by Felicity Arbuthnot October-November 2010 from GlobalResearch Website           Part I From Statue to Legality October 21, 2010   "The welfare of the people, in particular, has always been the alibi of tyrants." (Albert Camus, 1913-1960) Throughout Iraq, Americans bringing "freedom from tyranny", with their British auxiliaries, and their few arm twisted "coalition", largely morphed in to tyrants overnight.   As with Saddam Hussein's statue, the U.S., simply covered legality with an American flag - and toppled it. And as across the country, indiscriminate, unaccountable killing sprees started early on - and continue still. U.S., wickednesses in Fallujah, the district by district liquidations, have probably been documented in more detail, than any other city, town or village, in deaths, injuries and deformities, so serves one tragic service - as an invaluable test case for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Iraq.   Whilst the recent, chilling Report by Busby, et al., (1) in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, has received deserved publicity, and been presented to the U.N., another, presented to the 15th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva (13th September-1st October) has received less so. "Testimonies of Crimes Against Humanity in Fallujah - Towards a Fair International Criminal Trial" (2): "...pleads and implores", the United Nations in : "...respect for the memory (of the) victims, to investigate the crimes and violations", in the document, and all that: "has been inflicted upon Iraq, placing the country at the top of the world's daily list for deaths, displaced persons, both internally and externally, the ensuing savage corruption, child molestation, rape, rampant kidnapping, contrary to the noble goals and (founding aspirations) of your Organization." After the invasion and fall of Baghdad, the document records, Fallujah remained calm, escaping the turmoil engulfing the rest of Iraq.   Exactly two weeks after the toppling of the statue, on 23rd April 2003, when a group of students peacefully demonstrated outside Al Quds school, for its return by the U.S., soldiers, who had - without consultation - taken it over as a base, so they could resume studies.   The response was massive violence. The troops fired "indiscriminately" killing thirteen and wounding seventy five. Three of the dead were children under eleven. In a depressingly familiar story, according to Dr Ahmed Ghanim Al-Ali, the then hospital Director, they also fired on the medical staff who came to rescue the injured. A week later, troops fired on a funeral, the first such occurrence in Iraq, which, with Afghanistan, along with wedding parties and mourning gatherings, have become a disgraceful litany. Two were killed and fourteen wounded, including children. In the early hours of the second anniversary of the falling of the Twin Towers, a group driving a blue BMW, fired on the offices of the Mayor of Fallujah. Chased by the Fallujah Protection Force, the car disappeared in to a U.S., camp just outside the city. Returning, they came under heavy fire, eight were killed and two wounded. Again the ambulances were fired on and prevented assisting. Those marking an atrocity at home, with executions abroad, transpired to be both U.S., forces and allegedly, with much substantiating evidence, mercenaries of the notorious Blackwater Security (now XL.)   It took repeated demands by Fallujah's Mayor and others for the U.S., military to finally hand back the bodies (which: "...had been left in the back of crushed vehicles in the burning sun") and two traumatized injured. Acts of violence, murders, arrests, incarceration without trial and general acts of terror, are the hallmark of the freedom promised to the people of Iraq. Ironically, American forces, with representatives from then U.S., "Viceroy" Paul Bremer's Office, in a meeting with the City Council, tried to recruit locals as agents, for protection. Seemingly, they were told that according to the Geneva Conventions, protection of Iraqis lay with the occupying forces.   Outside, were BMWs - driven by Blackwater staff. Bremer had given the company its first contract (for a reported $21 million) in Iraq. It was against the background the brutal, deviant behavior, that, on 31st March 2004, four Blackwater employees, Scott Helvenston Jerko Slovko Wesley Bataloni Mike Teague, ...were brutally murdered, dragged through the streets, their bodies hung over a bridge spanning the Euphrates. The action was presented to the world, largely, as an example of the irrational endemic violence in Iraqis. The brutal treatment of Iraqis, at the hands of the invading forces and Blackwater, had scant mention in the main stream media. Little can be found about the last three victims - but surreally, Helvenston, a former U.S., Navy SEAL, had been a personal trainer for Hollywood celebrities, including Demi Moore and had taken to reality shows such as: "Combat Missions", and: "Man vs Beast", where he completed an obstacle course faster then a chimpanzee.   