Netwar Front

Saturday, April 12, 2003

A Washington D.C. policeman knocks down an anti-war protester during the march in Washington.

Police Violence
Against Protesters on
Washington Demonstration

Pro War Rally Protected, Anti War March Attacked by U.S. Police

As a police helicopter circled above and police cruisers and motorcycles zoomed through the streets, hundreds of demonstrators gathered near the White House to rally against the U.S. presence in Iraq and what they say is biased media coverage of the war.

Washington D.C. Police knock down a group of anti-war protesters during a march in Washington.

"Embedded reporters are in bed with the Pentagon," said Larry Holmes to a vocal crowd at a rally organized by International ANSWER, a coalition of groups opposing the war.

"The major media would give you the impression that all Americans support the war. We'll be giving them a piece of our minds as we pass (by) the most notorious (media company offices)," he said.

Later, thousands of anti-war demonstrators, many with placards and signs, marched through downtown Washington streets closed to automobile traffic.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 5:46 PM

This aerial view shows a rainbow colored peace banner, about 500 meters long, carried by peace demonstrators through central Rome

Europe Protesters
Demands the End of
Iraq`s Military Intervention

Antiwar Protesters Switch Focus to Iraq Occupation

by Christian Oliver

Thousands of peace campaigners poured onto the streets of Europe and elsewhere on Saturday switching their focus from preventing war on Iraq to protesting against the continuing U.S. and British military presence.

Although U.S. and British officials say the military operation is drawing to an end after the fall of President Saddam Hussein's government, activists said their concerns were as grave as ever.

Anti-war protesters march during a peace rally in Seville.

"It is good Saddam has gone but we cannot forget this war is illegal and without the sanction of the United Nations. It is setting a very dangerous precedent of pre-emption," Pakistani politician and former international cricketer Imran Khan told Reuters as he joined a mass rally in London's Hyde Park.

"No country should have the right to be judge, jury and executioner. That is the reason the U.N. was set up -- to protect the weak from the strong. But this war sets a precedent where might is right and undermines the U.N.."

Organizers estimated 100,000 people marched through the city center, waving banners saying "No Occupation of Iraq" and chanting "Bush, Blair, CIA, how many kids have you killed today?." Police put the numbers at closer to 20,000.

In the Italian capital Rome, a march originally organized to call for an end to the fighting changed its slogan to "No to an infinite and global war."

"This war is far from over and anyway it will have terrible effects on the Middle East and maybe on the whole world," university professor Umberto Allegretti who joined the protest.

TV footage showed a giant rainbow banner, about 0.5km long (500 yards), being pulled around the Circus Maximus where Romans used to race chariots.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 3:51 PM

G7 Finance Chiefs
Call for U.N.
Action on Iraq

by Caren Bohan

Finance leaders from the world's richest nations said on Saturday that uncertainties looming over the global economy were lifting, and agreed on the need for a large United Nations role in rebuilding Iraq.

The United States, which hosted a meeting here of the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors, appeared to have made a key concession to European countries on the Iraq issue, joining their calls for a fresh United Nations Security Council resolution on the war-torn country.

"We recognize the need for a multilateral effort to help Iraq. We support a further U.N. Security Council resolution," the G7 said in a statement issued just after its meeting.

However, U.S. Treasury Secretary John said the decision to back a new U.N. resolution on Iraq was not a compromise or a change in U.S. policy. After the G7 meeting, Snow said the United States "recognized the need for international cooperation" over rebuilding Iraq, despite differences with global organization during the prelude to the war.

The group -- which comprises the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan -- also sounded an optimistic note about the prospects for the world economy now the U.S.-led war against Iraq appeared close to ending.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 3:23 PM

Friday, April 11, 2003

Fox Murdoch Takeover
Direct TV, Aol Cable
Delayed to the Fall

U.S. "Pravda" Take the Prize for War News Colaboration

Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the nation's largest satellite television provider could become a platform to launch and sell new Fox channels, while restraining cable costs, industry analysts predicted.

Murdoch's News Corp. agreed to acquire control of Hughes Electronics Corp., DirecTV's parent, in a $6.6 billion cash and stock deal announced Wednesday. Murdoch would transfer control of DirecTV to his Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary, which includes the Fox News Channel.

Consumers are unlikely to see any impact soon, especially since the deal, if approved by regulators, won't close until the end of the year. And Murdoch said Thursday that substantial changes to DirecTV will probably not show up until 2005.

But DirecTV's 11 million subscribers will give News Corp. leverage negotiating with program producers such as The Walt Disney Co. and AOL Time Warner Inc., who want cable systems to pay more for airing their popular channels.

"The leverage will keep prices down or give them some added profitability so they don't have to raise prices as much," predicted Steve Mather, an analyst with Sanders Morris Harris. "As an industry, distributors are growing their ability to fight back against increasing programming costs."

DirecTV, its rival Dish Network, and cable companies have been fighting hikes sought for channels such as Disney's ESPN and AOL Time Warner's CNN. Now that he has his own distribution outlet, Murdoch can use the leverage he has with his own popular networks, such as Fox News, to negotiate better deals for DirecTV.

Analysts praised Murdoch's pledge to add 1 million subscribers a year to DirecTV and boost profits. But investors have disapproved of some aspects, such as having Fox house the satellite TV system. Analysts said that will dilute Fox earnings because of Hughes's losses from its Latin American operations. The deal also adds $4.5 billion to Fox's debt load.

AOL Time Warner Inc's AOL.N much-anticipated initial public offering of its cable unit could be delayed until at least September, increasing pressure on the debt-laden media firm to put other assets up for sale, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said AOL had already received some indications of interest from potential buyers for its music publishing arm, Warner/Chappel Music.

But AOL had not decided on whether to sell the unit, which is garnering interest from such people as billionaire David Geffen, a veteran of the music business, the Journal reported.

In early March, AOL Chief Executive Richard Parson said the company intended to spin off its Time Warner Cable unit by the end of the second quarter or late summer, and planned to sell $2 billion to $4 billion in assets to help cut $27 billion in debt.

But the Journal said mechanics of getting an IPO registration reviewed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in time for the deal to go to market by late June looked daunting.

Even so, an AOL spokesman reiterated Parsons comments that the IPO would be done by the end of the second quarter or "the late summer," and that the timetable had not changed, the newspaper said.

