PRISON ABUSE WIDESPREAD
"Evidence of abuse has emerged from a marine camp at Nasiriya and army camps at Baghdad International Airport, Qaim and Samarra...
* At Camp Whitehorse near Nasiriya, guards were allegedly told to prepare prisoners for interrogation by keeping them in hoods in temperatures of up to 49C degrees (120F) for 50 minutes at a time over periods of 10 hours. One Iraqi detainee choked to death.
* At a camp near Qaim, interrogators allegedly stuffed an Iraqi general into a sleeping bag, sat on his chest and covered his mouth. Maj Gen Abed Hamed Mowhoush, who had also been questioned by CIA operatives, eventually died.
* At a camp near Samarra, prisoners were reportedly choked and beaten and had their hair pulled.
* At Camp Cropper, at Baghdad International Airport, prisoners were allegedly beaten and forced to adopt painful positions for hours at a time.
... military interrogators from the Guantanamo detention camp in Cuba played a key role at Abu Ghraib. The interrogators at Guantanamo, which houses al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects, were sent to Iraq last year by the head of the Cuban prison camp, Gen Geoffrey Miller. Gen Miller was himself sent to Iraq to recommend improvements in the way prisoners were detained and questioned. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3759923.stm
Saturday, May 29, 2004
FLIP-FLOPS
"... The administration has said they will be there "as long as necessary and not a day longer,'' (BUT) aides were scrambling a few weeks ago to assure Congress that if the new Iraqi government asks American forces to leave, they will - whether their mission is completed or not."
"... Ashcroft last week (warned) of alarming intelligence that "indicates Al Qaeda's specific intention to hit the United States hard.'' ... (BUT) Mr. Ridge reassured interviewers that there really was not much new intelligence floating around, just a general concern that Al Qaeda would try to influence the election or be tempted by a summer of big events..."
"President Bush... said there was only one fate for the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr: "Kill or capture.'' (BUT) Under a deal last week, Mr. Sadr walks, the murder charges against him apparently dropped. And while the White House had said that his militia must be broken up, the deal will allow it to stay intact..."
"... Mr. Chalabi... was a Bush administration favorite... who occupied a seat of honor when Mr. Bush addressed the United Nations last year and during his State of the Union address in January. The Pentagon paid Mr. Chalabi's party $335,000 a month... Now... the administration is suddenly describing him as a con artist at best, and perhaps a leaker of military information to Iran."
"... Colin L. Powell, declared that he now believes that the intelligence he received about the existence of mobile biological laboratories in Iraq was fabricated, and that American intelligence agencies were duped."
http://nytimes.com/2004/05/30/weekinreview/30sang.html?hp
"... The administration has said they will be there "as long as necessary and not a day longer,'' (BUT) aides were scrambling a few weeks ago to assure Congress that if the new Iraqi government asks American forces to leave, they will - whether their mission is completed or not."
"... Ashcroft last week (warned) of alarming intelligence that "indicates Al Qaeda's specific intention to hit the United States hard.'' ... (BUT) Mr. Ridge reassured interviewers that there really was not much new intelligence floating around, just a general concern that Al Qaeda would try to influence the election or be tempted by a summer of big events..."
"President Bush... said there was only one fate for the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr: "Kill or capture.'' (BUT) Under a deal last week, Mr. Sadr walks, the murder charges against him apparently dropped. And while the White House had said that his militia must be broken up, the deal will allow it to stay intact..."
"... Mr. Chalabi... was a Bush administration favorite... who occupied a seat of honor when Mr. Bush addressed the United Nations last year and during his State of the Union address in January. The Pentagon paid Mr. Chalabi's party $335,000 a month... Now... the administration is suddenly describing him as a con artist at best, and perhaps a leaker of military information to Iran."
"... Colin L. Powell, declared that he now believes that the intelligence he received about the existence of mobile biological laboratories in Iraq was fabricated, and that American intelligence agencies were duped."
http://nytimes.com/2004/05/30/weekinreview/30sang.html?hp
THE LAB TRAILERS
June 2003
In the summer of 2003 I was interested in the recently found Iraqi "lab trailers" and did some simple research on Google. I found that the British had identifed them as part of a 1980's artillery fire control system. Long-range artillery as Iraq used against Iran depends on sending up balloons and tracking them to get information on high altitude winds that affect the trajectory of shells. The balloons are filled with hydrogen which is made by using a generator to pass an electrical current through water. The alternative, helium, is expensive and cannot be made in the field.
