GI Special C/o thomasfbarton@earthlink.net 8.19.03 Print it out (color best). Pass it on.

GI SPECIAL #76

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME: A funeral procession for Pvt. Kyle Gilbert, who was killed while on active duty in Iraq, leaves St. Michael's Church in Brattleboro, Vt., Monday, Aug. 18, 2003, to the Locust Ridge Cemetery where he was buried with full military honors. (AP Photo/Paul Franz

Bring Them On? Bring Them Home!

New Coalition Calls Demonstration Aug. 23 in Bush’s Face

The Nation, August 13, 2003, by JACQUELINE KUCINICH

To press their concerns, the Bring Them Home Now Campaign plans to hold a demonstration in Crawford, Texas--the site of Bush's vacation home--on August 23.

Larry Syverson, a environmental engineer for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality who has two sons in Iraq, told of how he spends three days a week in Richmond, Virginia, holding up signs in front of the federal courthouse that say "Iraqi Oil Isn't Worth My Son's Blood" and "Honk for Peace." Around the time of Bush's May 1 declaration that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, Syverson noted, he was hearing few car horns. In recent weeks, as casualties have mounted in Iraq, he said, "the

honks have been increasing." For More, see http://www.bringthemhomenow.com/

New Poll: How Is The War Going?Very well: Late invasion period - 61%; August - 19% Fairly well: Late war - 32%; August 43% Not well: Late war - 4%; August - 35% Don't know: Late war - 3%; August - 3% Source: Pew Research Center

Commander Babbles About Two-Week Break For Troops During One-Year Tour;

Pentagon Says Proposal IgnoredAugust 12, 2003 By Matthew Cox, Army Times staff writer

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of V Corps , told the Associated Press that the proposal is being considered to keep morale up among soldiers serving in the hostile country.

“The intent would be that between your fifth and 10th month of deployment you’d get 14 days of leave and be able to go home,” Sanchez told AP from Iraq, adding that he hoped the plan would be approved “within a couple of weeks.”

Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), also mentioned the proposal at the end of a three-page letter to family members of 101st soldiers serving in Iraq.

“The Army is not looking at this,” said one Pentagon official, who characterized the idea as a logistical nightmare.

Military Families Raise Hell as Gen. Sanchez Says Troops in Iraq to Serve

Year;

“Send The President To Iraq”The Associated Press, 12 August 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq - All troops in Iraq should expect to serve for at least a year, with brief rest breaks in the region and possibly a few days at home, the commander of U.S. forces said Tuesday. That came as news to some soldiers.

"It's a one-year rotation," Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told The Associated Press in an interview. "Every soldier has been told that they'll be deployed for a year, and then at the end of the year we'll be working to send them home."

But some of the 148,000 soldiers in Iraq said nobody told them how long they would remain in the country, where guerrillas attack Americans daily and high temperatures often top 120 degrees.

Pfc. Deacon Finkle, 20, of Dallas, screwed up his face -- red from the heat -- when asked how long he would be in Iraq.

"Don't know. No idea," he said.

Spc. Jeff Ross, perched atop a bridge overlooking Baghdad's dangerous Airport Highway, knew he was scheduled to be in Iraq for a year, saying: "We really don't have a choice."

The issue of soldiers' tours has been contentious, with troops and their families posting missives on the Internet criticizing their government for keeping U.S. forces in Iraq.

Some express concern about "mission creep," in which what begins as a swift war turns into a long-term occupation that could cause heavy American casualties as Iraqis become more and more skeptical of U.S. promises to let them govern themselves.

"They need to come home!" Kimberly, the wife of a reservist deployed in February, wrote on the Web site of the support organization Military Families Speak Out. "Our unit has no redeployment date in sight, and we are constantly told that they may even be extended."

"We've been doing a tremendous amount for them," Sanchez said in his office in Saddam Hussein's former palace, a copy of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's "Leadership" displayed on the bookshelf. (How about letting them share the palace, General? And your fine foods and wines? And your air conditioning? And your personal servants and security detail? They can use your Giuliani books to wipe ass.)

"They get pulled off-line for two or three days and they get to rest in an environment that is essentially stress-free, as much as you can be inside of Iraq," he said. "

But on the Internet, some soldiers' families criticized the vacations, saying commanders should instead work on getting the soldiers home for good.

"My son-in-law has been in Iraq since March. ... He has been given orders that extend his stay until JULY 2004," reads a message signed "Bette" on the Web site of Military Families Speak Out.

"His company just had a two-day vacation(?!) in Qatar. President Bush has just left for his MONTH-LONG vacation on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Let's send all of the troops to President Bush's ranch and send the President to Iraq."

