Saddam is an story of past, he was due to collapse either US Occupied Iraq or not. The fact of this time is that American are aggressors and occupiers and Iraqis are fighting for their freedom and dignity, their cause is nobel and legitmate, they have the right to fight against foreign aggressors who have brutally killed thousands of Iraqis and free their homeland.
b'coz finally they hit a much powerfull enemy who occupied their home land, Iraqis have the right to fight for the dignity and freedom of their country. fight an enemy who is humiliating and brutally killing the Iraqi nation like this
Am I to believe that the US didn't install Saddam in the first place?
Are you saying the US brought Saddam to power? If so, please provide some sort of evidence of this claim.
Saddam is an story of past,
He wasn't 6 months ago.
he was due to collapse either US Occupied Iraq or not.
Could you provide some evidence to back up this claim?
The fact of this time is that American are aggressors and occupiers and Iraqis are fighting for their freedom and dignity, their cause is nobel and legitmate, they have the right to fight against foreign aggressors who have brutally killed thousands of Iraqis and free their homeland.
Only a small number of Sunni Iraqi's, part of Saddam's old machine, are fighting.
The thing is, the sooner those idiots stop, the sooner we can get out, and Iraq can become a truly free country.
DEBKAfile Special Report November 3, 2003, 12:43 AM (GMT+02:00)
US chopper downed by air missile ambush On November 2, 15 US troops died and 21were wounded – the highest US toll in a single enemy attack since the Iraq war began - when their Chinook transport helicopter was shot down over Falujja 35 miles from Baghdad international airport. Witnesses reported seeing two missiles streaking towards the American helicopters. The chopper that was hit was part of a formation of two Chinook transports, each carrying 32-35 soldiers. A 15th US soldiers was killed on patrol in Baghdad. The same day, two US civilian contractors died when their civilian convoy ran over a bomb in Falujja. Their burning vehicle was surrounded by a jubilant local mob. At the end of this black Sunday, US administrator Paul Bremer said somberly to CNN, “We’ve mingled our blood together with the Iraqis in this war and we’ll stay the course. He echoed the message of perseverance sounded by President George W. Bush the day before and by secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld immediately after the downing of the Chinook: “This is a tragic day for Americans but our efforts to secure Iraq are necessary and will continue.” Asked who the assailants were, the US administrator noted that 90 percent of the attacks on coalition forces took place in the Sunni Muslim Triangle between Ramadi and northern Baghdad, whereas the entire southern Iraq and most of the north were largely peaceful with an economy and services returning to normal. The hostile forces most active in Falujja were, he said, “fedayeen and foreign terrorists”. Most al Qaeda and other foreigners infiltrated Iraq through Syria. Damascus, said Bremer dryly, could do a better job of preventing this traffic than it is doing. He applied the same message to Iran. Two features are emerging from the escalating wave of violence besetting Iraq: 1. The US military command in Iraq headed by Gen. Ricardo Sanchez is determined to pursue a course that he believes will lead to Saddam Hussein’s capture. 2. US ground operations continue to go forward without adequate intelligence support. In fact, Saddam’s guerrillas appear to have access to a better picture of US troop movements than the Americans command in relation to the Iraqi resistance. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal that, during the week between the initial rocket attack on Baghdad’s al Rashid Hotel on October 26 where US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying, and the shooting down of the Chinook helicopter, American authorities in Iraq were in secret negotiation with Saddam’s number two, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, on terms for his surrender. The talks were brokered by the Kurdish PDK commander Jalal Talabani, who is a member of the interim Governing Council and reputed to be well connected with the Americans and members of Saddam Hussein’s circle alike. Al-Douri’s key demand was for an American guarantee not to hand him over to Kuwait, where he is under death sentence for atrocities committed during the Iraqi invasion of August 1990. This condition was rejected. Al-Douri remained at large in the battle arena. He is believed to be close to one of the most dangerous units of the pro-Saddam guerrilla force, which is known as Muhammad’s Army. On August 18, DEBKAfile revealed the existence of Muhammed’s Army : “This group of Iraqi Baathists operates in the guise of Muslim fundamentalists. They are concentrated around Baghdad international airport and the cluster of military airfields in Habania and western Iraq, H-1, H-2 and H-3, armed with shoulder-launched Sam 7 anti-air missiles. In July, they tried to down a US fighter plane and a C-130 transport but missed both. Our military sources now add to this initial disclosure: Muhammad’s Army operates in the Baghdad-Ramadi-Falujja section of the Sunni Triangle and specializes in ground-air missile warfare. Of late, its ranks have been swelled by Chechen and al Qaeda terrorists infiltrating Iraq to fight the Americans – usually, as Bremer noted, through Syria. While the US administrator refrained from naming those responsible for downing the Chinook Sunday, DEBKAfile’s military sources discern the hand of “Muhammad’s Army.” Particularly instructive is the confusion surrounding the episode. Some sources reported that the chopper was hit on its way to land at Baghdad international airport carrying inbound US troops returning from a rest and recreation trip outside Iraq; others contended the helicopter had just taken off and was outbound from Baghdad. Military experts were quick to ask how the two-helicopter formation came to be flying so close to Falluja, knowing it to be a dangerous guerrilla stronghold. Piecing these contradictions together with its exclusive data, DEBKAfile’s military sources maintain that the Chinooks were in fact carrying up to 70 US fighting men on a secret anti-insurgency mission in the Sunni Triangle. The Iraqis got wind of their flight route and prepared an anti-air missile ambush. The bomb attack on a US civilian convoy in the center of Falluja, in which another two Americans were killed, was part of the same ambuscade. Saddam loyalist forces expected the American raid to come either as an air drop or a ground assault - or a combination of the two. Further escalations of violence were presaged in the leaflets anti-coalition forces distributed over the weekend. They stressed their intention of striking out in four directions: --- Iraqis would be called out on a general strike. --- Iraqi parents were advised to keep their children home from class as schools were to be targeted as part of an overall offensive to disrupt efforts by the US administration and interim governing council to restore normal services. --- Iraqis collaborating with the coalition would be targeted for assassination. --- Iraqis were summoned to join up with Muhammad’s Army. These attacks and the contents of the leaflets were the pro-Saddam command’s response to the claims made the day before by US leaders in Baghdad. Before Chinook Disaster On Saturday, November 1, US administrator Paul Bremer and General Richard Sanchez, referring to the wave of bombings that hit Baghdad in the early days of Ramadan admitted it had been a rough week, but insisted that the coalition was winning the war in Iraq. Sanchez noted a shift in guerrilla tactics reflecting more regional control than before. He said, “We don’t know if Saddam Hussein was behind the latest offensive but we believe he is alive.” (On October 27, DEBKAfile exclusively detailed the six districts formed by Saddam strategists for the war against US and allied forces, including the names of their governors. Read Saddam Regroups, Coordinates Terror Onslaught on Baghdad further down this page.) Approval of the $87.5bn supplemental for Iraq will make it possible to build and train 27 new Iraqi battalions in one year instead of two, the US administrator announced. Asked about the integration of army men who served the former regime, Bremer said 60 percent of the battalions already operational and 100 percent of their officers and NCOs are ex-soldiers. This week, 450 Iraqi border police graduated for service on the Syrian, Turkish and Iranian borders. The Iraqi defense corps of 50,000 men will be doubled by March and, if the appropriations are forthcoming, increased to at least 200,000 men under arms by next September. Local militias like those of the Kurds in the north would be integrated in the national army and made responsible for regional duties. Bremer noted that the big terrorist attacks in Baghdad and Najef since the Jordanian embassy was hit in early August were directed against Iraqis, killing hundreds. He said that local and coalition police were working together to bring about stability and security. 180 Iraqi police officers had been decorated for bravery and 300 courts were operating. In Baghdad, the US administrator explained the curfew had been lifted last week at the request of local restaurateurs. Street crime in the capital had dropped 40 percent and there was a rush of custom after 11 pm. Finally, the two officials announced that the coalition will speed up the transfer of authority to Iraq hands. The people would be given a timeline for this takeover.