First, I found an article from the June 15 Observer, an English paper, that identified the trailers as hydrogen generators supplied to the Iraqis by a British company:
Sunday, June 15, 2003
by the Observer/UK
Iraqi Mobile Labs Nothing To Do With Germ Warfare, Report Finds
by Peter Beaumont, Antony Barnett and Gaby Hinsliff
"An official British investigation into two trailers found in northern Iraq
has concluded they are not mobile germ warfare labs... but were for the
production of hydrogen to fill artillery balloons... The revelation that the
mobile labs were to produce hydrogen for artillery balloons will also cause
discomfort for the British authorities because the Iraqi army's original
system was sold to it by the British company, Marconi Command & Control."
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,977853,00.html
Then I found a 1998 report from the British House of Commons that gives the name of the fire control system and the date of supply to Iraq:
“… clearance had been given in October 1986 for supply of the Quickfire Artillery Fire Control System (Quickfire) to Iraq after the cessation of hostilities. Marconi Command and Control Systems Limited (MCCS) made a further application on 27 July 1988 for AWP clearance for the supply of Quickfire to Iraq.”
http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/UK/Scott%20Report/d6-406.htm
Finally I found a Turkish company that is currently selling a modernized more compact version of the same equipment:
http://www.aselsan.com.tr/ashomeen.htm
The system is called AFAMS - Field Artillery Meteorology System:
http://www.aselsan.com.tr/msting/tms_eng.htm
The web ad mentions the hydrogen generator in the tenth bullet. A photo shows the hydrogen generator on the bed of the truck and the telemetry tracking equipment towed on a little trailer.
Surely our intelligence agencies know all this and have informed the Administration, and it raises at least a reasonable doubt that the captured Iraqi trailers are bio-labs. The Administration is misleading people by continuing to claim that the captured trailers are definitely WMDs.
LAB TRAILERS A CHALABI DECEPTION
Mid-May 2004
"... When Secretary of State Colin Powell made his infamously inaccurate presentation to the United Nations, one of the most dramatic claims he made was that Iraq had developed mobile laboratories to produce biological weapons. The source for that phony claim is widely believed to be an engineer with links to (Chalabi's) Iraqi National Congress. Powell recently noted on "Meet the Press" that "it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading."
http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/gallagher165.html
LAB TRAILERS FABRICATED
"... Colin L. Powell, declared that he now believes that the intelligence he received about the existence of mobile biological laboratories in Iraq was fabricated, and that American intelligence agencies were duped."
http://nytimes.com/2004/05/30/weekinreview/30sang.html?hp
June 2003
In the summer of 2003 I was interested in the recently found Iraqi "lab trailers" and did some simple research on Google. I found that the British had identifed them as part of a 1980's artillery fire control system. Long-range artillery as Iraq used against Iran depends on sending up balloons and tracking them to get information on high altitude winds that affect the trajectory of shells. The balloons are filled with hydrogen which is made by using a generator to pass an electrical current through water. The alternative, helium, is expensive and cannot be made in the field.
First, I found an article from the June 15 Observer, an English paper, that identified the trailers as hydrogen generators supplied to the Iraqis by a British company:
Sunday, June 15, 2003
by the Observer/UK
Iraqi Mobile Labs Nothing To Do With Germ Warfare, Report Finds
by Peter Beaumont, Antony Barnett and Gaby Hinsliff
"An official British investigation into two trailers found in northern Iraq
has concluded they are not mobile germ warfare labs... but were for the
production of hydrogen to fill artillery balloons... The revelation that the
mobile labs were to produce hydrogen for artillery balloons will also cause
discomfort for the British authorities because the Iraqi army's original
system was sold to it by the British company, Marconi Command & Control."
