24 June 2004 | DemocracyNow! The Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy In Focus just released a new study titled “PAYING THE PRICE: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War” that examines the costs of the war and occupation in terms of lives, the increased military budget demands and the stripping of the domestic budget. Among the report’s findings: Total number of coalition military deaths between the start of war and June 16, 2004: 952 (853 U.S.) Of those 952, the number killed after President George W. Bush declared “an end to combat operations” on May 1, 2003: 693 […]
Daily Archives: June 24, 2004
11 posts
25 June 2004 | DemocracyNow! John Negroponte was sworn in as the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq on Wednesday. As ambassador [to Honduras], he played a key role in US aid to the Contra death squads in Nicaragua and shoring up the brutal military dictatorship of General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez in Honduras.
22 June 2004 | NewStandard News by Chris Shumway A last minute spending spree by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and language in the UN Security Council resolution setting the conditions for Iraqi sovereignty appear likely to limit the interim government’s ability to exercise meaningful control over the country’s oil revenues. According to documents posted on its own web site, the CPA?s little-known Program Review Board (PRB) has quietly committed billions of dollars in Iraq’s oil revenues to new contracts that critics say will enrich US and British corporations while limiting the amount of revenue Iraq’s new interim government […]
24 June 2004 | United Press International (UPI) Washington, DC — The U.S. government is bypassing the United Nations and is granting its own forces immunity from prosecution in Iraq after the June 30 handover of control. U.S. administrator Paul Bremer is expected to extend by at least six months an order that gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from “local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states.”
[ I learned of this important paper through InformationClearingHouse.info. –BL ] Testimony to the World Tribunal on Iraq, International Forum on Globalization, New York, May 8, 2004 by Antonia Juhasz The Bush Administration is using the military invasion and occupation of Iraq to advance a corporate globalization agenda that is illegal under international law, has not been chosen by the Iraqi people and may ultimately prove to be even more devastating than twelve years of economic sanctions, two U.S.-led wars and one occupation. The Administration’s ultimate goal is to take the agenda to the entire region. In direct conflict with its […]
[ Otto Reich, Bush’s Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs since 2002, is a far-right wing propagandist and former Reagan appointee. He supported the Contras, and was ambassador to Venezuela, in which, more recently he probably helped orchestrate the Bush Administration’s 2002 coup attempt. Reich smears the popular, democratically elected Chavez (Venezuela) and Aristide (Haiti). They both oppose the Bush Administration’s hegemonic policy in Latin America. –BL ] US wants Chavez out The departing US envoy to Latin America and the Caribbean said the Bush administration would like to see the removal of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. 19 […]
[ In this important yet questionable article, members of the Iraqi resistance tell the Asia Times of their plans to expel the American forces and set up a secular democracy of their own design. –BL ] 25 June 2004 | Asia Times by Alix de la Grange Editor’s note: Coordinated attacks and skirmishes in several Iraqi cities on Thursday killed at least 66 people and wounded more than 250. Forty-four people were killed in a series of car bomb blasts in the northern city of Mosul and 216 wounded. Fighting in al-Anbar province, where there were clashes in Fallujah and Ramadi, […]
Below is an excerpt from "Why We Didn’t Remove Saddam" by George Bush, Sr. and Brent Scowcroft, Time (2 March 1998): While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. We were concerned about the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf. Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and […]
June 22, 2004 | Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting The Bush administration’s long-running attempts to link Iraq and Al Qaeda were dealt a serious blow when the September 11 commission’s June 16 interim report indicated that there did not appear to be a “collaborative relationship” between Iraq and Osama bin Laden, and that there was no evidence that Iraq was involved in the September 11 attacks. But if you were watching the Fox News Channel, you saw something very different, as the conservative cable network eagerly defended the Bush administration and criticized the rest of the media for mishandling the […]
[ The AP is still on the Bush Texas Air National Guard story: The White House has yet to respond to a request by the AP in April asking the president to sign a written waiver of his right to keep records of his military service confidential…. When the government did not produce the documents, AP appealed to the Pentagon, saying that by law, the microfilm copy should have been produced within 20 days. –BL ] 22 June 2004 | Associated Press by PETE YOST WASHINGTON – The Associated Press sued the Pentagon and the Air Force on Tuesday, seeking access […]
[ Michael Moore was right: the Iraq war was based on a fiction. And now it’s all the more clear that it’s being followed by fictional sovereignty! Could it be that only a “sovereign” nation can enter into binding oil contracts and mass-privatization deals that commit Iraq to exporting its wealth? If so, this fiction is an important fiction. –BL ] Iraq ministers told only US can impose martial law by Nicolas Pelham in Baghdad 22 June 2004 | Financial Times The US-led occupation authority in Baghdad has warned Iraq’s interim government not to carry out its threat of declaring martial […]