Tragically, though, not faster than the Fallujans. His last reality show appearance: "Extreme Expeditions - Model Behavior", had still to be shown at the time of his death.(3) The revenge April retaliation, came in spite of attempts by the City Council to mediate and negotiate. "U.S., troops rejected the intervention of and presence of the U.N." A tape recording of their refusal to negotiate and stated determination to strike the city, is witness to their lawless rejection. U.S., troops gave orders that no one was to leave the city. The population was trapped, reminiscent of General Norman Schwartzkopf's "turkey shoot" on the Basra Road, in 1991, with the road blocked at both ends and no escape. The bridge to the hospital was cut off, condemning the wounded to death, with five hundred pound bombs, and cluster bombs being dropped on Fallujah's families - who had nowhere to hide. That attack, with the subsequent one in October-November 2004, were compared to Guernica, and without doubt equal some of history's most shameful episodes. The people besieged in a reign of terror, of pure, primitive, savagery - targeted with weaponry of mass destruction. Instructed by the troops to hold a white flag if they ventured out, sickeningly, U.S., snipers, then targeted heads of those who dared, in desperation, for help, food, water, medical aid, water and telephones having been cut, in contravention to the Geneva Convention. Also in contravention, is fact the forces had anyway, prevented essential foodstuffs and medicines from coming in. The Report to the Human Rights Commission further reminds of the ongoing bombing between the two major assaults, which has continued, year on year. Whilst the two major attacks on Fallujah have been recorded in acres of newsprint (see also 4) the voices of the survivors have been largely absent. The document records those of one hundred and sixteen, from April's onslaught, with several earlier ones.   Just some of the newly enfranchised, collaterally damaged, disposable Iraqis, include: Ahmed Hassan Shaker was killed on 6th January 2004, on going outside his home to find the cause of bullets "which were ringing out." A missile killed him and his wife, Sihan, instantly. They left six orphans, the eldest six, the youngest, just seven months. (Witness, Ahmed Hassan's father.) The U.S., military apologized to the family. No compensation has been forthcoming.   Montaser Sami Hammad Ali al-Awani, killed, on 7th June 2003: " .. by random firing of U.S., troops on civilians", in Fallujah's Nazzal district. (Witness, his father.)   Ahmed Obaid M'hidi Saud Issawi, died on 27th October 2003, when: "U.S., forces opened fire indiscrimately at everyone ..." (Witness, his brother.)   In April 2004, Ali Dahi Abd Muflih lost fifteen members of his family, the majority women and children, when their home was completely destroyed by a U.S., missile. (Witness, surviving family member.)   April 2004, Alaa Najim Abdullah Al-Issawi shot in the head by a U.S., sniper. (Witness, his brother.)   St Valentine's Day, 14th April 2004, Fatah Saad Abbas al-Issawi, eight years old, killed as a result of "indiscriminate firearm" discharge. (Witness, her father.)   Heba Abd Awda Jafil al-Halbusi, twenty, killed by U.S., sniper, whilst trying to escape "hell of U.S., fire", with her family. (Witness, her father.)   Marwa Mohammed Khalif, her age not recorded, by a bullet to the head. (Witness, her mother.)   17th April 2004, Ali Ismail Obeid Jassim Salman al-Issawi, aged five, and his brother, Hakki, Ismail Obeid Jassim Salman al-Issawi, ten, both killed by a sniper, whilst playing in front of their house. Buried together in the same grave. (Witness, their father.) Throughout the testimonies, the words "indiscriminate", "random", "rampage" and "sniper" come up unceasingly.   Other victims of this very democratic kind of killing, since there was no discrimination, included: Ayah (six) Fadhela, (thirteen) Mohammed, (nine) Shaimaa (fifteen) Alia (thirteen) Bushra (fifteen) Naba (three) Salwa (twelve) Baida (eleven) Hanin (seven) As in the following November's psychopathic purge, the football pitch became a cemetery - but in November, they would need two. The reign of terror in this city, which has existed since - and in some linguistic and archeological evidence, maybe before - Babylonian times, has continued, with "arbitrary arrests", "systematic torture", and allegations "of a policy of humiliation." Dogs were unleashed by both military and often those accompanying them in plain clothes, suspicions falling on Blackwater again, in a litany. Just one victim was thirteen year old Ameen, whose twenty two year old university student and bread winner brother, Sineen, was shot "in a hail of bullets" when