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http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=559

United for Peace and Justice, a national campaign involving over 120 different organizations, is opposed to a U.S. led pre-emptive attack on Iraq... If the bombs do start falling, we call on you to join with United for Peace and other groups around the country to get out on the streets immediately and visibly express strong opposition to this war and demand peaceful, nonviolent alternatives.

Here Are Some Ideas for What You Can Do: TAKE ACTION by joining a nationally coordinated campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience with the Iraq Pledge of Resistance. For more information see http://www.peacepledge.org/resist. DEMONSTRATE your opposition to war by planning a march through your town’s downtown business district at 5 PM the day bombing starts or noon the next day. WALK OUT of classes at high schools and colleges. Call in sick to work. If our government is killing people in a far off country, there can be no business as usual here at home! BUILD a peace encampment that will start the evening that the U.S. bombing starts and continue as long as the U.S. is at war against Iraq. Peace encampments can be set up in front of the local federal office building or in the middle of a university campus. Activities can include teach-ins and nonviolence trainings. BE CREATIVE! Use art, music, drama and humor. Reach out to new constituencies. Share your ideas with others. Let a thousand flowers bloom!!

We urge you to quickly organize community meetings to plan for what you will do the day of and the day after war begins, and to let community members know how they can participate.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=564&e=3&u=/nm/20030306/ts_nm/iraq_usa_uniforms_dc

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has ordered uniforms replicating those worn by U.S. and British troops and will issue them to paramilitary fighters who would attack Iraqi civilians and blame it on Western forces, the U.S. Central Command charged on Thursday... "Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has ordered the procurement of military uniforms identical down to the last detail to those of the United States and United Kingdom forces" now gathered in the Gulf, said James Wilkinson, a senior spokesman for Central Command. "Saddam intends to issue these uniforms to 'Fedayeen Saddam' troops who would wear them when conducting reprisals against the Iraqi people so that ...The Pentagon has also charged that Saddam is putting military targets near civilian sites and may be planning a "scorched earth" policy of setting fire to oil fields and destroying power plants and food stocks in any conflict, then blaming that on any attackers. "This campaign of fear and misinformation would represent the latest chapter in Saddam Hussein's long history of brutal crimes against the innocent people of Iraq," Wilkinson said.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20030306/ap_on_en_tv/tv_fake_accent

A man employed by CBS News to speak the words of Saddam Hussein during his interview with Dan Rather last week reportedly adopted a fake Arabic accent. CBS News hired Steve Winfield, a Screen Actors Guild member with no such accent in real life... Winfield spoke Hussein's words after they had been translated by three independent Arabic translators, CBS said.

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http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?0ql=csp

U.S. and British pilots flew three times the number of air patrols in the “no fly” zone over southern Iraq on Thursday... The Pentagon earlier described a “shock and awe” plan to unleash a barrage of bombs 10 times as great as in the opening days of the 1991 Gulf War. SOME 300,000 U.S. troops are now in or nearing the region... Several hundred sorties a day are now being flown over southern Iraq, including F-16 and other attack planes as well as surveillance, refueling and other support aircraft, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/special_packages/iraq/5316999.htm

Troops heading for the Iraqi theater are not getting health screenings, especially blood sampling, mandated by a law Congress enacted in 1997. The law, which grew out of concern about unexplained illnesses that followed the 1991 gulf war, required that troops receive mental and medical examinations before and after deployment overseas. The tests are intended to provide clues in case the phenomenon known as gulf war syndrome should recur. Instead, the Pentagon requires only a brief, one-page questionnaire asking for general health-related information... The Pentagon insists that it has followed the law. "If the intent was to make sure we had better documentation -- yes, we are in compliance," said Michael Kilpatrick, a physician who is deputy director of deployment health support at the Pentagon... Some health officials with the Defense Department appear not to have known what Congress required. Some gulf war medical researchers proposed a study to the Pentagon a year ago that would track some troops in post-Sept. 11 military operations. The proposed study unknowingly mirrored the elements of the law, and a medical official wrote back, "This sound like something we need to investigate further as something we would like to support."

