Free Iraq

Saddam Hussein's family form new defense team
 

Is Western Civilization Truly Civilized..?
 

“I never thought that as a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,” said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.”

Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion pointed out that he knows there are plenty of decent people in New Orleans, but he said it is hard to stay motivated considering the circumstances.

“This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.” Ferguson said. “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”
 

'It reminds me of Baghdad in the worst of times'

Did you know?: Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the American Red Cross, Salary for year ending 06/30/03 was $651,957?

Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?
 

A SALUTE TO AMERICAN HEROES

SP4 Trial: "History will be made in Binghamton this September 19th as the trial of the 'St Patrick's Day 4' (SP4) begins in the Binghamton Federal Court House #15. The Federal government is charging Ithaca residents Daniel Burns, Peter Demott, Clare Grady, and Theresa Grady in the first and only case of 'Conspiracy against the US Government' against US civilians since the Vietnam War. Thousands of people from across the country will flock to Binghamton in September to witness this controversial case, which could set precedents that drastically change legal treatment of US civil disobedience cases.

"On St Patrick's Day, 2003, just 48 hours before the US invasion of Iraq, the four went into the Lansing, NY military recruiting center and carefully poured a small amount of their own blood in the vestibule as well as on the American flag. The 'St. Patrick's Four' were tried in Tompkins County state court in April, 2003 for 'Criminal Mischief', and convinced nine out of twelve jurors that their actions were justified under domestic and international law, and Judge John Sherman declared a mistrial. After admitting that he could not obtain a conviction of the St. Patrick's Four in their home county, Tompkins County district attorney George Dentes took the unusual step of referring the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office."
 

EXTRACTED PARAGRAPHS
Notes from Inside New Orleans: "I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps.

"In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas, Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could not come within 17 miles of the camp.

"For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible, glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in the world.

"It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300 murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.

"There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months, officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption to theft. In separate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several months.

"While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.

"City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since at least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to New Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week's events, was more about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black, city. While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders."
 

Iraq's Kirkuk crude oil exports halted-source

Rebels set fire to Iraqi oil pipeline

Ten Iraqi policemen and soldiers killed by rebels
 

Rumsfeld's National Guard: "When the military is adapted to the narrow interests of elites it becomes little more than a resource-acquisition tool; a bloody-weapon to be used by private industry. We can see the effects of this in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where the military is providing security for the corporations that are extracting the regional resources. It's nothing more than massive 'protections-racket' designed to legitimize theft."
 

"It seems now to many, the 'Plan' worked out by the myriad minions working at the Department of Homeland Security for disaster relief in America can most charitably be described as benign neglect. Much as the Bush administration has starved the very agencies that could and would have averted the current disaster in New Orleans, the reaction of the multi-billion dollar entities created in the wake of 9/11 instructs all citizens: 'In case of disaster: You are on your own!'"

The Golden 72 Hours: "Well known to any familiar with disaster relief, the 'Golden 72 Hours' refers to the timeline where catastrophe becomes desolation. Over the first 72 hours of the unprecedented natural destruction reaped against the continental U.S., the federal infrastructure did nothing.

"Just across the waters in Cuba, a country economically ravaged by serial illegalities on the part of the United States, too were hit by the Katrina, more than a million Cubans were safely evacuated beforehand. There, in a nation driven to its economic knees for decades, they still managed to care for the people.

"But, this is really an expression of intent.

"The Cubans, unlike those ruling today's America, believed it the duty of government to pursue the well-being of the people. Clearly this is a concept the illegitimate leadership currently ensconced in Washington, D.C. today do not share. The ragged and off-colour survivors of Katrina, not provided an avenue for escape before the fact, denigrated by the press for their shiftless determination to disobey evac. orders, are now threatened with a Fallujah-like assault. One politico apologist even managed to recycle the language uttered by U.S. military flacks prior to one of the horrendous 'shoot-to-kill' assaults on the Iraqi city of Fallujah said those remaining in the city are 'the worst of the worst.'

"So, is an 'American Fallujah' to be expected next?

"The situation in New Orleans, so hauntingly familiar when viewed from the comfortable distance created by the media and the television glass separating it from we fortunates for away, reminds of the effects of the 'Bush Doctrine.' Now, as the scenes once reserved to those far-flung places are being burned into America's self-consciousness, it begs the question:

"Will this horror serve as catalyst for further examinations of America's policies at home, and abroad?"
 

Going home, where they've always belonged: 300 US airmen bound from Iraq, Afghan to Mississippi
(Actually, this does qualify as 'good news' from Iraq.)
 

The Leader(s) of the 'Free' World
 

"September 3, 2005 -- International relief efforts for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina are being stalled by inaction from the White House and State Department. The Bush administration is sending confusing and mixed signals to nations around the world which have aircraft sitting on runways and medical and disaster recovery crews on standby. In Russia, Canada, France, Germany, Cuba, Mexico, China, and dozens of other countries, critical resources such as search and rescue helicopters, ships, cargo aircraft, divers, urban search and rescue teams, medicine, and food are sitting idle awaiting a green light from Washington. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, just back from her thousand dollar shoe shopping spree in New York, says the Bush administration and that 'crack team' at FEMA are still trying to figure out what assistance is needed. ALL of it is needed. This is the problem with having an expert on the Czechoslovakian military (which no longer exists) as Secretary of State -- she possesses only limited and trivial knowledge that has no relevance today. Playing more politics, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega (who, like John Bolton, is a Jesse Helms protege) is refusing to allow Venezuelan humanitarian aid workers on American soil. President Hugo Chavez accused the Bush administration of not preparing an adequate evacuation plan for New Orleans and called Bush the 'vacation cowboy.'

"Noriega takes his orders from the fanatic Florida exile junta whose titular head is Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff is likely demanding relief crews be interviewed, photographed, and fingerprinted before being allowed entry to the United States. 'His job is to oversee surveillance, not recovery,' one long time Washington, DC policy adviser said of Chertoff. Once again, for the trillionth time, the Bush administration has shown itself to be inept and uncaring. Its time for them to go."
--------------------------------

Perhaps they're just too proud to accept outside help. That would, after all, reflect poorly on our reputation as Saviour of the World.
 

Kurt Nimmo: Hurricane Katrina as Class Warfare
 

Gallup Refuses To Run Poll Asking Americans If Bush Should Be Impeached
(Look who's been - directly, or indirectly - bought off.)
 

An angry letter from New Orleans: "I have recently managed to speak to some friends stranded in New Orleans. They are starving and dehydrating and there is no news of when they will be receiving food and water. I have spoken to relief efforts and understand that there are plenty of supplies waiting for these people, BUT THEY ARE NOT BEING ALLOWED INTO THE CITY.

"The National Guard has the city surrounded and is not letting anyone in or out, except the buses being evacuated. The excuse that they cannot bring supplies into New Orleans because of the looting and gun fire is not a valid excuse—if they are too afraid to enter the streets of New Orleans, they need to be air dropping supplies into the city. If the United States is capable of sending planes that can withstand enemy fire to drop bombs in Iraq, certainly they are capable of air dropping supplies into a city where the worst of the gunfire they could encounter would be from semi-automatics.

"Our government is killing the people of New Orleans. By withholding supplies, they are ensuring more deaths, and I hold them complicit."
 

as salam 3aleikom ya Imad wa Evelyn,

Evelyn, you are most welcome to raid articles from the informative links thread below each post here. Symbiosis can be a fruitful way of spreading knowledge and enabling people to become better informed.

I see that you have been abused by an illiterate who signs himself with the name of that Turkish plaything, T.E. Lawrence. He has some way to go before finding even one pillar of wisdom, eh?

Best wishes with your life and work, fi aman Allah.
 

Sahir, What a generous greeting. Thank you, indeed.

From Iraq to New Orleans, The U.S. as a "Failed State"
 

@ vag

I wish you well with the work that you are facing developing your self-esteem. It is a lifetime process and you evidently still have a considerable way to go. Your stated apparent abject surrender of your will is indicative of a very weak mind indeed.

Iraq war veteran to spend 3 years in prison for molesting 12-year-old girl

Ex-U.S. Marine]...Ambriz faced a maximum penalty of 8 years in prison but his military service helped lower his sentence....

It's disgusting how being a part of a violent and macho culture becomes an excuse for minimizing the horrendous damage done to a young child's mind and spirit, eh?
 

Aha, you are here, Evelyn. 3afwan, you are welcome any time. Take care.
 

Sahir: Your "Take care." is reciprocated.
-----------------

EXTRACT - Between Life and Death; New Orleans and the System that Destroyed It: "There's something stinkier here than the reported conditions in the Superdome sanctuary or the stew of sewage, petrochemicals, dead human and animal corpses swirling atop what used to be a city. It's the soul of capitalism, swollen with profit-lust like the liver of a goose overfed to produce fois gras. Even as la Ville in its present incarnation expires, its Wal-Marts dying with it, its cops must turn from the task of evacuating the stranded to protecting the property of the well-insured. Such a moral quandary for the power elite. What do you save? A couple black kids on a roof, without food and water, at risk of cholera, or the jewelry counter in a local outlet of the world's largest retailer? What better reinforces the levees of the sinking system---displays of compassion, or displays of shoot-to-kill power?

"And now here come the troops, bringing relief to the 20,000 refugees at New Orleans' Convention Center. CNN's reporter interviews Lieutenant General Russel Honore with extraordinary deference, praising him personally, thanking him profusely. I go online to MSNBC, and read that some at the center are crying out, 'Thank you, Jesus!' But the network notes other reactions.

"'Hell no, I'm not glad to see them. They should have been here days ago. I ain't glad to see 'em, I'll be glad when 100 buses show up,' said Michael Levy, whose words were echoed by those around him yelling, 'Hell, yeah! Hell, yeah!' 'We've been sleeping on the ... ground like rats,' Levy said. 'I say burn this whole ... city down.'

"Saturday. Antiwar.com features a link to an article in the Army Times: 'Troops Begin Combat Operations in New Orleans.'

