U.S. ATTACKS INCREASING THE INSURGENCY

"... the notion that the use of military force against some insurgent groups can be balanced with political and economic enticements aimed at others is a risky one... firefights and aircraft attacks have themselves fed the insurgency, turning the relatives of slain militants and civilians into new insurgents. "We don't understand when someone kills a brother, it calls for revenge killing," said... a State Department official who served in Iraq last year. "We underestimate our daily humiliation of Iraqis." Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. commander... said that he now estimates they have grown to as many as 12,000. He said the insurgency has expanded in part because of mounting Iraqi irritation with the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12434-2004Oct30.html

"... there are now 8,000-10,000 hardcore insurgents, or 20,000 if active sympathizers are included, according to US officials who spoke to the New York Times. Though former members of the Ba'ath security forces may have composed the original core of the insurgency, its ranks are now swollen with ordinary Iraqis..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ30Ak03.html

INSURGENTS WINNING

"... Colin Powell has privately confided to friends in recent weeks that the Iraqi insurgents are winning the war, according to Newsweek. The insurgents have succeeded in infiltrating Iraqi forces "from top to bottom," a senior Iraqi official tells Newsweek in tomorrow's issue of the magazine, "from decision making to the lower levels."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/31/141359/35

PENTAGON SUPPRESSES CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

"The Pentagon is collecting figures on local casualties in Iraq, contrary to its public claims, but the results are classified... Iraq's interim government has also suppressed casualty figures. Dr Nagham Mohsen, an official at the Iraqi Health Ministry, was compiling data from hospital records last year. In December she was ordered by a superior to stop..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=577793

BIN LADEN VIDEO MESSAGE

"... Bin Laden believes he is engaged in a last-ditch struggle to protect his religion, culture and society from a belligerent West that has never abandoned the project, started with the Crusades, of humiliating, subordinating and dividing Islam. He is explaining this to the people of America. Wake up, he says, and see where your leaders are taking you. But he is also talking to the vast majority of those in the Islamic world who have rejected his extremist message and violent path. Wake up, he is saying, and join us. Wake up and fight..."
-- Jason Burke, author of 'Al-Qaeda: the True Story of Radical Islam'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1340256,00.html

FALLUJAH ATTACK TO RESULT IN HOLY WAR

"... in Fallujah, about 50 religious leaders met with members of the Shura Council of Mujaheddin, the self-appointed group that governs the city... the group agreed to issue a fatwa, or religious order, calling for a holy war if U.S. forces pushed into Fallujah. "War is very close," Abdullah Janabi, the head of the council, said. "The government is responsible for the bloodshed in Fallujah. We have no choice -- it is either victory or martyrdom."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11543-2004Oct30.html

RESERVES SENT TO TRAIN IRAQIS

"The U.S. Army has decided to send the reserves to accelerate training of Iraq's military and security forces.... the army has sent the Reserve's 98th Division to lead in the training of Iraqi forces... members of the reserve army division would be deployed throughout bases in Iraq to conduct the training. The 98th Division, responsible for institutional training, would also provide command and control as part of the U.S. Army's new Foreign Army Training Assistance Command, or FA-TRAC... the reserve army trainers would be deployed throughout Iraq. They would include 700 soldiers in Baghdad and the surrounding area."
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/october/10_31_3.html

BOMBING IRAQI CITIES VS GENEVA CONVENTION

"... aerial bombardments of civilian city quarters by a military occupier that has already conquered the country are a gross violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, governing the treatment of populations of occupied territories."
-- Juan Cole, Informed Comment, Friday, October 29, 2004
http://www.juancole.com/

Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
Article 3
In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities... shall in all circumstances be treated humanely... To this end, the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds...
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm

BIN LADEN VIDEOTAPE ADDRESS - TRANSCRIPTS

"... my talk to you is about the best way to avoid another Manhattan, about the war, its causes, and results... We fought you because we are free and because we want freedom for our nation... When you squander our security we squander yours... Your security does not lie in the hands of Kerry, Bush, or al-Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands. Each and every state that does not tamper with our security will have automatically assured its own security.”
-- New York Times site:
http://nytimes.com/2004/10/29/international/29WIRE-TRANS.html
-- BBC site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3966817.stm
-- Middle East Online site:
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=11729

PENTAGON SAYS RUSSIANS TOOK MISSING EXPLOSIVES

"Russia summoned a U.S. diplomat to protest at a Pentagon claim that Russian soldiers spirited away hundreds of tons of explosives from a site in Iraq just before the U.S. invasion... Russia's Defense Ministry dismissed the allegation (saying) "... Russia's servicemen and military specialists left Iraq 12 years ago."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6659844

100,000 IRAQI DEATHS ATTRIBUTED TO U.S. INVASION

"Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq... The use of air power in areas with lots of civilians appears to be killing a lot of women and children," said Les Roberts of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a report published online by The Lancet medical journal."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6647677
and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1338362,00.html

"... Violent deaths were mainly attributed to coalition forces - and most individuals reportedly killed were women and children..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3962969.stm

"... aerial bombardments of civilian city quarters by a military occupier that has already conquered the country are a gross violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, governing the treatment of populations of occupied territories."
-- Juan Cole, Informed Comment, Friday, October 29, 2004
http://www.juancole.com/

THE NEED TO CRUSH FALLUJAH

"... You flatten Fallujah, hold up the head of Fallujah, and say 'Do our bidding, or you're next"... these people don't know they have been defeated. Fallujah will be an opportunity for them to be crushed decisively and for them to taste defeat... as soon as [polls close], everything will break loose over there... [US forces] will have every sniper in the country go into Fallujah."

"But... analysts are asking if the spreading footprint and increasing sophistication of guerrilla cells across Iraq mean that any victory there may be shortlived - and fail to end wider militant violence."

http://search.csmonitor.com/2004/1029/p01s02-woiq.html

380 TONS OF WMD-LITE MISSING

"... the Bush administration allowed 380 tons of super-powerful explosives to disappear from al-Qaqaa, one of Iraq's sensitive military installations, after the war in spring of 2003...
"... These are not ordinary bombs. This explosive material, HMX and RDX, can be used to detonate atomic bombs, collapse buildings, and form warheads for missiles. A pound of it brought down a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland... A lot of the roadside bombs that have killed hundreds of US troops and maimed thousands have been made of HMX and RDX, as suggested by how infrequently the guerrillas have blown themselves up in planting them. HMX and RDX are favored by terrorists because they are stable and will only explode via a blasting cap...
"... (concern is) that this major screw-up has been known to the Bush administration for some time, and that it may have pressured the Iraqi government not to mention it...Incredibly, the International Atomic Energy Commission and European Union officials warned Bush before the war that these explosives needed to be safeguarded."
-- Juan Cole, Informed Comment, Monday, October 25, 2004
http://www.juancole.com/

