Free Iraq

On Strategic Interests -

"Iraq was extremely important to us, much more important than was obvious on the surface. Contrary to common public opinion, Iraq is not simply about oil. It is also about water and geopolitics. Both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow through Iraq; thus, of all the countries in that part of the world, Iraq controls the most important sources of increasingly critical water resources. During the 1980s, the importance of water - politically as well as economically - was becoming obvious to those of us in the energy and engineering fields. In the rush toward privatization, many of the major companies that had set their sights on taking over the small independent power companies now looked toward privatizing water systems in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

"In addition to oil and water, Iraq is situated in a very strategic location. It borders Iran, Kuwait, Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey, and it has a coastline on the Persian Gulf. It is within easy missile-striking distance of both Israel and the former Soviet Union. Military strategists equate modern Iraq to the Hudson River valley during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. In the eighteenth century, the French, British, and Americans knew that whoever controlled the Hudson River valley controlled the continent. Today, it is common knowledge that whoever controls Iraq holds the key to controlling the Middle East." * (emphasis added)
-------------------------------------
* John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004), pgs. 183-184
 

Imad

U.S. and Iraq to Negotiate Pact on Long-Term Relations
Note especially the comment about "deterring" Iran. Since Iran is unlikely to fall into a rift in the spatio-temporal continuum anytime soon, and since therefore the "threat (sic.) that it poses to America's Persian Gulf allies" is by inference unlikely to vanish either, it stands to reason that America must have permanent military bases in Iraq to deal with this terrible threat.

Of course, "permanent imperialist military occupation of Iraq, to the benefit of no-one except America and Israel" is precisely what the war's opponents warned everyone that the Bush Administration was planning, when it started its drumbeat towards the invasion. At the time, both Bush and all of his todies lied repeatedly that they had no plans for anything like this, and the "Patriotic" U.S. media uncritically repeated this again and again. Now it's happening right in front of our eyes and there ISN'T SO MUCH AS A PEEP OF OPPOSITION TO IT FROM ANY SOURCE IN AMERICA, NOT EVEN THE DEMOCRATS.

Need any more evidence that America is an imperialist menace? Need any more proof that whomever "wins" (read: "steals") the next Presidential election, nothing will change about how America deals with the rest of the world?
 

Annapolis: Yet another huge victory for International Jewry
 

Arabs doubt Annapolis conference will bring peace: "The conference was designed for public relations and the participants were obliged to participate."
 

THE THREE STOOGES AT ANNAPOLIS...
 

Tragedy and Travesty at Annapolis
 

Algerian minister says "Jewish lobby" elected Sarkozy
 

The Ariel Sharon Corruption File
 

Iraq politicians oppose US pact: Sunni Arab and Shia politicians said it would lead to what they described as "US interference for years to come".

The Iraqi parliament will have to approve any final agreement before it can come into force.

It sets a 31 July 2008 target date to formalise US-Iraq relations, allowing for the expiration of the renewable UN mandate authorising the presence of US-led multinational forces in Iraq.

The Sunni group the Association of Muslim Scholars said the Iraqi signatories of the declaration would be looked on a "collaborators with the occupier".
 

Google hands over anonymous Blogger user's IP address to Israeli court
 

Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates
 

ADL Battles Internet
 

In full -
Annapolis Statement: "Palestinian Bantustan": The mass mobilization against Annapolis by Palestinian civil society around the world and especially in occupied Palestine prevented the Palestinian Delegation from selling out the rights of the Palestinian People under international law to Israel and the United States as some of these same delegates had previously done during the Oslo, Norway negotiations of 1993.

For once Palestinian People Power triumphed over Israeli/American power politics. But the Palestinians and their supporters must remain ever-vigilant against a permanent sell-out as these so-called "final status" negotiations unfold during the next year.

Based upon the Oslo Agreement, the "final status" contemplated by Israel and the United States is a Palestinian Bantustan. To be sure, the Palestinians must expect no meaningful assistance from those quisling governments and organizations that dignified the Annapolis photo-op with their presence.
 

Separate but unequal in Palestine: The road to apartheid
 

Next Steps for the Palestinian Solidarity Movement
 

Mustafa Barghouthi: Israel intends to annex the Jordan Valley: The Jordan Valley comprises around 24% of the West Bank. Barghouthi said that Israel intends to annex this area and completely separate Jerusalem from the West Bank.

Israel, says Barghouthi, aims to divide the West Bank into scattered Bantustans, devoid of geographical contiguity, in order to prevent a viable Palestinian state and to maintain the scattered areas under Israeli control, with the PA serving solely as an agent of Israel.
 

