michelle
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Post by michelle on Jul 21, 2006 15:11:34 GMT 4
Thank you, Stan Goff. Your letter expresses the sentiments of many US citizens......MichelleOpen Letter to the Iraqi PeopleBy Stan Goff at 2:01 pm, 7/19/06 To the people of Iraq who suffer under the US occupation:
Those of us who opposed this war cannot apologize to you for what our government has done. But we can offer out condolences and our solidarity. As a former member of the US military, I join thousands of other veterans who abhor this administraton and its inhuman, illegal, and immoral occupation of your land and your society.In case you do not understand how our society works now, I will also point to the complicty of our major so-called news organs in facilitating the invasion and supporting the occupation. The American people are not monolithic, any more than the Iraqi people are. But I can generalize enough to say that we are one of the most indoctrinated peoples in the world. This indoctrination is all the more powerful, because part of our national mythology is that we are free to choose… free to choose Coca-Cola or Pepsi, free to choose Ford or Chevrolet, free to choose MSNBC or CNN. free to choose Republican or Democrat.
We are free to choose between the economic, cultural, and political products offered to us by our dominant class. And since we also enjoy the comforts afforded by cheap oil from your region and cheap prodcuts made in sweatshops that are far, far out of our sight, that comfort translates into a great deal of complacency.What passes for public discourse here is produced by the very rich and offered up as a commodity; and one of those commodities is a kind of melodrama of good versus evil, and the media participates in this because it is easy to sell, and because it sells the products that are advertised between 20-second “reports” that are supposed to substitute for understanding. Moral ambiguity doesn’t sell. Self-criticism doesn’t sell. The reality of war as you have experienced it in Iraq definitely doesn’t sell… unless it becomes a scandal.So I have a suggestion for you that can help break through this veil of mystification that the government and the media-of-the-rich have stretched between my people and your people. Amplify a scandal.There was a video made recently by a Marine in Iraq, called “Hadji Girl.” It was a cruel, racist, and woman-hating song that a Marine sang for other Marines at a kind of party there, that found humor in the lyrics that celebrated the killing of Iraqi children; and it was emblematic of the mindset that underwrites the cruel and racist occupation of Iraq. The cheering by the enitre unit during this video shows that the excuses made for this video — that it is not typical — is a lie.I suggest that Iraqis begin a graffitti campaign all over Iraq, painting the term HADJI GIRL everywhere, and posting an internet link, as well as distributing flyers that show the translated lyrics of this reprehensible song. Paint this term so ubiquitously that no journalists camera can escape it. Make signs for every demonstration, for every shop, for every car, so that when journalists aim their cameras at anything, someone can hold up the sign that says HADJI GIRL. Build a movement around the song, its racist title, and its disprespect for Iraq.
The reason I suggest this is that once a campaign like this gains enough momentum, it can no longer be ignored by our media; and this song embodies everything that is wrong with the occupation — its imperial hubris, its true aim of domination, its racism and Islamophobia, its militarism, its dehumanization of occupied and occupier alike, and its wanton cruelty. It will help hasten the end of the war, and allow Iraqis to reclaim their own futures, as well as repatriate our soldiers before more of them can be infected with this hatred. My own son is in the military and at risk to be dehumanized.This occupation must end. I encourage translation and wide distributon of this letter among Iraqis.
Yours for sovereignty and peace,
Stan Goff Source: stangoff.com/?p=329
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Dec 30, 2006 17:14:33 GMT 4
Saddam Hussein hanged at dawnSaddam Hussein was hanged for crimes against humanity at dawn on Saturday, a dramatic, violent end for a leader [and key US ally] who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a U.S. invasion four years ago. There is something almost freakish about the timing of his execution on the very eve of the Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the moment of greatest forgiveness in the Arab world, as noted by Robert Fisk in his article below. Also, The BRussells Tribunal Advisory Committee says that the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court that passed a death sentence on President Saddam Hussein is a farce. The statement is posted below. All I can say is: There's a lot of extra rope that needs to be put to good use here......MichelleRobert Fisk: A dictator created then destroyed by AmericaPublished: 30 December 2006 Saddam to the gallows. It was an easy equation. Who could be more deserving of that last walk to the scaffold - that crack of the neck at the end of a rope - than the Beast of Baghdad, the Hitler of the Tigris, the man who murdered untold hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis while spraying chemical weapons over his enemies? Our masters will tell us in a few hours that it is a "great day" for Iraqis and will hope that the Muslim world will forget that his death sentence was signed - by the Iraqi "government", but on behalf of the Americans - on the very eve of the Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the moment of greatest forgiveness in the Arab world. But history will record that the Arabs and other Muslims and, indeed, many millions in the West, will ask another question this weekend, a question that will not be posed in other Western newspapers because it is not the narrative laid down for us by our presidents and prime ministers - what about the other guilty men?No, Tony Blair is not Saddam. We don't gas our enemies. George W Bush is not Saddam. He didn't invade Iran or Kuwait. He only invaded Iraq. But hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead - and thousands of Western troops are dead - because Messrs Bush and Blair and the Spanish Prime Minister and the Italian Prime Minister and the Australian Prime Minister went to war in 2003 on a potage of lies and mendacity and, given the weapons we used, with great brutality. In the aftermath of the international crimes against humanity of 2001 we have tortured, we have murdered, we have brutalised and killed the innocent - we have even added our shame at Abu Ghraib to Saddam's shame at Abu Ghraib - and yet we are supposed to forget these terrible crimes as we applaud the swinging corpse of the dictator we created. Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability. And the mass killings we perpetrated in 2003 with our depleted uranium shells and our "bunker buster" bombs and our phosphorous, the murderous post-invasion sieges of Fallujah and Najaf, the hell-disaster of anarchy we unleashed on the Iraqi population in the aftermath of our "victory" - our "mission accomplished" - who will be found guilty of this? Such expiation as we might expect will come, no doubt, in the self-serving memoirs of Blair and Bush, written in comfortable and wealthy retirement.Hours before Saddam's death sentence, his family - his first wife, Sajida, and Saddam's daughter and their other relatives - had given up hope. "Whatever could be done has been done - we can only wait for time to take its course," one of them said last night. But Saddam knew, and had already announced his own "martyrdom": he was still the president of Iraq and he would die for Iraq. All condemned men face a decision: to die with a last, grovelling plea for mercy or to die with whatever dignity they can wrap around themselves in their last hours on earth. His last trial appearance - that wan smile that spread over the mass-murderer's face - showed us which path Saddam intended to walk to the noose. I have catalogued his monstrous crimes over the years. I have talked to the Kurdish survivors of Halabja and the Shia who rose up against the dictator at our request in 1991 and who were betrayed by us - and whose comrades, in their tens of thousands, along with their wives, were hanged like thrushes by Saddam's executioners. I have walked round the execution chamber of Abu Ghraib - only months, it later transpired, after we had been using the same prison for a few tortures and killings of our own - and I have watched Iraqis pull thousands of their dead relatives from the mass graves of Hilla. One of them has a newly-inserted artificial hip and a medical identification number on his arm. He had been taken directly from hospital to his place of execution. Like Donald Rumsfeld, I have even shaken the dictator's soft, damp hand. Yet the old war criminal finished his days in power writing romantic novels. It was my colleague, Tom Friedman - now a messianic columnist for The New York Times - who perfectly caught Saddam's character just before the 2003 invasion: Saddam was, he wrote, "part Don Corleone, part Donald Duck". And, in this unique definition, Friedman caught the horror of all dictators; their sadistic attraction and the grotesque, unbelievable nature of their barbarity. But that is not how the Arab world will see him. At first, those who suffered from Saddam's cruelty will welcome his execution. Hundreds wanted to pull the hangman's lever. So will many other Kurds and Shia outside Iraq welcome his end. But they - and millions of other Muslims - will remember how he was informed of his death sentence at the dawn of the Eid al-Adha feast, which recalls the would-be sacrifice by Abraham, of his son, a commemoration which even the ghastly Saddam cynically used to celebrate by releasing prisoners from his jails. "Handed over to the Iraqi authorities," he may have been before his death. But his execution will go down - correctly - as an American affair and time will add its false but lasting gloss to all this - that the West destroyed an Arab leader who no longer obeyed his orders from Washington, that, for all his wrongdoing (and this will be the terrible get-out for Arab historians, this shaving away of his crimes) Saddam died a "martyr" to the will of the new "Crusaders". When he was captured in November of 2003, the insurgency against American troops increased in ferocity. After his death, it will redouble in intensity again. Freed from the remotest possibility of Saddam's return by his execution, the West's enemies in Iraq have no reason to fear the return of his Baathist regime. Osama bin Laden will certainly rejoice, along with Bush and Blair. And there's a thought. So many crimes avenged. But we will have got away with it. Source: news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2112555.ece------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The execution of the president Statement by Abdul Ilah Albayaty, Ian Douglas, Karen Parker (BRussells Tribunal Advisory Committee), Hana Albayaty, Dirk Adriaensens, Inge Van De Merlen (BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee)- 29 December 2006 - The execution of President Saddam Hussein would be a grave war crime imputable under international law The US-orchestrated tribunal that sentenced President Saddam Hussein has no legal standing The imminent execution of Iraq’s lawful president is testimony to the gutting of international law by the Bush regime and its criminal partners President Saddam Hussein is a prisoner of war with protected status under international law.[1] Further, he is the lawful president of the Republic of Iraq. He cannot be executed legally by this occupation. Under the Interim Constitution of Iraq of 1990 — which remains in force despite the illegal imposition of a permanent Iraqi constitution written by the United States — President Saddam Hussein, like heads of state worldwide, including in the US and Europe, is afforded sovereign immunity to prosecution.