"... At the Pentagon, an official who monitors developments in Iraq said US-led coalition troops had searched Al-Qaqaa in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives, which had been under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact. Thereafter the site was not secured by U.S. forces, the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1098677410357

"... the Iraqis claim they told former US proconsul Paul Bremer about it as early as last May - when the occupying power was still formally in charge of al-Qaqaa. And significantly, the Iraqis have also said the White House forced them not to report anything to the IAEA..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ29Ak04.html

St Paul MN TV station video of some explosive powder boxes at Al-Qaqaa (after the commercial):
http://kstp.dayport.com/viewer/viewerpage.php?Art_ID=159660/

"... White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, sought to downplay the threat posed by the missing explosives, saying they represented no threat of nuclear proliferation..."
http://nytimes.com/2004/10/25/politics/campaign/25cnd-weapons.html?hp&ex=1098763200&en=5fea9c7caaf8fe25&ei=5094&partner=homepage

IN IRAQ THE U.S. CREATED A GLORIOUS FIRST STAGE IN WAR AGAINST THE WEST

"... Iraq... has become a theater of inspiration for a drama of faith, in which the jihadists believe they can win... militants everywhere are more and more seeing Iraq as the first glorious stage in a long campaign against the West and the "apostate" rulers of the Muslim world... It seems clear that (the) invasion of Iraq has carried real costs for American security. The worst thing Americans could do now is believe that the Bush administration's tough talk is in any way realistic. If they really think that the unrest abroad will have no impact at home, not even a vastly improved offense can help them."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/27/opinion/edbenjamin.html

POWER GAME

"... The ultimate purpose of the US occupation is to ensure that Iraq remains a vassal state. Washington knows how significant it is to keep that country down for the sole purpose of sustaining its own hegemony in the Middle East... In the power game that is being played in the Middle East, the most powerful ones don't necessarily emerge as the winners... insurgents know that as long as they can absorb human losses the US behemoth will remain on shaky ground, for its capacity to absorb human losses is indeed quite finite... "
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ29Ak01.html

NO CHANGE IN US TORTURE POLICY

"... in a 200-page report released on Wednesday, London-based Amnesty International (said)... The United States has failed to change its policies meaningfully on the treatment of prisoners..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ29Ak02.html

BUSH WAS HOPING TO GET ELECTED AND INVADE IRAQ

"Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq... "

“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. “It was on his mind. He said to me: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.’ He said, ‘If I have a chance to invade.. if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”

(In 1999, Herskowitz struck a deal with the campaign of George W. Bush about a ghost-written autobiography, which was ultimately titled A Charge to Keep : My Journey to the White House, and he and Bush signed a contract in which the two would split the proceeds... Herskowitz was given unimpeded access to Bush, and the two met approximately 20 times...)

http://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/article.php?id=761

OIL WAS TO PAY FOR IRAQ (MARCH 2003)

"... lawmakers... questioned whether the $74.7 billion Bush has requested in war-related funding would come anywhere close to the true costs... The White House (said)... oil reserves... will offset many of the costs of reconstruction.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/iraq/1842094

NOW COST OF IRAQ IS TO BE $225 BILLION

"Bush, if re-elected, reportedly plans to ask Congress for around 70 billion dollars in emergency funding for Iraq and Afghanistan early next year... on top of 25 billion dollars in war spending allocated by Congress for fiscal 2005 that began October 1. Bush, last year, requested 87 billion dollars for Iraq and Afghanistan... The new funding request... would push total war costs close to 225 billion..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1026-09.htm

U.S. HAS WRONG VIEW OF RESISTANCE

"Bush administration officials have drawn a consistent picture of the insurgents they have been fighting in the past 17 months of occupation: religious extremists, "dead-enders" associated with Saddam Hussein and foreign terrorists..."

"... But a wide range of interviews with Iraqis and U.S. officials here paints a starkly different portrait... (The insurgency is) a growing, intensely nationalist resistance determined to remove U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies... the typical resistance fighter is a young man with a military background who opposes the occupation but -- unlike the foreign fighters motivated by religious extremism -- is not necessarily anti- American or anti-Western... the resistance is led by 20 to 30 armed groups across the country... This (insurgency) is a justified action for any people whose country is under occupation..."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/26/MNG659G46T1.DTL

COALITION TAKEN OFF WHITE HOUSE WEBSITE

The "coalition of the willing" in Iraq has vanished from the White House Internet site... the list of about 50 countries... was once easily found by following a link from www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/iraq/coalition.html. The list has disappeared, and that the link that led to it -- "Who are the coalition members?" -- is gone as well... "

"... some critics... charge that the list was pulled down to protect Cheney... after Edwards charged in their October 5 debate that US troops had suffered 90 percent of the casualties. (Cheney replied) "When you include the Iraqi security forces that have suffered casualties, as well as the allies, they've taken almost 50 percent of the casualties in operations in Iraq, which leaves the US with 50 percent, not 90 percent."

"But Iraq was never considered a coalition member, and was never on the official White House list of coalition nations..."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1022-08.htm

U.S. APPOINTED IRAQI GOVERNMENT LOSING SUPPORT

"Support among Iraqis for the U.S.-appointed government in Baghdad has plunged since it was installed this summer... (the) survey was carried out by the International Republican Institute, a government-funded body that promotes democracy around the world and which is helping oversee efforts to build political parties in Iraq..."
hehttp://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3APBAQZWW4Y5UCRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=6585789re

THIS WILL NOT BE THE FIRST DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ

England spent 31,000 of its soldiers' lives to take the Basra (Shiite), Baghdad (Sunni) and Mosul (Kurd) provinces from the Islamic Turkish Ottoman Empire in World War 1. In 1918 the League of Nations gave England the mandate to govern those provinces as an artificial new nation called Iraq.
http://www.pro.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/battles/mesopotamia.htm

In 1920, a Shiite revolt erupted against British occupiers, who... didn't move fast enough to create a promised new nation state. The uprising surprised the British, left more than 2,200 occupation troops and an estimated 8,450 Iraqis dead or wounded...
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0311/p01s03-woiq.html

"During the (British) general elections of 1922 there was a newspaper campaign against British expenditures in Iraq... (and) the Constituent Assembly (of Iraq) demanded complete independence... (of which) Ratification ... was accomplished on June 11, 1924..."
http://www.angelfire.com/nt/Gilgamesh/1918.html

Iraq then set up a democratic sort of government on the English model, but it was not very stable, with cabinets lasting an average of about 6 months:

"It provided for a constitutional monarchy, a parliamentary government, and a bicameral legislature. The latter was composed of an elected House of Representatives and an appointed Senate. The lower house was to be elected every four years in a free manhood suffrage. The first Parliament met in 1925. Ten general elections were held before the downfall of the monarchy in 1958. The more than 50 Cabinets formed during the same period reflected the instability of the system."
http://www.angelfire.com/nt/Gilgamesh/1918.html

DEJA VU

"... the British in 1917 entered Baghdad announcing their good intentions. "Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies but as liberators," said General F. S. Maude, commander of British forces. Eighty-six years later, Donald Rumsfeld would say in Baghdad that America had come "not to conquer, not to occupy, but to liberate."

