IRAQ: WMD
Independent: Saddam was bluffing over WMD stocks, says report
New blow for Bush over failure to find weapons as turmoil continues in Baghdad
The Bush administration is bracing itself for the publication of a report today that will confirm the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - the main justification given for the war.
David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey group which is leading the hunt for the weapons, is expected to tell the House and Senate Intelligence committees that Saddam Hussein may have been bluffing over whether he possessed chemical and biological arms.
Mr Kay is likely to highlight the instructions issued by Baghdad to Iraqi commanders in the field shortly before war, to use chemical weapons against the invaders. Mr Kay will probably say that these instructions, intercepted by US intelligence services, were fakes, intended by Saddam to make himself appear a greater threat that he was.
Officially, his report will be "inconclusive" and stress Saddam's skill at hiding his prohibited weapons. But it may also raise the possibility that he had them scrapped shortly after, or even before, the 1991 Gulf War, which drove his forces from Kuwait.
At most, the report will say that the Iraqi dictator had the capabilities, in terms of precursor chemicals and "dual use" facilities, to restart production quickly once UN sanctions had been lifted.
Thursday, October 02, 2003
STREETART
THE ART OF REBELLION BOOK IS OUT ON OCTOBER 10TH
Street art is a phenomenom in cities worlwide. In the past it was sometimes used as a tool to send out messages and it has recently experienced a big boom worlwide. "Grown up"-graffiti artists, looking for a new aim and bored from traditional graffiti and various others started using the city as a canvas and created a new atmosphere. This book shows how big and interesting streetart is today and introduces the protagonists of this movement. It contains exclusive photos, quotes and interviews from the European metropols, north and south america to australia and beyond ."The art of rebellion" is not only adress to artist but to a greater audience as it gives information, tells funny stories and shows excellent shots.
For those who didn't know yet, the book now also features a mixed cd by Florian Keller from Compost records, which contains some great sound to listen to while flipping through the pages of the book.
The Book will be released by Die Gestalten Verlag. Buy It
THE ART OF REBELLION BOOK IS OUT ON OCTOBER 10TH
Street art is a phenomenom in cities worlwide. In the past it was sometimes used as a tool to send out messages and it has recently experienced a big boom worlwide. "Grown up"-graffiti artists, looking for a new aim and bored from traditional graffiti and various others started using the city as a canvas and created a new atmosphere. This book shows how big and interesting streetart is today and introduces the protagonists of this movement. It contains exclusive photos, quotes and interviews from the European metropols, north and south america to australia and beyond ."The art of rebellion" is not only adress to artist but to a greater audience as it gives information, tells funny stories and shows excellent shots.
For those who didn't know yet, the book now also features a mixed cd by Florian Keller from Compost records, which contains some great sound to listen to while flipping through the pages of the book.
The Book will be released by Die Gestalten Verlag. Buy It
VENEZUELA
V-Headline/indymedia: CIA Planned To Crash Venezuela President's Plane
Venezuelan Military Intelligence says overwhelming evidence the CIA planned to bring down Chavez Frias' airplane en route to United Nations in New York
Details behind the sudden decision to cancel President Hugo Chavez Frias' next-week trip to Washington D.C. and New York (to deliver a speech to the United Nations) are being revealed by security services who say they have "overwhelming evidence" of a CIA-backed plan to "bring down" the Chavez Frias' airplane during the scheduled flight to the United States from Caracas. Sources in Venezuela's Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM) have told VHeadline.com that "presented with overwhelming evidence of Washington's planned attack on the Presidential flight, it was decided that the President's personal security was preeminent and that he should not go!"
State Security & Political (DISIP) police agents were involved in a gun battle in Plaza Altamira Friday night as they moved to detain a suspect now named as Jorge Rojas Riera, for the Friday morning bombing at the Casa Militar barracks, across Avenida Urdaneta from the Miraflores Presidential Palace. It is reported that President Hugo Chavez Frias was working at his desk when the 1:00 a.m. blast went off but that his life had never been put in danger as many gleeful wire-service reporters had immediately cabled to their North American publishers.
Vheadline,com, 09/28/03
In an Associated Press (AP) dispatch the United States government has said it will open up an investigation into allegations made by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias relative to conspiracy to assassinate him. Chavez Frias has said that "terrorist groups" in southern Florida have allied with Miami-based anti-Castro radicals.
Amazingly US Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles S. Shapiro says "it is not necessarily a crime ... but we are in the full process of collecting information and we must follow all legal procedures ... if there is anyone to blame, our government knows what to do!"
With typical Washington cover-up rhetoric, Shapiro shakily admits that he has received information that "some Venezuelans have been receiving military training in the United States." He further admits that the information was also published in a Miami newspaper a year ago ... but remains remarkably silent as to why no action was taken by proper authorities Stateside. "We're not going to take action against anybody ... we haven't been able to make any headway!"
President Chavez Frias was forced to cancel his scheduled trip to the United Nations in New York on September 24 after intelligence agencies revealed a CIA-backed plot against the President's plane en route to the General Assembly. Chavez asked the United States to investigate his allegations, at the same time reiterating earlier requests that President George W. Bush should stop interfering in Venezuela's affairs.
V-Headline/indymedia: CIA Planned To Crash Venezuela President's Plane
Venezuelan Military Intelligence says overwhelming evidence the CIA planned to bring down Chavez Frias' airplane en route to United Nations in New York
Details behind the sudden decision to cancel President Hugo Chavez Frias' next-week trip to Washington D.C. and New York (to deliver a speech to the United Nations) are being revealed by security services who say they have "overwhelming evidence" of a CIA-backed plan to "bring down" the Chavez Frias' airplane during the scheduled flight to the United States from Caracas. Sources in Venezuela's Military Intelligence Directorate (DIM) have told VHeadline.com that "presented with overwhelming evidence of Washington's planned attack on the Presidential flight, it was decided that the President's personal security was preeminent and that he should not go!"
State Security & Political (DISIP) police agents were involved in a gun battle in Plaza Altamira Friday night as they moved to detain a suspect now named as Jorge Rojas Riera, for the Friday morning bombing at the Casa Militar barracks, across Avenida Urdaneta from the Miraflores Presidential Palace. It is reported that President Hugo Chavez Frias was working at his desk when the 1:00 a.m. blast went off but that his life had never been put in danger as many gleeful wire-service reporters had immediately cabled to their North American publishers.
Vheadline,com, 09/28/03
In an Associated Press (AP) dispatch the United States government has said it will open up an investigation into allegations made by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias relative to conspiracy to assassinate him. Chavez Frias has said that "terrorist groups" in southern Florida have allied with Miami-based anti-Castro radicals.
Amazingly US Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles S. Shapiro says "it is not necessarily a crime ... but we are in the full process of collecting information and we must follow all legal procedures ... if there is anyone to blame, our government knows what to do!"
With typical Washington cover-up rhetoric, Shapiro shakily admits that he has received information that "some Venezuelans have been receiving military training in the United States." He further admits that the information was also published in a Miami newspaper a year ago ... but remains remarkably silent as to why no action was taken by proper authorities Stateside. "We're not going to take action against anybody ... we haven't been able to make any headway!"
President Chavez Frias was forced to cancel his scheduled trip to the United Nations in New York on September 24 after intelligence agencies revealed a CIA-backed plot against the President's plane en route to the General Assembly. Chavez asked the United States to investigate his allegations, at the same time reiterating earlier requests that President George W. Bush should stop interfering in Venezuela's affairs.
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Islamonline: Israeli Assassination Bid Against Hamas Leader Thwarted
CAIRO (IslamOnline.net) -- An Arab country has recently arrested a terrorist cell affiliated to the Israeli intelligence (Mossad) which was plotting to liquidate senior Hamas political leaders abroad, including the head of the movement politburo Khaled Mashal, a senior Hamas official confirmed Tuesday, September 30.
In exclusive statements to IslamOnline.net over the phone, Mohammad Nazal, himself a member of Hamas politburo, said officials in the said Arab country, which he declined to name, notified the movement leaders they must take utmost precautionary measures in their movements.
Because of watertight security measures for his own protection, Mashal has recently refrained from talking to the media or taking part in political activities, he elaborated.
