Free Iraq

"WHY WE FIGHT" -
The War Dividend: The British companies making a fortune out of conflict-riven Iraq


US postwar Iraq strategy a mess, Blair was told


Rumsfeld Hints Iraq Troop Levels May Rise: "Do we think we're going to be there four or five years more in terms of large numbers of U.S. ground forces?" said Rumsfeld. "The answer is no, I don't think so. Those are decisions for the president."

There are about 133,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Rumsfeld did not specify how many troops might be added.


Saddam's Speech Results in Trial Closure


65 bodies found dumped in Baghdad: A number were recovered from Sadr City - already the scene of an atrocity on Sunday when two car bombs and four mortar rounds shattered shops and market stalls as families shopped for food for their evening meals, killing 58 people and injuring more than 200.

Residents emerged from their homes yesterday morning to see scorched pavement, destroyed shops, burnt-out cars and four men shot in the head execution-style and hanged from electricity pylons.
 

Juan Cole: Minister of Interior Bayan Jabr announced that a plot had been foiled to place hundreds of Sunni Arab troops actually loyal to the insurgency in position at the Green Zone and then to have them rush embassy offices and take diplomatic hostages. The Green Zone is a barricaded area of downtown Baghdad. There have been rumors for weeks that the Sunni Arab guerrillas were preparing to "rise up" and take the capital. This was probably the plan to which the rumor mongers were referring. Or, a more frightening thought: the rumors refer to yet another plot. Anyway, apparently the US and the new government barely dodged this bullet. It would have been horrible. But you do have the sense that with the siege of Baghdad going on, the Green Zone is becoming vulnerable and could ultimately fall.
 

Malcom Lagauche, ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL:
- In 1983, the U.S. invaded the Caribbean military powerhouse of Grenada. Until this day, the Grenadan government is imprisoned by the U.S.
- In 1986, the U.S. bombed Libya, killing its leader’s daughter.
- In 1989, the U.S. invaded Panama and kidnapped its president (Noriega) who is now serving a 40-year prison term.
- From 1991 to 2003, the U.S. had proxy groups try to assassinate Saddam Hussein.
- In 2003, 600 U.S. soldiers, accompanied by air power and artillery, surrounded the house where Saddam Hussein’s sons and his grandson were staying. After hours of barrage, the three bullet-ridden and burned bodies were taken and then filmed for the world to see.
- In 2003, Saddam was kidnapped by the U.S. and is now in the midst of one of the most ludicrous and unfair trials in history.
- Since 1961, the U.S. has drawn up more than 100 plans to assassinate Fidel Castro.
- Hugo Chavez has been targeted by the U.S.
- Tariq Aziz is now on his deathbed in a U.S.-run prison in Iraq. He has been denied heart medicine and has not had teeth for three years because the U.S. took his dentures away.
- The homes of Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein’s daughter, Izaat A-Douri and Ghadaffi have been leveled by U.S. bombs.

The practice of killing or kidnapping world leaders is despicable. However, even worse is the retribution practiced against their families by destroying their houses or even killing family members. I know of no other country that engages in such barbarity.

In the U.S., scant attention is paid to these atrocities. In fact, from some corners of society, these practices are encouraged. Even some U.S. religious leaders join the call for eliminating leaders whom the U.S. does not admire. On the other hand, some of the world’s leading scumbags who pose as leaders are exempt from these beastly activities because they accept their plight as slaves to Washington. Milosevic was merely another brick in the wall of the U.S. bloodthirsty methods of "negotiation."
 

Charles Sullivan, The Parasites of God: Tom Fox, a member of the non-missionary Christian Peacekeeping Team, was the genuine article. We know this beyond all doubt by the way Tom Fox lived his life; by his long devotion to the causes that mattered to him. Being Christian amid a sea of impostors cannot be easy. It is dangerous work. As in the case of Christ himself, it may lead to crucifixion. Real Christians, as exemplified by the CPT, will always find themselves in formal opposition to U.S. policies of global domination and empire. But the apostles of wealth and empire, those who merely claim to be Christian, will sanction these same polices and proclaim they are the work of God. They are not.

It is not hard to tell the real Christians from the parasites of God. Contrast the lives of Tom Fox and George Bush. Nothing in the personal history of George Bush suggests anything other than a parasitic connection to God. Hubris, sadism, the exploitation and abuse of others, are not characteristics of a man of god. They are a contradiction of God, an abomination. The president is a pathetic little stooge in pursuit of wealth and temporary power. History will not remember him kindly. By contrast, Tom Fox was a man of God who willingly gave his life trying to undo the damage caused by Bush and his followers. God will not confuse them and neither should we.

