Mission Accomplished

Congratulations to President Bush for turning Iraq into a third world country!

"The number of Iraqi children who are born underweight or suffer from malnutrition has increased sharply since the US-led invasion, according to a report by Oxfam and a network of about 80 aid agencies.

The report describes a nationwide catastrophe, with around 8 million Iraqis - almost a third of the population - in need of emergency aid. Many families have dropped out of the food rationing system because they have been displaced by fighting and sectarian conflict. Others suffer from the collapse in basic services caused by the exodus of doctors and hospital staff."

Source The Guardian

Question

If the Iraqi parliament goes away for several weeks on holiday, not to return until the end of August, how does President Bush think that the political situation will be improved in time for the September report that determines whether US forces stay in Iraq or not?

Does Bush actually feel that the absence of the Iraqi parliament is in fact a political improvement?

Aziz Normal

Tariq Aziz, Iraq's former foreign minister under Saddam Hussein, was admitted to hospital last week for a check up after fainting. His health has been confirmed as "normal", and he was sent back to prison on Thursday.

Aziz had been due to face questioning by a judge last Wednesday, but he fainted on Tuesday.

Badie Arif Ezzat, Aziz's lawyer, said that Aziz had fainted repeatedly on Tuesday. In January last year, Ezzat told the BBC that his client had suffered a stroke and had barely a month to live.

The coalition issued a statement:

"All studies came back normal for a person Mr Aziz's age... and [he] is currently in the same health and with the same functional status as he was prior to his fall."

Irish Kickbacks

The Gardai (Irish police) have confirmed that they are continuing investigations into claims that three Irish companies paid illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein in 2001.

The companies were named by a UN investigative committee, in a report published in 2005.

The Irish chapter of anti-corruption group, Transparency International, said it welcomed the Gardai investigation. However, it accused the Irish government of not doing enough to enforce or raise awareness of the crime of bribing foreign public officials.

Chemical Ali To Hang in Baghdad

Saddam Hussein's cousin "Chemical Ali", Hassan al-Majid, and two other former regime officials will be hanged in Baghdad and not in Kurdistan if their death sentences for killing Kurds are upheld by an appeals court.

The Iraqi government, not noted for its competence, is concerned that hanging them in Kurdistan would make their executions look like revenge killings.

An appeals court is considering their appeal of sentences handed down last month.

Galloway Suspended

As predicted George Galloway is to be suspended from the Commons for 18 days, after being found guilty of not disclosing his links with Saddam Hussein's regime.

Parliament's anti-sleaze watchdogs found "strong circumstantial evidence" that the United Nations' discredited oil-for-food programme was used by the Iraqi government, with Mr Galloway's connivance, to fund the Mariam Appeal he set up partly to campaign against sanctions imposed on Iraq.

Galloway Faces Suspension

George Galloway, the independent MP and anti-war campaigner, faces suspension from the Commons this week.

The Committee on Standards and Privileges is set to suspend Galloway, a former Labour MP who now sits for the Respect Party, over a charity he is associated with.

Galloway was rebuked last month by a charity watchdog for failing properly to vet donations made to the charity.

The Charity Commission found donations to the Respect MP's Mariam appeal, totalling tens of thousands of pounds, were funded with money linked to the United Nations oil-for-food scandal.

The commission concluded that the money was used for humanitarian causes.

Draft Oil Law

Iraq's cabinet has approved changes to a draft oil law, and sent it to parliament in an attempt to curb the sectarian violence.

Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, said it was the "most important" law in the country.

"The law was approved unanimously ... it was referred to the parliament which will discuss it tomorrow.

I call on all our partners in the political process and in this national unity government to respect this deal."

However, the Kurds have said that they had neither seen nor approved the final text of the law and might oppose it.

The Kurdistan regional government said it would reject the latest text, if it made "material and substantive changes" to the outline agreed upon during weeks of protracted negotiations.

For the Iraqi people, time is running out.

The Libby "Pardon"

President Bush should be aware that no President, or friend of the President, is in the long run above the law.

The decision to "commute" Libby's 30th month sentence, with the likelihood of a future pardon, reflects very badly on this President and his attitude to the law.

UN Inspection Body Closed

Friday saw the closure of the UN Inspection body that searched without success for non existent Saddam Hussein's WMD.

The US and Iraq have called it an "historic day".

The resolution terminating the mandate of the U.N. bodies responsible for overseeing the dismantling of Saddam's programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles was approved by a vote of 14-0 with Russia abstaining.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin objected to the council's failure to comply with previous resolutions demanding that the inspectors certify that Iraq has no banned weapons or missiles before terminating their mandate.

"The adoption of this resolution does not give any clear answers to the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."