"'This place is going to look like Little Somalia,' Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard's Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. 'We're going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.'

"Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the city. Military and police officials have said there are several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.

"That's not sounding like a rescue operation. 'Little Somalia'? Well, I suppose that 1993 intervention was also supposed to be a humanitarian one, but the U.S. military presence did anger a lot of well-armed black people. The article states that "numerous soldiers" say they have been fired upon by armed civilians in New Orleans, and that the assault ship Bataan 'kept its helicopters at sea Thursday night after several military helicopters reported being shot at from the ground.'

"'I never thought that at a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,' said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. 'And I never thought I'd have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.'

"Meanwhile Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion says that violent reactions of New Orleans residents to the Guard are 'making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.' Ferguson said. 'You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn't come here to fight a war. We came here to help.'

"Just like in Somalia. Just like in Iraq. 'Why are they shooting at us?' the decent soldier has to wonder. 'Our mission is just to restore order and help these people.' The problem is, a lot of people associate the U.S. military with wealth and power, invasions, cruelty, arrogance, indifference to human life. They don't think oppressors can be saviors, so like the Michael Levy quoted above, they're not cheering the arrival of the cavalry. While the federal government failed to take action to help the flooded city, people waiting for the buses and for some justice in this world took matters into their own hands, producing what the Army Times calls 'a full state of anarchy.' They, rather than the flood waters and the human misery they've created, are the target of this 'combat operation.'"
 

I cannot and will not summarise this totally disturbing, excellent article. If you want to understand New Orleans, read "People of the Dome".
 

The U.S. Needs to Start Over; Failing at War, Peace and Dignity

"Those Looters Should be Shot, Praise the Lord, and Pass the Guacamole!" - A God with Whom I am not Familiar

The Earth's Most Damnable Homeless Shelter; The Superdome: Monument to a Rotten System
 

Cindy Sheehan - Dangerous Incompetence: "George Bush has been an incompetent failure his entire life. Fortunately for humanity, he was just partying his way through school, running companies into the ground, and being an alcoholic and cocaine abuser for most of that time - and his incompetence was limited to hurting the people who worked for him and his own family. The people in his life who were hurt by his incompetence probably have been able to 'get on' with their lives. Now, though, his incompetence affects the world and is responsible for so many deaths and so much destruction. How many of us did not foresee the mess he would make of the world when he was selected the first time? We saw what he had done to Texas. How many of us marveled and were so discouraged and amazed when he was 're-elected' the second time? We saw what he had done to the world. Dangerous incompetence should never be rewarded, let alone be rewarded so handsomely as in George's case."
 

Are Arabs Human Beings?
 

John B.: "While the Bible accurately records actual people, places and events, the Quran is a jumbled up mess."

WOW!!!!! Which Bible did you read?
-------------------------------

United States Of Shame

Guardsmen Halt Evacuation At Superdome
 

Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died.

What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret? According to Dr. Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico, and specialist in Latin America, "the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go."

"Cuba's leaders go on TV and take charge," said Valdes. Contrast this with George W. Bush's reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bush was playing golf. He waited three days to make a TV appearance and five days before visiting the disaster site. In a scathing editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said, "nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

"Merely sticking people in a stadium is unthinkable" in Cuba, Valdes said. "Shelters all have medical personnel, from the neighborhood. They have family doctors in Cuba, who evacuate together with the neighborhood, and already know, for example, who needs insulin."

They also evacuate animals and veterinarians, TV sets and refrigerators, "so that people aren't reluctant to leave because people might steal their stuff," Valdes observed.

After Hurricane Ivan, the United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction cited Cuba as a model for hurricane preparation. ISDR director Salvano Briceno said, "The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does."
The Two Americas
 

MadAsHell: Never could we emulate Cuba. That would be to admit that each and every Cuban - dead or alive or ever-to-be-alive - is not the devil incarnate. And, then, how could we go on hating their country?

--------------------
US sends mixed signals on accepting aid from abroad: "President Bush indicated yesterday morning that the United States had not requested foreign help and didn't need it.'

'''I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we haven't asked for it,' Bush told ABC's 'Good Morning America.' 'I do suspect a lot of sympathy, and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country is going to rise up and take care of it. You know, we love help, but we're going to take care of our own business, as well.'

"Roberta Cohen, a specialist on humanitarian disasters at the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank, said yesterday that the administration should seriously consider the offers. ''If [aid] were rejected out of hand because of national pride, that would be unfortunate," she said.

"A European diplomat who asked not to be identified said the State Department told embassies on Wednesday that the US government did not need help in the first phase of rescuing survivors and restoring order, but that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would sift through aid offers to see if any could be of use in the second phase of cleanup and reconstruction.

"The Canadian military has set aside a number of Hercules Aircraft C130, in case the United States calls, and is in the process of packing a ship with a helicopter, water purifying equipment, and electric generators that could sail for the Gulf of Mexico at a moment's notice.

"Some of the United States' poorest neighbors also offered assistance, including Honduras, Jamaica, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Mexico.

"Perhaps the most unusual offer came from Hugo Chavez, the socialist leader of Venezuela who is openly hostile to the US government. On Wednesday, Chavez offered drinking water, food, and oil to the United States."

------------------------------------------

Given the disaster wrought upon much of the world by the United States, I'm astonished (and deeply humbled) by the fact that ANYONE wants to help. I ask myself, "Why?" The answer must, in part, be two-fold: (1) Despite our best efforts, ordinary human decency lives, and (2) the people of New Orleans - thank God - are NOT George Bush.
 

Halliburton hired for storm cleanup
(Why do I find this so depressing?)
 

LA National Guard Wants Equipment to Come Back From Iraq
(Note this article's date!!!!)
 

Bulgaria Begins Plans for Iraq Pullout
 

M. Junaid Alam, Don't "Politicize" Tragedy? The Tragedy is Political: "What has transpired along the Gulf Coast over the past week has provided the entire world with incontrovertible, indisputable proof that all the blithering proclamations about the 'American dream' are as hollow as the president's head and as meaningless as any thought formed within it."
 

"Just as protracted addiction to alcohol or narcotics leads sooner or later to disaster, so a prolonged divergence between the needs of men and their wants cannot but result in catastraphe. The failure of an irrationally organized society to generate internal forces presssing toward more rational, more human social relations results necessarily in economic stagnation, cultural decay, and a widespread sense of despondency. Such a society - even if once the most advanced in the world - loses its position of leadership, slides into the backwaters of historical development, and turns into a breeding ground of reaction, inhumanity, and obscurantism."
(Paul Baran, American Marxist, 1958)
 

Perhaps previously I've mentioned the great online free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA. It is very current and very democratic. A few sample topics spring readily to mind: Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, Cindy Sheehan, Iraq Constitution, Al-Aaimmah bridge, George W. Bush, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, State of Palestine, Pat Robertson, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Jalal Talabani and Ahmed Chalabi. This last one, dedicated to a particular fan: T E Lawrence.
Check out a couple, or use search to explore your own interests.
 

(This Wikipedia entry is for you, Stef!)
Riverbend: "Riverbend is a thoughtful writer whose articulate, even poetic, prose packs an emotional punch while exhibiting a journalist's eye for detail." - Jason Zineman, New York Times.

"It's amazing how as things get worse, you begin to require less and less. We have a saying for that in Iraq, 'Ili yishoof il mawt, yirdha bil iskhooneh.' Which means, 'If you see death, you settle for a fever.' We've given up on democracy, security and even electricity. Just bring back the water." Riverbend
 

Raed In The Middle: "When I visited the south of Iraq after the fall of Baghdad, I was impressed by the level of self-organizing the Shia community has. Shia Iraqis don’t need anyone, including the Iraqi government, to help them organize themselves. They just need their cities’ streets to be open for them; they just need the occupation concrete barriers to be removed.

"The US and Iraqi decision makers should be held responsible for this human tragedy in Baghdad. The minister of health asked for the resignation of both the ministers of interior and defense. As-Sadr movement supported the minister of health in his request too. The US administration should stop wasting US people money in killing Iraqis and occupying their country. The US money should be spent on the US citizens in need: the ones who lost their homes and relatives by Katrina.

"Bush should pull out the US troops from Iraq as soon as possible and stop wasting billions of dollars on mass murders and destruction. The US citizens should stop funding and supporting Iraq’s chronic Katrina and its concrete barriers."
 

Kurt Nimmo: Criminal Plot Underway in the New Orleans Swamp
 

FROM THE IRAQI FRONT: "Iraq 'is failing, or perhaps already failed', says an American contactor who continues to carry out economic development work there as the country descends into 'expanded gang warfare' and 'the saddest story since Vietnam'.

"The contractor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described some of the missteps of U.S. and Iraqi authorities and of the daily power struggles among and between factions.

“'The problem is the government and the country, which is failing, or perhaps already failed. Day in and day out, I watch with great awe the stupid antics of the US and Iraqi governments.'"
 

Looting There, Looting Here
Fallujah There, New Orleans Here
 

Fighting 'The Insurgency' in New Orleans

From the Army Times:

Combat operations are underway on the streets "to take this city back" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina....While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. (emphasis added).

According to the Los Angeles Times, at least some troops aren't finding insurgents:

But when they arrived, they did not find marauding mobs. They did not come under fire. They found people who had lost everything in the storm and, since then, their dignity.

Some "Insurgents".
 

"I Have Refused To Go To Iraq And Serve In This Illegal, Unjust, And Undemocratic War": "For too long I've remained silent on a number of issues, mostly for fear that I would jeopardize my chances for discharge as a conscientious objector from the US Army Reserve.

"I am a staff sergeant with over 12 years of service to this nation in both active and reserve components.

"What follows are a few sketches that I hope to flesh out over the coming weeks and am confident your readers will find some insights that resonate with their experiences."

(Read this man' story. I am proud he is an American, indeed, a human being.)
 

