It was on January 24, 2002.  Pope John Paul II had gathered in Assisi, the home of St. Francis, the gentlest saint, 200 world religious leaders in a day of prayer.

Roman Catholics, Muslim clerics, Jewish rabbis, Buddhists, Sikhs, Bahais, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians, and members of African traditional tribal religions gathered to pray for an end to war, an end to violence, an end to terrorism.

The Pope wanted the day of prayer to reinforce his message after the 11 September attacks that religion must not be a motive for conflict in the 21st Century.

A LEXICON OF VIOLENCE

RIOT: VIOLENT BLOCK PARTY

Basically everyone is out for a "good time" unless they are part of a solemn ceremony, and the gathering creates opportunity for violence, property destruction, blood, and few casualties.  When out of hand, the weapons include malotov cocktails, bottles, rocks, clubs, etc.  Usually no knives, unless wielded by street criminals, or guns, unless wielded by police.  When it's police they may use "friendly" fire like rubber bullets which can maim, blind or kill, or live ammunition.  Tear gas, beatings, and death in police custody are not unusual.

Riots happen whenever opposing parties or sides get together to do something else... like have a parade, go to the market, go to a sports match, or collect their unemployment.  Riots, unlike terrorist attacks, are always expected, which is why the police are so often involved in the violence.  In a large percentage of riots it is claimed that the police presence did not curb but instigated the violence.

Belfast gunfire kills one on divisive holiday's eve
Buffalo News, NY - July 12, 2005

Here is a compilation of studies on Iraqi civilian casualties..  Like everything else about this war, there are a lot of things we, the world's people, are not meant to know.  The true tally of Iraqi civilian casualties is one of the worst of the worst kept secrets.  Iraq body count currently lists Iraqi civilian casualties as 25,500 on the high end.  Yet last winter, Lancet, the British medical journal listed the number at 100,000.  And this week AFP has come up with its most accurate number:

128,000 Iraqi civilian casualties.  

Yesterday a suicide bomber targeted an American soldier who was busy distributing candy to Iraqi children during a bomb alert.  The soldier, the bomber and thirty two children were killed.

What is wrong with this picture?

This is the US armed forces, this is not the Red Cross/Red Crescent.  Why would a US soldier be handing out sweets in the middle of a bomb alert?  Why is this going on?  

Who Planted the London Bombs?

Raids, arrests in U.K. -- Suspects British citizens of Pakistani origin; all believed to have died

John Steele, Ben Fenton and Paul Stokes


The Daily Telegraph; Wednesday, July 13, 2005

LONDON and LEEDS - British police said yesterday that four men were responsible for the terror attacks that killed at least 52 people in London last week, and while authorities did not explicitly say they were suicide bombers, it was suggested they did not survive the explosions.


The major investigative breakthrough, which came as police also conducted a series of armed raids yesterday and made their first arrest in the attacks, was followed by reports that the suspected bombers included at least three British citizens.

"We have met the enemy, and they is us."  Walt Kelly's Pogo

As a follow-up on yesterday's Blood On The Tracks -- London Bombings”, you might remember that the UK Independent put forth 5 theories as to who might be responsible for the Thursday, July 7th bombings of three underground trains, and one bus in London. Today it is all but confirmed that the bombings were the work of four suicide bombers.  Identification was left near the sites of all four bombs, one body on the bus has been identified as one of the bombers. A car found, houses searched, and suspected bombs exploded.  Who are these people who would do such a thing?  What kind of organized insanity was it that took the lives of between 50 and 80 innocent people?
These things are happening every day, all over the world.  And if this is insanity, the level of organization shows a degree of cold-blooded calculation that we could only call "evil genius."  And to call it genius is just not too smart.

This also happened today:
Suicide Attacker Kills Two at Israel Mall

Today's UK Independent is full of it... speculation about who might be responsible for the London bombings on the 7th of July. Today they are exploring not one, but FIVE theories as to who might be responsible:

1.     HOME GROWN BOMBERS.   British Extremist Anti-War Muslims
2.     THE FOREIGN CELL;   French, Spanish
3.     THE MADRID TEAM;   Moroccan
4.     BRITISH AL-QA'IDA
5.     WHITE "CLEAN SKINS";   (no criminal records)

There are a few more groups they have left out, and quite a few nations... but tomorrow is another day to sell more newspapers.  Maybe they'll get around to the Evil One(s).  Given enough time B&B may yet swing it round to the "Axis of Evil" and bring it back to Afghanistan & Iraq.  Will Blair find his "ratification" for the war in Iraq in the aftermath of the bombing?

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.  (Helen Keller (1880-1968)photo of Helen Keller)

For the past four years there has not been a day gone by that I did not do something to try to end the war in Iraq, to try to relieve the suffering, to try and stop the criminal insanity.  Some four years ago the way I tried was to give 20% of my earnings to Medicins Sans Frontieres.  They broke through the embargo against Iraq.  They got food and medical supplies through. What did I do?  I wrote and I talked.  Gave speeches and talks and raised money.  And I wrote.  And today was no different.  I wrote.  I published.  But today I changed my ways.  I will not fight this war the way I have fought in the past.  I have a new way.  I am finding my way out of the dark towards the end of the war in Iraq.

While You Slept

I travelled to Persia, to Alexandria, and to the granite shores of home
I wept with an old love and buried a child while you slept
The earth was red with Wyoming clay, into it salt mothers tears
And the husband like stone and him with the whiskey for courage
For me the clay and a year of dirt and solitude

A year with God and the grave and planting trees in the wilderness.