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and in Iraq, and information about other social protest movements here in the USA. Send requests to address up top. For copies on web site see:http://www.notinourname.net/gi-special/

Troops Families Ask WhyFed Up Relatives Of GIs In Iraq Are Speaking Out

About Mounting Casualties And Long Deployments

NEWSWEEK, By Jerry Adler, Aug. 4 issue

The women—wives of officers with the Third Infantry Division on duty in Baghdad—listened impatiently to the speeches at a “redeployment meeting” at the base. They all had the same question—when is my husband coming home?—but the Army had other messages.

HERE’S SOME OF the advice they received:Don’t have too much beer in the fridge; he’s in no shape to get drunk.Put away the sexy negligee; he probably won’t be in the mood.Don’t have a list of chores waiting; he will be physically and emotionally spent.

“I found it a little galling,” says Jennifer Veale, married to a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. “They micromanage our husbands’ lives; why do they have to micromanage ours as well?”

One more piece of advice: don’t get your hopes up. A few days after the meeting in May, the homecoming was postponed, and later postponed again.

And a final thing: if you’re unhappy, keep it to yourself. In an e-mail to family members, a Second Battalion’s rear-detachment commander cautioned them

against contacting elected officials or the press “in a negative manner regarding the military and this deployment of their loved ones.”

It didn’t work. The Pentagon’s public- relations effort, which had been masterful during the actual fighting, was beset last week by a ragtag insurgency of frustrated wives, anxious parents—and hot, thirsty, bored and disgruntled troops. In and out of uniform, military family members are speaking up—about the mounting casualties, the hardships of the occupation and, above all, the ever-lengthening deployments.

On Saturday, three soldiers from the Fourth Infantry and a fourth from the Third Infantry were killed, bringing to at least 47 the number of combat deaths since May 1.

Bill (left), Nancy Jo and Bob Cannon wait (and wait) for eldest son Bob to come home from Iraq

The news resonated particularly in the suburban Pittsburgh home of Nancy and Bob Cannon, where the Christmas tree still stands, awaiting 19-year-old Bob Jr.’s return from Iraq. private first class with the Third Infantry, he had been preparing to come home in early July, but his orders changed and he was redeployed to Kuwait. As she drove to work Thursday morning, Nancy got a call from Bob Jr., whose unit had been ordered back into Iraq. “I woke up hearing three soldiers were killed, then I got a call from my son, who tells me goodbye, he loves me, he’s going back in,” she says. “It was a rough day in a rough week.

”President George W. Bush’s bellicose challenge to “bring them on” played badly with military families, even gung-ho ones like Charles Hoffman, a former Army staff sergeant and Vietnam veteran. “If he [Bush] were sitting in a Humvee getting his butt shot at,” says Hoffman, whose son Justin serves with the Fourth ID, “I don’t think he’d be saying something like that.”

The sense of mistrust is compounded by smaller annoyances that leave the families feeling as though no one in authority cares about them. A number of wives mentioned paychecks that were delayed or mysteriously smaller than expected. Letters take up to a month to arrive. Troops complain about missing conveniences, including

fresh water and food. (Insect repellent is one of the most frequently requested items.)

Anxiety, Lost Moments Mount For Families Of Troops In IraqAttacks, long deployment and lack of information make

separation worse

[Baltimore Sun, August 18, 2003]Families and friends of GIs serving in Iraq worry about the safety of their loved ones. They complain that the U.S. military doesn’t do enough to keep them apprised of what and where soldiers are doing. (What a surprise! Well, they only have so many resources, and after all, letting the officers families know what and where they are doing comes first, of course.)

Without U.N. Approval, Nations Balk at Iraq Occupation Duty

August 12, 2003, John Yaukey, Gannett News Service

American soldiers continue to die in Iraq while allies look on with no plans to provide more than a smattering of desperately needed reinforcements.

By late summer, the Pentagon will have little more than half the 30,000 additional foreign troops it was hoping for to relieve its force of 145,000, prompting bipartisan calls from Capitol Hill for the Bush administration to encourage more international involvement in Iraq.

Much of the foreign reluctance to commit troops stems from perhaps the most pressing debate for the administration over how to handle Iraq: the need for help in what has become a guerrilla war versus the need to control reconstruction through the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

Rather, many say they need the international sanction of the United Nations, which the Bush administration is not prepared to seek now.

Bush Betrays Sick Vets Again

August 18, 2003, By Dennis Camire, Gannett News Service

Veterans are condemning House Republicans’ failure to deliver a $3.2 billion boost for the Veterans Affairs Department that would have shrunk the agency’s waiting list for medical care.

“A shameless betrayal” is how AMVETS sums it up.

“A moral outrage,” the American Legion said.

“Abominable” is the word from the Non Commissioned Officers Association.

“Veterans have been pushed to the limits,” said Joe Violante, national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans. “They’re being lied to, and they’re not tolerating it.”

The broken promise — the second time in a year that Congress has reneged on a pledge to veterans — has veterans steaming and vowing to remember at the ballot box next year.