Help Katrina Refugees: "Financial Donations Are Useless"
SEND WHAT THEY NEED: A New Camp Casey In Covington, Louisiana

(article further down, same page above article)
 

"I Think The War On Terror Is A Sham" Soldier Says: "'I've always been against war. I don't think being in the military means that I am a lover of war. It just means that I believe that this country needs to be defended. When I took that oath of office, I didn't take the oath to kill people. I took it to defend the country from enemies foreign and domestic.' He said that he believes many of his fellow servicemen and women feel similarly but fear even discussing such notions."
 

Iraq to put Saddam on trial October 19: "The trial will take place just after a scheduled October 15 referendum to approve Iraq's new draft constitution, although Kubba said the timing was purely coincidental."
 

Highly recommended reading: Bob Chapman's 3 SeptemberTrain Wreck of the Week. (Having deleted huge chunks, all valuable, I've highlighted some points to help you skim what I've retained. All content to be read as a direct quote, which it is. I'm not bothering with the usual "" marks.)
---------------------

Detroit and Michigan is a zone of the living dead. Detroit represents the deliberately arranged decline of American manufacturing. The dangerous path of offshoring and outsourcing will lead not only to the destruction of the US economic base, but it will take down the rest of the world with it.

American foreign policy is conducted like that of a dictatorship. ...

There is no political right left. It's been usurped and destroyed by George and the neocons, which are now to the left of the Democrats. Just look at our liberal controlled media. They report exactly what George and the neocons want, which tells us the media isn't really liberal, it's purchased. For those who understand socialism and fascism there are only small differences. Someone gave me a book to read 45 years ago. I didn't know who wrote it in 1923, but I said to myself, whoever it is they must be a socialist or a Marxist. I then asked the donor of the book who wrote this? He answered Benito Mussolini, who was a professor at that time. I reread the entire book looking for something different. It wasn't there. It was later that Mussolini evolved into fascism.

Wars kill people and training can only do so much to prepare you for combat. When you pull that trigger aiming at a human being for the first time your pancreas goes wild and you have to control your body as the enemy opens up on you. If you survive and it is over you come away shaking for the next 15 to 30 minutes. It is no fun and no matter how good you are you are going to miss your target many times.

When we hear there is no higher calling than service to our armed forces and our nation we disagree. Since WW II we have had all no-win wars for profit. They were engineered either to cover up economic failure or to cause economic failure. That does not sound like a higher calling to us and we have been there. We are not anti-war or anti-gun. We are against wars of convenience. We are not facing a war against foreign terrorists. Our terrorists are the establishment in Washington, New York and London. Terror is a cover for war and the suppression of the American people. This is not some sort of a struggle. We have 8,000 dead and countless wounded and that is not a struggle, it is war.

Pat Robertson should read the US Code. If you threaten or intimidate foreign officials you shall be fined under title 18, section 112(b) or imprisoned not more than six months or both. There is absolutely no doubt that Robertson attempted to threaten President Chavez. Robertson's comments did not contain a threat to kidnap or injure Chavez. He wanted to assassinate Chavez. His threat to take him out, especially when combined with the explanation that this would be cheaper then war, was clearly a threat to kill. With Robertson's following of Christian soldiers, who knows what one of them might do? It is no wonder President Chavez has put a temporary hold on missionaries.

The National Opinion Research Center has confirmed that Al Gore actually won Florida and should have been president. Dr. Dennis Loo with Cal Poly Pomona shows that extensive manipulation of non-paper-trail voting machines occurred in several states during the 2004 election. There is now no question hackers were employed by the Bush administration to steal election results in a number of states. There is no such thing as an honest election in our country.

The Strategic Oil Reserve has 70 million barrels of crude oil, and they have offered to loan oil, if requested, by US refiners facing delayed shipments due to Hurricane Katrina. We find it of interest that the government finally filled the reserve three weeks ago. They've been buying crude all the way up to $65.00 a barrel, which put upward pressure on prices. What did they know that we didn't know?

In order to fund foreign wars for profit in fiscal 2006, the New Orleans district of the US Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding. This will mean cuts in hurricane and flood protection projects and a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane will be shelved. Hiring has been frozen. The House has made the cuts. The question is will the Senate reverse them?

Between tax cuts and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and occupation, there weren't sufficient federal funds available to remedy what was needed for such a disaster, nor was there enough National Guard available to help the residents of the three states involved. Disaster preparation money was mostly diverted to Iraq, the neocon war for profit and the theft of oil.

Our President cut their funds by 20% to help finance his war. This in part is another George and the neocons disaster.

Millions [in the Gulf states] are without power and telephone and will be for weeks. ...

Strange things are happening. Katrina has at least temporarily denied America of 35% of its domestic oil consumption. ...

As far as the government opening up its strategic reserves is concerned there is already an adequate supply of crude oil. It is the lack of electricity in the region that is stopping the refineries from getting back into operation.

The US government is using the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Law to remove anyone from the Internet who disagrees with our elitist government. Numerous domains have already been blacklisted. Most of the Service Providers are using a program that filters out certain e-mails and there is no error message to advise non-delivery. They are black-holed. This is to protect against spam, porn, viruses and hate speech. Your provider is now a member of our fascist thought police. To read e-mail the FBI can order a service provider to place a special monitoring computer called Carnivore or Data Collection System 1000 on is network servers. They can then spy on and capture for storage your transmissions. The FBI is currently expanding the program and in time will filter out anything the government deems undesirable. Homeland Security and the FBI equal Gestapo, make no mistake about it. They will eventually reach us and then you will be next.

On August 1 a spokesman for the Louisiana National Guard said the state might be stretched for security personnel in the event of a big hurricane. Dozens of high water vehicles, generators and Humvees were in Iraq with 3,000 Louisiana National Guardsmen. The spokesman unfortunately was correct.

Eight thousand guardsmen from Mississippi and Louisiana are now serving in Iraq and many are in combat.

George and the neocons have offered Sunni representatives $75 million to sign the draft constitution of Iraq. They believe money buys everything.

Ham radio operators around New Orleans are being jammed and that can only be the US government. These same ham operators were enlisted to help during 9/11, but strangely are not being used for Katrina's federal relief efforts. Jamming is a criminal activity and we know of no reason why any foreign government would do such a thing. George and the neocons have turned New Orleans into a Baghdad on the Mississippi.

The US military has confirmed that its soldiers killed a Reuter's journalist in Iraq, but said their action was appropriate. Reuters global Managing Editor, David Schlesinger, rejected any suggestion that the killing of Waleed was justified. Just another case of murder.

People don't get it yet, but the US has lost 25% of its domestic oil and gas production and a good part of it won't be retrieved. The Saudis have been lying about their production capabilities for a long time and they now tell us they have no more capacity available. They'll have to be major money spent to resurrect Gulf production and it will take years to be accomplished. Gasoline will never see $2.50 again, but we'll see $5-$8 a gallon. We hope America starts waking up; there are very difficult times ahead.

Being kept from these American people also by their Military Rulers have been the uncounted offers of assistance from Nations all around the world, including: Venezuela has offered their Medical Airlift Command for the evacuation of peoples trapped in these devastated regions; Holland has offered the resources of their Public Works Ministry (and who are the acknowledged World Experts for below sea level water evacuation procedures); Russia has offered over 100,000 temporary living structures, along with Military Personal to assist their American counterparts; Iran has offered 1 Billion US Dollars in immediate assistance and guaranteed 5,000,000 barrels of oil at $35.00 US Dollars; China has offered their Military Rescue Forces (Who are acknowledged as one of the best in the world for rescuing peoples in flood ravaged areas.)

In our minds we are convinced that Pat Robertson was acting as a mouthpiece for George and the neocons. Due to Mr. Robertson's recent actions, the Venezuelan government has temporarily suspended permits for foreign missionaries. That will last for 3 or 4 weeks, while the country organizes a system to see what additional data they need for people coming into the country to preach. Who knows whether one of these preachers is an assassin?

President Chavez said George Bush would be responsible if anything happened to him. He said, “Robertson was expressing the wishes of the US elitist. This is true terrorism.”

Venezuela offers to help while Washington refuses to act

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has demonstrated more concern for working and poor people in the U.S. than George Bush has. Chavez has announced that Venezuela will be offering poor people discounted gas through its Citgo chain.

He has also offered to send more than $1 million in oil, food, and equipment to the region. In addition, the Venezuelan government is offering two mobile hospital units, each capable of assisting 150 people, 120 specialists in rescue operations, 10 water purifying plants, 18 electricity generators of 850 KW each, 20 tons of bottled water, and 50 tons of canned food.

A senior U.S. State Department official said he was not aware of the Venezuelan offer, and then dismissed it as "counterproductive."

The half-wit from the White House used yesterday's radio address to yap about "staying the course" in Iraq. Today he is prattling on about the great "progress" represented by a failed Constitution-drafting process.

Fidel Castro would have been on the airwaves for the last two days informing the population at risk about what steps were being taken, and why, to protect life and property in the path of the hurricane. Fidel Castro would have deployed all the military and civil defense resources available to carry out Cuba's well-planned and well-rehearsed disaster preparedness program. Fidel Castro would have been marching around the City of New Orleans overseeing preparations to protect the population. But not the dry drunk of Crawford, Texas. He's too busy cursing Cindy Sheehan and sending his goon squads out to persecute antiwar protestors and spy on their Internet posts.
 

Aljazeera: Baghdad confirms Saddam trial date
 

Tom (UK) commented on 27th January:
"T. S. Hearn, thank you for showing us the same ugly, brutish, arrogant face of American imperialism that George W. Bush so typefies. Arguing with people like you is no longer useful, as you understand only force and the principle that might makes right. Despite Bush's incoherent ranting about Freedom, your country is a barely democratic imperialist dinosaur, clinging to a system of government designed to keep white land-owners in power that was out of date by the late 18th century. Compared to the vibrant, compassionate, genuinely democratic EU-style socialist governments the rest of the world aspires to, the US is a brutal society of unhappy, ignorant, short-lived and unhealthy people. The dinosaurs with their sharp teeth survived for a long time, but eventually they died out and were replaced by superior forms of life. In short, T. S. Hearn, America's time has gone.

