Free Iraq

Regarding the first posted article, the American media certainly will not be doing a mea culpa, clarification or retraction regarding their vilification of Iraqi scientists. Simply, the truth, in and of itself, serving no commercial or "strategic" purpose, does not matter. Far more important: supporting the American war effort, keeping alive the idea of "enemies". Notions of "them" and "us", are critical to the pursuit of imperial killing. When, on occasion, inconvenient information does surface, the media takes it up only if some objective quite beyond bedrock matters like Justice or Common Decency is served. The Balance Sheet is King. The Constitution & Human Rights: expendable. Chris Floyd (following) sees with clear eyes.


Chris Floyd, Clowntime is Over: The Last Stand of the American Republic: . . . [I]t will have to be the Establishment that breaks Bush -- or he won't be broken. ...

... The past few years give little grounds for hope: the Democrats spineless, conflicted, co-opted and corrupt; the Republicans slavish, bellicose, cruel and criminal; the media timorous, witless, corporate-controlled; big business absolutely rolling in gravy from the autocrat's larder; academia cowed, silenced, ignored, demonized; the military acquiescent in criminal aggression, top-heavy with time-servers currying autocratic favor. Only the courts provide some stray sparks of hope, although they too are now loaded with political sycophants, corporate bagmen and knuckle-dragging throwbacks produced by the Right's decades-long devolution of American jurisprudence. Prosecutors like Patrick Fitzgerald and Elliot Spitzer "keep hope alive," but their efforts will mean little in a system where lawlessness at the top has been countenanced by the rest of the Establishment. And in any case, the outcome of their work lies ultimately with the Supreme Court -- the same court that shredded the Constitution in awarding power to Bush in the first place, and which is now led by a Bushist apparatchik.

The next few weeks will show us if there is still some hope of restoring the Republic through the old institutions, or if we will have to follow the course laid out by Bob Dylan some 40 years ago: "Strike another match, go start anew." Who knows? Maybe we can make a better republic next time: one not born of blood, greed and fury -- those all-too-common elements of human organization -- but made from a new compound of mercy, justice, communion and liberty. Still imperfect, of course, still corrupt -- because that's our intractable human nature -- but with our worst instincts restrained by enlightened, ever-evolving law, and the predatory ambitions of the rich and powerful reined by elaborate checks and balances.
 

Crux of the Problem: But Hamas is dedicated to Israel's destruction.
"Isn't Israel also dedicated to Palestine's destruction? Who is occupying whose land? Who is tormenting and brutalising the other? Who has expelled millions of innocent people from their ancestral land, Hamas or Israel?"
 

WANTED (DEAD OR ALIVE): ABU MUSAB AL-ZARQAWI (again)
 

Iraqi Prisoner Kills Eight With Guard Gun: "Guards then overtook the gunman and restrained* him."

* "Restrained" = Interesting choice of words.
 

Germany seeks bigger role in Iraq: "There is consensus in the grand coalition that no German soldiers will be sent to Iraq. ... But the German government wants to more strongly support the democratization and sterilization process* in Iraq after the successful elections."

* ???
 

Juan Cole, Top Ten Myths about Iraq in 2005
 

Malcom Lagauche, WHY ISN’T SADDAM BEING TRIED FOR GENOCIDE?: "Through the years, we have become accustomed to hearing so many allegations against Saddam Hussein that they eventually become mundane: 100,000 here; 400,000 there; etc. If one adds up the numbers, it would appear that Saddam killed more people than the entire population of Iraq.

"Many people are now asking, 'Why is he only being tried for one incident that led to the deaths of 142 people? How about the big stuff?'"
 

Kurt Nimmo, French Engineer Abducted by Fake Iraqi Terrorists: "We are expected to believe the Iraqi resistance is not only vicious, but also uninterested in repairing the damage inflicted on its country by the neocon invasion. It runs around abducting Christian peace activists, western journalists, Sudanese and Moroccan embassy employees, and people from countries that opposed Bush’s invasion. ...
[ . . . ]

"Obviously, kidnapping and possibly killing innocent journalists, peace activists, and water engineers has a more practical goal—to make the resistance out to be blood-thirsty savages, demented Islamic fanatics determined to kill as many people as possible, both Iraqi and Sudanese, Moroccan, French, British, and assorted others. ..."
 

