Monday, April 12, 2004
First Person Accounts of Falluja, as of Yesterday
The New Standard's Dahr Jamail travelled into Falluja with a group of internationals delivering humanitarian supplies. He's posted a full account of the trip to his blog. Jamail is pretty skeptical about the much-vaunted cease fire:
What I can report from Falluja is that there is no ceasefire, and apparently there never was. Iraqi women and children are being shot by American snipers. Over 600 Iraqis have now been killed by American aggression, and the residents have turned two football fields into graveyards. Ambulances are being shot by the Americans. And now they are preparing to launch a full-scale invasion of the city.
Also today Amy Goodman interviewed Aaron Glanzt, of Free Speech Radio News, who said much the same thing:
AMY GOODMAN: We are about to go to a piece that you have just filed with us. Can you set it up for us and tell us the latest news right now?
AARON GLANZT: Well, the best that I can ascertain is that everywhere I look on the mainstream media, they're talking about a cease-fire, a calm settled over Fallujah, and while I haven't been in Fallujah today, I have been talking to people who have fled Fallujah and who have been to Fallujah during this so-called cease-fire. They report whenever they go out of their homes, they're at risk of being hit by snipers, U.S. marines on bridges and on top of buildings, and of course, the Americans are fighting a guerrilla war against an increasingly violent resistance among the regular people of Fallujah. So, for the marines, every single member of the population of Fallujah is a potential enemy because almost the entire population is against the Americans. Those who are not against it, a week ago, have now changed their minds, because they have had their daughters and their sons and their mothers and their children just shot and killed or maimed in some way. So, we're going to be able to go to the Fallujah through the voices of some of those who fled as well as the voices of one journalist, who risked her life in order to get us materials to broadcast today.