IT TAKES A TASER TO RAISE A CHILD
 

John Ashcroft: I'm Willing To Be Waterboarded "I'm sorry about Abu Ghraib - it was hurting the United States."
 

Youtube suspends account of Egyptian who posted police brutality, voting irregularities and anti-government demonstrations
 

Wayne Madsen Report (in full )-
November 28, 2007 -- They're back! Israeli art students once again active in the United States: In the months prior to 9/11, Israelis claiming to be "art students" canvassed government offices and buildings, as well as private homes and private businesses, trying to sell art from Israel that later was revealed to be cheap Chinese-made prints. The art student activity triggered federal law enforcement and intelligence investigations, most notably by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), afters its offices and agents' homes were targeted by the so-called art students. It was later discovered that the art students, in many locations around the country, were living and working in close proximity to individuals later identified as 9/11 hijackers.

WMR has been informed that the Israeli art students are back in the United States. There was a recent encounter with these "students" at a Seattle-area office. One of the "paintings" shown was done on black paper.

FBI, CIA, military investigators, and DEA agents later concluded that the pre-9/11 art students were engaged in a major espionage operation in the United States. However, no prosecutions were ever brought by either the Clinton or Bush administrations. The art students were turned over the U.S. immigration agents and deported to Israel.
 

Wayne Madsen Report -
November 28, 2007 -- Attorney General's major conflicts of interest exposed: [ . . . ]

With recent news that Blackwater guards in Iraq were pumped up on steroids and high on "judgement-altering" drugs, in addition to revelations about Blackwater weapons smuggling to Iraq and the Turkish PKK Kurdish terrorist group, it is noteworthy that the Bush administration has pulled out its long time ace. Hiring clean-up attorney David Laufman -- who also provided the Teflon to ensure George H. W. Bush was free and clear of any criminal investigation for the October 1980 October Surprise involving Bush's smuggling of weapons to Iran (arms-for-no-hostages-until-after-the-election scandal) -- is none other than Howard "Cookie" Krongard's "alter-ego" at the State Department's Inspector General's office, Terri Heide. It was Heide who threatened State Department officials with firing if they cooperated with the probe of Henry Waxman's House Oversight Committee. And it was Laufman who the Bush administration wanted to install as Department of Defense Inspector General to assist Cookie Krongard in his cover-up of Blackwater's activities. Laufman never made the Senate confirmation cut but the Bush family will stop at nothing to ensure its fingerprints are not discovered in the Blackwater scandal. Hence, Laufman, known as the Bush family's "clean up" man, is now involved in protecting Heide and her more important "alter ego," Krongard.
 

'Peace there won't be, but you look well'
 

FOX News Takes 32 Seconds to Explain We're in Iraq Forever
 

Reporters say Baghdad too dangerous despite surge: Fifty-eight percent of U.S. news organizations have had local Iraqi staff killed or kidnapped within the past year, the survey said. About two-thirds of news outlets said local staff face physical or verbal threats at least several times a month.

"Above all, the journalists -- most of them veteran war correspondents -- describe conditions in Iraq as the most perilous they have ever encountered ..."
 

This, from MSNBC -
Israel, Palestinians agree to new peace path
 

Oil Costs More Than You Think (Indeed.)
 

Oil Producers See the World and Buy It Up
 

Blackwater lawsuit says order ignored: Lawsuit Claims Blackwater Guards Abandoned Post on Day of Shootings, Used Steroids
 

Witnesses testify in Blackwater lawsuit
 

Israeli soldier arrested for stealing $50 from Palestinian car
 

A Clear-Eyed Look at the Claims That Israel Is America's Strategic Ally: U.S. media protection of Israel ... has reached the 'it never happened' level, based upon the dictum that if something isn't reported in the American media, it's not reality. Thus an event the U.S. media doesn't report becomes a non-event, and partisans of Israel get away with branding any account of such an event a lie. Thus American public opinion is manipulated to Israel's benefit, not by the Israeli media but by ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, National Public Radio and, to only a slightly lesser extent, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and other national dailies which once were called America's 'newspapers of record.'

Think about this when you read or hear about the next great victory for Middle East peace. And then apply the 'opposite test.'
 

DOJ withdraws subpoena seeking identity of 24,000 Amazon customers: Judge rules customers have right to keep their reading habits from the government ("If at first you don't succeed . . . ")
 

Virginia GOP Demands Loyalty Oath From Primary Voters: The State Board of Elections on Monday approved a state Republican Party request to require all who apply for a GOP primary ballot first vow in writing that they'll vote for the party's presidential nominee next fall. ("I hereby do solemnly swear . . . ")
 

Hearing the sounds of silence at Mideast conference: Olmert began his comments by saying, "I came here today from Jerusalem." An Arab journalist to my right snorted "Jerusalem, huh?" and then chuckled a derisive, skeptical this-peace-agreement-ain't-gonna-work kind of laugh.

