Presenter, Female #1
Amidst heavy voter turnout, Election Day has concluded in Iraq, marking the beginning of the vote count. The High Independent Electoral Commission said that the initial results will be announced next Thursday, pending the announcement of the official results at the end of the month. The results are expected to politically boost Iraq’s Shiite population, which represents nearly 60 per cent of the total population. Meanwhile, Sunni Arabs are expected to return to the political scene for the first time since 2003. Fatima Tawil reports.

Reporter, Female #2
Amidst heavy voter turnout and minimum security breaches, Iraq wrapped up its second election since the 2003 invasion. The Iraqi streets, which were filled with pictures of the candidates, are returning to normal. Many Iraqis have returned to work, after taking part in the election, which is the most crucial stage their country’s future.

Guest, Male #1
Despite the threats of bomb attacks, the Iraqi people participated in the election with great determination.

Guest, Male #1
This symbolizes democracy at its best.

Guest, Male #3
The elections were successful, thank God and praise to him. We voted despite the threats of bombing and terrorism.

Reporter, Female #2
Dozens of Iraqis were killed and dozens of others were wounded in a series of bomb attacks that took place across the country. A blood trail seems to follow the Iraqi people, regardless of the time and place. Meanwhile, the Iraqi High Electoral Commission said that they will announce the initial election results in 3 days. However, exit polls are showing that the Iraq’s State of Law Coalition led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki finished first in all of the 9 southern provinces. In contrast, the Iraqi List, led by Iyad Alawi, finished first in the 4 predominately Sunni Arab provinces. Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Alliance won most votes in Kirkuk Province, which is disputed by Kurds and Arabs. Regardless of their size, all political blocs must seek to form an alliance with other factions in order to secure the majority vote required to form a new cabinet. It could take months before determining Iraq’s new political direction.

Presenter, Female #1
Iraq has difficult days ahead. This is what US president, Barack Obama, said during his remarks on Iraq’s elections. Obama described the elections as an important step in Iraq’s history. In a statement issued by the White House, Obama congratulated the Iraqi people for the elections. He also praised the Iraqi government and its armed forces for providing security. He reiterated that all US forces will withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Guest, Male #4 (Obama)
The United States doesn’t support specific candidates or coalitions. We support the right of Iraqis to elect their leadership by themselves. No one should try to influence or seize on this transitional period. The time has come for Iraq’s neighbors and all countries to respect the sovereignty of Iraq and the unity of its territories.

Presenter, Male #1
The Pentagon announced that one of its soldiers was killed in Iraq, raising the number of American soldiers killed in February 2010 to five. According to the Pentagon, the soldier died of injuries sustained during a military operation in Salah al-Deen Province. The Pentagon also claimed that the killing of this soldier raises the number of American soldiers killed since the occupation of Iraq began in 2003 to 4,380. Other American organizations, including the American veteran group, said that more than 33 thousand Americans soldiers have been killed.

Presenter, Male #1
In a related matter: courageous attacks by the Iraqi resistance; the Mujahedeen army claimed responsibility for shelling the former American military base of Bakr with mortar shells. The organization said that the attack was part of a solidarity armed operation with al Aqsa, and reiterated that the attack was a direct hit. Three occupation soldiers were injured when their armored vehicle turned upside down on the main road between Mosul and Dohok, in northern Ninaweh. The occupation army claimed that it was a non- combatant incident and that it was only a traffic accident. In addition, the Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for shelling an American occupation base in southern Baghdad; the attack was a direct hit. This comes as the resistance continues its heroic operations, subjecting the American occupation to severe human and material losses.

Reporter, Male #1
In the land of the two rivers, the expansionist dreams of the American occupation are being shattered. Attacks by the Iraqi resistance exhausted the invading armies and caused them severe losses. In the past seven days, a series of high level operations were carried out in the land of the two rivers, which caused the occupation forces additional material and human losses. The Twentieth Brigades, a Jihad and Change faction and part of the Takhweel faction, claimed responsibility for destroying an anti-landmine vehicle that belongs to the American occupation, by using an explosive device in western Baghdad, killing an injuring the unit inside. Meanwhile, al-Tabiyen army, which is also a Takhweel faction, claimed responsibility for shelling the Tajy American military base with mortar shells of caliber 82; the attack was a direct hit. Meanwhile, the Fatheen army, an Iraqi resistance faction, claimed responsibility for destroying an American armored vehicle by detonating an explosive device in Babel Province, killing the unit inside. In the same province, the Fatheen army also claimed responsibility for destroying a vehicle that belongs to the occupation by detonating an explosive device. The liberators also managed to destroy a Humvee that belongs to the occupation by detonating an explosive device in northern Babel Province, killing the unit inside. Meanwhile, Iraqi resistance groups claimed responsibility for destroying a Humvee that belongs to the occupation army by detonating an explosive device in al-Meqdadeya, in Northeastern Baquba, killing and injuring the unit inside. Iraqi resistance groups claimed responsibility for throwing hand grenades at an American occupation convoy in the middle of Naquba near Dyala Province, destroying the vehicle and injuring the unit inside. The increase in resistance attacks on the American occupation comes within the framework of intensifying military operations meant to expel the occupation and its allies from the land of the two rivers. Once the dream of liberation is achieved, a united Iraq will be built for all Iraqis, the way it used to be, and God willing, the way it will always be.