"And, as it is today, there was deep foreboding about what the occupying power had gotten itself into. "The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be difficult to escape with dignity and honor," wrote T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) in a letter to the Sunday Times in 1920.

"The last word in this historical analogy I will leave to Winston Churchill, who said of his country's occupation of Iraq: "We are paying 8 millions a year for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano, out of which we are in no circumstances to get anything worth having."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/10/22/deja_vu_in_baghdad?mode=PF

WILL THERE BE A DRAFT TO FIGHT IRAQ?

In the 2000 campaign George W. Bush said that he...
* would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada.
* would not raid the Social Security Trust Fund.
* would veto temporary storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
* would balance the budget and pay down a record amount on the national debt.
* opposed government intervention regarding same-sex marriage.
* the nation would have a $5.6 trillion surplus.
* would have a humble foreign policy.
* opposed nation-building.
* would end partisan bickering in Washington.
In the 2004 campaign, Bush says...
* reelecting him is the best way to prevent a new draft.
* he plans to fight the war in Iraq with an all-volunteer force.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/562/5045559.html

75% OF BUSH SUPPORTERS BELIEVE IN IRAQI WMD AND AL QAEDA TIES

"Three out of four self-described supporters of President George W. Bush still believe that pre-war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or active programs to produce them and that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein provided “substantial support” to al Qaeda, according to a new survey released here Thursday... In the face of a stream of high-level assessments about pre-war Iraq, Bush supporters cling to the refuted beliefs that Iraq had WMD or supported al Qaeda.. “One of the reasons that Bush supporters have these (erroneous) beliefs is that they perceive the Bush administration confirming them...”
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1022-01.htm
and
hehttp://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ23Ak01.htmlre

WHOM DOES AL QAEDA VOTE FOR? (SLIGHT PREFERENCE FOR BUSH)

"... From al-Qaeda's point of view, the US leaving Iraq would be a major victory. And the US staying in Iraq - bleeding thousands of men and billions of dollars in the hands of a national guerrilla struggle - is also a major victory. So al-Qaeda does not bother to vote Bush or Kerry because the main sticking point - US policy in the Middle East, the thirst for oil, the one-sided support for Israel - will still be there. But in terms of accelerating a clash of civilizations - a total polarization between the Muslim world and the Christian world - of course al-Qaeda prefers a fundamentalist like Bush."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ22Ak04.html

OPTIONS

"... The Pentagon has identified up to 30 cities in Iraq that must be subdued before the January elections. But even assuming these 30 Fallujahs will be subdued - starting with precision strikes causing untold civilian deaths - it is impossible to occupy such vast "conquered" territory."

"... The options left are all unsavory. 1) Washington may put at least 300,000 troops on the ground, instead of the current 138,000, and try to smash the resistance for good. This means an indefinite occupation - and no "democracy" at the end of the tunnel. 2) Washington may leave the whole mess as it is, with a constant stream of US casualties and the resistance getting stronger by the minute. 3) The US may pull out of Iraq entirely..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ22Ak04.html

20 CITIES TO BE ATTACKED

"... the U.S. army is planning to attack something around 20 cities and towns that are not under the control of the occupation authority."
-- Raed Jarrar, the Baghdad Blogger, Wednesday, October 20, 2004
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

CONTRACTORS USING OFFSHORE SHELL COMPANIES TO OVERCHARGE

"Custer Battles... (won) a $16.5 million contract in June 2003 to provide security for the Baghdad International Airport.... The nine-month-old firm had no track record in security and employed only a handful of people at the time. Since then, the company has landed contracts totaling an estimated $100 million including protecting Iraq’s new currency and training the Iraqi army....

"... (now) a lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act ... accus(es) the firm of using affiliated "shell" companies in the Cayman Islands and other "tax haven" countries to fraudulently overcharge on government contracts by tens of millions of dollars... The allegations against Custer Battle’s use of offshore firms open a window into the possible ways such companies may be leveraged to raise profit margins, mask overcharges and conceal company costs. Those possible manipulations go far beyond the scope of recent GAO investigations focusing on potential tax avoidance through the use of "tax haven" subsidiaries..."

http://www.guerrillanews.com/corporate_crime/doc5434.html

SUNNIS MAY BOYCOTT ELECTIONS IF FALLUJAH IS STORMED

"... Sheikh Harith al-Dari, the head of the Association of Muslim Scholars... called on Iraqis to boycott January's planned elections if Falluja is attacked... The Association of Muslim Scholars is seen as one of the most important Sunni religious voices in Iraq."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3761530.stm

BUSH'S CARLYLE GROUP PLANNED TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF $56 BILLION IRAQ DEBT TO KUWAIT -- TO MAXIMIZE IRAQ'S PAYMENTS

"... (There is) a complex transaction to transfer ownership of as much as $57 billion in unpaid Iraqi debts. The debts, now owed to the government of Kuwait, would be assigned to a foundation created and controlled by a consortium in which the key players are the Carlyle Group...
"... If Kuwait agrees to transfer the debts to the consortium's foundation, the consortium will... persuade world leaders that Iraq must "maximize" its debt payments to Kuwait, which would be able to collect the money after ten to fifteen years. And the more the consortium gets Iraq to pay during that period, the more Kuwait collects, with the consortium taking a 5 percent commission or more...
"... (However)... maximizing Iraq's debt payments directly contradicts the US foreign policy aim of drastically reducing Iraq's debt burden..."
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1013-20.htm

AND THEN PULLED OUT WHEN EXPOSED

"The Carlyle Group, a large investment firm linked to US and British politicians, has pulled out of a scheme to recover billions of dollars from Iraq, following the publication in the Guardian this week of documents detailing the secret proposals of a consortium with which it was involved..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1327956,00.html

DUE TO JAMES BAKER'S ODD POSITION ON IRAQI DEBT

Bush appointed former Secretary of State James Baker to be his special envoy on Iraq's debt. Baker's mission was to meet with presidents and prime ministers around the world and ask them to forgive Iraq's debt in the name of the reparation needs of the country. However, Baker is also a player with the Carlyle Group, having joined the firm immediately after his stint as secretary of state and tripling Carlyle's revenues. Baker's Carlyle Group was engaged in lobbying to get Iraq's Kuwait debt assigned to it for collection, at the same time that Special Envoy Baker was asking the world to forgive those debts.

