Is America noticing that the GI death rate in Iraq is not coming down? As of this note 1609 U.S. grunts have “officially” died in this “oil war (http://www.icasualties.org).” Please inform others. The articles below may be helpful in this effort:

-----

The Occupation, Year Two "Mission Accomplished" By ROBERT FISK
The Independent
Two years after "Mission Accomplished", whatever moral stature the United States could claim at the end of its invasion of Iraq has long ago been squandered in the torture and abuse and deaths at Abu Ghraib. That the symbol of Saddam Hussein's brutality should have been turned by his own enemies into the symbol of their own brutality is a singularly ironic epitaph for the whole Iraq adventure. We have all been contaminated by the cruelty of the interrogators and the guards and prison commanders.
But this is not only about Abu Ghraib. There are clear and proven connections now between the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the cruelty at the Americans' Bagram prison in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Curiously, General Janis Karpinski, the only senior US officer facing charges over Abu Ghraib, admitted to me a year earlier when I visited the prison that she had been at Guantanamo Bay, but that at Abu Ghraib she was not permitted to attend interrogations - which seems very odd.
A vast quantity of evidence has now been built up on the system which the Americans have created for mistreating and torturing prisoners. Is America noticing that the GI death rate in Iraq is not coming down? As of this note 1608 U.S. grunts have “officially” died in this “oil war (http://www.icasualties.org).” Please inform others. The articles below may be helpful in this effort:

-----

The Occupation, Year Two "Mission Accomplished" By ROBERT FISK
The Independent
Two years after "Mission Accomplished", whatever moral stature the United States could claim at the end of its invasion of Iraq has long ago been squandered in the torture and abuse and deaths at Abu Ghraib. That the symbol of Saddam Hussein's brutality should have been turned by his own enemies into the symbol of their own brutality is a singularly ironic epitaph for the whole Iraq adventure. We have all been contaminated by the cruelty of the interrogators and the guards and prison commanders.
But this is not only about Abu Ghraib. There are clear and proven connections now between the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the cruelty at the Americans' Bagram prison in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Curiously, General Janis Karpinski, the only senior US officer facing charges over Abu Ghraib, admitted to me a year earlier when I visited the prison that she had been at Guantanamo Bay, but that at Abu Ghraib she was not permitted to attend interrogations - which seems very odd.
A vast quantity of evidence has now been built up on the system which the Americans have created for mistreating and torturing prisoners. I have interviewed a Palestinian who gave me compelling evidence of anal rape with wooden poles at Bagram - by Americans, not by Afghans.
Many of the stories now coming out of Guantanamo - the sexual humiliation of Muslim prisoners, their shackling to seats in which they defecate and urinate, the use of pornography to make Muslim prisoners feel impure, the female interrogators who wear little clothing (or, in one case, pretended to smear menstrual blood on a prisoner's face) - are increasingly proved true. Iraqis whom I have questioned at great length over many hours, speak with candour of terrifying beatings from military and civilian interrogators, not just in Abu Ghraib but in US bases elsewhere in Iraq.
At the American camp outside Fallujah, prisoners are beaten with full plastic water bottles which break, cutting the skin. At Abu Ghraib, prison dogs have been used to frighten and to bite prisoners.
How did this culture of filth start in America's "war on terror"? The institutionalised injustice which we have witnessed across the world, the vile American "renditions" in which prisoners are freighted to countries where they can be roasted, electrified or, in Uzbekistan, cooked alive in fat? As Bob Herbert wrote in The New York Times, what seemed mind-boggling when the first pictures emerged from Abu Ghraib is now routine, typical of the abuse that has "permeated the Bush administration's operations".
Amnesty, in a chilling 200-page document in October, traced the permeation of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's memos into the prisoner interrogation system and the weasel-worded authorisation of torture. In August 2002, for example, only a few months after Bush spoke under the "Mission Accomplished" banner, a Pentagon report stated that "in order to respect the President's inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign, [the US law prohibiting torture] must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his Commander- in-Chief authority." What does that mean other than permission from Bush to torture?
A 2004 Pentagon report uses words designed to allow interrogators to use cruelty without fear of court actions: "Even if the defendant knows that severe pain will result from his actions, if causing such harm is not his objective, he lacks the requisite specific intent [to be guilty of torture] even though the defendant did not act in good faith."
The man who directly institutionalised cruel sessions of interrogation in Abu Ghraib was Major-General Geoffrey Miller, the Guantanamo commander who flew to Abu Ghraib to "Gitmo-ize the confinement operation" there. There followed the increased use of painful shackling and the frequent forcible stripping of prisoners. Maj-Gen Miller's report following his visit in 2003 spoke of the need for a detention guard force at Abu Ghraib that "sets the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of the internees/detainees". According to Gen Karpinski, Maj-Gen Miller said the prisoners "are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe they're more than a dog, then you've lost control of them".
The trail of prisons that now lies across Iraq is a shameful symbol not only of our cruelty but of our failure to create the circumstances in which a new Iraq might take shape. You may hold elections and create a government, but when this military sickness is allowed to spread, the whole purpose of democracy is overturned. The "new" Iraq will learn from these interrogation centres how they should treat prisoners and, inevitably, the "new" Iraqis will take over Abu Ghraib and return it to the status it had under Saddam and the whole purpose of the invasion (or at least the official version) will be lost.
With an insurgency growing ever more vicious and uncontrollable, the emptiness of Mr Bush's silly boast is plain. The real mission, it seems, was to institutionalise the cruelty of Western armies, staining us forever with the depravity of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Bagram - not to mention the secret prisons which even the Red Cross cannot visit and wherein who knows what vileness is conducted. What, I wonder, is our next "mission"?
Robert Fisk is a reporter for The Independent and author of Pity the Nation. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's collection, The Politics of Anti-Semitism. Fisk's new book, The Conquest of the Middle East, will be released this fall.

