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*IRAQ: latest news and developments

Al Qaeda links with Iraq denied:

Senior leaders interrogated by U.S. agents. The Bush administration has not made these statements public.

full: http://tinyurl.com/lvbn

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In case you missed it: Rumsfeld, Nov 15, 2002:

"That our understanding of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda is still developing, that there is no question but that there have been interactions between the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials and al Qaeda operatives, they have occurred over a span of some eight or 10 years to our knowledge, that there are currently al Qaeda in Iraq," he said.

full: http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/11/14/rumsfeld.iraq/

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After losing 17 soldiers in Iraq, families in Colorado town live on edge:

The flow of bad news into Fort Carson over the past few months has many of the soldiers' family members jumping whenever telephone calls come at odd hours or there is a knock at the door.

full: http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/24hour/nation/story/984886p-6913082c.html
 
Ayatollah's killing:

Winners and losers: European intelligence sources in Brussels tell Asia Times Online that ordinary Iraqis are becoming increasingly convinced the bombings are part of a sinister American conspiracy to plunge the country into total chaos.

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4587.htm

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Bush Pals Hired To Rewrite Iraqi Law:

The firm, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, has been drafted in by USAID to advise on privatising former government-held industries, structuring government economic and regulatory agencies, and developing a tax structure.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1032312,00.html
 
Iraqi Foreign Minister Says No Turkish Troops:

Iraq's new foreign minister said on Thursday Turkish troops should not be let into Iraq as peacekeepers as their presence could undermine the security of the country rather than improve it.

full: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0486301.htm

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Hey, Let's Call In The UN:

The Hutton inquiry is a complete sideshow to the real issue: did America and Britain have a legal right to go to war without the backing of the UN?

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1036053,00.html

====

US isolated as Europe scorns plea for more troops in Iraq:

Washington suffered a double blow in its plans for Iraq yesterday as France and Germany balked at proposals for an international force while the British Prime Minister gave a cautious response to a call for 5,000 extra British troops.

full: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=440335

===

Would you like some freedom fries with your crow, Mr. President?

Six months after spitting in the face of the world, the Bush administration is crawling on its belly before the U.N. If the world doesn't rush to help it, the White House has only itself to blame.

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4625.htm
 
How can an occupying army pacify a hostile population? Through utter brutality.

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4618.htm

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"Death Here Without Reason or Justification":

Tim Predmore, Airborne Soldier, Stands Up, Speaks Out. 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 for us here, oil seems to be the reason for our presence.

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4619.htm

===

Robert Fisk: Don't Say We Were Not Warned About This Chaos:

Note how the blood of Iraqis - whom we were so desperate to liberate six months ago - has disappeared from the narrative. No wonder journalists now have to seek permission from the occupation authorities to visit Baghdad hospitals. Who knows how many corpses they would find in the morgue?

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4614.htm

===

Myths, Truth And U.S. Re-Construction:

How the U.S. is robbing Iraqi's and Americans and transferring the wealth to the good old boys.

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4621.htm
 
Hussein Link to 9/11 Lingers in Many Minds:

The Post poll, conducted Aug. 7-11, found that 62 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of independents suspected a link between Hussein and 9/11. In addition, eight in 10 Americans said it was likely that Hussein had provided assistance to al Qaeda, and a similar proportion suspected he had developed weapons of mass destruction..."

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4631.htm

===

Joseph Goebbels, Speech (1934) On the Importance Of Propaganda:

Propaganda must be creative. It is by no means a matter for the bureaucracy or official administration, rather it is a matter of productive fantasy. - The National Socialist state, growing out of a revolution, had the task of centrally leading both propaganda and education, uniting two concepts that are related but not identical, molding them into a unity that in the long term can serve the government and people. A Must Read

full: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb59.htm
 
Canada: No Plans for Troops to Iraq:

It's unlikely Canada would contribute troops to any peacekeeping operation in Iraq, Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said Friday.

full: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/09/05/177377-cp.html

===

Australia Not To Send Troops to Iraq:

Australia will not send peacekeepers to Iraq even if the U.N. Security Council supports a new multinational force to help American forces there, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said.

full: http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=257843&lang=e&dir=news

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An extra 3,000 British troops for Iraq: the full brigade-level force of 5,000 which the Foreign Office wanted to avert "strategic failure" in Iraq cannot be sent because commanders do not have enough easily deployable troops available.

