IRAQ
information clearinghouse: From joy to despair: Iraqis pay for Saddam's capture by Robert Fisk
27 December 2003: (The Independent) Ali Salman Ali was the first victim of Saddam's capture, but he died on Christmas Day. As his father Salman Ghazi, 71, tells it, Ali must have been among the first of Iraq's Shia Muslims to scream his delight in the street after the former dictator emerged from his hole in the ground.
"He shouted that the Americans had come to save us and liberated us from that terrible regime," Mr Ghazi said yesterday, his sun-blasted, lined face and dark eyes staring at my notebook.
Behind me, the 12 cousins of Ali Salman Ali were heaving his cheap wooden coffin from the Baghdad mortuary on to the back of a rusting white pick-up with a cracked windscreen and a toy rabbit swinging from a chain over the mirror.
The Baghdad morgue is a grim enough place at any hour, let alone on a grey, greasy, wet Boxing Day and - though Christmas would have had no place in the family's observances - there was a kind of weariness among the men in their damp tribal robes with frayed golden fringes standing in the mud yesterday.
It had taken Ali Salman Ali two weeks to die.
Saturday, December 27, 2003
IRAQI RESISTANCE
BBC: Troops dead in Iraq city blasts
Six coalition soldiers have been killed and many others injured after several blasts in the Iraqi city of Karbala, military officials say.
BBC: Troops dead in Iraq city blasts
Six coalition soldiers have been killed and many others injured after several blasts in the Iraqi city of Karbala, military officials say.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war: neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship . . . voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Hermann Goering
"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war: neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship . . . voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Hermann Goering
IRAQ: PROFIT OVER PEOPLE
Spiegel: IRAK-WIEDERAUFBAU: "Zur Kolonie degradiert"
Die US-Regierung verspricht ein "Wirtschaftswunder zwischen Euphrat und Tigris" und setzt dabei auf ein klassisches neoliberales Konzept: Radikalprivatisierung. Konzernen aus den USA, Großbritannien und den übrigen Staaten der Kriegskoalition bieten sich im Irak fortan unbegrenzte Möglichkeiten
Während Bremer einerseits noch den Versorgungsstaat alter Schule fortführt, setzt er an anderer Stelle auf Radikalprivatisierungen. Mit einem "Gesetz zur Regelung für Auslandsinvestitionen" hat er ausländischen Interessenten einen fast schrankenlosen Zugriff auf irakische Unternehmen ermöglicht. Investoren können die Firmen zu 100 Prozent der Anteile übernehmen und sämtliche Gewinne außer Landes schaffen. Ihre Aktivitäten sollen ab 2004 überdies vollständig von Steuern und Zöllen befreit werden. Nach Einschätzung des irakische Ökonomen Kamil Mahdi wird das Land mit diesem Gesetz zur Kolonie degradiert. "Die Amerikaner", so schrieb er im britischen "Guardian", sollten die Privatisierung sein lassen, bis Normalität eingekehrt ist und eine verfassungsmäßige Regierung eingesetzt wurde." Die Mitarbeiter mehrerer Staatsbetriebe haben schon angekündigt, ihre Arbeitgeber notfalls mit Waffengewalt gegen ausländische Übernahmen zu verteidigen.
Spiegel: IRAK-WIEDERAUFBAU: "Zur Kolonie degradiert"
Die US-Regierung verspricht ein "Wirtschaftswunder zwischen Euphrat und Tigris" und setzt dabei auf ein klassisches neoliberales Konzept: Radikalprivatisierung. Konzernen aus den USA, Großbritannien und den übrigen Staaten der Kriegskoalition bieten sich im Irak fortan unbegrenzte Möglichkeiten
Während Bremer einerseits noch den Versorgungsstaat alter Schule fortführt, setzt er an anderer Stelle auf Radikalprivatisierungen. Mit einem "Gesetz zur Regelung für Auslandsinvestitionen" hat er ausländischen Interessenten einen fast schrankenlosen Zugriff auf irakische Unternehmen ermöglicht. Investoren können die Firmen zu 100 Prozent der Anteile übernehmen und sämtliche Gewinne außer Landes schaffen. Ihre Aktivitäten sollen ab 2004 überdies vollständig von Steuern und Zöllen befreit werden. Nach Einschätzung des irakische Ökonomen Kamil Mahdi wird das Land mit diesem Gesetz zur Kolonie degradiert. "Die Amerikaner", so schrieb er im britischen "Guardian", sollten die Privatisierung sein lassen, bis Normalität eingekehrt ist und eine verfassungsmäßige Regierung eingesetzt wurde." Die Mitarbeiter mehrerer Staatsbetriebe haben schon angekündigt, ihre Arbeitgeber notfalls mit Waffengewalt gegen ausländische Übernahmen zu verteidigen.
SADDAM
Arabnews: Saddam Threatens To Expose US
JEDDAH -- Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, now being grilled by American investigators, has reportedly warned US authorities that he will expose Washington's "political games" and its behind-the-scene role in the occupation of Kuwait.
"Saddam threatened that if they continue to pressure him he will reveal startling facts - about America's political games with his country - that would shock the whole world," Al-Watan Arabic daily quoted a high-level European source as saying.
The source said Saddam had stopped answering the investigators' questions and asked them to "give him enough time to clear his mind." He did not elaborate further, the source added.
Arabnews: Saddam Threatens To Expose US
JEDDAH -- Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, now being grilled by American investigators, has reportedly warned US authorities that he will expose Washington's "political games" and its behind-the-scene role in the occupation of Kuwait.
"Saddam threatened that if they continue to pressure him he will reveal startling facts - about America's political games with his country - that would shock the whole world," Al-Watan Arabic daily quoted a high-level European source as saying.
The source said Saddam had stopped answering the investigators' questions and asked them to "give him enough time to clear his mind." He did not elaborate further, the source added.
IRAQ: DEMOCRACY?
Independent: Iraq through the American looking glass by Robert Fisk (complete)
26 December 2003 : (The Independent) Something very unpleasant is being let loose in Iraq. Just this week, a company commander in the US 1st
Infantry Division in the north of the country admitted that, in order to elicit information about the guerrillas who are killing American troops, it
was necessary to "instill fear" in the local villagers. An Iraqi interpreter working for the Americans had just taken an old lady from her home to
frighten her daughters and grand-daughters into believing that she was being arrested.
A battalion commander in the same area put the point even more baldly. "With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for
projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them," he said. He was speaking from a village that his men had surrounded with barbed
wire, upon which was a sign, stating: "This fence is here for your protection. Do not approach or try to cross, or you will be shot."
Try to explain that this treatment - and these words - offend the very basic humanity of the people whom the Americans claimed they came to
"liberate" and you are met in Baghdad with the same explanation: that a very small "remnant" of "diehards" - loyal to the now-captured Saddam
Hussein, etc, etc - have to be separated from the civilians whom they are "intimidating".