Islamonline: Israeli Assassination Bid Against Hamas Leader Thwarted
CAIRO (IslamOnline.net) -- An Arab country has recently arrested a terrorist cell affiliated to the Israeli intelligence (Mossad) which was plotting to liquidate senior Hamas political leaders abroad, including the head of the movement politburo Khaled Mashal, a senior Hamas official confirmed Tuesday, September 30.
In exclusive statements to IslamOnline.net over the phone, Mohammad Nazal, himself a member of Hamas politburo, said officials in the said Arab country, which he declined to name, notified the movement leaders they must take utmost precautionary measures in their movements.
Because of watertight security measures for his own protection, Mashal has recently refrained from talking to the media or taking part in political activities, he elaborated.
USA
islamonline: Billionaire Soros Attacks Bush 'Extremist Policies'
WASHINGTON (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -- Launching a grass-roots initiative to raise up to $75 million to prevent President George W. Bush from being re-elected, famous billionaire George Soros said Washington would only stop pursuing ìextremistî policies if there was a change in the White House.
"It is only possible if you have a regime change in the United States - in other words if President Bush is voted out of power,î Soros told BBC Radio 4's United Nations Or Not? Program Monday, September 29.
"I am very hopeful that people will wake up and realize that they have been led down the garden path, that actually 11 September has been hijacked by a bunch of extremists to put into effect policies that they were advocating before such as the invasion of Iraq," Soros said, according to the BBC online news service.
islamonline: Billionaire Soros Attacks Bush 'Extremist Policies'
WASHINGTON (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) -- Launching a grass-roots initiative to raise up to $75 million to prevent President George W. Bush from being re-elected, famous billionaire George Soros said Washington would only stop pursuing ìextremistî policies if there was a change in the White House.
"It is only possible if you have a regime change in the United States - in other words if President Bush is voted out of power,î Soros told BBC Radio 4's United Nations Or Not? Program Monday, September 29.
"I am very hopeful that people will wake up and realize that they have been led down the garden path, that actually 11 September has been hijacked by a bunch of extremists to put into effect policies that they were advocating before such as the invasion of Iraq," Soros said, according to the BBC online news service.
PEAK OIL
Independent: Another New Image Of The Face On Mars
World oil and gas supplies are heading for a "production crunch" sometime between 2010 and 2020 when they cannot meet supply, because global reserves are 80 per cent smaller than had been thought, new forecasts suggest.
Research presented this week at the University of Uppsala in Sweden claims that oil supplies will peak soon after 2010, and gas supplies not long afterwards, making the price of petrol and other fuels rocket, with potentially disastrous economic consequences unless people have moved to alternatives to fossil fuels.
While forecasters have always known that such a date lies ahead, they have previously put it around 2050, and estimated that there would be time to shift energy use over to renewables and other non- fossil sources.
But Kjell Aleklett, one of a team of geologists that prepared the report, said earlier estimates that the world's entire reserve amounts to 18,000 billion barrels of oil and gas - of which about 1,000 billion has been used up so far - were "completely unrealistic". He, Anders Sivertsson and Colin Campbell told New Scientist magazine that less than 3,500 billion barrels of oil and gas remained in total.
Independent: Another New Image Of The Face On Mars
World oil and gas supplies are heading for a "production crunch" sometime between 2010 and 2020 when they cannot meet supply, because global reserves are 80 per cent smaller than had been thought, new forecasts suggest.
Research presented this week at the University of Uppsala in Sweden claims that oil supplies will peak soon after 2010, and gas supplies not long afterwards, making the price of petrol and other fuels rocket, with potentially disastrous economic consequences unless people have moved to alternatives to fossil fuels.
While forecasters have always known that such a date lies ahead, they have previously put it around 2050, and estimated that there would be time to shift energy use over to renewables and other non- fossil sources.
But Kjell Aleklett, one of a team of geologists that prepared the report, said earlier estimates that the world's entire reserve amounts to 18,000 billion barrels of oil and gas - of which about 1,000 billion has been used up so far - were "completely unrealistic". He, Anders Sivertsson and Colin Campbell told New Scientist magazine that less than 3,500 billion barrels of oil and gas remained in total.
USA
commondreams: US Cuts Military Aid to Friendly Nations
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration today cut over $89 million in military aid to 32 friendly countries because they refused to exempt U.S. citizens and soldiers from the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court (ICC)--the world's first permanent tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Among the countries whose aid was cut were a number of new democracies in Central and East Europe--some of which have contributed troops to bolster the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq--as well as Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, South Africa, and several other Latin American and African countries.
"This is the first sanction in U.S. diplomatic history targeted exclusively at democracies," said Heather Hamilton of the World Federalist Association (WFA), one of hundreds of non-governmental groups around the world that have joined in a global coalition in support of the ICC
commondreams: US Cuts Military Aid to Friendly Nations
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration today cut over $89 million in military aid to 32 friendly countries because they refused to exempt U.S. citizens and soldiers from the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court (ICC)--the world's first permanent tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Among the countries whose aid was cut were a number of new democracies in Central and East Europe--some of which have contributed troops to bolster the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq--as well as Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, South Africa, and several other Latin American and African countries.
"This is the first sanction in U.S. diplomatic history targeted exclusively at democracies," said Heather Hamilton of the World Federalist Association (WFA), one of hundreds of non-governmental groups around the world that have joined in a global coalition in support of the ICC
ISRAEL: ZIONISM
Rense: More Examples Of Zionist Racism
"One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail."
--Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."
-- Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.
"[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the 'Beasts,"' New Statesman, June 25,1982.
"We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return."-David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, July 18, 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's "Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet," Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157
"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours...Everything we don't grab will go to them."-Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of the Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.
Rense: More Examples Of Zionist Racism
"One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail."
--Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994
"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."
-- Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.
"[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the 'Beasts,"' New Statesman, June 25,1982.
"We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return."-David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, July 18, 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's "Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet," Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157
"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many (Palestinian) hilltops as they can to enlarge the (Jewish) settlements because everything we take now will stay ours...Everything we don't grab will go to them."-Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of the Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, Nov. 15, 1998.
ISRAEL
Tagesanzeiger: Unterstützung für Piloten-Protest
Prominente israelische Autoren haben sich öffentlich hinter eine Gruppe von Piloten der Luftwaffe gestellt, die Angriffe auf Ziele in dicht besiedelten Palaestinensergebieten ablehnen.
Die Regierung und die Militaerführung sollten auf die Piloten hören, selbst wenn es um Angriffe auf Terroristen gehe, erklärten die 36 Schriftsteller nach Angaben des israelischen Radios vom Donnerstag. Israel muesse sich ohne Unterlass um Verhandlungen mit den Palaestinensern bemühen, um die Besetzung der Gebiete zu beenden. Unter den Autoren sind David Grossman, Sami Michael und Batya Gur.
27 Piloten hatten in der vergangenen Woche in einem offenen Brief an Luftwaffenchef Dan Haluz geschrieben, Befehle zu Angriffen auf Ziele in Wohngebieten seien «unmoralisch und illegal». «Mit einer Axt kann man keine chirurgische Operation ausführen, egal wie qualifiziert der Chirurg ist», sagte ein Verweigerer unter Anspielung auf die umstrittenen gezielten Tötungen militanter Palaestinenser. Neun noch aktive Piloten sind inzwischen vom Dienst suspendiert worden. (wim/sda)
Tagesanzeiger: Unterstützung für Piloten-Protest
Prominente israelische Autoren haben sich öffentlich hinter eine Gruppe von Piloten der Luftwaffe gestellt, die Angriffe auf Ziele in dicht besiedelten Palaestinensergebieten ablehnen.
Die Regierung und die Militaerführung sollten auf die Piloten hören, selbst wenn es um Angriffe auf Terroristen gehe, erklärten die 36 Schriftsteller nach Angaben des israelischen Radios vom Donnerstag. Israel muesse sich ohne Unterlass um Verhandlungen mit den Palaestinensern bemühen, um die Besetzung der Gebiete zu beenden. Unter den Autoren sind David Grossman, Sami Michael und Batya Gur.
