Iraqis protest as US plans assault on Najaf

[leftchick]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8FCE7CEC-2517-41B0-B07F-1FC8462608AB.htm

<snip>
As US occupation forces announce they are preparing a final assault on Najaf, thousands of Iraqis have been protesting against the interim Iraqi government and the joint US-Iraqi forces' actions.

Thousands of protesters in the southern city of Nasiriya called for the fall of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and set fire to the local office of his political party on Wednesday.

The demonstrators, enraged by military action against Iraqi Shia Muslim fighters in Najaf, screamed, "Down, down Allawi" and "Allawi, you coward, you American agent".

<snip>
Nasiriya is one of the seven cities where the Shia uprising has erupted in the past week - the biggest challenge to Allawi's interim government since it took over from the US occupation authority in late June.

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. What next? First amendment zones???

It won't make Iraq any "safer", but who can blame the Iraqis for emulating those of us who protested against the U.S. invasion and occupation.

[acmavm]

2. You mean they're not thrilled that we're threatening to blow up the

burial site of the 'successor' to Muhammad? Gosh, who'd have thunk?

[IndianaGreen]

3. "Down, down Allawi"!

The demonstrators, enraged by military action against Iraqi Shia Muslim fighters in Najaf, screamed, "Down, down Allawi" and "Allawi, you coward, you American agent".


Allawi is our new Saddam without a mustache. The foreign press has already reported that Allawi has personally executed detainees. Obviously Allawi is as much a thug as Saddam, and he deserves the same fate!

BTW, Paul McGeough who broke the story had to flee Iraq for his life after his newspaper published it. The American press has never run this story!

Allawi shot prisoners in cold blood: witnesses
By Paul McGeough in Baghdad
July 17, 2004

Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.

They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs.

They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death".

<snip>

But the informants told the Herald that Dr Allawi shot each young man in the head as about a dozen Iraqi policemen and four Americans from the Prime Minister's personal security team watched in stunned silence.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true

[lottie244]

4. I am just speechless. Events over the past five days have just left me

speechless. The mindless killings in Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Dafur, Sibel Edmonds, and Alan Keyes have knocked me for a loop. I think I will just give up politics, news, and the Internet after tonight and read, think, listen to Ray Charles tapes and Clint Black CDs. Chill out. Drink a little wine and just chill. When I wake up, maybe it will all be over. Meantime, I off to another planet. Talk to you later.

[NeoConsSuck]

5. My prayers are with the Iraqi patriots

who are defending their country against the neocon occupiers.

BRING THE FUCKING TROOPS HOME NOW, YOU SCUMBAG AWOL PIECE OF SHIT!

[Disturbed]

6. Assasination of al Sadr

This is now the goal of the Bush Neo Fascists. "Full Sovereignty" for Iraq- is a Blatant LIE!!!

The Hand-Over That Wasn't: Illegal Orders give the US a Lock on Iraq's Economy
by Antonia Juhasz

Officially, the U.S. occupation of Iraq ended on June 28, 2004. But in reality, the United States is still in charge: Not only do 138,000 troops remain to control the streets, but the "100 Orders" of L. Paul Bremer III remain to control the economy.

These little noticed orders enacted by Bremer, the now-departed head of the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, go to the heart of Bush administration plans in Iraq. They lock in sweeping advantages to American firms, ensuring long-term U.S. economic advantage while guaranteeing few, if any, benefits to the Iraqi people.

The Bremer orders control every aspect of Iraqi life - from the use of car horns to the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Order No. 39 alone does no less than "transition from a … centrally planned economy to a market economy" virtually overnight and by U.S. fiat. Although many thought that the "end" of the occupation would also mean the end of the orders, on his last day in Iraq Bremer simply transferred authority for the orders to Prime Minister Iyad Allawi - a 30-year exile with close ties to the CIA and British intelligence.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0805-07.htm