AOL was not immediately available for comment early on Friday when contacted by Reuters.

more @ Associated Press and Reuters.

post by vasco on 2:01 PM

PUK Leader
Order Fighters to
Pull Out of Kirkurk

"US is not going to do anything for the Kurds"

The PUK leader Jalal Talabani said today that he has ordered his peshmerga fighters to pull out of Kirkuk by Friday.

"I have ordered all the Peshmergas to leave the city by tomorrow morning," Mr Talabani, told the CNN Turk television channel by telephone.

Kurdish Special Forces librated the city of Kirkuk on Thursday.

In an extremely unpopular decision on part of Kurds, the US government has promised to let Turkey’s so-called "military observers" to monitor the situation in south Kurdistan, Kirkuk, the official capital of South Kurdistan.

Turkey wants to keep Kirkuk as Arabised as the Iraqi dictator left it, and the US is supporting this stance.

The US administration faces serious questions. Should not the US take observers to all Kurdish cities in Turkey to monitor how the Kurds are oppressed and how the Kurdish language and culture been oppressed almost out of existence for the last eight decades? Did the US send any observers when Turkey demolished 3500 Kurdish villages in North (Turkey’s) Kurdistan? Kurds will term this "double standards" and "hypocrisy".

Turkey is not only concerned about South (Iraqi) Kurdistan. She is concern that one day the international community will decide to return all the Kurds forced out from their villages and towns due to the Turkish oppression and Turkification of North (Turkey’s) Kurdistan.

This US decision has disappointed and frustrated Kurds, and may lead to extremely undesirable developments in both sides of Kurdistan, both in North (Turkey) and South (Iraq).

Since the arrival of news infroming US bowing to Turkish pressure, anti-US feelings have increased among Kurds. Phrases such as "betrayal by the US", "this is the same US of the 1975 and 1991", "Turkey is still more important than Kurds", "US is not going to do anything for the Kurds" have been widely exchanged between Kurds.

In an unexpected U-turn, the Kurdish political party officials have been embarrassed by the US, as the US has undermined the Kurdish victory in the Kurdish city of Kirkuk. This was a national pride for Kurds, but no more - thanks to the US.

more @ Kurdmedia on PUK Pull Out and U.S. Betrayall.

post by vasco on 1:17 PM

Baghdad Collapses
Into Violence, Armed
Looters Shoot People

by Hassan Hafidh

Armed men roamed the streets of Baghdad and looting spread across the city on Friday as the Iraqi capital descended into anarchy.

U.S. troops who ended Saddam Hussein's rule on Wednesday mostly stood by as the Trade Ministry burned, gunmen swarmed though buildings unchallenged in the absence of any government or police, and looters made off with their booty.

A youth wearing a red baseball cap back-to-front brandished an AK-47 assault rifle by the side of a main road in the center of the city, waiting for a passing car to hijack.

A Reuters correspondent who drove past the young man saw him shoot the driver of the car behind, drag him out his new pickup trunk and drive away in it. It was not clear whether the driver was killed or simply wounded.

"The situation has become worse since yesterday. It is anarchy," one Reuters correspondent said.

Another who toured the city said: "The looters are armed and are shooting at people. There are a lot of guns in the streets."

Reuters Television cameraman Ahmed Bahaddou filmed Arab paramilitaries shooting at civilians in the street. One then turned to him and stuck the barrel of his AK-47 in his face and told him to stop filming.

Criticism of U.S. troops mounted as they again failed to prevent the looting that began as they pushed into the city on Wednesday, ending Saddam's 24-year rule.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said some small hospitals had closed and some big hospitals were inaccessible.

"Our great worry is the situation of chaotic insecurity in Baghdad. We don't know how much of the infrastructure and medical services are still functioning," said Nada Doumani, ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva.

"We hope that the perimeters of these facilities can be secured by the Americans. Under the Geneva Conventions, it is up to the occupying forces to impose law and order," she said, referring to the 1949 treaty aimed at protecting civilians.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 12:58 PM

Turkish Government
Launch Regional Axis
With Syria and Iran

The Turkish government has unexpectedly decided to launch a regional axis with Iran and Syria. Gareth Jenkins argues that the Turkish army will ensure that the initiative remains stillborn.

Turkey's erratic foreign policy took another unexpected turn last Sunday when Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul held a meeting in Ankara with his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi and announced that he would travel to Damascus the following week to establish a regional consultative mechanism between Turkey, Iran and Syria to discuss policy towards Iraq.

The meeting between Gul and Kharrazi came just four days after a visit to Ankara by US Secretary of State Colin Powell had appeared to indicate the beginning of a thaw in relations between Ankara and Washington following the Turkish parliament's refusal on 1 March to allow US forces to transit Turkey on their way to open a second front in the war to topple Saddam Hussein and Ankara's own plans to deploy up to 40,000 Turkish troops in northern Iraq to curb Iraqi Kurdish thoughts of establishing an independent state. Washington has recently accused both Syria and Iran of providing material support to Iraqi forces in the war against the US-led coalition; while last year President George Bush famously described Iran as being a member of an "axis of evil".

During last week's meeting Powell assured Gul that, in return for Turkey not increasing its already substantial military presence in northern Iraq, the US would prevent the Iraqi Kurds both either seizing control of the oilfields around Kirkuk or from carving an independent state out of post-Saddam Iraq. At a press conference after the meeting, Powell repeatedly referred to Turkey as a key US ally, while Gul described Turkey as being a member of the US-led coalition against Saddam Hussein. As payback, on Friday the US approved the allocation of $1 billion in grants to Turkey and guarantees for loans of up to $8.5 billion.

"It is not just the money or loans we will get directly from the US. It will boost our credit rating and reduce our costs if we need to borrow from the international market. We can now also expect the US to use its influence to ensure that we continue to receive support from the IMF and World Bank," said a Turkish official.

On Monday the IMF indicated that it would approve the release of another $700 million in loans to Turkey at its board meeting on 18 April. The Turkish financial markets responded accordingly. Stock prices rose, the Turkish lira appreciated by nearly eight per cent and bond yields dropped 14 percentage points.

Gul's decision to initiate closer ties with Iran and Syria is not only likely to irritate Washington but has again raised questions about the five-month-old Justice and Development Party (JDP) government's competence and understanding of international diplomacy.

