British Firms Investigated

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating a number of British companies, over allegations that they paid bribes to Saddam Hussein to win lucrative contracts.

The investigation will look at possible breaches of the oil-for-food sanctions.

The UN has issued a report which lists over 2,200 companies, worldwide, that may have been linked to bribery to Iraq.

The British firms listed in the report by Paul Volcker, submitted two years ago, include GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca. They have all denied the accusations.

The SFO spokesman said:

"The SFO has now opened a formal investigation into issues relating to the breaches of the embargo (against Iraq).

All this springs out of the Volcker report and other information that came to us last year. The director of the SFO has now signed us up to conduct a full investigation."

AstraZeneca state:

"We deny any allegation of unethical behaviour on our part in our trading relationships with Iraq,” a spokesman said.

AstraZeneca sent a consignment of medicines originally requested by the Hussein government under the United Nations Oil for Food Programme.

Most of the consignment was delivered after the coalition forces of the US and UK had taken control of the country.

The consignment was sent with all relevant United Nations permissions and UK Government Department of Trade and Industry export licences in place."

A GlaxoSmithKline spokesman said:

"GSK denies any wrongdoing. The UN Oil for Food programme was run in the UK by the Department of Trade and Industry and GSK operated entirely within DTI guidance in this area.

Indeed, GSK had a regular dialogue with officials at the DTI in order to ensure that all its dealings under the Oil for Food programme were transparent and in accordance with the regulations."

The investigation will take years and cost millions.

Third Time Lucky

Iraqi authorities are determined to try to silence their critics, and prove that they can execute a man without a shambles ensuing.

Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to death yesterday, for the murder of 148 Shiite Muslims, and Iraqi officials are reportedly checking rope widths and lengths to ensure the cord can take the weight.

A new gallows is being built to accommodate convicts of different sizes, said Basam Ridha, an aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

Quote:

"We're taking the extra precautionary steps, including creating two types of gallows: one for heavyset guys and another for normal folks and skinnier guys."

So that's alright then, the fact that Ramadan had originally only been sentenced to life, seems to have escaped the authorities.

The Iraq Fiasco

As President Bush Bush unveiled a $2.9 Trillion budget for 2008, of which $700BN is allocated for Iraq, the body count continues to rise.

The money would be better spent on research for an alternative to oil, as a fuel supply. The only real solution for the worsening Middle East crisis, is for the US and its allies to pull all of their troops out of the Middle East and to stop buying oil from there.

That will allow the Middle East to resolve its problems without interference.

Pictures of Execution Shown To Prisoners

It seems that prisoners being held by the US in Guantanamo Bay have been shown photos of Saddam Hussein, hanging from a rope following his execution.

That at least is the case according to lawyers for David Hicks, Australia's only Guantanamo inmate.

Joshua Dratel, the lead American lawyer for Hicks, said that pictures of Saddam's trial were also shown to detainees, along with articles about executions carried out by extremists.

Quote:

"Displaying photos of condemned men to those who may be facing capital charges can only be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate and compel submission under a threat of death and mentally torture an already abused detainee population."

A spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said:

"This is the first we've heard of it. Mr Hicks did not take the issue up with the consul-general when he had the opportunity, nor has the legal team made an approach to us to follow it up with the Americans.

It's very hard to attempt to verify some of these claims if Mr Hicks himself doesn't feel the need to raise it with us directly."

Call Bush To Account

Can anyone explain to me how it is that the US and UK governments are still claiming that the lives of the Iraqi people have improved since the regime change?

Iraq's Death Squads 2 builds on a previous Dispatches investigation (7 Nov 2006) which revealed the close links between London & Washington backed Shia politicians as the new democratic leaders of Iraq & the death squads responsible for mass murder.

Thousands of civilians are being deliberately killed every month in Iraq - more than were killed in the final years of Saddam's regime. Working with local Iraqi journalists, reporter Deborah Davies shows how night after night death squads rampage through Baghdad's previously mixed neighbourhoods. Up to a hundred bodies a day are dumped on the streets, often showing signs of torture with electric drills. Whole areas of Baghdad have now been ethnically cleansed.

While the US and UK governments have been blaming Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda for the deaths, Dispatches reveals how the majority of these murders have been carried out by the Shia militia which have systematically infiltrated and taken over police units and entire government ministries. And it highlights how the killers act with impunity - there's little investigation into their activities.

Bush and Blair need to be called to account for this.

Chemical Ali Claims Immunity

Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", Saddam Hussein's cousin claimed immunity from prosecution yesterday.

He told Iraq's High Tribunal that it had no right to try him for war crimes, because US forces were immune from prosecution for their alleged wrongdoing in Iraq.

Ali Hassan al-Majid said:

"If I made a mistake, then those (the Iraqi government and US troops) who are currently implementing a law that covers all parts of Iraq should be punished. I issued a law for a part of Iraq only."

Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon told al-Majid that US troops "have immunity in Iraq only. There were soldiers who were tried and received harsh punishment."

The trial will resume on February 7th.

Saddam's Cousin Unrepentant

Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", Saddam Hussein's cousin stated in court yesterday that he had given orders to destroy Kurdish villages during the campaign against the Kurds in the 1980s.

Ali Hassan al-Majid claimed that the area "was full of Iranian agents. We had to isolate these saboteurs."

I am the one who gave orders to the army to demolish villages and relocate the villagers."

Adding:

"I am not defending myself. I am not apologising. I did not make a mistake."

The trial continues.

Chemical Ali Keeps Quiet

Saddam Hussein's cousin, "Chemical Ali", yesterday refused to make a statement at the genocide trial in Baghdad of six former regime officials.

The court has now resumed after a 12 day break, and chief judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah asked the six defendants to make statements before prosecutors presented additional documentary evidence against the accused.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", said:

"I have no testimony to present to the court unless I am given the chance to see my lawyer."

Former military intelligence chief, Sabir al-Duri, also refused to make a statement.

The judge then switched off microphones in the court, and had some "animated" discussions with the two defendants.

The trial continues.

The State of The Union

An ABC poll shows that, on the eve of his State of The Union address to Congress, President Bush is now more unpopular than any president since Richard Nixon in 1974 -the year that Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal.

It seems that Iraq may not be the only country to undergo "regime change", as a result of the Iraq invasion.

The Saddam Hussein Museum

As President Bush contemplates his Presidential Library, in anticipation of his departure from office at the end of 2008, he may be "interested" to know that Saddam Hussein's followers are planning a similar memorial for Saddam.

They plan to create a museum besides Saddam's grave in al-Ouja.

Exhibits will include photographs, the coat, white shirt and shoes he wore at his execution together with other documents and belongings returned to the family by the Iraqi Government.

There is even talk of a book containing Saddam's writings penned whilst he was in jail.

Farouq Majdalawi, head of the Jordanian Publishers' Association, is quoted in the press as saying:

"If the readers are assured that the author is Saddam himself then the book will become hot and will make record sales".

I wonder if this is exactly what President Bush had hoped for, when he enacted regime change?