Al Qaeda again threatens New York, Washington and Los Angeles Monday, November 3, 2003 A new message was posted in the last few hours by the Jeddah-based al-Qaeda-linked Al-Islah (Reform) society calling on Muslims to flee New York, Washington and Los Angeles in advance of major al Qaeda attacks in those cities. This is revealed by DEBKAfile. The message accuses the United States of predetermining its end (doom) by its policies. “The Jews rule the Pentagon by remote control and (are the cause) of Muslims being killed in every corner of the world. The United States should therefore expect more blows.” The message is signed on behalf of the al Bayan (The Threat) movement by “your warrior brother, Abul Hassan al Khadrami”. Our Muslim expert identifies the name of the signatory as belonging to a Yemeni from Hadhrameuth, the Bin Ladens’ place of origin where Osama enjoys substantial tribal support. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources stress that warnings appearing on these forums are taken both very seriously and with caution by the intelligence services keeping track of the terrorist network’s electronic traffic. Last November, Jeddah-based fundamentalist forums addressed a message to an Al Qaeda member, saying whoever understands – understands; whoever knows, knows, but we are marching towards an operation that will take us to Paradise. Three days later, the Mombasa Paradise hotel was blown up killing 12 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and a failed shoulder-launched Strela anti-air missile missed an Israeli airliner at Mombasa airport.
By Steve Coll Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, November 3, 2003; Page A15
BAGHDAD, Nov. 2 -- The CIA has seized an extensive cache of files from the former Iraqi Intelligence Service that is spurring U.S. investigations of weapons procurement networks and agents of influence who took money from the government of Saddam Hussein, according to U.S. officials familiar with the records.
The Iraqi files are "almost as much as the Stasi files," said a senior U.S. official, referring to the vast archives of the former East German intelligence service seized after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The records would stretch 91/2 miles if laid end to end, the officials said. They contain not only the names of nearly every Iraqi intelligence officer, but also the names of their paid foreign agents, written agent reports, evaluations of agent credentials, and documentary evidence of payments made to buy influence in the Arab world and elsewhere, the officials said.
The officials declined to name individuals who they believe received funds or to name the home countries of the alleged recipients. One official said the recipients held high-ranking positions and worked both in Arab countries and in other regions. A second official said the payments were the subjects of "active investigations" by U.S. government agencies.
The recipients of the Iraqi funds were described by U.S. officials not as formal intelligence agents, but as prominent personalities and political figures who accepted money from Iraq as they defended Hussein publicly or pressed his causes.
CIA officers and Pentagon intelligence specialists have been poring through the files from the Iraqi Intelligence Service and the notorious Special Security Organization in part because they see the services as central to Hussein's clandestine efforts to acquire or develop weapons of mass destruction.
The Iraq Survey Group, the CIA-supervised body appointed by President Bush to lead the hunt for special weapons, hopes its searches for fugitive officers from the Iraqi security services may also produce breakthroughs in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction.
In the meantime, as they travel on site visits and conduct interviews, survey group teams increasingly are falling under hostile, professional surveillance and ambush attempts, according to officials involved in the weapons searches.
During the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq received the lion's share of American support because at the time Iran was regarded as the greater threat to U.S. interests. According to a 1994 Senate report, private American suppliers, licensed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, exported a witch's brew of biological and chemical materials to Iraq from 1985 through 1989. Among the biological materials, which often produce slow, agonizing death, were:
* Bacillus Anthracis, cause of anthrax.
* Clostridium Botulinum, a source of botulinum toxin.
* Histoplasma Capsulatam, cause of a disease attacking lungs, brain, spinal cord, and heart.
* Brucella Melitensis, a bacteria that can damage major organs.
* Clostridium Perfringens, a highly toxic bacteria causing systemic illness.
* Clostridium tetani, a highly toxigenic substance.
Also on the list: Escherichia coli (E. coli), genetic materials, human and bacterial DNA, and dozens of other pathogenic biological agents. "These biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction," the Senate report stated. "It was later learned that these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the United Nations inspectors found and removed from the Iraqi biological warfare program."
The report noted further that U.S. exports to Iraq included the precursors to chemical-warfare agents, plans for chemical and biological warfare production facilities, and chemical-warhead filling equipment.
The exports continued to at least November 28, 1989, despite evidence that Iraq was engaging in chemical and biological warfare against Iranians and Kurds since as early as 1984.
The American company that provided the most biological materials to Iraq in the 1980s was American Type Culture Collection of Maryland and Virginia, which made seventy shipments of the anthrax-causing germ and other pathogenic agents, according to a 1996 Newsday story.
Other American companies also provided Iraq with the chemical or biological compounds, or the facilities and equipment used to create the compounds for chemical and biological warfare. Among these suppliers were the following:
* Alcolac International, a Baltimore chemical manufacturer already linked to the illegal shipment of chemicals to Iran, shipped large quantities of thiodiglycol (used to make mustard gas) as well as other chemical and biological ingredients, according to a 1989 story in The New York Times.
* Nu Kraft Mercantile Corp. of Brooklyn (affiliated with the United Steel and Strip Corporation) also supplied Iraq with huge amounts of thiodiglycol, the Times reported.
* Celery Corp., Charlotte, NC
* Matrix-Churchill Corp., Cleveland, OH (regarded as a front for the Iraqi government, according to Representative Henry Gonzalez, Democrat of Texas, who quoted U.S. intelligence documents to this effect in a 1992 speech on the House floor).
The following companies were also named as chemical and biological materials suppliers in the 1992 Senate hearings on "United States export policy toward Iraq prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait":
* Mouse Master, Lilburn, GA
* Sullaire Corp., Charlotte, NC
* Pure Aire, Charlotte, NC
* Posi Seal, Inc., N. Stonington, CT
* Union Carbide, Danbury, CT
* Evapco, Taneytown, MD
* Gorman-Rupp, Mansfield, OH
Additionally, several other companies were sued in connection with their activities providing Iraq with chemical or biological supplies: subsidiaries or branches of Fisher Controls International, Inc., St. Louis; Rhone-Poulenc, Inc., Princeton, NJ; Bechtel Group, Inc., San Francisco; and Lummus Crest, Inc., Bloomfield, NJ, which built one chemical plant in Iraq and, before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, was building an ethylene facility. Ethylene is a necessary ingredient for thiodiglycol
In 1994, a group of twenty-six veterans, suffering from what has come to be known as Gulf War Syndrome, filed a billion-dollar lawsuit in Houston against Fisher, Rhone-Poulenc, Bechtel Group, and Lummus Crest, as well as American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and six other firms, for helping Iraq to obtain or produce the compounds which the veterans blamed for their illnesses. By 1998, the number of plaintiffs has risen to more than 4,000 and the suit is still pending in Texas.