these mixed forces broke in to their home, after blowing out the door. Ameen was beaten, his hand badly damaged by dogs, the all, he described carried out by men with beards and ear rings. As he was being beaten, it transpired, others were putting his brother's bloodied, mutilated body under a mattress, behind the curtains. This was after their father had been killed in the April 2004 bombardment. Leaving the house ransacked and belongings smashed, the group allegedly rampaged through the neighbourhood, injuring, "robbing and stealing... money and jewellery .." The U.S., forces, has thus taken a town which had escaped the invasion's murderous chaos, but has it rained upon them by the occupying forces, for now, approaching eight years. As Dirk Adriaensens (5) has written: "The latest 'incident' occurred on Wednesday 15 September 2010 (following the official 'withdrawal' of US troops.) Seven civilians were killed and four injured. Their names will be added to the endless list of victims of the U.S., aggression against this troubled city. May they never be forgotten."     Killed during the raid by US/Iraqi forces on 15 September 2010 Humadi Jassim Ahmed..........old man Manzel Humadi Jassim Ahmed.........youngster Sameer Humadi Jassim Ahmed........youngster Sadiek Humadi Jassim Ahmed.........youngster Abid Swissan Ahmed.........old man Yassein Abid Swissan Ahmed.......youngster Yassein Kassar Saad........Former Iraqi officer in Iraqi army Injured civilians Omar Humadi Jassim.......youngster Ibrahim Abid Kassar.........youngster Hathima Jassim (85 years old) Ahmed Humadi Jassim ....youngster Whilst the people of Fallujah are stalked by visible killers in the form of Americans with their hardware, they live with an invisible one, in the residues left by the weapons used, including depleted uranium, the radioactivity and toxicity of which they eat, breathe and drink, since it can be measured in air and seeps in to the water table, affecting fauna and flora. "In 2006, 5,928 cases of previously unknown, or rarely seen diseases were diagnosed (in Fallujah)", records the Report. "In the first half of 2007, 2,447 seriously ill patients were admitted, showing mostly little known symptoms. Fifty percent were children ... five years after the 2004 attacks, cancers had multiplied by four." In five years: "a twelve fold incident in fourteen year olds was noted." Birth defects rose by twenty five percent in a six year period. (See 4 and 5 for detail.) Dr Bill Wilson, a Member of the Scottish Parliament, who is determined to see Tony Blair in Court on war crimes charges, also has the British government's culpability in using depleted uranium (DU) high on his agenda. In 1996 and again in 1997, the UN Human Rights Committee included DU., in their list of weapons of mass destruction, urging all States to curb the spread and production of these weapons. On 19th October 2010, Dr Wilson wrote to the (UK) Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the successor to British Nuclear Fuels Limited, asking for details of all the documents it holds pertaining to the effects of spent or “depleted” uranium on health. Dr Wilson comments: “Depleted uranium, high in the U-238 isotope, is what is left after uranium has been used to generate power.   The nuclear industry, rather than putting this still radioactive and potentially lethal material out of harm’s way, however, sells it on to the arms industry and it is used to make armor-piercing or anti-tank shells. It has been doing this for decades, as a way of decreasing the financial losses associated with what I regard as an unnecessary and dangerous way of generating electricity. “Such shells produce 3000oC fireballs and the resultant black uranium oxide particles get everywhere; they are blown hundreds of miles and are inhaled and ingested. There is overwhelming circumstantial evidence that the cavalier use of depleted-uranium weaponry in Iraq and Afghanistan has caused a massive increase in cancers (particularly amongst children) and horrific birth defects, both in civilians living there and in service personnel and their families. What’s more, it has a half-life of almost 4.5 billion years! “The US and UK Governments have been warned of all this, but appear to have ignored such warnings and have done practically nothing to clear up the mess they have left, not even fencing off highly radioactive destroyed tanks to stop children playing on them. It doesn’t take a genius to understand the issues at stake here and the potential for legal action. “As part of my ongoing campaign for justice and to prevent further massive human rights abuses, I am seeking clarity on what the UK Government has historically known about the health effects of depleted uranium. A refusal to answer my Freedom-of-Information request will tell its own story.” The Decommissioning Authority, he comments: "should come clean on dirty fuel." Indeed: "In the wake of America's "shock and awe" bombing campaign to take Baghdad, radiation detectors as far away as the United Kingdom noted a fourfold spike in radioactivity in the atmosphere." (6) The pregnant women, for whom it to too dangerous to undergo an X-ray for fear of of damaging the unborn baby, receives ongoing doses, courtesy the weapons industry, from Fallujah to Florida, from Baghdad to Belfast. Two letters might be of use to Dr Wilson, written, respectively, immediately after and shortly after, the 1991 attack on Iraq. They are self explanatory. The late Leonard Dietz, to whom the second letter is addressed, was an eminent nuclear physicist and expert on the dangers of inhaled or ingested DU particles.   