"T. S. Hearn, your country is presently being defeated in its attempt to control Iraq's oil resources, and that's a good thing for the world. America has no intention of leaving Iraq at any time in the future. The American dinosaur thinks that a world with a globalized economy, with spreading democracy and where global opinion is politically important, and where an individual with a $10 grenade can take out a $1 million tank, can be ruled by military force. The dinosaur is about to learn that the age of Bismarck is long gone. Soft power and economic leverage on the global level, and the actions of the heroic Iraqi Resistance on the local level, will defeat you. No need to say God willing, for this is inevitable."
 

SALAH AL-MUKHTAR SPEAKS (Part One)

SALAH AL-MUKHTAR SPEAKS (Part Two): In this segment, Salah Al-Mukhtar discusses political achievements of the Ba’ath Party and the occupation of Kuwait, responding to the following -

1. Please explain the relationship between various Kurdish factions and the Ba’ath government.

2. What is your take on the actions taken on August 2, 1990 against Kuwait and the ensuing occupation?

3. When Iraq occupied Kuwait, we, in the West, heard that Iraq destroyed the country and raped Kuwaiti women. I questioned this analysis because there was little Kuwaiti resistance. If the occupation had been so horrible, there would have been a tremendous resistance, such as that it today’s Iraq. Please elaborate.
 

The following excerpt represents perhaps 20% (an only vaguely educated guess) of the original lengthy, detailed article. For those seeking to understand - one of our great challenges - this provides insight into the "morality" of the our great white democratic capitalist free-market leaders. (Actually, a great pack of marauders for whom simply being behind bars would be insufficient "reward".)
-------------------------------------------

Cash payoffs, bonds and murder linked to White House 911 finance: Documents point to attack on America by White House crime families.

Misused collateral = gold security = bogus bonds = $240 billion stolen currency

Evidence indicates that on August 19, 1991, John D’ Aquisto of DFG Inc. mailed (1A) Federal Express packages to United States Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan and Bush 41 Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady to communicate details of currency exchange transactions which ultimately led to multiple allegations of bank fraud involving billions of dollars, according to V. K. Durham. It is not known whether this cash was laundered into the Philippines and then used for the "family," referred to in the Wanta-Cheney memo.

The FedEx receipts show contact between Greenspan, Brady and John D’ Aquisto and given the bank fraud links, Greenspan’s visit to Russell Hermann and the close proximity of the transactions to September 11, Durham says prosecutors should interrogate the three about their knowledge of improper banking activities which could be linked to the North Tower attacks at Cantor-Fitzgerald and the Pentagon impact reportedly involving the ONI on September 11--witnesses for a grand jury, should an official entity decide to prosecute mass murder on behalf of U.S. taxpayers.

Clinton Treasury Secretary and George W. Bush advisor knew about transactions

On September 12, 1991 John D’ Aquisto wrote to Hans Reich at the Goldman Sachs Compliance Department regarding "missing funds from our Goldman Sachs account" but also "why was our Tax ID # on the statement stated as "88-8888888 instead of what our Tax ID # really is, 33-0457266?!"

This time, however, D’ Aquisto sent copies of the letter to two important individuals--describing alleged Goldman Sachs tax ID number improprieties and evidence of $5+ million in missing funds which would likely lead to more evidence of unaccounted for transfers as part of a $240 billion dollar currency exchange involving numerous scheduled tranches (allocations) in brokerages like Goldman Sachs and linked to 10-year Brady bonds purchased along the 9.11 timeline.

The executives received copies delineating the alleged bank fraud were Goldman’s Chairman (at the time) Stephen Friedman who is now President Bush’s Assistant for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council, and also Goldman Senior Partner (at the time) and former Clinton Administration Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, who is currently Citigroup’s Chairman of the Executive Committee.

The evidence provides a paper trail suggesting that current high Clinton and Bush officials, members of Congress, and the New York Attorney General and Manhattan DA (all with jurisdiction, venue, oversight responsibility or power--were and are aware of allegedly significant fraudulent banking activities at Goldman Sachs which is linked to transactions along the time-line of the 9.11 attacks--and an ongoing ONI intelligence probe where the investigators died at the Pentagon, information literally screaming for a separate grand jury investigation in and of itself.

Financing the 9.11 attacks

According to inside intelligence sources who provided additional documents, federal whistleblower Stewart Webb told us he has made the serious allegation that financing the September 11 attacks was facilitated through former CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg’s American International Group (AIG) and Florida’s Greenberg-Traurig law firm bank accounts established at New York’s Citibank where President George H. W. Bush’s former CIA legal counsel Norman Philip Brownstein sits as a Director.

Webb has spent 20 years investigating White House crime families and was credited for helping to expose the 1989-90 HUD and Savings & Loan Scandals. [Houston Chronicle, "S & L whistleblower faces federal charges," 9-16-1992 and Sarah McClendon‘s Washington Report, "Notes from the Editor," 12-24-1991]

On November 1, 2001--just seven weeks after the 9.11 attacks--former Somalia Ambassador to Switzerland Leo Emil Wanta--wrote to Vice President Richard Cheney to warn him about ongoing foreign transactions and to do something to stop the illegal activity:

"...my help was requested in moving large sums of cash into ‘Foundations’ Legal Groups...in the Philippines...German in the ‘family’ has financed a large group who were recovering ten boxes which were taken to US, Germany & Moldovia (Rumania)...The ‘family’ want their boxes!!....Things are getting out of hand!....Mil needs cash with which to purchase & remove these items...too much is in the wrong hands!"

The leaked memo raises serious questions as to what the Vice President of the United States knew about the movement of crates of cash out of the Philippines into the U.S.A. and two foreign countries almost immediately after the 9/11attacks. Did Cheney do anything to stop the illegal activity? Was Cheney linked to the operation? What did Condoleezza Rice and President Bush do about it when Cheney told them?

Edmonds' explosive evidence, linking the 9.11 attacks to ten well-known American politicians and federal agency heads could also subject former Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and all judges and Department of Justice lawyers involved in her case to be targeted for obstruction of justice charges and as co-conspirators to misprison of treason. This, for withholding substantial and credible evidence from impaneled independent federal grand juries in New York and Arlington, VA, empowered to subpoena testimony and investigate crimes linked to September 11. [18 U.S.C. 4 ]

CIA banker’s strange death

Colonel Russell Hermann--a 53-year career military officer, had been conducting a two-year internal investigation of President Clinton, White House counsel Vincent Foster and protracted drug shipments into Mena, Arkansas; but Central Intelligence would not let him retire since it was too expensive to train new personnel and re-start the investigative trail, according to his wife "V.K." who witnessed the first attempt on her husband’s life from her front porch in 1993.

Durham told us "he traveled in a big black truck with tons of surveillance equipment. I saw it, but he didn’t want me to come near it. He said ‘you don’t want to know about this;‘ and as he put his arms around me and kissed the back of my neck, he said ’we caught President [Clinton’s] man [Vince Foster] with Swiss bank accounts, so now I can file my investigation reports, retire, and we can start living a new life.’ "

"This was July 1, 1993. Vince Foster turned up dead on July 20 and my husband Russell was murdered on August 29, 1994," she said.

"The next day, while mowing his lawn on July 2, 1993, Russell was sprayed with some type of poison gas--possibly sarin--from a passing vehicle. He took a few steps and went down, bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose," said Durham who had married Hermann six years earlier on November 27, 1987.

"Russell had not finished his report on Clinton, Foster and the Mena, Arkansas drug money laundering, she said, adding that her husband had cryptically told her, "If I go to the hospital without that report being finished, I am a dead man." This, reminiscent of Michael Corleone’s "men are coming to kill my father" plea to a lone nurse caring for the Godfather in an empty wing of a New York City hospital.

Stewart Webb alleges that an important key to the "control" of the U.S. House and Senate has been the use of blackmail via "Operation Brownstone," led by individuals he calls CIA shadow government players like Ted Gunderson, Harold George Pinder and Clint Murchinson Jr.--setting up legislators for blackmail through child pedophilia rings using both vulnerable male and female children from orphanages all across the United States. This, according to scores of documents and witnesses.

Americans who are concerned about pedophilia, with near daily reports of kidnappings or disappearances of young children who later turn up dead or fall victim to Mexican, South American and Middle Eastern child sex slavery need only start with the ongoing cover-up of pedophilia in the halls of Congress and the White House. It’s still a hushed-up secret, waiting for irate parents and family victims to march on Washington.
 

Fallujah Floods the Superdome: " As the levees cracked open and ushered hell into New Orleans on Tuesday, President Bush once again chose to fly away from Washington, not toward it, while disaster struck. We can all enumerate the many differences between a natural catastrophe and a terrorist attack. But character doesn't change: it is immutable, and it is destiny."

"[T]the inequality of the suffering has not only exposed the sham of the relentless photo-ops with black schoolchildren whom the president trots out at campaign time to sell his 'compassionate conservatism'; it has also positioned Katrina before a rapt late-summer audience as a replay of the sinking of the Titanic. New Orleans's first-class passengers made it safely into lifeboats; for those in steerage, it was a horrifying spectacle of every man, woman and child for himself.

"[A] president who flew from Crawford to Washington in a heartbeat to intervene in the medical case of a single patient, Terri Schiavo, has no business lecturing anyone about playing politics with tragedy."
 

Seems that there is wide spread panic among the US right wing blog commentators. Here as well in Iraq the Model. Well it is obvious with the endless PR fiascos Bush has suffered in Iraq and else where in the world during the past years. And now with this domestic catastrophe in handling the hurricane disaster. These loyal Bush supporters have very little left in their “bag” of explanations. Insults and dirty jokes is the only thing there is left.

