Hi Karen,
This is the first I've heard of 136 Americans being held prisoner.
Do you trust this number? I, for one, don't trust the Rense.com website. I've seen too much disinformation there in the past to take them too seriously.
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Trying to chase down this rumor, I've come across another story that is quite troubling if it is true. This is from a source I'm not familiar with, nor am I endorsing. I merely post this because it is more-or-less the sort of thing I'm growing to expect to read about an imperial expeditionary force that has extended way beyond any of the bounds of decency this nation used to adhere to.
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by Muhammad Abu Nasr, Free Arab Voice
freearabvoice.org
Americans use chemical weapons in al-Fallujah.
In a dispatch posted at 6:40pm Mecca time, the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent reported that US troops got residents of the as-Saqlawiyah area on Monday and Tuesday to collect bodies of civilians killed on the outskirts of the al-Jawlan neighborhood in al-Fallujah’s northwest and to take them to as-Saqlawiyah for burial. The US troops insisted on going along with the as-Saqlawiyah residents from the moment they left their town and all along the route as they loaded and transported the bodies back for interment in as-Saqlawiyah. US troops also searched all the residents who were to go to transport the bodies, for fear lest any one of them have cameras with which to record the crimes of the American troops.
The correspondent reported that the as-Saqlawiyah residents transported 20 bodies on Monday, among them two women and two children. On Tuesday they transported 14 bodies. The correspondent noted that all those who had died were killed by some sort of chemical gas since their bodies were bloated, as if inflated from all sides, and yellow but without odor – except for a few that the witness said gave off a pleasant smell as is expected of the bodies of martyrs.
The as-Saqlawiyah residents to took part in the hauling of the bodies asked the Americans to be allowed to go into the al-Jawlan neighborhood but the American commander said through an Iraqi translator that although they were in complete control of the area where they then were on the outskirts of al-Jawlan, that was not the case inside, and the Americans could not let the residents go into the neighborhood un-escorted, but the Americans dared not go into the neighborhood with them either.
On Wednesday a group of as-Saqlawiyah residents went on another trip to collect the bodies of those killed by chemical weapons on the northern side of al-Fallujah. A woman refugee who was coming from the western side of the al-Jawlan neighborhood said that she saw the US troops putting bodies in black bags and throwing them in the Euphrates River but she was unable to see whose bodies they were.
The Iraqi Resistance inflicted heavy losses on the US forces in al-Fallujah prompting the Americans to employ chemical weapons for the first time since the fall of Baghdad. The US forces used chemical weapons in the al-Jawlan, ash-Shuhada’, and al-Jubayl neighborhoods. The last time they used chemical weapons was last night in al-Jubayl neighborhood.
Mafkarat al-Islam stated that it hesitated to publish these reports, which it could have begun doing two days ago, for fear that they might provoke the Americans to prohibit efforts to clear away the bodies of the martyrs for burial, leaving them instead to become food for dogs, other predators, and vermin. The editorial board believed, however, that the issue of publishing this report had good and bad sides. The bad side of publishing the story being that it might halt the efforts to bury the martyrs. But the good side was that it would show up the enormity of US barbarism in al-Fallujah, and that, in turn could be “buried” if the story were never published. Therefore Mafkarat al-Islam’s editorial board decided to publish the story so that it could be recorded and so that history could bear witness to the crimes of the American forces.
Doctor charges US used chemical weapons in al-Fallujah.
An Iraqi doctor accused the US forces in al-Fallujah of using chemical weapons against the city. Speaking on the radio program Panorama FM at midday Wednesday, the doctor said that he had examined two bodies of Iraqis killed by the Americans using internationally prohibited chemical weapons. Mafkarat al-Islam reported the doctor as saying that the bodies had no gunshot or shrapnel wounds, nor any sign of blunt force trauma.
Mafkarat al-Islam had earlier reported on the Americans’ use of chemical agents in al-Fallujah on 11 November, but at that time the extent of the damaged they caused was diminished by a rainstorm.
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Of course, the American media would never report such a violation of international law to the American people. So we'll never get their corroboration of the story. At least not for the next 20 years. But is this obviously partisan writer telling us the truth? |