-----

Is the breakup of Iraq “plan b?” Read below:

The Price of Failure in Iraq
By: Juan Cole on: 10.05.2005 [04:14 ] (293 reads)


Bob Dreyfuss writes in Rolling Stone


(1423 bytes)


If it comes to civil war, the disintegration of Iraq will be extremely bloody. "The breakup of Iraq would be nearly as bad as the breakup of India in 1947," says David Mack, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state with wide experience in the Arab world. "The Kurds can't count on us to come in and save their bacon. Do they think we are going to mount an air bridge on their behalf?" Israel might support the Kurds, but Iran would intervene heavily in support of the Shiites with men, arms and money, while Arab countries would back their fellow Sunnis. "You'd see Jordan, Saudi Arabia, even Egypt intervening with everything they've got — tanks, heavy weapons, lots of money, even troops," says White, the former State Department official. "If they see the Sunnis getting beaten up by the Shiites, there will be extensive Arab support," agrees a U.S. Army officer. "There will be no holds barred."


The full horror of it has been expertly laid out here by Dreyfuss, with an acumen and imagination one doesn't see often in the MSM.

We live in a bizarro America where Jon Stewart's Daily Show and Rolling Stone are the venues for the real news, while the major cable news networks have confused themselves with the sort of thing the local tv stations out in places like Peoria do at 5:17 pm for their human interest segments.

But I think the interpretations below are far closer to the truth. Peace jamie

The price of failure in iraq
by Spies_and_Traitors_will_be_Shot on 10.05.2005 [07:04 ]
REPARTATIONS, WAR CRIMES TRIALS, AND NOOO OIL.

That's the price the US is going to pay.





#
this civil war scenario ...
by hellsbells on 10.05.2005 [11:20 ]
... is 'Plan B' in case 'Plan A' fails.

Crushing Iraq was always the zionist entity's dream. If it can't be done by occupation & colonisation, then it might be done by dismemberment.

But maybe Iraqis know all about this vile scheme, and won't co-operate.




