Hang the real war-criminals

excerpted from:
A dictator created then destroyed by America
by Robert Fisk, December 30th, The Independent, UK

Tony Blair is not Saddam. We don't gas our enemies. George W Bush is not Saddam. He didn't invade Iran or Kuwait. He only invaded Iraq. But hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead - and thousands of Western troops are dead - because Messrs Bush and Blair and the Spanish Prime Minister and the Italian Prime Minister and the Australian Prime Minister went to war in 2003 on a potage of lies and mendacity and, given the weapons we used, with great brutality.

In the aftermath of the international crimes against humanity of 2001 we have tortured, we have murdered, we have brutalised and killed the innocent - we have even added our shame at Abu Ghraib to Saddam's shame at Abu Ghraib - and yet we are supposed to forget these terrible crimes as we applaud the swinging corpse of the dictator we created.

Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbade any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.

And the mass killings we perpetrated in 2003 with our depleted uranium shells and our "bunker buster" bombs and our phosphorous, the murderous post-invasion sieges of Fallujah and Najaf, the hell-disaster of anarchy we unleashed on the Iraqi population in the aftermath of our "victory" - our "mission accomplished" - who will be found guilty of this? Such expiation as we might expect will come, no doubt, in the self-serving memoirs of Blair and Bush, written in comfortable and wealthy retirement.

Hours before Saddam's death sentence, his family - his first wife, Sajida, and Saddam's daughter and their other relatives - had given up hope.

"Whatever could be done has been done - we can only wait for time to take its course," one of them said last night. But Saddam knew, and had already announced his own "martyrdom": he was still the president of Iraq and he would die for Iraq. All condemned men face a decision: to die with a last, grovelling plea for mercy or to die with whatever dignity they can wrap around themselves in their last hours on earth. His last trial appearance - that wan smile that spread over the mass-murderer' s face - showed us which path Saddam intended to walk to the noose.

I have catalogued his monstrous crimes over the years. I have talked to the Kurdish survivors of Halabja and the Shia who rose up against the dictator at our request in 1991 and who were betrayed by us - and whose comrades, in their tens of thousands, along with their wives, were hanged like thrushes by Saddam's executioners.

I have walked round the execution chamber of Abu Ghraib - only months, it later transpired, after we had been using the same prison for a few tortures and killings of our own ..."

octopuses that walk

Octopuses that walk

Octopus aculeatus.mov - a 1.2 Mb Quicktime file




Octopuses that walk

Octopus marginatus



Octopus aculeatus

Octopus

Octpuses drying

Giant Squid

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Giant Squid caught on Video

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The beak of a Giant Squid

Islamic Charities

taken from:

Jannah.org's madidah board

Islamic Charities for Qurbani

Islamic Relief
6131 Orangethorpe Ave Ste 450
Buena Park, CA 90620
Tel: (714) 676-1300 main line
Fax: (714) 676-1301

ICNA Relief
166-26, 89th. Avenue
Jamaica, NY 11432
Tel (718) 658-7028
Fax (718) 658-3434

Indian Muslim Relief and Charities
800 San Antonio Road, Suite 1
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Telephone: 650-856-0440
Fax: 650-856-0444

Mercy USA
44450 Pinetree Drive Suite 201
Plymouth, Michigan 48170-3869
Phone: (734) 454-0011
Fax: (734) 454-0303
Toll Free: 1-800-556-3729 or 1-800-55-MERCY


Hidaya Foundation
1765 Scott Blvd. Suite 115
Santa Clara, CA 95050
Telephone 408-244-3282
1-866-2HIDAYA (866-244-3292)
Fax 1-866-3HIDAYA (866-344-3292)

Life for Relief and Development
17300 W 10 Mile Rd.
Southfield, MI 48075
U.S.A.
Tel: (248) 424-7493
Fax: (248) 424-8325
Toll Free (US&CAN): 1-800-827-3543


The Zakat Foundation
P.O. Box 639
Worth, IL 60482
Phone: 708.499.6151
Fax: 708.499.6154