Massive US war crimes reported in Fallujah: women & children gunned down

[freddyc]

http://electroniciraq.net/news/1861.shtml

"I entered Fallujah with a British medical and humanitarian convoy at the end of December, and stayed until the end of January," he explains, "But I was in Fallujah before that to work with people and see what their needs were, so I was in there since the beginning of December."

When I ask him to explain what he saw when he first entered Fallujah in December he says it was like a tsunami struck the city.

"Fallujah is surrounded by refugee camps where people are living in tents and old cars," he explains, "It reminded me of Palestinian refugees. I saw children coughing because of the cold, and there are no medicines. Most everyone left their houses with nothing, and no money, so how can they live depending only on humanitarian aid?"

The doctors says that in one refugee camp in the northern area of Fallujah there were 1,200 students living in seven tents.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[LiberalVoice]

1. My god.

Can you imagine spending three days with the bodies of your family terrified? This disgusts me.

[bpilgrim]

2. Fallujah is our Nanking

http://images.globalfreepress.com

:cry:

peace

[freddyc]

4. Please

Keep this thread at the top of DU...it is important...possibly the most important thing going on in the world at the moment.

[Moderator]

3. freddyc

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[freddyc]

5. Sorry

Will do in future, my apologies.

[cheezus]

6. this is what war is

"war crimes" is redundant.

[realFedUp]

7. The International Court should subpoena Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld

for international crimes...as bad as Milosevic.

[mmonk]

48. We don't abide by international law

Didn't you get the memo? I think our Attorney General can probably get you one.

[anarchy1999]

58. Ummm, IMHO, WORSE THAN!

FAR WORSE! I honestly don't know how this is degree of criminality is being allowed to happen in the world court.

[TWiley]

8. I absolutely HATE what these Born-Again Christian

ASSHOLES have done to our country. I am truely ashamed to be an American every time I read a story like this.

[B3Nut]

23. If they're born-again Christians...

...I'm a purple spalted aardvark. They've hijacked the name Christian long enough, I'm beyond sick and tired of it. Bush a Christian? I call bullshit.

But yes, I'm ashamed and enraged by this crap. I really don't know what to say...what can be said? It's beyond words.

Todd in Beerbratistan

[TWiley]

34. Yes, it is beyond words.

Unfortunately, the born-again voters put the born-again bush back into office.

It makes me mad as hell, and I no longer wish to associate myself with the Christian faith. I will not be party to thugs and hoods any longer.

[Desertrose]

53. the bush cabal are NOT christian...here is what they truly are....

from this lengthy but excellent article about the REAL history of the so called "christians" who have co-opted our society & govt...

EXPOSÉ: THE “CHRISTIAN” MAFIA
 
Where Those Who Now Run the U.S. Government Came From and Where They Are Taking Us
http://www.insider-magazine.com/ChristianMafia.htm 
Here's a snippet....

The Born-Again Nativity of George W. Bush
 
Yet another influence convinced Nixon that for the good of the Republican Party he should resign. He was the individual Nixon named as chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973. His name was George H. W. Bush, the man whose grandfather and father had championed the very same interests who were behind the pseudo-Christian Fellowship and Moral Rearmament – the Nazis and Fascists.
 
Bush had reason to be thankful to the Christian fundamentalists. They helped his son, George W. Bush, avoid a certain court martial and prison time. On or about April 18, 1972, the Houston Police arrested First Lieutenant George W. Bush of the Texas Air National Guard for possession of cocaine. Bush and a friend were booked into the Harris County jail. Bush’s father, who was serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, hurriedly flew to Houston from New York and began to make the required phone calls to keep his son from receiving a court martial, dishonorable discharge, and a prison sentence. As one senior Bush business partner recalled, then-Ambassador Bush knew that junior was in “deep shit.” Senior Bush arranged for his son to serve at a religious drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in San Diego between May and November 1972. Conservative San Diego was a major center for Fellowship activities.
 
The time Bush spent in religious rehab in San Diego represents part of the famous “gap” in Bush’s National Guard service record. According to a fitness report on Bush issued by the White House in 2004, Bush was “Not rated for the period 1 May 72 through 30 Apr 73. Report for this period not available for administrative reasons.” This represents the time Junior Bush was being shown the way from drugs to Jesus in San Diego and afterwards, his court-ordered community service penance in Houston. The senior Bush arranged to have the arrest record on Junior expunged and even his name removed from the police blotter. Later, a ruse that Junior Bush went to Alabama to work on the Republican Senate campaign of Winton Blount was concocted to throw off nosy opposition research investigators and journalists. The deception worked.


This article is very definitely worth the time it takes to read it....you will be amazed at how deep this whole fascism thing truly is on our gov't.

