Deep Dark's Journal

10:24AM - Why the UN Will Not, Cannot Help Bush

The calculus for the UN and its members is not whether they want to make nice with Uncle Sam, but whether, in fact, there is anything they can do at all.

The assumption on the boards and in the press and the WH is that there is, in fact, a "solution" to the mess in Iraq. It is equally, if not more possible, that there is no solution in the same way that, when you smash an egg, there is no actual way to rebuild the egg. Whatever else you manage to do with it, you will never have that egg again, it is gone. Iraq is that egg. Too many people have in their minds eye something that resembles "a country called Iraq" that looks a lot like the old one but with elections and happier people. It is not going to happen.

There are not enough troops available in the world to enforce security there, there is not enough money in the world to build the infrastructure, even in a country at peace. But this is not a country at peace, it is a free fire zone the size of California, policed by a tiny group of aliens with no training, inadequate weapons, not justice system and who don't speak the language or understand the customs.

Listen to this voice from the UN after the latest bomb.

*UN reviews operation after Baghdad blast*

United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan says the United Nations is reviewing its operations in Iraq, after the second deadly bombing at its Baghdad headquarters in two months.
[...]
"I'm shocked and distressed by this latest attack," he said.

"We need a secure environment to be able to operate. We will go forward, but of course if [the security situation] continues to deteriorate, then our operations will be handicapped considerably."
[...]
Hanan Tahir, a nutritionist with the World Food Program, says the attack caused panic among staff.

"They were screaming, shouting," she said. "They were crying and they were running."

UN spokeswoman in Baghdad Antonia Paradela says UN staff do not know why they are being targeted.

"It's not really for lack of security that this happens," she said. "If people are willing to kill themselves there's not a lot we can do."

Indeed. The message has not changed. If you are not American or British, get out of the way, if you are American or British, prepare to die.

The French and Germans wont, can't help because they don't have enough resources to make a difference. The Indians and Pakistanis have both said this week that they can't help. In India it would create a civil war at home, especially in Kashmir, and Pakistan, whatever it is actually doing, it doesn't have enough spare forces to make a difference and still keep a lid on the Afghan border.

The issue for dumbshit is how to build a figleaf for his idiocy, but for the rest of the world and the UN there is another question. If we cannot do enough to make any kind of difference, why should we take a hiding to nothing for the US which treats us like shit?

Answers written on the back of a postage stamp with the corner of a brick.

8:36AM - The Music of a Failed War

I've started thinking about this idiot adventure in Iraq as a piece of symphonic music, something like ravel's Bolero. It goes tike this.

There is a moment's silence on May 1 while the world looks on in disbelief at the bizarre sight of the POTUS doing his carrier landing stunt. Then, very quietly it begins. First just the high hat being tapped by a brush.
Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tss tss tss
This is the sound of individual shots from small arms, killing and wounding Americans. Then, occasionally., the snare drum chimes in.
Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tin, tatin
As small mines and IED go off under Humvees etc. Throw on a cymbal for variety
Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Haasssh
As an RPG takes out a more heavily armoured vehicle. Then the pedal starts up on the bass drum.
Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Haasssh
Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump
As power lines and pipelines get blown up and Iraqi collaborators like police and infrastructure managers are killed. Now add the Tomtom
Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Bim Boom Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Bim Boom Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Haasssh
Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump
There goes the Jordanian Embassy and the UN and now the rams horn of internecine warfare with the targeting of major religious figures.
Bwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh
Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Bim Boom Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Bim Boom Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Haasssh
Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump
Bwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh
Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Bim Boom Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Tss tss tss Tss tss tss Bim Boom Tss tss tss Tin, tatin Haasssh
Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump Dump, Dadump

Still to come, a Turkish cornet group as fighting breaks out over the border after some Turkish troops get taken out, the string 'em up section weighs in with civil strife and the Iranians, Saudis, Syrians and Al Qaeda join a massed chorus. I'm thinking of calling it Yankee Go Home. Or maybe The Triumph of the Wont.

9:36AM - The Enemy Gets a Vote

And it looks like US enemies in Iraq are getting more votes by the day.

The two pipeline bombings over the weekend made it clear, if ever it needed making clear to anyone but the half witted American government, that the US is outnumbered and outwitted in Iraq.

They spent who knows how much money repairing and recommissioning the oil line to Turkey, it was operational for 2 days, and on the third day it was sabotaged, it will be out of commission between 2 and 4 weeks at $7 million a day in lost revenue. The fact that it was the second attempt to sabotage the line in two days means they can attack at will and where they like. There aren't enough US troops in the whole world to patrol even one pipeline in Iraq and guarantee its safety. The US needs to learn the lesson tat power may come from the barrel of a gun, but security does not.

Compared with the $147 million a day that it costs the US to stay in Iraq, $7 million is trivial, but the message is in no doubt. The opponents of US occupation can keep breaking stuff much faster than the invaders can repair it and every time it happens, the whole population gets more pissed off and the contempt grows.

They also blew a water pipeline in Baghdad, just to demonstrate that the US controls nothing in Iraq without the consent of Iraqis, and they don't have it.

