ACTION ALERT: Energy Bill Action Alert

Sen. Domenici's "Energy Policy Act of 2003" (S.14), is currently being considered in the Senate and may come to a final vote before Congress recesses in early August. This regressive Senate bill repeals vital electricity consumer protections, allowing for the expansion of deregulation and more Enron-style schemes. S.14 also encourages nuclear irresponsibility by offering public funds to develop new reactors, promoting nuclear waste reprocessing, and extending liability protection to nuclear plant operators. View the full bill on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Web site: http://energy.senate.gov/legislation/energybill2003/energybill2003.html This regressive legislation does not do enough to decrease oil consumption in this country and promote renewable energies. This legislation must be stopped! You can help by contacting your Senators! CALL the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, and ask to be transferred to the offices of your Senators. SEND A FREE FAX and LEARN MORE about the bill and how to act from Public Citizen's website at: http://www.stopenergybill.org
http://www.stopenergybill.org

Saddam Should Be Tried, Not Killed Says New British Envoy

LONDON (July 27, 2003) IslamOnline.net & News Agencies -- Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should be brought to trial for his crimes, not killed like his sons Uday and Qusay, the veteran diplomat appointed as Britain's new envoy to Iraq said today. The call from Jeremy Greenstock, who quits his role as Britain's U.N ambassador this week to take up the Baghdad posting in September 2003, was backed by a member of the US-backed new Iraqi Governing Council, Ahmed Chalabi. Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, stated: "I think it is much better for the Iraqi people and for the world for Saddam to be caught alive and put on trial.... He has to account for the mass graves of hundreds of thousands of people and for the wars he waged against Iran, Kuwait and the people of Kurdistan."
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-07/27/article08.shtml

Hundreds Continue Nuns' Anti-War Protest

(July 26, 2003) AP -- On July 25, three American nuns, Jackie Hudson, 68, Ardeth Platte, 66, and Carol Gilbert, 55, were handed prison sentences ranging from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years for “obstructing the national defense and damaging government property.” The three sisters crime involved cutting a fence and walking onto a Minuteman III silo site where they swinging hammers and used their blood to paint a cross on the structure. The harsh sentences were intended to deter other nonviolent protesters from staging similar actions.Within hours of the sentencing announcement, hundreds of demonstrators had fanned out at missile silos across Colorado and Nebraska to carry on the work of pacifist nuns. In Colorado, religious and political activists targeted the M-11 Minuteman III site, northeast of Denver -- one of 49 silo sites in the state. They prayed, sang, danced and hung an eviction notice on the site’s 6-foot-tall security fence.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NUNS_MISSILE_SILO?SITE=OHCIN&SECTION=HOME

Five Foreign Activists Injured In Anti-Israeli Fence Protest

JENIN, West Bank, (July 28, 2003) IslamOnline.net & News Agencies-- Five foreign peace activists were wounded when Israeli forces used live ammunition to disperse protestors against Israel's security fence in northern West Bank. The army opened fire when a crowd of some 500 Palestinians led by a group of 100 activists from the International solidarity Movement (ISM) tore down a gate in the fence near the village of Aneen. The gate was built to allow farmers whose villages has been severed from their land to work on their crops, but it has always remained locked.
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-07/28/article08.shtml

Liberian Capital Again Under Attack

MSF teams are treating severely wounded civilians in two makeshift hospitals in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. The third round of fighting in less than two months shattered a fragile cease-fire between government militias and Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel forces. A mortar hit the home of an MSF Liberian staff member shortly after he returned from work. He died before arriving at the MSF emergency room in Mamba Point.
http://dwb.convio.net/site/R?i=5LuTtSGoem3ci29aW-lulg

Liberia: "It's Not Easy"

In Monrovia, MSF doctor Andrew Schechtman describes the life and death struggles faced by those caught in the crossfire in the war-torn Liberian capital in an excerpt from his diary on the BBC.
http://dwb.convio.net/site/R?i=TySeWR8ouETci29aW-lulg.

Afghans Urge US to Act on Taliban Resurgence

KANDAHAR (July 27, 2003) Reuters -- The government of a volatile southern Afghan province urged US forces on Sunday to deal with resurgent Taliban guerrillas and said hundreds of them were roaming around freely. A Taliban official said its elusive leader Mullah Omar had approved a new deputy for the south on Saturday to assist a notorious commander suffering from wounds, and ordered him to intensify attacks on U.S. and government forces. In a further sign of stepped up Taliban activity, residents of a southern town close to the Pakistani border woke on Sunday to posters threatening death to 25 "informers" accused of collaborating with U.S. and Afghan government forces.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3165887

US Forces Accused of Using Torture in Iraq

BAGHDAD (July 23, 2003) Reuters -- Iraqis detained by US troops accused their captors of torture and degrading treatment, rights group Amnesty International (AI) has reported. AI is calling on the occupying forces to bring human rights violators to justice. Detainees told AI investigators that US troops had shot some captives. Other complaints included prolonged sleep deprivation and detainees being forced to stay in painful positions or wear hoods over their heads for long periods. "These conditions taken together would amount to torture as defined by UN standards," Amnesty's deputy executive director in the United States, Curt Goering, told a news conference.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3142228

Billionaire Challenges US Case for Iraq War

NEW YORK (July 25, 2003) Reuters -- Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has run full-page ads in major US newspapers challenging the honesty of the Bush administration's case for waging war in Iraq. The ads in The New York Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Houston Chronicle, are titled, "When the nation goes to war, the people deserve the truth." A dozen statements made by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld were reprinted and described as either exaggerated or false.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=834&ncid=731&e=10&u=/nm/20030725/wl_india_nm/india_123651

Soldier’s Wives Threatened over Critical E-Mail

(July 27, 2003) Washington Post -- Susan Peacock thought that the 400th Military Police Battalion Family Readiness Group was there to provide solace and support for spouses of soldiers shipped to Iraq but when she read her e-mail July 15, she was appalled at what she saw. Group leaders were playing what one later called "hardball" with the Columbia mother of two and other 400th family members. The message said that "certain people are getting their soldiers in trouble" and that the unit's e-mail list had been sent to the Pentagon "for possible security violations and will be closely monitored."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/072803C.shtml

Markey Says Use Funds for Nuclear Rockets to Clean Superfund Sites

On July 25, 2003, Rep. Edward Markey offered an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2004 VA-HUD Appropriations bill (H.R.2861) that would increase funding for Superfund clean-up activities by $114.7 million. The funds would come from a comparable reduction in funding to NASA’s Project Prometheus nuclear rocket program. The President’s 2004 budget requested a $150 million increase for Superfund activities. but H.R.2861 fails to fully fund the program. The $279 million Project Prometheus represents a dangerous step in the expansion of nuclear technology into space. The planned escalation of nuclear launches in the coming years also increases the chances of a deadly accident. For more information, contact:
http://www.space4peace.org

US Justice Department Overrules the Bill of Rights

The Justice Department has declared it has the right to jail US citizens without charges and deny anyone it deems an "enemy combatant" the right to legal representation. The government made this argument in a court brief filed June 19 in the case of Yasser Esam Hamdi, who was born in Louisiana.
http://www.themilitant.com

White House Striking Back?

WASHINGTON (July 21, 2003) NBC -- In an NBC News exclusive, retired career diplomat Joe Wilson says his family is the subject of a White House smear campaign. Wilson tells NBC News the White House deliberately leaked his wife’s identity as a covert CIA operative, damaging her future career and compromising past missions after he criticized the administration on “Meet the Press” and in the New York Times. Wilson called it “a shot across the bow to those who might step forward, those unnamed analysts who said they were pressured by the White House for example would think twice about having their own families names being dragged through this particular mud.”
http://www.msnbc.com/news/942095.asp?0cv=CA01

EAW Quick Links -- July 22, 2003

US Accused of Torture in Iraq
(CBS reported story and then scrubbed it)

"Amnesty International is looking into a number of cases of suspected torture in Iraq by American authorities. One of case involves Khraisan al-Aballi. Al-Aballi's house was raided by American soldiers, who came in shooting and arrested Khraisan and his 80-year-old father. They shot and wounded his brother Dureid. Dureid was carrying a weapon. His brother says Dureid thought the Americans were looters. The three men were taken away. Khraisan and his father went to the U.S. detention center at Baghdad's airport. They still don't know where his wounded brother is. Khraisan says his interrogators stripped him naked and kept him awake for more than a week, either standing or on his knees, bound hand and foot, with a bag over his head. Khraisan says he told his captors, 'I don't know what you want. I don't know what you want, I have nothing.' 'I asked him to kill me,' says Khraisan. After eight days, they let him and his father go."
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24716:599308

USA: Dollars Out for Mid-East TV

(July 17, 2003) BBC News -- The US House of Representatives has approved funds for the creation of a Middle East radio and television network aimed at promoting US views. House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde said the network would „combat the misinformation and propaganda that contribute to the rising anti-American sentiment in the region." Funding would come from$1.3 billion budgeted for international broadcasting. The BBC reports that the network is seen as Washington's response to the popular Qatar-based Arabic television news station al-Jazeera. Congressional officials said the new network would be on the air 24 hours a day, delivering a mix of news and entertainment.
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24717:599308

