CHENEY IDENTIFIES MIDDLE EAST OIL PRIZE - AUG 1999

"... by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize lies.."
--Dick Cheney, Halliburton CEO, speech to Institute of Petroleum, Aug 1999
http://www.energybulletin.net/559.html

U.S. GETS IRAQ OIL PRIZE - FEB 2007

"... Cheney might as well declare the Iraq war over... now is the mission really accomplished... Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet approved the draft of the new Iraqi oil law.... The key point of the law is that Iraq's immense oil wealth... will be under the iron rule of... nothing less than predominantly US Big Oil executives... (via) production sharing agreements (PSAs) - which translate into savage privatization and monster profit rates of up to 75% for (basically US) Big Oil... The law represents... pillaging of Iraq's oil wealth... (and) was drafted... by a US consulting firm hired by the Bush administration and then carefully retouched by Big Oil, the International Monetary Fund, former US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz' World Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. It's virtually a US law... its original language is English..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IB28Ak01.html

AMERICA AND ONGOING KILLING OF IRAQIS

"No one can deny the continuing killing of the Iraqis and the destruction of their country by the American forces... The USA and its allies gave full support to Saddam including WMD, money, economic supports, intelligent supports... Saddam used chemical weapons supplied to him by the west against his own people... the USA encouraged Saddam to attack Kuwait and annex it. The USA wanted to use this as an excuse to come to the region and stay there... During this dirtiest embargo which continued for 12 years the health system which was once the best in the region destroyed... Since 2003 until now there is systematic daily killing of the Iraqis..."
--Iraqi blogger Hammorabi
http://hammorabi.blogspot.com/2007/02/america-and-iraq-ongoing-killing-of.html

WHO GAVE THIS SPEECH IN 2002?

“I am deeply concerned that the course of action that we are presently embarking upon with respect to Iraq has the potential to seriously damage our ability to win the war against terrorism and to weaken our ability to lead the world in this new century. To put first things first, I believe that we ought to be focusing our efforts first and foremost against those who attacked us on Sept. 11... What if, in the aftermath of a war against Iraq, we faced a situation like Afghanistan, because we’ve washed our hands of it?... What if the al-Qaeda members infiltrated across the borders of Iraq the way they are in Afghanistan?..."
--Sept 23, 2002 speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/022507.html

U.S. BOMBING BAGHDAD

"US forces launched air strikes in southeast Baghdad on Saturday,... as a series of massive explosions rocked the war-torn city."American aircraft are bombarding terrorist targets that have been chosen by US and Iraqi forces, as part of our Baghdad security plan".
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,,2-10-1460_2074616,00.html

"... This is absolutely shameful, that the US is bombing from the air a civilian city that it militarily occupies. You can't possibly do that without killing innocent civilians, as at Ramadi the other day. It is a war crime. US citizens should protest and write their congressional representatives. It is also the worst possible counter-insurgency tactic anyone could ever have imagined. You bomb people, they hate you. The bombing appears to have knocked out what little electricity some parts of Baghdad were still getting..."
http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/al-hakim-targeted-with-car-bomb.html

"The leader of Iraq's biggest Shiite militia (Muqtada al-Sadr) complained Sunday that bombs "continue to explode" in Baghdad and that U.S.-led security crackdown is doomed to fail... Al-Sadr urged Iraq's mostly Shiite security forces to "make your own Iraqi plans independent of the Americans."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070225/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

ISRAEL DENIES TALKS TO USE IRAQI AIRSPACE TO ATTACK IRAN

"Britain's Daily Telegraph, citing an unnamed senior Israeli defense official, said on Saturday that Israel had sought permission from the U.S. Pentagon to be able to use an "air corridor" in Iraq in the event that the Jewish state decided to launch air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities... (but) Israel's deputy defense minister denied on Saturday that Israel was in talks with the United States to use Iraqi airspace as part of possible plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites..."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2901142

ISRAEL ASKS U.S. CLEARANCE FOR IRAQ OVERFLIGHTS TO ATTACK IRAN

"Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.. A senior Israeli defence official said negotiations were now underway between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an "air corridor"... (saying) "The only way to do this is to fly through US-controlled air space. If we don't sort these issues out now we could have a situation where American and Israeli war planes start shooting at each other."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/24/wiran124.xml

