Free Iraq

The cartoons say it all, stirring a particular memory of pre-liberation South Africa where all people were officially and bindingly colour-coded. For reasons of international trade, Japanese people were deemed "honorary Whites", thus allowing them breathing room not permitted, say, the Chinese, coded Black. Seriously. I'm not making this up.

May I irreverently wonder how a Sultan would be coded?
 

Today's Juan Cole, in it's entirety.
 

Three years later, 'progress' replaces 'victory': I think of this as not only a three-year anniversary, but also a 15-year anniversary in a father-and-son war. And I wonder what both President Bushes might have done differently had they been given the gift of advance hindsight.
 

Shiites Denounce U.S. Over Raid: President Jalal Talabani said he called U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and they decided to form an Iraqi-U.S. committee to investigate the attack.
 

Political storm over Iraq deaths: Members of the US special forces were present but only in an "advisory capacity", officials said.
 

Pentagon says Iraq incident didn't involve mosque: ... a cache of weapons, roadside bomb-making materials and ammunition was discovered. (Quote, unquote)
 

Tony Blair Defends His Policy on Iraq, pledging to keep British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan until those countries are "stabilized".
"If the going is tough, we tough it out."
 

(Actually, old news. However . . . )
Bush-Blair Iraq pre-war memo revealed: The memo indicates both leaders acknowledged it was possible no unconventional weapons would be found in Iraq before the invasion. ... The note cites Mr Bush suggesting three ways in which Iraq could be provoked into confrontation.
 

(Remember, you read it here! - perhaps, however, not first.)
Hoor! Hoor!: The West had to win the battle of values as much as arms, showing that its values were those in the common ownership of humanity.

[Blair] warned bluntly that global security required the active participation of the US, calling the anti-American feeling in parts of Europe and elsewhere "madness" when set against the long-term interests of the West.

"The danger with America today is not that they are too much involved. The danger is that they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage," he said.

"The reality is that none of the problems that press in on us can be resolved or even contemplated without them."
 

Bomber kills 40 at army recruiting center: [I]n an audiotape broadcast Monday . . . which Al-Jazeera television said was made by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri . . . [t]he voice said the Sunni-led insurgency was “the sole legitimate representative of the Iraqi people.”
 

Helen Thomas, No light at end of Iraq tunnel: Standing on a rooftop, a U.S. soldier recently fired a shot at an Iraqi man walking down the street. As the dying Iraqi grabbed at his wound, he cried out: "What did I do?"

That's for every American to answer.
 

Wayne Madsen Report, March 27, 2006 -- Annual meeting of the powerful and influential American Turkish Council (ATC) in Washington, DC: ATC's chairman is retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, one of Poppy Bush's best friends and his National Security Adviser.


Wayne Madsen Report, March 27, 2006 -- Outsiders racing to oil-rich Gulf of Guinea in Africa: Israel is making a major overture to Africa's most despotic dictator -- Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. ...
[ . . . ]

With Israeli-supplied patrol boats plying the waters of Equatorial Guinea's off-shore oil platforms and islands, including the islands of Bioko, Annobon, Elobey, aand Corisco, as well as the coastline of mainland Rio Muni, comes word that Nigeria requested 200 patrol boats from the United States to help put down insurgencies among the peoples of the Delta region, whose land and waters are being ruined by pollution from Western oil companies.

. . . With Israeli influence within the Pentagon continuing unabated, there are signs that such a command, or a smaller scale version of one, may be in store for Sao Tome. The two-island oil-rich nation has been visited by a number of senior U.S. military officials over the past few years.
 

Patrick Cockburn, War Crime in a Mosque: Videotape showed a heap of male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of the Imam's living quarters in what was said to be the Al Mustafa mosque. There were 5.56mm shell casings on the floor, which is the type of ammunition used by US soldiers. A weeping man in white Arab robes is shown stepping among the bodies.

"The American forces went into the Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers. They tied them up and shot them."
 

Gideon Levy, The Shooting of Little Akaber - Are We Done Killing Children, Yet?: A bullet in the head from a distance of a few meters, fired suddenly and without warning shots aimed at the wheels, which the Israel Defense Forces claims there were. This is the way undercover soldiers from the Border Police killed Akaber Zaid, an eight-and-a-half year-old, who was on her way to the doctor, according to her uncle, who was with her and was also wounded.

Soldiers from the Border Police's undercover unit, known by the Hebrew acronym Yamas, shot at her uncle's taxi at close range as he was parking the vehicle next to the doctor's office.

The car was sprayed from the right and from behind with bullets, which entered through its windows. The shots were fired from just a few meters away, the uncle stresses, in the light of a street lamp.

We saw the taxi this week: All its wheels are intact. However, those who carried out the "investigations" on behalf of the IDF and the Border Police did not even bother to examine the vehicle, or to question the man who had driven it. He was also wounded and is hospitalized.

We also took testimony from him and could not find a single fact on the ground that contradicts what he reports: The undercover soldiers shot at the girl from two directions, from nearby and, the uncle says, without warning. No soldier with a gun, certainly not an expert sharpshooter from the Yamas, would aim at close range at wheels and hit someone in the head instead.

Down the road, hundreds of meters from the shooting, are the remaining signs of the destruction wreaked by the Border Police. Not one wanted man was detained, but a five-story apartment block was badly damaged and there are wrecks of cars that were completely crushed, one after the other, still standing in the street.

Why did the undercover soldiers shoot at a young girl? How could they dare claim they aimed at the wheels? Why did they have to shoot at innocent people in a taxi in the first place? Why did they wreak such havoc? Why did they crush vehicles that were the last source of income for their owners? What is the difference between this action on the soldiers' part and a terrorist attack? And why are these questions not being asked?