ISLAMIC IRAQI GOVERNMENT WOULD BE OK

"... Bush has said he would accept an Islamic government in Iraq as the result of free elections... Bush's comments appear to clash with earlier remarks from his administration which rejected calls soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime for the creation of an Islamic state similar to that of its neighbour, Iran."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3755850.stm

MOST REPUBLICANS THINK IRAQ WAS BEHIND 9/11 ATTACKS

"... a recent CNN/USA Today poll showed 62% of Republicans still believe Iraq was behind 9/11..."
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/2004/10/17/672730.html

IRAQ STRATEGY FAILING

"A key element of the current US strategy in Iraq, the training of Iraqi forces, is still proceeding too slowly... Iraqis will not be able to take over the most demanding security roles until late 2005-06..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3702676.stm

IRAQI SCHOOLS - SEPTEMBER 2004

"... USAID is devoting substantial resources throughout the country to ... support the delivery of... education services... Key accomplishments... renovated 2,356 schools nationwide..."
http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/accomplishments/

"... Americans frequently trumpet the renovation of schools as a hidden success story of post-war Iraq that is neglected by the media... (but) a countrywide survey of schools was conducted by the Iraqi Ministry of Education... A year and a half since the end of the war... the Iraqi education system, once one of the finest in the Middle East, is still overwhelmed... The survey finds that a third of all primary schools currently have no water supply at all and that nearly half have no sanitation facilities..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3748560.stm

WHAT AFTER IRAQ?
Iran might not be a another peice of cake like Iraq. A more convenient venue for shock and awe lies closer...

"Bumper stickers across Florida proclaim "Iraq today, Cuba tomorrow"... Jeb Bush, state Governor, has said: "After its success in Iraq, Washington should finish with the regime of Castro.''
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=572661

NO POST-WAR PLANNING

"... officials, advisers and consultants in and around the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office bet on Iraqi exiles such as Ahmad Chalabi... who assured them that Iraqis would welcome American troops as liberators.... Civilian officials in the Pentagon... thought they could withdraw 50,000 troops from Iraq in June 2003; 50,000 more in July; and a final 50,000 in August. By September 2003, Rumsfeld and his aides thought, there would be very few American troops left in Iraq."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9927782.htm

$5 BILLION SPENT IN IRAQ UNACCOUNTED FOR

"... according to an audit... half of the roughly $5 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds disbursed by the US government in the first half of this year cannot be accounted for... The audit was performed by the accounting firm of KPMG for the UN's International Advisory and Monitoring Board..."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/10/16/iraq_audit_cant_find_billions?mode=PF

MAP OF ATTACKS - SEPTEMBER 2004

"... Type and location - total comes to 2,368 - roll over the buttons below..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,1316529,00.html

CONDITIONS IN FALLUJAH BEFORE THE ASSAULT

"... No single militia force controls the whole city. Different clans in the city have their own militias but they all seem to be working together to fend off US forces... I am not aware of any foreign fighters in Falluja. If there are any foreigners here, they have blended in very well with the locals. Foreigners used to frequent the city in the past, but many of them were forced to leave under a deal the city's leaders struck with the government. Ninety-nine percent of the fighters here are Fallujans..."

"Hospitals have all but run out of supplies and most people know this. But still the injured are being taken there - just so that they can be near the doctors and receive some comfort. The Iraqi health ministry has not sent any extra supplies. Food supplies are also running out. All shops are shut. Some people who fled the city a few days ago have begun returning because they ran out of food..."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3748966.stm

PLAN TO SHIFT BRITISH TROOPS TO BAGHDAD

"... the US has asked British troops to fill in behind American soldiers, who are being sent... from Baghdad to join those involved in operations in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3748360.stm

ZARQAWI AN EXCUSE TO SMASH FALLUJAH

"... Allawi, is set to give the go-ahead to what the US Army twice could not bring itself to carry out: the leveling of Fallujah... the key point is the handover of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (But) Al-Jumeili says there are only a few foreign jihadis in the city - a fact confirmed to Asia Times Online by sources in Baghdad close to the resistance in Fallujah. Al-Jumeili insists they are not terrorists, but plain mujahideen. One of the Baghdad sources is adamant, "What the Americans could not get the first time they are now getting through Allawi. Zarqawi is just an excuse for them to smash the spirit of the resistance."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ15Ak02.htm

POLAND PULLING OUT

"Poland will reduce its contingent from the start of 2005 and will discuss subsequent reductions," Mr Belka told parliament ahead of a confidence vote. He vowed that Poland would "not remain in Iraq an hour longer than necessary". Opinion polls suggest more than 70% of Poles are opposed to the presence of their country's troops in Iraq. Poland said last week it would seek to pull out its troops after Iraq holds elections, due in January..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3746224.stm

CASUALTIES FAR WORSE THAN THE PUBLIC CAN IMAGINE

"... Col. Earl Hecker, a critical care doctor at Landstuhl, says that the casualty situation for U.S. troops is far worse than most people in the U.S. can imagine. "[The public has] no idea what's going on here, none whatsoever," he told New York Newsday. Then he blurted out, "Bush is an idiot."
http://www.counterpunch.org/

BECHTEL REBUILDING THE WATER AND SEWER SYSTEMS

"... Bechtel's contracts include the rehabilitation of Iraq's water and sewer systems... the U.S. Agency for International Development (which oversees Bechtel's contracts in Iraq) has found that "water meant for consumption is pumped through the system largely untreated while raw waste flows untreated directly into city streets, rivers or marshlands. Many rural communities are not connected to main water or sewer lines, have no access to potable water and suffer from health problems related to poor sewage disposal." When they were asked recently, 44% of Iraqis said U.S. forces were not trying "at all" to restore basic services, and 41% said they were trying "only a little."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-juhasz14oct14,1,4564848.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

WAR PROFITS TO GOP

"... some of the profits generated by the war in Iraq appear to be making their way into Republican Party coffers... Halliburton funneled 85% of its $165,949 in contributions to Republicans. ChevronTexaco donated 83% of $367,731 in political contributions to Republicans. Lockheed, whose contribution total of $1,397,132 is more than the contributions of the other three corporations combined, gave 59% to Republicans, and Bechtel, 53% of $199,847..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-juhasz14oct14,1,4564848.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

HOW MANY "ENDURING BASES" IN IRAQ AND FOR HOW LONG?

"... a dozen is the number of so-called "enduring bases" located by John Pike, director of GlobalSecurities.org... The Chicago Tribune last March said US engineers are constructing 14 "enduring bases," but Mr. Pike hasn't located two of them...

"... US Army planners are preparing to maintain the current level of forces in Iraq at least through 2007, The New York Times reported this week.... military experts in Washington assume Iraq's new government will need the support of American troops - and thus "permanent" bases - for years, perhaps decades, to come..."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0930/p17s02-cogn.html

OCCUPATION LOOSES CONTOL OF IRAQ'S 1991 NUCLEAR EQUIPMENT

"The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)... expressed concern at... the "widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement" of sites previously relevant to Iraq's nuclear program, adding that missing material "may be of proliferation significance"... the IAEA now says entire buildings related to Iraq's nuclear program prior to the 1991 Gulf War have been dismantled - and the high-precision equipment stored inside has vanished...

"UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix described the loss of control of Iraq's nuclear sites by the US as "scandalous"... "It was sitting there controlled when the inspections were there. But when the occupation comes in, it disappears ..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ14Ak03.html

U.S. TROOPS MASSACRE IRAQI GUARDS

"... I got a call last week from... an American officer... in a unit halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border. It's a place where we claim we've done great work at cleaning out the insurgency. He was a platoon commander. ... .(some Iraqis) that owned the granary, had hired... thirty or so guards. Any kind of work people were dying to do. So Iraqis were guarding the granary... (Then) orders came down from the generals in Baghdad, we want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And as he told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, stop. And he said they just shot them one by one..."

"... He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts... (so) he went to the company captain. And the company captain said, "No, you don't understand. That's a kill. We got thirty-six insurgents."

"I said, fella, I said: you've complained to the captain. He knows you think they committed murder. Your troops know their fellow soldiers committed murder. Shut up. Just shut up. Get through your tour and just shut up. You're going to get a bullet in the back. You don't need that. And that's where we are with this war."

-- Seymour Hersh, author of first Abu Ghraib stories
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11_hersh.shtml
and
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/000172.html

CHIEF UN ARMS INSPECTOR SAYS WAR IN IRAQ HAS MADE TERRORISM WORSE

"The war in Iraq has put neither Iran nor North Korea off the idea of nuclear weapons and has "stimulated terrorism", Hans Blix, the former United Nations chief arms inspector in Iraq, told BBC radio. "The world is better off without Saddam, but the world is not any safer. If this was meant to be a signal to terrorists to stop their activities, it has failed miserably, it has stimulated terrorism. And it doesn't stop proliferation. The Iranians and North Koreans, if they are up to that, they are not stopped by it."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1013-05.htm

500 SECURITY SPECIALISTS SAY IRAQ IS THE MOST MISGUIDED WAR SINCE VIETNAM

"The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has been the “most misguided” policy since the Vietnam War, according to an open letter signed by some 500 U.S. national-security specialists... the current situation in Iraq could have been much better had the Bush administration heeded the advice of some of its most experienced career military and foreign service officers. But the administration’s failure to do so has actually fueled “the violent opposition to the U.S. military presence,” as well as the intervention of terrorists from outside Iraq. .."
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/95886/1/

THE HOLY WAR

"... Today, with modern, mostly Christian armies fighting Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq, the war on terrorism has become, for many, both Christian and Muslim, a religious war — and this is dangerous."

"...President George W. Bush, certain in his beliefs, told journalist Bob Woodward that "his own father is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal to."

"Ayman al Zawahiri, supposedly the intellectual head of Al Qaeda, said... "Afghanistan's east and south have now fully become an open arena for the mujahideen ... the Americans and the peacekeeping forces ... expect the martyrdom operations at any time, with God's help."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1097273431889

THE FRAGILITY OF DEMOCRACY

"The Iraq war is not winnable, a secret U.S. military unit has been "disappearing" people since December 2001, and America has no idea how irreparably its torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has damaged its image in the Middle East..."

"While Hersh blamed the White House and the Pentagon for the Iraq quagmire and America's besmirched world image, he was stymied by how it all happened. "How could eight or nine neoconservatives come and take charge of this government?" he asked. "They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military! So you say to yourself, How fragile is this democracy?"

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11_hersh.shtml

MAJOR ASSAULTS POSTPONED UNTIL AFTER U.S. ELECTION

"The Bush administration plans to delay major assaults on rebel-held cities in Iraq until after U.S. elections in November... will not try to retake cities such as Fallouja and Ramadi..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-strategy11oct11,1,16440.story

A PREVIEW OF IRAQI ELECTIONS?

"... the balloting was besieged by a wave of fraud and technical errors... many people were able to cast votes multiple times.... "I voted three times," said an Afghan solider guarding the presidential palace... "I saw a man vote six times, I swear," said a female election observer at a poll across town... Western journalists watched as their drivers voted three and four times... On top of that, there were numerous allegations of intimidation. One presidential candidate claimed that his observers saw the police in Kabul telling people to vote for Karzai."
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041025&s=parenti

CHENEY'S BUSINESS WITH SADDAM

"... Cheney's old company, Halliburton, the top oil services corporation in the U.S., filled its coffers with Iraqi money during the heyday of the Oil for Food program. When Cheney's was Halliburton's CEO, the company did not collect vouchers; rather, its subsidiaries took advantage of the opening created by the "Oil-for-Food" program to cut deals with Saddam Hussein's government that allowed it to take money directly from Iraq. During 1998 and 1999, Halliburton's Dresser Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump subsidiaries signed contracts to provide roughtly $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq.... Under Cheney's leadership, the contracts obtained by Halliburton subsidiaries were among the most substantial awarded any U.S. firm doing business with Saddam Hussein."
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1011-25.htm

"PACIFIED" SUNNIS MIGHT NOT VOTE

"The leaders among the Sunni Arabs... said in interviews here that many prospective Sunni voters were so suspicious of the American enterprise in Iraq, and so infuriated by the chaotic security situation in the Sunni-dominated areas, that they were likely to stay away from the polls in large numbers..."

"What elections are you talking about?" said Raad Rahim Ahmed, a 50-year-old resident of Samarra, who said American soldiers killed his wife and two children when they cleared the city of insurgents last week. "I've lost my entire family," he said. "Why should I trust this government? Why should I vote at all?"

"... American officials fear that if large numbers of Sunnis do not vote, the election will be regarded as illegitimate and may even feed the insurgency that has gripped much of the country."

http://nytimes.com/2004/10/11/international/middleeast/11sunni.html?hp&ex=1097553600&en=f4b04514b50c0b5e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

U.S. FIRMS PROFITED FROM OIL FOR FOOD PROGRAM

"US companies and individuals received... vouchers, which let them buy Iraqi crude under the UN oil-for-food program... US companies Chevron, Mobil, Texaco and Bay Oil, as well as three US individuals... were together allotted 111 million barrels of oil... Spokesmen for the companies... said the transactions were legal, but confirmed they had received subpoenas from a federal grand jury that is investigating the transactions..."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1503&e=8&u=/afp/us_iraq_oil

CIA REPORT: SADDAM HAD NO WMD, BUT INSURGENTS ARE MAKING THEM

"... a little-noticed section of the 960-page (CIA Duelfer) report says the risk of a "devastating" attack with unconventional weapons has grown since the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq last year... Insurgent networks across Iraq are increasingly trying to acquire and use toxic nerve gases, blister agents and germ weapons against U.S. and coalition forces..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-wmd10oct10,1,2983902.story?coll=la-home-headlines