Iran Rejects Bush Charges, Vows Commitment To NPT

PRETORIA (July 22, 2003) IslamOnline.net & News Agencies ˆ Iran rejected U.S. President George W. Bush‚s accusations of harboring and supporting terrorism on Monday, July 21, saying it had no intention of pulling out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "Iran has not only not been harboring terrorists, but it has been fighting against them," said Kharazi, in South Africa for a meeting of a South African-Iranian bilateral commission. "I think it is the United States that is harboring terrorists because right now every corner of Iraq is controlled by Americans," he told an Agence France-Presse (AFP). Kharazi accused the United States of supporting armed Iranian rebels operating from Iraq, allowing them to "stay and function in Iraq" even though the group was "a registered terrorist organization".
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24718:599308

Veterans Outraged by $2 Billion Cut in Health Care

"Officials of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. today expressed dismay at yesterday's approval of the VA-HUD Independent Agencies Subcommittee appropriations bill claiming the measure will seriously jeopardize veterans' health care. The VA-HUD Subcommittee bill, which funds the Department of Veterans Affairs and other federal agencies, provides only a $1.4 billion increase over last year's funding level for veterans' health care. VFW officials point out that inflation alone will absorb that meager amount. According to the VFW, the House and Senate passed budget resolution-the official congressional spending road map--provides a $3.4 billion increase as necessary for timely veterans health care. For the Congress not to appropriate this amount is a clear betrayal of the assurances made to America's veterans by the House Republican leadership. "
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24719:599308

Rumsfeld Sets “Acceptable” Number of Civilian Deaths

The New York Times reports, "Among the disclosures provided in the internal briefings and in a later interview the General Moseley: New information has shown that there was not a bunker in the Dora Farms area near Baghdad, where American intelligence initially believed Mr. Hussein was meeting with his aides. The site was attacked by F-117 stealth fighters and cruise missiles as the Bush administration sought to kill Mr. Hussein at the very onset of the war. Still, Iraqi leaders were believed to be in the Dora Farm area, General Moseley said. Air war commanders were required to obtain the approval of Defense Secretary Donald L. Rumsfeld if any planned airstrike was thought likely to result in deaths of more than 30 civilians. More than 50 such strikes were proposed, and ALL of them were approved." Now read Bush's 9-12-02 speech to the UN: "More than anything else, this separates us from the enemy we fight. We value every life; our enemies value none - not even the innocent."
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24720:599308

Washington Plans for New, Improved Aggressions

(July 18, 2003) A Los Angeles Times article headlined, "Preparing for War, Stumbling to Peace, US is paying the price for missteps made on Iraq" ends with the following interesting tidbit. Pentagon officials "are studying the lessons of Iraq closely - to ensure that the next US takeover of a foreign country goes more smoothly. 'We're going to get better over time,' promised Lawrence Di Rita, a special assistant to Rumsfeld. 'We've always thought of post-hostilities as a phase' distinct from combat, he said. 'The future of war is that these things are going to be much more of a continuum.... This is the future for the world we're in at the moment,' he said. 'We'll get better as we do it more often.' "
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24721:599308 18,1,7035725.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Americans No Longer Trust Bush

The Polling Report raised the question: "Do you think George W. Bush is a leader you can trust?" Only 47% saw GWB as a leader they can trust, while 51% said they have doubts and reservations. That's down from 56% who saw him as trustworthy in late March. From +15% to -4% is a massive negative swing of 19%. At this rate, by election day in November 2004, no one will believe a word Bush says.
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24722:599308

In Zigby Poll 'Someone Else' Beats Bush 47%-46%

A July 16-17 Zogby poll of 1,004 likely US voters found that "someone new" beat George W. Bush by 47% to 46% ponts. Zogby writes, "what is most ominous is this alone has slipped 9 points in the past month. If he cannot count on a large majority of Americans to like him personally, this could spell doom for his re-Selection hopes.‰ Zogby also notes that GWB „has little support for his overall performance and how he is rated on the issues."
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24723:599308

California Energy Scam Traced to the White House

Katherine Yurica (The Yurica Report) writes, "Three sentences inserted into the National Energy Policy report reveal: (1) the White House knew the California crisis was man-made; (2) knew the power companies were manipulating the market in California; (3) and knew these facts at the time the people of California were being fleeced by the scam; (4) yet the Bush White House did nothing to stop the fraud. A special prosecutor should be appointed by Congress to investigate this whole matter as well as what Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney knew and when they knew it."
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24724:599308

Cheney's Hidden Energy Task Force Documents Included Map of Iraqi Oilfields

Judicial Watch reports: "Documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and 'Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.' The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: www.JudicialWatch.org. The Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) documents likewise feature a map of each country's oilfields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals. There are supporting charts with details of the major oil and gas development projects in each country that provide information on the projects, costs, capacity, oil company and status or completion date.‰ Judicial Watch has been seeking these documents under FOIA since April 19, 2001
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24725:599308

The Crime and the Cover-Up

In an article for Truthout, Will Pitt writes: "This is a crime without peer in the annals of American history. The cover-up currently underway must not be allowed to succeed. When the American government gets hijacked by extremists like the men staffing the Office of Special Plans, when intelligence data stating flatly that Iraq presents no threat to America is disregarded or exaggerated because the truth does not fit ideological desires, when Congress is lied to, when the American people are lied to, when innocent civilians at the sharp end of these lies are left to rot in the dust and the bomb craters on purpose, when American soldiers are shot down in the street because of these lies, no kind of cover-up can be allowed to succeed. The time has indeed come for a reckoning. Let it begin, and let it begin soon."
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24726:599308

ACTION ALERT: Support the Freedom to Read

Under the USA PATRIOT Act, FBI gained the power to search your library and book-buying records without probable cause. It also prevents librarians and booksellers from telling you that this search has occurred. A University of Illinois survey shows libraries were targeted at least 175 times in the year after 9/11 -- yet the FBI refuses to explain how or why. A bipartisan group of Representatives has introduced an amendment to an appropriations bill that would restore many key checks and balances. This amendment will be voted on in the coming days and deserves our strong support. Click here for more information and to send a free fax to your Representative:
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24713:599308

ACTION ALERT: Stop the Government Super-Snoop Plan

In a surprise development, the Senate has adopted legislation that would completely block funding for the Pentagon's infamous Terrorism Information Awareness program (formerly known as Total Information Awareness). To become law and end the program that would indiscriminately track the daily activities of Americans, the ban must survive a joint House-Senate conference committee. Groups as disparate as the American Conservative Union and the ACLU have protested this super-snoop system yet the Bush administration is threatening a veto of the defense bill if TIA is defunded. Click here to send a free fax to your Members of Congress:
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24714:599308

Bush's Illegal War on Iraq Began in Mid-2002 WITHOUT A DECLARATION BY CONGRESS

Do you think Bush's illegal war on Iraq began with the bombing of Baghdad on 3-19-03? Wrong! Under Operation Southern Focus, "American air war commanders carried out a comprehensive plan to disrupt Iraq's military command and control system before the Iraq war," according to the NY Times. The bombing targeted fiber-optic cables, key command centers, radars and other important military assets - 606 bombs were dropped on 391 carefully selected targets. Read this carefully: In mid-2002, Bush launched an unprovoked war WITHOUT A DECLARATION BY CONGRESS. If that's not an impeachable offense, what is??? Impeach Bush Now!!!
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24715:599308

It's Official: Bush Had NO New Evidence of Iraq WMD

In a little-noticed article, the NY Times reported: "American intelligence officials and senior members of the administration have acknowledged that there was LITTLE NEW EVIDENCE [emphasis added] flowing into American intelligence agencies in the five years since United Nations inspectors left Iraq, creating an intelligence vacuum." Still, Bush declared Hussein was "moving ever closer to developing a nuclear weapon." Wolfowitz declared: "It is a case grounded in current intelligence." And Tenet declared Intelligence "comes to us from credible and reliable sources." Each of these statements proved to be a lie.
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24727:599308

Bush Lied Twice About '45 Minutes' Claim That Led to Suicide

David Kelly's suicide resulted from a BBC story by Andrew Gilligan that claimed Bush's flak Alastair Campbell "sexed up" intelligence reports by claiming Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons in 45 minutes. According to PentaPost, "The claim, which has since been discredited, was made twice by Bush, first in a September Rose Garden appearance after meeting with lawmakers and again in a Saturday radio address the same week. Bush attributed the claim to the British government, but in a 'Global Message' issued Sept. 26 and still on the White House Web site, the White House claimed, without attribution, that Iraq „could launch a biological or chemical attack 45 minutes after the order is given.'"
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24729:599308