Gul has long favoured closer relations with Turkey's neighbours and during the mid 1990s often peppered his speeches with plans to establish what he described as a "commonwealth" of "former Ottoman provinces". But JDP officials are also aware that US support is vital if Turkey is to avoid an economic recession. Under such circumstances, it is hard to understand why Turkey has chosen such a time to initiate closer ties with the two countries in the region that have been harshly criticised by the US.

more @ Al Ahram.

post by vasco on 12:50 PM

U.N. Involvement for
Rebuilding Iraq Play
Key Role for Japanese

by Linda Sieg

United Nations involvement in rebuilding Iraq is key to convincing Japanese voters their tax money should be used, Japan's top diplomat in charge of Iraq reconstruction aid said on Friday.

It would also help ensure that as many countries as possible take part, he said.

"I think that what is important is that as many countries as possible can join this joint endeavor," Fumiaki Takahashi, Japan's ambassador in charge of reconstruction assistance to Iraq, told Reuters in an interview.

He said it was too soon to say how much of the eventual bill Japan -- now in far worse fiscal shape than when it gave $11 billion for the 1991 Gulf War -- would be prepared to pay.

"The United Nations can give impetus to realize the participation of many countries for assisting the reconstruction of Iraq, so in that sense, we think a U.N. Security Council resolution can play a role in realizing this," he added.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi offered staunch moral support for the U.S.-led war on Iraq despite Japanese voters opposition to a military operation.

Now Tokyo is again treading a fine line between its firm alliance with Washington, which has been reluctant to concede to U.N. involvement in the political and economic reconstruction of Iraq beyond humanitarian aid, and global critics like France and Germany who say the United Nations must assume the leading role.

"United Nations authority is very important not only for gaining the support of public opinion (in Japan) but also...it would be much easier to mobilize the resources of the international community," Takahashi said.

more @ Reuter.

post by vasco on 12:20 PM

Europe Leaders Discuss
U.N. Role in Iraq Future
Mocked by Powell

by Ron Popeski

Russian, French and German leaders, who opposed the Iraqi military campaign, gathered in Russia's second city on Friday to press home calls for the United Nations to oversee postwar reconstruction.

But all three were up against U.S. resistance to the notion of giving up authority for rebuilding Iraq after U.S. and British forces secured control over Baghdad and ousted President Saddam Hussein.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said that had been ruled out. A top Pentagon official suggested the three would best contribute to reconstruction by forgiving debts to any new Iraqi government.

Russia added its voice to calls for a central U.N. role in postwar Iraq, before President Vladimir Putin hosted German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Chirac at talks also aimed at mending ties with the United States.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said it was up to the United Nations to safeguard international peace and security.

"We hope the United Nations will perform this central role, in particular, in the settlement of Iraq's post-war situation," he told reporters in ex-Soviet Tajikistan.

"This authority must be used to achieve a political settlement in Iraq within the shortest time possible. This is in the interests of the Iraqi people. This is in the interests of the whole region."

Powell has mocked similar appeals from European leaders.

"The suggestion that some of my colleagues would give that now that the coalition has done all of this and liberated Iraq, thank you very much, step aside and the Security Council is now going to become responsible for everything, is incorrect," Powell told the Los Angeles Times.

"And they know it. And they were told it."

In the months preceding the conflict, all three countries stood firm in joint opposition to any use of force to ensure Iraq held no banned arms, refusing to back any U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing military intervention.

Now they have to reckon with a U.S. administration still smarting from their blocking tactics.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 12:06 PM

Power Vacuum
in Iraq, Power
Struggle in U.S.

by Paul Taylor

Saddam Hussein's swift fall has opened a power vacuum in Iraq, a power struggle in Washington and another transatlantic tug-of-war.

The race is on among Iraqi factions to fill the political vacuum, with the Defense Department giving its favorite exile, Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), a head start over his many rivals and detractors.

Faced with an urgent need to stop lawlessness, forestall acts of revenge, restore public services and hold together a diverse ethnic and sectarian population, the United States and Britain are eager to find Iraqis who can share responsibility.

But splintered Iraqi political groups are treating each other with intense suspicion as each rushes to create facts on the ground in this crucial period.

The INC has established a foothold in central Iraq, Kurdish fighters have captured Kirkuk, while the biggest Shi'ite movement, the Tehran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has distanced itself from U.S. occupation.

No Political Say

Chalabi told Reuters Wednesday that opposition leaders from outside and inside the country would meet senior U.S. officials in the southern town of Nassiriya as early as Saturday to prepare for an interim administration.

Hours after Vice President Dick Cheney confirmed that meeting, his office and the State Department backtracked, saying it would take place later when security permitted. An INC aide said Thursday the talks had been postponed to next Tuesday.

Arab leaders, who publicly condemned the war, were quick to say Iraqis alone should pick their future rulers, and the United States and Britain should leave Iraq as soon as possible.

European governments insisted the United Nations must play a central role in setting up an Iraqi government, but Secretary of State Colin Powell made clear Washington had no intention of giving the world body any such political say.

"The suggestion that some of my colleagues would give that now that the coalition has done all of this and liberated Iraq, thank you very much, step aside and the Security Council is now going to become responsible for everything, is incorrect. And they know it. And they were told it," Powell told the Los Angeles Times. The U.N. role would be mainly humanitarian.

Credibility Questioned

The battle of Washington centers on the role of Chalabi, a former banker and scion of a wealthy Shi'ite merchant family, and the exiles, versus local community and religious leaders.

The Pentagon flew Chalabi and 700 supporters to Nassiriya Saturday with U.S. special forces, two journalists and a video camera, to secure a base and a media presence in Iraq.

By Wednesday, he was irking his sponsors by complaining they were not providing food, water and medicines fast enough to Iraqi civilians, drawing a rebuke from Washington.

U.S. sources say the State Department and the CIA questioned Chalabi's suitability and popular support after more than 40 years in exile and a failed attempt to organize an anti-Saddam uprising in 1996.

The former head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Anthony Zinni, once branded him one of the "silk-suited, Rolex-wearing guys in London."

A Jordanian court convicted Chalabi in 1989 of embezzlement and he has also faced questions about the use of millions of dollars of U.S. funds provided under a 1997 Iraq Liberation Act.

Powell said the important task was to identify local leaders who had credibility with Iraqis.

"Who do people look to? They look to tribal leaders. They look to religious leaders. You start to build on that," he said.