27 Piloten hatten in der vergangenen Woche in einem offenen Brief an Luftwaffenchef Dan Haluz geschrieben, Befehle zu Angriffen auf Ziele in Wohngebieten seien «unmoralisch und illegal». «Mit einer Axt kann man keine chirurgische Operation ausführen, egal wie qualifiziert der Chirurg ist», sagte ein Verweigerer unter Anspielung auf die umstrittenen gezielten Tötungen militanter Palaestinenser. Neun noch aktive Piloten sind inzwischen vom Dienst suspendiert worden. (wim/sda)
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
UK
Independent: Blair suffers conference defeat on foundation hospitals
Tony Blair suffered an embarrassing defeat on foundation hospitals today when delegates voted to scrap his flagship policy at Labour's annual conference.
The Prime Minister will push ahead with the controversial plan to give greater freedom to top hospitals.
But the defeat in Bournemouth will give fresh ammunition to Labour MPs fighting the reforms in the House of Commons.
Independent: Blair suffers conference defeat on foundation hospitals
Tony Blair suffered an embarrassing defeat on foundation hospitals today when delegates voted to scrap his flagship policy at Labour's annual conference.
The Prime Minister will push ahead with the controversial plan to give greater freedom to top hospitals.
But the defeat in Bournemouth will give fresh ammunition to Labour MPs fighting the reforms in the House of Commons.
IRAQI OIL
FPIF: Control of Oil Revenues
Iraq Occupation Report
While widespread ransacking was happening in Iraq after Baghdad fell, the U.S. moved swiftly to secure the country’s oil facilities. But in the months since the official end of the war, general looting and sabotage have impeded even the oil industry, frustrating efforts to quickly return oil production to prewar levels.
As of early July, the future of Iraq’s oil is still a matter of speculation. Rehabilitating oil facilities and preparing the ground for an expansion of output will take time. Current projections are that because of widespread looting, it will take 18 months just to return to prewar production levels of 3 million barrels per day. [Neela Banerjee, “Barrels of Oil Exported for the First Time Since the War,” New York Times, June 23, 2003]
The U.S. will has broad control over the Iraqi oil industry, principally by means of a Development Fund for Iraq, into which all of Iraq’s oil export revenues, all funds left over from the UN’s “oil for food” program, and all assets of the former Iraqi government located anywhere in the world are to be transferred. With such broad control, U.S. corporations are well posed to reap enormous profits and control of the oil industry.
FPIF: Control of Oil Revenues
Iraq Occupation Report
While widespread ransacking was happening in Iraq after Baghdad fell, the U.S. moved swiftly to secure the country’s oil facilities. But in the months since the official end of the war, general looting and sabotage have impeded even the oil industry, frustrating efforts to quickly return oil production to prewar levels.
As of early July, the future of Iraq’s oil is still a matter of speculation. Rehabilitating oil facilities and preparing the ground for an expansion of output will take time. Current projections are that because of widespread looting, it will take 18 months just to return to prewar production levels of 3 million barrels per day. [Neela Banerjee, “Barrels of Oil Exported for the First Time Since the War,” New York Times, June 23, 2003]
The U.S. will has broad control over the Iraqi oil industry, principally by means of a Development Fund for Iraq, into which all of Iraq’s oil export revenues, all funds left over from the UN’s “oil for food” program, and all assets of the former Iraqi government located anywhere in the world are to be transferred. With such broad control, U.S. corporations are well posed to reap enormous profits and control of the oil industry.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Independent: Oil, war and a growing sense of panic in the US by Robert Fisk (complete)
01 October 2003 [Premium article - fee required]
Don't tell me that America would have invaded Iraq if its chief export was beetroot
Oil is slippery stuff but not as slippery as the figures now being
peddled by Iraq's American occupiers. Up around Kirkuk, the authorities are
keeping the sabotage figures secret - because they can't stop their pipelines
to Turkey blowing up. And down in Baghdad, where the men who produce
Iraq's oil production figures are beginning to look like the occupants of
Plato's cave - drawing conclusions from shadows on their wall - the statistics
are being cooked. Paul Bremer, the US proconsul who wears combat boots, is
"sexing up" the figures to a point where even the oilmen are shaking
their heads.
Take Kirkuk. Only when the television cameras capture a blown pipe,
flames billowing, do the occupation powers report sabotage. This they did, for
example, on 18 August. But the same Turkish pipeline has been hit
before and since. It was blown on 17 September and four times the following
day. US patrols and helicopters move along the pipeline but, in the huge
ravines and tribal areas through which it passes, long sections are
indefensible.
European oilmen in Baghdad realise now that Iraqi officials in the oil
ministry - one of only two government institutions that the Americans
defended from the looters - knew very well that the sabotage was going
to occur. "They told me in June that there would be no oil exports from
the north," one of them said to me this week. "They knew it was going to be
sabotaged - and it had obviously been planned long before the invasion
in March."
Early in their occupation, the Americans took the quiet - and unwise -
decision to re-hire many Baathist oil technocrats, which means that a
large proportion of ministry officials are still ambivalent towards the
Americans. The only oil revenues the US can get are from the south. In
the middle of August, Mr Bremer gave the impression that production stood
at about 1.5 million barrels a day. But the real figure at that time was
780,000 barrels and rarely does production reach a million. In the
words of an oil analyst visiting Iraq, this is "an inexcusable catastrophe".
When the US attacked Iraq in March, the country was producing 2.7
million barrels a day. It transpires that in the very first hours after they
entered Baghdad on 9 April, American troops allowed looters into the
oil ministry. By the time senior officers arrived to order them out, they
had destroyed billions of dollars of irreplaceable seismic and drilling
data.
While the major oil companies in the US stand to cream off billions of
dollars if oil production resumes in earnest, many of their executives
were demanding to know from the Bush administration - long before the war -
how it intended to prevent sabotage. In fact, Saddam had no plans to
destroy the oil fields themselves, plenty for blowing up the export pipes. The
Pentagon got it the wrong way round, racing its troops to protect the
fields but ignoring the vulnerable pipelines.
Anarchy is now so widespread in post-war Iraq that it is almost
impossible for international investors to work there. There is no insurance for
them - which is why Mr Bremer's occupation administrators have secretly
decided that well over half the $20bn (£12bn) earmarked for Iraq will go
towards security for its production infrastructure.
During the war, a detailed analysis by Yahya Sadowski, a professor at
the American University of Beirut, suggested that repairing wells and pipes
would cost $1bn, that raising oil production to 3.5 million barrels a
day would take three years and cost another $8bn investment and another
$20bn for repairs to the electrical grid which powers the pumps and
refineries. Bringing production up to six million barrels a day would cost a
further $30bn, some say up $100bn.
In other words - assuming only $8bn of the $20bn can be used on
industry - the Bush overall budget of $87bn which now horrifies Congress is likely
to rise towards a figure of $200bn. Ouch.
Since the 1920s, only about 2,300 wells have been drilled in Iraq and
those are in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. Its deserts are almost
totally unexplored. Officially, Iraq contains 12 per cent of the
world's oil 5reserves - two-thirds of the world's reserves are in just four
other countries, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the Emirates - but it could
contain 20 per cent, even 25 per cent.
It's possible to argue that it was Saddam's decision to switch from the
dollar to the euro in November 2000 that made "regime change" so
important to the US. When Iran threatened to do the same, it was added to the
"axis of evil". The defence of the dollar is almost as important as oil.
But the real irony lies in the nature of America's new power in Iraq.
US oil deposits are increasingly depleted and by 2025, its oil imports
will account for perhaps 70 per cent of total domestic demand. It needs to
control the world's reserves - and don't tell me the US would have
invaded Iraq if its chief export was beetroot - and it now has control of
perhaps 25 per cent of
world reserves.
But it can't make the oil flow. The cost of making it flow could
produce an economic crisis in the US. And it is this - rather than the daily
killing of young American soldiers - that lies behind the Bush administration's
growing panic. Washington has got its hands on the biggest treasure
chest in the world - but it can't open the lid. No wonder they are cooking
the books in Baghdad.