To point out that the intimidation is largely coming from the American occupation force - to the horror of the British in southern Iraq who
fear, understandably, that Iraqi revenge will be visited upon them as it was on the Italians and the Spanish - is useless.
Instead, we are told that American troops are winning those famous hearts and minds with the spirit of Christmas. There was a grim example of
this - and the inherent racism that pervades even reporting of such events - on the Associated Press wire agency just this week.
Describing how an American soldier in a Santa Claus hat was giving out stuffed animals to children, reporter Jason Keyser wrote that one
11-year- old child "looked puzzled, then smiled" as the soldier gave him a small, stuffed goat. Then the report continued: "Others in the crowd of mostly
Muslims grabbed greedily at the box," adding the soldier's remark that: "They don't know how to handle generosity."
I don't doubt the soldier's wish to do good. But what is one to make of the "mostly Muslims" who "grabbed greedily" at the gifts? Or the soldier's
insensitive remarks about generosity? Iraqi newspapers have been front--paging a Christmas card produced by US troops in Baghdad: "1st
Battalion, 22nd Infantry Wishes you a very Merry Christmas!" it says. But the illustration is of Saddam Hussein in his scruffy beard just
after his capture, with a Santa hat superimposed on top of his head. Funny enough for us, no doubt - I can't personally think of a better fall-guy for St
Nicholas - but a clear insult to Sunni Arabs who, however much they may loathe the beast of Baghdad, will see in this card a deliberate attempt
to humiliate Muslim Iraqis. It is for Iraqis to demean their ex-president - not their American occupiers.
It's almost as if the occupying powers want to look through Alice's looking glass. This week, we had the odd statement by British General Graeme
Lamb that Saddam could be compared to the Emperor Caligula. Now the good general was probably relying on Suetonius's Twelve Caesars for his views on
Caligula. But if anything, the Roman was a good deal more insane than Saddam and even more heedless of human life.
The crazy Uday Hussein, son of Saddam, might have been a more appropriate parallel. But what was all this supposed to achieve? A serious war
crimes trial - preferably outside Iraq and far from the country's contaminated judiciary - is the way to define the nature of Saddam's repulsive
regime.
All references to the ex-dictator as Hitler, Stalin, Attila the Hun or Caligula - like all suggestions that Tony Blair or George Bush are
Winston Churchill - are infantile. And again, they will appear insulting to the Sunni Muslims of Iraq, the one community which the Americans should be
desperate to placate, since it is the Sunnis who are primarily resisting the occupation.
But the looking-glass effect seems to have taken hold of US pro-consul Paul Bremer's entire authority. Like President George Bush, Bremer has now
taken to repeating the absurdity that the greater the West's success in Iraq, the more frequent will be the attacks on American troops.
"I personally feel that we'll actually have more violence in the next six months," he said a couple of week ago, "and the violence will be
precisely because of the fact that we're building momentum toward success." In other words, the better things become, the worse they're going to get. And
the greater the violence, the better we're doing in Iraq.
I wouldn't worry about this nonsense so much if it wasn't mirrored on the ground in Iraq. Take the US claim - now regarded as an absurdity - that
they killed "54 insurgents" in Samara a month ago. The truth is that they killed at least eight civilians and there's not a smidgen of evidence
that they killed anyone else. But still they insist on sticking to the story of their great victory.
Last week, they pushed out a similar version of the same story. This time there were 11 dead "insurgents" in Samara. But when The Independent
investigated, it could only find records of four dead civilians and a lot of wounded. None of the wounded - presumably "insurgents" if the
Americans believe their own story - had been visited in hospital by US forces who might, if they didn't question them, at least have apologised.
An even more peculiar habit has now manifest itself among spokesmen for the occupation authorities. When a tank drove over a prominent Shiite
Muslim cleric in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City three weeks ago, they claimed this was a "traffic accident", as if driving an M1A1 Abrams tank over a
car and a robed prelate is the kind of thing that can happen on any downtown street.
A few days later, after a truck-bomber crashed into a car and killed 17 civilians, the occupation lads churned out the same rubbish again. It
was, they said, a "traffic accident" involving a petrol tanker. But there was no tanker attached to the lorry.
The first American troops on the scene found the grenades intended to detonate the bomb and the victims were all blasted to bits - not
burned, as they would have been if the petrol tanker had simply caught fire. Those of us who reached the scene shortly after the slaughter could still smell
the explosives. But it was a "traffic accident".
Only yesterday we had an equally bizarre event. Jets, C-130 aircraft mounted with chain guns, and heavy artillery were all reported to be
striking "guerrilla bases" in Operation Iron Hammer south of Baghdad. But investigation proved that the targets were empty fields and that some
of the heavy guns were firing blank rounds as part of an artillery maintenance routine.
So let's get this right. Insurgents are civilians. Truck bombs and tanks that crush civilians are traffic accidents. And the "liberated"
civilians who live in villages surrounded by razor wire should endure "a heavy dose of fear and violence" to keep them on the straight and narrow.
Somewhere along the way, they will probably be told about democracy as well.
"CHECK IT, CHECK IT, CHECK IT"
Independent: Iraq through the American looking glass by Robert Fisk (complete)
26 December 2003 : (The Independent) Something very unpleasant is being let loose in Iraq. Just this week, a company commander in the US 1st
Infantry Division in the north of the country admitted that, in order to elicit information about the guerrillas who are killing American troops, it
was necessary to "instill fear" in the local villagers. An Iraqi interpreter working for the Americans had just taken an old lady from her home to
frighten her daughters and grand-daughters into believing that she was being arrested.
A battalion commander in the same area put the point even more baldly. "With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for
projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them," he said. He was speaking from a village that his men had surrounded with barbed
wire, upon which was a sign, stating: "This fence is here for your protection. Do not approach or try to cross, or you will be shot."
Try to explain that this treatment - and these words - offend the very basic humanity of the people whom the Americans claimed they came to
"liberate" and you are met in Baghdad with the same explanation: that a very small "remnant" of "diehards" - loyal to the now-captured Saddam
Hussein, etc, etc - have to be separated from the civilians whom they are "intimidating".
To point out that the intimidation is largely coming from the American occupation force - to the horror of the British in southern Iraq who
fear, understandably, that Iraqi revenge will be visited upon them as it was on the Italians and the Spanish - is useless.
Instead, we are told that American troops are winning those famous hearts and minds with the spirit of Christmas. There was a grim example of
this - and the inherent racism that pervades even reporting of such events - on the Associated Press wire agency just this week.
Describing how an American soldier in a Santa Claus hat was giving out stuffed animals to children, reporter Jason Keyser wrote that one
11-year- old child "looked puzzled, then smiled" as the soldier gave him a small, stuffed goat. Then the report continued: "Others in the crowd of mostly
Muslims grabbed greedily at the box," adding the soldier's remark that: "They don't know how to handle generosity."