PRELIMINARY DECLARATION OF THE JURY OF CONSCIENCE WORLD TRIBUNAL ON IRAQ  

July 3, 2005

ISTANBUL 23RD -27TH JUNE 2005



WORLD TRIBUNAL on IRAQ DECLARATION

Also See:

WORLD TRIBUNAL on IRAQ Declaration July 3, 2005

`The attack on Iraq is an attack on justice, on liberty, on our safety, on our future, on us all' - The Jury of Conscience

Here is from today's Star Newspaper, Ireland.  Once again I am typing it out because you can't get it off the net, and neither can I.  On Tuesday I quoted from an article in the Irish Times,  "Paying 10,000 Euros a day for US military overflights has not really registered on the Irish taxpayers' radar"  Tom Clonan, June 25, 2005, and the Americans didn't know what to make of it.  The US doesn't get Irish news and views.  But the whole world is watching and expressing it's horror and disbelief of GWB's war and policies.  Today's article is not listed on the web either:

BUSH WAS WARNED IN 2004 NOT TO "STAY THE COURSE"

We found the smoking bullet in the smoking gun of the Downing Street Memos, that being the massive pre-war bombing campaign intended to provoke Saddam into war. Now here is the "massive intelligence failure. Bush and Rumsfeld had the intelligence and it came from the Pentagon. But they failed to read it, and they failed to understand it. George Bush is the "massive intelligence failure."

This following is one you can bank on. It is the Pentagon's own Defence Science Board Report Strategic Communications, December 2004.

There's been a lot of reckoning about the cost of Bush's illegal war in Iraq.  That's right, as of two days ago, when the public withdrew support for Mr. Bush's war (not President Bush, as he stole that, too) More than 50% of the population says that it was Mr. Bush who provoked Saddam into war.  More than 50% of the population do not support him.  This should be an interesting night.

When reckoning the cost of the illegal war in Iraq, we count 1,700 US killed in action, more than 25,000 Iraqi civilians killed, and a cost to US taxpayers of something to the tune of $200 Billion.  But there are more costs people don't consider, especially the American people.

US MSM NON REPORTING DSM & PRE-WAR BOMBING IRAQ;
For the Period May 1 through June 26, 2005

I've got almost as many op-eds in my files with theories as to why the MSM does not report on the DSM, as those that do report.  There are more letters to the editor demanding coverage, as there are letters by informed citizens with good advice for action to take (i.e. Congress, the Senate, and Coalition efforts)

But there are very few articles, op-eds and letters to the editor that address the basic problem of WHY there is so little, or almost NO coverage in the US Main Stream Media about the Downing Street Documents, the RAF bombing, the pre-war bombing, etc.

Here follows four theories.  You might not like this.

This HAS been reported before on dKos, Booman Tribune, and EuroTrib.  It has been reported from the 29th of May when Welshman brought us the Michael Smith article, "RAF Bombing to Goad Saddam Into War".  It was reported by Congressman John Conyers in dKos "Smoking Bullet In The Smoking Gun,"  It was reported by RAWSTORY on the 29th of May:

WHERE, IF EVER WAS THIS STORY REPORTED IN THE US MAIN STREAM MEDIA?

NEVER. OK, exactly once. Washington Post ran a story on the 23 of June based on the Michael Smith (UK) story in the LA Times on the same day. We can't call this reporting, this is regurgitating. This story went unreported except for Michael Smith of the UK, dKos, Booman Tribune, EuroTrib and RAWSTORY.

DON'T READ THIS !! YOU WERE WARNED !!

DON'T READ THIS !

THIS GUARDIAN ARTICLE COMES FROM 2003 !!

THIS ARTICLE COMES FROM THE UK !!

War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal

Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger in Washington

Thursday November 20, 2003

The Guardian

International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.

In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

The Real News in the Downing Street Memos

Los Angeles Times
By Michael Smith

Michael Smith writes on defense issues for the Sunday Times of London.

June 23, 2005

It is now nine months since I obtained the first of the "Downing Street memos," thrust into my hand by someone who asked me to meet him in a quiet watering hole in London for what I imagined would just be a friendly drink.

At the time, I was defense correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, and a staunch supporter of the decision to oust Saddam Hussein. The source was a friend. He'd given me a few stories before but nothing nearly as interesting as this.
The six leaked documents I took away with me that night were to change completely my opinion of the decision to go to war and the honesty of Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush.

IRAQ WAR MEDIA TRACKING -- Thanks For Your Help
Grace Reid
June 22, 2005

MEDIA TRACKING TO BRING END TO WAR IN IRAQ

Thanks for your help, Everyone,

I have been receiving loads of replies on my media tracking project, and some surprising breaks in the US media reporting of the illegal war in Iraq.

I have started four blogs for media trackers who want to help in this project.

PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT

To break through media blackout.  To bring the news to the US, (via the UK, if necessary)  To counterattack falsehood with fact, to expose the illegal war as it was developing and reported in the US.  Ultimately the goal of this project is to bring a speedy end to the war in Iraq through the public becoming more aware of the insidious origins of the illegal war of aggression against Iraq.

Pick a target area, and dates to work within (Google lets you search between certain dates) when you get your list, find US sources for stories, then a list of UK stories.

THERE ARE FOUR BLOGS YOU CAN POST TO. (e mail me if you want itsgrimm at hotmail dot com)

MEDIA TRACKING TO BRING END TO WAR IN IRAQ

Dear EuroTribune Readers,

I need your help with US media tracking on some very important issues:

1.  RAF Bombing to Goad Saddam Into War.  
This was first reported to dKos by Welshman on the 29th of May.  That was Michael Smith.  
Today we have another article on the same subject by Norton Taylor RAF bombing raids on Iraq no-fly zone defied Foreign Office legal advice, say Lib Dems .  
It has been 30 days and this story has NEVER been reported in the US media.  (I do mean mainstream, and not blogs, and not alternative news like Alternet, Common Dreams, or Iraq Occupation Watch.