TELawrence about the learning curve of Arabs whome you seem to hate so much. Seem that also Arabs are extremely fast learners. So far they have put a couple of US divisions in hospital and graves plus destroyed an astonishing amount of equipment. If you and your country men hate Arabs so much, what in hell are then doing there? Pay for the oil with real money as normal countries do and concentrate to build your own society and its democratic structure. There is much to do …
 

Silent Powell's no hero on Iraq: "'So when [Powell] gave the speech about the dangers of WMD in the hands of this tyrant Saddam Hussein, I believed him. I thought it was a justifiable war.

"'Now I feel like I've been lied to. I think they used Powell. I think the CIA and George Tenet gave the President and his advisers soft intelligence filled with subjunctive sentences. And then sent Powell out to deliver the declarative sentences about Saddam having weapons of mass destruction."

"'Powell spun his case like a snake-oil salesman and left the world in shock and awe. Many believe that Powell only half believed it himself. And if that is the case, the blood of those 1,800 soldiers who have died so far in Iraq, and the human suffering of the 15,000 others who have been maimed and wounded, is on his hands, never to be washed off. He must wear that legacy with the medals on his chest, like a neon sign that says, 'I'M THE PATSY WHO SOLD BUSH'S WAR IN IRAQ TO THE WORLD.'"
 

Many of my recent comments seem to presume an American audience. Regrettably, the corruption and malevolence of my country's "leaders" impacts on much of the rest of the world. I trust you will understand the spirit in which I contribute.

For an Iraqi perspective on their "new" 100% home-grown (American) Constitution see Raed In The Middle, writing about The Third Deadline
 

Bush’s lies help make case for withdrawal: "Now is the time to talk about withdrawal, not only because the war is going poorly but also because it is the right thing to do. To begin with, consider the will of the Iraqi people. Despite false administration claims to the contrary, the vast majority of Iraqis - a whopping 85 percent, according to a poll conducted by the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies - favor the withdrawal of U.S. troops as soon as possible. The fundamental right to self-determination for Iraq demands that Iraqis and not foreign occupiers should decide their future. The continued U.S. military presence of nearly 150,000 troops on Iraqi soil stands as the primary obstacle to Iraqi self-determination.

"The argument that we should stay to stabilize the country is based on the false premise that our military is providing some semblance of stability there when nothing could be farther from the truth. We are largely the cause and not the cure for the violence there, and we simply cannot leave soon enough.

"While the insurgents are responsible for a great number of deaths, the U.S. military remains the single greatest source of violence and chaos in Iraq and has been from the onset of the conflict. Survey after survey - from the Iraqi Health Ministry’s to the British medical journal The Lancet’s to the Oxford Research Group’s - has determined occupation forces are responsible for a high percentage of the civilian casualties in Iraq."
 

September 4, 2005 -- "Wayne Madsen Report contacted by spokesperson for James Lee Witt. Yesterday, WMR reported that according to a June 3, 2004 press release from Innovative Emergency Management (IEM), Inc. it received a FEMA contract to develop a "Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana." The IEM press release stated that among its team partners was James Lee Witt Associates. Witt was FEMA director under President Clinton and he restored that agency's disaster recovery effectiveness after President George H. W. Bush's ineffective response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. According to Witt's spokesperson, James Lee Witt Associates continues to be fraudulently listed on IEM's web site as a team partner for the over $500,000 FEMA contract work.The IEM press release that contains the erroneous information has been disappearing and reappearing, another sign of something suspicious with the contractor.

"IEM, which is an 8-A minority-owned firm, apparently used Witt's name as a "buy in" ploy to lock in the FEMA contract. What is fishier is that the IEM press release was reportedly sent out before the FEMA contract was actually awarded. After IEM began the work on the FEMA contract, it never once used Witt's company and did not pay it one cent. Informed sources claim that IEM, owned by a big donor to the GOP, is notorious for not completing work after contracts are awarded. The Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana was no exception. Mr. Witt is now acting as a pro bono disaster recovery adviser for Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Witt's spokesperson was frank is stating, "you don't really think the Bush administration would have given a contract to someone who worked for Bill Clinton?" That is very true. The issue with the incomplete FEMA hurricane preparedness plan is in IEM's and its actual partners' court. James Lee Witt, likely America's most effective FEMA Director, had nothing to do with the IEM work and he now needs all the support the nation and state of Louisiana can muster as he prepares to confront America's worst natural disaster in its history. [Note to bloggers: please ensure widest dissemination of this story. Someone is trying to set up Mr. Witt and the editor smells Karl Rove.]"
 

THE MOST FRIGHTENING SIGHT AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENT CAN SEE, FOR NOW
 

Saddam's Defense Team Balks at Oct. Trial
 

UN Council to hear report on oil for food scandal

Pirate Constitutions Sold on Iraqi Streets
(One would think the occupiers of the Green Zone would supply each and every citizen with a free copy, encourage discussion, and invite input, thereby promoting "democracy".)
 

The New Surge for Real Independence: "After more than half a century of strategic withdrawal of the West in the name of decolonization, Muslims everywhere are disillusioned with the experimentation of political democracy and market economics. However, reawakening is underway. Today many Muslims equate democracy with crime and disorder, and the market economy with corruption, systematic exploitation and perpetual poverty.

"Who do they blame for that? The kings, the generals and so-called democratic presidents, of course, and their supporters in the West who left behind systems and structures that ensure their perpetuation in power. Distrust of the West skyrocketed in the post 9/11 period in which Bush and Blair administrations lied through their teeth to portray their bloody adventures as operations for freedom and democracy.

"As a result, public opinion is slowly returning to pre-decolonization attitudes. A
visceral perception of the West as an alien and hostile force — that remained in place due to continuation of colonization with other, more effective means — has now further consolidated. It is being stoked continuously by the Western leaders’ tall claims to the supremacy of their “way of life” and by the constant criticism that the problem lies with Muslims, their faith, their way of life, their corruption, lack of education and overall under-development.

"As a result, a broke but reawakened Muslim world seems to be turning ever more inward, discouraged by leaders who deliberately exploit totalitarian and xenophobic sentiments of the West for their own advantage. They promote the fear of Islam and the concept of living by Islam to promote themselves as defenders of secularism and the status quo.

"The West is waging the war in the Muslim world not only as a military but also as a political campaign. Its declared goal is to destroy all the terrorists and extremists who refuse to live by the way of life imposed from outside. But this can never be achieved by the indiscriminate use of force, installing new puppet regimes and supporting the old autocrats; that strategy leads to a disproportionately high number of civilian casualties and virtually a total loss on the front for winning hearts and minds. ..."
 

"Last night at 8 p.m. they shot a kid of just 16. He was just crossing the street. They ran him over, the New Orleans police did, and then they got out of the car and shot him in the head," said 48-year-old Wade Batiste.

Bush faked levee repair for photo op yesterday

"There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV."
(I'm sure. I nearly gagged watching George fake compassion while hugging two young children. He probably rushed into his helicopter and washed his hands.)

Guardsmen 'played cards' amid New Orleans chaos: police official
 

Many killed in another Paris fire: "It was the third major fire to hit the Paris area in 10 days, with the other two already killing 24 people, mostly Africans, and raising questions over fire safety and the treatment of immigrants."
 

Left to sink or swim: "Tragic events in New Orleans have laid bare America's bigotry and exposed the lie of equal opportunity"
 

Personal aside: TV on in background (I'd forgotten all about it). Larry King doing "New Orleans", naturally. Dr Phil interviewing victims. Forthcoming question from Larry to Phil: "Why did so many people stay in New Orleans?" Real "in-depth" analysis. Great anticipation: President Bush special guest tomorrow night on LKL. Stay tuned. We may learn something.
 

Transcript (4 Sept. 05), Meet the Press: MR. RUSSERT: Now, let's turn to Hurricane Katrina. Joining us is the man in charge of the federal response to the disaster, the director of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff.

Mr. Secretary, this is yesterday's Daily News: "Shame Of A Nation." And I want to read it to you and our viewers very carefully. It says, "As for Chertoff, if this is the best his department can do, the homeland is not very secure at all. It is absolutely outrageous that the United States of America could not send help to tens of thousands of forlorn, frightened, sick and hungry human beings at least 24 hours before it did, arguably longer than that. Who is specifically at fault for what is nothing less than a national scandal... It will never be known exactly what a day could have meant to so many unfortunates whose lives came to an end in those hopelessly tortured hours--on scorching roadsides, for lack of a swallow of water, in sweltering hospital bads, for lack of insulin. But what is already more than clear is that the nation's disaster-preparedness mechanisms do not appear to be in the hands of officials who know how to run them."

Mr. Secretary, are you or anyone who reports to you contemplating resignation?

(Read the transcript, or compose your own hypothetical answer for Mr. Chertoff.)

(Next interviewee, Jefferson Parish President Broussard)

MR. AARON BROUSSARD: We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history. I am personally asking our bipartisan congressional delegation here in Louisiana to immediately begin congressional hearings to find out just what happened here. Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired? And believe me, they need to be fired right away, because we still have weeks to go in this tragedy. We have months to go. We have years to go. And whoever is at the top of this totem pole, that totem pole needs to be chain-sawed off and we've got to start with some new leadership.

It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so obvious. FEMA needs more congressional funding. It needs more presidential support. It needs to be a Cabinet-level director. It needs to be an independent agency that will be able to fulfill its mission to work in partnership with state and local governments around America. FEMA needs to be empowered to do the things it was created to do. It needs to come somewhere, like New Orleans, with all of its force immediately, without red tape, without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and save lives. Forget about the property. We can rebuild the property. It's got to be able to come in and save lives.

We need strong leadership at the top of America right now in order to accomplish this and to-- reconstructing FEMA.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Broussard, let me ask--I want to ask--should...

MR. BROUSSARD: You know, just some quick examples...

MR. RUSSERT: Hold on. Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of New Orleans bear some responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area?

MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.

Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.

But I want to thank Governor Blanco for all she's done and all her leadership. She sent in the National Guard. I just repaired a breach on my side of the 17th Street canal that the secretary didn't foresee, a 300-foot breach. I just completed it yesterday with convoys of National Guard and local parish workers and levee board people. It took us two and a half days working 24/7. I just closed it.