Like Watergate, Yellowcake-gate Began with a Break-in

MSNBC reports: "On the morning of Jan. 2, 2001, Italian police discovered that the Niger Embassy in Rome had been ransacked. Not much was reported missing - only a watch and two bottles of perfume - but someone had apparently rifled through embassy papers, leaving them strewn about the floor. Some months after the break-in, the Italian intelligence service - the SISME - obtained a stack of official-looking documents from an African diplomat... Agents of Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein, it appeared, were angling to purchase from the cash-starved, mineral-rich African nation some 500 tons of yellowcake... A bombshell in the war on terrorism? More like an exploding cigar. The documents, a series of letters dated from July to October 2000, were actually crude forgeries... Italian investigators... have theorized that the thieves who broke into the Niger Embassy had come looking for letterhead stationery and official seals that could be copied to create bogus documents."
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24730:599308

Berlusconi Aide Passed Faked Niger Documents to US Embassy

Italian journalist Elisabetta Burba, who writes for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's Panorama Magazine, claimed responsibility for delivering the Niger Uranium forgery to the US Embassy in Rome. Burba said her source "in the past proved to be reliable," but she would not disclose the name. Burba was suspicious of the story, so she traveled to Niger. Upon her return, she told Panorama's top editor "the story seemed fake to me" and the magazine refused to publish it. The State Department reviewed the document and came to the same conclusion and so did the CIA. But Condi Rice's National Security Council staff ignored the warnings and put it into Bush speech.
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24731:599308

DC Conference Concluded Iraq Had No WMDs

The US media has so far largely ignored this story. "A conference of top-level military analysts was told Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - a message that later fell on deaf ears in the American capital, analysts say. Former Canadian military officer-turned-analyst, Sunil Ram remembers the June 2001 conference 'Understanding the Lessons of Nuclear Inspections and Monitoring in Iraq: A Ten-Year Review.' What he heard at the meeting he has repeated for months, he says, getting little attention from the mainstream media: that Bush had no grounds to base the invasion of Iraq on the disarmament issue."
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24732:599308

Bush Wages War on a Balanced Budget

Matt Miller writes in TomPaine.com that GWB‚s July 15 update budget reveals "this Bush to be a thousand times less responsible a national steward than his father.... In April 2001, the Bush White House forecast a surplus of $334 billion for this year. On July 15, it announced the deficit would instead be $455 billion. That's a swing of $789 billion in just two years. Bush says next year the deficit will rise to $478 billion -- and that's before taking full account of the ongoing costs of Iraq and Afghanistan. Over a decade, the change from the projected surpluses Bush inherited to the deficits he now expects is roughly $9 trillion. But amazingly, the White House says the three tax cuts it has passed have nothing to do with this historic reversal. It's war. It's recession. It's 'big spending.' It's poppycock."
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24733:599308

Bush Protects Saudis in 911 Report

According to Newsweek, "the long-delayed 900-page report [on the September 11 terror attacks] contains potentially explosive new evidence suggesting that Omar al-Bayoumi, a key associate of two of the hijackers, may have been a Saudi-government agent." While the report documents extensive ties between al-Bayoumi and the hijackers, the FBI never kept tabs on al-Bayoumi-despite receiving prior information he was a secret Saudi agent. In January 2000, al-Bayoumi went directly from a meeting at the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles- to a nearby restaurant where he met future hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi. He drove both men back with him to San Diego. „Questions about the Saudi role arose repeatedly during last year's intelligence-committees inquiry. But the Bush administration has refused to declassify many key passages of the committees' findings. A 28-page section of the report dealing with the Saudis and other foreign governments will be deleted. 'They are protecting a foreign government,' charged Sen. Bob Graham."
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24734:599308

Bush's Illegal War on Iraq Began in Mid-2002

Do you think Bush's illegal war on Iraq began with the bombing of Baghdad on 3-19-03? Wrong! Under Operation Southern Focus, "American air war commanders carried out a comprehensive plan to disrupt Iraq's military command and control system before the Iraq war," according to the NY Times. The bombing targeted fiber-optic cables, key command centers, radars and other important military assets - 606 bombs were dropped on 391 carefully selected targets. Read this carefully: In mid-2002, Bush launched an unprovoked war WITHOUT A DECLARATION BY CONGRESS. If that's not an impeachable offense, what is?
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=24715:599308

EAW Quick Links -- Bush and Lies -- July 20, 2003

GOP Senate Rejects Commission to Probe Bush's Iraq Lies

"The Republican-led Senate rejected 51-45 an amendment to set up a commission to probe whether the administration manipulated information to build momentum for the invasion. Sen. Jon Corzine, a New Jersey Democrat who pushed for the commission, said the issue goes beyond questions about a discredited claim Bush cited that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa. 'It's about whether there was a full and fair presentation to the American people' on Iraq's alleged illegal weapons and links to al Qaeda... But Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, accused Democrats of trying to 'start the campaign of 2004' and called it 'an attempt to smear the president [sic] of the United States.'" When Republicans went after Clinton over a blue dress -- it was all about the "rule of law. But an independent investigation into the Bush Team's lies to the American People, Congress and the UN to mount a War that kills thousands -- is a partisan "attempt to smear." This is the most despicable hypocrisy.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/reuters200307

Cheney Under Pressure To Quit over False War Evidence

The UK Independent reports: "Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President and the administration's most outspoken hawk over Iraq, faced demands for his resignation last night as he was accused of using false evidence to build the case for war. He was accused of using his office to insist that a false claim about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium from Africa to restart its nuclear programme be included in George Bush's State of the Union address - overriding the concerns of the CIA director, George Tenet. Mr Cheney was also accused of knowingly misleading Congress when the administration sought its authorisation for the use of force to oust Saddam Hussein. The allegations against Mr Cheney have come most vocally from a group of senior former intelligence officials [VIPS] who believe that information from the intelligence community was selectively used to support a war fought for political reasons."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=424786

The State Dept. Had the Niger Docs Back in October

Newsweek reports: "The FBI... is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the forged [Niger] documents... the CIA never arranged to obtain the forged documents until February 2003 -- nearly four months after they had been delivered to the US Embassy in Rome and been passed along to the State Department.... The US Embassy quickly passed the documents along to the CIA station chief in Rome -- as well as the State Department's Office of Intelligence and Research. But the station chief didn't send them along to CIA headquarters..., apparently believing they were being sent instead through State Department channels... 'Within two hours [the IAEA] figured out they were forgeries,' said one IAEA source familiar with the material. The source explained that all the IAEA analysts really had to do was conduct a Google search." Prior to Feb. 2003, the CIA allegedly had a verbatim text of the docs -- wouldn't that have had the name of the former Niger foreign minister listed as a signatory?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/939852.asp

To Punish Whistleblower, Bushies Expose His Wife as a CIA Agent

David Corn writes, "Did senior Bush officials blow the cover of a US intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security--and break the law--in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others? ... Two weeks ago, [former Ambassador Joseph] Wilson went public, writing in The New York Times and telling The Washington Post about the trip he took to Niger in February 2002--at the request of the CIA --to check out allegations that Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase uranium... Wilson caused problems for the White House, and his wife was outed as an undercover CIA officer... Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a crime for anyone who has access to classified information to disclose intentionally information identifying a covert agent. The punishment for such an offense is a fine of up to $50,000 and/or up to ten years in prison." We demand prosecution!
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=823

Bush Overstated Iraq Links to Al-Qaida, Former Intelligence Officials Say

AP reports: "As Resident Bush works to quiet a controversy over his discredited claim of Iraqi uranium shopping in Africa, another of his prewar assertions is coming under fire: the alleged link between Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaida. Before the war, Bush and members of his cabinet said Saddam was harboring top al-Qaida operatives and suggested Iraq could slip the terrorist network chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons. Critics attacked those assertions from the beginning for being counter to the ideologies of Saddam and al-Qaida and short on corroborating evidence. Now, two former Bush administration intelligence officials say the evidence linking Saddam to the group responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was never more than sketchy at best. 'There was no significant pattern of cooperation between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist operation,' former State Department intelligence official Greg Thielmann said this week."
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/193/wash/Bush_overstated_Iraq_links_to_:.shtml

Niger Uranium, Aluminum Tubes, the Trailers... Now Another WMD Lie Exposed... The Backyard 'Evidence'

AP reports: "A top U.N. weapons hunter says it would have been 'virtually impossible' for Iraq to revive a nuclear bomb program with equipment recently dug up from a Baghdad backyard, as the Bush administration contends. Jacques Baute said the long-term monitoring of Iraq's nuclear establishment planned by the U.N. Security Council would have stifled any attempt to build a huge uranium-enrichment plant for making bomb material... Baute also said in an interview with The Associated Press that it appears the unearthed cache of uranium enrichment parts, surrendered by an Iraqi scientist last month, lacked critical components, and its accompanying blueprints were marred by errors... An enrichment plant, a vast array of thousands of centrifuges, would have been easily detected, said Baute, who once helped build French nuclear bombs. To have turned it into a full-blown enrichment program while OMV was in place would have been virtually impossible,' he said of the Obeidi equipment."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Backyard-Cache.html

