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News :: International Relations |
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AWARE News Notes 030921 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Carl Estabrook
Email: cge (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
23 Sep 2003
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Notes from last week's "war on terrorism" -- prepared
for the AWARE meeting, Sunday, September 21, 2003.
[AWARE -- Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort -- is a group of people from C-U and environs who are opposed to the policies of the US government -- neo-imperialism and favoritism of the rich. We hold open meetings every Sunday 5-7pm at UCIMC to discuss the situation and plan a variety of responses. The selection and the comments below, however, represent my views and not necessarily those of AWARE as a whole or of particular members. (Source and date are indicated after each item thus: [NYT 0919] = New York Times, September 19.) --CGE] |
ROAD RAGE. This week, in metaphors for the Occupation, a drunk American soldier shot and killed a rare Bengal tiger in the Baghdad zoo [MIRROR UK 0921], American soldiers opened fire on the car of an Italian diplomat who had the temerity to try to pass a US convoy, killing his driver [REUTERS 0919], and American soldiers opened fire indiscriminately on crowds after they'd been ambushed - then rounded up all the young men in the area: "The US authorities in Iraq - who only report their own deaths, never those of Iraqis - acknowledged three US soldiers dead. There may be up to eight dead, not counting the wounded ... and this on the very day that George Bush admitted for the first time that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and the 11 September assault on the United States." [R. FISK 0919] On Saturday, two American soldiers were killed in a mortar attack on a US prison (and more than a dozen wounded) and a third died from a roadside bomb. [REUTERS 0921] "...nine gunmen this morning shot and critically wounded Akila al-Hashemi, one of three women on the [Iraq's US-appointed] governing body, as she was being driven to work by a driver and three bodyguards." [NYT 0921] And our own Member of Congress tells us that the Occupation is going well and that he did the right thing to vote for it. [WILL 0919]. In the most frightening event of the week, the Vice-President, once thought to be the eminence grise of this administration, revealed himself on last Sunday's Meet the Press to be much stupider or much more mendacious than we thought (or both) - so much so that the President had to blurt out the truth to correct him later in the week. Bush really is as smart as this group gets - and that's scary.
WHICH GOES FIRST, HIS HEART OR HIS MIND? "Vice President Dick Cheney last Sunday aggressively defended the administration's handling of Iraq, saying there is no reason to 'think that the strategy is flawed or needs to be changed.' Cheney claimed that the White House, which last week asked for $87 billion in additional funding, had not underestimated the cost of war. He described the Iraq operation as a 'major success' and claimed that Americans are being viewed as 'liberators' in Iraq. He also continued to make long debunked allegations linking Iraq to the attacks of Sept. 11. At one point Cheney claimed Iraq was the 'geographic base' for the Sept. 11 attack. And despite doubts from both the FBI and CIA, Cheney claimed that one of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta, may have met with an Iraqi intelligence officer five months before the attack. Cheney however said little about Saudi Arabia's ties to Sept. 11. He said 'I don't want to speculate.' He then went on to say Sept. 11 is 'over with now, it's done, it's history and we can put it behind us.'" [DN 0915]
MAD DICK. "Cheney's appearance on Meet the Press consisted of, to be perfectly objective, a melange of misleading and mendacious charges. A sampling: Cheney said that Saddam may have played a part in 9/11, that he also may have played a part in the '93 WTC bombing, that Iraq trained al-Qaida on biological and chemical weapons, that Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi intel source in Prague, and that the United States has 'found' two mobile biological labs ... For months the WP has been more aggressive than the other papers, most notably the NYT, and today is no exception. The Post goes through Cheney's charges point by point, each time noting that the evidence is murkier than Cheney presented or simply not there: There's no publicly known info that Saddam was involved in 9/11 or otherwise helped al-Qaida. The FBI has said that at the time of the supposed Prague meeting, it believes Atta was in the United States. As for the supposed mobile germ labs, Cheney might be convinced they're part of a weapons-building program, but intel agencies are at best divided, with many experts convinced they're for making weather balloons ... One other note on Cheney's appearance: As the NYT and LAT mention, the vice president acknowledged he misspoke before the war when he said once on the Meet the Press that Saddam had 'reconstituted nuclear weapons.' During the same program, Cheney repeatedly qualified the statement, saying that Saddam was 'trying' to reconstitute his nuclear 'program.'" [SLATE 0915] "Cheney justified the invasion of Iraq in his first televised interview in six months ... claimed again Iraq tried to acquire uranium from Niger ... professed no knowledge that White House helped evacuate 24 members of the Bin Laden family days after 9/11. (Retired chief White House aide Richard Clarke revealed that top White House officials approved the evacuation of 140 influential Saudis, including relatives of Osama Bin Laden, days after the Sept. 11 attacks at a time when all commercial and private flights were grounded.) Cheney suggested Iraq is linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing through wanted Iraqi-American Abdul Rahman Yasin ... there is a $25 million price on his head; but when Saddam Hussein offered to hand him over, the Bush Administration said no." [DN 0916] "LAT editorial page: The vice president's 'sweeping, unproven claims' about Saddam's alleged connection to al-Qaida suggest that Cheney hasn't been hiding out at a secure, undisclosed location; he's been 'stuck in a time warp.' The editorial's title: 'CHENEY IN WONDERLAND.'" [SLATE 0916]