CHECK IT CHECK IT CHECK IT
Independent: Oil, war and a growing sense of panic in the US by Robert Fisk (complete)
01 October 2003 [Premium article - fee required]
Don't tell me that America would have invaded Iraq if its chief export was beetroot
Oil is slippery stuff but not as slippery as the figures now being
peddled by Iraq's American occupiers. Up around Kirkuk, the authorities are
keeping the sabotage figures secret - because they can't stop their pipelines
to Turkey blowing up. And down in Baghdad, where the men who produce
Iraq's oil production figures are beginning to look like the occupants of
Plato's cave - drawing conclusions from shadows on their wall - the statistics
are being cooked. Paul Bremer, the US proconsul who wears combat boots, is
"sexing up" the figures to a point where even the oilmen are shaking
their heads.
Take Kirkuk. Only when the television cameras capture a blown pipe,
flames billowing, do the occupation powers report sabotage. This they did, for
example, on 18 August. But the same Turkish pipeline has been hit
before and since. It was blown on 17 September and four times the following
day. US patrols and helicopters move along the pipeline but, in the huge
ravines and tribal areas through which it passes, long sections are
indefensible.
European oilmen in Baghdad realise now that Iraqi officials in the oil
ministry - one of only two government institutions that the Americans
defended from the looters - knew very well that the sabotage was going
to occur. "They told me in June that there would be no oil exports from
the north," one of them said to me this week. "They knew it was going to be
sabotaged - and it had obviously been planned long before the invasion
in March."
Early in their occupation, the Americans took the quiet - and unwise -
decision to re-hire many Baathist oil technocrats, which means that a
large proportion of ministry officials are still ambivalent towards the
Americans. The only oil revenues the US can get are from the south. In
the middle of August, Mr Bremer gave the impression that production stood
at about 1.5 million barrels a day. But the real figure at that time was
780,000 barrels and rarely does production reach a million. In the
words of an oil analyst visiting Iraq, this is "an inexcusable catastrophe".
When the US attacked Iraq in March, the country was producing 2.7
million barrels a day. It transpires that in the very first hours after they
entered Baghdad on 9 April, American troops allowed looters into the
oil ministry. By the time senior officers arrived to order them out, they
had destroyed billions of dollars of irreplaceable seismic and drilling
data.
While the major oil companies in the US stand to cream off billions of
dollars if oil production resumes in earnest, many of their executives
were demanding to know from the Bush administration - long before the war -
how it intended to prevent sabotage. In fact, Saddam had no plans to
destroy the oil fields themselves, plenty for blowing up the export pipes. The
Pentagon got it the wrong way round, racing its troops to protect the
fields but ignoring the vulnerable pipelines.
Anarchy is now so widespread in post-war Iraq that it is almost
impossible for international investors to work there. There is no insurance for
them - which is why Mr Bremer's occupation administrators have secretly
decided that well over half the $20bn (£12bn) earmarked for Iraq will go
towards security for its production infrastructure.
During the war, a detailed analysis by Yahya Sadowski, a professor at
the American University of Beirut, suggested that repairing wells and pipes
would cost $1bn, that raising oil production to 3.5 million barrels a
day would take three years and cost another $8bn investment and another
$20bn for repairs to the electrical grid which powers the pumps and
refineries. Bringing production up to six million barrels a day would cost a
further $30bn, some say up $100bn.
In other words - assuming only $8bn of the $20bn can be used on
industry - the Bush overall budget of $87bn which now horrifies Congress is likely
to rise towards a figure of $200bn. Ouch.
Since the 1920s, only about 2,300 wells have been drilled in Iraq and
those are in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. Its deserts are almost
totally unexplored. Officially, Iraq contains 12 per cent of the
world's oil 5reserves - two-thirds of the world's reserves are in just four
other countries, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the Emirates - but it could
contain 20 per cent, even 25 per cent.
It's possible to argue that it was Saddam's decision to switch from the
dollar to the euro in November 2000 that made "regime change" so
important to the US. When Iran threatened to do the same, it was added to the
"axis of evil". The defence of the dollar is almost as important as oil.
But the real irony lies in the nature of America's new power in Iraq.
US oil deposits are increasingly depleted and by 2025, its oil imports
will account for perhaps 70 per cent of total domestic demand. It needs to
control the world's reserves - and don't tell me the US would have
invaded Iraq if its chief export was beetroot - and it now has control of
perhaps 25 per cent of
world reserves.
But it can't make the oil flow. The cost of making it flow could
produce an economic crisis in the US. And it is this - rather than the daily
killing of young American soldiers - that lies behind the Bush administration's
growing panic. Washington has got its hands on the biggest treasure
chest in the world - but it can't open the lid. No wonder they are cooking
the books in Baghdad.
CHECK IT CHECK IT CHECK IT
IRAQ WAR
CS Science Monitor: Iraq war's human toll could be felt for decades
Beyond fatalities, an average of eight American soldiers a day are wounded
Politicians and the press tend to tally the human costs of going to war by counting those killed. So far, that's 311 Americans in Iraq and 88 more as part of "Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan. If one dates this newly defined "war on terror" back to the 1983 car bomb attack on the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, another 300 or so American lives have been lost.
But the number of those wounded in action (or injured in combat-zone accidents) is far higher. And while combat deaths have been relatively low since the Vietnam War, the ratio of these nonfatal casualties to war fatalities is increasing - from 3 to 1 in World War II to more than 5 to 1 in Iraq (1,691 to date).
With no end in sight to a substantial US presence in Iraq, the number of nonfatal casualties (now averaging more than eight per day) is likely to keep increasing, experts say. And beyond the human dimension, the costs of such casualties, which tend to be overlooked as part of the cost of national security and foreign policy, will continue for decades as well. Among those costs: rehabilitation, retraining, postcombat counseling, long-term medical treatment, and assisted-living care.
CS Science Monitor: Iraq war's human toll could be felt for decades
Beyond fatalities, an average of eight American soldiers a day are wounded
Politicians and the press tend to tally the human costs of going to war by counting those killed. So far, that's 311 Americans in Iraq and 88 more as part of "Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan. If one dates this newly defined "war on terror" back to the 1983 car bomb attack on the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, another 300 or so American lives have been lost.
But the number of those wounded in action (or injured in combat-zone accidents) is far higher. And while combat deaths have been relatively low since the Vietnam War, the ratio of these nonfatal casualties to war fatalities is increasing - from 3 to 1 in World War II to more than 5 to 1 in Iraq (1,691 to date).
With no end in sight to a substantial US presence in Iraq, the number of nonfatal casualties (now averaging more than eight per day) is likely to keep increasing, experts say. And beyond the human dimension, the costs of such casualties, which tend to be overlooked as part of the cost of national security and foreign policy, will continue for decades as well. Among those costs: rehabilitation, retraining, postcombat counseling, long-term medical treatment, and assisted-living care.
AFGHANISTAN/IRAQ
Greenleft.co.au: JOHN PILGER: Bush's `war on terror' is a cruel hoax
At the British Labour Party conference following the September 11, 2001, attacks, Prime Minister Tony Blair said memorably: “To the Afghan people, we make this commitment. We will not walk away... If the Taliban regime changes, we will work with you to make sure its successor is one that is broad based, that unites all ethnic groups and offers some way out of the poverty that is your miserable existence.”
He was echoing US President George Bush, who had said a few days earlier: “The oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and its allies. As we strike military targets, we will also drop food, medicine and supplies to the starving and suffering men, women and children of Afghanistan. The US is a friend of the Afghan people.”
Almost every word they spoke was false. Their declarations of concern were cruel illusions that prepared the way for the conquest of both Afghanistan and Iraq. As the illegal Anglo-American occupation of Iraq now unravels, the forgotten disaster in Afghanistan, the first “victory” in the “war on terror”, is perhaps an even more shocking testament to power.
CHECK IT
Greenleft.co.au: JOHN PILGER: Bush's `war on terror' is a cruel hoax
At the British Labour Party conference following the September 11, 2001, attacks, Prime Minister Tony Blair said memorably: “To the Afghan people, we make this commitment. We will not walk away... If the Taliban regime changes, we will work with you to make sure its successor is one that is broad based, that unites all ethnic groups and offers some way out of the poverty that is your miserable existence.”
He was echoing US President George Bush, who had said a few days earlier: “The oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and its allies. As we strike military targets, we will also drop food, medicine and supplies to the starving and suffering men, women and children of Afghanistan. The US is a friend of the Afghan people.”