Ethnic Mix

The United States plans to run Iraq for at least six months through the authority of military commander Gen. Tommy Franks. A civil administration headed by retired Gen. Jay Garner will report to him, helped by an interim Iraqi authority.

The INC plays down the role of Garner's Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), provisionally based in Kuwait, as subordinate to Iraqis.

"We are trying to set up an Interim Iraqi Authority (IIA). We see ORHA as essentially being the administrative side. Garner will be like the cabinet secretary in the civil service," the INC official said.

The task of ensuring an ethnic and sectarian balance will be daunting in a country that is roughly 55 percent Shi'ite, 20 percent Sunni Arab and 25 percent Kurdish, with small minorities of Assyrians and Turkmens.

Sunni Arabs have dominated the country since it was carved by British colonial administrators out of three provinces of the former Ottoman empire in 1917.

Middle East analysts say Shi'ite ascendancy in Iraq would alarm Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, which have volatile Shi'ite minorities and fear the influence of non-Arab Iran, a Shi'ite Islamic republic.

Turkey has made clear it will tolerate neither Kurdish independence in northern Iraq nor permanent Kurdish control of the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul with their oil wealth.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 11:42 AM

NY Police Admit
Keeping Anti-War
Protest Database

by Grant McCool

New York police admitted on Thursday to compiling and then destroying a database of people arrested during anti-war protests, but rights groups decried the practice as an erosion of civil liberties in the name of the U.S. war on terrorism.

A "debriefing form" was used by detectives to record information on hundreds of people arrested in a series of protests since mid-February against the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

"After a review, the department has decided to eliminate the use of the Demonstration Debriefing Form," NYPD chief spokesman Michael O'Looney said in a statement that was first reported in Thursday's New York Times.

"Arrestees will no longer be asked questions pertaining to prior demonstration history, or school name. All information gathered since the form's inception on Feb. 15 has been destroyed."

The practice ended after pressure from the New York Civil Liberties Union, which received complaints from demonstrators that they felt coerced and that their constitutional rights of free speech and free association were being violated.

Thursday's disclosure came just weeks after a judge cited "fundamental changes in the threats to public security" in lifting decades-long restrictions on the New York Police Department's ability to spy on political groups.

Law enforcement authorities, free speech advocates, media commentators and courts have all acknowledged that the hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001 and the U.S. war on Iraq have created a different atmosphere for policing in America for possible terrorism.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 11:31 AM

The Fall of Hackers
Ethic: Arab Press
Under Cyber Attacks

Cyber-war rages over Iraq

As the conflict continues in Iraq, nerds are fighting their own war in cyberspace. Both pro- and anti-war hackers are causing mayhem on the Web.

Pro-and-anti Iraq war protesters have been making their point by hacking into Web sites in a display of "cyber activism", rather than with the traditional can of spray paint or placard.

Countless activists -- protesters or war hawks -- have the ability to hijack or cripple Web sites from the opposing camp, leaving in their wake a graveyard of busted and defaced links.

"This is the future of protest," said Roberto Preatoni, founder of Zone-H, an Estonian firm that monitors and records hacking attacks. Since the war in Iraq started last week, the firm has recorded over 20,000 Web site defacements.

The most notable victim was al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite TV network that angered many Western television viewers earlier this week when it aired footage of dead soldiers and prisoners-of-war.

The Arab-language site, www.aljazeera.net, flickered to life on Friday, but access to the English-language version remained impossible, the result of repeated hack attacks since Monday.

On Thursday, visitors to the site were greeted with a stars-and-stripes logo saying "Let Freedom Ring". Earlier on Thursday, "Hacked by Patriot, Freedom Cyber Force Militia," was scrawled on the site beneath a logo containing the US flag.

Rife during wartime

Al-Jazeera was not alone. Sites on both sides of the war front have been targeted, as have sites with no obvious affiliation to the war effort.

Last week, when bombs first began to drop on Baghdad, hundreds of US and British business, government and municipal Web sites were defaced with anti-war messages, security experts reported. Seemingly within hours, more hawkish hackers went on the offensive against Arab sites.

Identifying themselves with such nicknames as "Hackweiser" and "DkD", hacker and hacker groups are difficult to track down, leading victims to wonder whether the increasingly sophisticated attacks are part of a larger military arsenal.

In an editorial in Friday's Guardian, Faisal Bodi, senior editor for aljazeera.net, pointed a finger at the Bush administration. "Few here doubt that the provenance of the attack is the Pentagon," he wrote.

Security experts have been quick to dismiss the existence of state-sponsored hacking initiatives. They are typically associated with private groups or individuals with a particular viewpoint to communicate -- or with the aim of gagging their opponent.

Web site defacements are often likened to digital graffiti. Being on the Web, the message tends to get wide exposure, but remains up for a short period. More worrying is when a hacker gains access to the computer server behind a Web site as it is a central repository for corporate data.

A more crude but effective attack is the so-called "denial of service" blast, when hackers blitz a site with meaningless data requests that shuts a site down completely.

Such forms of cyber activism, or Hacktivism as it's known, is not new. But with so many tit-for-tat attacks occurring online in the past week, there are renewed calls from free speech activists for a cease fire.

"People wouldn't tolerate groups that burn down book shops or news agents that sell publications they don't agree with. They shouldn't tolerate the online equivalent," said Ian Brown, director of Foundation for Information Policy Research, a British free speech thinktank.

But others are convinced the worst is yet to come. "If you take down al-Jazeera, everybody around the world knows it. And you never have to leave your house," Preatoni said.

more @ ZDNet News.

founded @ Principia.

post by vasco on 11:13 AM

U.S. Troops Take
Over Iraqi Border
Post with Jordan

U.S. forces established control over an Iraqi border post on the main road to Jordan on Friday after it was abandoned by Iraqi officials.

Reuters correspondent Edmund Blair reported from the Trebeel border post, 550 km (340 miles) west of Baghdad, that the offices were now guarded by a U.S. Humvee all-terrain vehicle. An American soldier at the border post wished travelers a pleasant journey but declined to make any comment to reporters.

Asked when he had arrived, he said: "I cannot answer that."

The few Iraqi officials who had been at the border post appeared to have fled in a hurry following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's 24-year rule in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Blair found food left half-eaten on a grubby kitchen table when he arrived on Thursday evening. But no Iraqi officials.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 10:41 AM

Iraq War
Turns Egypt's Elite
Against U.S.

