12.19.2003
Extremists
Extremists
The Forward reports Rabbi Saadya Grama of the ultra-orthodox Beth Medrash Govoha Yeshiva here in Lakewood New Jersey is a Jewish Supremecist.
The difference between the people of Israel and the nations of the world is an essential one. The Jew by his source and in his very essence is entirely good. The goy, by his source and in his very essence is completely evil. This is not simply a matter of religious distinction, but rather of two completely different species."
The book has endorsements from people at the yeshiva, including it's religious leader. Those endorsements have been recalled as the the book, written in Hebrew, becomes more widely known. Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, the highest authority of the yeshiva wrote this as it's reccomendation
"on the subjects of the Exile, the Election of Israel and her exaltation above and superiority to all of the other nations, all in accordance with the viewpoint of the Torah, based on the solid instruction he has received from his teachers."
Interesting what the light of truth can cause:
...the Anti-Defamation League and the chancellor of Yeshiva University condemned the book, and several ultra-Orthodox communal spokesmen tried to convince the Forward not to report its existence.
The Forward should be applauded for helping truth become common knowledge. Please read the whole article. Do you think Rabbi Saadya Grama is interested in justice, in peace for the Isreali and Palestinian people?
Go on over to Orcinus to see that extremism is getting pretty mainstream in America. Hard to imagine a white supremecist can be on TV (MSNBC) with no bio offered, as if he was just another professor type. Another jounalist.
On Tuesday's Joe Scarborough show, national audiences were treated to a good ol' fashioned anti-immigrant hatefest, replete with standup performances by Pat Buchanan and a famous white supremacist named Jared Taylor.
Just a quick clip of Taylor:
But, more to the point as far as this evening’s debate is concerned, what we had until about 1960 was a homogeneously European population, with a small black population. Now we have and increasingly Third World population. Diversity, the very thing we are supposed to be celebrating, is in fact for any country a terrible weakness and a reason for conflict and dissension.
Give the Scarborough show link a read. Is it just me or are the non-rascists more fact based, the "white America' folks more vague and polemic? That Taylor speaks well for a hate pusher. But a moments thought show him to be the same misguided critter as the folks that spew racial epithets.
At least the anti-Torah rascist Rabbi was repudiated when the general public found out about the fellows views. The Joe Scarborough is put out for general consumption...
12/19/2003
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12.18.2003
Sharon Moving Slowly
Here is the full text of the speech that Ariel Sharon gave today concerning The Israeli government's honoring of the "roadmap to peace" (read the full text) worked out by "the Quartet" mediators - the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia.
The Roadmap calls for both sides of the issue to stop the violence. It also calls for Israel to freeze all settlement activity.
Prime Minister Sharon said today
Israel will fulfil the commitments taken upon itself. I have committed to the President of the United States that Israel will dismantle unauthorized outposts. It is my intention to implement this commitment. The State of Israel is governed by law, and the issue of the outposts is no exception. I understand the sensitivity; we will try to do this in the least painful way possible, but the unauthorized outposts will be dismantled. Period.
The emphasis above is mine. The Israeli Peace group Gush Shalom website points out that according to the roadmap the truth is (scroll down in link) that ALL settlements created after January 2001 are to be removed. And that all building activity among the settlements be stopped.
The maps in the hyperlinks show that the settlements or colonies that are in contention riddle the West Bank and Gaza, along with Israeli military bases. Look to see the few slated to be removed; as well as the many that will remain fixed in place.
Look at a map of the manned checkpoints, the roadblocks and the gates inside the West Bank. See the proposed four section "Palestinian state" that Sharon offers.
It seems clearly impossible that a just peace can be reached in this manner. Each of the many settlements (there are said to be at least 103) in Palestinian territory requires both access roads and property. On confiscated land. They also require military presence. Israel spends 560 million dollars a year on subsidies, infrastructure and education in these illegal outposts. That is exclusive of military presence.