[ii] That the US invaded Iraq illegally and established an illegal political process and a quisling Iraqi government only exacerbates the violation of President Saddam Hussein’s personal and sovereign rights and the affront to the whole of Iraq. His imminent execution is an attempt to establish, de facto, a global state of exception to law. Force cannot make just what law denies. This mockery of law The Iraqi Higher Criminal Court that passed a death sentence on President Saddam Hussein is a farce. Not only is it grounded on illegality (occupying powers under international law are expressly prohibited from changing the judicial structures of occupied states[iii]); the trial itself stands distinguished in legal history by its sheer number of due process and international standard of fairness violations.[iv] These violations have included, often with systematic effect: American imposed censorship of court proceedings; withholding evidence from the defence; forcible ejection from court of defence lawyers and the placing of defence lawyers under house arrest; denial of defence counsel access to defendants; blatant lack of impartiality of court judges; overt political interference in the selection of court officials and the prejudicing of the trial and trial outcome by statements made by invested political figures — including George W Bush — affirming progress towards, or demanding, execution; the replacement of four of the five originally selected court judges; lack of equality of arms between the prosecution and the defence; refusals to accept key defence team submissions, especially motions challenging the competence and legality of the court; violations of key fair trial principles and standards and international humanitarian law[v]; violation of Iraqi law[vi]; intimidation of witnesses; failure to ensure the security of the defence leading to the murder of three defence lawyers. Created by Paul Bremer, the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court was never anything but a US-orchestrated puppet court.[vii] The imposition of a death sentence after an unfair trial stands in direct violation of international law.[viii] The truth about this court From day one, this court has been nothing but a smokescreen: an attempt to establish a veneer of legality to an illegal invasion of a sovereign state. From day one, the final conclusion — the illegal execution of Iraq’s lawful president — has been a fait accompli. The only question has been when. As 2006 ends, the United States is desperate. Defeated militarily on the ground, long defeated politically and morally, the occupation is preparing to open the year 2007 with a barrage of atrocities, including the open murder of Iraq’s lawful president. This, like all other US-authored atrocities in Iraq, will not allow the US and its criminal partners to impose on Iraq a future that is contrary to the fundamental interests of the Iraqi people. The imminent execution of President Saddam Hussein is a challenge to the world. Its occurrence would mark a watershed in the imposition by force of a global state of exception to law and to international standards of justice and due process. States are obliged to protect international law and oppose acts that undermine it.[ix] International law is the arbiter and final guarantor of world peace. When states cannot or fail to act to protect it, or when they act resolutely to destroy it, it is the duty of citizens everywhere to oppose global tyranny by direct action. Urgent action demands We demand that legal institutions worldwide, governmental and non-governmental, act now to prevent the illegal execution of President Saddam Hussein. We demand that all states and the United Nations speak up immediately and oppose and prevent the illegal execution of President Saddam Hussein. We demand an immediate meeting of the UN Security Council in which must be affirmed the legal basis governing international relations and in particular the fundamental jus cogens norms of international humanitarian law. We call upon the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to defend its November 2006 conclusion that the detention of President Saddam Hussein is illegal and act to prevent his illegal execution. We invoke the mandate afforded to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Execution to intervene to prevent the illegal execution of President Saddam Hussein. We call upon the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers to defend his March 2006 conclusion that the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court is questionable, has limited competence and has given rise to serious breaches of international human rights principles and standards. We call upon the rapporteur to intervene to prevent the illegal execution of President Saddam Hussein — a further insult to justice. We demand that the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights personally intervene to prevent this grave war crime from occurring. No one in authority can claim ignorance as to its imminence. We affirm that international law is the bequest of generations and an expression of the development of human civilization and that people worldwide, individually and in groups, have a stake in protecting it, and the world peace that depends on it. We call upon citizens and individuals everywhere to stand up in defence of international law and Iraqi sovereignty and act to prevent the execution of Iraq’s legal president. The execution of Saddam Hussein would not only be a war crime against one individual and state. It would lend an illusion of legality to illegal acts — both the execution of a lawful president and the invasion and destruction of Iraq. It would be nothing less than a declaration of the death of international law, slain by this criminal Bush regime and its collaborators. If the execution of President Saddam Hussein will not lead to an international or global war, it sows the seeds, in its overt illegality, and in conjunction with Washington’s exclusion of international law from international relations, for precisely this outcome. Abdul Ilah Albayaty (BRussells Tribunal Advisory Committee) Ian Douglas (BRussells Tribunal Advisory Committee) Hana Albayaty (BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee) Dirk Adriaensens (BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee) Inge Van De Merlen (BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee) URL for this statement: www.brusselstribunal.org/execution.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] In January 2004 the US government officially afforded President Saddam Hussein prisoner of war status, in confirmation of international law. See Article 3 The Hague IV Regulations, 1907: “The armed forces of the belligerent parties may consist of combatants and non-combatants. In the case of capture by the enemy, both have a right to be treated as prisoners of war.” The Third Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 1949, which governs POWs and their treatment, provides for the human rights to security of person, privacy, respect, humane treatment, and fair trial. Under international law, no special arrangements can be constituted that adversely affect the rights of persons. See also Article 7 of The Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in the Time of War, 1949. [ii] See Article 40 of the Interim Constitution of Iraq (1990). [iii] See Articles 43 and 55 of The Hague IV Regulations on Laws and Customs of War on Land, 1907; Articles 54 and 64 of The Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in the Time of War, 1949. [iv] For a full outline of the illegality of the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court and the violations of international fair trial principles and standards witnessed during its proceedings, see Iraqi Special Tribunal: A Corruption of Justice by Ramsey Clark and Curtis Doebbler (13 September 2006). [v] Articles 70 and 65 of The Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in the Time of War, 1949; Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires that courts be established under preexisting law. [vi] The Iraqi Higher Criminal Court is inconsistent with Iraqi law because it violates basic principles of international human rights law that are binding on Iraqi authorities according to Article 44 of the Interim Constitution of Iraq. Further, the court was formed in violation of processes set forth in Section IV, Articles 60 and 61 of the Interim Constitution of Iraq of 1990 and the Iraqi Law on Judicial Organization, the latter illegally annulled by Coalition Provisional Authority Order No 15 of 23 June 2003. [vii] That the occupying power, through the Coalition Provisional Authority, created the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court (formerly the Iraqi Special Tribunal) is established by the fact that Order No 48, containing the statute of the court, had to be signed by Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator L Paul Bremer before it could enter into force. [viii] See Article 6, paragraph 2, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that prohibits imposition of the death penalty when it does not apply “in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime.” The retroactive application of the death penalty violates the Iraqi Penal Code, which states in Article 1: “no act or omission shall be penalized except in accordance with a legislative provision under which the said act or omission is regarded as a criminal offense at the time of its occurrence.” This arbitrary application of the death penalty is also a violation of the right to life in Article 6 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. See also Articles 2, 4 and 5 of the UN Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty. [ix] Article 42(2) of the United Nations International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on State Responsibility, representing the rule of customary international law, prevents states from benefiting from their own illegal acts: “No State shall recognize as lawful a situation created by a serious breach …” (emphasis added); Section III(e), UN General Assembly Resolution 36/103 of 14 December 1962, “Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States”. Related articles:Saddam Hussein 'executed in Iraq' 30 Dec 2006 Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been murdered by hanging at an unspecified location, reports say. Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT). It was witnessed by a doctor, lawyer and officials. It was also filmed.SEE:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6218485.stmSaddam trial verdict tarnished by Iraqi court's failings By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor Published: 30 December 2006 It should have been a historic opportunity. For the first time since the end of the Second World War, a tyrant and his henchmen were being put on trial for crimes against humanity by a special domestic court. Yet the first trial against Saddam Hussein, in which he was charged with human rights violations dating back to 1982, was so rife with defects that the guilty verdict was unsound, according to Human Rights Watch. In a 97-page report on a trial which centred on the execution of almost 150 Shia Muslims and the arrest of 1,500 in Dujail, Human Rights Watch identified the following flaws: SEE:news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2112574.ece
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Jan 1, 2007 16:39:24 GMT 4
Execution 'should not have happened on our holy day'Disregarding a few misguided and ill-informed guests here, we have a level headed readership at Fountainhead Forum. I had mentioned in my last post about the freakish timing of Saddam's execution. Now, I wish to address any reader here who would take offense and feel anger or hate at the timing on the eve of the Eid al-Adha.
