April 27, 2003
Media Compilation #133: The Saint, The Anti-Christ And The War Profiteers + SPECIAL NORTH KOREA SECTION
Dear journalist
I was not planning to send you another compilation so soon but the material I found yesterday warrants, I believe, immediate circulation.
See for yourself, especially the SPECIAL NORTH KOREA SECTION below.
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.EarthRainbowNetwork.com
This compilation is archived at http://www.EarthRainbowNetwork.com/Archives2003/MediaCompilation133.htm
"Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs, and his constant references to "evil doers," in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations - the anti-Christ. People close to the Pope claim that amid these concerns, the Pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations."
- Wayne Madsen -- Quoted from "Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult", #2 below
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
- James Madison, while a United States Congressman
CONTENTS
1. The Monk in the Lab
2. Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
3. G W Bush resume
4. Carving Up The New Iraq
5. The Mightiest Nation
SPECIAL NORTH KOREA SECTION
In view of the current situation in North Korea, this section will provide you with some vital cues on this potentially very dangerous situation developing between 2 cocky nations - one flushed with an exacerbated sense of superiority following a relatively easy victory in Iraq and the other one highly indoctrinated and with nowhere else to go - both armed to the teeth... including possibly up to one hundred nuclear bombs and ICBM missiles in the North Korean arsenal according to one source (Center for Korean Affairs) quoted below and the high resilience of the nearly impregnable North Korean fortress - with 8,236 deep underground facilities drilled into granite rocks and able to withstand all known bunker-buster bombs and missiles in the U.S. arsenal. See "North Korea's War Strategy of Massive Retaliations against US Attacks" in this section.
North Korea's nuclear boast defies belief (April 26)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,943967,00.html
Bush cries blackmail as dismayed neighbours await confirmation of Pyongyang's corridor comment - South Korea and Japan expressed disbelief and dismay yesterday at the news that their paranoid, impoverished and belligerent neighbour North Korea had declared itself the latest member of the nuclear weapons club.
McCain: N. Korea Bigger Threat Than Iraq (April 26)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=716&e=6&u=/ap/20030426/ap_on_go_co/mccain_interview
U.S. Military Options for N. Korea Fraught with Peril (April 26)
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2633695
N. Korea Claims to Have Nuclear Weapons, U.S. Officials Say http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32198-2003Apr24.html
North Korean negotiators told U.S. officials in Beijing that the communist nation has nuclear weapons and threatened to export them or conduct a "physical demonstration," U.S. officials said today.
North Korea Talks Over: Powell (April 24)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3100.0.htm
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that three-way talks between North Korea, China and the United States had ended a day earlier than expected and warned Pyongyang that Washington would not respond to threats.
Report: U.S. Has Plans to Bomb N.Korea Nuke Plant (April 22)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3065.htm
CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Pentagon has drawn up plans to bomb a North Korea nuclear plant if it reprocesses spent nuclear fuel rods, according to an Australian newspaper report on Tuesday that was quickly downplayed by Australian officials. Citing "well-informed Canberra sources close to U.S. thinking," The Australian's foreign editor Greg Sheridan said the U.S. has produced a blueprint to bomb Yongbyon if the plant went ahead with reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods to make atom bombs. (...) Western intelligence agencies believe no reprocessing has yet taken place but Pyongyang has a history of raising the stakes ahead of major talks as an attention-grabbing negotiating tactic. "It's one of these stories which probably is perfectly true...but there again, the Americans would have contingency plans for any range of different military option," Downer told an Australian radio station.
Russian official predicts 'catastrophic' events
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3085.htm
North Korea's War Strategy of Massive Retaliations against US Attacks (April 24)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3099.htm
(Center for Korean Affairs - http://www.onekorea.org ) North Korea has not only the military power but also the political will to wage total war against the United States. North Korea is one of the few nations that can engage in a total war with the United States. The US war planners recognize this fact. For example, on March 7, 2000, Gen. Thomas A Schwartz, the US commander in Korea at the time, testified at a US congressional hearing that "North Korea is the country most likely to involve the United States in a large-scale war." (...) North Korea's war plan in case of an US attack is total war, not the 'low-intensity limited warfare' or 'regional conflict' talked about among the Western analysts. North Korea will mount a total war if attacked by the US. There are three aspects to this war plan. - CLIP
Make sure to go read "North Korea's Military Capability" (astounding! ) and their weapon production capacity (comprehensive and underground!) as part of this very detailed document at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3099.htm.
Here is just another example: North Korea has 2 artillery corps and 30 artillery brigades equipped with 120mm self-propelled guns, 152mm self-propelled mortars, 170mm guns with a range of 50 km, 240 mm multiple rocket launchers with a range of 45 km, and other heavy guns. North Korea has about 18,000 heavy guns. North Korea's 170mm Goksan gun and 240mm multiple-tube rocket launchers are the most powerful guns of the world. These guns can lob shells as far south as Suwon miles beyond Seoul. The big guns are hidden in caves. Many of them are mounted on rails and can fire in all directions. They can rain 500,000 conventional and biochemical shells per hour on US troops near the DMZ. The US army bases at Yijong-bu, Paju, Yon-chun, Munsan, Ding-gu-chun, and Pochun will be obliterated in a matter of hours. The US army in Korea is equipped with Paladin anti-artillery guns that can trace enemy shells back to the guns and fire shells at the enemy guns with pin-point accuracy. However, it takes for the Paladins about 10 min to locate the enemy guns, during which time the Paladins would be targeted by the enemy guns. Gen. Thomas A Schwartz, a former US army commander in Korea, stated that the US army in Korea would be destroyed in less than three hours.