It makes it very clear that this administration cares only for rich white guys.....and has a very scary agenda.
DR

[TWiley]

56. It is interesting that this article

mentions the "Moral Rearmament". If it is the outfit that I think it is then its origins are with the "Oxford Group" of the 30's. About the time that WWII broke out, one of its leaders went public with support for Adolph Hitler. The fuss pretty much extinguished the "Oxford" name, and they re-organized as "The Moral Rearmament" or MRA.

Alcoholics Anonymous traces its roots to the "Oxford Group", but AA had long since broken ties with the Oxford Groups when the scandal hit. Alcoholics Anonymous was interested in saving drunks only, but the Oxford Group wanted to save the world.

The MRA has recently attached itself to Alcoholics Anonymous again through the deceptive work of an author named Wally P (Payton?) In his book, he claims that a very very small part of AA history represents the the origin of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the "intended" practice of the "steps"

His organization is called "Back to Basics" (aabacktobasics.org) and he completely blurrs the distinction between his "foundation" and the organization known as Alcoholics Anonymous.

By capturing a small part of AA history, plagiarizing its literature, and duplicating the cover jacket of the original "Big Book" on his book, Wally has begun to set himself up as the "beginners meeting" or the "entry" into Alcoholics Anonymous.

If you research their site and links, you will find their token "MRA / Oxford" member, and their intentions to "restore" this non-denominational organization to its fundamentalist Christian Roots.

I am curious if this is the same "Moral Rearmament" that your link refers to.

[Desertrose]

59. It certainly appears to be the same....

but I am just learning about all this and am by no means expert. My gut tells me its all connected but that is only worth something to me as far as proof :)

I was disturbed to find the link between the Moral Rearmament and AA...but I guess not really surprised.....

There is so much in this article to absorb...so many familiar ( & unfamiliar) names...sure does tie a LOT together though....

I think DU would be the perfect place to catalog and research all this...its so convoluted and twisted, isn't it? Yet when you can trace the trail back it seems clear.....

[TWiley]

63. There is no real link

between AA and the Moral Rearmament. AA does have ties to the early Oxford Group movement, but those were cut around '36. This is years before the Nazi scandal, and many years before AA was even a movement larger than several hundred people.

The Moral Rearmament is trying to insert its history into AA through the "Back to Basics" program. It is, in fact, an outside enterprise marrying itself into AA through deception. Wally P. has tried to install himself and the MRA as the "front end" of Alcoholics Anonymous"

Wally P. and his MRA "standup guy" (I forget his name) is his alleged connection to the early AA movement. He claims to have gone to early Oxford Group meetings with Bill Wilson, but there is no evident of that fact. There is also no evidence of any communications between the two.

It is also true that the Nazi sympathizers who hijacked the Oxford Group renamed it the MRA after they ran the Oxford Group name into the ground. At this point, the only ones who remained were the Nazi's; evidently everyone else bolted. They are taking this fact and trying to insert an equal sign between the two where it does not belong. (MRA = "Pure" AA) They are misrepresenting actually AA history in their book to further confuse the issue.

If you surf the aabacktobasics.org site, you will see that they have designs on all 12 step groups. This is in stark contrast to the philosophy of AA where it appears to be their desire to focus on the alcohol problem alone.

[donsu]

9. america destroyed Fallujah because the bushgang wanted to

how many people used to live there? 300,000? and america turned it into a pile of toxic rubble to show them whose tough.

(let's all sing now - whose afraid of the big, bad wolf)

whose afraid of the bloody bushgang, the bloody bushgang, the bloody bushgang?

everybody?

[Dhalgren]

10. There is no self-reflection in the American people.

We have no compassion, we have no souls. We can all protest till we drop and it will make no difference to the thousands and thousands of innocent people that have been butchered in our name. We are worse than the Nazis and the Huns and the Mongols and all of the other bloody butchers of the past, because we claim to know better; we lie to ourselves and to everyone else about who and what we are.

The Republicans say that to put the poor in their place and to insure the ascendancy of the wealthy the "beast" must be starved - meaning the social service branches of the government. We must starve the inhuman, murderous machinery of our government. We must be willing to go to jail(even Gitmo) for refusal to pay taxes, refusal to serve, and even more active opposition. No one wants to do this (me either), because of the hardships and danger that are involved. But if we don't do something much more stringent against this barbarity, it simply will not cease. Whether you support the criminals or not, their crimes are committed in your name...

[Karenina]

26. I often hear the assessment from Yurpeens

that the Amis lack the experience of having had bombs dropped onto their heads...

[anarchy1999]

57. Dearest K, You said it all in one little sentence.

All!

n/t

[chlamor]

11. Journalists Targeted

Along with the many inhuman and criminal things occurring in Iraq it seems many journalists are being targeted perhaps to keep witnesses from chronicaling the horrors. I wonder about the kidnapped Italian journalist and who is doing the kidnapping.

