US troops have withdrawn from towns and cities in Iraq, six years after the invasion, having formally handed over security duties to new Iraqi forces. A public holiday – National Sovereignty Day – has been declared, and the capital, Baghdad, threw a giant party to mark the eve of the changeover. Hours before the Monday night deadline, four US soldiers were killed in combat. US-led combat operations are due to end by September 2010, with all troops gone from Iraq by the end of 2011.
It is fitting that today’s deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq’s cities coincides with a meeting in Baghdad to auction off some of the country’s largest oil fields to companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and British Petroleum. It is a reminder of the real motives for the 2003 invasion and in whose interests over one million Iraqis and 4,634 American and other Western troops have been killed. The Iraq war was, and continues to be, an imperialist war waged by the American ruling elite for control of oil and geo-strategic advantage.
Hummus can be very dangerous to Israelis. They are afraid of its killer taste.
A West Bank checkpoint managed by a private security company is not allowing Palestinians to pass through with large water bottles and some food items, Haaretz has learned.
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The security company also dictates the quantity of items allowed: Five pitas, one container of hummus and canned tuna, one small bottle or can of beverage, one or two slices of cheese, a few spoonfuls of sugar, and 5 to 10 olives. Workers are also not allowed to carry cooking utensils and work tools.
Got this in an email as a request to blog it. May Allah protect and help the oppressed. Ameen!
Pakistan and its people are at war with the Taliban. A massive full scale military operation is underway in the picturesque region of Buner, Dir, and Swat; all an hour’s drive away from Islamabad. As the Pakistan Army fights pitched battles with the Taliban guerrillas, the biggest internal displacement of people since the partition of Pakistan from India in 1947 is currently underway. In just over 12 days, more than 2.3 million innocent inhabitants of the war torn area, who had for the past two years lived under the bloody rule of the Taliban, are now fleeing their homes for safety under the cover of darkness, as bullets and mortars fly overhead and pierce through the flimsy walls of their mud houses.
Five Muslim community workers have accused MI5 of waging a campaign of blackmail and harassment in an attempt to recruit them as informants.
The men claim they were given a choice of working for the Security Service or face detention and harassment in the UK and overseas.
They have made official complaints to the police, to the body which oversees the work of the Security Service and to their local MP Frank Dobson. Now they have decided to speak publicly about their experiences in the hope that publicity will stop similar tactics being used in the future.
I express my gratitude and my best respect for the contribution of the United States of America to our Uighur community. At the same time, I express my gratitude for your right and prompt decision to close the jail of Guantánamo Bay. I hope you will forgive my English, which I have tried to learn.
