Naomi Klein's Risky Business from the Nation on Iraq 'reconstruction'

Amazing what a google search for baby jesus will turn up.

NEWS.com.au | Kurds claim Saddam capture (December 22, 2003): "SADDAM Hussein was found by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British newspaper reported yesterday."

More in Al-Jazeera, Comondreams and Debka

Ha'aretz - Article: "As for who bears primary responsibility for the current violence, 39 percent blamed the Palestinians while 16 percent accused Israel."

In the Forward, Poll: Support for Israel is Strong, we learn that: "Americans said the most threatening countries were North Korea, at 77%; Iran, at 76%; and Iraq, which was named by 76% even though the war was long over when the survey took place."

Finally the ADL survey tells us in detail how Americans believe that the occupied, stateless Pallestinians are the cause of the Middle East problems.

Netanyahu: Israel's Arabs are the real demographic threat: "'If there is a demographic problem, and there is, it is with the Israeli Arabs who will remain Israeli citizens,' he said. The Declaration of Independence said Israel should be a Jewish and democratic state, but to ensure the Jewish character was not engulfed by demography, it was necessary to ensure a Jewish majority, he said."

Azmi Bishara, of Balad (National Democratic Alliance) said: "Describing the original residents of this land as a demographic problem would be considered racism in any normal, or even abnormal, country."

A media victory: "Saddam, to use the language of the American media, is the 'Bad Guy.' America, according to that same lexicon is a nation of Good Guys. The good won. That's all that matters. Nothing else is important. Americans should hate Saddam Hussein even though no weapons of mass destruction were found. The pictures emanating from the screens are accompanied by implied imperative from commentators: hate, hate, hate."

The Geneva convention says something like:
"Article 13 ... Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity."

A detail here is that it is not clear what people like Sadam, Aziz, ... are. These are civilians and normally prisoners of war are soldiers. They are probably "enemy non-combatants"

Of course Bush, "I'd better see my lawyer. Smirk", don't care about no stinking Geneva convention.

Pro-Saddam rallies erupt, Iraqis killed: "In the ousted leader's hometown of Tikrit, about 700 people demonstrated against his capture on Monday, chanting 'Saddam is in our hearts, Saddam is in our blood.'
US soldiers and Iraqi policemen yelled back: 'Saddam is in our jail.' "

The New York Review of Books: Delusions in BaghdadLong piece from the NYRB on the occupation

The same old racket in IraqTo the victors, the spoils: Bush's colonialism will only deepen resistance, writes Tariq Ali.

Off Target: The Conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq (Human Rights Watch Report, December 2003)Misguided military tactics by US-led forces in Iraq caused hundreds of needless civilian deaths.

From the BBC: "Its no good using a precise weapon " said the organisation's Executive Director Kenneth Roth, "if the target hasn't been located precisely".

New Iraq army hit by resignations: "Pentagon officials say the army's first 700-man battalion lost 300 troops who were within weeks of being deployed.
The soldiers reportedly complained over low salaries and threats by insurgents, and refused to obey orders.
The BBC's Nick Childs at the Pentagon says the resignations will make for red faces as the US plans to build a force of 40,000 by next October"

News (alt): "George Bush poured fuel on the flames of the Iraq contracts dispute yesterday with a sneering dismissal of a suggestion by the German Chancellor that the decision to bar Germany, France Russia and Canada from bidding might violate international law.
'International law? I'd better call my lawyer,' the American President joked in response to a reporter's question at the White House."

The court case that could reshape US democracy: Over the years, partisan gerrymandering has become the norm - traditional spoils for the party which wins control in a state, and then tries to design congressional districts that send the maximum number of its own to Washington.

Hoyer strives to keep Jewish vote for DemsTom DeLay believes that Israel represents a clear-cut case of good versus evil, of democracy and standing up against oppressive regimes, and let the political chips fall where they may

On the republican web page, they are shocked to report the following about Kucinich. I'm outraged, after all he bought Uranium from Niger and could use WMD with 45 minutues warning. GOP.com - Republican National Committee RNC Research: "Kucinich Asserts That Iraq Has Neither The Intention Nor Ability To Harm United States, And Accuses War Supporters Of Abusing American Power. 'There's been no stated intention on their [Iraq's] part to harm the United States. I think that we . . . have an obligation to defend ourselves, but Iraq doesn't have the ability to hurt the United States.' (PBS' 'The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer,' 9/3/02)"

All this in contrast to POTUS.

