Those of you who are fed up with the Iraq war, may be "pleased" to know that there will soon be another war to occupy your waking hours.
It would seem that Dick Cheney is trying to organise, in all but name, a coup against President Bush and start a war with Iran.
Source: The Washington Note
Friday, May 25, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
The Eye of The Storm
President Bush said, during a commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy:
"It is tempting to believe that the calm here at home after 9/11 means that the danger to our country has passed.
Here in America, we are living in the eye of a storm.
All around us, dangerous winds are swirling and these winds could reach our shores at any moment."
He added:
"Victory in Iraq is important for Osama bin Laden, and victory in Iraq is vital for the United States of America."
Herein lies Bush's fundamental error, bin Laden would not be in Iraq were it not for Bush's invasion. Had Bush concentrated his efforts on tracking and eliminating bin Laden and his network in Afghanistan, instead of invading a non combatant country, the terrorist infestation would have been neutralised and would not have spread.
As long as Bush chooses to send more Americans to die in Iraq, the terrorists will be unified and grow in strength.
Like it or not, Bush should pull all US forces out of Iraq now and let nature take its course. The terrorist groups will lose their focus of hatred, and kill each other.
Unfortunately Bush seems unwilling or unable to grasp that point.
"It is tempting to believe that the calm here at home after 9/11 means that the danger to our country has passed.
Here in America, we are living in the eye of a storm.
All around us, dangerous winds are swirling and these winds could reach our shores at any moment."
He added:
"Victory in Iraq is important for Osama bin Laden, and victory in Iraq is vital for the United States of America."
Herein lies Bush's fundamental error, bin Laden would not be in Iraq were it not for Bush's invasion. Had Bush concentrated his efforts on tracking and eliminating bin Laden and his network in Afghanistan, instead of invading a non combatant country, the terrorist infestation would have been neutralised and would not have spread.
As long as Bush chooses to send more Americans to die in Iraq, the terrorists will be unified and grow in strength.
Like it or not, Bush should pull all US forces out of Iraq now and let nature take its course. The terrorist groups will lose their focus of hatred, and kill each other.
Unfortunately Bush seems unwilling or unable to grasp that point.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The Cost of Kick Backs
Australian wheat exporter AWB Ltd is now suffering "payback", for the kick back allegations that engulfed it.
First-half profits fell 72%, to $9.7M, the company blamed Australia's worst drought in 100 years and costs from a scandal related to kickbacks to Iraq to win wheat contracts.
AWB paid $2.2M towards the cost of a government inquiry into the kickbacks scandal.
The Australian government has promised to reform the Australian wheat market after an inquiry last year concluded that AWB paid $220M in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime between 1999-2003, to secure lucrative wheat contracts under the discredited U.N. oil-for-food scheme.
What goes around, comes around!
First-half profits fell 72%, to $9.7M, the company blamed Australia's worst drought in 100 years and costs from a scandal related to kickbacks to Iraq to win wheat contracts.
AWB paid $2.2M towards the cost of a government inquiry into the kickbacks scandal.
The Australian government has promised to reform the Australian wheat market after an inquiry last year concluded that AWB paid $220M in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime between 1999-2003, to secure lucrative wheat contracts under the discredited U.N. oil-for-food scheme.
What goes around, comes around!
Monday, May 21, 2007
Chaos Predicted
Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and subsequent US occupation of Iraq, could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to terrorists in the region.
The two assessments, "Principal Challenges in Post-Saddam Iraq" and "Regional Consequences of Regime Change in Iraq," were produced by the National Intelligence Council.
The assessments were delivered to the White House and to congressional intelligence committees before the war started.
The committee chairman, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV , Democrat of West Virginia, said that the panel had asked Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to declassify the report for public release.
The assessment on post Hussein Iraq included judgments that while Iraq was unlikely to split apart, there was a significant chance that domestic groups would fight each other and that former regime military elements could merge with terrorist groups to battle any new government.
The second assessment discussed "political Islam being boosted and the war being exploited by terrorists and extremists elsewhere in the region," one former analyst said. It also suggested that fear of US military occupation of a Middle East country would attract foreign Islamic fighters to the area.
It seems that Bush and his cronies chose to ignore the advice. How very foolish of them!
