The Australian: "American officials are drawing an alarming new portrait of the insurgency in Iraq, showing it has significantly more fighters and far greater financial resources than had previously been estimated. The New York Times reported yesterday that when foreign fighters and the network of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were counted with home-grown insurgents, the hard-core resistance numbered between 8000 and 12,000 people. That tally swelled to more than 20,000 when active sympathisers or covert accomplices were included. Military and other government officials in Iraq and Washington said the core of the Iraqi insurgency now consisted of as many as 50 militant cells that drew on "unlimited money" from an underground financial network run by former Baath Party leaders and Saddam Hussein's relatives."

AP: " A weapons-for-cash program designed to disarm Shiite militiamen who have been fighting American troops is unlikely to weaken the movement of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in his Baghdad stronghold - but is proving to be an economic bonanza for residents. Sources close to the militia in Sadr City said some of the gunmen were handing over weapons that are not properly functioning or were considered surplus. In some cases, they threw in one or two pieces in pristine condition to make the process look genuine. Cash could be used to buy new weapons, the sources said on condition of anonymity. The process also doesn't require those surrendering weapons to prove al-Mahdi Army membership, meaning ordinary Iraqis were able to trade guns for cash." So Bush's cheap pre-debate PR stunt, designed to dupe the American public into thinking that "peace" was breaking out in Iraq is in fact empowering the insurgency even more.

Rumsfeld says the US needs more troops in Iraqs for "elections." But the reality is, Bush needs more troops because the situation in Iraq has deteriorated into outright chaos and escalating violence on both sides. The US military has now lost control of 20-30 towns, which they hope to "pacify" with airstrikes - which, of course, will lead to MORE insurgency because of the "collateral damage" it is inflicting. The Bahrain Tribune reports: "Twelve people were killed and 17 injured in a US airstrike in Fallujah early yesterday which struck a wedding gathering, witnesses and doctors said. Among the dead were the bridegroom, hospital doctors said. The bride was also said to have been injured in the airstrike which destroyed two buildings where witnesses said the wedding celebration had just concluded."

First check out this Blair-spun headline in the UK Telegraph: "Italians Fall Out of Love with 'Two Simoans." Sounds like the writer means all or most Italians, right? Well...er, not exactly. Only the Italian government. An estimated 90% of Italians are against the war. Just another example of Bush-Blair "headline editing." "In their first big interviews given since their release in return for a reported $1 million ransom on Tuesday, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, gave their backing to insurgents opposing the allied forces. "If you ask me about terrorism, I'll tell you that there is terrorism and there is resistance. The resistance struggle of people against an occupying force is guaranteed by international law." The two women have also ruffled feathers by thanking Italy's Islamic community for working for their release before thanking the government and the Italian Red Cross." Btw - Berlusconi owns - literally, not figurately - most of Italy's major news sources.

Navy Times: "A U.S. military offensive planned in key Iraqi cities this fall could still be delayed or avoided altogether. One key factor in deciding whether to press ahead is if Baghdad and Washington settle for partial, rather than full, Iraqi participation in elections in January. Another problem arguing against an early offensive: Fears that Iraqi forces may not be strong enough to hold cities like Fallujah and Ramadi, even if American forces manage to root out insurgents there, Pentagon officials and defense analysts say. An offensive also carries risks - including numerous civilian casualties and the danger of further inflaming anti-U.S. feelings -- with no assurance it would put an end to the insurgency, which even Bush administration officials concede is getting worse as Iraqi elections approach." The ONLY reason for the fall offensive is to dupe voters: "Stick with me - we're just about to really break through!" Meanwhile, how many must die or be maimed?

TNS: "American legal investigators have discovered evidence of abuse, torture and rape throughout the US-run prison system in Iraq. A Michigan legal team meeting with former detainees in Baghdad during an August fact-finding mission gathered evidence supporting claims of prisoner abuse at some 25 US-run detention centers, most of them" thus far unreported and unlisted. The investigators report that the US has set up prisons across the country, converting everything from horse stables to elementary schools to "detention centers." The sheer numbers of detention camps and the abuse systematically occurring in them is disturbingly reminiscent of Saddam's regime - is it any wonder the insurgency is gaining momentum?

Common Dreams: "Even if the insurgents dwindle to a handful of terrorists, their impact on security and stability in Iraq could far outweigh their numbers. RAND's Hoffman points out that just 20-30 members of the Baader Meinhof Gang terrorized the former West Germany for two decades; 50-75 Red Brigadists did the same in Italy; and some 200-400 IRA gunmen and bombers required the prolonged deployment of tens of thousands of British troops in Northern Ireland.Is it possible to prevail over the Iraqi insurgency? First, says John Pike of the group GlobalSecurity.org, enemy combatants must be killed, captured, or demoralized faster than new ones can be recruited, and the majority of the population must come to see the insurgency as illegitimate and its defeat as inevitable. It's a tough job, one that's likely to take years - as long as 10 years, says Dr. Metz at the Army War College. And the outcome is by no means assured."

Houston Chronicle: " A militant group in Iraq claimed it is holding 10 hostages working for an American-Turkish company in a tape broadcast by the Arabic television station Al-Jazeera today. The previously unknown group, calling itself the 'Salafist Brigades of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq,' gave an ultimatum of three days for the company to leave Iraq or it will kill the 10 hostages, the station's presenter said. The Al-Jazeera presenter said the station received a copy of the tape but did not say how. The group identified the company as an American-Turkish firm operating in Iraq, but did not give a name. The station only aired a clip showing the 10 hostages, sitting under the banner of the group. The group didn't say what were the nationalities of the hostages, or where they were captured."