Dar Al-Hayat, Palestinian Confronting the "Bulldozer": The buffer zone Ariel Sharon has approved in northern Gaza goes beyond "security" objectives, put forth by Israeli military, chiefly Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz, to justify the measure. They allege that Israeli residential compounds are in the range of Palestinian-made missiles fired from the indicated zone, requiring to prohibit any militant presence including Palestinian police and security forces.

Israeli statistics, based [on] the Ministry of Defense figures and stats, stipulate that hundreds of Palestinian rockets injured a limited number of Israelis. This does not justify a measure compelling the Palestinian Authority (PA) to withdraw it's security forces, one of whose main tasks is to prevent launching missiles. The measure is rather intended to acquire, by force and in the name of security, the right to maintain control and aggression within the Gaza-Israel "border line zone". This would in turn eliminate the any remaining support for the PA, which is facing the most grueling tests in the West Bank.
[ . . . ]
 

Israel fires to enforce Gaza Strip "no-go zone"
 

These I post for those still having hope in their hearts. May it be well founded. -

Cindy Sheehan, 2006: The Year the Chickenhawks Will Go Home to Roost: Gold Star Families for Peace is planning many activities for the first part of 2006. I would like to give you all a heads up on them, so you can make your plans accordingly to support us and to join us if at all possible.

On January 31st , we will be in Washington, DC for the State of the Union address when George gets in front of Congress and the world and lies through his teeth about how great everything is going in Iraq and here at home. His idiotic policies have ruined Iraq and New Orleans and made the world a more dangerous place…allowing that terrorist attacks have tripled world wide since he decided to "fight them over there." He also may be laying the ground work for further acts of needless aggression against Syria and Iraq. GSFP and representatives from other peace organizations and refugees from New Orleans will be gathering in DC to give the "Real State of the Union." Check our website for place and time.


THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION


Impeachment Buzz
 

Aljazeera.com, "Democratic elections" in occupied Palestine and Iraq?: The agreed definition of the term "democracy" is "a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation, usually involving periodically held free elections".

But is that the case in IRAQ and Palestine?

The occupied Palestine is currently holding its local elections while the parliamentary voting takes place in the war-torn IRAQ. What is the common denominator between both countries' elections? Both represent blatant interference in the internal affairs of the countries, both Arab territories.

Also both are occupied by armies of imperialist states, Israel and the U.S.
[ . . . ]

Despite the Palestinians' keenness to participate and hold credible elections, analysts say that the elections wont' reach its aspired targets. The only problems stemmed from unwelcome Israeli interference: military roadblocks hindering people getting to polling booths. East Jerusalem for instance, Israeli officials did not allow many registered voters to actually cast a vote.

The battle to bring democracy to IRAQ or Palestine will not take place in the ballot box, it will be fought against foreign occupiers who wish to force the countries into submissive states.

There is no greater democratic struggle than the struggle against a military, economic, and political occupation.
 

Kurds plan to invade South: "Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan."
 

VIDEO (1 min.), george bush drunk (Apparently this was back when He was Gov. of Texas. Malicious rumour has it that the celebration was occasioned by ANOTHER inmate execution.)
 

Iraq Sunnis, Secular Groups Demand Review: "U.S. airstrikes launched by two F-16 fighter jets in Kirkuk province killed 10 insurgents on Tuesday, the military said Thursday.

"The military said the pilots saw three men planting roadside bombs.* The pilots killed the three and seven others with them after dropping two 500-pound, laser guided bombs, the military said.

"The United Nations official, Craig Jenness, said his U.N.-led international election assistance team found the elections to be fair, remarks that represented crucial support for Iraqi election commission officials, who refused opposition demands to step down. They have said they had found some instances of fraud that were enough to cancel the results in some places but not to hold another vote in any district."

* Wonderful eyesight/technology/timing
 

Kurt Nimmo, Total Information Awareness and the Neocon Stasi State: [ . . . ]
"Bush—or rather, since Bush is an enfeebled cardboard cut-out of a president, the Straussian-Machiavellian neocons—are simply using well-established tools in an all-out effort to destroy what remains of the Constitution, a prerequisite for the sort of total war they envision first against Islam (in the name of the Jabotinsky Zionists in Israel) and then against all comers who would question or challenge U.S.-corporate hegemony. It is certainly no mistake the shakers and movers of the Bushcon administration are former Iran-Contra alumni, well-versed in the methods and means of totalitarianism."
 