Throw in a mortar attack on a prison, killing 6, a Dane shot trying to stop looting and you have a very clear picture of a nation where there is no law, no security, no control. I'd bet the next stage includes targeting even more non-US troops, to send the message that being a friend of the Yanks is a lethal idea. That lethality applies to anyone within range of the Americans as well as a cameraman was shot dead while filming near the prison that was mortared. Right now the twitchy and paranoid US troops are having trouble telling a camera from a weapon, and shooting first. This bodes well for their new strategy of kinder gentler occupation.

But the most interesting news comes from the first steps at unification between the Sunni and Shia camps, especially among those left out of the so-called council. Excluding powerful people is never a smart idea, but the US seems hell bent on trying every dumb idea that ever existed and doing it all in one place.
Iraqi Clerics Unite in Rare Alliance - U.S. Fears Shiite, Sunni Cooperation Will Bolster Resistance

The extent of the cooperation remains unclear between Ahmed Kubeisi, a Sunni cleric from a prominent clan in western Iraq, and Moqtada Sadr, the 30-year-old son of a revered Shiite ayatollah assassinated in 1999. But ideologically and practically, it represents a convergence of interests between the two figures, who were left out of the Iraqi Governing Council named last month and, in their own communities, have emerged as influential if still minority voices of opposition to the four-month-old occupation.

Supporters of the two clerics acknowledged cooperation, but denied there was any financial support.

U.S. officials say they are especially worried that such cooperation will strengthen Sadr. U.S. officials were taken by surprise by the young cleric's rise to prominence and have remained publicly dismissive of his influence. But they privately acknowledge his support among the poorest and most alienated in cities such as Baghdad and Basra -- a constituency that has long played a role in Iraqi politics -- and express frustration over their inability to curb his influence at a time of growing criticism of U.S. reconstruction efforts.

"This is a political challenge, and it is a distraction, and it keeps the show from getting on the road," said a senior U.S. official in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We cannot afford the distraction."

Distraction from what? They plainly have no idea what they are doing in the country, how can they possible be distracted from it. And don't worry, the next distraction will be how to get out without having their tails shot off completely; and they haven't even begun to contemplate that. But here is the news from Iraq, the resistance has no intention of letting the Americans go except on Iraqi terms. Unless the Yanks get the idea, the Iraqi resistance is happy to keep them pinned in the country where they can apply punishment to the US and bleed its coffers while destroying its military and undermining its government; too good a deal to let go.

meanwhile, who thinks the rest of the middle east is not looking on and thinking, "Hmmm, the American way. Maybe its not so damned clever after all."

5:41PM - A Terrorist Plot or My Ass?

Nope, looks like my ass.

The media have been full all day of the capture of the arms dealer who managed to smuggle a (as it turns out) dummy shoulder-fired anti aircraft missile into the US where he was duly nicked by the feds. The media are waxing full of it about the co-operation between the FBI, MI5 and the FSA to nab this turkey and muttering "terrorist threat" yadda yadda. bullshit.

The facts appear to be that the Russian FSA picked up on this guy while he was trying to source missiles in country. They alerted the FBI and they put together a sting to provide this chap with his first customer and haul him in.

The only useful information they may have picked up is how he managed to get the missile through the holes in the so-called homeland security system; although I'll bet that they helped it through and therefore achieved nothing. Score one idiot, a thug worth taking off the streets. As for terrorism, score minus 5.

While these people have been putting resources into setting up and tracking a known dealer in arms, the terrorists will not have been buying their missiles on the open market, they already have them, probably supplied by the US for use against the Russians in Afghanistan, but in any case, not from a Brit.

Each missile has been making its way to the US by entirely different routes, under the control of completely separate cells. At the assigned time they will be picked up by the assault teams and, using the same kind of co-ordination they put together on 911, they will shoot down not one, but 3 or 4 aircraft at different airports across the US at exactly the same time, I'd bet mid day in Chicago to pick up the morning flights in the west coast and afternoon flights on the east.

11:05PM - The Washington Post Has More Clicks

In Basra, Worst May Be Ahead
As Southern Iraq Bakes, British Also Frustrated by Shortages

In interviews, residents of Iraq's second-largest city almost uniformly expressed anger and incredulity at the shortages of gasoline and electricity and the skyrocketing black- market prices that have accompanied them. British officials in Basra, openly frustrated themselves, questioned the priorities of the U.S.-led reconstruction. And many feared that remnants of Hussein's government or militant Shiite Muslim groups were prepared to capitalize on the disenchantment.

"There's no question in my mind that people's expectations were raised very high and they felt we had led them to expect dramatic improvements when Saddam was toppled," said Iain Pickard, a spokesman for the British-led occupation in Basra. "We've not managed to meet those expectations. Until we got here, we didn't appreciate the scale of the task."

And what are the Iraqis saying?

One month, said the gaunt, unshaven and angry Khairallah. That's how long he gave the British forces occupying Basra to bring electricity, water and fuel. After that, more riots would ensue. "But not with rocks," he said, nodding his head. "With guns."