The status of Jerusalem - which was to be an international city administered by the United Nations in the original U.N. partition plan of 1947 - is supposed to be part of the negotiations that will lead to this peace that has Bush, Abbas and Olmert all atwitter. But I suspected the Arab journalist had the feeling that Olmert, by mentioning that he had just come from the city, was kind of rubbing the Palestinians' noses in the fact that Israelis now have control of Jerusalem.

That was when I first heard the peace process unraveling. The second time was when Olmert finished. But this time it was what he didn't say.

Abbas had mentioned Palestinian refugees and U.N. Resolution 194. Olmert acted as if he'd never heard of U.N. Resolution 194. But I had the feeling I had. To be certain, I turned to Sanaa Youssef, an Egyptian journalist from the Akhbar Elyom publishing house who was sitting next to me.

"What's U.N. Resolution 194?" I asked her.

"The right of return for Palestinian refugees," she answered.

"Olmert didn't mention that," I pointed out.

"It's always been that way from the Israeli side," Youssef answered, "to neglect talking about that."
 

Palestinian Authority prepares for war - with Hamas
 

Lying With The Lights On! ... Over forty countries are attending a farce of major proportions that is meant to finish fogging over the war-crimes of the last fifty years, with no end in sight. Their goal is to stretch a mosquito net of platitudes across the entire Middle-East, while changing absolutely nothing that matters in that war-torn hell.
 

Video (6 min), Countdown: Photo Oops: Bush's Muddle East Policy
 

Israeli pogrom in Palestinian village
 

Another CIA sponsored Coup D'Etat? Venezuela’s D-Day: On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday (December 2, 2007).

The memo sent by an embassy official, Michael Middleton Steere, was addressed to the head of the CIA, Michael Hayden. The memo was entitled ‘Advancing to the Last Phase of Operation Pincer’ and updates the activity by a CIA unit with the acronym ‘HUMINT’ (Human Intelligence) which is engaged in clandestine action to destabilize the forth-coming referendum and coordinate the civil military overthrow of the elected Chavez government.
 

Prasquier: Sarkozy’s US visit ‘very successful’: For the first time, the president of CRIF, the umbrella group of Jewish organizations, has accompanied a French President during his 36-hour official visit to the United States last week.

Richard Prasquier, head of CRIF, was invited by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to join the official delegation fior the November 6-7 whirlwind visit which marked a new era of friendship between the US and France after years of strained relations over the Iraq war.
 

Sarkozy spokesman: France and Israel enjoy 'honeymoon'
 

Baghdad Bonanza: The Top 100 Private Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan
 

The Iraqi Miracle – From Invasion to “Partnership”: The morning newspaper carries an Associated Press story detailing the signing by President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki of a “declaration of principles” between the two countries, which, for those still interested in the real reason we invaded Iraq, amounts to a full confession. Not in front of the International Criminal Court (that’s not for us) but mainstreamed, normalized, now fit to print.

Iraq’s government will “embrace a long-term U.S. troop presence in return for U.S. security guarantees [referred to in another business as a protection racket] as part of a strategic partnership…an enduring relationship in military, economic and political terms.” In addition, the agreement provides for U.S. support for the “democratic regime in Iraq against domestic and external dangers” (the “danger” being that they would be outside our influence).

One should not be surprised that Iraq’s U.S. supported leaders find amenable the terms set for them by Washington. What else would one expect between a dependent client state and its master, the client obliged to obey and the master prepared to reward useful service?

In keeping with established practices of imperialist plunderers, the invader now guarantees the security of the invaded. When you think security, don’t think of being secure. Think prison and graveyard. ...
 

Non-binding framework for negotiations: Any pro-American results of any negotiations will no doubt be decisively rejected when they are presented to Parliament, in the same way that the much ballyhooed American-prepared oil revenue sharing document went down in flames ... . To the extent foreigners are running Iraq, they are Iranians.
 

American Empire, November 9, 1989-November 27, 2007, R. I. P.: People will say that I’m exaggerating, but the American Empire, which started with the fall of the Berlin Wall, officially died on November 27, 2007. The Old American Establishment used all of its influence to convince Middle Eastern leaders that it could still run an empire, and demonstrate it by forcing a tiny country to do make a necessary agreement. Despite putting all its credibility on the line, and using all its resources, the United States was unable to force Israel to do anything other than follow its desired course of continuing to drag out negotiations until every last Palestinian is dead or gone.
 