CIA: Bush Administration Exaggerates Assessment of Syria's WMD

In a new intelligence dispute, the CIA and other agencies objected vigorously to the administration assessment of Syria's weapons of mass destruction. After the objections, testimony by Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton was delayed until September. Bolton was to tell the House International Relations subcommittee that Syria's biological, chemical and nuclear weapons posed a threat to stability in the region. The CIA said that assessment was exaggerated. After Saddam fell, some Bush aides hinted that Syria might be next. Bolton's planned remarks caused a "revolt" among intelligence experts who thought they inflated the Syrian weapons programs. A US official said that after months of complaining about pressure to skew their analyses, rank-and-file intelligence officials "have become emboldened" by the recent public debate over Iraq. "People are fed up."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/6310763.htm

Bush Strategist Bolts in Frustration

After over two years of frustration with the Bush administration, Richard Haass, Secretary of State Colin Powell's top strategic thinker, resigned in June to become president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Describing how he would handle the so-called "axis of evil," Haass said he "would resume direct talks with senior Iranian officials in Geneva about Iran's nuclear program, its support for militant groups and its policies toward Afghanistan and Iraq."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-06-haass-usat_x.htm

Bush is Unstable: It is Time to Invoke the 25th Amendment

"How can Bush say Saddam 'wouldn't let [UN inspectors] in' when everyone in the world knows this is not true? Bush's statement - delivered with utter seriousness with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at his side - cannot be excused as a misstatement... If George W. Bush now believes Saddam 'wouldn't let [UN inspectors] in,' then it is self-evident that he has simply lost touch with reality. In plain English, Bush has gone mad... We, the undersigned, believe George W. Bush is demonstrably insane. Since the Nation continues to be at war, with soldiers fighting and dying each day in Iraq, we call upon him to once again invoke the 25th Amendment. If he fails to do so, we call upon Dick Cheney and the Cabinet to do so for the sake of the Nation." Sign the petition!
http://democrats.com/madgeorge

Witness Says Bush's Incriminating National Guard Records Were Scrubbed

In his new blog, Greg Palast writes, "On camera, I spoke with Texas cattle rancher Bill Burkett, formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the air guard... 'I was in the [Guard Adjutant] General's office, General Daniel James .... He gets a telephone call from Joe Albaugh, who was the Governor's chief of staff, and Dan Bartlett ... on the voice box ... and they wanted General James to assemble all of the Governor's files, that [Karen Hughes, Bush's aide] was going to write a book.... But Joe told General James, 'Make sure there's not anything in there that'll embarrass the Governor.'' And there wouldn't be. Burkett asked if the general's staff really intended to purge the files; and sure enough, as evidence of the affirmative reply, he was shown the piles of pay and pension records in the garbage pails destined for the shredders... Military pay records are public records -- and now they are conveniently unavailable." We demand an investigation by the Pentagon's Inspector General!
http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=232&row=0

Bush's Inbox Harder to Reach

(July 19, 2003) — Getting through to the US president online has become trickier after big changes to the White House's e-mail policy. Visitors to the president's website now are asked to use a web-based mail system instead of simply sending a message to president@whitehouse.gov. The new system involves navigating a list of menus and queries, which the White House says will help the US Government provide "timely and substantive" replies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3076749.stm

Poll: US Losing Control in Iraq

NEW YORK (July 10, 2003) CBS — With US troops continuing to take casualties in Iraq, less than half of Americans now believe the US is in control of the situation there -- a dramatic decline from April, when 71 percent thought it was. Less than half now say Iraq was a threat that required immediate action. And while 54 percent still believe that removing Saddam Hussein from power was worth the costs of war, that figure, too, has declined from 65 percent in May.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/10/opinion/polls/main562628.shtml

EAW Quick Links July 19, 2003

UK Scientist’s Family Says: 'Events Made David's Life Intolerable'

(July 20, 2003) The Observer – The grieving family of David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence scientist who, police said, committed suicide by slashing his wrist, appear to blame both the Government and the BBC for the tragedy. The family issued a statement saying the actions of all parties in the affair had driven him to suicide. “Events over recent weeks made David's life intolerable and all those involved should reflect long and hard on this fact,” the statement said. “David's professional life was characterised by his integrity, honour and dedication to finding the truth, often in the most difficult of circumstances. It is hard to comprehend the enormity of this tragedy.” Kelly killed himself hours after sending an email to an unnamed journalist in which he told of “many dark actors playing games.”
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1001856,00.html

Death Deals Devastating Blow to Iraq Arms Hunt

(July 20, 2003) The Observer – David Kelly was about to lead the British hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Kelly was acting as the senior British scientific adviser to the Iraq Survey Group, the body set up by the US to replace the UN weapons inspection regime. The survey group has a staff of around 1,400 people drawn from the US, Britain and Australia. Former inspectors said the death of the UK’s most senior chemical and biological weapons scientist would be a devastating blow. The news that Kelly was to play a central role in the coalition's search for WMD will provoke further questions about the Ministry of Defence's decision to identify him and place him at the center of a row between Downing Street and the BBC.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1001793,00.html

UN Chief 'Seeks Iraqi Handover'

(July 18, 2003) — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is set to call for a swift handover of sovereignty to the Iraqi people, the BBC has learned. The recommendations are contained in a report due to be presented to the UN Security Council next week. The report says there is a pressing need for the Iraqi people to be given a clear and specific sequence of events leading to the end of the military occupation. Top Pentagon advisers have warned that time is running out for the United States to establish law and order in Iraq, where another two US soldiers were killed on Friday.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3078875.stm

UN Urges Pullout Timetable

BAGHDAD (July 19, 2003) IslamOnline.net & News Agencies – Several US soldiers were reported killed in separate attacks in Iraq Saturday, July 19, as US Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted it would take "some time" to stem attacks against US troops in Iraq. This came as a U.N. report urged the US-led troops to set out a specific timetable for ending the occupation o Iraq.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-07/19/article01.shtml

US To Seek UN Mandate For Iraq Stabilization Force

WASHINGTON, (July 19, 2003) IslamOnline.net & News Agencies – After sidelining the United Nations and waging war without its mandate, the Bush administration found itself back into the arms of the world body with countries declining to contribute troops to Iraqi without a UN authorization. With war costs standing at some $3.9 billion per month, double the pre-war White House projection, and US soldiers being killed at a steady rate, the US Secretary of State said that Washington was keeping an "open mind" about the new UN resolution demanded by many critics of the US-led occupation as a condition for taking part in an international stabilization force.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-07/19/article03.shtml

Iraq Row over Fate of Seized Scientists

(July 20, 2003) The Observer – The continued detention of leading Iraqi scientists and other officials by US forces is swiftly turning into a major human rights row. The International Red Cross has urged the US to clarify the status of three dozen prisoners held in unknown conditions near Baghdad As pressure intensifies on George Bush and Tony Blair to prove Iraq had WMD, the inability to produce a single scientist to confirm these assertions is becoming an embarrassment. Helma al-Saadi, last saw her husband Amer more than three months ago. Her pleas to visit her husband have been ignored. She has been given no official word of his whereabouts or condition. Under Saddam, Iraqi wives all too often saw husbands taken to unknown detention centres and held indefinitely without visiting rights. US authorities have given no details of their whereabouts. The place they are held has not been shown to journalists. Some detainees are believed to be imprisoned in solitary cells or in swelteringly hot tents near the vast US base at Baghdad airport.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1002036,00.html

Water-borne Diseases Increase with Summer Heat

BAGHDAD (July 17, 2003) IRIN — The World Health Organisation (WHO), along with NGOs in Iraq, told IRIN on Thursday that high summer temperatures, sometimes touching 50 degrees Celsius, were contributing to ongoing health problems throughout the country. Although the searing heat is normal in most parts of Iraq at this time of year, ongoing difficulties with electricty and clean water, as well as a degraded health system, were all contributing to the increase in disease, health experts said. Power supplies to major population centres remain intermittent and raw sewage remains untreated in many cities. According to US-based CARE International, about two million mt of raw sewage are dumped into Iraq's rivers every day, four times the amount before the war. In the southeastern city of Basra, it seeps from the canals into the irrigation channels that are used for drinking and bathing. In the capital, Baghdad, 300,000 mt escape into the Tigris daily. For many, there is no other water source.
http://electronicIraq.net/news/963.shtml

UN Nuclear Agency: ‘10 Kilos of Uranium Missing in Iraq’

(July 17, 2003) Syria Times — The UN nuclear agency said Wednesday that 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of uranium compounds are missing following looting of the Tuwaitha nuclear facility in Iraq. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that the material included slightly enriched, natural and depleted uranium. The IAEA) said that it did not present a nuclear proliferation hazard. The agency indicated it did not know how much uranium, if any, had actually left the facility. Some of the material, the report said, might have remained as dust within the buildings. IAEA Director General Mohammed Elbaradei will seek help from the US to ensure the return of the dispersed material and to provide protection for all other nuclear material in Iraq
http://www.teshreen.com/syriatimes/_first.asp?FileName=20030718055216

