Straight Talk

By Layla Anwar

09/01/08 “ICH” — – Americans still pretend they brought Democracy to Iraq.

That is the most propitious environment for it.

Dahr Jamail explains the how US foments sectarian division in Iraq as a tool of divide and conquer, and as an excuse for perpetual military presence.

The myth of sectarianism

IF THE U.S. leaves Iraq, the violent sectarianism between the Sunni and Shia will worsen. This is what Republicans and Democrats alike will have us believe. This key piece of rhetoric is used to justify the continuance of the occupation of Iraq.This propaganda, like others of its ilk, gains ground, substance, and reality due largely to the ignorance of those ingesting it. The snow job by the corporate media on the issue of sectarianism in Iraq has ensured that the public buys into the line that the Sunni and Shia will dice one another up into little pieces if the occupation ends.

It may be worthwhile to consider that prior to the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq there had never been open warfare between the two groups and certainly not a civil war.

Lest We Forget
By John Pilger

11/15/07 “ICH” — – On Remembrance Day 2007 – Veterans Day in America – the great and the good bowed their heads at the Cenotaph. Generals, politicians, newsreaders, football managers and stock-market traders wore their poppies. Hypocrisy was a presence. No one mentioned Iraq. No one uttered the slightest remorse for the fallen of that country. No one read the forbidden list.

The forbidden list documents, without favor, the part the British state and its court have played in the destruction of Iraq. Here it is:

1. Holocaust denial On 25 October, Dai Davies MP asked Gordon Brown about civilian deaths in Iraq. Brown passed the question to the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who passed it to his junior minister, Kim Howells, who replied: “We continue to believe that there are no comprehensive or reliable figures for deaths since March 2003.” This was a deception. In October 2006, the Lancet published research by Johns Hopkins University in the US and al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad which calculated that 655,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the Anglo-American invasion. A Freedom of Information search revealed that the government, while publicly dismissing the study, secretly backed it as comprehensive and reliable. The chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defense, Sir Roy Anderson, called its methods “robust” and “close to best practice.” Other senior governments officials secretly acknowledged the survey’s “tried and tested way of measuring mortality in conflict zones.” Since then, the British research polling agency, Opinion Research Business, has extrapolated a figure of 1.2 million deaths in Iraq. Thus, the scale of death caused by the British and US governments may well have surpassed that of the Rwanda genocide, making it the biggest single act of mass murder of the late 20th century and the 21st century.
2. Looting The undeclared reason for the invasion of Iraq was the convergent ambitions of the neocons, or neo-fascists, in Washington and the far-right regimes of Israel. Both groups had long wanted Iraq crushed and the Middle East colonized to US and Israeli designs. The initial blueprint for this was the 1992 “Defense Planning Guidance,” which outlined America’s post-Cold War plans to dominate the Middle East and beyond. Its authors included Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Colin Powell, architects of the 2003 invasion. Following the invasion, Paul Bremer, a neocon fanatic, was given absolute civil authority in Baghdad and in a series of decrees turned the entire future Iraqi economy over to US corporations. As this was lawless, the corporate plunderers were given immunity from all forms of prosecution. The Blair government was fully complicit and even objected when it looked as if UK companies might be excluded from the most profitable looting. British officials were awarded functionary colonial posts. A petroleum “law” will allow, in effect, foreign oil companies to approve their own contracts over Iraq’s vast energy resources. This will complete the greatest theft since Hitler stripped his European conquests.
3. Destroying a nation’s health In 1999, I interviewed Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, a cancer specialist at Basra city hospital. “Before the Gulf War,” he said, “we had only three or four deaths in a month from cancer. Now it’s 30 to 35 patients dying every month. Our studies indicate that 40 to 48 per cent of the population in this area will get cancer.” Iraq was then in the grip of an economic and humanitarian siege, initiated and driven by the US and Britain. The result, wrote Hans von Sponeck, the then chief UN humanitarian official in Baghdad, was “genocidal … practically an entire nation was subjected to poverty, death and destruction of its physical and mental foundations.” Most of southern Iraq remains polluted with the toxic debris of British and American explosives, including uranium-238 shells. Iraqi doctors pleaded in vain for help, citing the levels of leukemia among children as the highest seen since Hiroshima. Professor Karol Sikora, chief of the World Health Organization’s cancer program, wrote in the BMJ: “Requested radiotherapy equipment, chemotherapy drugs and analgesics are consistently blocked by United States and British advisers [to the Sanctions Committee].” In 1999, Kim Howells, then trade minister, effectively banned the export to Iraq of vaccines that would protect mostly children from diphtheria, tetanus and yellow fever, which, he said, “are capable of being used in weapons of mass destruction.”