There are reports that US forces have been trucking out tons of rubble and dirt from Fallujah which seems suspicious. Were chemical weapons used? Were Depleted Uranium weapons used? Maybe the evidence is being secreted away.

[StClone]

12. Beyond Guernica

Evil, what is evil?
There is only one evil, to deny life.«

-- Unrhyming Poems, Cypresses

[freddyc]

13. Well done Mr Jamail.

Apologies to DU and Mr Jamail. Here is his notice.


(c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail. More writing, photos and commentary at dahrjamailiraq.com. All images and text are protected by United States and international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a prominent link to the DahrJamailIraq.com website. Any other use of images and text including, but not limited to, reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing requires the permission of Dahr Jamail.

[StClone]

16. Thanks

http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/

[natrat]

14. so this is what the * admin stands for

and by extension the main stream media with there lack of coverage

greedy cowards

[mattclearing]

15. I suspected Fallujah was like this.

Travesty.

[madrchsod]

17. nablus

another city is being destroyed by the united states -israeli war machine.
this is one persons photo essay on the effects of their "freedom machine"
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/eiddestruction/album?.dir=9c53&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/eiddestruction/my_photos
Yahoo! Photos - eiddestruction's Photos - Eid in Nablus, photos Anne Gwynne, 01-05

[G_j]

18. this is one of scores of similar reports

of atrocities.

I swear I will never forget, and will work to see these criminals stand trial for war crimes if it takes the rest of my life.
I know there are many others of you who feel the same way.
----
"From Vietnam to Falluja"
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=51&ItemID=6217
====
**EDIT: please consider nominating this thread

[datasuspect]

19. ah hell, they were just brown people anyway

they probably didn't care too much for the freedom we are giving them.

absolutely fucking sickening

[Ezlivin]

20. I remember watching all the videos of this on ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox!

I'll bet the news of what happened in Fallujah took up half of the nightly news broadcast. After watching all the video footage, the interviews with Iraqi citizens and other coverage, I just couldn't take any more.

CNN ran a five-hour special just on the events in Fallujah, had a couple of good panel discussions with retired military experts and government officials. MSNBC ran their coverage later and had lots of good analysis.

And Santa Claus is real....

[jokerman93]

21. Is it G****cide yet?

Please note the psychological dimension of the Falluja target. The city is an ancient holy city. It represents the "soul" of many Iraqi people. We went into Iraq promising to preserve that holy city. Instead we reduced it to rubble and massacred its people.

This is called "pacification". It's a euphemism for conquest.

[OneBlueSky]

22. Fallujah was one huge war crime . . .

composed of innumerable individual and collective war crimes, from the murder (yes, murder!) of innocent civilians, to the use of inhumane weapons (including cluster bombs and either napalm or white phosphorous weapons) and weapons of mass destruction (depleted uranium weapons) that impact not only Iraqis and their land, but our own troops as well . . . those responsible, from the top right on down to individual soldiers, must be help accountable before an international tribunal . . .

[paineinthearse]

24. Related thread - insurgents should be "exterminated".

In http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3115720, a member watch MSNBC coverage of some general saying that insurgents should be "exterminated".

No transcript / source link as yet.

[EC]

25. Are these regular soldiers or the hired military?

How do these men live with themselves?

[One_Life_To_Give]

27. At the risk of sounding like a German citizen in 44

What do we know about the source of this information?

[clem_c_rock]

28. Dar Jamail's accounts have been far more accurate than anything else you

find.

Look for yourself. When one of his reports comes out watch it bubble up about a month later into such things as the Guardian or the Independent.

I know, we probably won't hear about Napalm being used in the NY Times.

But, that doesn't mean it happened.

[rodeodance]

29. not having reporters on the ground worked to the Bush advantage.

[mike_c]

31. Dar Jamail is one of the best journalists in Iraq....

He actually moves around the country and reports rather than taking dictation at CentCom press conferences or Green Zone media events.

[G_j]

30. KICK

[DoYouEverWonder]

32. This is what Fallujah looks like

now that we've bombed the shit out of the place.






This use to be called genocide.

[Auntie Bush]

38. Just think...Halliburton et al get the contracts to restore the city.

How convenient!

[DU GrovelBot]

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[bajamary]

35. This was widely reported in Europe

This story was widely reported in the European press.

Work for Peace and Justice

[indepat]

36. The American people have ratified what has been done/what is being done

in Iraq.

[MadisonProgressive]

37. Not me - I voted for Kerry

[bpilgrim]

39. kerry was for the war as well... he was just gonna fight it better

according to him :shrug:

peace

[MadisonProgressive]

60. I'm not so sure about that

[indepat]

52. The American people, in numbers too large to fathom, have ratified this

Administration's every policy initiative and action.