full: http://tinyurl.com/mfsj

===

4-man Fiji Mercenary Advance team leaves for Iraq:

Mr Raivoce said this would be a great source of income for those servicemen who have retired as well as those members of the RFMF Territorial Forces currently unemployed who have had experience through peacekeeping duties in the past.

full: http://www.fijilive.com/news/show/news/2003/09/05/05d.html
 
Day by Day, The Noose Tightens Around No 10:

Henry Porter, bestselling author of espionage novels, examines the role of intelligence chief John Scarlett and shows how the Hutton inquiry is uncovering a dangerous mix of spies and secrets.

full: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/story/0,13747,1037146,00.html

===

Hungary sweats over US plans for Iraqi camp:

As the United States gears up to ship 28,000 Iraqi police recruits to a former Soviet airbase, Gabriel Ronay finds their prospective Hungarian hosts are far from happy.

full: http://www.sundayherald.com/36545
 
Two missiles fired at US military plane in Baghdad:

Two surface- to-air missiles were fired at a US military C-141 transport plane on Saturday

full: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4638.htm

===

In case you missed it.

Stingers, Stingers, Who's Got the Stinger: We gave them to the mujahideen. We sold them to our allies. Will they end up biting us back?

full: http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2001/011002-attack03.htm

===

Poll: British PM Blair Should Quit:
Tony Blair should resign over the death of weapons expert David Kelly, according to a poll published today.

full: http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,7192473^1702,00.html
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/p...00&en=f2ec36535b40917c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

I'm thinking, if this war was all pre planned, PNAC and all that, with the public being fed a line of bull, why didnt' the military, the army, the admin, do a better job of having the necessary resources ready for the operation: I mean, they had years to plan, right?

The way it stands, it almost looks like a relatively hurried affair, kind of thrown together in the wake of something like a terrorist threat or something.
 
Bomb hits Iraqi Kurd region

A car bomb has exploded outside an office used by US troops near the Iraqi Kurdish city of Irbil.

One Iraqi was killed and 47 people were injured, including six US Defense Department personnel, the American military said in Baghdad.

The blast set cars on fire in the area around the office - a checkpoint between Irbil and the nearby hilltop town of Salahuddin - and firefighters battled to contain the blaze.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3095512.stm
 
Johnny Canuck2:

I'm thinking, if this war was all pre planned, PNAC and all that, with the public being fed a line of bull, why didnt' the military, the army, the admin, do a better job of having the necessary resources ready for the operation: I mean, they had years to plan, right?

The way it stands, it almost looks like a relatively hurried affair, kind of thrown together in the wake of something like a terrorist threat or something.

Maybe because they are incompetent Johnny? It has been planned for years, but like boys with toys they were interested in the fighting part, and not so much the 'tidying up and putting things back in their boxes' bit.

edited to add: Take the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings in Washington on the eve of war. Assistant Under Secretary Douglas Feith, one of Rumsfeld's "neo-cons", revealed that an office for "post-war planning" had only been opened three weeks earlier. He and Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman conceded that the Pentagon had been "thinking" about post-war Iraq for 10 months. "There are enormous uncertainties," Feith said. "The most you can do in planning is develop concepts."

http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk09052003.html
 
FOURTEEN WOUNDED IN IRAQ

Fourteen US troops have been injured in the last 24-hours following two attacks in flashpoint zones west of Baghdad.

A senior coalition spokesman confirmed three soldiers were wounded on Tuesday in an "improvised explosive device" (IED) attack against their vehicle in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Another two were injured at Ramadi, 60 miles west of the Iraqi capital, also in an IED attack. All five were evacuated to nearby medical facilities. The strikes followed a series of attacks on Monday which ended a two-day spell when the military recorded no casualties.

The official said nine soldiers were injured in four attacks in Baghdad on Monday. This included two soldiers wounded in small arms fire.

Another attack involved a hand grenade which injured three soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division. A further three soldiers from the same division were wounded in an IED attack.

The spokesman said a soldier from the 4th Infantry Division was injured when his unit was hit in a tactical assembly area by mortar fire on Monday afternoon.