By Amil Khan

Egyptians with close professional or cultural ties to the United States say the U.S.-led war on Iraq has tarnished their image of the country they most admired.

"Before the war, I was undecided about America's commitment to its promises," said Mai Ezz el-Din, 29, who works for a U.S. insurance firm in Cairo.

"Now I have seen them breaking their word and changing their stance. I don't believe what they say anymore."

Like many of Egypt's young business elite, Ezz el-Din studied at the American University in Cairo (AUC), founded by Christian missionaries in the late 19th century.

Now some children of the age of globalization say they are starting to look to Europe, notably to anti-war France, for an education and a role model.

The Iraq war has inflamed anti-American sentiment in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation and a major U.S. ally.

Last month thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to denounce the U.S.-led war on Iraq. The protests attracted a wide spectrum of Egyptians, including students from AUC, the gleaming white-washed college just off Cairo's central Tahrir Square.
more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 10:26 AM

Thursday, April 10, 2003

New Wi-Fi 802.16
Standard of 31 Miles
Is Gaining Support

A new wireless standard -- 802.16 -- is gaining support, with Intel, Proxim and Fujitsu announcing yesterday they'd joined an industry group called WiMax, which is charged with helping to certify equipment based on the new standard. Unlike the increasingly popular WiFi standard, which is generally limited to a 300-foot radius from the base station antenna, 802.16 technology has a range of more than 31 miles. That means it can be used to extend broadband access to rural and remote locations that currently aren't served. "We believe it's the next big thing in the wireless broadband arena," says Margaret LaBrecque, president of WiMax and an Intel manager. WiMax says its goal is to ensure that 802.16 equipment from different companies will be able to communicate with each other. Analysts expect products using 802.16 to be available during the second half of 2004 and carriers may introduce high-speed Internet service based on the standard in 2005.

more @ Wall Street Journal. (subscrition required)

Received from NewScan Daily newslist. NewsScan Daily (FREE), a lively summary of information technology news writed by John Gehl and Suzanne Douglas. To subscribe, send email to Newscan. Copyright 2003. NewsScan Daily (R) is a publication of NewsScan Inc.

post by vasco on 5:50 AM

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

Republicans Want
Terror Law
Made Permanent

by Eric Lichtblau

Working with the Bush administration, Congressional Republicans are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said today.

The move is likely to touch off strong objections from many Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress who believe that the Patriot Act, as the legislation that grew out of the attacks is known, has already given the government too much power to spy on Americans.

The landmark legislation expanded the government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects.

When it passed in October 2001, moderates and civil libertarians in Congress agreed to support it only by making many critical provisions temporary. Those provisions will expire, or "sunset," at the end of 2005 unless Congress re-authorizes them.

But Republicans in the Senate in recent days have discussed a proposal, written by Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, that would repeal the sunset provisions and make the law's new powers permanent, officials said. Republicans may seek to move on the proposal this week by trying to attaching it to another antiterrorism bill that would make it easier for the government to use secret surveillance warrants against "lone wolf" terrorism suspects.

Many Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated by what they see as a lack of information from the Justice Department on how its agents are using their newfound powers, and they say they need more time to determine whether agents are abusing those powers.

The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said today that without extensive review, he "would be very strongly opposed to any repeal" of the 2005 time limit. He predicted that Republicans lacked the votes to repeal the limits.

more @ New York Times.

post by vasco on 5:41 PM

Bush's War Against
U.S. Civil Rights
Is Far from the End

Police Attack California Anti-War Protesters

by Martha Mendoza

Police open fired Monday morning with non-lethal bullets at an anti-war protest at the Port of Oakland, injuring several longshoremen standing nearby.

Police were trying to clear protesters from an entrance to the docks when they opened fire and the longshoremen apparently were caught in the line of fire.

Six longshoremen were treated by paramedics and at least one was expected to be taken to a hospital. It was unclear if any of the protesters was injured.

"I was standing as far back as I could," said longshoreman Kevin Wilson. "It was very scary. All of that force wasn't necessary."

Last week, a San Francisco-based peace group, Direct Action to Stop the War, had announced that it would stage a series of protests Monday involving new acts of civil disobedience.

The Port of Oakland was among the targets, organizers had said, because at least one shipping company is handling war supplies.

Trent Willis, a business agent for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said angrily that dockworkers were leaving the docks after the incident.

"They shot my guys. We're not going to work today," Willis said. "The cops had no reason to open up on them."

Police used non-lethal bullets, sandbags and concussion grenades to try to break up about 500 protesters, who split into groups in front of different terminals.

Oakland Police officer James Carroll said police set up a "skirmish line" and ordered the protesters to disperse.

see more news and a movie of police shooting protesters @ SF Indymedia.

more @ Common Dreams.

post by vasco on 4:55 PM

Rubber Bullets
Used on War
Protesters in Oakland

by Jim Winborne

Oakland police fired rubber bullets and wooden pellets on Monday to disperse hundreds of anti-war protesters in what was believed to be the first such use against U.S. protesters since the American-led war on Iraq began.

Demonstrators were seeking to block access to American President Lines, a shipping company they claimed was profiting from the war in Iraq when said they used the pellets and bullets to disperse about 750 protesters.

Several people were injured, including some who suffered large bruises. One man lifted up his shirt to show a welt about the size of a baseball.

"We gave our dispersal order, we gave them an order, we gave them ample time to disperse," said Oakland Police spokeswoman Danielle Ashford. "When we give our dispersal order, that's pretty much it. (If) there are safety issues involved, that's when we step in."

The anti-war demonstrators carried signs including "Shut down the war makers."

The action is believed to be the first police use of anti-crowd munitions against U.S. demonstrators since President Bush (news - web sites) launched a war aimed at toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

Police continued to fire upon a group of about 150 protesters that remained in mid-morning after the initial burst of rubber bullets broke up most of the crowd. Police arrested at least a dozen demonstrators in Oakland.

more @ Yahoo News.

post by vasco on 4:15 PM

Grassroots Journalism
Community Fight Wins
the Credibility's Front

LiveWire: for Bloggers, War Is No Cakewalk

by Bernhard Warner

Last week's daring midnight rescue of 19-year-old American soldier Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital has become one of the few feel-good stories of the war for Western media outlets.