READ ALSO ABOUT THESE AMAZING ALLEGATIONS IN THIS SAME DOCUMENT ABOVE:
4. Weapons of Mass Destruction
a. Missile Readiness
North Korea is a nuclear state along with the US, Russia, China, the Great Britain, France, India, Pakistan, and Israel. North Korea has succeeded in weaponizing nuclear devices for missile delivery. North Korea has operational fleets of ICBM and intermediate-range missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. I have written on this subject previously and will not replicate the details here.
It was May of 1994, nine years ago, when the US military planners had first realized that North Korea had the bomb and devised nuclear attack plans under William Perry, the then US Secretary of Defense. Perry had estimated that North Korea would have about 100 nuclear warheads by 2000. Dr. Kim Myong Chul, an expert on Kim Jong Il's war plans, has recently confirmed that North Korea has more than 100 nukes including hydrogen bombs.
North Korea can produce about 100 missiles a year. It began to make missiles in 1980 and has about 1,000 missiles of various types in place, about 100 of which have nuclear warheads. These missiles are hidden in caves and underground launching pads. At present, the US has no fool-proof defense against North Korean missiles, and in case of war, North Korean missiles can do serious damages: several hundreds of thousands of US troops will die, and scores of US bases and carrier battle groups will be destroyed. The Patriot anti-missile missiles are deployed in South Korea but as shown in the recent Iraq war, the Patriots are not 100% accurate or reliable even under ideal conditions.
b. Biochemical Warfare
North Korea has a large stockpile of biochemical weapons. Each Army corps has a chemical company and each regiment has a chemical platoon. In the May 1994 nuclear crisis, Perry warned North Korea that the US would retaliate with nuclear weapons if North Korea used chemical weapons on US troops. North Korean troops and citizens are well-prepared for bio-chemical attacks. CLIP
Special report: North and South Korea
http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/0,2759,331519,00.html
See also:
Murdoch helped start war on Iraq, says Turner
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/iraqwar/story/0,4395,185370,00.html?
Ex-CNN owner blames Fox News for urging invasion, while BBC chief says US media no longer impartial.
Leaked document exposes pro-Israel lobby's manipulation of US public (April 25)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1395.shtml
This document was prepared for pro-Israel activists by the public relations firm The Luntz Research Companies and The Israel Project. The document, entitled "Wexner Analysis: Israeli Communication Priorities 2003," counsels pro-Israel advocates to keep invoking the name of Saddam Hussein, and to stress that Israel "was always behind American efforts to rid the world of this ruthless dictator and liberate their people." Despite his solid support for Israel and Ariel Sharon, the document warns pro-Israel advocates not to compliment or praise President Bush. At the same time it acknowledges that Yasser Arafat has been a great asset to Israel because "he looks the part" of a "terrorist." The installation of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian prime minister, and potential replacement for Arafat, comes "at the wrong time," because he has the potential to improve the image of the Palestinians, and that could put the onus on Israel to return to negotiations. The document advises supporters of Israel to appear to affect a "balanced" tone, but admits that in arguing for Israel's policies, the illegal "settlements are our Achilles heel," for which there is no good defense. CLIP http://electronicintifada.net/artman/uploads/luntzwexneranalysis.pdf for the full original
U.S. Planners Surprised by Strength of Iraqi Shiites (April 23) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17886-2003Apr22.html
As Iraqi Shiite demands for a dominant role in Iraq's future mount, Bush administration officials say they underestimated the Shiites' organizational strength and are unprepared to prevent the rise of an anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government in the country.
The Shiite Shockwave
http://www.msnbc.com/news/905874.asp?cp1=1
Already, a subtle shift in power is underway in the Muslim Middle East.
Americans Confronted with an Islamicist Revival http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=105310
The only problem with a democracy is the people. Washington, which has promised to respect Iraqis' political choices, is discovering that they may want the unacceptable: a Shi'ite theocracy, twin to the Teheran regime. Eleven years ago, the Americans were already frightened by this nightmare: in the wake of the first Gulf War, they gave up helping the Shi'ites topple Saddam Hussein, allowing him to savagely repress the Shi'ite revolt. Lost time. Today, it is as though the Americans and the Shi'ite clergy were enlisted in a speed race to "win Iraqi hearts and minds". The latter are in the lead. For the last few days, their faithful have taken charge of vital services in Baghdad: they distribute water and food, they punish looters, etc. Jay Garner, the American governor who arrived yesterday in the Iraqi capital, has to try to make up for lost time and attend to the population's urgent needs. Before leaving Kuwait City where he had previously been quartered, he had minimized the risk of a political resurgence by Shi'ite Islamicists. He told the Washington Post: "All we want is for (the Iraqis) to set up a democratic process that results in a government which reflects the people's will freely expressed by vote. The type of government, the type of process is up to them to define. We'll do whatever they want."
Occupation and Iraqi Intifada, Now the Real War Starts (April 26)
http://www.counterpunch.org/lind04262003.html
US Detains Children At Guantanamo Bay (April 23)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,941876,00.html
The US military has admitted that children aged 16 years and younger are among the detainees being interrogated at its prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Crony Capitalism Goes To War (April 24 - by Arianna Huffington)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/042503J.shtml
Quick quiz: What's the most exclusive club in America? How about the Augusta National Golf Club, whose 300 members withstood the slings and arrows of Martha Burk with nary a scratch earlier this month? Or maybe it's the U.S. Senate, where a seat at one of the historic roll-top desks can go for as much as $60 million? Nope, not even close. Our proud democracy's most select body is the tiny group of contenders invited to bid for capitalism's crown jewel: The Iraq contract.
