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November 30, 2004.

Bush Visits Canada Amid Anti-War Protests

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

OTTAWA - President Bush (news - web sites) sought Tuesday to patch up relations with Canada after years of bickering, flying here for tough hemispheric and global talks amid boisterous demonstrations from opponents of the U.S. led-war in Iraq Bush's trip here was the first official visit by a U.S. president in nearly 10 years and his meeting with Prime Minister Paul Martin was akin to a political dance; Bush wanted to avoid any missteps that could amplify anti-Americanism north of the U.S. border. But his unpopularity in some Canadian quarters was unmistakable. Some of the several hundred protesters near the Parliament building were polite. "Please leave," read one sign along Bush's highly secured motorcade route. But others near where Bush and Martin met held placards that branded Bush an "assassin." A truck parked near the motorcade route was emblazoned with the phrase "Bush is a war criminal." Another placard simply commanded, "Go Home ... " and included an expletive. Relations between the Bush administration and Canada got off to a rocky start when Bush, a new president, chose Mexico instead of Canada as the first country he'd visit. Trade disputes and the war in Iraq further soured the friendship.

H.L.s Take: Thank you to Canada for not being a country full of Stupid, narrow minded, robots, who do whatever the government tells them. If anyone in Canada knows where a guy from Hollywood could find some work, in post production. (or if you want to have a spare room, and some extra food for an Anti Bush American while he writes his daily diatribe let me know.)

U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Ties Record

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - Fueled by fierce fighting in Fallujah and insurgents' counterattacks elsewhere in Iraq (news - web sites), the U.S. military death toll for November equalled the highest for any month of the war, according to casualty reports available Tuesday. At least 135 U.S. troops died in November. That is the same number as last April, when the insurgence flared in Fallujah and elsewhere in the so-called Sunni Triangle where U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies lost a large measure of control. On Nov. 8, U.S. forces launched an offensive to retake Fallujah, and they have engaged in tough fighting in other cities since then. More than 50 U.S. troops have been killed in Fallujah since then, although the Pentagon (news - web sites) has not provided a casualty count for Fallujah for more than a week. From the viewpoint of the United States and Iraqis who are striving to restore stability, the casualty trend since the interim Iraqi government was put in power June 28 has been troubling. Each month's death toll has been higher than the last, with the single exception of October, when it was 63. The monthly totals grew from 42 in June to 54 in July to 65 in August and to 80 in September. The Pentagon's official death toll for Iraq, dating to the start of the war, stood at 1,254 on Tuesday. That total did not include a Marine killed Monday in Anbar province and a 1st Infantry Division soldier who died of wounds sustained in a roadside bomb attack late Monday night near the town of Alazu. On Nov. 1 the official death toll stood at 1,121.

H.L.s TakeThe bodies continue to pile up on both sides, but the people that voted for Bush are OK with it. because Freedom is on The March. Its touching that they care about the Iraqi people being free. We should send them all thank you cards

Legal team seeks charges in Germany against Rumsfeld over Abu Ghraib

BERLIN (AFP) - An international legal team filed a criminal complaint in Germany against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top US officials over the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq (news - web sites). The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Berlin's Republican Lawyers' Association said they and five Iraqi citizens mistreated by US soldiers were seeking a probe by German federal prosecutors of leading US policymakers. They said they had chosen Germany because of its Code of Crimes Against International Law, introduced in 2002, which grants German courts universal jurisdiction in cases involving war crimes or crimes against humanity. It also makes military or civilian commanders who fail to prevent their subordinates from committing such acts liable. "We filed these cases here because there is simply no other place to go," CCR vice president Peter Weiss said in a statement. "It is clear that the US government is not willing to open an investigation into these allegations against these officials," he said, adding that the US Congress had "failed" to seriously investigate the abuses. The Center for Constitutional Rights noted that while several US soldiers were facing court martial for the abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners at the US-run Abu Ghraib detention center in Iraq, their superiors looked set to escape discipline. The complaint names Rumsfeld, former CIA (news - web sites) director George Tenet, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Steven Cambone, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski and other military officers who served in Iraq.

Al Jazeera

US army blocks aid convoy for Falluja

The US military has prevented an aid convoy from reaching the besieged city of Falluja, a doctor based in Baghdad who accompanied the convoy says. "The Iraqi ministry of health asked us to go to Falluja. When we were on our way, the US army stopped our convoy, and carried out a search," said Dr Ibrahim al-Kubaisi. "After we waited in the US base, located near Falluja, for four hours, a doctor told us that they had agreed with the Iraqi ministry of health to send a medical team to Falluja but only after eight or nine days. "There is a terrible crime going in Falluja and they do not want anybody to know. I transferred four injured people from the Jordanian field hospital to a hospital in Baghdad. "They told me that there is a crime in there; chemical weapons are being used. The corpses don't have traces of gunshots but black patches. "US forces allow people to go into al-Hadra al-Muhammadiya area, in Falluja, but they prohibited anybody to enter al-Julan, al-Askari and al-Senai neighbourhoods. "There are Iraqi families under siege in there," the doctor said. The humanitarian situation for Falluja residents has been reported to be dire. Thousands of Falluja residents have fled the city and are living in makeshift shelters surrounding the city.

H.L.s Take:The Bush administration doesn't want people to see what a crime infested city of death Fallujah had become, so rather then look bad, he'll let hundreds more die by refusing to let medical help come in for the injured. The U.S. is complicit in murder once again.

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