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*IRAQ: latest news and developments

Violent clashes erupted in Mosul as several hundred former members of the Iraqi army demanding their salaries tried to storm the government building in the northern Iraqi town.
 
CIA Did Not Share Doubt on Iraq Data

A key component of President Bush's claim in his State of the Union address last January that Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program -- its alleged attempt to buy uranium in Niger -- was disputed by a CIA-directed mission to the central African nation in early 2002, according to senior administration officials and a former government official. But the CIA did not pass on the detailed results of its investigation to the White House or other government agencies, the officials said
...
Armed with information purportedly showing that Iraqi officials had been seeking to buy uranium in Niger one or two years earlier, the CIA in early February 2002 dispatched a retired U.S. ambassador to the country to investigate the claims, according to the senior U.S. officials and the former government official, who is familiar with the event. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity and on condition that the name of the former ambassador not be disclosed.

During his trip, the CIA's envoy spoke with the president of Niger and other Niger officials mentioned as being involved in the Iraqi effort, some of whose signatures purportedly appeared on the documents.

After returning to the United States, the envoy reported to the CIA that the uranium-purchase story was false, the sources said. Among the envoy's conclusions was that the documents may have been forged because the "dates were wrong and the names were wrong," the former U.S. government official said.

However, the CIA did not include details of the former ambassador's report and his identity as the source, which would have added to the credibility of his findings, in its intelligence reports that were shared with other government agencies.
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source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46957-2003Jun11.html
 
By email from the US in relation to the story above...

But former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, writing on the Counterpunch website, tells the full story, which seems like potential dynamite if the allegation that Cheney was directly involved can be substantiated:
----
To his credit, early last year Vice President Dick Cheney sent to Niger a former US ambassador in Africa to investigate the story. The latter brought back word that the documents were not authentic. But this did not prevent senior administration officials from using them in the critical run-up to Congress' vote to give the president the authority to make war.

Indeed, President Bush included the forged "evidence" in his state-of-the-union address on January 28-something Dr. Rice, when asked about it by George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, was at a loss to explain satisfactorily. Now "senior administration officials" are telling gullible reporters that Cheney was never informed of the outcome of the investigation he ordered. I'm not making this up.
 
Nuclear lies could be dynamite

Forged Evidence

Democrat Henry Waxman represents the 30th District of California in the U.S. House of Representatives.

June 10, 2003

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Dr. Rice:

Since March 17, 2003, I have been trying without success to get a direct answer to one simple question: Why did President Bush cite forged evidence about Iraq's nuclear capabilities in his State of the Union address?

Although you addressed this issue on Sunday on both Meet the Press and This Week with George Stephanopoulos, your comments did nothing to clarify this issue. In fact, your responses contradicted other known facts and raised a host of new questions.

During your interviews, you said the Bush Administration welcomes inquiries into this matter. Yesterday, The Washington Post also reported that Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet has agreed to provide "full documentation" of the intelligence information "in regards to Secretary Powell's comments, the president's comments and anybody else's comments." Consistent with these sentiments, I am writing to seek further information about this important matter.
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soorce: http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8069.
 
Iraqi "bioweapons" trailers: another "smoking gun" goes up in smoke
The story of the bioweapons trailers follows a familiar pattern. Ever since the fall of Baghdad, the US occupation forces have repeatedly announced the discovery of "smoking guns" proving the existence of the alleged Iraqi WMDs, only to end up retracting the claims after a cursory investigation.

On April 7, the Pentagon announced that the 101st Airborne had discovered a major cache of missiles fitted with chemical warheads outside of Baghdad. It was also reported that buried "bioweapons labs" had been unearthed.

A week later, on April 13, the Washington Post disclosed that the chemical weapons found by the 101st were in reality a pesticide, probably used to control Iraq's mosquito population. The Pentagon, meanwhile, backed off from its original announcement concerning the missiles, telling the newspaper it "denies any knowledge of this alleged discovery." Two days later CNN revealed that the "bioweapons labs" had proven to be nothing more than unopened crates of standard laboratory equipment, such as test tubes.