...IT'S THE WAY THAT YOU DO IT. "CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN 'was intimidated' by the Bush administration and Fox News, which 'put a climate of fear and self-censorship.' As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion. On last week's Topic A With Tina Brown on CNBC, Brown, the former Talk magazine editor, asked comedian Al Franken, former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke and Amanpour if 'we in the media, as much as in the administration, drank the Kool-Aid when it came to the war.' Said Amanpour: 'I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did.' Brown then asked Amanpour if there was any story during the war that she couldn't report. 'It's not a question of couldn't do it, it's a question of tone,' Amanpour said. 'It's a question of being rigorous. It's really a question of really asking the questions. All of the entire body politic in my view, whether it's the administration, the intelligence, the journalists, whoever, did not ask enough questions, for instance, about weapons of mass destruction. I mean, it looks like this was disinformation at the highest levels.' Clarke called the disinformation charge 'categorically untrue' and added, 'In my experience, a little over two years at the Pentagon, I never saw them (the media) holding back. I saw them reporting the good, the bad and the in between.' Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said of Amanpour's comments: 'Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda.'" [USAT 0914]
KAY-OWED. "Britain and America have decided to delay indefinitely the publication of a full report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction after inspectors found no evidence that any such weapons exist. Efforts by the Iraq Survey Group, an Anglo-American team of 1,400 scientists, military and intelligence experts, to scour Iraq for the past four months to uncover evidence of chemical or biological weapons have so far ended in failure. It had been expected that a progress report would be published tomorrow but MPs on Westminster's [= UK parliament] security and intelligence committee have been told that even this has been delayed and no new date set. British defence intelligence sources confirmed last week that the final report, which is to be submitted by David Kay, the survey group's leader, to George Tenet, head of the CIA, had been delayed and may not necessarily even be published. In July Kay suggested on US television that he had seen enough evidence to convince himself that Saddam Hussein had had a programme to produce weapons of mass destruction. He expected to find 'strong' evidence of missile delivery systems and 'probably' evidence of biological weapons. But last week British officials said they believed Kay had been 'kite-flying' and that no hard evidence had been uncovered." [SUNDAY TIMES UK 0914]
WHAT A 'LIBERAL' JUSTICE THINKS. "The United States could learn from compromises Israeli courts have struck to balance terrorism and human rights concerns, Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer said Friday. Israeli judges have adopted what Breyer called 'intermediate solutions' that acknowledge the security risks the country faces, the justice told an audience at Columbia Law School ... He gave an example drawn from Israeli courts of terror defendants who might try to use visits from lawyers to communicate terror instructions from behind bars. The security risk might make it impossible to allow such defendants to receive visits from any lawyer they choose, Breyer said, but not impossible to ensure a defendant has a lawyer nonetheless. Defendants could still choose lawyers from an approved list, Breyer said ... Without mentioning the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Breyer said the Israeli experience is especially relevant to U.S. courts now." [GUARDIAN 0912]
LANDSLIDE. In a Washington Post poll done Sept. 10-13, 52 percent said they approved of the President's handling of affairs in Iraq - a figure down 23 points since the end of the war in April. [WP 0914]
ANTI-CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION. "Negotiations at the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun collapsed last Sunday when delegates of the newly formed G-22 from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia walked out of the meeting in protest. This powerful alliance of poor but populous farming nations emerged as the major opposition to the U.S. and European positions and argued strongly for deeper cuts in US/EU farm protection. The collapse of the talks comes as a major blow to the WTO that many poor countries called a victory against the West. Thousands of anti-corporate globalization activists and academics rejoiced last night at the meeting's breakdown. Developing countries blamed the U.S. and Europe for being unwilling to cut the huge subsidies paid out to their farmers. There was also concern that new proposals on foreign investment proposed by Europe and Japan would make it easier for foreign multinationals to take control of industries in the global south." [DN 0915]
