Thursday, September 02, 2004

IRAQ: RESISTANCE

Jihadunspun: Iraqi Resistance Launched Chemical Attack On US Troops In Balad

The correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam reported last night that exclusive sources had reported details regarding chemical attacks on the US base in the town of Balad that inflicted heavy losses in men and material in the American camp there.

Iraqi Resistance forces fired Katyusha rockets and mortars at the US base in the town of Balad, north of Baghdad on Tuesday. The US base in Balad is one of the main American occupation facilities in Iraq. Yhe Resistance began an intermittent barrage on the base at 6:00am and that mortars and rockets were still being fired at the base from all directions now and again up until the time he filed his report.

Monday, August 30, 2004

IRAQ: ABU GHRAIB

Der Spiegel: 'We Were Supposed to Humiliate Them'

Interview with US Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick on torture at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.

SPIEGEL: Since the images of torture at Abu Ghraib became public, you have had a lot of time, while detained in Baghdad, to think about your actions. Today, how do you view what you did - as a disgrace for America?

Frederick: I am very upset and depressed about what happened. I'm not a sadist. My family and my friends will attest to that. I was always proud to be defending America. In doing so, I made a lot of sacrifices in the past twenty years, especially since the attacks of September 11. I have always served my country well, even in Iraq - until we were transferred to Abu Ghraib and things got out of control.

USA: IRAN NEXT?

Sidney Morning Herald: The neo-cons give Iran the Iraq treatment

Sexed-up reports, pressure on the United Nations... here we go again

History is beginning to repeat itself, this time over Iran. Just two years after the British Government's notorious "Downing Street dossier" on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the first efforts to get United Nations approval for war, Washington is trying to create similar pressures for action against Iran.

The ingredients are well-known: sexed-up intelligence material that puts the target country in the worst possible light; moves to get the UN to declare it in "non-compliance", thereby claiming justification for going in unilaterally even if the UN gives no support for invasion; and at the back of the whole brouhaha, a clique of US neo-conservatives whose real agenda is regime change.

The immediate focus for action against Iran is the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has produced five reports on Iran in the past 14 months. Part of the UN, the IAEA in its reports has raised questions about Iran's professedly civilian nuclear program and its desire to create its own fuel cycle that could eventually be used to produce bombs.

"World War III soon in a city near you"

USA: ISRAELI SPY AND IRAN

Juan Cole:
Johnson: FBI Furious at Leak

In a later broadcast on MSNBC, former CIA officer and NBC analyst Larry Johnson
reported that for months he had been aware of an investigation that had led to tonight's revelation, one that had originally focused on the source of a forged document indicating that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger, presumably for making nuclear weapons. Johnson speculated that Israel may have been behind the forgery which was used by the administration to bolster its case for invasion. If so, he said, the espionage case could tie to an ongoing Justice Department criminal investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame as a covert CIA operative by right-wing columnist Robert Novak. Johnson also said the FBI was furious that news of the espionage investigation had leaked. Johnson opined that the investigation could lead from DOD to the National Security Council, and that the timing of the leak just before the start of the Republican convention was not coincidental. In a post on the dailykos weblog, one contributor noted that "when Tom Clancy and [Gen.] Zinni were running around flogging their book, they were on Deborah Norville. [During the show, Norville] asked Clancy of his impression of Wolfowitz. 'Is he working for our side?' [Clancy] replied."


It appears to be the case that someone in the Pentagon got wind that Larry Franklin had been flipped, and was terrified that the investigation might go on up the ladder at the Pentagon, in AIPAC, and with the Israelis. So they leaked news of the investigation to make sure that everybody clammed up and shredded everything.

USA: IRAN NEXT?

Juan Cole: Fomenting a War on Iran

Here is my take on the Lawrence Franklin espionage scandal in the Pentagon.

It is an echo of the one-two punch secretly planned by the pro-Likud faction in the Department of Defense. First, Iraq would be taken out by the United States, and then Iran. David Wurmser, a key member of the group, also wanted Syria included. These pro-Likud intellectuals concluded that 9/11 would give them carte blanche to use the Pentagon as Israel's Gurkha regiment, fighting elective wars on behalf of Tel Aviv (not wars that really needed to be fought, but wars that the Likud coalition thought it would be nice to see fought so as to increase Israel's ability to annex land and act aggressively, especially if someone else's boys did the dying).

"Franklin's movements reveal the contours of a rightwing conspiracy of warmongering and aggression, an orgy of destruction, for the benefit of the Likud Party, of Silvio Berlusconi's business in the Middle East, and of the Neoconservative Right in the United States. It isn't about spying. It is about conspiring to conscript the US government on behalf of a foreign power or powers."

Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan

"a must read"

IRAQ: THE NEW HENCHMAN

Sunday Herald: US point-man in Iraq raises hackles

Iraqi leaders visiting London say they are troubled by new security chiefs — every bit as ruthless as the henchmen of Saddam Hussein — imposed on them by the American authorities.