FALLUJAH WAR CRIMES REVISITED

"... Let's summarize the possible (U.S.) war crimes committed in the latest (2005) siege of Fallujah
1. Use of cluster bombs
2. Use of Napalm
3. Attacking a medical facility
4. Seizing a medical facility
5. Indiscriminate killing of civilians including women and children
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album28&page=1
6. Cutting off water and electricity to the entire city before the siege
7. The use of collective punishment
8. Purposeful destruction of water, electrical and sewage facilities.
9. Preventing male Iraqis from leaving and making them return to the city.
10. Preventing the wounded from being treated
11. Preventing the Red Crescent from entering the city..."
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/009904.php

IRAQI FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"... (In) another U.S. military raid on the media. U.S. soldiers raided and ransacked the offices of the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists (ISJ) in central Baghdad Tuesday this week. Ten armed guards were arrested, and 10 computers and 15 small electricity generators kept for donation to families of killed journalists were seized... U.S. soldiers did all they could to deliver the message of their leadership to Iraqi journalists to keep their mouth shut about anything going wrong with the U.S.-led occupation..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0223-06.htm

MAJORITY OF MIDEAST SEES OIL AS U.S. OBJECTIVE

"A poll conducted recently among citizens of six Arab countries has showed an overall anti-American attitude... The poll, conducted by Prof Shibley Telhami in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, showed that 75% of the people in these countries believed that democratisation was not the real objective of the US campaigns, including the Iraqi war... The majority of the people (81%) put “oil’ as the first objective of the US in the region."
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=133521&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

IRAQ OIL LAW GIVES OIL COMPANIES CONTROL

"... Now comes new evidence of the big prize in Iraq... Under the proposed law, Iraq's immense oil reserves would not simply be opened to foreign oil exploration, as many had expected. Amazingly, executives from those companies would actually be given seats on a new Federal Oil and Gas Council that would control all of Iraq's reserves. In other words, Chevron, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum and the other Western oil giants could end up on the board of directors of the Iraqi Federal Oil and Gas Council, while Iraq's own national oil company would become just another competitor... Since most of Iraq's 73 proven petroleum fields have yet to be developed, the new council would instantly become a world energy powerhouse..."

"While the politicians in Washington and Baghdad bicker to carve up the real prize, and just what share Big Oil will get, more Iraqi civilians and American soldiers die each each day - for freedom, we're told."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/jgonzalez/story/499442p-421044c.html

Posted here on 10/29/06
FUTURE OF IRAQ TO BE DETERMINED BY IMF OIL LAW

"... US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman landed in Baghdad this past summer, insisting that Iraqis must "pass a hydrocarbon law under which foreign companies can invest". Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani was convinced, and said the law would be passed by the end of 2006... a debt-for-oil program concocted and imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is the point of the US invasion - a return on investment on the hundreds of billions of dollars of US taxpayers' money spent.

"The draft hydrocarbon law was reviewed by the IMF, reviewed by Bodman and reviewed by Big Oil executives... it will not be reviewed by Iraqi civil society... The real... future of Iraq will be decided in December... (by this) new oil law..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ27Ak03.html

STATE OF THE COALITION

Albania 120 non-combat troops, mainly patrolling airport in Mosul; no plans to withdraw.
Armenia 46 soldiers, serving as medics, engineers and drivers under Polish command; staying to end of 2007.
Australia Around 550 troops training security forces in southern Iraq.
Azerbaijan 150 troops; no plans to withdraw.
Bosnia-Herzegovina 36 soldiers.
Bulgaria 155 in total 120 non-combat troops guarding refugee camp near Baghdad, 35 support personnel.
Czech Republic 99 troops.
Denmark 460 troops patrolling Basra; to be withdrawn by August.
El Salvador 380 soldiers in Hillah; no immediate plans to withdraw.
Estonia 35 troops under US command in the Baghdad area.
Georgia 900 combat, medical and support personnel under US command in Baqouba; no plans to withdraw or reduce contingent.
Kazakhstan 27 military engineers; no plans to withdraw.
Latvia 125 troops under Polish command in Diwaniya.
Lithuania 60 troops, part of a Danish battalion near Basra.
Macedonia 40 troops in Taji.
Moldova 11 bomb-defusing experts returned home at end of January.
Mongolia 160 troops; no plans to withdraw.
Netherlands 15 soldiers as part of Nato mission training police, army officers; no plans to withdraw.
Poland 900 non-combat troops; commands multinational force; mission extended to end of 2007.
Romania about 600 troops, most serving under UK command; prime minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu wants them withdrawn.
Slovenia 4 instructors training Iraqi security forces.
South Korea 2,300 troops in Irbil; plans to bring home 1,100; parliament insists on complete withdrawal by end of 2007.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2018279,00.html