(To be read together with 12:10 PM posting - above)
Ten killed in U.S. air strike on Iraqi village: "U.S. soldiers later raided the village and found assault rifles, a machine gun and bomb-making equipment in houses near the site of the air strike."
 

Patrick Cockburn, New Left Review, THE OCCUPATION: A panorama of Iraq two and a half years after the Anglo-American invasion. Britain’s leading reporter on the country talks about the life conditions of the population; the springs of the resistance; the relations between Sunni and Shia communities; the position of the Kurds; the performance of the US military; and the historical precedents and possible outcomes of the second Western seizure of Iraq.
 

Extract -
Pentagon propaganda program orders soldiers to promote Iraq war while home on leave: The program, coordinated through a Pentagon operation dubbed “Operation Homefront,” ordered military personnel to give interviews to their hometown newspapers, television stations and other media outlets and praise the American war effort in Iraq.

Initial reports back to the Pentagon deem the operation a success with dozens of front page stories in daily and weekly newspapers around the country along with upbeat reports on local television stations.

“I’ve been promised an early release if I do a good job promoting the war,” says one reservist who asked not to be identified.

In interviews with a number of reservists home for the holidays, a pattern emerges on the Pentagon’s propaganda effort. Soldiers are encouraged to contact their local news media outlets to offer interviews about the war. A detailed set of talking points encourages them to:

--Admit initial doubts about the war but claim conversion to a belief in the American mission;

--Praise military leadership in Iraq and throw in a few words of support for the Bush administration;

--Claim the mission to turn security of the country over to the Iraqis is working;

--Reiterate that America must not abandon its mission and must stay until the “job is finished.”

--Talk about how “things are better” now in Iraq.

And the Army is cracking down on soldiers who go on the record opposing the war.

But Sgt. Johnathan Wilson, a reservist, got his honorable discharge after he returned home earlier this month and he’s not afraid to talk on the record.

“Iraq is a classic FUBAR,” he says. “The country is out of control and we can’t stop it. Anybody who tries to sell a good news story about the war is blowing it out his ass. We don’t win and eventually we will leave the country in a worse shape than it was when we invaded.”
 

(Here listed, the cited "fallacies", none of the rebuttals, for which, see the article itself. Notable: the article's conservative proponents, including the John Birch Society - click links - previously presumed by myself to be part of Bush's "base".)
The New American, Iraq War Fallacies: Proponents of keeping our soldiers in Iraq repeatedly offer the same rationale for their viewpoint. Here, their most often cited reasons are refuted. [Click here to send online letter to Congress, "Bring Our Soldiers Home From Iraq -- Now!"]

FALLACY: If the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq now, the country will collapse into chaos, civil war, and dictatorship, and will almost certainly end up being ruled by a regime hostile to us.

FALLACY: The huge turnout of Iraqi voters in the January and December 2005 election proves President Bush's hopeful vision that this "is the beginning of something new: constitutional democracy at the heart of the Middle East."

FALLACY: But we must support democracy if we hope to stop terrorism. As President Bush said in his second Inaugural Address: "So, it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."

FALLACY: We must not lose our resolve because of setbacks and casualties; we must "stay the course" in the war against terror.

FALLACY: George W. Bush did not lie us into war. He made the best decision he could based on the intelligence he had -- and the Democrats, using the same intelligence, came to the same conclusion.

FALLACY: President Bush is our commander in chief, and it is our patriotic duty during this time of war to support him.

FALLACY: But Iraqi forces are rapidly being trained and are nearly ready to take over. It is irresponsible and immoral to pull out before they are capable of surviving without us.

FALLACY: We are helping make life sustainable after U.S. forces leave by providing schools, hospitals, water and sewer systems, and training our replacements to run the infrastructure. We can't let this all go down the drain.

FALLACY: It is better to fight the terrorists in Iraq than to fight them in the United States.
 

(Permanent link to article posted December 28, 2005 9:15 PM)
WHY ISN’T SADDAM BEING TRIED FOR GENOCIDE?
 