Have you not learned to see through the actions of our planet's dark players? Do you not see that they STAGE certain events to get a contrived reaction of emotion from humanity? These people, these players are very dark indeed, and they understand the power of your thoughts. They harvest and harness your negative emotions to feed their own power over you and the world. The people of Iraq do not need we, who sit in relative safety, to fall into this nightmare of a game that is being played out. What they need is our refusal to feed the energies of the dark ones, to stand back in detached compassion, to pool the energy of our thoughts, thoughts of a high level of consciousness which shine Light on areas of misery.
Thoughtforms which we build in the ethereal levels DO become reality on our planet. Now, do you wish to build more thoughtforms of hatred and separation or, do you wish to build thoughtforms of the highest order, which WILL give reality to our pleas for PEACE AND STABILITY? I tell you this is true; take that leap of faith and step into your God given power as part of the collective consciousness of humanity. Together we can stop this.
At the beginning of this New Year, SHINE YOUR LIGHT FOLKS; direct it to Iraq, Afghanistan, anywhere the world needs the Light of our Creator; shine LIGHT on corrupt leaders, exposing them and their actions so they may be brought before courts of true justice; shine light on the press that they may do their job; spread the Light of God that you carry within you....THIS IS YOUR POWER AND YOUR DUTY TO OUR CREATOR AND THE SUFFERING MASSES!
In the Power of Love Light and Peace, Michelle Execution 'should not have happened on our holy day' By Kate Thomas Published: 01 January 2007 Pilgrims in Saudi Arabia taking part in the Haj have expressed anger that the holiest day of the Muslim year was overshadowed by the execution of Saddam Hussein. Many Arab Muslims said his hanging for crimes against humanity was provocatively timed to coincide with the feast of Eid al-Adha and would worsen violence in Iraq.But the news of Saddam's death was welcomed by his Shia Muslim enemies. "Today we were stoning the Devil, but we were also stoning Saddam," said Sayed Hassan Moussawi, an Iraqi Shia cleric who joined more than two million pilgrims performing the five days of rituals. "Everyone here is so happy. He killed so many men, women and children and he tormented Iraq's Shias." The Saudi government, a major Sunni Arab power, criticised Iraq for executing Saddam during the Haj, one of the world's biggest displays of mass religious devotion. "Leaders of Islamic countries should show respect for this blessed occasion ... not demean it," said a statement issued by the state news agency SPA. Many of the Muslim pilgrims found out about the execution at dawn on Saturday having been notified by relatives at home by mobile phone or text message. Security fears were already high during this Haj season because of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere in the region. The traditional stoning rites were performed amid tight security to prevent protests in the wake of the execution. The Algerian government said it regretted the execution of Saddam and hoped the hanging of the former Iraqi president would not lead to increased levels of violence in Iraq. "Algeria regrets the execution ...on a sacred day ... of clemency and generosity for all of the Arab and Muslim world," the government said. It added that it hoped "this development will not ... increase the violence and the tragic ordeals that the Iraqi people are living." The government of neighbouring Tunisia also objected to the timing of the execution, calling Saddam's hanging on Eid al-Adha "a serious attack on the sentiments of Muslim people." The Foreign Ministry in Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, expressed regret that authorities in Iraq went ahead with the execution on the first day of the Eid al-Adha feast. "We hope that carrying out the execution ... would not lead to more deterioration in the situation," said a ministry spokesman. In Libya, the only Arab country to show solidarity with Saddam, flags were lowered to half-mast and a three-day period of national mourning was declared. Across the Red Sea, the Yemeni government made a last-minute appeal for Saddam's life, sending a letter to President Bush and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urging that the former dictator be spared. In Afghanistan, a Taliban commander said Saddam's demise would galvanise Muslim opposition to the United States. "The jihad in Iraq will be intensified and attacks on invader forces will increase," Mullah Obaidullah Akhund said. The drama of Saddam's violent end on Saturday was brought into living rooms across the Arab world with television pictures of masked hangmen tightening the noose around his neck. Images of Saddam's body in a white shroud also upset many viewers. Many Arabs said his hanging for crimes against humanity was provocatively timed to coincide with Eid al-Adha and would worsen violence in Iraq. "This is the worst Eid ever witnessed by Muslims. I had goosebumps when I saw the footage," said Jordanian Rana Abdullah, who works in the private sector. In Tikrit, where Saddam grew up, residents vowed revenge. "We will all become a bomb," one young man told journalists.Source: news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2116901.eceBelow are various editorials from the Mid East:Press fears over Saddam execution Last Updated: Sunday, 31 December 2006, 13:20 GMT Newspapers in the Arab world and Israel reflect a combination of cynicism, anger and fear over the execution of Saddam Hussein.[/b] Arab commentators are angry about the timing of the execution on one of the holiest days of the Muslim calendar. Some argue Washington rather than Baghdad dictated the timing and ask why Americans have not been brought to justice for all the Iraqis killed since the 2003 invasion.