EFFECT OF IRAQ WAR ON TERRORISM

"... the Iraq War has generated a stunning sevenfold increase in the yearly rate of fatal jihadist attacks, amounting to literally hundreds of additional terrorist attacks and thousands of civilian lives lost; even when terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is excluded, fatal attacks in the rest of the world have increased by more than one-third... Al Qaeda has not let the Iraq War distract it from targeting the United States and her allies. In a January 19, 2006 audiotape, Osama bin Laden himself refuted President Bush’s argument that Iraq had distracted and diverted Al Qaeda... The globalization of jihad and martyrdom, accelerated to a significant degree by the Iraq War, has some disquieting implications for American security in the future..."
http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/iraq_effect_2.html

HOW TO WIN THE WAR ON TERRORISM - NEOCONSERVATIVE VIEW

"The foundational belief of the "war on terrorism" is that militant Islam is hollow. We are not fighting a credible movement with a set of core beliefs, but "evildoers" - people who have nothing to say, who are without values, who hate our freedoms and who want to return their societies to the 7th century. Militant Islam is much like worldwide communism, an empty shell that, if confronted with overwhelming power, will crumple...

"All that needs be done to triumph over this evil is to replicate the... strategy of confrontation with the USSR: increase defense spending, deploy Western armies to troubled regions, undermine collaborationist societies, spread democracy, and counter the evildoers' propaganda with political toughness..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HF08Ak01.html

AL QAEDA RECRUITS SUICIDE BOMBERS FROM MOROCCO

"About two dozen men from Tetouan (Morocco) and nearby towns in the Rif Mountains have traveled to Iraq in the past 18 months to volunteer as fighters or suicide bombers... the men were recruited by international terrorist networks affiliated with al-Qaeda that have deepened their roots in North Africa since the invasion of Iraq four years ago..."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021901168.html

IRAQ ALLOWED AL QAEDA RENAISSANCE

"... Al Qaeda's stunning resurrection, before the very eyes of American military forces stationed across the border in southern Afghanistan, begs the question of how the most powerful country in the world can launch a six-year, no-holds-barred, global war on terrorism — at great cost to its pocketbook and international standing — only to find the main target of these Herculean efforts still alive and kicking.

"... Iraq blinded us to the possibility of an Al Qaeda renaissance... The United States' entanglement there has consumed the attention and resources of our country's military and intelligence communities... even as... Al Qaeda was regrouping."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-hoffman20feb20,0,7373740.story?coll=la-home-commentary

OIL LAW BENEFITS FOREIGN COMPANIES AND SPLITS IRAQ

"... This law legalizes PSAs (production sharing agreements) in Iraq. Iraq will be the only country in the middle east with such contracts privatising Iraqi oil and giving foreign companies crazy rates of profit that may reach to more than three fourth of the general revenue.... In addition to the financial aspects of this law, it can be considered the funding tool for splitting Iraq into three states. It undermines the central government and distributes oil revenues directly to the three regions, which sets the foundations for what Iraq's enemies are trying to achieve in terms of establishing three independent states."
--Raed in the Middle, February 18, 2006
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

Download sites with his translation of the Iraqi oil law:
http://www.al-ghad.org/2007/02/14/exclusive-the-official-draft-of-the-oil-and-gas-law-of-the-iraq-republic-15-jan-2007/
http://www.freefilehosting.org/pupload/view/26722

WATER SHORTAGE IN IRAQ

"Water shortage leads people to drink from rivers... Millions of Iraqis lack potable water and live with bad sewage systems, which have increased the incidence of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea... due to the ingestion of contaminated water from rivers... only 32 percent of the Iraqi population has access to clean drinking water... around 60 percent of the population in areas like Anbar governorate and suburbs of Baghdad use river water...."