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: I'm telling you most importantly I want to thank my public employees...

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...

MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.
 

Many years ago, living in another very troubled country, I saw a car bumper sticker. It read:
IF MY PEOPLE HUMBLE THEMSELVES AND PRAY, I WILL HEAL THEIR LAND.
 

Simmohurta, what did you write in a previous post when referring to atrocities in Iraq?

"Well at least Saddam was an Iraqi"

Well, pardon me all over the place, but do you really think that bereaved Iraqis will actually have less grief because the person who destroyed their family was...... an Iraqi?

Obviously you, like Evelyn and Imad, were all too happy to keep quiet when Saddam, (er, because he is an Iraqi), was committing murder, torture and rape on a grand scale.

This proves something, as Lawrence has identified; murder and torture are not worth your attention UNLESS the perpetrator is a non-Arab or non-Islamic and is preferably white. In other words, you use the suffering of Iraqis as some kind of tool with which to attack western civilizations.

As said, its not the act of murder or torture that offends you, its WHO carries it out. You cannot even hold a candle to Hitler, morally speaking that is
 

Well US right wing geniuses. What moral justice and obligation has USA to “democratize” Iraqis and only Iraqis with weapons. None, Iraq with its natural resources belongs alone to Iraqis and so does the responsibility and obligation to democratize it. In the word are certainly millions of people in more desperate situation than they were in Iraq, if it is really the question of liberating

To your question Simmohurta, what did you write in a previous post when referring to atrocities in Iraq?"Well at least Saddam was an Iraqi". As you certainly remember the question was about who is NOW using the palaces. Iraqi children? No the Americans the new Saddams of Iraq naturally. The difference between the new Saddams and the old genuine one is that he is an Iraqi the new Saddams not. The palaces by the way belong and have belonged all the time to Iraqi nation. They were not Saddam’s personal property, not more than the White House and Camp Davis belong to Emperor Bush. What a joke you are New in Town.

In many sources is mentioned that Saddam “killed” 300,000 during his regime in almost three decades. Well then Bush “has killed” about 100,000 in less than three years. From the viewpoint of Iraqis there is no or very little difference. A dictator was changed to mad violent occupation and anarchy. Yes Seafordian Saddam’s trial is a long waited event. Then we all can get more light what really happened during the Iraq-Iran war and what was the US contribution in that. No wonder that USA destroyed the archives of Iraqi government.

USA begged Finland (and many other countries) to take some Uighurs as political refuges held for years in Guantanamo Bay (your concentration camp). These Uighurs were sold to USA as “Al-Qaida members” by some greedy Afghani and Pakistani warlords and naturally they were innocent, but still violently sodomized and tortured. Well Finland said that we can consider it if UN asks it, but not if USA asks it. They also asked why is USA not offering them a place to stay. (Well we all know why, because they could have legal claims against Bush and the boys). The whole country laughed to this sorry story. Completely unacceptable isn’t it New in Town.

Dou you Bush boys have some ongoing counter operation to clean the very dirty shield of the Crusader Bush? Well I understand your urgent need now when Bush showed his real leadership skills with New Orleans catastrophe. Some leader who spends on vacation more as the leaders in of Britain, France, Germany and Russia put together. Completely unacceptable isn’t it New in Town.

It is funny Americans right wingers blame Saddam for every thing bad what happened in Iraq, but every thing that what has gone wrong in Iraq (and that is much) and at home in USA is naturally not Bush's fault. Seems that Bush has no responsibility demands in the eyes of US right winders. Strange ...
 

Simmohurrta take note of this story

"Iraq's parliament criticised fellow Arab states on Sunday for failing to mourn 1,000 Shiite pilgrims crushed in Baghdad last week, while some had found time and money to help Americans hit by Hurricane Katrina"

"Qatar felt sorry for those who were killed by Katrina, which is indeed sad, and sent them $100 million. Other countries did so too. But why is it that the Iraqi people are getting killed everyday but none of these countries says a word," said Jalal Al Deen Al Sagheer, a cleric and prominent Shiite member"


http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=180206
 

Katrina story cont....

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari stepped into the fray later by holding up the sympathy expressed by Iraqi Sunnis for the disaster during a Shiite religious festival as a lesson to Arab governments.

"Why would Spain and other countries send us their condolences while these so called Arab countries did not even say a word?" he told the National Assembly.
 

A VIETNAM VET SPEAKS (quite far down on linked page)
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of needless death." - "Cheeseburgers And Water"
I can't believe what is going on in America. George Bush should have plastic handcuffs on by now.

The U.S. government better build gigantic levees around the White House, because 'Gestapo George,' will not be safe anywhere.

There is more anger in this country right now, than has ever been in the history of America. When the dust settles, there are going to be some bad things happen. If Bush survives this, he will survive anything.

The mask of racism has been removed for all to see. I expect some rioting. I do not see how it can be avoided. The dominoes are falling.

If I was a black soldier in Iraq, I would be livid, especially if I was from the Hurricane George area.

Lets see if the levees hold in Washington, D.C. The anti-war rally in three weeks is going to be very tense. We should all carry water bottles, with "WHY" written on them.

Watching the news from Hurricane George, I never saw a Chinook Helicopter with a Water Buffalo hanging from it. Probably most of those helicopters and water tanks, are in Iraq.

A village idiot should have been able to figure out those water trailers should have been the first thing brought in to the Superdome, and the Convention Center.

I saw them used in Vietnam, very simple operation. Very easy to fly in. VERY SIMPLE TO FLY IN BY HELICOPTER. We Americans need to ask why " Water Buffaloes " were not brought in within the first few hours after the storm stopped.

Cheese burgers could have been brought in by helicopters, especially near the Superdome, and Convention Center. Cheese burgers and water would have saved a lot of lives.

This is not rocket science. When I was in Vietnam, this would have been a no-brainer.

CHEESE BURGERS AND WATER!!!!! You can stay alive for a long time with, CHEESE BURGERS AND WATER.
 

Re; the Shia stampede

"President Jalal Talabani's and Jaafari's offices have said they had received condolences from across the globe, though it seems few came in from the Arab world"
 

Related to Dr. Khadduri's current post -

"September 4, 2005 -- US Embassy in Baghdad inquires into reports that American troops in Iraq have mutinied against their officers. [Wayne Madsen Report] has learned that the US embassy in Baghdad is checking into reports that U.S. troops in Iraq, including National Guardsmen, Army and Marine Corps Reserves, and regular military troops from Louisiana and Mississippi, have mutinied against their officers and are demanding to be immediately sent back home to help their families. It is not known whether the reported mutinies involve physical violence. The reports of rebellions among U.S. troops are filtering out of the Green Zone and at Baghdad International Airport from Iraqis who are working alongside their American counterparts at both locations."
 

(EXTRACT: Author, an American with several decades of first hand military experience.)
THE CASE AGAINST POST-OCCUPATION CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ: DEBUNKING FEARS AND FALLACIES
(1) The Iraqis are showing again and again that they can not only govern effectively, but that they can do so under very difficult circumstances, and

(2) the Iraqis themselves are ready, willing, and able to deal with the handful of foreign "jihadists" if these forces even see a reason to remain after the US occupation (their main target) is gone.

Once we dispense with the racial stereotype of the bloodthristy and venal Arab (which informs liberal as well as conservative discourse, albeit in different hues), we can begin to ask the kind of real questions we ask about Euro-American politics. Whose interests are served by what actions?

US now faced with a BIG dilemma. Fact-on-the-ground today - The occupation hangs by a thin thread of tolerance from a pro-Iranian formation. Iran now silently must support the US occupation. US dependence on the pro-Iranian semi-puppet Iraqi "government" effectively prevents the Americans from attacking Iran.

An attack on Iran right will result in an instant and general anti-American uprising in Iraq that would precipitate American defeat in Iraq. Oops! Don & Dick didn't anticipate this one, did they?

Military Science 101:

Given the terrible firepower from ground and air that can be mustered by the American forces, the nationalist and Islamist armed resistance (these are not clearly delineated categories, but more and more seem to be collaborating as an Islamist-nationalist resistance) has little choice in its own prosecution of the war - barring surrender.

It must employ asymmetric military tactics, the most essential of which is to "blind" the occupation to the resistance's size, activity, location, composition, and disposition. Without this "blinding," guerrilla forces cannot effectively employ what is for them the two most important principles of war: Offensive and Surprise.

There is not more effective means of blinding the US occupation forces than to attack Iraqi collaborators. As a recent article on the Marine base in Hit pointed out, "American troops find themselves in a house of mirrors in which they don't speak the language and can't tell friend from foe."
 

Sunni teenager who died saving Shias hailed as hero: "Ubeydi was sitting down to breakfast last Wednesday when loudspeakers from his Sunni mosque said Shias needed help at the al-Aima bridge, where Iraq's deadliest disaster since the 2003 invasion was unfolding.

"While hundreds were crushed to death on the bridge, hundreds more jumped or fell into the river. Witnesses said that the teenager, a strong swimmer and wrestler who trained at a gym, repeatedly dived in and saved between three and seven people. However he was exhausted when he tried to save a large woman, and she reportedly pulled him under.

"Iraq's government and media called Ubeydi a martyr of national unity whose heroic sacrifice should reconcile Shias and Sunnis, rival Muslim sects which have edged towards civil war.

"'He showed that we are all brothers,'" said the Shia Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, while visiting the family.

Ubeydi's father, Ali, said that his studious son had passed the supreme test of humanity, setting an example for the country. "'He turned his soul into a bridge to save others.'"
 

Dahr Jamail, U.S. Influence 'Too Much': "'It is a matter of public record that in the final weeks of the process the newly arrived U.S. ambassador (Zalmay Khalizad) took an extremely hands-on role,'" Justin Alexander, legal affairs officer for the office of constitutional support with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) told IPS. 'Even going so far as to circulate at least one U.S draft.'

"Alexander, who oversaw the recent proceedings in Baghdad added: 'This involvement was highly inappropriate for a country with 140,000 soldiers in country.'

