| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"NotBush2004" |
| Date: |
12 Jan 2004 04:53:28 PM |
| Object: |
American soldier killed, Iraqis riot for food and jobs. |
Troops Disperse Iraqis Rioting for Food
1.12.2004 2hrs ago
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD, Associated Press Writer
KUT, Iraq - Ukrainian soldiers fired into the air Monday to disperse
hundreds of Iraqis who rioted for jobs and food as a second southern Shiite
Muslim city was rocked by unrest - a barometer of rising frustration with
the U.S. led-occupation in a region of Iraq considered friendly to the
Americans.
Also Monday, a roadside bomb in the capital killed one American soldier and
wounded two, bringing the U.S. death toll in the Iraqi conflict to 495.
Large explosions rocked central Baghdad later in the day, but officials
reported no casualties.
Trouble started in Kut, 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, when about 400
protesters marched for a third straight day on a government building to
demand jobs. Someone in the crowd threw a grenade at police and Ukrainian
soldiers guarding the building, injuring four Iraqi policemen and one
Ukrainian, according to Lt. Zafer Wedad.
The Ukrainians then fired in the air to disperse the crowd, injuring one
protester, Wedad said. He said the demonstrators hurled bricks at the
building and trashed a post office in the city.
In a similar protest in Amarah on Sunday, waves of protesters rushed British
troops guarding the city hall before being pushed back. On Saturday, clashes
in Amarah killed six protesters and wounded at least 11.
Unrest in the Shiite areas has spread as the country's leading Shiite
cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, has spoken out against
the U.S.-backed formula for transferring power to the Iraqis.
In a full-page newspaper advertisement Monday, al-Sistani repeated his
demand that a proposed provisional legislature be elected rather than chosen
by regional committees as called for under a plan endorsed by the U.S.-led
coalition and the Iraqi Governing Council.
Al-Sistani is highly influential among Iraq's majority Shiites.
No details were available about the death in Baghdad of the 1st Armored
Division soldier. Most of the U.S. deaths in Iraq have occurred since
President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1.
Still, U.S. officials said Monday that insurgent attacks against coalition
forces declined to an average of 17 a day in the past week, compared to 30 a
day before Saddam Hussein was captured on Dec. 13. Most of the attacks are
believed carried out by supporters of the ousted regime.
In the late Monday blasts, Iraqi and U.S. security officials said at least
two mortars exploded near the Baghdad Hotel in the center of the capital. At
least one round exploded in the Tigris River and the other exploded on the
river bank, U.S. troops said. There were no casualties, the Americans said.
Also Monday, another roadside bomb exploded near an Army convoy in Ramadi, a
town west of Baghdad, but the military said no U.S. casualties were
reported. Residents said two Iraqis were killed when the Americans opened
fire after the attack.
On Friday, U.S. soldiers uncovered a "large weapons cache" with the help of
an Iraqi in Ramadi, the U.S. military said in a statement Monday.
It said the Iraqi led the troops to a house, where they found dozens of
rocket-propelled grenades and a handful of launchers, nearly 220 pounds of
explosives, 16 remote controlled homemade bombs and two surface-to-air
missiles, the military said in a statement.
Also acting on an Iraqi tip, U.S. soldiers shot dead seven of the estimated
40 members of an armed gang allegedly trying to steal oil from a pipeline
south of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, the Army said Monday.
Meanwhile, the Danish army said Monday that results of a new series of tests
to determine whether 36 shells buried in the southern Iraqi desert contain a
liquid blister agent could be expected by the end of the week. The shells,
thought to be left over from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, were uncovered last
week.
Separately, the top U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, said the United
States is opposed to the maintenance of armed militias by Iraqi political
parties. Groups vying to fill the country's power vacuum will have to lay
down arms in a future democracy, he said.
"In a unified Iraq there is no place for political parties having armed
groups," Bremer told reporters.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20040112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_520
--
A pattern of deception
A hard truth appears to have escaped the notice of the public and received
scant attention from the media: Bush is the first president in American
history to use deceptive propaganda as his main means of communications in
selling his policies. His pattern of deception continues unabated and in
direct conflict with the notion of the public's informed consent that is
central to American democracy.
Walter Williams is professor emeritus at the University of Washington's
Evans School of Public Affairs.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/6378746.htm
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