They are typed exactly as written in the originals:           Los Alamos Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos New Mexico 87545 memorandum To: Studies and Analysis Branch (wr 13) (or may be 10, slightly eroded) Attn: Maj Larson I Mar 1991 From: Lt Col M.V. Ziehman STOP/Telephone: F668/(505) 665 19?? Symbol: MCLn0 Subject: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DEPLETED URANIUM PENETRATORS There is a relatively small amount of lethality data for uranium penetrators, either the tank fired long version or the GAU-8 round fired from the A10 close air support aircraft. The recent was has likely multiplied the number of du rounds fired at targets by orders of magnitude. It is believed that du penetrators were very effective against Iraqi armor; (sic) how-ever, assessments of such will have to be made. There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of du on the environment. Therefore, if no one makes a case for the effectiveness of du on the battlefield, du rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus, be deleted from the military arsenal. If du penetrators proved their worth during our recent combat activities, then we should assure their future existence (until something better is developed) through Service/DOD proponency. If proponency is not garnered, it is possible that we stand to lose a valuable combat capability. I believe we should keep this sensitive issue at (sic) mind when after action reports are written. Respectfully, (signed) Lt Col Z Department of Defense, United States of America (seal.)     Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering Washington, DC 20301 - 3030 15th August 1991 Mr. Leonard A. Dietz 1124 Mohegan Road Schenectady, NY 12309 Dear Mr Dietz: Your letter of 30th July 1991 concerning depleted uranium was brought to my attention by Dr. Osterman. In this letter you posed the question of the "probability that lung cancer could develop: after inhalation of depleted uranium. As you are no doubt well aware, since this material is a source of ionizing radiation, the potential for carcinogenicity is real. The same holds true for nephro-toxicity which, in most of the literature available to me, seems to be the greater limiting health endpoint of concern, protection from which requires a much lower ambient concentration in drinking water or foodstuffs. The potential risk to human health from exposure to depleted uranium is, of course, dose and time related, both of which must be measured, approximated, or assumed. Let me assure you that we feel that your concern, which parallels our own, is real and we thank you for sharing that with us. Sincerely, (Signed) John W. Kolmer, MD., Military Ass't for Medical and Life Sciences. Keen as Colonel Ziehman might have been to water down the dangers, so as not to "lose a valuable combat capability", regardless of the health of allied troops or invaded citizens, the U.S., Army's own manuals are more forthcoming.   As has been written in these columns before: "If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated with DU are both chemical and radiological. Personnel in or near vehicles struck by DU penetrators could receive significant internal exposures." (7)   Or indeed those near bombed homes, streets, schools, mosques... Further: "Short term effects of high doses can result in death, while long term effects of low doses have been implicated in cancer." (8) This warning was sounded by the giant, US government contracted, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in July 1990, six months before Desert Storm. Further, shortly after Desert Storm, the UK Atomic Energy Authority "self initiated a Report", warning of half a million extra cancer deaths in by 2000, if just fifty tonnes of residual DU dust had been left "in the region." For either government to claim they were unaware of the apocalyptic consequences of further use, would be, as UK Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong admitted, in another cover up a couple of decades ago, to be "economical with the truth."       