Guardian: "In recent months, and especially since the handover of 'power' to the unelected interim government, Iraq's resistance has concentrated its efforts on killing those who collaborate with the Americans - the police officers, would-be police officers, translators, governors and government officials. It is beginning to look like, and feel like, civil war. [This week] ambushed a minibus full of policeman north-west of Baghdad, killing 11 of them and a civilian. In Ramadi, clashes between US troops and insurgents left eight dead and 18 wounded. Responsibility for the attacks in Baghdad and Baquba was claimed yesterday by Tawhid and Jihad, Iraq's shadowy and fastest-growing militant group, allegedly linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.[But] the real identities of the insurgents remain opaque. They undoubtedly include a handful of foreign fighters, but the majority are Iraqi nationalists violently opposed to the continuing occupation of their country."

AP: "Saboteurs have attacked about 20 oil pipelines in southern Iraq, reducing exports from the key oil producing region by at least one third. The cluster of pipelines was attacked late Wednesday in Berjasiya, 20 miles southwest of the southern city of Basra. The pipelines, which connect the Rumeila oil fields to Berjasiya, were still ablaze Thursday. AP showed huge plumes of black smoke and flames leaping from the Zubayr 1 pumping station. Emergency workers struggled to douse the fires with water hoses."

No wonder the PTSD rate is runnig so high in Iraq! Telegraph: "An artillery shell exploded 600 yds away as Radhi Salman 25, his son Rassaq, 11, and daughter Najwa, two, were lowered into the arid ground. A gravedigger waved a white cloth at an aircraft overhead. "Hurry up," he urged the Salmans. "The other day the Americans fired at a funeral group." Rahdi, a farmer, and his children were killed in a village near Baghdad when an American convoy was ambushed and a Humvee machine gunner raked the street. Near the graveyard entrance soldiers had stopped a Toyota van with another coffin tied to the roof. Specialist Brian Phillips, 21, was ordered to open the lid."Oh my Jesus Christ," he exclaimed. "He's got a f****** bullet hole right through his face. It's disgusting."He jumped down from the van and vomited in a clump of bushes.The mother of the dead man began wailing and shouting."Hey," Staff Sgt Brandon George shouted. "Grandma over there is freaking out. Calm her down."

ABC: Plumes of black smoke rose above the embattled city of Najaf Tuesday after US warplanes bombed insurgent positions overnight and supporters of a radical cleric charged that shrapnel from a U.S. attack had hit parts of the Imam Ali Shrine... Later Monday, U.S. warplanes bombed the area of the Old City, and fires lit up the night sky. An aide to al-Sadr, said shrapnel hit the shrine's golden dome, one of its minarets and the compound's outer wall. The U.S. military denied damaging the shrine and said an air crew saw militants in the compound fire a rocket that clipped one of the walls and explode 10 yards outside."{This is EXACTLY what Saddam Hussein claimed when he damaged the shrine some years ago - can't Rumsfeld even think up an original line?] "We are not doing anything that could have caused damage to the shrine," Marine Capt. Carrie Batson said." Yeah, right - surrounding it with tanks and gunfire and bombing the immediate area aren't intended to inflict "damage!"

Last week, journalist Scott Baldouf and a delegation of journalists gained access to the Najaf Shrine. As they went in, a US officer told them ominously that the shrine probably wouldn't be there much longer. Now Reuters reports:"US tanks advanced to within 800 metres (yards) of the Imam Ali mosque in the Iraqi city of Najaf on Sunday after talks on surrendering control of the shrine at the centre of an 18-day siege ran into trouble." Muslims throughout the world have warned that destruction of the shrine would represent the ultimate outrage - and insure the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of new terrorists. To show his 'dominance' over one band of insurgents, will Bush bring irreparable disaster down on Iraq and, ultimately, Americans?

Sarah Whalen writes: "Some sections of the US media and some "terrorism experts" in the US have already decided what fate Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr should meet. "Why not just kill him?" Fox News asks. Why not, indeed? ...Important things are at stake, not least of which is neoconservatism's survival. Sadr's growing reputation as an Iraqi leader unfettered and unbeholden to the US means future Iraqi politics, including elections, "could get messy," complains [FOX Bush shill] Maj. Gen. Bob Scales. Sadr's survival could "affect the democratization of Iraq" and cause "perceptions" that US-led "democratization is not on the right path." But the Neocon delusion that the Second Gulf War was actually a repressed Iraqi national desire, and that Iraqis now truly govern themselves, continues: "If (Sadr) dies," Fox "experts" insist, "he needs to die with an Iraqi bullet in him." As if there was one truly Iraqi bullet to be found in all of Iraq."

Recently, an incredibly brave group of journalists (there ARE some out there still, thankfully!) entered the embattled Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf. Scott Baldauf reports the group's goals: "First, to seek what may be the final comments of the top leadership of Moqtada al-Sadr's Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, who were taking shelter in the holy site. Second, we wanted to help two colleagues, freelance photographer Thorne Anserson and freelance reporter Philip Robertson, get out of the shrine after they had spent a harrowing three days at the epicenter of this armed showdown.."You realize that what you are doing is risky," said a US Army major, whose last name was Robertson. "That shrine might not be around much longer." Does this mean that news has already circulated amongs troops on the ground that Bush plans to provoke the ultimate disaster in Iraqi relations in a colossally pointless show of cowboy "power"?

AFP via Bloomberg: " Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr invited Pope John Paul II to try to mediate an end to the standoff in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf. ``We welcome the offer from the Pope at the Vatican and we invite him to solve the crisis,'' AFP cited Sheikh Ahmed al- Shaibani, as saying. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, said yesterday the Pope would mediate if asked, AFP reported." It is now 8/21 and not only has Bush failed to respond, but the US media - aside from Bloomberg - has failed to report the story of the Pope's offer. Instead, all we have heard about is Bush's cowboy 'ultimatums."