"Zaid al-Ali, a legal expert who also oversaw the drafting process in Baghdad, made a similar case at a meeting at the International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies in London.

"'There are three ways in which the occupation intervened in the context of Iraq's constitution-writing process,' he said. 'Firstly, the occupation authorities selected and affected the makeup of the commission that was charged with drafting Iraq's transitional law, and its permanent constitution. Second, the occupation determined the limits and parameters within which the constitution was to be drafted. Third, the occupation authorities intervened directly in order to safeguard its interests in the context of the constitutional negotiations.'

"Justin Alexander said Iraq might need a new constitution. 'If Iraq creates a progressive and effective constitution and laws to implement the constitution, then this could benefit Iraqis. But in the absence of mutual reconciliation and an end to the occupation this is all futile.'"
 

Well New in Town I will call you American, which is naturally an insult to that majority in America who are against US policy in Iraq.

It is an historical fact that Saddam attacked Iran with an impulse of USA and its Arab allies. Kuwait and Saudis financed the war and USA supported it by all means including importing WMD’s and technology related to them. So blaming Saddam alone for Iran wars is rather strange twisting of historical facts. Remember the picture where the small Rumsfelt bowed before Saddam in Baghdad.

Tell me one thing American boys, why is USA so eager to highjack the Iraqi economy? If you have a good explanation to that I consider reading your jargon with more care. What has privatization of the oil industry to do with liberating Iraqis? Naturally it liberates them from their biggest asset, which I suppose was the original US “democratization” plan. When in the history has USA really been unselfishly interested in any country’s democracy? One example please.

Do you really believe that Iraq will be more “America” loving after Saddam is executed? I doubt that. Iraqis will continue to resist the cruel and stupid occupation, but Americans have again one excuse less. You American boys must train for the future – when Saddam is gone, what do you write? No more bad Saddam stories, because then there is no Saddam. Dirty jokes and normal Bush jargon how freedom is winning – naturally. That is all you can do.
 

The Australian, Crisis threatens to swamp Bush White House and undermine support for the war in Iraq: "Louisiana officials yesterday were citing more than 10,000 possible deaths in the city.

"Political analysts say the next 10 days are critical for Mr Bush as he attempts to regain lost ground and recover from a perception that the administration underestimated the disaster across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

"The urgency at the White House was clear at the weekend when Mr Bush's September calendar was torn-up to focus almost solely on the management of the crisis. This included the dramatic cancellation of the much-anticipated visit this week of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"The criticism of the Bush administration has been so acute that, in a rare public acknowledgement of problems, Mr Bush admitted at the weekend that mistakes had been made. But he also attempted to shift the blame to state and local authorities." (Naturally.)
 

Simmohurrta

Saddam is responsible for his own actions and his own people. He is not a 4 year old child but a grown man.

He was incapable of assuming responsibility and incapable of helping his people. He was capabale though, of murdering them in the thousands.

FACT: no-one forced him into making wars, and no-one forced him to kill Shia and Kurds
 

America's meltdown—get ready for the next unnatural disaster: "I don't know if Bush and his neocon friends are completely incompetent, criminally insane, or just really, really evil. Whatever the case, I'm afraid that another un-natural disaster, worse than Katrina or 9/11, is just around the corner.

"According to published reports, the Bush administration has developed plans to nuke Iran back to the Stone Age, an act which could take a large part of the region with it. Many observers believe that Bush wants to invoke Martial Law here as well. Rumor has it that Bush will use a 'staged' nuclear attack on the U.S. as pretext for his pillage. It will be an inside job, but blamed on Iran. State-sponsored terrorism against a nation's own citizens is a familiar ruse. Most people won't have a clue, thanks to our criminally-complicit corporate news media.

"To succeed with such as plan, Bush would need to hold the American public under tighter control than ever before. ..."
 

New in Town
Kindly note that only discussible comments are welcome for posting on this Blog. Irrelevant/impolite comments will be deleted.
Who is this site for?

Hence, New in Town, you can kiss this site goodbye.

Seafordian: Your lips are getting very close.
 

(Repeat posting of link)
SALAH AL-MUKHTAR SPEAKS (Part Two): ML: "When Iraq occupied Kuwait, we, in the West, heard that Iraq destroyed the country and raped Kuwaiti women. I questioned this analysis because there was little Kuwaiti resistance. If the occupation had been so horrible, there would have been a tremendous resistance, such as that it today’s Iraq. Please elaborate.

SM: "What you have said is true. Iraq never destroyed Kuwait nor its infrastructure. In contrast, Iraq had used its own money to guarantee normal life in Kuwait. Of course, some Iraqis had committed some mistakes and crimes, but the retaliation of the Iraqi government was severe. Those persons were executed officially and openly to deter others from doing the same.

"Let’s ask ourselves what the Kuwaiti government did. The Kuwaiti ambassador in Washington had officially hired a public relations firm to wage campaigns of mass deception and lies against Iraq and its behavior in Kuwait. The story of Nayirah was a very good example of the Kuwaiti government’s determination to fabricate lies. Because Nayirah claimed she was a nurse in a Kuwaiti hospital and witnessed the looting of incubators by Iraqi soldiers, which resulted in the deaths of many Kuwaiti babies, the Congress of the United States of America was convinced to support the President of the United States to approve war plans against Iraq. That game worked perfectly: the Congress had removed its objection and reservations and supported the war option.

"Later on, it was discovered that the nurse was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador in Washington and that the story was fabricated by an American public relations firm just to pave the way for war.

"The non-existence to the Iraqi troops in Kuwait had proven that the Kuwaitis were not interested in fighting against Iraq."
 

Anwaar Hussain, Here Lies Vera, God help Us All: "A woman's body lay at the corner of two roads in the lower Garden District of the storm smashed New Orleans. Unclaimed for days, people covered the corpse with blankets or plastic sheets. By last Sunday, a short wall of bricks had risen around the body, holding down a plastic canvas. On it, someone had spray-painted a cross and the fateful words, 'Here lies Vera. God help us.'

"Does [Bush] never learn? Does he not know that apart from the human toll of Katrina, the infrastructure and other damage that Katrina has done to his country is going to be needing every penny that he could muster to rebuild that region? He knows fully well that he has already spent $250 billion of American taxpayers’ money on his misadventure with the running costs now amounting to $6 billion a month, and his further five years stay there estimated to cost more than $1.3 trillion, or $11,300 for every household in the United States.

"The world has finally taken off the blinds of 9/11 and now seen through your plot. Your ‘terrorism’ and ‘freedom’ clichés are working no more. You stand dishonored at home and abroad. Because of your failed policies, the dislike for the Americans is at the highest point since the birth of your great country…a fact now beyond debate.

"Hurricane Katrina, a tragedy of immense proportions for thousands, now offers you a godsend opportunity. This is the very last chance that you can honorably withdraw form Iraq and go back to your own country with the face saving excuse of America now needing her troops, money and efforts like never before. This is the very last point for aborting your hideous dreams of Empire building and of your ‘perpetual war’ to achieve that."
 

Fidel Castro, "What Cuba Has Offered the People of the Gulf Coast"
 

"So This is Where He Used to Come to Get Drunk": "As Hurricane Katrina was moving toward the Gulf Coast, President George W. Bush was heading in the opposite direction, where backed by a battleship he repeatedly compared his "war" in Iraq with World War Two. And still the historically-challenged journalists failed to challenge his absurd assumptions.

"It took Ruth, an 84-year-old woman from Potsdam, New York, whose husband had served in the Pacific, to brilliantly sum up the Bush analogy. Calling in to Tom Ashbrook's 'On Point' radio program, Ruth expressed amazement that 'this man is facing a group of World War Two veterans, and they are listening! He must have collected them from the Alzheimer ward. . . We might as well be listening to Donald Duck. . . What he's asking us to 'rise to' is the disaster that he created in Iraq . . . This president is dishonoring both the survivors and the victims . . .' Then the caller from Potsdam broke down in angry tears. (On Point: Framing the War on Terror. August 31, 2005 )

"A different woman in her 80s became incensed as she heard our president on the ground in New Orleans jokingly recall that this is where he partied in his youth. She said, 'So this is where he used to come to get drunk.' And as an afterthought added, 'Asshole!'"
 

God to Bush: "You Blew It": "George, you call yourself a Christian. You claim that you invaded Iraq because I told you to. You say that you were anointed to lead America.

"George, don't you remember that My greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself? I sent Hurricane Katrina to test you, so that you could show Me and the world that you truly are compassionate, as you claim, that you truly are a capable leader, as you claim, that you truly listen to Me and carry out My will.

"Instead, you showed the world your callous indifference, and your inability or unwillingness to assume leadership in a time of crisis. Your failure has cost thousands of lives, people who could have been rescued and sustained. Your failure has further besmirched the reputation of your government, which has shown itself to be an unfeeling and incompetent bunch, caring only about enriching themselves and gathering power.

"Do you not recall My words:

Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.

"But your response to My test, hurricane Katrina, was to ignore the victims and instead do some political fundraising, and then send in the Marines when law and order broke down.

"You failed the test, George.

"You blew it."
 

Blessed are the Rich... Beatitudes for this New American Century: "Blessed are the theoreticians of 'Shock and Awe' and the architects of the war who were ready to cleanse the Middle East of evil-doers-for they will call each other the sons of God.

"Blessed are the ingenious corporate leaders who oversee the global exporting of our values and culture-for theirs is the Kingdom of Profit, Power, and Prestige.

"Blessed are the Administration officials who play hardball, break the law, but still somehow achieve their strategic objectives-for they shall obtain mercy, pardon, and invitations to offer commentary on CNN.

"Blessed are those elite Americans who hunger and thirst for luxury and the ever-increasing freedom to do whatever the hell they want-for they shall be filled even more than they can possibly imagine.

"Blessed are the members of the patriotic Congress and Senate-for, even though their children will never know the glory of dying for their country on the battlefields of the Sunni Triangle, those same sons and daughters will still know the grandeur of graduating from Harvard, Yale, or Stanford.