For George Paine, a technology consultant-turned-amateur war correspondent, it was a headache. Before the dramatic rescue of the injured young woman, Paine wrote a short update for his Web site Warblogging mistakenly reporting that Lynch was among the soldiers presumed dead.

Paine, part of a growing community of online diarists called "bloggers," awoke the next morning to irate e-mails from readers and fellow bloggers.

"I was exhausted. I didn't make clear Jessica was only MIA," the New York-based war watcher said afterwards.

In the annals of journalism, Paine's mistake had minimal impact. The responses led him to quickly correct the error and move on.

New Brand of Journalists

More and more readers are discovering Warblogging.com, Warblogs.cc and the scores of similar sites as they look for a fresh and unfiltered perspective on current events as well as a forum for debate.

Blogs -- Net speak for Web logs -- are a brand of grassroots journalism that has really taken off since war began in Iraq last month with amateurs and professional journalists alike joining the movement.

But it hasn't been a cakewalk for bloggers.

So far, bloggers have experienced many of the same headaches as big media -- long work days, mounting costs, the occasional enraged reader, hack attacks -- plus a few new twists that underscore the complexity of blogging the news.

CNN cameraman Kevin Sites, on assignment in Iraq, was asked by his employer to cease updating his blog site for the time being to avoid potential reporting conflicts. BBC producer Stuart Hughes' blog, went quiet for four days last week while he recuperated from a land mine injury in Northern Iraq.

Most blogs, however, come from ordinary Netizens voicing their opinion, from the safety of their home or office, about a war thousands of miles away. Their exploits can be found by typing in "warblogs" on index sites such as Daypop.

The explosion in popularity is due to the viral nature of blogging. Bloggers promote the best and brightest writing samples of fellow bloggers by adding links to their works on their own Web sites.

This fraternal connection explains how sometimes a rather obscure blog site can suddenly attract a global audience and become a small force in influencing public opinion.

Traffic to Warblogging.com has exploded, growing from dozens of readers last summer to an average of 60,000 per day and nearly 120,000 on March 20, the first full day of the war -- an increase that made access to the site spotty at the outset.

Paine is not the only blogger to incur traffic bottlenecks. Most blog sites are ill-equipped to handle lots of readers.

Laura Poyneer, a 29-year-old American paralegal student, sent out a plea for help from her Arab-themed Web blog site when traffic increased thirty-fold in the first days of the war.

Within 24 hours, readers kicked in more than $100 to cover bandwidth costs. "Not a lot, but enough to cover my increased expenses, at least for the moment," Poyneer said via email.

Blog, Blog, Blog

Bloggers often make visceral statements about the war that established media wouldn't touch.

Paine wrote one article in the first days of the war that provoked the ire of some readers. It said not everyone saw American and British troops as liberators, a view at odds with the portrayal by some American TV reporters of the U.S.-led coalition.

How did readers respond?

Some tried to knock his site offline by flooding it with countless data requests designed to bog down his computer. Although the response was intercepted by his Internet Service Provider, the site was still difficult to reach for some time.

American journalist Christopher Albritton, believed to be the first Web-funded -- with money raised from readers -- correspondent to report from the Iraqi war zone, encountered an entirely different problem.

While Albritton was en route to the Turkey-Iraq border to get closer to the action, one of his readers took it upon himself to fill the temporary void by posting a New Yorker article on Albritton's site.

"Whoever is posting some other journalist's work in the comments section, just stop. This 'blog, Back to Iraq, is a forum for the works of Chris Allbritton," read a notice on his Web page, posted by a friend who was minding the site while Albritton was incommunicado.

The story was taken down. But it illustrates some of the unique technical and social challenges faced by the scores of correspondents blogging from the front.

Reached via email, Albritton, a former reporter for the Associated Press and the New York Daily News, was philosophical about the future of this form of journalism.

"It's a marketplace of ideas, and those who are awarded credibility by their readers will prosper," he said.

So far, the marketplace is paying off for Albritton. He said he's raised more than $11,000 from readers, enough to fund his trip to Iraq, from where he has been filing daily stories.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 3:59 PM

Russia Denies
Its Baghdad Embassy
Sheltering Saddam

Russia denied on Wednesday Arab and Western media reports that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was in the compound of its embassy in Baghdad.
"This type of statement is not in any way true," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told Russian state television.

"This is another attempt to place our embassy in Baghdad under threat," he said, in an apparent reference to protests on April 2 over U.S. strikes on Baghdad which Moscow said threatened the lives of its diplomats.

Russia has also blamed the United States for an incident -- still unexplained -- in which a convoy of Russian diplomats came under fire as it was leaving Baghdad.

Russia, which has long had close economic ties with Iraq, has consistently opposed the U.S.-led effort to topple Saddam.

Washington has accused Russian firms of selling Iraq banned military technology, including electronic jamming equipment and night vision goggles. Moscow denies the allegations.

more @ Reuters.

post by vasco on 3:22 PM

Iraqis Dance
on Toppled Saddam
Statue in Baghdad

by Hassan Hafidh and Sean Maguire

U.S. Marines toppled a huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the heart of Baghdad on Wednesday as Iraqis celebrated the humiliating collapse of his 24-year rule.

Cheering ecstatically, a crowd of Iraqis danced and trampled on the fallen 20-foot-high metal statue in contempt for the man who had held them in fear for so long.

In scenes recalling the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, Iraqis hacked at the statue's marble plinth with a sledgehammer. Youths hooked a noose around the statue's neck and attached the rope to a Marine armored vehicle, which dragged it over.

There was no word on the fate of Saddam or his sons, targeted by U.S. planes that bombed a western residential area of the city on Monday. A CIA official said he did not know if the Iraqi leader had survived the attack.

Saddam, who led Iraq through three wars and decades of suffering after taking power in 1979, had vowed to crush a U.S. and British invasion launched three weeks ago to overthrow him.

But his forces offered little resistance on Wednesday as U.S. troops thrust through this sprawling city of five million, amid chaotic scenes of rejoicing, looting and gunfire. Looters gutted official buildings, hauling off anything from air conditioners to flowers. The finance ministry was ablaze late in the day, though it was unclear how the fire had started.