L'ETAT C'EST MOI. "[SOS Powell went to Iraq, where] he pooh-poohed France's suggestion that authority should be handed over to Iraqis within a few months. When one member of the Iraqi Governing Coalition brought up France's suggestion, the Times says Powell, referencing France's objection to the war, explained, 'We were right, they were wrong, and I am here.'" [NYT 0915
LIBERATION US-STYLE. "The LAT's Jeffrey Fleishman visits Baghdad's morgue and looks at the numbers: Before the war, the city had an average of 20 deaths per month caused by guns. In June, it was 389 and in August 518. Suspicious deaths went from 250 this time last year to 872 in August." [SLATE 0916]
THE REAL ENEMY. "New intelligence assessments are warning that the United States' most formidable foe in Iraq in the months ahead may be the resentment of ordinary Iraqis increasingly hostile to the American military occupation, Defense Department officials said Tuesday. That picture, shared with American military commanders in Iraq, is very different from the public view currently being presented by senior Bush administration officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who once again today listed only 'dead-enders, foreign terrorists and criminal gangs' as opponents of the American occupation. The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were concerned about retribution for straying from the official line. They said it was a mistake for the administration to discount the role of ordinary Iraqis who have little in common with the groups Mr. Rumsfeld cited, but whose anger over the American presence appears to be kindling some sympathy for those attacking American forces. Other United States government officials said some of the concerns had been prompted by recent polling in Iraq by the State Department's intelligence branch. The findings, which remain classified, include significant levels of hostility to the American presence. The officials said indications of that hostility extended well beyond the Sunni heartland of Iraq, which has been the main setting for attacks on American forces, to include the Shiite-dominated south, whose citizens have been more supportive of the American military presence but have also protested loudly about raids and other American actions. As reasons for Iraqi hostility, the defense officials cited not just disaffection over a lack of electricity and other essential services in the months since the war, but cultural factors that magnify anger about the foreign military presence. 'To a lot of Iraqis, we're no longer the guys who threw out Saddam, but the ones who are busting down doors and barging in on their wives and daughters,' one defense official said." [NYT 0916]
LET'S DO IT AGAIN. "A top Bush administration official, John Bolton, testified Tuesday before Congress that Syria has an ambitious program to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. New York Times reporter Judith Miller [MOUTHPIECE FOR THE NEOCONS] obtained a draft of Bolton's statements in which he also suggests that Syria is partly responsible for the ongoing attacks of U.S. troops in Iraq because, he claims, Syria has failed to stop militants from entering and fighting in Iraq. Bolton says that Syria has 'a stockpile of the nerve agent sarin that can be delivered by aircraft or ballistic missiles, and has engaged in the research and development of more toxic and persistent nerve agents such as VX." [DN 0916]
OH, ALL RIGHT, WE WON'T. "Coming under international criticism, the Israeli government reversed itself Monday and claimed the government's official policy on controlling Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat did not include the option of assassinating him." [DN 0916]
BUT WE WON'T FORCE YOU. "The United States on Tuesday vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that called on Israel to drop its threat to harm or expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The U.S. was the only Security Council member to oppose the resolution. Three countries abstained from the vote." [DN 0917]
LIBERATION, US-STYLE (II). "The U.S. military is now holding 10,000 prisoners in Iraq including six people claiming to be US citizens and two who say they are British. The number of prisoners is twice as high as previously reported." [DN 0917] "A front-page NYT piece says the U.S. is holding 4,400 'security detainees' in Iraq ... The Pentagon says the men are suspected of attacking or planning to attack U.S. or other friendly forces. As the Times suggests, 'security detainee' seems to be the new, less baggage-laden label for 'enemy combatant.' One general explained that by not designating the detainees POWs, the military has a bit more freedom during interrogations. 'It's not that they don't have rights,' she said, 'they have fewer rights.'" [SLATE 0917]
TERRORISTS WITH WMDS. "The Senate by a 53-41 voted yesterday to rejected a measure that would have put a ban on 'bunker buster' nuclear bombs. Senator Ted Kennedy, who called for the ban, warned that the US is starting a new nuclear arms race. Kennedy said 'At the very time when we are urging other nations to halt their own nuclear weapons programs, the administration is rushing forward to develop our own new nuclear weapons." [DN 0917]
LAND OF THE FREE. "Federal agents in Connecticut are now arresting all illegal immigrants as soon as they are issued orders of deportation, marking a major policy shift. Until now most immigrants have been allowed to remain free while they appeal their deportation order. The Department of Homeland Security is testing a pilot program in Connecticut which is scheduled to begin nationally on Sept. 30. The Department estimates there are 400,000 cases where immigrants in the US have ignored deportation orders." [DN 0917]