Settlers respond to Annapolis statements with new settlements
 

Bush: U.S. would back Israel against Iran
 

Naomi Wolf: America's Fascist Coup Owes Legacy To Bush's Nazi Grandfather
 

Nixon papers suggest israel stole nuclear material from US in 1965
 

When the Roadmap is a One Way Street; Israel's Strategy for Permanent Occupation
 

Venezuela Threatens to Expel US Official
 

HOW CAN THERE EVER BE PEACE WITH ZIONISM?
 

BLOGGERS BEWARE ~~ MORE GMAIL SPAM 'WARNINGS
 

You Go to War with the Killers You Have, Not the Killers You Want: "Marines shot this boy!" he roars... He wants the boy evacuated to a field hospital. The major on duty informs him that Lieutenant Colonel Ferrando is sleeping and can't be disturbed. Fick is livid. "I wanted to tell the major that we were Americans, that Americans don't shoot kids and let them die, that the men in my platoon had to be able to look themselves in the mirror for the rest of their lives."

Do you think people at home are going to see this—all these women and children we're killing? Fuck no. Back home they're glorifying this motherfucker, I guarantee you. Saying our president is a fucking hero for getting us into this bitch. He ain't even a real Texan.
 

Four Hamas activists killed in Israeli strike in Gaza
 

US Roman Catholic Bishop: 9/11 was inside job: "Without 9-11, it would have been impossible to attack Afghanistan or Iraq. The forces inside the United States government and driving the United States government absolutely wanted to attack and destroy Iraq. The destruction wrought upon Iraq is unspeakable. And now the same forces want to do the same thing to Iran . . . They may well be plotting another 9-11."
 

“Thousands” Illegally Rendered By Bush Administration for Interrogation, Torture
 

ANOTHER UNREPORTED REPORT: On March 16, 2004, a report (Iraq on the Record) was published. It was the compilation of public statements made by various U.S. government officials about Iraq that later were proven to be false. Because of the large size of the report, only portions are included here. These encapsulations prove the deceit of the administration in its justification for invading Iraq.

There has been little publicity of this report. What should make it damning is that it was prepared by a U.S. Congressman, Henry Waxman, who voted in favor of invading Iraq. The report is concise and comprehensive. The writers compiled a database of the hundreds of misleading statements and outright lies told by the administration. The portion here only delves into the nuclear weapons aspect. In addition, the full report goes on to discuss the lies about Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons programs as well as the nonexistent ties between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.
 

Lest We Forget: As November 2007 draws to a close, it will be full three years since American forces razed the Iraqi city of Fallujah to ground. It was in November 2004 that George Bush’s forces played havoc with that city and its unfortunate inhabitants in the name of God. ...

Fallujah will enter history as the place where US imperialism carried out an offense of heinous proportions ... , a monstrous crime far beyond any possible forgiveness. The crimson waters of the Euphrates are now emptying into the Persian Gulf the hopes and aspirations of innocent people whose lives were snuffed out on the orders of a man rewarded for his monumental crimes by his great nation.
 

Iraqi children: Squeezed to survive
 

Israeli army forcibly evacuate at least 200 Palestinians from Kherbet Qessa
 

Good News ! ! !
US not seeking permanent Iraq bases: White House
 

Kurdish Ministers Woo U.S. Oil Firms: On Monday night, Omer Fattah Hussain was the toast of a dinner held at the 10,000-square-foot McLean mansion of Ed Rogers, a Reagan White House political director and current chairman of the lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers. In an opulent living room just off an art-filled entryway with a curved double stairway, the deputy prime minister of the Iraqi Kurds' autonomous region mingled with such luminaries as former assistant secretary of defense Richard Perle, former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and former White House press secretary Tony Snow.

Today, Hussain travels to Houston with Ashti Abdullah Hawrami, the Kurdish regional oil minister, to woo an even more important audience: U.S. oil companies.

The major oil companies have been giving advice, reviewing data and training Iraqi oil workers -- without compensation. (Wow!!!)
 

100 زعيم عشيرة يعتصمون ببغداد مطالبين بتحسين الاوضاع

100 زعيم عشيرة يعتصمون ببغداد مطالبين بتحسين الاوضاع الامنية في ديالى
إعتصم أكثر من مائة زعيم قبيلة وعشيرة يمثلون محافظة ديالى، في فندق ببغداد، الخميس، مطالبين الحكومة بتحسين الاوضاع الامنية في محافظتهم وحصر السلاح بيد القوات الحكومية.
وذكر متحدث بإسم المعتصمين للوكالة المستقلة للأنباء (أصوات العراق) ان "الزعماء العشائريين بدأوا إعتصامهم صباح اليوم (الخميس) في قاعة دنانير بفندق الرشيد وسط بغداد، بعد إنهيار مباحثات اجروها مع الحكومة لتحسين الوضع الامني في ديالى."