I don't doubt the soldier's wish to do good. But what is one to make of the "mostly Muslims" who "grabbed greedily" at the gifts? Or the soldier's
insensitive remarks about generosity? Iraqi newspapers have been front--paging a Christmas card produced by US troops in Baghdad: "1st
Battalion, 22nd Infantry Wishes you a very Merry Christmas!" it says. But the illustration is of Saddam Hussein in his scruffy beard just
after his capture, with a Santa hat superimposed on top of his head. Funny enough for us, no doubt - I can't personally think of a better fall-guy for St
Nicholas - but a clear insult to Sunni Arabs who, however much they may loathe the beast of Baghdad, will see in this card a deliberate attempt
to humiliate Muslim Iraqis. It is for Iraqis to demean their ex-president - not their American occupiers.
It's almost as if the occupying powers want to look through Alice's looking glass. This week, we had the odd statement by British General Graeme
Lamb that Saddam could be compared to the Emperor Caligula. Now the good general was probably relying on Suetonius's Twelve Caesars for his views on
Caligula. But if anything, the Roman was a good deal more insane than Saddam and even more heedless of human life.
The crazy Uday Hussein, son of Saddam, might have been a more appropriate parallel. But what was all this supposed to achieve? A serious war
crimes trial - preferably outside Iraq and far from the country's contaminated judiciary - is the way to define the nature of Saddam's repulsive
regime.
All references to the ex-dictator as Hitler, Stalin, Attila the Hun or Caligula - like all suggestions that Tony Blair or George Bush are
Winston Churchill - are infantile. And again, they will appear insulting to the Sunni Muslims of Iraq, the one community which the Americans should be
desperate to placate, since it is the Sunnis who are primarily resisting the occupation.
But the looking-glass effect seems to have taken hold of US pro-consul Paul Bremer's entire authority. Like President George Bush, Bremer has now
taken to repeating the absurdity that the greater the West's success in Iraq, the more frequent will be the attacks on American troops.
"I personally feel that we'll actually have more violence in the next six months," he said a couple of week ago, "and the violence will be
precisely because of the fact that we're building momentum toward success." In other words, the better things become, the worse they're going to get. And
the greater the violence, the better we're doing in Iraq.
I wouldn't worry about this nonsense so much if it wasn't mirrored on the ground in Iraq. Take the US claim - now regarded as an absurdity - that
they killed "54 insurgents" in Samara a month ago. The truth is that they killed at least eight civilians and there's not a smidgen of evidence
that they killed anyone else. But still they insist on sticking to the story of their great victory.
Last week, they pushed out a similar version of the same story. This time there were 11 dead "insurgents" in Samara. But when The Independent
investigated, it could only find records of four dead civilians and a lot of wounded. None of the wounded - presumably "insurgents" if the
Americans believe their own story - had been visited in hospital by US forces who might, if they didn't question them, at least have apologised.
An even more peculiar habit has now manifest itself among spokesmen for the occupation authorities. When a tank drove over a prominent Shiite
Muslim cleric in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City three weeks ago, they claimed this was a "traffic accident", as if driving an M1A1 Abrams tank over a
car and a robed prelate is the kind of thing that can happen on any downtown street.
A few days later, after a truck-bomber crashed into a car and killed 17 civilians, the occupation lads churned out the same rubbish again. It
was, they said, a "traffic accident" involving a petrol tanker. But there was no tanker attached to the lorry.
The first American troops on the scene found the grenades intended to detonate the bomb and the victims were all blasted to bits - not
burned, as they would have been if the petrol tanker had simply caught fire. Those of us who reached the scene shortly after the slaughter could still smell
the explosives. But it was a "traffic accident".
Only yesterday we had an equally bizarre event. Jets, C-130 aircraft mounted with chain guns, and heavy artillery were all reported to be
striking "guerrilla bases" in Operation Iron Hammer south of Baghdad. But investigation proved that the targets were empty fields and that some
of the heavy guns were firing blank rounds as part of an artillery maintenance routine.
So let's get this right. Insurgents are civilians. Truck bombs and tanks that crush civilians are traffic accidents. And the "liberated"
civilians who live in villages surrounded by razor wire should endure "a heavy dose of fear and violence" to keep them on the straight and narrow.
Somewhere along the way, they will probably be told about democracy as well.
"CHECK IT, CHECK IT, CHECK IT"
PROPAGANDA WATCH
British Journalism Review: Britain’s security services and journalists: the secret story
British journalists – and British journals – are being manipulated by the secret intelligence agencies, and I think we ought to try and put a stop to it.
The manipulation takes three forms. The first is the attempt to recruit journalists to spy on other people, or for spies to go themselves under journalistic “cover”. This occurs today and it has gone on for years. It is dangerous, not only for the journalist concerned, but for other journalists who get tarred with the espionage brush. Farzad Bazoft was a colleague of mine on the London Observer when he was executed by Saddam Hussein for espionage. It did not, in a sense, matter whether he was really a spy or not. Either way, he ended up dead.
The second form of manipulation that worries me is when intelligence officers are allowed to pose as journalists in order to write tendentious articles under false names. Evidence of this only rarely comes to light, but two examples have surfaced recently – mainly because of the whistleblowing activities of a couple of renegade officers – David Shayler from MI5 and Richard Tomlinson from MI6.
The third sort of manipulation is the most insidious – when intelligence agency propaganda stories are planted on willing journalists, who disguise their origin from their readers. There is – or has been until recently – a very active programme by the secret agencies to colour what appears in the British press, called, if publications by various defectors can be believed, “I/Ops”. That is an abbreviation for Information Operations, and I am – unusually – in a position to provide some information about it.
British Journalism Review: Britain’s security services and journalists: the secret story
British journalists – and British journals – are being manipulated by the secret intelligence agencies, and I think we ought to try and put a stop to it.
The manipulation takes three forms. The first is the attempt to recruit journalists to spy on other people, or for spies to go themselves under journalistic “cover”. This occurs today and it has gone on for years. It is dangerous, not only for the journalist concerned, but for other journalists who get tarred with the espionage brush. Farzad Bazoft was a colleague of mine on the London Observer when he was executed by Saddam Hussein for espionage. It did not, in a sense, matter whether he was really a spy or not. Either way, he ended up dead.
The second form of manipulation that worries me is when intelligence officers are allowed to pose as journalists in order to write tendentious articles under false names. Evidence of this only rarely comes to light, but two examples have surfaced recently – mainly because of the whistleblowing activities of a couple of renegade officers – David Shayler from MI5 and Richard Tomlinson from MI6.
The third sort of manipulation is the most insidious – when intelligence agency propaganda stories are planted on willing journalists, who disguise their origin from their readers. There is – or has been until recently – a very active programme by the secret agencies to colour what appears in the British press, called, if publications by various defectors can be believed, “I/Ops”. That is an abbreviation for Information Operations, and I am – unusually – in a position to provide some information about it.