US forces have endured an average of 12 to 15 attacks a day in Iraq since US President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-12769640,00.html
 
Report 'to claim Hoon misled MPs'

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is reportedly to be accused by MPs of giving "misleading" evidence about the government's controversial Iraq dossier.
The London Evening Standard newspaper says that is the claim to be made by MPs in the Intelligence and Security Committee's key report which is due to be published on Thursday.

The report, on the use of intelligence in the run-up to war with Iraq, is said to conclude that the 45 minute claim should not have been included in the dossier - but also reportedly clears Alastair Campbell of having it inserted against the wishes of the intelligence services.

The newspaper says the report says Mr Hoon ignored advice from senior civil servants when he denied Defence Intelligence Staff were unhappy with the dossier.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3096034.stm
 
Not that there was ever much doubt that this was a complete load of crap, but.........

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- U.N. inspectors found Iraq's nuclear program in disarray and unlikely to be able to support an active effort to build weapons, the atomic agency chief said in a confidential report obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei reiterated that his experts uncovered no signs of a nuclear weapons program before they withdrew from Iraq just before the war began in March.

The United States and Britain invaded Iraq because they believed Saddam Hussein's regime was developing nuclear arms as well as chemical and biological weapons.

"In the areas of uranium acquisition, concentration and centrifuge enrichment, extensive field investigation and document analysis revealed no evidence that Iraq had resumed such activities," ElBaradei said in the report, made available to the AP by a diplomat.

"No indication of post-1991 weaponization activities was uncovered in Iraq," he said.

Source is Associated Press, but there was no link given on page I copied and pasted this from.
 
Originally posted by Johnny Canuck2
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/p...00&en=f2ec36535b40917c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

I'm thinking, if this war was all pre planned, PNAC and all that, with the public being fed a line of bull, why didnt' the military, the army, the admin, do a better job of having the necessary resources ready for the operation: I mean, they had years to plan, right?

The way it stands, it almost looks like a relatively hurried affair, kind of thrown together in the wake of something like a terrorist threat or something.
Click to expand...

Because they are all in the grip of Group Think...

http://www.cedu.niu.edu/~fulmer/groupthink.htm

Eight Main Symptoms of Group Think

Illusion of Invulnerability: Members ignore obvious danger, take extreme risk, and are overly optimistic.

Collective Rationalization: Members discredit and explain away warning contrary to group thinking.

Illusion of Morality: Members believe their decisions are morally correct, ignoring the ethical consequences of their decisions.

Excessive Stereotyping:The group constructs negative sterotypes of rivals outside the group.

Pressure for Conformity: Members pressure any in the group who express arguments against the group's stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, viewing such opposition as disloyalty.

Self-Censorship: Members withhold their dissenting views and counter-arguments.

Illusion of Unanimity: Members perceive falsely that everyone agrees with the group's decision; silence is seen as consent.

Mindguards: Some members appoint themselves to the role of protecting the group from adverse information that might threaten group complacency.
Click to expand...
 
Masked guerrillas attacked U.S. soldiers repairing a broken-down truck on Thursday, prompting a firefight that left buildings burning in a town in Saddam Hussein's former heartland, witnesses said.
They said the attackers fired two rocket-propelled grenades at soldiers working on the truck in the afternoon.

Two U.S. tanks then arrived and fired at nearby buildings in Khaldiya, about 45 miles west of Baghdad, in a Sunni Muslim region where anti-U.S. resistance has been strongest.

There was also heavy machine-gun fire on both sides, they said.

A U.S. army spokesman said two U.S. military vehicles were destroyed and one American soldier wounded in the incident.

"This is a warning to any army which wants to come and take over our country," he shouted as flames blazed from the vehicles and a building behind him. "Any troops coming here, we will attack them like we attack Americans."

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3429534
 
"Show me the money!" Is what Bush might be saying to the US population in a while....

President Bush's $87 billion request for military and reconstruction operations primarily in war-torn Iraq for next year produced some sticker shock among lawmakers and taxpayers, but it's likely to serve as a simple down payment for the ultimate cost.

The funds sought by the president - $51 billion to support the 152,000 troops in Iraq, $21 billion to rebuild the shattered infrastructure, with the rest going to support operations in Afghanistan - will cover only estimated expenses for next year and comes on the heels of $79 billion that Congress already has approved.