Almost every word they spoke was false. Their declarations of concern were cruel illusions that prepared the way for the conquest of both Afghanistan and Iraq. As the illegal Anglo-American occupation of Iraq now unravels, the forgotten disaster in Afghanistan, the first “victory” in the “war on terror”, is perhaps an even more shocking testament to power.
CHECK IT
USA
Democrats.org: Plamegate Update: Senate Dems call for special counsel
The Associated Press is reporting that the Justice Department has opened a full investigation into the White House's alleged leak of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
Do you trust John Ashcroft to conduct this investigation in a thorough and nonpartisan manner?
The [Justice] department notified the counsel's office about 8:30 p.m. Monday that it was launching an investigation but said the White House could wait until the next morning to notify staff and direct them to preserve relevant material, McClellan said.
Since when does the Justice Department give people a several-hours head start to destroy evidence before an investigation begins?
Washington Post: Bush Vows Action if Aides Had Role in Leak
Democrats' Demand for Special Counsel Rejected
President Bush's chief spokesman said yesterday that the allegation that administration officials leaked the name of a CIA operative is "a very serious matter" and vowed that Bush would fire anybody responsible for such actions. ja sicher
Democrats.org: Plamegate Update: Senate Dems call for special counsel
The Associated Press is reporting that the Justice Department has opened a full investigation into the White House's alleged leak of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
Do you trust John Ashcroft to conduct this investigation in a thorough and nonpartisan manner?
The [Justice] department notified the counsel's office about 8:30 p.m. Monday that it was launching an investigation but said the White House could wait until the next morning to notify staff and direct them to preserve relevant material, McClellan said.
Since when does the Justice Department give people a several-hours head start to destroy evidence before an investigation begins?
Washington Post: Bush Vows Action if Aides Had Role in Leak
Democrats' Demand for Special Counsel Rejected
President Bush's chief spokesman said yesterday that the allegation that administration officials leaked the name of a CIA operative is "a very serious matter" and vowed that Bush would fire anybody responsible for such actions. ja sicher
ISRAEL
BBC: Nuclear Watchdog 'Ignores Israel'
Arab states have accused the United Nations nuclear watchdog of holding
back from criticising Israel. Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia said the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was ignoring Israel's alleged
weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, they said, the agency
was
putting pressure on other countries to give up their nuclear
programmes.
The IAEA is urging Iran to prove that its nuclear power plants are not
being used to develop weapons-grade material. North Korea was in a
similar position until it withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT), which is designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Israel, unlike Iran and North Korea, has not signed the NPT. The Jewish state
has never confirmed being a nuclear power, but is widely believed to
possess nuclear weapons.
'Unacceptable'
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister
Prince Saud al-Faisal said: "What surprises us is that at a time when the
International Atomic Energy Agency is intensifying its efforts and
monitoring (NPT) member countries... we see that it continues to ignore
the rejection of Israel in not joining the treaty. "This constitutes a
serious threat to the security and stability of the whole region."
BBC: Nuclear Watchdog 'Ignores Israel'
Arab states have accused the United Nations nuclear watchdog of holding
back from criticising Israel. Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia said the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was ignoring Israel's alleged
weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, they said, the agency
was
putting pressure on other countries to give up their nuclear
programmes.
The IAEA is urging Iran to prove that its nuclear power plants are not
being used to develop weapons-grade material. North Korea was in a
similar position until it withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT), which is designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Israel, unlike Iran and North Korea, has not signed the NPT. The Jewish state
has never confirmed being a nuclear power, but is widely believed to
possess nuclear weapons.
'Unacceptable'
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister
Prince Saud al-Faisal said: "What surprises us is that at a time when the
International Atomic Energy Agency is intensifying its efforts and
monitoring (NPT) member countries... we see that it continues to ignore
the rejection of Israel in not joining the treaty. "This constitutes a
serious threat to the security and stability of the whole region."
IRAQ
Democracy Now: Halabja: How Bush Sr. Continued to Support Saddam After the 1988 Gassing of Thousands And Bush Jr. Used it As a Pretext For War 15 Years Later
After the Halabja gassing President Bush I and Sen. Bob Dole fought sanctions against Iraq even though the gassing killed thousands and was reportedly carried out in part by U.S.-made helicopters. From 1989 to 1990 the gassing was mentioned about once a month in major press outlets, yet in the three weeks leading up to the 2003 invasion, the press mentioned it 150 times. In 15 years the gassing went from an untold story to a pretext for invasion. [Includes transcript]
Democracy Now: Halabja: How Bush Sr. Continued to Support Saddam After the 1988 Gassing of Thousands And Bush Jr. Used it As a Pretext For War 15 Years Later
After the Halabja gassing President Bush I and Sen. Bob Dole fought sanctions against Iraq even though the gassing killed thousands and was reportedly carried out in part by U.S.-made helicopters. From 1989 to 1990 the gassing was mentioned about once a month in major press outlets, yet in the three weeks leading up to the 2003 invasion, the press mentioned it 150 times. In 15 years the gassing went from an untold story to a pretext for invasion. [Includes transcript]
IRAQ
Guardian: New Company With Bush Ties Consults On Iraq BizOps
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A company that was created to help clients take
advantage of business opportunities in Iraq is made up of businessmen
associated with President Bush, his family and his administration. The
connections drew criticism Tuesday from Democratic presidential
candidate
John Edwards, who called for an independent oversight board to ensure
that
Iraq reconstruction money is doled out fairly.
New Bridge Strategies, on its Web site, says it will ``seek to expedite
the creation of free and fair markets and new economic growth in Iraq,
consistent with the policies of the Bush administration.''
Guardian: New Company With Bush Ties Consults On Iraq BizOps
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A company that was created to help clients take
advantage of business opportunities in Iraq is made up of businessmen
associated with President Bush, his family and his administration. The
connections drew criticism Tuesday from Democratic presidential
candidate
John Edwards, who called for an independent oversight board to ensure
that
Iraq reconstruction money is doled out fairly.
New Bridge Strategies, on its Web site, says it will ``seek to expedite
the creation of free and fair markets and new economic growth in Iraq,
consistent with the policies of the Bush administration.''
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
UN: Israel uses excessive force and annexation in Palestinian territories – UN report
30 September – Israel is using excessive force in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), violating human rights in the name of counter-terrorism, and its building of a “separation wall” and expansion of settlements bear the hallmarks of annexation and illegal “conquest,” according to a United Nations human rights report released today.
While acknowledging Israel’s legitimate security concerns and its right to take strong action to prevent suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights for the OPT, John Dugard, says the lawfulness of Israel’s response is to be measured in accordance with the principle of proportionality.
“The Special Rapporteur finds it difficult to accept that the excessive use of force that disregards the distinction between civilians and combatants, the creation of a humanitarian crisis by restrictions on the mobility of goods and people, the killing and inhuman treatment of children, the widespread destruction of property and, now, territorial expansion can be justified as a proportionate response to the violence and threats of violence to which Israel is subjected,” Mr. Dugard writes.
“On occasion, Israel’s action in the OPT is so remote from the interests of security that it assumes the character of punishment, humiliation and conquest,” he adds. “Some limit must be placed on the violation of human rights in the name of counter-terrorism. A balance must be struck between respect for human rights and the interests of security.”
link provided by pedro
CHECK IT
UN: Israel uses excessive force and annexation in Palestinian territories – UN report
30 September – Israel is using excessive force in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), violating human rights in the name of counter-terrorism, and its building of a “separation wall” and expansion of settlements bear the hallmarks of annexation and illegal “conquest,” according to a United Nations human rights report released today.
While acknowledging Israel’s legitimate security concerns and its right to take strong action to prevent suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights for the OPT, John Dugard, says the lawfulness of Israel’s response is to be measured in accordance with the principle of proportionality.
“The Special Rapporteur finds it difficult to accept that the excessive use of force that disregards the distinction between civilians and combatants, the creation of a humanitarian crisis by restrictions on the mobility of goods and people, the killing and inhuman treatment of children, the widespread destruction of property and, now, territorial expansion can be justified as a proportionate response to the violence and threats of violence to which Israel is subjected,” Mr. Dugard writes.