A Pentagon study in 1994 dismissed links between chemical and biological weapons and Gulf War Syndrome. Newsday later disclosed, however, that the man who headed the study, Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg, was a director of ATCC. Moreover, at the time of ATCC's shipments to Iraq, which the Commerce Department approved, the firm's CEO was a member of the Commerce Department's Technical Advisory Committee, the paper found.
A larger number of American firms supplied Iraq with the specialized computers, lasers, testing and analyzing equipment, and other instruments and hardware vital to the manufacture of nuclear weapons, missiles, and delivery systems. Computers, in particular, play a key role in nuclear weapons development. Advanced computers make it feasible to avoid carrying out nuclear test explosions, thus preserving the program's secrecy. The 1992 Senate hearings implicated the following firms:
* Kennametal, Latrobe, PA
* Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA
* International Computer Systems, CA, SC, and TX
* Perkins-Elmer, Norwalk, CT
* BDM Corp., McLean, VA
* Leybold Vacuum Systems, Export, PA
* Spectra Physics, Mountain View, CA
* Unisys Corp., Blue Bell, PA
* Finnigan MAT, San Jose, CA
* Scientific Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
* Spectral Data Corp., Champaign, IL
* Tektronix, Wilsonville, OR
* Veeco Instruments, Inc., Plainview, NY
* Wiltron Company, Morgan Hill, CA
The House report also singled out: TI Coating, Inc., Axel Electronics, Data General Corp., Gerber Systems, Honeywell, Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Sackman Associates, Rockwell Collins International, Wild Magnavox Satellite Survey, Zeta Laboratories, Carl Schenck, EZ Logic Data, International Imaging Systems, Semetex Corp., and Thermo Jarrell Ash Corporation.
Some of the companies said later that they had no idea Iraq might ever put their products to military use. A spokesperson for Hewlett Packard said the company believed that the Iraqi recipient of its shipments, Saad 16, was an institution of higher learning. In fact, in 1990 The Wall Street Journal described Saad 16 as "a heavily fortified, state-of-the-art complex for aircraft construction, missile design, and, almost certainly, nuclear-weapons research."
Other corporations recognized the military potential of their goods but considered it the government's job to worry about it. "Every once in a while you kind of wonder when you sell something to a certain country," said Robert Finney, president of Electronic Associates, Inc., which supplied Saad 16 with a powerful computer that could be used for missile testing and development. "But it's not up to us to make foreign policy," Finney told The Wall Street Journal.
In 1982, the Reagan Administration took Iraq off its list of countries alleged to sponsor terrorism, making it eligible to receive high-tech items generally denied to those on the list. Conventional military sales began in December of that year. Representative Samuel Gejdenson, Democrat of Connecticut, chairman of a House subcommittee investigating "United States Exports of Sensitive Technology to Iraq," stated in 1991:
"From 1985 to 1990, the United States Government approved 771 licenses for the export to Iraq of $1.5 billion worth of biological agents and high-tech equipment with military application. [Only thirty-nine applications were rejected.] The United States spent virtually an entire decade making sure that Saddam Hussein had almost whatever he wanted. . . . The Administration has never acknowledged that it took this course of action, nor has it explained why it did so. In reviewing documents and press accounts, and interviewing knowledgeable sources, it becomes clear that United States export-control policy was directed by U.S. foreign policy as formulated by the State Department, and it was U.S. foreign policy to assist the regime of Saddam Hussein."
Subsequently, Representative John Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, investigated the Department of Energy concerning an unheeded 1989 warning about Iraq's nuclear weapons program. In 1992, he accused the DOE of punishing employees who raised the alarm and rewarding those who didn't take it seriously. One DOE scientist, interviewed by Dingell's Energy and Commerce Committee, was especially conscientious about the mission of the nuclear non-proliferation program. For his efforts, he received very little cooperation, inadequate staff, and was finally forced to quit in frustration. "It was impossible to do a good job," said William Emel. His immediate manager, who tried to get the proliferation program fully staffed, was chastened by management and removed from his position. Emel was hounded by the DOE at his new job as well.
Another Senate committee, investigating "United States export policy toward Iraq prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait," heard testimony in 1992 that Commerce Department personnel "changed information on sixty-eight licenses; that references to military end uses were deleted and the designation 'military truck' was changed. This was done on licenses having a total value of over $1 billion." Testimony made clear that the White House was "involved" in "a deliberate effort . . . to alter these documents and mislead the Congress."
American foreign-policy makers maintained a cooperative relationship with U.S. corporate interests in the region. In 1985, Marshall Wiley, former U.S. ambassador to Oman, set up the Washington-based U.S.-Iraq Business Forum, which lobbied in Washington on behalf of Iraq to promote U.S. trade with that country. Speaking of the Forum's creation, Wiley later explained, "I went to the State Department and told them what I was planning to do, and they said, 'Fine. It sounds like a good idea.' It was our policy to increase exports to Iraq."
Though the government readily approved most sales to Iraq, officials at Defense and Commerce clashed over some of them (with the State Department and the White House backing Commerce). "If an item was in dispute, my attitude was if they were readily available from other markets, I didn't see why we should deprive American markets," explained Richard Murphy in 1990. Murphy was Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs from 1983 to 1989.
As it turned out, Iraq did not use any chemical or biological weapons against U.S. forces in the Gulf War. But American planes bombed chemical and biological weapons storage facilities with abandon, potentially dooming tens of thousands of American soldiers to lives of prolonged and permanent agony, and an unknown number of Iraqis to a similar fate. Among the symptoms reported by the affected soldiers are memory loss, scarred lungs, chronic fatigue, severe headache, raspy voice, and passing out. The Pentagon estimates that nearly 100,000 American soldiers were exposed to sarin gas alone.
After the war, White House and Defense Department officials tried their best to deny that Gulf War Syndrome had anything to do with the bombings. The suffering of soldiers was not their overriding concern. The top concerns of the Bush and Clinton Administrations were to protect perceived U.S. interests in the Middle East, and to ensure that American corporations still had healthy balance sheets. - William Blum is the author of "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II" (Common Courage Press, 1995).
A PBS Frontline episode, "The Arming of Iraq" (1990) detailed much of the conventional and so-called "dual-use" weapons sold to Iraq. The public learned from other sources that at least since mid-1980s the US was selling chemical and biological material for weapons to Iraq and orchestrating private sales. These sales began soon after current Secretary of State, Donald Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad in 1985 and met with Saddam Hussein as a private businessman on behalf of the Reagan administration. In the last major battle of the Iran-Iraq war, some 65,000 Iranians were killed, many by gas.
According to a New York Times article in August, 2002, Col. Walter P. Lang, a senior defense intelligence officer at the time, explained that D.I.A. and C.I.A. officials "were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose" to Iran. "The use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern," he said. One veteran said, that the Pentagon "wasn't so horrified by Iraq's use of gas." "It was just another way of killing people _ whether with a bullet or phosgene, it didn't make any difference."
on July 3, 1991, the Financial Times reported that a Florida company run by an Iraqi national had produced cyanide -- some of which went to Iraq for use in chemical weapons -- and had shipped it via a CIA contractor
Who is to say that the shadow-guerilla war now going on in Iraq, is nothing but a warm-up, for the same damn thing that happened during TET, in 1968? Either GDubbya should send in enough people to do the job and do it right, or we should be planning to GET OUT, and SOON.
