The Bush Butcher’s Bill:  30 US Military Deaths in Iraq from 1 through 13 February 2005 – Official Total of 1,532 US Dead to date (and rising)

U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals are not counted. They total about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005.

by Brian Harring, Domestic Intelligence Reporter

Note: There is excellent reason to believe that the Department of Defense is deliberately not reporting a significant number of the dead in Iraq. We have received copies of  manifests from the MATS that show far more bodies shipped into Dover AFP than are reported officially. The educated rumor is that the actual death toll is in excess of 7,000. Given the officially acknowledged number of over 15,000 seriously wounded, this elevated death toll is far more realistic than the current 1,400+ now being officially published. When our research is complete, and watertight, we will publish the results along with the sources. Ed

Haven’t we had enough of this?

1

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pfc. James H. Miller IV, 22, of Cincinnati, Ohio, died Jan. 30 in Ramadi, Iraq, from injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.  Miller was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Casey, Korea.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Pfc. Stephen A. Castellano, 21, of Long Beach, Calif., died Jan. 28 in Mosul, Iraq, from a non-combat related injury.  Castellano was assigned to 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division (Light) from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Lindsey T. James, 23, of Urbana, Mo., died Jan. 29 in Baghdad, Iraq, from injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his dismounted patrol.  James was assigned to the 2d Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.  The soldiers died Jan. 28 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device struck a nearby vehicle.  All were assigned to the Army National Guard's 1088th Engineer Battalion, 256th Brigade Combat Team, New Roads, La. The soldiers are: Staff Sgt. Jonathan R. Reed, 25, of Opelousa, La. Spc. Michael S. Evans II, 22, Marrero, La. Spc. Christopher J. Ramsey, 20, of Batchelor, La.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of three Marines who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Cpl. Jason C. Redifer, 19, of Stuarts Draft, Va. Lance Cpl. Harry R. Swain IV, 21, of Cumberland, N.J. Cpl. Christopher E. Zimny, 27, of Cook, Ill. All three Marines died Jan. 31 as a result of hostile action in Babil Province, Iraq.  They were all assigned to 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Joseph E.Rodriguez, 25 of Las Cruces, N.M., died Jan. 28 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device struck his armored vehicle. Rodriguez was assigned to the 8th Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Cpl. Nazario Serrano, 20, of Irving, Texas, died Jan. 30 as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.  Serrano was assigned to the Combat Service Support Battalion 1, Combat Service Support Group 11, 1st Force Service Support Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Lyle W. Rymer II, 24, of Fort Smith, Ark., died Jan. 28 in Baghdad, Iraq, when he was shot by enemy forces.   Rymer was assigned to the Army National Guard's 239th Engineer Company, 39th Infantry Brigade, Booneville, Ark.

2

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Department of the Army Civilian who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Barbara Heald, 60, of Stanford, Conn., died Jan.29 in Baghdad, Iraq, when the Republic National Palace was hit by a mortar round.  Heald worked for the Project and Contracting Office - Finance.

4

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Robert T. Hendrickson, 24, from Broken Bow, Okla., died Feb. 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, from wounds sustained when his military vehicle overturned. Hendrickson was assigned to the 2d Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Stephen R. Sherman, 27, from Neptune, N.J., died Feb. 3 in Mosul, Iraq, from wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.  Sherman was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) Fort Lewis, Wash.

The Department of Defense announced today the deat of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. 1st Class Mark C. Warren, 44, from LaGrande, Ore., died January 31 at Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq from non-combat related injuries.  Warren was assigned to the 3d Battalion, 116th Armor Cavalry Regiment, 116th Brigade Combat Team (Forward), LaGrande, Ore.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Cpl. Sean P. Maher, 19, of Grays Lake, Ill., died Feb. 2 as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.  He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

7

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Cpl. Travis M. Wichlacz, 22, of West Bend, Wis., died Feb. 5 as a result of hostile action in Babil Province, Iraq. He was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve’s 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Milwaukee, Wis.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Cpl. Richard C. Clifton, 19, of Milford, Del., died Feb. 3 as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.