Commentators in Israel fear that Saddam's death will only lead to an increase in Iranian influence and Shia dominance in the region, posing a greater threat to the country. TARIQ AL-HAMIED IN IRAQ'S AL-SHARQ AL-AWSATThere is no question that Saddam was an absolute tyrant and deserved to be executed, but the timing of his execution was grossly inopportune, if not downright provocative, considering the special sanctity of the day chosen for it. The real problem with Saddam's hanging lies in the fact that its blatantly wrong timing stirs more controversies and is likely to deepen the abominable sectarian schism in Iraq and across the region in a way that has never been witnessed before. MUHAMMAD NAJI IN IRAQ'S SOTALIRAQIt is incumbent on every one of us today to cleanse ourselves of the filthy mud of Saddamism, which is the height of the culture of despotism in Iraq. Let us celebrate the end of the last tyrant and the advent of a new era characterised by the rule of law, respect for human rights and deference to the dignity of the individual. JASSIM AL-MUTAY IN IRAQ'S AL-JEERANSaddam loyalists will glower and roar as is their wont. They will try to avenge their fallen idol with more car bombings, simply because they seem to believe that this is the only way they might bring their totem back to life. HANI NAQSHABANDI IN PAN ARAB ONLINE ILAF The danger is not in the fact that Saddam was slaughtered on the day lambs are slaughtered. The danger is that we can see the signs of things to come in Iraq. I do not think the signs are reassuring in expecting good from a government that does not know where it is heading and where its master is - in Tehran or Washington. GHASSAN SHARBAL IN PAN ARAB AL-HAYATThe Maliki government has made many mistakes in hastening the execution of Saddam. The government had the ability to complete the trial of the man in the al-Anfal case and other dossiers. The Maliki government should also have been sensitive about the timing. It was, indeed, not wise to execute Saddam on the first day of the blessed Eid al-Adha. Iraq can cope with the body of Saddam, but the region cannot cope with the body of Iraq. TARIQ AL-HAMID IN PAN ARAB AL-SHARQ AL-AWSATThe timing of the execution was unfortunate and upsetting. The execution reeks of a disgusting sectarianism. What we saw was revenge. Unfortunately, the democratic government in Iraq is similar to al-Qaeda, showing off the footage of the person being executed. They have corrupted their democracy. They have helped [Saddam] portray himself as a steadfast and strong man! EDITORIAL IN EGYPT'S AL-AHRAMThe US administration has thus offered Saddam as a sacrifice for the absolute failure of the stupid American occupation. [The execution] marks the beginning of a new stage that will foster the spirit of retaliation and revenge, destabilise the region, add fuel to the fire of the sectarian civil war and obstruct all Iraqi national efforts. Although Saddam was a dictator, the crime for which he was tried did not justify a quick execution as his other crimes were more severe and had a wider impact on the life of his people and nation. EDITORIAL IN EGYPT'S AL-JUMHURIYAHPresident Bush has offered Saddam's head as a new year's present to the American people in the hope it may compensate him for the lost victory in Iraq and make him forget the death of 3,000 American soldiers killed in the Iraqi swamp for the sake of illusions related to oil and world hegemony. Saddam committed crimes, but executing him in a way that contravenes international and humanitarian laws, and at this time, which reflects disdain for the sentiments of millions of Arabs and Muslims, is a crime whose perpetrators will be pursued by history with rage and shame. MAZIN HAMMAD IN QATAR'S AL-WATANThe execution of Saddam was a political decision adopted by Washington and implemented by a sham court formed by the occupation after denying the defendant his rights as a prisoner of war. What some have failed to realise is that Saddam has today become a martyr, even for those who opposed his policies and considered him a heartless dictator. HASSAN YUNUS IN QATAR'S AL-WATANSaddam did a lot against his people. He led the most violent and cruel regime in the Middle East. However, whenever there is talk about him, one has to remember another man who caused the death of hundreds of thousands. He is US President George Bush. LU'AY QADDUMI IN QATAR'S AL-WATANConducted in a way that involved several violations, the trial has underlined that from the beginning, the intention was to bring Saddam to the gallows to take revenge, not to achieve justice. Why were the American generals who are responsible for the unjustified death of thousands of Iraqi civilians not punished? Why were the soldiers accused of killing, mutilation and rape not executed? EDITORIAL IN UNITED ARAB EMIRATES' AL-KHALIJAfter the execution of Saddam, there will be a new chapter in which efforts should be channelled towards the ending the occupation and scheduling its quick departure. EDITORIAL IN BAHRAIN'S AL-WASAT If the US administration was successful in its occupation and confident about its victory, it would not have taken this decision. It is a clear indication of the defeat of the model it promised to introduce to the region's peoples. YOSSI MELMAN IN ISRAEL'S LEFTIST HA'ARETZ The execution of Saddam Hussein is poetic justice. There is no doubt that the cruel tyrant who massacred his own people, attacked his neighbours Iran and Kuwait, threatened Israel and used chemical weapons against his own people of Kurdish descent, deserved his sentence... In the event, the American invasion of Iraq within the context of which Saddam was caught and his sons liquidated could be interpreted as a mistake. Saddam was the enemy of Iran and served as a brake against its expansionist aspirations. With his departure he leaves the Middle East exposed to the expansion of Iranian nationalism and Shia Islam. NAHUM BARNEA IN ISRAEL'S TOP CIRCULATION YEDIOT AHARONOTSay what they like about him, he met his death with dignity, with an erect head, without asking for mercy. His hanging, in its timing, was above all a political act: a government that does not control its land wanted to demonstrate determination and prove to its sect, the Shia community, that despite the heavy price that terror exacts every day, you get value for the TV licence. ARIK BACHAR IN ISRAEL'S CENTRE-RIGHT MA'ARIVHe won his end honestly, the butcher from Baghdad. A kiss of death was out of the question for all his sins, the man with the chequebook for the suicide bombers, the man who ruined the streets of Ramat Gan [in Israel, with Scud attacks during the first Gulf war]. On the one hand we must see him pay for his crimes but on the other we know that there is no possibility of exacting a full price for them. We got rid of the main hero of Iraqi nightmare. Good night, and see you in the Iranian nightmare. EYAL ZISSER IN MA'ARIVNot only was Saddam executed but with him also died the hope that it would be possible to stabilise the situation in Iraq under Sunni domination, a state capable of checking the overflowing Shia wave threatening to pour from Iran via Iraq to the heart of the Arab world. The vacuum created following the collapse of Saddam and the collapse of the state which he headed is also dangerous for Israel, and requires a response the like of which does not exist yet. BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.Source: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6220833.stmMore from The Hindu on the judicial farce of Saddam's trial and the expected reaction:Outrageous Sunday, Dec 31, 2006 Saddam Hussein was a leader whose brutal actions and calamitous miscalculations brought unimaginable suffering to the people of Iraq and neighbouring countries. The brutal actions of his regime included the killing of political rivals and large numbers of civilians, above all Shias and Kurds, and the use of chemical weapons against Kurds and Iranians. President Hussein's two big miscalculations were the eight-year war of unprovoked aggression against Iran, in which hundreds of thousands of people were annihilated, and the akratic invasion of Kuwait. Following the first Gulf War, a million Iraqis, including hundreds of thousands of children, are estimated to have died because they were deprived of adequate nourishment and medical care on account of the economic sanctions imposed on their country by the victors. Arguably, Mr. Hussein had an opportunity to bring to an end this suffering by being more forthcoming and proving to the satisfaction of the world that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD). His refusal or failure to divulge that he had destroyed all his stockpiles soon after the 1991 war played into the hands of his enemies, above all President George Bush who came to office with the agenda of invading Iraq and destroying the Saddam regime for strategic reasons. However, it would be mendacious for anyone to claim that justice was served when Mr. Hussein was executed before dawn on December 30, 2006. The judicial process set up to prosecute Mr. Hussein for "crimes against humanity" was designed by a United States-led coalition that had itself committed the supreme war crime of unprovoked aggression against a sovereign nation. The fact that the coalition's illegal invasion and occupation had caused the death of over 600,000 Iraqis evidently made no impact on the collective conscience of its leaders. The present Baghdad regime, which is propped up by the occupation forces, did not just lean on the judiciary; it went so far as to replace judges until a sufficiently partisan presiding officer was found. This judge did the bidding of his political masters and scandalously ensured that the defence was always at a disadvantage. The appeal court that confirmed the sentence of death handed down by the trial judge acted as if the completion of other cases against the accused was of no consequence. That all these legal proceedings were nothing but a sordid farce became clear to the whole world when the Prime Minister of Iraq, who had announced ahead of the appeal court's verdict that the former President would be executed before New Year, even usurped the judiciary's prerogative of setting the date for execution. To go by the manner in which the client Iraqi regime has behaved in all spheres, it was a small mercy that Mr. Hussein was handed over to it by his American jailors just before he was forced to mount the gallows. Various components of this regime run militias that have tortured and butchered hundreds of innocents. Those who engineered this violent and unjust end to the life of a leader who was overthrown by war — in flagrant violation of international law — have much to answer for before the court of humanity. The Indian Government must take a forthright stand against this outrage. It needs to go beyond its expressions of "disappointment," its indirect criticisms of "victor's justice," and its pious hopes of "reconciliation" and "restoration of peace and normalcy" in Iraq. It must condemn, without equivocation, Mr. Hussein's execution at the hands of the occupation army and its client state, even if the occupying powers maintain the fiction that the trial, sentence, and execution of the former Iraqi President were exclusively the business of the "Government of Iraq." The United States helped sustain Mr. Hussein in power through the 1980s in the full knowledge that his regime had used poison gas against the Kurds of Halabja and against the people of Iran. The Bush administration plumbed new depths of shamelessness when it handed over its captive, its prisoner of war, to a Shia-controlled Iraqi court rather than to an international war crimes tribunal, as many advocates of human rights and justice demanded. At a surface level, Iraqis may be divided, reflecting tragic sectarian divides, in their reactions to the end of Mr. Hussein. However, his hanging is expected to lead to major reprisals from the Sunni resistance to the occupation — and a spike in violence in Iraq. It will also fuel anger and hatred towards the United States among the people of various countries in the Arab world. While condemning this outrageous case of "victor's justice," the world must express its solidarity with the people of Iraq, whose sufferings seem to know no end.Source: www.thehindu.com/2006/12/31/stories/2006123103600800.htm