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,977853,00.html
Then I found a 1998 report from the British House of Commons that gives the name of the fire control system and the date of supply to Iraq:
“… clearance had been given in October 1986 for supply of the Quickfire Artillery Fire Control System (Quickfire) to Iraq after the cessation of hostilities. Marconi Command and Control Systems Limited (MCCS) made a further application on 27 July 1988 for AWP clearance for the supply of Quickfire to Iraq.”
http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/UK/Scott%20Report/d6-406.htm
Finally I found a Turkish company that is currently selling a modernized more compact version of the same equipment:
http://www.aselsan.com.tr/ashomeen.htm
The system is called AFAMS - Field Artillery Meteorology System:
http://www.aselsan.com.tr/msting/tms_eng.htm
The web ad mentions the hydrogen generator in the tenth bullet. A photo shows the hydrogen generator on the bed of the truck and the telemetry tracking equipment towed on a little trailer.
Surely our intelligence agencies know all this and have informed the Administration, and it raises at least a reasonable doubt that the captured Iraqi trailers are bio-labs. The Administration is misleading people by continuing to claim that the captured trailers are definitely WMDs.
LAB TRAILERS A CHALABI DECEPTION
Mid-May 2004
"... When Secretary of State Colin Powell made his infamously inaccurate presentation to the United Nations, one of the most dramatic claims he made was that Iraq had developed mobile laboratories to produce biological weapons. The source for that phony claim is widely believed to be an engineer with links to (Chalabi's) Iraqi National Congress. Powell recently noted on "Meet the Press" that "it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading."
http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/gallagher165.html
LAB TRAILERS FABRICATED
"... Colin L. Powell, declared that he now believes that the intelligence he received about the existence of mobile biological laboratories in Iraq was fabricated, and that American intelligence agencies were duped."
http://nytimes.com/2004/05/30/weekinreview/30sang.html?hp
Friday, May 28, 2004
60% OF IRAQ LIVES ON IMPORTED FOOD RATIONS
"An estimated 60 percent of Iraqi families depend completely on the monthly food ration distributed under the former UN-administered Oil-for-Food programme, as 55 percent of the population is living below the poverty line after 12 years of economic sanctions. Virtually all of the estimated 27 million people in Iraq use food provided in the ration in one way or another... A million children under the age of five are estimated to be chronically malnourished.... Chronic malnutrition stands at more than 22 percent in the south."
http://www.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irinnews.org%2Freport.asp%3FReportID%3D41278%26SelectRegion%3DIraq_Crisis%26SelectCountry%3DIRAQ
"An estimated 60 percent of Iraqi families depend completely on the monthly food ration distributed under the former UN-administered Oil-for-Food programme, as 55 percent of the population is living below the poverty line after 12 years of economic sanctions. Virtually all of the estimated 27 million people in Iraq use food provided in the ration in one way or another... A million children under the age of five are estimated to be chronically malnourished.... Chronic malnutrition stands at more than 22 percent in the south."
http://www.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irinnews.org%2Freport.asp%3FReportID%3D41278%26SelectRegion%3DIraq_Crisis%26SelectCountry%3DIRAQ
NEW FAKE GOVERNMENT SELECTED
"Finally, we have a president and a prime minister. So “they” selected our president and prime minister... but they couldn’t even announce the place of their meeting!!! What a great strong authority!
Hiding in a dark smelly shelter someplace in the “Green Zone”, and announcing fake governments.
People from the new Iraqi government don’t have the power to guarantee their personal safety!
How are they supposed to rule a country like IRAQ?
The stupid mistakes of the Bush administration started more than one cancer in the exhausted body of Iraq -- all of these right winged militias that grew over the last year need decades to be removed.
Bush is helping extremist fundamentalists hijack the flag of Islam..."
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/
From the blog "Raed In The Middle", by Raed Jarrar, the "Baghdad Blogger", May 29
aka Salam Pax, author of war diary "The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0802140440/qid=1085793922/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-5140642-0265564?v=glance&s=books
"Finally, we have a president and a prime minister. So “they” selected our president and prime minister... but they couldn’t even announce the place of their meeting!!! What a great strong authority!
Hiding in a dark smelly shelter someplace in the “Green Zone”, and announcing fake governments.