MARINES DOUBTFUL

"In a dozen interviews, Marines... expressed in blunt terms their frustrations with the way the war is being conducted and, in some cases, doubts about why it is being waged... The Marines' opinions have been shaped by their participation in hundreds of hours of operations over the past two months. Their assessments differ sharply from those of the interim Iraqi government and the Bush administration... Several... said they were struck by the difference between the way the war was being portrayed in the United States and the reality of their daily lives... "We're basically proving out that the government is wrong," he said. "We're catching them in a lie."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20794-2004Oct9.html

IRAQI DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS U.S. NEEDS TO STAY 15 YEARS

"Iraqi officials say it will take years to secure country... Iraqi security forces won't be able to handle major security challenges for years - perhaps as many as 15 - and won't be able to take the lead in attacking insurgent strongholds before elections scheduled for January... Defense Minister Hazem Shalan al Khuzaei... "I want (the US) to stay for 15 years..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9872224.htm

MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ

"... US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in the restive province of al-Anbar on an unannounced visit to American soldiers... (the US is) engaged in a "test of wills" with Iraqi insurgents. "They know they cannot defeat us militarily"... He said the US might need to commit more troops to the country to improve security before the elections... "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3730632.stm

FRANCE AND CHINA: WAR AN ILLEGAL MISTAKE

"French President Jacques Chirac has said the US-led war in Iraq was illegal and expressed his fear for the country's future in the face of a "civil war"... "I believe it was a bad solution which didn't conform with legality and with international law, and so it was a mistake"... Chirac said France and China were "very close" in their appraisal of the Iraq crisis, and that the two countries were in regular contact with Germany, Russia and Spain on the issue."
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=11514

HILTON ATTACK LINKED TO U.S. ATTACKS IN IRAQ

"The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement blamed Israel and the United States for the blasts that rocked Sinai resorts... The statement added that the blasts -- which killed about 35 people, mostly Israelis -- were also a result of "barbaric attacks by the American occupation in Iraq..."
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=5041

U.S. AIR STRIKE HITS WEDDING - KILLS 11, WOUNDS 9 WOMEN AND CHILDREN

" A U.S. air strike aimed at foreign militants... killed 11 people in the Iraqi city of Falluja... The U.S. military said a "precision strike" hit a house where Zarqawi associates were meeting... Residents and local doctors said 17 people were also wounded in the attack, among them nine women and children. They said a wedding party had been held in the house... The bridegroom was killed and the bride was wounded in the raid. Reuters television footage showed four women lying bloodied and bandaged at the local hospital. "We were celebrating my cousin's wedding and my relatives gathered in this house for the wedding," said one of them, Suad Mohammed, 26."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6453791

AFGHAN ELECTIONS A PREVIEW OF IRAQ'S - NO WOMEN VOTERS?

"Free vote just illusion for millions of Afghans... Few women allowed to participate... Men still rule their lives... In an opinion poll of women throughout Afghanistan, 87 per cent of those surveyed said they needed to ask their husbands' permission to vote..."

"... Hadi Sharma and her two sisters won't be taking part in the historic polls even though they registered in their eastern home province of Laghman. Their brother, Abdullah, burned their cards after finding them hidden in their shared room. Then he told his father about his sisters' secret. "Our father hit us so hard, I can still feel the pain," said Hadi, 20, a high school student. "We really wanted to participate in Afghanistan's first election, but I don't think we will be allowed to vote — ever!"

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1097185810675&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724

BLOOD FOR OIL

"It has been argued that our oil-protection role is a peculiar feature of the war in Iraq... But Iraq is hardly the only country where American troops are risking their lives on a daily basis to protect the flow of petroleum... In Colombia, Saudi Arabia, and the Republic of Georgia, U.S. personnel are also spending their days and nights protecting pipelines and refineries...

"The use of American military personnel to help protect vulnerable oil installations in conflict-prone, chronically unstable countries is certain to expand given three critical factors: America's ever-increasing dependence on imported petroleum, a global shift in oil production from the developed to the developing world, and the growing militarization of our foreign energy policy...

"American leaders have responded to this systemic challenge to stability in oil-producing areas in a consistent fashion: by employing military means to guarantee the unhindered flow of petroleum... one officer told Greg Jaffe of the Wall Street Journal in June 2003 that "a key mission for U.S. forces [in Africa] would be to ensure that Nigeria's oil fields, which in the future could account for as much as 25 percent of all U.S. oil imports, are secure."... The Navy's Fifth Fleet, based at the island state of Bahrain, now spends much of its time patrolling the vital tanker lanes of the Persian Gulf...

"While anti-terrorism and traditional national security rhetoric will be employed to explain risky deployments abroad, a growing number of American soldiers and sailors will be committed to the protection of overseas oil fields, pipeline, refineries, and tanker routes. And because these facilities are likely to come under increasing attack from guerrillas and terrorists, the risk to American lives will grow accordingly. Inevitably, we will pay a higher price in blood for every additional gallon of oil we obtain from abroad."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/FJ09Dj01.html

THE PROBLEMS IN IRAQ

"... the mixed performance of new Iraqi security forces, the slow pace of reconstruction projects hobbled by contract problems and guerrilla attacks and a large segment of the Iraqi population that still seems unprepared to cast its lot with the new government in Iraq."
http://nytimes.com/2004/10/08/politics/08strategy.html?hp&ex=1097294400&en=9b97a56f65e1818e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Usually we hear that reconstruction is slowed by lack of security, not by flawed contracts. And we don't hear much about a large segment of the population being against the interim government we set up.

IRAQIS LOSING INTEREST IN ELECTIONS

"Iraqi voters are losing interest in elections scheduled for January, and not because they're worried about security. Instead, potential voters said they had no interest in or understanding of the process... the public felt the political parties were foisting candidates on them whom they knew nothing about. The nation's seven major parties are crafting lists of candidates to put on the ballot..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9851833.htm

U.S. AIRSTRIKES DRIVING IRAQIS TOWARD AL ZARQAWI

"Sympathy for al-Zarqawi grows among Iraqis amid U.S. airstrikes... Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is gaining support among Iraqis who are outraged over the trail of razed neighborhoods and dead civilians left by the U.S. military's anti-insurgent offensives..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9842981.htm

ANTI-FEMINIST GROUP GETS $10 MILLION GRANT TO TRAIN IRAQI WOMEN

"The State Department has awarded an explicitly anti-feminist U.S. group part of a $10 million grant to train Iraqi women in political participation and democracy..."