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Jan 3, 2007 17:11:26 GMT 4
Well, they got their expected results; the flames of hate and separation have been fanned by Saddam's execution [see previous postings]....MichelleTaliban says Saddam's execution to intensify jihad30 Dec 2006 07:20:21 GMT By Saeed Ali Achakzai SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A top commander of Afghanistan's Taliban said on Saturday that the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would galvanize Muslim opposition to the United States. Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a former Taliban defence minister and top insurgent commander, also said Saddam's execution on the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival -- marking the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca -- was a provocation. "Saddam's hanging on the day of Eid is a challenge to Muslims," Obaidullah told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. "His death will boost the morale of Muslims. The jihad in Iraq will be intensified and attacks on invader forces will increase," he said. "Thousands of people will rise up with hatred for America."The Taliban intensified their war against the Afghan government and the U.S., British and other Western troops supporting it this year. That brought the most intense violence since U.S.-led troops ousted the hardline Islamists in 2001, and the Taliban have vowed to step up their campaign in the coming spring. Obaidullah said U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were fighting Muslims, and that is why Saddam was executed. "Bush and Blair have launched a crusade against Muslims. Saddam was hanged because he was a Muslim, while slaves like Jalal Talabani in Iraq and Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan have been given power," he said. "Muslims should not expect any good from these people," he said, referring to the Iraqi and Afghan presidents. "Muslims should unite against the infidels, join the jihad and support the mujahideen because jihad has become an obligation for Muslims all over the world.""God willing, both Afghanistan and Iraq will prove to be another Vietnam for America ... God willing, the invader forces in Afghanistan and Iraq will soon face defeat." In Kabul, Karzai declined to comment on Saddam's execution, saying it was a matter for the government of Iraq and would have no impact on Afghanistan. However, he too suggested the timing of the execution on the Eid holiday was wrong. "Eid is a day of happiness, a day of goodness, a day of reconciliation, not a day of revenge," Karzai told reporters at his presidential palace. (Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin in KABUL) Source:www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL149654.htm------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ And here's how they got their expected reaction:Prescott attacks 'deplorable' images of Saddam execution By Andy McSmith Published: 03 January 2007 An Iraqi prosecutor revealed yesterday that he almost halted the execution of Saddam Hussein because of the behaviour of witnesses who were taunting the condemned man. The Iraqi government announced an inquiry into chaotic scenes at the execution, which the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, condemned as "deplorable". Munqith al-Faroon, one of the prosecutors in the trial, said two officials who were present at the execution had broken the rules by bringing their mobile phones, which were used to record the event. The leaked footage of the former dictator's final moments has provoked a backlash among Sunni Arabs, who see the execution as an act of sectarian revenge by Iraq's Shia-dominated government.Mr Faroon said he threatened to leave unless the taunting of Saddam stopped. "They knew that if I left, the execution could not go ahead," he told the Associated Press news agency. Under Iraqi law a prosecution observer must be present. Mr Prescott avoided any direct criticism of the Iraqi government, which has been embarrassed by the reaction to the recording of the execution. Mr Prescott's comments appeared to reflect growing concern in British government circles about the impact of Saddam's final, public humiliation on Iraq's disaffected Sunni minority. Up to now, ministers have confined themselves to routine statements that Britain opposes the death penalty, while insisting that it was right that the former dictator should be put on trial. But, Mr Prescott insisted, the secret filming of Saddam's last minutes should be condemned "whatever your views about capital punishment". "I think the manner was quite deplorable really," Mr Prescott told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I don't think one can endorse in any way that, whatever your views about capital punishment. Frankly, to get the kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable and I think whoever is involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves."The Government's previous reluctance to comment on the circumstances of the execution angered Labour MPs who opposed the war. The former defence minister, Peter Kilfoyle, condemned Tony Blair's silence on the issue as "yet another error in a long catalogue" on Iraq. A leading member of the largest Sunni parliamentary bloc said the images damaged Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's attempts at national reconciliation. Saleem al-Jibouri of the Iraqi Accordance Front told Reuters: "The big question is how serious is the government in calling for national reconciliation." An official of Iraq's Justice Ministry said that some guards appeared to have breached instructions not to bring mobile phones or cameras. He added: "The Iraqi government is going to have an investigation into what happened. This operation should be done with the highest standards of discipline and with respect for the condemned man, both when he's alive and once he's dead. Anything that did not meet those standards should be accounted for." An adviser to Mr Maliki added: "There were a few guards who shouted slogans that were inappropriate and that's now the subject of a government investigation." Source: news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2121671.ece------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I am not condoning any of Hussein's lifelong list of crimes, but we humans are better than this shocking display of revenenge and a man's death. Plus, he was not tried legally and if the law is not followed in our lust for revenge, we are no better than Hussein. Italy shows some sanity concerning the whole sordid affair. However, it was not without some backlash towards Italy:Shocked by Saddam, Italy seeks UN death penalty ban02 Jan 2007 16:11:57 GMT Source: Reuters Printable view | Email this article | RSS [-] Text [+] ROME, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Italy will campaign at the United Nations for a global ban on the death penalty, Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Tuesday, after graphic images of Saddam Hussein's hanging shocked people around the world.Italian politicians of all political parties expressed disgust at Saddam's execution, with even former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi calling it a "political and historic error".Pressured by a week-long hunger strike by a 76-year-old campaigner against Saddam's execution and the death penalty in general, Prodi said Italy would push the U.N. for a "universal moratorium" on capital punishment. Prodi said Italy, which has just taken up a temporary Security Council seat, aimed to involve the 85 U.N. countries which signed a non-binding declaration in December against the death penalty in lobbying for a ban. The Iraqi government has hit back at Italy for its criticism of Saddam's execution, accusing it of hypocrisy, especially after World War Two dictator Benito Mussolini was killed by partisans and hanged upside down in a Milan square in 1945."They have no right interfering in the affairs of another country," government official, Yaseen Majeed, was quoted as saying in La Repubblica daily. "Mussolini's trial only lasted one minute." While Italy's divided political class is united in its opposition of the death penalty -- outlawed in all European Union countries -- the mention of Mussolini reopened wounds between left and right. Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the fascist dictator and a member of the European Parliament, said her "blood ran cold" when she watched the pictures of Saddam's execution. "My mind immediately flicked to pictures of my grandfather, who also had his face uncovered exposed to the public for ridicule." Source: www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L022516.htm
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Mar 30, 2007 11:22:08 GMT 4