“They’re saying there has got to be a change made because if there isn’t we’re never going to get what we’re due,” said Richard DeLong, a Vietnam veteran in Lafayette, La.

During budget debates in April, the GOP-led House — under a barrage of criticism from veterans for not putting enough money into VA medical care — approved a nonbinding budget that promised to increase VA medical spending by $1.8 billion more than the $1.4 billion President Bush had requested.

And last month House Republican leadership, bowing to Bush administration pressure to toe the line on spending and their own desire for hometown projects, cut the promised $1.8 billion.

American Legion national commander Ronald F. Conley said the discouraging part is that House GOP leadership warned Republican members that their pet projects in the bill would be in jeopardy if they didn’t vote yes.

“We have the money to pay for a statue of the Roman god Vulcan in Birmingham, Ala. We have money to pay for a bike trail in North Dakota. We have money to fund a Nevada helicopter company that performs Elvis impersonator weddings,” Conley said. “And yet we have neither the heart nor the will to ensure that all United States veterans receive the medical care they earned and we owe them.”

“Sorry, No Troops Left”Pentagon Scales Back Training Exercises Abroad

Military Cancels Dozens ofScheduled Multinational Events, Citing “The Strain of Current Missions.”{

[Los Angeles Times, August 16, 2003]The U.S. military is stretched too thin to keep up with plans for conducting various joint military exercises with other countries.

South Korea: U.S. Officer Held After Body Found

[New York Times, August 13, 2003]

Police in Seoul have detained an American Army officer after he was seen throwing a bag containing a woman’s body off a bridge.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS:

By D'ARCY DORAN, The Associated Press, August 17, 2003; 8:58 AM

U.S. military spokesman Spc. Anthony Reinoso said someone fired two mortar rounds at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison Saturday night, killing six Iraqis and wounding 61. He didn't know whether the casualties were guards or prisoners, or who was behind the attack.

U.S. troops positioned at and moving near the prison have been attacked in past months.

Two U.S. soldiers were shot Saturday coming out of a Baghdad restaurant but were able to drive themselves to a medical facility for treatment. Reinoso had no further details.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Attacks In Iraq May Be Signals Of New Tactics[New York Times, August 18, 2003, Pg. 1]Terrorist attacks against pipelines and water supplies in Iraq raise concern that insurgents who have been targeting U.S. troops might be widening their strikes to include civilian targets and economic sabotage. Saboteurs are hitting infrastructure to slow Iraq's recovery. (No shit?)

And Still Another Attack On Pipeline

By D'ARCY DORAN, The Associated Press, August 17, 2003; 8:58 AM

TIKRIT, Iraq - Two ferocious blazes raged out of control Sunday along the pipeline that exports Iraq's oil to the north, complicating efforts to bring stability to war-torn Iraq.

The fires were within miles of each other 125 miles northeast of Baghdad on the 600-mile pipeline stretching from the giant oilfields at Kirkuk, which is responsible for 40% of Iraq's production, to a Turkish terminal at Ceyhan.,. The first began Friday, only two days after oil exports to Turkey resumed, and the second happened Saturday night.

Iraqi officials blamed the first blaze on saboteurs.

Iraqi firefighters at the scene of the second blaze watched helplessly as smoke billowed a quarter-mile in the air. Firefighters were struggling to bring the blaze under control when a second blast sparked a new conflagration near the first one.

A US army spokeswoman said: "The North Oil Company is on site to make repairs, which are estimated to take at least two weeks to one month."

The US-appointed interim oil minister in Iraq, Thamir Ghadban, admitted there was a problem with security in Iraq, although he stopped short of criticizing the US-led administration.

"In the past regime, we had the oil police, the army and the co-operation of the tribes, as well as what we call internal security," he said in remarks quoted by AFP news agency.

"Now all this has disappeared. There is a void in security."

TOO LATE: A soldier guards a roadleading to a burning crude oilpipeline.— Borzou Daragahi / AP

An international security company, Erinys, won a US contract to guard oil installations, Reuters reported on Sunday.

The company will reportedly hire 6,500 guards to protect oil infrastructure from sabotage. (Lots of luck.)

Supervisor Abdul Khaliq Akrum Fatah said for two fires to break out in such a short stretch of pipeline "is unheard of and very mysterious."

He said American soldiers had been notified, but that there was little anyone could do.

"They have already closed the pipeline, so all we can do is wait for the remaining oil to burn," he said.

Military spokesman Col. Guy Shields said it would take up to two weeks to fix the pipeline. (Pop one twice every two weeks and Bush is really screwed. Minimal military effort, maximum return.)

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq, said. "An event such as the explosion on the Kirkuk pipeline costs the Iraqi people $7 million a day and hurts the process of reconstruction." (The “Iraqi people” weren’t going to see one cent of the money. This really hurts the occupation, and their corporate buddies So much the better.)