Notes 1. http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/7/2828 2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/38397725/Testimonies-of-Crimes-Against-Humanity-in-Fallujah 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Helvenston 4. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21212   http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21370 5.http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21131 6. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/07/study-health-effects-felt-fallujah-widespread-nuking-hiroshima-nagasaki/ 7. (US) Army Environmental Policy Institute: "Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium Use in the US Army", 1995. 8. SAIC : "Kinetic Energy Penetrator Long Term Strategy Study", Danesi, July 1990.           Part II War Crimes and Atrocities November 8, 2010     "The abused are only Iraqis". A U.S. General to General Antonio Taguba. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the latest, vast cache of documents from Wikileaks, is that anyone was surprised at the revelations.   For Iraqis, Afghans and the region, and Iraq and Afghanistan watchers across the globe, countless millions of words have been written and eye witness reports sent since day one of the highly questionable legality of the Afghan invasion the absolute illegality of that of Iraq. Soldiers have put "trophy" photographs of the dead, mutilated, tortured on the internet. In August the BBC's documentary: "The Wounded Platoon", aired interviews with soldiers who admitted shooting Iraqi civilians and "keeping scores." (1)   Abu Ghraib's particular testimony to freedom, democracy and liberation's bounties, will likely remain the mental monument to the U.S., military in Iraq, which will ring down the generations. Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tareq Aziz and his colleagues await an Inquisitional, mediaeval end on a hangman's noose, under America's watch (with the U.K., since still in coalition.) Charges include crimes against humanity. Yet the perpetrators of nearly seven years of near indescribable crimes against humanity in Iraq - and near a decade in Afghanistan, return home to heroes' welcomes. Reaction in Iraq to the woeful litany of crimes documented in some 400,000 U.S., files is encapsulated by Baghdad Political Science Professor Saadi Kareem, who commented: "Iraqis know all about the findings in these documents. The brutality of American and Iraqi forces was hidden from Americans and Europeans, but not for Iraqis... Iraqis are totally aware of what happened to them." President of the London-based Arab Law Association, Sabah al-Mukhtar, told Al Jazeera that: "Frankly there is no surprise..." The Middle East knew from day one. The Independent's Robert Fisk ("The Shaming of America", 24th October 2010) commented: "As usual, the Arabs knew. They knew all about the mass torture, the promiscuous shooting of civilians, the outrageous use of air power against family homes, the vicious American and British mercenaries, the cemeteries of the innocent dead. All of Iraq knew. Because they were the victims." The U.S., soldiers knew too of the illegalities they were committing, at every level. These were not aberrations that needed a crash course in international law, or the laws of war, they were crimes, which would have been just that, anywhere on earth. Former Private Ross Caputi, formerly of the U.S., Marines, has offered testimony on some of these crimes, to the 15th Session of the Human Rights council of the U.N., (13th September - 1st October 2010.) He was in the second assault on Fallujah, in November 2004. The city's residents had been ordered to leave. Seemingly about two thirds fled, allowed to take little or nothing, leaving a lot of unguarded homes.   The soldiers went: "from house to house" through the city. "...there were often possessions left behind... looting became very commonplace (of) anything that seemed valuable - silverware, teapots, knives and clothing."   "People in my Unit were searching the pockets of the dead ... for money." The Platoon Commanders and Company Commander: " ...were aware of what was happening..." Why Caputi stole a "black winter ski mask", is unexplained. Daylight robbery, likely being emulated across Iraq, a country where, until the embargo's strangulation took grip, and with it desperation, even in cities, people left their doors unlocked, when out. Theft was seemingly a way of life for soldiers from early on, recorded in a litany of reports and numerous documents. So far, this publication has not found records of moneys and goods being ordered returned, by senior officers. With looting and the collapse of the banks, money, by virtually all, was kept at home. One report to the Human Rights Council is of the raid on the home of, and arrest of, Mohammed Khamis Saleh Ali al-Halbusi, in Fallujah, during the night of 2nd November 2003. Beaten in front of his family, he alleges that thirty seven thousand U.S., dollars were stolen, with a quantity of gold - an important cultural possession, passed down from generation to generation. Caputi also recounts that during November 2004, a tactic know as "reconnaissance by fire", was used.   