Israel, whose population is 0.1% of the total world population, gets roughly one-third of all US foreign aid. Annually this amounts to more than $3 billion in US taxpayer dollars going to Israel. $2.04 billion of that is military aid.
Your tax dollars support Israeli militarism in the occupied territories, find out more.
"The Lie of the Land", an article from Haaretz posted at the Israeli peace group Peace Now website can offer you some understanding on illegal settlement activity as land grab. It also serves to show the Sharon policy for promoting this process. You can here a really instructive radio piece(RealAudio streaming format) that was first featured on the show "This American Life", Dror Etkes speaks of his attempts to document the spread of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. A reluctant activist for peace, his story is compelling from a personal angle as well as from what you learn. Mr Bush and his administration are in good company with Mr Sharon and his when it comes to lying for political expediancy. New illegal settlements have been built up in the last week.
If Sharon honors international law, the roadmap, he is in hot water with the religious extremists in his governing coalition. Uprooting settlements violates the coalition agreement and the ideology of the Likud.
As a good politico, his speech walks the thin line of talking about doing what is just and doing what his extremist religious supporters want. His speech has angered many people among them Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia:
"The language of threats that was evident in the speech -- that ... if things don't work, we will take unilateral steps, draw lines -- these are ultimately dangerous words, and this type of talk is simply not acceptable."
If Palestinian violence occurs Sharon can appease the extremist Israelis. He speaks of a unilateral "Disengagement Plan". So the ball is in his court. There is no specific time frame offered. He needn't take away the settlements which would be political suicide for him, if he can just generate some Palestinian violence. Knocking some houses down, shooting some unarmed civilians can get the familiar rhythm of violence going again. Then he can justify his unilateral action.
But the people of Israel want peace.Surveys and public opinion studies that were commissioned by the group were sent to Sharon. The findings clearly showed that the majority of the public in Israel supports a move of evacuating Jewish settlements in the territories, and a sweeping majority supports the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip.
President Bush has cautioned Mr Sharon not to take any unilateral steps that would frustrate the aims of the roadmap.
Christian and Jewish conservatives in the US warn Bush not to "push" Israel.
Gary Bauer, a former GOP presidential contender who now heads the conservative group American Values, said he is “uncertain” about the Bush administration’s Mideast policy in the wake of the Hussein capture, but cautioned against using the president’s new political and diplomatic clout to pressure Israel.
“I expect to work enthusiastically for the president’s re-election,” he said in a veiled warning to the White House. “But even exceptional presidents make mistakes.”
The context for the above quote deals with the Geneva Accords. The Roadmap for Peace seems to have supplanted this effort, and may well be what is getting Sharon "moving", the boundry set would be the Green Line as spelled out in UN Resolution 242...
It should come as no surprise that Right-Wing Religious extremist Pat Robertson has spoken out out against Justice for Palestinians and peace in the Middle East.
What would Jesus say, Pat?
People on the whole are people and want a better world. The religious fundamentalists, the extremists of whatever persuasion stand in the way of our progress.
12/18/2003
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Constant Conflict
US Army War College Quarterly
There will be no peace. At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. Violent conflict will dominate the headlines, but cultural and economic struggles will be steadier and ultimately more decisive. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing.
12/18/2003
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Presidential Dissembling on 9/11 Warnings
The problem for the president and the administration is that the White House has previously admitted that the president had personally received such specific warnings. As ABC News reported in May of 2002, "White House officials acknowledge that U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the September 11th attacks that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes." As Condoleezza Rice said at a hastily called press conference to spin these revelations, the President specifically received an "analytic report" on August 6th, 2001 at his Crawford mansion that "talked about Osama bin Laden's methods of operation" and "mentioned hijacking." According to Reuters, that report was congruent with "intelligence since 1998 that said followers of bin Laden were planning to strike U.S. targets, hijack U.S. planes.".
In an interview with ABC tv Mr Bush cavalierly deals with Saddam Husseins lack of WMD's and the Bush Administrations rush to war.