Fears of Cholera, Typhoid in Baghdad (April 22)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/22/sprj.nilaw.electricity.ap/
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Jumping for joy, the 42-year-old mother of three hit the switch and screamed: "Electricity is here!" Up and down the block, neighbors ran outside their houses to cheer and fire weapons in the air. Baghdad celebrated the beginning of the end Tuesday of a devastating 3-week-old power outage. Still, more than 80 percent of the city remained in darkness -- and doctors reported the first suspected cases of cholera and typhoid, with no clean running water yet. CLIP
Why Does the Department of Defense Say the War Costs $20 Billion and You Say $40 Billion?
http://www.costofwar.com/numbers.html
Bush Comes Clean: It Was About the Oil (April 24)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/042603I.shtml
(...) Bush's right-wing Gang of Four--Cheney, Rummy, Condi and Wolfy--saw Operation Iraqi Freedom as a chance to line their buddies' pockets, emasculate the Muslim world, place U.S. military bases in Russia's former sphere of influence and, according to the experts, lower the price of oil by busting OPEC. "There will be a substantial increase in Iraqi oil production [under U.S. occupation], and I wouldn't be surprised if schemes emerged to weaken, if not destroy, OPEC," says Jumberto Calderón, former energy minister of Venezuela. Former OPEC secretary general Fadhil Chalabi (no relation to Ahmed) estimates that increased exploration could potentiallydouble Iraq's proven reserves, which would raise production from 2.4 to 10 million barrels a day. Such Saudi-scale production would "bring OPEC to its knees," says Chalabi. The cartel's member nations, ten of 11 of them predominantly Muslim, would suffer staggering increases in poverty as a result of falling oil revenues, plunging some into the political chaos that breeds Islamist fundamentalism. Meanwhile, the people of Iraq, whose self-flagellating Shias already make the evening news look like a rerun of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, would starve as foreign infidels raked in billions thanks to the oil beneath their land.
Ex-CIA Analysts on the Pretext for War - WMD: Where? Find? Plant? (April 26)
http://www.counterpunch.org/vips04262003.html
(contains history of exposed CIA planted "evidence" in Guatemala, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Kuwait)
US should focus on Israel's WMDs: Pak MP (April 26)
http://www.irna.com/en/head/030426124137.ehe.shtml
Israeli Commandoes In Iraq To Assassinate 500 Scientists
http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=397925
America's war of 'liberation' may be over. But Iraq's war of liberation from the Americans is just about to begin. (...) At the end of the Second World War, German-speaking British and US intelligence officers hoovered up every document in the thousands of Gestapo and Abwehr bureaux across western Germany. The Russians did the same in their zone. In Iraq, however, the British and Americans have simply ignored the evidence. (...) Iraqis are right to ask why the Americans don't search for this information, just as they are right to demand to know why the entire Saddam cabinet – every man jack of them – got away.
New campaign organized to defeat Bush and the Republicans in 2004
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=030425~mo.asp
Welcome To The New World Order: Flash Presentation
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2939.htm
Rule Of The Pirates. The $200 Billion Payday (May 1)
http://www.blackcommentator.com/19_commentary.html
Think of this fantastic sum as a mountain of contracts, because that is precisely the way the gang that runs America looks at it. A Must Read!
The bottom dollar
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,940757,00.html
There is only one way to check American power and that is to support the euro. (...) Were it not for a monumental economic distortion, the US economy would, by now, have all but collapsed. It is not quite a West African basket case, but the size of the deficits and debts incurred by its profligacy would, by any conventional measure, suggest that it was in serious trouble. It survives only because conventional measures do not apply: the rest of the world has granted it an unnatural lease of life. Almost 70% of the world's currency reserves - the money that nations use to finance international trade and protect themselves against financial speculators - takes the form of US dollars. The dollar is used for this purpose because it is relatively stable, it is produced by a nation with a major share of world trade, and certain commodities, in particular oil, are denominated in it, which means that dollars are required to buy them. CLIP
U.S. bridles as Annan calls it 'occupying power'
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1051125553479&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037
Blair's Alliance with Bush is a Damaging Strategic Error (April 17)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,938402,00.html
(...) Tony Blair is famous for his reluctance to choose between alternatives, but always to seek a third way. But the refusal to recognise that there is a choice between making our number with Bush and maintaining our status in Europe has left us marooned in mid-Atlantic. If the prime minister wants to restore Britain's status as a major European player, he must now accept that moving closer to Europe requires, by definition, putting more distance between Britain and Bush.
Bush and Blair and the Big Lie
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3054.htm
A torrent of propaganda deceiving Americans into believing Iraq was armed to the teeth with WMDs, somehow responsible for 9/11, and intending, as Bush repeatedly claimed, to attack the U.S.
Exposed: The Hypocrisy Of The 9/11 Commission (April 22)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3061.htm
The Commission is restricted to $3 million for their investigations. By comparison, the government spent over $47 million by March of 1999 investigating Clinton's Whitewater and Monica Lewinski dealings. This restriction in funds, after the Bush Administration resisted having an independent commission, and then tried to appoint Kissinger to head it, shows how serious they are about knowing what happened.
Interesting Insight Regarding "The Pentagon Crash?"
http://www.freedomfiles.org/war/pentagon.htm
The Silence about September 11
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3037.htm
The 9/11 attacks are the principle reason, according to the Bush administration, which justifies the war. Can anyone tell me why those attacks happened? Has anyone in the Bush administration or the media come forth with a reasonable explanation besides 'Evildoers who hate our freedom?'