8

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Jeremy O. Allmon, 22, of Cleburne, Texas, died Feb. 6 in Taji, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle. Allmon was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Steven G. Bayow, 42, from Colonia Yap, Federated States of Micronesia, died February 4 in Bayji, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device hit his vehicle.  Bayow was assigned to the 2d Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga. Sgt. Daniel Torres, 23, from Fort Worth, Texas, died February 4 in Bayjii, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device hit his vehicle. Torres was assigned to the 2d Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

9

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Capt. Sean L. Brock, 29, of Redondo Beach, Calif., died Feb. 2 from wounds received as a result of hostile action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.  He was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Butler, Okinawa, Japan.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Spc. Richard M. Crane, 25, of Independence, Mo., died Feb. 8, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of non-combat related injuries.  Crane was assigned to the Army Reserve’s 325th Field Hospital, Independence, Mo.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Zachary R. Wobler, 24, of Ottowa, Ohio, died Feb. 6 in Mosul, Iraq, when his dismounted patrol encountered enemy forces using small arms fire. Wobler was assigned to the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

11

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sgt. Jessica M. Housby, 23, of Rock Island, Ill., died Feb. 9 in Route Golden, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near her convoy.  Housby was assigned to the Army National Guard's 1644th Transportation Company, Rock Falls, Ill.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Jeffrey S. Henthorn, 25, of Choctaw, Okla., died Feb. 8 in Balad, Iraq, from non-combat related injuries.  Henthorn was assigned to the 24th Transportation Company, Fort Riley, Kan.

13

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. William T. Robbins, 31, of North Little Rock, Ark., died Feb. 10 in Taji, Iraq, of non-combat related injuries.  Robbins was assigned to the Army National Guard's 39th Infantry Brigade, Little Rock, Ark.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Spc. Robert A. McNail, 30, of Meridian, Miss., died Feb. 11 in Iskandariyah, Iraq, when his HMMVW struck another military vehicle.  McNail was assigned to the Army National Guard's 150th Combat Engineer Battalion, 155th Brigade Combat Team, Quitman, Miss.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Staff Sgt. Kristopher L. Shepherd, 26, of Lynchburg, Va., died Feb. 11 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated during clearing operations.  Shepherd was assigned to the 767th Ordnance Company, 63rd Ordnance Battalion, 52nd Ordnance Group, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.

Iraqi Oil Disaster

The Neocons assured the President that an invasion of Iraq would assist Israel, give the United States control over the largest oil reserves in the world and add luster to Bush’s tinsel image. Here is a listing of the damage to the oil system which has precluded the United States getting any oil from Iraq, in spite of false statements from the government to the contrary.

2005

January

January 1 - attack on a pipeline from Kirkuk to Bayji.

January 1 - attack on a pipeline linking the southern cities of Karbala and Hillah, 46 miles south of Baghdad near the Musabayb power station.

January 7 - attack on gas pipeline 9 miles north of Tikrit.

January 8 - attack on an oil pipeline running from northern fields to Bayji in the Safra area, 43 miles southwest of Kirkuk. Two guard posts for an oil protection force were also blown up around the area and one guard was wounded.

January 8 - attack on a gas pipeline in the Fatha area near Bayji.

January 11 - 2:00am rocket attack on a gas pipeline that runs to Bayji near the Fatha production station.

January 11 - 6:30am attack on an oil pipeline that runs to Bayji in the Zegheitoun area, 35 miles southwest of Kirkuk. The pipeline had just been brought online on January 9th.

January 13 - 10:30pm attack on oil pipeline near Fatha.

January 14 - improvised explosive device detonated after midnight damaging an oil pipeline near Bayji and sparking a large fire.

January 14 - attack on a pipeline linking Kirkuk and the Daura refinery, near Samarra.

January 14 - rocket attack on pipeline complex near Fatha sparked large blaze.

January 17 - a bomb blew off a section of a pipeline in Fatha.

January 21 - 07:00am attack on pipeline in the al-Tharthar region 12 miles south of Samarra interrupted the flow of oil to the Bayji refinery.

