Aftermath News
Tens of Thousands of Iraqis Protest Against US Occupation
Tue Apr 15 22:08:48 2003
208.152.73.208

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [apfn-1] Tens of Thousands of Iraqis Protest Against US Occupation
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 17:48:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: Aftermath News pjw56108@yahoo.com

The sheep were told that the war was over and all we
had to do now is to mop up. But the truth is, the war
has just begun. So how is Bill O'Really going to spin
this one? Pretty soon we will have a new Intifada
uprising and Israeli-style atrocities carried out by
US troops forced to kill and imprison more and more
Iraqis in the name of liberation. Who will Sean
Hannity (class tattle-tale in grade-school) blame for
this? They have just about run out of scapegoats
haven't they? But don't worry, I am sure they can
easily invent some more.

The monopoly-media's government propaganda blockbuster
production "Operation Iraqi Freedom" was nothing but a
cleverly edited and staged movie, sanitized by the
Pentagon for the mind-controlled sheep's safety. These
bleating herd animals who make up 3/4 of the US
population are a hopeless bunch, programmed to
applaud, goosestep and sieg heil on que. Can they be
reached somehow? Not until this war and this
police-state dictatorship adversely affects them
directly. Not until it gets personal, because most
people are incapable of understanding the truth until
they have been shocked into seeing it.

Too bad.

PW

�No to Saddam, No to US�
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=25266

�No to Saddam, No to US�
Essam Al-Ghalib, Arab News War Correspondent


NASSIRIYAH, 16 April 2003 � Thousands of demonstrators
gathered yesterday on the road leading to a hastily
constructed air base outside this city, the location
of a meeting between US government representatives and
members of the opposition Iraqi National Congress.

The demonstrators, numbering in their tens of
thousands, railed against US occupation of Iraq and
the resulting hardships its citizens are being made to
suffer.

Many Iraqis boycotted the meeting in opposition to US
plans to install retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner atop an
interim administration.

As demonstrators began to gather in the late morning,
many could be seen dressed in their best outfits and
carrying signs in English and Arabic protesting the
war and telling the US Marines to go home. They
chanted �No to Saddam, and No to America�.

The US-sponsored forum that brought Iraqi opposition
leaders together to shape the country�s postwar
government began yesterday with a US promise not to
rule Iraq and concluded with an agreement to meet
again in 10 days.

Meeting in the biblical birthplace of the Prophet
Abraham (peace be upon him), delegates from Iraq�s
many factions discussed the role of religion in the
future government and ways to rebuild the country.

A 13-point statement released after the meeting
stressed the need to work toward a democratic Iraq
built on the rule of law and equality. It also called
for dissolving Saddam�s Baath Party but left open the
question of separating religion from the state.

Lt. Gen. Jay Garner opened the conference under a
golden-colored tent at Tallil air base, close to the
4,000-year-old ziggurat at Ur, a terraced-pyramid
temple of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.

�What better birthday can a man have than to begin it
not only where civilization began but where a free
Iraq and a democratic Iraq will begin today?� said
Garner, who turned 65 yesterday and wore a twin
American and Iraqi flag pin on his blue shirt.

White House envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told delegates that
the United States has �no interest, absolutely no
interest, in ruling Iraq.�

�We want you to establish your own democratic system
based on Iraqi traditions and values,� Khalilzad said.
�I urge you to take this opportunity to cooperate with
each other.�

Participants included Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites from
inside the country and others who spent years in
exile. US officials invited the groups, which picked
their own representatives.

�Iraq needs an Iraqi interim government. Anything
other than this tramples the rights of the Iraqi
people and will be a return to the era of
colonization,� said Abdul Aziz Hakim, a leader of the
largest Iraqi Shiite group, the Supreme Council for
Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

US officials hope more Iraqis join the process and
stressed that this was just the first of many such
meetings in Iraq. The meeting concluded with the
delegates voting by show of hands to meet again in 10
days.

A national conference is planned to select the interim
administration, perhaps within weeks, a senior US
official said on condition of anonymity.

The interim administration could begin handing power
back to Iraqi officials within three to six months,
but forming a government will take longer, said Maj.
Gen. Tim Cross, the top British member of Garner�s
team.

�One has to go through the process of building from
the bottom up, allowing the leadership to establish
itself, and then the election process to go through
and so forth,� Cross said. �That full electoral
process may well take longer.�

Garner�s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian
Assistance is charged with coordinating humanitarian
assistance, rebuilding infrastructure shattered by
years of war and UN sanctions, and gradually handing
back power to Iraqis leading a democratically elected
government.

Yesterday�s meeting was the first step toward that
goal after the ouster of Saddam.

Sheikh Ayad Jamal Al-Din, a Shiite religious leader
from Nassiriyah, urged the delegates to craft a
secular government, according to a pool report. But
Nassar Hussein Musawi, a schoolteacher, disagreed.

�Those who would like to separate religion from the
state are simply dreaming,� he said.

Iraqi exile Hatem Mukhliss quoted President John F.
Kennedy�s exhortation, �Ask not what your country can
do for you, but what you can do for your country,� and
called on Iraqis to write a constitution, establish a
legal system and consider what role the army should
play.

He asked coalition representatives to address problems
of security, electricity and water in Iraq and help
rebuild destroyed and looted hospitals.

�Saddam reduced the country to such a state that it
was necessary for people to sell off personal
possessions,� Mukhliss said. �Now it�s time to take
our country back.�

There are already tensions between the United States
and some Iraqi factions.

Kurdish groups appear unwilling to compromise on their
demand to expand the border of their autonomous area
to include the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and Kurdish
parts of the city of Mosul.

That could pose a problem for the United States,
because Turkey worries that Kurdish control of Kirkuk
could lead to aspirations for independence and in turn
encourage separatist Kurds in Turkey.

Iraqi opposition leaders fear the United States is
trying to force Ahmed Chalabi, head of the
London-based umbrella Iraqi National Congress, on them
as leader of a new Iraqi administration.

� With input from AFP

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CHAPTER I
THE HISTORY AND DEFINITION OF PSYCHOPOLITICS