The administration initially hoped that Iraq's oil revenues would offset some of the costs, but that source has proved disappointing. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz originally estimated that Iraq's oil could bring in more than $50 billion a year. McClellan said this week that those goals wouldn't be met. Oil revenues, he said, will hit $12 billion this year, $20 billion in 2004 and $20 billion in 2005.



http://www.knxv.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=BUSH-IRAQ-09-11-03&cat=II
 
:rolleyes:

[/B]In television and newspaper interviews on Thursday's anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said hundreds of fighters from al-Qaida and other groups are now in Iraq. Wolfowitz also said "a great many" bin Laden operatives were trying to link up with remnants of Saddam's regime to attack Americans.

But Wolfowitz - an architect of U.S. policy in Iraq - said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press that he had misspoken.

He said U.S. military forces were still trying to identify foreign fighters flowing into Iraq and whether they are collaborating with Saddam loyalists resisting the U.S.-led occupation forces.[/B]

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/politics/6757798.htm
 
Nice to see the spin has stopped..:rolleyes:

Just as Britain and the US send more troops to Iraq and seek international help to restore stability, it has emerged that Mr Blair, almost alone among leaders of major nations, is to stay away from the opening of the UN General Assembly later this month. The development is bound to increase the Prime Minister's isolation following his decision to join the US in going to war without a UN resolution, and has led to speculation that he is reluctant to leave the country at a time when his conduct is under examination in the Hutton inquiry.

Downing Street yesterday refused to comment on the grounds that it does not disclose the Prime Minister's movements in advance. But this has not applied to other international summits, where his attendance has been announced well in advance.
 :rolleyes:
 
Iraq to buy part of its wheat needs from US

Jordan Times, Saturday, September 13, 2003

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq will buy part of its wheat needs for 2004 from the United States while continuing to import the staple commodity from Australia, a senior Iraqi trade ministry official said on Thursday. "For sure, some of our wheat imports will be from the United States," Fakhruddin Rashan, the US-appointed executive director of the trade ministry told Reuters.

"American firms have started contacting the ministry and expressed readiness to supply wheat, other cereals and foodstuffs," he added.

Iraq's wheat harvest and import requirement were kept secret during Saddam Hussein's rule that was ousted by the US-led coalition forces five months ago.

Rashan did not say, however, how much wheat Iraq would import from the United States.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/News arc...aq to buy part of its wheat needs from US.htm
 
Iraq's Epic Suffering Is Made Invisible
by John Pilger
Dissident Voice
September 13, 2003

Of course, if the great crime in Iraq was represented not by the poignant moment of a dead squaddie's flag-draped coffin returning, but by the unrelenting horror I have watched on unseen videotape, the cover would crack. And the illusion presented by the Hutton inquiry would be revealed. As it is, Hutton is the magician Blair's best trick so far, for an inquiry into the death of one man ensures that real public investigation into why Blair took Britain into war will not happen. It ensures that while we are allowed to read internal e-mails in Whitehall, we are denied scrutiny of the traffic between Blair and Bush, which almost certainly would expose the biggest lie of all, and reveal that the decision to invade was taken long before Washington dreamt up the charade of weapons of mass destruction. That would sink Blair.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles8/Pilger_Iraq-Suffering.htm
 
From one of last sundays broadsheet specials. Everythings fine and dandy in Iraq not.

Robert Fisk : Secret slaughter by night. 1000 Iraqi civilians are being killed every week!


"Though light years from the atrocities of Saddam's security forces, the US military here is turning out to be as badly disciplined and brutal as the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Its "recon-by-fire", its lethal raids into civilian homes, its shooting of demonstrators and children during fire-fights, its destruction of houses, its imprisonment of thousands of Iraqis without trial or contact with their families, its refusal to investigate killings, its harassment - and killing - of journalists, its constant refrain that it has "no information" about bloody incidents which it must know all too much about, are sounding like an echo-chamber of the Israeli army."

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/09/1645030.php
 
More dead INNOCENT Iraqi people.

Neighbors blame U.S. troops for boy's killing in Fallujah
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — Neighbors said Thursday that a 14-year-old boy was killed and six people were wounded after people at a wedding fired guns into the air to celebrate and a passing U.S. military patrol opened fire, believing it was under attack.
The neighbors who witnessed the incident said the boy and the wounded were hit by American fire from a passing convoy of Humvees late Wednesday. The military could not be reached for comment because of communications problems in Baghdad

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-09-18-iraq_x.htm
 
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