Bush: Iraq intelligence was sound
US President dismisses any difference between whether Saddam had WMDs or planned to acquire them.
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush on Tuesday dismissed any distinction between whether former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein actually had weapons of mass destruction or planned to acquire them.
"So what's the difference?" he asked
The difference? You lied to America and the world, Mr Bush.
Read the full articles...
12/18/2003
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12.17.2003
Senators Told Iraqi Weapons Could Strike East Coast Cities
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday the Bush administration last year told him and other senators that Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction, but they had the means to deliver them to East Coast cities.
Nelson, D-Tallahassee, said about 75 senators got that news during a classified briefing before last October's congressional vote authorizing the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Nelson voted in favor of using military force.
12/17/2003
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The Internet as We Know it- Threatened
Over at thoughts on the eve of the apocalypse, one of my daily blog reads I linked to this piece in Newsweek "A Net of Control
Unthinkable: How the Internet could become a tool of corporate and government power, based on updates now in the works" by Steven Levy. It paints a picture of a totally controlled digital future, sold to us as a remedy for spam, viruses, credit card fraud and the like.
I'm Big Brother and I'm here to help you.
I'm already uncomfortable with the fact that Yahoo.com owns my e-mail because it is situated on their server. I suppose you get what you pay for. I seem to remember Pentium P3 chips were manufactured to send out a unique identifier- until consumers rejected the concept. I hate cookies. I go to fellow bloggers sites and get cookies thrown at me, Amazon, sitemeters, eesh. Bloggers yet. I throw my hands up in disbelief... I need nothing to help me shop on the internet.
Put some time into reading "The Digital Imprimatur: How big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the bottle" By John Walker. You really need to become familiar with the material offered if you enjoy the freedom of commerce of thought more than commerce itself.
I have slow-ass dialup service because information over telephone lines is treated differently by law than cable. I want to support my dial-up company, I don't want to contributr to its extinction allowing multi-tier cable internet to dictate just what sites I can see under my payment plan... I gave you a link to each Project Censored story months ago so I'm guessing you already know this. In case you missed it explore # 6 Closing Access to Information Technology.
If you enjoy spreading the truth and pointing out that the miserable failure is unelectable you need to now just what is going on with the internet. Activism in behalf of this amazing activists tool, this free medium to get and share information, may be crucial.
Because you know all this freedom of information, this uncensored bringing truth to light pisses "them" off. And has the greedheads scurrying to find a way to make a buck from us. Napster was the first assault.
Check out the Electronic Freedom Foundation. They also cover the black box voting assault on Democracy.
As an aside, Bev Harris' book, Black Box voting is available on my sidebar in .pdf. Buy the book. I only have up to chapter 11 posted there, I'll get the other 3 chapters up pronto. Crucial information...
Scroll down sidebar, they are up now.
Buy the book!
12/17/2003
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Who's Who in Occupied Iraq - A Limited Tool
The BBC gives a thumbnail sketch of the various factions and personalities, groups religious, ethnic and political vying for power in Occupied Iraq. I offer it as a tool for further research in understanding the complexity of forces moving to govern a democratic Iraq.
12/17/2003
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Prisoner Saddam
Could it be possible that Saddam Hussein was not hiding, that in fact he was being held prisoner?
After his last audiotaped message was delivered and aired over al Arabiya TV on Sunday November 16, on the occasion of Ramadan, Saddam was seized, possibly with the connivance of his own men, and held in that hole in Adwar for three weeks or more, which would have accounted for his appearance and condition. Meanwhile, his captors bargained for the $25 m prize the Americans promised for information leading to his capture alive or dead. The negotiations were mediated by Jalal Talabani’s Kurdish PUK militia.
"Indications Saddam Was Not in Hiding But a Captive" An interesting and thought provoking read from The DEBKAfile.