So, that's positive then, and every day of that month will be hot as hell and more people will die on both sides, so when the stew comes to the boil, there will be poison enough for everyone

10:02PM - The Maypole begins to unwind in earnest

The Hutton inquiry is barely a day old and already the knives are out for Blair as the spooks make it clear that David Kelly was not a "Walter Mitty", he was not even a voice in the wilderness. They were being screwed by Blair and his minions and the time has come for revenge. Oh yes, and on the subject of the late David Kelly,

Dr Kelly's knowledge of the dossier and the advice he gave was much more extensive than the government has admitted, the inquiry heard. It has painted him as a middle-grade official whose advice on the dossier was limited to a historical section on Iraq's early banned weapons programme.

But Dr Kelly gave advice on the "current position" in Iraq as well as the regime's human rights record while the dossier was being drawn up, Patrick Lamb, a senior Foreign Office official told the inquiry.

And the inquiry heard that in private reports, the MoD described Dr Kelly as giving "excellent, authoritative, and timely advice" on chemical and biological weapons.

"Dr Kelly is a recognised authority on all aspects of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and held in high regard," it said. Despite this, the inquiry heard that Dr Kelly had had no pay rise for three years and privately expressed worries about his status and pension.

Looks like the kind of evidence you might want in a dossier designed to make a case for war, except that the unconscionable bastard happened not to agree with the prevailing ethos of Christian domination values. Shame really, I wonder who gets killed off next to protect the slimy Bliar?

Update
Gilligan claims reopen controversy

Andrew Gilligan has dropped series of bombshells at the Hutton inquiry - including a claim that drags Alastair Campbell back to the centre of the affair.

In direct contradiction to evidence given yesterday, Gilligan made the dramatic claim that Ministry of Defence scientist David Kelly had said Alastair Campbell asked if anything else could go in to the September dossier because the real information in the original dossier was unusable and dull.

Dr Kelly also told Gilligan that most of the claims in the dossier were double-sourced, but that the '45 minute' claim was based on a single source.

Gilligan asked Dr Kelly: "Did Campbell make it up?" To which Dr Kelly replied: "No. It was real information, but it was included in the dossier against our wishes."

The reporter stressed it was Dr Kelly who first raised both the 45 minute claim and Alastair Campbell's name.

Oh yess. Is this a dagger I see before me? Stick it up 'em lad.

9:56PM - History Rhyming

This was on Aussie SBS tonight.

THE NEED FOR SPEED - Going to War on Drugs
When Tom Cruise uttered those famous words in the film Top Gun, "I feel the need, the need for speed", he would not have known that his words had already been taken literally by the U.S. Air Force, in a way he could never have imagined. This documentary exposes how the Air Force, Navy and Special Forces have been issuing mind-altering drugs to their soldiers and airmen - almost certainly resulting in the deaths of allied forces and innocent civilians. In an extraordinary investigation, American military personnel speak for the first time, to explain how they were used as guinea pigs in wars ranging from the Gulf, Bosnia, Afghanistan and right up until the recent conflict in Iraq. We also discover that vital information on 'friendly fire' incidents has been withheld and examine the true human costs of wars fought on drugs. (From Germany, in English).

Google it here.

Ring any bells? The panicky killings over the weekend, the repetitive stories from Iraq about the extreme violence of US troops responding to attacks, and the inaccuracy of those responses in increasing numbers of cases. How many of them are not only strung out physically and emotionally but dangerously exposed to the inclination of the US Government to provide its forces with drugs that make them more likely to kill.

War crimes, that's what they're are called.

9:50PM - One Drip at a Time

Looks like there's an awful lot of resources being poured into doing something essentially useless. But at least the army in Iraq is getting savvy. If you don't know how long the road is, there's no point claiming to be near the end; it starts to sound like the ever popular "Light at the End of the Tunnel of years gone by.

Commanders Won't Speculate On Capture Of Hussein - In Shift, Officers Now Say Apprehension Is Uncertain

TIKRIT, Iraq -- After weeks of raids by U.S. forces in northern Iraq and speculation by officials in Washington, military commanders here say that they are continuing to round up close associates of former president Saddam Hussein but that it is impossible to tell whether such arrests have brought them any closer to apprehending the fugitive former president.

Officers involved in search operations around this north Iraqi town, where Hussein and many of his top former officials have their clan and tribal roots, have distanced themselves from recent suggestions that Hussein's capture was imminent. Lately, their public comments have focused on broader goals, such as rebuilding Iraq or breaking up armed resistance to U.S. occupation of the country.

10:20AM - More clicks on the tourniquet

Its been a while, busy stuff going on. But these two, that just arrived from the Aussie ASBC are worth their weight in gold.

*UK inquiry hears of Iraq objections*

Two British defence intelligence officials objected to the Blair Government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before it was published last September, an inquiry has heard. Details of the objections emerged at the inquiry into the death of British weapons scientist David Kelly. Dr Kelly's apparent suicide followed his identification as the source of a BBC story which accused the Government of sexing-up evidence about Iraq's weapons.