US back in nuclear bomb-making business (April 24)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/23/1050777304686.html
The United States says it has regained the capability to make nuclear weapons for the first time in 14 years and has resumed production of plutonium parts for bombs. The Energy Department's announcement on Tuesday marks a symbolic and operational milestone in rebuilding America's nuclear weapons complex, which began a long retrenchment in the late 1980s as the Cold War ended and the toll of environmental damage from bomb production became known. Under a Bush Administration plan, the Energy Department will begin limited production of plutonium parts for the country's stockpile of nuclear weapons and begin laying plans for a new factory that could produce parts for hundreds of weapons a year. The Energy Department's previous Rocky Flats site in Colorado was shut down after serious violations of environmental laws and the FBI raided the plant.
WOLVES AND SHEEP: A short history of the Bush Mafia's war in Iraq (April 21)
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042103_wolves.html
In some of his best writing ever, former West Point instructor and retired U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff breaks down for us what really happened in the Iraqi war, with our media, and to us here at home. As the so-called coalition prepares to declare "Victory", Goff reminds us and perhaps tells many for the first time how the Iraqi campaign was actually fought.
In Case You Missed It: Section-by-Section Analysis of Justice Department “PATRIOT Act II”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1524.htm
The draft legislation, dated January 9, 2003, grants sweeping powers to the government, eliminating or weakening many of the checks and balances that remained on government surveillance, wiretapping, detention and criminal prosecution.
The war at home
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multi-page/documents/02844047.htm
It's time to defend our liberties before Patriot Act II makes protest a crime.
Red Alert Means Virtual Lockdown
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2003/04-21-2003/insider/vo19no08_redalert.htm
The fine line between counter-terrorism and police-state dictatorship is rapidly blurring. What happens if the new Department of Homeland Security issues a "red alert," the highest in the federal government’s color-coded terror alert system? According to Sid Caspersen, New Jersey’s director of the office of counter-terrorism, it can mean a virtual lockdown of all citizens. And woe to anyone who ventures out of doors or who happens to be out and about unawares when the alert is issued. Briefing reporters alongside New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey on March 14th, Caspersen said of code red: "You literally are staying home.... What we’re saying is, ‘Everybody sit down.’ If you are left standing, you are probably a terrorist." He added later, "That’s how we’re going to catch you." Caspersen, a former FBI agent appointed to the state post last year by Gov. McGreevey, also told reporters that "Red means all noncritical functions cease." "Noncritical would be almost all businesses, except health-related," he said. Most government agencies "would run at a very low threshold," according to Caspersen, and "state police and the emergency management people would take control over the highways."
Alan Dershowitz: "The US Is Now, Currently Engaged In Torturing People"
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3044.htm
With US troops in Iraq having caught only a handful of high-level members of Saddam Hussein's destroyed regime, pressure is mounting to discover the whereabouts of remaining Iraqi fugitives. The invading coalition forces have also failed to discover significant amounts of proscribed chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, undermining one of the key justifications of the war, and increasing reliance on key information known only to Iraqi prisoners. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz says this pressing need for information means that torture is now undoubtedly already being used by coalition forces in Iraq.
Henry Kissinger "Terminated" an interview
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3039.htm
...on a CBC national radio program called "The Current" when confronted with the possibility of his being brought before the International War Crimes Court.
The War Nobody Won: Part 2
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3104.htm
The new Agincourt: The issue is whether the Bush Grand Strategy is in the United States' long-term national interest. There is strong argument that it falls very short on that measure.
Noam Chomsky's Golden Rule
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15719
"There is one simple way for the United States to decrease very significantly the amount of terror in the world," says the 75-year old political activist, writer and MIT linguistics professor, "and that is to just stop supporting and participating in it."
Afghan security deteriorates as Taliban regroup
http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir030423_1_n.shtml
Hekmatyar Vowed Afghan "mujahideen" Would "force America Out Of Their Country Like The Soviet Union"
"Climate of fear" rules Afghanistan - rights group (April 22)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2258497.htm
Warlords terrorize the population with a "climate of fear" and religious fundamentalism is rising in Afghanistan 18 months after U.S. forces toppled the ruling Taliban regime. Even the opening of schools and colleges for women -- a widely hailed product of the collapse of the Taliban in late 2001 when U.S. troops entered the country -- was also under threat, New York-based Human Rights Watch said. "The international community has allowed warlords and local military commanders to take control of much of the country," its representative Loubna Freih told the U.N. Human Rights Commission, now ending its annual six-week session in Geneva. She said that instead of providing security, the warlords were terrorising the local population in many parts of the country, with kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, armed robbery, extortion and beatings widespread. Freih said the warlords had in some places maintained law and order "by creating a climate of fear, not unlike under the Taliban..." Political opponents, journalists and ordinary Afghans "are attacked and intimidated into silence," she added.
Lessons from the Past
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3076.htm
The American Record in Nation-Building: Of the 16 over the past century, democracy was sustained in only 4 countries ten years after the departure of American forces.
Voting Machines Violate Constitution - Who Will Launch Legal Challenge? (April 15)
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/Landes_Voting-Machines.htm
Wanted - one or more really good constitutional lawyers. Why? Voting machines. We need to challenge their use in our elections. Voting machines violate the Constitution and threaten what's left of American democracy like no terrorist ever could. Only a handful of private companies sell and service the machines that register and tabulate votes in U.S. elections. And it's all done in complete secrecy. We've lost control of our election process and Congress doesn't seem to notice or care. If this isn't fascism, I don't know what else to call it.
U.S. Has No Plans To Count Civilian Casualties (April 14)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26305-2003Apr14
Congress Calls For 'Assistance' To Iraqis For War Losses - The Pentagon said yesterday that it has no plans to determine how many Iraqi civilians may have been killed or injured or suffered property damage as a result of U.S. military operations in Iraq. The statement followed passage Saturday of a congressional measure calling on the Bush administration to identify and provide "appropriate assistance" to Iraqi civilians for war losses.