-----

05/10/05 AP: U.S. Troops Battle Insurgents in Iraq
In Baghdad, two car bombs exploded during morning rush hour Tuesday, killing as many as seven and wounding 19, including three American soldiers, officials said.
05/10/05 ABC: Iraqi police vent anger at US after car bombings
Iraqi police hurled insults at US soldiers after two suicide car bomb blasts in Baghdad killed at least seven people and left 19 wounded, including policemen.
05/10/05 CENTCOM: SECOND MARINE DIES AFTER INDIRECT FIRE ATTACK
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died May 9 from injuries received from an indirect fire explosion. The incident took place during combat operations in Al Karmah.
05/10/05 AP: Three U.S. Marines killed in central Iraq
Three U.S. Marines were killed in central Iraq. A Marine died Monday of wounds inflicted in a bombing during combat operations in Nasser Wa Salaam. Two U.S. Marines were killed Monday by indirect fire during combat operations in Karmah.
05/10/05 KOTV: Injured Vinita Soldier Back Home From Iraq
After months of rehabilitation Marine Sgt. Jake Rhinehart returned home. “I was hit in my legs, my back, my arms, got 31 percent of my body burned, lost my left kidney, part of my intestines, part of my colon."
05/10/05 Forum: W. Fargo graduate injured in Iraq
Sgt. Ryan Cossette, 24, was on a patrol near Samarra when the incident occurred. The explosion fractured Cossette's right arm, which was also hit by shrapnel. A soldier sitting behind Cossette in the Humvee was killed.
05/10/05 Beaver County Times: Local soldier injured in Iraq
Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Justin Hendrickson, 22, did not suffer life-threatening injuries in the blast, though his arms, legs and cheeks apparently were injured by shrapnel, his mother, Diane Hendrickson, said Monday.
05/10/05 AP: Three Ohio Servicemen Killed in One Weekend in Iraq
Army Pfc. Nick Messmerdied in Iraq on Sunday, said his brother Joe Messmer, 23. Army Sgt. Andy Eckert, 24, of Toledo, was killed on Sunday by an explosion near his convoy. Marine Cpl. Dustin Derga, 24, of Columbus, died on Sunday.
05/10/05 Aljazeera: Iraqi rebels counter-attack U.S. offensive
On Monday night, rebels launched a counterattack 5 miles from U.S. Camp Gannon in Qaim, said U.S. Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool. They attacked a Marine convoy with small arms fire, RPG'S, roadside bombs and two car bombers.
05/10/05 Reuters: Saboteurs hit oil facility in north Iraq-spokesman
Saboteurs attacked a crude oil pipeline complex near the Kirkuk fields in northern Iraq on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry said.
05/10/05 mnf-iraq: Marine dies after indirect fire attack
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died May 9 of injuries from an indirect fire attack. The incident took place during combat operations in Al Karmah
05/10/05 mnf-iraq: Marine dies from IED injuries
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died May 9 from injuries received from an improvised explosion device.
05/10/05 Reuters: Suicide car bomb kills at least 7 in Baghdad
A suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near a U.S. military convoy in central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least seven Iraqis and wounding 16, police said. The U.S. military had no immediate information on any American casualties.
05/10/05 IRIN: New campaign to control brucellosis
A new plan to control brucellosis in Iraq is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) following recent reports of infection in animals. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is supervising the operation.
05/10/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Sgt. Michael A. Marzano, 28, of Greenville, Pa., died May 7 as the result of an explosion caused by suicide vehicle borne improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations in Hadithah, Iraq.
05/10/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Cpl. Dustin A. Derga, 24, of Columbus, Ohio, died May 8 as the result of enemy small arms fire while conducting combat operations in Ubaydi, Iraq. [He was] assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Div.
05/09/05 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Lance Cpl. Lawrence R. Philippon, 22, of Hartford, Conn., died May 8 from enemy small-arms fire while conducting combat operations in the vicinity of Al Qa’im, Iraq. Assigned to 3rd Bat., 2nd Marine Reg.t, 2nd Marine Div., II MEF
05/09/05 AP: The Marines’ flawed body armor
The Marine Corps issued to nearly 10,000 troops body armor that government experts urged the Corps to reject after tests revealed critical, life-threatening flaws in the vests.
05/09/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Sgt. Aaron N. Cepeda Sr., 22, San Antonio, Texas ... died May 7 from explosions as a result of enemy action ... in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Graham [was] assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment ...
05/09/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Lance Cpl. Lance T. Graham, 26, San Antonio, Texas ... died May 7 from explosions as a result of enemy action ... in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Graham [was] assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment ...
05/09/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Lance Cpl. Michael V. Postal, 21, Glen Oaks, N.Y. ... died May 7 from explosions as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Postal was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment ...
05/09/05 WorldNow: West Hartford marine killed in Iraq
20 year old Larry Philipon, a native of West Hartford, has died in Iraq. Philipon was a marine.
05/09/05 CENTCOM: MARINE KILLED NEAR AL QAIM
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed May 9 by enemy small-arms fire near Al Qaim, Iraq.
05/09/05 Thomas Crosbie: Japanese hostage works for British company
The Ansar al-Sunnah Army identified the Japanese hostage as Akihito Saito, 44, and posted a photocopy of his passport, including his picture, on the group’s official website. It said Saito was “severely injured” in the fight.
05/09/05 Queensland Newspapers: Hostage's family offers cash for freedom
The Wood family yesterday decided to offer a "generous charitable donation" to the people of Iraq in return for his life. "The contribution will be provided in the best way we can," an emotional Malcolm Wood said.
05/09/05 CENTCOM: MARINE KILLED IN AL QAIM
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed May 8 during combat operations in Al Qaim, Iraq.
05/09/05 CENTCOM: MARINE KILLED IN UBAYDI
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed May 8 during combat operations in Ubaydi, Iraq.
05/09/05 AP: Militant group claims to have taken Japanese man hostage in Iraq
Iraqi militants claimed in a Web posting on Tuesday that they took a Japanese man hostage after ambushing a group of foreign contractors in western Iraq.
05/09/05 Mail&Guardian: Iraqi attacks continue
Lieutenant Colonel Omar Dalaf al-Qaissy was gunned down by assailants as he left for work. Truck driver Sami Nazar Ali was killed by insurgents who attacked a US-escorted convoy in Ishaki. An Iraqi soldier was killed by a roadside bomb near Dujail.
05/09/05 Mail&Guardian: More Iraqis die as insurgent attacks continue
Two people were killed when a parked car exploded at about 6.15pm local time in the crowded southern business district of Dura. Earlier, a car bomb wounded five Iraqi soldiers and three civilians near an army checkpoint in eastern Baghdad.
05/09/05 WorldNow: Toledo Soldier Killed in Iraq
A Toledo-area soldier who was wounded once before in action in Iraq has been killed in action. Family members and the 983rd Engineering Battalion both confirm that Army Specialist Andy Eckert was killed in combat a few days ago. He was 24.
05/09/05 KSAT: S.A. Marine Reservist Killed In Iraq
A San Antonio Marine reservist was killed Saturday night in Iraq. Lance Cpl. Lance Graham, 26, died in a suicide bomb attack in western Iraq, a friend of the family said.
05/09/05 Xinhuanet: Ugandans deployed to work in Iraq
The Ugandans who go to Iraq will be deployed to guard public and private installations in the war-ravaged country where the US forces continue to battle with local insurgents.
05/09/05 SA: Eight bodies found near Baghdad
The bodies of eight Iraqi civilians, tortured and then executed with a bullet to the back of the neck, were found on Monday on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, the Iraqi army and medics said.
05/09/05 Aljazeera: Car bomb targeting Iraqi police kills 4 in Baghdad
A car bomb exploded Monday morning in southern Baghdad, killing two Iraqi police officers and two civilians, witnesses said. Also nine people were injured when the attacker drove his car into two police cars at a checkpoint in al-Darwish district.



