2.12.05

More stifling of the free press in Iraq





Aside from the obvious - indiscriminate violence all around, kidnappings, among so many inumerable atrocities, now they’re refusing entry to all non-Iraqi Arabs…




The government of Iraq has barred non-Iraqi Arabs from entering the country ahead of the Dec. 15 general elections.







"It covers all border points whether airports, land border crossings or ports," said one senior official.

An Interior Ministry official said it was "part of security procedures" reportedly implemented Nov. 29, with no formal announcement. No date for lifting the restriction has been set.







Here's where it gets really special:



An Associated Press correspondent of Egyptian nationality was also barred from boarding a plane Friday for Baghdad. Iraqi officials say there will be no exceptions to the new rule.





So the AP will now have to rely either on non arabic speakers to report the news from Iraq and/or journalists who speak Arabic as a second language. I realise there are doubtless many talented and hopefully scrupulous journalists who fit this bill, but wouldn't it be nice to know that your news is coming from someone who speaks Arabic as their mother tongue?


Looks like Iraq could be on its way to becoming a Belarus style democracy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Survivoer of Isreali Holocaust Says:
December 3rd, 2005 at 12:17 pm
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3169770,00.html
Dear Friends,
The civilized world and democracy generous lessons coming to the region left right and center, all is well and quite at the western front. Yet Palestine and Palestinians are suffering an Israeli holocaust under the eyes and ears of the civilized compassionate world. As if Palestine and the Palestinians are the private domain for the ugly Israeli practice.
“I’m shocked and it hurts me a lot, when a father of a 13 year old daughter said.” If the soldier murderer shot my daughter with 30 bullets, the court murdered her again today 100 times. By releasing the murderer free to kill more”
For all Palestinian and non friends, I want you to read the story as reported by the “Ynetnews” Israeli press,(linc Below) and put your self as a judge for a minute, and if you feel what I feel, or better be feel what the poor father felt, when his 13 year old was shot not by one bullet, but 30 bullets, I want you from the depth of your sense of right and wrong to stand up and do something to stop the killing of Palestinian children.
Please do something to help wakening up the world’s conscience. Justices will see to end all hostilities, but it has to be for both sides.
Please read the article and circulate. the link: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3169770,00.html
I cant forget that I was born and raised in Palestine ,and I can trace my ancestors property to 500 years without having to go to curt to prove it ,and if I do go to curt my rights are all of Palestine ,yet I cant even visit my home town .Am I a victim ?yes I am an an Israeli Holocaust survivor .
It is about time we have to stand for our rights, and stop all the havoc carried by the IDF Israeli defense foresees, D stands for defense!!!! Yet the fighting is not inside Israel, it is inside Gaza and the Western Bank, internationally recognized as Palestinian territories.
Do something before another child dies.
Thank you
I am a survivor of Israel holocaust

Please circulate
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3169770,00.html The story reported
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3169693,00.html the testimony of the captain who killed the child

Anonymous said...

VIDEO | Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre
A Film by Sigfrido Ranucci
RAINews24
11.08.05
WARNING: This video contains graphic and possibly disturbing footage.
QuickTime
DSL | 56K
Windows Media
DSL | 56K
RealMedia
DSL | 56K
you can see the video at the links down below end of article .


Go to Original
US Forces 'Used Chemical Weapons' during Assault on City of Fallujah
By Peter Popham
The Independent UK
Tuesday 08 November 2005
Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.
Ever since the assault, which went unreported by any Western journalists, rumours have swirled that the Americans used chemical weapons on the city.
On 10 November last year, the Islam Online website wrote: "US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988."
The website quoted insurgent sources as saying: "The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally banned chemical weapons."
In December the US government formally denied the reports, describing them as "widespread myths". "Some news accounts have claimed that US forces have used 'outlawed' phosphorus shells in Fallujah," the USinfo website said. "Phosphorus shells are not outlawed. US forces have used them very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes.
"They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters."
But now new information has surfaced, including hideous photographs and videos and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorus shells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon.
In a documentary to be broadcast by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, this morning, a former American soldier who fought at Fallujah says: "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete."
"Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for."
Photographs on the website of RaiTG24, the broadcaster's 24-hours news channel, www.rainews24.it, show exactly what the former soldier means. Provided by the Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah, dozens of high-quality, colour close-ups show bodies of Fallujah residents, some still in their beds, whose clothes remain largely intact but whose skin has been dissolved or caramelised or turned the consistency of leather by the shells.
A biologist in Fallujah, Mohamad Tareq, interviewed for the film, says: "A rain of fire fell on the city, the people struck by this multi-coloured substance started to burn, we found people dead with strange wounds, the bodies burned but the clothes intact."
The documentary, entitled "Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre," also provides what it claims is clinching evidence that incendiary bombs known as Mark 77, a new, improved form of napalm, was used in the attack on Fallujah, in breach of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons of 1980, which only allows its use against military targets.
Meanwhile, five US soldiers from the elite 75th Ranger Regiment have been charged with kicking and punching detainees in Iraq.
The news came as a suicide car bomber killed four American soldiers at a checkpoint south of Baghdad yesterday.

Thursday, December 01, 2005
George Bush: Enemy of God





Geroge Bush started the dirty war telling his people that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction,
used against innocent civilians,


Well, he's right,

Weapons of mass destrution were used in Iraq, but only a year ago in Fallujah.

Watch this documentary from an Italian TV channel, and thank God there America is not occupying your country.


Please copy and paste ,please note it video contain disturbing footage.
In English: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_110805Z.shtml

(and click on the link)
If it's not working...

http://www.web-world.ch/mirror/fallujah/

In Arabic: http://www.thepencil.org/mm/iraqus.htm

Anonymous said...

The Link Has Been Changed To: http://thepencil.org/MM/003iraqus.htm

Enjoy!!!