On the Dennis Kucinich for President Campaign, 2004 - Official Website there is a great flash animation on the Occupation and Profiteering in Iraq.

Department of Defense Issues Determination for Prime Contract Awards for Iraq Relief and Reconstruction"The Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a determination dated 5 December 2003 for 26 contracts to be awarded by the Department of Defense on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority for the purpose of Iraq relief and reconstruction. The determination requires firms to be from the United States, Iraq, Coalition partners and force contributing nations to be eligible to compete for the prime contracts."

What this means is that according to our dear friend Wolfie, Moldova, Tonga, Micronesia and the Marshal Islands are more suited to providing aid to Iraq than Germany France, Canada, Rusia and China. Did someone say wanker?

According to the BBC, US allies query Iraq contract ban: In Canada, Deputy Prime Minister John Manley suggested that such a ban would make it difficult for his country to give further money for Iraqi rebuilding.

The New Yorker: "The Bush Administration has authorized a major escalation of the Special Forces covert war in Iraq. In interviews over the past month, American officials and former officials said that the main target was a hard-core group of Baathists who are believed to be behind much of the underground insurgency against the soldiers of the United States and its allies."

U.S. said adopting Israeli army counter-terror tactics in IraqIsrael is helping the U.S. train a special commando force to find the remnants of Ba'ath Party activists and Saddam Hussein loyalists behind some of the attacks on American soldiers in Iraq, the latest issue of New Yorker magazine reports.

UN vote sends fence discussion to int l court: "The UN General Assembly voted yesterday in favor of a resolution asking the International Court of Justice in The Hague for an advisory opinion on the legal implications of Israel's building a separation fence in the West Bank and Jerusalem. "

If you mean it, then prove it: "If Olmert and Sharon are serious about preferring a Jewish state over Israeli control of every stitch of land, it's time they proved it with actions. They can start small - like evacuating one real settlement in the West Bank, not some dummy outpost. When that day comes, I'll take my hat off to them instead of eating it."

Tariq Ali vs. Christopher Hitchens on the Occupation of Iraq: Postponed Liberation or Recolonisation?Today, we take a look at the U.S. occupation of Iraq with two renowned authors: Tariq Ali, author of Bush in Babylon: The Recolonization of Iraq and Christopher Hitchens, jounalist and author of A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq

Dogma undermined pre-Iraq thinking, says expert: "The demands inside the U.S. and Britain for investigations into the intelligence failure on the eve of the war in Iraq 'forgets there was a third senior partner to the assessment [that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and the ability to deliver them] - and that third partner was Israel,' says a new report from the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies, written by Brig. Gen. (res.) Shlomo Brum, a former deputy commander of the IDF Planning Branch."

The left fans the flames: Uzi Landau: Israel's haters no longer need to make the effort to turn the wheels of anti-Semitism in Europe. Israeli leftists, led by the initiators of the Geneva "Accord," do it better and their good intentions are paving the road to hell for all of us. Here are three stories about how the Israeli left contributes to the Jew-hatred sweeping all of Europe

What Sharon learned from Ben-Gurion: "Sharon seeks to copy his teacher as he crafts foreign policy. Like Ben-Gurion, he believes that Israeli power can fashion realities, so long as Israel avoids conflicts with Washington. Like his teacher, Sharon finds it hard, if not impossible, to forge compromise agreements with Arabs; he is more comfortable with unilateral moves. Sharon can be praised for his agile political maneuvering ability; here, too, the comparison to Ben-Gurion is flattering. Only one question remains to be answered: At a moment of truth, will he show the same decision-making clairvoyance which the state's founder displayed; or, will Sharon do as he has done up to now, and choose the safe course which guarantees his own political survival?"

Ha'aretz - Bullshit Artists, Inc
Sharon is a one-man Bullshit Artists, Inc. He is bullshitting Bush the same way he is bullshitting the citizens of this country. The future of the settlements, the outposts, the fence project and where it is heading - none of these matters is being addressed in any tangible way.

Ha'aretz - What is Joshua doing in the army?
IDF swearing in of soldiers: "Every place where the sole of your foot shall tread, that have I given to you ... from the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates River, all the land of the Hittites as far as the great sea toward where the sun sets shall be your border."

George Monbiot: The moral myth
Good discusion on the "morality" of a superpower.