Broken Promise: Why I Quit Iraq

(July 18, 2003) An editorial in the Toronto Globe and Mail by Isam Al-Khafaji. Khafaji, an Iraqi exile who returned to Iraq to help rebuild his country, explains why he now “leaves in sorrow.”— Iraq is now in almost total chaos. No one knows what is going on. We're not talking here about trying to achieve an ideal political system. People cannot understand why a superpower that can amass all that military might can't get the electricity turned back on. Iraqis are now contrasting Saddam's ability to bring back power after the war in 1991 to the apparent inability of the US to do so now. There are all kinds of conspiracy theories. Many wonder if the US has a reason for not wanting the electricity back on....
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030718/COIRAQ18/TPComment/TopStories

Former Intelligence Agents Demand Bush Fire Cheney

In a memo to W, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity write, "There is just too much evidence that Ambassador Wilson was sent to Niger at the behest of Vice President Cheney's office, and that Wilson's findings were duly reported not only to that office but to others as well. Equally important, it was Cheney who launched (in a major speech on August 26, 2002) the concerted campaign to persuade Congress and the American people that Saddam Hussein was about to get his hands on nuclear weapons-a campaign that mushroomed, literally, in early October with you and your senior advisers raising the specter of a 'mushroom cloud' being the first 'smoking gun' we might observe... We strongly recommend that you ask for Cheney's immediate resignation." Better yet, send him to Guantanamo without a lawyer...
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/newsArticle.asp?id=879

EAW Quick Links -- July 16, 2003

ACTION ALERT: Rein in the “PATRIOT” Act

(July 8, 2003) — With Congress back from its Independence Day break, now is the time to remind our Representatives and Senators that we must continually defend the liberties and rights enshrined in our founding principles. The USA PATRIOT Act undercuts many important checks and balances on government law enforcement and intelligence powers. The PATRIOT Act has provoked a groundswell of opposition across the political spectrum. Resolutions opposing the PATRIOT Act have been passed in 136 communities and three states. Taken together, these municipalities and states represent about 16.5 million people. The PATRIOT Act and other government actions need to be subjected to proper Constitutional review. Click here for more information or to send a free fax to Congress:
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=13081&c=206

ACTION ALERT: Support Proposition One, for Nuclear Conversion

(July 4, 2003) — On June 26, 2003, US Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton re-introduced Prop. One (http://prop1.org/prop1) the "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act" (HR-2647), calling for the disarmament of nuclear weapons and the conversion of nuclear and other arms industries to provide for human and environmental needs. The complete text of the bill is available at: http://thomas.loc.gov=HR-2647. You can keep up with the progress of the bill by going to http://thomas.loc.gov. We urge you to contact your Congressional leaders (House and Senate) and ask for their support. Contact presidential candidates both through email (see
http://nucnews.net for candidates' websites).

'No Real Planning For Postwar Iraq'

WASHINGTON (July 12, 2003) Knight Ridder Newspapers — The small circle of senior civilians in the Defense Department who dominated planning for postwar Iraq failed to prepare for the setbacks that have erupted over the past two months. The officials didn't develop any real postwar plans because they believed that Iraqis would welcome US troops with open arms and Washington could install a favored Iraqi exile leader as the country's leader. The Pentagon civilians ignored warnings from CIA and State Department experts. When their scenario collapsed amid increasing violence and disorder, they had no backup plan.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/6285256.htm

Campaign Launched to Help Innocent Iraqis Harmed in Iraq

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), acting with the support of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), hsd sponsored legislation (authorized as part of the administration's pledge for "Iraqi Relief and Reconstruction") to aid Iraqi families who suffered losses. CIVIC survey teams have fanmed out across Iraq to identify the innocent civilians who were directly harmed by the US invasion. Identifying and indemnifying the bereaved, widowed and orphaned is crucial for reconciliation and justice and a peaceful future for Iraq. The results of CIVIC's survey will be provided to the US government and aid agencies. No other group has taken on this important work.
http://www.iraqvictimsfund.org/

Bremer’s Costly Boondoggle

(June 27, 2003) Iraq Peace Team — "[Paul] Bremer is based now in Saddam's former palace with a staff of about six hundred. These six hundred people have so far cost $300 million in salaries and expenses. This is nearly twice the amount paid to-date to 24 million Iraqis in salaries and pensions." Michael Birmingham writes of the bitter reality that has taken shape in Iraq. Michael is currently in Baghdad.
http://electronicIraq.net/news/926.shtml

All War All The Time

(July 6, 2003) San Francisco Chronicle – The battle on terrorism is an excuse to make fighting permanent. If, for reasons you found adequate, you wanted to have a permanent war, what would you need in order to make such a policy viable in a democratic society? First, you would need a dominant ideology -- a widely shared belief system about social and political relations. Something like American jingo-patriotism cum anti-communism might turn the trick.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/07/06/IN245802.DTL

Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know

"Crimes of War was conceived as a handbook for reporters. But just as war is too important to be left to the generals, war coverage is too important to be left uncritically to the news media. The general public, too, should know the moral and legal benchmarks contained in the law. One reason for a commonality of interest is that coverage of contemporary conflicts increasingly is available to the public without a filter or a framework or context. A second is that every close observer has a restricted field of vision." Visit the site and discover the interactive A-Z Table of Contents of this informative book.
http://www.crimesofwar.org/thebook/book.html

Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False

(July 10, 2003) CBS News – On July 10, CBSNews.com ran an article entitled 'Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False.' By Friday afternoon, both the headline and the content of the article had changed several times. http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/071203A.shtml A 'screen-grab' of that first CBS article can be seen at: [http://truthout.org/imgs.art_01/3.BushKnew1.gif] This is not the first time a major online publication has manipulated the text of an article after it was published. An February 12 article by William Rivers Pitt entitled “Osama Rallies Muslims, Condemns Hussein” describes a series of dramatic changes made to the text of a profoundly important MSNBC.com article. [http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/021303A.htm] The original content of the first CBS article is available at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/25/eveningnews/main560449.shtml

An Iraqi Breakfast

( June 5, 2003) Oxfam International — Today, people in Baghdad won’t even eat the abundant tomatoes from Basra because they are worried about contamination from the depleted uranium the coalition artillery uses in its shells. Oxfam Policy adviser Jo Nickolls writes from inside Baghdad
http://electronicIraq.net/news/883.shtml

America: Avoiding the Issue of War Crimes in Iraq

(July 9, 2003) The Daily Star — "Former Iraqi officials considered responsible for ordering and carrying out crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes should be tried by a tribunal with a composition and mandate appropriate to the enormity of the crimes and the complexity of the task. American officials have said this should be an 'Iraqi-led process,' but there are several reasons why this responsibility should not be handed over to an Iraqi judicial system presently in disarray." Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch explains the intricacies of policing Iraq's past and bringing rights violators to justice in the pages of Beirut's Daily Star
http://electronicIraq.net/news/947.shtml

US May Tap Iraqi Oil to Benefit Halliburton, Bechtel

WASHINGTON (July 11, 2003) The Los Angeles Times —- The Bush administration is considering a provocative idea to pledge some of Iraq's future oil and gas revenue to secure long-term reconstruction loans before a new Iraqi government is in place.The Export-Import Bank and some of America's biggest companies are backing the scheme. But some administration officials, lawmakers, policy analysts and prominent Iraqis say the plan would mortgage the Persian Gulf nation's most treasured resource, prevent future leaders from deciding how to spend their oil money and put US taxpayers at risk. An coalition that includes Halliburton Co., Bechtel Group Inc. with contracts in Iraq are warning that unless steps are taken soon to secure new funds, their reconstruction efforts could stall.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/071203D.shtml

Bush Pushes for Next Generation of Nukes

(July 6, 2003) USA TODAY — If the Bush administration succeeds in its push to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, this sun-baked desert flatland 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas could once again reverberate with the ground-shaking thumps of nuclear explosions. Since halting nuclear tests in 1992, the US presidents have worked to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. But the Bush administration has caled for the use of nuclear weapons in a first-strike and is pushing for a return to nuclear testing. Bush has requested $70 million to study and develop new types of nuclear weapons. Last November, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that the Pentagon was examining ways to neutralize Iraq's chemical and biological weapons with nuclear bunker-busting bombs.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-06-nuclear-usat_x.htm

US House Panel Cuts Bush Nuclear Weapons Requests

WASHINGTON (July 9, 2003) Reuters — A House panel has passed a bill that would curb spending on US nuclear weapons programs, in what lawmakers termed "a shot across the bow" of the Bush administration. Showing rare bipartisan unity, the House Appropriations subcommittee unanimously approved the $27.1 billion measure to fund energy and water programs in 2004. The bill would slash more than $326 million from President Bush's budget request for the federal agency which oversees nuclear weapons programs. Republicans and Democratics expressed skepticism about whether the current US nuclear stockpile was appropriate in a world without a superpower foe.
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-07-09/s_6356.asp

West African Oil Attracts Growing US Interest

LONDON (July 9, 2003) Reuters — US companies are pouring billions of dollars into West Africa as prolific oil finds draw investment to a continent usually of little economic significance for Washington. President Bush, a former oilman, concludes his week-long African tour Saturday in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, which delivers premium crude oil. Some White House adcisors believe that the US could lessen its dependence on the Arab world by harnessing West African oil reserves. "We are looking at a 2005 estimate that 20 percent of our oil imports will be coming from Africa, and that's also going to grow rapidly and markedly in the years after 2005," said Walter Kansteiner, the top State Department official on Africa.
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-07-09/s_6355.asp

British Troops Prepare Afghan Reconstruction Team

LEBANON (July 7, 2003) Daily Star — British troops are preparing for the mid-week opening of a controversial civil-military project intended to help with reconstruction and security in the troubled northern Afghan city. London is sending 50 soldiers to start a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Afghanistan’s third largest city. The US-led civil-military PRT program is intended to help extend the influence of President Hamid Karzai’s government to the provinces, where warlords and militias continue to hold sway. Karzai’s government is facing a catch-22 situation in that reconstruction cannot take place without improved security, while security is unlikely to improve until reconstruction gets under way.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/08_07_03/art19.asp

EAW Quick Links – July 11, 2003

ACTION ALERT: An Independent Commission to Investigate Weaponsgate!