12/17/2003
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Military/Entertainment Nexus
Talk about disturbing. Videogame Developers and the US military are teaming up to make videogames. What a great adjucnt to the crumbling educational system the budget cuts offer our nation, as well as the 3 million jobs this administration has seen go offshore. Plenty of disaffected unemployed youth to fill the ranks of the miltary. The draft as employment.
Give "The Pentagon Invades Your Xbox: New and Powerful Form of Propaganda Aims to Indoctrinate Young Video Gamers" by Nick Turse at Dissident Voice your attention.
A few thoughts:
Anyone who has watched the news during the Iraq war could note that what we the viewer was exposed to was much like a videogame, scenes through nightvision goggles of weapons doing "their stuff", graphics around the edge of the screen bespeaking the power and range of the ordinance in question....
The essence of what war is, killing, made somewhat surreal and nicely sanitized. Game like. To be more specific, videogame-like. Remember the protests that went up when Al- Jazeera broadcast images of the reality of war? The photo of the innocent child's head blown in half; that is what war is. A neat and clean camera shot from a cruise missile and then the resultant explosion seen from a distance is not. War is the dealing of death, the side with the less death wins... It is easy to support a concept like a war of aggression if one conveniently ignores looking into the facts very deeply. The mechanics of war are much the same. Decent and good people, the majority that make up America, have trouble looking at death. This is much more the case when facts erase the efforts of an individual to believe contradictory and ever shifting "reasons" for war. The capture of Saddam has to be a great tension release for those who supported the war against all truth. The noble cause emerged again after being revealed for the sham it was. It just takes a quick shift of thought to feel better...
The militarization of our popular culture should set off some warning bells. Maybe it is too late, an audience that has traded a good chunk of it's life (and the active living, being, experiencing being that entails) for time spent watching the made up antics and the new "reality-based" inanities might be too far down the road to even see a problem. A majority of television and film content concerns killing. Think about it. If a majority of programming concerned drug use or homosexuality there would be an uproar. The shows would "advocate" something. Shows that demonstrate the effectiveness of weapons and violence, that illustrate how good the force applied by authority is are as American as apple pie. They are just entertainment. They through their content advocate nothing on an overt or subtextual level.
It doesn't make sense to me.
A war/entertainment industry to me is obscene; handing the minds of the next generation over to the US military machine says a great deal about our society. Just taking the "No Child Left Behind Act" one step further, not only giving their contact information unwittingly kids will be giving their worldview away. Young people pre-conditioned by videogames to be desensitized killers now are marketable.
Research on the violent videogame/violent movie connection is mixed. I ask you to consider how you feel watching a movie, did you ever find yourself saying "He's behind the door, idiot" even just in your mind? Or get an adrenaline rush playing a videogame? There is a somatic factor to these sorts of entertainment. Some studies suggest that there is a greater effect on later aggressiveness the more one identifies with the game character, the more immersed one finds oneself in the mediated environment of the game. This is heightened by identifying with the character in the game.
"Kuma: War," developed by newcomer Kuma Reality Games in cooperation with the Department of Defense and slated for general release next year, is being billed as the first shooter game that will allow players to re-create actual military missions, such as the raid that killed Saddam Hussein's two sons. Each combat assignment will be introduced by television footage and a cable news-style anchor. Kuma boasts a team of military veteran advisors, who " … make sure the missions … are as realistic as possible." A retired Marine Corps major general leads the company's military advisory board.
Sounds like the player who has chosen this game will identify with it easily. Will readily immerse into it, like being in a tv show, or on the news. A war hero.
The news releases from Iraq while the US initially persecuted it's war show how effective the military/entertainment angle can be, even to adults. People overall are none too critical while watch "movies" or "tv shows", we all have been trained throughout our lives to suspend disbelief while watching "entertainment"...
TV, the plug in drug.
12/17/2003
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12.16.2003
UN GA Votes Concerning World Security
Have you heard/seen anything about the voting in the UN General Assembly concerning Nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, including the important issue of non-militarization of space?
The US was alone in voting against activating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. 173 to 1
A subcritical nuclear test is scheduled to be held 85 miles from Las Vegas in 2004. The elected President Bush imposed a moratorium on nuclear testing in 1992.
