Iraq "I stand by the decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein and remove this threat to American security, this threat to the Middle East, this thorn in the side of any effort to build a different kind of Middle East." -- US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3 October, 2004 "We picked 'The Roof is on Fire' because it symbolised Baghdad being on fire and at the time we wanted it to burn to get Saddam and his regime out. 'The roof is on fire we don't need no water/Let the motherfucker burn! Burn motherfucker, burn!'" -- US soldier commenting on the song that his tank crew played as they entered Baghdad, quoted in Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9-11 , released June 2004 "Every justification or rationale that we have ever offered for going to Iraq has been bogus. There were no weapons of mass destruction there. There have been no links established between Saddam and international terrorists. And then the notion that we're going to bring democracy to Iraq is -- we'll see if that comes to fruition, but I don't think we'll see it, unless it's convenient to America's agenda." -- Jeremy Hinzman, US Army war resister seeking asylum in Canada, December 2004 "We changed our policy in mid-October, deciding not to issue press releases on a casualty because we did not want to aid the enemy in determining the success of their actions." -- Colonel Jenny Holbert, a spokesperson with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, December 2004 "No government can allow terrorists and foreign fighters to use its soil to attack its people and to attack its government, and to intimidate the Iraqi people." -- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the US onslaught on Falluja, November 2004 "We are aware that prior to a revision in policy last week, an Executive Order signed by President Bush authorised the following interrogation techniques, among others: sleep 'management'; use of MWDs (military working dogs); 'stress positions', such as half squats; 'environmental manipulation', such as the use of loud music; sensory deprivation through the use of hoods. We assume the OGC instruction does not include the reporting of these authorised interrogation techniques, and that the use of these techniques does not constitute 'abuse'." -- On-the-ground commander in Baghdad, in an e-mail dated May 2004, debating the definition of 'abuse' (document released by the FBI) Palestine " IDF forces are fighting a very difficult war, day and night against the basest, vilest murderers. You should admire what the IDF has done and understand the difficulties. IDF soldiers are more moral in their operations than any other army in the world." -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in The Washington Post December 2004 after a rush of allegations by human rights organisations that Israeli soldiers wrongfully killed Palestinians and abused corpses. "These are people that hide in caves, they hide in the dark corners of society, and they use suiciders as their forward army... Sharon is a man who has presided over suiciders, where he has to go to the funerals of women and children because some cold-blooded killer is trying to destroy the hopes of all the people in the region." -- US President George W Bush, speaking to Barbara Walters, December 2003 Killing enemy civilians during war is normal. -- Rabbi Haim Druckman, in a letter to Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, September 2004 "Anything that's mobile that moves in the zone, even if it's a three year old needs to be killed. Over." -- Captain R, an Israeli soldier who repeatedly shot 13 year-old Iman Al-Hams, speaking on a tape recording of radio exchanges between soldiers involved in the incident, November 2004 "It's not a matter of one or two rotten apples in the Israeli military but of absence of deterrent punishment. The punishment they receive if convicted is ridiculous." -- Suhad Saq Allah, of the Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem, June 2004 Vice versa Iraq "Every Iraqi or foreigner who works with the occupation is a target: ministers, mercenaries, interpreters, businessmen, cooks, servants, etc. The level of collaboration doesn't matter. Signing a contract with the enemy is signing your death certificate: Iraqi or non-Iraqi... They are traitors. Don't forget we're in a state of war." -- Former Iraqi general with the Iraqi resistance speaking on condition of anonymity to Al-Basrah.net, June 2004 "Your enemy loves terrorism and holds all Arabs in contempt. I ask you not to resort to demonstrations, because they are now a burnt card. You need to use other methods" -- Statement by Moqtada Al-Sadr on 3 April during clashes between Al-Mahdi Army and the US forces in Najaf "Jihad and terrorism parallel and compliment each other. They both aim to combat the aggressor and defeat him using all possible and legitimate means, including weapons... Terrorism means terrorising the souls of the aggressors to control and defeat them. Terrorism in this context is a legitimate right." -- Sheikh Mohamed Al-Allousi, member of the Muslim Cleric's Association, December 2004 "The Baath and leadership of the Iraqi resistance will not put down their arms before the last soldier of the occupation forces is out of Iraq or before cleansing the Iraqi community from the occupation's mercenaries. The viciously brutal crimes and series of genocides committed by the occupation forces and traitors from the Badr Forces, the Beshmerka in Falluja, Mosul, Anbar, Kirkuk and Basrah etc will not pass unpunished." -- Statement by the Iraqi Resistance and Liberation Forces, December 2004 "After interrogating this apostate he confessed to all the projects and businesses he did inside the [US military] Al-Taji camp. So the mujahideen implemented the rule of God by beheading him." -- Ansar Al-Sunnah announcing the beheading of Barie Nafie Dawoud Ibrahim, an Iraqi contractor, October 2004 "We shall continue to target the occupier, and we will not allow the conflict to become an Iraqi-Iraqi struggle. Iraqi blood is sacred, except in the case of those who collaborate with the occupation, whom we shall target mercilessly. We shall remain the guardians of our Muslim Iraq, defenders of our religion, adamant about the unity of our country." -- The Islamic Iraqi Resistance, Battalions of the Twentieth Revolution, July 2004 Palestine "The West demands from us that we stop the resistance. Instead of asking the occupiers to leave our land, they ask us to surrender to the occupier... The peace that reinforces occupation, settlements, and the exiling of Palestinian people, is not really peace." -- Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas founder, in January 2004 "Israel is simply slaughtering innocent civilians under the pretext of fighting terror. I don't know how much Palestinian blood would satiate Israel's thirst. I don't know how many Palestinian children would have to be killed in order to make up for two Jewish kids who died last week." -- PA Deputy Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, October 2004 "This family is very angry. The Israelis recruited my son as a martyr because they killed his brother in front of him. Then they killed his cousin in front of him too. Mohamed's brains were thrown all over Iyad. If he hadn't seen his brother and cousin die he would never have become a martyr." -- Bilal Al-Masri father of Iyad Al-Masri a suicide bomber, January 2004 "It's a necessary act of defence, the only weapon we have to protect Palestinian women and children, if we don't use suicide bombing we shall be back in a situation when the Israelis killed us with impunity." -- Spokesmen for Hamas justifying the killing of civilians, in August 2004 "This is a society where the only way to prove yourself is to fight against the Israeli occupation. There are no sports, no games. The only game now is the occupation and the fight." -- Samer Awad, a neighbour of suicide bomber Tamam Abdu, March 2004