Hey....... wait a minute......we've already given BILLIONS to rebuild Iraq; haven't we?World Bank to loan Iraq power plant $124 million 30 Mar 2007 02:49:58 GMTSource: Reuters More WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - The World Bank on Thursday approved $124 million in credit for an electricity reconstruction project in Iraq. The project aims to increase generating capacity at the Hartha power station in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the World Bank said in a statement. "The project will double the output of the Hartha power station from 400 megawatts to 800 megawatts, providing additional generating capacity to the national grid and benefiting household and industrial consumers," Tjaadra Storm van Leeuwen, the project's Task Team Leader said. The total cost of the project is estimated at $150 million. The bank approved an additional $6 million from a donor fund administered by the World Bank and the Iraqi government is contributing $20 million, the statement said. This is the second power rehabilitation project in Iraq to be funded by the World Bank. The lender approved $40 million in credit in December 2006 for the repair of two hydroelectric power stations in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq. Source: www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29403621.htm------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebuilding Iraq -- The Contractors *UPDATED 4/28/03 Even before the war in Iraq began March 20, the Bush administration was considering plans to help rebuild the country after fighting ceased. [read that sentence again] According to news reports in early March, the U.S. Agency for International Development secretly asked six U.S. companies to submit bids for a $900 million government contract to repair and reconstruct water systems, roads, bridges, schools and hospitals in Iraq. The six companies -- Bechtel Group Inc., Fluor Corp., Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, Louis Berger Group Inc., Parsons Corp. and Washington Group International Inc. -- contributed a combined $3.6 million in individual, PAC and soft money donations between 1999 and 2002, the Center reported on its news site, CapitalEye.org. Sixty-six percent of that total went to Republicans. The bidding process has been criticized for including only a handful of companies, some with substantial political clout and none of which is based outside the United States. USAID officials said the recent invitations to bid on reconstruction contracts went to U.S. corporations for security reasons, and that foreign companies may compete for subcontracting work, Bloomberg News reports. As the winners* of this and other contracts to rebuild Iraq are announced, we will post their campaign contributions -- large or small -- below. (Figures represent total contributions made between 1999 and 2002, and include PAC, soft money and individual contributions to federal candidates, party committees and leadership PACs.^) Bechtel Group Inc.The Contributions: $1,303,765 (59 percent to Republicans; 41 percent to Democrats) Total to President Bush: $6,250 The Contract: USAID awarded the largest of its postwar Iraq contracts to Bechtel Group Inc. April 17. The capital construction contract gives Bechtel an initial award of $34.6 million, but provides for funding of up to $680 million over 18 months subject to Congress’ approval. Bechtel’s primary activities under the contract will include rebuilding power generation facilities, electrical grids, water and sewage systems and airport facilities in Iraq. The company has said it plans to subcontract a number of these projects. The Company: Bechtel Group Inc., the San Francisco-based engineering company, has been in the construction business for more than 100 years and has completed close to 20,000 projects in 140 countries. The privately owned firm, which had revenues of $13.3 billion last year, has made a number of friends in Washington over the years. Former Secretary of State George Shultz, once Bechtel’s president, now serves on the company’s board of directors. USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, who oversees the bidding process for postwar contracts, once headed the Boston-area “Big Dig” construction project, for which Bechtel was the primary contractor. Halliburton Co.The Contributions: $708,770 (95 percent to Republicans) Total to President Bush: $17,677 The Contract: On March 25, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root the main contract to fight oil well fires and reconstruct oil fields in Iraq. The open-ended contract, which has no specified time or dollar limit, was given to the company without a bidding process. KBR has already announced it will subcontract the actual firefighting operations to Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc. and Wild Well Control Inc., both based in Houston. The Company: Halliburton Co., the Dallas-based oil field services giant that took in $12.5 billion in sales last year, is no stranger to government contracts. Kellogg, Brown & Root fought oil well fires in Kuwait and provided support services to U.S. forces in the Balkans in the 1990s. But Halliburton's ties to Washington have made it a target of criticism in the latest bidding process. Vice President Dick Cheney headed the company for five years before becoming George W. Bush's runningmate in 2000. Lawrence Eagleburger, former U.S. secretary of state under President George H. W. Bush, sits on the company's board. DynCorpThe Contributions: $226,865 (72 percent to Republicans) Total to President Bush: $7,500 Computer Sciences Corp. (acquired DynCorp March 7) The Contributions: $276,975 (74 percent to Republicans) Total to President Bush: $10,250 The Contract: The U.S. State Department awarded DynCorp, now a unit of Computer Sciences Corp., a multimillion-dollar contract April 18 to advise the Iraqi government on setting up effective law enforcement, judicial and correctional agencies. DynCorp will arrange for up to 1,000 U.S. civilian law enforcement experts to travel to Iraq to help locals "assess threats to public order" and mentor personnel at the municipal, provincial and national levels. The company will also provide any logistical or technical support necessary for this peacekeeping project. DynCorp estimates it could recoup up to $50 million for the first year of the contract. The Companies: Founded in 1946, DynCorp has long provided U.S. government agencies--particularly the Defense Department--with logistical and training support. Computer Sciences Corp. acquired DynCorp in March of this year for $950 million. CSC is one of the country's leading IT consulting firms and reported revenues of more than $11 billion in 2002. Stevedoring Services of AmericaThe Contributions: $24,825 (77 percent to Republicans) Total to President Bush: $1,000 The Contract: USAID awarded Stevedoring Services of America a $4.8 million contract on March 24 for "assessment and management" of the Umm Qasr port in southeastern Iraq. The agency says the Seattle-based company will operate the port as it receives shipments of humanitarian and reconstruction materials and will research ways to improve port productivity for the long term. The Company: Stevedoring Services of America, the largest marine terminal operator in the United States, made an estimated $1 billion in sales last year. The family-owned and -operated company is a private venture. Abt Associates Inc.The Contributions: $4,900 (100 percent to Democrats) Total to President Bush: $0 The Contract: USAID awarded Abt Associates a $10 million contract April 30 to help reform the Iraqi Ministry of Health and to deliver health services and medical equipment to Iraqis. Under the “Health System Strengthening Contract,” the firm will coordinate the training and recruiting of health staff and will provide health education to the general public. Abt will work in cooperation with UNICEF, the World Health Organization and other international organizations already on the ground in Iraq. The Company: Abt Associates, based in Cambridge, Mass., is one of the largest for-profit government and business research and consulting firms in the world. In the United States, Abt has completed social and economic policy consulting, surveys and clinical trials for organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control. About one-third of the company’s revenues come from international activities. SkyLink Air and Logistic Support (USA) Inc.The Contributions: $3,900 (74 percent to Republicans) Total to President Bush: $0 The Contract: USAID awarded SkyLink Air and Logistic Support (USA) Inc. an initial $2.5 million contract May 7 to help reopen and manage Iraq’s airports. SkyLink will oversee an international staff in its efforts to assess airport damage and get operations up and running. Ultimately, the company will turn over airport management to Iraqi staff. The Company: Washington, D.C.-based SkyLink Air and Logistic Support is a government contractor with experience in emergency relief, peacekeeping, humanitarian aid and development activities in more than 60 countries. SkyLink’s regular clients include the United States and United Nations, which often use the company in areas plagued by war or natural disasters. International Resources GroupThe Contributions: $3,800 (61 percent to Democrats) Total to President Bush: $0 The Contract: USAID awarded International Resources Group a $7 million, 90-day contract Feb. 21 for the management of relief and rebuilding efforts in postwar Iraq. IRG will coordinate efforts across multiple sectors, including education, health, agriculture, civil society and infrastructure. The Company: International Resources Group is a Washington, D.C.-based professional services firm that manages complex environmental, energy and reconstruction situations for public and private sector clients. Founded in 1978, IRG has completed more than 600 projects, many of them for USAID. Research Triangle InstituteThe Contributions: $3,491 (all to Democrats) Total to President Bush: $0 The Contract: USAID awarded Research Triangle Institute a $7.9 million contract April 11 to promote Iraqi civic participation in the reconstruction process. RTI will provide technical assistance and training programs in an effort to improve local administrators’ management skills and understanding of municipal services. RTI will also have the authority to grant contracts to Iraqi and foreign non-governmental organizations that will help train administrators and civilians in communication, conflict resolution, leadership and political analysis. Increasing political participation of “at-risk” groups-- including those that represent the interests of women, minorities and youth in Iraq—will be a top priority for RTI. The Company: Research Triangle Institute is a non-profit organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The group has worked in transitional regions for more than 20 years, and is a regular USAID contractor. RTI has completed governance work in South Africa, Indonesia and El Salvador and most recently won a $60 million USAID contract for educational development in Pakistan. Creative Associates International Inc.The Contributions: $2,000 (all to Democrats) Total to President Bush: $0 The Contract: USAID awarded Creative Associates International Inc. a $2 million one-year contract April 11 to address the “immediate educational needs” of Iraq’s primary and secondary schools. Short-term activities covered under the contract include training teachers, providing students with school supplies and developing testing methods to track student performance. The Company: Creative Associates International Inc. is a private consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., that provides community development assistance to transitional regions. The firm, which has revenues of $35 million per year, has completed more than 400 contracts since its inception in 1979. *This list does not include subcontractors. Source: www.opensecrets.org/news/rebuilding_iraq/index.asp
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michelle
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Post by michelle on May 24, 2007 9:28:27 GMT 4