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0306/p08s02-woiq.html

Students of Baghdad University's school of architecture celebrated their graduation as always, with a grand party that is eagerly awaited each year as one of the biggest bashes of the season. At the Sheraton Hotel ballroom on Monday night, the last night in which celebrations are permitted before the Islamic holiday of Muharram, some 60 students donned mortar boards and their best clothes and jewelry to mark a rite of passage familiar worldwide. On this occasion, the world was their oyster. "Can you believe it?" asked a dazzling woman with long hair and red lipstick, pulling aside a visitor as the graduates started their walk through a homemade, balloon-festooned archway, to raucous cheers. "We Iraqis are having a party like this - living our lives - and there may be war around the corner." ...Graduates of a five-year bachelor's course, these budding architects are [age] 23... Like partying graduates the world over, the students took to the dance floor, their accompaniment pulsating Arab music played at ear-straining decibels. Women held hands and circled the floor with their dance steps; men formed tighter concentric circles, hand-in-hand, or broke loose and, arms aloft, went wild with their best friends... Students hoisted their peers into the air; sweat soaked through shirts and jackets in the heat of the moment. The specter of war couldn't have been farther away. "I have a message for the world," shouted one student in English to me, over the cacophony. "Iraq has 8,000 years of history, and no one can destroy that."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48259-2003Mar5.html

J.S. Irick, shivering in only his underwear, chained himself to a flagpole and smeared his body with red paint to represent blood. Scores flung themselves on the student union floor to dramatize the innocent Iraqis they say will die if the United States invades that country. More than 1,000 others skipped classes and trekked through several inches of snow this afternoon for an antiwar "teach-in" at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller chapel. The acts of defiance on this campus were part of a coast-to-coast effort in which thousands of high school and college students cut class, read poetry, performed skits and played loud rock music to try to halt what they view as an irrational march toward war in Iraq. More than 300 high schools and colleges participated in the protest, characterized as a national student strike. Thousands of students in Britain, Sweden, Spain and Australia rallied in solidarity with their counterparts in the United States, who wanted to highlight the effects of war on domestic issues, including education, health care and the economy... Officially called the "Books Not Bombs" protest, the effort was coordinated by the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, which includes 15 student groups that joined forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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http://www.irna.com/en/head/030306151959.ehe.shtml

Five hundred high school students are set to gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Thursday for a conference aimed at addressing the challenges youth confront growing up in the twenty-first century... The 27th UN International School (UNIS)-UN Student Conference titled `Youth at Risk: The Future in Our hands' will seek to address the trials and tribulations that pose significant threats to the basic rights and well being of the world's youth... "Conference organizers said young people in the developed world suffer from acute child abuse, violence and rampant media influence, while those in developing nations fall victim to social and political unrest that often manifest in prostitution, slave labor, and lack of education and health care," added the report.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2825575.stm

Two Afghan prisoners were killed while in US custody at their base at Bagram, a military coroner has concluded. The report said "blunt force trauma" had contributed to the deaths. The detainees had spent about a week in the detention facility when they died last December. However, US spokesman Colonel Roger King told BBC News Online the pathologists' verdict was not final - a military investigation had been launched.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030305/ap_to_po/un_dollar_diplomacy_5

Bulgaria, a supporter of the Bush administration's Iraq stance, is about to be bestowed with the coveted economic status of "market economy." Chile, a Security Council member... is still waiting for congressional approval of a lucrative free trade agreement with the United States... On Wednesday the House passed a trade bill that helps Pakistani rug-makers but pointedly leaves out provisions aiding Turkey... While Mexico doesn't receive any direct aid, the United States is its biggest trading partner as a result of the North American Free Trade Act... Pakistan, which has become a key U.S. partner in the war on terrorism, just received a major new loan from the International Monetary Fund where the United States is the largest voting block. It is also slated to receive some $305 million in U.S. government aid this year. Cameroon and Guinea, two poor African nations, are both eligible for preferential access to U.S. markets through the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act... The AGOC grants preferential treatment to sub-Saharan African countries that meet a list of eligibility criteria and do "not engage in activities that undermine U.S. national security of foreign policy interests." Voting against a resolution authorizing the United States to restore international peace and security could certainly be construed as undermining national security.