Similarly, an announcement that troops had discovered 55-gallon drums filled with a "blister agent" was followed by a correction--the substance was actually rocket fuel. Last month, the Washington Post reported that US military teams searching for weapons pursued one of their hottest leads, breaking into a locked storeroom inside the headquarters of Iraq's "Special Security Organization Al Hayat," only to find vacuum cleaners.

These farcical episodes, capped by the exposure of the trailers fraud, underscore the fact that the US government plotted and carried out a war of aggression that it justified to the American public and the world through a systematic campaign of lies.
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source: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jun2003/iraq-j12.shtml
 
American soldiers have been involved in heavy fighting during an attack on what they call a "terrorist" camp north of Baghdad.


At least 70 Iraqis were killed in the assault, according to a US army spokesman quoted by Reuters news agency.

The attack began with an air strike early on Thursday, and is reported to have continued with fierce fighting on the ground.

Nearly 30 US troops have died in fighting or accidents since 1 May, when President George W Bush declared the war in Iraq effectively over.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2986810.stm

(Look away now, there's nothing to see, move on, move on...)
 
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts said questions about U.S. intelligence will instead be examined in closed door hearings beginning next week.
---
Roberts added that "when the committee deems it appropriate, we will make whatever public statements that are necessary." The Senate Armed Services Committee has already begun closed-door hearings on the intelligence issue.
http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.asp?storyid=19412


:rolleyes:
 
Explosions on Gas Pipeline in N. Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two explosions tore through a gas pipeline in northern Iraq, a U.S. military spokesman said, adding that it did not appear to be sabotage.
------
The U.S. account contradicted a report from the Iranian-financed Al Aalam television station, which quoted witnesses as saying they saw fires erupting on an oil pipeline from two bombs.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/world/6080277.htm
 
Agence France-Presse (AFP) GENEVA, June 12

Coalition authorities in Iraq have stopped Iraqi refugees in Iran from returning home, an Iranian official said here on Thursday.
Ahmad Hosseini, director general of refugee affairs at Iran's interior ministry, said the move had caused "unrest" among the 200,000 Iraqi refugees in the Islamic republic.

"Unfortunately we faced some problems with the occupying powers in Iraq which forced us to stop the returns," Hosseini, who was speaking through an interpreter, told journalists here.

Iran shelters about 2.2 million mainly Afghan and Iraqi refugees, the largest refugee population of any country in the world, and has said that it can no longer afford their upkeep.

Tehran believes that the Iraqis have technically lost their refugee status with the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime and the end of the conflict in Iraq.
 
Iraqi shepherd sues Rumsfeld, Franks

Shepherd who lost 17 members of his family, 200 sheeps in missile strike is seeking 200 million dollars in damages.
----

"The trial will be Iraq's first against US troops because we believe they used excessive force against the Iraqi people who cooperated with the United States to topple Saddam Hussein's regime," Abud Sarhan's lawyer said.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=5960
 
[A covert US army unit, operating in Iraq even before the war began, played a crucial but ultimately unsuccessful role in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, a media report said.
The 'Task Force 20', drawn from the elite Army special mission units known popularly as Delta Force "found no working non-conventional munitions, missiles or missile parts, bulk stores of chemical or biological warfare agents", the Washington Post said in a report on Friday.]
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_280012,00050001.htm
 
Missionaries eager to aid in Iraq
While everyone on the panel disagreed with Graham's confrontational language, the Rev. Michael Lawrence, associate pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, endorsed Graham's goal of converting Muslims to Christianity.
"I don't think he should give up his goal of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ," he said.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/6088231.htm

Maybe they would have more success if the Good News wasn't delivered by a cruise missile.
 
Major Iraqi Uprising Looming In Near Future

A real resistance movement seems to be starting up in Iraq. Although the Pentagon and Donald Rumsfeld are blaming attacks against US troops on Saddam supporters and Bath Party members, it looks like a countrywide uprising is starting.
Major Iraqi Uprising Looming In Near Future
6/13/03
By: Jay Shaft--- Coalition For Free Thought In Media

At least 42 U.S. troops have now been killed by assailants since Baghdad fell to American forces on April 9. In the last few weeks the attacks on coalition forces have increased to the point where a soldier being killed is an almost everyday occurrence.