"... said Sahira Saleh, 41, a resident of the Sadr City district of Baghdad.... "I wish (Saddam) could come back to life and was in power again because at least in his time we used to have safe water, good sewage systems, had food to eat and our children never got diarrhoea."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/47680f1705a41755f52cc54b99ad50ae.htm

COLLAPSE IN IRAQ FOOD SUPPLY

"The lack of security in Iraq is leading now to a collapse in food supplies... they exported food in the past... (but now) holds both the U.S.-backed Iraqi government and U.S. occupation authorities responsible for the failing food supply... (also) Changes in Iraqi import laws introduced by former administrator L. Paul Bremer dropped tariffs on import of foreign products, making it impossible for Iraqi farmers to compete. Countless Iraqi farms went bankrupt... Under the occupation, Iraqis are getting much of their food from companies in Australia and other countries who assisted the United States during the invasion and occupation (but)... This food has often been of low quality. During July 2006 the Iraqi Ministry of Trade rejected or destroyed thousands of tonnes of contaminated food or food past its expiry date. The food had caused widespread poisoning..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36630

1/3 OF IRAQIS IN POVERTY

"One-third of Iraqis are now living in poverty... with 5% in extreme poverty, a sharp deterioration since the 2003 invasion... education... not improved since the neglect of the Saddam years... half the population having unsatisfactory water supplies and more than 40% deprived of good sanitation... From a thriving middle-income economy in the 1970s and 1980s, Iraq has been reduced to a state where one-third of households live on the equivalent of less than $70 a week..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6373943.stm

IRAQ OIL OUTLOOK BLEAK

"Former Iraq Oil Minister Issam Al-Chalabi paints a bleak picture for the future of Iraq`s oil industry, panning the result of the U.S.-led war, its insistence on passing an oil law, and the situation aboveground hampering development of the resources below it... Iraq`s production in January dropped to an average 1.66 million barrels a day from nearly 1.9 million in December... and exports dropped to about 1.2 million barrels... Iraq has a capacity to produce nearly 3 million barrels per day but violence, a lack of electricity and the poor condition of the infrastructure is blamed for keeping production numbers well below the 2.6 million bpd pumped before the war...

"They can`t increase; the only way is for production to go down,' said Mohamed Zine, regional manager of the Middle East for energy analyst firm IHS.'There`s been no improvement, nothing. It`s getting worse."

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/energywatch/oilandgas/features/article_1264543.php/Ex-oil_minister_dis_on_Iraq_oil

U.S. INVASION PLAN WAS DELUSIONAL

"The US invasion plan for Iraq envisaged that only 5,000 US troops would remain in Iraq by December 2006... (because) the US military projected a stable, pro-US and democratic Iraq by that time.... "Completely unrealistic assumptions about a post-Saddam Iraq permeate these war plans... All of these were delusions", NSA executive director Thomas Blanton said..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6364507.stm

BUSH'S POSITION ON IRANIAN IEDS IN IRAQ
(He does not know whether Iran knows who is furnishing IEDs)

"... What we don't know is whether or not the head leaders of Iran ordered the Quds force to do what they did...providing these deadly IEDs to networks inside of Iraq. But here's my point: Either they knew or didn't know, and what matters is, is that they're there. What's worse, that the government knew or that the government didn't know?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/02/20070214-2.html

ADD 200,000 TROOPS OR WITHDRAW

"There is no argument that U.S. troops have lost the Iraqi war all over the country, and the only two solutions left are either an increase of 200,000 soldiers or a scheduled withdrawal after certain arrangements with local fighters in order to avoid casualties and tremendous chaos in the country."
--retired Iraqi general Ahmed al-Issa
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0213-06.htm

ADMINISTRATION'S "ALTERNATIVE EVIDENCE" SLAMMED BY INSPECTOR GENERAL

"... (in reference to) the Bush Administration's reams of faked intelligence about Iraq's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and nonexistent ties to Al Qaeda... Pentagon Inspector General Thomas Gimble slammed... (Douglas Feith's) Office of Special Plans for "disseminating alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and Al Qaeda relationship." Its actions, Gimble concluded, were "inappropriate," and its conclusions "were not supported by the available intelligence."