Mike Whitney, Doomsday for the Greenback: "America’s capital is not in Washington DC. In fact, it is not geographic location at all. It is the greenback, the epicenter of the global rule. The dollar is the cornerstone upon which the mighty pillars of empire rest. At the same time, the greenback is the greatest hoax in human history; a worthless scrap of paper buried beneath a mountain of debt. It is only through the skillful mix of politics, diplomacy, and brute force that the grand deception is maintained. As America’s fortunes grow more tenuous, the probability of attacks on the dollar will increase exponentially. Even now, nations are conspiring to knock the dollar from its lofty perch and introduce a more equitable system.
[ . . . ]

"Every greenback carries with it the accumulated weight of two centuries of war, slavery, and ethnic cleansing of Native Americans. It is the flaccid script that has fueled 50 years of covert activities, coup d’etats, and third-world death-squads. It churns through the arteries of the empire to the furthest most extremities where torture and abuse are carried out beneath the tri-colored standard. It is strewn across the empire like the myriad gulags that now speckle the planet. It is the heart of the beast; a venom-pumping organ with arteries strung across the globe like the concertina-wire that surrounds Falluja, Samarra and Tal Afar.

"Eventually the stately images of Lincoln and Washington will be stripped from the currency; replaced with the looming specter of Guantanamo’s gun towers or the iconic figure of an Abu Ghraib prisoner, hooded in sackcloth, arms outstretched in Christ-like submission, wires draped from his hands and feet. These are the freshly minted symbols of the new realm, the republic of terror.

"As the empire extends its withering grip to the world’s last resource-centers, the dollar is coming under increasing scrutiny. It is the dollar that facilitates the perennial war and the vast expansion of military force; just as it is the dollar that binds together the constellation of American colonies that function exclusively in the interests of their Washington overlords. The asymmetrical warfare that is approaching will put the greenback squarely in the crosshairs; the weal-link in America’s coat of mail.

"Hugo Chavez knows this, as did Saddam; . . .
[ . . . ]

"America’s prodigious debt has made the war for the world’s dwindling resources an existential struggle that makes a retreat from Iraq impossible. If America’s debt is not propped up with oil the anemic dollar would crumble and the American economy would shatter like glass."
 

U.S. holds bulging prisoner population in Iraq: ". . . The prisoner population, consisting of suspected insurgents, has more than doubled since autumn 2004.

"'Iraqi forces must meet all standards of care and custody in full accordance with international law and respecting the human rights of all individuals being detained,' said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a senior military spokesman in Baghdad."
 

Iraqi Resistance Report for events of Wednesday, 28 December 2005
 

Dar Al-Hayat, How Long Will Oil Prices Remain Stable?
 

Extract -
Norman Solomon, Sitting on Stories; Journalists Should Expose Secrets, Not Keep Them: When the New York Times front page broke the story of the National Security Agency's domestic spying, the newspaper's editors had good reason to feel proud. Or so it seemed. But there was a troubling backstory: The Times had kept the scoop under wraps for a long time.

From all indications, the Times had the basic story in hand before the election in November 2004, when Bush defeated challenger John Kerry. In other words, if those running the New York Times had behaved like journalists instead of political players -- if they had exposed this momentous secret instead of keeping it -- there are good reasons to believe the outcome of the presidential election might have been different.

Chiseled into the stone facades of some courthouses is the credo "Justice delayed is justice denied." The same might be said of journalism, which derives much of its power from timeliness. When egregiously delayed, journalism is denied -- or at least severely diminished.

. . . "One of the more durable fallacies of ethical thought in journalism is the notion that doing right means holding back, that wrong is averted by leaving things out, reporting less or reporting nothing. When in doubt, kill the quote, hold the story -- that's the ethical choice. But silence isn't innocent. It has consequences. In this case, it protected those within the government who believe that the law is a nuisance, that they don't have to play by the rules, by any rules, even their own*."

Perhaps in 2007 we will learn that the New York Times had an explosive story about other ongoing government violations of civil liberties or some other crucial issue, but held it until after the November 2006 congressional elections. In that case, quite a few media critics and other journalists could recycle their pieces about giving the Times the benefit of the doubt and appreciating the quality of the crucial story that finally appeared.

* Emphasis added
 

Bill & Kathleen Christison, It's More Important Than Halting Nuclear Proliferation; Let's Stop a US/Israeli War on Iran
(Main sections)
- What should be done to change U.S. policy on Iran's nuclear program?

- How should the U.S. change its policies with respect to Syria?

- How should the U.S. change its policies with respect to the Palestinians?: We should make it as clear as we possibly can to members of Congress that the Palestine-Israel problem is the most central long-term issue to the peoples of the Middle East. Most Arab leaders have been so co-opted by the U.S. that they no longer object to our support for Israel's oppression of the Palestinians, but the peoples of the area are a different story. They do care about and object strenuously to that oppression.