In fact, Mr. Bush lacks the grounding in reality to know the difference between playing soldier and being a soldier. Likewise, he believes that donning the mere robes of Christianity, without doing the often painful work required of Christianity makes him an apostle of Jesus. Only in America could such a pathetic, shallow, moronic imbecile become president. One wonders when this comic tragedy will end and how many will be dead when it does.
 

Dahr Jamail, Iraq: Permanent US Colony: "There's a good reason why Pace and others are busy spewing smoke - it's to hide the fact that there are no plans to leave Iraq."
 

Baghdad will be put under an extended vehicle curfew from 8 p.m. on Wednesday to 4 p.m. on Thursday as parliament opens for the first time (Sounds like a thriving democracy - doesn't it?)
 

U.S. military airstrikes significantly increased in Iraq (Perhaps newly liberated democratic people require pacification?)
 

BRussells Tribunal, US illegality in Iraq: Where is the limit?: As the year 2006 opens, we have no other conclusion to draw except that the United States has intended destruction upon the people of Iraq. The use of depleted uranium weaponry will leave a scar on Iraq for billions of years. All public services have collapsed — health, water, electricity, communications, justice and security. The occupation has done nothing to protect Iraqis. Refusing to safeguard civilians is as much a violation of international law as the criminal use of chemical agents — such as white phosphorus on Fallujah and Tel Afar. Criminal inaction, especially following the Samarra atrocity — the US military standing by as death squads roam the streets of Iraq — has highlighted with precision the underlying rationality of the US presence in Iraq: impoverish the country, break it up, foment sectarian hatred, stand back and watch the killing fields swallow the population.
 

Sarah Meyer, Prisons and torture in Iraq
 

Ramzy Baroud, Lying and Deception as Government Policy
 

Stephen M. Osborn, Nuclear Bunker Buster Bombs againt Iran: This Way Lies Madness: Treaties mean nothing to this government . . . if they interfere with profits or power.
 

Snow warns Congress: US government's cash running out
 

Rice, top administration officials subpoenaed in US-Israel lobby case


Arab central banks move assets out of dollar
(A brief personal comment re this article as it relates to the Dubai ports deal:
There are legitimate moral & economic reasons for assets movement. Each country is entitled to pursue it's own best interests. As an American, I, however, opposed the Dubai ports deal for one reason and one reason alone: I simply do not trust any deal so vigorously supported by the Bush Administration. Self-serving corrupt liars, their track record left me wondering what they were up to. I'm afraid this crowd - Bush et al - cannot now untarnish the family silver.)
 

(Previously posted March 13th)
Robert Fisk, The erosion of free speech: The degree of abuse and outright threats now being directed at anyone ... who dares to criticise Israel ... is fast reaching McCarthyite proportions. The attempt to force the media to obey Israel's rules is ... international, and growing.
 

Christian Radio Host Fired For Criticizing Israel: Crowley has upset many supporters of Israel by pointing out that under the thinking of such Christian supporters of Israel as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Tim LaHaye, a New York-born Jewish atheist has more right to live in the holy city of Jerusalem than a Palestinian Christian minister whose family has lived there for 1,000 years.
 

Following 4 items, "catch-up" on Wayne Madsen Report

- March 11, 2006 -- Llewellyn King's consummate Washington insider newsletter, White House Weekly, never disappoints when it comes to straight and unvarnished reporting from the White House Press Pool. In the March 8, 2006 issue, the press pool reporter describes an account of what happened when the White House press plane touched down to refuel at Shannon Airport in Ireland on its way back to Washington after Bush's recent trip to India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Upon deplaning and repairing to the airport bar, the reporters encountered a group of returning GIs from Iraq on their way back home to Colorado. After a few beers and whiskeys, one of the returning troops spoke on behalf of his colleagues when asked what they thought of Bush's war in Iraq. The soldier said, "Well, sir, in the shitter it says, 'Bush can suck my d**k.'" Upon shouts of approval from his fellow troops, the soldier added, "And sir, if you want to find out about morale in the Army, find out the truth, you'll always find it in the shitter."