(Recommended reading for the steaming Wafa Sultan)
 

Charley Reese, Told You So: Every day that passes, Americans will be less welcomed in Iraq, and I wouldn't take lightly the warning of an Iraqi cleric who said, "You should leave before we force you out."

... Slowly and gradually our victory over Saddam will turn to dust, and all those snazzy plans of the arrogant neoconservatives for a new, enlightened Middle East will turn to ashes. The Middle East is full of the ruins of superpowers.

I wrote the above three paragraphs in April 2003, shortly after U.S. forces entered Baghdad. Just wanted to remind you that I wasn't in the crowd that jumped on the bandwagon for war, ...
 

US troops arrest Iraq forces
 

Corrupt police and Iraqi crime gangs are the new 'enemy' for British troops
 

No Legal Rights for Enemy Combatants, Scalia Says: 'War Is War'
(One can but assume that SCJ Scalia has not himself provided the military with a portion of his own fighting gene pool.)
 

Newsweek, Should Scalia Recuse Himself from Gitmo case?
 

Israelis to vote for Sharon legacy: Gideon Levy, a commentator for the newspaper Ha'aretz, described the consensus among Israeli voters after decades of controlling Palestinian lives as a desire to make them go away. "Nobody is speaking about peace with them - nobody really wants it. Only one ambition unites everyone - to get rid of them, one way or another," he wrote.

"An absolute majority of the MPs [in the next parliament] will hold a position based on a lie: that Israel does not have a partner for peace ... A massive majority will cast its vote for the racist arrangement that ignores the Palestinians, as proposed by Kadima, Likud and, to a large extent, Labour. None of them tried to propose a just peace."
 

Amira Hass, Maze of checkpoints separates sisters
 

Mike Whitney, Denial, it’s not just a river in Egypt: A lot of rubbish has been written lately about “religious faith.” The fact is, there’s a force that’s more powerful than faith; the power of denial. America is drowning in denial. Most people would rather keep their heads stuck in the sand than face the disaster right before their eyes.

Congress just voted to spend another $92 billion for a war that no one supports and, yet, there's not a whimper of protest from the American people. They’ve raised the national debt to a whopping $9 trillion, every penny of which will be paid off by our children and their children’s children. Still, not a peep from the public.
 

Kerry Tomasi, Let's try not to wet ourselves this time around: Here he is, despised throughout the world and stuck in a horrific mess of his own making in Iraq; doing his best to bankrupt this country morally, ethically, and financially; on pace to easily sweep the ‘Worst President Ever’ award, and polling five points below what I've always thought was the absolute rock bottom (those who would unwaveringly support him even if he appeared stark naked on the Capitol steps, wearing a Burger King crown, babbling on about 'pickles', a rug, and a divine calling of some sort).

And yet, despite all this, he's acting as if he hasn't a care in the world. What's up with that?

I'll tell you what I suspect is up. I fear the neocon cabal running this show has a plan, ...
 

Sarah Meyer, Iraq: Torture and Task Force 121: “I’ve got this apparatus set up — the black special-access program — and I’m going in hot.” Steven Cambone, quoted in The Gray Zone by Seymour Hersh.

A recent important NY Times article by Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall was about abuse in the ‘Black Room’1 at Camp Nama near Baghdad. The NY Times map and the map of Baghdad Airport at US Camp Victory – al Nasr appear undistinguishable.

Schmitt and Marshall say that Task Force 6-26 was ‘renamed’ Task Force 121 and moved to Balad. Balad is now the largest US airbase in Iraq and is situated in the Sunni Triangle, upon which anti-US-occupation Iraqis lob mortars.

However, Task Force 121 was already in existence. TF121 was formed from TF5 (Afghanistan) and TF20 (Iraq). It is a combination of Air, Army and Navy Special Forces. As of 2004, TF121 was composed of 4 elements.
[ . . . ]

“Most disturbing . . . are TF121's interrogation techniques which reportedly violate the Geneva conventions on the conduct of war. These techniques are employed not just on their targets, but also on their family and friends. We are told TF121 gets around the Geneva conventions by "contracting out" the interrogations to "foreign experts" who are skilled in the use of psychotic drugs, electroshock therapy, psychological trauma, and other means for the infliction of pain and distress. TF121's official position is that it does not know what techniques its contractors use.”

The TF121 techniques sound like those used by TF6-26 at Camp Nama, Baghdad.
 

Energy Trading Platform launched in Qatar, Global Research Editor's Note:
The opening of Energy City Qatar, challenges the Iranian project of opening a Euro based Oil bourse, which according to recent reports has either been postponed or cancelled. It also reinforces the grip of the Anglo-American oil companies on the Middle East oil market. It has a direct bearing on the geopolitics of the broader Middle East Central Asian region which contains up to 70 percent of the World's reserves of oil.
 

War of Words Over Paper on Israel: When “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” first appeared on the Web site of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government this month, the paper’s title page featured the globe and Harvard seal that make up the Kennedy School’s logo, and that routinely appear on papers posted there. If you download the paper now, however, you won’t find the logo on the PDF. The Kennedy school — with the authors’ permission — took the logo off, a sign of just how sensitive this paper has become.

The article itself is certainly getting unusual attention for a scholarly work. (If you want to judge for yourself, but don’t have time for the full version, which is 82 pages counting footnotes, the authors have also published a shorter version in The London Review of Books.)