The crumbling network of pipe began pumping oil to Turkey on Wednesday, but the first explosion early Friday cut it off completely, al-Ghadaban said.

Iraqi firefighters smile at the scene of the second blaze next to the damaged oil pipeline near the northern

Iraqi town of Baiji, Aug. 17, 2003. Two ferocious blazes raged out of control along the pipeline that exports

Iraq's oil to the north. The fires were within miles of each other. The first began Friday, only two days after oil exports to Turkey resumed, and the second happened Saturday night. (AP Photo/Murad)

Resistance Cuts Baghdad Water Supply

By D'ARCY DORAN, The Associated Press, August 17, 2003 and BBC.

Taps ran dry in the capital because of a water main explosion

In northern Baghdad, an explosion blew a gaping hole in a water main with a 5 1/4-foot diameter early Sunday, flooding streets and forcing engineers to cut off water to all of Baghdad.

Witnesses said they saw two men on a motorbike leaving a bag of explosives and detonating it minutes later.

"It was an act of sabotage," said Majid Noufel, an engineer with the Baghdad water company. "We've had to stop pumping water to the whole city so we can fix the damage."

Witnesses said they saw two men on a motorbike leaving a bag of explosives and detonating it minutes later.

Residents, finding their taps dry, rushed to stock up on bottled water. Many stores ran out quickly.

The water pipeline breach flooded a main Baghdad underpass

In Baghdad, engineers warned it would take eight hours to repair the breached water pipeline that flooded main roads in the city.

The International Red Cross warned of people's increasing impatience with the lack of reliable basic services.

New Resistance Group To “Kick Out The Occupiers As A Matter Of Principle”

By D'ARCY DORAN, Associated Press Writer, August 17, 2003

A new group of resistance fighters has said they would battle the U.S.-led occupation whether or not it brings progress in rebuilding the country.

A new group of resistance fighters, the Iraqi National Islamic Resistance Movement, said in a videotaped aired on the Al-Jazeera television network that they would battle the occupying troops even if the U.S.-led coalition helps Iraq recover from war.

"This resistance is not a reaction to the American provocations against the Iraqi people or to the shortage of services, as some analysts believe ... but to kick out the occupiers as a matter of principle," a man read from a statement.

He sat with several other men holding grenade launchers and Kalashnikov automatic rifles. All had their faces covered with checkered headscarves.

British Soldiers Face Wrath of Iraqis;

Hatred Grows On Streets of BasraBy Justin Huggler, The Independent, 12 August 2003

Burnt tires and stones that were thrown at British soldiers trying to contain riots by Iraqis infuriated by constant power cuts and a fuel crisis still littered the streets of Basra yesterday.

Calm had been restored to the city after two days in which at least one Iraqi protester was killed - who fired the bullet is still unclear - and a Nepalese former Gurkha soldier was shot dead when his UN car was ambushed in the street. But you get the sense the British are sitting on a pressure cooker.

How serious the riots were depends on whom you speak to. Ask the British occupation authority which runs the south of Iraq, and it was all a storm in a teacup. Ask the Iraqis on the streets of Basra, and you hear a different story. There is anger seething on the streets.

"Only a thousand people were involved in the protests, out of a city of two million," says Steve Bird, a spokesman for the military. " But even as Mr Bird says reassuringly that the security situation in Basra is under control, the crackle of gunfire can be heard through his office window. Outside the fortified British compound, American soldiers arrive in a Humvee. Iraqi children shout abuse at the Americans. They want to throw stones, but some older Iraqis nervously restrain them.

"If you had come yesterday, we would have beaten you," Majid al-Eidani, one of the Iraqis queuing at a local petrol station, tells me.

"We are very happy that Saddam Hussein is gone," said another man in the queue, Laith al-Tayi. "But sometimes we say at least Saddam Hussein is a Muslim, but the British are foreigners. We cannot accept them. They must know they cannot stay here for 40 years. If they try, we will kick them out. What would you do if you were in our shoes?"

Platoon Finds Major Weapons Stash, Including C-4, Near Base In Iraq

[European Stars and Stripes, August 18, 2003]U.S. teams in Iraq are finding arms caches everywhere, but rarely does a unit find a huge stash of dangerous weapons so close to home that the devices could have killed them as they slept. That’s exactly what occurred Thursday, when a platoon, acting on an informant’s tip, found a major weapons cache right outside its perimeter. The find included 123 pounds of C-4, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition, machine guns, AK-47s and 20 pounds of gunpowder.

(Comment: This is not the first time a weapons store has been found immediately next to a base in Iraq. In Vietnam, the national independence movement stored their munitions as close to bases as possible, in order to simplify resupply during attacks on the bases. In also made it possible for resistance fighter formations to approach closely, without being seen carrying weapons, just before launching attacks.)