Presenter, Female #1
14 people were killed and 65 others were injured in an explosion that shook a building that belongs to the anti-terrorism police in the Pakistani city of Ahur. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Reporter, Male #1
Another series of bombings and attacks has begun in Pakistan, most of them carried out by suicide attackers. A huge bombing targeted a building that belongs to the anti-terrorism police in Ahur, in the eastern part of the country. Dozens were killed and wounded. Chaos dominates the scene. A bombing of this scale reaching a government building means that the conditions in the country may lead to many more bombings. But the result is the same: the lack of stability in a country that owns nuclear facilities. How similar today is to yesterday! Pakistan is familiar with these types of bombings at a time when its army is waging an open war with the Pakistani Taliban and al- Qaeda. Pakistani authorities say that Taliban attacks have killed more than 3,000 people in the last two years alone. But the Taliban’s explosive devices and booby-trapped vehicles are not the only reason behind the death toll; operations conducted by NATO forces have contributed to its rise as well. The army is stuck in a war with Pakistani Taliban fighters and al-Qaeda in southern Waziristan, along its northern border with Afghanistan. An apparent triumph is impossible because of the nature of these operations and the composition of the country’s population. There are also some confusing questions about the Pakistani Taliban in general. The Pakistani government does not know for sure which recourses to follow in order to eliminate a group like this one, which is waging an uneven war. The government assassinated some Taliban leaders, and then waged a so-called emergency battle last year against Taliban fighters in their strongholds in the region of Suwad. And it has not stopped the Taliban, which does not promise to stop fighting or carrying out what it calls the Jihad.

Presenter, Male #1
Israeli Minister of Environment Jelaad Ardan said that the government approved the construction of 112 new residential units in the settlement of Beitar Illit in the two villages of Halin and Hosan, west of Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Presenter, Female #1
This comes at a time when George Mitchell is visiting the region in an attempt to begin the peace process.

Presenter, Male #1
This decision negates the promises made by the head of the Israeli government to partially freeze settlement construction in the West Bank.

Presenter, Female #1
Our correspondent Ilyas Karam in Jerusalem has the details.

Reporter, Male #1
After two consecutive meetings with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in West Jerusalem, Senator George Mitchell moved his diplomatic talks to Ramallah. At the headquarters of the provincial government, the special peace envoy met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and discussed with him the means to start indirect negotiations. Before Mitchell’s arrival, the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization approved the Arab resolution to start these negotiations, despite some of its members’ reservations or opposition.

Guest, Male #1
First of all, the position of the US administration is disastrous. It has not achieved anything in 18 years, and President Abu Mazen said that we would likely reach a dead end, while chief negotiator Saeb Erekat has been a failure for 18 years. In the shadow of Israeli politics and the current right-wing Israeli government, is there any sort of definite improvement that can be accomplished? We think the issue needs to be further discussed, and Palestine should not take part in these negotiations yet…in any form.

Reporter, Male #1
These doubts are not baseless, given that the Israeli defense minister decided to construct more than 100 new settlement units in the settlement of Beitar Illit, west of occupied Bethlehem. As the chief person who made a decision that revolves around occupied land, Ehud Barak reiterated during an inquiry in front of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which is subordinate to the Knesset, that indirect negotiations will not be easy, but are necessary for Israel if it wants to strengthen Fatah and weaken Hamas. He stressed that ending this conflict requires Palestine’s acknowledgment of Israel as a Jewish state.

Guest, Male #2
There is no doubt that the two settlements of Beitar Illit and Ma’ali Adumim, along with others, will remain under Israeli sovereignty. We should find means to connect them to roads that are under Israeli sovereignty. It makes no sense for them to be connected to roads that are under Palestinian sovereignty.

