By Robert Fisk
The Independent
Posted at SelvesAndOthers.org

They live beneath old fly-blown tents in the car-park of the Mustafa mosque and their canvas-roofed kitchen stands next to a pool of raw sewage, but the refugees from Fallujah will not return home.

First, because many have no homes to go to; second, because they are - with the encouragement of local clerics - listing a series of demands that include the withdrawal of all American soldiers from the city, the maintenance of security by Fallujans themselves, massive compensation payments and the return of money and valuables which those who have just visited Fallujah say were stolen by American troops.

And they are very definitely not going to vote in the 30 January elections. Squatting on the floor of his concrete-walled office in his black robes to eat a lunch of chicken and rice, Sheikh Hussein - he pleads with me not to print his family name - insists that his people are not against elections.

By Claudio Gatti in New York
Financial Times
Published: January 13 2005

For months, the US Congress has been investigating activities that violated the United Nations oil-for-food programme and helped Saddam Hussein build secret funds to acquire arms and buy influence.

President George W. Bush has linked future US funding of the international body to a clear account of what went on under the multi-billion dollar programme.

But a joint investigation by the Financial Times and Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, shows that the single largest and boldest smuggling operation in the oil-for-food programme was conducted with the knowledge of the US government.

“Although the financial beneficiaries were Iraqis and Jordanians, the fact remains that the US government participated in a major conspiracy that violated sanctions and enriched Saddam’s cronies,” a former UN official said. “That is exactly what many in the US are now accusing other countries of having done. I think it’s pretty ironic.”

By Robert Fisk

JOURNALISM yields a world of cliches but here, for once, the first cliché that comes to mind is true. Baghdad is a city of fear. Fearful Iraqis, fearful militiamen, fearful American soldiers, fearful journalists.

That day upon which the blessings of democracy will shower upon us, 30 January, is approaching with all the certainty and speed of doomsday. The latest Zarqawi video shows the killing of six Iraqi policemen. Each is shot in the back of the head, one by one. A survivor plays dead. Then a gunman walks up behind him and blows his head apart with bullets. These images haunt everyone. At the al-Hurriya intersection yesterday morning, four truckloads of Iraqi national guardsmen - the future saviours of Iraq, according to George Bush - are passing my car. Their rifles are porcupine quills, pointing at every motorist, every Iraqi on the pavement, the Iraqi army pointing their weapons at their own people. And they are all wearing masks - black hoods or ski-masks or keffiyahs that leave only slits for frightened eyes. Just before it collapsed finally into the hands of the insurgents last summer, I saw exactly the same scene in the streets of Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad. Now I am watching them in the capital.

At Kamal Jumblatt Square beside the Tigris, two American Humvees approach the roundabout. Their machine-gunners are shouting at drivers to keep away from them. A big sign in Arabic on the rear of each vehicle says: “Forbidden. Do not overtake this convoy. Stay 50 metres away from it.”

By Frank Cordaro, Des Moines Catholic Worker Community
Published in Pointblank - Des Moines
January 12, 2005

Some have claimed that I get arrested so I can go to jail. I don’t. Jail is hard, and it is intended to be. My jail time is a consequence of being a peacemaker. It is a by-product of speaking my truth about war. Going to jail is no more a goal for me than getting crucified was a goal of Jesus’. It is a consequence that I accept and embrace. It is also a blessing and an opportunity. I am writing not to complain about the consequence of my actions, but to describe my opportunities and share my blessings.

As a result of a court sentence handed down on Dec. 16 2004, I celebrated Christmas and New Years in jail. Seven of us appeared in Polk County District Court to answer charges of misdemeanor trespass, which occurred on Election Day, Nov. 2, 2004 at the STARC Armory in Johnston, Iowa. Six of us pleaded guilty and took our chances with Judge Brandt. For me, it was the fourth arrest at the Armory since the beginning of the war in March 2003.

By Dahr Jamail

Already today at least 18 Iraqis have died as violence continues to escalate as the so-called elections approach.

Suicide car bombers are striking Iraqi Police (IP) stations on nearly a daily basis now.

Today’s target was in Tikrit, where U.S. military spokesman Major Neal O’Brien said six were killed when the police headquarters was bombed.

He also said, “As the Iraqi police continue to get stronger, and continue to pose a threat to the insurgents and terrorists, they will be targeted.”

Most Iraqis I’ve spoken with appear to disagree with Mr. O’Brien.