BAD PR. "Wired.com is reporting that the Senate has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget of DARPA or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The Pentagon's office had come under great criticism over the past year for proposing programs such as the Big Brother-like Total Information Awareness. DARPA's Information Awareness Office, which was until last month headed by John Poindexter, will face the largest budget cuts." [DN 0917]
AS THEY SAID. "Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix believes that Iraq destroyed most of its weapons of mass destruction 10 years ago, but kept up the appearance that it had them to deter a military attack. In an interview with an Australian radio station broadcast Wednesday, Blix said it was unlikely that the U.S and British teams now searching for weapons in Iraq would find more than some 'documents of interest.' 'I'm certainly more and more to the conclusion that Iraq has, as they maintained, destroyed all, almost, of what they had in the summer of 1991,' Blix told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio." [AP 0917]
SO BAD EVEN CAPITALISTS SAY SO. "Billionaire George Soros reportedly is putting together a $10 million warchest to prevent U.S. President George Bush from winning a second term. Soros, who in 1992 made $1 billion in a single day through currency speculation that drove down the British pound, along with a group of philanthropists and trade unions, is mounting a campaign to unseat Bush for what he sees as the administration's misuse of power, Canada's National Post reported. 'You passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act without proper discussion,' Soros said in a recent interview with PBS. 'Anyone who opposed it was accused of giving aid and comfort to the terrorists. I think we've gone off the rail in this country. Lawmakers didn't even get a copy of the bill. They couldn't even read it before it was passed.' The Hungarian-born Soros is estimated to be worth $5 billion and has been involved in philanthropic activities -- largely in Eastern Europe -- since 1979." [UPI 0917]
SO BAD EVEN SPOOKS SAY SO. "Former CIA analysts Ray McGovern and David MacMichael accuse President Bush of waging the Iraq war based on a series of lies, discuss the unprecedented pressure that VP Dick Cheney put on the CIA before the invasion and call on CIA analysts and agents to come forward with information that will reveal the lies of the Bush administration." [DN 0917]
SO BAD EVEN BUSH SAYS SO. "President Bush distanced himself on Wednesday from comments by Vice President Dick Cheney that left the impression he saw a possible link between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. 'We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in Sept. 11,' Bush told reporters as he met members of Congress on energy legislation ... Bush said Cheney was right about suspicions of an Iraq-al Qaeda link, citing the case of Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi, a leader of an Islamic group in northern Iraq called Ansar al-Islam, believed to have links to al Qaeda. The United States believes Zarqawi received medical treatment in Baghdad and helped orchestrate the assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan. 'There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties,' Bush said ... In recent speeches, he has called Iraq the 'central front' in the war on terror, saying U.S. occupation forces face 'a foreign element' as well as Saddam loyalists. But the U.S. authorities have yet to produce any foreigners known to have participated in any recent military operation ... Bush said, 'The key is to make sure that the political situation in Iraq evolves in a way that will lead to a free society.'" [REUTERS 0917]
HOW TO BUY OFF THE US. "South Korea is leaning toward sending 10,000 troops to Iraq, many of them special forces. In return, says the LAT, the White House has agreed to mellow its stance toward North Korea and be open to negotiations." [SLATE 0917]
HOW TO HOLD THE US OFF. "The Guardian of London is reporting that Saudi Arabia is considering acquiring nuclear weapons to counter the possible nuclear threat from Israel and Iran. Meanwhile, Arab countries yesterday urged the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Authority, to force Israel to less inspector assess its nuclear program as it is doing with Iran." [DN 0918]
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. "Angry protests mounted this week among families of Army National Guard and Reserve troops as the full impact of a new policy requiring those forces to serve year-long tours in Iraq began to hit home across the country ... in Florida, Sen. Bill Nelson (D) said after meeting with angry National Guard families in Orlando and Tampa that he would put a hold on the nomination of James G. Roche to become Army secretary if the policy is not modified. 'You can't rely on these occupations in the future to be done by the Guard and Reserves,' Nelson said Friday in an interview. 'They have a specialized niche, and in times of war, that's one thing. But in times of long, lengthy occupations, you can't take them away from their employers [and their families]. Otherwise, they're not going to reenlist.'" [WP 0920]
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS (II). "American Family Voices will launch a television advertisement asking the government to take care of America's troops and families instead of taking care of Halliburton. The ad, which began running Thursday in Washington, D.C., New Hampshire, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin notes the sweetheart deals Halliburton is receiving from the U.S. government while budgets for education, healthcare and even veteran's benefits are being slashed across the country ... American Family Voices (AFV) is a 501(c)4 non-profit, issue advocacy organization created to focus attention on the economic and family issues most important to the quality of middle class working families' lives." [AMERICANFAMILYVOICES.ORG 0917]