In fact, the common thread linking the concern of senior Iraqi political and religious visitors in recent weeks is the emerging security apparatus in their country that has been put together at the behest of the Americans.

On the day the National Assembly was appointed three members were arrested, along with another 57 others, all this on the orders of Shahwani,” one prominent Iraqi visitor told Deccan Herald on condition he was not quoted by name.

“When we heard of this we approached Prime Minister Allawi and they managed to get one man released. All the others remain under arrest.

“Shahwani only responds to the orders of the Americans, he was forced on Allawi. That’s why this is occupation, you can draw your conclusions.”

Such Iraqi critics believe that Shahwani is also being groomed to take over from Mr Allawi in the event of a future political crisis, or if Mr Allawi is assassinated.

They say the Shahwani appointment is proof that the Americans intend to retain control of Iraq, regardless of any future military withdrawal.

IRAQ: RESISTANCE

The Age: Secret deal keeps Sadr's men armed

FIGHTERS loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr have been allowed to keep weapons such as AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenade launchers as part of secret provisions in a deal that ended the 22-day siege of the Iraqi holy city of Najaf.

The revelation by Sayyed Immad Mohamed Kalantal – who acted as an intermediary in the agreement brokered by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric – raised fears members of Sadr's Mehdi Army could regroup and prepare a new armed uprising against the Government and its US backers.

Mr Kalantal said the clause had been agreed to by Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi Prime Minister. Mr Allawi had initially been determined to "finish off" Sadr's militia but baulked at the consequences of a full-scale assault on the city's Imam Ali shrine.

911

Memoryhole: The Pentagon Boeing - Still Missing (shockwave)

"Nice little Shockwave Movie"

USA: ISRAELI SPY

EIR: Superb Chronology Of The Israeli Pentagon Spy Case

Reuters: Suspected Pentagon Spy Reportedly Served In Israel
A Pentagon analyst suspected of passing classified information to Israel served as a U.S. Air Force reservist in Israel, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The newspaper quoted a former colleague at the Defense Intelligence Agency who said the analyst may have been based at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, but was never permanently assigned there.

Quoting unnamed officials and others familiar with the inquiry, the Post said an FBI investigation had been broadened in recent days to include interviews at the State and Defense departments and with Middle Eastern specialists outside government.

Gulf News: Israel Caught Spying Again
Allegations. Denials. Not for the first time has the issue of Israel and espionage in Washington surfaced, as America's closest ally seems to betray its trust. But more damaging is the inescapable fact that if these espionage allegations are proven, US policy regarding the Middle East will have been compromised yet again.

The FBI has launched a wide-ranging investigation into a suspected mole with ties to top Pentagon officials who is thought to have supplied Israel with classified material that included secret White House deliberations on Iran.

Blog: Latest Israeli Spy Story Makes No Sense
"This scandal isn't a spying scandal. It is the treason of handing over full control of American foreign policy to the leader of another country. We have seen how this played out with respect to the attack on Iraq, and we will see it play out in future attacks on Iran and Syria. "

Washington Times: FBI probes DOD office
The FBI has intensified its investigation of senior members of what was formerly known as the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans on suspicion that one of them passed highly classified U.S. military information to the government of Israel, according to federal law enforcement officials.

MICHAEL MOORE

Deserter Bush Attacks A Wounded Vietnam Vet by Michael Moore

It Takes Real Courage to Desert Your Post and Then Attack a Wounded Vet

Dear Mr. Bush,

I know you and I have had our differences in the past, and I realize I am the one who started this whole mess about "who did what" during Vietnam when I brought up that "deserter" nonsense back in January. But I have to hand it to you on what you have uncovered about John Kerry and his record in Vietnam. Kerry has tried to pass himself off as a war hero, but thanks to you and your friends, we now know the truth.

First of all, thank you for pointing out to all of us that Mr. Kerry was never struck by a BULLET. It was only SHRAPNEL that entered his body! I did not know that! Hell, what's the big deal about a bunch of large, sharp, metal shards ripping open your flesh? That happens to all of us! In my opinion, if you want a purple heart, you'd better be hit with a bullet -- with your name on it!

USA: OCTOBER SURPRISE

Globalfreepress: Behind The Israeli Mole Affair

The Point Of Maximum Danger Of War With Iran Approaching By Webster Griffin Tarple

News of the investigation of Larry Franklin, a middle-level functionary working for the Wolfowitz-Feith-Luti-Shulsky clique in the Pentagon, indicates that we are now approaching a critical choice-point on the road to war with Iran, and towards a synthetic terrorism attack inside the US which would be used as an additional pretext to start such a war.

The probe of an Israeli mole in the Pentagon was made public by CBS news last Friday evening. The Saturday edition of the Washington Post named Larry Franklin as being identified by sources as the person under investigation. In Sunday,s Washington Post, it was confirmed that Lawrence A. Franklin was the person at the center of investigation.

"must read"