   Since 2003, apart from PR exercises for the embedded media, the British occupiers have made no attempt to re-equip and resupply hospitals that, prior to 1991, were regarded as the best in the Middle East. In July, Oxfam reported that 43 per cent of Iraqis were living in “absolute poverty.” Under the occupation, malnutrition rates among children have spiraled to 28 per cent. A secret Defense Intelligence Agency document, “Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities,” reveals that the civilian water supply was deliberately targeted. As a result, the great majority of the population has neither access to running water nor sanitation – in a country where such basic services were once as universal as in Britain. “The mortality of children in Basra has increased by nearly 30 per cent compared to the Saddam Hussein era,” said Dr. Haydar Salah, a pediatrician at Basra children’s hospital. “Children are dying daily and no one is doing anything to help them.” In January this year, nearly 100 leading British doctors wrote to Hilary Benn, then international development secretary, describing how children were dying because Britain had not fulfilled its obligations as an occupying power under UN Security Council Resolution 1483. Benn refused to see them.

4. Destroying a society The UN estimates that 100,000 Iraqis are fleeing the country every month. The refugee crisis has now overtaken that of Darfur as the most catastrophic on earth. Half of Iraq’s doctors have gone, along with engineers and teachers. The most literate society in the Middle East is being dismantled, piece by piece. Out of more than four million displaced people, Britain last year refused the majority of more than 1,000 Iraqis who applied to come here, while removing more “illegal” Iraqi refugees than any other European country. Thanks to tabloid-inspired legislation, Iraqis in Britain are often destitute, with no right to work and no support. They sleep and scavenge in parks. The government, says Amnesty, “is trying to starve them out of the country.”
5. Propaganda “See in my line of work,” said George W. Bush, “you got to keep repeating things over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”

   Standing outside 10 Downing Street on 9 April 2003, the BBC’s then political editor, Andrew Marr, reported the fall of Baghdad as a victory speech. Tony Blair, he told viewers, “said they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right. And it would be entirely ungracious, even for his critics, not to acknowledge that tonight he stands as a larger man and a stronger prime minister as a result.” In the United States, similar travesties passed as journalism. The difference was that leading American journalists began to consider the consequences of the role they had played in the buildup to the invasion. Several told me they believed that had the media challenged and investigated Bush’s and Blair’s lies, instead of echoing and amplifying them, the invasion might not have happened. A European study found that, of the major western television networks, the BBC permitted less coverage of dissent than all of them. A second study found that the BBC consistently gave credence to government propaganda that weapons of mass destruction existed. Unlike the Sun, the BBC has credibility – as does, or did, the Observer.

   On 14 October 2001, the London Observer’s front page said: “US hawks accuse Iraq over anthrax.” This was entirely false. Supplied by US intelligence, it was part of the Observer’s staunchly pro-war coverage, which included claiming a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, for which there was no credible evidence and which betrayed the paper’s honorable past. One report over two pages was headlined: “The Iraqi connection.” It, too, came from “intelligence sources” and was rubbish. The reporter, David Rose, concluded his barren inquiry with a heartfelt plea for an invasion. “There are occasions in history,” he wrote, “when the use of force is both right and sensible.” Rose has since written his mea culpa, including in these pages, confessing how he was used. Other journalists have still to admit how they were manipulated by their own credulous relationship with established power.

   These days, Iraq is reported as if it is exclusively a civil war, with a US military “surge” aimed at bringing peace to the scrapping natives. The perversity of this is breathtaking. That sectarian violence is the product of a vicious divide-and-conquer policy is beyond doubt. As for the largely media myth of al-Qaeda, “most of the [American] pros will tell you,” wrote Seymour Hersh, “that the foreign fighters are a couple per cent, and then they’re sort of leaderless.” That a poorly armed, audacious resistance has not only pinned down the world’s most powerful army but has agreed to an anti-sectarian, anti-al-Qaeda agenda, which opposes attacks on civilians and calls for free elections, is not news.

6. The next blood letting In the 1960s and 1970s, British governments secretly expelled the population of Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean whose people have British nationality. Women and children were loaded on to vessels resembling slave ships and dumped in the slums of Mauritius, after their homeland was given to the Americans for a military base. Three times, the High Court has found this atrocity illegal, calling it a defiance of the Magna Carta and the Blair government’s refusal to allow the people to go home “outrageous” and “repugnant.” The government continues to use endless recourse to appeal, at the taxpayers’ expense, to prevent upsetting Bush. The cruelty of this matches the fact that not only has the US repeatedly bombed Iraq from Diego Garcia, but at “Camp Justice,” on the island, “al-Qaeda suspects” are “rendered” and “tortured,” according to the Washington Post. Now the US Air Force is rushing to upgrade hangar facilities on the island so that stealth bombers can carry 14-ton”bunker busting” bombs in an attack on Iran. Orchestrated propaganda in the media is critical to the success of this act of international piracy.

   On 22 May, the front page of the London Guardian carried the banner headline: “Iran’s secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq.” This was a tract of unalloyed propaganda based entirely on anonymous US official sources. Throughout the media, other drums have taken up the beat. “Iran’s nuclear ambitions” slips effortlessly from newsreaders’ lips, no matter that the International Atomic Energy Agency refuted Washington’s lies, no matter the echo of “Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction,” no matter that another bloodbath beckons.

Lest we forget.