CAN OUR 'DEMOCRACY' EXPRESS THIS? "President Bush's approval rating on handling Iraq has fallen to its lowest level ever, and his overall approval rating is the lowest it has been since the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to a CBS News poll. The poll also finds that a declining number of Americans think the U.S. is in control of the situation in Iraq, and only 22% think the Bush administration has a clear plan for rebuilding ... most do not think the United States will be any safer from terrorism even if Iraq does become a stable democracy. But many Americans do believe the rebuilding process in Iraq will force tough financial tradeoffs back at home - tradeoffs they would be unwilling to make. In this poll, President Bush receives his lowest rating on his handling of the situation in Iraq since CBS News began asking the question in February. American opinion is now evenly divided ..., with 46% approving and 47% disapproving. Bush's approval rating on Iraq has dropped 11 points since last month and 33 points since April, when he received his highest rating." [CBS 0917]
SLOWLY IT TRIES. "President Bush's $87 billion request for Iraq is coming under intense criticism from some Democratic legislators on capitol hill. Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin issued the report showing how Bush is spending more money per person in Iraq than in the United States in areas such as hospitals and sewage improvements. Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware introduced legislation that would reduce the size of the Bush tax cut to the wealthiest 1% in order to pay for the $87 billion." [DN 0918]
A 'FISCAL TRAIN WRECK' TO MAKE SOCIAL PROGRAMS IMPOSSIBLE. "The Treasury Department reported that for the first time in history the annual federal deficit had blown through the $400 billion mark and the White House estimates the deficit could reach $535 billion in the next fiscal year." [DN 0918]
LIBERATION, US-STYLE (III). "Agence France Presse is reporting that U.S. soldiers shot dead a teenager and wounded four others when troops opened fire at a wedding celebration in Fallujah. The shooting came on the same day that a tape emerged purportedly from Saddam Hussein that called on Iraqis to fight the occupation and for the U.S. to leave Iraq. Meanwhile, the U.S. is stepping up plans to create a 40,000 strong new Iraqi Army to relieve some of the pressure on U.S. Troops." [DN 0918] "As the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq approaches 300 ... London Independent reporter Robert Fisk [reports] on the virtually unreported number of Iraqis killed in feuds, looting, revenge killings and raids by U.S. Troops: 'What is happening is an absolute slaughter every night of Iraqi people.'" [DN 0918] Fisk attributes 40% of the killings to US soldiers at "check-points," etc.
A CONSPIRACY SO VAST... US government "sets up massive watchlist of 'known and suspected terrorists.' The watch list of over 100,000 names will be widely accessible to law enforcement agents, border police, airport workers as well as some private industries. It will contain the names of both international and domestic 'suspects.'" [DN 0918]
CAN THEY BE STOPPED? "Amid growing concerns that hawks in the administration of President George W. Bush may have misled the U.S. public about the war in Iraq, a prominent U.S. arms-control group has called for Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and his chief deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, to be 'summarily fired.' The Washington-based Council for a Livable World (CLW), which has long charged that administration officials exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq to the United States and its allies, said the Pentagon's senior leadership had also failed to anticipate and plan adequately for post-war Iraq and the problems faced by U.S. troops there ... Earlier this month, Rep. David Obey, the ranking member of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, also singled out Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz in a letter to Bush ... Earlier this week, Rep. John Murtha, the hawkish ranking member of the powerful Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and a decorated Vietnam veteran who strongly supported the war, also called for high-level resignations in light of what he called both the misrepresentations by the administration that led to the war and the situation in its aftermath. Murtha said he accepted blame for believing what the administration told him before the war. 'I am part of it. I admit the mistake.' 'Some bureaucrat in Washington has to start paying the price,' Murtha said. 'We cannot allow these bureaucrats to get off when these young people are paying such a price.'" [ONEWORLD.NET 0918]
BLAME FRANCE. Thomas Friedman: "If you add up how France behaved in the run-up to the Iraq war (making it impossible for the Security Council to put a real ultimatum to Saddam Hussein that might have avoided a war), and if you look at how France behaved during the war (when its foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, refused to answer the question of whether he wanted Saddam or America to win in Iraq), and if you watch how France is behaving today (demanding some kind of loopy symbolic transfer of Iraqi sovereignty to some kind of hastily thrown together Iraqi provisional government, with the rest of Iraq's transition to democracy to be overseen more by a divided U.N. than by America), then there is only one conclusion one can draw: France wants America to fail in Iraq. France wants America to sink in a quagmire there in the crazy hope that a weakened U.S. will pave the way for France to assume its 'rightful' place as America's equal, if not superior, in shaping world affairs." [NYT 0918]