On day one of the potentially explosive inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, Lord Hutton heard that in the view of his employer the Ministry of Defence, Dr Kelly was the top British expert on weapons of mass destruction. He had a full security clearance "on a need-to-know basis" for sensitive intelligence.
Score one for the BBC

A close friend who worked with Dr Kelly as a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, Terence Taylor, said the scientist had appeared normal when he stayed with him only weeks before his death.

The inquiry heard evidence that two defence intelligence staff objected to the language used in the dossier on Iraqi weaponry that the Blair Government published last September.

But the chief of assessment staff for the Cabinet Office, Julian Miller, told the inquiry the document had not been transformed on the orders of Downing Street. He said Downing Street had nothing to do with the claim in the dossier that Iraq could deploy chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes.
Then on whose orders had it been transformed? Who is responsible for the claim? Exactly how did it get there?

*US troops 'trigger happy', Iraqis say*

The US military is investigating claims that American troops have mistakenly shot dead at least six Iraqi civilians and two local police officers in recent days. The announcement came as the head of the Iraqi provisional government urged US troops to make more efforts to avoid civilian casualties.

• US military officials have confirmed they are investigating allegations that US troops shot dead a family of six, who accidentally drove through a new checkpoint near their Baghdad home.
• The military is also examining an incident in which at least two Iraqi police officers were killed by US troops.

Officials say it may have been a case of mistaken identity.

The head of the US-appointed Iraqi provisional government, Ibrahim Al Jaffri, says he has heard numerous complaints that US soldiers are 'trigger happy'. He says US troops should exercise more care before firing, particularly as most Iraqis have welcomed them into the country, even though the US is an occupying power.
They are not trigger happy, they are terrified, tired, hungry, sore, and they have no idea what they are doing there, how long they will be there or where the next attack is coming from. They are pissed off and they know that their government has hung them out to dry. Their judgement is getting worse and worse and, in some cases, they are taking out their frustrations on the Iraqis. Who are also angry, frustrated, hungry, hot, tired and have had enough of this idiot's game. There are another 40 days of searing heat to come. No bets on what will happen in those days, but it wont be good for anyone. Oh yes, and get this from Josh Marshall quoting UPI's Martin Walker on the troop strength issue.

Quite apart from issues of Arab resentment, religion and the remaining bands of Saddam Hussein loyalists, there is one simple reason why the stabilization of Iraq is proving so frustratingly difficult. By comparison with other similar peace- keeping missions in recent years, the place is very seriously under-policed.

Consider the Balkans. In proportion to their populations, three times as many troops were deployed in Kosovo as in Iraq, and in Bosnia twice as many. By Kosovo standards, there ought to be more than half a million troops in Iraq. But maintaining 180,000 British and American troops in Iraq is putting intense strain on the military manpower of both countries. There is no serious prospect of their deploying any more. Reinforcement will have to come from other countries -- and in far greater numbers than the 70 Ukrainian soldiers who flew in Sunday.

You must read the whole article, it summarises perfectly the crack that the US has caught its tail in. I guessed long ago that it would take half a million troops to do the job, its nice to be agreed with, but the real issue is that the US is now actually surrounded and outnumbered, not far up that ladder is a massacre, its what happens to an outnumbered enemy, that or a surrender. How does it feel Bushie?

3:07PM - The Other Side of the Coin?

Or a clamp on a freelance. At first blush this seems like a good news story for the Invaders.

Iraqis Make Sure Assailant Doesn't Escape
Father Hands In Teenager Who Shot at Humvee; 2 Soldiers Killed in Other Attacks

BAGHDAD, July 31 -- U.S. troops in Iraq have grown grimly accustomed to guerrilla-style assaults by nameless, faceless attackers who toss grenades or fire mortars at them on an almost daily basis.

But Iraqis who live along Baghdad's busy Haifa Street refused to let such an attack go unsolved this morning. When someone shot an antitank weapon at a U.S. military armored vehicle, wounding one soldier, local residents identified a teenager from the neighborhood as the assailant, and the boy's father handed him over to U.S. troops, witnesses said.

"Those soldiers were very nice guys," said Salim Saheb Alwan, 55, a retired military officer who witnessed the attack. "We used to talk to them and play with these people."
[...]
Witnesses said they were disgusted at the attack on U.S. troops and were eager to catch the culprit. They were particularly upset, they said, because many innocent Iraqis could have been killed if the armored vehicle blew up in such a heavily populated area.

Arshed Salem, 17, who owns a soda and candy stand near where the armored vehicle was hit, ... said he saw someone running away and tried to catch him. He said he saw a bazooka-like weapon lying in a grassy area behind a bush, and though he didn't see the attacker, he said he had a good idea who it was.

Salem and some of his neighbors said they thought the attacker was a local boy, age 16 or 17, who was said by many in the area to have a penchant for gunplay and alcohol. Neighbors said the boy once shot his uncle in the stomach and fired bullets at his father's feet to see him dance. He had attempted to attack American soldiers twice before, they said, beginning about two weeks ago.

