Bert Sacks, who's done tremendous work against the Iraq sanctions and helped to bring shipments of medical supplies to Iraqi children, suffered a mild heart attack last month. His one-day hospital bill totaled over $57,000 and, like so many millions of Americans, he doesn't have health insurance coverage. A benefit brunch and silent auction to help pay Bert's staggering medical bills will be held on Saturday, January 24th at 10:30 AM at the University Temple United Methodist Church at 1415 NE 43rd Street, in the University District. If possible, RSVP for the brunch by January 19th at bertmedicalfund@yahoo.com or (425)488-9965. Volunteers are also needed to help with the brunch and the auction.

For folks who can't make the brunch or who want to give Bert a wonderful holiday present, you can send a check directly to his medical fund. Make checks payable to "Keystone Congregational Church" with "Bert Sacks Medical Fund" written in the memo line, and mail them to: Keystone Church, 5019 Keystone Place N, Seattle, WA 98103. To contribute online using a credit card, go to http://bertmedicalfund.org. All donations are tax-deductible and all money will go directly to pay Bert's medical bills.--Maria Tomchick

Among the other head-scratching news coming out of Iraq these days is the revelation that almost half of the recruits for the new Iraqi army have already resigned their posts. Of the first 700-man battalion, 300 men have deserted in recent weeks, many of them complaining about the low pay of $60 per month. Of course, another reason may be the military tactics they're being asked to used against their own countrymen (see article this issue). Other reasons may include: the guerrillas pay better, working for the Americans is more dangerous than they expected, and the Iraqi National Congress' militia still needs a few armed thugs. It looks like the US' goal of a 40,000-man Iraqi army by next October is unrealistic, to say the least.--M.T.

More disturbing than head-scratching is the news that the US Coalition Provisional Authority leaned on the new Iraqi Health Ministry to stop its official count of Iraqi civilian casualties from the war. The Health Ministry sent official requests to all of Iraq's hospitals and clinics requesting data on the numbers of civilian dead since March 20th. While some hospitals lost their records because of looting or were unable to keep records because of a severe influx of wounded, the Health Ministry nevertheless received a flood of very good data and would have been able to make a decent count. This project, too, was much anticipated by international human rights groups. But Paul Bremer stepped in and leaned on the Iraqi Health Minister, and so the count was stopped for political reasons. For US political reasons, no less--something the Iraqis understand very well and dislike intensely. It's yet another example of how their current "interim government" is merely a puppet regime.--M.T.

After a weekend in which a number of US allies--some of them foreign fighters (although the US never uses the term "foreign terrorists" to describe its own allies)--were killed by Iraqi guerrilla forces, the US military tried to concoct a success story out of the shootout in Samarra, in which US troops claimed to have killed 54 Iraqi guerrillas. Almost immediately, the US version of the story fell under question, particularly because the numbers didn't add up. US spokesmen said that two US military convoys were attacked by about 60-80 guerrillas, and that 54 guerrillas were killed and 22 taken prisoner, with no US troop deaths. When reporters asked where the bodies were, the US spokesmen claimed that the guerrillas had carried away their dead. Well, when we do the math, it turns out that 60 minus 54 equals 6 men left alive to carry away 54 dead bodies. Subtracting 22 prisoners from 6 leaves us somewhere in the Twilight Zone. If we use, instead, the high figure of 80 and subtract 54, we get 26. Subtracting 22 prisoners from 26 leaves only 4 guys to carry away 54 dead bodies. Either way, the numbers don't tally.

After scratching their heads for a bit, reporters decided to visit Samarra, check the hospitals, interview witnesses, and see if they could find the missing dead bodies. What they found instead were reports of 8-9 dead and more than 50 wounded--nearly all of them civilians. Witnesses said that US troops sprayed gunfire indiscriminately in all directions, shooting, among other things, a bus full of people getting off work at a local factory, a crowded marketplace in the center of the city, and people leaving a mosque after religious services. Local Iraqis now refer to this whole incident as The Samarra Massacre. Given the disparities in the two accounts, it may be impossible to know what really happened, but one this is clear: the evidence on the ground supports the accounts of Iraqi witnesses, not the clumsy propaganda efforts of US military spokesmen.--M.T.