YouTube – Dr. Dahlia Wasfi speaks at Iraq forum

This woman explains the plain facts, that USA is destroying Iraq for the looting of their oil.

This is the kind of simply explained truth that our National news-media does not but should show.

The Washington Note
Zbigniew Brzezinski Calls Iraq War a Historic, Strategic and Moral Calamity & Says Stop the Trappings of Colonial Tutelage

Letter from a U.S. citizen “addressed to the world”

Saddam Hussein Hanged for the Wrong Reason

It was not the Iraqi government but its American masters that chose to execute Saddam Hussein in a great rush as soon as the first sentence was confirmed, thus canceling all the other trials on far graver charges that awaited him. The current Iraqi government had nothing to hide if those trials went ahead; the United States government did.

I was reading this article thinking how precisely it describes the situation in Iraq, when suddenly it dawned on me that this article was written in 2002 prior to the invasion…

To think that this whole sham was so obvious even back then, and blinded by mainstream-media we never saw it!
The president’s real goal in Iraq

…For example, why does the administration seem unconcerned about an exit strategy from Iraq once Saddam is toppled?Because we won’t be leaving. Having conquered Iraq, the United States will create permanent military bases in that country from which to dominate the Middle East, including neighboring Iran…

]]> http://jakoblog.agenda911.dk/id/573/feed 0 http://jakoblog.agenda911.dk/id/567 http://jakoblog.agenda911.dk/id/567#comments Sat, 04 Nov 2006 08:36:40 +0000 Jakob http://jakoblog.agenda911.dk/id/567

A long term strategy to stay on the offense in the middle east.

USA has no motive to withdraw from Iraq, and it is not their plan.

They are building superbases in Iraq, and their plan is to stay.

Fomenting instability in Iraq, and overall in the oil-region serves as a self-created excuse to maintain military presence.

This is logic.

Bush U.S. Must Stay In Iraq To Control Oil

“On the one hand we’ve got a plan to make sure we protect you from immediate attack, and on the other hand we’ve got a long-term strategy to deal with these threats, and part of that strategy is to stay on the offense,” Bush continued.

Allen L Roland’s Radio Weblog

Excerpt: ” Britain and America not only used DU in this year’s Iraq war, they dramatically increased its use-from a minimum of 320 tons in the previous war to at minimum of 1500 tons in this one. And this time the use of DU wasn’t limited to anti-tank weapons-as it had largely been in the previous Gulf war-but was extended to the guided missiles, large bunker busters and big 2000-pound bombs used in Iraq’s cities …. In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, ‘The [US government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body.’ He concluded, ‘uranium does cause cancer, uranium does cause mutation, and uranium does kill. If we continue with the irresponsible contamination of the biosphere, and denial of the fact that human life is endangered by the deadly isotope uranium, then we are doing disservice to ourselves, disservice to the truth, disservice to God and to all generations who follow.’ “

A veeery long one.

Collaborators of Catastrophe: Inside the Ministry of Truth
Storytellers of the American Narrative

By Manuel Valenzuela

10/26/06 “Information Clearing House” — – The creators of American reality, those propagators of charades and mirages who dwell inside the hallways of the Ministry of Truth – otherwise known as the Corporate Media – continue their dance of deception and whitewash, festering in their offices of propaganda, directing the narratives and the epics hundreds of millions of Americans consider truth. Much like the disappearance of warmth giving way to the crispness of cold arrives with each annual changing of leaves, so the remarketing of American reality is altered by the changing faces of circumstance. Today, this change is the complete disaster that is the occupation of Iraq, an endeavor whose initial fruition could not have taken shape without the blitzkrieg marketed incessantly into every home and mind in America by the Department of Propaganda, the Ministry of Truth and its army of pseudo-journalists….

Carlos Latuff is a political artist. The link is to his gallery with many different drawings. I chose one example relevant to this particular blog.
Latuff2’s deviantART Gallery

C

Accelerating the collapse of Iraq
By Abbas J. Ali

Before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the neoconservatives thought that incapacitating Iraqi’s social and political institutions would facilitate the termination of Iraq’s cultural and national identity. It was believed that this would ease occupation and ensure the total submission to the neoconservative’s design for Iraq and the entire Middle East…

Video – the DOSSIER

Here you will find streaming/downloadable films, lectures and documentaries.
These are split into six categories:

1. September 11th
2. Iraq War
3. the CIA
4. drugs & money
5. the Elite & secret societies
6. cover-ups

Interview wih Wayne Madsen.

US Israeli attack on Lebanon

Why Lebanon? Why now?Another violent US/Israeli
power grab in the Middle East

Press the play button to start the video

Analysis by Wayne Madsen

Over 1,000 Lebanese, including many children, killed…35,000 homes and places of business destroyed… 1,000,000 forced to flee their homes…

400 miles of Lebanon’s roads ruined…150 bridges and interchanges destroyed…billions of dollars in infrastructure damage to manufacturing and transportation facilities

All because Hezbollah “kidnapped” two Israeli soldiers?

How can anyone but a child be expected to believe the goverment-media story?