The President took the nation to war based on his assertion that Iraq posed an imminent threat to our country. Now the evidence that backed that assertion is falling apart. If the Bush administration distorted intelligence or knowingly used false data to support the call to war, it would be an unprecedented deception. Even if weapons are now found, it'll be difficult to justify pre-war language that indicated that the exact location of the weapons was known and that they were ready to deploy at a moment's notice. With a crisis of credibility brewing abroad and the integrity of our President and our foreign policy on the line, we need answers now." Sign the petition "asking Congress to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the distortion of evidence now.
http://www.moveon.org/distortion

ACTION ALERT: Stop the Attack on the Clean Air Act! Sign the Petition!

From SaveOurEnvironment.org: "Under severe pressure from industry lobbyists, Bush is preparing to weaken our clean air protections by letting over 18,000 of the country's biggest polluting facilities -- including old, dirty power plants, oil refineries, and chemical plants -- escape rules that require them to install modern pollution controls when they pump out more pollution. This unprecedented weakening of our clean air laws would allow millions more tons of soot, smog, and toxic pollution to be spewed into our air each year. We need your help to persuade the administration to keep our clean air laws strong! Sign now, and help ensure a future with clean air for all of us!"
http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/240373261

Who Controls the World’s Nuclear WMDs?

According to the report, Global Nuclear Stockpiles, 1945-2002, the five major nuclear powers currently possess more than 20,000 nuclear warheads. (Not included: possibly as many as 10,000 intact Russian nuclear warheads.) Russia and the US control 96 percent of the more than 30,000 intact warheads belonging to the world's eight nuclear states. About 17,500 of these warheads are considered operational. Since 1945, more than 128,000 nuclear warheads have been built — all but 2 percent of them by the US and Russia. The US has produced 70,000 warheads since 1945, of which, 60,000 have been dismantled (more than 12,000 since 1990). The US arsenal contains approximately 10,600 intact warheads. Of this number, nearly 8,000 are considered active or operational.
http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/nukenotes/nd02nu kenote.html

Former Counterterrorism Adviser Says: 'They're Making Us Less Secure"

(June 15, 2003) — The Washington Post reports: "Five days before the war began in Iraq…, [Rand Beers] a top White House counterterrorism adviser unlocked the steel door to his office, an intelligence vault secured by an electronic keypad, a combination lock and an alarm. He sat down and turned to… the stack of classified reports about plots to shoot, bomb, burn and poison Americans. He stared at the color-coded threats for five minutes. Then he called his wife: ‘I'm quitting.’" Beers's resignation surprised Washington, but what he did next was even more astounding. After leaving the Bush White House, Beers "volunteered as national security adviser for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.)... in a campaign to oust his former boss." As Beers explained, "The administration wasn't matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They're making us less secure, not more secure."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62941-2003Jun15.html

US Occupation Chief Reins in Iraq Media

(June 11, 2003) Index on Censorship — Iraq's all-powerful civilian chief L. Paul Bremer III will not tolerate 'hate speech' from Iraq's newly freed media. To prove it he has assigned himself absolute power over the Iraqi press. Freedom of expression is in his gift and only the 'responsible' may enjoy it. Rohan Jayasekera comments.
http://electronicIraq.net/news/909.shtml

Journalists Criticize US Censorship Rules in Iraq

(June 20, 2003) — The Committee to Protect Journalists and other international media rights organizations are raising concerns over possible censorship in post-war Iraq following indications from American officials that they have drafted a "code of conduct" aimed at censoring "unsubstantiated news that will foment social unrest or hostility towards American troops."
http://electronicIraq.net/news/913.shtml

Bush Negotiating Afghan Power-sharing with the Taliban

The Asia Times reports that, owing to "the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan," the United States and Pakistani intelligence officials "have met with Taliban leaders in an effort to devise a political solution to prevent the country from being further ripped apart... Four conditions were put to the Taliban before any form of reconciliation can take place that could potentially lead to them having a role in the Kabul government." This is a remarkable turn-around since the US waged a costly war to remove the Taliban government.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EF14Ag01.html

University of Tehran To Promote Human Rights Studies

IRAN (July 7, 2003) Global Village News — While the USA backpedals human rights at home and abroad, it's popping up in some unexpected places in the Middle East. A new initiative in Iran, co-ventured by the United Nations Development Program and the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the University of Tehran, has led to the creation of the Centre for Human Rights Studies at the University. "With help from UNDP, we are building up knowledge on international human rights mechanisms, and this can only have a positive impact on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran," said Nasrin Mosaffa, national director of the project and a member of the faculty.
http://www.gvnr.com/65/1.htm

A Box of Bees Land a Mother and Son in Separate Jails

(June 27, 2003) India Abroad — On June 13, 2002, police came to the the Lower East Side home of New York City resident binJameel Hyder to investigate a package of bees that Hyder received by mail. "The bees," Hyder said, "were an excuse. When they put handcuffs on me and my mother and took us to the police station where there were federal agents waiting for us, I knew it was something big." Hyder had overstayed his visa, which expired in 1991. He and his Hyderabad–born mother had come to the US from Saudi Arabia in 1988. Hyder’s mother, who is undergoing chemothreapy for breast cancer was jailed in Pennsylvania. For six weeks, Hyder his 63-year-old mother Saleha Mahmood Razvi were held in separate jails, and denied all knowledge of each other’s whereabouts.
http://www.indypressny.org/article.php3?ArticleID=940

United States to Pour Billions into Pakistan

Washington has decided to reward the military dictatorship of Pakisan with $3 billion over the next five years. Half of the funds are to be spend on for defence spending.
http://www.indypressny.org/index.php3#Article944

Before War, Secret US Unit Scoured Iraq for WMDs, Found Nothing

Agence France-Presse reports: "A covert, specialized army unit scoured Iraq for weapons of mass destruction, even before the US-led war, but has come up empty handed, according to a media report. Drawn from the US Army's special mission units known as Delta Force, Task Force 20 'found no working nonconventional munitions, long-range missiles or missile parts, bulk stores of chemical or biological warfare agents or enrichment technology for the core of a nuclear weapon,' said the Washington Post."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030613/pl_afp/iraq_us_weapons_030613140735

Pentagon Lied about Civilian Death Investigations

The Boston Globe reports that, in late March, after an American missile hit a marketplace in Baghdad and killed 58 civilians, US Major Gen. Victor Renuart promised "to do an investigation, and that takes a number of days to do that.' Two and a half months later, the press discovered, "there never was an investigation." The Associated Press has so far counted 3,240 Iraqi civilians killed in the invasion, including nearly 1,900 in Baghdad. The AP quoted Central Command spokesman John Morgan confirming the nonexistence of an investigation.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/164/oped/US_clouds_Iraqi_civilian_deaths+.shtml

A Cure for Africa’s Poverty: Redistribute Oil Wealth

Africa's poor not benefiting from oil boom, says report - Oil rich nations in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to rake in US$200 billion over the next decade from crude exports, but little of that money will trickle down to the poor in those countries, according to a new report issued on Tuesday.
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-06-18/s_5142.asp

Iraqis Fuming at US Failure to Restore Power

Baghdad (July 3, 2003 ) San Francisco Chronicle -- Across the nation, Iraqis are hot and getting hotter. And angry and getting angrier. Soaring summer temperatures and worsening electricity blackouts -- combined with a breakdown of law and order and of such basic services as drinking water and garbage collection -- have dramatically accelerated the shift of public sentiment from briefly loving Uncle Sam to hating him with a passion. The Americans' inability to get Iraq's electricity system running adequately has become a sizzling political issue.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/07/03/MN257301.DTL

