying a small armoury - could possibly be arrested by police in a "democratic" society. "Aren't they supposed to be on our side?" he demanded.

Although reported initially by the Times and the Mail, all mention of the explosives allegedly found in the SAS men's unmarked Cressida vanished from the news. Instead, the story was the danger the men faced if they were handed over to the militia run by the "radical" cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. "Radical" is a gratuitous embedded term; al-Sadr has actually co-operated with the British. What did he have to say about the "rescue"? Quite a lot, none of which was reported in this country. His spokesman, Sheikh Hassan al-Zarqani, said the SAS men, disguised as al-Sadr's followers, were planning an attack on Basra ahead of an important religious festival. "When the police tried to stop them," he said, "[they] opened fire on the police and passers-by. After a car chase, they were arrested. What our police found in the car was very disturbing - weapons, explosives and a remote control detonator. These are the weapons of terrorists."

The episode illuminates the most enduring lie of the Anglo-American adventure. This says the "coalition" is not to blame for the bloodbath in Iraq - which it is, overwhelmingly - and that foreign terrorists orchestrated by al-Qaeda are the real culprits. The conductor of the orchestra, goes this line, is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian. The demonry of Al-Zarqawi is central to the Pentagon's "Strategic Information Program" set up to shape news coverage of the occupation. It has been the Americans' single unqualified success. Turn on any news in the US and Britain, and the embedded reporter standing inside an American (or British) fortress will repeat unsubstantiated claims about al-Zarqawi.

Two impressions are the result: that Iraqis' right to resist an illegal invasion - a right enshrined in international law - has been usurped and de-legitimised by callous foreign terrorists, and that a civil war is under way between the Shi'ites and the Sunni. A member of the Iraqi National Assembly, Fatah al-Sheikh said this week, "There is a huge campaign for the agents of the foreign occupiers to enter and plant hatred between the sons of the Iraqi people and spread rumours in order to scare the one from the other... The occupiers are trying to start religious incitement and if it does not happen, then they will start an internal Shi'ite incitement."

The Anglo-American goal of "federalism" for Iraq is part of an imperial strategy of provoking divisions in a country where traditionally the communities have overlapped, even inter-married. The Osama-like promotion of al-Zarqawi is integral to this. Like the Scarlet Pimpernel, he is everywhere but nowhere. When the Americans crushed the city of Fallujah last year, the justification for their atrocious behaviour was "getting those guys loyal to al-Zarqawi". But the city's civil and religious authorities denied he was ever there or had anything to do with the resistance.

"He is simply an invention." said the Imam of Baghdad's al-Kazimeya mosque. "Al-Zarqawi was killed in the beginning of the war in the Kurdish north. His family even held a ceremony after his death." Whether or not this is true, al-Zaqawi's "foreign invasion" serves as Bush's and Blair's last veil for their "war on terror" and botched attempt to control the world's second biggest source of oil.

On 23 September, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, an establishment body, published a report that accused the US of "feeding the myth" of foreign fighters in Iraqi who account for less than 10 per cent of a resistance estimated at 30,000. Of the eight comprehensive studies into the number of Iraqi civilians killed by the "coalition", four put the figure at more than 100,000. Until the British army is withdrawn from where it has no right to be, and those responsible for this monumental act of terrorism are indicted by the International Criminal Court, Britain is shamed.

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Comments (1 of 1)

unjust war

by Tom

Tue Oct 25, 2005 10:39

Well,well,well so you are a friend of mine, eh. The British military never fails to tell the first division of Canada how proud they are of us, they and the Yankees. What a pile of bull. The Bush , Blair war on Iraq is totally illegal by every anti-fascist covenant that the first div. fought so hard to put in place. One of the missing features of the British and Yankee Imperialist army is the lack of inturnal democracy that exists. Can we appreciate that there once was a modern army and it moved to end war forever, by dismantling the war machine and thusly to freeing the people? Growing up at home I knew my Grandfather and my dad, both gone now, from old age and exploitation, and both members of the first Canadian Division, and both though of different generations wounded, but stayed the entire length of those wars on the front lines, except to get over their wounds, and both belonged to the soldiers councils, and both cursed war itself as the worst thing possible on the planet. Those who glorified it were thought of as too shiny and guffawed. Though they fought through, they held a silence of intelligence that bore them a respect seldom seen in todays versions of unjust wars. These people knew the planet is indeed threatened, and by none other than the world armament manufactury and the existence of a war machine, that is holding in place the worlds engines of pollution, male domination, poverty, and exploitation of every kind, and at their last breath they they knew war itself must end. That is why they were cheered by the masses, and that is why they lived and died. They fought to live and improve life on the planet, the Roman soldiers, au contraire, had a first vow on enrollment which was Dolce, et Decorem et pro patria mori. It is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. We fight to live; they fight to die. Look around you folks the planet is dying, now ask yourselves who won? The First division asks the world how can you win a war when in fact the only victory there is is the dismantling of all war and its machinery. How can you say that the war is over when there now exists six overkill of all life on the planet? Does it not disturb you , lest you forget, that one overkill of the planets livability is too much? Why head the arms race for twenty-five years as U.S. Imperialism, to the point of arming every terrorist organization for money and financing them throughout the planet, but especially why go past one overkill, to six overkill of the planets livability with push button technology and call themselves the worlds number one super power. That kind of glory is a lie to life. Most people glorify the great spirit of the creator, and how to get by shopping for the next weeks groceries. No, No, No, down, down Aparthied Wall, we are not in love with your efficient war machines, though the fools of empire glorify them. No our victory dismantles their holyness and curses war til we rise and dismantle it and all its polluting dominions. Kindness is glory, and democracy really isn't democracy until woman makes half the laws being elected equally. Go back to your worisome dens, and wonder at the loud stupitity of Nuclear terror that has dimmed this planets livabiltiy for all that I've lived, and for everyone since Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. Is there not to be and end to the devils work yet, and fools adressing themselves to glorify this terroristic horror going on planet wide? By the way Kevin Barry was for me a hero of the old sort, and the kind of folk we sung our song for, and cheered our kindred souls. The British Eighth army arrayed against the fascists in Italy was kind of food for thoughts toward ending war. I am dismayed that the Black Watch has opted to oppose the first div., don't they know that no soldier is to follow unjust orders. That anti-fascist law was to quit wars for polluting oil. Go on, you British you are betraying the worlds people following war criminals such as Blair and Bush and they ought to be removed and put on trial for international war crimes. Peace equals disarmament, so thanks to ploughshares the first div. is alive and well.
Solar energy replaces oil throughout the industrial revolution, and is more power than can be used. Au revoir, a saddness pervades the world til liberation, and there is an expectancy in the air that it must happen soon.

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Sinister goings on in Basra,John Pilger reports

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