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Counterpunch: Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, Rafah Counts the Dead Merry Christmas December 25, 2003
Israeli occupation forces left the center of Rafah, although as is
normal the Israelis remain at the border they have created. The Wall the
Israelis are building with armoured machines is overshadowed only by its many
sniper posts. Israeli soldiers remain daily to shoot and shell into the homes
at whatever is the latest point in the "border." The line changes as the
Israelis demolish more houses, turning what once was the center of the
city into the border.
The Israelis killed ten Palestinians in Rafah yesterday. Forty
Palestinians are in the hospital. The number of demolished homes is yet to be
determined as Israeli tanks and bulldozers have just left the Yibna Camp where
they attacked heavily yesterday. Palestinian medical and search crews are
beginning to dig through the rubble looking for bodies, as several
people report fears that there is a family still inside one of the demolished
houses.
Israeli occupation forces not only destroyed more people's homes, but
demolished the UNWRA (United Nations Relief Works Agency) Clinic as
well. The Israelis continue to target the United Nations unchallenged
Counterpunch: Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, Rafah Counts the Dead Merry Christmas December 25, 2003
Israeli occupation forces left the center of Rafah, although as is
normal the Israelis remain at the border they have created. The Wall the
Israelis are building with armoured machines is overshadowed only by its many
sniper posts. Israeli soldiers remain daily to shoot and shell into the homes
at whatever is the latest point in the "border." The line changes as the
Israelis demolish more houses, turning what once was the center of the
city into the border.
The Israelis killed ten Palestinians in Rafah yesterday. Forty
Palestinians are in the hospital. The number of demolished homes is yet to be
determined as Israeli tanks and bulldozers have just left the Yibna Camp where
they attacked heavily yesterday. Palestinian medical and search crews are
beginning to dig through the rubble looking for bodies, as several
people report fears that there is a family still inside one of the demolished
houses.
Israeli occupation forces not only destroyed more people's homes, but
demolished the UNWRA (United Nations Relief Works Agency) Clinic as
well. The Israelis continue to target the United Nations unchallenged
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Al Jazeera: US bombs Baghdad for third night
US-led occupation forces have bombed Baghdad for the third consecutive night as resistance fighters lobbed at least three mortar bombs at the occupying administration headquarters.
The night attack came 17 hours after resistance fighters fired more than a dozen rockets and mortar bombs in central Baghdad, hitting the vicinity of the US headquarters, two hotels occupied by Westerners, two embassies and an apartment bloc.
Al Jazeera: US bombs Baghdad for third night
US-led occupation forces have bombed Baghdad for the third consecutive night as resistance fighters lobbed at least three mortar bombs at the occupying administration headquarters.
The night attack came 17 hours after resistance fighters fired more than a dozen rockets and mortar bombs in central Baghdad, hitting the vicinity of the US headquarters, two hotels occupied by Westerners, two embassies and an apartment bloc.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
SADDAM
Asia Times: Will Saddam go on trial?
NO: US cannot afford embarrassment of public trial
'SADDAM Hussein was wise not to wait too long,' said Colonel James Hickey, commander of the American forces that took the former Iraqi leader prisoner on Sunday.
'We were about to clear that (underground facility) in a military sort of way,' he added, explaining that 'things like that are cleared with hand grenades, small arms, things like that.' But Col Hickey's instructions were to 'capture or kill' Saddam, and the latter managed to get his hands up in time.
The Bush administration is probably wishing quite hard by now that Saddam had waited a little longer and been killed in his hole. While others debate where he should be tried and by whom, and whether he should face the death penalty or not, United States President George W. Bush's people will be realising just about now that they can't afford to give him a fair trial at all.
He would certainly be convicted in the end: Evidence of Saddam's crimes over the years is overwhelming. But in a fair trial, with normal rules of evidence and reasonably competent defence lawyers, it would be impossible to stop the defence from pointing out that every US administration from 1980 to 1992 (all Republican administrations, as it happens) was directly or indirectly complicit in his crimes
Asia Times: Will Saddam go on trial?
NO: US cannot afford embarrassment of public trial
'SADDAM Hussein was wise not to wait too long,' said Colonel James Hickey, commander of the American forces that took the former Iraqi leader prisoner on Sunday.
'We were about to clear that (underground facility) in a military sort of way,' he added, explaining that 'things like that are cleared with hand grenades, small arms, things like that.' But Col Hickey's instructions were to 'capture or kill' Saddam, and the latter managed to get his hands up in time.
The Bush administration is probably wishing quite hard by now that Saddam had waited a little longer and been killed in his hole. While others debate where he should be tried and by whom, and whether he should face the death penalty or not, United States President George W. Bush's people will be realising just about now that they can't afford to give him a fair trial at all.
He would certainly be convicted in the end: Evidence of Saddam's crimes over the years is overwhelming. But in a fair trial, with normal rules of evidence and reasonably competent defence lawyers, it would be impossible to stop the defence from pointing out that every US administration from 1980 to 1992 (all Republican administrations, as it happens) was directly or indirectly complicit in his crimes
MIDDLE EAST
Guardian: If Libya Can Disarm...Why Not Israel?
We Can No Longer Ignore The World's Fifth-Largest Nuclear Power
There's a logic to these things. Muammar Gadafy, growing older, and his isolated Libya, growing poorer, were getting nothing worthwhile from the atomic bomb they hadn't built yet or chemicals they had scant residual use for. Logic - and common sense - meant changing tack. Good for logic. But logic doesn't stop there.
What next? If weapons of mass destruction are a menace in unstable regions such as the Middle East, if their availability must be reduced, then logic begins to move us closer to the confrontation we never seek with the nuclear power we - let alone Messrs Bush and Blair - seldom mention: Israel.
Nobody, including the Knesset, quite knows what happens inside the Dimona complex, but if you put together a compote of usually reliable sources (the Federation of American Scientists, Jane's Intelligence Review, the Stockholm Institute), a tolerably clear picture emerges. Ariel Sharon probably has more than 200 nuclear warheads this morning - more if the 17 years since Mordechai Vanunu's kidnapping have been devoted to building stockpiles.
Guardian: If Libya Can Disarm...Why Not Israel?
We Can No Longer Ignore The World's Fifth-Largest Nuclear Power
There's a logic to these things. Muammar Gadafy, growing older, and his isolated Libya, growing poorer, were getting nothing worthwhile from the atomic bomb they hadn't built yet or chemicals they had scant residual use for. Logic - and common sense - meant changing tack. Good for logic. But logic doesn't stop there.
What next? If weapons of mass destruction are a menace in unstable regions such as the Middle East, if their availability must be reduced, then logic begins to move us closer to the confrontation we never seek with the nuclear power we - let alone Messrs Bush and Blair - seldom mention: Israel.