While not a major focus of the article, the piece touches on the state of campus debate about Israel and the Middle East. The article says that pro-Israel groups have increased their activities on campuses, and it specifically criticizes the David Project, which led criticism of Middle Eastern studies professors at Columbia University. Generally, the article says that while “the Lobby has gone to considerable lengths to insulate Israel from criticism on college campuses,” it has failed to do so because “academic freedom is a core value and because tenured professors are hard to threaten or silence.”
 

The Word at War: Propaganda? Nah, Here's the Scoop, Say the Guys Who Planted Stories in Iraqi Papers.

"Part of the beauty of real successful propaganda is it works without you knowing that it works."
 

ConsortiumNews, Big Government Solution for Iraq?: A quick look at Iraq’s history reveals that government intervention, beginning with the British government’s meddling after World War I, is primarily responsible for the country’s current problems. The British created the artificial state of Iraq from the rubble of the Ottoman Empire.

Throughout its history, Iraq has been held together only by brute force of authoritarian power. Although the various ethnic and religious groups in Iraq traditionally have lived in peace, during Saddam’s rule, he deliberately stoked ethnic and religious cleavages in a “divide and conquer” strategy.

After the naïve U.S. invasion removed the only brake on Iraqi centrifugal forces, Saddam’s earlier fueling of sectarian animosities has come home to roost in the current civil war between the Sunni and Shi’a.

[T]o really be effective in holding the fractious Iraqi society together, the central government would probably have to resume Saddam-like dictatorial powers—something that no one wants.

(Hmmmmm!!!)
 

A few highlights from the Guardian report:

...Zahara and Abbas, born one and a half months premature, are suffering from respiratory distress syndrome and are desperately ill. The hospital has just 14 ancient incubators, held together by tape and wire.

Zahara is in a particularly bad way. She needs a ventilator and drugs to help her breathe, but the hospital has virtually nothing. Her father has gone into town to buy vitamin K on the black market, which he has been told his children will need. Zahara starts to deteriorate and in desperation the doctor holds a tube pumping unregulated oxygen against the child's nostrils. "This treatment is worse than primitive," he says. "It's not even medicine." Despite his efforts, the little girl dies; the next day her brother also dies. Yet with the right equipment and the right drugs, they could have survived.

How is it possible that after three years of occupation and billions of dollars of spending, hospitals are still short of basic supplies? Part of the cause is ideological tunnel-vision. For months before the war the US state department had been drawing up plans for the postwar reconstruction, but those plans were junked when the Pentagon took over.

To supervise the reconstruction of the Iraqi health service, the Pentagon appointed James Haveman, a former health administrator from Michigan. He was also a loyal Bush supporter, who had campaigned for Jeb Bush, and a committed evangelical Christian. But he had virtually no experience in international health work...

...As disgruntled Iraqis will often point out, despite far greater devastation and crushing sanctions, Saddam did more to rebuild Iraq in six months after the first Gulf war than the coalition has managed in three years...

...Of course, no one can say that if the Americans had got the reconstruction right it would have been enough. There were too many other mistakes as well, such as a policy of crude "deBa'athification" that saw Iraqi expertise marginalized, the creation of a sectarian government and the Americans attempting to foster friendship with Iraqis who themselves had no friends among other Iraqis...
 

Iraq wants US to cede control after raid: Iraq's ruling parties demanded U.S. forces cede control of security on Monday as the government launched an inquiry into a raid on a Shi'ite mosque complex that ministers said saw "cold blooded" killings by U.S.-led troops.

U.S. commanders rejected the charges and said their accusers faked evidence by moving bodies of gunmen killed fighting Iraqi troops in an office compound. It was not a mosque, they said.
 

The religion of Jesus is both spiritual and political. Jesus said in his first sermon that he had come to preach good news to the poor. He taught that love fulfills the law and the prophets, and spoke of a coming movement of God that would lift up the poor and oppressed. Jesus let a doubter like Thomas serve that cause long before the disciple could affirm any creed. Jesus said that people who blaspheme him or God would be forgiven but those who blaspheme the Spirit (of love) would not be. Religion is not about groveling before a savior, it's joining in the work of saving our world.

One last irony is that early Christians were sometimes accused of being atheists. Like true Muslims and Jews, the early Christians refused to worship human images of God. While I have nothing against the creeds per se, if they do not sing of a love for all humankind they are evil and must be renounced as idolatrous. Surely the essence of Christianity or any religion is not found in dogma but in the life of love of which the creeds sing. If God had wanted us to simply recite creeds, Jesus would have come as a parrot.
 

Deadly blast hits U.S.-Iraqi base in Mosul, 40 killed
 

Juan Cole: As for the Quran itself, it says "la ikraha fi'd-din"-- there is no compulsion in religion.

[2:256] There is no compulsion in religion: the right way has been distinguished from the wrong way. Anyone who denounces the idol Taghut and believes in God has grasped the strongest handle; one that never breaks. God is the Hearing, the Knowing.

The Quran is forthright that the wages of unbelief and idolatry in this life are damnation in the next. But it does not permit coercion of the conscience in this life.

There is also Chapter 109, with its implication that the Prophet left the choice of religion, even unbelieving religion, to the individual:

109

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Say, "O unbelievers.
I do not worship what you worship.
Nor do you worship what I worship.
Nor will I ever worship what you worship.
Nor will you ever worship what I worship.
To you, your religion; and to me, my religion."
 

US troops defend raid, say Iraqis faked "massacre"


Rival Shia groups unite against US after mosque raid


Police Station Attacked South of Baghdad


Three Groups of Gunmen Kidnap 24 Iraqis


Schools, Kids Becoming Targets in Iraq


IRAQ: Government calls for protection of civilians after two days of violence


Rice Defends Pressure on Iraqi Leaders


Condi for National Football League Commissioner: ... Condi's principal assignment last year and this – to set up Iran "diplomatically" for invasion the same way Colin Powell set up Iraq three years ago – hasn't been going so well.