Regardless of what happens anywhere in the Middle East, we will never end the "War on Terrorism" without, first, a solution to the Palestine-Israel issue that provides as much justice to the Palestinians as to the Israelis. ...

... Israeli and U.S. policy in the West Bank, semi-hidden by a bogus withdrawal from Gaza, continues to seek permanent conquest of more and more territory. The daily injustices and cruelties imposed by Israel and the U.S. on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are today worse than they have been in the previous 38 years of occupation. This is not only a major human rights issue facing the United States. It is also a very large cause of the hatred against the U.S. throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.

What is new in the last few months is Israeli intensification of settlement activity in the West Bank, particularly in East Jerusalem; intensification of land-confiscation (with no recompense to Palestinians); a speed-up in construction of the separation wall and of new "Israeli-citizens-only" roads, both of which also require more land-confiscation; more demolitions of Palestinian houses; and new, harsh Israeli measures of other types aimed specifically at forcing Palestinians out of areas, in which they have lived for generations, in and near Jerusalem.

All of this takes place with little Western media attention; the media devoted considerably more attention to the carefully televised "suffering" of the relatively few Israeli settlers forced to move from their luxurious homes in Gaza. The Israelis, with heavy U.S. financing, are busily establishing more "facts on the ground" that will make any peaceful solution providing equal justice to both sides less possible. That does not mean that Israel will "win." Given the determination and inexhaustibility (and large numbers) of Palestinians, it just means more terrorism, killing, and cruelty on both sides. ...
 

International Team to Review Iraq Results : The announcement came after the Sunni and secular Shiite groups refused to open discussions with the Shiite religious bloc leading in the elections without a full review of the contested results, despite a U.N. observer's endorsement of the Dec. 15 vote. ...

Among the International Mission for Iraqi Elections will be two representatives from the Arab League, one member of the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians and a respected European academic, the group said Thursday. The independent group said it helped monitor the elections in Baghdad and was "assisted by monitors from countries of the European Union working under IMIE's umbrella."

The invitation to review the process and about 1,500 complaints lodged by candidates and parties was welcomed by the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, who said "these experts will be arriving immediately and we are ready to assist them, if needed." Iraqi elections officials have acknowledged some instances of fraud, but said they would only change results a few areas.
 

Govt talks resume; Shi'ite family massacred
 

(For those to whom the Rule of Law - rightly - matters, the full article is recommended.)
Francis A. Boyle, Belligerent Occupant; Iraq and the Laws of War: ... Under the laws of war, this so-called Interim Government of Iraq is nothing more than a "puppet government." As the belligerent occupant of Iraq the United States government is free to establish a puppet government if it so desires. But under the laws of war, the United States government remains fully accountable for the behavior of its puppet government.

As the belligerent occupant of Iraq, the United States government is obligated to ensure that its puppet Interim Government of Iraq obeys the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, the 1907 Hague Regulations on land warfare, U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956), the humanitarian provisions of Additional Protocol I of 1977 to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the customary international laws of war. Any violation of the laws of war, international humanitarian law, and human rights committed by its puppet Interim Government of Iraq are legally imputable to the United States government. As the belligerent occupant of Iraq, both the United States government itself as well as its concerned civilian officials and military officers are fully and personally responsible under international criminal law for all violations of the laws of war, international humanitarian law, and human rights committed by its puppet Interim Government of Iraq such as, for example, reported death squads operating under the latter's auspicies.

Furthermore, it was a total myth, fraud, lie, and outright propaganda for the Bush Jr. administration to maintain that it was somehow magically transferring "sovereignty" to its puppet Interim Government of Iraq during the summer of 2004. Under the laws of war, sovereignty is never transferred from the defeated sovereign such as Iraq to a belligerent occupant such as the United States. This is made quite clear by paragraph 353 of U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 (1956): "Belligerent occupation in a foreign war, being based upon the possession of enemy territory, necessarily implies that the sovereignty of the occupied territory is not vested in the occupying power. Occupation is essentially provisional."

... [T]he United States government never had any "sovereignty" in the first place to transfer to its puppet Interim Government of Iraq. In Iraq the sovereignty still resides in the hands of the people of Iraq and in the state known as the Republic of Iraq, where it has always been. The legal regime described above will continue so long as the United States remains the belligerent occupant of Iraq. Only when that U.S. belligerent occupation of Iraq is factually terminated can the people of Iraq have the opportunity to exercise their international legal right of sovereignty by means of free, fair, democratic, and uncoerced elections. So as of this writing, the United States and the United Kingdom remain the belligerent occupants of Iraq despite their bogus "transfer" of their non-existent "sovereignty" to their puppet Interim Government of Iraq.
 