- March 12, 2006 -- Slobodon Milosevic, Serbia's former President, was found dead in his cell in The Hague in the Netherlands: . . . With Russia applying pressure for Milosevic's transfer to Moscow, the "other neocons," those in the Clinton administration who supported overt and covert funneling of weapons and funds to anti-Yugoslav forces . . . had plenty to be worried about. Milosevic and his intelligence services had collected evidence pointing to the involvement of Madeleine Albright, Richard Holbrooke, Wesley Clark, Perle, Feith, and others in the political, military, and financial backing of Muslim units in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo associated with Osama Bin Laden and Albanian heroin smugglers tied to the Taliban in Afghanistan.


- March 14, 2006 -- Special Operations leaders gather for glum meeting: The 17th Annual Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC) conference . . . commenced yesterday in Crystal City, Virginia, across the Potomac from Washington. Unlike previous conferences during the Balkans War and in the aftermath of 9-11, this conference was marked by glum and gloomy predictions, especially regarding Iraq and a possible future conflict with Iran.

Retired Lt. Gen. Patrick Hughes, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Deputy Homeland Security Secretary for Information Analysis, urged the Pentagon the tell the truth to the media, academia, and the general public, in addition to calling for a "new public affairs initiative." Hughes said the U.S. is losing the psychological battle and said there are some similarities between Iraq and Vietnam and Somalia. The U.S. beat a hasty withdrawal from both Vietnam and Somalia after severe battlefield reversals.
[ . . . ]

Col. Nick Davies, MBE, MC, the Deputy Commander of UK Special Forces gingerly discussed the issue of declining morale among Special Operations personnel in Iraq and problems between allied and US troops who increasingly advocate Christian evangelical causes and propaganda. Davies was asked about British SAS soldier Ben Griffin who, after spending three months in Baghdad, refused to go into any more combat and quit the army. Instead of facing a court martial, Griffin was given a discharge with honors. Griffin told his commanding officer, "I didn't join the British army to conduct American foreign policy." Davies, asked about Griffin and the influence of evangelicals among U.S. forces in Iraq, said Iraq is not a "long term investment" and British troops would not be kept there "forever." Davies conceded that the activities of some U.S. troops in Iraq may "encourage others to take up arms against the U.S."

One retired senior US Army Special Forces general criticized the Bush administration for "tearing up the first ten amendments of the US Constitution" and "throwing them into the trash can."


- March 15, 2006 -- Day two of Special Forces conference features private contractors like Halliburton and "My God is bigger than theirs" Lt. Gen. Boykin: Retired Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Cosumano . . . stressed that contractors on the battlefield are here to stay. Cosumano said that Halliburton/Kellogg Brown & Root now has over 52,000 U.S. expatriate, host country nationals, and third country nationals deployed to 94 operating bases in Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey, Dubai, Jordan and other countries around the world. Cosumano, who, as Director of Force Development for the Army Chief of Staff, was instrumental in developing the LOGCAP program on which Halliburton gained a virtual lock while Dick Cheney was Halliburton's President and CEO, now heads up Halliburton's LOGCAP contract in one of the most flagrant revolving door escapades ever seen in Defense Department contracting.

Cosumano stated, "we are not going back and can't go back" to pre-contractor wars. Cosumano showed a slide of blue jeans/blue shirt-clad Halliburton contractors standing in military formation with active duty military personnel. Halliburton trains 250 contractors per week at its Houston Support Office and surged trained as many as 750 personnel in one week, according to Cosumano.

The LOGCAP program will generate an estimated $41.4 billion for contractors like Halliburton over a 20-year period, according to an October 2005 Congressional Budget Office report. Currently, Halliburton has over 100 Army task orders generating $5-6 billion annually.
 

Salon, The Abu Ghraib files: 279 photographs and 19 videos from the Army's internal investigation record a harrowing three months of detainee abuse inside the notorious prison -- and make clear that many of those responsible have yet to be held accountable.
 

US monitoring Israel's Iran options: Israeli and US sources have said in the past weeks that the US did not convey any message to Israel in which it asked to refrain from an attack and has not raised the issue in bilateral discussions with the Israelis. Both countries share intelligence on the situation in Iran and the advance of the nuclear program, but do not discuss - according to sources who took part in bilateral talks - the possibility of using military force to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

The American assumption, according to the administration sources, is that an Israeli decision on attacking Iran is not imminent and that in any case it would not be taken before the Israeli elections, scheduled for March 28.