Nasiriyah Protest

[Philadelphia Inquirer, August 12, 2003]Nasiriyah saw some 1,000 demonstrators take to the streets to demand the resignation of the city’s U.S.-appointed local council

Shots FiredAugust 18, 2003, By John Carlson, The Des Moines Register

AL-DUJAIL, Iraq Schoolbooks aren’t likely to be the same in Iraq when classes start up again in a few weeks. Neither will schools in this community of 10,000 about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The Army is working to rebuild them.

Col. Bob Swisher of Lee’s Summit, Mo., in charge of civilian-military relations for the Balad region of Iraq, said the team of soldiers responsible for monitoring school renovation contracts visit at least once a week.

“We vary the schedule,” he said. “People in the town don’t know when we’re coming. It’s for security reasons. There were some shots fired in the area a week ago while we were here, so we had to leave.”

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

Words From The Frontlines“You call Donald Rumsfeld and tell him our sorry asses are ready to go home. Tell him to come spend a night in our building.” - Pfc. Matthew C. O’Dell, Third Infantry Division.

“They’re killing us. Enough is enough.” - Staff Sgt. Ray B. Robinson, Third Infantry Division.

“If you asked the soldiers, they’re ready to go home … It was a very emotional day for our guys. They’re torn up over throwing old ladies and kids out [of their houses].” - Maj. Brian Pearl, EO, 101st Airborne, Northern Iraq.

"I don't see it getting better. We can't be everywhere, can we? I feel like a cop, but I'm not a cop." - Pfc. Jacob Weber, 21.

“Every hour, this gets worse. Any foot-dragging on getting what we need here means those people are responsible for me getting shot at.” - Master Sgt. Jerry Best, Army Corps.

For more check out http://www.traveling-soldier.org/7.03.words.php

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to the E-mail address up top. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential

OCCUPATION REPORT

Will ‘Saddam Elvis’ Wearing A Crucifix Win Iraqis Hearts and Minds?

Twisted Freak Colonel Says Posters Will Enrage Hussein Supporters

August 17, 2003, Reuters/MSNBC

TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug. 17 — Saddam Hussein has his head tossed back, his blonde locks flowing and a filter-tipped cigarette dangling coquettishly between his delicate fingers. Meet “Zsa Zsa Saddam,” one U.S. officer’s latest ploy in the four-month hunt for the fugitive dictator. In a campaign set to start on Monday, U.S. forces plan to put up posters around Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit showing his face superimposed on Hollywood heroines and other stars in an attempt to enrage his followers and draw them out.

“We’re going to do something devious with these,” said a chuckling Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell last week, as he checked out a range of spoof Saddam pictures taken from the Internet. “Most of the locals will love ‘em and they’ll be laughing. But the bad guys are going to be upset, which will just make it easier for us to know who they are.”

Officers from the 4th Infantry’s psychological operations unit say it is not necessarily a bad idea, although they tend to favour more subtle leaflet drops. “It’s mostly good for troop morale, but if we can put these posters up in Tikrit and the enemy can’t take them down, then at least it shows who owns the streets,” said Sergeant David Cade, a psychological operations specialist.

Yet while the posters may help divide locals into the amused and the infuriated, they also run a serious risk of stoking fury among ordinary Iraqis who may not be pro-Saddam but still will not accept the idea of the Americans poking fun.

One of the posters shows Saddam’s head on Elvis’s dancing body, a gold crucifix hanging around his hairy chest.

Given fears in the Arab world that the invasion of Iraq was akin to a Christian crusade, some Iraqis say U.S. forces would do well to think twice about leaving the cross hanging around Saddam Elvis’s neck.

“Maybe it is funny for the soldiers, but I think most locals will find it very insulting,” said Uday, a 22-year-old working as a translator at the U.S. army base in Tikrit.

(Comment: This is the same psychopathic kill-freak Col. Russell who bragged about ordering his snipers to shoot two unarmed Iraqis earlier this month, and then said his troops were to shoot on sight any Iraqi seen carrying any weapon. This twisted piece of shit is a far more lethal danger to his own troops than the Iraqi resistance. This is his version of “Bring ‘em On.” Enough said.)

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION

BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

Basra: The First Urban Uprising:(Last week, the first mass urban uprising against the Occupation in Iraq broke out in Basra.

The Washington Post, Aug. 11, reported “The strife marked some of the worst unrest in Iraq since U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein on April 9. The region around Basra, dominated by Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, had largely remained peaceful since the war, and U.S. officials have praised the pace of reconstruction by the British-run administration in the city.”

Although not class analysis or political economy, scattered through the reports are clues to what happened and what can be looked for in the future.

First, more from the Washington Post story:)

By Pamela Constable, The Washington Post, 11 August 2003

On Saturday, when the protests first erupted, angry crowds swelling into the hundreds burned a gasoline tanker and threw stones at British troops, protesting the utility shortages that have made life nearly unbearable in temperatures that reach 125 degrees.