Missing: 100 tonnes of explosives from an Afghanistan-bound merchant ship
 

Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com, What's Best for the Country?: "A turnover of the House and Senate to the Democrats would set the stage for one of the most significant political battles in modern American history: a full-scale investigation of Bush’s actions since 2001, a likely battle over congressional subpoena powers, and possible articles of impeachment against Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Some political observers certainly would prefer avoiding such a showdown, especially given the enfeebled state of the American political process and the ineptitude of the U.S. news media. But finessing the constitutional issues by ignoring the facts may no longer be a viable option.

"To paraphrase Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s comment about shortcomings in the U.S. army that he sent to war in Iraq: Sometimes you have to go into battle with the political system you’ve got, not the one you wish you had."
 

C.L. Cook, PEJ News, Turning Turkey: The Kurdish Gambit: Turkey seems left with little room to manoeuvre. Islam Online reported earlier this month, Israeli ex-commando units, now seconded to various MOSSAD-connected corporations, are "operating" in northern Iraq, training what look to be Kurdish shock-troops. It's not exactly news. The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh wrote about this last year. But what is interesting is the recent confluence of media and diplomatic activity beginning to hum around Ankara.
[ . . . ]

Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey all share a "Kurdish problem" and the arming and training of Kurdish fighters is of mutual concern. So much so, Turkey has joined in a new pact with both Syria and Iran, the rumoured targets of American, and or Israeli hostilities.
 

Finest US Senate That Israeli Money Can Buy
 

FBI Hides 85 Pentagon Videos And 9/11 Truth
 

Fear destroys what bin Laden could not: "Ultimately, our best defense against attack -- any attack, of any sort -- is holding fast and fearlessly to the ideals upon which this nation was built. Bush clearly doesn't understand or respect that. Do we?"
 

Wayne Madsen Report, December 29, 2005-- Latin America preparing for the "Yanqui invasion" - U.S. positions military forces in Latin America to confront the surge of popular socialism in the Western Hemisphere: The Bush administration and its Congressional allies . . . are backing the Pentagon's plans to expand its military presence in Latin America. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has authorized the expansion of U.S. military bases -- called Cooperative Security Locations (CSLs) -- the Mariscal Estigarribia airbase in Paraguay near the Bolivian and Brazilian borders, Eloy Alfaro International Airport in Manta, Ecuador; Comalapa International Airport in El Salvador; the Soto Cano Air Base in Comayagua, Honduras, "Plan Colombia" military installations throughout Colombia, covert bases in Peru, Reina Beatrix International Airport in Aruba; and Hato International Airport in Curacao.

These bases, which are staffed with a relatively small U.S. military presence and a larger contractor element drawn from the ranks of ex-patriot American and other military veterans who have lived in Latin America since the Contra war days, have the capability to ramp up military operations at short notice.

The Bush administration is trying to cobble together a Latin American "coalition of the willing" to take on progressive governments in Latin America, including those of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuba whose ranks may swell in 2006 to include populist governments in Nicaragua, Peru, and Mexico. For that reason, the U.S. Southern Command is planning a saber-rattling military exercise in Paraguay in 2006 called "Fuerzas Comando 06." ...
 

(Raed, I live only 45 miles from Sacramento, and I didn't know! Thank you for drawing it to my attention.)
Raed In The Middle, Withdrawal of US Troops from Iraq: How come we didn't hear about this very important resolution passed by the Sacramento City Council in November 1, 2005?!

SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR WITHDRAWAL OF AMERICAN TROOPS FROM IRAQ

SACRAMENTO—Joining over 100 American cities, Sacramento passed a resolution Tuesday night urging President Bush and the United States Congress to commence a humane, orderly, rapid and comprehensive withdrawal of United States military personnel and bases from Iraq. ...
 

Every puppet needs a puppeteer, even in a free & independent 'democracy' -
U.S. forces aim to bring Iraq police under control: "We're going to try to wrap ourselves around them," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"By hugging the enemy*, wrapping our arms around them, we hope to control them ... like we did with the army," he said, noting that the Interior Ministry was not enthusiastic about the idea. The plan was likely to be approved shortly, he said.