Yes, fold, but your left wing leaders will howl with rage if Bush were to send more troops. Then you will fall in lock step behind them and pretend you never wrote the above.
That, is a Lie. MOST Democrats have been saying, DAILY, that more troops are needed, and so have some Generals, and so have some Conservatives. That you even said such a thing shows that you do not read or listen to the news.
Let's see the democrats in the Senate voted for war with Iraq but what are they saying now?
The CRUSADES, have returned...! This isn't a "war on terror" anymore, it is now a CRUSADE, to force Democratization on multitudes of people who do NOT want it, and are willing to blow themselves and their children to Hell, to avoid it.
If you want a safer world, fold, democracy needs to spread. But then you are not a supporter of democracy are you?
Instead of patiently waiting to see Democracy reborn in many nations and before we can demonstrate to the world that we can lead by EXAMPLE, with our Constitution and our Founders as our Guide, we will now show the rest of the world how to Democratize, BY FORCE.
There is no longer constitutional law in this country, fold. The law of this country is by judicial fiat. Unfortunately that is recognized by few people willing to talk about it.
Every day that we walk our streets free, able to gather and express ourselves openly, our Constitution is ratified, once again, and By The People. There is no force on earth that can change that, except the forces of stupidity and hatred, forces which you blame on "Liberals", but the only ones even suggesting such nonsense, are Neo-Conservatives, such as yourself. They are using Lies, to effect the change that common-sense used to dictate.
Fold, you have yet to prove you understand my point. If you can't understand it, you can't refute it. You simply resort to posting simpleton drivel, a prime example is your above paragraph. Come on, fold, it it is so clear specifically refute my point. At least try.
The only thing wrong with our Government at this time, is our Chief Executive, who has led us all down a very dangerous and destructive path, a decision based upon the lies and misinformation of HIS intelligence community. Men and women are dying because of his administration's lack of forsight and their failure to remember that we are NOT supposed to be "Occupiers", of ANY nation, nor are we supposed to jam Democracy down the throats of ANY nation.
So eat-shit, and have a Nice Day...DINE.
fold, no wonder things are breaking down. It is hate filled people like you that actually believe thet drivel you post.
No, YOU are just plain IGNORANT, and you are a TRUE IDIOT, and what's more, you always have been.
Come on deal with the issue I presented. Tat issue is that judiciary isn't interpreting the Constitution but instead is imposing its political judgment. That ain't democracy, dude.
You're a small pawn in the vast "Right Wing Lying-Lyars Club", and what's more, you are an idiot of ONE and completely maliable.
You, are the foot soldier for the liars who want nothing less than to change the course of history in this Nation, and take us back into the Stone-Age. You're a small time Chump to them, and especially to the rest of us.
Nothing more.
Yes that addresses the point quite well, fold. It is astonshing how you can just sort through the chaff and really get to substantive issues.
I fail to see how posting ones opinion is treasonist. Exactly how is he "comforting the enemy"? I think that is taking it a bit far. I do not agree with Bill's stance, but can't we discuss/argue different points of view?
When you continually bash the U.S. at every turn, for every incident, no matter how small, you are giving comfort to the enemy.
When you incessantly degrade and dehumanize the leaders of this country, you are giving comfort to the enemy.
That's an opinion.
And I'll ask these questions again for about the 6th time. Maybe someday I'll get an answer...Why is fold's vulgar and abusive language tolerated here? Not once has he been admonished. Or is that proper in argueing/discussing different points of view here? It must be.
Can't go jet-setting around the country to march in parades. Although I'd like to. It is called WORK, JT. Something fold has lost the meaning of. But when you don't work, you have the freedom to do those things.
You aren't going anywhere fold. You'll be in your trailer sitting on your pitty pot.
It won't matter what I do on Tuesday, you won't believe me anyway. Right?..........Dickhead.
I drove here to celebrate the retirement of a good-friend in the Navy, who indeed retired last week, after 32 years in the service.
When you shake his hand, tell him I said thank you.
I will be celebrating by doing what the soldiers fought so hard for...the freedom to do whatever I like. I will be working and spending time with my family.
We borrowed a set of DVD's from the library called "Band of Brothers". It was a HBO series about "Easy Company" in WWII. They interviewed the actual survivors of that company and made it as close to the truth as possible.
My son and I have watched most of them already and it is amazing. They parachuted into Normady on D-Day and were in many of the toughest battles during the war. We just finished one story about how they protected this important crossroads from the Nazi's. They went into the area with other companies to relieve battle weary soldiers knowing that the Nazi's would completely surround them. They stood their ground with little supplies and ammunitions, and only had sporadic supply drops that many times fell on the Germans.
Somehow they managed to survive it for months during winter time. One of the Generals finally was able to get through enemy lines to "rescue" the troops. Easy company took that as an insult because they did not believe that they needed rescueing. None of them would ever admit it either.
So that is another thing I am doing to "honor the vets", teaching my son what they went through and why.
You can never ignore me for any length of time fold.
Your back must be much improved to make a drive like that. Just a few short months ago you said you couldn't travel in your RV anymore because of your back...Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I never said you were stealing. I do find it quite unbelievable that an 18 year old can hurt his or her back, blame someone else for it and collect for a lifetime.
What I'm saying is: I, and probably most others here won't have that luxury on Tuesday.
We borrowed a set of DVD's from the library called "Band of Brothers".
We rented the series this past summer, watching on disc (two episodes) at a time. My wife and I loved it so much that she bought it for me for my birthday.
Thank you for your service Fold. Band of Brothers is a very good movie I have yet to find the last two episodes at Block Buster they always seem to be out.
I invite you all to watch the program playing right now, at 8:44 a.m. CST, on the History Channel. It tells the real story of the 60's and the Vietnam War and the opposition TO that war, which developed almost EXACTLY as the opposition is developing to the war in Iraq, right now and across America.
So you suggest we surrender to terrorism, fold? Vietnam and Iraq are two different wars fought for different purposes and, it appears, with different temperaments.
Am I to believe that the US didn't install Saddam in the first place?
THX 1138 11/3/03 9:18am
Saddam is an story of past, he was due to collapse either US Occupied Iraq or not. The fact of this time is that American are aggressors and occupiers and Iraqis are fighting for their freedom and dignity, their cause is nobel and legitmate, they have the right to fight against foreign aggressors who have brutally killed thousands of Iraqis and free their homeland.
THX 1138 11/3/03 9:18am
Saddam and Osama were both US sponsered crimnals, Saddam as a secularist among arabs and Osama as Jihadi against Russians
b'coz finally they hit a much powerfull enemy who occupied their home land, Iraqis have the right to fight for the dignity and freedom of their country. fight an enemy who is humiliating and brutally killing the Iraqi nation like this
Saddam couldn't have said it any better himnself!
THX 1138 11/3/03 9:18am
Right now every Iraqi is saying this. :-)
15 Afghans die in air raid, gunbattles
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2003-daily/03-11-2003/main/main12.htm
Naeem, why don't you go and join the fight against the great Satan?
Am I to believe that the US didn't install Saddam in the first place?
Are you saying the US brought Saddam to power? If so, please provide some sort of evidence of this claim.