Reporter, Male #1
The construction in Beitar Illit and the announcement to build 100 settlement units in the Bizgazi’ef settlement, north of Jerusalem and two settlements in Ghilu and Abu Ghanim, south of Jerusalem, affirms that Israel is proceeding to draw the borders according to its own interests. It also affirms that the issue of drawing borders for the Palestinian State will not be easy, as the US administration believes. So Israel negotiates with Palestinians while it tares their country to pieces with its settlements, cuts off their communication and incessantly expands its realm. This means that the negotiations are destined to be a failure, even before they start. Ilyas Karam, al-Jazeera, West Jerusalem.

Presenter, Male #1
The world celebrates International Women’s Day annually on March 8th. The event started in the United States in 1909.

Reporter, Female #1
On March 8th, 1909, the idea of an international day for women was born, as thousands of women carrying bread and flowers took to the streets of New York City. The women called for the reduction of work hours and for an end to child labor. They also called for granting women voting rights. The cold weather of March 1917 did not stop Russian women from taking to the streets of Petrograd in a 4 day protest to demand an end to illiteracy and oppressive practices waged against women. The protestors demanded bread for their children, an end to the war as well as the return of their spouses from combat. These women changed the path of history as they helped topple the Czar’s tyrant regime. The events have become known as the “March Revolution,” and the date changed from February 29th to March 8th in the aftermath of the socialist revolution. Parallel to those events, the historic Labor Revolution, dubbed the “Great October Revolution,” was born, leading to the formation of the world’s first socialist regime in the former Soviet Union. These changes have had a great historical impact on Europe: In 1910, a US female delegation attended the 2nd International Women’s Conference in Copenhagen. With the participation of more than 100 women from nearly 17 countries, the conference issued a declaration marking March 8th as the international day for women. Today, 100 years after the historic “bread and flowers” protest was launched, women have witnessed a relative improvement in their living conditions. The improvement was due in part to the historical struggle of women and the labor force, as well as scientific and technological developments. However, the nightmare of war, hunger, manipulation, and exploitation still poses a threat to women in particular, and humanity at large. This requires society to continue the fight for women’s freedom, especially in the Arab world, where women still face all forms of discrimination and oppression despite efforts by civil organizations to achieve gender equality. Muna Draibati, al-Arabiya.

Presenter, Female #1
More than a year ago, soon after Barack Obama was sworn-in as president of the United States, he promised to close Guantanamo Bay prison at the end of 2009. Even though the set date has long passed, the US president’s promise has still not been delivered. Despite the fact that the number of detainees in the prison has been reduced to less than 200, a number of legal and procedural complications impede the process of completely closing down the prison. In this episode, we follow the developments around that issue. A new episode of “Industry of Death” begins right now.

Reporter, Female #1
As soon as the international war on terrorism started after the events of September 11th, 2001, American politicians launched a war that was described by some as “retaliation”, and by others as a “necessary war” to eradicate terrorism, bring down the Taliban’s extremist governance and eliminate al-Qaeda that was harbored and embraced by the Taliban. The invading armies occupied the last Taliban stronghold of Kandahar several weeks after they landed. The story begins there. Dozens, even hundreds of enemy fighters were captured by US forces, which eventually led to the biggest controversy surrounding this war. As time passed, what seemed to be a brief triumph over Taliban fighters became a painful chapter in human history. These are Guantanamo’s prisoners; a prison built in southwest Cuba under the administration of former US president George Bush. Hundreds of Arab and foreign prisoners, who were captured in hurried military operations, have a lot of stories of torture and humiliation. Some people think that the prisoners are dangerous and should not be allowed to be among human beings. Saudi Arabians, Yemenis, Algerians, Egyptians, Moroccans, along with foreign fighters are sent here. But the truth is: none of them were fighters that held high positions or the kind of values that the forces had hoped they would. Guantanamo prison is divided into three sections, each based on the level of the importance of the detainees. But the farthest ward was a special room for important fighters believed to have information that may lead the interrogators to their ultimate goal: the head of al- Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, or any of his associates. However, those fighters disappeared from sight when the invasion started, and their location and fate is still unknown. During the years of horrific detention, no detainee has died from torture. But 4 of them, 3 Saudi Arabians and a Yemeni, ended their own lives by committing suicide, or so the Americans claim. But people refuse to accept this version of the story and affirm that they died as a result of torture. This prison’s secrets and scandals were not hidden for very long. Gradually, the stories started to leak out to reveal scandals involving the violation of the prisoners’ human rights. At the same time, scandals brought up by human rights violations that took place in secret prisons set up by the US after its invasion of Iraq in 2003 were revealed; these prisons were established in a number of countries, including a European country. US officials were forced to admit to having committed violations that were described by some as “individual crimes”, downplaying the severity of the matter, and tried to reduce the damage that had already started to loom over President George Bush’s administration in his second term. After the identities of these 800 detainees were revealed, some never even having held a rifle, the wardens had to think about these people in financial terms. The most valuable of them was Pakistan-born Khalid Sheikh Hossein and Yemeni Ramzi Binalshibh. The former admitted to his interrogators that he engineered the September 11 events and was the mastermind of the attack on the US. However, his lawyers doubted the truthfulness of his story and said that his confessions were obtained from him by force. President George Bush was forced to oust his Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2006 and appoint Robert Gates as his successor. Since then, his new administration started to think about the fate of this prison in financial terms; a prison named by human rights defenders the “Prison of Shame”. A new chapter began in the history of the prison that is still standing today. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pressured the Bush administration to disclose the fate of detained Saudi Arabians in Guantanamo, and demanded they be sent back to their country to serve the rest of their sentences over there. The kingdom prepared a program to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into society, as part of a reform program adopted by the Minister of Interior.

