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Robert Fisk

  • Confused? Shadow of His Old Self? Hardly
    4 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Robert Fisk Bags beneath his eyes, beard greying, finger-jabbing with anger, Saddam was still the same fox, alert, cynical, defiant, abusive, proud. Yet history must record that the new "independent" government in Baghdad yesterday gave Saddam Hussein an initial trial hearing that was worthy of the brutal old dictator.
    He was brought to court in chains and handcuffs. The judge insisted that his own name should be kept secret. The names of the other judges were kept secret. (…)

  • The Handover: Restoration of Iraqi sovereignty - or Alice in Wonderland?
    2 July 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    by Robert Fisk
    So in the end, America’s enemies set the date. The handover of "full sovereignty" was secretly brought forward so that the ex-CIA intelligence officer who is now "Prime Minister" of Iraq could avoid another bloody offensive by America’s enemies. What is supposed to be the most important date in Iraq’s modern history was changed ­ like a birthday party ­ because it might rain on Wednesday.
    Pitiful is the word that comes to mind. Here we were, handing "full sovereignty" to (…)

  • Robert Fisk : Iraq, 1917
    18 June 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    by Robert Fisk
    They came as liberators but were met by fierce resistance outside Baghdad. Humiliating treatment of prisoners and heavy-handed action in Najaf and Fallujah further alienated the local population. A planned handover of power proved unworkable. Britain’s 1917 occupation of Iraq holds uncanny parallels with today - and if we want to know what will happen there next, we need only turn to our history books...
    On the eve of our "handover" of "full sovereignty" to (…)

  • An illegal and immoral war, betrayed by images that reveal our racism
    8 May 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    5 comments

    by Robert Fisk
    First, our enemies created the suicide bomber. Now, we have our own digital suicide bomber, the camera. Just look at the way US army reservist Lynndie England holds the leash of the naked, bearded Iraqi. Take a close look at the leather strap, the pain on the prisoner’s face. No sadistic movie could outdo the damage of this image. In September 2001, the planes smashed into the buildings; today, Lynndie smashes to pieces our entire morality with just one tug on the leash. (…)

  • IRAQ: at least 80 foreign mercenaries have been killed in the past eight days
    19 April 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    Scores of Dead
    "The Star" Baghdad - At least 80 foreign mercenaries - security guards recruited from the United States, Europe and South Africa and working for American companies - have been killed in the past eight days in Iraq.
    Lieutenant-General Mark Kimmitt admitted on Tuesday that "about 70"
    American and other Western troops had died during the Iraqi insurgency since April 1 but he made no mention of the mercenaries, apparently fearful that the full total of Western dead would (…)

  • Sharon’s "Courageous" Plan Bush Legitimizes Terrorism
    18 April 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    3 comments

    So President George Bush tears up the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan and that’s okay. Israeli settlements for Jews and Jews only on the West Bank. That’s okay. Taking land from Palestinians who have owned that land for generations, that’s okay. UN Security Council Resolution 242 says that land cannot be acquired by war. Forget it. That’s okay.
    Does President George Bush actually work for al-Qa’ida? What does this mean? That George Bush cares more about his re-election than he does (…)

  • Shut Up, War Critics
    15 April 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    Just shut up. That’s the new foreign policy line of our masters. When Senator Edward Kennedy dubbed Iraq "George Bush’s Vietnam", US Secretary of State Colin Powell told him to be "a little more restrained and careful" in his comments. I recall that when the US commenced its bombing of Afghanistan, the White House spokesman claimed that some journalists were "asking questions that the American people wouldn’t want asked". Back in the early 1980s, when I reported on the Iranian (…)

  • Bloodbath a bad omen for coalition forces
    6 April 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    The Star (S.Africa)
    http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=132&fArticleId=393104
    To the horror of the occupying powers in Iraq, the country’s ever more bloody insurgency has at last spilled over into the majority Shi’ite Muslim community.
    Coalition soldiers fought gunmen in the holy city of Najaf yesterday with the loss of at least 20 lives.
    The shooting started after protesters gathered at the Spanish base on the outskirts of the city following the arrest of an aide to (…)

  • Only an ’uptick’ in violence
    6 April 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    http://www.dawn.com/2004/04/04/op.htm#2
    What has happened to the ’Coalition Provisional Authority’, also known as the occupying power? Things are getting worse, much worse in Iraq. Last week’s horrors proved that.
    Yet just a day earlier, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, America’s deputy director of military operations, assured us that there was only an "uptick" in violence in Iraq . Not a sudden wave of violence, mark you, not a down-to-earth increase, not even a "spike" in violence - (…)

  • Occupiers Spend Millions on Private Army of Security Men
    1 April 2004 par (Open-Publishing)

    Coalition of the Mercenaries
    The Independent (UK)
    An army of thousands of mercenaries has appeared in Iraq’s major cities, many of them former British and American soldiers hired by the occupying Anglo-American authorities and by dozens of companies who fear for the lives of their employees.
    Many of the armed Britons are former SAS soldiers and heavily armed South Africans are also working for the occupation. "My people know how to use weapons and they’re all SAS," said the British (…)