Condi claims she has finally gotten the Iranian dossier "referred" or transferred to the UN Security Council (UNSC) for action.

But according to the Russians and Chinese, that isn't true.

What they agreed to was for the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to merely report the Iranian dossier to the UNSC.
 

Stars & Stripes, ‘Year of the Police’ a rocky one so far in Iraq


Khalilzad reportedly seeks new Iraq PM


IRAQ: Officials note rise in drug trafficking, consumption


PHOTOS, Demonstrators shown being arrested delivering symbolic coffin to the Pentagon


Britain 'complicit' in human rights abuses at Camp Delta


New Zealand protesters plan demo for Blair


Malcom Lagauche, GOD MADE HIM DO IT: At a time when the U.S. administration maintains that it is not the goal of the U.S. to change cultures, but only to stop terrorism, Blair has come out publicly in favor of cultural change in non-Western countries. When the U.S. negates charges of ethnocentrism, we all know it is a hollow response, yet even Bush would not be as blatant as Blair in calling for a Pax Americana/Britannia.

Blair is reverting to times past when Britain ruled the world. In today’s Britain, very few people, only those of the lunatic right fringe, would advocate going back to the days of gunboat diplomacy for Britain. Now, here’s a Labour leader of all people calling for the sun never to set on the Axis of Hegemony (U.S./Britain) empire. The last time we heard talk like this was from a former army corporal in Germany speaking about the values of the Aryan race.

Possibly, the pressures of his job have taken a toll on Blair and he has lost some of his marbles.
 

Gary G. Kohls, MD, What would you do if you saw your nation going fascist?
 

Kurt Nimmo, Two Nut Jobs and a Boeing 747: Simply put, both Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid are patsies, two doltish fall guys provided to put a sinister (if pathetic) face on the beast our government and corporate media call “al-Qaeda.” It was never intended that Moussaoui see the cockpit of a commercial airliner and if indeed “al-Qaeda” had wanted to blow up American Airlines Flight 63 over the Atlantic Ocean, they would not have selected a bumbling petty criminal such as Richard Reid to accomplish the task.
 

Ramzy Baroud, It’s the Media, Stupid; The Middle East media image in the West: No other issue has been the victim of such treachery like the Middle East discourse in the West, and particularly that concerning Palestine and Israel. ... This ‘image’ problem has indeed irked Israel since day one and continues to do so; this is why the term ‘PR disaster’ has always constituted a nightmarish scenario for Israeli politicians throughout the years, and subsequently turned Israel into a master in media spins and crisis management. ... Israel’s impact on the media however, has metamorphosed throughout the years, from that seeking to influence to the one doing its own molding of public opinion. Israel’s dedicated media friends, from the New York Times to the British Telegraph are perhaps the largest and by far the most influential interest groups in the media anywhere around the world, a fact that they – understandably so – often rebuff.

The result has been catastrophic. Israel’s decades-long quest to bolster its media image has done wonders as American public opinion either sees Israel as a lone defender of democracy amid uncivilized Arab polities or not at all aware of the facts, basing its inane understanding of Middle East politics on media half truths that see Arabs as irrational, lazy and inherently violent, with the Israeli being the embodiment of the complete antithesis.
 

James Zogby, Rachel Corrie's Words: "Political pressure silenced the few Congressional voices who asked for an investigation into Rachel’s death. And now, that same pressure has sought to silence “My Name is Rachel Corrie.”
 

Iqbal Jassat, Abu Mazen's pilgrimage to South Africa: Why on the eve of Hamas visit?: "As an architect of the failed Oslo agreements Abu Mazen knows that both it and the subsequent Road Map lies in tatters. It is futile to believe otherwise and Hamas knows this. Yet Abbas is willing to talk to Israel without any conditions."
 

Mohamed Elmasry, Why Israeli Apartheid and South African Apartheid are so similar: "Israel is rapidly constructing a parallel network of West Bank roads for Palestinians, who are barred from using the many existing (and superior) routes reserved for Jews only. B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, describes this system as bearing clear similarities to Apartheid's exclusionary and isolating alternate road system that existed in racist South Africa."
 

Justin Raimondo, America's Reign of Terror in Iraq: As Iraqi death squads troll the streets of Baghdad, kidnapping, torturing, and executing their sectarian rivals, their American equivalents roam the countryside, doing pretty much the same thing, albeit with more firepower and deadly efficiency.

This proves the president's point about Iraq being a "central front" in the war on terrorism, although hardly in the way he intended. What it dramatizes in vivid terms is that the Americans are the real terrorists, the al-Qaeda of the West.

On 9/11, al-Qaeda rammed two planes into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon, killing 3,000-plus. Since the invasion of Iraq, we have killed tens of thousands of Iraqis in a systematic rampage that seems to be accelerating in terms of ferocity and firepower. U.S. warplanes have taken to the air, raining bombs down on centers of insurgent activity: more "collateral damage" is the inevitable result.

The revolutionary Jacobin doctrine of global "liberation" preached by the president and his neoconservative supporters has resulted in a reign of terror far more destructive than that unleashed by Robespierre and Marat. In Iraq – and, soon, perhaps throughout the Middle East – U.S. troops are implementing what just a few months ago was called, by administration insiders, "the El Salvador option." ...