WOW! This guy Galloway is smoking!

He lambasts the TV-host for spreading misinformation – and he is right!

He states – to wich I agree – that the Israeli problem is really quite simple:

“No justice: No peace. Israel must leave the occupied territories, and allow the creation of a *real* Palestinian state”

Video: George Galloway – Hizbollah Is Not A Terrorist Organization

One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter
George Galloway has spoken out in support of Lebanon, saying he believes Hizbollah is justified in defending Lebanon against Israeli attacks . The Respect MP also lambasted media coverage of the war and said the UN resolution means nothing.
08/06/06 Runtime 9Minutes

Video link: ichgalloway100.wmv

Play Windows Media version

Here are more links to videos with Galloway:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H…h? v=HrdFFCnYtbk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D…h? v=DCeTE0WD3E4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j…h? v=jg6qWVGqEJ4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W…h? v=WbmgkCiwTKo
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m…h? v=miocO7i2D54
• http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/…tsp&start=23:00

Galloway is also described at wikipedia

I found this very strong speech on the bittorrent server thepiratebay.org.

Chossudovsky in no uncertain terms states that

• USA has embarqued on global war
• Iran is the next major target
• The pretext ‘War on Terror’ is a fabrication
• The primary goal is control of oil ressources
• Israel will play an active role in bombing the middle east
• Nuclear weapons has been decategorized as conventional weapons

Prof. Michael Chossudovsky War on Terror – The Pirate Bay
Prof. Michael Chossudovsky War on Terror Speech given in Kuala Lumpur 2006

You can also download it right here from this server:

michael.chossudovsky-war.on.terror.wmv (384*288, 37.6 MB)

michael.chossudovsky-war.on.terror.m4v (320*240, 111 MB for iPod)

And/or watch it right here:

Play Windows Media version

More information on the use of depleted Uranium in Iraq, but now also Lebanon.
Depleted Uranium Situation Worsens Requiring Immediate Action By President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Prime Minister Olmert :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq

www.uruknet.info

I came across this site – I don’t really know where it registers, besides they DON’T like Israel!

But anyway, it seems to be info from another angle.

San Francisco Bay View – National Black Newspaper of the Year

This 4-year-old Iraqi boy is suffering from a tumor growing in his eye.
Photo: BBC

Confident U.S. generals commit war crimes

Uranium as a force multiplier

by Bob Nichols

…A leading scientist, Leuren Moret, speaking out on the use of depleted uranium today, says flatly, “Iraq is uninhabitable,” due to widespread radiation poisoning…

A Turkish action-movie crtitical of the American occupation of Iraq.

I guess I wont be seeing this one in a theater near me any time soon…

Valley of The Wolves Iraq Offical Site

This is a strong Flash animation with a pumping rap-sound-track.

The message is that Young Americans should avoid getting drafted.

This one bites! It is really well done.
SIR, NO SIR!

The sirnosir site itself as apparently disappeared but www.stoplying.ca managed to salvage it. I am happy I found it again!

On the ‘Iraq Veterans Against War’ site there is an explanation that this is actually a DVD!

Play Flash version

This one is looong. I haven’t read it – I just liked the title-

The War They Wanted, The Lies They Needed

The Bush administration invaded Iraq claiming Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger. As much of Washington knew, and the world soon learned, the charge was false. Worse, it appears to have been the cornerstone of a highly successful “black propaganda” campaign with links to the White House

By Craig Unger

A blog from Baghdad:

Baghdad Burning

RobertFisk:
Zarqawi’s end is not a famous victory, nor will it bring Iraq any nearer to peace

By Danny Schechter:
Dissecting the Zargawi Spectacle

A refreshing view on the ostensible death of Al-Zarqawi.

Chris Floyd – Empire Burlesque – High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Imperium – Hubub in Hibhib: The Timely Death of al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab Saddam Osama al-Zarqawi, the extremely elusive if not entirely mythical terrorist mastermind responsible for every single insurgent action in Iraq except for the ones caused by the red-tailed devils in Iran or the stripey-tailed devils in Syria, has reportedly been killed in an airstrike in Hibhib, an area north of Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki announced today.

Dagbladet Information havde en leder, som jeg ikke var helt tilfreds med. Derfor skrev jeg en kommentar på deres webside:

Sig ja, Iran!
Tema: Iran: Bombemagt eller bombemål?

[LEDER]
HOLD VEJRET! – som man siger på engelsk. Vær tålmodig! Intet er afgjort endnu. Trods skepsis og forståelig pessimisme kan man ikke komme udenom, at USA’s tilbud om at sætte sig ned og tale med Iran er et lyspunkt, der slår ned midt i en proces, som indtil nu syntes at accelerere mod en uafvendelig konflikt mellem de to lande. Nu er det lykkedes at få stoppet lavinen. Det giver unægtelig diplomatiet en chance for at tage over og holde USA og Iran fast på, at dialog er at foretrække frem for konfrontation.