India joined the US in voting against a program for transparent, verified, and irreversible reduction and elimination of nuclear war making abilities. 14 nations abstained from the vote. As signatories to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty , put into force in 1970 our nation is required to cut our stocks of nuclear weapons.
Rather than cutting back on nuclear arms the Bush Administration 2001 Nuclear Posture Review forecasts a "need" for a greater variety of nuclear weapons than ever before.
On not bringing the arms race into outer space the vote was 174 to zero. Sounds good until you see the US, Israel and the major world powers of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands abstained from the vote. All three states rely heavily on US goodwill for their existence. Money talks, my friends.
To learn more explore "The Shameful U.S. Record in 2003 Disarmament Votes at the United Nations", you'll note that the countries joining the US in voting against Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty enforcement issues all embrace "the Bomb". "Possession as 9 points of the law" as the saying goes and all, I guess.
Learn more about space based weapons. Visit the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability is a comprehensive information site to learn about nuclear health, weapons and cleanup issues.
Reaching Critical Will will inform your judgement on these pressing nuclear issues.
12/16/2003
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Legislative Lies
The Center for American Progress offers a handy fact sheet with supportive links that blows the corporate cover of the present administration, read "2003: A Year of Distortion for the American People".
Take a look at White House claims about GOP legislation concerning healthcare, the economy, the environment, education, Iraq, Afghanistan and Homeland Security. The claims make great soundbites, the facts show an immense disregard for the truth.
Without a collaborative and cowed media such effrontery would not even have been attempted against the American people, much less would it have been done with so much success.
With hardly a mainstream media mention to bring the realities of current legislation into public discourse we see the common good of the people trampled in a rush for corporate cash.
Help get the truth out.
12/16/2003
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Lest We Forget
(Some tools for discernment concerning recent headlines)
Although the United States went to war with Iraq over the threat of nonexistent weapons that we were told threatened "We the People" here in America Mr Bush and his administration have conveniently forgot that fact. It seems a majority of us have too, the war is roundly hailed as a Bush success now that the murderous despot Saddam Hussein has been captured.
We should remember, as William Pitt points out, Saddam Hussein is in part an American creation, a man that for years was on the US payroll.Saddam Hussein, former employee of the American federal government, was captured near a farmhouse in Tikrit in a raid performed by other employees of the American federal government. That sounds pretty deranged, right? Perhaps, but it is also accurate. The unifying thread binding together everyone assembled at that Tikrit farmhouse is the simple fact that all of them – the soldiers as well as Hussein – have received pay from the United States for services rendered.
I realize as I talk to my fellows that most folks are too caught up in life to have very much knowledge of US history, much less the history of US involvement with the affairs of other nations.
Did you know that Saddam came to power with the help of the CIA? Yes, the same people that have gotten Ahmed Chalabi a start with his Iraqi National Congress, and in Saddam's case oil figures in too. If you read todays USA Today you would get the story of Husseins rise to power- without the CIA mentioned . Go figure.
Richard Sale of United Press International (UPI) documents the Saddam/CIA connection. This connection has been documented and published in the New York Times in an article entitled "A Tyrant 40 Years in the Making" by Roger Morris who was a former National Security Council staffer.
Abdel Karim Qassim (Kassem) had overthrown the pro west monarchy of Iraq and had the temerity to nationalize Iraqi oil. He was widely popular with his people. His defiance of the corporate west was his death sentence. That is where Saddam Hussein's rise to power begins.
Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984 National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 82 Edited by Joyce Battle February 25, 2003 will give you a depth of understanding about the Hussein/ Reagan/ elected President Bush nexis. You'll note that a great many of the same players have resurfaced in the administration of the current White House resident.
This is a pretty interesting exchange between Hussein and an interrogator:
Saddam was also asked whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. “No, of course not,” he replied, according to the official, “the U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us.” The interrogator continued along this line, said the official, asking: “if you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?” Saddam’s reply: “We didn’t want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy.”