Just yesterday 6/12, and today 6/13, the US killed over 100 resisters in heavy fighting. This is enraging the Iraqi people to new levels. Massive demonstrations and attacks are breaking out all over Iraq today in reaction.

On Sunday 6/8 a US soldier was shot to death at a checkpoint near the Syrian border by a man requesting medical help. "One paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team was killed and a second injured Tuesday afternoon in a rocket-propelled grenade attack while operating a weapons collection point in southwest Baghdad," Central Command said in a press release.
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source: http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=326335&group=webcast
 
BBC and Guardian cover up US role in Iraq looting
Despite the devastating losses that have been suffered and the continued looting, however, certain journalists have made it their business to assert that the extent of the problem has been exaggerated and even to claim that Iraqi archaeologists are responsible for stealing whatever is missing. This campaign of denial and disinformation can only compound the damage already done to Iraq's cultural heritage. Not only will it distract from the task of tracking down the artefacts that are flooding onto the antiquities market, but it is also being used to discredit Iraqi archaeologists and to take control of the country's history out of their hands.

The BBC is leading the way in this scurrilous campaign. In a prime-time documentary screened June 9, art and architectural historian Dan Cruikshank made a number of unsubstantiated claims. He suggested that the Baghdad Museum was a legitimate military target, that the looting was "an inside job" and that the staff were unsuitable to be left in charge of Iraq's cultural heritage because they had been members of the Ba?ath Party.

Cruickshank's claims were immediately taken up by Guardian correspondent David Aaronovitch, who declared that the staff of the Baghdad Museum were "apparatchiks of a fascist regime". He poured scorn on the world's journalists and academics for believing the stories about looting.
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source: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jun2003/loot-j14.shtml
 
[Pentagon Dreams of Playing 'GloboCop'
On the eve of the war in Iraq, which has been followed by an occupation increasingly under siege, Barnett predicted that taking Baghdad would not be about settling old scores or enforcing the disarmament of those famous weapons of mass destruction, yet to be found. Rather, he wrote, it "will mark a historic tipping point – the moment when Washington takes real ownership of strategic security in the age of globalization."
Barnett's so-called arc corresponds well to regions of oil, gas and mineral wealth, a reminder again of Wolfowitz's 1992 draft study. It asserted that the key objective of U.S. strategy should be "to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power." ]
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16166
 
U.S. Forces "Slaughter" Iraqis At Dawn: Eyewitness
Hossam al-Sayed, IOL Chief Correspondent

RAWAH, Iraq , June 14 (IslamOnline.net) - American troops "slaughtered" more than one hundred Iraqi civilians, most of them killed while asleep, at the early hours of Friday, June 13, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

The U.S. forces deliberately opened fire from tanks and helicopter gunships at the houses of Iraqi civilians in Rawah, 400 kilometer to the north-west of Baghdad, killing tens of people, they charged.

The town residents rushed out of their homes which came under heavy American bombardment.

Some of them emerged with their light arms and battled the occupation forces, killing and injuring an unspecified number of American troops, eyewitnesses told IOL correspondent.

"The bodies of 12 of your boys were found tied with ropes, each with a bullet in the head. The Americans detained them and immediately executed them in this horrible way," charged Abu Saadoun, one of the town tribal leaders.

"Now we have to avenge not only the occupation of our country but also the slaughtering of our boys. We will open the gates of hell on the Americans," he pledged in exclusive statements to IOL.

Tired and exhausted Abu Khaled told IOL he spent three hours in the desert at the outskirts of Rawah digging a mass grave for the victims of the American massacre.

"We buried more than 80 of our sons but are still puzzled what pushed the Americans to massacre our people. We are far away from Baghdad and no fighting has been reported here.
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source: http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-06/14/article01.shtml
 
Iraqi militia hit US convoy
The troops were vulnerable in the back of an open lorry
There has been an attack on a US army convoy in Iraq, near to the scene of a major American offensive against armed supporters of Saddam Hussein.
------

Hundreds of people in city of Basra demonstrate in support of demands that the British Army should allow Iraqis to run Iraq's southern capital
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2991188.stm
 
The Defence Select Committee starts its enqiry into claims that the Britsh public, Parliament, and, ultimately, the world, were misled over the existence of WMDs in Iraq.