Today, residents in the region said that the violence had worsened, and that two people had been killed and seven wounded in clashes between mobs and British troops. They said that tanker trucks had been stolen at gunpoint and that Iraqi police had fled from other violent confrontations.

Gunmen on the highway to Basra chased a car in which a Washington Post correspondent was traveling this afternoon with an Iraqi interpreter and driver. The gunmen, driving in another vehicle, shot at the car and then passed it. None of the three passengers was harmed.

"When the system comes down, it tends to come down with a bang," Charles Heatly, a spokesman with the U.S.-led occupation, said. "Basra has basically been cut off from the national grid because of sabotage."

"We have no fuel, no water, no electricity for days. Children are dying in hospitals," said Tha'ara Amar, 25, a shopkeeper in the city of Amarah, where residents said a large protest rally had been organized Saturday by local Shiite Muslim leaders. "Tell the British to give us gasoline, and then we will turn in our guns."

A businessman named Hussain, 56, said he and other residents had initially welcomed the British forces but had grown increasingly frustrated and angry at the lack of services and basic supplies, especially as the infernal summer heat worsened day by day.

"In the beginning we were happy. We opened our windows to freedom as the Americans and the British asked us," said Hussain. "But now we have nothing, not even our basic necessities. If nothing changes, we are ready to make a lot of chaos."

Fifty miles farther along the highway to Basra, drivers waiting in line at a gas station called out angrily as a British military convoy passed. Many wore bath towels over their heads to guard against a relentless sun, and said they expected to remain in line until Monday.

In the distance, the intense orange flames and thick smoke from oil refineries flickered in the air. The Basra region produces much of Iraq's oil, but the industry was badly damaged in the war to topple Hussein, and most oil and gas supplies have been imported from Kuwait and other countries since.

The drivers said people in the nearby town of Saleh Casr had commandeered a gasoline tanker today en route from Basra and taken out the gas. Some said they wanted the British forces to leave, but others said they wanted them to keep better order and crack down on widespread smuggling of gasoline and other supplies.

"We haven't had any electricity since the war. The British promised us everything, and they have given us nothing," said Mukul Sayeed, 52, an engineer waiting in line. "We were happy when the coalition forces got rid of a big tyrant, but if they don't help us, we are all going to become like Fallujah people."

More: (Next, a look in depth at the shortages of cooking and winter heating fuel, a crisis that promises more intense unrest with the coming of winter, as kerosene and gas shortages are made even more insufferable by Occupation Administration incompetence and ongoing war.)

The Spreading Fuel Crisis in Iraq

By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Robert F. Worth, The New York Times, 11 August 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Riots over severe fuel shortages continued today in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, as some officials who have studied the matter warned that fuel shortages could recur in other parts of the country.

United Nations officials said there was a "near certainty" that Iraq would face winter shortages of kerosene, a vital fuel for heating homes in northern Iraq, because of the same refinery problems that have led to the gasoline shortages.

Officials of the civilian administration here have begun to shift the refinery mix to increase production of kerosene, but tonight officials said they did not know whether the process of stockpiling the kerosene needed for winter use had begun.

Black-market prices for gasoline there have soared as high as 1,000 dinars, about 60 cents a liter, or 50 times the official price. That is also 10 times the black-market price in Baghdad, where fuel lines have gotten much longer in recent days, United Nations officials monitoring the fuel situation said.

In addition, the United Nations Joint Logistics Center said the current shortage of liquefied petroleum gas, an important cooking fuel, was a nationwide "crisis" that was "almost certain to continue," even as officials hope that new imports and production from a plant in southern Iraq will increase supply. Gas canisters that normally cost 250 dinars have been fetching up to 4,000 dinars, or about $2.40.

Oil production is not the problem behind the shortages, as Iraq's oil fields, even in their current poor condition, produce far more oil daily than is needed for domestic consumption. Instead, the shortages have been caused by factors mostly related to problems with the electricity grid and the woeful state of the refinery in Basra, United Nations and occupation officials said.

Those factors, they said, include looting and sabotage, a shortage of the fuels that power generators that supply electricity to refineries and the dilapidated and obsolete condition of the refineries. Compared with modern refineries, they produce proportionately far more heavy fuel oil than the gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene that are in such demand.

In Basra, all four primary electricity transmission lines supplying the refinery have been cut by saboteurs, said occupation officials, who noted that all of those factors have been worsened by increased demand caused by the hot weather.

According to United Nations estimates, Iraq's three major refineries — at Basra, Bayji and Baghdad — have been producing an estimated 18 million to 22 million liters a day of gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel combined. But to meet demand, they need to produce between 37 million and 40 million liters. There are about four liters to a gallon.