"People, if you only knew what this man did to Iraq," yelled an old man standing in the road, thrashing at a torn portrait of Saddam with his shoe. "He killed our youth, he killed millions."

more @ Reuters.

see stream videos @ Reuters Feedroom.

post by vasco on 2:44 PM

Troops Controls Baghdad
and Iraq's People Join
Hussein's Defeat Party

Looting and Celebrations Begin in Baghdad

Uniformed soldiers and police have completely disappeared from some areas of Baghdad leading to an outbreak of looting, as US forces continue their advance into the city.

Journalists watched young men and boys sack the United Nations headquarters in the Canal Hotel to the east of the city centre. One witness saw looters ransack sports shops around the bombed Iraqi Olympic Committee building, formerly the headquarters of Saddam's elder son, Uday.

Residents threw flowers at the armoured column as it swept past, just three kilometres east of the central Jumhuriyya Bridge over the Tigris river. Joy at the apparent removal of Saddam Hussein was tangible, with one man beating a canvas portrait of him with his slipper.

Crowds threw flowers at the Marines as they drove past the Martyrs' Monument, just three km (two miles) east of the central Jumhuriya Bridge over the Tigris river.

Young and middle-aged men, many wearing soccer shirts of leading Western clubs like Manchester United, shouted "Hello, hello" as Marines advanced through the rundown sprawl of Saddam City and then more prosperous suburbs with villas and trim lawns.

"No more Saddam Hussein," chanted one group, waving to troops as they passed. "We love you, we love you." One young man ran alongside a Marine armoured personnel carrier trying to hand over a heavy belt of ammunition. An older man made a wild kicking gesture with his foot, saying "Goodbye Saddam".

Women waved from balconies, girls threw flower petals at young Marines leaning across gun turrets. One woman held her baby aloft. Tank crews picked the flowers from the tops of their fighting machines, smelt them and grinned.

Other signs of a breakdown were also apparent. Journalists at the Palestine Hotel confirmed that their minders had disappeared. US military officials said the Republican Guard continue to receive instructions but were not following them.

Al-Jazeera correspondent Maher Abdallah said he could hear tank fire from his location in the city centre but that it appeared to be intermittent and much less intense than Tuesday.

Al Jazeera notice that Saddam Hussein is said in Lebanon TV to take refugee inside the Russian embassy.

more @ Al Jazeera.

post by vasco on 1:41 PM

U.S. Warplanes Target
Al Jazeera and a Journalist
Dies in Missile Attack

Al-Jazeera correspondent Tariq Ayoub was killed on Tuesday when two US missiles struck the Baghdad offices of the Qatar-based channel.

Two more journalists died and four others were injured when a US tank round later hit the Palestine Hotel where at least 200 international correspondents, including Al-Jazeera reporters, are staying.

"We regret to inform you that our cameraman and correspondent Tariq Ayoub was killed this morning during the US missile strike on our Baghdad office," the Qatar-based channel said in a statement read out during its news bulletin.

His wife, Dima Tahboob, said she received phone calls from Ayoub everyday. “He was not scared at all,” she said as she wept silently.

The last time she spoke to him was Monday evening. “He was exhausted and his voice was tired,” she said. “ He said they were barely sleeping three hours a day. I tried to comfort him and then he told me not to worry, saying that the situation was not bad for journalists.”

“Probably everyone will forget him, maybe Al Jazeera will forget him, but he is now with God who does not forget anyone.”

Another cameraman, Zuheir Iraqi, was slightly hurt in his neck by shrapnel.

They were both standing on the roof getting ready for a live broadcast amid intensifying bombardment of the city when the building was hit by two missiles, according to Tayseer Allouni, another Al Jazeera correspondent.

Cameraman Iraqi came down bleeding, but Ayoub did not show up. “I ran up as the shells were still falling and crawled on the roof and shouted for Tariq, but he did not answer,” Allouni said.

Allouni had gone down because of the intense bombing. He later went up again and with the help of Abu Dhabi TV correspondent, Jaber Obeid, found Ayoub’s body.

Allouni, Jaber and others took Ayoub in an Abu Dhabi TV vehicle to a hospital.

Shortly afterwards, US warplanes returned to hit the neighbouring Abu Dhabi TV offices.

“It seems that we have become a target,” said Allouni.

< JA comment > On Tuesday, Al Jazeera news correspondent Tariq Ayoub was killed when two U.S missiles hit an Al Jazeera office in Baghdad.Two other journalists died when a U.S tank opened fire on the Palestine Hotel, where over 200 journalists are stationed. < /comment >

more @ Al Jazeera.

founded with photo @ ja's blog Principia.

post by vasco on 1:35 AM

Monday, April 07, 2003

Friendly Attack Bomb
Kurdish Convoy and
Injure BBC Journalist

The mistaken attack by a US warplane on a convoy of Kurdish and US troops in which ten people were killed and the BBC's John Simpson was injured is just the latest in a series of devastating battlefield accidents.

Former Royal Air Force fighter pilot Simon Turner assesses why these mistakes keep happening, and what can be done to prevent them.

Why have there been so many of these incidents?

There's no single isolating factor in each case, but there are elements that are important.

The main reason for these incidents is the fact that air power is being used in an environment where Iraqi targets are mobile and operating close to mobile coalition forces.

It's a risk which coalition commanders take, but there are obvious dangers.

It's more risky not to use air power in this situation. For example, Iraqi tanks could have disrupted more supply convoys if coalition air power hadn't been targeting them.

Are there more incidents occuring than you would expect?

No. There is no doubt that when you deploy air power close to your own troops, incidents like this will happen.

Will the problem get worse?

As fighting intensifies around Baghdad, with smaller units on both sides engaging each other in close proximity, there is a potential for more such incidents to take place.

There are some ways of decreasing the chances of this. For example, troops on the ground close to an enemy target can direct a laser onto the enemy target, which the pilot can spot from the air. This means the target is verified by two people in separate locations, reducing the chances of making a mistake.

< Albritton comment > A little more information and clarification on the “blue on blue” (friendly fire) incident yesterday in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Twenty-two Kurdish fighters and five Special Forces died. Forty-five peshmergas were wounded, including Wazeri Barzani, a brother of KDP president Massoud Barzani.

The attack happened not because of the capture of Iraqi tanks, as early reports from Fawzi Hariri said yesterday, but because a Special Forces commander in the attacked convoy called in air strikes on a nearby Iraqi tank column and the American pilots hit the convoy by mistake. < /comment >

see the stream of friendly attack @ BBC.

more @ BBC News.