That the same administration openly advocating torture in the name of fighting terrorism is now engaged in a systematic campaign of terrorism on the ground in Iraq should surprise exactly no one. These people – the U.S. government and its hired thugs – have the moral sense of starving jackals. They are starved for "victory" in Iraq, and have determined to do just about anything to achieve it – including killing women, children, anyone whose death will inspire submission in others. This is the second phase of "shock and awe" [.pdf] – shocked by the invasion, the Iraqis are now supposed to stand in awe of their conquerors, awestruck by the monumental cruelty of the occupiers.

The American advocates of terror and torture as a means of "liberating" the people of the Middle East at gunpoint are right, in a sense: there is no other way to achieve the goal they have set for themselves. We have to become a nation of torturers and murderers before we can build ourselves an empire.
 

Kurt Nimmo, Stunning Zacarias Moussaoui into Submission?: NBC news reporter Pete Williams speculates that the feds have rigged a defiant Zacarias Moussaoui with a stun belt, an “electro-shock” device, apparently part of a growing “shock technology” arsenal used by torturers in South Africa, China, and Lebanon. “Amnesty International is extremely concerned about the introduction by the prison authorities in the United States of America of a remote controlled electro-shock stun belt for use on prisoners in chain gangs, judicial hearings and transportation,” the human rights organization declared in 1996. ...

Is it possible Moussaoui is now admitting he was involved in a plot to crash an airliner into the White House with the shoe bomber mental case Richard Reid in a Pavlovian response to 50,000 volts of electricity? If the feds are using electro-shock against the alleged wanna-be “al-Qaeda” operative, is it possible they are also drugging him? Aicha el-Wafi, Moussaoui’s mother, believes her son “must have been drugged” when she saw him in court, according to Yahoo News. “That is not Zachary,” she declared.

It should be remembered that Moussaoui previously denied any involvement in the nine eleven attacks and his sudden if not electrifying (pun intended) eleventh hour conversion during the penalty phase of his trial is highly suspicious. ...
 

(Intentionally, this follows the above Moussaoui article. Anyone spot a trend?)
Greg Szymanski, Ohio Attorney Persecuted And Jailed For 232 Days Under Nazi-Like Treatment Right Here In America: Elsabeth Baumgartner also spent 10 days locked away, held without right to counsel and clergy, for merely speaking out at a city council meeting. Saying she was held as a political prisoner, she now faces a sentence of 66 years and 6 months for what she calls "trumped-up" charges.
 

Chris Floyd, Fear Up Harsh: The Iraqi Civil War in Context: The causes underlying any civil war are always complex, confused, even contradictory -- as one would expect in an outbreak of madness. But those seeking to discover some of the key precipitating factors behind Iraq's furious plunge into chaos and disintegration might find one of them in the records of an obscure Congressional committee meeting on August 10, 2004.

At that meeting, then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, General Peter Pace (now head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and General Bryan Brown, head of Special Operations Command, appeared before the House Armed Services Committee. In a long session larded with the usual rhetorical posturing, mutual backscratching with the committee's rubberstamp Republican majority - and a couple of polite queries from the timid Democratic minority - Wolfowitz announced the Pentagon's plan to give money, arms and training to a network of local militias in trouble spots around the world. These irregular forces - "not just armies," Wolfowitz emphasized - would be used to "counter terrorism and insurgencies," provide greater internal security" in regions of American interest and "deny sanctuary" to America's designated enemies, according to Pentagon transcripts of the testimony.
[ . . . ]

Now Iraq is being devoured in a maelstrom of carnage and fear. Reports of the horror are pouring in from all sides: mass beheadings, unspeakable tortures, the abandonment of vast swathes of Baghdad and other cities to warring militias, the evident complicity of the Iraqi government in many of the atrocities coupled with its obvious inability to stop any of them - and, apparently, a beserker rage infecting American forces, as attested in story after story of civilian massacres.

Yet none of this actually does any real harm to the true war aims behind Bush's illegal war. I will be taking up this theme in a Moscow Times column that will be posted here in a couple of days, but here is an excerpt from that piece, describing the Bush Faction's genuine war goals:

The reality clearly shows that Bush had three primary objectives in launching the invasion. First and foremost was the transfer of large portions of the national wealth of Iraq - and the United States - into the coffers of his political cronies, corporate backers and family members. Second was the frantic acceleration of the long-running, bipartisan militarization of America, which is now almost wholly dependent on war and rumors of war to keep its heavily-mortgaged economy afloat. Third was planting a permanent military presence in Iraq to "project dominance" over the strategic oil lands and serve as staging areas for further operations in regime change and political extortion as needed. ...

Yes, the myriad causes underlying the madness of civil war are always complex and confused. Once loosed, it is a whirlwind that rages in all directions; no one can control it. But it is obvious that certain groups would benefit the most from civil war, and thus would have the most to gain from trying to channel its fury to their own advantage. Ironically, these primary feasters on chaos are the same two gangs that have prospered the most from the global "War on Terror": the Bush Faction and al Qaeda.
 

Robert Parry, Time to Talk War Crimes: In a March 26 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” [transcript] Rice . . . agreed that Hussein was not implicated in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks nor did she assert that he was conspiring with al-Qaeda on another assault.

Instead, Rice justified invading Iraq and ousting Hussein because he was part of the “old Middle East,” which she said had engendered hatreds that led indirectly to 9/11.

“If you really believe that the only thing that happened on 9/11 was people flew airplanes into buildings, I think you have a very narrow view of what we faced on 9/11,” Rice said. “We faced the outcome of an ideology of hatred throughout the Middle East that had to be dealt with. Saddam Hussein was a part of that old Middle East. The new Iraq will be a part of the new Middle East, and we will all be safer.”

Rice’s argument – that Bush has the right to invade any country that he feels is part of a culture that might show hostility toward the United States – represents the most expansive justification to date for launching the Iraq War.