"... The phrase "not supported by the available intelligence" is merely bureaucratese for a "lie-filled pile of crap," and that's the most straightforward way to describe the intelligence product produced by the OSP, which was run directly out of the office of then-Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070226/dreyfuss

BUT SPECIAL OFFICE TO SPIN INTELLIGENCE NOT ILLEGAL

"... (the) inspector general said former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith had not engaged in illegal activities through the creation of special offices to review intelligence...."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/2/8/211538.shtml?s=rss

IRAQI CHILDREN BECOME BEGGARS, TURN TO DRUGS AND PROSTITUTION

"... thousands of homeless children throughout Iraq who survive by begging, stealing or scavenging in garbage for food. Only four years ago, the vast majority of these children were living at home with their families... According to the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI), the deteriorating economic situation in Iraq is the main reason for the increase in the number of street children since the occupation of the country began in 2003. The next major contributor is the increase in the number of widows countrywide..."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/89512146a2ed1f7bf9133314ff56778f.htm

"... Once on the streets, children can easily fall prey to gangs involved in drugs, violence and prostitution... children are starving to death and the gangs use their desperate situation to force them into a drugs and sex world... criminal gangs offer these children drugs in exchange for sexual favours..."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/a04197b434392c97b5d1d144f6404708.htm

U.S. JOINT CHIEF SEES NO INTERFERENCE BY IRAN REGIME

"We know that the explosively formed projectiles are manufactured in Iran. What I would not say is that the Iranian government per se knows about this. It is clear that Iranians are involved and it is clear that materials from Iran are involved. But I would not say based on what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit."
--Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/16683913.htm

POWER PLANT A SYMBOL

"(The) derelict power plant (is a) symbol of Iraq woes... The steel and cement structure stretches along about 1 1/2 miles of a fertile belt by the meandering Euphrates. It is the largest building in a 100-mile radius... the Youssifiyah power plant would serve homes across a 330-square-mile stretch of Iraq. Instead, the derelict compound has served as an insurgent stronghold, and is now a makeshift base... an assessment last year by U.S. engineers says reviving the Youssifiyah project - still only 20 percent built - may be beyond the capabilities of the fledgling Iraqi government."
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/16677183.htm

U.S. ALLEGATIONS EXACT OPPOSITE OF 2003

"... The allegations against Iran are similar in tone and credibility to those made four years ago by the US government about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the invasion of 2003... (But) The US stance on the military capabilities of Iraqis today is the exact opposite of its position in four years ago. Then President Bush and Tony Blair claimed that Iraqis were technically advanced enough to produce long-range missiles and to be close to producing a nuclear device. Washington is now saying that Iraqis are too backward to produce an effective roadside bomb and must seek Iranian help..."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2261526.ece

U.S. BAITING IRAN RETALIATION

"White House officials are taunting Iran into an action the United States could use as an excuse for an attack... "They intend to be as provocative as possible and make the Iranians do something (the United States) would be forced to retaliate for."
--Hillary Mann, former director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs at the National Security Council
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0212-05.htm

U.S. SAYS SHIA MILITANTS USING IRANIAN IED

"The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq... is known as an “explosively formed penetrator”... being used by Shiite groups... The link... to Iran is based on... analysis of captured devices, examination of debris after attacks, and intelligence on training of Shiite militants in Iran and in Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and by Hezbollah militants... Only a small fraction of the roadside bombs used in Iraq are explosively formed penetrators... (but) “It is the most effective I.E.D out there,” said Lt. Col. James Danna.... “To me it is a political weapon. There are not a lot of them out there, but every time we crack down on the Shia militias that weapon comes out. They want to keep us on our bases, keep us out of their neighborhoods..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/world/middleeast/10weapons.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5094&en=e9a9ae56cb1df98a&hp&ex=1171170000&partner=homepage

IRAN CALLS IT FABRICATED PROPAGANDA

"Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... said any claims of Iranian military supplies should have a "court to prove the case"... Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini had called the US allegations baseless propaganda. He said Washington had a long history of fabricating evidence..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6353923.stm