Albritton @ Back to Iraq 2.0.

post by vasco on 6:18 PM

Netwar Front

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Police Violence
Against Protesters on
Washington Demonstration

Pro War Rally Protected, Anti War March Attacked by U.S. Police

Europe Protesters
Demands the End of
Iraq`s Military Intervention

Antiwar Protesters Switch Focus to Iraq Occupation

G7 Finance Chiefs
Call for U.N.
Action on Iraq

Friday, April 11, 2003

Fox Murdoch Takeover
Direct TV, Aol Cable
Delayed to the Fall

U.S. "Pravda" Take the Prize for War News Colaboration

PUK Leader
Order Fighters to
Pull Out of Kirkurk

"US is not going to do anything for the Kurds"

Baghdad Collapses
Into Violence, Armed
Looters Shoot People

Turkish Government
Launch Regional Axis
With Syria and Iran

U.N. Involvement for
Rebuilding Iraq Play
Key Role for Japanese

Europe Leaders Discuss
U.N. Role in Iraq Future
Mocked by Powell

Power Vacuum
in Iraq, Power
Struggle in U.S.

NY Police Admit
Keeping Anti-War
Protest Database

The Fall of Hackers
Ethic: Arab Press
Under Cyber Attacks

Cyber-war rages over Iraq

U.S. Troops Take
Over Iraqi Border
Post with Jordan

Iraq War
Turns Egypt's Elite
Against U.S.

Thursday, April 10, 2003

New Wi-Fi 802.16
Standard of 31 Miles
Is Gaining Support

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

Republicans Want
Terror Law
Made Permanent

Bush's War Against
U.S. Civil Rights
Is Far from the End

Police Attack California Anti-War Protesters

Rubber Bullets
Used on War
Protesters in Oakland

Grassroots Journalism
Community Fight Wins
the Credibility's Front

LiveWire: for Bloggers, War Is No Cakewalk

Russia Denies
Its Baghdad Embassy
Sheltering Saddam

Iraqis Dance
on Toppled Saddam
Statue in Baghdad

Troops Controls Baghdad
and Iraq's People Join
Hussein's Defeat Party

Looting and Celebrations Begin in Baghdad

U.S. Warplanes Target
Al Jazeera and a Journalist
Dies in Missile Attack

Monday, April 07, 2003

Friendly Attack Bomb
Kurdish Convoy and
Injure BBC Journalist

Netwar Front

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Police ViolenceAgainst Protesters onWashington Demonstration

Pro War Rally Protected, Anti War March Attacked by U.S. Police

Europe ProtestersDemands the End ofIraq`s Military Intervention

Antiwar Protesters Switch Focus to Iraq Occupation

G7 Finance ChiefsCall for U.N.Action on Iraq

Friday, April 11, 2003

Fox Murdoch TakeoverDirect TV, Aol CableDelayed to the Fall

U.S. "Pravda" Take the Prize for War News Colaboration

PUK LeaderOrder Fighters toPull Out of Kirkurk

"US is not going to do anything for the Kurds"

Baghdad CollapsesInto Violence, ArmedLooters Shoot People

Turkish GovernmentLaunch Regional AxisWith Syria and Iran

U.N. Involvement forRebuilding Iraq PlayKey Role for Japanese

Europe Leaders DiscussU.N. Role in Iraq FutureMocked by Powell

Power Vacuumin Iraq, PowerStruggle in U.S.

NY Police AdmitKeeping Anti-WarProtest Database

The Fall of HackersEthic: Arab PressUnder Cyber Attacks

Cyber-war rages over Iraq

U.S. Troops TakeOver Iraqi BorderPost with Jordan

Iraq WarTurns Egypt's EliteAgainst U.S.

Thursday, April 10, 2003

New Wi-Fi 802.16Standard of 31 MilesIs Gaining Support

Wednesday, April 09, 2003

Republicans WantTerror LawMade Permanent

Bush's War AgainstU.S. Civil RightsIs Far from the End

Police Attack California Anti-War Protesters

Rubber BulletsUsed on WarProtesters in Oakland

Grassroots JournalismCommunity Fight Winsthe Credibility's Front

LiveWire: for Bloggers, War Is No Cakewalk

Russia DeniesIts Baghdad EmbassySheltering Saddam

Iraqis Danceon Toppled SaddamStatue in Baghdad

Troops Controls Baghdadand Iraq's People JoinHussein's Defeat Party

Looting and Celebrations Begin in Baghdad

U.S. Warplanes TargetAl Jazeera and a JournalistDies in Missile Attack

Monday, April 07, 2003

Friendly Attack BombKurdish Convoy andInjure BBC Journalist

Police Violence
Against Protesters on
Washington Demonstration

Europe Protesters
Demands the End of
Iraq`s Military Intervention

G7 Finance Chiefs
Call for U.N.
Action on Iraq

Fox Murdoch Takeover
Direct TV, Aol Cable
Delayed to the Fall

PUK Leader
Order Fighters to
Pull Out of Kirkurk

Baghdad Collapses
Into Violence, Armed
Looters Shoot People

Turkish Government
Launch Regional Axis
With Syria and Iran

U.N. Involvement for
Rebuilding Iraq Play
Key Role for Japanese

Europe Leaders Discuss
U.N. Role in Iraq Future
Mocked by Powell

Power Vacuum
in Iraq, Power
Struggle in U.S.

NY Police Admit
Keeping Anti-War
Protest Database

The Fall of Hackers
Ethic: Arab Press
Under Cyber Attacks

U.S. Troops Take
Over Iraqi Border
Post with Jordan

Iraq War
Turns Egypt's Elite
Against U.S.

New Wi-Fi 802.16
Standard of 31 Miles
Is Gaining Support

Republicans Want
Terror Law
Made Permanent

Bush's War Against
U.S. Civil Rights
Is Far from the End

Rubber Bullets
Used on War
Protesters in Oakland

Grassroots Journalism
Community Fight Wins
the Credibility's Front

Russia Denies
Its Baghdad Embassy
Sheltering Saddam

Iraqis Dance
on Toppled Saddam
Statue in Baghdad

Troops Controls Baghdad
and Iraq's People Join
Hussein's Defeat Party

U.S. Warplanes Target
Al Jazeera and a Journalist
Dies in Missile Attack

Friendly Attack Bomb
Kurdish Convoy and
Injure BBC Journalist