Nobody, including the Knesset, quite knows what happens inside the Dimona complex, but if you put together a compote of usually reliable sources (the Federation of American Scientists, Jane's Intelligence Review, the Stockholm Institute), a tolerably clear picture emerges. Ariel Sharon probably has more than 200 nuclear warheads this morning - more if the 17 years since Mordechai Vanunu's kidnapping have been devoted to building stockpiles.
Monday, December 22, 2003
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Mr Aznar said he wanted to support the Spanish soldiers and their allies in "their struggle for a just cause, one of liberty, democracy and respect for international law".
Spanish Primeminister Jose Maria Aznar speaking to spanish Troops during a surprise Visit in Iraq
"und das sagt er nachdem er die Spanier entgegen der Meinung von 95% der Bevölkerung, in einen illegalen Agressionskrieg gesendet hat"
Mr Aznar said he wanted to support the Spanish soldiers and their allies in "their struggle for a just cause, one of liberty, democracy and respect for international law".
Spanish Primeminister Jose Maria Aznar speaking to spanish Troops during a surprise Visit in Iraq
"und das sagt er nachdem er die Spanier entgegen der Meinung von 95% der Bevölkerung, in einen illegalen Agressionskrieg gesendet hat"
WHO CAUGHT SADDAM
Sidney Morning Herald: 'We Got Him' - Kurds Say They Caught Saddam
Washington's claims that brilliant US intelligence work led to the capture of Saddam Hussein are being challenged by reports sourced in Iraq's Kurdish media claiming that its militia set the circumstances in which the US merely had to go to a farm identified by the Kurds to bag the fugitive former president.
Sidney Morning Herald: Kurds Captured, Drugged Saddam Before US Got Him
Saddam Hussein was found by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British newspaper reported yesterday.
Saddam came into the hands of the Kurdish Patriotic Front after being betrayed to the group by a member of the al-Jabour tribe, whose daughter had been raped by Saddam's son Uday, leading to a blood feud, reported the Sunday Express, which quoted an unnamed senior British military intelligence officer.
The newspaper said the full story of events leading up to the ousted Iraqi president's capture on December 13 near his hometown of Tikrit in northern Iraq, "exposes the version peddled by American spin doctors as incomplete".
Correspondences: Bush Lies Again - This Time About Saddam's Capture
Well, the cat is out of the bag so to speak. Saddam Hussein was captured by Kurds, not US forces. Here is the story as best I can determine by looking through a number of articles (see full list at end of this post).
Hussein was betrayed to the Kurds by a member of the al-Jabour tribe because Hussein's son Uday had raped a daughter of the tribe. Saddam had previously paid 7 million pounds in blood money to the tribe with the warning that he would wipe out the entire tribe if it ever came out. (Sify report)
He was then handed over to the Kurdish Patriotic Front who negotiated a deal with US forces for political power before drugging and abandoning Hussein for pickup. Ultimately he ended up in the hands of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal Talabani (Aljazeera)
Sidney Morning Herald: 'We Got Him' - Kurds Say They Caught Saddam
Washington's claims that brilliant US intelligence work led to the capture of Saddam Hussein are being challenged by reports sourced in Iraq's Kurdish media claiming that its militia set the circumstances in which the US merely had to go to a farm identified by the Kurds to bag the fugitive former president.
Sidney Morning Herald: Kurds Captured, Drugged Saddam Before US Got Him
Saddam Hussein was found by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British newspaper reported yesterday.
Saddam came into the hands of the Kurdish Patriotic Front after being betrayed to the group by a member of the al-Jabour tribe, whose daughter had been raped by Saddam's son Uday, leading to a blood feud, reported the Sunday Express, which quoted an unnamed senior British military intelligence officer.
The newspaper said the full story of events leading up to the ousted Iraqi president's capture on December 13 near his hometown of Tikrit in northern Iraq, "exposes the version peddled by American spin doctors as incomplete".
Correspondences: Bush Lies Again - This Time About Saddam's Capture
Well, the cat is out of the bag so to speak. Saddam Hussein was captured by Kurds, not US forces. Here is the story as best I can determine by looking through a number of articles (see full list at end of this post).
Hussein was betrayed to the Kurds by a member of the al-Jabour tribe because Hussein's son Uday had raped a daughter of the tribe. Saddam had previously paid 7 million pounds in blood money to the tribe with the warning that he would wipe out the entire tribe if it ever came out. (Sify report)
He was then handed over to the Kurdish Patriotic Front who negotiated a deal with US forces for political power before drugging and abandoning Hussein for pickup. Ultimately he ended up in the hands of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Jalal Talabani (Aljazeera)
IRAQ
Moscow Times: Best-Laid Plans By Chris Floyd
12/19/03: (Moscow Times) One of the constant refrains we hear from the malcontents carping about George W. Bush's triumphant crusade in Iraq is the charge -- the canard -- that the president and his crack team of advisers "had no plan" for the post-war period, that they've stumbled from crisis to crisis, changing policies without rhyme or reason, or have even "plunged off a cliff," as erstwhile war-hawk Newt Gingrich declared last week.
But to anyone not blinded by partisan ideology or irrational Bush-hatred, the evidence clearly shows that Team Bush has always had a very specific plan for remaking Iraq -- and is following it faithfully to this very day.
Of course, it's not always easy to discern the president's steadfast adherence to principle through the defeatist fog of the liberal American media. For instance, this month saw perhaps the most significant progress yet toward the fulfillment of Bush's master plan, yet there was not a word about it anywhere in America's media "Establishment." No, Britain's Financial Times and South Africa's Sunday Times provided the unvarnished truth last week.
We refer, of course, to the $40 million contract awarded by occupation authorities to a private security company called Erinys Iraq. This plucky start-up is one of the great success stories of the occupation, having already bagged big money to ride shotgun for Halliburton and Bechtel as they spread their beneficent tentacles throughout the conquered land. Now little Erinys will guard the Holy Grail of the entire invasion project: Iraq's oil industry.
Erinys is a joint venture between a large South African freebooting firm and a few choice Iraqi investors. How choice? They are intimates of Ahmad Chalabi: leader of the Iraqi National Congress exile group, member of the Bush-appointed Governing Council, convicted swindler, darling of the Pentagon -- and the Bush plan's designated tyrant-to-be, the Iraqi face of a compliant, corporate-run colonial outpost in Mesopotamia.
"CHECK IT, CHECK IT, CHECK IT"
Moscow Times: Best-Laid Plans By Chris Floyd
12/19/03: (Moscow Times) One of the constant refrains we hear from the malcontents carping about George W. Bush's triumphant crusade in Iraq is the charge -- the canard -- that the president and his crack team of advisers "had no plan" for the post-war period, that they've stumbled from crisis to crisis, changing policies without rhyme or reason, or have even "plunged off a cliff," as erstwhile war-hawk Newt Gingrich declared last week.
