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Iraq "Mess" Igniting "Worldwide Insurgency": Report
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The
report compares Iraq war to the "ill-considered ventures" of the Boer
War and the Suez crisis which did Britain more harm than good. (Reuters)
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CAIRO,
July 25, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The Anglo-American
"ill-considered venture" of invading Iraq has turned into a
"mess" fueling attacks around the world and providing Al-Qaeda
with sympathizers across the Muslim world, according to an award-winning
British reporter.
Writing
in The Independent Monday, July 25, Patrick Cockburn said the
Iraq invasion "has demonstrably strengthened Al-Qaeda by providing
it with a large pool of activists and sympathizers across the Muslim
world it did not possess before the invasion of 2003."
Citing
a Saudi intelligence investigation with 300 young Saudis caught on their
way to Iraq, to be released soon, the reporter said the findings show
that very few of them had any previous contact with Al-Qaeda or any
other terrorist organization previous to 2003.
"It
was the invasion of Iraq which prompted their decision to die."
Cockburn
also criticized British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Foreifn
Secretary Jack Straw for denying any link between the London terrorist
attacks and the Iraq war.
"The
shrill denials by Tony Blair and Jack Straw that hostility to the
invasion of Iraq motivated the bombers are demonstrably untrue."
He
stressed that the Iraq war "is now joining the Boer War in 1899 and
the Suez crisis in 1956 as ill-considered ventures that have done
Britain more harm than good."
Click
to read the article in Full…
Disdain
for Human Life
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Amnesty accused militant groups in Iraq of "disdain for human life".
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Meanwhile,
London-based Amnesty International issued a report Monday, lashing out
at militant groups fighting the US-led troops and the Iraqi government
for showing great "disdain for human life".
"Armed
groups opposed to the US-led multinational force and Iraq's government
are showing utter disdain for the lives of Iraqi civilians and others,
continuing a pattern of war crimes and crimes against humanity,"
the rights watchdog said in a statement on its Web site.
The
56-page report, entitled "Iraq, In Cold Blood: Abuses by Armed
Groups", charged that human rights violations and the killing
of civilians by US-led forces in Iraq could not justify the
"insurgents' tactics".
"This
is all the more the case when the principal victims are ordinary Iraqi
men, women and children attempting peacefully to go about their everyday
lives," the report said.
"Those
who breach this obligation, on which ever side they stand, must be made
to stop and they must be held to account."
Amnesty
further appealed to religious leaders and other "influential
figures" in Iraq to condemn atrocities and resist efforts to
justify them.
"We
earnestly hope that these leaders, by speaking out publicly or through
other more discreet means, can help to make the difference," the
group said.
"If
we and they fail, it will be Iraqi civilians who first and foremost will
continue to pay the awful price."
Click
to read the report in Full…
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