Facts Fall Victim To War Jargon
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPPrint/LAC/20030416/RVRUSS_2/TPColumnists
The media coverage of this war has been disgusting. North American media, and in particular the U.S. television stations, have been cravenly submissive to the Pentagon and the White House; they rolled over and gave up even before Saddam Hussein did.
A Nation Lost (April 22)
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/112/oped/A_nation_lost+.shtml
(...) Beware of war as an organizing principle of society. It should be a source of alarm, not pride, that the United States is drawing such cohesive sustenance from the war in Iraq.
Bible Brigades (April 23)
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=22579
First bombs to pulverize army, now sermons to ‘save Iraqi souls’. (...) Franklin Graham’s Boone, North Carolina-based Samaritan’s Purse is one of scores of faith-based relief organizations expected to play a role in rebuilding Iraq. But Graham has become a lightning rod for criticism because of his bellicose statements about Islam and his group’s strong evangelical bent.
No Weapons Detected at 80 Sites on Top 100 List (April 24)
http://www.njo.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1051164671315630.xml
WASHINGTON -- American forces are changing their search strategy after coming up empty at most of the top suspected weapons sites in Iraq, officials said yesterday. And the White House appeared to be trying to scale back expectations that weapons of mass destruction will be found.
Bush Goes AWO (April 17)
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030505&s=alterman
(...) This is an eerie moment in American political history. George W. Bush was defeated in the popular vote by his more liberal opponent but rules from the most extreme wing of his party. He campaigned as a fiscal conservative but has pushed tax cuts that will create a deficit larger than any in US history. As a candidate, he articulated the need for a "humble" foreign policy but now conducts it with a degree of hubris that makes Lyndon Johnson look like the Dalai Lama. His hypocrisy, in other words, is so great as to be almost unfathomable, and yet he has somehow managed to convince the media to admire him for his "moral clarity." Thanks to Bush & Co., America is hated the world over as never before. Deficits are exploding, unemployment remains high, the stock market is still in the tank and interest rates are poised to take off. The country is headed to hell in a handbasket from so many directions one can barely keep track. And yet the increasingly Foxified media tell a story only of heroism: of the US military, of the American people and of the President of the United States, who has so far managed to avoid service to either one.
A MIGHTILY POWERFUL ARTICLE! BRAVISSIMO TO THE NEW YORK TIMES AND TO TENZIN GYATSO (aka the Dalai Lama)
1.
Currently this is the 2nd most emailed article at NY Times:
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/26/opinion/26LAMA.html?pagewanted=print&position=
April 26, 2003
The Monk in the Lab
By TENZIN GYATSO
DHARAMSALA, India
These are times when destructive emotions like anger, fear and hatred are giving rise to devastating problems throughout the world. While the daily news offers grim reminders of the destructive power of such emotions, the question we must ask is this: What can we do, person by person, to overcome them?
Of course such disturbing emotions have always been part of the human condition. Some - those who tend to believe nothing will "cure" our impulses to hate or oppress one another - might say that this is simply the price of being human. But this view can create apathy in the face of destructive emotions, leading us to conclude that destructiveness is beyond our control. I believe that there are practical ways for us as individuals to curb our dangerous impulses - impulses that collectively can lead to war and mass violence. As evidence I have not only my spiritual practice and the understanding of human existence based on Buddhist teachings, but now also the work of scientists.
For the last 15 years I have engaged in a series of conversations with Western scientists. We have exchanged views on topics ranging from quantum physics and cosmology to compassion and destructive emotions. I have found that while scientific findings offer a deeper understanding of such fields as cosmology, it seems that Buddhist explanations - particularly in the cognitive, biological and brain sciences - can sometimes give Western-trained scientists a new way to look at their own fields.
It may seem odd that a religious leader is so involved with science, but Buddhist teachings stress the importance of understanding reality, and so we should pay attention to what scientists have learned about our world through experimentation and measurement.
Similarly, Buddhists have a 2,500-year history of investigating the workings of the mind. Over the millenniums, many practitioners have carried out what we might call "experiments" in how to overcome our tendencies toward destructive emotions.
I have been encouraging scientists to examine advanced Tibetan spiritual practitioners, to see what benefits these practices might have for others, outside the religious context. The goal here is to increase our understanding of the world of the mind, of consciousness, and of our emotions.
It is for this reason that I visited the neuroscience laboratory of Dr. Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin. Using imaging devices that show what occurs in the brain during meditation, Dr. Davidson has been able to study the effects of Buddhist practices for cultivating compassion, equanimity or mindfulness. For centuries Buddhists have believed that pursuing such practices seems to make people calmer, happier and more loving. At the same time they are less and less prone to destructive emotions.
According to Dr. Davidson, there is now science to underscore this belief. Dr. Davidson tells me that the emergence of positive emotions may be due to this: Mindfulness meditation strengthens the neurological circuits that calm a part of the brain that acts as a trigger for fear and anger. This raises the possibility that we have a way to create a kind of buffer between the brain's violent impulses and our actions.
Experiments have already been carried out that show some practitioners can achieve a state of inner peace, even when facing extremely disturbing circumstances. Dr. Paul Ekman of the University of California at San Francisco told me that jarring noises (one as loud as a gunshot) failed to startle the Buddhist monk he was testing. Dr. Ekman said he had never seen anyone stay so calm in the presence of such a disturbance.
Another monk, the abbot of one of our monasteries in India, was tested by Dr. Davidson using electroencephalographs to measure brain waves. According to Dr. Davidson, the abbot had the highest amount of activity in the brain centers associated with positive emotions that had ever been measured by his laboratory.