It goes well beyond waging “preemptive” or even “predictive” war. Rice is asserting a U.S. right to inflict death and destruction on Muslim countries as part of a social-engineering experiment to eradicate their perceived cultural and political tendencies toward hatred.

Yet Rice’s new war rationale, combined with the British memo on Bush’s determination to invade Iraq regardless of the facts, should be more than enough evidence to put Bush, Rice, Blair and other U.S. and British officials before a war crimes tribunal.
 

Lets be honest, if the 'Iraqi Resistance' had actually resisted when it really mattered i.e. when Saddam was crushing Iraqis like a dump truck or vice, the Americans would not be there now, would they?
So, you would be mad to want the country to end up in the hands of the 'Iraqi resistance' because in essence, they are not Iraqi patriots - if they were, they would have booted Saddam's ass long ago. The resistance wants to dominate Iraq after eliminating every Iraqi if possible, esp. if Shia. They'll also eliminate anything else that walks, crawls or swims.
Personally, I'd rather trust the US any day. In any case, there is no option!
 

Riverbend, Uncertainty...: I sat late last night switching between Iraqi channels . . . reading the little scrolling news headlines on the bottom of the page. Suddenly, one of them caught my attention ... The line said:
وزارة الدفاع تدعو المواطنين الى عدم الانصياع لاوامر دوريات الجيش والشرطة الليلية اذا لم تكن برفقة قوات التحالف العاملة في تلك المنطقة
The translation:
“The Ministry of Defense requests that civilians do not comply with the orders of the army or police on nightly patrols unless they are accompanied by coalition forces working in that area.”

The situation is so bad on the security front that the top two ministries in charge of protecting Iraqi civilians cannot trust each other. The Ministry of Defense can’t even trust its own personnel, unless they are “accompanied by American coalition forces”.

It really is difficult to understand what is happening lately. We hear about talks between Americans and Iran over security in Iraq, and then American ambassador in Iraq accuses Iran of funding militias inside of the country. Today there are claims that Americans killed between 20 to 30 men from Sadr’s militia in an attack on a husseiniya yesterday. The Americans are claiming that responsibility for the attack should be placed on Iraqi security forces (the same security forces they are constantly commending).

A few days ago we went to pick up one of my female cousins from college. Her college happens to be quite close to the local morgue. E., our cousin L., and I all sat in the car which, due to traffic, we parked slightly further away from the college to wait for our other cousin. I looked over at the commotion near the morgue.

There were dozens of people- mostly men- standing around in a bleak group. Some of them smoked cigarettes, others leaned on cars or pick-up trucks... Their expressions varied- grief, horror, resignation. On some faces, there was an anxious look of combined dread and anticipation. It’s a very specific look, one you will find only outside the Baghdad morgue. The eyes are wide and bloodshot, as if searching for something, the brow is furrowed, the jaw is set and the mouth is a thin frown. It’s a look that tells you they are walking into the morgue, where the bodies lay in rows, and that they pray they do not find what they are looking for.

WE all looked back at the morgue. Most of the cars had simple, narrow wooden coffins on top of them, in anticipation of the son or daughter or brother. One frenzied woman in a black abaya was struggling to make her way inside, two relatives holding her back. A third man was reaching up to untie the coffin tied to the top of their car.

“See that woman- they found her son. I saw them identifying him. A bullet to the head.” The woman continued to struggle, her legs suddenly buckling under her, her wails filling the afternoon, and although it was surprisingly warm that day, I pulled at my sleeves, trying to cover my suddenly cold fingers.
 

Julian Jackson, Your Deluxe Empire: An Owner's Manual: Your empire is customized and ruggedized specially for you. It is unique. However, because of supply difficulties, empires being a specialty product only for the wealthiest and most confident of nations, your empire was partially constructed from pieces belonging to other empires, including our award-winning, since-discontinued Mark 92 British Empire, as well as the French, German, Ottoman, Russian, and Japanese empires.

...[U]sers these days are far less diligent with their empires. Indeed, the Romans' descendants broke the Mark 88 Italian Colonial Empire (1936-47) through careless handling.

The key factor is liquid fuel: besides money, empires need a constant supply of fresh blood. Neglect this, and it's like forgetting to put oil in your vehicle: the whole thing seizes up pretty quickly. Fortunately, empires can run on any kind of blood, supplied by (a) their own citizens, (b) foreign mercenaries (or "contractors"), and of course (c) what we call the "conquerees"; many successful empires try to limit the waste of (a) by substituting (b) and (c). This will prolong the life span of your empire, but it is more difficult a balancing act than it might seem at first. Once you start an empire, it's difficult to stop shedding blood without getting out of the game entirely.

Your empire is customized and ruggedized specially for you. It is unique. However, because of supply difficulties, empires being a specialty product only for the wealthiest and most confident of nations, your empire was partially constructed from pieces belonging to other empires, including our award-winning, since-discontinued Mark 92 British Empire, as well as the French, German, Ottoman, Russian, and Japanese empires.

Empires are as addictive as Pringles or heroin: once you are in imperial mode, you cannot give up. Nor can your empire remain stationary; it can only expand or contract. This makes ceasing very difficult. Although one of our best customers (the French) did manage to stop quite quickly in their Mark 62 (1797-1815) after their "invincible" army was defeated and their emperor sent to St. Helena, after a short break of less than half a century they were at it again.

The British claim that they had the best disengagement post-1945, but they had to pour a lot of other peoples' blood into the hopper (e.g., 1 million Indians during the partition of their country in 1947). The Russians (another excellent customer) had their game taken off them in 1989, but couldn't keep away and are now considered up and running again (they also like to play with the "Soft Power" switched off for a more challenging game).