Here's the real story, as pieced together from foreign reports: Al Sadr agreed to negotiate peace with the Pope as a mediator. The Pope agreed, but only on condition that both sides (al Sadr and Bush's people) agree. Bush refused. But in the meantime, the US media, carefully omitting the Papal offer, reports only that Al Sadr has agreed to negotiate in response to a US "ultimatum", no doubt to give the appearance that Bushie machismo, not the Pope, has prevailed. Al Sadr, enraged at being depicted as caving to an ultimatum rescinds his offer to negotiate. The US media has repeatedly reported that Al Sadr has reneged on agreements to negotiate. Now we wonder how many of these turns have been in response to the unreported "rest of the story." Here's the background: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/22640BD9-6513-4705-B6A2-7C8E6AEDF1C6.htm Now here's the story being given out by the US, where all "bad faith" is laid at Al Sadr's door.

Conspicuously absent from US reports about Mugtada al Sadr's willingness to negotiate peace terms is any mention of the reason why: the Pope. Al Jazeera reports: "The Vatican has confirmed that Pope John Paul II is ready to mediate between Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr and US-led occupation forces. A spokesman for al-Sadr, whose forces are locked in an intense battle inside the city with US-led troops, has already welcomed the proposal. But Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini said on Tuesday the Pope was only willing to mediate if requested to do so by both sides in the conflict." Al Sadr has agreed, but will the US? Or will Bush, as usual, hold a grudge and refuse to allow anyone but himself and his hand-picked "ambassadors" to take credit for progress? The fact that the US papers are not mentioning this important story seems indicative.

Al Jazeera: "When the US wanted a Shia cleric to strengthen the credibility of the IGC, it turned to Muhammed Bahr al-Ulum (former Pres. of the Iraqi Gov. Council), whose family had lost many members for opposing Saddam Hussein. But watching his hometown of Najaf come under US bombardment to crush Muqtada al-Sadr and his supporters, Bahr al-Ulum has lost faith in US intentions towards Iraq, and says millions of moderates like him, who welcomed last year's invasion, now regard Washington as an enemy. "The Americans have turned the holy city into a ghost town. They are now seen as full of hatred against Najaf and the Shia. Nothing I know of will change this," the former president of the now defunct council said on Friday."I do not understand why America craves crisis. A peaceful solution to the confrontation with Muqtada could have been reached. We were hoping that Prime Minister Iyad Allawi would lead the way, but he sided with oppression."

AP: "Shiite radical leader Moqtada Al Sadr said the Iraqi people wanted the US-backed caretaker government of Eyad Allawi to resign and insisted he would not take up any post under US occupation. Al Sadr said "the war on Najaf" had been launched because he had stood up for the Iraqi people's rights, demanding the restoration of services, and because he had refused to take part in a national conference opening Sunday. "Had I agreed to participate and not pressed for the people's rights, they ...would not have targeted me and targeted the Shiites," he said. "But no - I will never take up any post so long as the occupation is there. There can be no politics under occupation, no freedom under occupation, no democracy under occupation. Let the occupation (forces) get out and ... the Iraqi people are capable of governing Iraq. There will be no civil war" as the United States claims there would be in the absence of multinational forces."

News24: "Heavy overnight American bombardment of Kut has killed 75 people and wounded about 150, one day after clashes between police and Shiite Muslim militiamen in the southern Iraqi city, a senior medic said on Thursday. Kut hospital director, Khader Fadal Arar [said]:'They destroyed 18 houses and killed 56 people and injured more than 110, some of them very seriously,' he said. Many of the dead and wounded were women and children, Arar added.' The bombing was retaliation for a gun battle in which two US guardsmen were killed. However, it appears that few of the insurgent fighters were killed in the lethal bombing. 'Said supporter of the militia leader, Sheikh Mohammed Yihyiah: 'Our office has been destroyed because it was in the same district, fortunately there was no one in the office that's why we have no casualties.' "

On CBS on 8/12 (among other US corporate outlets), the chief mockingbird (er...correspondent), Kimberly Dozier, reported that the US is running up against a "new" kind of fighter in Najaf and elsewhere and hinted darkly that they were from outside the country and thus probably from Iran (Bush's next "evil" target). But there is evidence most of the recent wave of "foreign fighters" are in fact ex-patriot Iraqis returning from the west to fight what they perceive as an illegal occupation. Some say Bush made the decision for them: "Bush said 'you are either with us or against us'," [said one ex-patirot]. "We had to decide either to be with him or against him, and we are against him definitely...Bin Laden and his group are totally against our belief, killing innocent civilians...That is terrorism, this is defending your country."

Independent: "American forces claimed yesterday to have killed 300 Shia insurgents in Najaf over two days of some of the most intense fighting since the end of the war [sic] against Saddam Hussein's regime 16 months ago. The battle - which raged at its bloodiest in Najaf but also spread to Shia areas elsewhere in Iraq - marked the shattering of the fragile truce that two months ago had ended a previous uprising led by the Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr. Smoke rose from the old city in the centre of Najaf after helicopter gunships attacked insurgents said to be hiding in a cemetery close to the sacred shrine of Imam Ali." Although the Pentagon claims only insurgents were killed and only the "insurgent stronghold" was attacked, "Footage [from AP] showed roadside stalls burning as shops closed, leaving many streets deserted. A woman's body was shown abandoned on an empty footpath."