Saddam is an story of past,
He wasn't 6 months ago.
he was due to collapse either US Occupied Iraq or not.
Could you provide some evidence to back up this claim?
The fact of this time is that American are aggressors and occupiers and Iraqis are fighting for their freedom and dignity, their cause is nobel and legitmate, they have the right to fight against foreign aggressors who have brutally killed thousands of Iraqis and free their homeland.
Only a small number of Sunni Iraqi's, part of Saddam's old machine, are fighting.
The thing is, the sooner those idiots stop, the sooner we can get out, and Iraq can become a truly free country.
Naeem Siddiqui - AKA:Baghdad Bob
Saddam`s “Muhammad’s Army” Behind Chinook Disaster
DEBKAfile Special Report
November 3, 2003, 12:43 AM (GMT+02:00)
US chopper downed by air missile ambush
On November 2, 15 US troops died and 21were wounded – the highest US toll in a single enemy attack since the Iraq war began - when their Chinook transport helicopter was shot down over Falujja 35 miles from Baghdad international airport. Witnesses reported seeing two missiles streaking towards the American helicopters. The chopper that was hit was part of a formation of two Chinook transports, each carrying 32-35 soldiers. A 15th US soldiers was killed on patrol in Baghdad. The same day, two US civilian contractors died when their civilian convoy ran over a bomb in Falujja. Their burning vehicle was surrounded by a jubilant local mob.
At the end of this black Sunday, US administrator Paul Bremer said somberly to CNN, “We’ve mingled our blood together with the Iraqis in this war and we’ll stay the course. He echoed the message of perseverance sounded by President George W. Bush the day before and by secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld immediately after the downing of the Chinook: “This is a tragic day for Americans but our efforts to secure Iraq are necessary and will continue.”
Asked who the assailants were, the US administrator noted that 90 percent of the attacks on coalition forces took place in the Sunni Muslim Triangle between Ramadi and northern Baghdad, whereas the entire southern Iraq and most of the north were largely peaceful with an economy and services returning to normal. The hostile forces most active in Falujja were, he said, “fedayeen and foreign terrorists”. Most al Qaeda and other foreigners infiltrated Iraq through Syria. Damascus, said Bremer dryly, could do a better job of preventing this traffic than it is doing. He applied the same message to Iran.
Two features are emerging from the escalating wave of violence besetting Iraq:
1. The US military command in Iraq headed by Gen. Ricardo Sanchez is determined to pursue a course that he believes will lead to Saddam Hussein’s capture.
2. US ground operations continue to go forward without adequate intelligence support. In fact, Saddam’s guerrillas appear to have access to a better picture of US troop movements than the Americans command in relation to the Iraqi resistance.
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal that, during the week between the initial rocket attack on Baghdad’s al Rashid Hotel on October 26 where US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying, and the shooting down of the Chinook helicopter, American authorities in Iraq were in secret negotiation with Saddam’s number two, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, on terms for his surrender. The talks were brokered by the Kurdish PDK commander Jalal Talabani, who is a member of the interim Governing Council and reputed to be well connected with the Americans and members of Saddam Hussein’s circle alike.
Al-Douri’s key demand was for an American guarantee not to hand him over to Kuwait, where he is under death sentence for atrocities committed during the Iraqi invasion of August 1990. This condition was rejected. Al-Douri remained at large in the battle arena. He is believed to be close to one of the most dangerous units of the pro-Saddam guerrilla force, which is known as Muhammad’s Army.
On August 18, DEBKAfile revealed the existence of Muhammed’s Army : “This group of Iraqi Baathists operates in the guise of Muslim fundamentalists. They are concentrated around Baghdad international airport and the cluster of military airfields in Habania and western Iraq, H-1, H-2 and H-3, armed with shoulder-launched Sam 7 anti-air missiles. In July, they tried to down a US fighter plane and a C-130 transport but missed both.
Our military sources now add to this initial disclosure: Muhammad’s Army operates in the Baghdad-Ramadi-Falujja section of the Sunni Triangle and specializes in ground-air missile warfare. Of late, its ranks have been swelled by Chechen and al Qaeda terrorists infiltrating Iraq to fight the Americans – usually, as Bremer noted, through Syria.
While the US administrator refrained from naming those responsible for downing the Chinook Sunday, DEBKAfile’s military sources discern the hand of “Muhammad’s Army.”
Particularly instructive is the confusion surrounding the episode. Some sources reported that the chopper was hit on its way to land at Baghdad international airport carrying inbound US troops returning from a rest and recreation trip outside Iraq; others contended the helicopter had just taken off and was outbound from Baghdad. Military experts were quick to ask how the two-helicopter formation came to be flying so close to Falluja, knowing it to be a dangerous guerrilla stronghold.
Piecing these contradictions together with its exclusive data, DEBKAfile’s military sources maintain that the Chinooks were in fact carrying up to 70 US fighting men on a secret anti-insurgency mission in the Sunni Triangle. The Iraqis got wind of their flight route and prepared an anti-air missile ambush. The bomb attack on a US civilian convoy in the center of Falluja, in which another two Americans were killed, was part of the same ambuscade. Saddam loyalist forces expected the American raid to come either as an air drop or a ground assault - or a combination of the two.
Further escalations of violence were presaged in the leaflets anti-coalition forces distributed over the weekend. They stressed their intention of striking out in four directions:
--- Iraqis would be called out on a general strike.
--- Iraqi parents were advised to keep their children home from class as schools were to be targeted as part of an overall offensive to disrupt efforts by the US administration and interim governing council to restore normal services.
--- Iraqis collaborating with the coalition would be targeted for assassination.
--- Iraqis were summoned to join up with Muhammad’s Army.
These attacks and the contents of the leaflets were the pro-Saddam command’s response to the claims made the day before by US leaders in Baghdad.
Before Chinook Disaster
On Saturday, November 1, US administrator Paul Bremer and General Richard Sanchez, referring to the wave of bombings that hit Baghdad in the early days of Ramadan admitted it had been a rough week, but insisted that the coalition was winning the war in Iraq. Sanchez noted a shift in guerrilla tactics reflecting more regional control than before. He said, “We don’t know if Saddam Hussein was behind the latest offensive but we believe he is alive.”
(On October 27, DEBKAfile exclusively detailed the six districts formed by Saddam strategists for the war against US and allied forces, including the names of their governors. Read Saddam Regroups, Coordinates Terror Onslaught on Baghdad further down this page.)
Approval of the $87.5bn supplemental for Iraq will make it possible to build and train 27 new Iraqi battalions in one year instead of two, the US administrator announced. Asked about the integration of army men who served the former regime, Bremer said 60 percent of the battalions already operational and 100 percent of their officers and NCOs are ex-soldiers. This week, 450 Iraqi border police graduated for service on the Syrian, Turkish and Iranian borders.
The Iraqi defense corps of 50,000 men will be doubled by March and, if the appropriations are forthcoming, increased to at least 200,000 men under arms by next September. Local militias like those of the Kurds in the north would be integrated in the national army and made responsible for regional duties.
Bremer noted that the big terrorist attacks in Baghdad and Najef since the Jordanian embassy was hit in early August were directed against Iraqis, killing hundreds. He said that local and coalition police were working together to bring about stability and security. 180 Iraqi police officers had been decorated for bravery and 300 courts were operating.