People from the new Iraqi government don’t have the power to guarantee their personal safety!
How are they supposed to rule a country like IRAQ?
The stupid mistakes of the Bush administration started more than one cancer in the exhausted body of Iraq -- all of these right winged militias that grew over the last year need decades to be removed.
Bush is helping extremist fundamentalists hijack the flag of Islam..."
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/
From the blog "Raed In The Middle", by Raed Jarrar, the "Baghdad Blogger", May 29
aka Salam Pax, author of war diary "The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0802140440/qid=1085793922/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-5140642-0265564?v=glance&s=books
UNPROFESSIONAL MILITARY
"... Why are US soldiers (at Abu Ghraib) of such poor quality? One reason for the alarming level of incompetence appears to be that many officers and foot-soldiers are not professionals. They are two-week-a-year reservists. The 320th military police battalion, at the heart of the abuse scandal, was a reserve unit... Karpinski, in charge of the brigade, was a corporate management consultant in civilian life. Phillabaum, in charge of the battalion, was a reservist. The company commander... Reese, who "failed to properly supervise his soldiers", was a salesman... this motley collection of part-timers have now sparked the worst US military scandal since Vietnam. It is they who are accused of being the true face of the force which President Bush claims is bringing freedom to Iraq..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/analysis/story/0,3604,1226519,00.html
"... Why are US soldiers (at Abu Ghraib) of such poor quality? One reason for the alarming level of incompetence appears to be that many officers and foot-soldiers are not professionals. They are two-week-a-year reservists. The 320th military police battalion, at the heart of the abuse scandal, was a reserve unit... Karpinski, in charge of the brigade, was a corporate management consultant in civilian life. Phillabaum, in charge of the battalion, was a reservist. The company commander... Reese, who "failed to properly supervise his soldiers", was a salesman... this motley collection of part-timers have now sparked the worst US military scandal since Vietnam. It is they who are accused of being the true face of the force which President Bush claims is bringing freedom to Iraq..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/analysis/story/0,3604,1226519,00.html
IRAQ A DIVERSION FROM WAR ON TERROR
"Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that major terrorist attacks are possible this summer -- not from Iraq but from operatives of Al Qaeda who are already inside the United States.... In a news conference of nearly 4,000 words, Iraq did not come up once. Not one of the seven new suspects Ashcroft and Mueller named came from Iraq or has any publicized tie to Iraq. This is the way it has been ever since the Bush administration created its national threat level system in March 2002."
"... Terrorist alerts about Al Qaeda may not be a lie. There is no question the alarming rhetoric on Iraq was. One shudders to think what Bush's deception has already cost in the lives of American soldiers, Iraqi civilians, and billions of dollars lost to our economy. Let us hope that we will not shudder again over the possibility that keeping 138,000 troops in Iraq on a wild goose chase lets the real terrorists slip into the nation once again."
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/149/oped/Bush_shifting_terror_alarm_onto_Iraq+.shtml
"Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller announced that major terrorist attacks are possible this summer -- not from Iraq but from operatives of Al Qaeda who are already inside the United States.... In a news conference of nearly 4,000 words, Iraq did not come up once. Not one of the seven new suspects Ashcroft and Mueller named came from Iraq or has any publicized tie to Iraq. This is the way it has been ever since the Bush administration created its national threat level system in March 2002."
"... Terrorist alerts about Al Qaeda may not be a lie. There is no question the alarming rhetoric on Iraq was. One shudders to think what Bush's deception has already cost in the lives of American soldiers, Iraqi civilians, and billions of dollars lost to our economy. Let us hope that we will not shudder again over the possibility that keeping 138,000 troops in Iraq on a wild goose chase lets the real terrorists slip into the nation once again."
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/149/oped/Bush_shifting_terror_alarm_onto_Iraq+.shtml
MUSLIMS ARE THE ENEMY
“They are MUSLIMS! They want to kill us all. If they were over here now they’d slit your throat and RAPE you! MUSLIMS are the ENEMY.”
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0528-01.htm
“They are MUSLIMS! They want to kill us all. If they were over here now they’d slit your throat and RAPE you! MUSLIMS are the ENEMY.”