Of course, the benefits of these practices are not just for monks who spend months at a time in meditation retreat. Dr. Davidson told me about his research with people working in highly stressful jobs. These people - non-Buddhists - were taught mindfulness, a state of alertness in which the mind does not get caught up in thoughts or sensations, but lets them come and go, much like watching a river flow by. After eight weeks, Dr. Davidson found that in these people, the parts of their brains that help to form positive emotions became increasingly active.
The implications of all this are clear: the world today needs citizens and leaders who can work toward ensuring stability and engage in dialogue with the "enemy" - no matter what kind of aggression or assault they may have endured.
It's worth noting that these methods are not just useful, but inexpensive. You don't need a drug or an injection. You don't have to become a Buddhist, or adopt any particular religious faith. Everybody has the potential to lead a peaceful, meaningful life. We must explore as far as we can how that can be brought about.
I try to put these methods into effect in my own life. When I hear bad news, especially the tragic stories I often hear from my fellow Tibetans, naturally my own response is sadness. However, by placing it in context, I find I can cope reasonably well. And feelings of helpless anger, which simply poison the mind and embitter the heart, seldom arise, even following the worst news.
But reflection shows that in our lives much of our suffering is caused not by external causes but by such internal events as the arising of disturbing emotions. The best antidote to this disruption is enhancing our ability to handle these emotions.
If humanity is to survive, happiness and inner balance are crucial. Otherwise the lives of our children and their children are more likely to be unhappy, desperate and short. Material development certainly contributes to happiness - to some extent - and a comfortable way of life. But this is not sufficient. To achieve a deeper level of happiness we cannot neglect our inner development.
The calamity of 9/11 demonstrated that modern technology and human intelligence guided by hatred can lead to immense destruction. Such terrible acts are a violent symptom of an afflicted mental state. To respond wisely and effectively, we need to be guided by more healthy states of mind, not just to avoid feeding the flames of hatred, but to respond skillfully. We would do well to remember that the war against hatred and terror can be waged on this, the internal front, too.
Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th Dalai Lama.
---
If this article above was of interest to you, then you may also be interested in the Global Meditation Focus Group website at http://www.aei.ca/~cep/focusgroup.htm
2.
WHAT A SHARP CONTRAST BETWEEN THE PRECEEDING ARTICLE AND THE FOLLOWING ONE...
From: http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen04222003.html
April 22, 2003
Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
Concerns Raised by the Vatican
by WAYNE MADSEN
George W. Bush proclaims himself a born-again Christian. However, Bush and fellow self-anointed neo-Christians like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and sports arena Book of Revelations carnival hawker Franklin Graham appear to wallow in a "Christian" blood lust cult when it comes to practicing the teachings of the founder of Christianity. This cultist form of Christianity, with its emphasis on death rather than life, is also worrying the leaders of mainstream Christian religions, particularly the Pope.
One only has to check out Bush's record as Governor of Texas to see his own preference for death over life. During his tenure as Governor, Bush presided over a record setting 152 executions, including the 1998 execution of fellow born-again Christian Karla Faye Tucker, a convicted murderer who later led a prison ministry. Forty of Bush's executions were carried out in 2000, the year the Bush presidential campaign was spotlighting their candidate's strong law enforcement record. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen reported in October 2000 that one of the execution chamber's "tie-down team" members, Fred Allen, had to prepare so many people for lethal injections during 2000, he quit his job in disgust.
Bush mocked Tucker's appeal for clemency. In an interview with Talk magazine, Bush imitated Tucker's appeal for him to spare her life - pursing his lips, squinting his eyes, and in a squeaky voice saying, "Please don't kill me." That went too far for former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer, himself an evangelical Christian. "I think it is nothing short of unbelievable that the governor of a major state running for president thought it was acceptable to mock a woman he decided to put to death," said Bauer.
A former Texas Department of Public Safety officer, a devout Roman Catholic, told this reporter that evidence to the contrary, Bush was more than happy to ignore DNA data and documented cases of prosecutorial misconduct to send innocent people to the Huntsville, Texas lethal injection chamber. He said the number of executed mentally retarded, African Americans, and those who committed capital crimes as minors was proof that Bush was insensitive and a "phony Christian." When faced with similar problems in Illinois, Governor George Ryan, a Republican, commuted the death sentences of his state's death row inmates and released others after discovering they were wrongfully convicted. Yet the Republican Party is pillorying Ryan and John Ashcroft's Justice Department continues to investigate the former Governor for political malfeasance as if Bush and Ashcroft are without sin in such matters. Hypocrisy certainly rules in the Republican Party.
Bush's blood lust has been extended across the globe. He has given the CIA authority to assassinate those deemed a threat to U.S. national interests. Bush has virtually suspended Executive Orders 11905 (Gerald Ford), 12306 (Jimmy Carter), and 12333 (Ronald Reagan) which prohibit the assassination of foreign leaders. Bush's determination to kill Saddam Hussein, his family, and his top leaders with precision-guided missiles and tactical nuclear weapon-like Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bombs is yet another indication of Bush's disregard for his Republican and Democratic predecessors. It now appears that in his zeal to kill Hussein, innocent civilian patrons of a Baghdad restaurant were killed by one of Bush's precision Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). Like it or not, Saddam Hussein was recognized by over 100 nations as the leader of Iraq -- a member state of the United Nations. Hussein, like North Korea' Kim Jong Il, Syria's Bashir Assad, and Iran's Mohammed Khatami, are covered by Executive Order 12333, which the Bush mouthpieces claim is still in effect. Bush's "Christian" blood cult sees no other option than death for those who become his enemies. This doctrine is found no place in Christian theology.