"2006 we're going to call the year of the police," ...

"They can tell us to get lost but we ain't going to get lost," the official said of Iraqi commanders. "If we find they're breaking the law, then we're going to arrest them."

* Unclear reference, surely.
 

Kurt Nimmo, Neocon Stasi: Spy vs. Spy: Increasingly, it is appropriate to characterize the Bushcon spy operation as an all-American version of Stasi (Staats Sicherheitsdienst), the feared East German secret police. As it turns out, the neocon Stasi engaged in spook activity not only against American citizens, but government bureaucrats and fellow spooks as well. “NSA spied on its own employees, other U.S. intelligence personnel, and their journalist and congressional contacts,” reports Wayne Madsen*. “WMR has learned that the National Security Agency (NSA), on the orders of the Bush administration, eavesdropped on the private conversations and e-mail of its own employees, employees of other U.S. intelligence agencies—including the CIA and DIA—and their contacts in the media, Congress, and oversight agencies and offices,” behavior fitting of the Committee for State Security, or the Soviet era KGB, responsible for the liquidation of anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary organizations.

As Madsen writes, neocon political hack Porter Goss has his job cut-out for him. “The journalist surveillance program, code named ‘Firstfruits,’ was part of a Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) program that was maintained at least until October 2004 and was authorized by then-DCI Porter Goss. Firstfruits was authorized as part of a DCI ‘Countering Denial and Deception’ program responsible to an entity known as the Foreign Denial and Deception Committee (FDDC). Since the intelligence community’s reorganization, the DCI has been replaced by the Director of National Intelligence headed by John Negroponte and his deputy, former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden.”

It should be noted that Negroponte ran death squad operations in Nicaragua and supported the brutal military dictatorship of General Gustavo Alvarez Martínez in Honduras. Even though he was implicated in the Iran-Contra criminal operation, the Senate had no problem confirming Negroponte to “serve” as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. ...
[ . . . ]

Some may believe my characterization of the neocon spook operation as an all-American version of Stasi is erroneous. However, all one need do is consider the rumor Markus Wolf, the former director of the East German Stasi, “was being considered for the top post at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” according to the Idaho Observer. “The rumor caused such a stir that the Bush administration chose Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Michael Chertoff to replace outgoing Tom Ridge as Director of Homeland Security,” not that Chertoff is an advocate for civil liberties and the Constitution. It should be noted that Chertoff “is a longtime member and activist in the Federalist Society,” according to Right Web. ...

It should also be noted that Chertoff “supervised the round-up of 750 Arabs and other Muslims on suspicion of immigration violations. Treated as suspected terrorist sympathizers or material witnesses, the ’suspects’ were held without bond for as long as three months, often in solitary confinement, despite having never been charged with any crime,” a precursor of things to come for American citizens (and in fact a number of the Muslims rounded up in Gestapo-like raids were American citizens, albeit Muslim American citizens). ...
-----------------
* December 28, 2005
 

Chalabi takes over Iraq oil ministry amid 'crisis'
 

Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, Review of the year: Iraq: "The US has not been as generous in transferring power to Iraqis as might appear from formal announcements. The main intelligence service has no budget, but is paid for and run by the CIA. The US has tried to keep control of the Defence Ministry and the new Iraqi army, which is supposedly being built up to take the place of US forces when they are withdrawn. The US military speaks of the triumphs and failures of training and equipping Iraqi troops (they have given less attention to the police). But there is another problem that the US has not really tackled.

"The question is not just about the ability of the new army to fight, but about loyalty. Who, at the end of the day, will the soldiers fight for? Polls by Britain's Ministry of Defence show that the occupation is overwhelmingly unpopular among Shia as well as Sunni Iraqis. In the long run, the US cannot create an officer corps loyal to America. Then there is also the question of how far the army is a national institution. Its 115 battalions are reportedly 60 Shia, 45 Sunni, 9 Kurdish and one mixed. Over the next year we will see if Iraq is going to remain a single state or turn into a confederation. There are forces for unity as well as disintegration. Most Iraqi Arabs want to live in one country. But political observers fear that a Bosnian solution is on the cards, in which Baghdad will play the role of Sarajevo."
 