France is the second largest foreign investor in Angola, but the United States is first. On Feb. 20, the U.S. Agency for International Development approved $15.4 million in annual aid for the country, which is rebuilding after decades of war. Angola's U.N. Ambassador Ismael Gasper Martins... said recently: "For a long time now, we have been asking for help to rebuild our country after years of war. No one is tying the request to support on Iraq, but it is all happening at the same time." ...Bulgaria has received more than $420 million from the U.S. government in the last decade... During a visit to Bulgaria last month, Secretary of Commerce Don Evans [said]... "I assure you we will remember our friends and those that were there alongside of us, and those that made sacrifices along with us."

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http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=243522&lang=e&dir=news

Some 100 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles were moving into the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip Thursday night. Thursday night's operation came less than one day after a previous raid in the camp, in which eleven Palestinian civilians were killed. Earlier Thursday, three home-made Qassam rockets landed in the Israeli town of Sderot. Hamas claimed responsibility for this attack. “Until now, we have 11 killed and more than 100 wounded, among them 30 are in very critical condition, in a new massacre committed against the citizens of Jabalya,” said Dr. Mo’awia Hassanein, chief of emergency services at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. A Reuters TV cameraman and photographer also injured as shrapnel from the shell blasts was sprayed into the crowd, he added... Israeli forces also cut electricity off north of the Gaza Strip, including Beit Lahia, Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun... Also Thursday evening, a 55-year-old mother of eight was killed by two shots in the head as she was cutting grass for her sheep near the West Bank city of Jenin, relatives said... Meanwhile, the Israeli cabinet decided Wednesday night to impose a full closure on the West Bank and Gaza, and step up Israeli operations.

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0307/p08s01-woiq.html

Riot police in blue helmets stomped past in lock step as protesters beat bongo drums. When a young man at the government-sponsored march burned an American flag and onlookers chanted that President Bush was like "Dracula trying to suck the blood of the Arabs," dozens of plainclothes security agents smiled. Some human rights activists called Egypt's largest demonstration so far against a US-led war against Iraq a massive charade. In contrast, the government praised its "half-million man march" Wednesday in downtown Cairo as an overwhelming success.

...Elsewhere in the Arab world, protests have grown larger as war approaches, challenging the authority of regimes from Morocco to Bahrain. In Sudan last week, thousands of riot police escorted a rally of some 500,000 demonstrators. In Yemen this week, a mob [sic] of 20,000... turned away from their march on the US Embassy after security forces threatened to open fire on them.

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http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=11789&t=1

A chemical plant which the US says is a key component in Iraq's chemical warfare arsenal was secretly built by Britain in 1985 behind the backs of the Americans, the Guardian can disclose. Documents show British ministers knew at the time that the £14-million plant, called Falluja 2, was likely to be used for mustard and nerve gas production. Senior officials recorded in writing that Saddam Hussein was actively gassing his opponents and that there was a "strong possibility" that the chlorine plant was intended by the Iraqis to make mustard gas... But ministers in the then Thatcher government none the less secretly gave financial backing to the British company involved, Uhde Ltd, through insurance guarantees. Paul Channon, then trade minister, concealed the existence of the chlorine plant contract from the US administration.

...Paul Channon, since ennobled as Lord Kelvedon, was last night holidaying on the Caribbean island of Mustique. He issued a statement through his secretary, who said: "He can't object to the story. So he's got no comment."

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0307/p01s02-ussc.html

BURLINGTON, WIS. – On a wintry Thursday afternoon, as the thermometer at the First Banking Center registers a chilling 13 degrees F., 18-year-old Brian Griffeth has no idea where he'll spend the night. Three other families, including a husband and wife with two children and a young couple with a baby, face the same challenge. Within an hour, all four call the only place in town serving homeless people - a community center called Love Inc. ...Here in southern Wisconsin, where tiny towns carry pastoral names like Pleasant Prairie and Honey Creek, few expect this kind of destitution. Sleeping under bridges or in open farm fields? It can't happen here. But it does.

...Many who lose their homes hold jobs. But obstacles loom - from cars that don't start in the cold to sick children who need parents to stay home. "They lose their jobs very quickly," says Judy Morrow, executive director of Love Inc. "Their résumé shows the job-jumping, and they can't get hired." A weak economy makes jobs still more precarious. Without paychecks, bills pile up; eviction notices arrive. With no health insurance, debts mount. Stringent welfare policies also take their toll, Ms. Morrow notes... Previously, Morrow explains, "families that were trying had a roof over their head and food. Now there's absolutely nothing coming into the home."