Occupation officials said smuggling had worsened the problem. They are cracking down on tanker trucks and barges secretly taking fuel out of the country, including the seizure this weekend of a ship that officials said was carrying at least 1,100 metric tons of diesel fuel.

United Nations officials said the problem in Basra was also caused by "inequitable" distribution plans that had sent large quantities of diesel produced in Basra north to Baghdad and other locations. Similarly, the United States Agency for International Development placed some blame on what it described as "the majority of fuel going to Baghdad."

The fuel shortages in southern Iraq have led to problems far more dire than gasoline lines. According to a report issued Wednesday by the Agency for International Development, the shortages "are threatening security and some humanitarian operations." They "are endangering hospital patients" in hospitals that depend on generators, the agency said, adding that "cold storage for medicines and vaccination programs are also affected."

An official said tonight that if shortages persisted, officials would consider increasing gasoline imports and beginning significant imports of kerosene and diesel.

Officials said they were transferring to the Basra area some gasoline from military forces as well as at least 25 million liters seized from smugglers.

"I'm not saying there will be no shortages in the future," said Charles Heatly, the allied occupation spokesman. " He also took issue with the United Nations projection on kerosene, saying it was "a little much" to say now that shortages would occur in the winter.

Tonight, another occupation official said the kerosene supply depended on whether the refineries had adequate electricity.

Summer demand for kerosene is about six million liters a day, according to the United Nations. But that demand will grow to more than 30 million liters a day during the coldest parts of the winter. To meet that demand, Iraq needs to have 500 million liters of kerosene in storage in about three months, United Nations officials said.

But they said that kerosene stockpiling is behind schedule and that the "current high level of demand for diesel may prevent kerosene production needed for future consumption in winter."

Some United Nations officials are also concerned that the occupation powers intend to shift responsibility for buying imported gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas to the marketing arm of the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Currently, gasoline production is about eight million liters a day at Iraq's three major refineries, and an additional six million liters are imported daily. But some United Nations officials question whether the oil-marketing organization would be given enough cash by the civilian administration to acquire gasoline, or whether it would be forced to barter with its surplus heavy fuel oil.

John Levins, the head of fuel planning for the United Nations Joint Logistics Center, which monitors the fuel situation and advises the United Nations' various arms, said: "There is no doubt the coalition has the best interests of the Iraqi people at heart, but if they cut off coalition imports of gasoline and don't alleviate the diesel situation before Iraqi refineries are able to provide for the needs of their own people, there will be a fuel-induced humanitarian crisis in the coming months."

Iraqi Cops Fed Up With Being Shot By Occupation Forces

[London Times, August 13, 2003]U.S. troops fired on an Iraqi police car, killing a police sergeant. The incident has caused several Iraqi police to talk of leaving their jobs, and if they do stay they are no longer willing to do the Americans’ bidding.

AFGHANISTAN: THE FORGOTTEN WAR

400 Resistance Troops Attack Police Outpost

By TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Writer, August 18, 2003

KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghan fighting surged as a truck convoy of about 400 rebels attacked a police compound in the southeast.

Just hours after a deadly raid on a police station killed 22 people, rebels attacked another police compound in southeast Afghanistan, setting it ablaze and taking four policemen hostage, officials said Monday.

The latest attack took place Sunday night at Tarway, a village in Paktika province a few miles from the Pakistan border, provincial police chief Daulat Khan said.

Khan said "They set the police station on fire, took four of our men and fled to Pakistan."

Other policemen who were in the police station in Tarway fled the scene and the remoteness of the area made it impossible to contact authorities.

It was unclear if they were the same group that carried out a similar assault earlier Sunday at Barmal, much farther to the north, but also in Paktika province.

The violence is the latest in a wave of attacks in the region.

In the Barmal attack, hundreds of insurgents in a convoy of trucks assaulted a police headquarters, triggering a gunbattle that left seven police and 15 attackers dead, officials said. It was one of the largest shows of anti-government force in over a year.

The conservative tribal area along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan is believed to be a haven for Taliban, who share ethnic and religious links to Pakistani tribesmen.

Last week, NATO command announced they could not hold Afghan territory outside Kabul.

U.S. TROOPS KILL PAKISTANI SOLDIERS NEAR AFGHAN BORDER...

Central Asia Report 8.12.03

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) issued a statement on 11 August in which it confirmed an "unfortunate and unintended engagement" by U.S. troops with Pakistani security forces near the Afghan-Pakistani border the same day. The incident resulted in two deaths and the serious injury of a third individual, according to CENTCOM.

Pakistani officials identified the casualties as two Pakistani Army soldiers and a junior officer in the Pakistani paramilitary, and "lodged a strong protest with the U.S. authorities over the incident," according to pakistandaily.com and international news agencies.

U.S. troops patrolling Paktika Province in western Afghanistan for remnants of Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces fired on Pakistani security forces as they pursued "enemy forces that were identified and fleeing toward the Pakistani border," CENTCOM said in a statement the same day.