IRANIAN ANTI-AIR MISSILES IN IRAQ

"... last month, two Iranian QW-1 and SA-7 missile consignments reached Iraqi insurgents allied with al Qaeda and one, radical Shiite Moqtada Sadr’s Shiite militia, the Mehdi Army... Iran’s arms industry has succeeded in replicating a quality version of the Chinese QW-1 and improved its electronics. It is 1.447 meters long and packs 16.5 kilos of explosives... Iranian markings have been erased from the equipment going into Iraq and Lebanon to suggest they were bought on the black market..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), February 10, 2007
http://www.debka.com/index.php

BUSH THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

"If enemies of the United States had gotten together a few years ago to devise a plan to damage America and undermine its global position... they would have been hard-pressed to create a program that would be more effective than the Bush administration’s policies on these issues of war, terrorism, and global economics have... if one is an “enemy” of the U.S., then he/she would have to be heartened that Bush has pursued this agenda and would have to be elated that the war in Iraq continues today... Like a “sleeper” agent... in The Manchurian Candidate, George W. Bush, the ultimate insider, is doing more to damage America than Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Hassan Nasrallah, the Syrians, the Iranians, or any other enemy du jour, ever could."
http://hnn.us/articles/32618.html

MISTRIAL TO AVOID DISCUSSION OF LEGALITY OF IRAQ WAR

"The ... court-martial of Army Lieutenant Ehren Watada for refusing to deploy to Iraq ended in a mistrial... (Watada) contended that his Army oath required him not to follow what he called an "illegal order" to deploy... he felt his failure to deploy had been justified by the war's alleged illegality... The mistrial occured because the military did not want to discuss the reasons for his... failure to deploy...."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16656258.htm

"ALTERNATIVE" INTELLIGENCE USED TO START IRAQ WAR

"A special unit run by former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's top policy aide (Douglas Feith ) inappropriately produced "alternative" intelligence reports that wrongly concluded that Saddam Hussein's regime had cooperated with al-Qaida... Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who requested the investigation, called the findings "devastating" because senior administration officials, particularly Vice President Dick Cheney, used Feith's work to help make their case for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16656258.htm

IRAQ A TRAINING GROUND FOR EUROPEAN TERRORISTS

"... (the) biggest worry is residents who've attached themselves to Islamic jihadism, and have gone to Iraq to learn more about how to run an insurgency... as many as 100 who have left for Iraq... They're particularly dangerous because not only will they bring back know-how but they'll also have hero status to young recruits..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16645727.htm

U.S. CREATES MILLIONS OF IRAQI REFUGEES, HAS ACCEPTED ONLY 202

"One out of every seven Iraqis has fled his or her home or sought refuge abroad, the largest movement of people in the Middle East since the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948... Every day, violence displaces an estimated 1,300 more Iraqis in the country; every month, at least 40,000... the number of internally displaced in Iraq could grow to about 2.7 million by year's end. .. U.S. officials sidestepped the question of whether Washington bears special responsibility for Iraqis fleeing the violence.... Last year, 202 refugees from Iraq were allowed to resettle in the United States..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16646194.htm

U.S. POLICY HELPED CAUSE IRAQ CIVIL WAR

"The supreme irony of President George W. Bush's campaign to blame Iran for the sectarian civil war in Iraq, as well as attacks on U.S. forces, is that the Shiite militias who started to drive the Sunnis out of the Baghdad area in 2004 and thus precipitated the present sectarian crisis did so with the support of both Iran and the neoconservative U.S. war planners... Throughout 2004 and the first half of 2005, the Shiite militias took advantage of the supportive policy of the United States to consolidate their power in Baghdad and began terrorising Sunni communities.... Only in October 2005... did the U.S. Embassy began to oppose the Shiite effort to force Sunnis out of the capital. By then it was far too late. The genie of sectarian civil war could not be put back in the bottle."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36461

DID U.S. HAVE IRANIAN BANKER KIDNAPPED AS PROVOCATION?

"Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad outlined an ambitious plan... to greatly expand its economic and military ties with Iraq — including an Iranian national bank branch in the heart of the capital... Mr. Qumi said the bank was just the first of what he said would be several in Iraq — an agricultural bank and three private banks also intend to open branches.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/29iranians.html?ex=1186290000&en=cc2417c3386132ad&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at10

"Iran blamed America for the "terrorist" kidnapping of a Iranian diplomat in Baghdad... on his way to the new Baghdad branch of the Iranian state-owned Bank Melli... he was ordered out of his car by... members of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion, a special military unit that works closely with US forces in the capital and drove American vehicles.... a US military spokesman rejected the charge today."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1340201.ece

CIVILIANS BALKING AT IRAQ SERVICE

"... The State Department... has been ordered to expand the provincial reconstruction teams in Baghdad and western Anbar Province... But... taking those jobs... outside the relative safety of the Green Zone — is widely seen as an unattractive career option..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/washington/07military.html?hp&ex=1170910800&en=1d3f6d16b7e72d5c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

"... the White House is calling for more American civilians to head... to... hostile regions — including Iraq’s volatile Anbar Province — to try to establish democratic institutions and help in reconstruction... Many federal employees have outright refused repeated requests that they go to Iraq, while others have demanded that they be assigned only to Baghdad and not be sent outside the more secure Green Zone, which includes the American Embassy and Iraqi government ministries..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/washington/08diplo.html?hp&ex=1170997200&en=db538b61415b19f1&ei=5094&partner=homepage

$5 BILLION CASH SPENDING SPREE, TOTAL OF $9 BILLION DISAPPEARED

"The Bush administration went on a $5 billion spending spree in Iraq in 2004... Huge sums were doled out... from the back of pick-up trucks... in a 13-month period, the US government had shipped 360 tons of cash to Iraq... One official from the provisional authority described an environment awash with $100 bills.“One contractor received a $2 million payment in a duffel bag stuffed with shrink-wrapped bundles of currency”... the lack of accountability raised questions about whether the “cash shipped into the Green Zone ended up in enemy hands”.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/77c172ce-b610-11db-9eea-0000779e2340,_i_rssPage=4e612cca-6707-11da-a650-0000779e2340.html

"... In his first appearance before the Democratic-controlled Congress, Bremer admitted there had been problems.... an official audit that in January 2005 revealed the "disappearance" of some $9 billion dollars under his responsibility in Iraq..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070206/pl_afp/usiraqpoliticsbremer;_ylt=A0SOwmccDclF3OoAQACyFz4D;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-

Posted here 6/22/05
363 TONS OF CASH SENT TO IRAQ ($12 BILLION)
"It weighed 28 tons and took up as much room as 74 washing machines. It was $2.4 billion in $100 bills, and Baghdad needed it ASAP... Republicans and Democrats appeared taken aback by the volume of cash sent to Iraq: nearly $12 billion over the course of the U.S. occupation from March 2003 to June 2004... The cash — a total of 363 tons, generated mostly from oil revenues — was Iraqi funds that had been held in trust by the Federal Reserve under the terms of a United Nations resolution. The June 2004 money transfer was needed to run the country as the interim Iraqi government took over from the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority... Disclosure of the frantic transfer in the final days of U.S. control over Iraq came during a daylong hearing Tuesday that indicated growing worry from Congress over U.S. oversight of spending in Iraq..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-cash22jun22,1,1759535,print.story?coll=la-news-a_section

Posted here 4/02/05
$10 BILLION IN CASH FLOWN TO BAGHDAD FOR CPA TO SPEND
"... Two former employees are suing Custer Battles, saying the firm fleeced the CPA out of about $50 million... Custer Battles has argued that it cannot be sued in the U.S. for actions involving the use of seized Iraqi funds... The Justice Department... (said) the U.S. law applied because U.S. officials were handing out the money. The Justice Department (gave) details of how the United States moved money to Baghdad to fund the fledgling Iraqi government and pay contractors. A dozen U.S. military flights carried about $10.3 billion in cash to Baghdad during the time the CPA was governing Iraq, the brief said. That currency was deposited in the Central Bank of Iraq..."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/04/01/national/w145318S75.DT

Posted here 2/15/05
CPA WASTED MILLIONS
"... Millions of dollars were wasted by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) that ran Iraq... Huge cash payments were made to Iraqi contractors out of the back of pick-up trucks, in scenes reminiscent of the "Wild West"... The allegations were made... (by) former CPA official Franklin Willis... at a Senate hearing into the authority's practices... The allegations follow a report by the inspector general which said the CPA had transferred nearly $9 billion to the interim Iraqi government without any controls."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4266231.stm