IRAQ: Where Nobody Is AccountableAli al-Fadhily* BAGHDAD, May 21 (IPS) - Killings, crime, lack of medical care, collapse of educationàthe list goes on. But with the occupation by U.S.-led forces now into a fifth year, and a supposedly democratic government in place, no one knows who to hold accountable for all that is going wrong.It is the occupation forces, particularly the United States and Britain, that must be held accountable, many Iraqis say. "It is good of these people to discuss accountability for theft, but the most important thing to account for is Iraqi blood," Numan Ahmed, a human rights activist from the Adhamiya neighbourhood in Baghdad told IPS. The British medical journal Lancet has reported that by July 2006, 655,000 people had died as "a consequence of the war." It has reported that the risk of death among civilians is now 58 times higher than before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. "By now a million Iraqis have been killed for no reason, and many millions disabled or badly injured just because of some thieves in Baghdad and Washington," Ahmed said. "We are prepared to reveal the documents to condemn them even if takes us a lifetime." But Iraqis have no means to take action against occupiers. The United States has not accepted jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which has the power to investigate complaints of genocide. The United States took the view that the court could conduct "politically motivated investigations and prosecutions of U.S. military and political officials and personnel." U.S. opposition to the ICC is in stark contrast to the strong support for the Court by most of its closest allies. But Iraqis have found no way to proceed against these either. With no doors of justice open to them, many Iraqis are now taking to unlawful ways to hit back at occupation forces and government targets. "The only way to do it is at gunpoint," 32-year-old Ali Aziz from Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad, told IPS. "They invaded us at gunpoint and we find it ridiculous to talk about any other way of getting back what belongs to us." Aziz said he had lost several friends in attacks by U.S. soldiers. "The whole world is dealing with this in a hypocritical way, and there is only us to claim our rights the way we find proper."[/b] The human rights group al-Raya filed a case in a local court in Fallujah against U.S. forces in 2004, following a massive military crackdown. About three-quarters of all buildings in the city were destroyed or heavily damaged during the U.S. assault in November 2004. But U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces have hit out at the human rights group. "The secretary-general for the organisation has now been arrested by Fallujah police for reasons that we are not aware of, and the organisation is not functioning any more," a member of the board, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS in Baghdad. "It is not the right time to talk about accountability when daily killings by U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are still ongoing. God knows if it will ever be possible."[/color] [/i] A case for accountability could well be made. A judge from the United States wrote at the time of the trial of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg in Germany in 1946: "To initiate a war of aggressionàis not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was judged by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Sep. 16, 2004 as "an illegal act that contravened the UN charter." The lack of accountability appears now to be leading to greater support for armed resistance against occupation forces. "What accountability are you talking about, sir," said Abu Jassim from Fallujah, who lost four members of his family when a U.S. bomb destroyed his home during the first U.S. offensive in the city in April 2004. "Americans are criminals, and the whole world is covering up for their crimes." They will be held accountable, he said, by "Allah" and by "the heroes of the Iraqi resistance." Iraqis are also angry over destruction of their civilian infrastructure, for which no one has been held responsible. "The U.S. crime of deliberately crushing Iraqi infrastructure must be looked at as a crime against humanity," chief engineer Jalal Abdulla at Baghdad's Ministry of Electricity told IPS. "They did not have to do this to support their military effort, but they did it just to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths for no reason but cruelty."Others vent their frustration against what they see as an impotent United Nations. "The UN should be the place for asking those Americans why they committed so many crimes in Iraq," said Baghdad resident Malik Hammad. (*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who travels extensively in the region) (END/2007) Source:ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37814
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Jun 12, 2007 15:03:47 GMT 4
In Iraq's four-year looting frenzy, the allies have become the vandalsAside from the destruction of human life and our natural environment, nothing causes me more sadness than the obliteration of items and monuments of antiquity. In Iraq, our ancient past is everywhere waiting to tell its story. Iraq is rich in traces of prehistoric life; one could study much starting with Neolithic farmers and on through the great empires. Various inventions began here: *the wagon wheel, *the arch to build sturdier buildings, *the potter's wheel, *the sundial, *the 12month calendar based on the cycles of the moon, *bronze was first made here, *the metal plow along with an abundance of finely crafted metal work.....History basically began here! I weep over the senseless loss of our connections to the past.... Michelle-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Iraq's four-year looting frenzy, the allies have become the vandals
British and American collusion in the pillaging of Iraq's heritage is a scandal that will outlive any passing conflict Simon Jenkins Friday June 8, 2007 The Guardian Fly into the American air base of Tallil outside Nasiriya in central Iraq and the flight path is over the great ziggurat of Ur, reputedly the earliest city on earth. Seen from the base in the desert haze or the sand-filled gloom of dusk, the structure is indistinguishable from the mounds of fuel dumps, stores and hangars. Ur is safe within the base compound. But its walls are pockmarked with wartime shrapnel and a blockhouse is being built over an adjacent archaeological site. When the head of Iraq's supposedly sovereign board of antiquities and heritage, Abbas al-Hussaini, tried to inspect the site recently, the Americans refused him access to his own most important monument. Yesterday Hussaini reported to the British Museum on his struggles to protect his work in a state of anarchy. It was a heart breaking presentation. Under Saddam you were likely to be tortured and shot if you let someone steal an antiquity; in today's Iraq you are likely to be tortured and shot if you don't. The tragic fate of the national museum in Baghdad in April 2003 was as if federal troops had invaded New York city, sacked the police and told the criminal community that the Metropolitan was at their disposal. The local tank commander was told specifically not to protect the museum for a full two weeks after the invasion. Even the Nazis protected the Louvre.When I visited the museum six months later, its then director, Donny George, proudly showed me the best he was making of a bad job. He was about to reopen, albeit with half his most important objects stolen. The pro-war lobby had stopped pretending that the looting was nothing to do with the Americans, who were shamefacedly helping retrieve stolen objects under the dynamic US colonel, Michael Bogdanos (author of a book on the subject). The vigorous Italian cultural envoy to the coalition, Mario Bondioli-Osio, was giving generously for restoration. The beautiful Warka vase, carved in 3000BC, was recovered though smashed into 14 pieces. The exquisite Lyre of Ur, the world's most ancient musical instrument, was found badly damaged. Clerics in Sadr City were ingeniously asked to tell wives to refuse to sleep with their husbands if looted objects were not returned, with some success. Nothing could be done about the fire-gutted national library and the loss of five centuries of Ottoman records (and works by Piccasso and Miro). But the message of winning hearts and minds seemed to have got through. Today the picture is transformed. Donny George fled for his life last August after death threats. The national museum is not open but shut. Nor is it just shut. Its doors are bricked up, it is surrounded by concrete walls and its exhibits are sandbagged. Even the staff cannot get inside. There is no prospect of reopening. Hussaini confirmed a report two years ago by John Curtis, of the British Museum, on America's conversion of Nebuchadnezzar's great city of Babylon into the hanging gardens of Halliburton. This meant a 150-hectare camp for 2,000 troops. In the process the 2,500-year-old brick pavement to the Ishtar Gate was smashed by tanks and the gate itself damaged. The archaeology-rich subsoil was bulldozed to fill sandbags, and large areas covered in compacted gravel for helipads and car parks. Babylon is being rendered archaeologically barren.Meanwhile the courtyard of the 10th-century caravanserai of Khan al-Raba was used by the Americans for exploding captured insurgent weapons. One blast demolished the ancient roofs and felled many of the walls. The place is now a ruin. Outside the capital some 10,000 sites of incomparable importance to the history of western civilisation, barely 20% yet excavated, are being looted as systematically as was the museum in 2003. When George tried to remove vulnerable carvings from the ancient city of Umma to Baghdad, he found gangs of looters already in place with bulldozers, dump trucks and AK47s. Hussaini showed one site after another lost to archaeology in a four-year "looting frenzy". The remains of the 2000BC cities of Isin and Shurnpak appear to have vanished: pictures show them replaced by a desert of badger holes created by an army of some 300 looters. Castles, ziggurats, deserted cities, ancient minarets and mosques have gone or are going. Hussaini has 11 teams combing the country engaged in rescue work, mostly collecting detritus left by looters. His small force of site guards is no match for heavily armed looters, able to shift objects to eager European and American dealers in days. Most ominous is a message reputedly put out from Moqtada al-Sadr's office, that while Muslim heritage should be respected, pre-Muslim relics were up for grabs. As George said before his flight, his successors might be "only interested in Islamic sites and not Iraq's earlier heritage". While Hussaini is clearly devoted to all Iraq's history, the Taliban's destruction of Afghanistan's pre-Muslim Bamiyan Buddhas is in every mind.Despite Sadr's apparent preference, sectarian militias are pursuing an orgy of destruction of Muslim sites. Apart from the high-profile bombings of some of the loveliest surviving mosques in the Arab world, radical groups opposed to all shrines have begun blasting 10th- and 11th-century structures, irrespective of Sunni or Shia origin. Eighteen ancient shrines have been lost, 10 in Kirkuk and the south in the past month alone. The great monument and souk at Kifel, north of Najaf - reputedly the tomb of Ezekiel and once guarded by Iraqi Jews (mostly driven into exile by the occupation) - have been all but destroyed. It is abundantly clear that the Americans and British are not protecting Iraq's historic sites. All foreign archaeologists have had to leave. Troops are doing nothing to prevent the "farming" of known antiquities. This is