Pakistani accounts describe the clash as occurring when U.S. forces fired on soldiers of the 69th Baloch Regiment and Shawal Scouts near the Lawara border demarcation, which was established just four days prior to the incident, pakistandaily.com reported. It quotes "officials and local reporters" as saying the firing lasted more than two hours.

NEO-TALIBAN CONTROL MOST OF ZABUL PROVINCECentral Asia Report 8.12.03

The geopolitical analysis firm Stratfor says neo-Taliban forces have retaken most of Zabul Province, marking the ousted regime's first significant recovery of territory since being driven from power in 2001, India's Sify News reported on 11 August.

According to the Washington-based Stratfor, the Taliban redoubled its efforts to reestablish strongholds in Zabul, Oruzgan, Kandahar, Helmand, Nimruz, and Farah provinces starting in late March or early April as it perceived the United States' attention shifting to Iraq.

Sify reported that according to Stratfor's analysis, Zabul is a strategically important position from which the Taliban could conceivably isolate U.S. forces in Kandahar and eventually retake that province as well. Sify reports the neo-Taliban's

efforts in Kabul have benefited from a sense of "disaffection" among southern Afghans due in part to the slow pace of reconstruction.

TALIBAN EYEING TARGETS IN NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN

Central Asia Report 8.12.03

The Pakistani daily "The News" quoted Taliban spokesman Mohammad Amin as saying that guerrilla fighters from the toppled regime will soon target coalition forces and Afghan soldiers in northern Afghanistan, Reuters reported on 10 August.

Amin reportedly said Mullah Mohammad Asim Muttaqi and two deputies have been appointed to spearhead the neo-Taliban operation and have set up a base in Faryab Province near Turkmenistan with the intention of organizing strikes on northern commander General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is special adviser on security affairs to Afghan Transitional Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai and commander of 10,000 troops in northern Afghanistan.

Strikes conducted by remnants of the Taliban have been mainly concentrated in southern and eastern Afghanistan. AFP reports that another Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Mokhtar Mojahed, told the Pakistani daily that news of strikes carried out by neo-Taliban forces beyond the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region has been suppressed by U.S. and Afghan authorities in order to implicate Pakistan in anti-coalition activities. IL

CLASS WAR NEWS

“Free Market” In Action

As Bush shifts his excuses for invading Iraq, he has talked lately about bringing the “free market” there. Here’s an interesting illustration of what that means from the country of Mauritius, not to far from Iraq. They’ve been firing their own textile workers and bringing in workers from China, who will do their jobs for much less.

At Palmar Industries Ltd. a manager, Robert Lamusee, said he wanted his work force to know he might get rid of them if they didn’t work faster for less. “I want my workers to know and to be afraid.” (Wall St. Journal 8.14.03)

DRUG INDUSTRY CAPITALISTS STEALING BILLIONS

Drug industry fraud is out of control.

The antifraud association, a nonpartisan group of insurers, self-insured companies and government investigators, estimates that 3% of the nations total spending on health care is lost of fraud every year.

With this year’s projected spending at $1 trillion 67 billion, that means more than $50 billion is expected to be lost. While many people stay sick, or die, because they can’t afford medicine, the drug companies do more looting than Saddam Hussein ever dreamed of.

The Wall St. Journal Aug. 18 carries a long list of drug companies caught stealing by fraud, and the fines they had to pay. But that doesn’t bother then a bit.

“I don’t know why it is that these very large companies continue to engage in behavior that’s going to get them in trouble when they can see all these other companies falling like dominoes” said Bill Mahon, CEO of the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association.

“I hope we’re not at a point where people are cynical enough to say, ‘Well, that’s just the cost of doing business.’”

Many of the thieves settle with the government, rather than go to trail.

In one settlement, Abbott Labs pleaded guilty to fraud. Their punishment was that they were forbidden to sell private-label baby formula to Medicare and Medicaid. “But is was a symbolic gesture; the unit never did business with the government.

Guards at Lockheed Plant Expel Inspector Who Complained of $714 Rivet

[Baltimore Sun, August 16, 2003]Armed guards at a Lockheed Martin plant escorted a senior government fraud-hunter out the door after he and two colleagues accused the defense contractor of trying to bill the Pentagon for huge overcharges in the building of C-5 Galaxy and C-130 Hercules cargo planes.

Ken Pedeleose has accused Lockheed of charging the Air Force $714 for a rivet and $5,217 for an inch-long bracket for the C-5. Each aircraft needs hundreds of those items.

(Comment: Now some of the 3rd ID troops are back in the USA, let’s send them to Lockeed. Obviously very major enemy combatants manage the place. No doubt these big tough corporate cops would be delighted to show them the way to the Executive Board room, unless of course they would prefer to die for traitors and war profiteers.)

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