U.S. DEALING WITH NON-REPRESENTATIVE IRAQI LEADERS

Political map of Iraqi Parliament:
http://www.freefilehosting.org/pupload/view/24999

"The Iraqi parliament is split, and all the leaders the bush administration is trying to promote as “The Leaders of Iraq” (i.e. Hakim, Maliki, Hashimi) do not represent anything more than a small parliamentarian minority. Urge your congress member to try to contact representatives of the majority instead of turning the U.S. army into another militia playing in the hands of the minority to bomb the hell out of everyone else."
--Raed Jarrar, Director, the Iraqi Project of the human rights group Global Exchange, Tuesday 30 Jan 2007.
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

NEW OIL LAW IS BAD FOR IRAQ

"... the US government representative to those talks threatened that any future economic assistance to Iraq would be conditional on economic reforms - the priority among which was the passing of an acceptable oil law."
http://carbonweb.org/showitem.asp?article=218&parent=39

"... leaders of Iraq’s five trade union federations – between them representing hundreds of thousands of workers – called for a fundamental rethink of the forthcoming oil law, which is designed to allow foreign investment in the oil sector."
http://carbonweb.org/showitem.asp?article=223&parent=39

"Remember: the law is bad and it’ll increase violence for two major reasons:
1- PSAs are bad because they give private companies a ridiculously huge share of profit, they’re not transparent enough, they prevent Iraq from being a part of OPEC, and they are not used around the region at all.
2- Distributing oil revenue to the regions without any central control will split Iraq into three states."
--Raed Jarrar, Director, the Iraqi Project of the human rights group Global Exchange, Tuesday 30 Jan 2007.
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

TWO LIKELY CONSEQUENCES OF IRAQ INVASION

"... intelligence analysts and experts are beginning to broach these realities with our political leadership. You can find hints of it... between the lines of the Iraq Study Group's report:

"... within 10 years and more likely within five years, U.S. forces will be back in the Middle East, fighting in numbers so large that only a draft will generate the necessary manpower. If that prediction proves accurate, we will remember Iraq as the rather tame prelude to the much larger and bloodier war that followed.

"... Within the next 10 years, and more likely within five, the chaos touched off by our invasion of Iraq will choke off the flow of oil from the Middle East, which has roughly 57 percent of the world's proven reserves. Such an event will have global economic and political repercussions that we can only imagine, perhaps touching off wars."

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/opinion/stories/2007/02/05/edbookman0205.html

BUSH TROOP SURGE USELESS

"... Soldiers interviewed across east Baghdad, home to more than half the city's 8 million people, said the violence is so out of control that while a surge of 21,500 more American troops may momentarily suppress it, the notion that U.S. forces can bring lasting security to Iraq is misguided.... Almost every foot soldier interviewed during a week of patrols on the streets and alleys of east Baghdad said that Bush's plan would halt the bloodshed only temporarily. The soldiers cited a variety of reasons, including incompetence or corruption among Iraqi troops, the complexities of Iraq's sectarian violence and the lack of Iraqi public support, a cornerstone of counterinsurgency warfare..."
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/16616389.htm

IRAQ WAR A CALAMITY LEADING TO COLLISION WITH ISLAMIC WORLD

"Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former U.S. national security adviser, told Congress the war in Iraq was a calamity and was likely to lead to "a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam at large"... Brzezinski skewered Bush administration policy as driven by "imperial hubris" and as a disaster on historic, strategic and moral grounds....

"He set out as a plausible scenario for military collision: Iraq fails to meet benchmarks set by the administration, followed by accusations Iran is responsible for the failure, then a terrorist act or some provocation blamed on Iran, and culminating in so-called defensive U.S. military action against Iran. That, Brzezinski said, would plunge the United States into a spreading quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16934081/

IRAQ AND IRAN

The Bush Admimistration appears to be trying to use its problems in Iraq to justify military action against Iran. Since October the U.S. has built up an armada of several carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf for such a contingency. See the companion blog "Iran in the News" at:
http://webtraveler2.blogspot.com