Når fjender endelig beslutter, at det er i deres interesse at sætte sig ned og diskutere tilsyneladende uoverstigelige uoverensstemmelser, sker der ofte det forunderlige, at man fortsætter med at konversere – endda i lang tid – selv om man ikke kan nå til enighed. Ingen tør rejse sig og gå og smække med døren af frygt for, at det vil føre til krig og international fordømmelse. Denne dynamik accepterer præsident George W. Bush og hans udenrigsminister Condoleezza Rice eksplicit med deres tilbud om at forhandle med Iran i et multinationalt forum (bestående af Frankrig, Storbritannien og Tyskland med Rusland og Kina som bisiddere). Den politiske risiko er betydelig. Hvis præstestyret i Teheran siger ja, kan det blive svært at få sagen ført tilbage til Sikkerhedsrådet. Iranerne kan trække tiden ud med nølen og tovtrækkeri, mens de i det skjulte fortsætter atomprogrammet og udvikler kapacitet til at bygge en bombe. Et sådant facit ville ændre situationen fundamentalt. Med et atomvåben i hånden ville Iran ikke længere have behov for en amerikansk sikkerhedsgaranti.
DET ERMERE eller mindre, hvad der er sket i Nordkorea, som mistænkes for at have bygget et eller flere atomvåben under de seneste tre års forhandlinger i sekspartsgruppen, hvor USA sidder med. Forskellen er imidlertid, at Nordkoreas manøvrefrihed er strengt begrænset af dets store nabo – atommagten Kina. I Mellemøsten er Irans mægtigste nabo USA, der har 160.000 soldater i Irak og 24.000 soldater i Afghanistan og aftaler med en stribe arabiske lande om adgang til militære faciliteter samt en flåde liggende i Middelhavet og Den Persiske Golf. Den eneste regionale magt i Mellemøsten, som stritter imod amerikansk militært herredømme, er Iran. Derfor er regimets trodsige politik over for USA og EU3-landene så populær blandt masserne i regionen og hinsides. Derfor er det så vigtigt for USA og dets partnere at dæmme op for Irans voksende indflydelse under den anti-israelske islamistiske præsident Mahmoud Ahmadinejads ledelse og for alt i verden afværge, at iranerne rekvirerer et atomvåben.

SETIDETPERSPEKTIV er USA’s og EU3-gruppens krav om, at Iran skal indstille uranberigelsen som betingelse for at genstarte forhandlingerne, forståelig. Der er forskel mellem at indstille og stoppe eksperimenterne med centrifugerne i den iranske by Natanz. En indstilling kan ikke være ensbetydende med en opgivelse af Irans “naturret” til at berige uran til udvikling af atomenergi. Det hævdede udenrigsminister Manouchehr Mottaki torsdag og vicesikkerhedsrådgiver Javad Vaeidi i går i The New York Times. Men det er ren og skær nonsens. Det var ikke noget problem for Iran at indstille forsøgene under de halvanden år lange og resultatløse forhandlinger med EU3-landene. Hvorfor skulle det være det nu, da iranerne har opnået, hvad de ville – nemlig at få USA tvunget ud af busken og direkte til forhandlingsbordet? Hvis Iran trods denne modsigelse stolt holder fast på sin “naturret” og afviser at indstille forsøgene, kan man roligt antage, at regimet vil miste meget af den goodwill, det har opbygget rundt omkring i verden for sin opsætsige linje over for Bush-regeringen. Regimet vil også have et forklaringsproblem internt, hvis og når en så obsternasig holdning fører til sanktioner i FN-regi og mulig nød i befolkningen.

NÅRDETERSAGT, bør det tilføjes, at amerikanerne ikke ligefrem har gjort det let for Iran at indstille berigelsesprocessen og komme til forhandlingsbordet. Rice brugte en unødvendigt hårdkogt og kompromisløs retorik under sit pressemøde onsdag og i tv-interview efter mødet med sine kolleger i Wien torsdag. Man fristes nærmest til at mistænke hendes regering for inderst inde at håbe på et iransk nej. Det ville glæde Cheney, Rumsfeld og nykonservative i og uden for Bush-regeringen vældigt, fordi man så håber at gå styrket tilbage til Sikkerhedsrådet med krav om international isolation af Iran og indførelse af sanktioner. Udenrigsministeren har på forhånd gjort klart, at den pakke gulerødder, som Iran vil blive tilbudt, højst kan indeholde indrømmelser på det atomare område i form af forsyningssikkerhed til iranske atomreaktorer og formentlig et fornyet tilbud om medlemskab af WTO samt eksport af reservedele til iranske passagerfly. Men Irans uomgængelige krav er, at USA opgiver at undergrave præstestyret og garanterer at afstå fra et militært angreb. Ellers vil Iran ikke opgive deres spar es – atomprogrammet. Herudover vil Teheran også have ophævet amerikanske sanktioner. Det er spekulation, hvor langt USA vil strække sig. Men igen – hvis forhandlingerne starter, kan de i kraft af en indre dynamik føre til uventede resultater. Det har man i hvert fald lov at håbe på. burchOg min kommentar:

‘Information’ som talerør for den amerikanske krigs-retorik AF Jakob Hede Madsen [05-06-2006]

Overordnet mener jeg at denne leder i alt for høj grad accepterer USA’s globale imperialisme.