“On occasion, Israel’s action in the OPT is so remote from the interests of security that it assumes the character of punishment, humiliation and conquest,” he adds. “Some limit must be placed on the violation of human rights in the name of counter-terrorism. A balance must be struck between respect for human rights and the interests of security.”
link provided by pedro
CHECK IT
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
STREETART
EKOSYSTEM:
Here they are ! Very awaited by some of you... Pictures from Backjump/StickerInvasion. The whole sticker scene was there ! Check carefully you must be somewhere. You can also download a zip file with better quality pics (1.2mb). Mega thanks to our man BILD for the great work.
EKOSYSTEM:
Here they are ! Very awaited by some of you... Pictures from Backjump/StickerInvasion. The whole sticker scene was there ! Check carefully you must be somewhere. You can also download a zip file with better quality pics (1.2mb). Mega thanks to our man BILD for the great work.
IRAQ
Just don't mention the oil. Or ask about the victims. by Robert Fisk (COMPLETE)
29 September 2003 [Premium article - fee required)
"The right thing ... a magnificent job ... heroes ... pride". So off
Tony went again yesterday on Breakfast With Frost, spinning and spinning
about Iraq.
I wonder what he'd think of the city morgue downtown from here when
they bring the gunshot victims in every morning. Or down in the Basra area
where the British rule and where, in the past few weeks, 38 corpses have been
found, hands and feet tied, each neatly executed with a shot through
the back of the neck. Baath party officials, we're told. Killed, quite
possibly, by the Shia Badr Brigade. Yup, things are getting better and
better in "New Iraq".
And as for those weapons of mass destruction?
"We know perfectly well he had these weapons, he had these programmes."
But is there anyone who doesn't see through this obfuscation? For when Tony
says: "We know perfectly well he had those weapons", he is, of course,
referring to the chemical weapons Saddam had more than 10 years ago and
which have not existed for years. The "programmes", which we still
haven't discovered, are what Tony hopes the Iraq Survey Group will come up with
when they admit in a few days' time that there weren't any weapons of
mass destruction.
No mention of course that when Saddam had these terrible things, the
British and American government were happily doing business with
Saddam.
Why not talk about weapons of mass deception?
Then we have my favourite line. "We were getting rid of one of the most
terrible, repressive regimes in the world's history." Well, I've seen
the mass graves and I've met the torture victims and I've been to Halabja
and I was denouncing Saddam's wickedness when the Foreign Office were telling
a former editor of mine that I was being too harsh on Saddam. But as for
one of the most terrible, repressive regimes in the "world's history ..."
Well, we'll just forget the Roman Empire with its system of mass slavery and
crucifixion and we'll pass on Ghengis Khan and all the Goths,
Ostrogoths, Visigoths, the Inquisition, the anti-semitic Tsars, Mussolini's Fascist
Italy, Stalin's Soviet Union and that little man with the moustache who
caused a wee problem between 1939 and 1945.
I'm afraid that even by Saddam's demented values, he doesn't come close
to the latter. But in the wheel of historical fortune in which our Tony
lives, it doesn't matter a damn. Actually, I rather prefer Thomas Friedman's
depiction in The New York Times of Saddam as a cross between Don
Corleone and Donald Duck. But you can't bang your fist on your heart and clang
your armour for such a creature. And how are the victors really faring? Well
in Baghdad today, there are more roads blocked by the occupation
authorities than there were under Saddam. There's a grey concrete wall along the
Tigris river bank three miles in length and 20 feet high to protect the
occupiers and another one of two miles to protect the so-called Interim Council
and there are walls around the Baghdad Hotel where the CIA lads stay and
there are soldiers on Humvees on every road pointing rifles at the Iraqis
they came to liberate and there is a ruthless resistance movement increasing
in size by the day.
The Americans are keen to have some "rules of engagement" for their
occupation soldiers and they've just received them - at Washington's
request - from, wait for it, the Israeli Defence Force. So stand by, I
suppose for yet more shooting at demonstrators and stone throwers and
more brutal night raids with innocents killed. But according to Tony, it was
all a jolly successful war.
Just don't mention the oil. Or ask about the victims. by Robert Fisk (COMPLETE)
29 September 2003 [Premium article - fee required)
"The right thing ... a magnificent job ... heroes ... pride". So off
Tony went again yesterday on Breakfast With Frost, spinning and spinning
about Iraq.
I wonder what he'd think of the city morgue downtown from here when
they bring the gunshot victims in every morning. Or down in the Basra area
where the British rule and where, in the past few weeks, 38 corpses have been
found, hands and feet tied, each neatly executed with a shot through
the back of the neck. Baath party officials, we're told. Killed, quite
possibly, by the Shia Badr Brigade. Yup, things are getting better and
better in "New Iraq".
And as for those weapons of mass destruction?
"We know perfectly well he had these weapons, he had these programmes."
But is there anyone who doesn't see through this obfuscation? For when Tony
says: "We know perfectly well he had those weapons", he is, of course,
referring to the chemical weapons Saddam had more than 10 years ago and
which have not existed for years. The "programmes", which we still
haven't discovered, are what Tony hopes the Iraq Survey Group will come up with
when they admit in a few days' time that there weren't any weapons of
mass destruction.
No mention of course that when Saddam had these terrible things, the
British and American government were happily doing business with
Saddam.
Why not talk about weapons of mass deception?
Then we have my favourite line. "We were getting rid of one of the most
terrible, repressive regimes in the world's history." Well, I've seen
the mass graves and I've met the torture victims and I've been to Halabja
and I was denouncing Saddam's wickedness when the Foreign Office were telling
a former editor of mine that I was being too harsh on Saddam. But as for
one of the most terrible, repressive regimes in the "world's history ..."
Well, we'll just forget the Roman Empire with its system of mass slavery and
crucifixion and we'll pass on Ghengis Khan and all the Goths,
Ostrogoths, Visigoths, the Inquisition, the anti-semitic Tsars, Mussolini's Fascist
Italy, Stalin's Soviet Union and that little man with the moustache who
caused a wee problem between 1939 and 1945.
I'm afraid that even by Saddam's demented values, he doesn't come close
to the latter. But in the wheel of historical fortune in which our Tony
lives, it doesn't matter a damn. Actually, I rather prefer Thomas Friedman's
depiction in The New York Times of Saddam as a cross between Don
Corleone and Donald Duck. But you can't bang your fist on your heart and clang
your armour for such a creature. And how are the victors really faring? Well
in Baghdad today, there are more roads blocked by the occupation
authorities than there were under Saddam. There's a grey concrete wall along the
Tigris river bank three miles in length and 20 feet high to protect the
occupiers and another one of two miles to protect the so-called Interim Council
and there are walls around the Baghdad Hotel where the CIA lads stay and
there are soldiers on Humvees on every road pointing rifles at the Iraqis
they came to liberate and there is a ruthless resistance movement increasing
in size by the day.
The Americans are keen to have some "rules of engagement" for their
occupation soldiers and they've just received them - at Washington's
request - from, wait for it, the Israeli Defence Force. So stand by, I
suppose for yet more shooting at demonstrators and stone throwers and
more brutal night raids with innocents killed. But according to Tony, it was
all a jolly successful war.
USA: ELECTRONIC VOTING
blackboxvoting.org: Diebold Internal Memos Admit Voting Machine Flaws
In a preemptive strike to discourage further negative publicity, Diebold Election Systems has demanded that voting activist site BlackBoxVoting.org remove internal memos which admit that Diebold's high tech voting machines are easily susceptible to vote fraud.
Dated Oct. 2001, the memo by Diebold's principal engineer Ken Clark concedes that it is quite simple to do an "end run" around the Diebold GEMS voting software, used in both touch screen and optical scan voting machines, and that this "back door" has already been used in elections. Diebold states that the memos are authentic, but claims copyright protection.
Maxlogan: Voting in America: A Shell Game?
It's a shell game, with money, companies and corporate brands switching in a blur of buyouts and bogus fronts. It's a sinkhole, where mobbed-up operators, paid-off public servants, crazed Christian fascists, CIA shadow-jobbers, war-pimping arms dealers -- and presidential family members -- lie down together in the slime. It's a hacker's dream, with pork-funded, half-finished, secretly programmed computer systems installed without basic security standards by politically partisan private firms, and protected by law from public scrutiny. It's how the United States, the "world's greatest democracy," casts its votes. And it's why George W. Bush will almost certainly be the next president of the United States -- no matter what the people of the United States might want.