The neighbors told U.S. soldiers about their suspicions and gave them the address of a store owned by the teen's father. When the soldiers went to talk to the father, neighbors said, he took them to his house and handed over his son.
[...]
Salem said he had hoped that the boy would give U.S. authorities the names of other criminals on Haifa Street "so that this can cool off the shooting and stealing and looting."

Meanwhile, members of the 1st Armored Division outfit that came under attack said the incident had left them nervous and more watchful.

"We dodged something big today," one soldier said.

No you didn't son. You were attacked by a juvenile delinquent whose penchant for guns and booze is leading him to do stuff that brings trouble to the neighbourhood. The people who are dealing with the Americans don't need dumb teenagers causing trouble where it is not needed. Above all they don't need the occupation getting nosey around the place looking for bandits. Better to hand the little thug over and score brownie points with the yanks.

Special correspondent Naseer Nouri contributed to this report

? 2003 The Washington Post Company

2:53PM - More Clicks on the Ratchet

Iraq war may help al-Qaida, MPs report
Read the report in full (pdf)

The overthrow of Saddam Hussein has not lessened the security threat to Britain from weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism, MPs warned today. The Commons foreign affairs committee said that the war in Iraq may actually have "impeded" efforts to combat Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network.
Click!
Grabbing the Nettle

The Pentagon held an all-day meeting a couple of weeks ago seeking ways to restrain North Korea. At the end of it, one expert turned to another and summed it up: "In other words, we're" doomed, except he used a pungent phrase I can't. It was a fair judgment. North Korea was always more terrifying than Iraq, and now the situation is getting worse.

It's true, as the administration enthusiastically announced yesterday, that we seem to be moving toward a new round of multiparty talks with North Korea, and that's great. But it's very unclear what North Korea is demanding and when the talks will take place. In any case, no one thinks that this round of talks will produce much more than possible photo-ops. Meanwhile, the North seems to be proceeding steadily, perhaps as fast as its rusty technology will allow, to build nuclear weapons, using both plutonium and uranium methods.

"Time is slipping away for a peaceful resolution of the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula," warns a major report issued yesterday by the International Crisis Group. It adds: "North Korea has the materials and the capability to develop nuclear weapons, more than 200 of them by 2010." What would it do with them? Well, it may have been bluster, but a senior North Korean official, Li Gun, warned a U.S. counterpart that if the stalemate continued, North Korea could transfer nukes abroad.
Click! Click!
Poindexter to Leave Pentagon Research Job Project to Create Futures Market on Events in Middle East Caused Controversy

John M. Poindexter, the retired rear admiral involved in the Pentagon's ill-fated plan to launch an online futures market for betting on Middle Eastern developments, will be leaving his job with a Defense Department research agency, a senior defense official said yesterday. The departure had been demanded by lawmakers outraged over the notion that the Pentagon should set up a system enabling people to profit from predictions of terrorist attacks and other events. Poindexter, who has not spoken publicly about the initiative since it sparked a political firestorm Monday, has headed the office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) responsible for developing the trading program.
Click!
Sidestepping on Iraq

Throughout his political career, George Bush has been famous for sticking to a few issues, and repeating a few well-burnished talking points over and over. Wide-ranging news conferences do not play to his considerable strengths, and as president, he has generally avoided them. But having decided to make a rare exception yesterday, Mr. Bush should have been able to come up with better responses to two big and obvious questions: why he ordered the invasion of Iraq and why he pushed for tax cuts that have left the nation sinking into a hopeless quagmire of debt.

Mr. Bush's vague and sometimes nearly incoherent answers suggested that he was either bedazzled by his administration's own mythmaking or had decided that doubts about his foreign and domestic policies could best be parried by ignoring them.
[...]
Mr. Bush still hung onto his most well-worn buzzwords, however. Iraq was a "threat" just as the tax cuts were "a job- creation program." The president and his advisers obviously still believe that the constant repetition of several simplistic points will hypnotize the American people into forgetting the original question.
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For an Iraqi Family, 'No Other Choice' Villagers Force Execution of Suspected U.S. Informant by Father and Brother

Two hours before the dawn call to prayer, in a village still shrouded in silence, Sabah Kerbul's executioners arrived. His father carried an AK-47 assault rifle, as did his brother. And with barely a word spoken, they led the man accused by the village of working as an informer for the Americans behind a house girded with fig trees, vineyards and orange groves.

His father raised his rifle and aimed it at his oldest son.

"Sabah didn't try to escape," said Abdullah Ali, a village resident. "He knew he was facing his fate."

The story of what followed is based on interviews with Kerbul's father, brother and five other villagers who said witnesses told them about the events. One shot tore through Kerbul's leg, another his torso, the villagers said. He fell to the ground still breathing, his blood soaking the parched dust near the banks of the Tigris River, they said. His father could go no further, and according to some accounts, he collapsed. His other son then fired three times, the villagers said, at least once at his brother's head.

Kerbul, a tall, husky 28-year-old, died.

"It wasn't an easy thing to kill him," his brother Salah said.