Army's 'Psyops' Center Hones a Special Kind of Weapon

(July 02, 2003) Raleigh News & Observer — The Pentagon held an open house Monday to show off its new $8.1 million Special Operations Forces Media Operations Complex at Fort Bragg. It was a rare look inside the central production facility for "psyops" products — fliers, posters and television and radio segments aimed at the hearts and minds of those the military wants to persuade. The facility’s staff backs up nearly 900 psyops troops spread across 13 countries. The role of the US Army's 4th Psychological Operations Group is to pitch whatever "products" the Defense Department wants to sell. The Pentagon’s propaganda mill boasts new, fully digital presses, audio and video equipment and four new presses that can churn out 1 million leaflets in a single day.
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=PSYOPS-07-02-03&cat=AN

Iraqis Face Soaring Unemployment

(July 7, 2003) BBC — One of the biggest problems facing post-Saddam Hussein Iraq is unemployment. More than 60% of the work force in Iraq is estimated to be out of work. Unemployment was already very high under the rule of the Baath party. But the collapse of the Iraqi Government and the subsequent dissolution of the army have added to the ever growing queues of unemployed Iraqis.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3052248.stm

WWII Still Isn’t Over

Dumped chemical weapons from World War II still haunt busy Baltic Sea - Baltic Sea trawlers sometimes dredge up a disturbing memory along with their catch: corroding chemical weapons from World War II.
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-06-18/s_5135.asp

Bush vs. Nature Threatens World Community

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ross Gelbspan says the Bush Administration will destroy the foundations of an emerging global community if it continues to ignore the alarm calls of a strained natural world.
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=2

Extreme Weather: a WMD

(July 3, 2003) The Independent — Extreme weather prompts unprecedented global warming alert. In an astonishing announcement on global warming and extreme weather, the World Meteorological Organization signaled last night that the world's weather is going haywire. In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed scientific reports and staid statistics at the year's end, highlighted record extremes in weather and climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks, from Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month for tornadoes in the United States - and linked them to climate change.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=421166

EAW Quick Links -- July 7, 2003

ACTION ALERT: Big Media Take-over Threatens US Democracy
(Take 3 Minutes to Stop Media Monopoly)

A month ago, the FCC dramatically relaxed media ownership regulations to unleash a corporate consolidation of newspapers, radios and tv broadcasts. Because one million Americans raised their voices against the FCC decision, the Senate Commerce Committee recently sent a bill to the Senate floor for a vote that would roll back many of the rules. Our challenge is to get that bill to the floor for a vote. "Roll Back the FCC" legislation now has 38 supporters in the Senate. We need 51 for passage. The House bills have the overlapping support of 65 cosponsors on HR 2462 and 146 on HR 2052. We need 216 for passage. The website will show your representative’s position. If they are co-sponsors, thank them; If not, ask them to become a co-sponsor. Learn more about this issue at Free Press
http://www.mediareform.net/stopthefcc

Up to 17,000 Unexploded Bombs Left in Iraq
(Take 3 Minutes to Stop Media Monopoly)

LONDON (July 4, 2003) The Guardian — Between 2,000 and 17,000 unexploded British bomblets may remain in Iraq, posing a threat to civilians, according to Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb. Landmine Action believes that the US and UK delivered about 300,000 bomblets in the war. A significant proportion fail to explode. UN agencies say hundreds of Iraqi children have been killed or injured by these bomblets since the end of the fighting. UK aircraft dropped 66 cluster bombs, each containing 147 bomblets, and fired 2,000 artillery shells containing 49 bomblets each. Given a the 2% failure rate quoted by manufacturers, more than 2,000 unexploded sub-munitions remain in Iraq from UK forces alone. In Afghanistan, the actual failure rate was 5%. This translates to 5,385 unexploded UK bomblets in Iraq.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,990996,00.html

US Troops Focus on Protecting Iraq's Main Oil Pipeline
(Environment News Network)

(July 5) — Days after thieves set off a huge explosion along Iraq's most vital oil pipeline, US troops have stepped up patrols and the Oil Ministry is working on a deal with southern tribal leaders to help protect the line from criminals and saboteurs.
http://www.enn.com/news/2003-07-04/s_6207.asp

There’s No Base Like Home
(Grist Magazine)

(June 30, 2003) — Until 1985, the drinking water at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune military base was laced with high levels of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE). The camp’s current and former residents have suffered from thyroid problems, depression, cysts, tumors and hysterectomies. When the Pentagon failed to act, Karen Strand and her two sisters founded The Stand, the only US group organized around the issue of toxic pollution in military housing. Hazardous materials are found inmany military housing areas. Common contaminants include TCE, lead paint and asbestos. Unexploded ammunition, radioactive waste, and heavy metals posed added problems. Neither environmental organizations nor the Defense Department is taking the problem seriously.
http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/scheck070303.asp?source=daily

"Bring 'Em On?"
(CounterPunch)

A former Special Forces soldier responds to Bush's invitation for Iraqis to attack US troops. Stan Goff, the author of "Hideous Dream: A Soldier's Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti" and the upcoming book "Full Spectrum Disorder," served in the US Army’s 3rd Special Forces. Goff writes: “George W. Bush, dressed in a suit with a belly full of rich food, just hurled a manly taunt from a 72-degree studio at the 'non-existent' Iraqi resistance.... This de facto president is finally seeing his... legitimacy is being eroded as even the mainstream press has discovered now that the pretext for the war was a lie. It may have been control over the oil, after all.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/goff07032003.html

US Envoy Says Bush 'Twisted' Iraq Intelligence
(Reueters)

NEW YORK (July 5, 2003) Reuters — A former US ambassador has accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. Joseph Wilson, Washington's envoy to Gabon from 1992 to 1995, said in an article in the New York Times that he went to Niger in February 2002 at the request of the CIA to assess an intelligence report that Iraq was buying uranium from Niger. "Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat," Wilson wrote.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/070703B.shtml

The Selling of the Iraq War: The First Casualtye
(The New Republic)

(June 30, 2003) — Democracy requires openness. Yet foreign policy requires a level of secrecy that frees it from oversight and exposes it to abuse. Republicans and Democrats have long held that the intelligence agencies — the most clandestine of foreign policy institutions — should be insulated from political interference. As the Tower Commission, established to investigate the Iran-Contra scandal, warned in November 1987, "The democratic processes ... are subverted when intelligence is manipulated to affect decisions by elected officials and the public." The principle has grown even more important since September 11, 2001.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/070703A.shtml

Iraq: the Human Tolle
(The Observer (London))

(July 6, 2003) — As news reporters tracked troops on the road to Baghdad, much of the suffering and loss of ordinary Iraqi civilians was left untold. Until now. Here, in a compelling dispatch, award-winning foreign correspondent Ed Vulliamy goes in search of their stories.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,992588,00.html

Confess or Die, US Tells Jailed Britons
(The Observer (London))

(July 6, 2003) — Outrage over plight of Guantanamo detainees. The two British terrorist suspects facing a secret US military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay will be given a choice: plead guilty and accept a 20-year prison sentence, or be executed if found guilty. American legal sources close to the process said that the prisoners' dilemma was intended to encourage maximum 'co-operation'.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,992467,00.htmll

Lawyers Furious as US Builds Death Chambers
(The Times UK Online)

LONDON (July 5, 2003) — Lawyers expressed outrage at US plans to put al-Qaeda suspects, including two Britons and an Australian, on military trial in Guantanamo Bay. They would effectively be tried by a “kangaroo court”, stripped of all basic rights of due process that would be afforded in criminal courts in Britain or America. Matthias Kelly, QC, chairman of the Bar of England and Wales, said that the proposed trials were “totally illegitimate and a violation of every rule in international law.... The construction of execution chambers makes virtually every lawyer in the Western world extremely angry. The idea that there is an artificial creation or enclave which, according to the Americans, is beyond the purview of all recognised systems of law is repugnant.”
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/070603E.shtml

Pentagon’s Nuclear Technology Designed to withstand the Apocalypse
(Los Angeles Times)

VERMONT (July 6, 2003) — The Pentagon's Nuclear Posture Review designed to "defeat any aggressor" Iincludes a mandate for an "assured, survivable and enduring" communications network, one that would remain functional even after a full-scale nuclear attack. Defense Department documents describe how the government is planning a $200-million, eight-year effort to streamline nuclear war planning and build systems able to operate even during a protracted nuclear war.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/070703I.shtml

Basra Is 'Ready To Explode'
(The Mirror (UK))

BASRA (July 3, 2003) — Speaking outside one of Saddam Hussein's old palaces just 50 yards from the British HQ in Basra, a former Iraqi soldier said: "Our patience has run out. We've no money to feed ourselves, we haven't been paid for six months and we're fed up with broken promises. We've told the British today that if we're not paid by Friday, we'll arm ourselves with guns again and start killing every foreigner we see in Iraq." This is Basra three months after British tanks rolled in to a rapturous welcome. Instead of jubilation there is frustration. In the broiling summer heat this is a city waiting to explode.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=13136215&method=full&siteid=50143

Iraq: An Audit of War
(The Observer (London))

(July 6, 2003) — From first light, American helicopters swing over burnt-out Ministry buildings, over the teeming slums of the north of the city and over the sprawling Republican Palace. Total US and UK combat casualties since 1 May, when George Bush declared the end of the war, are 31. Reports suggesting a new 'Vietnam' are, at least currently, wrong. The vast majority of the Iraqi people, if not supportive of the US and British occupation, is still far from being actively opposed to it. In the past month I have heard everything from 'I love the UK and the US from the bottom of my heart' to 'You are dogs and will die like dogs', which, accompanied by mock canine howls, made for a distinctly unnerving experience.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,992229,00.html

EAW Quick Links — July 2

ACTION ALERT: The Apollo Project
(A New Plan for Government Investment in Renewable Energy and)

"The Apollo Project" is a 10-point plan for energy independence proposed by a historic coalition of labor unions, environmentalists, and peace advocates. If adopted by our government it would: • Create three million jobs • Protect the environment • Improve public health • Cost $30 billion/year for 10 years (7% of the Pentagon budget) To send a message to all the presidential candidates urging them to support this plan, just click "Reply" and then "Send." For more info on "The Apollo Project," click here. http://www.apolloalliance.org For more strategies on progressive alternatives, check TrueMajority at: http://www.truemajority.org/
http://www.apolloalliance.org

On July 4, Celebrate America and Celebrate Freedom
(Download the Founding Fathers!)