History can show you why.
In 1998 UNSCOM weapons inspectors had become unwitting spies for the US government when Scott Ritter's inspection crew started monitoring the Iraqi presidents telephone and then succeeded in discovering the algorithms that kept Hussein's conversations coded. The UN inspectors where searching for the truth surrounding Iraq's weapons programs. American intelligence had other ideas of what the telephone intercepts could be used for. An intelligence agency called the Special Collection Service (SCS) which is run jointly by the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency (NSA) had it's technicians track Saddams whereabouts and figure out a pattern to his travels.
Read the Seymour Hersh piece "Saddam's Best Friend: How the C.I.A. made it a lot easier for the Iraqi leader to rearm" to get the full story.
Richard Butler, head of the UN inspection team pulled the inspectors out of Iraq. They were not kicked out by Saddam Hussein.Butler ordered his inspectors to evacuate Baghdad, in anticipation of a military attack, on Tuesday night."
Here is a list of the original reportage concerning Butler pulling out UN inspecters and then more recent references to them "being kicked out" of Iraq.
Remember this was under the Clinton administration, The Bush administration is not alone in lacking integrity when it comes to Iraq.
2 days later, utilizing the telephone intercept intelligence Operation Desert Fox was launched, 4 days of hundreds of cruise missiles raining down on "military targets" in Iraq, including two trysting places Saddam frequented with his mistresses.
Many of the sites bombed had been inspected by UNSCOM. Scott Ritter was accused of spying by the Iraqi government. Ritter gives a very telling history of the inspections, I recommend reading it. One gets the sense that the Clinton administration was pushing Saddam to do something.With Berger facing one last opportunity for decisive military action, Butler was instructed to organize inspection activity designed to provoke Iraq into breaking its agreement to cooperate fully with UNSCOM
The Hussein regime allowed the inspectors into really sensitive areas. But that was not enough.
With a malleable press, 9/11 and what was percieved as a quick run of Afghanistan Bush took it from there... The blinders of Patriotism are a powerful thing when a populace wants to believe.
You can use a search engine to delve into the truth yourself. I hope you find these limited offerings helpful in your search for understanding what is behind todays headlines. Dialogue with good people who have fallen for "The Big Lie", help them to inquire for themselves. The truth is easy to find. It just needs to be looked for.
12/16/2003
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12.15.2003
Hmmm...?
John Ashcroft and Saddam Hussein have something in common. I know what you are thinking, no it is not a love for repressive government, this commonality is more subtle than that, much less in the light.
Officials say the MKO--which originally fought to overthrow the Shah of Iran--was linked to the murder of several U.S. military officers and civilians in Iran in the 1970s. "They have an extremely bloody history," says one U.S. counterterrorism official.
John Ashcroft and Ol' Saddam both supported a terrorist group called the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO). You'd be surprised to find that this Iranian Terrorist group with 30,000 members in its army which is based in Iraq has been supported by over 200 members of Congress.
John Ashcroft and Chris Bond, Republican Senators from Missouri crafted a joint solidarity statement in support of the group, Mr Ashcroft's smiling face graced a briefing book the MKO used to garner support on Capital Hill.
Read the article. Some complex interesting stuff.
12/15/2003
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Our Man in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi
edited
We are regularly told that the insurgents fighting US occupation are Hussein loyalists, minus Hussein it would seem that resistance should fall away. Mr Bush has said time and again that the fighters are members of Al Qaida, a claim that Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the top US military commander in Iraq recently said is untrue. I suppose time will tell just who these fighters are in fact, and also give us some of the "why's" of their struggle against Occupation forces.
Too many people on both sides of the equation are dying.