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0528-01.htm
USING TERRORISM TO GET POWER
"Will George W. Bush use terrorism to... (seize) absolute power...?... Ultimately, Bush's real peers are not US presidents but Third World dictators... Their coda is clear:
• Use of "terror" as an excuse for totalitarian control;
• Official secrecy for its own sake;
• Seizure of power in contempt of free elections;
• Totalitarian militarism;
• Love of the death penalty;
• Hatred of a free press;
• Imprisonment without legal recourse;
• Widespread torture;
• Brazen theft of public billions;
• "Free market" smokescreens for corporate domination;
• Taxing the poor to benefit the rich;
• Hatred of labor unions;
• Decimation of the natural environment;
• Assaulting elected leaders anywhere, anytime;
• Contempt for international treaties;
• Reactionary alliance with right wing church groups;
• Contempt for women's rights;
• Manipulating divisions of race and class.
The one American actually offered a dictatorship, George Washington, turned it down, shaping the nature of the Presidency for more than two centuries....until now."
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2004/897
"Will George W. Bush use terrorism to... (seize) absolute power...?... Ultimately, Bush's real peers are not US presidents but Third World dictators... Their coda is clear:
• Use of "terror" as an excuse for totalitarian control;
• Official secrecy for its own sake;
• Seizure of power in contempt of free elections;
• Totalitarian militarism;
• Love of the death penalty;
• Hatred of a free press;
• Imprisonment without legal recourse;
• Widespread torture;
• Brazen theft of public billions;
• "Free market" smokescreens for corporate domination;
• Taxing the poor to benefit the rich;
• Hatred of labor unions;
• Decimation of the natural environment;
• Assaulting elected leaders anywhere, anytime;
• Contempt for international treaties;
• Reactionary alliance with right wing church groups;
• Contempt for women's rights;
• Manipulating divisions of race and class.
The one American actually offered a dictatorship, George Washington, turned it down, shaping the nature of the Presidency for more than two centuries....until now."
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2004/897
ABU GHRAIB'S REPLACEMENT MAY NEED TO BE LARGE
"The Bush administration tried to erase the recent shameful images of postwar Iraq last night by saying it would demolish Abu Ghraib prison... the administration said that the demolition of the prison would symbolise a new beginning for Iraq... the US would help finance the construction of a new maximum security prison..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1224116,00.html
"America's inmate population (is) almost 2.1 million people, with one of every 75 men living in prison or jail..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0528-02.htm
Blogger's note: If the Iraqis are good, law-abiding democratic citizens like we in the USA, their new prison system will need to hold 167,000 prisoners. (Population of Iraq is 25 million, of which about 12.5 million are men, divided by 75, equals 167,000.)
"The Bush administration tried to erase the recent shameful images of postwar Iraq last night by saying it would demolish Abu Ghraib prison... the administration said that the demolition of the prison would symbolise a new beginning for Iraq... the US would help finance the construction of a new maximum security prison..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1224116,00.html
"America's inmate population (is) almost 2.1 million people, with one of every 75 men living in prison or jail..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0528-02.htm
Blogger's note: If the Iraqis are good, law-abiding democratic citizens like we in the USA, their new prison system will need to hold 167,000 prisoners. (Population of Iraq is 25 million, of which about 12.5 million are men, divided by 75, equals 167,000.)
IRAQ NOT A SHOWCASE
"... gone is the hubris. Let's face it: Iraq is not going to be America's showcase in the Arab-Muslim world... Back in the time of our triumph — that of swift movement and of pulling down the dictator's statues — we had let the victory speak for itself. There was no need to even threaten the Syrians, the Iranians and the Libyans with a fate similar to the one that befell the Iraqi despotism... (now) our enemies have taken our measure; they have taken stock of our national discord over the war. We shall not chase the Syrian dictator to a spider hole, nor will we sack the Iranian theocracy....