February

February 2 - attack on oil pipeline connecting Bayji refinery to Daura refinery. The attack took place near Samarra.

Fabruary 5 - attack on a cluster of eight pipelines west of Samarra connecting the Bayji and Daura refineries.

February 6 - attack on pipeline carrying crude oil from Kirkuk to Bayji.

February 9 - attack on a gas pipeline before dawn in Fatha, about 15 miles north of Bayji.

February 9 - rocket attack on a pipeline linking Kirkuk to Bayji.

February 13 - 10:00pm attack on oil pipeline at the al-Dibbis oil field north of Kirkuk.

February 14 - another attack on oil pipeline at al-Dibbis.

The Return of the Draft

27 January 2005
by Tim Dickinson
Rolling Stone

With the army desperate for recruits, should college students be packing their bags for Canada?

Uncle Sam wants you. He needs you. He'll bribe you to sign up. He'll strong-arm you to re-enlist. And if that's not enough, he's got a plan to draft you.

In the three decades since the Vietnam War, the "all-volunteer Army" has become a bedrock principle of the American military. "It's a magnificent force," Vice President Dick Cheney declared during the election campaign last fall, "because those serving are ones who signed up to serve." But with the Army and Marines perilously overextended by the war in Iraq, that volunteer foundation is starting to crack. The "weekend warriors" of the Army Reserve and the National Guard now make up almost half the fighting force on the front lines, and young officers in the Reserve are retiring in droves. The Pentagon, which can barely attract enough recruits to maintain current troop levels, has involuntarily extended the enlistments of as many as 100,000 soldiers. Desperate for troops, the Army has lowered its standards to let in twenty-five percent more high school dropouts, and the Marines are now offering as much as $30,000 to anyone who re-enlists. To understand the scope of the crisis, consider this: The United States is pouring nearly as much money into incentives for new recruits - almost $300 million - as it is into international tsunami relief.

"The Army's maxed out here," says retired Gen. Merrill McPeak, who served as Air Force chief of staff under the first President Bush. "The Defense Department and the president seem to be still operating off the rosy scenario that this will be over soon, that this pain is temporary and therefore we'll just grit our teeth, hunker down and get out on the other side of this. That's a bad assumption." The Bush administration has sworn up and down that it will never reinstate a draft. During the campaign last year, the president dismissed the idea as nothing more than "rumors on the Internets" and declared, "We're not going to have a draft - period." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in an Op-Ed blaming "conspiracy mongers" for "attempting to scare and mislead young Americans," insisted that "the idea of reinstating the draft has never been debated, endorsed, discussed, theorized, pondered or even whispered by anyone in the Bush administration."

That assertion is demonstrably false. According to an internal Selective Service memo made public under the Freedom of Information Act, the agency's acting director met with two of Rumsfeld's undersecretaries in February 2003 precisely to debate, discuss and ponder a return to the draft. The memo duly notes the administration's aversion to a draft but adds, "Defense manpower officials concede there are critical shortages of military personnel with certain special skills, such as medical personnel, linguists, computer network engineers, etc." The potentially prohibitive cost of "attracting and retaining such personnel for military service," the memo adds, has led "some officials to conclude that, while a conventional draft may never be needed, a draft of men and women possessing these critical skills may be warranted in a future crisis." This new draft, it suggests, could be invoked to meet the needs of both the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.

The memo then proposes, in detail, that the Selective Service be "re-engineered" to cover all Americans - "men and (for the first time) women" - ages eighteen to thirty-four. In addition to name, date of birth and Social Security number, young adults would have to provide the agency with details of their specialized skills on an ongoing basis until they passed out of draft jeopardy at age thirty-five. Testifying before Congress two weeks after the meeting, acting director of Selective Service Lewis Brodsky acknowledged that "consultations with senior Defense manpower officials" have spurred the agency to shift its preparations away from a full-scale, Vietnam-style draft of untrained men "to a draft of smaller numbers of critical-skills personnel."