ما شاء اللة ماندري شو عدنا طنان من زعايم العشاير اذا بديالى مية لعد باقي المحافظات شكد اكو.

كلة سببة " النظام الصدامي الظالم" حتى زعامات العشائر كانوا خاتلين اي والله.
طيح الله حظكم يا دجالين ولعنة الله على كل كذاب ومنافق
 

The 12 Myths of Annapolis (Very good article.)
 

A man who never disappoints . . .
Text of President Bush's remarks at Annapolis, Md.: "If responsible Palestinian leaders can deliver on this vision, they will deal the forces of extremism a devastating blow. And when liberty takes root on the Iraqi soil of the West Bank and Gaza, it will inspire millions across the Middle East who want their societies built on freedom and peace and hope."
 

Pricking the Western conscience: The West was instrumental in helping the Zionist movement create a state in Palestine. Israel was established at the expense of the Palestinians who have, as a result, lived for decades in unspeakable horror. To this day there is not a glimmer of hope for a just solution in Palestine.
 

James Petras: US Military versus Israel Firsters: The fundamental question emerging for most senior officers, in private gatherings and informal discussions is ‘Who commands our Commander in Chief?’ ...

The question of ‘who commands the Commander in Chief’ goes to the entire core of our constitutional order, because it raises the deeper question of ‘who defines the national interests’ for which the military are fighting? If as we have documented, the ZPC has effectively colonized the White House and Legislative Branches (and the Justice Department and the appointment of an ultra-Zionist Attorney General Michael Mulkasey and Israel-First Head of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff), to serve the interests of a foreign power (Israel) in what sense does a colonized political system serve the interests of a democratic public? Does there exist a primary condition that makes it possible to speak of a democracy, namely national self-determination, de-colonization necessary for the re-democratization of American political institutions?
 

CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD ~~ HOW THE WORLD VIEWS THE PALESTINIANS
 

Israel court backs Gaza fuel cuts
 

What's the 'good news' in Iraq?
 

Senate Bill 1959 to Criminalize Thoughts, Blogs, Books and Free Speech Across America: If it passes, all the information sources you know and trust could be shut down and their authors imprisoned.
 

Police drop charge against Olmert
 

The Myths of Military Progress: Making occupation and calling it peace. Killing fewer and calling it progress. Rotating troops and calling it a withdrawal. Setting up new death squads and calling them allies. Lowering standards and calling it opening new opportunities.
 

R E A D this article -
The Method to Bush’s Madness in Overthrowing Venezuela
 

Honeymoon in Baghdad?

Dear Imad
This believed he is a Son of Abu Dira'a who had killed many Iraqi and boiled them and put them in fron of their homes

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2007/11/honeymoon-in-ba.html?cid=91872332#comments
 

A more plausible reading of US policy: Maliki "under control", leading Iraq to US-protectorate status: ... I would like to underline how this analysis of Maliki--seemingly very simple and straightforward--would actually give the lie to much of what has been written about this period of Iraqi political history. Because it has been popular in the media and elsewhere to file all of the Maliki-Bush events under the heading of Bush's stupidity in unwittingly giving the control of Iraq to an Iranian partisan; and to call for American withdrawal on the basis that political events there are out of control. The hypothesis outlined here--namely that Maliki is and has always been "under control"--would require a different reading, putting more emphasis on the idea that in fact the dismemberment of the country, which Maliki has done so much to promote, is part of the American strategy, not an index of its failure.
 

Israeli army shoots three children, abducts two
 

US withdraws UN text backing Mideast peace process: diplomat
 

Misinformation by a pro-Kurdish journalist: In an article published on 28th November in 'The Independent’
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article3201563.ece
Patrick Cockburn writes:

"In addition to the 2.2 million Iraqi refugees who have fled to other countries, a further 2.4 million are displaced inside Iraq. Of these, one million, mostly Kurds, were compelled to leave their homes under Saddam Hussein before 2003, but 1.2 million fled after the bombing of the Shia shrine in Samarra in February 2005. People are still leaving their homes inside Iraq and 28,000 more people were displaced in October."
 

Sheik Twitty al Ameriki

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/sheik-twitty-al-ameriki.htm
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314642,00.html