Robin Cook, ex-leader of the House, who resigned over the issue in the run up to war has given his usual devastatingly forensic analysis of the affair in a series of answers to the committee's questions.

"Such weapons require substantial industrial plant and a large workforce. It is inconceivable that both could have been kept concealed for the two months we have been in occupation of Iraq.

I have never ruled out the possibility that we may unearth some old stock of biological toxins or chemical agents and it is possible that we may yet find some battlefield shells.

Nevertheless, this would not constitute weapons of mass destruction and would not justify the claim before the war that Iraq posed what the prime minister described as a 'current and serious threat'."
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"I fear the fundamental problem is that instead of using intelligence as evidence on which to base a decision about policy, we used intelligence as the basis on which to justify a policy on which we had already settled."
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Robin Cook


Followed by Claire Short who described the Blair's motivations as "honourable deception" as he saw it.

I believe that the Prime Minister must have concluded that it was honourable and desirable to back the US in going for military action in Iraq and therefore it was honourable for him to persuade us through various ruses and ways to get us there – so for him I think it was an honourable deception."
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"I think that is where the falsity lies.....The exaggeration of immediacy means you cannot do things properly and action has to be immediate.

I still don't think he (Saddam) was an immediate threat."
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Claire Short

The Indy

The Beeb
 
Unexploded cluster bombs blanket Iraqi cities
New evidence emerged this month of the widespread use by US and British forces of deadly cluster bombs in densely populated areas of Iraq. On June 1, the London-based Observer newspaper published a map produced by the US/UK military-run Humanitarian Operations Center (HOC), based in Kuwait, showing the location of unexploded bombs and land mines throughout the devastated country.
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In the days leading up to the US-British invasion, numerous human rights groups appealed to the American and British governments to refrain from the use of cluster bombs entirely, or at least in populated areas. The appeals were ignored, leaving the Iraqi people to suffer the consequences for years to come.
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source: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jun2003/clus-j17.shtml
 
An update on the Jessica Lynch story in the Washington Post .Quite a long and interesting article.

Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company, was ambushed outside Nasiriyah after taking several wrong turns. Army investigators believe this happened in part because superiors never passed on word that the long 3rd Infantry Division column that the convoy was following had been rerouted. At times, the 507th was 12 hours behind the main column and frequently out of radio contact.

Lynch was riding in a Humvee when it plowed into a jackknifed U.S. truck. She suffered major injuries, including multiple fractures and compression to her spine, that knocked her unconscious, military sources said. The collision killed or gravely injured the Humvee's four other passengers.
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Washington's war of terror in Iraq
"You can't tell friend from foe," complained a US soldier, according to a wire service report. "We didn't want nothing to do with these people anymore," an Army Sergeant told the New York Times. He added that even children terrified him. "At the end, it was like, 'Get that kid away from me,'" he said.

These remarks are eerily reminiscent of those made by an earlier generation of American troops who were sent on the basis of lies to kill and be killed in a distant land--Vietnam. Fearing the population that they were supposedly protecting from "communist aggression," they found it impossible to distinguish Vietnamese civilians from the Viet Cong--largely because the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese were waging a popular war against a hated and despised army of occupation.

As one US Marine Sergeant testified in hearings held in May 1971: "The way that we distinguished between civilians and VC, VC had weapons and civilians didn't and anybody that was dead was considered a VC. If you killed someone they said, 'How do you know hes a VC?' and the general reply would be, 'He's dead,' and that was sufficient."
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source: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jun2003/iraq-j18.shtml
 
Not exactly today's news

US pushes for early privatisation in Iraq Thursday, 12 June , 2003, 15:21 Baghdad: The US-led coalition plans to privatise the first of Iraq's 100 or so state-owned firms within a year as it begins overhauling the centralised economy of Saddam Hussein without waiting for a new government, a top US official said Thursday.

Tim Carney, senior adviser to the Iraqi ministry of industry and minerals, said the coalition had decided to go back on an earlier pledge to leave any decision to an elected Iraqi government, and planned to start privatisations as soon as an interim administration was in place.

http://sify.com/news/international/fullstory.php?id=13169992
 
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