Richard Flahavan, spokesman for Selective Service, tells Rolling Stone that preparing for a skills-based draft is "in fact what we have been doing." For starters, the agency has updated a plan to draft nurses and doctors. But that's not all. "Our thinking was that if we could run a health-care draft in the future," Flahavan says, "then with some very slight tinkering we could change that skill to plumbers or linguists or electrical engineers or whatever the military was short." In other words, if Uncle Sam decides he needs people with your skills, Selective Service has the means to draft you - and quick.

But experts on military manpower say the focus on drafting personnel with special skills misses the larger point. The Army needs more soldiers, not just more doctors and linguists. "What you've got now is a real shortage of grunts - guys who can actually carry bayonets," says McPeak. A wholesale draft may be necessary, he adds, "to deal with the situation we've got ourselves into. We've got to have a bigger Army."

Michael O'Hanlon, a military-manpower scholar at the Brookings Institute, believes a return to a full-blown draft will become "unavoidable" if the United States is forced into another war. "Let's say North Korea strikes a deal with Al Qaeda to sell them a nuclear weapon or something," he says. "I frankly don't see how you could fight two wars at the same time with the all-volunteer approach." If a second Korean War should break out, the United States has reportedly committed to deploying a force of nearly 700,000 to defend South Korea - almost half of America's entire military.

The politics of the draft are radioactive: Polls show that less than twenty percent of Americans favor forced military service. But conscription has some unlikely champions, including veterans and critics of the administration who are opposed to Bush's war in Iraq. Reinstating the draft, they say, would force every level of society to participate in military service, rather than placing a disproportionate burden on minorities and the working class. African-Americans, who make up roughly thirteen percent of the civilian population, account for twenty-two percent of the armed forces. And the Defense Department acknowledges that recruits are drawn "primarily from families in the middle and lower-middle socioeconomic strata."

A societywide draft would also make it more difficult for politicians to commit troops to battle without popular approval. "The folks making the decisions are committing other people's lives to a war effort that they're not making any sacrifices for," says Charles Sheehan-Miles, who fought in the first Gulf War and now serves as director of Veterans for Common Sense. Under the current all-volunteer system, fewer than a dozen members of Congress have children in the military.

Charlie Moskos, a professor of military sociology at Northwestern University, says the volunteer system also limits the political fallout of unpopular wars. "Without a draft, there's really no antiwar movement," Moskos says. Nearly sixty percent of Americans believe the war in Iraq was a mistake, he notes, but they have no immediate self-interest in taking to the streets because "we're willing to pay people to die for us. It doesn't reflect very well on the character of our society."

Even military recruiters agree that the only way to persuade average Americans to make long-term sacrifices in war is for the children of the elite to put their lives on the line. In a recent meeting with military recruiters, Moskos discussed the crisis in enlistment. "I asked them would they prefer to have their advertising budget tripled or have Jenna Bush join the Army," he says. "They unanimously chose the Jenna option."

One of the few politicians willing to openly advocate a return to the draft is Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat from New York, who argues that the current system places an immoral burden on America's underprivileged. "It shouldn't be just the poor and the working poor who find their way into harm's way," he says. In the days leading up to the Iraq war, Rangel introduced a bill to reinstate the draft - with absolutely no deferments. "If the kids and grandkids of the president and the Cabinet and the Pentagon were vulnerable to going to Iraq, we never would have gone - no question in my mind," he says. "The closer this thing comes home to Americans, the quicker we'll be out of Iraq."

But instead of exploring how to share the burden more fairly, the military is cooking up new ways to take advantage of the economically disadvantaged. Rangel says military recruiters have confided in him that they're targeting inner cities and rural areas with high unemployment. In December, the National Guard nearly doubled its enlistment bonus to $10,000, and the Army is trying to attract urban youth with a marketing campaign called "Taking It to the Streets," which features a pimped-out yellow Hummer and a basketball exhibition replete with free throwback jerseys. President Bush has also signed an executive order allowing legal immigrants to apply for citizenship immediately - rather than wait five years - if they volunteer for active duty.

