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KurdistanObserver.com The Halabja- Falluja Paradox By: Dr. Nazhad Khasraw Hawramany Dec 1, 2004 For an uninformed outsider the names of cities like Halabja and Falluja might be just exotic names for foreign cities like many similar other names all over this planet. For us Kurdistanis and Iraqis, these names have very deep and different meanings, because we are acquainted with the events and stories attached to those cities. It simply tells the story of Kurds and Arabs in Iraq, the story of decades of suffering and genocide on one side and of human cruelty and disregard of human lives on...

Hollywood has joined the war. Universal Pictures announced yesterday that it is to make The Battle for Falluja. To prove it is serious, it has enlisted Indiana Jones himself, actor Harrison Ford, to help defeat the insurgency.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who disappeared in Iraq in June and later turned up in Lebanon claiming he had been kidnapped by militants, was charged on Thursday with desertion, the Marine Corps said. After a five-month investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Hassoun "is alleged to have taken unauthorized leave of the unit where he served as an Arabic interpreter," the service said in a release from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Hassoun was also charged with loss of government property and theft of a 9mm military pistol. The charges will now be considered by...

11.8.04, Monday FALLUJAH, Iraq - Capt. Sean Sims watched artillery shells fall and explode in a blast of sand and rubble, close enough to hear but too far to see what they hit. It was Sims' first daylight look at the rebel-held city of Fallujah on Monday afternoon, just hours before he would lead his men deep into its heart. Click here for photos A Marine Harrier jet screamed overhead. A Mark-19 automatic grenade launcher nearby let loose - bomb-boom-boom - sending grenades to burst in the distance. As commander of Alpha Company, of the 1st Infantry Division's Task Force...

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 24 - United States marines and Iraqi soldiers today discovered the empty home of Abdullah Janabi, the insurgent leader of this city's mujahedeen council, and his bomb-laden mosque, where they found a massive supply of weapons that dwarfed any of the hundreds of caches yet found, military officials said. American commanders say they do not believe Mr. Janabi has been in the city for some time, though The Washington Post published an interview with him last week in which he was quoted saying he was still in the city along with other insurgent fighters. As they comb...

Since the shooting in the mosque, I've been haunted that I have not been able to tell you directly what I saw or explain the process by which the world came to see it as well. As you know, I'm not some war-zone tourist with a camera who doesn't understand that ugly things happen in combat. I've spent most of the last five years covering global conflict. But I have never in my career been a "gotcha" reporter -- hoping for people to commit wrongdoings so I can catch them at it.

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 21 - In one house hung a black banner with the words "One God and Jihad" and a distinctive yellow sun, terrifyingly familiar as the backdrop to videotaped beheadings by the group of that name. In another house there was a cage large enough to hold a human and a wall marked with Arabic writing and what appears to be a fingerprint in dried blood. Before the doors to these houses in Falluja were thrown open to two reporters on Sunday, soldiers and intelligence officers had already carried away other items from them, handcuffs, shackles, militant propaganda,...

Dramatic footage of our brave Marines in Falluja. Pray for the fallen, say thanks to the soldiers who continue to serve with honor, and thank God that the United States Marine Corps is on our side, not theirs!

US troops sweeping through Fallujah believe they have found a training centre for the insurgent group headed by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In video footage shot by an embedded CNN crew, soldiers walked through one imposing building with concrete columns with a large sign in Arabic on the wall reading "Al Qaeda Organisation" and "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."

It is the Rodney King incident, Iraqi style. A piece of war taken totally out of context, for ratings and to make a reporter's career. Kevin Sites, the embedded NBC reporter in Falluja has tried to pull a "Michael Moore," using an "innocent (sic)" insurgent terrorist lying dead on the floor or playing possum with the marines. One day before, an enemy body lay in a similar position with a hidden booby trap, wounding several Americans. Another group of soldiers had previously been seriously injured by an Islamic combatant, who seemingly arose from the dead with his AK-47 blazing. This...

I have spoken with the Public Relations Department of the Marine Corps. They are grateful for all the calls to the Commodant's office and know their number was published on FreeRepublic. Unfortunately, they have been absolutely overwhelmed with calls and it is taking them away from some of their other work. We will be better served by going after the media sources to tell the whole story of what the Marines are facing.

Slandering Private Ryan – in Fallujah By David D. PerlmutterNovember 17, 2004 It's an irony that the week that some American television stations pulled "Saving Private Ryan" because of harsh language, many others aired parts of a video that purports to show an American Marine shooting a wounded and unarmed civilian in Fallujah. The link between Steven Spielberg's fictional (but realistic) film about World War II and a real event in the Iraq war is a reminder that, with so few of us having combat experience or studying warfare in school, the historical context of modern combat needs to be...

<p>BAGHDAD, Nov. 16 -- U.S. and Iraqi troops entered Mosul in force Tuesday to retake streets and police stations seized by fighters in the northern city last week, while a prominent Iraqi insurgent claimed that the battle in Fallujah was only the beginning of an uprising that has already roiled parts of Iraq (news - web sites) dominated by Sunni Muslims.</p>

<p>Every day, we are grateful to you and your comrades in arms for what you are doing for our country, and every day we pray for your safe return.</p> <p>We know what is going on in Fallujah. Animals are murdering human rights workers, beheading innocent civilians, and killing their own people. We know how these animals fight without wearing uniforms and how they booby trap bodies.</p>

Her name is Louise Arbour. She is the top U.N. human rights official at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Yes, the U.N. Stop laughing. Come on, stop laughing. Ms. Arbour is calling for an investigation of a young American Marine who sent one of the scum of the earth to his reward. He did it to possibly save his life and the lives of his fellow Marines. The DFU rule --- if there is any doubt, kill the bad guy so he can't kill you. Ms. Arbour, you can go pound sand. Or, as a wretched...

I'm so damn mad about the cruxifiction that the brave Marine in the NBC video is taking. It make me want to put a boot up someone's behind, but since that would get me in trouble I've decided to try and take some action. If this goes to court martial I think we should take up a defense account for this guy and his family. Before that we can Freep the hell out of the media and the NIS for that matter. Any suggestions about how to support this guy would be appreciated and make my feel better.

FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military is investigating whether a Marine shot dead an unarmed, wounded insurgent during the battle for Falluja in an incident captured on videotape by a pool reporter.

His men always came first Their captain died in Fallujah firefight By Tom Lasseter KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE November 15, 2004 FALLUJAH, Iraq – Army Capt. Sean Sims was up early Saturday, looking at maps of Fallujah and thinking of the day's battle. His fingers, dirty and cracked, traced a route that snaked down the city's southern corridor. "We've killed a lot of bad guys," he said. "But there's always going to be some guys left. They'll hide out and snipe at us for two months. I hope we've gotten the organized resistance." Sims, 32, from Eddy, Texas, commanded Alpha...

ALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 14 - American forces overran the last center of rebel resistance in Falluja on Sunday after a weeklong invasion that smashed what they called the principal base for the Iraqi insurgency. While much of the city lay in smoking ruins and isolated bands of rebels still harassed American and Iraqi troops, the American takeover of Falluja addressed a growing problem that had gnawed at the Iraq occupation force for months. But American military commanders were reluctant to declare the invasion a total success and were forced to contend with insurgent violence spreading elsewhere, particularly in the northern...