In his simple home of cement and cinder blocks, the father, Salem, nervously thumbed black prayer beads this week as he recalled a warning from village residents earlier this month. He insisted his son was not an informer, but he said his protests meant little to a village seething with anger. He recalled their threat was clear: Either he kill his son, or villagers would resort to tribal justice and kill the rest of his family in retaliation for Kerbul's role in a U.S. military operation in the village in June, in which four people were killed.

"I have the heart of a father, and he's my son," Salem said. "Even the prophet Abraham didn't have to kill his son." He dragged on a cigarette. His eyes glimmered with the faint trace of tears. "There was no other choice," he whispered.
Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!

Ask yourself, what kind of power does it take to force a father to kill his own son for collaborating with an invader? What will happen when that power is turned against the invader in full force?

10:02PM - 150,000 Americans Being Conditioned

Whether or not the Iraqi strategy is to wear down the US military, damage its readiness, undermine its flexibility and destroy its morale then send home 150,000 soldiers whose minds have been seriously messed with, doesn't matter.

That's what's happening.

On Battle and Home Fronts, a Roller Coaster of Nerves Randomness of Attacks Takes a Toll on Troops

Sgt. Joey Torkildson recalled the day a grenade bounced off his friend's helmet. It was a dud. "It's crazy, but you just get used to stuff like that," he said.

Sgt. Michael O'Neill told of another grenade that rolled across the hood of his Humvee and exploded right next to him. Luckily, his hapless attacker had bought a concussion grenade, all noise and no explosives, so O'Neill lost his hearing instead of his life.

Days earlier, O'Neill said, he had watched a rocket-propelled grenade blast the fuel tanks of an armored personnel carrier directly in front of him in a convoy. He threw his Humvee into reverse to escape the flames, and a second RPG screamed across his hood, a few feet from his face, right where he had been a moment earlier.

"It's tough mentally," O'Neill said. "You never know where it's coming from. You could walk into the market and somebody could walk up to you and shoot you, and you'd never see it coming."

Practically every soldier here has a story, and the tales have a common theme. Life for U.S. troops in Iraq these days is permeated by a lethal uncertainty. Attackers can be anyone, anywhere, anytime, perpetrating guerrilla-style violence on a scale not encountered by U.S. forces since the Vietnam War.

Fifty soldiers have been killed in Iraq since May 1, an average of one every other day for the past three months, in attacks that have included a point-blank shooting at Baghdad University, bombs tossed off bridges or floated down rivers, and the most unsettling of all: a grenade dropped out of a window of a children's hospital Saturday that killed three soldiers and severely wounded another who were guarding the hospital in this fruit-growing town 30 miles northeast of Baghdad.

In numerous interviews here, soldiers said attacks happen all the time, but the vast majority miss their mark or result in minor injuries, and don't make it into news accounts. Soldiers with cuts and bruises and shrapnel wounds return to duty every day. Their near-misses are militarily insignificant, but psychologically damaging. Soldiers said the daily, relentless uncertainty and randomness weigh heavily on them.

"You pretty much stop thinking about what's really going on here, and you think about home or your family," said Spec. Nick Olson, 23, a reservist from Minnesota who works as a graphic designer in civilian life. "If you let everything here get to you, you'd be a basket case by the time you got home."

Don't worry son, by the time you get home, there will be plenty of basket cases to go round. GW1 was in and out like a dollar whore and it still produced Tim McVeigh and the Washington Sniper, Iraq's legacy will be loong and hard.

8:40AM - The Man Who Cried Wolfowitz Once Too Often

If it wasn't serious, this would be funny. Here is the latest from the President of the USA.

Al-Qaeda airline attack threat 'real', warns Bush

US President George W Bush said today there was a "real threat" of new al-Qaeda suicide attacks using international airliners, as Democrats accused the administration of shortchanging security budgets. "The threat is a real threat ... We don't know when, where, what," Bush said at a news conference when asked about new government warnings of possible al-Qaeda attempts to hijack commercial airliners.

Why does this sound desperate to me? Could it be that this man has so little credibility that he now has to start adding the word "real" to distinguish it from the "unreal", like all the bullshit that he has spread around the world in the last two years? Will the next stage be "really real"? The world has responded by not going into a panic when the President of the US says there is a threat because we know that he is a liar, that he lies with every breath he takes and his word cannot be trusted. Right now he needs a terrrrrist threat to distract from the 28 pages of excisions from the 911 report that have the Saudis so pissed off, so he turns again to the terrist threat.

"We have got some data that indicates that they would like to use flights, international flights for example," he said. "I'm confident we will thwart the attempts."
In other words, it wont happen. The reason he's confident is because he knows its a lie.

Bush's vow of confidence came despite planned cuts in airport screeners and a request to shift $US104 million ($A157.24 million) out of the budget for the federal air marshal program, which puts armed plainclothes agents on flights. Democrats accused Republicans of shortchanging homeland security budgets, and a key Republican said he would not permit the spending shift. "The majority party is under spending for homeland security," said Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California. "You can't protect the country on the cheap."
Maybe it isn't working this time. Maybe its real. Then he's in the "really real shit" because he is either lying and his term is dead or he isn't but he is so untrustworthy that we don't believe him and his term is dead or he isn't lying and the attack gets through and he has been cutting the security apparatus and his term is dead. I like the numbers Georgie boy.