The American vote-count is controlled by three major corporate players -- Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia -- with a fourth, Science Applications International Corporation, coming on strong. These companies -- all of them hardwired into the Bushist Party power grid -- have been given billions of dollars by the Bush Regime to complete a sweeping computerization of voting machines nationwide by the 2004 election. These glitch-riddled systems -- many using "touch-screen" technology that leaves no paper trail at all -- are almost laughably open to manipulation, according to corporate whistleblowers and computer scientists at Stanford, Johns Hopkins and other universities.
Inquierer: US election fraud scandal looms?
Explosive conjectures and evidence
STEALING ELECTIONS is a sordid tradition in the United States, though it's certainly not unknown in some other countries, as well.
From Tammany Hall's machine politics in the 19th century through Mayor Daley's grasp on Chicago elections, right up to Lyndon Johnson's first election and John Kennedy's 1960 cliff-hanger defeat of Richard Nixon, many US elections have been thought to have had "irregularities".
So much so that it's not really certain where "Vote early, and often!" originated, whether in Boston, New York, or Chicago. It is also well known that many lesser US cities had political corruption, including rampant election fraud, at one time or another in their histories.
Now a New Zealand political activist has published suspicions, along with supporting evidence, that electronic voting in the US is being manipulated by right-wing politicians with the connivance of several voting machine manufacturers. The story revolves around some highly volatile conjectures and might be explosive, if fully investigated.
The article is reprinted below with permission, lightly edited merely for formatting, minor typos and a minor fact (G.W. Bush isn't a Jr.).
Here at the INQUIRER, we can't help but notice that the highly, er... accommodating database software that drives these allegedly dodgy and easily tampered electronic voting machines is... Microsoft Access.
And we're trying to decide on a catchy term that ends in "gate".µ
blackboxvoting.org: Diebold Internal Memos Admit Voting Machine Flaws
In a preemptive strike to discourage further negative publicity, Diebold Election Systems has demanded that voting activist site BlackBoxVoting.org remove internal memos which admit that Diebold's high tech voting machines are easily susceptible to vote fraud.
Dated Oct. 2001, the memo by Diebold's principal engineer Ken Clark concedes that it is quite simple to do an "end run" around the Diebold GEMS voting software, used in both touch screen and optical scan voting machines, and that this "back door" has already been used in elections. Diebold states that the memos are authentic, but claims copyright protection.
Maxlogan: Voting in America: A Shell Game?
It's a shell game, with money, companies and corporate brands switching in a blur of buyouts and bogus fronts. It's a sinkhole, where mobbed-up operators, paid-off public servants, crazed Christian fascists, CIA shadow-jobbers, war-pimping arms dealers -- and presidential family members -- lie down together in the slime. It's a hacker's dream, with pork-funded, half-finished, secretly programmed computer systems installed without basic security standards by politically partisan private firms, and protected by law from public scrutiny. It's how the United States, the "world's greatest democracy," casts its votes. And it's why George W. Bush will almost certainly be the next president of the United States -- no matter what the people of the United States might want.
The American vote-count is controlled by three major corporate players -- Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia -- with a fourth, Science Applications International Corporation, coming on strong. These companies -- all of them hardwired into the Bushist Party power grid -- have been given billions of dollars by the Bush Regime to complete a sweeping computerization of voting machines nationwide by the 2004 election. These glitch-riddled systems -- many using "touch-screen" technology that leaves no paper trail at all -- are almost laughably open to manipulation, according to corporate whistleblowers and computer scientists at Stanford, Johns Hopkins and other universities.
Inquierer: US election fraud scandal looms?
Explosive conjectures and evidence
STEALING ELECTIONS is a sordid tradition in the United States, though it's certainly not unknown in some other countries, as well.
From Tammany Hall's machine politics in the 19th century through Mayor Daley's grasp on Chicago elections, right up to Lyndon Johnson's first election and John Kennedy's 1960 cliff-hanger defeat of Richard Nixon, many US elections have been thought to have had "irregularities".
So much so that it's not really certain where "Vote early, and often!" originated, whether in Boston, New York, or Chicago. It is also well known that many lesser US cities had political corruption, including rampant election fraud, at one time or another in their histories.
Now a New Zealand political activist has published suspicions, along with supporting evidence, that electronic voting in the US is being manipulated by right-wing politicians with the connivance of several voting machine manufacturers. The story revolves around some highly volatile conjectures and might be explosive, if fully investigated.
The article is reprinted below with permission, lightly edited merely for formatting, minor typos and a minor fact (G.W. Bush isn't a Jr.).
Here at the INQUIRER, we can't help but notice that the highly, er... accommodating database software that drives these allegedly dodgy and easily tampered electronic voting machines is... Microsoft Access.
And we're trying to decide on a catchy term that ends in "gate".µ
CHECHENYA
BBC: Poisoned Chechen leader 'better'
Acting Chechen leader Anatoly Popov says he is feeling better after an apparent weekend poisoning incident.
He was flown to Moscow from Chechnya on Sunday after doctors said he had been fed an unknown toxin.
Tests are under way to determine whether it was an attempt to kill him, or just a case of food poisoning.
The incident comes a week before elections in the troubled Russian republic.
The pro-Moscow Mr Popov is not a candidate
The Kremlin-backed candidate, Akhmad Kadyrov, is widely expected to win the presidential poll since all the other major candidates have either been barred or have withdrawn from the race.
BBC: Poisoned Chechen leader 'better'
Acting Chechen leader Anatoly Popov says he is feeling better after an apparent weekend poisoning incident.
He was flown to Moscow from Chechnya on Sunday after doctors said he had been fed an unknown toxin.
Tests are under way to determine whether it was an attempt to kill him, or just a case of food poisoning.
The incident comes a week before elections in the troubled Russian republic.
The pro-Moscow Mr Popov is not a candidate
The Kremlin-backed candidate, Akhmad Kadyrov, is widely expected to win the presidential poll since all the other major candidates have either been barred or have withdrawn from the race.
USA
SF Gate: Patriot laws used against non-terrorists
Bush administration going after white-collar crime, pornographers
Washington -- The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism.
The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and even corrupt foreign leaders, federal officials said.
Justice Department officials say they are simply using all the tools now available to them to pursue criminals -- terrorists or otherwise. But critics of the administration's antiterrorism tactics assert that such use of the law is evidence the administration has sold the American public a false bill of goods, using terrorism as a guise to pursue a broader law enforcement agenda.
SF Gate: Patriot laws used against non-terrorists
Bush administration going after white-collar crime, pornographers
Washington -- The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism.
The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and even corrupt foreign leaders, federal officials said.
Justice Department officials say they are simply using all the tools now available to them to pursue criminals -- terrorists or otherwise. But critics of the administration's antiterrorism tactics assert that such use of the law is evidence the administration has sold the American public a false bill of goods, using terrorism as a guise to pursue a broader law enforcement agenda.
WAR ON TERROR
Al-Jazeera: Al-Qaida tape urges Musharraf's removal
Aljazeera has aired an audiotape of Usama bin Ladin's spokesman calling on Pakistanis to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf.
Ayman al-Zawahiri said Musharraf helped the United States to topple the Taliban government in Afghanistan in the October 2001 invasion - support that killed thousands of innocents in the war-torn country.
During the broadcast on Sunday, the al-Qaida spokesman also claimed the Pakistani president was seeking to recognise Israel and send troops to Iraq in an attempt to gain full American approval.
"Musharraf ... is seeking to send Pakistani forces to Iraq so that they, rather than American soldiers, are killed and so that they kill Muslims in Iraq and enable America to control Muslim lands."
Al-Jazeera: Al-Qaida tape urges Musharraf's removal
Aljazeera has aired an audiotape of Usama bin Ladin's spokesman calling on Pakistanis to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf.
Ayman al-Zawahiri said Musharraf helped the United States to topple the Taliban government in Afghanistan in the October 2001 invasion - support that killed thousands of innocents in the war-torn country.