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. "The cyber-anti-war group MoveOn launched a new website and email service at http://www.misleader.org that will track controversial statements by Bush in the run-up to the 2004 elections. In a full-page ad that appeared in the New York Times, the group, which claims almost two million members who contributed some $6.5 million dollars in campaign funding during a drive earlier this year, said, said, 'The President says things that are misleading or just plain wrong every day, but most of these statements are never challenged.'" [ONEWORLD.NET 0918]
PART OF HORSE ON A WHITE HORSE? "General Wesley Clark -- the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and the man who led the 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 -- announced his candidacy for president Wednesday, bringing to 10 the number of Democratic candidates. Clark is the first four-star general in history to run for President as a Democrat. [DN 0918] On Wednesday the WP and LAT front retired four-star general Wesley Clark's decision go for the White House and hop into the Democratic primaries. He's going to make it official today. A front-page WP profile paints Clark as brilliant, ambitious, and (according to anonymous military snipers) a jerk." [SLATE 0917] "Gen. Wesley K. Clark said Thursday that he would have supported the Congressional resolution that authorized the United States to invade Iraq, even as he presented himself as one of the sharpest critics of the war effort in the Democratic presidential race. General Clark also said in an interview that he would probably oppose President Bush's request for $87 billion to finance the recovery effort in Iraq, though he said he could see circumstances in which he might support sending even more money into the country." [NYT 0919] "Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark backtracked from a day-old statement that he probably would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq, saying Friday he 'would never have voted for this war.' The retired Army general, an opponent of the conflict, surprised supporters when he indicated in an interview with reporters Thursday that he likely would have supported the resolution. On Friday, Clark sought to clarify his comments in an interview with The Associated Press. 'Let's make one thing real clear, I would never have voted for this war,' Clark said before a speech at the University of Iowa. 'I've gotten a very consistent record on this. There was no imminent threat. This was not a case of pre-emptive war. I would have voted for the right kind of leverage to get a diplomatic solution, an international solution to the challenge of Saddam Hussein.'" [AP 0919]
KILLINGS. On Thursday "guerrillas killed three American soldiers near Tikrit with small-arms fire. Two others were wounded. Two additional U.S. soldiers were hurt when remote-controlled bombs blew up as their convoy traveled a highway in Khaldiya ... The NYT reports that Israeli troops killed a Hamas militant in the largest raid into the Gaza Strip since June. In Gaza City, Palestinian security forces also fought Hamas gunmen after Hamas captured a Palestinian security official, the Palestinian interior ministry said." [SLATE 0919] "At least eight Afghan nomads, including women and children, were killed in a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan that also killed two Taliban guerrillas, Afghan officials said on Saturday." [REUTERS 0920]
DANGER. "The International Monetary Fund Thursday warned that the colossal United States trade deficit was a noose around the neck of the economy, emphasising that the once mighty dollar could collapse at any moment. Arguing that the world's big economies were already too dependent on the willingness of American consumers to live beyond their means, the IMF said the US could not continue to run a current account deficit of 5% of GDP. The IMF's chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said that it was just a matter of time before the gap closed, tipping the dollar into a potentially steep fall." [GUARDIAN 0919]
WHO PROFITS? "The world economy is poised for growth this year and in 2004 as the U.S. economy gains pace, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday. But critics of the financial powerhouse say in a new 'alternative outlook', that the global economy -- as structured by politicians and bankers in the North -- is actually fueled by 'sucking' wealth from poor countries and re-channeling it to an elite in the richest nations, particularly the United States. Global gross domestic product (GDP) will grow at 3.2 percent in 2003, rising to 4.1 percent next year, the IMF said in its twice-yearly high profile World Economic Outlook (WEO), which gauges the health of the world economy from the perspective of the nations that dominate the Fund's executive board ... The recovery will be powered by reduced 'geopolitical uncertainties' after the end of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent decline in oil prices -- which is expected to spark economic activity -- the Outlook predicted ... The Fund and its sister institution, the World Bank, are holding their annual meetings in [the Arab city-state of Dubai] this weekend ... the recovery would be concentrated in the United States and Asia-Pacific ... But as the Fund was releasing its report, economists and activists from the so-called global justice movement that opposes the corporate-led drive towards globalization issued their first 'Real World Economic Outlook' (RWEO). Published by Jubilee Research at the London-based New Economics Foundation, the report -- released in London and New York -- seeks to present an alternative view to the one offered by the Fund and other custodians of the global economic system. 