Areas and buildings are fired into: "If you hear silence after your firing, then there are no people in the area or building ..." Surely dead by "reconnaissance", is also a likely possibility? The tactic is "always indiscriminate." He also confirms the use of white phosphorous. (The use of depleted uranium with its residual genetic, carcinogenic and toxic implications, is now undisputed.) Another indiscriminate tactic was using: "...bulldozers to clear houses. If there were suspected resistance fighters in a house, we would bulldoze it, incase... I watched a battalion bulldozing an entire neighborhood..." Another instance involved three people in a house including: "a young boy, roughly ten years old."   Grenades were fired in to the house until it: "collapsed on top of all three of them", killing them. "In every instance .. (of killings) I am unaware of any action taken to report their deaths. We always just moved on." Thus, it seems, even the upper estimates of Iraqi deaths may well be underestimated. Disfiguring burns, attacks and torture leading to blindness, deformities and limb loss, become a sickening norm is this town, where at least - in spite of all efforts to prevent them - such extensive records of its brutalization do exist. Mr Caputi had considerable courage to come forward. But, it has to be asked, did he and his colleagues, rifling through family homes, momentos, most personal belongings, inheritance, helping themselves and stealing cash, question: "What are we doing? Can this be right?" One Iraqi who "knew" only too well what happened in Fallujah, was Dr Salam Ismael. He had worked as a doctor in Fallujah during the April 2004 siege. He finally gained entry with aid in January 2005, two months after the November assault. (2)   He records: "It was the smell that first hit me, a smell that is difficult to describe, and one that will never leave me. It was the smell of death. Hundreds of corpses were decomposing in the houses, gardens and streets of Fallujah. Bodies were rotting where they had fallen, bodies of men, women and children, many half-eaten by wild dogs. "A wave of hate had wiped out two-thirds of the town, destroying houses and mosques, schools and clinics. This was the terrible and frightening power of the US military assault. The accounts I heard over the next few days will live with me forever. You may think you know what happened in Fallujah. But the truth is worse than you could possibly have imagined." Dr Ismael found Hudda Issawi (17) in a nearby makeshift refugee camp. She said that on 9th November, American marines came to her home.   Her father and a neighbor went to the door: "We were not fighters, we had nothing to fear", she ran to the kitchen to cover her hair. She and her brother (13) heard the shots that killed her father and his friend - they hid behind the fridge. Her older sister was caught, beaten and shot.   Troops left with the two undiscovered, but: "(they) destroyed our furniture and stole the money from my father's pocket." Trapped, Hudda tried to comfort her gravely wounded sister, who died a few hours later. For three days she and her brother stayed in the house with their dead father, sister and friend. Fearing discovery, they finally decided to try to escape. A sniper shot her in the leg, she recounted. When her little brother ran, he was shot in the back, dying instantly. In a seemingly rare act of human decency, a female U.S., soldier found her and took her to hospital. It is possible to speculate that her bleak, near emotionless recounting, indicated a young person still in near catatonic shock. On the same day, it transpired, in the same district, people had been ordered to leave their homes, carrying white flags, bringing only essential belongings with them, and gather near the Jamah al Furkan Mosque in the town centre of the famed, ancient "City of Mosques." Eyad Latif described how, with eight member of his family, including a baby of six months, they walked in single file, to the Mosque: "U.S., soldiers appeared on the roofs of surrounding houses and opened fire." Eyad's father and mother "died instantly." Two brothers were hit, one in the head and one in the neck, one woman in the hand, one in the leg. The wife of one brother was killed: "When she fell, her five year old son ran and stood over her body. They shot him dead too." Dr Ismael recounts: "Survivors made desperate appeals to the troops to stop firing. But Eyad told me that whenever one of them tried to raise a white flag they were shot. After several hours he tried to raise his arm with the flag. But they shot him in the arm. Finally he tried to raise his hand. So they shot him in the hand." The five survivors, including the six-month-old child, and the brother shot in the neck, after hours lying injured, finally crawled to the nearest home, which was empty, to find shelter.   