[raysr]

40. Yes Mr. Kerry,

by all means give these butchers some more money, so they can murder some more innocents!

[lonestarnot]

41. What are the troops becoming? n/t

[raysr]

42. The enemy

[lonestarnot]

44. Well with recruiting tools that say "Millionaires would pay a bundle to

shoot humans" what does one expect to recruit...the pope? These people are down on their luck with no way to pay for college... usually the poorest of the poor and uneducated. If they are uneducated how much time do you suppose was expended educating re the value of life?

[Nostradammit]

50. I'm not doubting you -

and I'm not sure if you're using hyperbole here, but could you direct me to an instance of this? Are they really saying that in their recruiting materials?

Thanks in advance.

[Amaya]

49. Lets not lump all soldiers into one category

[Catherine Vincent]

43. Just horrible.

About an hour ago these 4 ex workers from one of those haliburton subsidiaries were talking on MSNBC about war crimes in Iraq. They were all former servicemen. Maybe someone else saw it.

Hearing all of the killing that is going on over there makes me ashamed to be an American.

[Disturbed]

45. John Kerry was pushing for the Falluja invasion..

before the election. The situation in Iraq would not be much different now if John Kerry were in charge.

[anarchy1999]

62. Well, what can we say.

Kerry has been and never was anything but a very large disappointment.
We will never support him.

Something is not right.

[freddyc]

51. bump

and were they talking about war crimes committed by US servicepeople? is there a transcript?

[raysr]

46. Our soldiers need

to be pulled out of Iraq, before they all become too far gone to re-enter society. I think it's the "mission from god" shit that fueling this. How many people have to die for the vengence of 9-11?

[chlamor]

47. Hallucinations linked to drug given to troops

It is a toxic wasteland externally and internally in Iraq courtesy of the US corporate military machine. Seems the US troops are getting untested medicines (now tested) and using many new types of weaponry. It's such a cry.


"...former troops sent to Iraq who claim that Lariam, the commercial name for the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, provoked disturbing and dangerous behavior. The families of some troops blame the drug for the suicides of their loved ones. Though the evidence is largely anecdotal, their stories have raised alarm in Congress, and the Pentagon has stopped giving out a pill it probably never needed to give to tens of thousands of troops in Iraq in the first place."

“What are we doing giving drugs that cause hallucinations, confusion, psychotic behavior to people that carry weapons and hold secret clearances?” asked Pogany, 33, who is now seeking a medical discharge. “It doesn’t pass the common-sense test.”
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6947472/

[cthrumatrix]

54. good question for Rummy ......?

[BeFree]

55. Drugged up troops?

Would that explain the atrocious behavior?

Could it be that certain drugs - say a "Performance Enhancing" drug, would be given to the troops in order to get them to follow the evil commands issued them?

Nah, the military stopped doing those types of things long ago, right?

[Roland99]

61. Jamail's article from a year ago - Sarajevo on the Euphrates

An Eyewitness Account From Inside the US siege of Falluja
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040426&s=jamail

Falluja, Iraq, a low-rise, mostly Sunni city of about 200,000, has become this war's Sarajevo. I was there on Saturday and Sunday during what was supposed to be a cease-fire. Instead of calm, I found a city under siege from American artillery and snipers.

At one of the city's clinics I saw dozens of freshly wounded women and children, victims of US Marine Corps munitions. Hospital officials report that more than 600 Iraqis have now been killed, most of them civilians. Two soccer fields in Falluja have been converted to graveyards. I went to Falluja with a small group of international journalists and NGO workers. We traveled in a large bus full of medical supplies; our plan was to unload our cargo, take a look around, then leave with as many wounded as we could take out with us.

When we left Baghdad, the road was desolate and littered with the scorched and smoldering shells of vehicles. At the first US checkpoint, the soldiers said they'd been there for thirty hours straight. They looked exhausted and scared. After being searched, we continued along bumpy dirt roads, winding our way through parts of Abu Ghraib, steadily but slowly making our way toward besieged Falluja. At one point we passed a supply truck that had been hit and was being looted by people from a nearby village. Men and boys were running from the wreck carrying boxes. A small child yelled at our bus, "We will be mujahedeen until we die!"

At one overpass we rolled by an M-1 tank that resistance fighters had destroyed. Smoke and flames still billowed from its burning guts. Down the road were more fires--the whole thirty kilometers to Falluja was strewn with burned-out fuel tankers, trucks, armored personnel carriers (APCs) and tanks. As we approached Falluja we started running into mujahedeen checkpoints. Seeing our supplies and hearing that we were headed for Falluja, the guerrillas let us pass.

[TWiley]

64. Kick