Not much has been left to the imagination in the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on January 19. The entire operation has unfolded on closed circuit television cameras in front of millions of viewers across the globe, just like an episode from a reality show. Pictures of the perpetrators, all 27 of them, have been plastered all over the web. Dubai Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan Tamim has on more than one occasion declared to the media that he was all but 100% certain that the hit on al-Mabhouh had all the markings of the Mossad on it. He recently said that his men had obtained the DNA of part of the members of the hit squad and vowed to resign from his post if this claim proves to be false.

"I challenge Israel to bring the suspects there in order to undergo a DNA test and compare them with the samples we have," he said in an interview to the UAE-based al-Khaleej newspaper.

"If it turns out that the results do not match, I will resign. You can lie about anything, but not about DNA," he added.

The Bayonet
The assassination of al-Mabhouh has thrown an unwanted spotlight on the workings of Mossad and its specially trained assassination team, known as a kidon, the Hebrew word for bayonet, something that the Israeli government had not bargained for when the approval to conduct such an operation came directly from the top: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Incidentally, it was also during Mr. Netanyahu's first term as prime minister in 1997 when a kidon unit of the Mossad bungled the attempted assassination of Khalid Mish'al, the current leader of Hamas, in the streets of Amman in Jordan by injecting a mysterious poison into his ear.

The Helpers
The use of forged European passports by Mossad agents entering Dubai to assassinate al-Mabhouh has kicked up a diplomatic storm in recent days. The EU issued a strong condemnation of the stolen IDs, indirectly criticizing Israel. Israeli ambassadors in Britain, Ireland, France, Australia and Germany have been called in to discuss the issue, and Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has been given an earful by many of his counterparts. But were the Israeli dual nationals whose foreign passports were allegedly forged unaware that their identities were stolen by the Mossad? Or were they acting as sayanim, the Hebrew word for helpers, whom the Mossad relies on across the globe to provide shelter, money, and logistical support... in this case identity. A sayan, singular for sayanim, must be 100% Jewish, and in many cases a dual national.

The CIA
Also, why was not a single agent out of the 27 identified to be holders of foreign passports a US passport holder?

Israel has a large number of dual-national Jewish-Americans living in the country, many of whom serve in the Israeli military and various government related jobs. Was this deliberate so as not to draw the wrath of the United States? Or was it simply that this operation was coordinated with the CIA?

The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and numerous foreign press outlets have reported that two men linked to the assassination of al-Mabhouh entered the U.S. on specific dates after the killing. According to the reports, someone using an Irish passport with the name Evan Dennings entered the U.S. on Jan. 21, and someone using a British passport with the name Roy Allan Cannon entered the U.S. on Feb. 14.

A sayan in the US?
According to Dubai's Chief of Police, the MasterCards used by some of the assassins were branded by US-based Meta Bank, but issued by another small company called Payoneer. The company specializes in prepaid debit cards that can be used as credit card alternatives for online shoppers. Payoneer, which is registered in the US, has most of its employees based in Petah Tikva, Israel and is headed by Yuval Tal, who in a 2006 Fox News interview was identified as a former member of the Israeli Special Forces. Is there a relationship between Mr. Tal and the Mossad?

Many of these questions can be easily answered by the US government, but then again the term sayan has a much broader meaning when it comes to Israel and the United States.