"It's so completely unethical and immoral to induce people that have limited education and limited job ability to have to put themselves in harm's way for ten, twenty or thirty thousand dollars," Rangel says. "Just how broke do you have to be to take advantage of these incentives?" Seducing soldiers with cold cash also unnerves military commanders. "We must consider the point at which we confuse 'volunteer to become an American soldier' with 'mercenary,' " Lt. Gen. James Helmly, the commander of the Army Reserve, wrote in a memo to senior Army leadership in December.

The Reserve, Helmly warns, "is rapidly degenerating into a broken force." The Army National Guard is also in trouble: It missed its recruitment goals of 56,000 by more than 5,000 in fiscal year 2004 and is already 2,000 soldiers short in fiscal 2005. To keep enough boots on the ground, the Pentagon has stopped asking volunteer soldiers to extend their service - and started demanding it. Using a little-known provision called "stop loss," the military is forcing reservists and guardsmen to remain on active duty indefinitely. "This is an 'all-volunteer Army' with footnotes," says McPeak. "And it's the footnotes that are being held in Iraq against their wishes. If that's not a back-door draft, tell me what is."

David Qualls, who joined the Arkansas National Guard for a year, is one of 40,000 troops in Iraq who have been informed that their enlistment has been extended until December 24th, 2031. "I've served five months past my one-year obligation," says Qualls, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the military with breach of contract. "It's time to let me go back to my life. It's a question of fairness, and not only for myself. This is for the thousands of other people that are involuntarily extended in Iraq. Let us go home."

The Army insists that most "stop-lossed" soldiers will be held on the front lines for no longer than eighteen months. But Jules Lobel, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who is representing eight National Guardsmen in a lawsuit challenging the extensions, says the 2031 date is being used to strong-arm volunteers into re-enlisting. According to Lobel, the military is telling soldiers, "We're giving you a chance to voluntarily re-enlist - and if you don't do it, we'll screw you. And the first way we'll screw you is to put you in until 2031."

But threatening volunteers, military experts warn, could be the quickest way to ensure a return to the draft. According to O'Hanlon at the Brookings Institute, such "callousness" may make it impossible to recruit new soldiers - no matter how much money you throw at them. And if bigger sign-up bonuses and more aggressive recruitment tactics don't do the trick, says Helmly of the Army Reserve, it could "force the nation into an argument" about reinstating the draft.

In the end, it may simply come down to a matter of math. In January, Bush told America's soldiers that "much more will be asked of you" in his second term, even as he openly threatened Iran with military action. Another war, critics warn, would push the all-volunteer force to its breaking point. "This damn thing is just an explosion that's about to happen," says Rangel. Bush officials "can say all they want that they don't want the draft, but there's not going to be that many more buttons to push."

CIA Employee Charged With Beating Detainee To Death Claims U.S. Has No Jurisdiction

February 11, 2005
WRAL.com

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A former Special Forces soldier accused of beating an Afghan detainee who later died says federal courts don't have jurisdiction in his case since he was working outside of the United States.

Lawyers for David Passaro contend that provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act that stretched authority to prosecute cases shouldn't apply any places where special operations forces and CIA paramilitary operatives work.

Passaro, a former Army Special Forces soldier from North Carolina was hired as a contractor by the CIA in 2003.

Passaro was charged in June with four counts of assault, accused of beating Abdul Wali with his hands, feet and a flashlight as he tried to get information about planned rocket attacks on U.S. forces. Wali died in his cell in June 2003. Passaro is not charged in his death.

Prosecutors say Wali died after two days of interrogations and beatings by Passaro. Prosecutors said three paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division would testify that they witnessed the beating.

Germans mark 60th anniversary of Dresden fire bombing

February 13, 2005
AFP

Germans pay their respects to the tens of thousands of people who were killed by the Allied bombing of Dresden, as neo-Nazis again try to draw political advantage from the commemorations.

A mass was to be held in the morning at the Kreuzkirche, the Church of the Cross, at the start of a day of religious services and ceremonies in memory of the 25,000-40,000 people (see official figures of over 200,000, below. Ed) who are estimated to have died 60 years ago.