- by Americans, not by Afghans.
Many of the stories now coming out of Guantanamo - the sexual humiliation of Muslim prisoners, their shackling to seats in which they defecate and urinate, the use of pornography to make Muslim prisoners feel impure, the female interrogators who wear little clothing (or, in one case, pretended to smear menstrual blood on a prisoner's face) - are increasingly proved true. Iraqis whom I have questioned at great length over many hours, speak with candour of terrifying beatings from military and civilian interrogators, not just in Abu Ghraib but in US bases elsewhere in Iraq.
At the American camp outside Fallujah, prisoners are beaten with full plastic water bottles which break, cutting the skin. At Abu Ghraib, prison dogs have been used to frighten and to bite prisoners.
How did this culture of filth start in America's "war on terror"? The institutionalised injustice which we have witnessed across the world, the vile American "renditions" in which prisoners are freighted to countries where they can be roasted, electrified or, in Uzbekistan, cooked alive in fat? As Bob Herbert wrote in The New York Times, what seemed mind-boggling when the first pictures emerged from Abu Ghraib is now routine, typical of the abuse that has "permeated the Bush administration's operations".
Amnesty, in a chilling 200-page document in October, traced the permeation of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's memos into the prisoner interrogation system and the weasel-worded authorisation of torture. In August 2002, for example, only a few months after Bush spoke under the "Mission Accomplished" banner, a Pentagon report stated that "in order to respect the President's inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign, [the US law prohibiting torture] must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his Commander- in-Chief authority." What does that mean other than permission from Bush to torture?
A 2004 Pentagon report uses words designed to allow interrogators to use cruelty without fear of court actions: "Even if the defendant knows that severe pain will result from his actions, if causing such harm is not his objective, he lacks the requisite specific intent [to be guilty of torture] even though the defendant did not act in good faith."
The man who directly institutionalised cruel sessions of interrogation in Abu Ghraib was Major-General Geoffrey Miller, the Guantanamo commander who flew to Abu Ghraib to "Gitmo-ize the confinement operation" there. There followed the increased use of painful shackling and the frequent forcible stripping of prisoners. Maj-Gen Miller's report following his visit in 2003 spoke of the need for a detention guard force at Abu Ghraib that "sets the conditions for the successful interrogation and exploitation of the internees/detainees". According to Gen Karpinski, Maj-Gen Miller said the prisoners "are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe they're more than a dog, then you've lost control of them".
The trail of prisons that now lies across Iraq is a shameful symbol not only of our cruelty but of our failure to create the circumstances in which a new Iraq might take shape. You may hold elections and create a government, but when this military sickness is allowed to spread, the whole purpose of democracy is overturned. The "new" Iraq will learn from these interrogation centres how they should treat prisoners and, inevitably, the "new" Iraqis will take over Abu Ghraib and return it to the status it had under Saddam and the whole purpose of the invasion (or at least the official version) will be lost.
With an insurgency growing ever more vicious and uncontrollable, the emptiness of Mr Bush's silly boast is plain. The real mission, it seems, was to institutionalise the cruelty of Western armies, staining us forever with the depravity of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Bagram - not to mention the secret prisons which even the Red Cross cannot visit and wherein who knows what vileness is conducted. What, I wonder, is our next "mission"?
Robert Fisk is a reporter for The Independent and author of Pity the Nation. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's collection, The Politics of Anti-Semitism. Fisk's new book, The Conquest of the Middle East, will be released this fall.