During the broadcast on Sunday, the al-Qaida spokesman also claimed the Pakistani president was seeking to recognise Israel and send troops to Iraq in an attempt to gain full American approval.
"Musharraf ... is seeking to send Pakistani forces to Iraq so that they, rather than American soldiers, are killed and so that they kill Muslims in Iraq and enable America to control Muslim lands."
IRAQ
Scotsman: Civilian death toll prompts tension in Fallujah
WITH the ease of a man now used to the spotlight, Ahmed Khalaf guided yet another TV crew round the missile craters in his dead brother Ali’s backyard. Shaking his head in bewilderment, he told how a potshot at suspected sheep rustlers in the middle of the night drew a terrible response.
"American soldiers came to the village one night last week, for no reason we know," he said. "We get thieves round here, so we called out in the dark, ‘Who is there?’ There was no answer, so we fired a few warning shots.
"The next thing, we were shot at, and then two F-16 jets came along and fired missiles into my brother’s home. Can you believe it?" he asked.
In last week’s clash in the farming village of al-Sajr, three adults died and two children were seriously injured, one of whom may now be paralysed.
Scotsman: Civilian death toll prompts tension in Fallujah
WITH the ease of a man now used to the spotlight, Ahmed Khalaf guided yet another TV crew round the missile craters in his dead brother Ali’s backyard. Shaking his head in bewilderment, he told how a potshot at suspected sheep rustlers in the middle of the night drew a terrible response.
"American soldiers came to the village one night last week, for no reason we know," he said. "We get thieves round here, so we called out in the dark, ‘Who is there?’ There was no answer, so we fired a few warning shots.
"The next thing, we were shot at, and then two F-16 jets came along and fired missiles into my brother’s home. Can you believe it?" he asked.
In last week’s clash in the farming village of al-Sajr, three adults died and two children were seriously injured, one of whom may now be paralysed.
ISRAEL
Avnery: The Magnificent 27 by Uri Avreny
A year and a half ago, a small group of Israelis decided to break a deeply entrenched taboo and bring up the subject of war crimes. Until then, it was self-evident that the IDF is "the most moral and humane army in the world", as the official mantra goes, and is therefore quite incapable of such things.
The Gush Shalom movement (to which I belong) called a public meeting in Tel-Aviv and invited a group of professors and public figures to discuss whether our army is committing such crimes. The star of the evening was Col. Yig'al Shohat, a war hero shot down over Egypt in the Yom Kippur war. His damaged leg had to be amputated by an Egyptian surgeon. Upon his return, he studied medicine and became a doctor himself.
In a voice trembling with emotion, he read out a personal appeal to his comrades, the Air Force pilots, calling on them to refuse orders over which "the black flag of illegality is waving" (a phrase coined by the military judge at the Kafr Kassem massacre trial in 1957). For example, orders to drop bombs on Palestinian residential neighborhoods for "targeted liquidations".
The speech aroused a strong echo, but the army command succeeded in "damage control". The Air Force commander, General Dan Halutz, perhaps the most extremist IDF officer except Chief-of-Staff Moshe Ya'alon, was asked what he feels when he releases a bomb over a Palestinian neighborhood and answered: "I feel a slight bump." He added that after such an attack he "sleeps very well."
CHECK IT
Avnery: The Magnificent 27 by Uri Avreny
A year and a half ago, a small group of Israelis decided to break a deeply entrenched taboo and bring up the subject of war crimes. Until then, it was self-evident that the IDF is "the most moral and humane army in the world", as the official mantra goes, and is therefore quite incapable of such things.
The Gush Shalom movement (to which I belong) called a public meeting in Tel-Aviv and invited a group of professors and public figures to discuss whether our army is committing such crimes. The star of the evening was Col. Yig'al Shohat, a war hero shot down over Egypt in the Yom Kippur war. His damaged leg had to be amputated by an Egyptian surgeon. Upon his return, he studied medicine and became a doctor himself.
In a voice trembling with emotion, he read out a personal appeal to his comrades, the Air Force pilots, calling on them to refuse orders over which "the black flag of illegality is waving" (a phrase coined by the military judge at the Kafr Kassem massacre trial in 1957). For example, orders to drop bombs on Palestinian residential neighborhoods for "targeted liquidations".
The speech aroused a strong echo, but the army command succeeded in "damage control". The Air Force commander, General Dan Halutz, perhaps the most extremist IDF officer except Chief-of-Staff Moshe Ya'alon, was asked what he feels when he releases a bomb over a Palestinian neighborhood and answered: "I feel a slight bump." He added that after such an attack he "sleeps very well."
CHECK IT
ITALY: BLACKOUT
BBC: Italians probe massive blackout
Italian prosecutors have launched an inquiry after the worst blackout in the country's history left more than 50 million people without power.
Several areas in Italy were waiting for supplies to be restored early on Monday.
As debate raged over what went wrong, the Rome prosecutor's office said its inquiry would try to establish who was responsible.
Officials were warning of "programmed" cuts on Monday to avoid overloads.
POWER CUTS
August 14 - US and Canada
August 28 - London, UK
September 23 - Denmark, Sweden
September 28 - whole of Italy
BBC: Italians probe massive blackout
Italian prosecutors have launched an inquiry after the worst blackout in the country's history left more than 50 million people without power.
Several areas in Italy were waiting for supplies to be restored early on Monday.
As debate raged over what went wrong, the Rome prosecutor's office said its inquiry would try to establish who was responsible.
Officials were warning of "programmed" cuts on Monday to avoid overloads.
POWER CUTS
August 14 - US and Canada
August 28 - London, UK
September 23 - Denmark, Sweden
September 28 - whole of Italy
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Haaretz: Three Lies About the 'Separation Fence'
The morning after the horrific suicide bombing at Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem, Finance Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu was asked on the radio whether this was the right time to cut the defense budget.
Netanyahu reiterated his promise that the funds earmarked for what is known as the separation
fence will not be reduced and will even be pumped in faster to accelerate its construction. This
will be done in order to guarantee the security of Israeli civilians. It never occurred to the radio
host to ask whether the fence would, indeed, guarantee security. As in other areas, the
escalating violence and heated emotions rule out any alternative views
One of the most dramatic geo-political changes in the
history of the region is taking place at record speed and
without any public debate. Before it becomes too late, we
must take time out to look through the veil of lies about
the fence.
CHECK IT
Haaretz: Three Lies About the 'Separation Fence'
The morning after the horrific suicide bombing at Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem, Finance Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu was asked on the radio whether this was the right time to cut the defense budget.
Netanyahu reiterated his promise that the funds earmarked for what is known as the separation
fence will not be reduced and will even be pumped in faster to accelerate its construction. This
will be done in order to guarantee the security of Israeli civilians. It never occurred to the radio
host to ask whether the fence would, indeed, guarantee security. As in other areas, the
escalating violence and heated emotions rule out any alternative views
One of the most dramatic geo-political changes in the
history of the region is taking place at record speed and
without any public debate. Before it becomes too late, we
must take time out to look through the veil of lies about
the fence.
CHECK IT
IRAQI WMD
Wahington Post: House Probers Conclude Iraq War Data Was Weak
Leaders of the House intelligence committee have criticized the U.S. intelligence community for using largely outdated, "circumstantial" and "fragmentary" information with "too many uncertainties" to conclude that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda.
Top members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which spent four months combing through 19 volumes of classified material used by the Bush administration to make its case for the war on Iraq, found "significant deficiencies" in the community's ability to collect fresh intelligence on Iraq, and said it had to rely on "past assessments" dating to when U.N. inspectors left Iraq in 1998 and on "some new 'piecemeal' intelligence," both of which "were not challenged as a routine matter."
Wahington Post: House Probers Conclude Iraq War Data Was Weak
Leaders of the House intelligence committee have criticized the U.S. intelligence community for using largely outdated, "circumstantial" and "fragmentary" information with "too many uncertainties" to conclude that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda.
Top members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which spent four months combing through 19 volumes of classified material used by the Bush administration to make its case for the war on Iraq, found "significant deficiencies" in the community's ability to collect fresh intelligence on Iraq, and said it had to rely on "past assessments" dating to when U.N. inspectors left Iraq in 1998 and on "some new 'piecemeal' intelligence," both of which "were not challenged as a routine matter."
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