"Print out and distribute this flyer at your Independence Day celebrations. May these quotes serve to remind us all of the ideals and values upon which the United States." And while you're at it, commit each of these quotes to memory, and quote them to right wing "patriots" at every opportunity!
http://july4.bmgbiz.net/

US Official Says Britain Must Have Known Iraq Documents Were Forgeries

(June 29, 2003) — A high-ranking American official who investigated claims for the CIA that Iraq was seeking uranium to restart its nuclear program last night accused Britain and the US of deliberately ignoring his findings to make the case for war against Saddam Hussein. The retired US ambassador said it was all but impossible that British intelligence had not received his report - drawn up by the CIA - which revealed that documents, purporting to show a deal between Iraq and the west African state of Niger, were forgeries. When he saw similar claims in Britain's dossier on Iraq last September, he even went as far as telling CIA officials that they needed to alert their British counterparts to his investigation.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=419982

Cheney and the CIA: Not Business as Usual

Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern writes: "Something scarier had to be produced, and quickly, if Congress was to be persuaded to authorize war. And so the decision was made to dust off the uranium-from-Niger canard. The White House calculated - correctly - that before anyone would make an issue of the fact that this key piece of 'intelligence' was based on a forgery, Congress would vote yes. The war could then be waged and won. In recent weeks, administration officials have begun spreading the word that Cheney was never told the Iraq-Niger story was based on a forgery. I asked a senior official who recently served at the National Security Council if he thought that was possible. He pointed out that rigorous NSC procedures call for a very specific response to all vice presidential questions and added that 'the fact that Cheney's office had originally asked that the Iraq-Niger report be checked out makes it inconceivable that his office would not have been informed of the results.'"
http://www.ctnow.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-cheney0627.artjun27.story

Britain Admits Niger Uranium Story Came from a Foreign Service

"Britain was forced to admit [Friday] that one of the central allegations against Iraq... was based on information from an overseas intelligence service rather than a British primary source. In a blow to the government's credibility, a Foreign Office mandarin admitted that a claim that Iraq had tried to procure nuclear material from an African country had come 'from a foreign service'... The dossier said: 'Uranium has been sought from Africa that has no civil nuclear application in Iraq.' The dossier did not name a country, but the finger of blame was quickly pointed at Niger. Within months the documents on which the allegations were based were exposed by the IAEA as forgeries. Tony Blair recently refused to withdraw the explosive claim, insisting that the joint intelligence committee (JIC) had judged it 'at the time to be correct'. But the remarks by Mr Ehrman, who sits on the JIC, will intensify the pressure on the prime minister to disown the African claim in the dossier."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,986832,00.html

State Department Disputes CIA View of Trailers as Iraqi Weapons Labs
(Washington Post)

"The State Department's intelligence division is disputing the Central Intelligence Agency's conclusion that mysterious trailers found in Iraq were for making biological weapons, United States government officials said today. In a classified June 2 memorandum, the officials said, the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research said it was premature to conclude that the trailers were evidence of an Iraqi biological weapons program, as Resident Bush has done. The disclosure of the memorandum is the clearest sign yet of disagreement between intelligence agencies over the assertion, which was produced jointly by the C.I.A. and the Defense Intelligence Agency and made public on May 28 on the C.I.A. Web site. Officials said the C.I.A. and D.I.A. did not consult with other intelligence agencies before issuing the report." Unmentioned in this article are the reports that these trailers were most likely used for producing hydrogen gas for weather balloons.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/26/international/worldspecial/26WEAP.html

Bush Misled US into Iraq War -- An Official Finding?

In an informal progress report on the House intelligence committee's probe into pre-war intelligence (or lack thereof), ranking Democrat Jane Harman spells out the lies Bush told to get us into a war. Harman says unequivocally that Bush was wrong when he declared on March 17 that "intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised," and that Hussein was a bin Laden ally. The Republicans are doing their best to prevent any real investigation and suppress the truth. But it's becoming more obvious every day that the truth is too explosive to be contained: Because Bush lied, people died.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062803C.shtml

Jessica Lynch Story 'Had Huge Propaganda Value. It Was False'
(Washington Post Ombudsman)

"This is the third column in as many months devoted in whole or in part to the case of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch... As I have said before, the issue here is not Lynch, a courageous young soldier who has been through -- and is still going through -- a terrible ordeal. Rather, it is about journalism: about sources and reporters, motivation and manipulation, and finding the truth, as best we can, about a story that became the best known saga of the war in Iraq... The original April 3 story was by staff writers Susan Schmidt and Vernon Loeb. The June 17 reconstruction was by Dana Priest, who also contributed to the April 3 story... The new Post account described itself as a 'more thorough but inconclusive cut at history.' That is accurate. But it did not address the issues that eat away at the trust of large numbers of readers, many of whom have called or e-mailed to complain." As one of Ken Starr's stenographers during the Clinton Wars, Schmidt has a history of journalistic malfeasance.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43466-2003Jun27.html

10 Appalling Lies We Were Told about Iraq
(Christopher Scheer / AlterNet.com)

"Today, more than three months after Bush's stirring declaration of war and nearly two months since he declared victory, no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons have been found, nor any documentation of their existence, nor any sign they were deployed in the field. The mainstream press, after an astonishing two years of cowardice, is belatedly drawing attention to the unconscionable level of administrative deception. They seem surprised to find that when it comes to Iraq, the Bush administration isn't prone to the occasional lie of expediency but, in fact, almost never told the truth. What follows are just the most outrageous and significant of the dozens of outright lies uttered by Bush and his top officials over the past year in what amounts to a systematic campaign to scare the bejeezus out of everybody:"
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274

Bush Believes His Actions are God's Work
(The Moscow Times)

"There can be no doubt that Bush believes literally in the divine character of his mission [and that whatever 'decision' forms in his brain] has been planted there, whole and perfected, by God Almighty. [That's] why Bush acts with such serenity and ruthlessness. Nothing he does can be challenged on moral grounds, however unethical or evil it might appear, because all of his actions are directed by God. He can twist the truth, oppress the poor, exalt the rich, despoil the Earth, ignore the law -- and murder children -- without the slightest compunction, the briefest moment of doubt or self-reflection, because he believes, he truly believes, that God squats in his brainpan and tells him what to do... That's why Bush can always 'do whatever it takes' to achieve his goals. [He also puts] his election in 2004 above all other concerns, even the endless bloodshed in the Middle East. So what new crimes will the Lord have to countenance to keep His appointed servant in power?"
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/06/27/120.html

EAW Quick Links June 30, 2003

Bremer’s Occupation Strategy Is Headed for Disaster

BEIRUT (June 30, 2003) The Daily Star — (Commentary) The word “quagmire” is badly overused, but the United States is headed for just such a scenario unless it changes course in Iraq. The raids and arrests carried out on Sunday were billed as a “show of force” designed to discourage attacks on American soldiers, but in reality they illustrated the cul-de-sac in which the Coalition Provisional Authority finds itself. The occupiers cannot leave for fear of losing face, but they cannot stay without taking a steady stream of casualties. And by seeking to quell resistance by undertaking the sort of heavy-handed action that fueled it in the first place, the coalition is demonstrating a profound lack of imagination.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/opinion/30_06_03_a.asp

Boy's Killing Angers Iraqis — Shooting Seen as a Crime
(Washington Post)

BAGHDAD (29 June 2003) Washington Post — Around 10 p.m. Thursday, Mohammed Kubaisi, 12, was fatally shot in the chest on the roof of his home in Baghdad by a U.S. soldier. Those are the only facts on which the Kubaisi family and the U.S. military agree. For the family, it was a wanton killing, the slaying by a trigger-happy soldier of a curious, unarmed boy who was watching troops search for weapons in his neighborhood. "This is a crime,"