In Baghdad, the US administrator explained the curfew had been lifted last week at the request of local restaurateurs. Street crime in the capital had dropped 40 percent and there was a rush of custom after 11 pm.
Finally, the two officials announced that the coalition will speed up the transfer of authority to Iraq hands. The people would be given a timeline for this takeover.
Al Qaeda again threatens New York, Washington and Los Angeles
Monday, November 3, 2003
A new message was posted in the last few hours by the Jeddah-based al-Qaeda-linked Al-Islah (Reform) society calling on Muslims to flee New York, Washington and Los Angeles in advance of major al Qaeda attacks in those cities. This is revealed by DEBKAfile.
The message accuses the United States of predetermining its end (doom) by its policies. “The Jews rule the Pentagon by remote control and (are the cause) of Muslims being killed in every corner of the world. The United States should therefore expect more blows.”
The message is signed on behalf of the al Bayan (The Threat) movement by “your warrior brother, Abul Hassan al Khadrami”.
Our Muslim expert identifies the name of the signatory as belonging to a Yemeni from Hadhrameuth, the Bin Ladens’ place of origin where Osama enjoys substantial tribal support.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources stress that warnings appearing on these forums are taken both very seriously and with caution by the intelligence services keeping track of the terrorist network’s electronic traffic.
Last November, Jeddah-based fundamentalist forums addressed a message to an Al Qaeda member, saying whoever understands – understands; whoever knows, knows, but we are marching towards an operation that will take us to Paradise. Three days later, the Mombasa Paradise hotel was blown up killing 12 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and a failed shoulder-launched Strela anti-air missile missed an Israeli airliner at Mombasa airport.
...but we are marching towards an operation that will take us to Paradise.
GOOD, just do not take any innocent women, children or men with you this time.
Thats all they know how to do.
Seized Intelligence Files Spur U.S. Investigations
By Steve Coll
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 3, 2003; Page A15
BAGHDAD, Nov. 2 -- The CIA has seized an extensive cache of files from the former Iraqi Intelligence Service that is spurring U.S. investigations of weapons procurement networks and agents of influence who took money from the government of Saddam Hussein, according to U.S. officials familiar with the records.
The Iraqi files are "almost as much as the Stasi files," said a senior U.S. official, referring to the vast archives of the former East German intelligence service seized after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The records would stretch 91/2 miles if laid end to end, the officials said. They contain not only the names of nearly every Iraqi intelligence officer, but also the names of their paid foreign agents, written agent reports, evaluations of agent credentials, and documentary evidence of payments made to buy influence in the Arab world and elsewhere, the officials said.
The officials declined to name individuals who they believe received funds or to name the home countries of the alleged recipients. One official said the recipients held high-ranking positions and worked both in Arab countries and in other regions. A second official said the payments were the subjects of "active investigations" by U.S. government agencies.
The recipients of the Iraqi funds were described by U.S. officials not as formal intelligence agents, but as prominent personalities and political figures who accepted money from Iraq as they defended Hussein publicly or pressed his causes.
CIA officers and Pentagon intelligence specialists have been poring through the files from the Iraqi Intelligence Service and the notorious Special Security Organization in part because they see the services as central to Hussein's clandestine efforts to acquire or develop weapons of mass destruction.
The Iraq Survey Group, the CIA-supervised body appointed by President Bush to lead the hunt for special weapons, hopes its searches for fugitive officers from the Iraqi security services may also produce breakthroughs in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction.
In the meantime, as they travel on site visits and conduct interviews, survey group teams increasingly are falling under hostile, professional surveillance and ambush attempts, according to officials involved in the weapons searches.
Bush: I KNOW they have them....we have the receipts right here!
Bush: I KNOW they have them....we have the receipts right here!
Care to try to back up that Bullshit?
Truth be told, France & Germany sold Iraq a hell of a lot more weapons that the US ever did.
During the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq received the lion's share of American support because at the time Iran was regarded as the greater threat to U.S. interests. According to a 1994 Senate report, private American suppliers, licensed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, exported a witch's brew of biological and chemical materials to Iraq from 1985 through 1989. Among the biological materials, which often produce slow, agonizing death, were:
* Bacillus Anthracis, cause of anthrax.
* Clostridium Botulinum, a source of botulinum toxin.
* Histoplasma Capsulatam, cause of a disease attacking lungs, brain, spinal cord, and heart.
* Brucella Melitensis, a bacteria that can damage major organs.
* Clostridium Perfringens, a highly toxic bacteria causing systemic illness.
* Clostridium tetani, a highly toxigenic substance.
Also on the list: Escherichia coli (E. coli), genetic materials, human and bacterial DNA, and dozens of other pathogenic biological agents. "These biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction," the Senate report stated. "It was later learned that these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the United Nations inspectors found and removed from the Iraqi biological warfare program."
The report noted further that U.S. exports to Iraq included the precursors to chemical-warfare agents, plans for chemical and biological warfare production facilities, and chemical-warhead filling equipment.
The exports continued to at least November 28, 1989, despite evidence that Iraq was engaging in chemical and biological warfare against Iranians and Kurds since as early as 1984.
The American company that provided the most biological materials to Iraq in the 1980s was American Type Culture Collection of Maryland and Virginia, which made seventy shipments of the anthrax-causing germ and other pathogenic agents, according to a 1996 Newsday story.
Other American companies also provided Iraq with the chemical or biological compounds, or the facilities and equipment used to create the compounds for chemical and biological warfare. Among these suppliers were the following:
* Alcolac International, a Baltimore chemical manufacturer already linked to the illegal shipment of chemicals to Iran, shipped large quantities of thiodiglycol (used to make mustard gas) as well as other chemical and biological ingredients, according to a 1989 story in The New York Times.
* Nu Kraft Mercantile Corp. of Brooklyn (affiliated with the United Steel and Strip Corporation) also supplied Iraq with huge amounts of thiodiglycol, the Times reported.
* Celery Corp., Charlotte, NC
* Matrix-Churchill Corp., Cleveland, OH (regarded as a front for the Iraqi government, according to Representative Henry Gonzalez, Democrat of Texas, who quoted U.S. intelligence documents to this effect in a 1992 speech on the House floor).
The following companies were also named as chemical and biological materials suppliers in the 1992 Senate hearings on "United States export policy toward Iraq prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait":
* Mouse Master, Lilburn, GA
* Sullaire Corp., Charlotte, NC
* Pure Aire, Charlotte, NC
* Posi Seal, Inc., N. Stonington, CT
* Union Carbide, Danbury, CT
* Evapco, Taneytown, MD
* Gorman-Rupp, Mansfield, OH
Additionally, several other companies were sued in connection with their activities providing Iraq with chemical or biological supplies: subsidiaries or branches of Fisher Controls International, Inc., St. Louis; Rhone-Poulenc, Inc., Princeton, NJ; Bechtel Group, Inc., San Francisco; and Lummus Crest, Inc., Bloomfield, NJ, which built one chemical plant in Iraq and, before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, was building an ethylene facility. Ethylene is a necessary ingredient for thiodiglycol
In 1994, a group of twenty-six veterans, suffering from what has come to be known as Gulf War Syndrome, filed a billion-dollar lawsuit in Houston against Fisher, Rhone-Poulenc, Bechtel Group, and Lummus Crest, as well as American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and six other firms, for helping Iraq to obtain or produce the compounds which the veterans blamed for their illnesses. By 1998, the number of plaintiffs has risen to more than 4,000 and the suit is still pending in Texas.