10:59PM - Of Course - Blood For Oil

A couple of days ago there were violent scenes in the Japanese parliament as the government gave the OK to troops being sent to Iraq as targets in the American shooting gallery. It offended a long tradition of Japanese aversion to war making, especially illegal wars of aggression, and seemed confusing at least. now we get the payoff.

Japan strikes commercial oil deal with Iraq

Mitsubishi, Japan's largest trading company, concluded an agreement on Monday to buy crude oil from Iraq, in a sign that Japanese companies may reap commercial rewards for their country's backing of the war. Striking Japan's first commercial oil deal with Baghdad in 13 years, Mitsubishi agreed with Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation to import 40,000 barrels a day of Basrah Light crude, equivalent to 7 per cent of the Japanese company's global crude oil trades a day.

Industry analysts said the deal's significance for Mitsubishi and other Japanese companies outweighed the size of the contract. The deal could open the way for more Japan-Iraq contracts and help Japan in its pursuit of alternative sources of oil, for which it relies heavily on Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

japan is totally dependent on unstable countries whose oil reservesd are about to reach their Hubbert Peak, and they will also be in doirect competition with chian for regional and global supplies as the Chinese economy conbtinues to sucvk up oil at an increasing rate. What's a few dead soldiers and the hatred of a people when the entire life blood of the nation could be drained in a single blow. Blood for Oil, right on.

10:52PM - A Japanese Diagnosis - Beware the American Disease

Yabe's U.S. diagnosis: 'Compulsive'
Well worth the read.

Since the launch of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush in 2001, journalist Takeshi Yabe, who has reported on U.S. social issues ranging from juvenile crime to gun control, has come to feel "something weird" is going on in the country. He said that an "obsessive mentality" began surfacing in the United States that year and the tendency accelerated after the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Yabe said he loves and feels indebted to the United States through his 30- year personal and professional relationship with the country, but he thought it was his job to write about this compulsive mentality to warn the United States about the weird path it is treading. For Yabe, it also is a warning to Japan, always on the receiving end of U.S. influence, about the danger of becoming infected with the "American disease."

9:55PM - Operation Saddam: America's Propaganda Battle

That is the title of the programme I have just seen on SBS Australia. The arrogance and obfuscation is breathtaking, but even more than that is the willingness of Americans in the media and the government to betray everything that they are supposed to stand for and that might keep them safe because the US has become a soft, bending, incurious nation of flabby minds heading for the brink. When they arrive there they will suffer so much more than they suspect from this and it will be no pleasure to gloat over it, but I think I'll take that opportunity anyway.

In Iraq, the regime of Saddam Hussein is no more. One month ago, that country was a prison to its people, a haven for terrorists, an arsenal of weapons that endangered the world." In a televised address from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington DC, on April 15, 2003, George W. Bush was euphoric. "These are good days in the history of freedom."

Saddam Hussein had been overthrown - the Second Gulf War was over. However the debate about the causes of the war - and thus about the credibility of US President George W. Bush - has only just begun. According to one former high-ranking US secret service agent, "the threat to America posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was a propaganda lie used to deceive the public."

Operation Saddam: America's Propaganda Battle, presents the individual stages of the propaganda battle, by which the American and British governments sought to justify the Second Gulf War.

How does one sell a war? This was a question that weighed heavy on the minds of those in the US administration long before the war had even started. Operation Saddam: America's Propaganda Battle takes a look at the marketing of this war - a cocktail of distortion, lies and forgeries - as shown by former secret service agent Ray McGovern, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and best- selling author John MacArthur.

MacArthur, for instance, tells of how the amazing image of an Iraqi man climbing the huge statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad at the end of the war and throwing an American flag over the head of the dictator, was actually a carefully staged publicity stunt dreamed up by an advertising agency in the US. "I think the Rendon group advised the Pentagon right up through the seizure or the knocking down of the statue in the central square in Baghdad that was a set piece thought of ahead of time for the Bush re-election campaign."

The documentary also examines the truths, lies and distortions around the assertions that Saddam Hussein was acquiring and building nuclear weapons, and the pretenses behind the Congressional authorization for the decisive new directions in American foreign and defence policy.

Seymour Hersh, Danny Schechter, ray McGovern and others with the analysis and the slug himself Richard Perle oozing over everything. If you get the chance, see it.

1:41PM - Iraq Lite Shows More cracks

The test run in Afghanistan seems to be breaking down steadily. Of course, since it comes after the commercial break and the start of the new season's run of Whop the natives, no-one notices.