1) Det er givetvist naivt at tro at USA’s seneste såkaldte forhandlings-udspil er andet end nøjagtig den samme type sminke USA brugte som optakt til krigen mod Irak, som vi alle ved var baseret på ikke bare een løgn, men et helt skiftende system af løgne: 911, WMD, Demokrati, borgerkrig, terrorisme. Olie!
Her er et link til en glimrende artikel som uddyber ovenstående:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephen__060602_sham_us_proposal_to_.htm

2) Denne leder forudsætter implicit at Irans atomprogram har det skjulte formål at føre til udviklingen af atomvåben. Det er da muligt at det er naivt at TRO at det ikke er meningen, men det er bare IKKE det Iranerne selv siger er formålet med deres fredelige ATOMKRAFT program, og IAEA har heller ikke fundet nogen indicier på at iranerne prøver på at snyde med deres atomprogram.
Så hvor helt præcist er argumentationen for at Iran er i gang med at udvikle ATOMVÅBEN?
Og jeg mener ikke den amerikanske administrations argumenter, jeg mener VIRKELIGE argumenter.

3) Ja, med atomvåben i hånden ville Iran ikke have brug for en amerikansk sikkerhedsgaranti, for USA overfalder kun forsvarsløse lande med vitale geostrategiske interesser for USA selv.
USA har allerede overfaldet to af Irans i forvejen totalt lemlæstede nabolande, og nu har USA vendt den samme retorik mod Iran – hvad skal de mon tro? Enten skaffer de sig Atomvåben ligesom Nordkorea, Pakistan, Indien eller Israel, eller også får de samme tur som Afghanistan og Irak.

4)Har forfatteren til denne leder egentlig sat sig ind i Ikke-sprednings-aftalen (NPT)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Non-Proliferation_Treaty
Den siger for det første helt eksplicit at stater der underskriver aftalen har en UMISTELIG ret til at have et fredeligt atomprogram, inklusive berigelse af uran. Derfor er USA’s krav om at Iran skal opgive deres uran-berigelse ikke i overensstemmelse med NPT, kravet er i modstrid med NPT.
Derfor er lederens sarkastiske reference til Irans “naturret” også ret usmagelig.
Desuden har et hav af andre lande et uranberigelsesprogram uden at USA af den grund angler til krig med dem. Eksempelvis Brasilien har for nylig startet deres uranberigelse under kontrol af IAEA. var der nogen her der havde hørt om det?
For det andet siger NPT at de lande der ifølge aftalen godt må have atomvåben ikke må tilskynde andre lande til at få atomvåben og ved at true Iran med atomvåben tilskynder USA lige præcis Iran til at skaffe sig atomvåben fordi atomvåben vil være det eneste realistiske forsvar mod at blive atombombet af USA.
For det tredje baserer aftalen sig på at de atomvåben-bærende magter skal nedruste og afskaffe deres atomvåben, og USA har i direkte modstrid med aftalen nyudviklet deres såkaldte bunker-buster ‘mini’ atombombe.
Det er altså USA og IKKE Iran der på flere punkter overskrider og forvrænger Ikke-sprednings-aftalen.

5) Det er desuden USA og IKKE Iran der har et kriminalregister fyldt med voldelige overfald på andre stater, og det er USA der allerede har atomvåben – mange! og det er USA der som det eneste land i verden allerede har brugt atomvåben. Og det er USA der helt aktuelt er i gang med at true med at bruge atomvåben – ikke til selvforsvar, og heller ikke i aggression mod at andet atomvåben-bærende land der kan forsvare sig, nej mod et forsvarsløst land uden atomvåben.
Ikke desto mindre er det det samme land, USA der med sin propaganda forsøger (med et vist held som denne leder beklageligvis indikerer) at få resten af verden til at tro på, at det altoverskyggende aktuelle problem er Irans hypotetiske mulighed for i løbet af en årrække at udvikle atomvåben i modstrid med deres erklærede intentioner.
Det er Iranere der er for “irrationelle” til at besidde atomvåben – ikke amerikanerne der er for voldelige?

6) Hvordan kan det være “obsternasigt” af Iran at nægte at gå til forhandlinger der forudsætter at de inden de sætter sig til forhandlingsbordet har måttet opgive deres ret til den uranberigelse som NPT erklærer som deres UMISTELIGE ret?

7) Afslutningsvis er det som om sløret er lige ved at løfte sig for lederen, når det nævnes at det i mistænkelig grad ser ud som om USA spiller så ‘hardball’ at den reelle intention bare er at give et tilbud som iranerne kun kan afslå, for at USA derefter kan udnytte dette spin til at trække den følgagtige vestlige presse med sig i en hetz mod Iran der har krigen som selve sit mål.
Nøjagtig som USA allerede har gjort det med Irak.