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/opinion/26AJAM.html?ex=1400904000&en=8d2067cfdd302382&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
"... gone is the hubris. Let's face it: Iraq is not going to be America's showcase in the Arab-Muslim world... Back in the time of our triumph — that of swift movement and of pulling down the dictator's statues — we had let the victory speak for itself. There was no need to even threaten the Syrians, the Iranians and the Libyans with a fate similar to the one that befell the Iraqi despotism... (now) our enemies have taken our measure; they have taken stock of our national discord over the war. We shall not chase the Syrian dictator to a spider hole, nor will we sack the Iranian theocracy....
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/opinion/26AJAM.html?ex=1400904000&en=8d2067cfdd302382&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND
US TAKING HOSTAGES
"... the U.S. military is holding dozens of Iraqis as bargaining chips to put pressure on their wanted relatives to surrender... family members who are not accused of any crimes have been detained for weeks or even months and told that they would be released only when a wanted relative surrenders to U.S. forces... These detainees are not accused of any crimes, and experts say their detention violates the Geneva Conventions and other international laws..."
http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/world/ny-woabus263819545may26,0,2416932.story?coll=ny-worldnews-print
"... the U.S. military is holding dozens of Iraqis as bargaining chips to put pressure on their wanted relatives to surrender... family members who are not accused of any crimes have been detained for weeks or even months and told that they would be released only when a wanted relative surrenders to U.S. forces... These detainees are not accused of any crimes, and experts say their detention violates the Geneva Conventions and other international laws..."
http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/world/ny-woabus263819545may26,0,2416932.story?coll=ny-worldnews-print
Thursday, May 27, 2004
"SOVEREIGN" IRAQ NOT TO CONTROL OCCUPATION ARMY
"... the interim Iraqi government will have sovereignty, but limited control over coalition military operations.... Mr Powell (said): "Obviously, we would take into account whatever they might say at a political and military level."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3748183.stm
"There is no such thing as 'sovereignty lite'. "Being sovereign is like being pregnant: you either are or you aren't."
http://www.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fantiwar.com%2Fbarganier2%2F%3Farticleid%3D2657
"The new U.S.-British drafted Security Council resolution is a scam. Under cover of a “transfer of sovereignty,” it seeks to have the United Nations give the United States legal authority to continue the occupation indefinitely."
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0526-09.htm
"... the American media... should awaken to the fact that every time they use phrases like "handing over sovereignty" or "transition to democracy" they are misleading the public just as thoroughly as so many did when they accepted at face value the Administration's claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction."
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0527-11.htm
"... the interim Iraqi government will have sovereignty, but limited control over coalition military operations.... Mr Powell (said): "Obviously, we would take into account whatever they might say at a political and military level."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3748183.stm
"There is no such thing as 'sovereignty lite'. "Being sovereign is like being pregnant: you either are or you aren't."
http://www.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fantiwar.com%2Fbarganier2%2F%3Farticleid%3D2657
"The new U.S.-British drafted Security Council resolution is a scam. Under cover of a “transfer of sovereignty,” it seeks to have the United Nations give the United States legal authority to continue the occupation indefinitely."
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0526-09.htm
"... the American media... should awaken to the fact that every time they use phrases like "handing over sovereignty" or "transition to democracy" they are misleading the public just as thoroughly as so many did when they accepted at face value the Administration's claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction."
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0527-11.htm
LOST CAPACITY FOR TOLERATION
"... Whatever one thought of the invasion of Iraq, when patriotism becomes a market transaction, purchased by most on the cheap, that's cause for concern... the true source of this shift lies in the pathways of daily life. A reason for today's bitter, polarized politics is that people don't have to talk with those they don't agree with anymore. They just retreat into their cocoons of the like-minded where all they hear is echoes of themselves. They lose the capacity to tolerate - let alone listen to - anyone who thinks differently."
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0527/p09s01-coop.html
"... Whatever one thought of the invasion of Iraq, when patriotism becomes a market transaction, purchased by most on the cheap, that's cause for concern... the true source of this shift lies in the pathways of daily life. A reason for today's bitter, polarized politics is that people don't have to talk with those they don't agree with anymore. They just retreat into their cocoons of the like-minded where all they hear is echoes of themselves. They lose the capacity to tolerate - let alone listen to - anyone who thinks differently."
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0527/p09s01-coop.html
USA LIKE PARAGUAY?