AP: "NAJAF, Iraq - Militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia battled U.S. and Iraqi troops Thursday in the holy city of Najaf, sparking clashes in other Shiite areas that killed at least 20 Iraqis and a U.S. soldier. An al-Sadr spokesman threatened a 'revolution' unless American forces agree to a new cease-fire. During the daylong fighting in Najaf, a U.S. helicopter was shot down and its wounded crew evacuated. A revered Shiite shrine was also slightly damaged, witnesses said. U.S. warplanes bombed a cemetery on the outskirts of the city where militants were hiding, the military said. The fighting raised fears of a return of the large-scale uprising launched in April by al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which at that time battled U.S. and coalition troops in several cities in the first major Shiite violence against the Americans. The confrontation dragged on for two months, until Iraqi politicians and religious leaders worked out a series of truces." Now it's all coming undone.

Boston Globe: "A suicide car bomb tore through a downtown shopping area yesterday northeast of Baghdad as young men lined up to apply for police jobs, killing as many as 68 prospective recruits, commuters, and other civilians in the deadliest attack since the Iraqi government regained sovereignty a month ago. Also yesterday, in a clash south of the capital, 35 insurgents and seven Iraqi troops were killed, bringing the single-day death toll to more than 100.The explosion in Baqubah was one of the deadliest car bombings since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, showing that the violence has not abated despite hopes that the transition to Iraqi sovereignty would halt attacks on Iraqi security forces and civilians."

Back when the Pentagon was trying to float the story that Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun had deserted rather than having been kidnapped, we were highly skeptical. Afterall, how would anyone KNOW that he had deserted? It's not like he'd leave a note: "Hey, I'm deserting...see ya later." Instead, we suspected Hassoun, a Muslim born in Lebanon, was the victim of a thinly-veiled anti-Arab smear designed to hide the fact that even Marines are not exempt from becoming kidnapping victims. We suspect that the reason Hassoun was given reasonable treatment and later released by his captors is that he, unlike other captives, spoke fluent Arabic and French, making it possible to communicate more effectively - i.e., talk his way out.

Scott Ritter writes, "The architect of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, recently told members of Congress that the Pentagon had underestimated its enemy in Iraq. The Pentagon today speaks of a 'marriage of convenience' between Islamic fundamentalists and former members of Saddam's Ba'athist regime, even speculating that the Islamists are taking over Ba'athist cells weakened by American anti-insurgency efforts. Once again, the Pentagon has it wrong. U.S. policy in Iraq is still unable or unwilling to face the reality of the enemy on the ground. The Iraqi resistance is no emerging 'marriage of convenience,' but rather a product of planning years in the making. Rather than being absorbed by a larger Islamist movement, Saddam's former lieutenants are calling the shots in Iraq, having co-opted the Islamic fundamentalists years ago, with or without their knowledge."

Now that Bremer and Tenet are gone, some decent intelligence is finally starting to appear about the "enemy" in Iraq. US officials now concede there are as many as 20,000 insurgents, not just 5,000. Moreover, " the guerrillas have enough popular support among nationalist Iraqis angered by the presence of U.S. troops that they cannot be militarily defeated." Who are they? "Guerrilla leaders come from various corners of Saddam's Baath Party, including lawyers' groups, prominent families and especially from his Military Bureau, an internal security arm used to purge enemies. They've formed dozens of cells." What do they want? "Most of the insurgents are fighting for a bigger role in a secular society, not a Taliban-like Islamic state." "Too much U.S. analysis is fixated on terms like 'jihadist,' just as it almost mindlessly tries to tie everything to (Osama) bin Laden," Cordesman said. "Every public opinion poll in Iraq ... supports the nationalist character of what is happening."

USA Today reports, "Suspected foreign fighters account for less than 2% of the 5,700 captives being held as security threats in Iraq, a strong indication that Iraqis are largely responsible for the stubborn insurgency. Since last August, coalition forces have detained 17,700 people in Iraq who were considered to be enemy fighters or security risks, and about 400 were foreign nationals, according to figures supplied last week by the U.S. military command handling detention operations in Iraq. Most of those detainees were freed after a review board found they didn't pose significant threats. About 5,700 remain in custody, 90 of them non-Iraqis." So who is the "enemy" in Iraq? Primarily, it is a resistance movement of Iraqis led by Saddam's ex-military. They are fighting against a US-controlled government - just as Americans would fight against a foreign-controlled government.

William Bowles writes "UK Independent (7/6/04) has a front page story titled 'A video nasty: Terror chief shows off his deadly work' and is about yet another 'foreign-led' group of 'militants' purportedly headed by the one-legged Jordanian and 'right-hand man' of Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Yet the story presents not a single shred of evidence to support the title nor if the mono-pedal perpetrator even exists, aside that is from 'received opinion', largely that of US intelligence sources and we know just how reliable they are... Frankly, I've rarely read such unmitigated rubbish in my life, all of it based on a single video that comes from who knows where and imbued with Ware's fanciful musings on a 'network' that even the US government is forced to admit doesn't exist. Shame on you Independent for inflicting such unsupported drivel on us." Bowles is meticulous in his critique, but his response from reporter Andy Buncombe is bush*t. Tell the media: no more bush*t!

The "revised" story being given out on the abduction of Wasef Ali Hassoun by an "anonymous" officer is fishy, for sure. Seems Hassoun had been "emotionally traumatized" by the war and was in the process of deserting, making his way back to his birth country of Lebanon. Not only that, but that he had been befriended by 'Muslims on the base' who helped him desert, then turned him over to the terrorists. HELLO! How would the "anonymous officer" KNOW any of this? Did Hassoun come up and say, "Hey, man, I'm deserting tomorrow," followed later by the confession of the mysterious Muslims on the base that they had turned Hassoun over to terrorists? This reads more like a script from the House of Rove - sounds good on paper, but doesn't past the reality smell test. 'Course now we'll be hearing manufactured "statements" appearing to validate it all.