The two assessments, "Principal Challenges in Post-Saddam Iraq" and "Regional Consequences of Regime Change in Iraq," were produced by the National Intelligence Council.
The assessments were delivered to the White House and to congressional intelligence committees before the war started.
The committee chairman, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV , Democrat of West Virginia, said that the panel had asked Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to declassify the report for public release.
The assessment on post Hussein Iraq included judgments that while Iraq was unlikely to split apart, there was a significant chance that domestic groups would fight each other and that former regime military elements could merge with terrorist groups to battle any new government.
The second assessment discussed "political Islam being boosted and the war being exploited by terrorists and extremists elsewhere in the region," one former analyst said. It also suggested that fear of US military occupation of a Middle East country would attract foreign Islamic fighters to the area.
It seems that Bush and his cronies chose to ignore the advice. How very foolish of them!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Bar-Ilan University, just outside of Tel Aviv, has awarded an honorary doctorate to billionaire Marc Rich, who was pardoned of tax evasion charges by President Clinton in 2001 and founded of an oil trading firm under investigation for dealings with Saddam Hussein.
In 1983, Rich left the U.S. for Switzerland after he was charged with tax evasion and illegal oil trading with Iran. Clinton pardoned Rich of all criminal charges on his last day in office in 2001.
In 2005, a commission investigating the U.N. oil-for-food scandal concluded the Marc Rich Group – a Swiss-based oil trading firm – illegally gave kickbacks to Iraqi officials under Saddam.
Swiss authorities launched an investigation, which is still ongoing. The company has denied the accusations.
In 1983, Rich left the U.S. for Switzerland after he was charged with tax evasion and illegal oil trading with Iran. Clinton pardoned Rich of all criminal charges on his last day in office in 2001.
In 2005, a commission investigating the U.N. oil-for-food scandal concluded the Marc Rich Group – a Swiss-based oil trading firm – illegally gave kickbacks to Iraqi officials under Saddam.
Swiss authorities launched an investigation, which is still ongoing. The company has denied the accusations.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Execution Reenacted
Those of you with a ghoulish sense of the macabre, may find an exhibition in the Indian capital of Mumbai to be to your taste.
A waxwork House of Horrors is showing a reenactment of Saddam Hussein's hanging.
As visitors walk along on an uneven pathway, a rubber replica of Hussein's head pops up with a noose tied around the neck. The head makes a snapping noise, to simulate the neck being broken.
The visitors then run into a masked actor chasing them with an axe. The 20-minute walk through costs about $4 per person.
A waxwork House of Horrors is showing a reenactment of Saddam Hussein's hanging.
As visitors walk along on an uneven pathway, a rubber replica of Hussein's head pops up with a noose tied around the neck. The head makes a snapping noise, to simulate the neck being broken.
The visitors then run into a masked actor chasing them with an axe. The 20-minute walk through costs about $4 per person.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
The Poisoned Chalice
As President Bush's "policy" on Iraq sinks further into the quagmire, it seems that he is unable to find a new "tsar" for the Iraq war.
Bush is searching for someone credible to fill the new post of Iraq war “tsar” in the White House. Up to six US generals have reportedly rebuffed the White House's overtures.
Many Republicans are now wondering aloud what Bush's "Plan B" is, when the "surge" is proven to be a failure in September.
They should not wonder too hard, there isn't a plan B; American "policy" is being made up as they go along.
Bush is searching for someone credible to fill the new post of Iraq war “tsar” in the White House. Up to six US generals have reportedly rebuffed the White House's overtures.
Many Republicans are now wondering aloud what Bush's "Plan B" is, when the "surge" is proven to be a failure in September.
They should not wonder too hard, there isn't a plan B; American "policy" is being made up as they go along.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Saddam's Former Minister Denies Chemical Weapons
Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, Saddam Hussein's former defence minister, said on Sunday that he had no access to chemical weapons and had received no orders to use them in an operation that killed tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds.
Also on trial is Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali" for allegedly ordering poison gas attacks against the Kurds.
If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to death by hanging.
Al-Tai said:
"I did not receive any order asking me to use chemical weapons, but if so I would have implemented it. I did not receive any chemical-related weapons."