-----

Is the breakup of Iraq “plan b?” Read below:

The Price of Failure in Iraq
By: Juan Cole on: 10.05.2005 [04:14 ] (293 reads)


Bob Dreyfuss writes in Rolling Stone


(1423 bytes)


If it comes to civil war, the disintegration of Iraq will be extremely bloody. "The breakup of Iraq would be nearly as bad as the breakup of India in 1947," says David Mack, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state with wide experience in the Arab world. "The Kurds can't count on us to come in and save their bacon. Do they think we are going to mount an air bridge on their behalf?" Israel might support the Kurds, but Iran would intervene heavily in support of the Shiites with men, arms and money, while Arab countries would back their fellow Sunnis. "You'd see Jordan, Saudi Arabia, even Egypt intervening with everything they've got — tanks, heavy weapons, lots of money, even troops," says White, the former State Department official. "If they see the Sunnis getting beaten up by the Shiites, there will be extensive Arab support," agrees a U.S. Army officer. "There will be no holds barred."


The full horror of it has been expertly laid out here by Dreyfuss, with an acumen and imagination one doesn't see often in the MSM.

We live in a bizarro America where Jon Stewart's Daily Show and Rolling Stone are the venues for the real news, while the major cable news networks have confused themselves with the sort of thing the local tv stations out in places like Peoria do at 5:17 pm for their human interest segments.

But I think the interpretations below are far closer to the truth. Peace jamie

The price of failure in iraq
by Spies_and_Traitors_will_be_Shot on 10.05.2005 [07:04 ]
REPARTATIONS, WAR CRIMES TRIALS, AND NOOO OIL.

That's the price the US is going to pay.