A Pentagon study in 1994 dismissed links between chemical and biological weapons and Gulf War Syndrome. Newsday later disclosed, however, that the man who headed the study, Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg, was a director of ATCC. Moreover, at the time of ATCC's shipments to Iraq, which the Commerce Department approved, the firm's CEO was a member of the Commerce Department's Technical Advisory Committee, the paper found.
A larger number of American firms supplied Iraq with the specialized computers, lasers, testing and analyzing equipment, and other instruments and hardware vital to the manufacture of nuclear weapons, missiles, and delivery systems. Computers, in particular, play a key role in nuclear weapons development. Advanced computers make it feasible to avoid carrying out nuclear test explosions, thus preserving the program's secrecy. The 1992 Senate hearings implicated the following firms:
* Kennametal, Latrobe, PA
* Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA
* International Computer Systems, CA, SC, and TX
* Perkins-Elmer, Norwalk, CT
* BDM Corp., McLean, VA
* Leybold Vacuum Systems, Export, PA
* Spectra Physics, Mountain View, CA
* Unisys Corp., Blue Bell, PA
* Finnigan MAT, San Jose, CA
* Scientific Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
* Spectral Data Corp., Champaign, IL
* Tektronix, Wilsonville, OR
* Veeco Instruments, Inc., Plainview, NY
* Wiltron Company, Morgan Hill, CA
The House report also singled out: TI Coating, Inc., Axel Electronics, Data General Corp., Gerber Systems, Honeywell, Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Sackman Associates, Rockwell Collins International, Wild Magnavox Satellite Survey, Zeta Laboratories, Carl Schenck, EZ Logic Data, International Imaging Systems, Semetex Corp., and Thermo Jarrell Ash Corporation.
Some of the companies said later that they had no idea Iraq might ever put their products to military use. A spokesperson for Hewlett Packard said the company believed that the Iraqi recipient of its shipments, Saad 16, was an institution of higher learning. In fact, in 1990 The Wall Street Journal described Saad 16 as "a heavily fortified, state-of-the-art complex for aircraft construction, missile design, and, almost certainly, nuclear-weapons research."
Other corporations recognized the military potential of their goods but considered it the government's job to worry about it. "Every once in a while you kind of wonder when you sell something to a certain country," said Robert Finney, president of Electronic Associates, Inc., which supplied Saad 16 with a powerful computer that could be used for missile testing and development. "But it's not up to us to make foreign policy," Finney told The Wall Street Journal.
In 1982, the Reagan Administration took Iraq off its list of countries alleged to sponsor terrorism, making it eligible to receive high-tech items generally denied to those on the list. Conventional military sales began in December of that year. Representative Samuel Gejdenson, Democrat of Connecticut, chairman of a House subcommittee investigating "United States Exports of Sensitive Technology to Iraq," stated in 1991:
"From 1985 to 1990, the United States Government approved 771 licenses for the export to Iraq of $1.5 billion worth of biological agents and high-tech equipment with military application. [Only thirty-nine applications were rejected.] The United States spent virtually an entire decade making sure that Saddam Hussein had almost whatever he wanted. . . . The Administration has never acknowledged that it took this course of action, nor has it explained why it did so. In reviewing documents and press accounts, and interviewing knowledgeable sources, it becomes clear that United States export-control policy was directed by U.S. foreign policy as formulated by the State Department, and it was U.S. foreign policy to assist the regime of Saddam Hussein."
Subsequently, Representative John Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, investigated the Department of Energy concerning an unheeded 1989 warning about Iraq's nuclear weapons program. In 1992, he accused the DOE of punishing employees who raised the alarm and rewarding those who didn't take it seriously. One DOE scientist, interviewed by Dingell's Energy and Commerce Committee, was especially conscientious about the mission of the nuclear non-proliferation program. For his efforts, he received very little cooperation, inadequate staff, and was finally forced to quit in frustration. "It was impossible to do a good job," said William Emel. His immediate manager, who tried to get the proliferation program fully staffed, was chastened by management and removed from his position. Emel was hounded by the DOE at his new job as well.
Another Senate committee, investigating "United States export policy toward Iraq prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait," heard testimony in 1992 that Commerce Department personnel "changed information on sixty-eight licenses; that references to military end uses were deleted and the designation 'military truck' was changed. This was done on licenses having a total value of over $1 billion." Testimony made clear that the White House was "involved" in "a deliberate effort . . . to alter these documents and mislead the Congress."
American foreign-policy makers maintained a cooperative relationship with U.S. corporate interests in the region. In 1985, Marshall Wiley, former U.S. ambassador to Oman, set up the Washington-based U.S.-Iraq Business Forum, which lobbied in Washington on behalf of Iraq to promote U.S. trade with that country. Speaking of the Forum's creation, Wiley later explained, "I went to the State Department and told them what I was planning to do, and they said, 'Fine. It sounds like a good idea.' It was our policy to increase exports to Iraq."
Though the government readily approved most sales to Iraq, officials at Defense and Commerce clashed over some of them (with the State Department and the White House backing Commerce). "If an item was in dispute, my attitude was if they were readily available from other markets, I didn't see why we should deprive American markets," explained Richard Murphy in 1990. Murphy was Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs from 1983 to 1989.
As it turned out, Iraq did not use any chemical or biological weapons against U.S. forces in the Gulf War. But American planes bombed chemical and biological weapons storage facilities with abandon, potentially dooming tens of thousands of American soldiers to lives of prolonged and permanent agony, and an unknown number of Iraqis to a similar fate. Among the symptoms reported by the affected soldiers are memory loss, scarred lungs, chronic fatigue, severe headache, raspy voice, and passing out. The Pentagon estimates that nearly 100,000 American soldiers were exposed to sarin gas alone.
After the war, White House and Defense Department officials tried their best to deny that Gulf War Syndrome had anything to do with the bombings. The suffering of soldiers was not their overriding concern. The top concerns of the Bush and Clinton Administrations were to protect perceived U.S. interests in the Middle East, and to ensure that American corporations still had healthy balance sheets. - William Blum is the author of "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II" (Common Courage Press, 1995).
A PBS Frontline episode, "The Arming of Iraq" (1990) detailed much of the conventional and so-called "dual-use" weapons sold to Iraq. The public learned from other sources that at least since mid-1980s the US was selling chemical and biological material for weapons to Iraq and orchestrating private sales. These sales began soon after current Secretary of State, Donald Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad in 1985 and met with Saddam Hussein as a private businessman on behalf of the Reagan administration. In the last major battle of the Iran-Iraq war, some 65,000 Iranians were killed, many by gas.
Common Courage Press
Nuff said.
but what does Faux report?
never mind the documentation?
The Relevance of Yesterday's US Hypocrisy Today
Crabby, I found the Frontline transcript and will read it when I get a chance.
I consider them a reputable source.
Who is to say that the shadow-guerilla war now going on in Iraq, is nothing but a warm-up, for the same damn thing that happened during TET, in 1968? Either GDubbya should send in enough people to do the job and do it right, or we should be planning to GET OUT, and SOON.
Yes, fold, but your left wing leaders will howl with rage if Bush were to send more troops. Then you will fall in lock step behind them and pretend you never wrote the above.