'Despite much rigging of statistics, the "trickle down" effect has not been proven. Instead, as the World Bank's own data illustrates, poor countries are lenders to the rich -- unwittingly financing opulent living standards in the U.S. and elsewhere,' said RWEO Editor Ann Pettifor, in a press release from Dubai ... According to the report, this vacuum effect of the global economy is achieved largely by an international financial structure skewed to benefit the rich. The dollar-dominated global financial system means that poor and rich countries alike are obliged to continue financing the U.S. deficit, through the purchase of U.S. 'IOUs' (treasury bills). In the absence of a global key currency standard, those treasury bills now play the part that gold once held in the global economy, the RWEO says. Poor nations 'are, in effect, making very low interest rate loans to the United States, while at the same time borrowing from abroad (including from the United States, the World Bank, and the IMF) at very high rates of interest.' In addition, capital totaling 97.8 billion dollars departs poor countries for banks in Switzerland, Britain and, especially, the United States every year in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI), it adds. Some of this money is legal investments made by residents of developing countries, 'but much of it is illegal capital that finds its way into the accounts of all too willing banks in the North'. Remittances of multinational corporations from profits they make in developing countries also impoverish poor countries, according to the RWEO. It estimates those remittances equaled 55 billion dollars in 2001. The end result: increased transfer of resources from poor countries, and the concentration of wealth in rich ones. 'There is a net flow of 48 billion dollars every year from the poorest people to the richest, easily outstripping annual aid grants of 32 billion dollars,' it concludes. [IPS 0919]
WHO PAYS? Goldman Sachs writes in its weekly economic commentary: "We estimate that relocation of US production to overseas affiliates accounts for 300,000-500,000 job losses over the past three years. This trend historically has been confined to the factory sector, but cheap telecommunications and huge potential savings will encourage offshoring of service functions to grow rapidly. Even so, international relocation is quite small compared to the size of the US economy-worth about 0.1% of employment per year. It is one factor behind the current 'jobless recovery,' but hardly the only one." [LBO-TALK 0919]
FRAUD. "The case for going to war against Iraq was a fraud 'made up in Texas' to give Republicans a political boost, Sen. Edward Kennedy said Thursday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Kennedy also said the Bush administration has failed to account for nearly half of the $4 billion the war is costing each month. He said he believes much of the unaccounted-for money is being used to bribe foreign leaders to send in troops ... The Massachusetts Democrat also expressed doubts about how serious a threat Saddam Hussein posed to the United States in its battle against terrorism. He said administration officials relied on 'distortion, misrepresentation, a selection of intelligence' to justify their case for war. 'There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud,' Kennedy said." [AP 0919]
ONGOING FRAUD. From a review of a recent book on the US coup against Iran, 50 years ago: "In many ways America's obsession with terrorism since September 11 is an echo of its obsession with communism fifty years ago. Today the United States and Britain claim they must occupy Iraq because of the threat of terrorism. Officially, both say they want to get out as soon as possible; but ideologues in the Pentagon dream of Iraq advancing America's interests, and Israel's too, in the Persian Gulf as the Shah once did. Talk of a new American imperialism is becoming fashionable among conservative academics, some of them in power." [NYRB 0925]
HAVING IT BOTH WAYS. "A Washington Post editorial defends the Patriot Act provision allowing the government to examine library records, then rips into Attorney General John Ashcroft for jeering at the law's critics. This week, the editors remind us, Ashcroft unexpectedly declassified records revealing that the Justice Department has never actually used the library provision. He then announced that 'the charges of the hysterics are revealed for what they are: castles in the air,' and concluded that only those who 'enjoy swapping recipes for chemical weapons from [their] Joy of Jihad cookbook' need fear the law. 'The first question,' the Post notes, 'is why this fact was ever classified if its disclosure would not harm national security. … The attorney general ought to manage to debate important policy without selectively declassifying to serve his own interests and then throwing a temper tantrum at the controversy that results.'" [SLATE 0920]
A LOCAL VOICE. Tim Predmore, a 36-year-old member of the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, wrote the following in his home newspaper, the Peoria Journal Star: "For the last six months I have participated in what I believe to be the great modern lie: Operation Iraqi Freedom ... Was this invasion because of weapons of mass destruction, as we so often have heard? If so, where are they? Did we invade to dispose of a leader and his regime because they were closely associated with Osama bin Laden? If so, where is the proof? ... This looks like a modern-day crusade not to free an oppressed people or to rid the world of a demonic dictator relentless in his pursuit of conquest and domination but a crusade to control another nation's natural resource. At least to me, oil seems to be the reason for our presence. There is only one truth, and it is that Americans are dying. There are 10 to 14 attacks on our servicemen and -women daily in Iraq, and it would appear that there is no end in sight. I once believed that I served for a cause: 'to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.' Now I no longer believe that; I have lost my conviction, as well as my determination. I can no longer justify my service for what I believe to be half-truths and bold lies ... How many more must die? How many more tears must be shed before Americans awake and demand the return of the men and women whose job it is to protect them rather than their leader's interest?" [LAT 0917]