Who are we actually fighting in Iraq? Bush and the corporate media don't want us to know. But Alix de la Grange of Asia Times arranged a secret interview with two generals and a colonel of the disbanded Iraqi army, who are leading the resistance. They say Saddam's army had no intention of fighting the US during its invasion, but instead melted away with a plan for a long-term guerilla war, using 50 million conventional weapons they stashed away. "Essentially composed by Ba'athists (Sunni and Shi'ite), the resistance currently regroups 'all movements of national struggle against the occupation, without confessional, ethnic or political distinction. Contrary to what you imagine in the West, there is no fratricide war in Iraq. We have a united front against the enemy. From Fallujah to Ramadi, and including Najaf, Karbala and the Shi'ite suburbs of Baghdad, combatants speak with a single voice.' "

Toronto Star: "Iraqi insurgents painted red the treacherous road to sovereignty yesterday, launching a five-city killing spree that left about 100 people dead and 320 wounded. The northern city of Mosul was hardest hit when multiple morning car bombings killed 62 people, including one U.S. soldier, and wounded 220. Dozens more died in almost simultaneous attacks on Iraqi security forces compounds in the Sunni Muslim strongholds of Falluja, Ramadi and Baquba. Most of the victims in Mosul -- often touted as a success story in restoring order in Iraq -- were killed when at least four car bombs rocked the police academy, two police stations and the al-Jumhuri hospital...Mosul's governor imposed an overnight curfew. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and seven were wounded during an ambush in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, where running battles continued into the afternoon."

Independent: "The handover of power in Iraq - now a mere 10 days away - appeared to be in a state of renewed crisis yesterday after a US air strike on homes in Fallujah brought to an end a week in which large-scale violence once again boiled to the surface. Around 20 civilians, including eight women and children, are said to have died in the attack, which follows Thursday's devastating car bomb outside a Baghdad army recruitment centre." The Fallujah bombing caps a week of escalating violence, with attacks on oil pipelines, pitched battles between US troops and insurgents, and the assassination of another Coalition minister. The US retaliatory killing of civilians seems more aimed at prolonging the violence and jeopardizing the alleged handover of power than at curbing conflict.

Independent: "Saboteurs blasted a key pipeline today for the second time in as many days, halting all oil exports from Iraq, officials said. Gunmen killed the top security official of the state-run Northern Oil company as insurgents stepped up attacks on Iraq's infrastructure. Today's attack north of the town of Faw crippled two already damaged pipelines, forcing a halt in all Iraqi oil exports southward through the Gulf, Southern Oil Company spokesman Samir Jassim said. 'Due to the damage inflicted on the two pipelines, the pumping of oil to the Basra oil terminal has completely stopped,' Jassim said. 'Exports have come to halt.' "

WashPost: "The travelers entered Fallujah first through a checkpoint operated by the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, a U.S.-trained paramilitary unit ... The men in black berets distractedly waved cars past... Then it became apparent who was really in charge. A few yards in, wild-eyed young men in masks pulled cars over at will, searched them and demanded identification documents. No one could leave or enter without passing muster. Other groups of fighters in masks roamed side streets and alleys, brandishing rifles at all sorts of angles. It was not supposed to be like this. Under an agreement made last month with U.S. Marine commanders, a new force called the Fallujah Brigade, led by former officers from Saddam Hussein's demobilized army, was to safeguard the city. The unruly gunmen -- many of them insurgents who battled the Marines through most of April -- were supposed to give way to Iraqi police and civil defense units."

Al Jazeera: "Two Japanese freelance journalists have been killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on their vehicle south of Baghdad. "Hospital director Imad al-Maliki told reporters on Friday the bodies were completely unrecognisable after the attack on Thursday afternoon, but the driver of the vehicle had told him they were the bodies of two Japanese freelance journalists. Japan's foreign ministry, which confirmed the attack said the two involved were Shinsuke Hashida, a well-known 61-year-old freelance journalist, and his nephew, 33-year-old Kotaro Ogawa. The journalists were returning from Japan's military base in the southern town of Samawa when they were attacked near the town of Mahmudiya, about 30 km south of Baghdad, a spokesman for Japanese forces in Iraq told reporters."

NY Times: "With only weeks to go until an Iraqi government takes over, American officials have failed to disarm the tens of thousands of fighters in private militias deployed almost exclusively along ethnic and religious lines But with the sharp deterioration of the security situation in recent months, American officials appear to have resigned themselves to working with militias...even as American soldiers die fighting them in street battles." Why didn't Bush & Co. work with the militias before? Because Bush wanted complete control of Iraq, the better to exploit its resources. But had Bush worked with the original militias, created to protect home and hearth, a single, trained Iraq security force might exist today instead of dozens of politically motivated militas, thereby permitting elections and a real transfer of sovereignty instead of a cheap PR show designed for Bush's campaign.

Reuters: "Pools of blood lay inside the green-domed Sahla mosque, one of three main shrines in Kufa just outside Najaf, and spent cartridges littered the courtyard on Sunday. A tank had smashed down the door of the building, where U.S. troops said they found weapons." But, once again, US accounts clash with Iraqi accounts. While a US army spokesman said that 20 Mehdi militia were killed after during the raid, staff at the main hospital in Najaf said they had taken in 14 dead and 37 wounded, mostly civilians. "About 100 Kufa residents gathered to inspect the damage. 'I feel humiliated,' said Ali Wasi. 'Our sanctity has been violated. These houses of prayer are the most valuable things we own, for Shi'ites. I will resist them until the last drop of blood in my body,' he said, speaking in the mosque's courtyard."