But to anyone not blinded by partisan ideology or irrational Bush-hatred, the evidence clearly shows that Team Bush has always had a very specific plan for remaking Iraq -- and is following it faithfully to this very day.
Of course, it's not always easy to discern the president's steadfast adherence to principle through the defeatist fog of the liberal American media. For instance, this month saw perhaps the most significant progress yet toward the fulfillment of Bush's master plan, yet there was not a word about it anywhere in America's media "Establishment." No, Britain's Financial Times and South Africa's Sunday Times provided the unvarnished truth last week.
We refer, of course, to the $40 million contract awarded by occupation authorities to a private security company called Erinys Iraq. This plucky start-up is one of the great success stories of the occupation, having already bagged big money to ride shotgun for Halliburton and Bechtel as they spread their beneficent tentacles throughout the conquered land. Now little Erinys will guard the Holy Grail of the entire invasion project: Iraq's oil industry.
Erinys is a joint venture between a large South African freebooting firm and a few choice Iraqi investors. How choice? They are intimates of Ahmad Chalabi: leader of the Iraqi National Congress exile group, member of the Bush-appointed Governing Council, convicted swindler, darling of the Pentagon -- and the Bush plan's designated tyrant-to-be, the Iraqi face of a compliant, corporate-run colonial outpost in Mesopotamia.
"CHECK IT, CHECK IT, CHECK IT"
IRAQ
Information Clearinghouse: The Americans invaded Iraq in order to remain there By Uri Avnery
The spectacle was disgusting.
"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth, lest the Lord see it, and it displeaseth Him, and He turn away His wrath from him!" Thus commandeth the ancient Jewish moral code (Proverbs, 24, 16).
The writer of this warning knew, of course, that every person tends to gloat when his enemy falls. But he wanted to point out that this is an ugly human trait and one should try to overcome it.
And now a mighty world power has sunk to this level. It is repeatedly displaying the spectacle of American soldiers looking for lice in the hair of a miserable Saddam and poking about among his teeth.
If it is possible at all to evoke pity for a man like Saddam, who is responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands, the Americans have achieved this. By showing him off as a drugged tramp, they created the opposite effect from what they wanted. The Vatican has called for mercy. The public humiliation of an Arab leader, whatever one may think about him, evokes the deepest feelings of insult and fury among tens of millions of Arabs. These feelings will strive to express themselves violently. This may cost blood, much blood.
(Not long ago, the United States cried to high heaven when the Iraqis showed off some American prisoners. But there are apparently no mirrors in Washington DC.)
"CHECK IT, CHECK IT, CHECK IT"
Information Clearinghouse: The Americans invaded Iraq in order to remain there By Uri Avnery
The spectacle was disgusting.
"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth, lest the Lord see it, and it displeaseth Him, and He turn away His wrath from him!" Thus commandeth the ancient Jewish moral code (Proverbs, 24, 16).
The writer of this warning knew, of course, that every person tends to gloat when his enemy falls. But he wanted to point out that this is an ugly human trait and one should try to overcome it.
And now a mighty world power has sunk to this level. It is repeatedly displaying the spectacle of American soldiers looking for lice in the hair of a miserable Saddam and poking about among his teeth.
If it is possible at all to evoke pity for a man like Saddam, who is responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands, the Americans have achieved this. By showing him off as a drugged tramp, they created the opposite effect from what they wanted. The Vatican has called for mercy. The public humiliation of an Arab leader, whatever one may think about him, evokes the deepest feelings of insult and fury among tens of millions of Arabs. These feelings will strive to express themselves violently. This may cost blood, much blood.
(Not long ago, the United States cried to high heaven when the Iraqis showed off some American prisoners. But there are apparently no mirrors in Washington DC.)
"CHECK IT, CHECK IT, CHECK IT"
USA: E-VOTING
WIRED: At Least Five Convicted Felons Sit on Diebold Board, One Locked Up For Computer Tampering
SAN FRANCISCO -- At least five convicted felons secured management positions at a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, according to critics demanding more stringent background checks for people responsible for voting machine software.
Voter advocate Bev Harris alleged Tuesday that managers of a subsidiary of Diebold, one of the country's largest voting equipment vendors, included a cocaine trafficker, a man who conducted fraudulent stock transactions and a programmer jailed for falsifying computer records.
WIRED: At Least Five Convicted Felons Sit on Diebold Board, One Locked Up For Computer Tampering
SAN FRANCISCO -- At least five convicted felons secured management positions at a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, according to critics demanding more stringent background checks for people responsible for voting machine software.
Voter advocate Bev Harris alleged Tuesday that managers of a subsidiary of Diebold, one of the country's largest voting equipment vendors, included a cocaine trafficker, a man who conducted fraudulent stock transactions and a programmer jailed for falsifying computer records.
IRAQ
Counterpunch: Shooting Samarra's Schoolboys in the Back By ROBERT FISK
Phantam Insurgents in Fantasyville
Schoolboy Issam Naim Hamid is the latest of America's famous "insurgents". In Samarra--for which read Fantasyville--he was shot in the back as he tried to protect himself with his parents in his home in the Al-Jeheriya district of the ancient Abbasid city.
It was three in the morning, according to his mother, Manal, when soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division came to the house, firing bullets through the gate. One of the rounds pierced the door, punched through a window and entered Issam's back, speeding on through an outer wall. His father was hit in the ankle and was taken to Tikrit hospital yesterday in serious condition. Issam cries in pain in the Samarra emergency hospital ward, a drip-tube sticking into his stomach through a wad of bloody bandages.
The Americans claimed to have killed 54 "insurgents" after a series of guerrilla ambushes in the city last month, and the only dead to be found in the mortuaries were nine civilians, including an Iranian pilgrim to the great golden-cupolaed Shia shrine that looms over Samarra. Four days ago, they boasted of a further 11 "insurgents", but the only dead man who could be found was a vegetable seller. At the Samarra hospital, doctors also have the names of a taxi driver called Amer Baghdadi, shot dead by the Americans on Wednesday night.
Counterpunch: Shooting Samarra's Schoolboys in the Back By ROBERT FISK
Phantam Insurgents in Fantasyville
Schoolboy Issam Naim Hamid is the latest of America's famous "insurgents". In Samarra--for which read Fantasyville--he was shot in the back as he tried to protect himself with his parents in his home in the Al-Jeheriya district of the ancient Abbasid city.
It was three in the morning, according to his mother, Manal, when soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division came to the house, firing bullets through the gate. One of the rounds pierced the door, punched through a window and entered Issam's back, speeding on through an outer wall. His father was hit in the ankle and was taken to Tikrit hospital yesterday in serious condition. Issam cries in pain in the Samarra emergency hospital ward, a drip-tube sticking into his stomach through a wad of bloody bandages.