Afghanistan: Warlords Implicated in New Abuses
Report Details Threats to Women's Rights, Freedom of Expression

Afghan warlords and political strongmen supported by the United States and other nations are engendering a climate of fear in Afghanistan that is threatening efforts to adopt a new constitution and could derail national elections scheduled for mid-2004, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

"Human rights abuses in Afghanistan are being committed by gunmen and warlords who were propelled into power by the United States and its coalition partners after the Taliban fell in 2001. These men and others have essentially hijacked the country outside of Kabul. With less than a year to go before national elections, Afghanistan's human rights situation appears to be worsening." The report is called Killing You is a Very Easy Thing For Us: Human Rights Abuses in Southeast Afghanistan

So, that's going really well then. No fear of blowback here, especially not the return of theTaliban to power while the US has most of its army stuck to the fly paper in Iraq.

1:31PM - More Clicks from The Tourniquet

At first blush this story is unexceptional

Briton takes over in Basra
A British diplomat is to take over the administration of southern Iraq, including its second city of Basra. Sir Hilary Synnott, currently the High Commissioner to Pakistan, will arrive in Basra in the next few days. Sir Hilary replaces Ole Woehlers Olsen, the Danish ambassador to Syria, as the head of the only non-American led region in occupied Iraq.

So far so good, then
Mr Olsen, who said he welcomed the decision, had been due to step down in October, but is now expected to return to Damascus immediately. The UK Foreign Office said the move was part of a routine change in the US-led authority currently running Iraq.
Hmm, routine change, code words here
The Danish Foreign Ministry said Mr Olsen was being replaced because of "structural changes and work overload."
More code
Last month Mr Olsen criticised his American superiors in Baghdad for providing him with too little security back-up.
Bingo. The spoken story from BBC led with this paragraph. Could it be that this lack of security is a problem? The spoken story also talked about lack of other support from US administration in Baghdad. But everything is going so well!
The Foreign Office in London said Mr Olsen had done an "excellent job in difficult circumstances".
Bleep bleep, more code! BS detectors also ringing

9:31AM - Maybe Its the Water, Maybe its the Oil

But those who choose to govern in Iraq seem to become criminals in double quick time. On July 27 Paul Wolfowitz was on NBC's Meet the Press and he said

It?s difficult for Americans to imagine what it?s like to live in a country, not only where they can grab you at night and torture you, but they'll grab your children and torture them in order to make you talk. It takes time to root out that kind of criminal gangs.

Sounds fine and fair. What a pity that at exactly that moment, this was going on.

Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: "If you want your family released, turn yourself in." Such tactics are justified, he said, because, "It's an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info." They would have been released in due course, he added later.

Yup, that will win you hearts and minds in any country, let alone a Muslim one. Oh but that's not all. In a culture where the dead must be buried before nightfall, not only did the US display the mutilated bodies of Qusay and Uday Hussein, but they then made them up to look like the men Iraqis would recognise, displayed Uday's leg after the steel brace had been removed so everyone could see he was crippled as well and then, just to ice the cake,

A tribal elder from Saddam Hussein's clan said on Sunday he had tried to claim the bodies of Saddam's slain sons Uday and Qusay but that a U.S. official told him the ousted president should come instead.

So plainly the war is going well for the US all round. except, maybe it isn't. Brett Hunt, a 2nd lieutenant with the Army's 11th Signal Brigade and a Globe native, sent this note to his parents a week ago. His unit is north of Baghdad.

Hey Mom and Dad,

Things are fine here. It is soooooooooooo hot and nasty, but what are you going to do? It is just getting worse every day. I think I may have lice or fleas or something.

Our living conditions are just so difficult to keep clean and maintain it all. I washed my one blanket and my cot, but I do not have any hot water (well the water is hot but you know what I mean, like hot in a washing machine to kill the buggies in the clothes stuff). It has not been bad today, but I wake up with all of these tiny red bites. My hair is long and does not itch, but I think something is still going on. I am using all of your bug stuff, but I think they are stronger than what we have in the States. The mosquitoes laugh at me when I put OFF on. You have to put on the straight DEET and hope you will not have cancer in a year.

We have been hit 18 of the last 19 days. I feel like I am at Da Nang or Phu Bai. It just sucks. Luckily, "only" about 45 people have been hurt. Yeah, a lot, but considering how many they lob in here, that is not too bad. It is wearing on me along with the constant oppressive heat, no sleep, no food (yeah, they shut off our food resupply without any warning, things are getting slim, we are fine but it is not a good feeling to have so little spare food and water) and spending every night and day now trying to dodge mortars. More than half a month under siege and luckily we are all still safe.

They have frozen all redeployments, so no one is going anywhere anytime soon, and our Congress goes on vacation July 25 so nothing is going to happen until mid fall. Not what we all want to hear out here. We are under siege out here, without supplies, without a mission and we can only roll the dice so many times and not get our (expletive) shot. More and more body bags and amputees will be coming home.

Really, though, I am not in bad shape. I escape to my job and my books and it keeps me sane enough to get by. I will be safe and stay healthy here.

I love you guys.

Another gallant Murkin soldier being hugged by his pResident.

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9:05AM - More Lies Outed in Iraq

Sorry, Lies outed in the USA. My mistake.

Donny Rumsfeld
We know where [the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." (Stephanopoulos -- March 30, 2003)

Richard Perle
"We don't know where to look for them and we never did know where to look for them," he admitted.

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