#
this civil war scenario ...
by hellsbells on 10.05.2005 [11:20 ]
... is 'Plan B' in case 'Plan A' fails.

Crushing Iraq was always the zionist entity's dream. If it can't be done by occupation & colonisation, then it might be done by dismemberment.

But maybe Iraqis know all about this vile scheme, and won't co-operate.




-----

05/10/05 AP: U.S. Troops Battle Insurgents in Iraq
In Baghdad, two car bombs exploded during morning rush hour Tuesday, killing as many as seven and wounding 19, including three American soldiers, officials said.
05/10/05 ABC: Iraqi police vent anger at US after car bombings
Iraqi police hurled insults at US soldiers after two suicide car bomb blasts in Baghdad killed at least seven people and left 19 wounded, including policemen.
05/10/05 CENTCOM: SECOND MARINE DIES AFTER INDIRECT FIRE ATTACK
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died May 9 from injuries received from an indirect fire explosion. The incident took place during combat operations in Al Karmah.
05/10/05 AP: Three U.S. Marines killed in central Iraq
Three U.S. Marines were killed in central Iraq. A Marine died Monday of wounds inflicted in a bombing during combat operations in Nasser Wa Salaam. Two U.S. Marines were killed Monday by indirect fire during combat operations in Karmah.
05/10/05 KOTV: Injured Vinita Soldier Back Home From Iraq
After months of rehabilitation Marine Sgt. Jake Rhinehart returned home. “I was hit in my legs, my back, my arms, got 31 percent of my body burned, lost my left kidney, part of my intestines, part of my colon."
05/10/05 Forum: W. Fargo graduate injured in Iraq
Sgt. Ryan Cossette, 24, was on a patrol near Samarra when the incident occurred. The explosion fractured Cossette's right arm, which was also hit by shrapnel. A soldier sitting behind Cossette in the Humvee was killed.
05/10/05 Beaver County Times: Local soldier injured in Iraq
Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Justin Hendrickson, 22, did not suffer life-threatening injuries in the blast, though his arms, legs and cheeks apparently were injured by shrapnel, his mother, Diane Hendrickson, said Monday.
05/10/05 AP: Three Ohio Servicemen Killed in One Weekend in Iraq
Army Pfc. Nick Messmerdied in Iraq on Sunday, said his brother Joe Messmer, 23. Army Sgt. Andy Eckert, 24, of Toledo, was killed on Sunday by an explosion near his convoy. Marine Cpl. Dustin Derga, 24, of Columbus, died on Sunday.
05/10/05 Aljazeera: Iraqi rebels counter-attack U.S. offensive
On Monday night, rebels launched a counterattack 5 miles from U.S. Camp Gannon in Qaim, said U.S. Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool. They attacked a Marine convoy with small arms fire, RPG'S, roadside bombs and two car bombers.
05/10/05 Reuters: Saboteurs hit oil facility in north Iraq-spokesman
Saboteurs attacked a crude oil pipeline complex near the Kirkuk fields in northern Iraq on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry said.
05/10/05 mnf-iraq: Marine dies after indirect fire attack
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died May 9 of injuries from an indirect fire attack. The incident took place during combat operations in Al Karmah
05/10/05 mnf-iraq: Marine dies from IED injuries
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died May 9 from injuries received from an improvised explosion device.
05/10/05 Reuters: Suicide car bomb kills at least 7 in Baghdad
A suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near a U.S. military convoy in central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least seven Iraqis and wounding 16, police said. The U.S. military had no immediate information on any American casualties.
05/10/05 IRIN: New campaign to control brucellosis
A new plan to control brucellosis in Iraq is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) following recent reports of infection in animals. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is supervising the operation.
05/10/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Sgt. Michael A. Marzano, 28, of Greenville, Pa., died May 7 as the result of an explosion caused by suicide vehicle borne improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations in Hadithah, Iraq.
05/10/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Cpl. Dustin A. Derga, 24, of Columbus, Ohio, died May 8 as the result of enemy small arms fire while conducting combat operations in Ubaydi, Iraq. [He was] assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Div.