Voice Of God Revealed To Be Cheney On Oval Office Intercom
 

Christian Science Monitor, US to increase 'aid' to Iraqi police
 

This is written by a friend of mine:

The Release of 'Dr. Anthrax'

On Saturday, eight 'high value' Iraqis held without charge for over two years by the United States were released.They included Dr Huda Ammash, a distinguished internationally renowned, environmental biologist, Professor at Baghdad University, whose earned her PhD at the University of Missouri. Her father, former Iraqi Ambassador to the US, under the government of Abdul Karim Kassem (1958-1963) was executed in a purge to stamp authority by Saddam in 1981. In the 1990's Dr Ammash was, ironically offered a seat in the Legislature. When Saddam offered a position to say:'No thanks, I've my career plan mapped out, was not an option', but her academic career remained her passion and primary focus.

Arrested by US troops, this brave, gentle woman suddenly became 'Mrs Anthrax' and featured on America's assinine playing cards of their 'most wanted', in the wild west, last chance saloon Iraq became after April 2003.

Dr Ammash's crime was her numerous scientific papers on the environmental and biological impact of sanctions and the horrific health cost of the weapons used in the 1991 Gulf war by Britain and the US. In 'Iraq Under Siege -the Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War' (Pluto Press, updated 2003 Ed: Anthony Arnove) contributers included Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Howard Zinn, Denis Halliday - and Huda Ammash. All those the US and UK Administrations love to hate most, were under one cover and she was firmly allied with them.

Her introduction reads: 'The Gulf war ended in 1991, but the massive destruction linked to it continues. An unprecedented catastrophe resulting from a mixture of toxic, radiological, chemical and electromagnetic exposure is still causing substantial consequences to health and the environment, exacerbated by santions .... much of Iraq has been turned into a polluted and radioactive environment.' She understated.

She refers to the International Treaties outlawing such weapons, to depleted uranium (DU) weapons not being 'depleted' but a 'radioactive waste', the all in minutely detailed, careful, hard hitting, scientific, incontravertable fact. 'DU is radiologically and chemically toxic to humans and other forms of life.' She details, well on the side of caution the '... terrifying total of three hundred and twenty to three hundred and fifty tonnes of DU expended ammunition.... scattered throughout Iraq and Kuwait.' She reminds that US Army manuals warn of the dangers, that the pollution enters the water table and thus can spread through the entre region ravaging the lives of those - young, older and yet unborn - not even in the conflict zone.

She writes of a less adressed subject: 'Electromagnetic pollution'. '....particularly dangerous because it is often undetected'. In Finland near early wanring radar systems, '..pregnancy problems, anxiety, depression, fatality, heart failures, cardiovascular diseases, cancers ...leukaemia, eye and skin diseases ..' in excess have been recorded,as with those who work 'in other electromagnetic environments.' During the forty five day day war, widely deployed electronic devices '... advanced radar systems, lazer guided missiles ...released high frequency electromagnetic energy into the atmosphere ...' Chemical pollution included black rain, a soot laden atmosphere and environmental pollution was added to by soil ruination heavy metals such as nickel and vanadium also '.. changing the components of the ecosystem ..' producing an increase in rodents and scorpions.' Plants died in poisoned earth and in formerly fertile land: ' .... new fields of sand dunes were created.'

The British government were perfectly aware of Dr Ammash's non-anthrax credentials, they gave her a visa to speak at a Conference on Iraq's environment in Manchester in 2000, where their plants sat in their seats as the rest of the audience gave her a standing ovation. Iraqis too were in the audience, opposed to Saddam - many listened to her with tears in their eyes.

Huda Ammash tried to alert the world and redeem, save, her country's environment. She might also have saved Ken Bigley. His kidnapper's demand in October 2004 was, as with Margaret Hassan, release of women prisoners - all women prisoners.The British government said there were none, that after the depravities of Abu Ghraib they had been released (to call this economical with the truth would be another understatement.) The US Administration linked the demand to only Dr Ammash and a colleague Dr Rhab Taha. Colin Powell whose country is holding all Iraq hostage, said he didn't do deals with hostage takers - and Ken Bigley was beheaded. Even two illegally held women might have been a life saving gesture.

Another life to be saved is Dr Ammash herself, who passionately fighting for the environment she loved, had fallen its victim. She never mentioned the cancer she suffers, to which she has lost both her breasts. Brave, steely, elegant, gentle. Her treatment shames us all. Oh, and anthrax? Perhaps the US should arrest a few scientists at their very own Fort Detrick, Maryland, the US Army's 'Medical Research Institute' - possibly the world's largest producer of weapons grade anthrax.

Felicity Arbuthnot