AP: "The head of Iraqi Governing Council was killed Monday in a car bombing near a U.S. checkpoint in central Baghdad, an Iraqi official said. Abdel-Zahraa Othman, also known as Izzadine Saleem, was among four Iraqis killed in the blast, according to Redha Jawad Taki, a member of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite Muslim organization known as SCIRI. Saleem, the name he went by most frequently, was a Shiite and leader of the Islamic Dawa Movement in the southern city of Basra. He was a writer, philosopher and political activist, who served as editor of several newspapers and magazines. The attack took place amid rising turmoil in Iraq as this country prepares for the United States to transfer power to an Iraqi interim government June 30. It underscores the risks facing those perceived as owing their power to the Americans." The delusional Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz claimed that the Iraqis would throw rose petals at Americans and our fellow "liberators."

"British troops in Iraq last week suffered more attacks than at any time since the end of the war as anger at allegations of abuse of prisoners brought an upsurge in violence, the Ministry of Defence revealed last night.... Eleven British soldiers were injured in 100 engagements with Iraqi gunmen in and around the cities of Basra and al Amarah in the week following publication of the pictures. An MoD spokesman said the number of attacks on British troops had doubled since publication of the allegations: 'This has been the worst week since the end of the war,' he said."

Harvey Wasserman writes: "Thirty years after defeat in Vietnam, while the mainstream media contorts itself with oil-free justifications for the Bush attack on Iraq, George Will speaks clearly. An administration that does not believe in democracy is not in Iraq to impose democracy. It is there, says Will, to maintain the empire. Yes, he's used the E word and is proud of it. But what he doesn't say is that the empire is in the process of getting its butt kicked. Again. The mainstream debate is now about whether or not the US should have gotten into Iraq, and how to maintain its presence. But few are facing the reality that when the US finally leaves Iraq---and it will---in defeat and disgrace, its personnel are likely to be fleeing embassy rooftops by helicopter, yanked skyward as desperately as in Saigon on this day in 1975."

Judy Nichols writes: "Burned bodies hanging from an Iraqi bridge. Rows of flag-draped coffins filling the belly of an aircraft. The face of a hometown football hero killed in Afghanistan flickering on the television. They are images in a landscape of death. One night last week, the images drove Silvia Salas from her bed at about 2 a.m. Drove her outside with thoughts of her son, Gustavo, 24, an Army private in Iraq. 'I looked up at the sky, and I thought about how my son is under the same sky that I am, but I'm safe and he is not,' she said. 'And I wanted to run and run, and to ask somebody, 'Why? Why?' ' The images fill Americans with horror and rip at the collective resolve."

What's the difference between the Pentagon top brass and the Marine Corps? Give up? The Marine Corps still has "a few good men!" A very reliable source tells us that something of a rebellion has been brewing between the Marines on the ground around Fallujah and the Pentagon brass. The Pentagon was all for cowboy Bush tactics - bomb 'em into submission. Which of course only creates a bigger problem in the long run. The Marines opted for the better solution from the dismal selection the situation offered: pull back and let the Iraqis sort it out, thereby easing tensions and sparing lives. A Pentagon spokesman on Wednesday stated angrily that he didn't know anything about a plan that involved pulling back. Now today, seems like the Marines prevailed and at least some hope for relief in Fallujah may now be on the horizon.

The recent reports filed by Reuters and Al Jazeera journalists on the ground in Fallujah contradict the official Pentagon line that US troops are pulling out of the city. Today, "US soldiers have fired on a minibus full of civilians near a checkpoint on the outskirts of the besieged Iraqi town of Falluja. Witnesses said a hail of bullets from occupation forces on Thursday turned the vehicle into a ball of fire." Four civilians apparently died in the incident. Al Jazeera's correspondent in Falluja, Abd al-Adhim Muhammad, said 24 Iraqis were wounded during the US bombardment on Wednesday night." A Reuters reporter says lack of food and medical supplies has become critical.

Christian Science Monitor: "Far from limited to a small group of 'dead-enders' and Saddam 'thugs' as Pentagon officials claim, the armed opposition to the US occupation in Iraq has reached the point where some experts say it threatens to become a full-fledged nationalist insurgency. Bolstered by former Iraqi military and security personnel, today's insurgents are at the least conducting increasingly sophisticated coordinated attacks. In addition, they have built networks to recruit fighters, make weapons, and funnel funds from Iraqi businesses and charitable groups, military experts say."

Reuters reporter Fadel al-Badrani filed an eyewitness report of what is happening on the ground in Fallujah. Al-Badrani describes the situation as a "severe humanitarian crisis", with a critical lack of water and electricity supplies, and shortages of foods and medicines. "No aid is getting into Falluja right now. There are many families that cannot leave their houses because of the American snipers... I've just heard that a family was killed in a civilian car, by US forces. The family was allowed into the city in a lull in the fighting. When the fighting resumed they were caught up in it. I'm told that they were hit by American fire from a plane." Local doctor Sabah Alani says the siege and shelling is increasing support for the insurgents... "I don't support [the insurgents], but the way the Americans have dealt with and are dealing with this city makes me hate every American here, more and more. We are being driven to hate them - me and everyone else here."

A total of 10 US soldiers have died in Baghdad in less than 24 hours. The Independent reports: "Eight US soldiers were killed today in the Baghdad area, a US military spokesman said. Media reports said the troops were killed in a car bomb attack, but the spokesman had no details. The deaths came after another US soldier was killed today by a rocket-propelled grenade attack on his patrol in eastern Baghdad, the military said. Another soldier was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy outside the city of Baqouba, 24 miles north of the capital. The deaths raises to 126 the number of US service members killed in combat in April, the bloodiest month for US forces in Iraq."

Bush's commander in Iraq have ordered the bombing of sites throughout a crowded urban area (Fallujah), which has led to the deaths and injuries of hundreds of civilians. The excuse being spooned to the press: "Marines responded by directing precision weaponry against enemy forces in order to defend themselves." But actual footage of the results of the attack reveal anything but self defense or precision targeting. BBC: "Over the pictures of the American attack, al-Jazeera broadcast an interview with a cleric in Baghdad, who commented that the Americans were targeting ordinary civilians and that they were trying to destroy everything. Local doctors say that since then, hundreds of civilians have been killed."