The Americans claimed to have killed 54 "insurgents" after a series of guerrilla ambushes in the city last month, and the only dead to be found in the mortuaries were nine civilians, including an Iranian pilgrim to the great golden-cupolaed Shia shrine that looms over Samarra. Four days ago, they boasted of a further 11 "insurgents", but the only dead man who could be found was a vegetable seller. At the Samarra hospital, doctors also have the names of a taxi driver called Amer Baghdadi, shot dead by the Americans on Wednesday night.
SADDAM
Counterpunch: 15 Years Too Late By ROBERT FISK
Saddam will Continue to Haunt Iraq for Years
Was this really the man with whom I shook hands almost a quarter of a century ago? I've spent 24 hours looking again and again at those videotapes. The more I look, the more Saddam turns into a wild animal. An American interviewed by the Associated Press said he'd gone straight to church to pray for him. The face I remember from my meeting with him almost a quarter of a century ago was chubby in an insolent sort of way, the moustache so well trimmed that it looked as if it had been stuck on his face with paste, the huge double-breasted suit the kind that Nazi leaders used to wear, too empty, too floppy on the shoulders.
Counterpunch: 15 Years Too Late By ROBERT FISK
Saddam will Continue to Haunt Iraq for Years
Was this really the man with whom I shook hands almost a quarter of a century ago? I've spent 24 hours looking again and again at those videotapes. The more I look, the more Saddam turns into a wild animal. An American interviewed by the Associated Press said he'd gone straight to church to pray for him. The face I remember from my meeting with him almost a quarter of a century ago was chubby in an insolent sort of way, the moustache so well trimmed that it looked as if it had been stuck on his face with paste, the huge double-breasted suit the kind that Nazi leaders used to wear, too empty, too floppy on the shoulders.
MICHAEL MOOR
Michael Moore: Letters the Troops Have Sent Me... by Michael Moore
Dear Friends,
As we approach the holidays, I've been thinking a lot about our kids who are in the armed forces serving in Iraq. I've received hundreds of letters from our troops in Iraq -- and they are telling me something very different from what we are seeing on the evening news.
What they are saying to me, often eloquently and in heart-wrenching words, is that they were lied to -- and this war has nothing to do with the security of the United States of America.
I've written back and spoken on the phone to many of them and I've asked a few of them if it would be OK if I posted their letters on my website and they've said yes. They do so at great personal risk (as they may face disciplinary measures for exercising their right to free speech). I thank them for their bravery.
Michael Moore: Letters the Troops Have Sent Me... by Michael Moore
Dear Friends,
As we approach the holidays, I've been thinking a lot about our kids who are in the armed forces serving in Iraq. I've received hundreds of letters from our troops in Iraq -- and they are telling me something very different from what we are seeing on the evening news.
What they are saying to me, often eloquently and in heart-wrenching words, is that they were lied to -- and this war has nothing to do with the security of the United States of America.
I've written back and spoken on the phone to many of them and I've asked a few of them if it would be OK if I posted their letters on my website and they've said yes. They do so at great personal risk (as they may face disciplinary measures for exercising their right to free speech). I thank them for their bravery.
UK: DEMOCRACY
Guardian: 'Secret' detainee tells of jail despair
Terror suspect held for two years says he suffered mental breakdown that led to transfer to Broadmoor from high-security prison
A man detained in Britain without charge or trial for two years on the basis of secret evidence he can neither know about nor challenge has told of his despair at his treatment under anti-terrorist legislation.
Exactly two years after he was arrested at his family home in the early hours and taken to Belmarsh high-security prison, Mahmoud Abu Rideh is the first of 14 detainees held on suspicion of terrorism to speak out publicly, through a letter sent to the Guardian.
In it, he tells of his horror at his arrest, his humiliation in prison and the deterioration of his mental health. He has now been moved to the high-security Broadmoor psychiatric hospital.
The home secretary, David Blunkett, says the detainees are all suspected international terrorists with links to al-Qaida or related groups and that the anti-terrorist legislation under which they are held, passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, is essential to safeguard the public.
Human rights groups, however, have condemned detentions based on secret evidence without a criminal trial. On Thursday, the privy counsellors review committee, a cross-party group of MPs set up by Mr Blunkett, which spent 18 months reviewing the act, called for it to be scrapped.
Mr Abu Rideh claims his experiences since his arrest are an indictment of Britain. "Is this the civilisation of London? Is this Europe civilisation in the 21st century?" It was a month before he was allowed to call a lawyer and six months before he saw his wife and children.
Guardian: 'Secret' detainee tells of jail despair
Terror suspect held for two years says he suffered mental breakdown that led to transfer to Broadmoor from high-security prison
A man detained in Britain without charge or trial for two years on the basis of secret evidence he can neither know about nor challenge has told of his despair at his treatment under anti-terrorist legislation.
Exactly two years after he was arrested at his family home in the early hours and taken to Belmarsh high-security prison, Mahmoud Abu Rideh is the first of 14 detainees held on suspicion of terrorism to speak out publicly, through a letter sent to the Guardian.
In it, he tells of his horror at his arrest, his humiliation in prison and the deterioration of his mental health. He has now been moved to the high-security Broadmoor psychiatric hospital.
The home secretary, David Blunkett, says the detainees are all suspected international terrorists with links to al-Qaida or related groups and that the anti-terrorist legislation under which they are held, passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, is essential to safeguard the public.
Human rights groups, however, have condemned detentions based on secret evidence without a criminal trial. On Thursday, the privy counsellors review committee, a cross-party group of MPs set up by Mr Blunkett, which spent 18 months reviewing the act, called for it to be scrapped.
Mr Abu Rideh claims his experiences since his arrest are an indictment of Britain. "Is this the civilisation of London? Is this Europe civilisation in the 21st century?" It was a month before he was allowed to call a lawyer and six months before he saw his wife and children.
USA
Guardian: Bush wants Saddam to hang, but we must resist
The US president is reflecting his own brutish view of the world
It has always seemed mistaken to perceive Iraq as the epicentre of the "Iraq crisis". Events there represent only one manifestation of a much more profound issue: how the rest of the world should manage its relationship with the United States. This will be our great foreign policy dilemma for at least the first half of the 21st century.
America's wealth and power are inescapable realities. It seems self-indulgent to lavish emotional and intellectual energy on deploring the shortcomings of the world's only superpower. From Tony Blair downwards, all of us must focus on coming to terms with the US, rather than figuratively waving placards to demand that this great nation should be something other than it is.
Yet, it is hard not to hate George Bush. His ignorance and conceit, his professed special relationship with God, invite revulsion. A few weeks ago, I heard a British diplomat observe sagely: "We must not demonise Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz." Why not? The US defence secretary and his assistant have implemented coalition policy in Iraq in a fashion that makes Soviet behaviour in Afghanistan in the 1970s appear dextrous. The British are hapless passengers on the Pentagon's juggernaut.