City authorities are expecting around 10,000 people to flock to the grounds of the Semperoper opera house holding candles to remember the night, on February 13, 1945, when Dresden burned.

The history of the bombing campaign, which involved as many as 1,200 British and US aircraft that night and the following day, remains contentious and the day's events risk being hijacked by the far right.

A rally of 5,000 people has been planned by the National Democratic Party (NPD), enjoying a surge in popularity and holding seats in the state parliament in Saxony, of which Dresden is capital, for the first time in three decades.

Artificial white roses are being made available for people who want to protest against the rally, which the NPD says is aimed at drawing attention to the Anglo-American crime of dropping a "Holocaust of bombs" on the city.

The neo-Nazi party is trying to exploit the death toll, which has been difficult to establish and ranges from 25,000 to as high as 135,000 victims.

What is clear is that around 650,000 people were in Dresden that February, many of them refugees fleeing the Russian advance, and that the so-called "Florence of the Elbe" river was largely undefended.

Napalm-like chemical weapons were used to burn people alive on a day when the public was celebrating the carnival festival. It was, in short, a massacre.

For the victors, it was a necessary part of efforts to win an undeniably just war by breaking the will of the German military machine and spreading chaos on the eastern front to help advancing Russian troops.

For some historians, it also sent a message to Moscow of what Red Army troops could expect from the Allies should they advance too far westward.

The anniversary comes at a time when ordinary Germans are cautiously re-evaluating whether they too could have been victims of the war in some cases, despite the undeniable crimes of Adolf Hitler's regime.

Besides the tens of thousands of civilians killed in Dresden, an architectural and cultural wonder then and now, some 15 million Germans were later expelled from eastern Europe after the war in revenge for Nazi crimes.

Experts caution that while the historical distance of 60 years may permit a careful reassessment of the past, the German victims should never be compared to the estimated six million Jews who died in the Holocaust.

"We must not forget the hell of Dresden, but nor should we forget how it came about," warned Cornelius Weiss, a Social Democrat member of the Saxony state parliament.

Comment:

The joint US-British attack on the Saxon capital city of Dresden in February 1945 was ordered by Winston Churchill for the purpose of destroying the morale of the German people. The undefended city was filled with refugees from the east, fleeing the Soviet advance into Germany and contained some of the most beautiful Baroque buildings in Europe. The following report, in translation, is taken from the official files of Heinrich Müller, Chief of the Gestapo.

Note that the official period figures differ radically from the very small ones propagated by official apologists for the Allied air attacks on civilian cities. These are the same individuals who claim that Roosevelt and Churchill had no advance knowledge of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and that the Bush administration had no advance knowledge of the WTC attacks.

Those who win wars, write the histories of them and conformistic historians are more than easy to find, competing as they do for official recognition, the guaranteed publication of their supportive writings,  and, far more important,  the financial and social rewards this subservience brings.

H.S.S.P.F. Dresden
Dresden, d. 22. März 1945
110-89-45 gRs
‘Geheime Reichssache’
An den:Herrn SS-Gruppenführer Müller
RSHA, Berlin
Schnellbrief

“The following report was complied from material supplied by the Police and Civil authorities in addition to Wehrmacht and Red Cross reports. The report of the Police President is incorporated in this summary by inference and is appended as an annex.

(There is a lengthy summary of the aerial attacks on the 13th,14th and 15th of February, 1945 including a listing of destroyed buildings.)

Up until March 20, 1945, 202,040 bodies, mainly women and children, have been recovered. Based on the recovery figures to date, the death toll is conservatively believed to be in excess of 250,000. Of the recovered corpses, identification is only approximately 30%, due primarily to the badly burned and disfiguration of the victims….Of these victims, 68, 650 were cremated and the ashes given proper burial. Recovery of additional victims is continuing…”

“Die Massaker von Dresden”, Kurowski, Berg, 1995, p. 12. (The definitive work on the Dresden bombing, Unfortunately it is in German but there are no competent, or accurate, accounts in English. ed)