Al-Jazeera reports: "At least one American soldier and eight resistance fighters have been killed during the fiercest clashes in Falluja since a truce was declared more than two weeks ago. A CNN journalist embedded with US troops in Falluja reported that at least 10 marines had been injured." The Falluja delegation chief, Shaikh Muhammad Hamad al-Shihan appealed directly to the UN's Kofi Annan to intervene to stop what al-Shihan describes as war crimes and a situation that "can no longer bear the actions of the occupation forces who are behaving outside all international laws."

Al Jazeera:. "Civilians, including children, and a US soldier have been killed and three wounded in a roadside bomb blast followed by a gun battle in Baghdad. The children were killed after being caught in the crossfire of a gun battle that followed the blast on Sunday, a US occupation military spokesman said. "One of our Task Force Baghdad soldiers was killed and three others were wounded as a result of an improvised explosive device explosion," said Lieutenant-Colonel James Hutton, spokesman for the US Army's 1st Cavalry Division. He said occupation troops who later sought to recover the Humvee vehicle damaged in the blast returned fire after being targeted from rooftops. "Civilians, apparently including children, were caught in the crossfire," the spokesman said. " US reports of this incident have scrubbed any reference to child deaths - as they have done with photos of flag-draped coffins.

UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi "warned of a disaster if American soldiers enter [Fallujah] to hunt down a radical cleric. 'Sending the tanks hauling into a place like this is not the right thing to do, and I think the Americans know that extremely well now.' Brahimi, in an interview taped Friday in Paris, said as a diplomat, he considers military force the wrong answer for any problem. That's especially the case with Fallujah, west of Baghdad in the so-called Sunni Triangle, and Najaf, in the southern Shiite region, he said. 'When you surround a city, you bomb the city, when people cannot go to hospital, what name do you have for that? And you, if you have enemies there, this is exactly what they want you to do, to alienate more people so that more people support them rather than you. In this situation, there is no military solution.' "

We seriously question whether the Falluja cease-fire touted by the Pentagon was anything more than yet the latest propaganda offering. Reports from Al Jazeera and other independent news outlets say things are in fact getting worse in Falluja. AJ reports: "Ferocious fighting in the Iraqi town of Falluja has grown so intense that US occupation forces have begun destroying buildings and homes...the exchange of fire in the Golan quarter grew so fierce that troops had to call in helicopter support on Wednesday." an AJ reporter said he personally witnessed two US air gunships destroy four homes in al-Mutasim quarter." To make matters worse, many insurgents immediately started to use the ruined buildings for cover.

The Guardian: "The threat is clear. 'Do not go out of your homes. Keep your families off the streets,' the leaflet says. 'The Combined Mujahideen Brigades are coming to Baghdad.' This weekend, the capital of Iraq was waiting. The violence engulfing the country has ebbed - a little. But no one knows if this is just a pause before even worse unrest. No one knows if the 20 or so Western hostages still held by rebels will be released unharmed - or killed. No one knows which roads are safe or how many more rockets, mortars and bombs - supposedly aimed at American troops, but landing largely at random - will smash down on this frightened city. Yesterday, though talks continued in Falluja, it was clear that grave problems remain... The ability of the insurgents to cause serious casualties is not in doubt. More than 90 American soldiers have been killed in April, more than died in last year's three-week war. "

AFP: "Tension rose in [Najaf] as backers of wanted cleric Moqtada Sadr said mediation efforts with the US-led coalition had failed and they feared American troops were poised to attack. Mediations with the US side have been halted because the mediators have told us the Americans are putting obstacles towards finding solutions to the crisis and the situation is getting worse, Qais al-Khazaali, the head of Sadr's office told reporters in Najaf." Najaf, considered a stronghold of Shi'ite power, has a population of 609,000. Sanchez, Rummy, et al. have deployed just 2,500 US soldiers to try to reclaim the city.

AP: "In Fallujah's darkened, empty streets, U.S. troops blast AC/DC's 'Hell's Bells' and other rock music full volume from a huge speaker, hoping to grate on the nerves of this Sunni Muslim city's gunmen and give a laugh to Marines along the front line. Unable to advance farther into the city, an Army psychological operations team hopes a mix of heavy metal and insults shouted in Arabic - including, 'You shoot like a goat herder' - will draw gunmen to step forward and attack...The Marines' psychological operations came as U.S. negotiators were pressing Fallujah representatives to get gunmen in the city to abide by a cease-fire... At night, the psychological operations unit attached to the Marine battalion here sends out messages from a loudspeaker mounted on an armored Humvee. On Thursday night, the crew and its Arabic-language interpreter taunted fighters, saying, 'May all the ambulances in Fallujah have enough fuel to pick up the bodies of the mujahadeen.' "

Deutsche-Welle reports: " Iraq's leading Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has warned the United States against entering the holy city of Najaf in pursuit of Moqtada al-Sadr, Shi'ite religious and political sources said on Thursday. Sistani, a political rival of rebel cleric Sadr, has issued statements in the past urging respect for law and order and the sanctity of Iraq's holy places, but he has refrained from commenting directly on the Shi'ite uprising by Sadr's militiamen. A 2,500-strong U.S. force is currently near Najaf after soldiers were sent south from bases north of Baghdad." Considering the fact that there are only 2,500 US troops outside Najaf , which has a population of 609,000, an attack would seem to be - to put it mildly - bad judgment.