Our longest-running model, the Mark 3 Chinese, is still in play; however, the reserved Chinese style of empire-building is too gradualist to attract the attention of any but the most discerning of imperialism fans – though some experts do consider them to be the empire to watch in coming years (someone has to be the last man standing).

Finally, thank you for bringing civilization to whomever with your unique combination of civilizing weapons. We value your patronage and hope you will purchase the upgrades to your existing kit. Coming soon: Iran – the ME Extension Pack – more of the same lies, with added bloodshed.
 

Eight Workers Shot Dead at Iraq Electronics Company: The survivors said the assailants, some of whom wore police uniforms, identified themselves as intelligence agents from the Interior Ministry.


Iraq gov't talks canceled amid security row
 

xymphora, Chomsky shills for the Lobby

(Feeling sometimes confused about Noam Chomsky - case in point, the article referred to here by xymphora - I am pleased to find this commentary.)
 

Nicolas J S Davies, Estimating civilian deaths in Iraq – six surveys: If, like the Lancet report, we are speaking of all civilian deaths that have resulted from the war, it is, therefore, now accurate to speak in terms of hundreds of thousands rather than tens of thousands.
 

John Byrne, Associated Press says they based article on Raw Story report but refuses to credit or correct

. . . and . . .

Larisa Alexandrovna,
MSM plagiarism strikes again – AP welcome to the party: You want a free press? Protect your small press writers/journalists (also those in MSM who have the guts to do their job), bloggers, editors, and publications. Protect them not only from such unethical behavior as demonstrated by the AP, but also from all manner of assault in which either political motivations or greed, if not both, are more important than the truth. Gary Webb may have had a job had the mainstream political attack dogs not driven him into darkness and into taking his own life. Judith Miller may not have had a chance to author lie after lie, had she been fired and exposed from the beginning. Helen Thomas would not be making news for simply asking questions, had the corporate owned media actually been doing its job, namely asking those same questions all along.

How many more honest journalists have to be driven out because they can no longer afford to pay their bills? I don't want to know. Do you?
 

Linda S. Heard, Is Blair preparing for a new war?: The British Prime Minister Tony Blair's March 21 speech defending his country's foreign policy seems fairly benign until one delves between the lines. It has been billed by the press as a defence of decisions made to invade Afghanistan and Iraq in light of Blair's diminishing popularity.

It might be. But on the other hand, it could be an attempt at setting us up for an endless war scenario in the name of defending "our values".

There is no doubt that Blair is a natural salesman. Unlike his pal across the pond, he rarely trips over his words and never purses his lips or sneers. ...

"Unless we articulate a common global policy based on common values, we risk chaos threatening our stability, economic and political, though letting extremism, conflict or injustice go unchecked," he says. What he means, of course is that the world must adopt Western values or be damned.

And if some countries refuse to toe the line, then here is the nub. "The consequences of this thesis is a policy of engagement not isolation, and one that is active not reactive." This is the neoconservative policy of pre-emption or first strike, which flouts provisions of the post Second World War United Nations Charter.

A leaked top secret memo from a British diplomat John Sawyers to colleagues in the US, France and Germany, that was published in the Times, may shed some light. It urges a united offensive to secure "a United Nations resolution that would open the way for punitive sanctions and even the use of force if Iran were to refuse to halt its controversial nuclear programme."

Both Bush and Blair have more synchronised speeches in the pipeline. So get ready to either polish your anti-propaganda antenna or get a thick pair of earmuffs.
 

Harvey Wasserman, The meltdown anniversary confirms nuke revival as a form of Three Mile Island insanity
 

(Unabridged; link unavailable)
THE 2006 ISRAELI ELECTIONS -
The 2006 elections for the Israeli Knesset gave the following seats to the winning parties:

Kadima: 28 . . . . . . . . . . 23.33%
Labor: 20 . . . . . . . . . . . 16.66%
Shas: 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83%
Israel Our Home: 12. . . . . 10.00%
Likud: 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.16%
National Union-NRP: 9 . . . . 7.50%
Pensioners’ party: 7 . . . . . 5.83%
United Torah Judaism: 6 . . 5.00%
Meretz: 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33%
Arab parties: 10. . . . . . . . 8.33%

Total: 120

This means that, Likud, Shas, Israel Beiteinu, NRP, and United Torah Judaism got 51 seats, i.e. 42.5%. It also means that Kadima, Labor, Pensioners’, Meretz, and the Arab parties got 69 seats, i.e. 57.5%

Taking into consideration that the voter turnout, according to Israeli Radio, was 63%, it follows that the majority of Israelis care for social and economic conditions, which leaves the Rightists and ardent Zionists with a minority status.

Ehud Olmert, who is expected to head the new Israeli Government, won on a platform promising unilateral steps leading to ‘final borders’ for Israel. In this way, he is abandoning the dream of ‘Greater Israel’ and hoping that such a step would save the Jewish State from the Arab demographic threat.

Early Zionists were dreaming of a ‘land without a people’ for a ‘people without a land’. Unfortunate for them, all ethnic cleansing plans failed to bring the required results. Palestinian Arabs did not vanish into the thin air. Whether the Zionists like it or not, Palestinian Arabs live in all parts of Palestine, in the Galilee as well as in Gaza, in the triangle as well as in the West Bank, in Jerusalem as well as in Ramallah…

Recognizing Palestinian Rights, especially the ROR, and stretching a hand for peace through negotiations built on mutual respect for each other and acceptance to live together as equal human beings with equal human rights point out to the proper way to end the conflict and live in peace and dignity.