in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention that an occupying army should "use all means within its power" to guard the cultural heritage of a defeated state.Shortly after the invasion, the British minister Tessa Jowell won plaudits for "pledging" £5m to protect Iraq's antiquities. I can find no one who can tell me where, how or whether this money has been spent. It appears to have been pure spin. Only the British Museum and the British School of Archaeology in Iraq have kept the flag flying. The latter's grant has just been cut, presumably to pay for the Olympics binge. As long as Britain and America remain in denial over the anarchy they have created in Iraq, they clearly feel they must deny its devastating side-effects. Two million refugees now camping in Jordan and Syria are ignored, since life in Iraq is supposed to be "better than before". Likewise dozens of Iraqis working for the British and thus facing death threats are denied asylum. To grant it would mean the former defence and now home secretary, the bullish John Reid, admitting he was wrong. They will die before he does that. Though I opposed the invasion I assumed that its outcome would at least be a more civilised environment. Yet Iraq's people are being murdered in droves for want of order. Authority has collapsed. That western civilisation should have been born in so benighted a country as Iraq may seem bad luck. But only now is that birth being refused all guardianship, in defiance of international law. If this is Tony Blair's "values war", then language has lost all meaning. British collusion in such destruction is a scandal that will outlive any passing conflict. And we had the cheek to call the Taliban vandals.Source:www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2098057,00.html
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Feb 20, 2008 16:36:27 GMT 4
Ah geeze...I wonder how many truly innocents, the poorest and the mentally ill...our world's most disadvantaged...will be rounded up in this too wide net? And what will happen to them afterwards? Another case of 'Suffer the Children'...MIraq police to round up street beggarsFebruary 20, 2008 - 7:32AM The Iraqi Interior Ministry has ordered police to round up beggars, homeless and mentally disabled people from Baghdad's streets so insurgents can't use them as suicide bombers.The decision came nearly three weeks after twin suicide bombings against pet markets that officials said were carried out by mentally disabled women who may have been unwitting attackers. The US military and the Iraqi government have claimed in a series of revelations that Sunni insurgents led by al-Qaeda in Iraq are increasingly trying to use Iraq's most vulnerable populations as suicide bombers to avoid raising suspicions or being searched at checkpoints. The people detained in the Baghdad sweep will be taken to social welfare institutions and psychiatric hospitals that can provide shelter and care for them, Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said. "This will be implemented nationwide starting today," Khalaf said Tin a telephone interview. "Militant groups, like al-Qaeda in Iraq, have started exploiting these people in a very bad manner to kill innocent victims because they do not raise suspicions," Khalaf said. "These groups are either luring those who are desperate for money to help them in their attacks or making use of their poor mental condition to use them as suicide bombers." The allegations reflect warnings by the US military that the insurgents are skilled in adopting new tactics and willing to use women or children as suicide bombers as they seek to bypass increased security measures and bounce back from losses in recent US-led offensives. The US military said this week that attacks across Iraq have dropped more than 60 per cent since a joint campaign to cut down their influence began a year ago on February 14. But US commanders have warned that al-Qaeda in Iraq is a resilient foe and acknowledged they have been unable to stop the group's signature suicide attacks. While the concrete barriers have reduced the effectiveness of car bombings in the capital, a series of suicide attacks by women bombers have raised concerns. The Iraqi claim that mentally disabled women were used in the February 1 pet market bombings was met initially with scepticism. Iraqi authorities said they based the assertion on photos of the bombers' heads that purportedly showed the women had Down's syndrome, and did not offer any other proof. However, the director of the separate Ibn-Rushd psychiatric teaching hospital in central Baghdad, Dr Shalan al-Abboudi, said that one of the pet market bombers, a 36-year-old married woman, had been treated there for schizophrenia and depression, according to her file. He said she received electric shock therapy and was released into the custody of an aunt. American and Iraqi troops later detained the acting director of a psychiatric hospital on suspicion of helping supply patient information to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Women often aren't searched at checkpoints because men refuse to search them because of Islamic sensitivities and a dearth of female guards. Echoing the fears, police said 1,000 female officers will be deployed among the pilgrims massing in the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala for a major pilgrimage next week. The military also this month presented videos it said were seized from suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq hideouts showing militants training children to kidnap and kill. It was not clear how the plan could be implemented in a city of more than five million people who have grown used to maintaining a low profile and often hiding their identity during nearly five years of fighting and sectarian violence. A bustling street life has emerged recently in some neighbourhoods as a maze of concrete walls and checkpoints and an influx of 30,000 extra US soldiers have restored a measure of calm in the capital and surrounding areas. Women shrouded in traditional Islamic black robes and headscarves and other homeless people sit on the pavement on public squares or roam around the stalls of open-air markets to beg for money. Laurie Ahern, the associate director of the Washington, DC-based Mental Disability Rights International, expressed concern that the report suggested Iraqi authorities were casting "an awful wide net".© 2008 APSource: news.theage.com.au/iraq-police-to-round-up-street-beggars/20080220-1t6j.html
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michelle
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Post by michelle on Jul 29, 2008 6:25:18 GMT 4
That's just great; throw $10,000 at the innocent victims' famililes and expect it to be enough conpensation for cold blooded murder...MU.S. concedes Iraq victims were law-abiding, not insurgentsBy Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers Posted on Sunday, July 27, 2008 BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military said Sunday that the three people killed last month after U.S. soldiers shot at their car in one of the most secured areas of Iraq were civilians, not criminals as the military initially reported. The correction came more than a month after a bank manager at a branch inside the airport, Hafeth Aboud Mahdi, and two female bank employees were shot at by U.S. soldiers as they sped to work on a road within the secured airport compound. The road is used only by people with high-level security clearance badges. The car veered off the road, hit a concrete blast wall and burst into flames. The original statement said that Mahdi and the two women were "criminals" and that an American convoy on the side of the secured road came under small-arms fire from the vehicle. Soldiers said they shot back. A weapon was found in the debris and two U.S. military vehicles were struck by bullets from the attack, the statement on June 25 said. "When we are attacked, we will defend ourselves and will use deadly force if necessary," Maj. Joey Sullinger, a spokesman for 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, said in a statement at the time. "Such attacks endanger not only U.S. soldiers but also innocent civilians, including women and children, traveling the roadways of Baghdad." On Sunday the story changed and the tone was apologetic. A military statement said that neither the civilians who were killed nor the soldiers were at fault for the deaths. An investigation found that "the driver and passengers were law-abiding citizens of Iraq."Soldiers had pulled off the road because one of the vehicles in the convoy was having maintenance problems. As they worked on the vehicle they saw Mahdi's car and thought it was moving too quickly toward them, the statement said. Believing they might be in danger, the soldiers warned the car. When the driver ignored the signals they shot at the vehicle, the statement said. The alleged attack and the weapon that was said to have been recovered from the burned vehicle were misunderstandings, the statement said."This was an extremely unfortunate and tragic incident," said Col. Allen Batschelet, chief of staff, MND-B and 4th Infantry Division, in a statement. "Our deepest regrets of sympathy and condolences go out to the family. We are taking several corrective measures to amend and eliminate the possibility of such situations happening in the future." Mahdi's son, Mohammed Hafeth, said the statement was insufficient. He said the image of his father's burning vehicle haunts him. He'd waited in his father's office that morning surprised that he wasn't there yet. They'd left at nearly the same time that morning. Hafeth drives bank employees to work. That morning his father offered to take one of Hafeth's passengers and picked up another female bank employee who lived nearby their central Baghdad home. As he sat in the office a colleague walked in and told Hafeth his father's car was broken down on the airport road. Hafeth reached for his car keys. "I'll drive," he recalled his colleague saying. As they approached his father's car he saw the flames. He jumped from the car and started to run toward the burning vehicle, but U.S. soldiers blocked his way. "Go," he recalled them ordering. But he said he couldn't move. He dropped to the ground and wept as his father burned inside the vehicle. "Why did they kill him like this?" Mohammed Hafeth said Sunday in a phone interview. "We demand that they send those soldiers to an Iraqi and American court." Mahdi was the father of six, including Hafeth. Hafeth said he now shoulders the financial responsibility for his family on his approximately $100-a-month salary. "I was shocked that my father was killed by the Americans," he said. "Supposedly we move in a secured area ... we used to wave at them and they waved at us." Hafeth said he didn't accept the compensation offered by the U.S. military. They offered $10,000, he said, and that wasn't enough for his father's car let alone his father's life. "My father was a peaceful man," he said. "He never did anything wrong. Everybody knew his good reputation and everybody liked him." McClatchy Special Correspondent Laith Hammoudi contributed to this report.
McClatchy Newspapers 2008Source:www.mcclatchydc.com/103/story/45701.html
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