Guardian: Bush wants Saddam to hang, but we must resist
The US president is reflecting his own brutish view of the world
It has always seemed mistaken to perceive Iraq as the epicentre of the "Iraq crisis". Events there represent only one manifestation of a much more profound issue: how the rest of the world should manage its relationship with the United States. This will be our great foreign policy dilemma for at least the first half of the 21st century.
America's wealth and power are inescapable realities. It seems self-indulgent to lavish emotional and intellectual energy on deploring the shortcomings of the world's only superpower. From Tony Blair downwards, all of us must focus on coming to terms with the US, rather than figuratively waving placards to demand that this great nation should be something other than it is.
Yet, it is hard not to hate George Bush. His ignorance and conceit, his professed special relationship with God, invite revulsion. A few weeks ago, I heard a British diplomat observe sagely: "We must not demonise Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz." Why not? The US defence secretary and his assistant have implemented coalition policy in Iraq in a fashion that makes Soviet behaviour in Afghanistan in the 1970s appear dextrous. The British are hapless passengers on the Pentagon's juggernaut.
IRAQ
Washington Times: National Intelligence Council Predicts Bleak Future for Iraq
The National Intelligence Council, a group under CIA Director George J.
Tenet, has released a paper that is part of an effort by intelligence
analysts to predict global events in the next 17 years. For its Middle
East section, one analyst predicts Iraq faces a broad range of outcomes,
mostly bad. Baghdad in 2020 could have democraticlike rulers, such as those in
current Lebanon, or could become a democratic "Switzerland-on-the-Tigris,"
the analyst states. In its section on future "shocks," the paper lays
out four negative outcomes, including the emergence in Iraq of a radical
Islamic regime similar to Iran's dictatorship.
Washington Times: National Intelligence Council Predicts Bleak Future for Iraq
The National Intelligence Council, a group under CIA Director George J.
Tenet, has released a paper that is part of an effort by intelligence
analysts to predict global events in the next 17 years. For its Middle
East section, one analyst predicts Iraq faces a broad range of outcomes,
mostly bad. Baghdad in 2020 could have democraticlike rulers, such as those in
current Lebanon, or could become a democratic "Switzerland-on-the-Tigris,"
the analyst states. In its section on future "shocks," the paper lays
out four negative outcomes, including the emergence in Iraq of a radical
Islamic regime similar to Iran's dictatorship.
IRAQ
Commondreams: U.S. "Torture Lite" Led To Saddam's Capture
"This guy was in interrogation. He wasn't willingly giving stuff up." That' s what an officer involved in Saddam's capture told the Washington Post. If the informant who led U.S. forces to Saddam wasn't giving information willingly, why did he give any information at all? It is hard to avoid thinking about the the dirty word that everyone is too polite to mention, the "T-word": torture.
Col. James Hickey, who commanded the capture operation, tells the story a bit differently, according to the Chicago Sun-Times: "'Once in our custody the informant was cooperative, and he did provide the crucial information. But will he receive the $25 million?' he laughed. 'I seriously doubt it.'"
"Wir bringen den Irakern Demokratie...mit den Mittel Saddams"
Commondreams: U.S. "Torture Lite" Led To Saddam's Capture
"This guy was in interrogation. He wasn't willingly giving stuff up." That' s what an officer involved in Saddam's capture told the Washington Post. If the informant who led U.S. forces to Saddam wasn't giving information willingly, why did he give any information at all? It is hard to avoid thinking about the the dirty word that everyone is too polite to mention, the "T-word": torture.
Col. James Hickey, who commanded the capture operation, tells the story a bit differently, according to the Chicago Sun-Times: "'Once in our custody the informant was cooperative, and he did provide the crucial information. But will he receive the $25 million?' he laughed. 'I seriously doubt it.'"
"Wir bringen den Irakern Demokratie...mit den Mittel Saddams"
USA
Bayarea: Courts set limits on terror detention
WASHINGTON - Federal appeals courts in San Francisco and New York handed the Bush administration's war on terrorism two stunning legal setbacks Thursday, ruling that the government does not have unchecked power to jail ``enemy combatants'' without access to the courts.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that President Bush has no authority to hold American citizen Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant without congressional approval, and ordered Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to release the alleged ``dirty bomb'' plotter from military custody within 30 days.
In San Francisco, a federal appeals panel said the government cannot keep 660 foreign fighters captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan locked up indefinitely at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Bayarea: Courts set limits on terror detention
WASHINGTON - Federal appeals courts in San Francisco and New York handed the Bush administration's war on terrorism two stunning legal setbacks Thursday, ruling that the government does not have unchecked power to jail ``enemy combatants'' without access to the courts.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that President Bush has no authority to hold American citizen Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant without congressional approval, and ordered Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to release the alleged ``dirty bomb'' plotter from military custody within 30 days.
In San Francisco, a federal appeals panel said the government cannot keep 660 foreign fighters captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan locked up indefinitely at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
OCCUPIED TERRITORES
Spiegel: Elitesoldaten verweigern Dienst in den besetzten Gebieten
13 israelische Elitesoldaten haben Regierungschef Ariel Scharon einen Korb gegeben. In einem Brief an die Regierung kündigten die Soldaten und Offiziere der Spezialeinheit des Generalstabes an, künftig den Dienst in den besetzten Gebieten zu verweigern.
Jerusalem - Die Militärs begründeten ihren Schritt mit Sorge um die Zukunft Israels als demokratischer, zionistischer und jüdischer Staat, wie es hieß. "Wir können nicht mehr beiseite stehen. Heute sagen wir: Wir werden nicht helfen, Millionen Palästinensern ihre Menschenrechte vorzuenthalten. Wir werden nicht Schutzwall für die Siedlungskampagne sein", hieß es in dem Schreiben der Elitesoldaten. "Wir werden unsere Moral nicht durch Aufgaben einer Besatzungsarmee verunstalten lassen. Diese Grenze wird nicht mehr überschritten."
"Respect"
Spiegel: Elitesoldaten verweigern Dienst in den besetzten Gebieten
13 israelische Elitesoldaten haben Regierungschef Ariel Scharon einen Korb gegeben. In einem Brief an die Regierung kündigten die Soldaten und Offiziere der Spezialeinheit des Generalstabes an, künftig den Dienst in den besetzten Gebieten zu verweigern.
Jerusalem - Die Militärs begründeten ihren Schritt mit Sorge um die Zukunft Israels als demokratischer, zionistischer und jüdischer Staat, wie es hieß. "Wir können nicht mehr beiseite stehen. Heute sagen wir: Wir werden nicht helfen, Millionen Palästinensern ihre Menschenrechte vorzuenthalten. Wir werden nicht Schutzwall für die Siedlungskampagne sein", hieß es in dem Schreiben der Elitesoldaten. "Wir werden unsere Moral nicht durch Aufgaben einer Besatzungsarmee verunstalten lassen. Diese Grenze wird nicht mehr überschritten."
"Respect"
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