The Rag Blog

Azzaman devotes a lot of space this morning to coverage of the Istanbul conference of Wednesday and Thursday (December 13 and 14), with a picture of the group. There were around 100 attendees, including politicians, clerics, intellectuals and activists, the reporter says, from Iraq and from outside of Iraq. Following an exibition of photos and videos to indicate the realities of what is occuring in Iraq, the meeting was convened by Abdulrahman bin Amir al-Nuaimi. He said the purpose of the meeting was to link up Sunnis in Iraq and outside of Iraq and to present a clear idea to those outside of conditions that Iraqi Sunnis are facing. He then read a letter from Safr al-Hawali, who is one of the big names among Saudi clerical activists, described by Nuaimi as the original proponent of this type of conference, but prevented from coming to Istanbul for health reasons. The Hawali letter made three points: Necessity for unity of the Iraqi resistance to the occupation; need for organized assistance to Iraqi Sunnis from the Sunni community world-wide; and political efforts to build a new Iraq for all its groups.

The conference adopted a list of conclusions and recommendations.

(1) Iraq is of central importance, and throughout its history has been subject to occupation and so on, but a loyal population has always resisted that.

(2) Sunnis elsewhere cannot tolerate what the Iraqis are going through in terms of violation of their territory, sovereignty and rights, at the hands of the occupation, without taking concrete steps to provide Iraq with assistance.

(3) The occupation bears the reponsibility for the slaughter that is occurring in Iraq, in practical terms because it is providing the political umbrella under which this is going on, and in legal terms because the occupation forces’ continuing attacks give Iraqis the right to prosecute them under international law.

(4) The Safavid political parties share in the responsibility, both because of their connivance with the occupation generally, and more particularly because of the activities of their militias.

(5) The current political process in Iraq, under the aegis of the occupation, is without legal right.

(6) Criticism of Arab and Islamic governments for their silence about this, their lack of aid to Iraqis, and particularly to Sunnis. These regimes are doing nothing about the aggressive steps of both America and Iran.

That’s OK, I Wasn’t Using My Civil Liberties Anyway

Let’s Fix Democracy in This Country First

If You Want a Nation Ruled By Religion, Move to Iran

Bush. Like a Rock. Only Dumber.

If You Can Read This, You’re Not Our President

Of Course It Hurts: You’re Getting Screwed by an Elephant

Hey, Bush Supporters: Embarrassed Yet?

George Bush: Creating the Terrorists Our Kids Will Have to Fight

Impeachment: It’s Not Just for Blowjobs Anymore

America: One Nation, Under Surveillance

They Call Him “W” So He Can Spell It

Whose God Do You Kill For?

Cheney/Satan ’08

Jail to the Chief

No, Seriously, Why Did We Invade Iraq?

Bush: God’s Way of Proving Intelligent Design is Full Of Crap

Bad President! No Candy.

We Need a President Who’s Fluent In At Least One Language

We’re Making Enemies Faster Than We Can Kill Them

Is It Vietnam Yet?

Bush Doesn’t Care About White People, Either

Where Are We Going? And Why Are We In This Hand Basket?

You Elected Him. You Deserve Him.

Impeach Cheney First

Dubya, Your Dad Shoulda Pulled Out, Too

When Bush Took Office, Gas Was $1.46

Pray For Impeachment

The Republican Party: Our Bridge to the 11th Century

What Part of “Bush Lied” Don’t You Understand?

One Nation Under Clod

2004: Embarrassed

2005: Horrified

2006: Terrified

Bush Never Exhaled

“Straight talking” John McCain’s call for thousands more troops in Iraq is just a pathetic ploy to seem like a patriot for the presidential elections.

GENEVA (AP) — Harassment from U.S. forces is a greater threat to the work of the Iraqi Red Crescent than insurgent attacks, a senior official of the Red Cross-linked humanitarian organization said Friday.

Dr. Jamal Al-Karbouli, vice president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said some U.S. forces appeared not to realize that the society, which uses as its symbol the Muslim red crescent instead of the red cross, was part of the international humanitarian movement.

”The main problem we are facing is the American forces more than the other forces,” Al-Karbouli told reporters in Geneva. ”We are spending a lot of time to explain about the Red Crescent.”

Al-Karbouli said insurgent groups in Iraq did not pose as great a problem for the organization.

”The insurgents, they are Iraqis, a lot of them are Iraqis, and they respect the Iraqis. And they respect our (the Red Crescent’s) identity, which is neutrality.”

He also complained that Red Crescent offices in Baghdad, Anbar and Najaf provinces had been repeatedly ”attacked” by U.S.-led multi-national forces searching for insurgents.