"The organization was founded in 1991 by a number of prominent right-wing Republican women to act as a counterpoint to what they called the “radical feminism” of the National Organization for Women (NOW)... Among the founders were Lynne Cheney, the spouse of Vice President Dick Cheney and former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Labor Secretary Elaine Chao; Kate O’Beirne, Washington editor of the right-wing “National Review” and a former senior vice president at the Heritage Foundation; and Midge Decter, the former co-chair with Donald Rumsfeld of the Committee for the Free World and one of the founders of neo-conservatism along with her spouse, former “Commentary” editor, Norman Podhoretz..."

"The IWF has also opposed affirmative action and federal programs designed to prevent sexual discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal government funding. The Bush administration appointed IWF’s president, Nancy Mitchell Pfotenhauer, to the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women despite the fact that the group opposed the Violence Against Women Act..."

"... The IWF has also been accused of partisanship for its staunch defense of the Republican Party positions and its attacks on prominent Democrats..."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1005-05.htm

ELECTION PROBLEMS

"... Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has issued a demand that free and clean elections be held in every area of Iraq in January... If at any point he despairs of getting what he wants from the Americans, he can single-handedly start an urban revolution against them..."

"... Muqtada al-Sadr is now indicating once again that he will boycott the elections, since he views them as being held under the auspices of the American occupation..."

"... If the elections are held, they will be bloody and turnout will be light, unless the security situation improves markedly."

-- Juan Cole, Informed Comment, Tuesday, October 05, 2004
http://www.juancole.com/

U.S. CREATING AN ARMY OF 100,000 INSURGENTS?

"... Sadr City, with over 2 million Shiites, is a major center for the Sadr II Movement... the likelihood that the US can defeat the Sadrists in Sadr City with tanks and AC-130s is extremely low, and that they are almost certainly driving more Shiites into Muqtada's arms. Since the "Mahdi Army" is really just poor Shiite young men with guns and rpg's, and since most poor young men have weapons, there are probably a good hundred thousand potential Sadrist fighters in the slum. The US cannot kill more than a small fraction of them if it isn't going to commit genocide, and the ones it doesn't kill are probably going to remain angry and take up arms themselves..."
-- Juan Cole, Informed Comment, Tuesday, October 05, 2004
http://www.juancole.com/

CIA SAYS NO LINK TO AL QAEDA

"... A CIA review... was requested some months ago by Vice President Dick Cheney... the new CIA assessment undercuts the White House's claim that Saddam Hussein maintained ties to al-Qaida, saying there's no conclusive evidence that the regime harbored Osama bin Laden associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi... "

"... there are now (even) questions about earlier administration assertions that al-Zarqawi received treatment at a Baghdad hospital in May 2002. "The evidence is that Saddam never gave Zarqawi anything."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9836140.htm

RUMSFELD SAYS NO LINK TO AL QAEDA AND NO WMD

"Mr Rumsfeld was asked by a New York audience about connections between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two," he said."

"On Monday, Mr Rumsfeld also said intelligence about weapons of mass destruction before the invasion had been faulty and that the US had been unable to find any such weapons. "Why the intelligence proved wrong, I'm not in a position to say..." he said."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3715396.stm

INVASION OF IRAQ A CRIME

"... the written lies submitted to Congress by George W. Bush to justify invading Iraq constitute a crime easily worthy of prosecution and impeachment... "Bush deliberately violated the very authorization that he sought from Congress... this "was not merely a serious breach of faith with a trusting Congress, but a statutory and constitutional crime."
-- John Dean, White House Counsel to Richard Nixon
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1004-34.htm

RELATIVE SAFETY FROM TERRORIST ATTACK

"... the Special Operations Consulting-Security Management Group... show 2,429 attacks took place throughout Iraq in September, 997 in Baghdad... A conservative Web site ... analyzed them with great care... the level of violence is of no concern in 12 of the 18 provinces. In the last month... 2,400 attacks have occurred within an Iraqi population of 24 million. Iraqis, then, should feel safe because they and their families have only one chance in 10,000 of being victims of an insurgent attack..."

"... (Accordingly) we would stress that only three terrorist attacks have occurred in America in the last 37 months: in lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania. Therefore, Americans living everywhere else should feel absolutely safe."

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1004-32.htm

WHY PRECISION BOMBING CAUSES SO MANY CIVILIAN CASUALTIES IN CITIES

"... a "smart" bomb.. (is) accurate, usually to a radius of about 10 meters (about 33 feet). But a ... 500-pound bomb (also) has a blast radius of 400 meters. If you use a 500-pound bomb on a residential area in a town (which is precisely the modus operandi in these assaults) -- do the math.
-- Empire Notes, October 4, 2004
http://www.empirenotes.org/

U.S. SAYS SAMARRA REBELS DESTROYED

"... following a weekend offensive to destroy rebel forces in the central city of Samarra... US Major General John Batiste, speaking on CNN, provided extensive details... A total of 125 suspected insurgents were killed and 88 taken captive..."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10960153%5E2703,00.html


BUT RESIDENTS SAY MOST SAMARRA INSURGENTS ESCAPE - U.S. ATTACKS KILL CIVILIANS - RED CRESCENT CALLS IT A TRAGEDY

"US forces declared yesterday that they had "pacified" the rebel stronghold of Samarra... Doctors and local people reported women, children and the elderly among the dead, and that bodies were still being brought into hospitals... the Human Rights Ministry, in a letter to the Iraqi Red Crescent, described what happened in the city as a "tragedy" and called for urgent emergency assistance... Local people in Samarra claimed that many of the 1,000 insurgents the Americans were targeting had escaped before the attack, and civilians had borne the brunt of the casualties. Of 70 bodies brought into Samarra General Hospital, 23 were children and 18 women, said Abdul-Nasser Hamed Yassin, a hospital administrator.... CNN television was told by one man that his sister-in-law and her six daughters were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in was hit by an US air strike."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=568511

COLLATERAL CIVIALIAN DAMAGE IN FALLUJAH

"U.S. air forces launched new airstrikes on Fallujah... killing at least 11 people, most of which are women and children, according to hospital sources... One strike... killed nine people, among which were three women and four children, said Dr. Adil Khamis of Fallujah General Hospital. Twelve Iraqis, including six women and three children, were reported wounded, Khamis said. They are residents of neighbouring houses that were destroyed in the strike..."
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=5096

SAMARRA INSURGENTS ESCAPE, U.S. KILLS CIVILIANS, RED CRESCENT CALLS IT A TRAGEDY

"US forces declared yesterday that they had "pacified" the rebel stronghold of Samarra... Doctors and local people reported women, children and the elderly among the dead, and that bodies were still being brought into hospitals... the Human Rights Ministry, in a letter to the Iraqi Red Crescent, described what happened in the city as a "tragedy" and called for urgent emergency assistance... Local people in Samarra claimed that many of the 1,000 insurgents the Americans were targeting had escaped before the attack, and civilians had borne the brunt of the casualties. Of 70 bodies brought into Samarra General Hospital, 23 were children and 18 women, said Abdul-Nasser Hamed Yassin, a hospital administrator.... CNN television was told by one man that his sister-in-law and her six daughters were killed when the vehicle they were travelling in was hit by an US air strike."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=568511