(Nizar Sakhnini, 29 March 2006)
 

OMAR BARGHOUTI, Atrocities By Any Other Name... When is Killing Arab Civilians Considered a Massacre?
 

Reposting -
VIDEO (4 min.): No Bravery
 

Francois (March 29, 2006 10:15 AM) -
Ah, I see you think it was all about Saddam !!!
 

Did Monty Python Fan Dupe Laurie Mylroie? Fake Saddam Interview Put Out By Israel Lobby Catspaw, Endorsed by Neo-Cons Pet Cassandra, Now Wiping Egg From Face: MEMRI TV circulated this as "Special Dispatch No. 1127" to its customers and it was instantly seized upon by Laurie Milroie, now somewhat fallen in status, but once riding high as an "Iraq expert" and a prominent propagandist for the US-led attack of 2003.

Milroie rushed out the "interview" at 12.57 EST, March 28,to her e-mailed Iraq News, under the breathless heading "Saddam Interview (Stunning), MEMRI TV".

Then, just over 5 hours later came a second, crestfallen communiqué: [ . . . ]

A knowledgeable US government official has informed "Iraq News" that that remarkable interview with Saddam Hussein, published by MEMRI TV, is almost certainly a hoax.

Lately Miyroie has been eagerly promoting the supposed disclosures in documents recently released by the US government of pre-2003 ties between Saddam Hussein, Al Qaeda and Zarqawi. In flushes of battiness reminiscent of Clare Sterling (the Mylroie of the Rfeagan years) she has even accused the Bush administration of promoting a cover-up in this regard. The documents have been greeted ecstatically by the war lobby, even though there are documents which do not encourage the scenario they espouse, such as one in which Iraqi security, on hearing that Zarqawi is in Iraq, puts out an APB bulletin to establish his whereabouts.

MEMRI TV has been heavily touted by such promoters of the 2003 attack as former CIA chief R. James Wolsey who said in 2004 that "MEMRI is the single most important source for understanding what is happening in the Greater Middle East." Another member of the War Party devouring MEMRI TV is Charles Krauthammer who has said "For anyone interested in what is really happening in the Middle East - what the Arab world is saying to itself - MEMRI is utterly indispensable."
 

MORE!!!! - -
Had the credulous Mylroie and editors at MEMRI TV been familiar with the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, they might have wondered about such choice lines attributed to Saddam Hussein as "You despicable man, I spit on your owl's face."

ARTHUR: If you will not show us the Grail, we shall take your castle by force!
FRENCH GUARD:You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Arthur King, you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets. Thpppppt! Thppt! Thppt!
GALAHAD: What a strange person.
ARTHUR: Now look here, my good man--
FRENCH GUARD: I don't wanna talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
GALAHAD: Is there someone else up there we could talk to?
FRENCH GUARD: No. Now, go away, or I shall taunt you a second time-a!
[sniff]
ARTHUR: Now, this is your last chance. I've been more than reasonable.
FRENCH GUARD: (Fetchez la vache.)
OTHER FRENCH GUARD: Quoi?
FRENCH GUARD: (Fetchez la vache!)
[mooo]
ARTHUR: If you do not agree to my commands, then I shall--
[twong]
[mooooooo]
Jesus Christ!
KNIGHTS: Christ!
[thud]
Ah! Ohh!...
ARTHUR: Right! Charge!
KNIGHTS: Charge!
[mayhem]
FRENCH GUARD: Hey, this one is for your mother! There you go.
[mayhem]
FRENCH GUARD: And this one's for your dad!
ARTHUR: Run away!
KNIGHTS: Run away!
FRENCH GUARD: Thppppt!
FRENCH GUARDS: [taunting]
LAUNCELOT: Fiends! I'll tear them apart!

(Sorry, I just couldn't resist! - Evelyn)
 

Guardian, 'If you start looking at them as humans, then how are you gonna kill them?'
(To be avoided, at all costs. That is, if you're 'gonna kill them.')
 

VIDEO (18 min.), We're Sorry: Former US soldiers on the personal cost of war in Iraq.
 

Kurt Nimmo, Neocon Forever War Plan Creeps Forward
 

John Pilger On Channel 4 Chavez Report
 

Fayrouz In Beaumont, Another Day, Another Sorrow: [A]ll I can add is that those killers keep torturing their victims in a brutal way that no one can ever imagine, no one can dare look at their dead bodies and that means nothing but ill monsters had targeted them.

Other thing, my brother's son told me that they were more than 8 gangsters in two cars one car is very famous now in Baghdad. It's a model of Toyota sedan called "batta" in Iraqi [duck in English]. It's more expensive compared to other similar types. And, if you ask about the reason, the answer is very shocking. It got a wider trunk, which can hold a kidnapped man in it. The car is mainly used for kidnapping by Mehdi army and others.

The last one who was kidnapped and died the same way was Haji H., age 65. He used to read the Holy Quran at mosques and was famous of his nice voice in Al-Shaab area. Such a poor and old man. After these incidents, he moved from Al-Shaab to the other side of the city, the Police Tunnel (Nafak Alshorta), where there are more Sunnis. But they targeted him there too. Five days ago, He was kidnapped in front of his house. When one of his sons followed them, they stopped and kidnapped him too. Another son followed them by his car. He told others by cell phone that he is chasing them on a fast speed. Finally he lost them at Ur suburb near that Husainiya.

Other thing I may add, a "Glock" hand gun that's been distributed by the U.S. to Iraqi police was in the hands of kidnappers. It was was so obvious and clear.

One may wonder how could they get hold of that type of weapon unless they are from the police itself?