Bush has not once prayed for the innocent civilians who died as a result of the U.S. attack on Iraq. He constantly "embeds" himself with the military at Goebbels-like speech fests and makes constant references to God when he refers to America's "victory" in Iraq, as if God endorses his sordid killing spree. He makes no mention of the children, women, and old men killed by America's "precision-guided" missiles and bombs and trigger-happy U.S. troops. In fact, Bush revels in indiscriminate blood letting. Since he never experienced such killing in Southeast Asia, when he was AWOL from his Texas Air National Guard unit, Bush just does not seem to understand the horror of a parent watching one's children having their heads and limbs blown off in a sudden blast of shrapnel or children witnessing their parents burning to death with their own body fat nurturing the flames.
Bush and his advisers, previously warned that Iraq's ancient artifacts and collection of historical documents and books were in danger of being looted or destroyed, instead, sat back while the Baghdad and Mosul museums and Baghdad Library were ransacked and destroyed. Cult leaders have historically attempted to destroy history in order to invent their own. The Soviets tried to obliterate Russia's Orthodox traditions, turning a number of churches into warehouses and animal barns. Cambodia's Pol Pot tried to wipe out Buddhism's famed Angkor Wat shrine in an attempt to stamp out his country's Buddhist history. In March 2001, while they were negotiating with the Bush administration on a natural gas pipeline, Afghanistan's Taliban blew up two massive 1600-year old Buddhas in Bamiyan. The Bush administration, itself run by fanatic religious cultists, barely made a fuss about the loss of the relics. It would not be the first time the cultists within the Bush administration ignored the pillaging of history's treasures.
The ransacking of Iraq's historical treasures is explainable when one considers what the blood cult Christians really think about Islam. Franklin Graham, the heir to the empire built up by his anti-Semitic father, Billy Graham, has decided being anti-Muslim is far more financially rewarding than being anti-Jewish. Billy Graham, history notes from the Nixon tapes, complained about the Jewish stranglehold on the media and Jews being responsible for pornography.
Franklin Graham continues to enjoy his father's unfettered and questionable access to the White House. But in the case of Bush, the younger Graham has a fanatic adherent. Graham has called Islam a "very evil and wicked" religion. He then announces he wants to go to Iraq. Graham obviously sees an opportunity to convert Muslims and unrepentant Eastern Christians, who owe their allegiance to Roman and Greek prelates, to his perverted form of blood cult Christianity. Graham says he is ready to send his Samaritan's Purse missionaries into Iraq to provide assistance. Muslims and mainstream Christians are wary that Graham wants to exchange food, water, and medicine for the baptism of Iraqis into his intolerant brand of Christianity. In the last Gulf War, Graham could not get away with his chicanery. The Desert Storm Commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, stopped dead in the tracks Graham's plan to send 30,000 Arabic language Bibles to U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. Today's Pentagon shows no such compunction to put a rein on Graham. It invited him to give a Good Friday sermon at the Pentagon to the consternation of the Defense Department's Muslim employees. To make matters worse, under Bush's "Faith Based Initiative," Graham's Samaritan's Purse stands to receive U.S. government funds for its proselytizing efforts in Iraq, something that should be an affront to every American taxpayer.
Bush's self-proclaimed adherence to Christianity (during one of the presidential debates he said Jesus Christ was his favorite "philosopher") and his constant reference to a new international structure bypassing the United Nations system and long-standing international treaties are worrying the top leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Well-informed sources close to the Vatican report that Pope John Paul II is growing increasingly concerned about Bush's ultimate intentions. The Pope has had experience with Bush's death fetish. Bush ignored the Pope's plea to spare the life of Karla Faye Tucker. To show that he was similarly ignorant of the world's mainstream religions, Bush also rejected an appeal to spare Tucker from the World Council of Churches - an organization that represents over 350 of the world's Protestant and Orthodox Churches. It did not matter that Bush's own Methodist Church and his parents' Episcopal Church are members of the World Council.
Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs, and his constant references to "evil doers," in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations - the anti-Christ. People close to the Pope claim that amid these concerns, the Pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New Testament. Before he became Pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla said, "We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel." The Pope, who grew up facing the evils of Hitler and Stalin, knows evil when he sees it. Although we can all endlessly argue over the Pope's effectiveness in curtailing abuses within his Church, his accomplishments external to Catholicism are impressive.
According to journalists close to the Vatican, the Pope and his closest advisers are also concerned that the ultimate acts of evil - the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon - were known in advance by senior Bush administration officials. By permitting the attacks to take their course, there is a perception within the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that a coup d'etat was implemented, one that gave Bush and his leadership near-dictatorial powers to carry out their agenda.
The Pope worked tirelessly to convince leaders of nations on the UN Security Council to oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Vatican sources claim they had not seen the Pope more animated and determined since he fell ill to Parkinson's Disease. In the end, the Pope did convince the leaders of Mexico, Chile, Cameroon, and Guinea to oppose the U.S. resolution. If one were to believe in the Book of Revelations, as the Pope fervently does, he can seek solace in scoring a symbolic victory against the Bush administration. Whether Bush represents a dangerous right-wing ideologue who couples his political fanaticism with a neo-Christian blood cult (as I believe) or he is either the anti-Christ or heralds one, the Pope should know he has fought the good battle and has gained the respect and admiration of many non-Catholics around the world.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist. He wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth.
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
---
See also:
The Most Dangerous President Ever
http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/5/meyerson-h.html
In foreign policy, the Bush administration seems above all a coalition of religious and secular millenarians. For many fundamentalists involved in Republican politics, the United Nations and other instruments of "world government" are literally satanic.
The Evil One
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3106.htm
"Evil in its metaphysical, absolute sense, is a notion so common to the fundamentalist, reactionary religious worldview that Bush and bin Laden share...George Bush actually stands today at the head of the Protestant fundamentalist movement in the United States..."
3.