VOICES NATIONWIDE.. "Bush's recent prime-time address on Iraq seems to have crystallized doubts about his postwar plans and fueled worries about the cost. A parade of polls taken since the Sept. 7 speech has found notable erosion in public approval for Bush's handling of Iraq, with a minority of Americans supporting the $87 billion budget for reconstruction and the war on terrorism that he unveiled." [WP 0920]
VS. MILITARISM. "A nationwide group of law professors, law schools, and students filed suit yesterday against the US Department of Defense and other government agencies, charging them with violating the First Amendment by forcing law schools to allow military recruiters on campus. The suit, led by Kent Greenfield, a Boston college law professor, marks the first widespread effort to challenge the Defense Department, which last year began threatening to yank virtually all federal funds from colleges whose law schools continued to bar military recruiters from on-campus job interviews." [BG 0920]
MURDERS BASED ON A LIE. "On March 18th, George W. Bush wrote to the Speaker of the House (Hastert) and the President of the Senate (Cheney) invoking the powers granted him by Public Law 107-243. Initiating the invasion of Iraq, he wrote: '...I determine that:... [Declaring war on Iraq and] acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.' Thus the invasion of Iraq and seizure of its oil fields, was, according to George W. Bush, legally justified by 9/11. But now he says there's no connection between Iraq and 9/11. Which will inevitably raise the question for many in Congress: Did George Bush deceive them and the nation in October of 2002 and March of 2003, and, in response to a reporter's question, inadvertently blurt out an admission of that deception on September 16, 2003?" [CD 0919]
AND EVEN THE PRESS NOTICES. An editorial in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "Were we misled on the very justifications for war? If so, the administration should face a stern reckoning, as will those in Congress who had the power to question -- if not stop -- the rush to war. We may yet recognize the wisdom of those who stood against the tide [like] West Virginia's Sen. Robert Byrd..." [SPI 0919]
A PROFITABLE LIE. "On 'Meet the Press' last Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney said, 'Since I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interests. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had now, for over three years.' That is the latest White House lie. Within 48 hours, Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey pointed reporters toward Cheney's public financial disclosure sheets filed with the US Office of Government Ethics. The sheets show that in 2002, Cheney received $162,392 in deferred salary from Halliburton, the oil and military contracting company he ran before running for vice president. In 2001, Cheney received $205,298 in deferred salary from Halliburton. The 2001 salary was more than Cheney's vice presidential salary of $198,600. Cheney also is still holding 433,333 stock options. Flushed into the open, Cheney spokeswoman Catherine Martin said the vice president will continue to receive about $150,000 a year from Halliburton in 2003, 2004, and 2005 ... Halliburton ... is by far the largest beneficiary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. With no-bid, no-ceiling contracts, the company has already amassed $2 billion in work. It is doing everything from restoring oil facilities to providing toilets for troops. A year ago Halliburton was staring at nearly a half-billion dollars in losses. In the second quarter of 2003 it posted a profit of $26 million." [BG 0919]
***The long-time AP reporter, Walter Mears, on fair and balanced journalism: "The average between a lie and the truth is still a lie."***
SOME MORE LIES. "At an November 7, 2002, press conference, Bush said that Saddam Hussein was 'a threat because he is dealing with al Qaeda' ... former deputy CIA chief Richard Kerr, who has been reviewing the prewar intelligence, has said that US intelligence did not establish a direct operational link between Hussein and al Qaeda.
"On February 7, Bush said Iraq was 'harboring a terrorist network, headed by a senior al Qaeda terrorist planner.' But his own CIA director, George Tenet, while testifying before Congress, reported that the terrorist and network Bush had in mind were 'independent' of al Qaeda.
"During his State of the Union Speech last January -- when he made his now-infamous remark about Iraq shopping for uranium in Niger -- Bush said that the International Atomic Energy Agency 'confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program.' He neglected to note that the IAEA reported that it had dismantled this program ...
"In his speech at the UN a year ago, he cited the findings of UN inspectors in asserting that Iraq had 'a massive stockpile of biological weapons that has never been accounted for, and capable of killing millions.' But the UN inspectors had not said such a stockpile existed.
"In a speech two days before he invaded Iraq, Bush said, '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.'"
--David Corn, Alternet.
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