That, is a Lie. MOST Democrats have been saying, DAILY, that more troops are needed, and so have some Generals, and so have some Conservatives. That you even said such a thing shows that you do not read or listen to the news.
Let's see the democrats in the Senate voted for war with Iraq but what are they saying now?
Look up, Chicken Little. The sky ain't falling.
I was reading today they're going to call up more troops, 85,000 I believe.
You happy now?
Arrested War Protester Subpoenas Ashcroft, Rove
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102459,00.html
Good for him! These "free speech zones" are a bunch of crap.
The CRUSADES, have returned...! This isn't a "war on terror" anymore, it is now a CRUSADE, to force Democratization on multitudes of people who do NOT want it, and are willing to blow themselves and their children to Hell, to avoid it.
If you want a safer world, fold, democracy needs to spread. But then you are not a supporter of democracy are you?
Instead of patiently waiting to see Democracy reborn in many nations and before we can demonstrate to the world that we can lead by EXAMPLE, with our Constitution and our Founders as our Guide, we will now show the rest of the world how to Democratize, BY FORCE.
There is no longer constitutional law in this country, fold. The law of this country is by judicial fiat. Unfortunately that is recognized by few people willing to talk about it.
Every day, when a person is able to bring a grievance against others before our Courts of Law, our Constitution is once again, ratified.
That is just plain ignorance. Over and over you show that you don't understand what the Constitution is or what its purpose is.
Every day that our Senators and Congresspeople deliberate, debate and decide on Legislation, our Constitution is once again, ratified.
But it doesn't matter what Congress does if the judiciary ignores the constitution and imposes its political judgment instead.
Every day that we walk our streets free, able to gather and express ourselves openly, our Constitution is ratified, once again, and By The People. There is no force on earth that can change that, except the forces of stupidity and hatred, forces which you blame on "Liberals", but the only ones even suggesting such nonsense, are Neo-Conservatives, such as yourself. They are using Lies, to effect the change that common-sense used to dictate.
Fold, you have yet to prove you understand my point. If you can't understand it, you can't refute it. You simply resort to posting simpleton drivel, a prime example is your above paragraph. Come on, fold, it it is so clear specifically refute my point. At least try.
The only thing wrong with our Government at this time, is our Chief Executive, who has led us all down a very dangerous and destructive path, a decision based upon the lies and misinformation of HIS intelligence community. Men and women are dying because of his administration's lack of forsight and their failure to remember that we are NOT supposed to be "Occupiers", of ANY nation, nor are we supposed to jam Democracy down the throats of ANY nation.
So eat-shit, and have a Nice Day...DINE.
fold, no wonder things are breaking down. It is hate filled people like you that actually believe thet drivel you post.
No, YOU are just plain IGNORANT, and you are a TRUE IDIOT, and what's more, you always have been.
Come on deal with the issue I presented. Tat issue is that judiciary isn't interpreting the Constitution but instead is imposing its political judgment. That ain't democracy, dude.
You're a small pawn in the vast "Right Wing Lying-Lyars Club", and what's more, you are an idiot of ONE and completely maliable.
You, are the foot soldier for the liars who want nothing less than to change the course of history in this Nation, and take us back into the Stone-Age. You're a small time Chump to them, and especially to the rest of us.
Nothing more.
Yes that addresses the point quite well, fold. It is astonshing how you can just sort through the chaff and really get to substantive issues.
Keep comforting the enemy with your posts fold. That's about the only thing your consistant at.
Just last week fold was calling on GW to pull the troops out. Today he is calling for more.
What ever way your wind BLOWS, eh fold?
My God this guy is an idiot.
Keep comforting the enemy with your posts fold.
I fail to see how posting ones opinion is treasonist. Exactly how is he "comforting the enemy"? I think that is taking it a bit far. I do not agree with Bill's stance, but can't we discuss/argue different points of view?
When you continually bash the U.S. at every turn, for every incident, no matter how small, you are giving comfort to the enemy.
When you incessantly degrade and dehumanize the leaders of this country, you are giving comfort to the enemy.
That's an opinion.
And I'll ask these questions again for about the 6th time. Maybe someday I'll get an answer...Why is fold's vulgar and abusive language tolerated here? Not once has he been admonished. Or is that proper in argueing/discussing different points of view here? It must be.
Torpedo-8 11/7/03 7:17pm
Errr...who is this enemy ya keep talkin 'bout?
What will YOU be doing to honor Veterans on that day...
You know, that's not really fair Bill Fold. Most of us don't have the luxury of trampsing off to San Diego to be in a parade.
Most of us will be working that day.
Can't stay away. Can ya foldo?
Can't go jet-setting around the country to march in parades. Although I'd like to. It is called WORK, JT. Something fold has lost the meaning of. But when you don't work, you have the freedom to do those things.
You aren't going anywhere fold. You'll be in your trailer sitting on your pitty pot.
It won't matter what I do on Tuesday, you won't believe me anyway. Right?..........Dickhead.
Nice pic Van. I'm sure the surviving veterans of Iwo Jima and their families would appreciate that.
Still waiting for an answer.
I drove here to celebrate the retirement of a good-friend in the Navy, who indeed retired last week, after 32 years in the service.
When you shake his hand, tell him I said thank you.
I will be celebrating by doing what the soldiers fought so hard for...the freedom to do whatever I like. I will be working and spending time with my family.
We borrowed a set of DVD's from the library called "Band of Brothers". It was a HBO series about "Easy Company" in WWII. They interviewed the actual survivors of that company and made it as close to the truth as possible.
My son and I have watched most of them already and it is amazing. They parachuted into Normady on D-Day and were in many of the toughest battles during the war. We just finished one story about how they protected this important crossroads from the Nazi's. They went into the area with other companies to relieve battle weary soldiers knowing that the Nazi's would completely surround them. They stood their ground with little supplies and ammunitions, and only had sporadic supply drops that many times fell on the Germans.
Somehow they managed to survive it for months during winter time. One of the Generals finally was able to get through enemy lines to "rescue" the troops. Easy company took that as an insult because they did not believe that they needed rescueing. None of them would ever admit it either.
So that is another thing I am doing to "honor the vets", teaching my son what they went through and why.
You can never ignore me for any length of time fold.
Your back must be much improved to make a drive like that. Just a few short months ago you said you couldn't travel in your RV anymore because of your back...Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I never said you were stealing. I do find it quite unbelievable that an 18 year old can hurt his or her back, blame someone else for it and collect for a lifetime.
Bill Fold,
I don't doubt where/what you're doing on Tuesday.
What I'm saying is: I, and probably most others here won't have that luxury on Tuesday.
We borrowed a set of DVD's from the library called "Band of Brothers".
We rented the series this past summer, watching on disc (two episodes) at a time. My wife and I loved it so much that she bought it for me for my birthday.
Thank you for your service Fold. Band of Brothers is a very good movie I have yet to find the last two episodes at Block Buster they always seem to be out.
I invite you all to watch the program playing right now, at 8:44 a.m. CST, on the History Channel. It tells the real story of the 60's and the Vietnam War and the opposition TO that war, which developed almost EXACTLY as the opposition is developing to the war in Iraq, right now and across America.
So you suggest we surrender to terrorism, fold? Vietnam and Iraq are two different wars fought for different purposes and, it appears, with different temperaments.
"We Were Soldiers"
I own that one too.
It's good.