The United States does not tell the truth about the reconstruction projects it executes in the country, the governor of the southern province of Diwayniya said.

Khaleel Hamza said U.S. generals in charge of reconstruction exaggerate the sums of money they spend and the number of projects they carry out.

Hamza was reacting to a U.S. army statement regarding the projects it has implemented in the province.

“They (U.S. occupation troops) must verify their statements with documents and evidence otherwise we shall not allow them to make such irresponsible remarks,” Hamza told Azzaman.

He said U.S. troops do contribute to the implementation of certain project but they usually exaggerate their contribution and do not tell the truth.

“They (U.S. troops) prevent the implementation of strategic projects that are of benefit to the provincial population at large,” he said.

More than 90 per cent of Iraqis believe the country is worse off now than before the war in 2003, according to new research obtained by Al Jazeera.

The Holiday Season has arrived, unfolding before us, like a cheap vinyl wallet, here in The United States of American Express. The days spill forth, their hours comprised of shopping and shooting sprees, of retail and retaliation. Jingle bells and the crackle of gunfire. This is the way an empire falls, with armies of confused killers abroad and legions of killer clowns at home.

A decade and half ago, we watched smugly as The Kremlin came undone. Yet, somehow we believe ourselves to be immune from the rot that causes empires to collapse from within.

The Social Realist poets of the former Soviet Union made themselves the objects of much (deserved) derision, when, in the service of the dogmatic dictates of state communism, they penned poetic odes to crop yields, tractors and other farm implements.

When a Russian attempts to convey his passions, his soul is prone to reach inward seeking poetic depths. In contrast, nowadays, in situations of crucial importance, such as the anxious waiting in long lines involved when attempting to procure PlayStation 3s among the throngs of their fellow Home Entertainment Unit-lusting Fred C. Dobbs types, Americans express their ardor — by reaching for a gun. For we all know that The Baby Jesus would find the sound of Yuletide gunfire to be as soothing as a celestial lullaby.

Back down here on earth, while it was damn silly for Soviet aesthetes to go into a poetic swoon over farm equipment, somehow, the act of going collectively round-heeled over electronic appliances (including jealous rages that lead to homicidal outbursts) doesn’t seem like the sort of communal practices that will allow an empire to endure for long.

The former Soviet Union had the risible excesses of her Social Realists — but what is one to make of our culture of Wal*Mart Nihilists. Although, these acts are revelatory: These are the kinds of “crimes of passion” that contemporary Americans perpetrate. Such actions reveal what it is we truly care about, deep down. And, sadly, our concerns have little to do with being the keepers of Liberty’s flame — or even being good stewards of our children’s future.

John McCain has made clear that he doesn’t like the blogosphere.

Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles.

Some highlights of the legislation:

– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”

– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.

— Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” — such as deleting user profiles — to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.

Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that this proposal may be based more “on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts.” When he introduced his legislation to the Senate, McCain offered no evidence that children are being victimized by people who post comments on blogs.

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Some of Washington’s most influential senators have added their voices to the heated debate on US strategy in Iraq with a call for the United States to send in more than 15,000 extra troops.

A congressional delegation including senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman were in the war-torn Iraqi capital Baghdad for meetings with US commanders and Iraqi officials to discuss a new way forward for the troubled mission.

The extent of the breakdown in law and order was underlined by the brazen daylight kidnapping of at least 20 Iraqi businessmen in downtown Baghdad by gunmen with military uniforms and jeeps of a type used by security forces.

In Washington, US President George W. Bush was holding a flurry of meetings with foreign policy and military experts against a backdrop of collapsing public support for the war and calls for a change in course.

Bush said he will not be rushed into a decision on a new strategy — which his spokesman says will be announced in January — but the lawmakers in McCain’s delegation to Baghdad had some more advice for him.

“The situation is very, very serious. It requires an injection of additional troops to control the situation and to allow the political process to proceed,” said McCain, Arizona’s influential Republican senator, a possible presidential candidate in 2008.

Now, however, moves are afoot to sideline Sadr’s supporters in government.

In the past weeks Bush has met two senior Iraqi leaders in Washington — Shiite strongman Abdel Aziz Hakim and the country’s Sunni vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi — in a bid to build a new ruling coalition.

However, I believe that most Americans are acutely aware of the meaning of ‘hunger,’ especially when used in official reports meant to describe peoples’ access to the food supply. As I said in my letter to Secretary Johanns, “Replacing ‘hunger’ with the phrase ‘low food security’ degrades the seriousness of the daily struggle with hunger facing millions of Americans and undermines the important work of food banks and homeless shelters in combating hunger.”