"...Conventional wisdom says that an incumbent president with a $200 million war chest cannot be defeated, and that one who commands a live, bleeding, suffering army in the field is doubly invincible. By this logic, the most destructively incompetent president since Andrew Johnson will be rewarded with a second term. That would probably mean a military draft and more wars in the oil countries, and, under visionaries like Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, a chance for the USA to emulate 19th-century Paraguay, which simultaneously declared war on Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay and fought ferociously until 90% of the male population was dead."
http://www.populist.com/04.10.crowther.html
"...Conventional wisdom says that an incumbent president with a $200 million war chest cannot be defeated, and that one who commands a live, bleeding, suffering army in the field is doubly invincible. By this logic, the most destructively incompetent president since Andrew Johnson will be rewarded with a second term. That would probably mean a military draft and more wars in the oil countries, and, under visionaries like Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, a chance for the USA to emulate 19th-century Paraguay, which simultaneously declared war on Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay and fought ferociously until 90% of the male population was dead."
http://www.populist.com/04.10.crowther.html
OCCUPATION CANNOT BE WON
"... Vietnam proved conclusively that no modern war of occupation will ever be won. Every occupation is doomed. The only way you "win" a war of occupation is the old-fashioned way, the way Rome finally defeated the Carthaginians: kill all the fighters, enslave everyone else, raze the cities and sow the fields with salt."
http://www.populist.com/04.10.crowther.html
"... Vietnam proved conclusively that no modern war of occupation will ever be won. Every occupation is doomed. The only way you "win" a war of occupation is the old-fashioned way, the way Rome finally defeated the Carthaginians: kill all the fighters, enslave everyone else, raze the cities and sow the fields with salt."
http://www.populist.com/04.10.crowther.html
CHANCE OF US TRANSITIONAL GOV'T LASTING TO ELECTION IS DIM
"... The Bush Administration is so unpopular in Iraq that all those cooperating with it, whether Iraqi or non-Iraqi, are viewed with suspicion at best and hostility at worst... The prospects for a UN-US-nominated Iraqi transitional government to last long enough to hold elections by January 2005 are very dim indeed."
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=3979
"... The Bush Administration is so unpopular in Iraq that all those cooperating with it, whether Iraqi or non-Iraqi, are viewed with suspicion at best and hostility at worst... The prospects for a UN-US-nominated Iraqi transitional government to last long enough to hold elections by January 2005 are very dim indeed."
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=3979
PROBLEM OF NOT DEFINING TERRORISM
"... Bush administration's steadfast refusal to define terrorism... has enabled the White House to label almost anybody opposed to its policies as a terrorist organization... terrorism is a catch-all term for interpreting diverse conflicts, from separatist movements to paramilitary activity to arms and narcotics trafficking... over time, the failure to define terrorism has become a real liability. The US now has some 5 million names on its master terror watch list... listing any terrorist from any terrorist organization, creates a problem, not a solution. Trying to monitor that vast number of people, causes one lose focus and jeopardize democratic values... With a growing number of groups declaring the US their number one enemy, the "war on terror" could last for generations, if we don't take a different tack.."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FE28Ak03.html
"... Bush administration's steadfast refusal to define terrorism... has enabled the White House to label almost anybody opposed to its policies as a terrorist organization... terrorism is a catch-all term for interpreting diverse conflicts, from separatist movements to paramilitary activity to arms and narcotics trafficking... over time, the failure to define terrorism has become a real liability. The US now has some 5 million names on its master terror watch list... listing any terrorist from any terrorist organization, creates a problem, not a solution. Trying to monitor that vast number of people, causes one lose focus and jeopardize democratic values... With a growing number of groups declaring the US their number one enemy, the "war on terror" could last for generations, if we don't take a different tack.."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FE28Ak03.html
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
SEXUAL ABUSE OF INNOCENT IRAQI WOMEN IN PRISON
"A scandal that has not yet broken in the press is the story of how many women ended up in US prisons... taken as hostages or potential informants because their husbands or sons were wanted by the US military... (the) Iraqi women were also made to strip naked, were photographed in that compromising position, and it is alleged that some were raped by US military personnel. This kind of arrest... is a form of collective punishment and not permitted under the Fouth Geneva Convention... The sexual abuse of these women is therefore a double crime... Eventually these photographs of abused or tortured Muslim women are likely to leak, and the reaction in the Muslim world will be explosive."