Chief Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said al-Tai knew about the chemical attack, and showed the court a letter sent by his superiors asking him to use "special ammunition (chemical weapons) against enemy poison."
Al-Tai's lawyer said that his client was only defending his country against Iranian attacks in northern Iraq during the 1980-88 war between the two countries.
Also on trial is Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali" for allegedly ordering poison gas attacks against the Kurds.
If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to death by hanging.
Al-Tai said:
"I did not receive any order asking me to use chemical weapons, but if so I would have implemented it. I did not receive any chemical-related weapons."
Chief Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said al-Tai knew about the chemical attack, and showed the court a letter sent by his superiors asking him to use "special ammunition (chemical weapons) against enemy poison."
Al-Tai's lawyer said that his client was only defending his country against Iranian attacks in northern Iraq during the 1980-88 war between the two countries.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Cigars For Saddam
The final day of a hearing to determine if Lt. Col. William H. Steele, a former military police commander at the Camp Cropper prison, should stand trial on various charges of "aiding the enemy" heard that he let detainees use his cell phone to make unmonitored calls and approved buying Cuban cigars and hair dye for Saddam Hussein.
One of those investigating Steele noted:
"that during an interview, [Steele] admitted that he empathised with the prisoners he oversaw, who included ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and members of his former regime, and that he had lent them his cellular phone to make private calls."
A similar "bonding with the enemy" happened at Nuremberg, when the US guards allowed Goering to commit suicide rather than face the gallows.
One of those investigating Steele noted:
"that during an interview, [Steele] admitted that he empathised with the prisoners he oversaw, who included ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and members of his former regime, and that he had lent them his cellular phone to make private calls."
A similar "bonding with the enemy" happened at Nuremberg, when the US guards allowed Goering to commit suicide rather than face the gallows.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Iraq Reconsturction Fails
A US federal audit report has condemned the US attempts to reconstruct Iraq as being a total failure.
The reconstruction is so blighted by local corruption and insurgency violence, that most buildings fall into disrepair within six months of being completed.
The 210 page report was prepared by the American Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (Sigir). It concludes that fraud and corruption are so widespread within Iraqi departments, that the Iraqi annual financial loss now exceeds $7BN.
When buildings are completed, they are not being "adequately maintained". Repairmen and workers face intimidation and death threats, making their task all but impossible.
The report noted that at Baghdad Airport the vast majority of electricity generators were not working. At a maternity hospital in Irbil hypodermic needles, bandages and other medical wastes were found to have been thrown in the sewer system's traps and septic tank.
The US Government is trying to lay the blame on Iraqi incompetence, and notes that it could not "micro-manage" how American-funded facilities are run on the ground.
Sigir's last report, in January, said that reconstruction cash was being stolen by corrupt Iraqi officials and often disappearing without proper accounting in a "Wild West" atmosphere.
The State Department report on global terrorism noted that 46% of all terrorism attacks around the world took place in Iraq alone in 2006.
Therefore when President Bush claimed "mission accomplished", some time ago, what exactly was he talking about?
How has the invasion of Iraq made the world a safer place?
The reconstruction is so blighted by local corruption and insurgency violence, that most buildings fall into disrepair within six months of being completed.
The 210 page report was prepared by the American Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (Sigir). It concludes that fraud and corruption are so widespread within Iraqi departments, that the Iraqi annual financial loss now exceeds $7BN.
When buildings are completed, they are not being "adequately maintained". Repairmen and workers face intimidation and death threats, making their task all but impossible.
The report noted that at Baghdad Airport the vast majority of electricity generators were not working. At a maternity hospital in Irbil hypodermic needles, bandages and other medical wastes were found to have been thrown in the sewer system's traps and septic tank.
The US Government is trying to lay the blame on Iraqi incompetence, and notes that it could not "micro-manage" how American-funded facilities are run on the ground.
Sigir's last report, in January, said that reconstruction cash was being stolen by corrupt Iraqi officials and often disappearing without proper accounting in a "Wild West" atmosphere.
The State Department report on global terrorism noted that 46% of all terrorism attacks around the world took place in Iraq alone in 2006.
Therefore when President Bush claimed "mission accomplished", some time ago, what exactly was he talking about?
How has the invasion of Iraq made the world a safer place?
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