A simple and apparent "why" is because the people of Iraq want Democracy. And just as in the US, even with its Constitutional seperations between church and state we for better or worse have a Christian government ( the use of the word "Christian" for the morally bankrupt militaristic present administration would make Jesus weep, I'm sorry)
or at least one that speaks in that manner"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did..." -- George W. Bush
And that is roundly considered OK. Were Mr Bush of any other religion our populace would think he was nuts. But speaking as a fundamentalist Christian is alright to our people and our press, obviously. We have Israel, a nation seemingly founded on the Jewish conception of G*D, we have the Hindu BJP ruling India and those governments are all well and good. The population of Iraq may very well want an Islamic government reflective of their populations majority and "whoa, put on the brakes". A self determining nation that is told it is time to strive for Democracy needs the inherent right to make the decision itself concerning just what its' governing body will be like. Or what people are dying for is not Democracy.
The Iraqi people want to get their government on its' feet The head of the Iraqi Governing Council renewed his demand yesterday that a proposed transitional legislature should be elected by Iraqi voters, a move opposed by occupation officials who prefer that the new body be picked by regional caucuses.
"The assembly will be elected by the Iraqi people. This is what we are trying to achieve and that’s what, God willing, will happen," said Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite Muslim politician who heads the council’s rotating presidency for December.
It seems the Iraqi's want a government for the people, by the peopleThe leader of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani, joined the ranks of skeptics last week, saying the American plan for Iraq has been fundamentally flawed by the appointment of an elite political class that doesn't represent most Iraqis.
Enter the INC.The Iraqi National Congress is partly a creation of the CIA, which provided it with its name and more than $12 million in covert funding between 1992 and 1996.
(The INC recieved 97 million dollars in 1998 from the US government. 25 million in 2002)
Ahmed Chalabi is one of these "elites". He left Iraq in the 1950's and returned with the war. (Read CIA Secret War link for more on him in Iraq in the 90's) Mr Chalabi is a neocon darling who may have fed Dick Cheney and his PNAC buddies inaccurate intelligence. Inaccurate intelligence that help get the attack on Iraq underway. Remember the Saddam statue getting pulled down? Chalabi was there. How did he get all the way to Iraq during wartime?"...Bush had ordered Cabinet officials not to give any preferential treatment to Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) when U.S. forces moved into Iraq last spring. But soon after, in flagrant violation of his directive, the Pentagon flew Chalabi and 600 of his armed followers into southern Iraq in early April, "with the approval of the vice president."
Oddly enough throughout the news about the capture of Saddam Hussein Chalabi's name comes up. The ex-exile of Iraq was among a small group of four leaders of the Iraqi governing council that went to see Hussein. They wanted to talk to him.Aides to the men differed slightly about what happened next: One said that Mr. Hussein, who they said had just awakened, did not recognize any of his visitors. Another said he recognized Dr. Chalabi and asked him to introduce the others.
"Saddam turned to Pachachi and said: `You were the foreign minister of Iraq. What are you doing with these people?' " one aide said.
I'm guessing Hussein would recognize the foreign minister of his country. Does it seem sensible he would only recognize Chalabi? Call me a cynic, but one of the accounts sounds like spin. The Times writer calls him Dr Chalabi, further reinforcing a sense of legitimacy about the man. His history shows a clear lack of legitimacy.
The article Tinker, Banker, Neocon, Spy will round out your knowledge of the man, and the political backing this convicted embezzler has from the political machine that subverted US democracy to get their war in Iraq.
Our troops are dying in Iraq for an ideal called Democracy. Our tax monies are being spent there to secure this greatest of political values for the Iraqi people. Is putting Cheney and companies boy on the Iraqi thrown fulfilling this?
Read "The CIA’s Secret War in Iraq" for a greater understanding of what is now occuring in Iraq. Democracy without a strong puppet in place is not what the US government wants, it never has been. And a strong puppet government is not a Democracy.
Saddam Hussein, now in the custody of Coalition Forces can no longer cast his shadow on the unfolding process occuring in Occupied Iraq.