RESULTS OF TRANSITION TO IRAQI RULE LAST JUNE

1. US military casualties have been highest during the "transition"... US military casualties (wounded and killed) stand at a monthly average of 747...
2. Non-Iraqi contractor deaths have also been highest during the "transition"... 7.5 contractors have died each month...
3. Estimated strength of Iraqi resistance skyrockets... According to Pentagon estimates, the number of Iraqi resistance fighters has quadrupled between November of 2003 and early September 2004...
4. US-led coalition shrinks further after "transition".
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ02Ak04.html

A LESSON FROM THE PAST

"... on the US side, weapons systems including aircraft worth tens of millions of dollars armed with the most advanced precision-guided ammunition were being used, and lost, destroying targets worth tens of dollars. Thus technowar became increasingly cost-deficient because it ultimately was targeting an enemy that only existed in the imagination... his will to fight and his supply lines, were never successfully targeted, thus rendering the technological gap irrelevant.... Some 30 years later, the syndrome of technowar has re-emerged to bedevil the US in Iraq."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ02Ak01.html

NO HELP FROM EUROPE

"... Kerry is promising something whose likelihood is very close to zero. Help is not on the way for Iraq. Europe will not rush to "share the burden"... European politicians are not suicidal and that won't change even if John Kerry is elected... a vast majority of Europeans consider the war in Iraq not only unnecessary and unjustified, but manufactured by the Bush administration for its own ends."

"... To "bring the allies to our side", Kerry will have to take the bold step of explicitly and categorically uncoupling the war in Iraq from the wider fight against terrorism..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FJ01Ak01.html

25% OF IRAQIS STILL ON INSUFFICIENT FOOD RATIONS

"One in four Iraqis are dependent on food rations to survive... the U.N. World Food Programme... said on Tuesday support from the state-run Public Distribution System was grossly insufficient to prevent chronic malnourishment..."
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=592568§ion=news

ADMINISTRATION OVERSTATED IRAQI JOBS CREATED

"The Bush administration has overstated U.S.-funded job figures in Iraq due to what... critics say may be a bid to paint a rosier picture on the ground. State Department figures released on Sept. 22 show the U.S. government overstated by more than 30,000 the number of Iraqis working on projects... (their) 88,436 figure was later adjusted to 55,463 jobs... overstating such numbers was in line with the administration's tendency to stress the positive and downplay negative news..."

"... the real story was... why so few new jobs had been created in a country where unemployment may be as high as 50 percent and is seen as contributing to the insurgency... The State Department hopes that by the end of 2005, U.S. funding will create an additional 800,000 jobs in Iraq..."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1001-24.htm

IRAQIS BLAME U.S. TROOPS FOR USING CHILDREN AS HUMAN SHIELDS AGAINST INSURGENT ATTACK

"Families of the 35 children who died in a string of bombings in Baghdad blamed American troops for the tragedy, accusing them of attracting insurgents to a ceremony where the attacks occurred... Residents said that before the start of the celebration, U.S. soldiers called upon the children through loudspeakers to join the crowd, promising them sweets... "I blame the Americans for this tragedy. They wanted to make human shields out of our children..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1002-01.htm
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/276/world/Mourning_Iraqis_blame_U_S_troo:.shtml


"The children went to their deaths while queuing for American candy at a neighbourhood party... "The Americans called us, they told us come here, come here, asking us if we wanted sweets. We went beside them, then a car exploded"... The parents were quick to direct their anger at the US soldiers, rather than the militants, blaming them for luring their children into danger..."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3596533&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

"... don’t you think that in a war zone like Iraq, with more than 85 attacks on occupation troops everyday, the fact that American soldiers were letting children gather around their dirty tanks and hum-vees, the same tanks that bombed and killed their relatives and friends, is a mere cheap plan for using children as human shields?"
-- Raed Jarrar, the Baghdad Blogger, Saturday, October 02, 2004
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

IRAQ TAPS INTO OUR FRONTIER MYTH

"... Issues fall by the wayside whenever Bush's heroic character takes center stage... A real Western hero needs no allies. He doesn't ask permission from the UN, or a bunch of Europeans, or anyone else. Like the Lone Ranger, he knows evil when he sees it, and whenever he sees it he destroys it -- all by himself, and by any means necessary... The frontier myth is all about saving the innocent. Bush is most adept at playing both the innocent one and the savior of the innocent, tapping into that ancient image of America..."

"... The great American myth says that we will be insecure until everyone is on our side. That belief... traps us in an endless cycle of fear, war, more fear, and more war... Nevertheless, millions of Americans who are poor, or sick, or out of work, or working two jobs to make ends meet instinctively respond to the irresistible appeal of their national myth..."

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1001-09.htm

CIVILIANS AND CHILDREN BEING KILLED BY BOMBING FALLUJAH

"A U.S. warplane struck Falluja late Friday night, the latest in a weeks-long campaign of bombardments... enraged residents clasped wounded children and challenged Iraq's prime minister to visit the town to see how bombs were hitting civilians, not "terrorists."...

"... U.S. military officials have suggested that insurgents have pressured doctors into exaggerating casualty tolls and have cast doubt on television footage, indicating that scenes after air strikes may have been staged.... Amid the screams and groans of children having their wounds stitched at a Falluja hospital Saturday, a young girl pulled dead from the rubble lay on thin mat on the floor...

"... Such scenes are familiar to the people of Falluja, who say they have seen no evidence backing U.S. assertions that insurgents and foreign fighters were operating from houses that are flattened by U.S. warplanes..."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6395027

FREED HOSTAGE SAYS INSURGENTS JUSTIFIED

"An Italian aid worker held hostage last month in Iraq said guerrillas there were right to fight U.S.-led forces and their Iraqi "puppet government."... Simona Torretta also called on Rome to withdraw the troops it sent to Iraq to support its U.S. ally. "I said it before the kidnapping and I repeat it today. You have to distinguish between terrorism and resistance. The guerrilla war is justified, but I am against the kidnapping of civilians."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6389262

IRAQ IS HARD WORK

"...Whenever the discussion turned to ... Iraq, Bush said, "It's hard work." Why didn't he anticipate the disaster? "It's hard work." Considering the mounting death toll, was the Iraq invasion worth it? "It's hard work."... By the end of the night (he) had repeated the "hard work" line at least nine times..."
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1

WHO ATTACKED US?

"... when Bush was asked by Lehrer if Iraq makes another "preemptive" war likely. Bush said, "But the enemy attacked us." That allowed Kerry to say, "The president just said something extraordinary . . . Saddam Hussein didn't attack us. Osama bin Laden attacked us."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/10/01/kerry_holds_his_fire?mode=PF