From: http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/04/23_resume.html
Past Work Experiences:
Ran for congress and lost.
Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt shortly after selling stock.
Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using tax-payer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago Cubs.
With fathers help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.
Accomplishments as Texas Governor:
Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.
Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America.
Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
Set the record for most executions by any Governor in American history.
Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of fathers appointments to the Supreme Court.
Accomplishments as president:
The Economy
Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.
Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history.
Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
In first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.
First president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.
Ethics
First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history.
Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.
First US president to establish a secret shadow government.
Presidency is the most secretive and un-accountable of any in US history.
Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied, saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
Failed to permit, in the 18 months following the 911 attacks, any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
Lied again or failed to fulfill the pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'.
Lied again or failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capital building. "After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects."
Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history, and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
Biggest life-time campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
Election Ethics
Set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips of any other president in US history.
All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
Members of his cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. The 'poorest' multi-millionaire, Condoleezza Rice, has an Exxon/Mobil oil tanker named after her).
Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.
Diplomacy
First president in US history to openly order an unprovoked US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation.
Attacked and took over two countries.
Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest his actions (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind:
http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/marches/
Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission. and from the elections monitoring board.
Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war (no longer abiding by the Geneva Conventions), and refused United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections).
Rendered the entire United Nations, by his own description, as 'irrelevant'.
Withdrew the USA from the International Criminal Court.
First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
First US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view the United States presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
With a policy of 'dis-engagement', created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
First US president in history to have the people of South Korea feel more threatened by the US than by their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
Records and References
At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available)
AWOL from National Guard and Deserted the military during a time of war.
Refused to take drug tests or even answer any questions about drug use.
All records of tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to father's library, sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
All records of any SEC investigations into insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
All minutes of meetings for any public corporation for which he served on the board are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public view.
Any records or minutes from meetings he or his VP attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and un-available for public review.
For personal references please speak to his father or uncle James Baker (They can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Would you offer this man a job in your company?
Courtesy of http://www.BushOccupation.com
See their Grounds for Impeachment of George W Bush
4.
From: http://www.sundayherald.com/33021
Carving Up The New Iraq
By Neil Mackay
(Sunday Herald) IRAQ lies in ruins this morning. Its cities are bombed; its buildings have been torched by teenage arsonists; its shops, hospitals, factories and homes have been looted. This is Year Zero for Iraq. The old regime is gone and the United States is to rebuild this country literally from the ground up.
Since the beginning of the year, America has had its reconstruction plan in place. Answering directly to Centcom commander General Tommy Franks, retired Lt Gen Jay Garner will be in command of the reconstruction effort. He will be aided by a series of military hardmen, diplomats and Republican party place-men who will help the United States create "Free Iraq" - aided by exiles who are returning to get their share of the spoils.
This isn't a selfless exercise. In a special Sunday Herald investigation, we have charted the network of financial kickbacks, political pay-backs, cronyism, self-interest and ferocious ideology that underpins the entire reconstruction scheme.
The US denies that men like Jay Garner are in effect the first wave of a military occupation. The Bush administration insists that it wants these men to work their way out of a job as quickly as possible. Some have mentioned three months as the possible length of their tenure in Iraq - others, more realistically, claim five years is a more likely term, taking the length of the US occupation of post-war Japan as the best comparison. America will be entrenched in this nation for decades to come. The colonisation process has begun already.
In this investigation we have traced the roots of the reconstruction process back to the ideologues - the neo-conservatives now in the ascendancy in the US government - who devised the scheme. These men see the US military as the "cavalry on the new American frontier", they wanted Saddam "regime changed" long before Bush took power and they have long dreamt of a permanent US satellite in the Gulf. They have also been brutally honest about having a say over Iraq's oil fields .
Ideology is ideology, but in the US government political theory goes hand-in-hand with big business. The end result of the lofty musings of Republican hawks fashioning the concepts behind the new world order is money-grubbing for the yankee dollar. The world isn't just watching the spread of a political philosophy in Iraq, it is watching a conquest by and for US big business as well. The term "military-industrial" complex brings to mind crazy conspiracy theories , but let's consider the term again. Each and every one of the companies in the running or in possession of contracts to reconstruct Iraq are either major Republican donors or have government staff working for them. The donations to the Republican party - and also to George W Bush himself - run into millions.
Is this payback time? In the UK, connections like this between big business and politicians would be front page news for months. But not so in America. There is more to this than just kickbacks. The Americans call it "the favour bank", we call it more simply cronyism. The connections between the reconstructors is staggering. If these people aren't in the same think-tank together, then they work for the same companies, have the same friends and interests.
Just look at one example - under our power-brokers section you will find Andrew Natsios. He's the head of USAid, the government department which hands out Iraqi reconstruction contracts. Would it surprise you to find out that Natsios has a connection to a company called Bechtel which is - yes - tipped for a rather lucrative contract? Then there's IRG. It secured one of the eight government contracts up for grabs. Are you shocked to learn IRG has four vice-presidents and 24 other staff who at one time worked for USAid? There's also a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil giant once run by Dick Cheney (Bush's number two), which stands to make a cool $500 million out of reconstruction.
With only a few exceptions, there is a smoking gun for all those behind the reconstruction work. Whether it's a seat on a board, shares in a firm, a favour owed here or there, these question the impartiality of seriously powerful people and ask important questions about the levels of self-interest that lie behind the rebuilding of Iraq. While Iraq may be free of Saddam, it looks like it's going to be the most lucrative country on Earth for the foreseeable future - at least for US hawks anyway.
- CLIP -- AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE! It gives lots of details on all the most influential people steering the U.S. policies on Iraq and some of the corporations benefiting from them. Read the rest at http://www.sundayherald.com/33021
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