-- Juan Cole, Informed Comment, May 26, 2004
http://www.juancole.com/
"A scandal that has not yet broken in the press is the story of how many women ended up in US prisons... taken as hostages or potential informants because their husbands or sons were wanted by the US military... (the) Iraqi women were also made to strip naked, were photographed in that compromising position, and it is alleged that some were raped by US military personnel. This kind of arrest... is a form of collective punishment and not permitted under the Fouth Geneva Convention... The sexual abuse of these women is therefore a double crime... Eventually these photographs of abused or tortured Muslim women are likely to leak, and the reaction in the Muslim world will be explosive."
-- Juan Cole, Informed Comment, May 26, 2004
http://www.juancole.com/
IRAQ TO BE ARMAGEDDON?
"One of the Republican party's most respected foreign policy gurus yesterday appealed for President Bush to halt his plans to invade Iraq, warning of "an Armageddon in the Middle East".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,775532,00.html
" 9). Iraq is near, but is NOT the site of Armageddon".
http://www.tribulation.com/prt_iraq.htm
CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS BELIEVE IN THE SAME ARMAGEDDON
"The messiah can only return to earth after an apocalypse in Israel called Armageddon, which the fundamentalists are promoting with all their power so that The Rapture can take place. The first requirement was establishment of the state of Israel. Done. The next is Israel's occupation of the Middle East as a return of its "Biblical lands," which in the radical Christian scheme of things, means more wars. These Christian conservatives believe peace cannot ever lead to The Rapture, and indeed impedes the 1,000 year Reign of Christ. So anyone promoting peace is an enemy, a tool of Satan, hence the fundamentalist support for any and all wars Middle Eastern, in which their own kids die a death often viewed by Christian parents as a holy martyrdom of its own kind. "He (or she) died protecting this country's Christian values." One hears it over and over from parents of those killed. The final scenario of the Rapture has the "saved" Christians settling onto a cloud after the long float upward, from whence they watch a Rambo Jesus wipe out the remnants of the human race. Then in a mop-up operation by God, the Jews are also annihilated, excepting a few who convert to Christianity. The Messiah returns to earth. End of story. Incidentally, the Muslim version, I was surprised to learn recently, is almost exactly the same, but with Muslims doing the cloud-sitting..."
-- From article "The Covert Kingdom"
http://www.counterpunch.org/bageant05252004.html
"One of the Republican party's most respected foreign policy gurus yesterday appealed for President Bush to halt his plans to invade Iraq, warning of "an Armageddon in the Middle East".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,775532,00.html
" 9). Iraq is near, but is NOT the site of Armageddon".
http://www.tribulation.com/prt_iraq.htm
CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS BELIEVE IN THE SAME ARMAGEDDON
"The messiah can only return to earth after an apocalypse in Israel called Armageddon, which the fundamentalists are promoting with all their power so that The Rapture can take place. The first requirement was establishment of the state of Israel. Done. The next is Israel's occupation of the Middle East as a return of its "Biblical lands," which in the radical Christian scheme of things, means more wars. These Christian conservatives believe peace cannot ever lead to The Rapture, and indeed impedes the 1,000 year Reign of Christ. So anyone promoting peace is an enemy, a tool of Satan, hence the fundamentalist support for any and all wars Middle Eastern, in which their own kids die a death often viewed by Christian parents as a holy martyrdom of its own kind. "He (or she) died protecting this country's Christian values." One hears it over and over from parents of those killed. The final scenario of the Rapture has the "saved" Christians settling onto a cloud after the long float upward, from whence they watch a Rambo Jesus wipe out the remnants of the human race. Then in a mop-up operation by God, the Jews are also annihilated, excepting a few who convert to Christianity. The Messiah returns to earth. End of story. Incidentally, the Muslim version, I was surprised to learn recently, is almost exactly the same, but with Muslims doing the cloud-sitting..."
-- From article "The Covert Kingdom"
http://www.counterpunch.org/bageant05252004.html