CBC: "Iraqis disguised as police officers abducted an American businessman from his hotel in Basra, said police chief Col. Khalaf al-Maleki. In Denmark, public television is reporting that a Danish man working on a sewage project in Iraq was kidnapped near the city of Basra. Denmark supported the U.S.-led war and has roughly 400 troops in Iraq. The Chinese Embassy confirmed a Chinese citizen kidnapped on Wednesday is at the embassy in Baghdad. Earlier in the week, seven Chinese men were released by their Iraqi captors. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says the government has no information about the fate of two Japanese citizens believed abducted. The two journalists disappeared on Wednesday. "

Erich Marquardt writes for PINR: "As Iraq descends further into anarchy, many Americans are beginning to have doubts over whether the United States will be able to foster a democratic government in Baghdad, or whether Washington will be able to bring stability to the country... In the last week, there has been a sudden increase in U.S. casualties; more importantly, however, these casualties have been quite publicized, culminating in the March 31 mutilation of four former U.S. soldiers who were attacked while traveling through Fallujah in a sports utility vehicle. Their deaths became a media spectacle, with video feeds of angry Iraqis tying one charred, blackened body to the back of a truck and then dragging the remains down a street; later two badly burnt corpses were strung up and hanged on a bridge over the Euphrates River."

"The United States knows it has to seek a compromise with Moqtada al-Sadr, given the Shi'ite cleric's strong support and the sanctity of the city he is in, Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi said on Wednesday. Chalabi, a long-time ally of Washington, said US forces massing round the holy city of Najaf would face the wrath of millions of Shi'ites worldwide if they entered the city to capture or kill Sadr. 'Najaf must not be touched. This is what we told the coalition. We must seek a peaceful solution.' "

UK Guardian: "April 9, 2003 was the day Baghdad fell to US forces. One year later, it is rising up against them. Donald Rumsfeld claims that the resistance is just a few 'thugs, gangs and terrorists'. This is dangerous wishful thinking. The war against the occupation is now being fought out in the open, by regular people defending their homes and neighbourhoods - an Iraqi intifada... For months the White House has been making ominous predictions of a civil war breaking out between the majority Shias, who believe it's their turn to rule Iraq, and the minority Sunnis... But this week the opposite appears to have taken place. Both Sunni and Shia have seen their neighbourhoods attacked and their religious sites desecrated. Up against a shared enemy, they are beginning to bury ancient rivalries and join forces against the occupation. Instead of a civil war, they are on the verge of building a common front."

UK Telegraph: "Leaflets handed out on the streets of Baghdad yesterday suggested growing co-operation between Sunni and Shia guerrillas amid signs that Iraqis are beginning to unite against a common American foe. The handouts carried a 'joint statement' by the Mahdi militia, loyal to the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, and the 'Army of Fallujah', fighting US forces in the besieged Sunni city 30 miles west of Baghdad. They were distributed in the capital's al-Ala'am suburb and declared six districts of Baghdad a 'military area...Guerrillas operating in the area where the handouts were distributed are largely Sunni. They appear to be preparing to help Sadr by obstructing the route that US forces would take in an attack on his Najaf stronghold."

AP: "With each new battle in Iraq two things are tallied: The enemy killed and the enemy created. That observation by retired CIA operations officer Milt Bearden highlights one of the U.S. military's worst dilemmas: as it fights street by street to crush an insurgency, it is causing resentment among the very Iraqis whose hearts and minds it hopes to win. This week's siege on the city of Fallujah to capture suspects in the deaths and mutilations of civilian U.S. contractors brought condemnation even from one of the most pro-American members of the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council. 'These operations were a mass punishment for the people of Fallujah,' Adnan Pachachi told Al-Arabiya TV. 'It was not right to punish all the people of Fallujah and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal.'"

Rummy has given new and blacker depths to the slogan: "Bush Lies and our Soldiers die." Even as the Iraqi revolt spreads, with Shi'ites uniting with Sunnis, Rumsfeld continues to pander the Bush coverup spiel: It's just a few thugs. In reality, reports the Guardian :"The Sunni and Shia uprisings spread from Kirkuk in the north to Kut in the south. With the worst fighting since George Bush formally declared the war over last May, the coalition lost control of several areas. The most humiliating reverse was at Kut, when Ukrainian troops were forced out by a Shia militia." Worse still, "Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a moderate, refused to condemn Mr Sadr's uprising. Instead, he condemned "the methods used by occupation forces in the current escalating situation in Iraq ... and any action that disturbs order and prevents officials from carrying out their duties".

Lawrence Pintak writes: "The eruption of bloody clashes between Iraqi Shi'ites and Coalition forces... raise the frightening prospect that the U.S. could soon face a powerful new enemy, with potentially disastrous consequences in Iraq and beyond." Until now, the Shi'ites "have sat out both the post-Saddam Iraqi insurgency and the terror war against the U.S... With this weekend's events, all that could change." A confrontation with the Shi'ites "would, for the first time, expand the forces arrayed against the U.S. elsewhere in the world to include Islam's second-largest sect." Ironically, "what the Shi'ites in Iraq... demand of the U.S. is the very thing the U.S. demands of other Arab governments: Free and fair elections and an end to foreign interference. if the U.S. doesn't find a way to grant Iraqi Shi'ites the political voice their numbers deem that they deserve, we could well end up... 'with the worst of all worlds,' as Sen. Richard Lugar warned over the weekend."

Prior to the signing of the rush-job/photo-op Constitution in Iraq, targeted attacks against Americans had decreased. But in the few days since the March 8 signing, four Americans have been killed in targeted attacks: a marine on March 8 from a gunshot, a 1st Infantry soldier in a roadside bomb blast on March 9, and now, on Mar. 10, two American translators (both employees of the US-led coalition) were killed in a checkpoint ambush. In, addition while gunmen wounded three American soldiers near a stadium in Kirkuk. By rushing through the Constitution to boost his sagging poll numbers, Bush may have placed thousands of US soldiers and employees in Iraq in grave danger.