05/09/05 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Lance Cpl. Lawrence R. Philippon, 22, of Hartford, Conn., died May 8 from enemy small-arms fire while conducting combat operations in the vicinity of Al Qa’im, Iraq. Assigned to 3rd Bat., 2nd Marine Reg.t, 2nd Marine Div., II MEF
05/09/05 AP: The Marines’ flawed body armor
The Marine Corps issued to nearly 10,000 troops body armor that government experts urged the Corps to reject after tests revealed critical, life-threatening flaws in the vests.
05/09/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Sgt. Aaron N. Cepeda Sr., 22, San Antonio, Texas ... died May 7 from explosions as a result of enemy action ... in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Graham [was] assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment ...
05/09/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Lance Cpl. Lance T. Graham, 26, San Antonio, Texas ... died May 7 from explosions as a result of enemy action ... in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Graham [was] assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment ...
05/09/05 DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Lance Cpl. Michael V. Postal, 21, Glen Oaks, N.Y. ... died May 7 from explosions as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Postal was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment ...
05/09/05 WorldNow: West Hartford marine killed in Iraq
20 year old Larry Philipon, a native of West Hartford, has died in Iraq. Philipon was a marine.
05/09/05 CENTCOM: MARINE KILLED NEAR AL QAIM
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed May 9 by enemy small-arms fire near Al Qaim, Iraq.
05/09/05 Thomas Crosbie: Japanese hostage works for British company
The Ansar al-Sunnah Army identified the Japanese hostage as Akihito Saito, 44, and posted a photocopy of his passport, including his picture, on the group’s official website. It said Saito was “severely injured” in the fight.
05/09/05 Queensland Newspapers: Hostage's family offers cash for freedom
The Wood family yesterday decided to offer a "generous charitable donation" to the people of Iraq in return for his life. "The contribution will be provided in the best way we can," an emotional Malcolm Wood said.
05/09/05 CENTCOM: MARINE KILLED IN AL QAIM
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed May 8 during combat operations in Al Qaim, Iraq.
05/09/05 CENTCOM: MARINE KILLED IN UBAYDI
A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed May 8 during combat operations in Ubaydi, Iraq.
05/09/05 AP: Militant group claims to have taken Japanese man hostage in Iraq
Iraqi militants claimed in a Web posting on Tuesday that they took a Japanese man hostage after ambushing a group of foreign contractors in western Iraq.
05/09/05 Mail&Guardian: Iraqi attacks continue
Lieutenant Colonel Omar Dalaf al-Qaissy was gunned down by assailants as he left for work. Truck driver Sami Nazar Ali was killed by insurgents who attacked a US-escorted convoy in Ishaki. An Iraqi soldier was killed by a roadside bomb near Dujail.
05/09/05 Mail&Guardian: More Iraqis die as insurgent attacks continue
Two people were killed when a parked car exploded at about 6.15pm local time in the crowded southern business district of Dura. Earlier, a car bomb wounded five Iraqi soldiers and three civilians near an army checkpoint in eastern Baghdad.
05/09/05 WorldNow: Toledo Soldier Killed in Iraq
A Toledo-area soldier who was wounded once before in action in Iraq has been killed in action. Family members and the 983rd Engineering Battalion both confirm that Army Specialist Andy Eckert was killed in combat a few days ago. He was 24.
05/09/05 KSAT: S.A. Marine Reservist Killed In Iraq
A San Antonio Marine reservist was killed Saturday night in Iraq. Lance Cpl. Lance Graham, 26, died in a suicide bomb attack in western Iraq, a friend of the family said.
05/09/05 Xinhuanet: Ugandans deployed to work in Iraq
The Ugandans who go to Iraq will be deployed to guard public and private installations in the war-ravaged country where the US forces continue to battle with local insurgents.
05/09/05 SA: Eight bodies found near Baghdad
The bodies of eight Iraqi civilians, tortured and then executed with a bullet to the back of the neck, were found on Monday on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, the Iraqi army and medics said.
05/09/05 Aljazeera: Car bomb targeting Iraqi police kills 4 in Baghdad
A car bomb exploded Monday morning in southern Baghdad, killing two Iraqi police officers and two civilians, witnesses said. Also nine people were injured when the attacker drove his car into two police cars at a checkpoint in al-Darwish district.

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Please spread widely around this world. jamie