"Blessed are the pure in ideology-for they shall see our enemies (Arab-looking, Muslim, conniving and plotting) on every street corner and do whatever they can to destroy them.

"And so blessed are you, Mr. President, and Mr. Vice-President, and Mr. Secretary, and Mr. And Ms. Everybody Else Who is Along for this Noble Ride of Plunder, blessed are you when your soldiers' mothers say all manner of truth about you, and when more and more of the citizens gather to oppose you, Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward tonight on FOX News."
 

Guardian, Receding floodwaters expose the dark side of America - but will anything change?: "America will have to get over the shock of seeing itself in a new, unflattering light. It is not just the lawlessness, violence and gun culture that has been on show in New Orleans. It is also that America likes to think of itself as the 'indispensable nation', the strongest, richest, most capable country on the face of the earth."
 

Condi to hurricane victims: "The Lord Jesus Christ is going to come on time. ...If we just wait."
 

September 5, 2005 -- Wayne Madsen Report,
Urgent International Appeal. U.S. troops in New Orleans are treating hurricane victims as members of "Al Qaeda.": " Reports coming to WMR report that the greater New Orleans area has been turned into a virtual military zone where troops threaten bewildered and hungry survivors who approach them for help. One resident of the unflooded Algiers section of New Orleans on the west bank of the Mississippi River reports that the 65,000 population of the neighborhood has been reduced by forced evacuations to 2000 even though there are relatively undamaged schools, parks, and churches available to house the homeless. The remaining population of Algiers is in urgent need of medical supplies. The same situation exists in Jefferson Parish and other areas in the greater New Orleans area. U.S. troops are treating the remaining people in New Orleans and its suburbs as 'suicide bombers,' according to the Algiers resident. FEMA's operations are nothing more than a ruse to depopulate the poor African-American and whites from the metropolitan area. A natural disaster has now turned into a human rights catastrophe in the making. Our corporate news media is totally controlled by the Bush administration with an information embargo now in force from the Gulf coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. The cable news channels are now praising the White House's response. This is a blatant lie from a dictatorship that controls the media through financial control and intimidation. The web is our only way to get the news out to the rest of the world.

"As a U.S. human rights activist who has reported on genocide in Rwanda, Sudan, West Papua and other parts of the world, I am appealing to my human rights and civil liberties contacts around the world -- Africa, Europe, Latin America, Australia, Canada, Asia and the Pacific -- to immediately bring this humanitarian crisis to the attention of your elected representatives, your governments, and international organizations. They must make immediate demarches to the American diplomatic embassies and offices in your countries. The United States is under the control of a despotic regime that is permitting American citizens and legal residents to die from starvation and disease. This is why the Bush regime refused offers of international assistance -- they are depopulating an entire city that before the storm was 70 percent African American, with the remaining 30 percent largely comprised of those of Creole, French Acadian, and American Indian descent. The United Nations must take this up as an urgent unfolding crisis that has an international impact. Please help our people.

"Meanwhile, the communications jamming in the New Orleans continues. it is now being reported as affecting the Citizens' Band (CB) frequencies by truck drivers on Interstate-10."
 

Seafordian you are completely wrong when you say: FACT: no-one forced him into making wars, and no-one forced him to kill Shia and Kurds. The real historical fact is that after Gulf War I Bush Senior urged the Shia and Kurds to rebel against Saddam. Then USA suddenly took its support away (like normal) and Saddam ended the “mutiny”. So the much of that blood is in American hands. And you claim that Saddam is alone guilty and Americans had nothing to do with the Iraqi tragedy since Saddam was raised to power with the help of CIA. Come-on Seafordian not even you believe to your country’s empty propaganda. Like that hilarious story when Iraqis were throwing out babies from the windows of Kuwaiti hospitals. Later it was revealed that the testimony was given by the daughter of Kuwait’s US ambassador and the story was written by a famous US PR-company Hill and Knowlton. After it was revealed the US administration had red faces for months. And it was only one lie in a huge chain of fabricated “truth”.

In war, some facts less factual

Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot

Saddam Could Call CIA in His Defense

USA is many ways behind every torture and mass grave in Iraq since Saddam was put in power. USA has manipulated Iraq for decades. Try to understand and realize that Seafordian , you worthless crusader.
 

Simo Hurtta, Don't confuse me with facts!
-----------------------

Militants Attack Iraq's Interior Ministry
 

Yesterday I posted the day's "Meet the Press" Transcript. Watching the interview with a heartbroken yet coherent Aaron Broussard (President, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana) reminded me that some actual human beings still hold positions of authority, human beings with the decency and compassion that George talks about but does not himself appear to possess.

When turning on "Meet the Press" my expectations were low. It turned out, however, to be astonishingly good, indeed, excellent. This links to some of the comments that followed the program.
 

"Claims of Saddam's Genocide Far from Proven", replete with links and heavily footnoted (54) is recommended for those seeking information. Its section headings are as follows:

- What Happened at Halabja?
- Was There an Ongoing Campaign of Genocide?
- Dissecting the Genocide Reports
- Captured Iraqi Documents
- Nerve Gas Allegations
- Other Advocates of the Genocide Claims
- The Ultimate Assessment
 

Killed by Contempt: "Hurricane Katrina was more than a natural disaster. It was a political epiphany, laying bare difficult truths from which, mainly, the United States has been in flight."

A Failure of Leadership: "Hospitals with deathly ill patients were left without power, with ventilators that didn't work, with floodwaters rising on the lower floors and with corpses rotting in the corridors and stairwells. People unable to breathe on their own, or with cancer or heart disease or kidney failure, slipped into comas and sank into their final sleep in front of helpless doctors and relatives. These were Americans in desperate trouble.

"The president didn't seem to notice."

Bury the Backlash: "One thing that should also have died this week is American apathy about government like this."

VIDEO: Survivors From New Orleans Speak Out About A Week of Horror
 

Red Tape Stops Doctors In New Orleans Relief Efforts: "Dr. Jeffrey Guy, a trauma surgeon at Vanderbilt University who has been in contact with the mobile hospital doctors, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, 'There are entire hospitals that are contacting me, saying, 'We need to take on patients,' but they can't get through the bureaucracy."

"'The crime of this story is, you've got millions of dollars in assets and it's not deployed,' he said. 'We mount a better response in a Third World country."
 

Former CIA Director Tenet Threatens Disclosures?
(And I'm sure he has plenty to tell.)
 

U.S. the new Saddam: "Gen. John Jumper stated U.S. warplanes would remain in Iraq to fight resistance forces and protect the American-installed regime 'more or less indefinitely.' ...Jumper's revelation confirms what this column has long said: The Pentagon plans to copy Imperial Britain's method of ruling oil-rich Iraq."
 

In my own words . . .
- The American led wars against Afghanistan and Iraq are, by any civilized standard, unjustified & barbaric.
- The American leadership is corrupt and have committed far greater crimes against humanity than Saddam Hussein ever contemplated.
- Justice demands that the "Coalition" forces depart the countries they have occupied.
- It is impossible to repay our debt to humanity. That, however, does not mean we should not be held accountable. That does not mean the terms of accountability are for this country to decide.
- We have transgressed against the citizens of our own country, failing by every conceivable measure to properly care for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
- As a country we have no claim to a morality or way of life that should be emulated by (or forced upon) others.
- Indeed, with the greatest of humility, we have much to learn from the peoples of the world.
- My hope is that somehow the great cauldron of evil will be lifted, allowing the vast majority of decent people in this world to live together in a common brother- sisterhood.
 

The Anti-Empire Report, September 5, 2005; PROPERTY BEFORE LIFE: "New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered virtually all the city's 1,500 police officers to leave their search-and-rescue missions last week and return to the streets to stop the looting.

"'Three hundred of the Arkansas National Guard have landed in the city of New Orleans,' said Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. 'These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle-tested and under my orders to restore order in the streets. They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.'

"Such tough talk, such uncompromising, principled stands against those who violate the law. Zero tolerance! When do we hear this from our public officials when it comes to the corporations who loot the public treasury and workers’ pensions? Who pollute the air that we all breathe every moment of every day, killing far more people than all the rioters in the United States have ever done. Who raise gasoline prices to the point that people’s normal lives and desires are grievously trampled upon. Wouldn’t we like to see some of those well trained, experienced, battle-tested troops training their M-16s on the likes of CEOs of Enron or World.com or General Electric or ExxonMobil or Halliburton?"
 

The Anti-Empire Report, September 5, 2005; THE MEDIA'S ASSASSINATION FABLE:
"Following the call of The Most Reverend Pat Robertson for the United States to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the media trotted out one of its perennial myths, that political assassination is forbidden by the US government due to the action of former President Gerald Ford. It’s true that Ford issued an executive order in 1976 which stated: “No employee of the United States shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination." But subsequently, presidents Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes overrode this by issuing authorizations for the CIA and other US government agencies to kill certain named individuals, like Osama bin Laden and his deputies, or certain classes of individuals, like 'terrorists'. These presidential authorizations have been designated as 'executive orders', 'memorandums of law', or 'intelligence findings'. Reagan went back and forth between banning and authorizing assassination, creating at one point what was actually called by the press, a 'license to kill.'

"If any of these White House promulgations were “legal”, it was perhaps only because they were never challenged in any court, domestic or international. But Reagan and his successors have clearly not been acting out of any ethical or legal principle for or against assassination. It's all been realpolitik or public relations, and the actual American policy in the field over the years has never varied to speak of, whatever the 'official' message of the day coming out of the White House was."

Postscript:"It’s most ironic that for 15 years the United States has in effect been shielding Iran as the mastermind behind the PanAm bombing. It’s difficult to see how Washington can ever admit to this particular lie that it’s been living, but I imagine that at the appropriate moment something will be 'discovered', like the fragment of circuit board.

"And by the way, Libya has never confessed to having carried out the act. They’ve only taken 'responsibility', in the hope of getting various sanctions against them ended."