Vi ved nu at USA er i gang med en vanvittig imperialistisk ‘global’ krig under et bevist løgnagtigt dække af at være en krig mod terror, og vi kan se at de nu er i gang med nøjagtig den samme løgnagtige propaganda som optakt til krig mod Iran, som de brugte mod Irak.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13458.htm

9) USA lyver og myrder for øjnene af os, og ikke desto mindre skal jeg finde mig i at min såkaldt ‘progressive’ avis – “Information” medvirker til denne propaganda ved at give medløb til USA’s retorik og forvrængede verdensbillede.

Med antændt hilsen, Jakob Hede Madsen.

Newman, a british sort of stand up comedian, is funny and educative. I learned some stuff about the British role in events dating back as far as WW1.

Robert Newmans History of Oil – Google Video

As shown on Ch4 and repeated several times on More4, available at IndyBay on the web and many other places, now on google video (not great … all » video quality) Robert’s stand-up act examines the history of the last 100 years or so but putting oil center-stage. Brilliant!

SHAM US PROPOSAL TO IRAN EVOKES MEMORIES OF PAST SIMILAR ONES

Why it’s over for America
This is an edited extract from Failed States by Noam Chomsky (Hamish Hamilton)

A movie about the situation for journalism in Iraq, in unmistakable British ‘neutral’ voice.
The main point is that in Iraq today, it is impossible for western Journalist to operate outside the green-zone.
In other words western journalists are completely cut off from investigating real life in Iraq, and must instead rely on videotapes from local Iraqi journalists, or just relay the gospel from the US military.
Another point is that daily life in Iraq is much more bloody than the sanitized version shown in western media.

Iraq: The Hidden War

Iraq: The Hidden Story shows the footage used by TV news broadcasts, and compares it with the devastatingly powerful uncensored footage of the aftermath of the carnage that is becoming a part of the fabric of life in Iraq.Prod/ Dir: Christian Trumble; Exec Prod: Stephen Phelps; Prod Co: Zenith Entertainment Ltd – 2006

05/29/06 Runtime 49 Minutes

Images of Iraq dominate our TV news bulletins every night but in this film, Channel4 news presenter Jon Snow, questions whether these reports are sugar-coating the bloody reality of war under the US-led occupation

Embedded video:

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The Jessie Macbeth interview may turn out to have been a hoax.

I and many others distributed the piece, maybe a bit to naively.

I did feel slightly suspicious about Jessies piece after having wathced it, mostly because his story was too ‘abstract’. It didn’t really convey the emotion of him having actually been there doing all the killing he told about. But the story was so powerful that it was too tempting as bait.

So I will have learned a little about being sceptical about the information I encounter.

On the other hand, this blog is my personal record of the information I have encountered and found interesting, so as such Jessies story belongs here, and I dont’ see it as my duty to stand as a filter between the potential lies out there and the readers of this blog – You must enable your own filtering.
As a counterweight to Jessies superficial story, here I have a video from Democracy now with an interview of an Iraq-ex-soldier, who turned in his gun, and subsequently worked at abu graib.

While his story doesn’t have nearly the same sensationalist impact it is nonetheless still a strong story about the violence and cynicism rampant among the American troops in Iraq.

And this guy – Aidan Delgado seems much more convincing than jessie Macbeth.

URL: http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2004/dec/video/dnB20041217a.rm&start=11:01

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WARNING!!! the validity of this story has been challenged.

=====================================

A strong Video of a young man telling how he slaughtered women and children Iraq – by his hand alone he estimates 200!

He is now strongly against the war and against the Bush government, and he strongly advices other young men to NOT join the war.

This video should give you a good impression of what the war in Iraq is about, in case you thought it was a nice clean benevolent action to liberate the people.
Confessions Of An Iraqi War Veteran

“What we are doing over there is wrong”Confessions Of An Iraqi War Veteran

Jessie Macbeth – Former Army Ranger and Iraq War Veteran, Tell it like it is
“She was begging me, begging me to save her and to save her kids, but, I didn’t you know. I wanted to be , ah, I killed them. You know?

This 20 minute video will change your life.. A PepperSpray Production

Jessie is a member of IVAW – Iraq Veterans Against the War

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I think that if I was living in a country that was occupied and being destroyed by the oil-hungry empire, then I would probably also say something to the effect of what the Iraqis are saying in this video.
Video: A Message From The Iraq Resistance

Also it is noteworthy how they point to the real conflict as being between USA versus Europe and China. This fits nicely with the “oil-bourse converting from Dollars to Euros begets you bombs – quickly” theory.
Download video

See transcript below: Iraqi Resistance speech on videotape December 13 2004

Rush transcript-

Title: Communiqué Number 6

The media platoon of the Islamic Jihad Army. On the 27th of Shawal 1425h. 10 December 2004

People of the world! These words come to you from those who up to the day of the invasion were struggling to survive under the sanctions imposed by the criminal regimes of the U.S. and Britain .

We are simple people who chose principles over fear.

We have suffered crimes and sanctions, which we consider the true weapons of mass destruction.