Although it took a war that one it's architects, Richard Perle admitted was illegal to depose him, it is what it is and we should be happy for the Iraqi people. And although the reason for the war, Weapons of Mass Destruction have not been located and Saddam Hussein says there were none, time will tell. Iraqi scientist say there was no recent nuclear program, that even before the first Iraq war they fluffed their research figures touting Iraqi nuclear capability to make Saddam happy with them. After Gulf War1, nothing. The CIA also admits that it had no specific knowledge about the weapons that were given as the reason for the attack on Iraq, and that it shared these doubts in its' October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate with the present administration and Mr Bush. Steve Perry has collected evidence of Mr Bush's Top 40 lies about Iraq and Terrorism.
Robert Dreyfuss tells us that people in government are trying innovative ways to get the truth into the light.
By creating a “tip line” on his official Web site, Democratic congressman from California Henry Waxman is encouraging current and former U.S. national security officials to come forward and disclose how the administration played with intelligence on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda. A ranking member on the House Committee on Government Reform, Rep. Waxman is making it possible for officials to go on the record or remain anonymous, according to one of his aides.
Although the Bush administration insinuates it often, Mr Bush has admitted that there is no Iraq-9/11 link. Tell that to your friends that get their information from Fox news. Or believe Dick Cheney.
12/15/2003
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12.14.2003
Saddam Hussein Captured
Saddam Hussein has been captured in a raid on an farmhouse in Adwar, 10 miles from Tikrit. Beneath the farmhouse he was found in a well camouflaged, vented "spider hole" with 750,000 dollars and a couple AK-47 rifles and a pistol. He was taken without a fight.
Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress says Hussein will be tried before the Iraqi people. Asked on BBC radio if Saddam, arrested in his home town Tikrit early on Sunday, would be handed over to the Iraqi people, he said (Chalabi): "Yes. It won't be very long before a court case is prepared."
The US is not sure how the case will be disposed.
US Lt Gen Richardo Sanchez said at a news conference today that the US-led coalition was still deciding what to do with Saddam.
“At this point, that has not been determined, we continue to process Saddam at this point in time and those issues will be resolved in the near future,” Sanchez said.
This is what the NY Times Pentagon correspondant has to say about how it was planned, pre-capture, for the former Iraqi dictator to be tried.
Iraqi's are celebrating his capture.
12/14/2003
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The same internet statistics that predicted within less than one percentage point the percentage Howard Dean won the the Moveon.org internet primary by shows Dennis Kucinich ahead of all the candidates except Howard Dean, who holds a strong lead on Kucinich as well. And in the California Democratic Council (CDC) Vote, Howard Dean took a commanding first place with 56.11 percent of the vote with Dennis Kucinich placing second with 17.19 percent and Wesley Clark with 14.48 percent.
Will the "mainstream media" give him the coverage he merits? After he pointed out Ted Koppel's handling of the Durham NH "debate", ABC coincidently is not having their producer travel with the Kucinich campaign. Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton are also effected.
Here are Dennis and Ted:
KUCINICH: We start talking about endorsements, now we're talking about polls, and then we're talking about money. Well, you know, when you do that, you don't have to talk about what's important to the American people.
Ted, I'm the only one up here that actually...
(APPLAUSE)
... I'm the only up here on the stage that actually voted against the PATRIOT Act and voted against the war -- the only one on this stage.
I'm also...
(APPLAUSE)
... I'm also one of the few candidates up here who's talking about taking our health-care system from this for-profit system to a not-for-profit, single-payer universal health care for all.
(APPLAUSE)
I'm also the only one who has talked about getting out of NAFTA and the WTO and going back to bilateral trade...
(APPLAUSE)
... conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and the environment.
Now...
KOPPEL: Congressman?
KUCINICH: ... I may be inconvenient for some of those in the media, but, you know, I'm sorry about that.
(APPLAUSE)
Read the full transcript of the Durham debate. Set your pre-judgements aside.
What do you think?
Kucinich is now, with a usual estimate of two percent support in most polls, where Clinton was in the months before the Start of the 1991 Primaries.
12/14/2003
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