They survived there for eight days: "...living on roots and with just one cup of water for the baby", said Eyad. They were finally found by members of the Iraq National Guard and taken to hospital, again fleeing, sick and wounded, when they heard the U.S., forces were arresting all men.   It is unclear what happened to the others assembled, on instruction by the Mosque, but Eyad described: "the street awash with blood." Dr Ismael: "...heard the accounts of families killed in their houses, of wounded people dragged into the streets and run over by tanks, of a container with the bodies of 481 civilians inside, of premeditated murder, looting and acts of savagery and cruelty that beggar belief. "We found people wandering like ghosts through the ruins... looking for the bodies of relatives... trying to recover some of their possessions from destroyed homes... We moved from house to house, discovering families dead in their beds, or cut down in living rooms or in the kitchen... It became clear that we were witnessing the aftermath of a massacre, the cold-blooded butchery of helpless and defenceless civilians." He concluded: "Nobody knows how many died. The occupation forces are now bulldozing the neighborhoods to cover up their crime. (See also *) What happened in Fallujah was an act of barbarity. The whole world must be told the truth." Such accounts might be dismissed as "fog of war" propaganda, were they not so consistent across Iraq, from the day of the invasion, the majority from totally unconnected families or individuals - corroborated, little by little, by coalition soldiers. Numerous survivors were swept up to be tortured in a U.S., base camp which had been set up in a former tourist village, bound, bags over their heads and out in small "cages", with now familiar stories of being stripped, made to hold stress positions for hours and deprived of sleep water and food. Others were incarcerated under Abu Ghraib's specialist form of horror. In the tranquil setting of the White House Rose Garden, on 30th., April 2004, President Bush, had stated that due to U.S., intervention: “There are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq.” This was said as images from Abu Ghraib were being beamed around the world. Four days later, General Taguba released his minutely detailed and referenced seventy two page Report on the realities, which belied President Bush's sunny over-view of the benefits the invasion had bestowed upon Iraq.   In Abu Ghraib alone, they included: "...that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts: (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture (S) Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees. (ANNEXES 25 and 26)" General Taquba also accused the Bush administration of war crimes, calling for the prosecution of those responsible.   He wrote: "There is no longer any doubt that the current Administration committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account." Between Wikileaks, Bush's memoirs, and mounting swathes of documentation, legal accountability is looking to be increasingly possible.   (Ironically, Bush's memoirs are to be released on November 9th, the anniversary of a chillingly historically parallel crime to Fallujah, and across Iraq, Kristellnacht, in 1938. The terrorizing, rounding up of, and destruction and theft of property and places of worship of swathes of the Jewish population of Germany and Austria.) William Hague, Britain's newish, follicly-challenged Foreign Secretary, is seeking to withdraw the U.K., from its obligations towards prosecuting war crimes under Universal Jurisdiction. It is an embarrassment, he says, that various Israeli political figures have cancelled visits, should they be arrested. Such a sleight of hand, would also extend the welcome mat to George W. Bush, recently alleged another kind of U.S., embarrassment, seemingly reluctant to travel for the same reason.   Of course, it would also mean that Tony Blair, the co-conspirator in the invasion, would be free to visit any of his seven U.K., homes, without fear of the hand of the law - or that of a concerned citizen - on his collar. In spite of Hague's efforts, there may be many countries and air carriers, that they and former colleagues may soon be considering avoiding.       Notes 1. http://www.abolishwar.org.uk 2. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8093.     Re: Depleted uranium, see also: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/business/motions/Default.aspx?motionid=20127 http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/business/motions/Default.aspx?motionid=19813   Return to The Bush Impeachment Movement Return to The Middle East Exopolitical Saga Return to 'War on Terror'