Years and years of agony and despair, while the condemned UN traded with our oil revenues in the name of world stability and peace.

Over two million innocents died waiting for a light at the end of a tunnel that only ended with the occupation of our country and the theft of our resources.

After the crimes of the administrations of the U.S and Britain in Iraq , we have chosen our future. The future of every resistance struggle ever in the history of man.

It is our duty, as well as our right, to fight back the occupying forces, which their nations will be held morally and economically responsible; for what their elected governments have destroyed and stolen from our land.

We have not crossed the oceans and seas to occupy Britain or the U.S. nor are we responsible for 9/11. These are only a few of the lies that these criminals present to cover their true plans for the control of the energy resources of the world, in face of a growing China and a strong unified Europe . It is Ironic that the Iraqi’s are to bear the full face of this large and growing conflict on behalf of the rest of this sleeping world.

We thank all those, including those of Britain and the U.S. , who took to the streets in protest against this war and against Globalism. We also thank France , Germany and other states for their position, which least to say are considered wise and balanced, til now.

Today, we call on you again.

We do not require arms or fighters, for we have plenty.

We ask you to form a world wide front against war and sanctions. A front that is governed by the wise and knowing. A front that will bring reform and order. New institutions that would replace the now corrupt.

Stop using the U.S. dollar, use the Euro or a basket of currencies. Reduce or halt your consumption of British and U.S. products. Put an end to Zionism before it ends the world. Educate those in doubt of the true nature of this conflict and do not believe their media for their casualties are far higher than they admit.

We only wish we had more cameras to show the world their true defeat.

The enemy is on the run. They are in fear of a resistance movement they can not see nor predict.

We, now choose when, where, and how to strike. And as our ancestors drew the first sparks of civilization, we will redefine the word “conquest.“

Today we write a new chapter in the arts of urban warfare.

Know that by helping the Iraqi people you are helping yourselves, for tomorrow may bring the same destruction to you.

In helping the Iraqi people does not mean dealing for the Americans for a few contracts here and there. You must continue to isolate their strategy.

This conflict is no longer considered a localized war. Nor can the world remain hostage to the never-ending and regenerated fear that the American people suffer from in general.

We will pin them here in Iraq to drain their resources, manpower, and their will to fight. We will make them spend as much as they steal, if not more.

We will disrupt, then halt the flow of our stolen oil, thus, rendering their plans useless.

And the earlier a movement is born, the earlier their fall will be.

And to the American soldiers we say, you can also choose to fight tyranny with us. Lay down your weapons, and seek refuge in our mosques, churches and homes. We will protect you. And we will get you out of Iraq , as we have done with a few others before you.

Go back to your homes, families, and loved ones. This is not your war. Nor are you fighting for a true cause in Iraq .

And to George W. Bush, we say, “You have asked us to ‘Bring it on’, and so have we. Like never expected. Have you another challenge?”

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Putin proposes creation of ruble-denominated oil, gas exchange

When Iraq converted their oiltrade to Euros they were anihilated 6 months later by USA.

Now Iran Is planning to convert their oiltrade to the Euro.

And now also Russia seeking to get away from the Dollar.

Maybe this is the essential global dissent that we need in order to oppose USA.

Why don’t Europe itself also convert their oiltrade to the Euro???

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ConceptionMedia

Makers of films such as:

• Caught in the Crossfire (about Falluja) [Watch Video]
• The Road to Falluja

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Reshuffling the cards in Iraq

• Democracy in Iraq is a falsity serving as a smokescreen for american destruction and looting of Iraq
• USA want to control Iraq the same way it controls the Phillipines.

In his chronicle of America’s past criminal attacks against defenceless nations, Stephen Kinzer sees the parallels between the U.S. invasion of the Philippines and U.S. invasion of Iraq were identical. In Overthrow (Times Books, 2006), Kinzer writes: “Early in the twenty-first century, ten decades after the United States invaded the Philippines and a few years after it invaded Iraq, those two countries were among the most volatile and unstable in all of Asia.” Both nations remain poor, exploited and undemocratic. Indeed, the Bush administration is in the process of ruling Iraq based on the Philippines model.

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Peter Dale Scott: Poetry and Political Writings

His prose books include The War Conspiracy (1972), The Assassinations: Dallas and Beyond (in collaboration, 1976), Crime and Cover-Up: The CIA, the Mafia, and the Dallas-Watergate Connection (1977), The Iran-Contra Connection (in collaboration, 1987), Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America (in collaboration, 1991, 1998), Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (1993, 1996), Deep Politics Two (from JFKLancer, 1995), and Drugs Oil and War (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, March 2003) Click here to read the Preface to this book. (I am often asked about the availability of my out-of-print War Conspiracy; the five most relevant chapters are reprinted in this book.)

Peter Dale Scott on Al-Qaeda, 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, United States

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The United States of America Has Gone Mad

Published on Wednesday, January 15, 2003 by the Times/UK
The United States of America Has Gone Mad
by John le CarréAmerica has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War…

John le Carré appears to be refreshingly blunt, about the Iraq war being about OIL and power.

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